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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/dry-forests/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Wed, 29 Jul 2026 04:18:37 +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 Dry Forests</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/dry-forests/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>How Costa Rica&#8217;s extreme climate changes the social behaviors of white-faced capuchin</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-costa-ricas-extreme-climate-changes-the-social-behaviors-of-white-faced-capuchin/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-costa-ricas-extreme-climate-changes-the-social-behaviors-of-white-faced-capuchin/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jul 2026 18:15:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Adam Litchkofski]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/16221627/6-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323804</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Costa Rica, Global, Latin America, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Biology, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Deforestation, Disasters, Drought, Dry Forests, Earth Science, Ecosystems, El Nino, Environment, Extreme Weather, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Impact Of Climate Change, Mammals, Monkeys, Primates, Science, Tropical Deforestation, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COSTA RICA: Dawn is yet to break when primatologist Susan Perry and her field research team move through Costa Rica’s tropical dry forest for a day in the field studying Central American white-faced capuchin monkeys. Despite the darkness, the forest is humming. Perry calls this juncture “the changing of the guard,” when nocturnal animals end [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COSTA RICA: Dawn is yet to break when primatologist Susan Perry and her field research team move through Costa Rica’s tropical dry forest for a day in the field studying Central American white-faced capuchin monkeys. Despite the darkness, the forest is humming. Perry calls this juncture “the changing of the guard,” when nocturnal animals end their day and diurnal species are just beginning theirs. As the team approaches the site where the capuchin (Cebus imitators) sleep, the location of which changes nightly, spiders&#8217; glittering eyeshine emblazons the ungraspable dark of the forest. Perry, an evolutionary anthropology professor at UCLA, has researched capuchin monkeys living in and near the Lomas de Barbudal Biological Reserve for the past 33 years. She documents their complex social behaviors and group dynamics with a revolving team of scientists, capturing the intricacies of capuchin society while remaining on the periphery. A new study analyzing Perry’s observations of 12 neighboring capuchin groups over her 33 years in the field documents how extreme climate events, such as El Niño, alter the costs and benefits of living in large groups for capuchins. In the field, the researchers go through a highly intentional process to remain separate: Perry leaves her study subjects untagged and uncollared, and instead, identifies and gets to know each individual. These monkeys are listed as vulnerable by IUCN. They live in one of the most endangered and biodiverse habitats in the world:tropical dry forest. Due to deforestation and fire damage, just 1% of the original primary&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-costa-ricas-extreme-climate-changes-the-social-behaviors-of-white-faced-capuchin/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-costa-ricas-extreme-climate-changes-the-social-behaviors-of-white-faced-capuchin/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323804</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Improved transport opens Mozambique’s forests to new pressures</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/improved-transport-opens-mozambiques-forests-to-new-pressures/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/improved-transport-opens-mozambiques-forests-to-new-pressures/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jun 2026 09:16:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mkhululi Chimoio]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/09002827/CoalTrain_MuitvazeMozambique2018_MatthiasHilleWikicommonsBY2.0-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320793</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Deforestation, Dry Forests, Environment, Farming, Food, food security, Forests, Governance, Infrastructure, Logging, Politics, Roads, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Up until 10 years ago, large sections of the road linking Malawi and Zambia to the Indian Ocean port of Nacala would become nearly impassable during the rainy season, with potholes, damaged bridges and traffic bottlenecks causing long delays along this regional transport artery across northern Mozambique. The Mozambique government has carried out major upgrades [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Up until 10 years ago, large sections of the road linking Malawi and Zambia to the Indian Ocean port of Nacala would become nearly impassable during the rainy season, with potholes, damaged bridges and traffic bottlenecks causing long delays along this regional transport artery across northern Mozambique. The Mozambique government has carried out major upgrades to transport infrastructure, but this may have come at the cost of accelerating deforestation across the region. Between 2017 and 2022, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the World Bank financed major transportation upgrades along the Nacala Corridor, centered on the 912-kilometer (565-mile) rail line linking coal mines in western Mozambique with ports on the Indian Ocean, as well as road upgrades, to lower costs and improve regional trade connections with Malawi and Zambia. “This project reduces the ‘penalty of remoteness’ that poorer households pay,” Romulo Cunha Correa, Mozambique country manager for the African Development Bank, told Mongabay in an interview. The AfDB has prioritized improvements to road and rail infrastructure across the continent, also backing projects linking Cameroon to the cities of Brazzaville and Kinshasa on the Congo River, and South Sudan to Indian Ocean ports in Kenya. But researchers studying this expansion of infrastructure have warned that the road upgrades can intensify deforestation and habitat loss. Women walk past a fish pond in Moatize, in Mozambique’s western province of Tete, in 2011. Image by Peter Fredenburg via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Manuel Mario Nazare, a conservationist with&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/improved-transport-opens-mozambiques-forests-to-new-pressures/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/improved-transport-opens-mozambiques-forests-to-new-pressures/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320793</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Genetic study reveals extinction risk for unique mangrove-adapted pampas cat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/genetic-study-reveals-extinction-risk-for-unique-mangrove-adapted-pampas-cat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/genetic-study-reveals-extinction-risk-for-unique-mangrove-adapted-pampas-cat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jun 2026 16:09:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/05134141/1-desert-pampas-cat-Leopardus-garleppi-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320650</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Deserts, Dry Forests, Environment, Extinction, Genetics, Habitat, Mammals, Mangroves, Research, Science, Small Cats, Wildlife, Wildlife Corridors, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[More than a decade ago, conservationists began working to preserve a unique population of desert pampas cats that has adapted to the mangroves of Peru’s northern coast. This small, isolated population roams the San Pedro de Vice dry mangroves, a Ramsar Site and South America’s southernmost mangrove ecosystem. “This is a very unique population, because [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[More than a decade ago, conservationists began working to preserve a unique population of desert pampas cats that has adapted to the mangroves of Peru’s northern coast. This small, isolated population roams the San Pedro de Vice dry mangroves, a Ramsar Site and South America’s southernmost mangrove ecosystem. “This is a very unique population, because as far as we know, [it] is the only Pampas cat population that lives in a mangrove [habitat],” Alvaro Garcia, co-coordinator of the Pampas Cat Working Group and the Peruvian Desert Cat Project, told Mongabay in an email. The desert pampas cat (Leopardus garleppi), distinctive for its broad face, ranges along a relatively thin band snaking southward from Colombia through Peru and Bolivia, to northern Chile and Argentina. The species is acclimated to dry conditions, so inhabits deserts, grasslands and dry forests, and isn’t found living in mangroves anywhere else aside from this region of Peru. Dry mangrove forests, also called scrub or dwarf mangrove forests, grow in highly saline soils in upper intertidal zones, so lack regular daily flushing by ocean tides. At first, it was thought the dry mangrove-acclimated cats were faring well: “[I]n the mangrove [habitat], we put cameras out for a week, and we got tons of photos,” whereas in other parts of the felid’s range, conservationists barely capture one desert pampas cat image per month, said Cindy Hurtado, co-coordinator of the Pampas Cat Working Group and the Peruvian Desert Cat Project. Based on the photos, the research team assumed the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/genetic-study-reveals-extinction-risk-for-unique-mangrove-adapted-pampas-cat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/genetic-study-reveals-extinction-risk-for-unique-mangrove-adapted-pampas-cat/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320650</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How wild cattle recovery is transforming local livelihoods near key Thai reserve</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/how-wild-cattle-recovery-is-transforming-local-livelihoods-near-key-thai-reserve/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/how-wild-cattle-recovery-is-transforming-local-livelihoods-near-key-thai-reserve/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Apr 2026 09:31:41 +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/20/2026/04/02074243/a.-BANNER-Bos_javanicus_wild_Banteng_-_Huai_Kha_Khaeng_19936183473-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316796</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Cattle, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Dry Forests, Ecotourism, Endangered Species, Forests, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Protected Areas, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[HUAI KHA KHAENG, Thailand — “Five years ago, we’d never have been able to see this,” says Boonlert Tianchang, raising a pair of binoculars to his beaming eyes. “To see just one banteng, we would have had to go deep into the forest. Now, they’re right here.” We’re standing on a wildlife-viewing platform overlooking a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[HUAI KHA KHAENG, Thailand — “Five years ago, we’d never have been able to see this,” says Boonlert Tianchang, raising a pair of binoculars to his beaming eyes. “To see just one banteng, we would have had to go deep into the forest. Now, they’re right here.” We’re standing on a wildlife-viewing platform overlooking a roughly 8-hectare (20-acre) grassland in the buffer area surrounding the northeastern boundary of Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, a flagship protected area in Thailand’s Uthai Thani province. Russet-colored banteng (Bos javanicus), one of the world’s rarest species of wild cattle, step one by one into the clearing from the cover of the forest. Mothers, calves and adult males browse the vegetation nonchalantly, their stocky bright-orange bodies contrasting almost comically with their spindly white legs and snowy rumps. “This is the only place in Thailand where you can see a lot of banteng like this,” says Boonlert, who lives in the buffer area and leads a community-based ecotourism initiative focused on tours to see this increasingly common sight. “I see them here so often,” he says. “But every time, I’m humbled thinking of all the work that’s gone into protecting them [to] get to this point.” Boonlert Tianchang scans the landscape at a wildlife watching platform in Rabam subdistrict. Image by Carolyn Cowan for Mongabay. Protection prompts recovery As large herbivores, banteng play a vital role in dispersing seeds and cycling nutrients in the dry, open-canopy forests that are their preferred habitat. Their browsing of understory&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/how-wild-cattle-recovery-is-transforming-local-livelihoods-near-key-thai-reserve/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/how-wild-cattle-recovery-is-transforming-local-livelihoods-near-key-thai-reserve/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316796</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Beetle known for ravaging mango trees now killing baobabs, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/beetle-known-for-ravaging-mango-trees-now-killing-baobabs-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/beetle-known-for-ravaging-mango-trees-now-killing-baobabs-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Mar 2026 14:18:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/05133804/baobab-in-oman-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315242</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Madagascar, Middle East, Oman, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Dry Forests, Ecology, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forestry, Forests, Plants, Research, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A couple of years ago, Sarah Venter wrote an article gently picking apart alarm over the specter of Africa&#8217;s iconic baobabs dying off due to climate change. Her review found that while a number of famously large and ancient trees had indeed collapsed in worsening conditions, Adansonia digitata were generally proving resilient. When she heard [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A couple of years ago, Sarah Venter wrote an article gently picking apart alarm over the specter of Africa&#8217;s iconic baobabs dying off due to climate change. Her review found that while a number of famously large and ancient trees had indeed collapsed in worsening conditions, Adansonia digitata were generally proving resilient. When she heard about fears that a new pest was killing worrying numbers of baobabs in Oman, she set off to investigate, at the invitation of Oman’s Environmental Authority. There are eight species of baobab, members of the genus Adansonia. A. digitata is widely distributed across East, West and Southern Africa; one species is restricted to northwestern Australia; and the other six are found only in Madagascar, believed to be the center of origin for this striking family of trees that stand majestically on barrel-like trunks and can live for well over a thousand years. Three of Madagascar’s baobab species are threatened — A. grandidieri and A. suarezensis are listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List, and A. perrieri is critically endangered — by logging, charcoal production, wildfires, and mining of the forests they’re found in. Historical records and genetic research suggest baobabs reached Oman, on the Arabian Peninsula, centuries ago as part of the circulation of valuable plants between northeastern Africa, the Persian Gulf and South Asia by nomadic and fishing communities on the Indian Ocean. Batocera rufomaculata adult (a) and larvae (b). Images courtesy of Sarah Venter. It was the health of about 100 baobabs&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/beetle-known-for-ravaging-mango-trees-now-killing-baobabs-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/beetle-known-for-ravaging-mango-trees-now-killing-baobabs-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315242</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Helicopter translocation brings isolated banteng to safer grounds in Cambodia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/helicopter-translocation-brings-isolated-banteng-to-safer-grounds-in-cambodia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/helicopter-translocation-brings-isolated-banteng-to-safer-grounds-in-cambodia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Feb 2026 13:34:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/17131157/Banteng-release-Jeremy-Holden-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314360</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Dry Forests, Environment, Forests, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Mammals, Poaching, Protected Areas, Reintroductions, Rewilding, Ungulates, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Earlier this month, a team of conservationists translocated 16 critically endangered banteng into Siem Pang Wildlife Sanctuary in northeast Cambodia in a bid to boost numbers that had dwindled to critical levels. The group of wild cattle was captured and transported from a nearby unprotected forest facing imminent conversion to farmland. The operation was the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Earlier this month, a team of conservationists translocated 16 critically endangered banteng into Siem Pang Wildlife Sanctuary in northeast Cambodia in a bid to boost numbers that had dwindled to critical levels. The group of wild cattle was captured and transported from a nearby unprotected forest facing imminent conversion to farmland. The operation was the second phase of largescale efforts to save the herd, led by Cambodia-based social enterprise Rising Phoenix in partnership with local wildlife authorities. “With proper law enforcement, no poaching and suitable habitat in Siem Pang, I think there is a very positive future for them,” said Romain Legrand, biodiversity research and monitoring manager with Rising Phoenix. “The population is going to grow quickly, I’m sure.” Together with the first translocation carried out in May 2025, the recent operation brings the total rehomed banteng (Bos javanicus) population in the reserve to 32 individuals, including breeding-age adults and calves, according to Legrand. Banteng are strikingly patterned bovids, their bright white legs and snowy rumps contrasting sharply against their russet coats. The species used to range across Southeast Asia, with Cambodia’s once-extensive dry dipterocarp forests home to a significant portion of the global population. However, decades of deforestation and hunting for their meat, horns and hides have decimated their numbers — the latest IUCN Red List assessment puts their global population at no more than 8,000 individuals. In Cambodia, the species hangs on as sporadic groups eking out an existence in a handful of isolated forest patches. While tigers&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/helicopter-translocation-brings-isolated-banteng-to-safer-grounds-in-cambodia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314360</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mines, dams move in as protection slips in a Cambodian wildlife sanctuary</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/mines-dams-move-in-as-protection-slips-in-a-cambodian-wildlife-sanctuary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/mines-dams-move-in-as-protection-slips-in-a-cambodian-wildlife-sanctuary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Feb 2026 02:54:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Coby HobbsEung Sea]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/05183556/LumphatWS_mining-08964-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313745</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Dry Forests, Environment, Forests, Governance, Mining, Protected Areas, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In Sre Chhuk village, a quiet patch in northeast Cambodia where the Mekong’s smaller veins trace the edge of a fading wildlife sanctuary, Vorn Pang and Sao Thorn once believed their land was safe. By 2018, officials and conservation groups had formalized their farmland as part of the Veal Kambor Community Protected Area (CPA), under [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In Sre Chhuk village, a quiet patch in northeast Cambodia where the Mekong’s smaller veins trace the edge of a fading wildlife sanctuary, Vorn Pang and Sao Thorn once believed their land was safe. By 2018, officials and conservation groups had formalized their farmland as part of the Veal Kambor Community Protected Area (CPA), under a conservation model that aims to balance local livelihoods and forest protection. In return for patrolling and managing the adjoining forests of the Lumphat Wildlife Sanctuary, villagers retained rights to manage resources in a nearly 3,000-hectare (7,413-acre) “community zone” for 15 years. Their fields, they were told, were secure for years to come. That’s why it came as a shock, they said, when parts of the community zone were handed over to extractive companies starting in 2020. Vorn and Sao said they were given no compensation as marble quarries and open pits tore through their fallow rice paddies and cut into the forests where they gathered non-timber products, all in the heart of one of Cambodia’s most threatened sanctuaries. A homemade alcohol used as a remedy for intestinal ailments, brewed from three types of wood collected deep into in the wildlife sanctuary. Community Protected Areas typically allow sustainable harvesting of forest products. “A meeting was held with the Ministry of Environment and company representatives for compensation but, years later, there is still nothing,” said Pang, who recalled that the meeting took place in 2021 but was unsure which firm was responsible or who initiated the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/mines-dams-move-in-as-protection-slips-in-a-cambodian-wildlife-sanctuary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/mines-dams-move-in-as-protection-slips-in-a-cambodian-wildlife-sanctuary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313745</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Too many African plants fall into the IUCN’s ‘not evaluated’ trap (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/too-many-african-plants-fall-into-the-iucns-not-evaluated-trap-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/too-many-african-plants-fall-into-the-iucns-not-evaluated-trap-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jan 2026 16:41:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victor Nsereko Wantate]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/20161805/Khaya_anthotheca_Big_Tree_Chirinda_Forest_Zimbabwe_04-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313117</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Botany, Conservation, Dry Forests, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Plants, Rainforests, Research, Savannas, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Many African conservation decisions such as funding, policy, species prioritization and nursery propagation implicitly treat the IUCN Red List as a complete map of extinction risk. It is not. For plants including trees, the biggest risk is not only that we mis-rank species, it’s that we overlook vast numbers of species that have never been [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Many African conservation decisions such as funding, policy, species prioritization and nursery propagation implicitly treat the IUCN Red List as a complete map of extinction risk. It is not. For plants including trees, the biggest risk is not only that we mis-rank species, it’s that we overlook vast numbers of species that have never been globally assessed or have assessments that are decades old. So, how much plant diversity is assessed? Globally, one widely cited synthesis notes that of about 350,000 vascular plant species, the IUCN Red List documents about 62,666 species, or roughly 18%. That means most vascular plant species worldwide have no global Red List category to guide action. Africa illustrates the gap even more starkly. A comprehensive checklist of Mozambique’s vascular flora (compiled in July 2021) reported that although 1,667 taxa in the national checklist were registered on the IUCN Red List, the global extinction risk status for 76.5% of Mozambique’s vascular flora was not evaluated (including taxa explicitly categorized as not evaluated (NE) and taxa not listed on the IUCN Red List). At a broader (tropical Africa) scale, one peer-reviewed analysis of 22,036 green plant species found that only 2,856 had full IUCN assessments available (about 13%), and only 2,009 (9.1%) had assessments published after 2001. In other words, 87% of species had their assessments published a quarter century, or longer, ago. Flower and leaves of