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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/dredging/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>News on Dredging</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/dredging/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Sand mining plans spark opposition from fishers in Indonesia’s Riau Islands</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/sand-mining-plans-spark-opposition-from-fishers-in-indonesias-riau-islands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/sand-mining-plans-spark-opposition-from-fishers-in-indonesias-riau-islands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Aug 2026 13:37:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten GokkonYogi Eka Sahputra]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Yenni Kwok]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/14123631/m11-1536x1024-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326242</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau Islands, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Blue Carbon, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Development, Dredging, Ecosystems, Environment, Fisheries, Fishing, Governance, Marine, Marine Conservation, Mining, Natural Resources, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[NUMBING ISLAND, Indonesia — The waters off Numbing Island, part of the Riau archipelago between Sumatra and Singapore, are among Indonesia’s richest fishing grounds. Local fisher Edy says the abundant fish stocks have enabled him to support his family and pay for his children&#8217;s university education. He typically earns between 1 million and 2 million [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[NUMBING ISLAND, Indonesia — The waters off Numbing Island, part of the Riau archipelago between Sumatra and Singapore, are among Indonesia’s richest fishing grounds. Local fisher Edy says the abundant fish stocks have enabled him to support his family and pay for his children&#8217;s university education. He typically earns between 1 million and 2 million rupiah ($55-$110) per fishing trip and makes four trips a month. However, Edy says he fears a proposed sand-mining project will threaten his and other fishers’ livelihoods. He said dredging would make the water more turbid, driving fish away from their traditional habitats and forcing fishers to sail farther out to sea to find them. “That is why I am afraid of this mining project. It will damage the sea. We have experienced this before, when marine sand mining took place near Batam,” he said, referring to one of the largest of the Riau islands, located about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Numbing. “Our waters also became cloudy.” Numbing Island in Indonesia’s Riau Islands province. Image by Yogi Eka Sahputra/Mongabay Indonesia. A wave of opposition to the planned sea-sand mining in the waters around Riau Islands province has emerged among not only fishers from Numbing and surrounding areas, but also Indonesian lawmakers. Local authorities paint the project off Numbing, which is part of the Riau Islands’ Bintan district, as necessary to dredge marine sediment to facilitate large ship traffic. This would make it exempt from Indonesian law that prohibits sand mining in coastal areas and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/sand-mining-plans-spark-opposition-from-fishers-in-indonesias-riau-islands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/sand-mining-plans-spark-opposition-from-fishers-in-indonesias-riau-islands/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326242</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>19,000 Great Pyramids a year: Report flags unsustainable rate of sand mining</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/19000-great-pyramids-a-year-report-flags-unsustainable-rate-of-sand-mining/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/19000-great-pyramids-a-year-report-flags-unsustainable-rate-of-sand-mining/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 May 2026 17:33:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/18095047/WWF-Viet-Nam_Sand-Extraction-Mekong-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319631</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Philippines, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Coastal Ecosystems, Dredging, Ecosystems, Environment, Erosion, Fish, Fishing, Freshwater, Governance, Infrastructure, Mining, Rivers, Supply Chain, and Tropics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Sand is the most widely extracted solid material on Earth. The global sand mining industry removes roughly 50 billion metric tons of it a year, a pace that far outstrips the planet’s natural replenishment rates, according to a new report from the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP). Excessive sand extraction from landscapes, rivers and coastal zones [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Sand is the most widely extracted solid material on Earth. The global sand mining industry removes roughly 50 billion metric tons of it a year, a pace that far outstrips the planet’s natural replenishment rates, according to a new report from the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP). Excessive sand extraction from landscapes, rivers and coastal zones threatens ecosystems, livelihoods and many processes on which life depends, the report says. Yet the current pace of removal — enough to build more than 19,000 Great Pyramids of Giza — is only set to grow, with demand for buildings alone expected to rise 45% by 2060. Without coordinated governance, stronger monitoring and long-term planning to mitigate the risks of surging global demand, the industry will continue operating at an unsustainable level, the authors say. The report, published by UNEP’s Global Resource Information Database Geneva (GRID-Geneva) team, calls on industry stakeholders to improve extraction practices to use sand more wisely by balancing meeting demand with environmental protection. Sand is used to make concrete to build everything from homes and offices to roads and seawalls. It’s also used to manufacture glass and silicon-based components like electronic chips and solar panels. “Sand is sometimes referred as the unrecognized hero of development,” Pascal Peduzzi, director of UNEP’s GRID-Geneva program, said in a press release. However, its role in sustaining biodiversity and coastal communities already vulnerable to the impacts of environmental change is too often overlooked, he added. “Sand is our first line of defence against sea level rise,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/19000-great-pyramids-a-year-report-flags-unsustainable-rate-of-sand-mining/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/19000-great-pyramids-a-year-report-flags-unsustainable-rate-of-sand-mining/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319631</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Seagrass restoration in Malaysia finds multi-species approach boosts recovery</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/seagrass-restoration-in-malaysia-finds-multi-species-approach-boosts-recovery/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/seagrass-restoration-in-malaysia-finds-multi-species-approach-boosts-recovery/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Feb 2026 11:43:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/04113337/1-Merambong-shoal_MHZakaria-scaled-e1770205099453-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313704</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Development, Dredging, Ecosystems, Environment, Habitat