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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/dams/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Tue, 11 Aug 2026 18:39:31 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Dams</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/dams/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>In Rio Indio, farmers fight Panama Canal reservoir project — and displacement</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-rio-indio-farmers-fight-panama-canal-reservoir-project-and-displacement/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-rio-indio-farmers-fight-panama-canal-reservoir-project-and-displacement/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jun 2026 15:20:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Monica Pelliccia]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/16150742/6-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321305</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Global, North America, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Canals, Controversial, Corporations, Dams, Development, Encroachment, Endangered Species, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Resource Conflict, and Shipping]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LIMÓN DE CHAGRES, Panama — In Panama’s Rio Indio Basin, a $1.5 billion reservoir project aims to meet water demand for the next 50 years. But the project would displace dozens of farming communities, sparking widespread opposition to the reservoir’s construction. “We will give our lives to save Rio Indio! I came from Limón de [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LIMÓN DE CHAGRES, Panama — In Panama’s Rio Indio Basin, a $1.5 billion reservoir project aims to meet water demand for the next 50 years. But the project would displace dozens of farming communities, sparking widespread opposition to the reservoir’s construction. “We will give our lives to save Rio Indio! I came from Limón de Chagres, the first community that could be flooded to make space for the dam,” shouts Maricel Sanchéz at the microphone from a stage during a May 1 march in Panama City. “Today, I’m so proud to see how united we are in our resistance.” Sanchéz, 25, is the spokesperson for the Rio Indio farmers’ assembly, which is part of Coordinadora Campesina por la Vida (Peasant Coordinator for Life), a grassroots social and community organization of farmers, Indigenous communities and civic groups in Panama. During the march, she spoke out about their mobilization against the Río Indio reservoir: a $1.5 billion project by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), Panama’s government agency responsible for managing the canal. Rio Indio is a 98-kilometer (about 61-mile) river in central Panama, flowing through the Costa Abajo area (home to 231 farming communities) to the Caribbean Sea. Here, the ACP plans to create a reservoir to provide water to nearby Gatun Lake (the northern entrance of the Panama Canal in the Atlantic Ocean) to meet water demand for the next 50 years for human consumption and for canal operations, especially during droughts. The construction is expected to begin in 2027 and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-rio-indio-farmers-fight-panama-canal-reservoir-project-and-displacement/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321305</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A blueprint for effective activism 10 years after defeating a dam in Borneo (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-blueprint-for-effective-activism-10-years-after-defeating-a-dam-in-borneo-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-blueprint-for-effective-activism-10-years-after-defeating-a-dam-in-borneo-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jun 2026 18:59:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jessica MerrimanJoe Lamb]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/09193920/Baram-dam-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320891</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Analysis, Commentary, Community Development, Conservation, Dams, Development, Ecosystems, Energy, Environment, Forests, Freshwater, Governance, Human Rights, Hydroelectric Power, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Rivers, Tropical Forests, and Tropics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In October 2015, Indigenous activists from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Brazil, the United States, and Honduras, together with delegates from longhouse communities throughout the Malaysian state of Sarawak, gathered at Tanjung Tepalit, an Indigenous Kenyah village on the Baram River on the island of Borneo. They called the gathering WISER: the World Indigenous Summit [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In October 2015, Indigenous activists from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Brazil, the United States, and Honduras, together with delegates from longhouse communities throughout the Malaysian state of Sarawak, gathered at Tanjung Tepalit, an Indigenous Kenyah village on the Baram River on the island of Borneo. They called the gathering WISER: the World Indigenous Summit on Environment and Rivers. Tanjung Tepalit hosted the gathering because the village, along with more than two dozen others along the river, was scheduled to be drowned. The Baram Dam, a 1,200-megawatt hydroelectric mega project backed by the Sarawak state government and aligned with a regional industrial development scheme called the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE), would have flooded an area of more than 400 square kilometers (more than 150 square miles) and displaced an estimated 20,000 Kenyah, Kayan, and Penan people. Muslims, Catholics, Evangelicals, Buddhists, agnostics, and people who followed traditional Indigenous religions were among the attendees. As we gathered, Peter Kallang, the Kenyah founder and chair of the local advocacy group SAVE Rivers, addressed the assembly: &#8220;We are people of many faiths,&#8221; he said, &#8220;but we are united in one mission. To protect our forest homes and our ways of life.&#8221; In one sense the WISER gathering was a strategy meeting to coordinate an international coalition against a state-corporate project. In another, and perhaps deeper sense, WISER was rooted in something older. It was an assertion that the values that hold communities to their land across generations — the sanctity of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-blueprint-for-effective-activism-10-years-after-defeating-a-dam-in-borneo-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-blueprint-for-effective-activism-10-years-after-defeating-a-dam-in-borneo-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320891</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The world’s great deltas are sinking — and with them, a global food system</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-worlds-great-deltas-are-sinking-and-with-them-a-global-food-system/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-worlds-great-deltas-are-sinking-and-with-them-a-global-food-system/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 May 2026 19:54:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Petro Kotzé]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/06160303/2-with-people-in-water-BANNER-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318789</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, Indonesia, Mekong Basin, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Conservation, Dams, Environment, Extreme Weather, Flooding, Food, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, Mining, Oceans, Planetary Health, Rivers, Sea Levels, Sedimentation, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“I would like for me and my children to live here forever,” said Lâm Thu Sang, a resident of Vietnam’s Cần Thơ, a city of more than 2 million people located near the mouth of the Mekong River on one of the world’s largest river deltas. But that may not be possible. In the past, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“I would like for me and my children to live here forever,” said Lâm Thu Sang, a resident of Vietnam’s Cần Thơ, a city of more than 2 million people located near the mouth of the Mekong River on one of the world’s largest river deltas. But that may not be possible. In the past, about 160 million metric tons of sediment was annually funneled down the 4,300-kilometer (nearly 2,700-mile) Mekong River to form and nourish the vast delta where the river meets the sea. By 2024, that deposition rate had fallen by 70% per year — starving the delta of much of its source material. The Mekong flows through six Asian nations, draining a roughly 800,000-square-kilometer (309,000-square-mile) basin, until finally releasing its combined sediments into the 40,000-km2 (15,400-mi2) Mekong Delta — a complex ecological system of low-lying fertile lands and a web of waterways the size of the Netherlands, stretching from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to the South China Sea in Vietnam. Unfortunately, the future of Lâm Thu Sang’s community and this great delta are seriously in doubt, with the delta doubly threatened by land subsidence and sea level rise. Mekong Delta residents say life there is changing. For one, annual floods have become longer and more severe. Image courtesy of Anh Duong Community Development and Support Center. Sang, who helps run the Anh Duong Community Development and Support Center, an NGO focused on eradicating poverty in remote areas of Cần Thơ, said that people know their delta home is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-worlds-great-deltas-are-sinking-and-with-them-a-global-food-system/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318789</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Nepal, controversial dam threatens endangered pangolins: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-nepal-controversial-dam-threatens-endangered-pangolins-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-nepal-controversial-dam-threatens-endangered-pangolins-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Apr 2026 08:10:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bibek Bhandari]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/23090420/29054818144_90d7ea0d1c_o-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317904</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Dams, Endangered Species, Environment, Habitat Loss, Infrastructure, Pangolins, Pollution, Rivers, Water Pollution, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — A proposed dam in Kathmandu’s northeastern ridge promises to revive the sewage-choked sacred Bagmati River that runs past revered Hindu temples and ease the valley’s chronic water shortage. But conservationists warn that the project could exact a high ecological cost, even potentially impacting critically endangered wildlife within the Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park, where [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — A proposed dam in Kathmandu’s northeastern ridge promises to revive the sewage-choked sacred Bagmati River that runs past revered Hindu temples and ease the valley’s chronic water shortage. But conservationists warn that the project could exact a high ecological cost, even potentially impacting critically endangered wildlife within the Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park, where the dam is set to rise. A new study in Ecology and Evolution journal states that the Nagmati Dam will inundate large parts of potential prime pangolin habitat and foraging areas, noting that the project’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) “overlooks this threat” and fails to recognize the impacts on the species. The national park is home to the critically endangered Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla), protected under Nepal’s conservation law. “Pangolins have a small home range and specific habitat needs, so the impact on almost 100 hectares [247 acres] of area because of the dam will have big consequences for them,” said Kumar Paudel, a pangolin specialist from the nonprofit Greenhood Nepal and co-author of the study. “We need to be extremely careful about the impacts on biodiversity while developing infrastructure projects. This is not just about pangolins but other species, too,” he said. The proposed site of the Nagmati Dam is said to be on the base of the hills that surround Mulkharka. Image by Bibek Bhandari. The planned Nagmati Dam — a 95-meter (311-foot) barrier with a