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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/disasters/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Fri, 06 Nov 2026 20:39:48 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Disasters</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/disasters/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Drought driven by climate change is redefining how disease spreads, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/drought-driven-by-climate-change-is-redefining-how-disease-spreads-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/drought-driven-by-climate-change-is-redefining-how-disease-spreads-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Nov 2026 16:16:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Adam Litchkofski]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/11/06153125/3-forest-dwelling-mosquitoes--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=335194</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Global, and Senegal]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Disasters, Diseases, Drought, El Nino, Environment, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Impact Of Climate Change, Planetary Boundaries, Planetary Health, Public Health, Research, and Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As climate change intensifies, drought is widening globally, causing alterations in water-dependent pathogen patterns, leaving scientists scrambling to understand how infectious disease transmission is evolving. They’ll need to act quickly to predict and prepare for future outbreaks: In 2025, annual drought affected approximately 30% of the globe’s land surface, a near doubling of area since [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As climate change intensifies, drought is widening globally, causing alterations in water-dependent pathogen patterns, leaving scientists scrambling to understand how infectious disease transmission is evolving. They’ll need to act quickly to predict and prepare for future outbreaks: In 2025, annual drought affected approximately 30% of the globe’s land surface, a near doubling of area since 2000. Currently, one child dies every 90 seconds from a waterborne disease. Many species of microorganisms are known to infect humans via waterborne illnesses or via hosts like mosquitoes that need water to reproduce. So, it was long thought that when drought shrank or dried up water sources, infectious disease would decrease. Scientists now know this isn’t true, and a recent paper sheds light on the ecological processes defining this drought-disease paradox. “When people think about drought, they think about water shortage, wildfire, loss of agriculture, et cetera,” study co-author Pieter Johnson, a disease ecologist at the University of Colorado Boulder in the U.S. told Mongabay in a phone interview. “But drought is also influencing how plants and animals interact, including how they interact with parasites,” and also which among those pathogens might be winners or losers as drought spreads. A typical river during drought: As a waterbody shrinks, proximity of animals and microorganisms is increased, aiding the transmission of infectious disease — an effect defined by the drought-disease paradox. Image by Arushdeep Singh via Unsplash. The review paper published in the journal Trends in Ecology &amp; Evolution examined 100 previous studies focusing solely on&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/drought-driven-by-climate-change-is-redefining-how-disease-spreads-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/drought-driven-by-climate-change-is-redefining-how-disease-spreads-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-335194</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nigeria’s shifting rainfall wreaks havoc with a beloved edible green, the waterleaf plant</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/nigerias-shifting-rainfall-wreaks-havoc-with-a-beloved-edible-green-the-waterleaf-plant/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/nigerias-shifting-rainfall-wreaks-havoc-with-a-beloved-edible-green-the-waterleaf-plant/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Nov 2026 21:40:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kingsley Charles]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/11/03094424/52639416165_391e83e150_6k-waterleaf-plant-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=334731</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Nigeria, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fellows, Food, food security, Impact Of Climate Change, Natural Resources, Nutrition, Plants, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is Part 1 in a two-part series on Nigerian waterleaf. Part 2 will be published soon. “These are the ones that survived the rain,” Enono Koka said, gesturing at a patch of short, spindly waterleaf plants across her large farm in downtown Calabar, in southern Nigeria’s Cross River. It was an unseasonably sunny morning [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is Part 1 in a two-part series on Nigerian waterleaf. Part 2 will be published soon. “These are the ones that survived the rain,” Enono Koka said, gesturing at a patch of short, spindly waterleaf plants across her large farm in downtown Calabar, in southern Nigeria’s Cross River. It was an unseasonably sunny morning in early October, and the 33-year-old was harvesting some of the vegetables for breakfast the next day. Most of the crops, she explained, had perished following days of relentless rainfall between August and September. “So I&#8217;m only left with these and I&#8217;m keeping them to eat with my family in the house,” she said. Much like Koka&#8217;s experience, the months since July have been painfully rough for Joy David Okon&#8217;s nearby waterleaf farm in Calabar. Before leaving town in September to visit her son, the sexagenarian farmer had sprayed some manure around her farmland to help enrich the freshly planted stems. Then came the disappointment. Her once-flourishing vegetable garden had turned into a marshland thick with weeds by the time she returned. “See the batch I planted in August. See how they keep looking scanty because of the plenty of rains this year,” she said, pointing at a sunken bed of shriveled waterleaf. Taken together, these events hint at the mounting strain on Nigeria&#8217;s waterleaf growing cycle brought on by shifts in rainfall patterns. Despite declining annual rainfall in recent years, persistent downpours in coastal cities like Lagos and Calabar have resulted in frequent episodes&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/nigerias-shifting-rainfall-wreaks-havoc-with-a-beloved-edible-green-the-waterleaf-plant/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/nigerias-shifting-rainfall-wreaks-havoc-with-a-beloved-edible-green-the-waterleaf-plant/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-334731</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Water rationing in Recife, Brazil, falls along racial lines</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/water-rationing-in-recife-brazil-falls-along-racial-lines/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/water-rationing-in-recife-brazil-falls-along-racial-lines/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Nov 2026 19:26:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Adriana AmâncioÁthila GalindoYamini Benites]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/11/04061448/Water_tap_Cacique_Chicao_settlement_Recife_Ibura_neighborhood_Yamini_Benites_B-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=334914</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Science, Conflict, Conservation, Culture, Development, Disasters, Drinking Water, Earth Science, Environment, Extreme Weather, Flooding, Gender, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Infrastructure, Landslides, Natural Resources, Public Health, Racism, Research, Science, Social Conflict, Water, Water Scarcity, and Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[RECIFE, Brazil — In Ibura de Baixo, a neighborhood tucked into the South Zone region of Recife, Northeast Brazil, 27-year-old Jeyne Araújo’s day begins well before dawn. At 4 a.m., while the Pernambuco state capital sleeps, she scrapes buckets and drums across the floor outside her home. The sound marks the start of a daily [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[RECIFE, Brazil — In Ibura de Baixo, a neighborhood tucked into the South Zone region of Recife, Northeast Brazil, 27-year-old Jeyne Araújo’s day begins well before dawn. At 4 a.m., while the Pernambuco state capital sleeps, she scrapes buckets and drums across the floor outside her home. The sound marks the start of a daily scramble against scarcity: With running water flowing for only six hours a day, she must stockpile every drop before the taps run dry. The water Araújo manages to collect is far from the clean supply one would expect from a public utility. It smells strongly of chemicals and is too unpleasant to drink or cook with immediately. It froths into a thick, soapy white foam as it splashes into the bucket. “It arrives so full of chlorine that you can’t do anything with it,” she tells Mongabay. The poor quality of the tap water has taken a serious toll on her family’s health, says Araújo. For six months, her 9-year-old son, Wesley, suffered constant bouts of vomiting and stomach pain. Doctors at Recife’s Areias Hospital traced the intestinal infection back to porridge prepared with tap water. To keep her son safe, Araújo now uses part of her monthly Bolsa Família, a government social welfare program benefit of 950 reais (around $180), to buy jugs of bottled water at 6 reais ($1.12) each — an expense that further strains her already meager budget. Inside the house, stacks of dirty dishes fill the sink, a visible measure&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/water-rationing-in-recife-brazil-falls-along-racial-lines/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/water-rationing-in-recife-brazil-falls-along-racial-lines/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-334914</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Extreme heat no longer confined to summer, extending health risks, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/extreme-heat-no-longer-confined-to-summer-extending-health-risks-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/extreme-heat-no-longer-confined-to-summer-extending-health-risks-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Nov 2026 20:16:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nick Ruggia]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/11/02155236/1-A_hot_day_in_Paris-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=334688</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Disasters, Environment, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Heatwave, Impact Of Climate Change, Planetary Boundaries, Planetary Health, Public Health, Research, and Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There was a time when, across large swathes of the world, the seasons fed into each other in a relatively predictable cycle of warmer and colder weather. In temperate nations, frigid winter thawed into spring. Spring bloomed into summer, where extreme heat beat down until cooler weather provided autumn’s relief. No longer. A recent study [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There was a time when, across large swathes of the world, the seasons fed into each other in a relatively predictable cycle of warmer and colder weather. In temperate nations, frigid winter thawed into spring. Spring bloomed into summer, where extreme heat beat down until cooler weather provided autumn’s relief. No longer. A recent study of four-plus decades of global weather records found that these seasonal norms have been replaced by an expanded summertime with a dangerous surge in seasonally inappropriate extreme heat days, extending into spring and fall. “We already know that [heat] extremes are becoming more frequent. They’re becoming more intense. They’re lasting longer,” said lead author Casey Ivanovich, a climatologist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in the U.S. “We find that over the last 45 years, both extreme dry and extreme humid heat have expanded in their seasons over about half the globe.” Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., is experiencing an earlier wet heat season and a later dry heat season, which can’t be explained by the current research. While extreme heat days are increasing in both spring and fall globally, researchers note that these shifts vary across regions. Image by Amine Abassir via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). The team, including Ivanovich, Benjamin Cook of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and Sonali Shukla McDermid of New York University in the U.S., isolated the hottest 5% of days occurring around the globe using data from both NASA and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather forecasts. They&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/extreme-heat-no-longer-confined-to-summer-extending-health-risks-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/extreme-heat-no-longer-confined-to-summer-extending-health-risks-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-334688</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Experts warn of long-term health risks as Indonesia’s wildfire haze takes a growing toll</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/experts-warn-of-long-term-health-risks-as-indonesias-wildfire-haze-takes-a-growing-toll/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/experts-warn-of-long-term-health-risks-as-indonesias-wildfire-haze-takes-a-growing-toll/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Nov 2026 08:31:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Yenni Kwok]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/10131647/warga-Kalsel-saat-kabut-asap-1200x800-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=334640</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Malaysia, Singapore, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Climate, Disasters, El Nino, Extreme Weather, Fires, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, One Health, Peatlands, Planetary Health, Pollution, and Public Health]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Michael’s 20-month-old daughter began coughing and had shortness of breath in early October, as thick haze from wildfires blanketed Balikpapan, the capital of Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province. He and his wife took the toddler to a private hospital, where she was diagnosed with pneumonia. An X-ray showed an infiltrate in the upper part [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Michael’s 20-month-old daughter began coughing and had shortness of breath in early October, as thick haze from wildfires blanketed Balikpapan, the capital of Indonesia’s East Kalimantan province. He and his wife took the toddler to a private hospital, where she was diagnosed with pneumonia. An X-ray showed an infiltrate in the upper part of the girl’s left lung. “We were told that one factor that could have contributed to the illness was the smoke, which has also been getting thicker in Balikpapan,” Michael told Mongabay Indonesia on Oct. 14, 2026. With the air quality index reaching “unhealthy” levels in the city, the couple limited their daughter’s time outdoors. A day later, more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) away, in the East Kalimantan city of Samarinda, a 14-month-old baby died after suddenly experiencing shortness of breath. The family of the toddler, Yazlyn Syanindita, suspects she died because of the thick smog enveloping the city. “Her shortness of breath was so sudden,” Yazlyn’s grandfather, Sarno, told Mongabay Indonesia. “She had no previous illnesses.” Her mother Cindy, 25, said what happened to her daughter shouldn&#8217;t happen to other children and urged the government not to downplay the impact of fires. “The government must not turn a blind eye,” she said, as quoted by BBC Indonesia. “Don’t say the haze isn’t severe. Many people are suffering from acute respiratory infections. Yesterday, in the inpatient ward, I saw three toddlers struggling to breathe.” Health risks also extend to those fighting the fires. At&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/experts-warn-of-long-term-health-risks-as-indonesias-wildfire-haze-takes-a-growing-toll/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/experts-warn-of-long-term-health-risks-as-indonesias-wildfire-haze-takes-a-growing-toll/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-334640</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Philippine village uses nature to defend against floods with bamboo, shells and husks</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/philippine-village-uses-nature-to-defend-against-floods-with-bamboo-shells-and-husks/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/philippine-village-uses-nature-to-defend-against-floods-with-bamboo-shells-and-husks/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Oct 2026 01:17:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Oliver Samson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Yenni Kwok]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/29135605/1000020683-Pamarawan-barangay-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=334387</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Disasters, Environment, Flooding, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Mangroves, Marine Conservation, Nature-based climate solutions, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Sea Levels, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PAMARAWAN, Philippines — For years, residents of Pamarawan barangay, or village, in the City of Malolos, had to live with floodwater inundating their streets as the southwest monsoon, known locally as hagabat, brought strong waves into the fishing village. It got even worse during typhoons. “When there was a typhoon, the waves would go over [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PAMARAWAN, Philippines — For years, residents of Pamarawan barangay, or village, in the City of Malolos, had to live with floodwater inundating their streets as the southwest monsoon, known locally as hagabat, brought strong waves into the fishing village. It got even worse during typhoons. “When there was a typhoon, the waves would go over the breakwater by almost a meter, a direct hit on the houses beside the dike,” said Roldan Dayao, secretary of Pamarawan, a low-lying fishing village at North Manila Bay that is only accessible by boat. The village already has a concrete breakwater that stands 3 to 4 meters (9-13 feet) high, Dayao said. But it does little to prevent the recurring flood. The situation changed after the construction of a nature-based coastal defense and flood control project. It used locally available materials, such as bamboo poles, oyster shells and coconut husks, to protect Pamarawan from tidal waves and storm surges. Interlocking, interconnected bamboo cribs now cover 14 hectares (35 acres) off the coast. The bamboo structures, alongside discarded oyster shells placed inside cocomesh, or coconut husk nets, serve as breakwaters that reduce incoming wave energy. Small boats inside a bamboo enclosure, part of a nature-based coastal defense and flood control project, in Pamarawan barangay, in Malolos City, Bulacan province, the Philippines, on Sept. 28, 2026. Image by Oliver Samson for Mongabay. The cribs also trap drifting mud and sand. Over time, the accumulated sediment is expected to gradually raise the seabed to a height sufficient&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/philippine-village-uses-nature-to-defend-against-floods-with-bamboo-shells-and-husks/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/philippine-village-uses-nature-to-defend-against-floods-with-bamboo-shells-and-husks/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-334387</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>If we don’t start counting insect populations, we won’t know what we&#8217;re losing (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/if-we-dont-start-counting-insect-populations-we-wont-know-what-were-losing-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/if-we-dont-start-counting-insect-populations-we-wont-know-what-were-losing-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Oct 2026 15:54:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Prayan Pokharel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/06/06134017/Coleoptera_SMNK_web-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=334400</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Disasters, Environment, Extreme Weather, Flooding, Global Environmental Crisis, Insects, Invertebrates, Orchids, Plants, Pollinators, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Panchase Protected Forest, in the hills above Nepal’s second city of Pokhara, is known among botanists as an orchid haven. Hundreds of species grow there, many of them found nowhere else in Nepal. I have been working in Panchase for some time now, starting with the insects that live on mistletoes, trying to understand who [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Panchase Protected Forest, in the hills above Nepal’s second city of Pokhara, is known among botanists as an orchid haven. Hundreds of species grow there, many of them found nowhere else in Nepal. I have been working in Panchase for some time now, starting with the insects that live on mistletoes, trying to understand who is there, what they are doing, how they connect to the plants around them. It is slow, careful work and one of the things it has taught me is how little we know, not just about Panchase but about insects in Nepal generally. We do not have a proper picture of what is there. We are still, in many parts of this country, at the very beginning of asking the question. Nobody, for instance, has properly studied the pollinators of Panchase&#8217;s orchids. Those relationships exist, they have existed for thousands of years, but they are undocumented. We do not know which insects visit which flowers, which ones are essential, and which are incidental. That work is still ahead of us. Orchids like this large group growing on a tree in Nepal&#8217;s Panchase Forest need insects, too. This protected area is home to 142 orchid species from 52 genera. Image courtesy of Kumar Paudel/Greenhood Nepal. I think about this every monsoon season, when the rivers rise and the news fills with the same images: fields gone under, families on rooftops, roads washed away. The death tolls come in. The damage figures follow. And then, a few&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/if-we-dont-start-counting-insect-populations-we-wont-know-what-were-losing-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/if-we-dont-start-counting-insect-populations-we-wont-know-what-were-losing-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-334400</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Already feeling it’: Northern Amazon waterfall season ends early, hurting livelihoods</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/already-feeling-it-northern-amazon-waterfall-season-ends-early-hurting-livelihoods/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/already-feeling-it-northern-amazon-waterfall-season-ends-early-hurting-livelihoods/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Oct 2026 14:03:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Felipe Medeiros]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/29092627/Veu_de_Noiva_waterfall_Canta_Roraima_Katarine_Almeida-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=334337</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Culture, Disasters, Drought, Earth Science, Ecosystems, Ecotourism, El Nino, Environment, Extreme Weather, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, Natural Resources, Rainforests, Research, Science, Tourism, Travel, Water, and Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BOA VISTA, Roraima — “For those who live off the river, water isn’t just scenery: It is also a road, work and income.” That is how tour guide Fredson Guedes, known as “Tarzan,” learned to view the natural world around him over the course of his 55 years. “I work entirely with nature and depend [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BOA VISTA, Roraima — “For those who live off the river, water isn’t just scenery: It is also a road, work and income.” That is how tour guide Fredson Guedes, known as “Tarzan,” learned to view the natural world around him over the course of his 55 years. “I work entirely with nature and depend heavily on it. Just the other day, I was at Serra Grande [an ecotourism destination in the municipality of Cantá, Roraima], working at the Véu de Noiva [bridal veil, in Portuguese] waterfall, but now there is no waterfall anymore. It dried up.” In the Amazonian region of Serra Grande in Brazil, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the state capital, Boa Vista, the seasonal waterfall known as Véu de Noiva usually draws visitors from May through early September during Roraima&#8217;s rainy season. That changed in 2026. By late July, the water that defines the landscape had already vanished. Fábio Wankler, a geologist and professor at the Federal University of Roraima (UFRR), points to a &#8220;super El Niño&#8221; as the driver behind the disruption. The phenomenon, unusually intense this year, has triggered a series of shifts in weather patterns that, across various parts of the country, “have caused longer and more intense periods of drought,” he said. The effects are felt daily. The