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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/degraded-lands/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>News on Degraded Lands</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/degraded-lands/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Indigenous land back in Chile brings mixed bag of environmental outcomes: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-land-back-in-chile-brings-mixed-bag-of-environmental-outcomes-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-land-back-in-chile-brings-mixed-bag-of-environmental-outcomes-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Sep 2026 18:59:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/09154250/Pictures-of-the-Week-Latin-America-and-Caribbean-Photo-Gallery-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=329292</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Chile, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Degraded Lands, forest degradation, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Livestock, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Plantations, Protected Areas, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous land restitution in Chile came with a mixed bag of environmental outcomes and did not boost natural forest cover, according to a new study published in Nature Sustainability. While the return of ancestral lands gave the Indigenous Mapuche communities in southern Chile greater control over how their land was used — leading to an [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous land restitution in Chile came with a mixed bag of environmental outcomes and did not boost natural forest cover, according to a new study published in Nature Sustainability. While the return of ancestral lands gave the Indigenous Mapuche communities in southern Chile greater control over how their land was used — leading to an increase in grasslands for livestock production and a reduction in non-native tree plantations — it did not improve biodiversity, carbon sequestration or erosion control. Researchers say these findings challenge long-held assumptions that Indigenous self-determination automatically equates to positive changes in natural forests, carbon sequestration or biodiversity. “In the past, conservation advocates have at times adopted romanticized views of what such self-determination would mean, assuming that Indigenous communities will always choose to allocate land towards more ‘natural’ uses,” said study co-author Robert Heilmayr, an associate professor at the University of California Santa Barbara in the U.S. He told Mongabay over email that the new research “complicates this narrative,” arguing that true self-determination only emerges when Indigenous communities define for themselves what land uses align with their needs and values. The study set out to understand how Indigenous land restitution in Biobío, Araucanía, Los Ríos and Los Lagos reshapes the environment. It did so by analyzing satellite and administrative data from 1,577 properties across 36 communities to compare land use and environmental outcomes before and after land restitution. Researchers focused on what happened after a Chilean land restitution program, known as the Chilean Indigenous Land and Water&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-land-back-in-chile-brings-mixed-bag-of-environmental-outcomes-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-land-back-in-chile-brings-mixed-bag-of-environmental-outcomes-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-329292</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Community conservation under fire: Interview with Myanmar’s Clean Mountains founder</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/community-conservation-under-fire-interview-with-myanmars-clean-mountains-founder/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/community-conservation-under-fire-interview-with-myanmars-clean-mountains-founder/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jul 2026 18:51:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Esther J]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/13175110/4-Local-community-in-Karenni-collect-garbage-2025-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323228</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Myanmar, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Environment, Fellows, forest degradation, Gender, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Mongabay.org, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Myanmar experienced a military coup in February 2021. In the aftermath, widespread repression by the military regime fueled the emergence of armed resistance movements across the country, pushing an ongoing conflict to its most intense level in decades. Starting from 2024, the military&#8217;s conscription law has further threatened the lives and futures of young people, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Myanmar experienced a military coup in February 2021. In the aftermath, widespread repression by the military regime fueled the emergence of armed resistance movements across the country, pushing an ongoing conflict to its most intense level in decades. Starting from 2024, the military&#8217;s conscription law has further threatened the lives and futures of young people, forcing thousands to leave the country. Meanwhile, environmental degradation continues to worsen. People are facing multiple crises, including environmental destruction caused by the overexploitation of natural resources, natural disasters, armed conflict, and human rights violations by the military regime. The democratic freedoms that used to exist during the five years of semi-civilian government before the coup have disappeared. Within this context, environmental activism and conservation efforts have widely faded. Yet, against this backdrop, the environmental group Clean Mountains was established in 2024 and is based in the conflict-affected states of Karenni (Kayah) and Karen (Kayin), areas controlled by resistance forces. The organization — funded through grants and donations — is a small, women-led team of four members between the ages of 22 and 28. The group&#8217;s founder, Ou Ou, 27, leads Clean Mountains in implementing community-based conservation in conflict-affected mountainous regions, focusing on waste management, water conservation, sustainable agriculture and forest conservation. Ou Ou, founder of Clean Mountains, attends an awareness session on waste management in Bago region, 2025. Image courtesy of Clean Mountains. Through both her previous organization and Clean Mountains, waste management systems have been established in more than 130 villages, including 15&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/community-conservation-under-fire-interview-with-myanmars-clean-mountains-founder/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/community-conservation-under-fire-interview-with-myanmars-clean-mountains-founder/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323228</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New analysis breaks down 2025 Amazon deforestation, with good news and bad news</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/new-analysis-breaks-down-2025-amazon-deforestation-with-good-news-and-bad-news/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/new-analysis-breaks-down-2025-amazon-deforestation-with-good-news-and-bad-news/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jun 2026 15:40:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/24001802/AP26169513813986-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321708</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Beef, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forest Destruction, Forests, Heatwave, Industrial Agriculture, Land Use Change, Logging, Meat, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Secondary Forests, Soy, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Each year, researchers at the University of Maryland’s GLAD Lab in the U.S. develop one of the most important data sets on global forest loss. The data is derived from NASA and European Space Agency satellite imagery and, in the Amazon Rainforest, often helps environmental groups and government officials make decisions about conservation. The figures [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Each year, researchers at the University of Maryland’s GLAD Lab in the U.S. develop one of the most important data sets on global forest loss. The data is derived from NASA and European Space Agency satellite imagery and, in the Amazon Rainforest, often helps environmental groups and government officials make decisions about conservation. The figures for 2025 were published at the end of April, following months of processing and quality checks. But a comprehensive analysis, highlighting year-on-year trends and hotspots, was only recently released by Mapping of the Andes Amazon Project (MAAP), an Amazon Conservation initiative to track forest loss in the Amazon basin. While the data suggests that several metrics for measuring forest loss are down from previous years, they’re still concerningly high overall, researchers said. Agriculture, cattle ranching and mining continue to destroy hundreds of thousands of hectares of primary forest, often in protected areas and Indigenous territory. “I have a hard time saying it’s good news if deforestation is lower than previous years, but was still a million [hectares],” Matt Finer, MAAP director and senior research specialist, told Mongabay. He said it’s far from the zero-deforestation rate needed in the region. A: Soy frontiers of southeast Brazil; B: Soy frontiers of southern Bolivia; C: Trans-Amazonian Highway; D: BR-364; E: Agricultural areas in central Peru; F: Arc of deforestation in northwest Colombia; G: Gold mining areas in southern and central Peru: H: Gold mining areas in northern Ecuador; I: Gold mining areas in Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname; J: Indigenous&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/new-analysis-breaks-down-2025-amazon-deforestation-with-good-news-and-bad-news/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/new-analysis-breaks-down-2025-amazon-deforestation-with-good-news-and-bad-news/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321708</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A reforestation corridor in Madagascar offers a future for lemurs and locals</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-reforestation-corridor-in-madagascar-offers-a-future-for-lemurs-and-locals/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-reforestation-corridor-in-madagascar-offers-a-future-for-lemurs-and-locals/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Apr 2026 22:07:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marina Martinez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/14174849/1-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317476</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Madagascar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Ecotourism, Education, Environment, forest degradation, Forest Fragmentation, Forests, Fragmentation, Fungi, Health, Lemurs, Mammals, Plants, Primates, Reforestation, Restoration, Trees, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In eastern Madagascar, Andasibe-Mantadia National Park and the Analamazoatra Special Reserve shelter around a dozen species of lemurs, alongside an extraordinary array of animals and plants, many of which are found nowhere else on Earth. Once connected by continuous rainforest, the landscape was fractured in the 1960s, when large stretches were cleared for agriculture and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In eastern Madagascar, Andasibe-Mantadia National Park and the Analamazoatra Special Reserve shelter around a dozen species of lemurs, alongside an extraordinary array of animals and plants, many of which are found nowhere else on Earth. Once connected by continuous rainforest, the landscape was fractured in the 1960s, when large stretches were cleared for agriculture and cattle pasture. What remained was a patchwork of forest fragments separated by degraded land, limiting wildlife movement and threatening biodiversity. Today, a coalition of researchers, conservationists and local communities is working to reverse that fragmentation by rebuilding a forest corridor from the ground up. The reforestation corridor connecting Andasibe-Mantadia and Analamazoatra, launched in 2023, aims to restore 150 hectares (370 acres) of native forest and reconnect these two critical habitats. Led by the Mad Dog Initiative (MDI), a Madagascar-based wildlife conservation NGO, in partnership