capacity to store more than 8 billion liters (2.1 billion gallons) of water — aims to capture monsoon&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-nepal-controversial-dam-threatens-endangered-pangolins-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-nepal-controversial-dam-threatens-endangered-pangolins-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317904</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous governance key to protecting Amazon Basin connectivity, experts say</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/indigenous-governance-key-to-protecting-amazon-basin-connectivity-experts-say/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/indigenous-governance-key-to-protecting-amazon-basin-connectivity-experts-say/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Apr 2026 09:36:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Constance Malleret]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/29185918/Photo-4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316855</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Dams, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystems, Fires, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Hydroelectric Power, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Mining, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Restoration, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the southern tip of Colombia’s Cauca department, known as the “boot” for its shoe-like shape, volunteer members of an Indigenous guard patrol their territories in the Andean foothills to protect them from invasion and deforestation. The municipality of Piamonte, which covers most of the boot, suffered the highest loss of forest cover in Cauca [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the southern tip of Colombia’s Cauca department, known as the “boot” for its shoe-like shape, volunteer members of an Indigenous guard patrol their territories in the Andean foothills to protect them from invasion and deforestation. The municipality of Piamonte, which covers most of the boot, suffered the highest loss of forest cover in Cauca between 2001 and 2024, according to data from Global Forest Watch. “There are two fronts: illegal mining by illegal armed groups, and legal mining” by companies with permits, said Edinson Ramos Usnas, a member of the Nasa people and the coordinator of Cauca’s regional guard. “Mining cuts down trees, it destroys the land, it creates pits. This is causing many species, including native tree species, to disappear,” said Gloria Rivera, a Nasa woman from Cauca. This degradation of the forest where the Andes meet the Amazon, a biodiversity hotspot, has impacts that go beyond its immediate surroundings, according to a report by the Science Panel for the Amazon (SPA) looking at landscape connectivity in the Amazon Basin. Ecological connectivity between the rivers, lowlands, wetlands and Andean foothills in the Amazon is essential to guarantee the survival of the rainforest and the ecosystem services it provides. Anthropogenic activities are threatening landscape integrity and therefore connectivity, the research shows, while Indigenous territories and conservation areas are the best barrier against deforestation. This means that supporting Indigenous governance and the integrity of these territories at a transnational level is vital to protect the Amazon as a whole. Where&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/indigenous-governance-key-to-protecting-amazon-basin-connectivity-experts-say/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316855</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Contested Amazon dam called to review water flow as river ecosystem fails</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/contested-amazon-dam-called-to-review-water-flow-as-river-ecosystem-fails/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/contested-amazon-dam-called-to-review-water-flow-as-river-ecosystem-fails/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Mar 2026 17:45:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[André Schröder]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/19165434/005_canais_seco_transporte_ISA-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315988</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conflict, Dams, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Fisheries, Freshwater Fish, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Rainforest Destruction, Renewable Energy, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Locals warned Belo Monte would kill the river, and now the plant faces a turning point as prophecies become real.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[After 10 years of operation, the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant in Pará state has yet to resolve its most severe local impact: the reduction in water flow in the Volta Grande do Xingu. The 130-kilometer (81-mile) bend on the river in the Brazilian Amazon is rich in biodiversity and vital to Indigenous peoples and riverine communities. Belo Monte is the largest hydropower plant in the Amazon and the second-largest in Brazil. Since construction plans began, local and Indigenous communities have been warning that the plant could disrupt the Xingu ecosystem and livelihoods. Ensuring sufficient river flow was a nonnegotiable condition of the project&#8217;s environmental licensing, but Belo Monte’s operator has invoked Brazil’s energy security to avoid reviewing the volume of water diverted from the Xingu River. Technical reports by the federal environmental agency, IBAMA, alongside independent monitoring by researchers, have confirmed early warnings and pointed to grave and irreparable impacts across the Volta Grande (Big Bend) as Belo Monte began operating in 2016. Subnormal water levels have dried flooded forests and ironstone formations, disrupting reproduction and causing physical deformities and massive mortality among fish and turtle species, many of which are endemic to the region and critically endangered. “The Xingu is a highly unique river,” Lúcia Rapp Py-Daniel, a biologist and researcher at the National Institute for Amazonian Research, told Mongabay by phone. “Several species of fauna and flora have adapted to the rapids flowing over an almost continuous bed of rock that exists only there. We are seeing a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/contested-amazon-dam-called-to-review-water-flow-as-river-ecosystem-fails/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315988</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia court orders release of withheld impact studies on new capital</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/indonesia-court-orders-release-of-withheld-impact-studies-on-new-capital/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/indonesia-court-orders-release-of-withheld-impact-studies-on-new-capital/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Mar 2026 11:16:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Niken D. Sitoningrum]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/19101439/nusantara-wings-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315963</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cities, Dams, Development, Environment, Environmental Law, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Infrastructure, Law, Tropical Forests, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[EAST KALIMANTAN, Indonesia — Indonesia’s Supreme Court has ordered the government to release environmental impact assessments for two projects at the country’s new capital city, handing civil society groups a rare transparency victory. The case brought by the East Kalimantan provincial chapter of the Mining Advocacy Network, a civil society organization known as Jatam, was [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[EAST KALIMANTAN, Indonesia — Indonesia’s Supreme Court has ordered the government to release environmental impact assessments for two projects at the country’s new capital city, handing civil society groups a rare transparency victory. The case brought by the East Kalimantan provincial chapter of the Mining Advocacy Network, a civil society organization known as Jatam, was formally read out at Indonesia’s Information Commissioner, the KIP, in early March. “It’s a victory for the people in general, I think, especially those directly affected by the construction of the [new capital] infrastructure project in East Kalimantan,” said Muh. Jamil, the head of Jatam’s legal team on the case. An environmental impact assessment is a legal requirement to assess the immediate and cumulative environmental impacts of a project. It also formally identifies measures required to prevent undue harm to an ecosystem. The decision requires the Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing to publish these environmental documents concerning the Sepaku Semoi Dam and Sepaku River intake, two utility water projects campaigners blamed for displacing Indigenous Balik families at Indonesia’s largest-ever construction site. The Balik community in Penajam Paser district numbers around 1,000 people and speaks a different language to the broader Dayak Indigenous groups living in East Kalimantan province. The Sepaku River intake comprises transmission pipes running 16 kilometers (10 miles) to Nusantara, the new capital city, with a supply capacity of 3,000 liters per second (nearly 800 gallons per second). The government calls the Sepaku Semoi Dam “a crucial supplier of water” for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/indonesia-court-orders-release-of-withheld-impact-studies-on-new-capital/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315963</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Disastrous floods in Colombia reignite debate over hydroelectric dam</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/disastrous-floods-in-colombia-reignite-debate-over-hydroelectric-dam/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/disastrous-floods-in-colombia-reignite-debate-over-hydroelectric-dam/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Mar 2026 17:12:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Euan Wallace]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/13164229/DSC08870-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315701</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Dams, Environment, Extreme Weather, Flooding, Governance, Health, Hydroelectric Power, Impact Of Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Planetary Health, Politics, Public Health, Renewable Energy, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MONTERÍA, Colombia — In the suburb of La Palma, in the city of Montería, Córdoba, two boys stand knee-deep in water. A shimmering film of dirt spreads across its opaque surface. The two are piling family possessions into an upturned refrigerator – a makeshift raft used to ferry their belongings toward dry land. Across the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MONTERÍA, Colombia — In the suburb of La Palma, in the city of Montería, Córdoba, two boys stand knee-deep in water. A shimmering film of dirt spreads across its opaque surface. The two are piling family possessions into an upturned refrigerator – a makeshift raft used to ferry their belongings toward dry land. Across the street, Ana Castillo, 33, watches them from her doorway. Her home sits just a few inches above the water. By her side, a dark stain rising 1 meter (3.3 feet) up the wall marks where the water line was just a few days earlier. “This took us by surprise,” Castillo says. Broom in hand, she tries to sweep the last of the water from her front room. “It’s sad to see your things half-submerged in water.” La Palma is one of the 27 neighborhoods in Montería affected by severe flooding during the region’s dry season. What began as torrential rain in early February turned into a regional disaster: 24 municipalities in Cordoba were affected, and seven people died. The causes are still under debate; while scientists have pointed to unstable weather patterns and the influence of climate change, locals, some experts and high-ranking politicians say high water levels in the Urra Dam, a hydroelectric project long contested by Indigenous communities, have aggravated the floods. In the neighbourhood of La Palma, Montería, two young men attempt to use a fridge as a makeshift canoe. Image by Euan Wallace. Amid the debate, authorities continue to grapple with&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/disastrous-floods-in-colombia-reignite-debate-over-hydroelectric-dam/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315701</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The