Loss, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Research, Restoration, Seagrass, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the shallow waters off Johor Bahru’s rapidly urbanizing shoreline in Peninsular Malaysia, a busy assemblage of crabs, marine worms and mollusks are a sign of recovery. Just over a decade ago, the wafting seagrass meadow they now inhabit had been laid waste by development. In 2014, dredgers working on a massive land reclamation project [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the shallow waters off Johor Bahru’s rapidly urbanizing shoreline in Peninsular Malaysia, a busy assemblage of crabs, marine worms and mollusks are a sign of recovery. Just over a decade ago, the wafting seagrass meadow they now inhabit had been laid waste by development. In 2014, dredgers working on a massive land reclamation project to build a “Forest City” at the tip of the peninsula had dispersed plumes of sediment across the Merambong Shoal, one of Malaysia’s most extensive seagrass beds. Seagrasses, distinct from seaweeds, are flowering plants that form vibrant underwater meadows. Filtering pollutants, cycling nutrients, sequestering carbon and providing habitat for a rich diversity of marine life, they help maintain the health of coastal seas. While the Department of Environment recognized the harm and issued a stop-work order later that year, the damage was done: Roughly 10 hectares (25 acres) of seagrass meadow had been destroyed. To try to rectify the situation, the developer, Country Garden Pacificview Sdn. Bhd., ramped up mitigation measures and enlisted the help of marine scientists at the University of Putra Malaysia (UPM) to attempt recovering the seagrass. In a new study, the UPM researchers document the results of their decade-long (2015-25) seagrass restoration and monitoring program at the Merambong Shoal. Their approach, which focused on transplanting seedlings of a combination of fast-growing seagrass species, achieved relatively high survival rates — 66% in some recovery plots. What’s more, as the meadow stabilized, they recorded the natural return of many other types of seagrasses&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/seagrass-restoration-in-malaysia-finds-multi-species-approach-boosts-recovery/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/seagrass-restoration-in-malaysia-finds-multi-species-approach-boosts-recovery/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313704</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mekong sand mining risks collapse of SE Asia’s largest freshwater lake, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/mekong-sand-mining-risks-collapse-of-se-asias-largest-freshwater-lake-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/mekong-sand-mining-risks-collapse-of-se-asias-largest-freshwater-lake-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Dec 2025 11:08:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/23105515/20250612_UoS_00005-scaled-e1766487408383-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311946</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Dredging, Ecosystems, Environment, Farming, Fish, Fishing, Freshwater, Governance, Mining, Rivers, and Tropics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Rampant sand mining in the Mekong River is directly weakening critical seasonal river flows that sustain Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake, new research indicates. The Mekong’s annual wet season flood pulse that feeds water into Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake has been dwindling year by year. Experts have long pointed to upstream hydropower dams in China [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Rampant sand mining in the Mekong River is directly weakening critical seasonal river flows that sustain Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake, new research indicates. The Mekong’s annual wet season flood pulse that feeds water into Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake has been dwindling year by year. Experts have long pointed to upstream hydropower dams in China and Laos that trap sediments and alter the Mekong’s flow, combined with droughts intensified by climate change, as major drivers of the gargantuan river system’s declining vitality. A new study by researchers from the U.K. and Vietnam now shows that sand mining in the Lower Mekong Basin countries of Cambodia and Vietnam has a far greater impact on the flood pulse-lake dynamics than previously understood. “Upstream dams do have a measurable effect,” said lead author Quan Le, a flood risk researcher at Loughborough University in the U.K. “However, the primary driver of the declining Tonle Sap flood pulse is extensive downstream sand mining.” The Mekong’s heartbeat Tonle Sap Lake, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, lies within the lower basin of the Mekong River, the world’s second-most biodiverse aquatic ecosystem (after the Amazon). Each wet season, the lake swells up to five times in size as the Mekong’s annual flood pulse surges up the Tonle Sap River, reversing its flow. The situation then flips during the dry season, when water flows out of the lake downstream into the densely populated Mekong Delta. This rhythmic expansion and contraction is often referred to as the Mekong’s “heartbeat” due to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/mekong-sand-mining-risks-collapse-of-se-asias-largest-freshwater-lake-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/mekong-sand-mining-risks-collapse-of-se-asias-largest-freshwater-lake-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311946</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A closer look at Peru’s Amazon reveals new mining trends, deforestation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/a-closer-look-at-perus-amazon-reveals-new-mining-trends-deforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/a-closer-look-at-perus-amazon-reveals-new-mining-trends-deforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Oct 2025 16:00:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/31021516/portada-min-peru-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307894</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Crime, Deforestation, Dredging, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Gold Mining, Illegal Logging, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Mining, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Rivers, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For years, gold mining has been one of Peru’s most pressing environmental challenges, with illegal operations clearing the Amazon Rainforest and polluting rivers with chemicals. The industry continues to grow, as miners spread into new parts of the country and adopt different ways of working. One recent project that maps mining operations and their expansion [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For years, gold mining has been one of Peru’s most pressing environmental challenges, with illegal operations clearing the Amazon Rainforest and polluting rivers with chemicals. The industry continues to grow, as miners spread into new parts of the country and adopt different ways of working. One recent project that maps mining operations and their expansion shows how mining has spread into the country’s northern provinces and implemented river-based extraction methods that aren’t common in other