waterfall, whose cascading flows resemble the delicate lace of a wedding gown, sits along one of the primary routes traveled by Guedes, who navigates the Branco River to reach it at least twice&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/already-feeling-it-northern-amazon-waterfall-season-ends-early-hurting-livelihoods/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/already-feeling-it-northern-amazon-waterfall-season-ends-early-hurting-livelihoods/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-334337</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Early tech warning hopes to give Sumatra’s peat community a head start on fires</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/early-tech-warning-hopes-to-give-sumatras-peat-community-a-head-start-on-fires/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/early-tech-warning-hopes-to-give-sumatras-peat-community-a-head-start-on-fires/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Oct 2026 12:49:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Teguh Suprayitno]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/29124349/Kondisi-kanal-yang-kering-di-kawasan-HKm-Air-Merah-Sungai-Gelam-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=334356</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Jambi, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Science, Conservation, Conservation Technology, data, Disasters, early warning, El Nino, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fires, Monitoring, Peatlands, Research, Technology, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MUARO JAMBI, Indonesia — Pineapples rattled around in the basket on the back of Tahang’s motorcycle as he drove through the cracked and dried out peatland in eastern Sumatra’s Muaro Jambi district. Tahang later pulled up beside local residents Ali and Haidir, as smoke drifted in the distance over a grove of areca palms, which [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MUARO JAMBI, Indonesia — Pineapples rattled around in the basket on the back of Tahang’s motorcycle as he drove through the cracked and dried out peatland in eastern Sumatra’s Muaro Jambi district. Tahang later pulled up beside local residents Ali and Haidir, as smoke drifted in the distance over a grove of areca palms, which are grown for their betel nuts. “Did you see that fire earlier?” Tahang asked. “Yes, but it was only small,” Haidir replied. A few hours later, as Tahang rested in Muara Medak village and Ali returned to collect pineapples, the fire spread through dry grass and reached the carbon-rich peat. “It exploded,” Tahang said. Tahang picked up his water pump and raced to the field by motorcycle. By the time he arrived, he told Mongabay Indonesia, state firefighters and disaster agency staff were already battling the blaze, with little water available. A dry canal in the Air Merah community forest area. Image by Teguh Suprayitno/Mongabay Indonesia. Wildfire crisis across Indonesia Indonesia is facing its worst wildfire crisis in years, as months of drought across much of Borneo and Sumatra are compounded by a strong El Niño, which is delaying the onset of the archipelago’s main rainy season. In Sumatra’s Jambi province, fires have burned in Bukit Tigapuluh National Park and across extensive peatland areas in Berbak-Sembilang National Park, a major wetland adjacent to the subdistrict of Sungai Gelam designated as a UNESCO biosphere reserve. Peat in Jambi’s Sungai Gelam reaches depths of up to 11 meters&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/early-tech-warning-hopes-to-give-sumatras-peat-community-a-head-start-on-fires/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-334356</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Fires and weak monitoring hinder reforestation efforts in Mozambique</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/fires-and-weak-monitoring-hinder-reforestation-efforts-in-mozambique/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/fires-and-weak-monitoring-hinder-reforestation-efforts-in-mozambique/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Oct 2026 08:13:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Far Vubil]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/28154204/cenario-de-floresta-queimada-2-Foto-de-Far-Vubil-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=334239</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Disasters, Dry Forests, Economics, Environment, Fires, Forests, Governance, Plants, Solutions, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MOCUBA, Mozambique — Mozambique ranks among the 10 countries with the highest deforestation rates in the world. Each year, it loses about 267,000 hectares (660,000 acres) of forest, with the heaviest rates concentrated in the provinces of Nampula, Zambézia, and Manica. To counter this, a decade ago the country set an ambitious goal to reforest [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MOCUBA, Mozambique — Mozambique ranks among the 10 countries with the highest deforestation rates in the world. Each year, it loses about 267,000 hectares (660,000 acres) of forest, with the heaviest rates concentrated in the provinces of Nampula, Zambézia, and Manica. To counter this, a decade ago the country set an ambitious goal to reforest 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) by 2030, alongside a 2025 target to restore 52,000 hectares (128,500 acres) per year through 2029 on a budget of 105 billion meticais ($1.65 billion). To date, however, only 58,000 hectares (143,300 acres) have been reforested — a total that includes tree plantations established before the million-hectare goal was set, according to data compiled by Sá Nogueira Lisboa, a forestry professor and researcher at Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) in Maputo. Zambézia province in central Mozambique holds one of the country&#8217;s main forest areas, key to conserving biodiversity, regulating water resources, protecting soil, storing carbon, and supporting local communities. Yet it also faces severe pressure from deforestation, suffering some of the nation&#8217;s steepest losses in tree cover. Between 2000 and 2024, cumulative forest loss across the province reached 1.26 million hectares (3.11 million acres) — roughly 19% of its total forested area — according to the Provincial Directorate of Territorial Development and Environment (DPDTA). Replanting is critical to restore degraded landscapes, but inadequate follow-up monitoring has squandered much of that effort. A technician from the District Service for Economic Activities (SDAE) among trees with charred stems in the Tónduè Forest,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/fires-and-weak-monitoring-hinder-reforestation-efforts-in-mozambique/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/fires-and-weak-monitoring-hinder-reforestation-efforts-in-mozambique/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-334239</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A town-wide ‘living laboratory’ shows how green spaces can combat climate extremes</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/a-town-wide-living-laboratory-shows-how-green-spaces-can-combat-climate-extremes/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/a-town-wide-living-laboratory-shows-how-green-spaces-can-combat-climate-extremes/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Oct 2026 17:01:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claudia Geib]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/28121856/Guildford_-_Stoke_Park_Gardens_-_geograph.org-edit-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=334168</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, Global, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Cities, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Culture, Development, Environment, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, Parks, Protected Areas, Research, Science, urban ecology, and Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Stoke Park is a natural haven in a busy British town. Centered in Guildford, Surrey, its rolling fields pop with wildflowers in the spring; birds sing and ducks paddle serenely in a pond beside ornamental gardens; and the sun casts dappled shade on the grass from oak, spruce and beech trees, scattered across 52 hectares [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Stoke Park is a natural haven in a busy British town. Centered in Guildford, Surrey, its rolling fields pop with wildflowers in the spring; birds sing and ducks paddle serenely in a pond beside ornamental gardens; and the sun casts dappled shade on the grass from oak, spruce and beech trees, scattered across 52 hectares (130 acres) of green. Yet as residents and visitors stroll, jog and lounge across Stoke Park’s green reaches, it’s doing even more for them than they realize: According to two recently-published studies, its green areas reduce heat, pollution and noise — and have benefits that extend beyond the park’s borders. Parks have a well-documented benefit to urban areas, particularly given the rising heat of climate change: Many previous studies have established that parks are much cooler than the surrounding area, and that they also tend to reduce air pollution and noise. These previous studies also found that air and surface temperatures were lower for tens or even several hundred meters around green spaces, depending on the park. However, “most of the work in this field has been focused around one benefit — so either you see just health benefits, or how they affect air pollution, or overheating,” Prashant Kumar, professor at the University of Surrey, co-director of the university’s Institute for Sustainability and director of its Global Centre for Clean Air Research, said in a Zoom interview with Mongabay. “You hardly see studies which look holistically at the multiple benefits of the plants [or] the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/a-town-wide-living-laboratory-shows-how-green-spaces-can-combat-climate-extremes/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-334168</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As wildfires rage, Canadian researchers study the life that comes after</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/as-wildfires-rage-canadian-researchers-study-the-life-that-comes-after/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/as-wildfires-rage-canadian-researchers-study-the-life-that-comes-after/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Oct 2026 14:31:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anna Dulisse]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/28124847/7_D2A2875-plant-out-of-fire-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=334178</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Canada, Global, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Disasters, Earth Science, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fires, Fungi, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, Plants, Research, Science, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The reporting and photography for this story was fully supported by a 2025-2026 grant from the Sitka Foundation and the Science Media Centre of Canada. Four of the five worst years recorded for global forest fires occurred since 2021. And 2026 is no exception, with hundreds of thousands in North America, Europe and Africa forced [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The reporting and photography for this story was fully supported by a 2025-2026 grant from the Sitka Foundation and the Science Media Centre of Canada. Four of the five worst years recorded for global forest fires occurred since 2021. And 2026 is no exception, with hundreds of thousands in North America, Europe and Africa forced to flee life threatening blazes. Now, as the Northern Hemisphere&#8217;s wildfire season subsides and forest recovery begins, tropical countries including Indonesia, Brazil and Tanzania are grappling with widespread fires. Wildfires — now intensified by climate change — can be devastating, life-altering, even deadly. But for many ecosystems and organisms, fire is an essential primeval force of nature that supports ecosystem health and biodiversity. “All terrestrial animals evolved in landscapes that had fire,” Canadian conservation biologist Karen Hodges said. “It goes all the way back to the beginning.” But we still have much to learn about post-fire recovery: Canadian researchers are studying charcoal-munching fungi, heat-sensing beetles, birds and at-risk carnivores in British Columbia’s fire-affected Interior to find out who thrives after the flames die, and why those responses matter for biodiversity and for us. Lieutenant Dan, Canada’s largest known living ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), stands tall in British Columbia’s Montane Cordillera, the nation’s most biodiverse region. Many organisms like this one