promise and perils of the 1995 Mekong River Agreement (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-promise-and-perils-of-the-1995-mekong-river-agreement-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-promise-and-perils-of-the-1995-mekong-river-agreement-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Mar 2026 09:52:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Pham Phan Long]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/03/30141735/communities-tonle-sap-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315485</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, China, Laos, Mekong Basin, Southeast Asia, Thailand, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Dams, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Fish, Freshwater, Governance, Hydroelectric Power, Law, Politics, and Rivers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The 1995 Mekong Agreement was meant to be a cornerstone of cooperation for Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam — promising equitable use, no significant harm, and joint management of the river. The Mekong River Commission was its steward, tasked with data sharing, project consultations, and protecting the basin’s health. Three decades on, the MRC’s 30-year [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The 1995 Mekong Agreement was meant to be a cornerstone of cooperation for Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam — promising equitable use, no significant harm, and joint management of the river. The Mekong River Commission was its steward, tasked with data sharing, project consultations, and protecting the basin’s health. Three decades on, the MRC’s 30-year milestone in November 2025 painted a picture of “shared prosperity.” Officials highlighted flood warnings, environmental studies, and even China’s data-sharing nods. Despite the MRC’s claim that “working together is the only way forward” with “new solutions” to keep the Mekong a “river of life, not conflict,” this optimistic rhetoric has echoed for 30 years. In reality, the river faces “a death by a thousand cuts” — cumulative degradation from dams, sediment loss, sand mining, altered flows, and Lake Tonle Sap’s natural regulating role severely undermined — all of which the MRC’s 30-year approach has failed to stop. The 1995 Mekong Agreement and the disasters of dam-building spree Before 1995, the lower Mekong mainstream had zero large dams. The 1995 Agreement altered that. Laos built Xayaburi, operational since 2019, and Don Sahong, running since 2020. Those two alone sparked outrage from Cambodia and Vietnam over blocked fish routes and lost sediment. The PNPCA process, for prior notification and consultation, was supposed to lead to agreement. Instead, Laos treated objections as background noise and pushed ahead. Vietnam’s own tributary dams number 81; Laos, 75. Together, the basin’s total planned hydropower capacity is 23 gigawatts, drawing $50 billion&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-promise-and-perils-of-the-1995-mekong-river-agreement-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315485</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cambodian market survey a snapshot of a resilient — but stressed — Mekong</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/cambodian-market-survey-a-snapshot-of-a-resilient-but-stressed-mekong/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/cambodian-market-survey-a-snapshot-of-a-resilient-but-stressed-mekong/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Mar 2026 01:59:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Stefan Lovgren]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/09230405/DSC00753-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315459</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Mekong Basin, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Aquaculture, Biodiversity, Conservation, Dams, Endangered Species, Environment, Fish, Freshwater Fish, Green, Rivers, Tropics, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[STUNG TRENG, Cambodia — Sunrise is still a long way off when the first fishing boats slip into the landing site at this provincial town along the Mekong River in northern Cambodia. The night’s catch is hauled ashore and moved in tubs and woven baskets to a nearby side street off the town’s main boulevard. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[STUNG TRENG, Cambodia — Sunrise is still a long way off when the first fishing boats slip into the landing site at this provincial town along the Mekong River in northern Cambodia. The night’s catch is hauled ashore and moved in tubs and woven baskets to a nearby side street off the town’s main boulevard. By daylight, vendors have arranged the fish across tarps and reed mats laid directly on the street. Snakeheads, catfish, barbs and loaches lie in dense, gleaming rows as the market swells into a blur of motion and sound. Motorcycles crowd the edges while buyers weave through narrow passageways. Vendors weigh, sort and pack fish for kitchens, restaurants and traders heading off to Phnom Penh. On this morning in early February, a team of Cambodian and international researchers also converged on the fish markets here and in Kratie, a town about 140 kilometers (87 miles) downstream, to begin a two-week survey documenting the aquatic wealth of the world’s most productive river system. More than 2 million tons of fish are harvested from the Mekong each year. Biologist and survey member Sudeep Chandra observes Chitala ornata for sale at the Stung Treng market. Image © Chhut Chheana/Wonders of the Mekong. The survey builds on a rare historical benchmark. In 1994, the late ichthyologist Tyson Roberts conducted a detailed inventory of fish species appearing in the main Stung Treng market. Three decades later, researchers are replicating that work, returning in the same seasons, to enable a direct comparison&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/cambodian-market-survey-a-snapshot-of-a-resilient-but-stressed-mekong/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315459</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amazon villages build autonomous energy systems after mega-dam failed pledges</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-villages-build-autonomous-energy-systems-after-mega-dam-failed-pledges/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-villages-build-autonomous-energy-systems-after-mega-dam-failed-pledges/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Feb 2026 19:22:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jorge C. Carrasco]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/18082413/1.-Instalacoes.-Comunidade-de-Porto-Rico-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314417</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Clean Energy, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Dams, Development, Energy, Environment, Hydroelectric Power, Indigenous Peoples, Renewable Energy, Solar Power, Sustainable Development, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Despite hosting huge hydropower plants, Amazon people still pay high energy tariffs — so they found another way.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When Brazil approved the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric complex on the Xingu River, in Pará state, the megaproject promised to profoundly change the national and local energy landscapes, creating a large offer of clean energy to power industries, illuminate homes and bring development to isolated communities that historically had little to no access to power. However, nearly a decade after the operations of the fourth-largest hydropower facility in the world began in 2016, the reality is starkly different. Vulnerable communities that highly depended on fishing have been severely economically affected, and many riverside families remain disconnected from the grid or pay some of the highest electricity bills in the country. A study published in 2024 by researchers from the State University of Campinas in Brazil and Michigan State University in the U.S., funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), identified in a household survey covering 500 families in Altamira, Pará, that a vast majority of these families (86.8%) suffered a negative impact on electricity prices after the construction of Belo Monte. The research shows that not only did the “energy progress” promised in the past never materialize, but also that tariffs soared while communities living in the shadow of the Amazon’s largest dam still face blackouts and prohibitive costs. General view of the solar energy system after installation in the Porto Rico community. Image courtesy of Renato Chalu. Lower-income families in small communities in the Amazon region were hit the hardest, not only paying more for electricity,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-villages-build-autonomous-energy-systems-after-mega-dam-failed-pledges/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314417</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ethiopia’s Renaissance mega-dam fuels energy hopes and regional anxiety</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/ethiopias-renaissance-mega-dam-fuels-energy-hopes-and-regional-anxiety/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/ethiopias-renaissance-mega-dam-fuels-energy-hopes-and-regional-anxiety/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Feb 2026 06:30:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie Toto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/05123956/b.-54776665478_fdfd44276f_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313771</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, and North Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Conservation, Dams, Energy, Environment, Freshwater, Hydroelectric Power, Infrastructure, Politics, Renewable Energy, Rivers, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This January, U.S. President Donald Trump offered to act as a mediator between Egypt and Ethiopia over Nile River waters, signaling renewed interest in the dispute. Ethiopia’s flagship project, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), launched in 2011, has been a source of prolonged friction among Nile Basin countries. The row intensified with the dam’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This January, U.S. President Donald Trump offered to act as a mediator between Egypt and Ethiopia over Nile River waters, signaling renewed interest in the dispute. Ethiopia’s flagship project, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), launched in 2011, has been a source of prolonged friction among Nile Basin countries. The row intensified with the dam’s official inauguration on Sept. 9, 2025, with Egyptian leaders accusing Ethiopia of violating international law. With a length of 1,780 meters (5,840 feet) and a capacity of 5,150 megawatts (MW), it is the largest hydroelectric dam in Africa by capacity. The $5 billion project, which was mainly financed by Ethiopians and their government, also benefited from Chinese loans and investments. The presidents of Djibouti, South Sudan, Somalia and Kenya attended the inauguration ceremony. “The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam is not only a feat of engineering ambition; it is also a bold affirmation of Africa&#8217;s capacity to shape its own destiny, marshal its resources and deliver transformative infrastructure in pursuit of prosperity,” Kenyan President William Ruto, who reiterated his willingness to strengthen trade relations with Ethiopia, said during a speech at the inauguration ceremony. Ruto had good reasons to be pleased. In 2022, Kenya and Ethiopia signed a power purchase agreement establishing a 500-kilovolt transmission line between the two countries. Ethiopia committed to selling substantial amounts of renewable electricity to Kenya over 25 years, starting with 200MW during the first three years and gradually increasing it to 400MW, which is more than 10% of Kenya’s current&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/ethiopias-renaissance-mega-dam-fuels-energy-hopes-and-regional-anxiety/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313771</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A dam threatens Nepal’s Indigenous community; they want it on the ballot</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/a-dam-threatens-nepals-indigenous-community-they-want-it-on-the-ballot/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/a-dam-threatens-nepals-indigenous-community-they-want-it-on-the-ballot/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Feb 