with The Dr. Abigail Ross Foundation for Applied Conservation (TDARFAC, a nonprofit conservation organization focused on Madagascar), Association Mitsinjo and Ecovision Village, the project represents a unique convergence of science, private investment and community action. It began not with a grand plan, but with an exchange of ideas and a shared commitment. As Kim Valenta of MDI recalled, she first recognized the physical disconnect between these two protected areas in 2017, while leading sterilization and vaccination campaigns to limit the impacts of free-roaming pets on wildlife in the region. She then met others who were also committed to restoring the broken landscape. “We looked at some maps, and shortly after I&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-reforestation-corridor-in-madagascar-offers-a-future-for-lemurs-and-locals/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317476</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ethiopian women plant trees, restoring lands &#038; livelihoods</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ethiopian-women-plant-trees-restoring-lands-livelihoods/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ethiopian-women-plant-trees-restoring-lands-livelihoods/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Apr 2026 20:37:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/01202432/IWDOMembersPlanting_SidamaEthiopia_RuhamaGetahun-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316752</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Ethiopia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Environment, Forests, Fuelwood, Landscape Restoration, NGOs, Solutions, Sustainability, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the southern Ethiopian region of Sidama, unsustainable farming practices and tree cutting for fuel are causing land degradation. In response, members of the Integrated Women’s Development Organization are planting indigenous trees, bananas and vegetables as well as desho (Pennisetum glaucifolium) and elephant grass (Cenchrus purpureus) for cattle fodder in an effort to restore damaged [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the southern Ethiopian region of Sidama, unsustainable farming practices and tree cutting for fuel are causing land degradation. In response, members of the Integrated Women’s Development Organization are planting indigenous trees, bananas and vegetables as well as desho (Pennisetum glaucifolium) and elephant grass (Cenchrus purpureus) for cattle fodder in an effort to restore damaged farmland and build more resilient livelihoods. In an email interview, IWDO’s general manager, Ruhama Getahun, told Mongabay that the women and youth who make up the NGO’s membership have planted more than 1,250 hectares (3,080 acres) since 2020. She said these initiatives have begun generating income for community members — particularly women — helping them rely less on forest products such as charcoal and firewood for survival. Negasi Solomon, a land and environment researcher at Tigray Institute of Policy Studies in Mek’ele, Ethiopia, told Mongabay that rapid population growth means the average size of a household’s land in the Sidama region has shrunk. This has pushed farmers to expand their plots onto fragile and steep hillsides. Solomon told Mongabay in an email that women are — or should be — central to land use and land restoration decisions in Sidama, and in Ethiopia in general, because of the role they play in day‑to‑day farm management. He noted, however, that many women in Ethiopia still face obstacles to taking up leadership roles. “Patriarchal norms and customary systems often concentrate land ownership and key decision‑making in men, while limiting women’s inheritance and control over land even where&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ethiopian-women-plant-trees-restoring-lands-livelihoods/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ethiopian-women-plant-trees-restoring-lands-livelihoods/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316752</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Brazil, regenerative farming advances, but deforestation still pressures ecosystems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-brazil-regenerative-farming-advances-but-deforestation-still-pressures-ecosystems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-brazil-regenerative-farming-advances-but-deforestation-still-pressures-ecosystems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Mar 2026 16:58:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mie Hoejris Dahl]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/17165558/BANNER-UF17MGJ-25178_0047-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315826</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Cattle, Climate Change, Commodity agriculture, Conservation, Crops, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Ecosystems, Farming, Forest Destruction, Habitat Degradation, Industrial Agriculture, Pesticides, Ranching, Restoration, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SINOP, Brazil — In Brazil’s Mato Grosso state, the country’s agricultural heartland, vast stretches of lush Amazon rainforest and Cerrado savanna give way to seemingly endless fields of soy. Located in a transition zone where the Amazon and Cerrado meet the Pantanal wetlands, about 90% of the state’s area was once covered in native vegetation. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SINOP, Brazil — In Brazil’s Mato Grosso state, the country’s agricultural heartland, vast stretches of lush Amazon rainforest and Cerrado savanna give way to seemingly endless fields of soy. Located in a transition zone where the Amazon and Cerrado meet the Pantanal wetlands, about 90% of the state’s area was once covered in native vegetation. But from the 1970s onward, agricultural innovation and public policies — including subsidies that encouraged farmers to settle and clear land in Mato Grosso — allowed the agricultural frontier to advance rapidly, turning Mato Grosso into one of Brazil’s main farming powerhouses. The Amazon, the world’s largest tropical rainforest, covers about 60% of Brazil. The Cerrado, one of the world’s most expansive savannas, spans some 2 million square kilometers (772,000 square miles) of tropical grasslands, trees and watersheds that regulate rainfall patterns and temperatures. About a fifth of the Brazilian Amazon has been deforested since monitoring began in 1985, and nearly half of the native vegetation of the Cerrado biome has been cleared for cattle and soy. Some of Mato Grosso’s former vast soy fields and cattle pasture have been left degraded — eroded grasslands that function neither as forest nor productive farmland. At a Biancon Group farm in Mato Grosso’s Itaúba municipality, Ivan Biancon, co-owner of the family-owned agribusiness group, scoops soil into his hands and lets it fall. The soil, he says, is now healthy enough to grow cotton, corn and soy beans. When he and his brother, Igor, first arrived, “these were&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-brazil-regenerative-farming-advances-but-deforestation-still-pressures-ecosystems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315826</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate or biodiversity? Global study maps out forestation’s dilemma</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-or-biodiversity-global-study-maps-out-forestations-dilemma/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-or-biodiversity-global-study-maps-out-forestations-dilemma/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Mar 2026 02:45:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/05160753/5343928380_7661771c5f_o-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315265</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Earth Science, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forestry, Forests, Fungi, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Landscape Restoration, Logging, Mitigation, National Parks, Oceans, Parks, Plants, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Research, Restoration, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Planting trees is a vital strategy to combat both climate change and the biodiversity crisis. As forests grow, they sponge carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and provide renewed habitat for threatened animals, plants, fungi and countless unseen lifeforms. That ability of forests to help slow climate change has driven a push to reforest degraded lands [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Planting trees is a vital strategy to combat both climate change and the biodiversity crisis. As forests grow, they sponge carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and provide renewed habitat for threatened animals, plants, fungi and countless unseen lifeforms. That ability of forests to help slow climate change has driven a push to reforest degraded lands or even plant new forests where none existed before. It’s also spurred other strategies, like the cultivation of bioenergy crops coupled with carbon capture. But these approaches require a lot of land, and they could potentially put pressure on the species that live in these spots — if a forestation project or hectares of bioenergy row crops subsume native grasslands, for example. A recent analysis shows that around 13% of globally important, biodiversity-rich land overlaps with areas earmarked for these types of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) projects. “It&#8217;s unfortunate that we face multiple global problems all at once, including both climate change and biodiversity loss,” said Mark Urban, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Connecticut in the U.S., who wasn’t involved in the research. “When we try to fix one, we can make things worse for the other.” Agroforestry in Ethiopia. Image by Trees ForTheFuture via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, used five existing models that guide climate action in line with the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting warming to 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels to map out locations tabbed&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-or-biodiversity-global-study-maps-out-forestations-dilemma/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-or-biodiversity-global-study-maps-out-forestations-dilemma/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315265</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Earth Rover Program seeks to track the world’s soil health</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/earth-rover-program-seeks-to-track-the-worlds-soil-health/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/earth-rover-program-seeks-to-track-the-worlds-soil-health/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Jan 2026 18:02:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/21162907/Women_smallholder_farmers_in_Kenya-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313172</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Degraded Lands, Earth Science, Environment, Food, Forest Carbon, Research, Science, Soil Carbon, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With a synchronized tap from run-of-the-mill hammers on metal plates resting on the ground, researchers kneeling in nine fields across four continents believe they’ve hit upon more than just the earth beneath their feet. “Waiting for it,” someone said. And then, “Waveforms!” “Excellent, waveforms!” another said, as the tiles on screen reveal EKG-like sets of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[With a synchronized tap from run-of-the-mill hammers on metal plates resting on the ground, researchers kneeling in nine fields across four continents believe they’ve hit upon more than just the earth beneath their feet. “Waiting for it,” someone said. And then, “Waveforms!” “Excellent, waveforms!” another said, as the tiles on screen reveal EKG-like sets of squiggles on laptops and smartphones from each of the locations. The video promotes the Earth Rover Program, a new effort to glean critical details about the soil from the way that a hammer tap tickles a set of sensors. It’s early days for the project. But its global team is working to bring the tools of seismology — known affectionately as “the science of the squiggle,” said co-founder Simon Jeffery — to bear on teasing apart the global puzzle of soil health. Jeffery and his fellow founders, geophysicist Tarje Nissen-Meyer and journalist George Monbiot, have staked out a far-reaching ambition to map soils with a cost-effective technology. They say they hope the program will equip farmers the world over with a better set of tools to grow crops and ensure