mining hotspots. Developed by Amazon Conservation’s Monitoring of the Andes Amazon Program (MAAP), the project is one of the first visualizations of Peru’s mining problem on a national scale. “Having this baseline comprehensive look at what’s happening in Peru can serve as the basis for better understanding the magnitude of illegal mining,” Matt Finer, MAAP director and senior research specialist, told Mongabay. “Then we’re getting into, ‘Where is it? Where is it increasing? Where is it decreasing?’” Gold mining caused 139,169 hectares (343,894 acres) of deforestation between 1984 and the first half of 2025, predominantly in the southern department of Madre de Dios, according to the MAAP analysis. In that department alone, MAAP found more than 2,000 pieces of mining infrastructure, including drills, chutes, dredges and mining rafts. Gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon, August 2025. Source: MAAP. Madre de Dios was the focus of Peru’s Operation Mercury in 2019, in which law enforcement aggressively dismantled mine sites. It was a short-term success that saw deforestation rates slow for a couple of years before rebounding&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/a-closer-look-at-perus-amazon-reveals-new-mining-trends-deforestation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307894</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nicaragua government tied to illegal land invasions in wildlife refuge, documents suggest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/nicaragua-government-tied-to-illegal-land-invasions-in-wildlife-refuge-documents-suggest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/nicaragua-government-tied-to-illegal-land-invasions-in-wildlife-refuge-documents-suggest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Jun 2025 16:02:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/25203819/497471661_1323751673089453_597125191772006306_n-1-768x500.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301405</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, and Nicaragua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Corruption, Deforestation, Dredging, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Mining, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Rivers, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A protected wildlife refuge in Nicaragua has suffered a wave of deforestation in recent years, fueled by controversial land deals allowing settlers to clear the rainforest for farming, mining and cattle ranching. Government officials and even some Indigenous community leaders have overseen the land deals in Río San Juan Wildlife Refuge, an ostensibly protected area [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A protected wildlife refuge in Nicaragua has suffered a wave of deforestation in recent years, fueled by controversial land deals allowing settlers to clear the rainforest for farming, mining and cattle ranching. Government officials and even some Indigenous community leaders have overseen the land deals in Río San Juan Wildlife Refuge, an ostensibly protected area in southeastern Nicaragua, resulting in deforestation and the displacement of some residents, according to receipts and other financial documents. The documents were originally obtained by the environmental organization Fundación del Río and shared with Mongabay. They reveal a pattern of corruption and fraud that has led to an influx of human presence in one of the country’s most ecologically important areas. “[The wildlife refuge] is facing severe ecosystem degradation, largely due to invasions that have been induced, promoted and permitted by institutional authorities, political operators and the Ortega-Murillo regime,” a Fundación del Río report said. Río San Juan Wildlife Refuge sits on the Atlantic coast and border with Costa Rica, covering 43,000 hectares (about 106,300 acres) within the larger Río San Juan Biosphere Reserve. Its estuaries and freshwater lagoons have earned it a Ramsar site designation, an international convention protecting wetlands. Around 22% of the wildlife refuge overlaps with Indigenous Rama and Afro-descendent Kriol territory. Nine communities occupy the area on both sides of the border, making land grabs not just a conservation concern but also a human rights violation by the government, observers said. Over the last two decades, President Daniel Ortega has looked&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/nicaragua-government-tied-to-illegal-land-invasions-in-wildlife-refuge-documents-suggest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301405</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Dugong numbers plummet amid seagrass decline in Thailand’s Andaman Sea</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/dugong-numbers-plummet-amid-seagrass-decline-in-thailands-andaman-sea/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/dugong-numbers-plummet-amid-seagrass-decline-in-thailands-andaman-sea/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Apr 2025 09:04:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/10084148/1.-Banner-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297376</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Dredging, Dugong, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Fisheries, Green, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Mammals, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, Research, Restoration, Seagrass, Sedimentation, Tipping points, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Unprecedented numbers of emaciated dugongs have washed up dead along Thailand’s Andaman Sea coast over the past three years, prompting marine scientists to urgently investigate what’s driving their decline. Thailand’s Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) recorded an average 42 dugong (Dugong dugon) fatalities in 2023 and 2024 — more than double the annual [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Unprecedented numbers of emaciated dugongs have washed up dead along Thailand’s Andaman Sea coast over the past three years, prompting marine scientists to urgently investigate what’s driving their decline. Thailand’s Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) recorded an average 42 dugong (Dugong dugon) fatalities in 2023 and 2024 — more than double the annual losses recorded between 2019 and 2022. The increase seems to be continuing into 2025, with 12 fatalities recorded as of April 9. Autopsy data reported by the DMCR indicate at least 40% of the deaths in 2024 were likely due to starvation following the widespread depletion of seagrass, the species’ primary food source. In recent years, scientists have recorded concerning die-offs in key seagrass areas along the Andaman coast in provinces including Trang, Krabi and Phuket. Once flourishing habitats full of fish, crabs, turtles and dugongs, many seagrass meadows have deteriorated into barren stretches of sand. What’s more, cases of dugongs being killed by boat strikes and fishing bycatch have also increased as the animals leave depleted foraging grounds to venture into unfamiliar, riskier waters in search of sustenance. “When they move to other areas they’re not familiar [with], there are other threats like boat traffic,” Petch Manopawitr, a marine ecologist who’s advising government agencies on the dugong situation, told Mongabay. “Clearly, they’re going everywhere they can to try and find food.” A dugong photographed by drone in Thailand. Researchers use the marks on the animals&#8217; backs to identify individuals. Image courtesy of Theerasak Saksritawee.