2026 20:17:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bibek Bhandari]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/04171911/6-Mulkharka-residents-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313732</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Dams, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Loss, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Logging, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MULKHARKA, Nepal — Ashok Tamang’s first glimpse of his community’s future flickered on a projector screen inside a local monastery. It was July 2023, and a few dozen people had gathered at the Sonam Choeling Monastery in Mulkharka, a small settlement tucked within Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park on the northern edge of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MULKHARKA, Nepal — Ashok Tamang’s first glimpse of his community’s future flickered on a projector screen inside a local monastery. It was July 2023, and a few dozen people had gathered at the Sonam Choeling Monastery in Mulkharka, a small settlement tucked within Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park on the northern edge of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu. As the slides shifted, so did the mood among a few attendees as they saw plans of a dam that would soon be constructed near their settlement. For many in that room, including Tamang, it was the first time they had heard of the Nagmati Dam, as officials spoke of its height and capacity. They promised progress would come along. “They only told us about the benefits of the dam — we would have better roads, better business and better income,” says Tamang, sitting outside his house overlooking the hazy Kathmandu Valley. “They never told us about the risks. Now that we know, we wholeheartedly oppose this project.” The idea for the dam took shape in the early 2010s, with plans to construct the 95-meter (311-foot) barrier — as tall as the Statue of Liberty in New York — on the Nagmati stream to collect monsoon runoff and release it during the dry season. Officials say the dam, spread over 50.7 hectares (125 acres) of land — the size of as many as 72 soccer fields — would help revive the holy Bagmati River that runs past the Hindu temples of Pashupatinath, Guheshwori and Gokarneshwor Mahadev&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/a-dam-threatens-nepals-indigenous-community-they-want-it-on-the-ballot/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313732</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Fish deformities expose ‘collapse’ of Xingu River’s pulse after construction of Belo Monte Dam</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/fish-deformities-expose-collapse-of-xingu-rivers-pulse-after-construction-of-belo-monte-dam/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/fish-deformities-expose-collapse-of-xingu-rivers-pulse-after-construction-of-belo-monte-dam/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Dec 2025 09:43:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tiago da Mota e Silva]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/31094008/belo_monte090920214077-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312368</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Dams, Environment, Fish, Fishing, Freshwater Fish, Infrastructure, Rivers, Tropics, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On Feb. 17, 2016, the gears ground into life at the massive Belo Monte hydroelectric plant, on the “Large Curve” of the Xingu River, or Volta Grande do Xingu, in the Brazilian Amazon. By April that year, the 11.2-gigawatt plant was already in commercial operation. That same year, researcher Jansen Zuanon visited Volta Grande do [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On Feb. 17, 2016, the gears ground into life at the massive Belo Monte hydroelectric plant, on the “Large Curve” of the Xingu River, or Volta Grande do Xingu, in the Brazilian Amazon. By April that year, the 11.2-gigawatt plant was already in commercial operation. That same year, researcher Jansen Zuanon visited Volta Grande do Xingu, the 130-kilometer (80-mile) stretch of this major Amazon tributary, whose course had been diverted and its flow reduced due to the operation of the hydropower plant. “I was there as soon as the first turbines started operating. At that moment, the reservoir was still filling up,” recalls Jansen, who was accompanied by observers from the Independent Territorial Environmental Monitoring (MATI) team and prosecutors from the Federal Public Ministry (MPF). “We’d go on canoes and find the caparari fish [spotted sorubim, Pseudoplatystoma corruscans] on the banks, in the shallow waters. They were clearly malnourished, with sunken eyes, wounds, missing teeth, and full of parasites. They were like zombie fish, dying little by little.” Today, almost 10 years after the start of operations, new adverse impacts from the Belo Monte dam continue to emerge. In 2025, the same monitoring group released a technical note describing visible physical changes in silver croakers (Plagioscion squamosissimus). The specimens they found had squat, oval and rounded bodies — very different from their normal elongated aspect, indicating spinal deformities. Born and raised in the Xingu area, in the riverside village of Belo Monte, Sara Rodrigues Lima was one of the fisherwomen&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/fish-deformities-expose-collapse-of-xingu-rivers-pulse-after-construction-of-belo-monte-dam/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/fish-deformities-expose-collapse-of-xingu-rivers-pulse-after-construction-of-belo-monte-dam/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312368</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amazon fishers help scientists map dam harms to Madeira River stocks</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/amazon-fishers-help-scientists-map-dam-harms-to-madeira-river-stocks/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/amazon-fishers-help-scientists-map-dam-harms-to-madeira-river-stocks/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Dec 2025 14:05:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Karla Mendes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/29134921/IMG_0350-crop-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312183</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Dams, Fish, Fishing, and Indigenous Peoples]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ancestral fishing knowledge is now obsolete after dams broke the river’s rhythm, scrambling ancient fishing spots.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LAGO PURUZINHO, Brazil — Looking at the clear waters of Puruzinho Lake, fisher Raimundo Nonato dos Santos regrets the decline in fish stocks affecting the livelihood of his community in the Brazilian Amazon.Species like pirarucu (Arapaima gigas), tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) and pirapitinga (Piaractus brachypomus) have &#8220;disappeared&#8221; from Lago Puruzinho community in northern Amazonas state, dos Santos said. &#8220;When we catch one, it&#8217;s a surprise.&#8221; A resident of Puruzinho since he was born 53 years ago, dos Santos, leader of the Puruzinho community and known by his nickname Leleca, said the construction of the Santo Antônio hydroelectric power plant in neighboring Rondônia state in 2008 &#8220;triggered the ruin&#8221; of his community. Often promoted as a form of “clean energy” since they don’t run on fossil fuels, hydropower plants have shown severe environmental impacts. Brazil&#8217;s fifth-largest power dam, Santo Antônio sparked outcry from environmentalists since the start of its construction on the Madeira River due to its environmental and social impacts, including a reduction in fish stocks and the displacement of traditional communities. Its reservoir spans more than 54,600 hectares (135,000 acres), limiting the natural flow of the Madeira. &#8220;Things started to spiral out of control. And the impact was huge for us: the decline in fish stocks, the [milky] water remaining for many months within [the lake in] the community. It affected us a lot,&#8221; dos Santos told Mongabay under a tall tree on the banks of Puruzinho Lake, 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) away from the city of Humaitá. As the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/amazon-fishers-help-scientists-map-dam-harms-to-madeira-river-stocks/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/amazon-fishers-help-scientists-map-dam-harms-to-madeira-river-stocks/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312183</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The first amphibian to halt a hydroelectric dam now takes on the climate crisis</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-first-amphibian-to-halt-a-hydroelectric-dam-now-takes-on-the-climate-crisis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-first-amphibian-to-halt-a-hydroelectric-dam-now-takes-on-the-climate-crisis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Dec 2025 10:19:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Thamys Trindade]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/22100957/Melanophryniscus_admirabilis-11-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311865</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Climate Change, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Dams, Endangered Species, Energy, Environment, Frogs, Hydroelectric Power, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ARVOREZINHA, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil — The admirable little red-bellied toad is the size of a thumb, but it has achieved giant feats: In 2014, it prevented the construction of a small hydroelectric dam that threatened to alter its only habitat forever. Endemic to a small stretch of the Forqueta River, in the municipality [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ARVOREZINHA, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil — The admirable little red-bellied toad is the size of a thumb, but it has achieved giant feats: In 2014, it prevented the construction of a small hydroelectric dam that threatened to alter its only habitat forever. Endemic to a small stretch of the Forqueta River, in the municipality of Arvorezinha, Rio Grande do Sul, Melanophryniscus admirabilis is one of the rarest and most threatened species on the planet. Recently, after the floods that devastated the state in 2024, researchers returned to this refuge to assess whether the little toad that once halted the construction of a dam has survived the force of the waters. In October 2025, almost a year and a half after the biggest climate disaster in Rio Grande do Sul, I joined a team of researchers that would document what remained of the small habitat where just over a thousand little red-bellied toads used to live. The destination was Perau de Janeiro, a hidden fold of rocks and humid forest. Seen from above, the place, which is surrounded by tobacco plantations and pastures, looks like a common forest scene. But as we go down a steep trail, the atmosphere changes immediately. The smell of moss, the shining wet outcrop, the sound of the powerful flow of the river that ends in a waterfall: It was there that the little toad halted progress. And it was there where we wanted to find out if it still vocalized. Researcher Michelle Abadie with&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-first-amphibian-to-halt-a-hydroelectric-dam-now-takes-on-the-climate-crisis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-first-amphibian-to-halt-a-hydroelectric-dam-now-takes-on-the-climate-crisis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311865</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New riverside lake in Nepal wins hearts, but faces government opposition</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/new-riverside-lake-in-nepal-wins-hearts-but-faces-government-opposition/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/new-riverside-lake-in-nepal-wins-hearts-but-faces-government-opposition/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Nov 2025 16:26:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Suresh Bidari]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/28152601/IMG_9578-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310313</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cities, Conservation, Corruption, Dams, Drought, Environment, Environmental