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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/defaunation/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Mon, 10 Aug 2026 13:31:33 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Defaunation</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/defaunation/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Why a New England city is building tunnels to protect an imperiled salamander</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/why-a-new-england-town-is-building-tunnels-to-protect-an-imperiled-salamander/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/why-a-new-england-town-is-building-tunnels-to-protect-an-imperiled-salamander/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jul 2026 18:29:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alex Megerle]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/22153217/original-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324331</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Forest Fragmentation, Habitat, Herps, Infrastructure, Roadkill, Roads, Salamanders, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[NEW HAMPSHIRE, U.S. — It’s a mild March night in Keene, New Hampshire, and the salamander brigade is out in full force. A constellation of flashlight beams wink and flash along a dark street, as rain falls onto the jackets and reflective vests of the assembled crew. Tonight, a veritable army of amphibians is trekking [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[NEW HAMPSHIRE, U.S. — It’s a mild March night in Keene, New Hampshire, and the salamander brigade is out in full force. A constellation of flashlight beams wink and flash along a dark street, as rain falls onto the jackets and reflective vests of the assembled crew. Tonight, a veritable army of amphibians is trekking from the upland forests, where they spend the winter, toward the wetlands where they breed. In their path lies a two-lane asphalt road, North Lincoln Street. Animals need to move for a variety of reasons, but in a world crosshatched by motorways, that’s not an easy task. Each spring in Keene, wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus), spring peepers (Pseudacris crucifer), red-backed salamanders (Plethodon cinereus) and spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) must navigate roads to reach their natal spawning grounds. This particular road in Keene is routinely closed to cars during nights of amphibian migration. At other crossing sites in the region, volunteers are the only thing standing between these slow-moving critters and the danger posed by passing traffic. Carrying animals across the road by hand gets the job done, but it’s limited by human availability and energy. The hope has always been that “crossing brigades are the first step, not the last step,” said Brett Amy Thelen, who organizes these efforts and serves as science director for the Harris Center for Conservation Education, a regional nonprofit. That hope is being realized: Thelen and her salamander squadron are at the center of a new initiative to build small&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/why-a-new-england-town-is-building-tunnels-to-protect-an-imperiled-salamander/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/why-a-new-england-town-is-building-tunnels-to-protect-an-imperiled-salamander/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324331</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How to stitch a massive wildlife corridor through the Rocky Mountains</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-to-stitch-a-massive-wildlife-corridor-through-the-rocky-mountains/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-to-stitch-a-massive-wildlife-corridor-through-the-rocky-mountains/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jul 2026 12:07:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jane Palmer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/21180012/roadways-act-like-fences-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324243</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Canada, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Bears, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystem Engineers, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Fragmentation, Fragmentation, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Hope and optimism, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Mammals, Migration, Mitigation, Roadkill, Roads, Solutions, Transportation, Ungulates, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BRITISH COLUMBIA, Canada — On a sunny Thursday in May, Kent Kebe had to scrape yet another bighorn sheep carcass off Highway 93/95 running through Radium, British Columbia. The necropsy confirmed what Kebe, the village’s protective service manager, already knew: A car collision killed the ram. Roadkill deaths hit this community hard. Residents love their [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BRITISH COLUMBIA, Canada — On a sunny Thursday in May, Kent Kebe had to scrape yet another bighorn sheep carcass off Highway 93/95 running through Radium, British Columbia. The necropsy confirmed what Kebe, the village’s protective service manager, already knew: A car collision killed the ram. Roadkill deaths hit this community hard. Residents love their sheep so much that the village center sports a huge steel sculpture of sheep horns that stands roughly 12-meters- (39-foot-) wide and 6-meters- (19-feet-) tall. The Big Horn Cafe on the main drag features artwork of bighorn rams and serves custom-blended “Headbanger tea.” In the 1990s, about 350 bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) milled around, drawn to the golf course and the grasses along the highway. “It’s like a candy store for them,” Kebe says. But by 2022, the herd’s numbers had dwindled to 140. While some sheep died from natural causes, vehicle collisions played a big role in the death toll. “There’s a tension where the sheep are the mascots of the village, but the traffic is killing them,” says wildlife scientist Clayton Lamb, who works with the nonprofit Biodiversity Pathways and the University of British Columbia. He helped bring attention to the issue in 2022. Habitat loss is a major threat to species, but highways, railways and towns impact how animals move to eat, meet and mate — and that can endanger their survival. A 2025 review in the journal Science warned that while the world aims to protect 30% of the planet by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-to-stitch-a-massive-wildlife-corridor-through-the-rocky-mountains/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-to-stitch-a-massive-wildlife-corridor-through-the-rocky-mountains/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324243</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Zero roadkill as Amazon canopy bridges secure 15,000 crossings</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/zero-roadkill-as-amazon-canopy-bridges-secure-15000-crossings/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/zero-roadkill-as-amazon-canopy-bridges-secure-15000-crossings/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Jul 2026 07:00:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Suzana Camargo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/20170143/4.-Macaco-aranha_Credito_Sergio-Leal-1-scaled-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324121</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation Solutions, Defaunation, Endangered Species, Forest Fragmentation, Fragmentation, Habitat Degradation, Mammals, Monkeys, Primates, Rewilding, Roadkill, Saving Species From Extinction, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For some of the world's rarest monkeys, the path to survival now runs through a simple network of ropes. ]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Around 7 a.m., with dense fog blanketing the landscape, biologist Gabriel Falquetto had already come across several road-killed animals along ES-164 highway in Brazil&#8217;s Espírito Santo state. He was on his way to Kaetés Private Natural Heritage Reserve (RPPN), in the Atlantic Forest, where he monitors wildlife and roadkill in the region. Suddenly, he spotted the lifeless body of a primate on the pavement. It was a buffy-headed marmoset (Callithrix flaviceps), a species listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. An estimated 2,500 individuals remain in the wild, making it one of the world&#8217;s most threatened primates. &#8220;It was extremely painful and discouraging,&#8221; Falquetto told Mongabay. &#8220;We travel through this region every day monitoring wildlife, and we celebrate every encounter with groups of buffy-headed marmosets in the forest.&#8221; &#8220;Finding an individual in those conditions brings a feeling of sadness and helplessness. Beyond the loss of that animal, the incident reminds us of the impacts our activities have on biodiversity.&#8221; About 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) away, on the road that leads to Alta Floresta, a small Amazon town in the far north of Mato Grosso state, cases like the buffy-headed marmoset&#8217;s roadkill have not been recorded since 2024. That year, eight canopy bridges were installed, connecting fragmented forest patches. Camera trap footage revealed that, over 15 months, the aerial wildlife crossings enabled 15,000 safe crossings by arboreal animals — and not a single roadkill. Installation of the first canopy bridges in Alta Floresta,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/zero-roadkill-as-amazon-canopy-bridges-secure-15000-crossings/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/zero-roadkill-as-amazon-canopy-bridges-secure-15000-crossings/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324121</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The long and winding road to safe highways: Inside the global movement to reconnect habitat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/the-long-and-winding-road-to-safe-highways-inside-the-global-movement-to-reconnect-habitat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/the-long-and-winding-road-to-safe-highways-inside-the-global-movement-to-reconnect-habitat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jun 2026 12:03:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ben Goldfarb]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/09164404/1.-BANNER-IMG_2277-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320842</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Conservation Solutions, Conservation Technology, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forest Fragmentation, Fragmentation, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Infrastructure, Innovation, Land Use Change, Landscape Restoration, Mitigation, Regulations, Restoration, Roadkill, Roads, Solutions, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Threatened species, Transportation, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[One of the busiest highways in the western U.S. is I-25, a concrete artery that runs north to south across the state of Colorado, funneling roughly 100,000 cars per day through the fast-growing exurbs south of the capital, Denver. While I-25 facilitates human journeys, it disastrously truncates the movements of another set of commuters. For [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[One of the busiest highways in the western U.S. is I-25, a concrete artery that runs north to south across the state of Colorado, funneling roughly 100,000 cars per day through the fast-growing exurbs south of the capital, Denver. While I-25 facilitates human journeys, it disastrously truncates the movements of another set of commuters. For decades, mule deer, elk, black bears and other species have wandered onto the highway — with fatal consequences. Over a two-year period, from 2018 to 2020, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) tallied collisions with 76 deer, 15 bears and 10 pumas along a 14-mile (22.5-kilometer) stretch of asphalt. Moreover, the interstate’s walls of traffic deter many animals from even attempting to cross, preventing them from roaming between alpine forests and Colorado’s eastern prairies. Lately, however, this once-dangerous barrier has become far more accommodating to four-legged travelers. In 2021, Colorado completed the construction of five capacious, dirt-floored underpasses, flanked by more than 25 mi (40 km) of roadside fencing, to allow wildlife to meander safely and freely beneath I-25. A black bear approaches a vehicle on the Alcan (Alaska-Canada) Highway, possibly indicating how habituating animals to human food can lead to road conflicts. Image by Ben Goldfarb. And in December 2025, CDOT finished construction of an overpass, 200 feet wide by 209 long (61 by 64 meters), that arcs over six lanes of traffic near the town of Greenland. That makes it one of the largest human-made wildlife crossings on Earth. All told, CDOT says&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/the-long-and-winding-road-to-safe-highways-inside-the-global-movement-to-reconnect-habitat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320842</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Above an Australian highway, a bridge reconnects wilderness for quolls, koalas and other animals</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/above-an-australian-highway-a-bridge-reconnects-wilderness-for-quolls-koalas-and-other-animals/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/above-an-australian-highway-a-bridge-reconnects-wilderness-for-quolls-koalas-and-other-animals/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 May 2026 12:08:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Starre Vartan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/21121415/8.