mgambo tree (Majidea zangueberica), which is also known as black pearl tree or velvet seed tree. Image courtesy of Lukango&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/too-many-african-plants-fall-into-the-iucns-not-evaluated-trap-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/too-many-african-plants-fall-into-the-iucns-not-evaluated-trap-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313117</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists chart a new source, and length, for Africa&#8217;s famous Zambezi River</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/scientists-chart-a-new-source-and-length-for-africas-famous-zambezi-river/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/scientists-chart-a-new-source-and-length-for-africas-famous-zambezi-river/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Dec 2025 20:26:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/03150506/Adobe-Express-file-37-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310534</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Angola, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Dry Forests, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Policy, forest degradation, Freshwater, Grasslands, Monitoring, Research, Rivers, Trees, Tropics, Water, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new study suggests that the Zambezi River, Africa’s fourth-longest, is 11% longer than previously thought, with its most distant source lying in Angola, not Zambia. While the finding leaves the Zambezi as Africa’s fourth-longest river — after the Nile, the Congo and the Niger — the redefinition of its most distant source underscores Angola’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new study suggests that the Zambezi River, Africa’s fourth-longest, is 11% longer than previously thought, with its most distant source lying in Angola, not Zambia. While the finding leaves the Zambezi as Africa’s fourth-longest river — after the Nile, the Congo and the Niger — the redefinition of its most distant source underscores Angola’s enormous contribution to sustaining the river best known for Victoria Falls. This newly identified source in Angola’s southern highlands sits 3,421 kilometers (2,126 miles) from the Zambezi’s mouth at the Indian Ocean — 342 km (213 mi) farther than its original source, a spring bubbling out of the ground in a marshy patch of woodland near the Zambian town of Mwinilunga. The source of the Lungwebungu River in Angola: Spanning a total of 1,032 km (640 miles), the river is an essential water source, contributing significantly to the flow of the upper Zambezi River. Image courtesy Rainer von Brandis /The Wilderness Project/NGOWP. The geographic definition of a river’s source is the farthest point from its mouth, and based on that criterion, the team behind the study published in the journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences has identified the source of the Zambezi as a small trickle oozing from a peatland bog in southern Angola, which is also the source of a river known as the Lungwebungu. Lead author Rainer von Brandis of The Wilderness Project (TWP), a group of scientists and explorers that conducted the study, says the findings highlight the critical importance of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/scientists-chart-a-new-source-and-length-for-africas-famous-zambezi-river/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310534</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mozambican reserve harbors largest documented breeding population of rare falcon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mozambican-reserve-harbors-largest-documented-breeding-population-of-rare-falcon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mozambican-reserve-harbors-largest-documented-breeding-population-of-rare-falcon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Sep 2025 09:59:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/17093302/d25f31ec-d6f1-4fb4-a754-cf3fe5cd5233-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306111</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Deforestation, Dry Forests, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Protected Areas, Raptors, Research, Surveying, Trees, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new study reports that the Niassa Special Reserve, a 4-million-hectare (10-million-acre) wilderness in northern Mozambique, harbors the largest documented breeding population of Taita falcons. A survey that focused on 35 of the reserve’s towering granite inselbergs found 14 pairs of the birds. The study authors estimate the entire reserve could harbor up to 76 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new study reports that the Niassa Special Reserve, a 4-million-hectare (10-million-acre) wilderness in northern Mozambique, harbors the largest documented breeding population of Taita falcons. A survey that focused on 35 of the reserve’s towering granite inselbergs found 14 pairs of the birds. The study authors estimate the entire reserve could harbor up to 76 pairs. It&#8217;s an astonishing number for a species whose other known breeding sites host fewer than 10 pairs. Taita falcons (Falco fasciinucha) are stocky birds with russet chests, white throats, and black facial stripes. One of the world’s rarest birds of prey, they survive in isolated, fragmented populations scattered along the eastern side of Africa, from southern Ethiopia to northeastern South Africa. The IUCN estimates their total number at up to 1,000 mature individuals, but this estimate is uncertain due to a scarcity of data from regions north of Zimbabwe and Mozambique. A young Taita falcon, recently fledged from a nest in Blyde River Canyon, South Africa: Falco fasciinucha has been recorded across a wide expanse of East and Southern Africa, but limited systematic surveys means its distribution and population numbers are uncertain. Image courtesy of Anthony van Zyl. Taita falcons hunt small, fast insect-eating birds such as flycatchers, swifts and bee-eaters. Hunting from Niassa’s inselbergs that rise above surrounding woodlands appears to give the raptors an edge over larger peregrine (Falco peregrinus) and lanner falcons (Falco biarmicus), which occupy this same territory in smaller numbers but must fly further in search of grain-eating prey&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mozambican-reserve-harbors-largest-documented-breeding-population-of-rare-falcon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mozambican-reserve-harbors-largest-documented-breeding-population-of-rare-falcon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306111</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Women-led patrols and fire prevention restore forests in northern Thailand</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/women-led-patrols-and-fire-prevention-restore-forests-in-northern-thailand/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/women-led-patrols-and-fire-prevention-restore-forests-in-northern-thailand/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Sep 2025 01:16:33 +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/20/2025/09/07121601/905a2de0-2c62-44cb-a6bf-97045a5af337-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306038</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Dry Forests, Environment, Fires, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Reforestation, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BAN PONG, Thailand — “Look at these ones over here!” calls Chamran Tahpan, as she crouches next to a mound of damp leaves on the forest floor. A cluster of mushrooms sprouts from the center of the earthy-smelling pile. “These are hed khon, termite mushrooms,” says Rachaprapa Kamphud, 55, who leads the Ban Pong community [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BAN PONG, Thailand — “Look at these ones over here!” calls Chamran Tahpan, as she crouches next to a mound of damp leaves on the forest floor. A cluster of mushrooms sprouts from the center of the earthy-smelling pile. “These are hed khon, termite mushrooms,” says Rachaprapa Kamphud, 55, who leads the Ban Pong community forest and fire management group in northern Thailand’s Lampang province. Edible mushrooms like hed khon, along with a variety of other nontimber products, such as bamboo shoots, leafy greens and red ant eggs, can fetch high prices in local markets, she says, offering villagers a modest income. By keeping the forest soil moist using small check dams designed to slow the flow of minor streams, Rachaprapa says they need only pile up humid leaves and soil to yield wild mushrooms year-round. There’s no need to set fire to the leaf litter to stimulate their growth — a common but risky method many nearby communities rely on. “The moist fallen leaves are a natural fertilizer and give the trees the nutrients they need to grow tall,” Rachaprapa says as she leads 10 members of the community forest group — eight of them women — through the trees to harvest edible items and carry out repairs to a newly built check dam. “Even in the dry season, there’s moisture in our forest soil.” Rachaprapa and her fellow volunteers began restoring the 40-hectare (100-acre) forest from a peanut plantation in 2007. They planted native trees and revived the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/women-led-patrols-and-fire-prevention-restore-forests-in-northern-thailand/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306038</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Madagascar’s dry forests need attention, and Verreaux’s sifakas could help</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/madagascars-dry-forests-need-attention-and-verreauxs-sifakas-could-help/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/madagascars-dry-forests-need-attention-and-verreauxs-sifakas-could-help/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Sep 2025 14:35:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mino Rakotovao]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/15104055/Verreauxs-Sifaka-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305893</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Madagascar, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Dry Forests, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Fires, forest degradation, Forest Fragmentation, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Hunting, Land Use Change, Lemurs, Mammals, Parks, Primates, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Research, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ANTANANARIVO — Which tropical habitats are worthy of conservation? Humid forests, with their dazzling species counts, easily gain notice. Dry forests may not boast the same numbers, but their unique rhythms of life are just as vital — and a charismatic inhabitant, the Verreaux’s sifaka, is helping make their case in Madagascar. “Conservation efforts and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ANTANANARIVO — Which tropical habitats are worthy of conservation? Humid forests, with their dazzling species counts, easily gain notice. Dry forests may not boast the same numbers, but their unique rhythms of life are just as vital — and a charismatic inhabitant, the Verreaux’s sifaka, is helping make their case in Madagascar. “Conservation efforts and international funding have long focused on the eastern rainforests, by both conservation organizations or by development organizations, in Madagascar and globally,” primatologist Rebecca Lewis told Mongabay, “[Meanwhile], in the west and southwest [of Madagascar], the situation is just as serious, with widespread food insecurity, increased bushmeat hunting, and similar threats like deforestation and reliance of local communities on forest resources.” At the recently-concluded International Primatological Society (IPS) congress, Lewis, founder of Ankoatsifaka Initiative for Dry Forests (AID Forests), advocated for inclusion of Verreaux’s sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi) on the most recent list of the World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates not only because the species is critically endangered, but also because its listing could serve as a rallying point to protect its habitat in Madagascar’s dry forests. Found across southern and southwestern Madagascar, Verreaux’s sifaka is a diurnal lemur that lives in family groups and holds local cultural significance. As a seed disperser, it plays a vital role in regenerating and maintaining the diverse forests and habitats it occupies. This primate is classed as critically endangered by the IUCN, the global conservation authority, due to severe threats from