Law, Freshwater, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Lakes, Land Use Change, Politics, Rivers, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SARLAHI, Nepal — Nepali social media influencer Ishtu Karki recently posted photos and videos enjoying a motorboat ride on the Bagmati Lake, popularly known as Bharat Taal, in Sarlahi district in the country’s southern plains. “We have such a wonderful pond here in Sarlahi … You don’t need to go to Bangkok or Phuket now,” [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SARLAHI, Nepal — Nepali social media influencer Ishtu Karki recently posted photos and videos enjoying a motorboat ride on the Bagmati Lake, popularly known as Bharat Taal, in Sarlahi district in the country’s southern plains. “We have such a wonderful pond here in Sarlahi … You don’t need to go to Bangkok or Phuket now,” she said about the lake adjoining Bagmati River. The 33.8-hectare (83.54-acre) lake, commissioned by Bagmati municipality mayor Bharat Bahadur Thapa — hence the name — and built in 2021, attracts visitors not just from Nepal, but also from across the border in India in large numbers. On a recent November afternoon, Mongabay saw seven Nepali tourists pay 300 rupees ($2.1) each for a boat ride. A young Indian couple paid 100 rupees (70 cents) for a short horse ride on the bank and 50 rupees (35 cents) more for a video clip. “We have limited drinking water supplies here, but I like to come here to see the lake,” said Satendra Kumar, who visits the lake occasionally from his home in neighboring Bihar state, India. Tourists from India and Nepal visit Bharat Taal in Nepal. Image by Nakul Sah. But the next time visitors such as Karki and Kumar return to the lake, it may not be there. Since its construction, the lake has shot up as a popular cross-border attraction with economic, groundwater recharge and biodiversity benefits, but ongoing legal cases, lack of long-term environmental and biodiversity safeguards, inadequate waste management, and unclear jurisdiction&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/new-riverside-lake-in-nepal-wins-hearts-but-faces-government-opposition/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/new-riverside-lake-in-nepal-wins-hearts-but-faces-government-opposition/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310313</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lesotho communities allege greenwashing by project transferring water to South Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/lesotho-communities-allege-greenwashing-by-project-transferring-water-to-south-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/lesotho-communities-allege-greenwashing-by-project-transferring-water-to-south-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Nov 2025 17:31:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/21165528/High_mountain_Shepherds-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309980</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Negotiating Africa's Energy Future]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Lesotho, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Conflict, Dams, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Freshwater, Global Environmental Crisis, Greenwashing, Hydroelectric Power, Politics, Renewable Energy, Resource Conflict, Rivers, Social Justice, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Communities in Lesotho have filed a complaint with the African Development Bank over a controversial initiative that transfers water from the country to neighboring South Africa, one of the biggest such schemes on the African continent. The Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), currently in its second phase, is funded in part by the African Development [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Communities in Lesotho have filed a complaint with the African Development Bank over a controversial initiative that transfers water from the country to neighboring South Africa, one of the biggest such schemes on the African continent. The Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), currently in its second phase, is funded in part by the African Development Bank (AfDB). In the complaint submitted to the bank’s Independent Recourse Mechanism, seen by Mongabay, the complainants accuse the developers of promoting the LHWP as a climate mitigation project and ignoring its impacts on their communities and the environment, and call it “greenwashing.” “Some in the community say they were better off without the project, because instead of bringing a development that is expected from such projects, it has, in fact, brought them poverty,” said Mosa Letsie, a lawyer at the Seinoli Legal Centre (SLC) in Lesotho. The center provides legal assistance and advice to marginalized communities and worked with the affected communities to submit the complaint. Letsie said women were disproportionately impacted. Falls short in every respect, from inadequate consultation to compensation to the lack of benefits. The LHWP diverts water from the Senqu-Orange river system in the Lesotho highlands, through a series of dams, to the water-poor Gauteng province of South Africa, home to the country’s economic nerve center: the greater Johannesburg area. The centerpiece of phase 2 is the Polihali dam and reservoir. While the project documents explicitly state how much water will be transferred to South Africa, they make only promises&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/lesotho-communities-allege-greenwashing-by-project-transferring-water-to-south-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309980</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cameroon inaugurates controversial dam despite local dissent</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/cameroon-inaugurates-controversial-dam-despite-local-dissent/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/cameroon-inaugurates-controversial-dam-despite-local-dissent/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Oct 2025 14:31:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Yannick Kenné]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/10134434/b4abb60b-e9a6-4e2d-9b25-c1afbfa6f00e-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307404</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and Central Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conflict, Dams, Ecosystems, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fishing, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Governance, Green, Human Rights, Hydroelectric Power, Infrastructure, Land Rights, Politics, Renewable Energy, Resource Conflict, Rivers, Tropics, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon — In the village of Ndji, old electrical cables are draped over rickety wooden poles, hanging so low in places, they touch the ground. These makeshift installations provide electricity in this hamlet of about a thousand inhabitants. But Wilfried Eyebe, a local fisherman, explained that this power supply is unreliable. “The voltage is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon — In the village of Ndji, old electrical cables are draped over rickety wooden poles, hanging so low in places, they touch the ground. These makeshift installations provide electricity in this hamlet of about a thousand inhabitants. But Wilfried Eyebe, a local fisherman, explained that this power supply is unreliable. “The voltage is not stable. We’re facing power cuts all the time.” This concern persists even though Ndji is located close to the Nachtigal hydroelectric dam on the Sanaga River, 65 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of Yaoundé and the new source of around 30% of Cameroon’s electricity production. Transmission line carrying electricity from the Nachtigal hydroelectric dam. Image by Yannick Kenné/Mongabay. Hydroelectric power: Essential for Cameroon’s energy supply Hydroelectric power plays a vital role in Cameroon’s electricity grid and economy. It is a renewable energy source with a far lower carbon footprint than fossil fuels. Since March 2025, 420 megawatts of power generated by the $1.3 billion dam at Nachtigal has been fed into the Southern Interconnected Grid (RIS in French) which serves seven of Cameroon’s 10 regions with power produced by hydropower plants at Edea (267 MW, commissioned in 1954), Songloulou (384 MW, 1981), and now Nachtigal. Power cuts are still a frequent occurrence, though, due to incidents affecting the power transmission network. Numerous disruptions have been recorded recently at the new transformation station on the outskirts of Yaoundé, which enables the onward transport of electricity produced by Nachtigal. The villages near the dam are not spared&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/cameroon-inaugurates-controversial-dam-despite-local-dissent/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/cameroon-inaugurates-controversial-dam-despite-local-dissent/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307404</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Turning a stream into a river: Inside India’s Yettinaholé diversion project</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/turning-a-stream-into-a-river-inside-indias-yettinahole-diversion-project/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/turning-a-stream-into-a-river-inside-indias-yettinahole-diversion-project/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Oct 2025 16:49:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shradha Triveni]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/02133930/fisher-at-yettinahole-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306921</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, India, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity Hotspots, Conflict, Dams, Development, Drinking Water, Ecosystems, Environment, Fellows, Fishing, Freshwater, Governance, Hydroelectric Power, Land Rights, Renewable Energy, Resource Conflict, Rivers, Tropics, Water, Water Pollution, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Daybreak is almost nonexistent during monsoons in Raxidi, a village perched in the thick of the Western Ghats, an Indian biodiversity hotspot. It is the 7 a.m. body clock that pushes most villagers out of slumber — to enter the accurate measure of the day’s rainfall in a log, a habit passed on by the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Daybreak is almost nonexistent during monsoons in Raxidi, a village perched in the thick of the Western Ghats, an Indian biodiversity hotspot. It is the 7 a.m. body clock that pushes most villagers out of slumber — to enter the accurate measure of the day’s rainfall in a log, a habit passed on by the British in coffee estates. There are, however, occasions where it dawns sooner when sharp-edged winds split trees into halves and bring them to a thud. Or gusts that constantly stab the windowpanes. In Raxidi, rain, as much as coffee, is a part and parcel of life, and livelihood. Mountain slopes are covered with coffee plantations, dotted with tall silver oak trees for shade. Men and women in gumboots hold sickles and hover around the coffee bush till dusk. Raingear is paramount for protection from water and leeches. Roads that snake like garland along the hills provide breathtaking views of greener mountains farther away, engulfed by thick, heavy clouds. One such mountain is Muru Kannu Gudda, or Three-Eyed Hill, more than 1,100 meters (3,900 feet) above mean sea level in Sakleshpur taluk (administrative division) in the heart of Karnataka’s Western Ghats, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) from Bengaluru, the capital city of the southern Indian state. “This is where the Yettinahalla is born,” said Prasad Raxidi, a writer, theater person and longtime resident of Raxidi, as he pointed to the longshot view of Muru Kannu Gudda from atop an amphitheater he built with the villagers. In&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/turning-a-stream-into-a-river-inside-indias-yettinahole-diversion-project/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/turning-a-stream-into-a-river-inside-indias-yettinahole-diversion-project/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306921</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cambodian irrigation dam construction threatens riverine communities in the Cardamoms</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/cambodian-irrigation-dam-construction-threatens-riverine-communities-in-the-cardamoms/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/cambodian-irrigation-dam-construction-threatens-riverine-communities-in-the-cardamoms/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Sep 