have evolved alongside fire for millennia. The surrounding forest is slated for logging. Image by Jakob Dulisse for Mongabay. A landscape shaped by fire Tell someone you’re from British Columbia (B.C.) and they’ll likely think&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/as-wildfires-rage-canadian-researchers-study-the-life-that-comes-after/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/as-wildfires-rage-canadian-researchers-study-the-life-that-comes-after/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-334178</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Influence without enforcement’: Indonesia’s fires test Singapore’s anti-haze law</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/influence-without-enforcement-indonesias-fires-test-singapores-anti-haze-law/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/influence-without-enforcement-indonesias-fires-test-singapores-anti-haze-law/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Oct 2026 11:11:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gabrielle See]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/27100929/AP26282576385450-singapore-haze-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=334000</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Disasters, Environment, Environmental Law, Extreme Weather, Fires, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Health, Industry, Law, and Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SINGAPORE — As Singapore comes off its longest streak of unhealthy air since the 2015 Southeast Asian haze crisis, authorities have served notices to 20 firms linked to Indonesia’s fires, but have stopped short of taking further legal action. Half of the notices were sent to concession holders in Sumatra and Kalimantan where the fires [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SINGAPORE — As Singapore comes off its longest streak of unhealthy air since the 2015 Southeast Asian haze crisis, authorities have served notices to 20 firms linked to Indonesia’s fires, but have stopped short of taking further legal action. Half of the notices were sent to concession holders in Sumatra and Kalimantan where the fires originated, while the other half went to Singapore-based entities with ties to them. Of the 10 Indonesian plantation companies identified, three of them — PT Bumi Andalas Permai, PT Bumi Mekar Hijau and PT SBA Wood Industries — have had separate investigations open against them by Singaporean authorities since 2015, with no public outcome. All three are tied to the Asia Pulp &amp; Paper (APP) conglomerate, as is PT Buana Megatama Jaya, which was also issued a notice to extinguish fires in its concession. The other six companies issued the notices requiring them to act against fires are PT Paramitra Mulia Langgeng, PT Sumatera Alam Anugerah, PT Hutan Lestari Raya, PT Bangkanesia, PT Mananjung Hayak and PT Baratama Putra Perkasa. A spokesperson from Singapore’s National Environmental Agency told Mongabay by email it could not disclose further details into existing investigations. The agency did not respond to questions as to whether it would escalate against repeat offenders. Based on the government’s current investigations, Singapore-headquartered APP, Singapore-listed First Resources and Bumitama Agri, and privately held First Borneo Plantations, whose ownership is tied to Singapore, already appear to be linked to the haze-causing fires in Indonesia, Singapore’s senior&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/influence-without-enforcement-indonesias-fires-test-singapores-anti-haze-law/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-334000</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amazon fires trap Manaus in smoke as authorities target arsonists</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/amazon-fires-trap-manaus-in-smoke-as-authorities-target-arsonists/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/amazon-fires-trap-manaus-in-smoke-as-authorities-target-arsonists/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Oct 2026 18:44:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tiago da Mota e Silva]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/26142956/Foto-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333902</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cattle, Disasters, Extreme Weather, Fires, and Livestock]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Families gasp for clean air while a choking haze turns Brazil's biggest rainforest city gray.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MANAUS, Brazil — Midway through the conversation with Mongabay, Otacílio Farias, a 75-year-old farmer, stops to read a message on his phone: “Right now, there&#8217;s a fire near a friend&#8217;s house.” Farias has lived his entire life near the Autaz Mirim River, near Manaus, Brazil’s largest city in the Amazon. Forest fires have affected the area for more than 30 days. “Nearby, Lake Miriti was shrouded in haze at dawn, but it wasn&#8217;t morning mist: It was smoke,” he said. Farias says the nearby municipalities of Autazes and Careiro da Várzea are experiencing the worst fire crisis of his lifetime. “My throat and nose are in terrible shape,” he said. Farias’ community WhatsApp groups are packed with pleas to save crops and reports of elderly residents rescued as flames approached. Farias was at home on Oct. 1 when friends of his 18-year-old son, Fabrício, arrived on motorcycles, calling for help against fires approaching homes. Around 100 community members joined the effort. It wasn’t until Oct. 10, however, that the Amazonas state government declared an emergency in 36 municipalities, paving the way for federal assistance. Between Oct. 1 and 19, Brazil’s space agency, INPE, recorded 1,921 fire hotspots in Amazonas, up 202% from the same period in 2025. The daily average also rose 51.5% compared with late September 2026. Of these, 584 (30.4%) were in the Manaus metropolitan area: 197 in Autazes, 134 in Itacoatiara and seven in Manaus. Hotspots also spiked after the first round of Brazil’s presidential election: INPE&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/amazon-fires-trap-manaus-in-smoke-as-authorities-target-arsonists/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333902</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>World Kangaroo Day: How climate change impacts Australia’s macropods</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/world-kangaroo-day-how-climate-change-impacts-australias-macropods/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/world-kangaroo-day-how-climate-change-impacts-australias-macropods/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Oct 2026 01:00:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Cooper Williams]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Yenni Kwok]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/22124702/14582525532_c6239de35c_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333569</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Ecosystems, El Nino, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Impact Of Climate Change, Mammals, Marsupials, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CANBERRA — World Kangaroo Day, on Oct. 24, celebrates one of Australia’s national symbols and the macropod’s special place in the country’s environment and First Nations cultures. In 2026, as “super El Niño” wreaks havoc across the globe, it is an opportune time to reflect on how climate change has affected the country’s iconic animals. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CANBERRA — World Kangaroo Day, on Oct. 24, celebrates one of Australia’s national symbols and the macropod’s special place in the country’s environment and First Nations cultures. In 2026, as “super El Niño” wreaks havoc across the globe, it is an opportune time to reflect on how climate change has affected the country’s iconic animals. There are dozens of species — 59 to be exact — belonging to the macropodoidea (meaning large-footed) superfamily living in Australia. The four main species are the red kangaroo (Osphranter rufus), which is the largest in size; the western grey kangaroo (Macropus fuliginosus); the eastern grey kangaroo (Macropus giganteus); the antilopine kangaroo (Osphranter antilopinus). These kangaroo species are abundant in Australia, with a total population estimated to range between 30 million and 50 million, depending on drought and rainfall cycles. Their numbers have been considered so high that state-level governments have introduced controversial cull programs to reduce populations. Lesser-known varieties include the smallest macropod species in the world: the musky rat-kangaroo (Hypsiprymnodon moschatus), typically weighing around just 500 grams (1.1 pounds); the critically endangered Gilbert’s poteroo (Potorous gilbertii); and Australia’s only two species of tree-kangaroo, the Lumholtz’s tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus lumholtzi) and the Bennett’s tree-kangaroo (D. bennettianus), which live in the forests of Far North Queensland. For the smaller species of kangaroo and wallaby, quokka, bettong and potoroo, which also belong to the macropod superfamily, the situation is dire. Six species of kangaroo have already gone extinct since the colonization of Australia, and 11 of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/world-kangaroo-day-how-climate-change-impacts-australias-macropods/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/world-kangaroo-day-how-climate-change-impacts-australias-macropods/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333569</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesians allege social media posts on wildfires and haze are being censored</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/indonesians-allege-social-media-posts-on-wildfires-and-haze-are-being-censored/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/indonesians-allege-social-media-posts-on-wildfires-and-haze-are-being-censored/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Oct 2026 14:33:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Winda Charmila]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Yenni Kwok]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/23140606/AP26296399833675-indonesia-haze-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333661</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Communication, Controversial, Disasters, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fires, Governance, Health, Law, Media, Pollution, and Social Media]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — On Oct. 15, as thick smog continued to choke millions of people, Indonesian health policy research and advocacy organization the Nalar Rawat Institute shared a post on TikTok and Instagram about the health effects of the country’s wildfires. Little did it know what problems the innocuous posts would create. The TikTok post featured [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — On Oct. 15, as thick smog continued to choke millions of people, Indonesian health policy research and advocacy organization the Nalar Rawat Institute shared a post on TikTok and Instagram about the health effects of the country’s wildfires. Little did it know what problems the innocuous posts would create. The TikTok post featured NASA satellite imagery of carbon monoxide covering the Indonesian archipelago, superimposed on footage of an orange sky in Palangka Raya in Central Kalimantan province. The provincial capital has been one of the areas worst hit by months-long wildfires and haze in 2026. “All of Indonesia&#8217;s sky is covered by carbon monoxide,” the text on the video and the post’s caption read. “The air pollution index reaches 1,200, our living space is no longer habitable.” The figure of 1,200 — four times the hazardous threshold of 300 — came from Ministry of Environment data on the air pollution index in Central Kalimantan on Oct. 14. Not long after, the post, which garnered 500,000 views and 17,500 likes, was removed from TikTok, the NGO said. The Nalar Rawat Institute receives a notice from TikTok, saying its Oct. 15, 2026, post “has been removed for violating our community guidelines”. Image courtesy of Nalar Rawat Institute. According to Fatus Sahara, Nalar Rawat’s communications officer, on the evening of Oct. 15, TikTok notified the NGO that the post violated its community guidelines. The following day, the post vanished and the NGO’s appeal to reinstate it was rejected. “There was no&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/indonesians-allege-social-media-posts-on-wildfires-and-haze-are-being-censored/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/indonesians-allege-social-media-posts-on-wildfires-and-haze-are-being-censored/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333661</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scorched sanctuaries: The race to save Borneo’s orangutans from fires</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/scorched-sanctuaries-the-race-to-save-borneos-orangutans-from-fires/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/scorched-sanctuaries-the-race-to-save-borneos-orangutans-from-fires/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Oct 2026 23:08:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Garry Lotulung]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/22223758/55-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333592</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Disasters, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fires, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Great Apes, Habitat Loss, Mammals, Orangutans, Peatlands, Primates, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Thick smog covers the forest canopy in Ketapang, West Kalimantan, dimming the sun. On the front lines, forest and land fires are not just destroying habitats; they are pushing local primates close to extinction. In the middle of this crisis, Veterinarian Komara and the Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia (YIARI) team stay alert. Between Aug. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Thick smog covers the forest canopy in Ketapang, West Kalimantan, dimming the sun. On the front lines, forest and land fires are not just destroying habitats; they are pushing local primates close to extinction. In the middle of this crisis, Veterinarian Komara and the Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia (YIARI) team stay alert. Between Aug. 1 and Oct. 21, 2026, 53 Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) were rescued from fires through joint emergency operations by the West Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) and YIARI. Veterinarian Komara, right, from Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia (YIARI), along with other veterinarians, treats a female orangutan and her baby after being rescued from a burned forest and peatland area in Pelang village, Ketapang Regency, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, Sept. 18, 2026. Bornean orangutans are one of three orangutan species in the world, and the only one found on the island of Borneo. All three species of orangutan are critically endangered. Image by Garry Lotulung for Mongabay. A fire burns at a palm oil plantation in Sungai Putri village, Ketapang Regency, West Kalimantan province, Indonesia, Aug. 19, 2026. Image by Garry Lotulung for Mongabay. Fires are an increasingly deadly threat to orangutans. The flames not only kill the animals but also destroy their homes, reduce their food and cut off the paths they use to move between groups. The scale of forest and land fires in West Kalimantan makes the impact clear: 48,536 hectares (119,935 acres) have burned in the province in 2026, an area around&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/scorched-sanctuaries-the-race-to-save-borneos-orangutans-from-fires/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/scorched-sanctuaries-the-race-to-save-borneos-orangutans-from-fires/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333592</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deadly gold rush continues as latest landslide kills four in Sumatra</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/deadly-gold-rush-continues-as-latest-landslide-kills-four-in-sumatra/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/deadly-gold-rush-continues-as-latest-landslide-kills-four-in-sumatra/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Oct 2026 11:13:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Vinolia]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/22110831/WhatsApp-Image-2026-10-11-sumatra-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333530</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and West Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Crime, Disasters, Environment, Gold Mining, Governance, Illegal Mining, Landslides, and Mining]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PADANG, Indonesia — Four gold miners were killed after a hillside in the Jorong Jujutan forest of Sumatra’s South Solok district gave way in the early hours of Oct. 6. The landslide marked the latest fatalities in the so-called artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) sector, which has killed more than 50 people in just [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PADANG, Indonesia — Four gold miners were killed after a hillside in the Jorong Jujutan forest of Sumatra’s South Solok district gave way in the early hours of Oct. 6. The landslide marked the latest fatalities in the so-called artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) sector, which has killed more than 50 people in just one of Indonesia’s 38 provinces in the last15 years, according to the country’s largest environmental pressure group. Local authorities identified the latest victims as Dani, Defriadi, Rafli and Zul Fatrianto. The men were recovered at around 5 a.m., approximately four hours after the fatal landslip. “The other workers who were nearby attempted to give assistance, but the thick layer of mud and rocks made it impossible to save the four,” the chief of South Solok district police Andreanaldo Ademi told Mongabay Indonesia. Illegal gold mining accidents have repeatedly led to loss of life in Indonesia, including recent landslides that buried miners in the West Sumatra districts of Sijunjung, Solok, South Solok and West Pasaman districts. The West Sumatra office of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), Indonesia’s largest environmental nonprofit, has recorded 52 deaths among miners in the last 15 years. However, Tommy Adam, director of Walhi’s chapter in West Sumatra, said the true number could be far higher. A gold mine operating in a forest area in Batang, in the upper reaches of the Batang Sangir River, South Solok. Image by Vinolia/Mongabay Indonesia. Global challenges and framework At least 20 million people work&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/deadly-gold-rush-continues-as-latest-landslide-kills-four-in-sumatra/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333530</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bangladesh garment factory workers bear the brunt of rising temperatures</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/bangladesh-garment-factory-workers-bear-the-brunt-of-rising-temperatures/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/bangladesh-garment-factory-workers-bear-the-brunt-of-rising-temperatures/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Oct 2026 16:24:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Usraat Fahmidah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/21152116/AP25098468060228-bangladesh-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333487</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Climate, Climate Change, Consumption, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fellows, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Health, Heatwave, Industry, Social Justice, and Temperatures]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[One afternoon earlier this year, Mridula collapsed on the floor of the Dhaka garment factory where she works, overcome by dizziness in the heat. The 20-year-old sewing operator, who works at a factory in Mirpur, northwest Dhaka, said summer heat often leaves her restless and “physically uncomfortable.” &#8220;The heat can be very difficult to tolerate,&#8221; [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[One afternoon earlier this year, Mridula collapsed on the floor of the Dhaka garment factory where she works, overcome by dizziness in the heat. The 20-year-old sewing operator, who works at a factory in Mirpur, northwest Dhaka, said summer heat often leaves her restless and “physically uncomfortable.” &#8220;The heat can be very difficult to tolerate,&#8221; said Mridula, a pseudonym. Co-workers with high blood pressure seem to struggle even more during the hotter months, she has noticed. After she collapsed, she was taken to the factory&#8217;s medical room. She said the doctor told her to rest, then sent her home. &#8220;He gave me leave from work,&#8221; she said. Mridula was eventually diagnosed with jaundice, which can be exacerbated by dehydration and physical exertion. As temperatures climb, heat is becoming a serious concern for Bangladesh&#8217;s garment industry. Dhaka&#8217;s summers are setting new records. On April 15, 2023, the city reached 40.6°Celsius (105° Fahrenheit), then its highest temperature in decades, according to World Weather Attribution. Then, the following year, the country sweltered through a heat wave that lasted 30 days without a break. A 2025 report by the World Bank shows that Bangladesh&#8217;s maximum temperature has risen about 1.1°C (about 2°F) since 1980. Meanwhile, researchers are increasingly concerned about the health and economic consequences of rising temperatures, particularly for workers exposed to prolonged heat. For Bangladesh’s 4.2 million garment workers, approximately 60% of whom are women, who work indoors, rising temperatures raise urgent questions about occupational health and workplace safety. Factory workers operate&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/bangladesh-garment-factory-workers-bear-the-brunt-of-rising-temperatures/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333487</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Heavy rains during critical period of cacao cultivation hit Ghana’s yields</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/heavy-rains-during-critical-period-of-cacao-cultivation-hit-ghanas-yields/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/heavy-rains-during-critical-period-of-cacao-cultivation-hit-ghanas-yields/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Oct 2026 10:32:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/21095641/a.-%C2%A9-mwintirew-original-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333406</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Ghana, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Cacao, Crops, Drought, Economics, Ecosystems, Environment, Farming, Forests, Governance, Plants, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Heavy rainfall during the cacao flowering season is a major driver of Ghana&#8217;s recent harvest fluctuations, new research finds. A study published in September by researchers at the Harvard University Center for the Environment in the U.S. found that heavy rainfall during cacao’s flowering and early pod development is linked to significant yield decreases. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Heavy rainfall during the cacao flowering season is a major driver of Ghana&#8217;s recent harvest fluctuations, new research finds. A study published in September by researchers at the Harvard University Center for the Environment in the U.S. found that heavy rainfall during cacao’s flowering and early pod development is linked to significant yield decreases. The researchers described how short, untypical rains during the flowering season, together with dry-season drought, is a major reason for recent fluctuations in Ghana’s cacao production. Ghana and Côte d&#8217;Ivoire together account for about 60% of global cocoa production, making West Africa central to the world&#8217;s chocolate supply. Cacao seeds are the primary ingredient in chocolate. The authors raised concerns about how these changing rainfall patterns could affect Ghana’s cacao industry, which is one of the West African country’s most important agricultural sectors. “Along with dry-season drought, [heavy rainfall during flowering and early pod development], those two factors alone explain about two-thirds of the year-to-year variability in Ghana&#8217;s production,” lead researcher Anna Lea Albright from Harvard told Mongabay via email. A flowering cacao tree in Ecuador’s Los Bancos Canton. Image courtesy of Pablo Leautaud via iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0). Albright and her colleagues began looking into the issue in 2024, when global cacao prices surged after several poor harvests in West Africa. They considered several possible explanations for the trend, including aging trees, pests and diseases, gold mining, smuggling and weather. Analyzing daily rainfall and temperature records, the researchers noticed a pattern. Losses or gains during&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/heavy-rains-during-critical-period-of-cacao-cultivation-hit-ghanas-yields/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/heavy-rains-during-critical-period-of-cacao-cultivation-hit-ghanas-yields/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333406</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bank credit remains scarce in Bangladesh where climate risks are