habitat loss, hunting and, in some areas, low genetic&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/madagascars-dry-forests-need-attention-and-verreauxs-sifakas-could-help/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305893</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Old forests, new fires, and a scientific standoff over active management</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/old-forests-new-fires-and-a-scientific-standoff-over-active-management/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/old-forests-new-fires-and-a-scientific-standoff-over-active-management/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Aug 2025 07:30:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/15160404/marcus-kauffman-iretlQZEU4-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304370</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Bioenergy, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Dry Forests, Ecosystems, Environment, Fires, Forests, Logging, Sustainable Forest Management, Temperate Forests, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the second installment of Mongabay&#8217;s coverage of active management tools for forest fires. Read Part 1. Photographs of forests in the western U.S. from the mid-1800s show a starkly different reality compared to what we see today, says Paul Hessburg, an ecologist and professor at the University of Washington. “It looks nothing like [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the second installment of Mongabay&#8217;s coverage of active management tools for forest fires. Read Part 1. Photographs of forests in the western U.S. from the mid-1800s show a starkly different reality compared to what we see today, says Paul Hessburg, an ecologist and professor at the University of Washington. “It looks nothing like the current landscape,” he tells Mongabay. Today, many of these forests are overgrown and dominated by younger trees. Back then, they were typically more open — “park-like,” according to many scientists. They were part of a broader mosaic: conifer-dominated forests mixed with deciduous woodlands, open meadows and wetlands in a patchy broth of diverse habitats. Fire played an integral role — perhaps the integral role — in shaping these ecosystems. But soon, European-descended emigrants to the West shut it down in just about every way they could, with little understanding of the implications. Hessburg and other researchers spend their careers teasing apart these dynamics and looking for ways to replicate those effects through a set of “active management” tools, such as prescribed burning and thinning. Where possible, the goal is often to usher fire back into the landscape at lower intensities to promote regeneration and avoid the catastrophic megafires that have destroyed communities in recent years. In those cases, “The next fire often erases the opportunity for a future forest,” Hessburg says. “It’s so intense that it sterilizes soil [with] such burn severity, and it removes seed sources.” But this embrace of active management isn’t&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/old-forests-new-fires-and-a-scientific-standoff-over-active-management/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304370</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Fixing forests or fueling fires? Scientists split over active management</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/fixing-forests-or-fueling-fires-scientists-split-over-active-management/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/fixing-forests-or-fueling-fires-scientists-split-over-active-management/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Aug 2025 22:26:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/11221558/54693585849_0ac719783b_3k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304055</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America, Oregon, Pacific Northwest, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Bioenergy, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Dry Forests, Ecosystems, Environment, Fires, Forests, Logging, Sustainable Forest Management, Temperate Forests, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the first installment of Mongabay&#8217;s coverage of active management tools for forest fires. Read Part 2. On Sept. 8, 2020, a brush field in southern Oregon, in the northwestern U.S., caught fire. Over the next week, &#8220;walls&#8221; of flame tore through the towns of Talent and Phoenix in the Rogue River Valley. Here, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the first installment of Mongabay&#8217;s coverage of active management tools for forest fires. Read Part 2. On Sept. 8, 2020, a brush field in southern Oregon, in the northwestern U.S., caught fire. Over the next week, &#8220;walls&#8221; of flame tore through the towns of Talent and Phoenix in the Rogue River Valley. Here, hot, dry summers crisp low-lying vegetation, and convective winds — like those that kicked up in early September 2020 — can fan the spread of fire from even the smallest ignition. The 1,300-hectare (3,300-acre) Almeda Drive Fire was small by contemporary standards in the U.S. West, where blazes repeatedly shatter records. And this one was human-caused, as are more than 80% of fires in the U.S. But neither statistic made it any less devastating to the families of Talent and Phoenix, more than 2,600 of whom lost their homes to the blaze. Amid a swirling mix of past mismanagement of forests in the western U.S., an explosion of dense settlements, and hotter, drier conditions on account of climate change, there&#8217;s been a push in recent decades to actively manage forests for fire risk — aimed at avoiding disasters like the Almeda fire. The idea is that management tools such as forest thinning, prescribed burning and post-fire restoration can help claw back some of the characteristics of how forests used to be, when fire itself was a more active part of the landscape. The scientific literature is stacked with studies on the nuances of &#8220;active management,&#8221;&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/fixing-forests-or-fueling-fires-scientists-split-over-active-management/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/fixing-forests-or-fueling-fires-scientists-split-over-active-management/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304055</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A forest garden project attempts to expand into the Sahel</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-forest-garden-project-attempts-to-expand-into-the-sahel/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-forest-garden-project-attempts-to-expand-into-the-sahel/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jul 2025 06:00:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/24214056/20231115_UNEP_Decade-on-Ecosystem-Restoration_African-Farmers-Transforming-Food-System_Senegal_Todd-Brown_14-e1753393737352-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303161</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Kenya, Mali, Sahel, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agroforestry, Climate Change, Conservation, Crops, Degraded Lands, Drought, Dry Forests, Erosion, Extreme Weather, Farming, Food, Hunger, Land Use Change, Monocultures, Natural Resources, Plants, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Reforestation, Trees, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Drought, irregular rainfall, deforestation, and the legacy of unsustainable human activities have left vast areas across the arid and semiarid regions of sub-Saharan Africa degraded, causing major challenges for the human population. According to environmentalists, one solution to this problem might be forest gardens. These “gardens” use regenerative agroforestry to revive patches of degraded agricultural [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Drought, irregular rainfall, deforestation, and the legacy of unsustainable human activities have left vast areas across the arid and semiarid regions of sub-Saharan Africa degraded, causing major challenges for the human population. According to environmentalists, one solution to this problem might be forest gardens. These “gardens” use regenerative agroforestry to revive patches of degraded agricultural land. In 2024, the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) selected a project led by Trees for the Future (TREES), a U.S.-based NGO, as one of seven world restoration flagships for its “forest garden approach” used in five countries in sub-Saharan Africa. These flagships promote restoration projects around the world that show potential to tackle challenges at scale and provide financial support. “Forest gardens promote healthy soil and diverse crops, leading to increased income and access to healthier food,” Enoch Makobi, country director for TREES in Uganda, told Mongabay. “Farmers are fighting climate change and can overcome poverty and hunger.” While NGO leaders say they’re optimistic about the outcomes of the project so far and their plans for expansion, some other conservationists have expressed skepticism, pointing to a lack of scientific evidence on impacts and the difficulty international NGOs face in tackling local problems and needs. A forest garden is a modern term for an ancient agroforestry model that mixes shrubs, herbs, vines, fruit and nut trees, and perennial vegetables, with the aim of supplying communities with food, medicine and animal feed. According to scientists, forest gardens can have significant&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-forest-garden-project-attempts-to-expand-into-the-sahel/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-forest-garden-project-attempts-to-expand-into-the-sahel/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303161</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Will tropical dry forests survive the next 50 years?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/will-tropical-dry-forests-survive-the-next-50-years/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/will-tropical-dry-forests-survive-the-next-50-years/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2025 15:11:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/03195110/madagascar_193366_24-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301134</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Dry Forests, Ecosystems, Fires, forest degradation, Forest Loss, Forests, Land Use Change, Reforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 1978, renowned ecologist Dan Janzen jumped into a ravine in Costa Rica, broke three ribs, and spent the first month of the rainy season watching the tropical dry forest from inside a shack. At night, a simple 25-watt bulb drew in so many moths that they plastered the walls like a live wallpaper. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 1978, renowned ecologist Dan Janzen jumped into a ravine in Costa Rica, broke three ribs, and spent the first month of the rainy season watching the tropical dry forest from inside a shack. At night, a simple 25-watt bulb drew in so many moths that they plastered the walls like a live wallpaper. The forest teemed with caterpillars, so many that whole trees stood defoliated and the ground lay carpeted in their droppings. “There has never been such a high-density caterpillar year since then,” Janzen told Mongabay about Costa Rica’s Guanacaste Conservation Area. “And there has been a continual decline after.” That decline represents more than just the global phenomenon of insect decline. It signals the quiet collapse of one of Earth’s most overlooked and endangered ecosystems: tropical dry forests. These forests once dominated vast swaths of the planet, but after decades of development and now accelerating climate change, what remains is dwindling and lacks protection. The forgotten half of tropical forests Stretching across Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific — from Madagascar’s thorny forests to Brazil’s Caatinga, from South America’s Chaco to India’s seasonal woodlands — tropical dry forests account for nearly half of all tropical and subtropical forests worldwide. The scale is staggering. Up to 60% of all forests in India and approximately 30% of the forests in mainland Southeast Asia are classified as dry forests. In southern Africa, the miombo woodlands alone contribute to the livelihoods of more than 100 million people. Miombo woodlands in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/will-tropical-dry-forests-survive-the-next-50-years/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/will-tropical-dry-forests-survive-the-next-50-years/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301134</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Australia’s little-known rainforests, tradition and science collaborate for good</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/in-australias-little-known-rainforests-tradition-and-science-collaborate-for-good/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/in-australias-little-known-rainforests-tradition-and-science-collaborate-for-good/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Feb 2025 21:37:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nick Rodway]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/28210327/Black_Flying_Fox_eating_figs_-_AndrewMercer_-_DSC11029-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295147</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Regenerative landscapes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Australia, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Culture, Dry Forests, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Fires, Forests, Green, Habitat Loss, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Mammals, Marsupials, Rainforests, Savannas, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Kimberley, the northernmost region of Australia’s largest jurisdiction, Western Australia, is remote and difficult to access due to its rugged terrain. With a permanent population of just 40,000 in an area roughly the size as California, it has become internationally renowned for its dramatic landscapes: researchers say the Kimberley houses the largest, most intact [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Kimberley, the northernmost region of Australia’s largest jurisdiction, Western Australia, is remote and difficult to access due to its rugged terrain. With a permanent population of just 40,000 in an area roughly the size as California, it has become internationally renowned for its dramatic landscapes: researchers say the Kimberley houses the largest, most intact savanna on Earth, and is bounded by some of the most pristine oceans in the world. However, the Kimberley is also home to a habitat that’s far less known: seasonally dry tropical rainforest.  Located in patches embedded in a mosaic pattern within eucalypt savanna, these species-rich ecosystems are collectively known as Kimberley Monsoon Rainforests (KMR). They’re intrinsically linked to the culture and livelihoods of local First Nations communities who have harvested from and cared for the patches for millennia.  A Kimberley Monsoon Rainforest (wulo) in Wunambal Gaambera Country. Image courtesy of the Wunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporation. Evolving in isolation upon nutrient-rich substrates and in areas largely protected from incursions by the threat of wildfire, the KMR hold significant biodiversity. Despite this, less than one-tenth of KMR patches have been comprehensively scientifically researched.  There’s now a push to expand global awareness of how important these sites are from both biological and cultural standpoints.  In 2023, Kevin Kenneally, a botanist and biogeographer at the University of Western Australia, published a general interest book about KMR in which he sought to expand knowledge of their existence into the common sphere. Islands in a Sea of Savanna, released by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/in-australias-little-known-rainforests-tradition-and-science-collaborate-for-good/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/in-australias-little-known-rainforests-tradition-and-science-collaborate-for-good/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295147</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Reforesting Malawi’s ‘Island in the Sky’ to save its vanishing woodlands</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/reforesting-malawis-island-in-the-sky-to-save-its-vanishing-woodlands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/reforesting-malawis-island-in-the-sky-to-save-its-vanishing-woodlands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Feb 2025 00:14:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/27235116/2-Kazembe_-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295133</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Regenerative landscapes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Malawi, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Dry Forests, Endangered Species, Environment, Fires, Forests, Green, Old Growth Forests, Plants, Primary Forests, Reforestation, Savannas, Timber, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In March 2023, Tropical Cyclone Freddy hit Malawi, unleashing six months of rain in six days. Freddy was the largest and longest-lasting tropical cyclone ever recorded, and the impacts were catastrophic. In Malawi, more than 600 people died, and more than 650,000 were displaced. Communities around Mount Mulanje, in the country’s south, were some of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In March 2023, Tropical Cyclone Freddy hit Malawi, unleashing six months of rain in six days. Freddy was the largest and longest-lasting tropical cyclone ever recorded, and the impacts were catastrophic. In Malawi, more than 600 people died, and more than 650,000 were displaced. Communities around Mount Mulanje, in the country’s south, were some of the hardest hit. Once heavily forested, parts of the mountain have been left denuded or bare from illegal logging, fires and demand for firewood. Without trees to slow the rain’s descent, slopes turned to rivers of rocks and mud, destroying villages and smothering fields. For many, Cyclone Freddy was a turning point, says Kondwani Chamwala, an environmental educator whose family home sits in the mountain’s shadow. “The communities, most of them are now seeing the importance of protecting what is there,” he says. Often called the “Island in the Sky,” Mt. Mulanje rises steeply out of the plains like a rocky fortress. It’s massive, about 64,000 hectares (158,000 acres) around, with a broad, high-altitude plateau from which rise 13 peaks, the tallest reaching an elevation of 3,002 meters (9,849 feet). Miombo woodlands, a type of forest common across parts of Southern Africa, dominate the lower slopes. But as you ascend, you enter an otherworldly place: fog-laden forests and grasslands, home to nearly 70 endemic plant species. Nine major rivers originate on the mountain’s slopes, and there are hundreds of streams. In local lore, it’s a place of spirits. Mount Mulanje, known as the ‘Island in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/reforesting-malawis-island-in-the-sky-to-save-its-vanishing-woodlands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295133</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Nepal, a eucalyptus boom became an ecological cautionary tale</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/in-nepal-a-eucalyptus-boom-became-an-ecological-cautionary-tale/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/in-nepal-a-eucalyptus-boom-became-an-ecological-cautionary-tale/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Feb 2025 15:02:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mukesh Pokhrel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/25134224/18-e1740491052940-768x512-1.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294957</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Dry Forests, Farming, Fuelwood, Global Environmental Crisis, Invasive Species, Reforestation, Timber, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SARLAHI, Nepal — In 1984, Bharat Kumar Pokhrel was a young forester with a mission to turn theory into practice. Fresh out of forestry school, he joined Nepal’s Sagarnath Forest Development Project. Primarily based in Sarlahi district and extending into neighboring Mahottari in the southeastern Terai landscape, the project’s star crop was red river gum [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SARLAHI, Nepal — In 1984, Bharat Kumar Pokhrel was a young forester with a mission to turn theory into practice. Fresh out of forestry school, he joined Nepal’s Sagarnath Forest Development Project. Primarily based in Sarlahi district and extending into neighboring Mahottari in the southeastern Terai landscape, the project’s star crop was red river gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis), a fast-growing, low-maintenance eucalyptus species that’s a popular source of easy fuelwood. It’s also not native to Nepal, hailing from far-flung Australia. “Eucalyptus grows rapidly, ready for harvest in five to 10 years,” Pokhrel told Mongabay. “Once established, it requires minimal replanting for decades. It seemed ideal.” Nearly four decades later, Pokhrel watches on as farmers across the plains uproot these very trees, calling them a mistake that drained their soil, killed their crops, and left them worse off than before. What he thought was an exemplary means of reforestation has now become a cautionary tale of how imported solutions can fail when local conditions are ignored. Launched in 1977 with a budget of $13.2 million, and later revised to half that amount, the Sagarnath project aimed to reforest 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) of degraded land. (This, too, was later revised down to 4,150 hectares, or 10,250 acres.) The project was spearheaded by Australian forestry expert Kevin Joseph White, whose team recommended eucalyptus for its resilience in arid regions. The initiative came as Nepal’s forestry sector faced a crisis following the nationalization in 1957 of all forests within the country. Although that policy&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/in-nepal-a-eucalyptus-boom-became-an-ecological-cautionary-tale/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294957</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mammals, birds in Vietnam’s rare coastal forests revealed by camera traps</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/mammals-birds-in-vietnams-rare-coastal-forests-revealed-by-camera-traps/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/mammals-birds-in-vietnams-rare-coastal-forests-revealed-by-camera-traps/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Feb 2025 01:30:46 +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/20/2025/02/12141207/Banner-2-scaled-e1739369808158-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294282</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Camera Trapping, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Dry Forests, Ecology, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Hunting, Mammals, Poaching, Rainforests, Research, Snares, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2019, scientists rediscovered a species of miniature deer long lost to science within the dry coastal forests of southern Vietnam’s Nui Chua National Park. A victim of snaring, the silver-backed chevrotain (Tragulus versicolor) hadn’t been seen by scientists in the wild for nearly 30 years. Its unearthing via a camera-trapping study sparked a conservation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2019, scientists rediscovered a species of miniature deer long lost to science within the dry coastal forests of southern Vietnam’s Nui Chua National Park. A victim of snaring, the silver-backed chevrotain (Tragulus versicolor) hadn’t been seen by scientists in the wild for nearly 30 years. Its unearthing via a camera-trapping study sparked a conservation focus on the reserve, contributing to its 2022 designation as a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve. Although the resighting was a feat in itself, the scientists were captivated by the diversity of other species turning up in their images. “This inspired us to look beyond the species level and investigate the ground-dwelling mammal and bird community in Nui Chua,” An Nguyen, a member of the deer survey team and Ph.D. student at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Germany, said in a statement. Nguyen and his colleagues from Germany, the U.S. and Vietnam embarked on a four-year study of the reserve, setting up 145 camera traps between 2018 and 2022 across a range of habitats ascending from Nui Chua’s coastal dry forests, through semi-dry forests and into its highest-elevation broadleaf wet rainforests. Nui Chua National Park spans roughly 22,500 hectares (55,600 acres) of coastal mountains in southeast Vietnam’s Ninh Thuan province, within a region known as the Greater Annamites due to its proximity to the Annamite Mountain Range that extends like a spine from southern Vietnam northward along its western border with Cambodia and Laos. Due to the reserve’s unique climatic