that soils will remain healthy long into the future. “If we don’t have soil, then we don’t have the wonderful aboveground ecosystems that the vast majority of us enjoy so much,” Jeffery, a professor of soil ecology at Harper Adams University in the U.K., told Mongabay in an interview. He’s quick to point out that soil — the accumulated minerals, organic matter, droplets of liquid&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/earth-rover-program-seeks-to-track-the-worlds-soil-health/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/earth-rover-program-seeks-to-track-the-worlds-soil-health/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313172</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Involuntary parks: Human conflict is creating unintended refuges for wildlife</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/involuntary-parks-human-conflict-is-creating-unintended-refuges-for-wildlife/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/involuntary-parks-human-conflict-is-creating-unintended-refuges-for-wildlife/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jan 2026 16:10:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/15133046/11-BANNER-IMAGE-Mule-deer-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312997</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Land Conflict, Land Use Change, Planetary Boundaries, Pollution, War, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Few locations on Earth are as haunting or deeply ironic as so-called involuntary parks — places too toxic, dangerous, or otherwise made off-limits for human habitation, but which have paradoxically and unintentionally become sanctuaries for wildlife in our absence. As the name coined by science fiction author Bruce Sterling suggests, involuntary parks weren’t established for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Few locations on Earth are as haunting or deeply ironic as so-called involuntary parks — places too toxic, dangerous, or otherwise made off-limits for human habitation, but which have paradoxically and unintentionally become sanctuaries for wildlife in our absence. As the name coined by science fiction author Bruce Sterling suggests, involuntary parks weren’t established for conservation — and in many cases aren’t formally recognized as preserves. Some encompass former nuclear, military or manufacturing complexes and/or their buffer zones. Some are sites of major environmental disasters, former battlefields laced with unexploded munitions, or slices of no-man’s land demarcating tense borders between geopolitical rivals. Landmine warning sign in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a legacy of the 1992-1995 Bosnian War. In Ukraine, land mines have rendered large areas off-limits to people, while past wars left huge areas pocked by land mines in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Myanmar, Iraq, Syria, Angola and elsewhere, despite a global treaty banning their use. Image by Darij Zadnikar via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). Despite their often destructive origins, a growing number of these involuntary parks have, over time, been officially designated as protected wildlife refuges or cross-border peace parks, actively managed by government organizations and advocated for by citizens and researchers — not so “involuntary” anymore. It’s an attractive narrative. But without sufficient context, the genesis of an involuntary park (a process also controversially dubbed passive rewilding) can “imply that nature simply fixes itself, or that in the absence of human intervention, a favorable recovery inevitably occurs at sites that may&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/involuntary-parks-human-conflict-is-creating-unintended-refuges-for-wildlife/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/involuntary-parks-human-conflict-is-creating-unintended-refuges-for-wildlife/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312997</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ethiopian youth groups restore Rift valley lake &#038; livelihoods</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/ethiopian-youth-groups-restore-rift-valley-lake-livelihoods/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/ethiopian-youth-groups-restore-rift-valley-lake-livelihoods/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Dec 2025 12:52:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Solomon Yimer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/22063158/DSC_1259_1-BANNER-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311779</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Ethiopia, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Birds, Climate Change, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Environment, Environmental Policy, Governance, Lakes, Rivers, Tropics, Water, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Abijata-Shalla National Park, ETHIOPIA — Under the scorching midday sun in the upper catchment of Ethiopia’s Abijata-Shalla National Park, a local youth group toils along the edges of a deep gully carved into the hills by erosion. The young men shovel soil from the loose edges of the gorge, while women fill sandbags they stack [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Abijata-Shalla National Park, ETHIOPIA — Under the scorching midday sun in the upper catchment of Ethiopia’s Abijata-Shalla National Park, a local youth group toils along the edges of a deep gully carved into the hills by erosion. The young men shovel soil from the loose edges of the gorge, while women fill sandbags they stack in the gullies, building barriers to hold back the next rains that strike this battered landscape “The land is healing, and so are we,” says Hamid Belo, chairman of the Mekane Fike Forest Conservation Association. Once covered with acacia woodlands and fed by steady streams, the land here has been steadily stripped bare. The loss of tree cover has allowed erosion to scar the hillsides and upset the flow of water into the lakes in this closed river system. Abijata and Shalla — the two lakes that give the national park its name — now receive less water and more sediment — their boundaries have shrunk and the quality of the water has changed, affecting fish and other aquatic life, along with flamingos and other migratory birds that once crowded their shores. For the past five years, this group of youth has been working to prevent degradation of soil and water in the landscape and begin restoring the ecosystem. Increased sediment and reduced water have caused Lake Abijata&#8217;s shoreline to retreat, but its water levels are now beginning to rise. Image courtesy of Berihun Tadele. Lake Abijata. The satellite image on the right shows lakes&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/ethiopian-youth-groups-restore-rift-valley-lake-livelihoods/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/ethiopian-youth-groups-restore-rift-valley-lake-livelihoods/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311779</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists chart a new source, and length, for Africa&#8217;s famous Zambezi River</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/scientists-chart-a-new-source-and-length-for-africas-famous-zambezi-river/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/scientists-chart-a-new-source-and-length-for-africas-famous-zambezi-river/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Dec 2025 20:26:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/03150506/Adobe-Express-file-37-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310534</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Angola, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Dry Forests, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Policy, forest degradation, Freshwater, Grasslands, Monitoring, Research, Rivers, Trees, Tropics, Water, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new study suggests that the Zambezi River, Africa’s fourth-longest, is 11% longer than previously thought, with its most distant source lying in Angola, not Zambia. While the finding leaves the Zambezi as Africa’s fourth-longest river — after the Nile, the Congo and the Niger — the redefinition of its most distant source underscores Angola’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new study suggests that the Zambezi River, Africa’s fourth-longest, is 11% longer than previously thought, with its most distant source lying in Angola, not Zambia. While the finding leaves the Zambezi as Africa’s fourth-longest river — after the Nile, the Congo and the Niger — the redefinition of its most distant source underscores Angola’s enormous contribution to sustaining the river best known for Victoria Falls. This newly identified source in Angola’s southern highlands sits 3,421 kilometers (2,126 miles) from the Zambezi’s mouth at the Indian Ocean — 342 km (213 mi) farther than its original source, a spring bubbling out of the ground in a marshy patch of woodland near the Zambian town of Mwinilunga. The source of the Lungwebungu River in Angola: Spanning a total of 1,032 km (640 miles), the river is an essential water source, contributing significantly to the flow of the upper Zambezi River. Image courtesy Rainer von Brandis /The Wilderness Project/NGOWP. The geographic definition of a river’s source is the farthest point from its mouth, and based on that criterion, the team behind the study published in the journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences has identified the source of the Zambezi as a small trickle oozing from a peatland bog in southern Angola, which is also the source of a river known as the Lungwebungu. Lead author Rainer von Brandis of The Wilderness Project (TWP), a group of scientists and explorers that conducted the study, says the findings highlight the critical importance of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/scientists-chart-a-new-source-and-length-for-africas-famous-zambezi-river/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310534</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As Zambia eyes green minerals, Kabwe’s poisoned past looms large</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/as-zambia-eyes-green-minerals-kabwes-poisoned-past-looms-large/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/as-zambia-eyes-green-minerals-kabwes-poisoned-past-looms-large/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Nov 2025 07:16:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Chisapi Kumbutso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/18093815/Oliver-Nyirenda-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309709</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Business, Clean Energy, Degraded Lands, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Industry, Mining, Monitoring, Pollution, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LUSAKA — As Zambia looks to profit from the growing global demand for copper and other transition minerals — essential for the world’s green energy future — the story of Kabwe, a mining city poisoned by the resource, stands as a warning. If the government and the companies that mine its wealth don’t break with [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LUSAKA — As Zambia looks to profit from the growing global demand for copper and other transition minerals — essential for the world’s green energy future — the story of Kabwe, a mining city poisoned by the resource, stands as a warning. If the government and the companies that mine its wealth don’t break with the patterns of the past, activists warn, any new mining booms will likely repeat the destruction of mining host communities’ health, livelihoods and environment. In June 2024, a coalition of young activists, journalists and environmental groups launched a campaign called “Zambia’s Sacrifice Zone,” aiming to explore the legacy of mining lead and copper in Kabwe and reinforce the push for accountability from government and mining companies. A partnership between a Zambian NGO, the Agents of Change Foundation, and Radio Workshop, a South Africa-based nonprofit that trains young community journalists across the continent, the campaign relied on a podcast, radio programs and listening parties. From left to right: Youth activist Oliver Nyirenda (in yellow), with his family in Kabwe. Image courtesy of Radio Workshop. Putting a face to a crisis At the center of the campaign is the story of Oliver Nyirenda. As Nyirenda was growing up in Kabwe, his mother noticed that his growth was stunted, his reactions slow. Tests confirmed severe lead poisoning. Decades of unregulated mining and smelting by the former Broken Hill mine company had contaminated the soil, air and water of