2025 03:23:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/10031927/Pursat-Irrigation-Dam-2-banner-image-V2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305650</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Cardamom Mountains, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Dams, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Fisheries, Forest Destruction, Freshwater, Governance, Industrial Agriculture, Infrastructure, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Redd, Rivers, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, Tropics, Water Pollution, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Forest clearance has begun to make way for a new irrigation dam deep in the heart of the Cardamom Mountains, in Cambodia’s western province of Pursat, Mongabay has learned. The dam, which officials say will safeguard against floods and secure water for agriculture, looks set to clear more than 7,300 hectares (18,000 acres) of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Forest clearance has begun to make way for a new irrigation dam deep in the heart of the Cardamom Mountains, in Cambodia’s western province of Pursat, Mongabay has learned. The dam, which officials say will safeguard against floods and secure water for agriculture, looks set to clear more than 7,300 hectares (18,000 acres) of protected forest within Kravanh National Park, according to an overlay of official project maps with satellite imagery of rainforest cover. Mongabay first reported on the existence of the dam project in March. More recently, sources familiar with the area provided us with geolocated photos showing that ground broke on the project in February, with development continuing over the following months. Mongabay spoke with several residents in affected communities who confirmed that forest clearance and construction were taking place. Satellite imagery appears to show a roughly 10-kilometer (6-mile) road being carved through the forest to the dam site between February and March 2025, followed by some 60 hectares (150 acres) of forest clearance taking place within the project area through at least Aug. 12. Of the 7,300 hectares to be cleared, nearly 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) will be inundated with water as part of the Irrigation Dam 2 project, as it’s formally known, with the rest of the area also being cleared, documents indicate. Eng Rasmey, chief of the Pursat Provincial Department of Environment, told Mongabay that the forest clearance was happening under the onus of the dam project, which is overseen by the Ministry of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/cambodian-irrigation-dam-construction-threatens-riverine-communities-in-the-cardamoms/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/cambodian-irrigation-dam-construction-threatens-riverine-communities-in-the-cardamoms/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305650</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Shrinking Mekong megafish underlines risks to the river, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/shrinking-mekong-megafish-underlines-risks-to-the-river-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/shrinking-mekong-megafish-underlines-risks-to-the-river-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Aug 2025 14:16:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anton L. Delgado]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/26093159/imgonline-com-ua-FrameBlurred-mmealfk1s0NBv-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304811</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Laos, Mekong Basin, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Dams, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Megafauna, Overfishing, Research, Rivers, Tropics, Water Pollution, Wetlands, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The megafish of the Mekong River are shrinking, a new study has found. In the most comprehensive analysis of species size in Southeast Asia’s Lower Mekong Basin, researchers have tracked a generational shrinkage among the river’s iconic gargantuan fish, which are among the largest freshwater fish in the world. The size decline in the Mekong [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The megafish of the Mekong River are shrinking, a new study has found. In the most comprehensive analysis of species size in Southeast Asia’s Lower Mekong Basin, researchers have tracked a generational shrinkage among the river’s iconic gargantuan fish, which are among the largest freshwater fish in the world. The size decline in the Mekong is a troubling trend for the ecosystem on which more than 65 million people across six countries depend. It also mirrors shrinkages of other megafauna in river basins around the world. “At its core, the analysis shows that the Mekong River’s biggest, slowest-to-mature fish species, and especially those at highest risk of extinction, are the ones shrinking fastest,” Zeb Hogan, a co-author of the study and biologist at the University of Nevada, Reno, said in an interview with Mongabay. “Declining fish size isn’t just a symptom of overfishing — it’s a warning sign of deeper population instability.” A Mekong giant catfish release in 2007. Image courtesy of Zeb Hogan with Wonders of the Mekong. The study results are based on more than seven years of catch-monitoring data that tracked 257 species across 23 sites in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. More than 397,000 samples were collected from mid-2007 to mid-2014. These samples were compared to historical data from conservation information hub FishBase and the Mekong River Commission’s fisheries monitoring database. Changes in fish body size are a key indicator of fish stock health that informs fisheries management and conservation planning. Small and medium-sized fish species didn’t&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/shrinking-mekong-megafish-underlines-risks-to-the-river-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304811</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Development banks under fire for backing disputed Nepal hydropower project</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/development-banks-under-fire-for-backing-disputed-nepal-hydropower-project/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/development-banks-under-fire-for-backing-disputed-nepal-hydropower-project/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Aug 2025 00:14:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/21145224/III-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304531</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Banking, Biodiversity, Conflict, Culture, Dams, Development, Environment, Forest Destruction, FPIC, Hydroelectric Power, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Infrastructure, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Rivers, Social Conflict, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Nepal has long relied on hydropower projects to meet most of its energy needs, but recent complaints from Indigenous and local communities have cast a shadow over the development of some projects — particularly the Tanahu project. The project is being developed by Tanahu Hydropower Limited (THL), a subsidiary of the state-owned Nepal Electricity Authority [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Nepal has long relied on hydropower projects to meet most of its energy needs, but recent complaints from Indigenous and local communities have cast a shadow over the development of some projects — particularly the Tanahu project. The project is being developed by Tanahu Hydropower Limited (THL), a subsidiary of the state-owned Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). It’s expected to be completed next year in Gandaki province. But for many members of communities in the affected area, “none of our demands have been fulfilled to this day,” says Til Bahadur Thapa Magar, chair of local campaign group the Tanahu Hydropower Project’s Struggle Committee. Local communities and Indigenous peoples say the project was implemented without proper consultation and failed to respect their rights to land, territory, and free, prior and informed consent (FPIC). In 2023, U.S.-based human rights watchdog Accountability Counsel documented a series of 16 complaints against hydropower projects in Nepal, many with funding from international institutions such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB), European Investment Bank (EIB) and World Bank. These projects, including the Tanahu project, which is funded by the ADB and EIB, have been accused of failing to meet their due diligence requirements during the approval process. “Even though these projects have records of not fully adhering to environmental and social compliance and respecting Indigenous and community people’s rights and decisions, they [international development banks] keep supporting more and more projects,” said Sutharee Wannasiri, communities associate at the Accountability Counsel. A Magar local affected by the Tanahu Hydropower&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/development-banks-under-fire-for-backing-disputed-nepal-hydropower-project/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/development-banks-under-fire-for-backing-disputed-nepal-hydropower-project/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304531</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Specter of dams and diversion looms over Southeast Asia’s Salween River</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/specter-of-dams-and-diversion-looms-over-southeast-asias-salween-river/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/specter-of-dams-and-diversion-looms-over-southeast-asias-salween-river/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Jun 2025 03:48:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/19023446/Salween-banner-image-V1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301033</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Mekong Basin, Myanmar, Salween River, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Community-based Conservation, Conflict, Crops, Dams, Drinking Water, Ecosystems, Environment, Fishing, Freshwater, Governance, Hydroelectric Power, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Renewable Energy, Resource Conflict, Rivers, Traditional People, Tropics, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MAE HONG SON, Thailand — The shores of Myanmar became visible from Sob Moei village in northeastern Thailand as the morning mist rises over the Salween River, the flowing water the only border between Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province and Myanmar’s Kayin state. Flowing nearly 3,300 kilometers (about 2,000 miles) from Tibet, south through China [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MAE HONG SON, Thailand — The shores of Myanmar became visible from Sob Moei village in northeastern Thailand as the morning mist rises over the Salween River, the flowing water the only border between Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province and Myanmar’s Kayin state. Flowing nearly 3,300 kilometers (about 2,000 miles) from Tibet, south through China and Myanmar, before joining the Andaman Sea, the Salween River is Asia’s longest free-flowing river. Home to more than 200 species of fish, a quarter of which are estimated to be found nowhere else in the world, and irrigating vast tracts of farmland, the Salween is a vital resource that provides food security, livelihoods, as well as drinking and bathing water to largely Indigenous communities across three countries. Devoid of the hydropower dams that have choked the Mekong River and its tributaries, the Salween unites farmers and fishers in Thailand and Myanmar more than it divides them. But planned dams on the Myanmar stretch of the river mean its free-flowing nature is far from guaranteed. “We get our food from the river, so if the Salween River is dammed or developed, it will definitely impact our families,” said Naw K&#8217;nyaw Paw, secretary-general of the Karen Women’s Organization, speaking at a protest against dams at Sob Moei on March 14. Hundreds of Karen protesters light candles to bless the Salween River and protect it from hydropower dam construction. Image by Gerald Flynn / Mongabay. At least 20 dams have been proposed or planned along the Salween,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/specter-of-dams-and-diversion-looms-over-southeast-asias-salween-river/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/specter-of-dams-and-diversion-looms-over-southeast-asias-salween-river/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301033</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Nepal, northernmost