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/dugong-numbers-plummet-amid-seagrass-decline-in-thailands-andaman-sea/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/dugong-numbers-plummet-amid-seagrass-decline-in-thailands-andaman-sea/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297376</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mexico loses phosphate mining lawsuit in controversial arbitration process</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/mexico-loses-phosphate-mining-lawsuit-in-controversial-arbitration-process/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/mexico-loses-phosphate-mining-lawsuit-in-controversial-arbitration-process/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Sep 2024 21:53:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/23214655/Feature1-768x450.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287740</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Dredging, Environment, Environmental Law, extractives, Governance, Law, Marine Conservation, Mining, Oceans, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MEXICO CITY — A mining company trying to launch a controversial phosphate project in Mexican waters has won a lawsuit against the country claiming officials wrongfully rejected its environmental permits, effectively shuttering the project without legitimate cause. Odyssey Marine Exploration, a deep-sea mining company based in Florida, took Mexico to arbitration after the permits were [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MEXICO CITY — A mining company trying to launch a controversial phosphate project in Mexican waters has won a lawsuit against the country claiming officials wrongfully rejected its environmental permits, effectively shuttering the project without legitimate cause. Odyssey Marine Exploration, a deep-sea mining company based in Florida, took Mexico to arbitration after the permits were rejected, winning $37.1 million from the country for breaching obligations. The decision, reached through an obscure international legal process, has reignited concerns about the ability of corporations to overpower local environmental protections. “It is unacceptable that [the arbiters] should side with a company that only seeks to continue enriching itself at the expense of the planet’s biodiversity and set a very negative precedent in the fight of civil society against this emerging industry,” Greenpeace said in a statement. “Underwater mining is not acceptable under any circumstances or conditions. There is no place for underwater mining in a sustainable future.” In 2012, Odyssey obtained a 50-year concession for what’s believed to be one of the world’s largest deposits of phosphate, a mineral used in fertilizers, foods and cosmetic products, among other things. Located in the shallow waters off the coast of Baja California Sur, in the Gulf of Ulloa, the extraction process would have involved dredging around one square kilometer of the seabed each year, without using chemicals. The company said it spent over three years preparing an environmentally sustainable development plan, promising to restore the seabed after dredging and ensuring the work had “no material&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/mexico-loses-phosphate-mining-lawsuit-in-controversial-arbitration-process/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/mexico-loses-phosphate-mining-lawsuit-in-controversial-arbitration-process/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287740</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Island-building and overfishing wreak destruction of South China Sea reefs</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/island-building-and-overfishing-wreak-destruction-of-south-china-sea-reefs/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/island-building-and-overfishing-wreak-destruction-of-south-china-sea-reefs/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Apr 2024 06:54:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/07115725/2_Landfill_TennantReef_11.26.22_VietnamDredging-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280700</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, China, Malaysia, Philippines, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Dredging, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Habitat Loss, Illegal Trade, Islands, Law Enforcement, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overfishing, Politics, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[States jostling for territorial dominance in the South China Sea have inflicted untold damage on the marine environment, according to a new investigation by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) and China Ocean Institute, both based in the U.S. The findings, presented in a recent report, are the “most complete picture to date” of the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[States jostling for territorial dominance in the South China Sea have inflicted untold damage on the marine environment, according to a new investigation by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) and China Ocean Institute, both based in the U.S. The findings, presented in a recent report, are the “most complete picture to date” of the devastation wreaked by industrial overfishing, rampant island-building and reckless giant clam harvesting by bordering states, the authors say. The low-lying but resource-rich features of the South China Sea have been fiercely contested among bordering states for decades. The Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan, Vietnam and China vie for control of the islets and reefs, some of which only breach the ocean surface at extreme low tide. But amid the struggle, the marine environment is being ravaged. The scale of the damage inflicted by competing states on the region’s coral reefs, which represent the foundations of the South China Sea’s marine food webs, can’t be overstated, according to report co-author Gregory Poling, director of the Southeast Asia program at the AMTI. “It’s the largest active man-made reef destruction in human history,” Poling said at a press briefing in Bangkok on Feb. 20. The AMTI is part of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), which is funded in part by the governments of the U.S. and Taiwan; the latter is among the claimants to a disputed part of the South China Sea. The CSIS has also long advocated for a stronger U.S. military presence&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/island-building-and-overfishing-wreak-destruction-of-south-china-sea-reefs/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/island-building-and-overfishing-wreak-destruction-of-south-china-sea-reefs/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280700</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ancient giant river dolphin species found in the Peruvian Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/ancient-giant-river-dolphin-species-found-in-the-peruvian-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/ancient-giant-river-dolphin-species-found-in-the-peruvian-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Mar 2024 22:35:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/20222413/Boto-%C2%A9-COULANGES-_-WWF-Sweden-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280128</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Bycatch, Cetaceans, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Dams, Dolphins, Dredging, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Policy, Fishing, Forests, Freshwater