this central Zambian city with dangerous levels of lead. When&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/as-zambia-eyes-green-minerals-kabwes-poisoned-past-looms-large/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309709</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Coal-dependent South Africa struggles to make just energy transition real</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/coal-dependent-south-africa-struggles-to-make-just-energy-transition-real/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/coal-dependent-south-africa-struggles-to-make-just-energy-transition-real/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Nov 2025 12:36:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anna Weekes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/11115322/Sukumani2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309267</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Business, Clean Energy, Climate Change, Coal, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Green, Human Rights, Industry, Just Transition, Land Rights, Law Enforcement, Mining, Murdered Activists, Politics, Pollution, Protests, Renewable Energy, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the coal towns of northern KwaZulu-Natal, the promise of South Africa’s “just transition” feels like a distant dream. While government plans speak of a fair shift to clean energy and justice for those harmed by coal, in places like Dannhauser and Mtubatuba, families are still choking on coal dust, activists say they’re being threatened [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the coal towns of northern KwaZulu-Natal, the promise of South Africa’s “just transition” feels like a distant dream. While government plans speak of a fair shift to clean energy and justice for those harmed by coal, in places like Dannhauser and Mtubatuba, families are still choking on coal dust, activists say they’re being threatened for speaking out, and new mining applications keep arriving. Communities say the country’s transition is happening everywhere except where coal is dug from the earth. In a country where 74% of the electricity is made from burning coal, the transition to renewable energy has created a fraught environment where workers who rely on coal jobs are pitted against community members whose health and livelihoods have been damaged by coal dust, blasting and water contamination from mines and power stations. People living near the Tendele mine in KwaZulu-Natal say dust from the mine coats everything in their homes. Image by Victoria Schneider for Mongabay. In 2022, the South African government defined a just transition as one that would simultaneously address health impacts and local environmental harm caused by coal mining and generation, and the job losses and economic disruption that shutting down a vital industry would cause, with particular attention to how poor communities, women, youth and people with disabilities might be affected. The framework explained how communities affected by mining were to benefit from compensation for health and land damage, and how both workers and residents would be involved in planning and decision-making. In 2024,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/coal-dependent-south-africa-struggles-to-make-just-energy-transition-real/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309267</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>From shamba to PELIS: Kenyan farmers derive livelihoods from government timber plantations</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/from-shamba-to-pelis-kenyan-farmers-derive-livelihoods-from-government-timber-plantations/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/from-shamba-to-pelis-kenyan-farmers-derive-livelihoods-from-government-timber-plantations/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Sep 2025 09:07:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Isaiah Esipisu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/15153151/7115914951_fafe4fe034_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305994</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Community Development, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Degraded Lands, Ecosystems, Environment, food security, Forestry, Forests, Landscape Restoration, Plantations, Reforestation, Restoration, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KAKAMEGA, Kenya — A Monday morning finds 50 members of the Nzoia Community Forest Association trekking through rain-drenched thickets in the 5,300 hectare (13,000 acre ) Nzoia Forest Plantation. They are returning to an area designated as Compartment One, the 42 hectares (103 acres) deep inside the plantation. Two weeks ago, they planted maize here. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KAKAMEGA, Kenya — A Monday morning finds 50 members of the Nzoia Community Forest Association trekking through rain-drenched thickets in the 5,300 hectare (13,000 acre ) Nzoia Forest Plantation. They are returning to an area designated as Compartment One, the 42 hectares (103 acres) deep inside the plantation. Two weeks ago, they planted maize here. Today, their aim is to plant the first of 84,000 seedlings of Mexican cypress (Cupressus lusitanica) between the regular lines of their crop, which they will nurture and protect over the next three or four years as carefully as the grain they will grow around the young trees. The farmers are working under a government-sponsored arrangement known as the Plantation Establishment and Livelihood Improvement Scheme (PELIS), explains forester Jackton Hadulo, who is responsible for managing the Nzoia plantation. “We are collaborating with members of the community who live around the forest plantation by allowing them to cultivate the land and plant their food crop in straight lines, after which we also work with them to plant tree seedlings in between the lines.” Under the PELIS scheme, the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) enlists communities living near its tree plantations to grow crops in bare areas — denuded by timber harvesting or wild fire — to support restoration. The farmers – organised in community forest associations (CFA) – plant and take care of growing saplings while they’re at their most vulnerable; in exchange, they gain temporary access to the land to grow crops such as maize and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/from-shamba-to-pelis-kenyan-farmers-derive-livelihoods-from-government-timber-plantations/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/from-shamba-to-pelis-kenyan-farmers-derive-livelihoods-from-government-timber-plantations/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305994</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Kenya&#8217;s PELIS trades biodiversity for livelihoods and tree cover gains</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/kenyas-pelis-trades-biodiversity-for-livelihoods-and-tree-cover-gains/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/kenyas-pelis-trades-biodiversity-for-livelihoods-and-tree-cover-gains/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Sep 2025 10:34:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Isaiah Esipisu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/08151435/JosephLijodiWithPrunus.Africana_NzoiaForestPlantationKenya_IsaiahEsipisu-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305576</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Community Development, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Degraded Lands, Ecosystems, Environment, food security, Forestry, Forests, Landscape Restoration, Plantations, Reforestation, Restoration, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KAKAMEGA, Kenya — Tropical rainforest once extended east from the Congo Basin into what is now western Kenya. That’s almost all gone now, though there are still plenty of trees to be seen around Turbo township, in Kakamega county. The township is on the edge of the Nzoia Forest Reserve, 5,000 hectares (about 12,400 acres) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KAKAMEGA, Kenya — Tropical rainforest once extended east from the Congo Basin into what is now western Kenya. That’s almost all gone now, though there are still plenty of trees to be seen around Turbo township, in Kakamega county. The township is on the edge of the Nzoia Forest Reserve, 5,000 hectares (about 12,400 acres) of monoculture blocks of alien eucalyptus and pine trees. For the past 20 years, as Kenya has wrestled with how to slow and reverse rapid loss of tree cover, the narrower question of how to manage the country’s many timber plantations has played out around a system known as the Plantation Establishment and Livelihood Improvement Scheme, or PELIS. The scheme has been praised and damned, seen by some as an efficient and cost-effective way to expand tree cover while contributing to local incomes and community investment in protecting forests; and roundly criticized by others for encouraging corruption, enabling encroachment of farms onto forested land, and reducing biodiversity even where it succeeds Kenya Forest Service officers and members of the Nzoia Community Forest Association planting trees. Image by Isaiah Esipisu for Mongabay. Introduced in 2007, PELIS is a successor to the shamba system, which offered Kenyans living near timber plantations small plots of land to farm in parts of the forest reserves that needed to be replanted after trees had been harvested or damaged by fire. The farmers were meant to plant tree seedlings amid crops they grew for their own use, tend the saplings until&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/kenyas-pelis-trades-biodiversity-for-livelihoods-and-tree-cover-gains/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/kenyas-pelis-trades-biodiversity-for-livelihoods-and-tree-cover-gains/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305576</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A forest garden project attempts to expand into the Sahel</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-forest-garden-project-attempts-to-expand-into-the-sahel/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-forest-garden-project-attempts-to-expand-into-the-sahel/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jul 2025 06:00:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/24214056/20231115_UNEP_Decade-on-Ecosystem-Restoration_African-Farmers-Transforming-Food-System_Senegal_Todd-Brown_14-e1753393737352-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303161</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Kenya, Mali, Sahel, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agroforestry, Climate Change, Conservation, Crops, Degraded Lands, Drought, Dry Forests, Erosion, Extreme Weather, Farming, Food, Hunger, Land Use Change, Monocultures, Natural Resources, Plants, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Reforestation, Trees, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Drought, irregular rainfall, deforestation, and the legacy of unsustainable human activities have left vast areas across the arid and semiarid regions of sub-Saharan Africa degraded, causing major challenges for the human population. According to environmentalists, one solution to this problem might be forest gardens. These “gardens” use regenerative agroforestry to revive patches of degraded agricultural [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Drought, irregular rainfall, deforestation, and the legacy of unsustainable human activities have left vast areas across the arid and semiarid regions of sub-Saharan Africa degraded, causing major challenges for the human population. According to environmentalists, one solution to this problem might be forest gardens. These “gardens” use regenerative agroforestry to revive patches of degraded agricultural land. In 2024, the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) selected a project led by Trees for the Future (TREES), a U.S.