-Common-wombat-Vombatus-ursinus-credit-Simone-Cottrell-DCCEEW-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319915</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mammals, Marsupials, Roadkill, Roads, Solutions, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SYDNEY, Australia. At dusk on the edge of the bush in Australia’s Heathcote National Park, a spotted-tailed quoll lowers its tawny head to the ground, pink nose twitching. The dense forest, the scent of damp earth and eucalyptus leaf litter gives way, abruptly, to heat and a chemical tang. Ahead: open space. Noise. Light. A [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SYDNEY, Australia. At dusk on the edge of the bush in Australia’s Heathcote National Park, a spotted-tailed quoll lowers its tawny head to the ground, pink nose twitching. The dense forest, the scent of damp earth and eucalyptus leaf litter gives way, abruptly, to heat and a chemical tang. Ahead: open space. Noise. Light. A car zooms past, loud and fast. It doesn’t slow down. None of the vehicles do. It’s unlikely any driver going 110 kilometers per hour (68 miles per hour) would notice the brown, cat-sized quoll, camouflaged with white spots that beautifully blend into its native bush home. Forty thousand vehicles a day move along this stretch of the M1 Princes Motorway — four lanes of fast-moving traffic that slice between Heathcote National Park on one side and Royal National Park on the other. This is the primary route from Sydney to industrial centers in the southern part of the state of New South Wales, and there’s heavy truck traffic. The quoll (Dasyurus maculatus) waits at the highway’s edge for a break that doesn’t come. Headlights streak. Engines roar. The air pulses with pressure and speed. Crossing here isn’t just dangerous — it’s nearly impossible. The highway might as well be a canyon. And yet, on the other side of the road lies something essential: new territory that includes more of the bird eggs and the rabbits that quolls eat, and mates with more varied DNA, both essential for long-term survival. For decades, quolls, wallabies, deer, koalas&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/above-an-australian-highway-a-bridge-reconnects-wilderness-for-quolls-koalas-and-other-animals/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319915</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Koala on the road? AI signs could alert drivers in real time</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/koala-on-the-road-ai-signs-could-alert-drivers-in-real-time/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/koala-on-the-road-ai-signs-could-alert-drivers-in-real-time/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Mar 2026 15:39:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/30153327/Banner-Image-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316558</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Artificial Intelligence, cameras, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Endangered Species, Environment, Mammals, Marsupials, Roadkill, Technology, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new AI-powered camera system could potentially make road crossings less of a nightmare for koalas. Scientists have developed a camera that can be incorporated into smart road signs to warn passengers about koalas crossing the roads. A prototype of the technology captured and recorded a koala crossing a road in real time in the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new AI-powered camera system could potentially make road crossings less of a nightmare for koalas. Scientists have developed a camera that can be incorporated into smart road signs to warn passengers about koalas crossing the roads. A prototype of the technology captured and recorded a koala crossing a road in real time in the Australian state of Queensland, validating the methodology for the first time. Developed by scientists at Griffith University in Queensland, the camera is an expansion of previous work where the scientists built a database to detect koalas crossing roads. The Australian government has declared koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) an endangered species in Queensland, New South Wales and the Australia Capital Territory. Population counts of these marsupials are hard to maintain because they usually live high up in trees and are nocturnal animals. “They can be hard to see,” Douglas Kerlin, senior research fellow at Griffith University’s School of Environment and Science, told Monday in an email interview. “They are distributed across such a vast area that it is difficult to really know how many there are with any certainty.” Koalas face threats to their survival from multiple quarters. While deforestation and urbanization have destroyed eucalyptus forests, their primary habitats, they also face the risk of diseases. To make matters worse, the deadly Australian bushfires of 2019 and 2020 decimated their populations across the country. As human encroachment into forests rise, these animals often have to cross roads to travel across their fragmented habitats. As a result, vehicle&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/koala-on-the-road-ai-signs-could-alert-drivers-in-real-time/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316558</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Stricter rules adopted to protect sloths from pet trade and selfie tourism</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/stricter-rules-adopted-to-protect-sloths-from-pet-trade-and-selfie-tourism/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/stricter-rules-adopted-to-protect-sloths-from-pet-trade-and-selfie-tourism/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Dec 2025 13:36:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda Wenzel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/08190645/1.-Neil-D_Cruze-Manaus-9376-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310800</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Costa Rica, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Crime, Defaunation, Illegal Trade, Pet Trade, Rainforest Destruction, Sloths, Threats To Rainforests, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Known for their peaceful appearance and the impression that they&#8217;re always smiling, sloths now have extra protection to prevent their exploitation by a cruel and illegal pet trade. CITES, the global wildlife trade convention, agreed at its recent summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to include two sloth species in a list that imposes stringent requirements for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Known for their peaceful appearance and the impression that they&#8217;re always smiling, sloths now have extra protection to prevent their exploitation by a cruel and illegal pet trade. CITES, the global wildlife trade convention, agreed at its recent summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to include two sloth species in a list that imposes stringent requirements for their international trade. This means that all 185 parties to CITES (184 countries plus the European Union) will be subject to strict rules including a requirement that exporting countries provide studies proving that the transaction will not affect the species’ conservation. The two species newly listed in CITES Appendix II are Linné’s two-toed sloth (Choloepus didactylus), native to the Amazon, and Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth (Choloepus hoffmanni), which lives in the southern Amazon and parts of Central America. Two-fingered sloths are known to be more aggressive and faster than their three-toed relatives. The proposal to strengthen their protection came from Brazil, Costa Rica and Panama, as a way “to prevent illegal trafficking from increasing and its populations from declining.” According to delegates from the three countries, wildlife traffickers have been tearing the sloths from the forests to be presented as attractions in tourist itineraries through South America; some tourists even buy a baby sloth to take home as a kind of exotic pet. Researchers have recorded instances of this illegal trade in public markets in Iquitos, Peru, and Manaus, Brazil. “Demand for sloth species has increased in recent years, particularly for live animals taken from the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/stricter-rules-adopted-to-protect-sloths-from-pet-trade-and-selfie-tourism/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/stricter-rules-adopted-to-protect-sloths-from-pet-trade-and-selfie-tourism/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310800</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sloth selfies are feeding a booming wildlife trafficking trade</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/sloth-selfies-are-feeding-a-booming-wildlife-trafficking-trade/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/sloth-selfies-are-feeding-a-booming-wildlife-trafficking-trade/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Nov 2025 13:15:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda Wenzel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/13201239/0.