Fish, Green, Mammals, Monitoring, New Discovery, Rainforests, Research, Species Discovery, Technology, Tracking, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A team of paleontologists found a giant fossilized skull along the shore of the Napo River in the Peruvian Amazon. To their surprise, the relic belonged to a newly described species of giant freshwater dolphin. This colossal creature swam in the rivers of the Amazon around 16 million years ago and is considered the largest-known [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A team of paleontologists found a giant fossilized skull along the shore of the Napo River in the Peruvian Amazon. To their surprise, the relic belonged to a newly described species of giant freshwater dolphin. This colossal creature swam in the rivers of the Amazon around 16 million years ago and is considered the largest-known species of river dolphin to have ever lived, measuring 3-3.5 meters (9.8-11.5 feet). Artistic reconstruction of Pebanista yacuruna in the murky waters of the Peruvian proto-Amazonia. Image by Jamie Bran. “As soon as I recognized it, I saw the teeth sockets. I screamed, ‘this is a dolphin.’ We could not believe it,” Aldo Benites-Palomino told The Guardian. Scientists unearthed the fossil during a 2018 expedition led by the University of Zurich (UZH). The new species has been named Pebanista yacuruna, after mythical aquatic beings (Yacuruna) believed by some Indigenous groups to live deep in the river. The team was also surprised to find that the ancient creature was not related to the local, living species of Amazon river pink dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) but rather to South Asian river dolphins (genus Platanista). “We [had] found an animal, a giant, whose closest living relative is 10,000km away in south-east Asia,” Benites-Palomino was quoted as saying. Palaeontologists (from left to right): Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi (Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru), Julia Tejada-Lara (California Institute of Technology, California, USA), John Flynn (American Museum of Natura History, New York, USA) &amp; local guide Michel Valles during the 2018 expedition to the Napo&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/ancient-giant-river-dolphin-species-found-in-the-peruvian-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280128</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>AI unlocks secrets of Amazon river dolphins&#8217; behavior, no tagging required</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/ai-unlocks-secrets-of-amazon-river-dolphins-behavior-no-tagging-required/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/ai-unlocks-secrets-of-amazon-river-dolphins-behavior-no-tagging-required/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Aug 2023 13:27:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/01002615/boto-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=271655</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon and Brazil]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Bycatch, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Dams, Dolphins, Dredging, Endangered Species, Environment, Fishing, Forests, Freshwater Fish, Green, Mammals, Monitoring, Rainforests, Research, Technology, Tracking, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Freshwater dolphins navigate the waterways of the Amazon Basin. In the wet season, water spills from the rivers, flooding parts of the forests. The dolphins go, too, using their exceptionally flexible bodies and echolocation clicks to navigate a maze of submerged greenery. Researchers who study the dolphins typically use boats to follow and sometimes tag [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Freshwater dolphins navigate the waterways of the Amazon Basin. In the wet season, water spills from the rivers, flooding parts of the forests. The dolphins go, too, using their exceptionally flexible bodies and echolocation clicks to navigate a maze of submerged greenery. Researchers who study the dolphins typically use boats to follow and sometimes tag the animals, but this is nearly impossible in floodplain forests. As a result, the habits of two endangered freshwater species — the pink river dolphin or boto (Inia geoffrensis) and the tucuxi (Sotalia fluviatilis) — have been shrouded in mystery until recently. Researchers from the Technical University of Catalonia, Spain, and the Mamirauá Institute of Sustainable Development in Tefé, Brazil, have successfully combined advanced acoustic-monitoring techniques and artificial intelligence to shed light on the movements and behaviors of these dolphins in their seasonally flooded habitats. Their results are published in the journal Scientific Reports. Two botos exploring the floodplains in the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve. Image courtesy of Wezddy Del Toro/IDSM. The researchers submerged powerful recording devices called hydrophones to depths of 3-5 meters (10-16 feet) at various spots across an area covering approximately 800 square kilometers (309 square miles) of the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve in Amazonas state. The hydrophones recorded sounds from various habitats, including river channels, confluence bays, floodplain lakes, and flooded forests during both wet and dry seasons between June 2019 and September 2020. To analyze these recordings, they employed convolutional neural networks (CNN), a type of deep-learning algorithm, to automatically&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/ai-unlocks-secrets-of-amazon-river-dolphins-behavior-no-tagging-required/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/ai-unlocks-secrets-of-amazon-river-dolphins-behavior-no-tagging-required/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-271655</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Fishing, dams and dredging close in on Peru’s river dolphins, study shows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/fishing-dams-and-dredging-close-in-on-perus-river-dolphins-study-shows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/fishing-dams-and-dredging-close-in-on-perus-river-dolphins-study-shows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jul 2023 18:44:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/07/05162715/Jose-Luis-Mena-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=270594</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Bycatch, Conservation, Dams, Dolphins, Dredging, Endangered Species, Environment, Fishing, Forests, Freshwater Fish, Green, Mammals, Rainforests, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Amazon river dolphins navigate the complex waterways of the forest, their pods spread across the Amazon Basin in six different countries. The routes of these large, pink mammals are naturally blocked by land, waterfalls and stretches of shallow water, but increasingly something else is in the way: human activity. According to a recent study published [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Amazon river dolphins navigate the complex waterways of the forest, their pods spread across the Amazon Basin in six different countries. The routes of these large, pink mammals are naturally blocked by land, waterfalls and stretches of shallow water, but increasingly something else is in the way: human activity. According to a recent study published in the journal Oryx, Amazon river dolphins (Inia geoffrensis) in Peru are threatened by fishing activity as well as the