-based NGO, as one of seven world restoration flagships for its “forest garden approach” used in five countries in sub-Saharan Africa. These flagships promote restoration projects around the world that show potential to tackle challenges at scale and provide financial support. “Forest gardens promote healthy soil and diverse crops, leading to increased income and access to healthier food,” Enoch Makobi, country director for TREES in Uganda, told Mongabay. “Farmers are fighting climate change and can overcome poverty and hunger.” While NGO leaders say they’re optimistic about the outcomes of the project so far and their plans for expansion, some other conservationists have expressed skepticism, pointing to a lack of scientific evidence on impacts and the difficulty international NGOs face in tackling local problems and needs. A forest garden is a modern term for an ancient agroforestry model that mixes shrubs, herbs, vines, fruit and nut trees, and perennial vegetables, with the aim of supplying communities with food, medicine and animal feed. According to scientists, forest gardens can have significant&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-forest-garden-project-attempts-to-expand-into-the-sahel/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-forest-garden-project-attempts-to-expand-into-the-sahel/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303161</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bicolored waterberry: The overlooked tree shaping Zambia’s rivers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/bicolored-waterberry-the-overlooked-tree-shaping-zambias-rivers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/bicolored-waterberry-the-overlooked-tree-shaping-zambias-rivers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jul 2025 12:39:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/16123024/RT_Syzygium_island-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302610</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Kafue River Transect]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Degraded Lands, DNA, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Governance, Monitoring, Research, Rivers, Tropics, Wetlands, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KAFUE NATIONAL PARK, Zambia — At a bend in Zambia’s Kafue River, the bicolored waterberry trees resemble an avenue planted along a city boulevard. Their evergreen crowns stretch as far as the eye can see, reflected in the still, glassy water, only broken by the surfacing of two curious hippos. These trees — Syzygium guineense [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KAFUE NATIONAL PARK, Zambia — At a bend in Zambia’s Kafue River, the bicolored waterberry trees resemble an avenue planted along a city boulevard. Their evergreen crowns stretch as far as the eye can see, reflected in the still, glassy water, only broken by the surfacing of two curious hippos. These trees — Syzygium guineense subsp. barotsense — are a dominant feature of this stretch of river, yet their role in maintaining river ecology is only just beginning to be understood. During a recent 300-kilometer (186-mile) canoe expedition through Kafue National Park, Mongabay joined The Wilderness Project (TWP) — a group of researchers and explorers gathering data on Africa’s major rivers and their basins — to document the Kafue River’s biodiversity and human impact along its course. On one island, shortly after the river crosses the northern boundary of the park, the team encountered the fantastical, deeply fluted trunks of waterberry trees, the soil at their bases threaded with the spoor of African clawless otters (Aonyx capensis). Further downstream, dozens of white-breasted cormorants (Phalacrocorax lucidus) burst from nests wedged into branches of a small copse of waterberries growing directly in the river’s current. Bicolored waterberry roots clasping rocks in the middle of the river channel. Image by Ryan Truscott for Mongabay. The Wilderness Project team stops to conduct research on the island, surrounded by the waterberry trees’ fluted trunks. Image by Ryan Truscott for Mongabay. Known for fruits that sometimes emerge half-white, half-purple, the bicolored waterberry is one of several&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/bicolored-waterberry-the-overlooked-tree-shaping-zambias-rivers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/bicolored-waterberry-the-overlooked-tree-shaping-zambias-rivers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302610</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>River of giants: Canoe team tracks hippos in one of Africa’s last strongholds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/river-of-giants-canoe-team-tracks-hippos-in-one-of-africas-last-strongholds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/river-of-giants-canoe-team-tracks-hippos-in-one-of-africas-last-strongholds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jul 2025 15:51:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/15152623/RT_Kafue_canoes_congregate-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302532</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Kafue River Transect]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Degraded Lands, DNA, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Governance, Monitoring, Research, Rivers, Tropics, Wetlands, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KAFUE NATIONAL PARK, Zambia — “Hippos ahead.” The warning comes from the lead canoe. Hippos are dangerous — highly territorial and fiercely protective of their young. They are capable of capsizing boats and inflicting serious injuries. The line of five canoes hugs the riverbank to avoid a group midstream, but suddenly a mother hippo (Hippopotamus [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KAFUE NATIONAL PARK, Zambia — “Hippos ahead.” The warning comes from the lead canoe. Hippos are dangerous — highly territorial and fiercely protective of their young. They are capable of capsizing boats and inflicting serious injuries. The line of five canoes hugs the riverbank to avoid a group midstream, but suddenly a mother hippo (Hippopotamus amphibius) and her calf charge down from the bank where they’d been grazing unseen. The animals barrel toward the river and the flotilla, the mother braking at the last second. Changing course, she and her calf plunge into the water just behind the last canoe. It’s only the second close encounter of the 34-day expedition, says Mike Ross, leader of The Wilderness Project (TWP) team. “You can’t really blame them — the water is their safe place.” And this particular stretch of the Kafue River, in central Zambia, is especially so. Hippos wallowing on the sunny, muddy shallows beside the Kafue River. Image by Ryan Truscott for Mongabay. Over 82 days in 2024, Ross and a TWP team journeyed along the entire length of the Kafue, tracing its path from the river’s source near the Democratic Republic of Congo border, through the Copperbelt’s industrial zones, across the papyrus-lined dambo wetlands of the Kafue Flats and down to the steep Kafue Gorge — a topographical bottleneck that prevents some species, like African tigerfish (Hydrocynus vittatus), from moving upstream from the Zambezi. “An ever-changing river,” is how Ross describes the Kafue — slouching across open floodplains in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/river-of-giants-canoe-team-tracks-hippos-in-one-of-africas-last-strongholds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/river-of-giants-canoe-team-tracks-hippos-in-one-of-africas-last-strongholds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302532</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Wildlife &#038; tourists on the up in Zambia’s Kafue Park: Q&#038;A with manager Craig Reid</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/wildlife-tourists-on-the-up-in-zambias-kafue-park-qa-with-manager-craig-reid/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/wildlife-tourists-on-the-up-in-zambias-kafue-park-qa-with-manager-craig-reid/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jul 2025 08:58:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/15083547/KNG_elephants-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302486</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Kafue River Transect]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Degraded Lands, DNA, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Governance, Interviews, Monitoring, Research, Rivers, Tropics, Wetlands, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[African Parks, the conservation NGO, has a 20-year agreement with Zambia’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) to co-manage Kafue National Park. Running through the heart of the park is the Kafue River, which is crucial for Zambia&#8217;s economy and people. But it faces threats from pollution, including a major acid spill hundreds of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[African Parks, the conservation NGO, has a 20-year agreement with Zambia’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW) to co-manage Kafue National Park. Running through the heart of the park is the Kafue River, which is crucial for Zambia&#8217;s economy and people. But it faces threats from pollution, including a major acid spill hundreds of kilometers upstream near the city of Kitwe, and from overfishing outside the safety of the park. At least half of the area contained within nine Game Management Areas (GMAs) that surround the park has been occupied by small-scale farmers, driven there partly by the impact of climate change. But significant intact habitat remains, and recovering wildlife is beneficial to the communities that live around the park. Co-managed by Zambia’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife and conservation NGO African Parks, Kafue NP is home to up to 22 different species of antelopes, the highest diversity in Africa, more than 500 species of birds and at least 2,400 hippos in the river from which the park takes its name. In 2026, park authorities plan to reintroduce black rhinos (Diceros bicornis), whose population was wiped out in the 1980s. At Chunga, the headquarters of Kafue National Park, Mongabay met Craig Reid, the park manager, and spoke with him about the work AP and the DNPW are doing to safeguard this biodiversity hotspot. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. A drone shot of a section of the Kafue National Park, near its southern boundary. The park&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/wildlife-tourists-on-the-up-in-zambias-kafue-park-qa-with-manager-craig-reid/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/wildlife-tourists-on-the-up-in-zambias-kafue-park-qa-with-manager-craig-reid/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302486</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Croc on a rock’: How a group of explorers suffers for science</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/croc-on-a-rock-how-a-group-of-explorers-suffers-for-science/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/croc-on-a-rock-how-a-group-of-explorers-suffers-for-science/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Jul 2025 15:40:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/14152837/Ross_canoe_portage-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302403</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Kafue River Transect]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Degraded Lands, DNA, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Governance, Monitoring, Research, Rivers, Tropics, Wetlands, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A crocodile flips over on the river’s surface right in front of the canoe, then disappears into the white water frothing through the narrow channel. It’s too late to stop, but fortunately the croc (Crocodylus niloticus) is just as alarmed by the intruders as they are by it, and the canoe passes quickly over the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A crocodile flips over on the river’s surface right in front of the canoe, then disappears into the white water frothing through the narrow channel. It’s too late to stop, but fortunately the croc (Crocodylus niloticus) is just as alarmed by the intruders as they are by it, and the canoe passes quickly over the spot, alighting safely alongside some rocks. The Kafue River, in central Zambia, is impassable at this point. “There’s quite a big drop here that we have to do somewhere,” says Mike Ross, the expedition leader. The rapids are flanked by conglomerate rocks: small pebbles cemented together, some of them bleached pink as a hippo’s belly by the sun and water. To the uninitiated, carrying the canoes over this large, uneven jumble of boulders doesn’t look remotely possible. Boat captain Mfundisi Nowake and research assistant Katongo Kampamba carry a canoe across boulders at Mayukuyuku rapids. Image by Ryan Truscott for Mongabay. The maneuver, known as portage, is nothing new to Ross. Earlier this year, on an expedition down Angola’s Cubango River, he and colleagues from The Wilderness Project (TWP) had to carry their gear and canoes over 26 rapids. This current expedition began its journey at the source of Zambia’s Lunga River, one of the Kafue’s major tributaries, more than 600 kilometers (373 miles) to the north, and the team has already been on the water for a month. Weary but well-drilled, they get ready to lift the five boats out of the water. At