sighting of Eurasian otter raises hope, concerns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/in-nepal-northernmost-sighting-of-eurasian-otter-raises-hope-concerns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/in-nepal-northernmost-sighting-of-eurasian-otter-raises-hope-concerns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Jun 2025 00:42:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/28093850/European_otter_02-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300368</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Aquaculture, Biodiversity, Citizen Science, Conservation, Dams, Fish, Fishing, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Hydroelectric Power, Infrastructure, Mammals, Overfishing, and Rivers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — A Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) found in the Karnali River in western Nepal marks the species’ northernmost record in the country, offering hope for range expansion but raising concerns about its long-term conservation. As the animal was found dead in a fishing net, overfishing could add to the growing list of challenges, such [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — A Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) found in the Karnali River in western Nepal marks the species’ northernmost record in the country, offering hope for range expansion but raising concerns about its long-term conservation. As the animal was found dead in a fishing net, overfishing could add to the growing list of challenges, such as damming of rivers for planned hydropower development, sand mining and road expansion. “This is exciting news, as even growing up near the area where the otter was discovered, I had never seen an otter myself,” said researcher Vidyaman Thapa, lead author of a recent study documenting the finding. “Local artisanal fishermen caught the otter in a fishing net on the banks of the Karnali River at Dulli Kuna in Nepal’s Humla [district] in April 2023, and reported it to researchers working in the area,” added Thapa, who is pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of New Orleans. In Nepal, the animal was considered a cryptic species with no confirmed evidence of its presence for decades. But that changed in 2021, following discoveries in the Barekot, Roshiand Tubang rivers, then a flurry of sightings in different parts of the country. In 2021, it was even found in the Kathmandu Valley, home to the country’s capital city, in a heavily built-up area. “The finding is important as we confirm the northernmost documented record of the animal in Nepal,” said Rinzin Phunjok Lama, co-author of the study. “But that the animal was found dead most likely because&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/in-nepal-northernmost-sighting-of-eurasian-otter-raises-hope-concerns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300368</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study shows Vietnam’s ethnic communities’ grapple with hydropower plant impacts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/study-shows-vietnams-ethnic-communities-grapple-with-hydropower-plant-impacts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/study-shows-vietnams-ethnic-communities-grapple-with-hydropower-plant-impacts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jun 2025 08:17:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/05071120/3-woman-in-the-fields-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299835</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Dams, Environment, Environmental Law, Freshwater, Global Environmental Crisis, Hydroelectric Power, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Rivers, Social Justice, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In June 2019, an early morning flash flood swept through the Bien La commune in northwestern Vietnam, ravaging crops and farmlands belonging to 60 families. The cause: the Su Pan 1 small hydropower dam, about 12 km (7 miles) upstream of the commune, where officials opened the water discharge gates without prior notice. Most of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In June 2019, an early morning flash flood swept through the Bien La commune in northwestern Vietnam, ravaging crops and farmlands belonging to 60 families. The cause: the Su Pan 1 small hydropower dam, about 12 km (7 miles) upstream of the commune, where officials opened the water discharge gates without prior notice. Most of Bien La’s residents are from ethnic minority groups like Tay, Hmong, Dao and Kinh. According to a recent study, the development of multiple small hydropower projects (defined by Vietnam as projects under 30 megawatts) has had both economic and cultural impacts on these communities, leading to loss of farmland and jobs, as well as a decline in traditional practices and communal harmony. “Although these small hydropower projects have benefited a few community people, many have lost their farmlands, a traditional way of life forcing them to out-migrate to other provinces from their ancestral villages in search of work,” says Nga Dao, associate professor at Canada’s York University and lead author of the study. Dao conducted field research in the area from 2009-24, and, beginning in 2019, collaborated with local women who served as co-researchers by documenting their lives and communities via photography. A reservoir in the upstream commune. Image by Pham Hoài Thanh. A small hydropower dam in Bien La. Image by Nga Dao. “Overarching impacts” Small hydropower plants have proliferated over the past two decades. According to the study, four small hydropower plants have been built in Bien La since 2006, and an additional&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/study-shows-vietnams-ethnic-communities-grapple-with-hydropower-plant-impacts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299835</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Report urges stricter mining standards to manage climate and social impacts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/report-urges-stricter-mining-standards-to-manage-climate-and-social-impacts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/report-urges-stricter-mining-standards-to-manage-climate-and-social-impacts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 May 2025 13:30:30 +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/20/2025/05/09125831/samarco-mariana-dam-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298861</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Cerrado, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Business, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Conservation, Dams, Energy, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Just Transition, Mining, Politics, Social Justice, Supply Chain, Water, Water Pollution, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new report by the Mining Observatory finds key mining states in Brazil, including Pará, the host state of the upcoming 2025 U.N. climate summit (COP30), are highly exposed to climate risks, water insecurity and environmental degradation. Mining, combined with worsening climate conditions, exposes communities to more extreme weather events, such as drought and floods, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new report by the Mining Observatory finds key mining states in Brazil, including Pará, the host state of the upcoming 2025 U.N. climate summit (COP30), are highly exposed to climate risks, water insecurity and environmental degradation. Mining, combined with worsening climate conditions, exposes communities to more extreme weather events, such as drought and floods, and escalates socioenvironmental risks, the authors say. The report focuses on mining for minerals used in the global energy transition, such as lithium, nickel, graphite and niobium. Brazil, which mines about 1.7 billion tons of transition minerals annually, plays a significant role in this shift. The country is the second-largest producer of iron ore and it produces more than 90% of the world’s niobium supply. The second-largest reserves of graphite and rare earth elements are found in Brazil, as well as the third-largest reserves of nickel. In January, Brazil’s National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) and government funding agency Finep announced an $815 million investment package to accelerate the development of strategic mineral projects across the country. &#8220;The call is an important step forward in the mineral sector for achieving the Brazilian government&#8217;s goals of expanding the industry&#8217;s production capacity in the context of sustainable and technological development of the new industrial policy and the ecological transformation plan,&#8221; BNDES president Aloizio Mercadante said in a press statement at the time. Meanwhile, the report highlights some of the detrimental effects of mining for transition minerals on local communities, such as Indigenous and Quilombola peoples,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/report-urges-stricter-mining-standards-to-manage-climate-and-social-impacts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298861</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Vital Mekong fish corridors tracked for first time, but funding cuts threaten future research</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/vital-mekong-fish-corridors-tracked-for-first-time-but-funding-cuts-threaten-future-research/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/vital-mekong-fish-corridors-tracked-for-first-time-but-funding-cuts-threaten-future-research/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Apr 2025 20:30:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anton L. Delgado]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/18092515/A-fish-release-conducted-for-a-recent-study-on-fish-migrations-in-the-Mekong-River.-Image-courtesy-of-FISHBIO-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297793</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Laos, Mekong Basin, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Dams, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Freshwater, Funding, Hydroelectric Power, Research, Rivers, and Tracking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The first-ever acoustic telemetry network in the Mekong River has tracked key migration corridors critical to the survival of fish in Cambodia and Laos. To conduct the study, researchers caught fish from a dozen species and implanted them with small electric transmitters before releasing them back into the river. A network of receivers allowed the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The first-ever acoustic telemetry network in the Mekong River has tracked key migration corridors critical to the survival of fish in Cambodia and Laos. To conduct the study, researchers caught fish from a dozen species and implanted them with small electric transmitters before releasing them back into the river. A network of receivers allowed the researchers to follow the migration movements of 81 of these tagged fish during both the dry and wet seasons. The findings, published in a recent study, provide empirical data reinforcing local ecological knowledge that underlines the importance of a free-flowing Mekong. With dozens of dams built, planned and proposed across the basin, researchers say the exact data points detailing the Mekong’s massive fish migration underline the risks of cutting off these vital migratory corridors with hydropower. “I hope this information gives pause to developers or governments working on those dams,” study lead author Jackman Eschenroeder, from U.S.