proposed construction of dams and dredging operations. “It’s clear that the Amazon river dolphin is facing increasing threats from humans,” lead author Elizabeth Campbell, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter, U.K., said in a statement. Amazon river dolphins eat at least 53 different species of fish, making them an important aquatic predator. Image by Diogo Luiz via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Researchers from Exeter and Peruvian conservation organization Pro Delphinus fitted satellite tags on eight dolphins in the Peruvian Amazon to track their movements in relation to fishing areas, dams and dredging sites. The findings revealed that an overwhelming 89% of the dolphins&#8217; home range is subject to fishing activity. Fishing not only depletes the dolphins&#8217; food sources but also subjects them to intentional killing and accidental capture, known as bycatch. The Amazon river dolphin is currently classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List. Actions that further threaten these large mammals could have dire consequences for the entire aquatic ecosystem. “As they are at the top of the food&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/fishing-dams-and-dredging-close-in-on-perus-river-dolphins-study-shows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-270594</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cambodia’s elites swallow up Phnom Penh’s lakes, leaving the poor marooned</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/cambodias-elites-swallow-up-phnom-penhs-lakes-leaving-the-poor-marooned/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/cambodias-elites-swallow-up-phnom-penhs-lakes-leaving-the-poor-marooned/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Oct 2022 08:30:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald FlynnVutha Srey]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/07023706/Sand-Mining-Article-2_Mongabay-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=261245</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Aquaculture, Cities, Climate Change, Conservation, Dredging, Environment, Fish, Flooding, Freshwater, Governance, Human Rights, Impact Of Climate Change, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Public Health, public lands, Research, Social Conflict, urban ecology, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PHNOM PENH — On the edges of Boeung Tamok, Phnom Penh’s largest lake, 25-year-old Kong Khun sheltered from the late June heat in a bamboo hut. Despite clear skies, Khun wasn’t out on the water fishing with his family. There is little point, he said. An almost endless convoy of trucks carrying sand, rocks and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PHNOM PENH — On the edges of Boeung Tamok, Phnom Penh’s largest lake, 25-year-old Kong Khun sheltered from the late June heat in a bamboo hut. Despite clear skies, Khun wasn’t out on the water fishing with his family. There is little point, he said. An almost endless convoy of trucks carrying sand, rocks and soil paraded around what remains of the lake as part of a land reclamation project that Khun said has decimated the fish population and his income. “The lakes around this city are almost gone,” Khun said. “This is the last great lake of Phnom Penh, and when it goes, the city will be flooded up to the waist and poor people will have to work in construction or factories, that’s all that’ll be left.” Long a source of fish and aquaculture, along with providing natural flood defenses and wastewater treatment, lakes across Cambodia’s capital are being filled in by powerful tycoons and government agencies. Khun is one of the few people still remaining in Boeung Tamok, where the government has been evicting the roughly 300 families living off the lake to make way for commercial developments. Data shows how Boeung Tamok has been privatized, leaving little lake left. Sources: Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT Cambodia), Planet Labs Inc. Image by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay. These families have relied on the lake for fish and aquaculture farming for generations, but urban land rights NGO Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT) warned in April 2021 that as many as 25 of those&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/cambodias-elites-swallow-up-phnom-penhs-lakes-leaving-the-poor-marooned/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-261245</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mining the Mekong: Land and livelihoods lost to Cambodia’s thirst for sand</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/mining-the-mekong-land-and-livelihoods-lost-to-cambodias-thirst-for-sand/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/mining-the-mekong-land-and-livelihoods-lost-to-cambodias-thirst-for-sand/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Aug 2022 04:03:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald FlynnVutha Srey]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/29023049/1.-DSC07481-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=259634</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Dredging, Ecosystems, Fishing, Freshwater, Governance, Mining, Rivers, and Tropics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ROKA KOANG, Cambodia — Some 45 kilometers, or 28 miles, up the Mekong River from Phnom Penh, Voi Thy sat and watched as 12 boats pumped sand from the riverbed. Another 11 boats, weighed low by their quarry of freshly mined sand, were making the glacial journey past her home in Roka Koang commune, Kandal [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ROKA KOANG, Cambodia — Some 45 kilometers, or 28 miles, up the Mekong River from Phnom Penh, Voi Thy sat and watched as 12 boats pumped sand from the riverbed. Another 11 boats, weighed low by their quarry of freshly mined sand, were making the glacial journey past her home in Roka Koang commune, Kandal province, to the capital. In late June, 43-year-old Thy was slicing up bottle gourds outside her house, propped up by makeshift wooden stilts that descended down into the collapsed banks of the Mekong. Each year, she said, the riverbank erosion gets worse. Two large collapses during Cambodia’s rainy season in May and June 2021 saw Thy move her house further from the river. But a more recent collapse in November 2021 forced her to remove a part of her house that was left hanging precariously over the water’s edge. “I was so scared we’d lose it all, it’s been disappearing, piece by piece, since the sand mining began,” Thy said. “Another 20 families left after the big collapse in November [2021]. Those who stay do because they have no other option,” she said. A Roka Koang resident&#8217;s photo of a crack that appeared in November 2021 on the main road. Copyright: Andy Ball/University of Southampton. Thy has moved her house repeatedly since 2016 to keep the river at bay, a short time after Cambodia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy began auctioning off sand mining licenses for sections of the Mekong River in Roka Koang in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/mining-the-mekong-land-and-livelihoods-lost-to-cambodias-thirst-for-sand/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-259634</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Illegal mining threatens one of the last forest links between the Andes and Ecuador&#8217;s Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/illegal-mining-threatens-one-of-the-last-forest-links-between-the-andes-and-ecuadors-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/illegal-mining-threatens-one-of-the-last-forest-links-between-the-andes-and-ecuadors-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jun 2022 07:00:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jackeline Beltrán]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/06/09230714/32053112514_8107e7db6a_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=257045</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Chemicals, Conservation, Dredging, Gold Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Mining, Pollution, Rivers, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The route connecting the provinces of Loja and Zamora Chinchipe in Ecuador is a series of roads surrounded by green, leafy and picturesque mountains. Near the city of Zamora, signs welcome visitors to the &#8216;Land of Waterfalls and Birds.