these&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/croc-on-a-rock-how-a-group-of-explorers-suffers-for-science/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/croc-on-a-rock-how-a-group-of-explorers-suffers-for-science/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302403</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A success story at Zambia’s leopard hotspot: Interview with ecologist Chisomo M’hango</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-success-story-at-zambias-leopard-hotspot-interview-with-ecologist-chisomo-mhango/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-success-story-at-zambias-leopard-hotspot-interview-with-ecologist-chisomo-mhango/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Jul 2025 11:39:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/11103724/Chisomo_QNA_leopard-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302244</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Kafue River Transect]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Big Cats, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Degraded Lands, DNA, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Governance, Interviews, Leopards, Monitoring, Research, Rivers, Tropics, Wetlands, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Chisomo M’hango is a trainee field ecologist at Musekese Conservation (MC), a nonprofit whose research station is located deep inside the Musekese-Lumbeya section of Zambia’s Kafue National Park. M’hango and her colleagues have captured images of 95 individual leopards — or 9 leopards per 100 square kilometers (38.6 square miles) in some parts of the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Chisomo M’hango is a trainee field ecologist at Musekese Conservation (MC), a nonprofit whose research station is located deep inside the Musekese-Lumbeya section of Zambia’s Kafue National Park. M’hango and her colleagues have captured images of 95 individual leopards — or 9 leopards per 100 square kilometers (38.6 square miles) in some parts of the study area. It represents one of the highest densities of this vulnerable species in Southern Africa. Leopards aren’t the only carnivores studied by staff members like M’hango. Musekese-Lumbeya is home to four other charismatic carnivores — spotted hyenas, African wild dogs, lions and cheetahs. Camera trap surveys, monitoring of individual animals, and citizen science projects that M’hango and MC are helping to run in collaboration with other research partners are providing promising signs on the recovery of leopards, wild dogs and lions. Mongabay spoke to M’hango at MC’s research center on the banks of the Kafue River in late May 2025. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. Chisomo M’hango conducting fieldwork in the Musekese Lumbeya section of Kafue National Park. Image courtesy of Musekese Conservation. Mongabay: I understand that this area of Kafue National Park is an important leopard stronghold. Why is that? Chisomo M’hango: We have an ongoing project looking into this. We started our camera trapping efforts in 2022 to establish baseline estimates of leopard populations. We are now at a stage where we have enough data to be able to start looking into what variables are creating such an&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-success-story-at-zambias-leopard-hotspot-interview-with-ecologist-chisomo-mhango/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-success-story-at-zambias-leopard-hotspot-interview-with-ecologist-chisomo-mhango/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302244</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>From cattle to crayfish, human pressures mount on Zambia’s Kafue River</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/from-cattle-to-crayfish-human-pressures-mount-on-zambias-kafue-river/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/from-cattle-to-crayfish-human-pressures-mount-on-zambias-kafue-river/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jul 2025 14:51:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/11143322/RT_Kafue_canoes_woodland-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302279</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Kafue River Transect]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Degraded Lands, DNA, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Governance, Monitoring, Research, Rivers, Tropics, Wetlands, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KAFUE, Zambia — “Three cattle on the left, 20 elephants on the right,” shouts the expedition leader from the bow seat of the first of five canoes snaking along a stretch of the Kafue River in central Zambia. The cattle are grazing near one of the many small farms and settlements that dot the river’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KAFUE, Zambia — “Three cattle on the left, 20 elephants on the right,” shouts the expedition leader from the bow seat of the first of five canoes snaking along a stretch of the Kafue River in central Zambia. The cattle are grazing near one of the many small farms and settlements that dot the river’s southern bank. On the northern bank lies the Lunga-Luswishi Game Management Area (GMA). Originally designated as buffer zones between populated areas and Kafue National Park, at least half of the area within the nine GMAs has now been settled and converted to farmland and homesteads, according to park officials. At the front of the lead canoe sits expedition leader and biologist Mike Ross, binoculars around his neck. He calls out observations, which are recorded by fellow scientists Lauren Searle and Katongo Kampamba, who briefly lower their paddles to log the data while their respective boat captains, brothers Vincent and Earnest Ifunga, continue to steer and propel the second and third canoes downstream. The team records fishing camps, nets and traps along the banks; farming activity and people traveling on foot or bicycle; boats, water pumps, buildings, invasive plants — and wildlife: mammals, reptiles and birds. Grey crowned cranes (Balearica regulorum) gather at the edge of an island in the middle of the river. Waterbirds, and others like white-fronted bee-eaters that need steep river banks in which to build their nesting colonies, are a key component of the data the team collects to measure the ecological&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/from-cattle-to-crayfish-human-pressures-mount-on-zambias-kafue-river/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/from-cattle-to-crayfish-human-pressures-mount-on-zambias-kafue-river/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302279</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mining spill highlights need to protect Zambia’s vital Kafue River &#038; its fish</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/mining-spill-highlights-need-to-protect-zambias-vital-kafue-river-its-fish/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/mining-spill-highlights-need-to-protect-zambias-vital-kafue-river-its-fish/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jul 2025 12:04:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/09134254/KNG_fish_net_placement-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302103</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Kafue River Transect]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Degraded Lands, DNA, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Governance, Monitoring, Research, Rivers, Tropics, Wetlands, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[-14.485383519365906, 26.580594798057326]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KAFUE NATIONAL PARK, Zambia – Biologist Mike Ross, balanced in a canoe beneath a star-filled sky in central Zambia, slaps the water with a net attached to a wooden pole and draws it toward him. In the net are several small silver fish. At dawn the next morning, as three snowy white cattle egrets (Bubulcus [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KAFUE NATIONAL PARK, Zambia – Biologist Mike Ross, balanced in a canoe beneath a star-filled sky in central Zambia, slaps the water with a net attached to a wooden pole and draws it toward him. In the net are several small silver fish. At dawn the next morning, as three snowy white cattle egrets (Bubulcus ibis) glide through the mist hanging low over the Kafue River, Ross and fellow scientists Lauren Searle and Katongo Kampamba identify the catch: among them, a banded tilapia (Tilapia sparrmanii), an orangefin minnow (Enteromius eutaenia) and a silver robber (Micralestes acutidens). All three are native to the Kafue — Zambia’s longest river — and documenting them contributes to a growing database of the river’s biodiversity, now under increasing threat. In February, a dam holding acidic mine waste near Kitwe, hundreds of kilometers upstream from the where the trio of scientists now work near Kafue National Park, failed. It released more than 50 million liters (13.2 million gallons) of acidic, heavy metal-laden sludge into a Kafue tributary. As the toxic plume moved downstream, it left at least one hippo dead, as well as numerous crocodiles, fish and monitor lizards. Zambia Air Force helicopters dumped lime into the river near the spill and upstream of the park in an effort to neutralize the acid. Biologist Katongo Kampamba identifies a fish caught at one of the team’s campsites along the Kafue river, while TWP’s Kyle Gordon removes a clipping from one of the fish’s fins for DNA analysis.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/mining-spill-highlights-need-to-protect-zambias-vital-kafue-river-its-fish/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302103</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil bets on macaúba palm to make renewable diesel and aviation biofuel</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/brazil-bets-on-macauba-palm-to-make-renewable-diesel-and-aviation-biofuel/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/brazil-bets-on-macauba-palm-to-make-renewable-diesel-and-aviation-biofuel/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 May 2025 17:23:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/21140601/macauba-palm-fruits-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299415</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Alternative Energy, Biodiesel, Bioenergy, Biofuels, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Drivers Of Deforestation, Emission Reduction, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Policy, Governance, Land Use Change, Palm Oil, Plantations, Politics, Pollution, Research, Soy, Transportation, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Macaúba palm, also known as macaw palm, grows all over the Americas. Now, a drive by the Brazilian government to incentivize the decarbonization of the transportation and aviation sectors has resulted in numerous companies turning to this palm as a potential feedstock to be refined into liquid biofuels and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) across the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Macaúba palm, also known as macaw palm, grows all over the Americas. Now, a drive by the Brazilian government to incentivize the decarbonization of the transportation and aviation sectors has resulted in numerous companies turning to this palm as a potential feedstock to be refined into liquid biofuels and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) across the Latin American nation. On paper, macaúba palm appears to be a miracle plant: It thrives on degraded, unproductive land, so won’t compete with food crops or cause new deforestation, and, in testing, it has yields eight to ten times higher than soy, depending on whom you ask. Soybeans already feed Brazil’s vast biofuels industry but, along with sugarcane, soy is tied to environmental harm, especially deforestation and CO2 emissions, and environmental justice issues. According to proponents, macaúba promises to sidestep these issues; it’s already dubbed as “green gold” and “rainforest-friendly palm oil.” But there are significant environmental and financial risk too, say critics. Macaúba’s promotion closely parallels past hype from investors and entrepreneurs who backed a would-be biofuel called jatropha, so offers a cautionary tale. In the 2000s, jatropha — also hailed as “green gold” — ticked many of the same boxes and its boom saw dozens of projects planting the energy crop across the tropics, only to then fail spectacularly, as it proved far more challenging to grow than claimed. The effort cost millions of dollars, and spawned widespread accusations of land grabbing, while resulting in land-use change and biodiversity loss in tropical countries.