-World-Animal-Protection-x3a_-Nando-Machado-B.variegatus-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309527</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Colombia, and Peru]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Defaunation, Endangered Species, Species, Tourism, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It’s not easy to find a sloth in the middle of the forest. They spend most of their time in the tree canopy and are masters of camouflage, thanks to their slow movements and the algae attached to their fur, which makes them blend in with the color of the leaves. Once identified high up, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It’s not easy to find a sloth in the middle of the forest. They spend most of their time in the tree canopy and are masters of camouflage, thanks to their slow movements and the algae attached to their fur, which makes them blend in with the color of the leaves. Once identified high up, however, these animals become easy prey. Hunters cut down the tree, and within seconds, the animal is on the ground. In their eagerness to defend their young, mothers often are killed by the hunters. The young animals have their claws and sometimes even their fingertips cut off before becoming tourist attractions or exotic “pets.” The exploitation of sloths by the tourism industry has intensified in recent decades, perhaps due to their peaceful appearance and the impression that they are always smiling, which has earned them the nickname Miss Congeniality of the Amazon. Many travelers crossing South American countries want to take photos next to them, and some even decide to take a baby sloth home, fueling a wildlife trade that’s as lucrative as it’s cruel. “That ‘smile’ hides immense suffering,” says biologist Neil D’Cruze, strategic research leader at Canopy, an international environmental advocacy organization. “These animals undergo extreme stress when they are handled, confined or exposed to noisy crowds. They are not physiologically suited for this type of treatment,” says the researcher, who conducted studies in South America on the exploitation of these animals. Few babies resist such stress. In the case of smaller young&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/sloth-selfies-are-feeding-a-booming-wildlife-trafficking-trade/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/sloth-selfies-are-feeding-a-booming-wildlife-trafficking-trade/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309527</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Virus outbreak deepens rift over return of Spix’s macaw to Brazil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/virus-outbreak-deepens-rift-over-return-of-spixs-macaw-to-brazil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/virus-outbreak-deepens-rift-over-return-of-spixs-macaw-to-brazil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Oct 2025 15:20:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Miguel Monteiro]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/28151039/DSC5284-e1761664701788-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308458</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Birds, Conservation, Defaunation, Wildlife, Wildlife Rehabilitation, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CURAÇÁ, Brazil — Under the scorching sun of Brazil’s semiarid Caatinga shrubland, squawks tear through the skies, signaling the arrival of one of the most threatened bird species in the world. Quickly, the unmistakable blue silhouettes fly overhead. It’s the Spix’s macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii), a species declared extinct in the wild in 2000 and now [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CURAÇÁ, Brazil — Under the scorching sun of Brazil’s semiarid Caatinga shrubland, squawks tear through the skies, signaling the arrival of one of the most threatened bird species in the world. Quickly, the unmistakable blue silhouettes fly overhead. It’s the Spix’s macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii), a species declared extinct in the wild in 2000 and now the focus of a reintroduction project. However, upon closer observation, from among the blur of turquoise-blue feathers, some white ones emerge. On May 12 this year, BlueSky, the Brazilian organization responsible for the breeding center used for the reintroduction of Spix’s macaws in the city of Curaçá, in Brazil’s Bahia state, notified state and federal authorities that seven of the birds had tested positive for circovirus, including one chick born in the wild and six birds being prepared for release later this year. Circovirus causes beak and feather disease, common among psittacines, the order of birds that includes macaws, parrots and parakeets. It’s a highly contagious, potentially lethal disease with no known treatment, capable of causing feather malformation and discoloration, beak deformities, and immunosuppression. Transmission can occur through contact with infected feathers or contaminated surfaces such as feeders, perches and nests. The Caatinga shrub landscape in Curaçá, Bahia, site of the Spix’s macaw reintroduction project. Image by Miguel Monteiro. Given the seriousness of the virus, and the fact that it had never been detected in wild birds in Brazil or South America (the virus is native to Australia), its occurrence in a threatened species like&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/virus-outbreak-deepens-rift-over-return-of-spixs-macaw-to-brazil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/virus-outbreak-deepens-rift-over-return-of-spixs-macaw-to-brazil/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308458</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study finds fast traffic noise is infuriating Galápagos warblers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/study-finds-fast-traffic-noise-is-infuriating-galapagos-warblers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/study-finds-fast-traffic-noise-is-infuriating-galapagos-warblers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 May 2025 20:22:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/20100933/36533464334_6c05f3d407_3k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299322</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Galapagos, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Environment, Islands, Noise Pollution, Pollution, Research, Roadkill, Roads, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When Leon Hohl and Alper Yelimlieş landed in the Galápagos in 2022 to volunteer in a decades-old nest survey project, they expected to look for Darwin finches and their babies. But that year turned out to be too dry for the finches to breed, and the two bird enthusiasts weren’t going to sit idle. Since [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When Leon Hohl and Alper Yelimlieş landed in the Galápagos in 2022 to volunteer in a decades-old nest survey project, they expected to look for Darwin finches and their babies. But that year turned out to be too dry for the finches to breed, and the two bird enthusiasts weren’t going to sit idle. Since they were in the Galápagos — nature’s “evolution laboratory” — they turned their attention to another bird: The Galápagos yellow warbler (Setophaga petechia aureola), a subspecies of the North American yellow warbler with elaborate, complex birdsongs. Hohl and Yelimlieş, both from Austria’s University of Vienna, teamed up with their supervisors to understand how the soaring human numbers on the archipelago’s most populous island of Santa Cruz, and increasing vehicular traffic noise in the soundscape, impact the island’s resident birds. “We were interested in how yellow warblers would respond to noise, depending on how much experience they had with noise,” Çağlar Akçay from Anglia Ruskin University, U.K., one of the supervisors, told Mongabay. “Noise is generally a stressor.” In a study published recently in the journal Animal Behaviour, Akçay and his team examined the behavior of male Galápagos yellow warblers on two islands and found that birds living closer to roads with vehicular traffic were more aggressive than their counterparts living further away. Between January and March of 2022, the researchers conducted a set of experiments in which they played pre-recorded male yellow warbler songs on a speaker and observed the birds’ responses to them. The&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/study-finds-fast-traffic-noise-is-infuriating-galapagos-warblers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/study-finds-fast-traffic-noise-is-infuriating-galapagos-warblers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
					<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/20101655/Untitled-design.mp4" length="895990" type="video/mp4" />
					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299322</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Budget constraints limit wildlife protection in major Nepali road project</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/budget-constraints-limit-wildlife-protection-in-major-nepali-road-project/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/budget-constraints-limit-wildlife-protection-in-major-nepali-road-project/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Aug 2024 05:17:36 +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/20/2019/06/20194519/india_160138-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286530</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Big Cats, Biodiversity, Conservation, Development, Endangered Species, Habitat Loss, Infrastructure, Roadkill, Roads, and Tigers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[NARAYANGHAT, Nepal — Amid the clatter of drills and honking trucks hauling cement, sand and concrete, vehicles large and small navigate muddy tracks and potholes on the Narayanghat-Butwal road, a vital stretch of Nepal’s East-West Highway connecting the eastern and western frontiers of the rectangular-shaped country. Travel time on this 115-kilometer (71-mile) section, which is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[NARAYANGHAT, Nepal — Amid the clatter of drills and honking trucks hauling cement, sand and concrete, vehicles large and small navigate muddy tracks and potholes on the Narayanghat-Butwal road, a vital stretch of Nepal’s East-West Highway connecting the eastern and western frontiers of the rectangular-shaped country. Travel time on this 115-kilometer (71-mile) section, which is currently infamous for delays and traffic jams, has more than doubled compared with the days before construction. According to the contract, work was supposed to start in March 2019 and complete by July 2022. The deadline was first extended to August 2023 and then to July 2024 with an extension of one year. But the contractor is yet to complete the work. But after the two lanes are expanded to four, traffic will move swiftly, facilitating quicker and smoother travel — for people. But for the local wildlife, it poses a risk to their lives in addition to posing mobility challenges, which may not have been adequately addressed, conservation officials say. The Narayanghat-Butwal road connects Butwal with Narayanghat on the banks of the Narayani through the outskirts of Bharatpur and Kawasoti. &#8220;As the highway passes through 11 forest patches spanning around 60 km [37 mi] on the buffer zone of Chitwan National Park, animals are likely to cross the road regularly,” said Hari Bhadra Acharya, chief of the planning section at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation. “The safeguard measures adopted aren’t adequate,” he said. In 2018, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), through&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/budget-constraints-limit-wildlife-protection-in-major-nepali-road-project/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286530</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nepal’s youngest national park looks to elevated lanes to prevent roadkill</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/nepals-youngest-national-park-looks-to-elevated-lanes-to-prevent-roadkill/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/nepals-youngest-national-park-looks-to-elevated-lanes-to-prevent-roadkill/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jul 2024 09:54:32 +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/20/2024/07/23094449/Wild_boar_at_Parsa_Wildlife_Reserve-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284780</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Development, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Infrastructure, Protected Areas, Roadkill, Roads, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PARSA, Nepal — On the two-lane Amlekhgunj-Pathlaiya road, a long line of red and yellow trucks carrying petroleum forms as traffic is brought to a standstill by a car stalled in the middle of the road. Amid the cacophony of honking horns, rumbling engines and the occasional screech of brakes, the car is towed away. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PARSA, Nepal — On the two-lane Amlekhgunj-Pathlaiya road, a long line of red and yellow trucks carrying petroleum forms as traffic is brought to a standstill by a car stalled in the middle of the road. Amid the cacophony of honking horns, rumbling engines and the occasional screech of brakes, the car is towed away. Dust clouds rise again from the asphalt as the trucks pick up speed along this crucial trade route between Nepal and India. Flanking this busy highway is the 627-square-kilometer (242-square-mile) Parsa National Park, Nepal’s newest and home to subtropical forest and grasslands that form part of the vital Chitwan-Parsa Complex. This is a land where Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), tigers (Panthera tigris) and other wildlife move about their traditional migratory routes in search of sustenance and mating. The road section here is a hotspot for wildlife roadkill in Nepal. Between 2016 and 2018, 60 animals, mostly deer, snakes and monkeys, were struck and killed by vehicles in Parsa, with 75% of the incidents occurring on the Amlekhgunj-Pathlaiya stretch. In the past two years, the figure stood at 39. In 2021, an adult female tiger was among the casualties. The effect of the highway on wildlife is expected to be amplified under a government plan to expand the road to four lanes to ease congestion and cut down on travel time. “We are working on plans to expand the eastern section of the East-West Highway, including the Amlekhgunj-Pathlaiya section,” said Shova Giri, assistant director at an&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/nepals-youngest-national-park-looks-to-elevated-lanes-to-prevent-roadkill/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284780</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Road paving in a Peruvian bird paradise threatens wildlife and ecotourism</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/road-paving-in-a-peruvian-bird-paradise-threatens-wildlife-and-ecotourism/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/road-paving-in-a-peruvian-bird-paradise-threatens-wildlife-and-ecotourism/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Mar 2024 12:48:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Erik Iverson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/19122758/Image1_ManuRoad-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280000</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birding, Birds, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Infrastructure, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Roadkill, Roads, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KOSÑIPATA, Peru – “It’s the best road I’ve ever gone birding on, in terms of the variety of habitats and birds,” says Victor Emanuel, one of the pioneers of modern bird-watching tourism and founder of an ecotourism company, about the Manu Road, which he calls “the most pristine and rich area that I’ve ever been [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KOSÑIPATA, Peru – “It’s the best road I’ve ever gone birding on, in terms of the variety of habitats and birds,” says Victor Emanuel, one of the pioneers of modern bird-watching tourism and founder of an ecotourism company, about the Manu Road, which he calls “the most pristine and rich area that I’ve ever been to in all my travels throughout the world.” With its harrowing turns and abrupt drops, the Manu Road passes through five different ecosystems, ranging from high-altitude grasslands to lowland rainforests, as it winds its way along the eastern boundary of Manu National Park in southeastern Peru. Traveling this road, which stretches 190 kilometers (118 miles) from Paucartambo in the highlands to the mouth of the Manu River in the lowlands, is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many bird-watchers who come here for the rich biodiversity.     According to scientists, Manu National Park is probably the world’s most biodiverse protected area, counting at least 1,020 species of birds, 228 species of mammals, 287 species of amphibians and reptiles, and 1,108 tree species. A roller compacts the dirt surface in preparation for asphalting of the Manu Road in July 2023. Image courtesy of Erik Iverson. Until last year, people could stop at any point along this dirt road to look for rare species. Then, from May to September of 2023, authorities quickly paved the road, allowing for greater motor vehicle traffic. According to experts and locals, this development has now put the area’s wildlife, its ecotourism industry, and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/road-paving-in-a-peruvian-bird-paradise-threatens-wildlife-and-ecotourism/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280000</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Texas ocelot breeding and reintroduction may offer new route to recovery</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/texas-ocelot-breeding-and-reintroduction-may-offer-new-route-to-recovery/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/texas-ocelot-breeding-and-reintroduction-may-offer-new-route-to-recovery/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Nov 2023 17:38:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Erik Iverson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/21171312/0_ocelot_BANNER-IMAGE-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275724</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America, Texas, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Environment, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Human Migration, Infrastructure, Mammals, Mongabay Data Studio, Roadkill, Roads, Small Cats, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With dwindling U.S. ocelot populations facing little hope for expansion, an innovative public-private alliance is gearing up to breed and reintroduce a new population. They’ll face uniquely Texan conservation challenges and opportunities.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KINGSVILLE, Texas — That ocelots (Leopardus pardalis) are native to the United States may come as a big surprise to many people. But the small wildcats, more commonly associated with Central and South America, once ranged across much of the Southwestern U.S., though today they survive in only two small populations isolated on the Texas Gulf Coast — totaling fewer than 100 individuals and beginning to suffer from inbreeding. That could be about to change, as an ambitious new agreement between the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and several state and private partners aims to return the endangered ocelot to parts of the species’ historic range. The plan: Breed the animals in captivity, then reintroduce them to the wild in hope of establishing a new population in a larger patch of good habitat 75 miles west of the current ones (see map). This reintroduction could secure the future of ocelots in the U.S. against a potential disaster like a hurricane or disease outbreak and offer opportunities for them to recolonize more of their former range on their own. The new population would also be free from some of the daunting obstacles encircling the coastal populations, such as agricultural expansion, home building and road construction. But the reintroduction faces challenges. It will take place entirely on private lands, without a large wildlife refuge or park to anchor the new population. In addition, while dispersal corridors to Mexico’s ocelot population are still open to the west, construction of the border wall&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/texas-ocelot-breeding-and-reintroduction-may-offer-new-route-to-recovery/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/texas-ocelot-breeding-and-reintroduction-may-offer-new-route-to-recovery/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-275724</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Roads, human activity take a toll on red pandas: Q&#038;A with researcher Damber Bista</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/roads-human-activity-take-a-toll-on-red-pandas-qa-with-researcher-damber-bista/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/roads-human-activity-take-a-toll-on-red-pandas-qa-with-researcher-damber-bista/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Apr 2023 15:34:06 +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/20/2021/09/13112503/RedPanda-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=267336</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bamboo, Biodiversity, Conservation Technology, Endangered Species, Forest Fragmentation, GPS, Habitat, Mammals, Pandas, Roadkill, Roads, Trees, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — The spring season in the Northern Hemisphere is a critical time for red pandas, particularly in Nepal. This is the period when these furry, tree-dwelling animals spend a lot of time on the ground to look for food. It’s also the time when breeding adults of the species, Ailurus fulgens, start to reproduce, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — The spring season in the Northern Hemisphere is a critical time for red pandas, particularly in Nepal. This is the period when these furry, tree-dwelling animals spend a lot of time on the ground to look for food. It’s also the time when breeding adults of the species, Ailurus fulgens, start to reproduce, and when cubs born the previous year explore their habitat in search of a new home. These are some of the findings conservationist Damber Bista made while working on his Ph.D. at the University of Queensland, Australia. As part of the study, Bista and his team fitted 10 red pandas in eastern Nepal with GPS collars, so that they could track them to look at the effects of human disturbances on the species. Mongabay’s Abhaya Raj Joshi spoke to Bista recently over video call to learn about his work. The following interview has been translated from Nepali and lightly edited for length and clarity. Mongabay: Could you please describe the main objectives of your study? Damber Bista: My main overall objective was to look at the effects of human disturbance and habitat fragmentation on red pandas. I tried to look at these issues from different indicators such as their space use pattern, daily movement and behavior while close to a road. Also, as we didn’t have previous studies on how cubs disperse after leaving their mother, I also looked into it. The other objective was related to their recursive behavior under which they spend a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/roads-human-activity-take-a-toll-on-red-pandas-qa-with-researcher-damber-bista/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/roads-human-activity-take-a-toll-on-red-pandas-qa-with-researcher-damber-bista/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-267336</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Counting dead cats on Costa Rica’s highways: Q&#038;A with Daniela Araya Gamboa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/counting-dead-cats-on-costa-ricas-highways-qa-with-daniela-araya-gamboa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/counting-dead-cats-on-costa-ricas-highways-qa-with-daniela-araya-gamboa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Apr 2023 15:02:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Astrid Arellano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Astridarellano]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/04/05145629/04-Panthera-onca-crossing-2015-Costa-Rica-Credits-Helder-Casanova-ICE--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=267247</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Costa Rica and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Cats, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Interviews, Jaguars, Roadkill, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The nature of her father’s work, as an aerial fumigation pilot, meant that Daniela Araya lived in many areas of Costa Rica when she was a child. She usually traveled with him in rural areas on roads with slow speed limits. On these journeys, whether at dawn or at night, they admired the numbers of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The nature of her father’s work, as an aerial fumigation pilot, meant that Daniela Araya lived in many areas of Costa Rica when she was a child. She usually traveled with him in rural areas on roads with slow speed limits. On these journeys, whether at dawn or at night, they admired the numbers of animals that crossed their path and continued naturally on their way. On occasion, they helped the animals to cross. “This was exciting for us: to go on rural roads, where no one drove fast, rescuing the animals on the road. With time, it became more frequent to find them not alive, but run over,” says Araya, now a biologist. “It was frustrating to see so many dead animals on the road — and this is how I started to look for ways to make an impact, but now focusing on cats,” she says. Daniela Araya Gamboa counting animals run over in national parks; there were 68 animals on a stretch of 45 kilometrs (28 miles) during just one morning. Image courtesy of Panthera. Daniela Araya Gamboa is the coordinator of the Caminos Amigables con los Felinos (Cat-Friendly Roads) project, from Panthera Costa Rica, where she has worked for 10 years. Her daily routine consists of pulling on her rubber boots, putting on a reflective jacket, getting in a car at dawn with sirens and lights and driving along dangerous roads, which are risky not only because of fast-moving vehicles, but also because organized criminals sometimes&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/counting-dead-cats-on-costa-ricas-highways-qa-with-daniela-araya-gamboa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-267247</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In