highest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/bank-credit-remains-scarce-in-bangladesh-where-climate-risks-are-highest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/bank-credit-remains-scarce-in-bangladesh-where-climate-risks-are-highest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Oct 2026 12:01:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sajibur Rahman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/20113550/52423722318_20fc2ff926_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333248</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Change Denial, climate finance, Climate Justice, Disasters, Environment, Extreme Weather, Finance, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, and Sea Levels]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For 34-year-old Saiful Gazi — a resident of Ramjannagar Union in Shyamnagar, Satkhira, an area highly vulnerable to climate change — securing institutional financing is a major struggle. Gazi, who supports a family of four, endured the devastating Cyclone Aila on May 25, 2009. Cyclone Aila claimed 190 lives and affected approximately 3.9 million people [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For 34-year-old Saiful Gazi — a resident of Ramjannagar Union in Shyamnagar, Satkhira, an area highly vulnerable to climate change — securing institutional financing is a major struggle. Gazi, who supports a family of four, endured the devastating Cyclone Aila on May 25, 2009. Cyclone Aila claimed 190 lives and affected approximately 3.9 million people in Bangladesh. Despite living in a disaster-prone region, he ventured into the fish business in 2022. Although he recently applied for a loan from a private bank to expand his operations, his application was rejected due to a lack of collateral and the necessary documentation. He was compelled to take out a high-interest loan from a local NGO to keep his business running. Across Bangladesh, some of the regions most exposed to cyclones, floods, salinity and river erosion continue to receive only a small share of the country’s bank credit, raising questions about whether formal financing is reaching communities that need it in order to adapt to a changing climate. In Bangladesh, there are eight divisions named after the major regional cities: Barishal, Chattogram, Dhaka, Khulna, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Mymensingh and Sylhet. These divisions are the highest administrative unit in the country. Bangladesh Bank data show that lending remains heavily concentrated in Dhaka and Chattogram divisions, the country’s main commercial and industrial centers. Together, the two divisions accounted for about three-quarters of total bank loans and advances in the April-June quarter of 2026. The concentration is particularly striking in climate-vulnerable areas. Barishal, Khulna, Sylhet and Mymensingh&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/bank-credit-remains-scarce-in-bangladesh-where-climate-risks-are-highest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/bank-credit-remains-scarce-in-bangladesh-where-climate-risks-are-highest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333248</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Wildfire in Indonesia’s Mount Bromo National Park kills 4 firefighters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/wildfire-in-indonesias-mount-bromo-national-park-kills-4-firefighters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/wildfire-in-indonesias-mount-bromo-national-park-kills-4-firefighters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Oct 2026 11:16:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Eko Widianto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/20110622/Arjuno-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333223</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Java, Indonesia, Java, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Disasters, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fires, Forests, Health, Public Health, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MALANG, Indonesia — Four people were killed on Oct. 15 as they fought to contain a wildfire in the east of Java Island at the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, a complex of active volcanoes and one of Indonesia’s best-known tourism destinations. The fire took place by a savanna and hillside in a crater visited [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MALANG, Indonesia — Four people were killed on Oct. 15 as they fought to contain a wildfire in the east of Java Island at the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, a complex of active volcanoes and one of Indonesia’s best-known tourism destinations. The fire took place by a savanna and hillside in a crater visited by hundreds of thousands of domestic and international tourists every year. “Their dedication serves as a reminder that behind every effort to protect nature and society lies struggle, courage, and sacrifice that deserve respect,” said Berton S.P. Panjaitan, a spokesperson for Indonesia’s disaster management agency, the BNPB. Indonesia’s environment minister identified the four victims as Sukaris, a national park civil servant; Wisnu Yuda Pratama and Sefriel Ardiansyah, who were employees of a hotel services company PT Mitra Indo Permai; and Hendra Rony Wagiyanta, a member of the state firefighting unit, Manggala Agni. Hendra, who was evacuated to Tongas hospital in Probolinggo, the nearest town, died due to the injuries hours later. Much of Indonesia’s most severe fire damage occurs in carbon-rich peatlands on the islands of Borneo, New Guinea and Sumatra. Fires are common in other parts of the country, but rarely lead to fatalities. Tanker trucks have been deployed to help extinguish the fire in the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park area. Image courtesy of Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park. Forest and land fires on Mount Arjuno, Sept. 2. Sea of sand On Oct. 10, Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park officers received notification of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/wildfire-in-indonesias-mount-bromo-national-park-kills-4-firefighters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/wildfire-in-indonesias-mount-bromo-national-park-kills-4-firefighters/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333223</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate change could send more toxic mining waste into coastal waters, study warns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/climate-change-could-send-more-toxic-mining-waste-into-coastal-waters-study-warns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/climate-change-could-send-more-toxic-mining-waste-into-coastal-waters-study-warns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Oct 2026 09:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Madeline Shaw]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Autumn Spanne]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/15115700/a.-BANNER-Mariana-dam-disaster-Brazil-23147142874_7e86046655_o1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=332723</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Dams, Drinking Water, Drought, extractives, Extreme Weather, Flooding, Health, Impact Of Climate Change, Infrastructure, Marine, Mining, Oceans, Pollution, Sea Levels, Storms, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Demand for metals has exploded in recent decades, thanks to population growth, technological innovation, and economic development. The volume of metal ores like iron and copper extracted globally quadrupled during the last half-century, and the trillion-dollar industry shows no signs of slowing down. But the growing demand comes with environmental risks. Both metal mines and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Demand for metals has exploded in recent decades, thanks to population growth, technological innovation, and economic development. The volume of metal ores like iron and copper extracted globally quadrupled during the last half-century, and the trillion-dollar industry shows no signs of slowing down. But the growing demand comes with environmental risks. Both metal mines and the storage facilities that hold vast amounts of toxic mining waste, known as tailings, can release pollution into the surrounding environment, contaminating land and water with heavy metals and harmful chemicals. This pollution can eventually wash downstream, affecting coastal communities and marine ecosystems. An analysis recently published in the journal Earth-Science Reviews warns that climate change could exacerbate the risks of metal mining pollution on marine environments. Researchers examined areas where compounding risks from warmer temperatures, rising seas, and changing weather patterns could release more toxic waste into the landscape over the next century, highlighting the need for remediation and monitoring. They identified the six regions where overlapping hazards pose the highest risk: North America, South America, Northern Europe, the Mediterranean, East Asia, and Australia. “We isolate six hotspots, but that makes up a large part of the world,” study lead author Adam Sproson, a research scientist at the National Oceanography Centre in the U.K., told Mongabay. “There’s quite a lot of coastline to cover.” The coastal Levant Mine in Cornwall, U.K., in 2008. This tin and copper mine operated from the 18th century until the 1930s, and its workings extended under the sea. Legacy&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/climate-change-could-send-more-toxic-mining-waste-into-coastal-waters-study-warns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/climate-change-could-send-more-toxic-mining-waste-into-coastal-waters-study-warns/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-332723</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Perpetuating stupidity’: Indonesia comes under fire for response to burning and haze</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/perpetuating-stupidity-indonesia-comes-under-fire-for-response-to-burning-and-haze/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/perpetuating-stupidity-indonesia-comes-under-fire-for-response-to-burning-and-haze/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Oct 2026 06:57:51 +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/20/2026/09/17023326/Karhutla-Kalteng-1-Ini-1200x800-1-2-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=332817</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Disasters, Ecosystems, Extreme Weather, Fires, Forest Loss, Great Apes, Habitat Loss, Mammals, One Health, Orangutans, Peatlands, Planetary Health, Primates, Public Health, Rainforests, Tropical Forests, Wetlands, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia is facing growing criticism over its response to a forest and land fire crisis that has sent choking haze billowing into neighboring Malaysia and Singapore, but officials insist the government is not to blame. The president has claimed that a drawdown in firefighting efforts means the number of fires has gone down, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia is facing growing criticism over its response to a forest and land fire crisis that has sent choking haze billowing into neighboring Malaysia and Singapore, but officials insist the government is not to blame. The president has claimed that a drawdown in firefighting efforts means the number of fires has gone down, while one of his spokespersons trotted out a familiar rebuke that neighboring countries should be grateful for the oxygen they get from Indonesia’s forests and not complain only when they get “sent smoke.” Meanwhile, Malaysia said it was still awaiting a response to its offer of assistance fighting the fires, while Singapore raised the prospect of taking legal action against any Singapore-linked companies behind the burning. Indonesian officials have acknowledged the fires’ effects on neighboring countries, but as of Oct. 16 had issued no public apology for the haze that pushed Kuala Lumpur and Singapore into the ranks of the most polluted cities in the world. Haze from Indonesia’s wildfires obscures the sun in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Sept. 15, 2026. Image courtesy of Estelle Ng. Instead, Syahganda Nainggolan, head of the government communications office, said Malaysia and Singapore should see the problem as being “beyond human error” and “truly nature.” “We do not just send smoke; when there is no smoke, we send oxygen,” he said, echoing remarks made by previous administrations during similar fire crises. The statement drew criticism in Malaysia, where Andrew Chen Kah Eng, a politician from Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/perpetuating-stupidity-indonesia-comes-under-fire-for-response-to-burning-and-haze/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/perpetuating-stupidity-indonesia-comes-under-fire-for-response-to-burning-and-haze/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-332817</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Residents