conditions, it’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/mammals-birds-in-vietnams-rare-coastal-forests-revealed-by-camera-traps/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294282</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study looks for success factors in African projects that heal land and help people</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/study-looks-for-success-factors-in-african-projects-that-heal-land-and-help-people/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/study-looks-for-success-factors-in-african-projects-that-heal-land-and-help-people/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Dec 2024 22:09:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/13220001/Cheetahs_tracking_scents-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291546</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Burkina Faso, Central Africa, Namibia, Niger, Southern Africa, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agroforestry, Critically Endangered Species, Desertification, Dry Forests, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Habitat Loss, Rainforests, Reforestation, Restoration, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Argan oil cooperatives in Morocco. Regreening Niger. Revitalizing a national park in Madagascar. Wildlife conservancies in Namibia. Cashew plantations in Burkina Faso. Beach management in Kenya. Agroforestry in Ghana. These are but a smattering of the many initiatives that have tried to reverse land degradation in Africa while improving people’s lives. Some succeeded, others failed, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Argan oil cooperatives in Morocco. Regreening Niger. Revitalizing a national park in Madagascar. Wildlife conservancies in Namibia. Cashew plantations in Burkina Faso. Beach management in Kenya. Agroforestry in Ghana. These are but a smattering of the many initiatives that have tried to reverse land degradation in Africa while improving people’s lives. Some succeeded, others failed, and as a recent study finds, the outcomes are devilishly difficult to predict. Nearly half of Africa is affected by desertification, and two-thirds of productive land is degraded, according to a 2021 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); yet, 60% of people in Africa depend on their land and forests. The Torra Conservancy, northwest Namibia. Much of the arid landscape is unsuitable for farming, and income from tourism, including a partnership with Wilderness Safaris, provides substantial benefits for conservancy members. Image by Sonse via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). “I do a lot of projects where I go to the communities, and I work with people to change things, and to imagine how we could improve things,” says Camille Jahel, a researcher at the French Agricultural Centre for International Development (CIRAD). “At one point we wanted to know, but is it possible? Is it even possible to have a sustainable change?” To be clear, this is not an entirely new question. But Jahel says that while there’s a trove of theoretical work, few studies have looked at on-the-ground projects in Africa and holistically considered the complex combination of local dynamics,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/study-looks-for-success-factors-in-african-projects-that-heal-land-and-help-people/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/study-looks-for-success-factors-in-african-projects-that-heal-land-and-help-people/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291546</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Communities band together to save besieged reserve in Bolivia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/communities-band-together-to-save-besieged-reserve-in-bolivia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/communities-band-together-to-save-besieged-reserve-in-bolivia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Nov 2024 23:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Iván Paredes Tamayo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/20230806/7-1-1-1200x800-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290383</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Colonization, Community-based Conservation, Corn, Dry Forests, Environment, Fires, Forest Loss, Green, Habitat Loss, Indigenous Peoples, Industrial Agriculture, Infrastructure, Land Grabbing, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, Soy, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Tucabaca Valley Municipal Wildlife Reserve comprises more than 2,640 square kilometers (1,020 square miles) of semi-arid forest and tropical savannah in the heart of southern Bolivia’s Chiquitania region. However, this protected area and surrounding habitat is being lost to industrial agriculture and associated fires and infrastructure development. The Tucabaca (also referred to as “Tucavaca”) reserve [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tucabaca Valley Municipal Wildlife Reserve comprises more than 2,640 square kilometers (1,020 square miles) of semi-arid forest and tropical savannah in the heart of southern Bolivia’s Chiquitania region. However, this protected area and surrounding habitat is being lost to industrial agriculture and associated fires and infrastructure development. The Tucabaca (also referred to as “Tucavaca”) reserve was the first of its kind in Bolivia when it was created 24 years ago and is situated in the municipality of Roboré in the department of Santa Cruz, near the border with Brazil. It acts as a refuge for wildlife of the Chiquitano dry forest ecosystem, which connects South America’s two largest biomes: the Gran Chaco and the Amazon rainforest. Tucabaca is also inhabited by several Indigenous communities, who for millennia have protected and relied on its wetlands and rivers, forests and grasslands. But today, Tucabaca’s natural wealth is in danger. Felled trees lie in a clearing inside Tucabaca Valley Municipal Wildlife Reserve. Image courtesy of the Movement in Defense of the Tucabaca Valley. Roads and a bridge in the midst of a protected area Eder Santibáñez, coordinator of the Movement in Defense of the Tucabaca Valley, told Mongabay Latam that on June 23, he and a delegation of 10 others carried out an inspection of the Tucabaca Valley and reserve, which yielded discouraging results. The delegation’s first stop was in the area surrounding the Mennonite colony of El Roble. There they were confronted with a scene they described as alarming: piles of felled&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/communities-band-together-to-save-besieged-reserve-in-bolivia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/communities-band-together-to-save-besieged-reserve-in-bolivia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290383</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Defending the hidden forest gems of Zambia&#8217;s Copperbelt Province</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/defending-the-hidden-forest-gems-of-zambias-copperbelt-province/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/defending-the-hidden-forest-gems-of-zambias-copperbelt-province/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Oct 2024 20:25:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/04063525/Imanda-forest-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289453</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, charcoal, Conservation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Dry Forests, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Products, Forests, Landscape Restoration, Protected Areas, Reforestation, Restoration, Sustainable Forest Management, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MPONGWE, Zambia – The Chimfuneme swamp forest in central Zambia’s Copperbelt province got its name — which means “hiding place” in the local language, Lamba — long ago when strife tore apart rival clans and those living near this impenetrable natural fortress hid inside it to escape invaders. These days, the invaders come armed with [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MPONGWE, Zambia – The Chimfuneme swamp forest in central Zambia’s Copperbelt province got its name — which means “hiding place” in the local language, Lamba — long ago when strife tore apart rival clans and those living near this impenetrable natural fortress hid inside it to escape invaders. These days, the invaders come armed with chainsaws, not spears, and their target is the forest itself. But the local community has a new defense: honorary forest rangers armed with smartphones. “If they [illegal loggers] are here with a truck, we take the number plate, even capture a picture of their truck, which we send to the office,” says one of the rangers, 21-year-old Rhodah Kabunda. “They will not go anywhere, they [Forestry Department officials] will catch them.” WeForest extension officer Jackson Mkandawire shows honorary forest rangers a map on his phone that delineates boundaries around the Imanda forest, within which no commercial timber harvesting is permitted. Image by Ryan Truscott for Mongabay. Recently, she and her fellow rangers, whose full title is honorary community forest rangers confronted a group trying to cut and remove logs in one of the mushitus, as the swamp forests are known locally. They forwarded pictures of the loggers’ vehicle plate number to the local office of the Forestry Department in Mpongwe, 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) away. The vehicle was impounded and the case is now before the courts. “Right now I think it [the truck] is at the police station,” Kabunda says. The vehicles used in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/defending-the-hidden-forest-gems-of-zambias-copperbelt-province/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/defending-the-hidden-forest-gems-of-zambias-copperbelt-province/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289453</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Meet the Miombo, the largest forest you’ve never heard of</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/meet-the-miombo-the-largest-forest-youve-never-heard-of/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/meet-the-miombo-the-largest-forest-youve-never-heard-of/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Sep 2024 16:20:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/29092238/Thatch2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286629</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Angola, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Dry Forests, Environment, food security, Forest Products, Forests, Sustainable Forest Management, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Growing up in the village of Domboshava in central Zimbabwe, Edwin Tambara, the African Wildlife Foundation’s director of global leadership, recalls how the surrounding Miombo woodland was a pharmacy, hardware store and supermarket, all rolled into one. “You get a cough or sneeze or you have a headache, I remember my grandmother would just say, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Growing up in the village of Domboshava in central Zimbabwe, Edwin Tambara, the African Wildlife Foundation’s director of global leadership, recalls how the surrounding Miombo woodland was a pharmacy, hardware store and supermarket, all rolled into one. “You get a cough or sneeze or you have a headache, I remember my grandmother would just say, ‘OK, let me go into the forest,’ and she&#8217;ll come back with some leaves. . . It&#8217;s either they&#8217;re boiled and you have to sniff them or something — and you&#8217;d be sorted,” Tambara says. The Miombo woodlands are a special type of semi-deciduous forest, dominated by trees in the legume family from the genera Brachystegia, Julbernardia and Isoberlinia. The ecoregion covers a broad swath across Central and Southern Africa, making it the most extensive dry tropical forest type in the world. But the woodlands are shrinking, which is bad news for communities in the region who depend on them for an astounding array of goods. Miombo woodlands in the Niassa Special Reserve in Mozambique, one of Africa’s largest protected areas. The miombo woodlands are dominated by trees in the legume family from the genera Brachystegia, Julbernardia and Isoberlinia, and interspersed with a mosaic of habitats including rocky outcrops and seasonally flooded grassy areas called dambos. Image by Natalie Ingle, courtesy of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Thatching grass collected in the miombo woodlands. Thatching grass is used to roof homes, woven into fences and for other purposes, and is one of the numerous non-timber