South Texas, watch out for ocelots crossing roads (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/in-south-texas-watch-out-for-ocelots-crossing-roads-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/in-south-texas-watch-out-for-ocelots-crossing-roads-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Mar 2023 15:47:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sharon Wilcox]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/03/10205720/2023.02.17-Ocelot-and-Kitten-Crossing-Road-5-Laguna-Atascosa-National-Wildlife-Refuge-Texas-Jake-Strouf-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=266388</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America, Texas, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Cats, Commentary, Conservation, Environment, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Infrastructure, Mammals, Roadkill, Roads, Small Cats, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On the main road of the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge in South Texas, two ocelots recently jumped out in front of a car. The mother ocelot then went back across the road for a kitten in the brush. Sightings of ocelots like this are rare in the refuge, even though it&#8217;s home to a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On the main road of the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge in South Texas, two ocelots recently jumped out in front of a car. The mother ocelot then went back across the road for a kitten in the brush. Sightings of ocelots like this are rare in the refuge, even though it&#8217;s home to a breeding population of these wild cats. Ocelots are typically nocturnal and most active just after sunset and before sunrise, when they can hunt under the cover of darkness. The cats are quite shy and prefer to stay hidden in the brush of their preferred Tamaulipan thornforest habitat. While visitors often spot bobcats at the refuge, this glimpse of the ocelot family was an unusual and special encounter. Though exciting, its setting on a road is a sobering reminder that when traveling through South Texas, you’re in ‘ocelot country.’ Ocelot crossing sign. Image courtesy of Defenders of Wildlife. The ocelot is now endangered in the U.S., but it once thrived from South Texas to South America, hiding in the deep grasslands and thornforest. Now, just 1% of the ocelots’ optimal habitat remains in South Texas, most of which is fragmented and separated by high-speed highways. As a result, accidental vehicle collisions have been an unrelenting threat to ocelots. In the past 20 years, most documented ocelot deaths occurred on Texas roadways. Between 2015-2016, eight ocelots were killed by vehicles over a span of just 11 months. With only 60 to 80 ocelots left in Texas, these&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/in-south-texas-watch-out-for-ocelots-crossing-roads-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/in-south-texas-watch-out-for-ocelots-crossing-roads-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-266388</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>For tigers in Nepal, highways are a giant roadblock best avoided</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/for-tigers-in-nepal-highways-are-a-giant-roadblock-best-avoided/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/for-tigers-in-nepal-highways-are-a-giant-roadblock-best-avoided/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Feb 2023 13:28:46 +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/20/2023/02/27133137/tiger-crosses-road-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=265950</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Big Cats, Carnivores, COVID-19, Endangered Species, GPS, Infrastructure, Predators, Roadkill, Roads, Tigers, Top Predators, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — It starts off like the premise for a joke: “Why did the tigers cross the road?” But for researchers and conservationists in Nepal, the spread of roads throughout the big cats’ habitat is no laughing matter. A new study underscores just how serious the problem is, showing that road traffic impedes tiger movements [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — It starts off like the premise for a joke: “Why did the tigers cross the road?” But for researchers and conservationists in Nepal, the spread of roads throughout the big cats’ habitat is no laughing matter. A new study underscores just how serious the problem is, showing that road traffic impedes tiger movements within their habitat. But it also shows that the animals can adapt quickly when traffic volume eases, pointing to measures that can be taken to mitigate road impacts not just on tigers, but on wildlife in general. For their study, the researchers focused on Nepal’s East-West Highway, which runs through both Bardiya National Park and Parsa National Park, each of which is home to growing tiger populations (125 in Bardiya as of 2022, and 41 in Parsa). They fitted a female tiger in Bardiya with a GPS collar, and did the same with a male tiger in Parsa, then observed how the highway and its traffic affected the animals’ movements, space use and habitat selection. Study co-author Babu Ram Lamichhane, from the National Trust for Nature Conservation, a semi-governmental body, said the study was especially important as the government prepares to expand the two-lane East-West Highway to four lanes. The researchers began their observations in early 2021, before a second COVID-19 lockdown was imposed in Nepal. The lockdown, and its conclusion, ultimately allowed the researchers to compare any differences in the tigers’ movements in the periods before, during, and after the associated traffic restrictions. “We&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/for-tigers-in-nepal-highways-are-a-giant-roadblock-best-avoided/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/for-tigers-in-nepal-highways-are-a-giant-roadblock-best-avoided/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-265950</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Wildlife at risk in Bangladesh as roads run rampant through protected forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/wildlife-at-risk-in-bangladesh-as-roads-run-rampant-through-protected-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/wildlife-at-risk-in-bangladesh-as-roads-run-rampant-through-protected-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Dec 2022 07:21:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maksuda Aziz]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/21064627/Capped-Langur-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263931</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Rights, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Crime, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Human-wildlife Conflict, Infrastructure, Mammals, National Parks, Protected Areas, Roadkill, Roads, Wildlife, Wildlife Corridors, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[READER ADVISORY: This story contains images of dead wildlife that some viewers may find disturbing. Two Asian elephants trundle along the rail tracks. From the window of the train, Phileas Fogg looks on. As the train speeds up, so do the elephants. The train passes through the forest, almost brushing by the elephants, and Fogg [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[READER ADVISORY: This story contains images of dead wildlife that some viewers may find disturbing. Two Asian elephants trundle along the rail tracks. From the window of the train, Phileas Fogg looks on. As the train speeds up, so do the elephants. The train passes through the forest, almost brushing by the elephants, and Fogg smiles. That’s how director Michael Anderson dramatized a scene set in a tropical forest in South Asia in the 1956 Oscar-winning movie adaptation of the Jules Verne novel Around the World in 80 Days. This particular scene was shot in the Lawachara forest in what was then known as East Pakistan, and is today the northeast of Bangladesh. And while the forest remains timeless on the silver screen, the actual Lawachara has long since lost much of its wildlife: No Asian elephants have been seen there since the 1970s, according to biologists working in the region. Bangladesh’s economic growth has been fueled by, and in turn fueled, the construction of new highways, railways and power lines all across the country. Lawachara now has a power line and trunk roads, in addition to railway tracks, known collectively as linear infrastructure. Every year, countless animals are killed trying to cross these barriers of asphalt, steel and high-voltage electricity. And it’s not just the risk of being run over or electrocuted. Linear infrastructure carves up natural habitat, fragmenting it into ever-smaller spaces that then prevent wildlife from moving around to feed, find mates, or migrate. As more forests&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/wildlife-at-risk-in-bangladesh-as-roads-run-rampant-through-protected-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263931</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As Brazil ramps up rail projects, wildlife kills remain understudied</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/as-brazil-ramps-up-rail-projects-wildlife-kills-remain-understudied/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/as-brazil-ramps-up-rail-projects-wildlife-kills-remain-understudied/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Sep 2022 11:54:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dimas Marques]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/13115000/sapo-cururu-estrada-de-ferro-caraja%CC%81s-DISSERTAC%CC%A7A%CC%83O-RUBINHO-2-e1661190279594-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=260223</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Ecology, Endangered Species, Environment, Infrastructure, Roadkill, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Brazil’s railway network spans some 30,000 kilometers, or nearly 19,000 miles, but researchers know little about its impact on wildlife. What’s clear, though, is that wildlife kills are the most striking issue. “Railways are often remote, and they are rarely visible to us. So we end up not seeing the impacts associated with them,” says [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Brazil’s railway network spans some 30,000 kilometers, or nearly 19,000 miles, but researchers know little about its impact on wildlife. What’s clear, though, is that wildlife kills are the most striking issue. “Railways are often remote, and they are rarely visible to us. So we end up not seeing the impacts associated with them,” says biologist Bibiana Terra Dasoler, a researcher at the Center for Road and Rail Ecology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (NERF-UFRGS). While data on the impact to wildlife of railway operations remain scarce, this mode of transportation is expanding in the country. New lines are under construction and, after a 2021 executive order established licensing by federal government authorization (a process with less red tape than the system of concessions), the Ministry of Infrastructure received 76 applications for the construction and operation of 19,000 km (11,800 mi) of new private railways. This flurry of activity comes despite the current dearth of studies on the impacts of vegetation suppression, habitat fragmentation, the barrier effect — when track structures and deforestation hinder or prevent wildlife movement — as well as noise and soil pollution. As already happens with roads, animal kills on railway lines are drawing more attention, and the issue is beginning to be studied by researchers, operators and managers of Brazil’s rail network. However, unlike roads, where an estimated 475 million vertebrates are killed annually, according to the Brazilian Center for Road Ecology, figures on wildlife killed by trains in the country&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/as-brazil-ramps-up-rail-projects-wildlife-kills-remain-understudied/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-260223</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As roads and railways threaten primates, Brazil is a global