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/brazil-bets-on-macauba-palm-to-make-renewable-diesel-and-aviation-biofuel/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/brazil-bets-on-macauba-palm-to-make-renewable-diesel-and-aviation-biofuel/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299415</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rwanda’s Olivier Nsengimana inspires protection for gray crowned cranes in East Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/rwandas-olivier-nsengimana-inspires-protection-for-gray-crowned-cranes-in-east-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/rwandas-olivier-nsengimana-inspires-protection-for-gray-crowned-cranes-in-east-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Apr 2025 19:52:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Musinguzi Blanshe]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/29184334/Olivier_Nsengimana_Fieldwork_Headshot_Olivier_with_Researcher_during_Rugezi_Biodiversity_Survey_Credit_James_Rooney_NGS-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298353</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Rwanda, Tropics, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Policy, Governance, Water, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Just 10 years ago, spotting a gray crowned crane in Rwanda’s wetlands had become a rarity. These elegant birds — tall and statuesque, with golden plumes fanning from their heads — once flourished across East Africa. But by the middle of the last decade, their numbers in Rwanda had collapsed drastically. “It shocked me,” says [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Just 10 years ago, spotting a gray crowned crane in Rwanda’s wetlands had become a rarity. These elegant birds — tall and statuesque, with golden plumes fanning from their heads — once flourished across East Africa. But by the middle of the last decade, their numbers in Rwanda had collapsed drastically. “It shocked me,” says Olivier Nsengimana, a Rwandan veterinarian and conservationist who founded the Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association (RWCA). He says a 2017 census counted fewer than 500 of the birds across the country. “We had more cranes in people’s homes than we had in the wild.” Faced with habitat loss, capture for illegal trade as pets, and other threats, the gray crowned crane (Balearica regulorum) was quietly slipping toward local extirpation in Rwanda. A similar story was unfolding in neighboring countries, including Burundi and Uganda, and elsewhere in the cranes’ range, which extends across East and Southern Africa. In 2012, the cranes were assessed as endangered by the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. Gray crowned cranes: Olivier Nsengimana says nearly 80% of Rwanda’s crane population over the past 50 years. Image courtesy of RWCA. To protect cranes, protect wetlands The survival of these birds rests on the preservation of wetlands. Across Africa, vast areas of wetlands are being lost, frequently drained and converted into farmland or to make way for peri-urban expansion. Nearly 50% of these ecologically vital landscapes were lost over the past 50 years. “[Cranes] find food and breed in wetlands,” Nsengimana says. “In five&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/rwandas-olivier-nsengimana-inspires-protection-for-gray-crowned-cranes-in-east-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298353</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia’s peatlands face growing flood risks amid widespread degradation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/indonesias-peatlands-face-growing-flood-risks-amid-widespread-degradation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/indonesias-peatlands-face-growing-flood-risks-amid-widespread-degradation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Apr 2025 11:28:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/07111117/Banjir_Kalsel_2021-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297154</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Papua, South Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Disasters, Ecosystems, Environment, Fires, Flooding, Forests, Landscape Restoration, Peatlands, Restoration, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Nearly half of Indonesia’s peatlands are vulnerable to flooding due to degradation caused by unchecked exploitation, with 6 million hectares (15 million acres) — an area twice the size of Belgium — classified as highly vulnerable, according to a new report. The report, by peatland watchdog Pantau Gambut, examined three peatland-rich regions of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Nearly half of Indonesia’s peatlands are vulnerable to flooding due to degradation caused by unchecked exploitation, with 6 million hectares (15 million acres) — an area twice the size of Belgium — classified as highly vulnerable, according to a new report. The report, by peatland watchdog Pantau Gambut, examined three peatland-rich regions of Indonesia: the island of Sumatra; the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo, known as Kalimantan; and the Indonesian half of the island of New Guinea, known as Papua. Each region has distinct topographical and climate characteristics. Kalimantan features lowland coastal peat with high rainfall. Sumatra has both inland and coastal peatlands. Papua is the most complex, with extremely high rainfall and peatlands spanning inland, coastal and mountainous areas. The report found that at least 25% of Indonesia&#8217;s peatlands are highly vulnerable to flooding, with another 18% classified as moderately vulnerable. This means 43% of the country’s 24 million hectares (59 million acres) of peatlands are at risk, while only 57% have low vulnerability. Peatlands, as part of wetland ecosystems, are naturally waterlogged and capable of absorbing far more water than mineral soils. Peat can retain 100-1,300% of its dry weight in water, while mineral soils typically absorb only 20-30%. However, once degraded, peatlands lose their ability to retain water effectively. This phenomenon, known as irreversible drying, turns standing water into uncontrolled runoff, leading to flooding. “The floods occurring are not a natural cycle commonly found in peatland ecosystems,” said Wahyu Perdana, advocacy and campaign&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/indonesias-peatlands-face-growing-flood-risks-amid-widespread-degradation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/indonesias-peatlands-face-growing-flood-risks-amid-widespread-degradation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297154</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>On a São Paulo eco-farm, Brazil’s landless movement makes its case for occupation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/on-a-sao-paulo-eco-farm-brazils-landless-movement-makes-its-case-for-occupation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/on-a-sao-paulo-eco-farm-brazils-landless-movement-makes-its-case-for-occupation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2025 14:25:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Peter Speetjens]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/30140909/43113041065_d355bacbf0_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293573</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Agroecology, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Environment, Farming, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Landscape Restoration, Politics, and Social Conflict]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Comuna da Terra Irmã Alberta, a small oasis of green fields and trees, sits on the outskirts of São Paulo and is home to 65 small farmers who help supply Brazil’s largest city with fruits and vegetables free of agrichemicals. The enclave, founded in 2002, is named after Alberta Girardi, an Italian nun and human [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Comuna da Terra Irmã Alberta, a small oasis of green fields and trees, sits on the outskirts of São Paulo and is home to 65 small farmers who help supply Brazil’s largest city with fruits and vegetables free of agrichemicals. The enclave, founded in 2002, is named after Alberta Girardi, an Italian nun and human rights activist who for half a century fought for Brazil’s poor and landless people. She died in 2018 at the age of 97. “I knew Sister Alberta through the Catholic Church and her work in the east of São Paulo, where I used to live,” says community member Roseãngela Filomena, a silver-haired 62-year-old with a generous smile. “She introduced me to the Landless Workers’ Movement [MST] and encouraged me to take part in a rural occupation.”  MST was founded in 1984 by peasants and progressive members of the Catholic Church, aimed at pushing for fairer land distribution and drastic agrarian reform across Brazil.  MST members frequently participate in marches, advocating for agrarian reform. Image: Luiz Fernando, courtesy of MST_Flickr. With some 1.5 million members, MST is currently one of the biggest and most controversial social movements in Brazil, as it seeks to achieve its goals by occupying idle-lying rural lands — an act many see as criminal. MST says it attempts to force the state to implement Article 184 of the 1988 constitution, which requires the state to expropriate a rural property “which is not performing its social function, against prior and fair compensation.”  In&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/on-a-sao-paulo-eco-farm-brazils-landless-movement-makes-its-case-for-occupation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293573</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Uganda, a women-led reforestation initiative fights flooding, erosion</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/in-uganda-a-women-led-reforestation-initiative-fights-flooding-erosion/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/in-uganda-a-women-led-reforestation-initiative-fights-flooding-erosion/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jan 2025 20:35:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Innocent Kiiza]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/23202249/JanetNyakiruAbwoli_KaseseDistrictUganda_InnocentKiiza-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293338</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community Development, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Degraded Lands, Ecosystems, food security, Forests, Landscape Restoration, Reforestation, Restoration, Solutions, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KASESE DISTRICT, Uganda — In western Uganda’s Kasese district, where the Rwenzori Mountains meet the sprawling plains of Queen Elizabeth National Park, Janet Nyakairu Abwoli is on a mission to rejuvenate her land and empower her community. Farmers here long enjoyed fertile soil and predictable weather, but over the past 20 years, rainfall has become [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[KASESE DISTRICT, Uganda — In western Uganda’s Kasese district, where the Rwenzori Mountains meet the sprawling plains of Queen Elizabeth National Park, Janet Nyakairu Abwoli is on a mission to rejuvenate her land and empower her community. Farmers here long enjoyed fertile soil and predictable weather, but over the past 20 years, rainfall has become increasingly erratic. Frequent flooding has caused the district’s principal river to flood, uprooting homes and washing away fields. Abwoli’s answer to this is to plant trees. Standing in the dappled shade of a grove of young Ficus, she smiles and gestures towards the hillside. “We don’t just plant trees,” she says. “We plant hope.” A mature Ficus tree towers over Janet Nyakiru Abwoli&#8217;s home in Kasese District, Uganda. Evelyn Mugume, the environment officer for Kasese municipality, says that rainfall patterns in the district have changed. “We used to expect rains by August 15, but now they start in mid-September. Floods have become a common phenomenon, even in areas without rivers, washing away crops, homes, and livelihoods,” she tells Mongabay. “The temperatures, seasons, and patterns of rainfall and drought have all shifted noticeably. In the past 10 to 20 years, we have seen prolonged droughts and intense, shorter rainfalls that are insufficient for crop yield and production.” In response to this new situation, the Ugandan government and civil society organizations have promoted planting trees as a solution. They are encouraging people in Kasese district to plant native species, which are more resistant to pests and diseases&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/in-uganda-a-women-led-reforestation-initiative-fights-flooding-erosion/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293338</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Coal