-based environmental consultancy FISHBIO, told Mongabay. “We’re trying to build a road map for where these fish are going with our acoustic telemetry network but it gives us just a glimpse into what these fish are doing.” Researchers perform a maintenance check on an acoustic receiver in the Mekong River. Image courtesy of FISHBIO. This study is the first attempt to use acoustic telemetry at this scale in the Mekong Basin. Eschenroeder referred to the study as a “pilot effort” that highlights “the need to do more studies like this to improve the resolution of our knowledge.” But continued&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/vital-mekong-fish-corridors-tracked-for-first-time-but-funding-cuts-threaten-future-research/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/vital-mekong-fish-corridors-tracked-for-first-time-but-funding-cuts-threaten-future-research/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297793</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How Mexican fishers are protecting an endemic oyster — and its ecosystem</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/how-mexican-fishers-are-protecting-an-endemic-oyster-and-its-ecosystem/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/how-mexican-fishers-are-protecting-an-endemic-oyster-and-its-ecosystem/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Apr 2025 12:06:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gonzalo Ortuño López]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/17120116/Anatomia_Crassostrea_corteziensis-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297751</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Dams, Ecosystems, Environment, Fisheries, Fishing, Illegal Fishing, Marine, Marine Animals, and National Parks]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the past few decades, the harvesting of the Cortez oyster in western Mexico’s Marismas Nacionales — or the Marshes Biosphere Reserve — in Nayarit state has shifted from suffering from a fishing crisis to seeing a successful effort in its reintroduction and breeding in the ecosystem. This region, known to be one of Mexico’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the past few decades, the harvesting of the Cortez oyster in western Mexico’s Marismas Nacionales — or the Marshes Biosphere Reserve — in Nayarit state has shifted from suffering from a fishing crisis to seeing a successful effort in its reintroduction and breeding in the ecosystem. This region, known to be one of Mexico’s richest and where the oysters are endemic, contributes to 45% of the country&#8217;s total fisheries production. A fishing group dedicated to environmental conservation, the Ostricamichin Cooperative, has played a key role in protecting this important marsh in the Mexican Pacific Coast, which gained international recognition in 2001. “Our job is to protect our environment. Farming has led us to refrain from exploiting natural resources and instead focus on repopulating the natural beds,” says Óscar Guadalupe Padilla Angulo, president of Ostricamichin. The initiative started after a collaboration with the federal government in 1970 to enhance the farming of the Cortez oyster (Crassostrea corteziensis) by collecting wild “seeds” — or juvenile oysters — to grow them in floating rafts within the estuaries. He says that the technique of deploying these floating rafts has been so effective that it has remained unchanged for nearly 55 years. Cortez oyster farming in Nayarit. Image courtesy of the Ostricamichin Cooperative. Marcos Moreno Torres, a fisher and member of the cooperative since it was first established, witnessed first-hand both the crisis and the revival of the Cortez oyster, a shellfish that his parents and grandparents used to collect by diving. “There came&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/how-mexican-fishers-are-protecting-an-endemic-oyster-and-its-ecosystem/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297751</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Heart of Borneo’ dams raze Indigenous forests for Indonesia green energy drive</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/heart-of-borneo-dams-raze-indigenous-forests-for-indonesia-green-energy-drive/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/heart-of-borneo-dams-raze-indigenous-forests-for-indonesia-green-energy-drive/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Apr 2025 02:58:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abdallah Naem]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/10070020/presbytis-rubicunda-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297368</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Indonesia, Kalimantan, North Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Dams, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forests, Governance, Hydroelectric Power, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Renewable Energy, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MALINAU, Indonesia — Indonesia is pressing ahead with construction of a new network of dams in Borneo to power a major “green” industrial estate that will relocate Indigenous communities and cut into one of Asia’s largest stretches of intact rainforest. “Finding fish and animals has already become difficult,” Yusmarang, a member of North Kalimantan’s Punan [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MALINAU, Indonesia — Indonesia is pressing ahead with construction of a new network of dams in Borneo to power a major “green” industrial estate that will relocate Indigenous communities and cut into one of Asia’s largest stretches of intact rainforest. “Finding fish and animals has already become difficult,” Yusmarang, a member of North Kalimantan’s Punan Indigenous community, told Mongabay Indonesia. Last year, Mongabay reported from Malinau district, near Indonesia’s border with Malaysia, on efforts by PT Malinau Hijau Lestari to deforest thousands of hectares to grow biomass for coal-fired power plants. Indonesia’s central government is also forging ahead with plans to construct five dams along three rivers in North Kalimantan province as part of Southeast Asia’s largest hydroelectric project. The cost of the cascade is estimated at more than $20 billion. Then-president Joko Widodo attended a ceremony in 2023 to mark the beginning of the Mentarang Induk Dam. Another dam planned in Bulungan district on the Kayan River will flood two villages, Long Leju and Long Peleban. On completion of the final stage, which is scheduled for 2035, the five combined units could yield a generation capacity of 9,000 megawatts. This cascade of dams through the old-growth forests of northern Borneo will power a vast new industrial estate that authorities in Jakarta consider of strategic importance for Indonesia. The government says it hopes the Kalimantan Industrial Park Indonesia (KIPI) estate will be the largest “green industrial area” in the world. “The industrial park, which covers an area of 13,000 hectares&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/heart-of-borneo-dams-raze-indigenous-forests-for-indonesia-green-energy-drive/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297368</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Drowned lands and poisoned waters threaten Peru’s campesinos and their livestock</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/drowned-lands-and-poisoned-waters-threaten-perus-campesinos-and-their-livestock/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/drowned-lands-and-poisoned-waters-threaten-perus-campesinos-and-their-livestock/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Mar 2025 15:19:56 +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/20/2025/03/25142521/Peru-lake-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296435</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Dams, Ecosystems, Environment, Flooding, Food, Freshwater, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Hydroelectric Power, Lakes, Land Rights, Livestock, Mining, Poisoning, Public Health, Waste, Water, Water Pollution, Water Scarcity, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ever since the Upamayo Dam on Peru’s Lake Chinchaycocha was built in 1932, floods have become a frequent occurrence in the area for several months a year. From January to May, entire homes and pasturelands are swallowed whole by water, forcing campesino families to migrate with their livestock to higher ground. But there’s something else [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ever since the Upamayo Dam on Peru’s Lake Chinchaycocha was built in 1932, floods have become a frequent occurrence in the area for several months a year. From January to May, entire homes and pasturelands are swallowed whole by water, forcing campesino families to migrate with their livestock to higher ground. But there’s something else in the flooded waters: it’s also contaminated by the Cerro de Pasco mining district upstream. When they can return in late June, residents say the pastures smell and are unsafe for animals to graze in. But few have a choice; they never received compensation for other lands. So their cattle and sheep that must eat the grass sometimes develop sepsis and die. Others pick up unknown diseases, and farmers find them running aimlessly, almost mindlessly. There have been so many deaths one community had to open a cemetery specifically for livestock. “When we see that cattle are already sick, we have to kill them to eat them before they die, but we’re poisoning ourselves,” Micaela Espinoza, a campesina farmer from the Chaquinilnioc community in Vicco district, Pasco department, told Mongabay by phone. “It shows on our skin, on our hands. It shows because we are eating an infected animal. But we prefer to kill them to eat them before they die on their own and we lose, because it’s a source of livelihoods for all these families.” Studies carried out by the National Water Authority show the presence of heavy metals in the water in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/drowned-lands-and-poisoned-waters-threaten-perus-campesinos-and-their-livestock/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296435</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New dams call into question Cambodia’s commitment to REDD+ projects</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/new-dams-call-into-question-cambodias-commitment-to-redd-projects/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/new-dams-call-into-question-cambodias-commitment-to-redd-projects/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Mar 2025 06:53:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/19062114/DJI_0004-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296024</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Cardamom Mountains, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Conservation, Corruption, Crime, Dams, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forest Carbon, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, Hydroelectric Power, Illegal Logging, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Redd, Timber, timber trade, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PURSAT, Cambodia — The Cambodian government has approved at least three new irrigation dams across the Cardamom Mountains, carving even deeper into forests currently being used for the Southern Cardamom REDD+ and Samkos REDD+ carbon credit projects. Construction is yet to begin on the new dams, which are slated to be built in Battambang, Koh Kong [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PURSAT, Cambodia — The Cambodian government has approved at least three new irrigation dams across the Cardamom Mountains, carving even deeper into forests currently being used for the Southern Cardamom REDD+ and Samkos REDD+ carbon credit projects. Construction is yet to begin on the new dams, which are slated to be built in Battambang, Koh Kong and Pursat provinces. Officials from the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology, and the Ministry of Mines and Energy all declined to comment on the irrigation dams or their environmental impacts. The approval of these dams raises further questions about the government’s commitment to the REDD+ mechanism for preserving forests. The Ministry of Environment, alongside New York-headquartered NGO Wildlife Alliance, co-manages both the Southern Cardamom REDD+ and the Samkos REDD+ projects, which will lose a further 5,200 hectares (about 12,850 acres) to the new irrigation dams. These same forests have already seen significant deforestation in recent months due to the ongoing construction of five new hydropower dams with reservoirs that collectively span 15,000 hectares (about 37,000 acres). Cambodia’s drive for “green” energy is now undermining REDD+ projects as forest is cleared to make way for reservoirs, transmission lines and the supporting infrastructure of the dams, resulting in fewer carbon credits available for sale from both the Southern Cardamom REDD+ and Samkos REDD+ projects. “It is true that the construction of these dams and roads will cause significant forest loss,” Suwanna Gauntlett, director of Wildlife Alliance, told Mongabay. All of this is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/new-dams-call-into-question-cambodias-commitment-to-redd-projects/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296024</doi>				</item>
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