hotspot</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/as-roads-and-railways-threaten-primates-brazil-is-a-global-hotspot/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/as-roads-and-railways-threaten-primates-brazil-is-a-global-hotspot/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Aug 2022 09:19:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dimas Marques]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/02090827/micos-leo%CC%83s-Sally-Foster-AMLD-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258784</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Infrastructure, Primates, Roadkill, Roads, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Brazil should be the country of highest priority for measures to save primates from the threats posed by roads and railway lines, according to a study. It highlighted the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest as the regions most in need of preservation and mitigation actions, and recommended that the construction of roads, railways, power lines, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Brazil should be the country of highest priority for measures to save primates from the threats posed by roads and railway lines, according to a study. It highlighted the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest as the regions most in need of preservation and mitigation actions, and recommended that the construction of roads, railways, power lines, pipelines and waterways be avoided because of the vulnerability of native primate species. The study, published March 2021 in the International Journal of Primatology, was carried out by researchers in Portugal and Spain. It found that 65% of the planet’s primates are at risk of extinction, with the greatest visible threats coming from the expansion of agribusiness, illegal logging, hunting, and capture. “Transportation infrastructure like highways and railways, power lines, pipelines and artificial waterways also have a hand in the current biodiversity crisis, but are oftentimes forgotten,” the study’s authors say. Of the 512 known primate species, 92, or 18%, are directly impacted by road and rail infrastructure, the study says, citing data from the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. Aside from the more obvious threat from vehicle impacts, roads and railways also pose what’s known as a “barrier effect,” inhibiting or impeding the mobility of wildlife through their habitat. This is especially the case for species that move through the treetops. The presence of transportation infrastructure has also been shown to lead to increased deforestation and human occupation of previously inaccessible areas, with all the attendant threats: the spread of disease, hunting, wildlife&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/as-roads-and-railways-threaten-primates-brazil-is-a-global-hotspot/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/as-roads-and-railways-threaten-primates-brazil-is-a-global-hotspot/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258784</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nepal’s key habitat could lose 39% of its tigers in 20 years, study says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/study-warns-of-increased-tiger-roadkill-risk-on-roads-near-nepal-park/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/study-warns-of-increased-tiger-roadkill-risk-on-roads-near-nepal-park/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 May 2022 10:03:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/30101151/tiger-by-a-road-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256445</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Infrastructure, Mammals, National Parks, Protected Areas, Roadkill, Roads, Tigers, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Roads that run close to an important national park in Nepal&#8217;s southern plains could result in an increased rate of roadkill that would cut the park’s population of adult tigers by nearly two-fifths over two decades, a new study shows. The study forecasts that 46 Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris) could be killed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Roads that run close to an important national park in Nepal&#8217;s southern plains could result in an increased rate of roadkill that would cut the park’s population of adult tigers by nearly two-fifths over two decades, a new study shows. The study forecasts that 46 Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris) could be killed on the roads near Chitwan National Park, bringing the adult population down from 133 at present to 81 in 20 years. Another 30 tigers could be killed in the same period if a proposed railway line in the area is built, according to the study, which modeled its projections using tiger movement data collected in Chitwan since the 1970s. &#8220;The mortality associated with increased traffic volumes and expansions of the roads and railway would have cascading negative consequences on population viability in the long term,&#8221; study lead author Neil Carter, from the University of Michigan, told Mongabay. As the tiger population in Chitwan is relatively small compared to those in other habitats across the Indian subcontinent, this reduction of 39% could make them more vulnerable to diseases or inbreeding, Carter said. That would increase their risk of going locally extinction. Locals ride an elephant through the small community of Baghmara in the buffer zone of Chitwan National Park. Image by Jonas Gratzer for Mongabay. A century ago, an estimated 100,000 wild tigers roamed the grasslands across Asia. But by early 2000s, their number plummeted by 95%, largely due to poaching and habitat loss and fragmentation.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/study-warns-of-increased-tiger-roadkill-risk-on-roads-near-nepal-park/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/study-warns-of-increased-tiger-roadkill-risk-on-roads-near-nepal-park/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256445</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>For wildlife on Brazil’s highways, roadkill is just the tip of the iceberg</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/for-wildlife-on-brazils-highways-roadkill-is-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/for-wildlife-on-brazils-highways-roadkill-is-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 May 2022 11:05:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dimas Marques]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/25105644/morcego-atropelado-nerf-e1650998446506-768x395.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256322</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecology, Endangered Species, Environment, Roadkill, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, one of the largest countries in the world, is crisscrossed by a network of roads and highways that run more than 1.7 million kilometers (1.06 miles) — enough to circle the globe more than 40 times. Cutting through some of the most biodiverse areas on Earth, these roads are the scene of daily deaths [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, one of the largest countries in the world, is crisscrossed by a network of roads and highways that run more than 1.7 million kilometers (1.06 miles) — enough to circle the globe more than 40 times. Cutting through some of the most biodiverse areas on Earth, these roads are the scene of daily deaths of wildlife. But the problem of roadkill is just one of the many impacts wrought by the clearing of forests and construction of roads, scientists say. &#8220;[Wildlife] fatalities are the most perceived impact, since all users see themselves as potentially involved in collisions or witness fresh meat and blood splattered across the asphalt,&#8221; says Andreas Kindel, coordinator of the Center for Ecology of Roads and Railways at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (NERF-UFRGS). Kindel is reluctant to give an estimate of how many animals die on Brazil’s roads and highways each year; such numbers are unreliable, he says. But he acknowledges that the data can help to raise awareness and make the issue more relevant because of the potential for numbers to mobilize public opinion. The Brazilian Center for Road Ecology (CBEE) of the Federal University of Lavras (UFLA) came up with one such number in 2013: it estimated that 475 million wild vertebrates are killed by vehicles every year on Brazil&#8217;s roads and highways. &#8220;I believe the [true] number is much higher, because it’s only on a few roads where we have monitoring or any information at all,&#8221; says biologist and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/for-wildlife-on-brazils-highways-roadkill-is-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/for-wildlife-on-brazils-highways-roadkill-is-just-the-tip-of-the-iceberg/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256322</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil’s Mato Grosso do Sul mobilizes to reduce wildlife massacre on its roads</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/brazils-mato-grosso-do-sul-mobilizes-to-reduce-wildlife-massacre-on-its-roads/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/brazils-mato-grosso-do-sul-mobilizes-to-reduce-wildlife-massacre-on-its-roads/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Apr 2022 10:34:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dimas Marques]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/04/25102756/TAMANDUAS-BANDEIRAS-MORTOS-ATROPELADOS-icas-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=255108</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Ecotourism, Endangered Species, Infrastructure, Roadkill, Roads, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The figures vary and come from different sources, including the government, but they all point to the wildlife massacre taking place on the roads of Brazil’s Mato Grosso do Sul state. Each year, thousands of animals die after being run over on a road network of just over 3,000 kilometers (1,800 miles), with few structures [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The figures vary and come from different sources, including the government, but they all point to the wildlife massacre taking place on the roads of Brazil’s Mato Grosso do Sul state. Each year, thousands of animals die after being run over on a road network of just over 3,000 kilometers (1,800 miles), with few structures in place to provide for safer crossings. But nongovernmental organizations are taking action and managing to get public authorities to mobilize, even if opportunistically, in an attempt to change the situation. The most detailed survey on wildlife killed on the state’s roads was conducted by the Wildlife Conservation Institute, known by its Portuguese acronym as ICAS. The survey monitored several stretches of roads and highways several times, covering a combined 85,000 km (53,000 mi) between 2017 and 2020 for the Bandeiras e Rodovias (“Anteaters and Highways”) project. It recorded 12,400 animals killed. Of these, 761 were giant anteaters (Myrmecophaga tridactyla), the project’s focal species. “We used to cover 1,300 kilometers [8,000 miles] every 15 days. In total, we monitored around 15% of Mato Grosso do Sul’s paved roads,” says ICAS president and zoologist Arnaud Desbiez. While the total number may seem high, the real death toll is even higher. That’s because most carcasses disappear from the roads without being accounted for by monitoring campaigns, Desbiez says. In the case of giant anteaters, for every carcass the surveyors found, three more had either been disposed of, dragged away by scavengers, or otherwise gone missing from the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/brazils-mato-grosso-do-sul-mobilizes-to-reduce-wildlife-massacre-on-its-roads/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/brazils-mato-grosso-do-sul-mobilizes-to-reduce-wildlife-massacre-on-its-roads/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-255108</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How wildlife crossings in Canada are inspiring safer roads for global species</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/how-wildlife-crossings-in-canada-are-inspiring-safer-roads-for-global-species/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/how-wildlife-crossings-in-canada-are-inspiring-safer-roads-for-global-species/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Dec 2021 