&#8217; Naturally, the fluttering of birds and butterflies fills the air. A river runs alongside the road [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The route connecting the provinces of Loja and Zamora Chinchipe in Ecuador is a series of roads surrounded by green, leafy and picturesque mountains. Near the city of Zamora, signs welcome visitors to the &#8216;Land of Waterfalls and Birds.&#8217; Naturally, the fluttering of birds and butterflies fills the air. A river runs alongside the road and enters the southern Amazonian city, where there is a pier overlooking its noisiest and more touristic avenue. Such scenery is what travelers expect to find when they think about Ecuador&#8217;s Amazon. View of the Nangaritza valley from near Las Orquideas after heavy rain. Photo by Andrew Neil via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). But some scenes break this idyll. Five minutes from the pier by car is the Redondel del Minero [Miner&#8217;s circle], a statue of a man standing at about 5 meters (16 feet) tall with a helmet and boots. He holds a gold mining pan in his hands. The statue is so well made that the skin looks as if it had tanned in the tropical heat. The miner looks toward the Zamora River and the Podocarpus National Park, a protected area of about 1,462 square kilometers (564 square miles) home to unique bird species and a network of more than a hundred lagoons. The statue is the first indication that everything revolves around mining in Zamora Chinchipe. Despite the entire province being a forested space of 10,556 square kilometers (4,076 square miles) with mighty rivers, fine-wood trees, medicinal plants and countless endemic species, it&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/illegal-mining-threatens-one-of-the-last-forest-links-between-the-andes-and-ecuadors-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-257045</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Tendrils of hope’ for the ocean: Q&#038;A with conservationist Charles Clover</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/tendrils-of-hope-for-the-ocean-qa-with-conservationist-charles-clover/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/tendrils-of-hope-for-the-ocean-qa-with-conservationist-charles-clover/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jun 2022 09:53:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/06/08063600/mantas-with-fish-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256948</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Books, Climate Change, Conservation, Dredging, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Global Environmental Crisis, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2004, Charles Clover published a book called The End of the Line that painted a dismal view of our oceans due to rampant overfishing. The book, as well as the subsequent film by the same name, describes how wealthy fishing nations have been pushing global fisheries toward the point of collapse at the expense [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2004, Charles Clover published a book called The End of the Line that painted a dismal view of our oceans due to rampant overfishing. The book, as well as the subsequent film by the same name, describes how wealthy fishing nations have been pushing global fisheries toward the point of collapse at the expense of ecosystems and coastal communities. But now, 18 years later, Clover has published a very different kind of book. This one, titled Rewilding the Sea, looks at the efforts to protect and restore the ocean to its former wild state. While oceans are still very much in peril, Clover shows how governments, scientists, conservationists and members of the fishing community can work together to generate positive change at a time when such change is sorely needed. “This book tells the story of how I journeyed from despair to hope about the state of our common oceans,” Clover writes in the introduction. “It is a tale of beginnings, of extraordinary changes achieved around the world by small bands of dedicated people. Here, you will find an account of how things once thought impossible have happened and which have led, in one way or another, to what I call rewilding the sea.” While the word “rewilding” generally refers to restoration efforts that take place on land, Clover uses the term to refer to similar activities taking place in the sea. He says his use of the word doesn’t just refer to efforts to restore damaged ecosystems through&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/tendrils-of-hope-for-the-ocean-qa-with-conservationist-charles-clover/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256948</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Military base-building destroys coral reefs in the South China Sea</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/military-base-building-destroys-coral-reefs-in-the-south-china-sea/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/military-base-building-destroys-coral-reefs-in-the-south-china-sea/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Mar 2017 19:33:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Greg Asner]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/03/30123848/greg_asner_spratly_islands_5081-768x463.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=194134</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Malaysia, Pacific Islands, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation Technology, Coral Reefs, Dredging, Environment, Fish, Fishing, Islands, Oceans, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Sharks, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As I reached the surface, I could hardly believe my eyes. The black shadow of the vessel turned, revealing its distinct cigar-shaped profile. Seeing a submarine at sea with a scuba tank on your back is like pricking yourself on a needle lost in a very big haystack. But the South China Sea is not [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Sea turtle in a coral garden in the Spratly Islands. Photo by Greg Asner. As I reached the surface, I could hardly believe my eyes. The black shadow of the vessel turned, revealing its distinct cigar-shaped profile. Seeing a submarine at sea with a scuba tank on your back is like pricking yourself on a needle lost in a very big haystack. But the South China Sea is not your average haystack, and nothing seems to be lost out in its vast expanse. The South China Sea stretches from the coast of mainland China to the shores of Borneo, Vietnam, and Philippines. The southern part is a huge blue water world dotted with remote atolls and islands known as the Spratly Islands, named after whaler Richard Spratly who ‘discovered’ them in 1843. The Spratlys have many other names in the languages of nations that encircle the South China Sea, an expression of the long-standing strain between multiple claimants of the region. Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines, and Vietnam each claim a portion of the Spratly archipelago, and China claims all of it. Figure 1: The Spratly Islands are located in the southern portion of the South China Sea. The region has also become a hotbed for modern naval activity, owing to critical commercial shipping through its waters, and the oil that underlies its seabed. The U.S. routinely navigates the South China Sea as a demonstration of its naval power, said to ensure right-of-passage, and which China openly views as a threat. And&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/military-base-building-destroys-coral-reefs-in-the-south-china-sea/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-194134</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Forced evictions along Jakarta waterway a liability for Ahok as governor’s race nears finish line</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/02/forced-evictions-along-jakarta-waterway-a-liability-for-ahok-as-governors-race-nears-finish-line/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/02/forced-evictions-along-jakarta-waterway-a-liability-for-ahok-as-governors-race-nears-finish-line/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Feb 2017 05:37:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edith Koesoemawiria]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/02/13051710/3343664901_09be9ccbf1_b-768x497.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=193157</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Jokowi Commitments]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Jakarta, Java, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Community Development, Disasters, Dredging, Environment, Environmental Policy, Flooding, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Law Enforcement, Politics, Pollution, Rivers, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Six weeks after the last of the Bukit Duri evictees moved into their new dwellings here in the Indonesian capital, the atmosphere was friendly but painful. Some tenants told jokes at the food stall in the parking lot. The cook, also a former Bukit Duri resident, had initially gone to her hometown of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Six weeks after the last of the Bukit Duri evictees moved into their new dwellings here in the Indonesian capital, the atmosphere was friendly but painful. Some tenants told jokes at the food stall in the parking lot. The cook, also a former Bukit Duri resident, had initially gone to her hometown of Bogor. But after a neighbor told her about the new quarters and a possible income, she returned. “I lived in Bukit Duri for more than two decades — when I returned to Bogor there was really no one I knew anymore,” she said. “I was alone, moping without anyone to talk to. Here I am with friends, I have a life.” Twenty of the evicted families — 96 men, women and children — now live in a two-storey, 800-square-meter building in South Jakarta’s Kampung Melayu neighborhood, about a kilometer from where their houses in Bukit Duri once stood. The riverside slum was mowed to the ground last October in the name of flood prevention. The Jakarta administration sent bulldozers, guarded by police and soldiers, to remove hundreds of families from the area. Bukit Duri lay on the banks of the Ciliwung River, which the government is trying to &#8220;normalize.&#8221; The waterway crosses the city and has been made filthy by industrial sewage, garbage dumped by urban residents and a failure of city maintenance. Only recently, and especially since incumbent Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja “Ahok” Purnama took office, have rivers and many parts of the capital region&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/02/forced-evictions-along-jakarta-waterway-a-liability-for-ahok-as-governors-race-nears-finish-line/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-193157</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>South China Sea ruling slams China for poaching, reef destruction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/07/south-china-sea-ruling-slams-china-for-poaching-reef-destruction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/07/south-china-sea-ruling-slams-china-for-poaching-reef-destruction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Jul 2016 18:53:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David E. Brown]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/07/01195952/26955150364_a6535ca7c0_k-462x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=187624</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, China, Pacific Ocean, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Coral Reefs, Crime, Dredging, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Fishing, Islands, Law Enforcement, Marine Conservation, Oceans, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On July 12, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea upheld the Philippine government&#8217;s challenge to China&#8217;s sweeping claim that it had &#8220;since time immemorial&#8221; ruled the seas between Hainan and Singapore. Media attention of course focused on how the Tribunal&#8217;s rulings would impact the festering confrontation between Beijing and a disparate group [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On July 12, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea upheld the Philippine government&#8217;s challenge to China&#8217;s sweeping claim that it had &#8220;since time immemorial&#8221; ruled the seas between Hainan and Singapore. Media attention of course focused on how the Tribunal&#8217;s rulings would impact the festering confrontation between Beijing and a disparate group of countries that have been threatened or dismayed by its expansionist claims. The ruling (pdf) was far broader in scope than China&#8217;s South Sea neighbors and their friends dared hope. A five-judge panel ruled unanimously in Manila&#8217;s favor on every major point. Immediately after the verdict was published, China was said to be on the verge of exiting UNCLOS, the comprehensive set of rules that since 1994 has governed the oceans. Almost overlooked in media reportage of the Tribunal&#8217;s rulings were important clarifications of UNCLOS provisions on the protection of the marine environment. However the South China Sea showdown turns out, the Tribunal&#8217;s rulings will bear importantly on future argument over the environment and ecosystem protection obligations of states everywhere. Until a half century ago, the oceans were essentially regarded as bottomless dumping grounds. Growing awareness of the maritime domain&#8217;s environmental and ecological health concerns led to the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment (1972) and, later, the environmental protection chapter (XII) of the Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS for short. The pact established an agreed framework for the management of the maritime environment. Since UNCLOS entered into force, however, there has&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/07/south-china-sea-ruling-slams-china-for-poaching-reef-destruction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-187624</doi>				</item>
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