of South Africa’s Limpopo province hold breath amid fears of repeat floods</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/residents-of-south-africas-limpopo-province-hold-breath-amid-fears-of-repeat-floods/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/residents-of-south-africas-limpopo-province-hold-breath-amid-fears-of-repeat-floods/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Oct 2026 17:10:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bernard Chiguvare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/14141642/IMG_20260922_082425-limpopo-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=332612</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Climate Justice, Disasters, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fellows, Flooding, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, and Mongabay.org]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TSHAKHUMA, South Africa — Divhani Rashaka moved up and down the yard of the homestead he has looked after for 26 years, looking toward the Tshamugwana River. He recounted experiencing several floods in the time he has lived here. The riverbed, a few meters from his house in the Tshakhuma area of Limpopo province in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TSHAKHUMA, South Africa — Divhani Rashaka moved up and down the yard of the homestead he has looked after for 26 years, looking toward the Tshamugwana River. He recounted experiencing several floods in the time he has lived here. The riverbed, a few meters from his house in the Tshakhuma area of Limpopo province in the north of South Africa, is now covered with tall grass and bushes. Channels carved into the ground during the January floods show where water found its way toward the house. Rashaka, who is a resident of Tshiswiswini village, has placed stones along some of the channels in an effort to slow or redirect the water if heavy rains return. Farther up the yard, between his house and his neighbor&#8217;s, the grass had also grown thick, but Rashaka and his neighbor cleared the area to allow water to pass through more easily. Beyond these small measures, Rashaka has no formal plan for protecting his homestead, should it flood again. In January, floods affected communities across Limpopo, killing people, damaging homes and infrastructure, washing away food and disrupting schooling and access to some areas. Tshakhuma was among the communities badly affected. During these floods, 21 families whose homes were badly damaged were relocated to temporary accommodation at a lodge in Nkuna village, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) away, while temporary residential units were being prepared. If another flood comes, Rashaka said, he will have to rely on those around him. “I can seek shelter from my&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/residents-of-south-africas-limpopo-province-hold-breath-amid-fears-of-repeat-floods/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-332612</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deadly wildfires leave Borneo wildlife scrambling for fresh water</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/deadly-wildfires-leave-borneo-wildlife-scrambling-for-fresh-water/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/deadly-wildfires-leave-borneo-wildlife-scrambling-for-fresh-water/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Oct 2026 06:50:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/09063906/092005381-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=332036</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Disasters, El Nino, Endangered Species, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fires, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Wildlife, and Wildlife Rescues]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Wildfires in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, are leaving wildlife without fresh water as ponds turn brackish and forest pools dry up, driving animals into villages and toward the coast. Residents and conservation groups are responding by providing water, rescuing affected animals and treating them as smoke and fires continue to affect their habitat. Preliminary findings by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Wildfires in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, are leaving wildlife without fresh water as ponds turn brackish and forest pools dry up, driving animals into villages and toward the coast. Residents and conservation groups are responding by providing water, rescuing affected animals and treating them as smoke and fires continue to affect their habitat. Preliminary findings by NGO Yayasan Planet Indonesia recorded at least 16 dead animals, including silvered langurs (Trachypithecus cristatus), long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) and proboscis monkeys (Nasalis larvatus, an endangered primate found only on Borneo), from early August through late September amid an intense fire season in coastal Kubu Raya, a district in West Kalimantan. That compares to 13 dead non-fish animals recorded during nearly six years of SMART patrols — a system for monitoring wildlife and threats in the forest — in the area, from September 2020 through June 2026, with most deaths attributed to natural causes or left unexplained. As freshwater pools dried up and village ponds turned brackish, Planet Indonesia found dehydrated wildlife moving closer to homes and the coast in search of water. “We have never had findings like this before,” said Adam Miller, co-founder of Planet Indonesia, in a statement sent to Mongabay. The NGO has worked alongside the village institutions in Kubu Raya since 2017. “When the mangroves lose their fresh water, the animals die,” Miller said. A long-tailed macaque found dead on Sept. 14 by SMART patrol team. Image courtesy of Yayasan Planet Indonesia. On Sept. 20, a patrol found a silvered&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/deadly-wildfires-leave-borneo-wildlife-scrambling-for-fresh-water/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/deadly-wildfires-leave-borneo-wildlife-scrambling-for-fresh-water/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-332036</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The Indonesians facing El Nino’s fires have lessons to teach us (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/the-indonesians-facing-el-ninos-fires-have-lessons-to-teach-us-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/the-indonesians-facing-el-ninos-fires-have-lessons-to-teach-us-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Oct 2026 14:17:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Akane Nishimura]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/22123507/borneo-Dayak-fire-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=331681</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Climate Change, Commentary, Conservation, Disasters, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fires, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Impact Of Climate Change, Peatlands, Pollution, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In October 2006, I was supposed to be starting my dissertation research on tropical reforestation in Indonesia. Instead, I found myself in the forests of Tanjung Puting National Park in Central Kalimantan helping locals to fight fires with brooms, backpack pumps, and hoses connected to hand-dug water wells. It was an ‘all hands-on deck’ moment [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In October 2006, I was supposed to be starting my dissertation research on tropical reforestation in Indonesia. Instead, I found myself in the forests of Tanjung Puting National Park in Central Kalimantan helping locals to fight fires with brooms, backpack pumps, and hoses connected to hand-dug water wells. It was an ‘all hands-on deck’ moment for the local NGO I was working with then — Friends of Nature, People and Forests (FNPF) — including Basuki Santoso, FNPF’s Kalimantan program manager, alongside Adut and Isam, who were teenagers at the time. On our first night of firefighting, we slept in the forest on a raised platform that would later become part of a field station. I was awoken in the middle of the night by a sun bear rifling through our makeshift kitchen about 20 feet away. I sat frozen, watching this wild animal who was fleeing the fires while everyone else slept soundly. It was a surreal and humbling moment. Twenty years ago, these severe forest and peatland fires were due to a dangerous combination of El Niño-induced drought, slash-and-burn agriculture and other land clearing, and the grass-fire cycle. Much of Southeast Asia was left choking on the haze, and that was a weak El Niño year. Firefighting in Indonesia often requires resourcefulness as well as resilience and fortitude. Image courtesy of Basuki Santoso. History keeps repeating itself, and it’s hard to watch. Experts say we are now facing a Super El Niño. For the past three months, millions of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/the-indonesians-facing-el-ninos-fires-have-lessons-to-teach-us-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-331681</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘There could be local extinction’: The fight to protect Indonesia’s orangutans as El Niño fuels fires</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/there-could-be-local-extinction-the-fight-to-protect-indonesias-orangutans-as-el-nino-fuels-fires/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/there-could-be-local-extinction-the-fight-to-protect-indonesias-orangutans-as-el-nino-fuels-fires/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Oct 2026 11:08:46 +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/20/2026/09/09065841/Orangutan-Sampurna1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=331642</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Critically Endangered Species, Disasters, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Extreme Weather, Fires, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Great Apes, Landscape Restoration, Mammals, Orangutans, Peatlands, Primates, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Restoration, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Wetlands, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Fires burning within rainforests that contain more than half of the world’s critically endangered Bornean orangutan population have prompted scientists and experts to call for urgent action in response to the escalating fires across Indonesia. The warning comes as Indonesia faces a severe fire season fueled by strong El Niño conditions, with conservationists [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Fires burning within rainforests that contain more than half of the world’s critically endangered Bornean orangutan population have prompted scientists and experts to call for urgent action in response to the escalating fires across Indonesia. The warning comes as Indonesia faces a severe fire season fueled by strong El Niño conditions, with conservationists scrambling to rescue wildlife trapped in burning landscapes. Fires are burning in rainforests that contain 13 of the 20 largest remaining populations of Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus). Shaded and outlined areas show current IUCN Extant (resident) orangutan range in Kalimantan. Image courtesy of the Orangutan Conservation Initiative. Red circles show individual satellite detections overlapping current IUCN Extant (resident) orangutan range. As of Sept. 22, the Ministry of Forestry reported that 100 wildlife, including 53 Bornean orangutans, had been rescued. Rescuers have found some orangutans suffering severe physical injuries after escaping the fires. In Central Kalimantan, an approximately 4-year-old orangutan named Novita was found trapped in a burning area near Sebangau National Park in Central Kalimantan province with serious burns on all four hands and feet, according to local news Betahita. She was later taken to a rehabilitation center for treatment. In locations where orangutans are surrounded by fire and have nowhere to go, they can “literally burn alive,” said Borneo Nature Foundation (BNF) CEO Anton Nurcahyo. The risk may be particularly high for females with young, Anton told Mongabay. Their tendency to remain in established home ranges can be a disadvantage during fires, while females&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/there-could-be-local-extinction-the-fight-to-protect-indonesias-orangutans-as-el-nino-fuels-fires/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/there-could-be-local-extinction-the-fight-to-protect-indonesias-orangutans-as-el-nino-fuels-fires/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-331642</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Probiotics prevented coral bleaching during a Red Sea heat wave: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/probiotics-prevented-coral-bleaching-during-a-red-sea-heat-wave-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/probiotics-prevented-coral-bleaching-during-a-red-sea-heat-wave-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Oct 2026 15:06:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Allessandra DiCorato]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Autumn Spanne]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/02132528/Researcher-Raquel-Peixoto-inoculating-probiotics-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=331533</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Middle East and Saudi Arabia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Extreme Weather, Heatwave, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Research, Science, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As a heat wave settled on the Red Sea in 2022, a patch of corals in a reef 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) off the coast of Saudi Arabia reacted differently than other corals. They’d been treated with probiotics, beneficial bacteria isolated from healthy corals, and those treatments prevented the corals from bleaching, scientists now report. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[As a heat wave settled on the Red Sea in 2022, a patch of corals in a reef 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) off the coast of Saudi Arabia reacted differently than other corals. They’d been treated with probiotics, beneficial bacteria isolated from healthy corals, and those treatments prevented the corals from bleaching, scientists now report. Corals provide habitat for about one-third of marine species but are declining at an unprecedented rate, according to the latest report from the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network. Rising temperatures lead to coral bleaching, a breakdown of the beneficial symbiosis between corals and algae that can result in coral death. Scientists estimate that if global temperatures rise by 1.5°Celsius (2.7°Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, 70-90% of corals will be at risk of severe degradation worldwide by 2100. “Corals can acclimate and adapt, but only if they are alive,” principal investigator of the new study Raquel Peixoto, a microbial ecologist at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, told Mongabay in a video call. She and other researchers around the world are investigating how manipulating the microscopic bacteria that live on corals can help them respond to threats ranging from oil spills to infectious disease. Though Peixoto previously showed that probiotics could stave off bleaching and keep corals alive in tanks, the new results, published Sept. 3 in Cell Reports, are the first to indicate that probiotics may help protect corals in the wild from marine heat waves. “It’s one thing to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/probiotics-prevented-coral-bleaching-during-a-red-sea-heat-wave-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/probiotics-prevented-coral-bleaching-during-a-red-sea-heat-wave-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-331533</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As Hong Kong heats up, calls grow for tougher rules to protect outdoor workers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/as-hong-kong-heats-up-calls-grow-for-tougher-rules-to-protect-outdoor-workers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/as-hong-kong-heats-up-calls-grow-for-tougher-rules-to-protect-outdoor-workers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Oct 2026 12:07:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[June Wong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Yenni Kwok]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/02090849/apartment-demolition-and-remodeling-worker-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=331482</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, China, East Asia, and Hong Kong]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cities, Climate, El Nino, Environment, Environmental Law, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Heatwave, Human Rights, Law, Temperatures, and Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[HONG KONG — On a mid-September day, Wong Ping-kuong, 74, and his colleagues worked quickly to spray clean an outdoor staircase and elevator landing. It was only mid-morning, but already hot. The temperature later rose to 31°Celsius (87.8°Fahrenheit). Wong has felt the impact of climate change in the half-century that he has worked as a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[HONG KONG — On a mid-September day, Wong Ping-kuong, 74, and his colleagues worked quickly to spray clean an outdoor staircase and elevator landing. It was only mid-morning, but already hot. The temperature later rose to 31°Celsius (87.8°Fahrenheit). Wong has felt the impact of climate change in the half-century that he has worked as a construction worker and later an outdoor cleaner. “It’s gotten hotter. Before, I didn’t sweat; now my back is often covered with sweat,” he told Mongabay. Wong and his colleagues consider themselves lucky. They say when temperatures are high, they can go inside their truck, turn on the AC, and cool down a little. However, heatstroke can occur quickly, setting in within 10-15 minutes. Outdoor workers like Wong are exposed to increasing risks of heat-stress-related health problems, such as dizziness, headache, nausea, heatstroke, or acutely worsening pre-existing chronic conditions such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Like many places around the world, Hong Kong is suffering from extreme temperatures. Official figures show it is warming by nearly half a degree Celsius per decade. The city also experiences longer and hotter summer months, with the number of “very hot days” quadrupling since the 2000s, data from the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) shows. On Aug. 9, HKO logged 36.9°C (98.4°F), the highest temperature at its main monitoring station since record-keeping began in 1884. In the outskirts of Hong Kong, the weather service measured even higher temperatures that day: 39.8°C (103.6°F) — another record. Unlike other developed economies, Hong Kong&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/as-hong-kong-heats-up-calls-grow-for-tougher-rules-to-protect-outdoor-workers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/as-hong-kong-heats-up-calls-grow-for-tougher-rules-to-protect-outdoor-workers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-331482</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As fires spread, Indonesia’s rubber growers draw on traditional ways to fight back</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/as-fires-spread-indonesias-rubber-growers-draw-on-traditional-ways-to-fight-back/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/as-fires-spread-indonesias-rubber-growers-draw-on-traditional-ways-to-fight-back/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Oct 2026 11:13:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Taufik Wijaya]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/02110440/Seorang-warga-tengah-memadamkan-api-di-Talang-Turunan-Gajah-dengan-menggunakan-peralatan-sederhana.-Foto-Muha-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=331495</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, South Sumatra, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Climate, Culture, Disasters, El Nino, Environment, Extreme Weather, Farming, Fires, Global Environmental Crisis, Industrial Agriculture, Plantations, Traditional Knowledge, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PENUKAL ABAB LEMATANG ILIR, Indonesia — Sumanti raced her motorcycle past the rubber trees as flames spread through the dry brush. No one had picked up the phone as the wildfire continued to grow out of control on Sept. 5. “The fire is already approaching our land,” Sumanti, 30, cried out as she drove past [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PENUKAL ABAB LEMATANG ILIR, Indonesia — Sumanti raced her motorcycle past the rubber trees as flames spread through the dry brush. No one had picked up the phone as the wildfire continued to grow out of control on Sept. 5. “The fire is already approaching our land,” Sumanti, 30, cried out as she drove past a bystander, her voice cracking as she pressed on to find her family. Within half an hour, Sumanti’s relatives had encircled the fire with 35-liter (9-gallon) canisters of water and a sprayer, the kind the family ordinarily used to disperse fertilizer over the soil. The family of four worked together, scrambling back and forth for hours to haul water from the partially dried-out swamp among the rubber trees. For two hours, they battled to hold back the flames, but the fire kept cracking through the bamboo and brush. A paye in Tanjung Era, PALI Regency, has dried up. A paye is a source of clean water located amidst forests and plantations. Image by Muhammad Akbar/Mongabay Indonesia. Economic damage Sumanti belongs to one of six families who depend on rubber trees and latex production in Talang Turunan Gajah, a hamlet in the village of Tempirai here in South Sumatra province. As in much of Sumatra and Borneo, the six families here find themselves on the frontline of a wildfire crisis intensified by the El Niño weather phenomenon, as fires spread across the region. Smoke from Indonesia’s wildfires has crossed borders into Malaysia and Singapore, leading to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/as-fires-spread-indonesias-rubber-growers-draw-on-traditional-ways-to-fight-back/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-331495</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mangroves keep waves at bay. A new study helps scientists predict how</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/mangroves-keep-waves-at-bay-a-new-study-helps-scientists-predict-how/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/mangroves-keep-waves-at-bay-a-new-study-helps-scientists-predict-how/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Oct 2026 23:29:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Isabel Gil]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/01133108/OceanImageBank_MPA25_AlexPike-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=331416</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Disasters, Ecosystems, Environment, Extreme Weather, Forests, Mangroves, Marine, Oceans, Research, Sea Levels, and Storms]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Existing at the junction of land and sea, mangrove forests have long been heralded for their ecosystem services, including their ability to buffer coastal areas against storm surges and rising seas. Now, new research has found a way to predict just how much mangroves can diminish waves associated with severe storms. When a wave hits [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Existing at the junction of land and sea, mangrove forests have long been heralded for their ecosystem services, including their ability to buffer coastal areas against storm surges and rising seas. Now, new research has found a way to predict just how much mangroves can diminish waves associated with severe storms. When a wave hits an outcrop of mangroves, its energy is absorbed by the plants’ dense network of twisted roots. When the wave comes out on the other side, its intensity is often decreased, acting as a natural buffer for shorelines — sometimes even shielding shoreside communities from water damage or severe floods. This ability for mangroves to curb wave intensity — a property called attenuation — is well known among scientists. However, much of the data supporting this was collected by measuring mangrove attenuation during mild, calm periods of weather. Quantifying mangrove attenuation during storms or typhoons is trickier — it’s harder to gather data, and there are more factors dominating wave motion, like turbulence. Because of this, “existing models do not always perform so well to predict the wave attenuation by mangroves during storms,” Stijn Temmerman, a professor at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, told Mongabay by video call. This is especially important, researchers told Mongabay, as climate change is linked to severe weather systems. More than 87 million people were impacted by climate-related disasters in 2025, including flooding events and severe storms. Because of this, the development of new methods to model worst-case scenario climate and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/mangroves-keep-waves-at-bay-a-new-study-helps-scientists-predict-how/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-331416</doi>				</item>
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