06:37:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shannon Kelleher]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Genevieve Belmaker]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/14144211/Black-bear-standing-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=250610</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Canada, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Rights, Animals, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Governance, Human-wildlife Conflict, Innovation, Protected Areas, Research, Roadkill, Roads, Solutions, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There once was a stretch of Trans-Canada highway so perilous it was known as “The Meat Maker.” The then-infamous section of road that transects Banff National Park, a breathtaking expanse of mountainous terrain and glacial lakes in the Canadian Rockies, averaged about 100 elk-vehicle collisions each year. In the early 1980s, a simple highway expansion [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There once was a stretch of Trans-Canada highway so perilous it was known as “The Meat Maker.” The then-infamous section of road that transects Banff National Park, a breathtaking expanse of mountainous terrain and glacial lakes in the Canadian Rockies, averaged about 100 elk-vehicle collisions each year. In the early 1980s, a simple highway expansion project widened the busy road from two lanes to four, with the added objective of cleaning up Banff’s roadkill problem by enabling animals to cross safely. There was little indication that, within decades, Canada’s oldest national park would boast the most wildlife crossing structures anywhere in the world, including 38 underpasses (tunnels) and six overpasses (bridges) as of 2014. It was perhaps even less obvious that this project would generate a wildlife monitoring program bound to shake up global road ecology paradigms. “The focus at the beginning wasn’t about large carnivores or connectivity conservation,” said Tony Clevenger, a senior wildlife research scientist at the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University in the U.S. “It was about protecting the motorists.” By the mid- to late-1980s, the park’s first dozen underpasses had been completed. These were followed by more underpasses by the mid-1990s, as well as two overpasses (each about 50 meters, or 164 feet, wide) due to growing concern for wolves and grizzly bears. “That’s where I came in,” Clevenger said. “They had built those first dozen underpasses, but those weren’t really monitored very much. The park needed good science-based information to guide the design,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/how-wildlife-crossings-in-canada-are-inspiring-safer-roads-for-global-species/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/how-wildlife-crossings-in-canada-are-inspiring-safer-roads-for-global-species/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-250610</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A buffer zone for Thailand, last great hope for wildlife in Southeast Asia (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/a-buffer-zone-for-thailand-last-great-hope-for-wildlife-in-southeast-asia-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/a-buffer-zone-for-thailand-last-great-hope-for-wildlife-in-southeast-asia-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Jun 2021 19:11:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gregory McCann]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/12/07142621/clouded-leopard-by-Rhett-Butler-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=243317</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Southeast Asia, Thailand, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Commentary, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Defaunation, Endangered Species, Environment, Human-wildlife Conflict, Illegal Trade, Protected Areas, Tigers, Wildlife, Wildlife Corridors, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It might sound nihilistic and harsh to describe Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia (Indochina) as forming a kind of buffer zone against the onslaught of snaring and the defaunation of forests that have engulfed the region, but that may be exactly what these countries represent, and even Thailand is not safe. The Indochinese tiger is extinct [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It might sound nihilistic and harsh to describe Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia (Indochina) as forming a kind of buffer zone against the onslaught of snaring and the defaunation of forests that have engulfed the region, but that may be exactly what these countries represent, and even Thailand is not safe. The Indochinese tiger is extinct in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Today its stronghold is in Thailand, with perhaps two dozen more individuals hanging on in neighboring Myanmar. That is the end of the story for the species. If the Indochinese tiger is to be saved from extinction and, through some miracle, allowed to disperse back throughout the rest of its range, Thailand is its only hope. Same for the Indochinese leopard which was hunted out of Vietnam and Laos over a decade ago, but a few hung on in the Eastern Plains Landscape (EPL) of Mondulkiri province in Cambodia until somewhat recently. They are now gone, victims of an unprecedented snaring campaign that has blanketed the Indochinese peninsula with millions of high-grade industrial snares that even the poorest villagers know how to construct cheaply. Indochinese tiger caught on camera trap in Huai Kha Khaeng protected area, Thailand. Image by Sukmasuang via University of Wisconsin-Madison&#8217;s Silivis Lab. But most villagers—at least those in the sprawling EPL—aren’t looking to snare tigers and leopards; they’re going for wild pigs, hearty animals that can survive a week in a wire trap. When found, they are finished off with a rifle or club, and the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/a-buffer-zone-for-thailand-last-great-hope-for-wildlife-in-southeast-asia-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-243317</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservation actions see Iberian lynx claw back from brink of extinction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/03/conservation-actions-see-iberian-lynx-claw-back-from-brink-of-extinction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/03/conservation-actions-see-iberian-lynx-claw-back-from-brink-of-extinction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Mar 2021 05:40:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Johan Augustin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/03/12184321/Iberian_Lynx_endrino03-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=240452</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, Mediterranean Sea, Portugal, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Captive Breeding, Cats, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Endangered Species, Forest Fragmentation, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Human-wildlife Conflict, Hunting, Reintroductions, Rewilding, Roadkill, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It’s midday in summer, the mercury climbing above 40° Celsius (104° Fahrenheit), and nature guide Nuno Roxo is leading us on a hike in Guadiana Valley National Park in Portugal. The high grass and herbs, battered by the strong sun, have not seen any rain for several months. We continue down a narrow trail, used [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It’s midday in summer, the mercury climbing above 40° Celsius (104° Fahrenheit), and nature guide Nuno Roxo is leading us on a hike in Guadiana Valley National Park in Portugal. The high grass and herbs, battered by the strong sun, have not seen any rain for several months. We continue down a narrow trail, used by wildlife such as boars and deer. Rabbits bolt off into the bushes. The scenario looks promising for the return of the region’s top predator, for which rabbits are the favorite prey: the Iberian lynx. Nuno says that in his many years of guiding, he’s only caught a glimpse of the elusive cats once, quickly whizzing by. The best chance to see them, he says, is by the sheep pens, where the lynx lie in ambush — but not for the sheep. “The lynx catch the foxes that come to kill the sheep, so the landowners appreciate having lynx on their property,” Nuno says. Iberian lynx in Spain. Image by Frank Vassen via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). It wasn’t always so. Half a century ago, the Iberian Peninsula, comprising Spain and Portugal, was home to thousands of Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus). The species is about half the size of the more common Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) found in cooler climates further north, but shared the same bad reputation for preying on livestock. That made it a favorite target of farmers, who saw it as vermin, as well as hunters who sought out its pelt and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/03/conservation-actions-see-iberian-lynx-claw-back-from-brink-of-extinction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/03/conservation-actions-see-iberian-lynx-claw-back-from-brink-of-extinction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-240452</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>500 years of species loss: Humans drive defaunation across Neotropics</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/09/500-years-of-species-loss-humans-drive-defaunation-across-neotropics/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/09/500-years-of-species-loss-humans-drive-defaunation-across-neotropics/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Sep 2020 10:29:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/09/15102446/29391489713_45238c1c93_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=234868</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Pantanal, South America, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Defaunation, Deforestation, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Rainforests, Tropical Conservation Science, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, Wetlands, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new study provides an in-depth look at the detrimental impacts of human activities on wildlife in the Neotropical region of the Americas over the past 500 years. The study, published Sept. 15 in Nature Scientific Reports, found that more than 56% of species in mammal assemblages, or groups of coexisting species, living in the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new study provides an in-depth look at the detrimental impacts of human activities on wildlife in the Neotropical region of the Americas over the past 500 years. The study, published Sept. 15 in Nature Scientific Reports, found that more than 56% of species in mammal assemblages, or groups of coexisting species, living in the Neotropics, have died out since 1500, about the time that European colonization began. The biggest losses were seen in ungulate species, such as the lowland tapir (Tapirus terrestris) and the white-lipped peccary (Tayassu pecari). White-lipped peccary. Image by Bernard Dupont / Wikipedia Commons. Humans are largely responsible for this extensive loss of wildlife, or defaunation, the study found, with overhunting, habitat loss, intentional or accidental fires, and the introduction of invasive species and disease all playing a part. While wildlife and habitat have steadily declined since the 16th century, losses have become even more pronounced in the past 50 years, according to co-author Carlos Peres, professor of tropical conservation ecology at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in the U.K. “We&#8217;ve had a big hike in habitat loss, which more or less coincides with the first big road that reaches the Amazon from the rest of Brazil,” Peres told Mongabay. “As you know, the Amazon was isolated from the rest of Brazil until 1971, and so that&#8217;s a big landmark in terms of tropical deforestation.” The study, led by researchers from UEA and the University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil, used animal inventories at 1,029&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/09/500-years-of-species-loss-humans-drive-defaunation-across-neotropics/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/09/500-years-of-species-loss-humans-drive-defaunation-across-neotropics/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-234868</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Palm