forest&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/meet-the-miombo-the-largest-forest-youve-never-heard-of/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286629</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia expands IPLC land recognition — but the pace is too slow, critics say</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/indonesia-expands-iplc-land-recognition-but-the-pace-is-too-slow-critics-say/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/indonesia-expands-iplc-land-recognition-but-the-pace-is-too-slow-critics-say/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Aug 2024 06:47:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/21055819/9Mtb_IMG-20240809-WA0070-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286352</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, North Sumatra, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Forests, Dry Forests, Environment, Forests, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Grabbing, Land Reform, Land Rights, Mapping, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — President Joko Widodo recently issued Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) in Indonesia more than 1 million hectares (2.47 million acres) of land titles, under his flagship social forestry program. As a result, the government has recognized IPLCs’ rights over 8 million hectares (19.77 million acres) of lands in Indonesia. These include various [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — President Joko Widodo recently issued Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) in Indonesia more than 1 million hectares (2.47 million acres) of land titles, under his flagship social forestry program. As a result, the government has recognized IPLCs’ rights over 8 million hectares (19.77 million acres) of lands in Indonesia. These include various forms of social forestry titles, such as village forests, community forests, plantation forests and ancestral or customary forests. But the pace of recognition for IPLCs’ rights to their lands is not fast enough compared with the size of Indigenous lands that have been mapped, activists said. In response to the government’s slow progress in recognizing ancestral land rights, a group of NGOs established an initiative called the Ancestral Domain Registration Agency (BRWA) to guide Indigenous groups in mapping their own territories, including forests, rivers and sea. So far, the BRWA has mapped 30.1 million hectares (74.4 million acres) — an area more than twice the size of Java — of land claimed by IPLCs. The pace of formal recognition is particularly sluggish for customary forests, which is the strongest category of land rights in Indonesia, as it means the government is completely relinquishing state lands to Indigenous communities, the BRWA noted. The frankincense forest of the Pandumaan-Sipituhuta Indigenous community in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Image by Barita News Lumbanbatu/Mongabay Indonesia. Customary forest As of July, the government had recognized only 265,250 hectares (655,400 acres) of ancestral forests, lagging behind the 23.2 million hectares (57.3 million acres)&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/indonesia-expands-iplc-land-recognition-but-the-pace-is-too-slow-critics-say/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286352</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In a desertscape in Brazil, science brings farms to bountiful life</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/in-a-desertscape-in-brazil-science-brings-farms-to-bountiful-life/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/in-a-desertscape-in-brazil-science-brings-farms-to-bountiful-life/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jul 2024 10:38:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rafael Martins]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/16103502/1.Ze-Capemba-1-e1717596313528-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284384</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Desertification, Dry Forests, Environment, Farming, forest degradation, and Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When José Rodrigues do Santos first saw the enormous canyons in Gilbués, in Brazil’s Piauí state, he didn’t imagine that he would spend the rest of his life there. He had walked some 20 kilometers (12 miles) across a red sea of desertified land from the place where he was born to arrive in the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When José Rodrigues do Santos first saw the enormous canyons in Gilbués, in Brazil’s Piauí state, he didn’t imagine that he would spend the rest of his life there. He had walked some 20 kilometers (12 miles) across a red sea of desertified land from the place where he was born to arrive in the heart of Gilbués with his family. The red landscape here is like something out of a science-fiction film. That’s what makes the occasional pocket of green peeping through the raw earth such a surprise. “The land needs to be cared for, just like we do. It’s a living thing too,” says Santos, better known as Zé Capemba in these parts. He tells of the difficulties involved in working the dry soil, including having to carry water every day. But things are much better today than they were a few years ago, he says. “Our well and the technology improved our life a lot.” Gilbués is located in one of the four main geographical zones currently undergoing desertification according to the Brazilian government. All which are located in the semiarid northeast of the country, an 805-square-kilometer expanse (311-square-mile) expanse of degraded Caatinga dry forest straddling 14 municipalities in Piauí and home to some 149,000 people. Family farmer José Rodrigues do Santos, also known as Zé Capemba, outside his home in Gilbués, Piauí state. Image by Rafael Martins for Mongabay. The Gameleiro, a creek, runs through Zé Capemba’s land. Its course has been altered by the large&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/in-a-desertscape-in-brazil-science-brings-farms-to-bountiful-life/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284384</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bolivia’s El Curichi Las Garzas protected area taken over by land-grabbers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/bolivias-el-curichi-las-garzas-protected-area-taken-over-by-land-grabbers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/bolivias-el-curichi-las-garzas-protected-area-taken-over-by-land-grabbers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Mar 2024 16:09:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nelfi Fernández Reyes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/06150106/1-MS-RESERVA-LAS-GARZAS-14-min-1200x800-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279563</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Big Cats, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Dry Forests, Environment, Fires, Forest Loss, Forests, Green, Habitat Loss, Jaguars, Montane Forests, National Parks, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, Rainforests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Regardless of what satellite images show, inhabitants who have illegally planted crops within the protected area told committee officials that they “take care of Curichi”, because each union member’s rice plots do not exceed three hectares. Behind their crops, a row of trees is visible in the background. So, on approaching the area, the officials [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Regardless of what satellite images show, inhabitants who have illegally planted crops within the protected area told committee officials that they “take care of Curichi”, because each union member’s rice plots do not exceed three hectares. Behind their crops, a row of trees is visible in the background. So, on approaching the area, the officials were understandably surprised to discover that more crops lay behind the trees. The Global Forest Watch (GFW) satellite monitoring platform confirms this loss of forest cover. Images show that some 5,005 deforestation alerts were recorded between August 2022 and November 2023. Vitally, 4,558 of that total were generated between October and November 2023 alone. Each deforestation alert represents a loss of 30×30 meters of tropical forest, equivalent to the size of a basketball court. These figures disprove what agricultural union members told officials, saying “this has been going on for 20 years.” Active fire alerts picked up by VIIRS, NASA’s monitoring technology, also reveal that 42 hot spots were recorded between September and November 2023, the highest number for a decade. Fire is often used to clear land in preparation for planting crops. Councilwoman Mónica Vaca Gil, one of the committee members, was shocked by the extent of the damage. She says that she had tried to inspect the reserve in 2021, but was unable to complete her visit because the invaders took the local guide hostage and repeatedly assaulted him, eventually breaking his nose. On that occasion, she says, together with four other council&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/bolivias-el-curichi-las-garzas-protected-area-taken-over-by-land-grabbers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279563</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Authorities struggle to protect Bolivian national park from drug-fueled deforestation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/authorities-struggle-to-protect-bolivian-national-park-from-drug-fueled-deforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/authorities-struggle-to-protect-bolivian-national-park-from-drug-fueled-deforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Mar 2024 02:20:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Iván Paredes TamayoNelfi Fernández Reyes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/01022247/IMG_9911-1200x800-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279354</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Big Cats, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Dry Forests, Environment, Fires, Forest Loss, Forests, Green, Habitat Loss, Jaguars, Montane Forests, National Parks, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, Rainforests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2020, a Mongabay reporting team visited Bolivia’s Amboró National Park and Integrated Management Natural Area and found that portions of its protected forest had been cleared and replaced by illegal coca crops. Coca is a plant native to South America and is used to produce cocaine. Satellite imagery and data show that deforestation has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2020, a Mongabay reporting team visited Bolivia’s Amboró National Park and Integrated Management Natural Area and found that portions of its protected forest had been cleared and replaced by illegal coca crops. Coca is a plant native to South America and is used to produce cocaine. Satellite imagery and data show that deforestation has increased in Amboró since then. However, Vice Minister of Social Defense and Controlled Substances, Jaime Mamani, told Mongabay and El Deber reporters that authorities had eradicated some 443 hectares (1,094 acres) of coca crops in the park as of October 2023. Global Forest Watch recorded some 256,000 deforestation alerts between November 2021 and November 2023 in Amboró. Each of the alerts represents the loss of 30 square meters of tropical forest (98.4 square acres). Many of these alerts coincided with fire activity in the park. Román Vitrón, an environmental expert who has worked in the National Service of Protected Areas (known by its Spanish acronym, Sernap) and is familiar with the issues affecting Amboró, said it is highly likely this recent deforestation was done for the purpose of coca cultivation. “Do you think someone interested in planting banana or papaya will go into the park to clear [areas] given how hard it is to get here by foot?” Vitrón told reporters. Vitrón added that coca leaves can be harvested up to four times per year, which makes the crop highly profitable. Andreína Tolavi, former Amboró park director, announced the presence of coca inside the park in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/authorities-struggle-to-protect-bolivian-national-park-from-drug-fueled-deforestation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/authorities-struggle-to-protect-bolivian-national-park-from-drug-fueled-deforestation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279354</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Why has deforestation reached record levels in Bolivia? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/why-has-deforestation-reached-record-levels-in-bolivia-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/why-has-deforestation-reached-record-levels-in-bolivia-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Nov 2023 22:38:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jonathan Reynolds]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/23155249/bolivia_drone_190194-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275483</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Dry Forests, Forests, Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In both national and multilateral fora, Bolivia is increasingly showing its reluctance to curb deforestation. President Luis Arce, soon to be entering the penultimate year of his term, has built up a poor environmental record, supporting the unbridled growth of a largely extractive economy, continuing to renege on its commitment to the Rights of Mother [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In both national and multilateral fora, Bolivia is increasingly showing its reluctance to curb deforestation. President Luis Arce, soon to be entering the penultimate year of his term, has built up a poor environmental record, supporting the unbridled growth of a largely extractive economy, continuing to renege on its commitment to the Rights of Mother Earth Law, and refusing to commit to deforestation targets. While food insecurity and a wavering economy require immediate action, the economic over-reliance on the extraction, or cutting down, of natural resources is pushing Bolivia’s forests towards a potential tipping point. Luis Arce’s presidential term began amidst the turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic and significant political upheaval. Credited with the economic growth and reduction in poverty of the mid to late 2000s, Arce has similarly pursued an ambitious development agenda outlined in the Patriotic Agenda 2025. The document presents the main socio-economic development goals for the years 2021-25, without the inclusion of concrete plans to safeguard the environment (and its forests); additionally, references to the environment are couched in the economically charged language of sovereignty. It is apparent that the tensions between environmental rhetoric and development policy that characterized much of predecessor Evo Morales’ presidency still linger today. Domestically, the Arce administration has done little to protect Bolivia’s forests; in 2022, Bolivia lost more primary forest than any previous year on record, part of an alarming trend that is seeing annual figures almost double those of Morales’ presidency.  The agricultural industry, which is the leading driver&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/why-has-deforestation-reached-record-levels-in-bolivia-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/why-has-deforestation-reached-record-levels-in-bolivia-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-275483</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Wasn’t us,’ fire-hit Indonesia claims as Malaysia chokes on poor air quality</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/wasnt-us-fire-hit-indonesia-claims-as-malaysia-chokes-on-poor-air-quality/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/wasnt-us-fire-hit-indonesia-claims-as-malaysia-chokes-on-poor-air-quality/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Oct 2023 15:04:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/09/28154349/fire-in-indonesia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=273982</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Malaysia, Peninsular Malaysia, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Dry Forests, Fires, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forests, Palm Oil, Peatlands, Pollution, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A diplomatic spat has once again flared up between Southeast Asian neighbors Indonesia and Malaysia, sparked by smoke from forest fires in the former that have reportedly crossed over into the latter. Air quality in parts of Malaysia have worsened in recent days, with the national environmental department recording unhealthy air quality in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A diplomatic spat has once again flared up between Southeast Asian neighbors Indonesia and Malaysia, sparked by smoke from forest fires in the former that have reportedly crossed over into the latter. Air quality in parts of Malaysia have worsened in recent days, with the national environmental department recording unhealthy air quality in 12 areas of Peninsular Malaysia on Sept. 29. By Oct. 2, the number of areas with unhealthy air quality had increased to 15, with the capital, Kuala Lumpur, hit hardest. The Malaysian government has attributed the worsening air quality to the numerous fires currently burning in the Indonesian territories of Sumatra and Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo). Out-of-control fire is a perennial issue for Indonesia, often caused by blazes lit to clear land for agricultural purposes like oil palm and pulpwood plantations. This year’s fire season is expected to be the worst since 2019, due to unusually scorching weather as a result of an El Niño system. “Forest fires in southern Sumatra and central and southern Kalimantan have resulted in transboundary haze that increases the readings of Air Pollutant Index on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and in western Sarawak [in Malaysian Borneo],” Wan Abdul Latiff Wan Jaffar, director-general of the Department of Environment, said in a statement on Sept. 29. Latiff cited data from the Singapore-based ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC), a regional collaboration between member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that monitors haze, among other meteorological observations. The ASMC uses data from the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/wasnt-us-fire-hit-indonesia-claims-as-malaysia-chokes-on-poor-air-quality/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-273982</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesian children locked out of school as El Niño haze chokes parts of Sumatra &#038; Kalimantan</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/indonesian-children-locked-out-of-school-as-el-nino-haze-chokes-parts-of-sumatra-kalimantan/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/indonesian-children-locked-out-of-school-as-el-nino-haze-chokes-parts-of-sumatra-kalimantan/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Oct 2023 14:04:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay Haze Beat]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/10/05140104/Karhutla-riyad-768x512-1.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=273958</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests, Indonesian Palm Oil, and Jokowi Commitments]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Deforestation, Dry Forests, El Nino, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fires, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forests, Health, Pollution, Public Health, Social Justice, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Regional governments in wildfire-hit Indonesia shuttered schools in the first week October, as sickly air pollution continued to cloak several population centers in Kalimantan and Sumatra. Local authorities in Central Kalimantan, Jambi and South Sumatra provinces have all announced either restricted teaching times or closure of schools altogether, with the changes affecting children throughout primary [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Regional governments in wildfire-hit Indonesia shuttered schools in the first week October, as sickly air pollution continued to cloak several population centers in Kalimantan and Sumatra. Local authorities in Central Kalimantan, Jambi and South Sumatra provinces have all announced either restricted teaching times or closure of schools altogether, with the changes affecting children throughout primary and secondary schooling. The provincial government of Jambi, a Sumatran province with a population of more than 3.5 million, announced on Oct. 1 that schools would be closed during the following week. On Oct. 5 Jambi Governor Al Haris said that stay-at-home order would continue as poor air quality shrouded the province. “Schoolchildren will still have the day off and study in the home,” Al Haris said. “I also ask that teachers continue to be active in teaching children, even though students are at home.” Across the Karimata Strait, air pollution over Central Kalimantan province reached dangerous levels, forcing officials in the capital, Palangkaraya, to instruct children to stay at home. An air pollution monitor in Palangkaraya operated by Indonesia’s environment ministry showed a PM2.5 reading above 350 µg/m³ on the afternoon of Oct. 5, which was more than 100 µg/m³ above the level at which breathable air is determined “hazardous” to health. Forest and land fires hit land in Banjarbaru city, South Kalimantan province. Image by Riyad Dafhi Rizki/Mongabay Indonesia. Jayani, the head of the education department in Palangakaraya, said schools would remain closed until Oct. 7, when the city government would decide whether&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/indonesian-children-locked-out-of-school-as-el-nino-haze-chokes-parts-of-sumatra-kalimantan/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/10/indonesian-children-locked-out-of-school-as-el-nino-haze-chokes-parts-of-sumatra-kalimantan/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-273958</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Road upgrade through remote Tanzanian park threatens wildlife (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/road-upgrade-through-remote-tanzanian-park-threatens-wildlife-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/road-upgrade-through-remote-tanzanian-park-threatens-wildlife-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Aug 2023 20:21:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tim Caro]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/31200258/DSC_0005-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=272772</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Commentary, Community Development, Conservation, Development, Dry Forests, Ecotourism, Forests, Infrastructure, Mammals, Roads, Sustainable Development, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Katavi National Park is one of the great East African parks. It&#8217;s great in the sense of being an enormous, 4,471 km2 area of miombo woodland, having a high diversity of large mammals and bird species, and high densities of large mammals (it is renowned for its hippopotamus and crocodile populations). Widely regarded as Tanzania’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Katavi National Park is one of the great East African parks. It&#8217;s great in the sense of being an enormous, 4,471 km2 area of miombo woodland, having a high diversity of large mammals and bird species, and high densities of large mammals (it is renowned for its hippopotamus and crocodile populations). Widely regarded as Tanzania’s wilderness park, photography-oriented tourists visiting Arusha – Tanzania’s tourist hub – looking for a ‘classic remote experience’ are encouraged to spend three days there, despite the exclusive, 3-hour flight in a light plane. Yet the park is under pressure from a two-decade-long wave of pastoralist immigrants settling south of the park. Tree felling, charcoal production, and small-scale agriculture has now converted the southern boundary into a hard edge, and increased the population sizes of villages south of the park. Fifteen years ago, the dirt road from Sumbawanga – the Rukwa regional capital – was upgraded to bitumen, but stopped south of the park and instead skirted its southern border from Kisi to reach the village of Kibaoni (see map). The road from Mpanda, the capital of Katavi region to the north of the park, was also upgraded, but again stopped at the park headquarters at Sitalike. The park looked as if it was saved from the fate of Mikumi National Park in central Tanzania, which has a blacktop highway running all the way through it. Four routes proposed for upgrading to tarmac: westerly route through the park from Kisi to Sitalike (50km through park) in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/road-upgrade-through-remote-tanzanian-park-threatens-wildlife-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-272772</doi>				</item>
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