gasification, an old technology, is quietly expanding across Asia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/coal-gasification-an-old-technology-is-quietly-expanding-across-asia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/coal-gasification-an-old-technology-is-quietly-expanding-across-asia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Jan 2025 21:15:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nithin Coca]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/20160840/16095570567_a6b43346bc_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293159</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, China, East Asia, India, Indonesia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Climate, Climate Change, Coal, Degraded Lands, Divestment, Economics, Energy, Environment, Finance, Fossil Fuels, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Human Rights, Land Rights, Mining, Politics, Pollution, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In Nagasaki prefecture, on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, J-Power, the operator of the aging Matsushima coal-fired power plant, has an idea to keep the unit operating despite the country’s no-coal pledge: gasification. “Japan considers coal gasification a form of abatement, and thus in line with their commitments to phase out unabated coal power,” [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In Nagasaki prefecture, on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, J-Power, the operator of the aging Matsushima coal-fired power plant, has an idea to keep the unit operating despite the country’s no-coal pledge: gasification. “Japan considers coal gasification a form of abatement, and thus in line with their commitments to phase out unabated coal power,” said Evan Gach, program coordinator at Kiko Network, a Japanese NGO. “But in reality, it’s a loophole.” The technology to turn coal into a synthetic gas, to be used in power generation or for industrial use, has been around for decades. But in recent years, the coal industry has revived it as an alternative to conventional fossil fuels like natural gas and petroleum, with projects planned in Indonesia, China and India. While gasification can result in less air pollution than conventional coal burning due the ability to separate pollutants during liquefaction, studies published by the Wilson Center and international researchers indicate that expanding coal gasification would result in significantly greater greenhouse gas emissions than relying on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or natural gas, due to coal’s higher carbon intensity. Another concern is that demand for coal could also result in greater methane emissions from continued or increased exploitation of Indonesian, Chinese or Indian coal mines. Across Asia, climate advocates warn that loopholes are allowing for a technology that, despite industry claims, is seen by scientists and experts as both polluting and costly. “The fact that coal gasification is an energy- and emissions-intensive process means that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/coal-gasification-an-old-technology-is-quietly-expanding-across-asia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293159</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil natural landscape degradation drives toxic metal buildup in bats</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/brazil-natural-landscape-degradation-drives-toxic-metal-buildup-in-bats/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/brazil-natural-landscape-degradation-drives-toxic-metal-buildup-in-bats/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Dec 2024 20:22:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/11103027/4-pale-spear-nosed-bat-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291442</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest, Brazil, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Bats, Biodiversity, Chemicals, Conservation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Environment, Extinction, forest degradation, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Habitat Degradation, Monocultures, Plantations, Pollinators, Pollution, Rainforests, Research, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Bats play a key role in maintaining the health of forest ecosystems as pollinators, seed dispersers and insect pest controllers. But according to new research, bats and the ecosystem services they offer are under threat in Brazil’s heavily fragmented Atlantic Forest biome, where natural lands have been largely converted for agriculture and mining, degradation that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Bats play a key role in maintaining the health of forest ecosystems as pollinators, seed dispersers and insect pest controllers. But according to new research, bats and the ecosystem services they offer are under threat in Brazil’s heavily fragmented Atlantic Forest biome, where natural lands have been largely converted for agriculture and mining, degradation that is increasing wildlife exposure to toxic heavy metals. Scientists at Brazil’s Santa Cruz State University plucked hair samples from bats in the state of Bahia across a patchwork of landscapes — including cattle pasture, eucalyptus and coffee monocultures and cacao agroforest — then tested them for three metals: lead, manganese and copper. “We found that bats living in areas where the landscape is dominated by intensive agriculture or grasslands have higher levels of toxic metals, particularly lead and manganese,” says Julián Barillaro, the study leader and a conservation ecology researcher at Santa Cruz State University. This, he says, is likely due to use of agrochemicals and leaded fuel. Reduced natural habitat also likely increased exposure. Other factors, such as bat species and sex, didn’t affect bioaccumulation, leading the authors to believe that the bats came into direct contact with these heavy metals by resting on contaminated leaves or trees and then grooming. The exposure levels within different monocultures requires further study, Barrilaro says, as some bat species are highly mobile and could be moving from crop to crop. By comparison, the researchers found that bats in cacao agroforestry areas with higher natural forest cover had&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/brazil-natural-landscape-degradation-drives-toxic-metal-buildup-in-bats/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291442</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Land use change impacting seven planetary boundaries, solutions urgent, say scientists</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/land-use-change-impacting-seven-planetary-boundaries-solutions-urgent-say-scientists/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/land-use-change-impacting-seven-planetary-boundaries-solutions-urgent-say-scientists/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Dec 2024 15:51:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/02123007/chainsaw-tree-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291022</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Cattle, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Environment, Farming, forest degradation, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, Industrial Agriculture, Land Use Change, Planetary Boundaries, Politics, Pollution, Ranching, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Swift action must be taken to address human-caused land-system change and land degradation, which is now having wide ranging impacts on planetary health and human health, according to a first of its kind report linking the way land is being managed to negative impacts on seven of nine planetary boundaries. Crucially, sustainable land management could [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Swift action must be taken to address human-caused land-system change and land degradation, which is now having wide ranging impacts on planetary health and human health, according to a first of its kind report linking the way land is being managed to negative impacts on seven of nine planetary boundaries. Crucially, sustainable land management could prove pivotal in reversing an increasingly concerning trend that is pushing the Earth beyond it’s “safe operating space for humanity,” says the scientific report. Unsustainable agriculture, urbanization and deforestation are key driving forces behind climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, the authors state. Those activities have already led to approximately 15 million km² of degraded land globally — an area larger in size than Antarctica. That figure is expanding by around one million km2 annually, according to the report. The researchers reviewed 350 scientific papers and data sources to assess how land use change and land degradation impacts and interacts with seven “land-based” planetary boundaries. The planetary boundaries framework sets “safe operating limits” crucial to Earth system functioning and human wellbeing. “The aim of the planetary boundaries framework is to provide a measure for achieving human wellbeing within Earth’s ecological limits,” said Johan Rockström, an author of the report and director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. He led the development of the framework in 2009. “We stand at a precipice and must decide whether to step back and take transformative action, or continue on a path of irreversible environmental change.” Forest abutting&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/land-use-change-impacting-seven-planetary-boundaries-solutions-urgent-say-scientists/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291022</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Huge deforested areas in the tropics could regenerate naturally, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/huge-deforested-areas-in-the-tropics-could-regenerate-naturally-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/huge-deforested-areas-in-the-tropics-could-regenerate-naturally-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Nov 2024 17:48:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/22095813/bernd-dittrich-cKDCJpXe6lI-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290474</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Ecosystems, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Landscape Restoration, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Reforestation, Restoration, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Cleared or degraded tropical forests around the world covering a combined area larger than Saudi Arabia could regrow on its own, according to new research published Oct. 30 in the journal Nature. Restoring 30% of the world’s degraded land by 2030 is a target of the 2022 Global Biodiversity Framework, which 196 countries have signed. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Cleared or degraded tropical forests around the world covering a combined area larger than Saudi Arabia could regrow on its own, according to new research published Oct. 30 in the journal Nature. Restoring 30% of the world’s degraded land by 2030 is a target of the 2022 Global Biodiversity Framework, which 196 countries have signed. Much of the current focus centers on planting trees in these areas. But restoration also includes allowing forests to recover on their own, a process scientists call natural regeneration, which can be more cost-effective than tree planting in some situations. The Nature study suggests the ecological conditions are right for about 215 million hectares (531 million acres) of land in the tropics to regrow into forests. Tropical forests top the list for restoration because once they grow back, they provide habitat for a multitude of species and at the same time keep carbon out of the atmosphere where it would accelerate climate change. If all of the areas identified in the study grew back, it would pull 23.4 billion metric tons of carbon from the atmosphere in a 30-year period, the analysis found. That’s the equivalent of more than twice as much carbon dioxide as the world emitted for energy in 2023. Study co-author Matt Fagan, associate professor in geography and environmental systems at the University of Maryland, said the paper’s aim isn’t to present tree planting and natural regeneration as an “either/or” choice. Both approaches have their place, he said. But tree planting can&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/huge-deforested-areas-in-the-tropics-could-regenerate-naturally-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-290474</doi>				</item>
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