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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/economics/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>News on Economics</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/economics/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>‘Developed nations are not honoring their commitments’: DRC negotiator on biodiversity finance</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/developed-nations-are-not-honoring-their-commitments-drc-negotiator-on-biodiversity-finance/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/developed-nations-are-not-honoring-their-commitments-drc-negotiator-on-biodiversity-finance/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Nov 2026 19:27:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/15143842/51873438083_6748c806ef_k-e1794432760721-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=335690</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Conservation Finance]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[30x30 conservation target, Biodiversity, Business, Conflict, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Economics, Environmental Policy, Finance, Funding, Governance, Interviews, philanthropy, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[YEREVAN, Armenia — Discussions were running much longer — and tenser — than they were supposed to during one of the last sessions of the 2026 U.N. biodiversity summit (COP17) in Armenia. The recurring culprit: Money, or more specifically, biodiversity finance. It recalled earlier discussions four years ago during the COP15 summit in Montreal, which [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[YEREVAN, Armenia — Discussions were running much longer — and tenser — than they were supposed to during one of the last sessions of the 2026 U.N. biodiversity summit (COP17) in Armenia. The recurring culprit: Money, or more specifically, biodiversity finance. It recalled earlier discussions four years ago during the COP15 summit in Montreal, which ended in momentary panic when one party threatened to pull out at the last minute over finance issues. One of the parties at the center of disagreements during both summits was the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC): Holder of the biggest share of the second-largest rainforest in the world — the Congo Basin — and fierce critic on the world stage for increased, and “more effective,” finance to help industrially developing countries meet global biodiversity goals. Among the recurring figures representing the country at environmental conferences is Daniel Mukubi, often on the microphone, intervening and vocal about better and more equitable access to finance. “All this weight &#8230; the objectives, targets of the global biodiversity framework &#8230; It requires additional efforts for developing countries, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to be able to find alternatives,” says Mukubi in an exclusive interview with Mongabay. “Additional means to enable Indigenous peoples and local communities that depend on forests and ecosystems, but also on forest products for their livelihoods, to be able to find means of subsistence that will allow them not to continue destroying the forest.” A local person carrying firewood, Yangambi, Tshopo, DRC.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/developed-nations-are-not-honoring-their-commitments-drc-negotiator-on-biodiversity-finance/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/developed-nations-are-not-honoring-their-commitments-drc-negotiator-on-biodiversity-finance/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-335690</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Uncertainty surrounds controversial resort in Zanzibar forest reserve as work stalls</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/uncertainty-surrounds-controversial-resort-in-zanzibar-forest-reserve-as-work-stalls/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/uncertainty-surrounds-controversial-resort-in-zanzibar-forest-reserve-as-work-stalls/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Nov 2026 06:48:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/11/02181729/Banner-image-Copy-of-3_2-Hyperolius-watsonae_DG-1-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=334746</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Business, Economics, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Governance, Land Rights, Science, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In March 2026, contractors built a wall along the edge of the Ngezi-Vumawimbi Forest Reserve on Pemba Island, Zanzibar, marking the boundary of what appears to be the site of the planned Mantuli luxury resort within the reserve. According to sources Mongabay spoke to, no further work has taken place since the wall was completed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In March 2026, contractors built a wall along the edge of the Ngezi-Vumawimbi Forest Reserve on Pemba Island, Zanzibar, marking the boundary of what appears to be the site of the planned Mantuli luxury resort within the reserve. According to sources Mongabay spoke to, no further work has taken place since the wall was completed in the first half of 2026. It stands in the very northwest of the island, between a former rubber plantation and land used by local communities for homes and fields of crops like cassava and sweet potatoes. The forest reserve boundary lies just beyond the community land. Ngezi-Vumawimbi is surrounded by 10 villages, with a combined population of more than 20,000 people, according to Tanzania’s 2022 census. Members of surrounding communities enter the reserve to collect firewood and wild fruit, as well as to tend their ancestors&#8217; graves and perform other spiritual practices. Research has established that rural communities across Pemba Island derive around a third of their annual income from forest resources; around Ngezi, the forest notably provides residents