oil giant Olam under scrutiny again over Gabon plantations</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/palm-oil-giant-olam-under-scrutiny-again-over-gabon-plantations/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/palm-oil-giant-olam-under-scrutiny-again-over-gabon-plantations/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Mar 2020 15:44:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[James Fair]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/03/25152354/OilPalmFruitCROP_DaveBarceWikicommons-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=228287</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Gabon]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Defaunation, Environment, Forests, Land Grabbing, Palm Oil, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The World Rainforest Movement (WRM) has accused Singapore-based agribusiness company Olam of making meaningless “zero deforestation” pledges about a major oil palm development in Gabon and neglecting the rights of local communities. In a report published last month, WRM also says Olam is failing to fulfill commitments made to villagers in the central-southern province of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The World Rainforest Movement (WRM) has accused Singapore-based agribusiness company Olam of making meaningless “zero deforestation” pledges about a major oil palm development in Gabon and neglecting the rights of local communities. In a report published last month, WRM also says Olam is failing to fulfill commitments made to villagers in the central-southern province of Ngounié before tens of thousands of hectares of new oil palm plantations were established. Oil Palm Gabon, a joint venture between Olam and the government of Gabon set up in 2011, has total concessions of 144,000 hectares (355,800 acre); 56,000 ha (138,400 acres) have been planted with oil palm, and 72,000 ha (177,900 acres) permanently protected. No new plantations have been developed since 2017 and there are currently no plans for any more, Olam said. Forest clearance for oil palm by Olam, in Kango, Gabon. Image by Alexander De Marcq. WRM says Olam&#8217;s claims to have protected forests of high conservation or high carbon value and to have sited plantations only on locations mapped as “grassland, secondary regrowth or degraded logging areas” are untrue. “In fact, Olam hired a logging company to fell timber with any commercial value,” WRM said, “[and] the profits generated were then shared between the logging company, the Gabonese state and the communities.” The oil palm plantations could then be developed on this “degraded” land. Olam said the allegations raised in the report are “factually inaccurate and false.” Olam’s group head of external affairs, Steve Fairbairn, said WRM appeared to have mistaken&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/palm-oil-giant-olam-under-scrutiny-again-over-gabon-plantations/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/palm-oil-giant-olam-under-scrutiny-again-over-gabon-plantations/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-228287</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conserving wildlife is key to tropical forests’ carbon storage, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/11/conserving-wildlife-is-key-to-tropical-forests-carbon-storage-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/11/conserving-wildlife-is-key-to-tropical-forests-carbon-storage-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Nov 2019 10:19:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nanticha Ocharoenchai]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Maria Angeles Salazar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/11/18100503/hornbill-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=224524</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Carbon Dioxide, Climate Change, Conservation, Defaunation, Forests, Poaching, Research, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This past summer, the world was gripped by the flames that tore through the Amazon rainforest and released huge volumes of trapped carbon dioxide in the process. Half a world away, far from the social media hashtags, a much smaller patch of tropical forest was revealing the secret of what makes these landscapes such potent [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This past summer, the world was gripped by the flames that tore through the Amazon rainforest and released huge volumes of trapped carbon dioxide in the process. Half a world away, far from the social media hashtags, a much smaller patch of tropical forest was revealing the secret of what makes these landscapes such potent carbon sinks: Wildlife. A teeming abundance of it. A new paper published in Nature suggests nearly one-third of tree species in Khao Yai National Park, a reserve in central Thailand just two-and-a-half hours from Bangkok, depend on seed dispersal by large fruit-eating animals, or large-bodied frugivores (LBF). If these animals disappear — a process known as defaunation and driven by hunting and snaring — above-ground carbon stocks in these forests could go down by up to 3 percent, the study finds. “Primates, especially gibbons, play an important role in promoting diversity of juvenile tree species in this plot,” said Wirong Chanthorn, a professor of plant ecology at Kasetsart University in Bangkok and the lead author of the study. “Thus, ‘empty forest’ due to defaunation impacts not only carbon storage but also biodiversity.” The scientists simulated the effect of two scenarios on a 30-hectare (74-acre) study plot, a long-term study site of ForestGEO (Global Forest Observation Network): one with only primates removed, and another with all LBF species removed, including gibbons, macaques, hornbills, deer, elephants and bears. To model each scenario, they calculated what would happen to the plot’s carbon stock if they removed individual trees&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/11/conserving-wildlife-is-key-to-tropical-forests-carbon-storage-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-224524</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Debate rages over intensive oil palm farming in Gabon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/11/debate-rages-over-intensive-oil-palm-farming-in-gabon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/11/debate-rages-over-intensive-oil-palm-farming-in-gabon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Nov 2019 18:56:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Yorick Nelly Kombila]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/10/28213405/Rainforest_Gabon_AxelRouvinFlickrCC2.0-CROP-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=223925</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Gabon]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Defaunation, Environment, Forests, Land Grabbing, Palm Oil, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Nearly 88 percent of Gabon is covered in forests. As the country seeks to diversify its economy, including developing agriculture and commercial plantations, can it continue to protect this important resource for local communities and biodiversity? Numerous NGOs are worried by the industrial cultivation of oil palm by the multinational Olam and have launched a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Nearly 88 percent of Gabon is covered in forests. As the country seeks to diversify its economy, including developing agriculture and commercial plantations, can it continue to protect this important resource for local communities and biodiversity? Numerous NGOs are worried by the industrial cultivation of oil palm by the multinational Olam and have launched a campaign to raise the government&#8217;s awareness of the risks plantations pose to communities and the environment. In 2015, under the framework of a programme called  GRAINE (Gabonaise des réalisations agricoles et des initiatives des nationaux engagés &#8211; Gabonese Initiative for Achieving Agricultural Outcomes with an Engaged Citizenry), the Gabonese authorities formed a public-private partnership with the firm Olam Palm Gabon for the development of a tract spanning 58,500 hectares (144,600 acres). The company, known as Société gabonaise de transformation agricole et développement durable (SOTRADER – Gabonese Company for Agricultural Transformation and Sustainable Development) set up operations in Ndendé, in Ngounié province. People living in the area, in the villages of Ferra and Nanga, had initially welcomed the project in light of their precarious economic situation. But now they are accusing the company of running a counter-productive policy. These communities want to continue to enjoy their traditional rights to use the forest for farming and harvesting, and to ensure their food sovereignty. Added to this is anger among dissatisfied young people in these villages, who are critical of the insecurity of the jobs the company has created. “The average agricultural worker&#8217;s salary, which fluctuates between 100,00&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/11/debate-rages-over-intensive-oil-palm-farming-in-gabon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-223925</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>At least one species has been lost on more than half of Earth’s land area</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/06/at-least-one-species-has-been-lost-on-more-than-half-of-earths-land-area/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/06/at-least-one-species-has-been-lost-on-more-than-half-of-earths-land-area/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Jun 2019 13:05:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/06/18124733/elephant-and-calf_1210px-768x451.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=219562</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Defaunation, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Remote Sensing, Research, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Last month, the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) released a summary of its extensive research on threats to global biodiversity, finding that species are disappearing more quickly now that at any other point in human history. Some 1 million species of plants and animals are currently facing extinction, according to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Last month, the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) released a summary of its extensive research on threats to global biodiversity, finding that species are disappearing more quickly now that at any other point in human history. Some 1 million species of plants and animals are currently facing extinction, according to the report, and that has serious implications for the future of human well-being. According to the IPBES report, the number of terrestrial species on Earth has declined by 20 percent, primarily over the past 120 years. A study published in the journal Frontiers In Forests And Global Change last week largely supports the conclusions of the IPBES report, determining that there is less intact habitat harboring its original community of life than has previously been estimated. And the authors of the study say their findings show that methods used to determine the most important areas for wildlife conservation using remote sensing and global datasets may not be accurately assessing faunal intactness. The study was led by Andrew Plumptre, head of the secretariat for the Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA) Partnership, which is comprised of 12 international conservation organizations, including the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Birdlife International, and the Wildlife Conservation Society. Plumptre and a team of researchers found that at least one species has gone extinct on 54.7 percent of our planet’s land area (not including Antarctica), with some sites losing as many as 52 species. Even many forests identified as being&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/06/at-least-one-species-has-been-lost-on-more-than-half-of-earths-land-area/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-219562</doi>				</item>
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