with income from the bungo fruit (Saba comorensis), which locals harvest for sale between July and late September. The moist forests of Ngezi host unique species of animals and plants. Image courtesy of Emily Tanganelli. Risk to biodiversity In September 2025, a number of conservationists and researchers published an open letter opposing the Mantuli project in the journal Science. They said the project risked damaging the 1,500-hectare (3,700-acre) Ngezi-Vumavimbi forest reserve, one of East Africa’s most&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/uncertainty-surrounds-controversial-resort-in-zanzibar-forest-reserve-as-work-stalls/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/uncertainty-surrounds-controversial-resort-in-zanzibar-forest-reserve-as-work-stalls/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-334746</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Fires and weak monitoring hinder reforestation efforts in Mozambique</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/fires-and-weak-monitoring-hinder-reforestation-efforts-in-mozambique/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/fires-and-weak-monitoring-hinder-reforestation-efforts-in-mozambique/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Oct 2026 08:13:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Far Vubil]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/28154204/cenario-de-floresta-queimada-2-Foto-de-Far-Vubil-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=334239</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Disasters, Dry Forests, Economics, Environment, Fires, Forests, Governance, Plants, Solutions, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MOCUBA, Mozambique — Mozambique ranks among the 10 countries with the highest deforestation rates in the world. Each year, it loses about 267,000 hectares (660,000 acres) of forest, with the heaviest rates concentrated in the provinces of Nampula, Zambézia, and Manica. To counter this, a decade ago the country set an ambitious goal to reforest [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MOCUBA, Mozambique — Mozambique ranks among the 10 countries with the highest deforestation rates in the world. Each year, it loses about 267,000 hectares (660,000 acres) of forest, with the heaviest rates concentrated in the provinces of Nampula, Zambézia, and Manica. To counter this, a decade ago the country set an ambitious goal to reforest 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) by 2030, alongside a 2025 target to restore 52,000 hectares (128,500 acres) per year through 2029 on a budget of 105 billion meticais ($1.65 billion). To date, however, only 58,000 hectares (143,300 acres) have been reforested — a total that includes tree plantations established before the million-hectare goal was set, according to data compiled by Sá Nogueira Lisboa, a forestry professor and researcher at Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) in Maputo. Zambézia province in central Mozambique holds one of the country&#8217;s main forest areas, key to conserving biodiversity, regulating water resources, protecting soil, storing carbon, and supporting local communities. Yet it also faces severe pressure from deforestation, suffering some of the nation&#8217;s steepest losses in tree cover. Between 2000 and 2024, cumulative forest loss across the province reached 1.26 million hectares (3.11 million acres) — roughly 19% of its total forested area — according to the Provincial Directorate of Territorial Development and Environment (DPDTA). Replanting is critical to restore degraded landscapes, but inadequate follow-up monitoring has squandered much of that effort. A technician from the District Service for Economic Activities (SDAE) among trees with charred stems in the Tónduè Forest,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/fires-and-weak-monitoring-hinder-reforestation-efforts-in-mozambique/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/fires-and-weak-monitoring-hinder-reforestation-efforts-in-mozambique/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-334239</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>5 million Nigerians gain clean cooking access annually, but it&#8217;s not enough, experts say</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/5-million-nigerians-gain-clean-cooking-access-annually-but-its-not-enough-experts-say/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/5-million-nigerians-gain-clean-cooking-access-annually-but-its-not-enough-experts-say/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Oct 2026 06:40:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ini Ekott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/25192259/cooking-gas-cylinder-drawing-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333820</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Nigeria, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, charcoal, Clean Energy, Economics, Energy, Environment, Food, Fuelwood, Governance, Natural Resources, Pollution, and Population]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[UYO, Nigeria — Before dawn, Happiness Emmanuel is already at the fire. She crouches beside a three-legged metal stand outside her home in Uyo city, southeastern Nigeria, splashing kerosene over damp firewood before striking a match. By sunrise, she is selling akara, a popular bean fritter, to commuters and schoolchildren stopping at her roadside stall. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[UYO, Nigeria — Before dawn, Happiness Emmanuel is already at the fire. She crouches beside a three-legged metal stand outside her home in Uyo city, southeastern Nigeria, splashing kerosene over damp firewood before striking a match. By sunrise, she is selling akara, a popular bean fritter, to commuters and schoolchildren stopping at her roadside stall. Emmanuel’s wood-fired setup is a familiar sight across this oil-rich region and Nigeria at large. The West African nation has spent more than a decade trying to shift households away from traditional cooking fuels such as firewood, charcoal and kerosene and by one measure it is succeeding. Between 2020 and 2024, an average of 5.4 million Nigerians a year gained access to clean cooking, more than in any other African country, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The share of the population with access rose by 2.3 percentage points a year, the third-fastest improvement on the continent after Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya. Those gains have only just kept pace with the population growth. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, added about 4.8 million people a year between 2022 and 2025, according to Worldometer estimates. In 2024, about 168 million Nigerians, nearly three in four people in the country, still cooked with polluting fuels, making Nigeria home to the world&#8217;s second-largest biomass-dependent population after India, according to the latest joint U.N. and World Bank tracking report on global energy access. What’s more, the trend in actual fuelwood consumption is moving in the opposite direction. U.N. energy&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/5-million-nigerians-gain-clean-cooking-access-annually-but-its-not-enough-experts-say/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/5-million-nigerians-gain-clean-cooking-access-annually-but-its-not-enough-experts-say/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333820</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>IUCN’s Madhu Rao on the world’s protected areas: Progress, pressures and the race to 2030</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/iucns-madhu-rao-on-the-worlds-protected-areas-progress-pressures-and-the-race-to-2030/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/iucns-madhu-rao-on-the-worlds-protected-areas-progress-pressures-and-the-race-to-2030/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Oct 2026 13:56:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Akana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/21112232/amazon_200158-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333419</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[30x30 conservation target, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Economics, Ecosystems, Environment, Finance, Forests, Governance, Natural Resources, Protected Areas, Research, Solutions, Water, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A park ranger in the Democratic Republic of Congo survived an ambush that killed colleagues. In Cambodia, mines and dams are pressing against land set aside for wildlife. In the Amazon, illegal miners are changing tactics as authorities try to remove them from Indigenous territories. These are different places, with different problems documented by Mongabay, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A park ranger in the Democratic Republic of Congo survived an ambush that killed colleagues. In Cambodia, mines and dams are pressing against land set aside for wildlife. In the Amazon, illegal miners are changing tactics as authorities try to remove them from Indigenous territories. These are different places, with different problems documented by Mongabay, but they point to a question now confronting governments: How much protection does a protected area actually provide? That question will follow delegates to Yerevan, Armenia, for the U.N. Biodiversity Conference, COP17, from Oct. 19-30. In 2022, countries agreed to conserve at least 30% of land and inland waters and 30% of coastal and marine areas by 2030. The commitment, known as Target 3 or “30 by 30,” is not simply about drawing new boundaries on maps. It also requires conservation to work, ecosystems to remain connected and the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities to be respected. COP17 will conduct the first collective review of progress under the agreement. Also read: As global 30×30 goal lags, Colombia shows how progress can be made A new Earth Insight analysis maps oil, gas and mining concessions overlapping protected and conserved areas across the tropics, highlighting threats to global biodiversity goals. Image courtesy of Earth Insight. The evidence arriving ahead of the meeting is sobering. A new study by Earth Insight, the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas and other partners found that nearly 62 million hectares (153 million acres) of terrestrial protected and conserved areas&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/iucns-madhu-rao-on-the-worlds-protected-areas-progress-pressures-and-the-race-to-2030/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/iucns-madhu-rao-on-the-worlds-protected-areas-progress-pressures-and-the-race-to-2030/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333419</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Heavy rains during critical period of cacao cultivation hit Ghana’s yields</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/heavy-rains-during-critical-period-of-cacao-cultivation-hit-ghanas-yields/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/heavy-rains-during-critical-period-of-cacao-cultivation-hit-ghanas-yields/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Oct 2026 10:32:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/21095641/a.-%C2%A9-mwintirew-original-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333406</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Ghana, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Cacao, Crops, Drought, Economics, Ecosystems, Environment, Farming, Forests, Governance, Plants, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Heavy rainfall during the cacao flowering season is a major driver of Ghana&#8217;s recent harvest fluctuations, new research finds. A study published in September by researchers at the Harvard University Center for the Environment in the U.S. found that heavy rainfall during cacao’s flowering and early pod development is linked to significant yield decreases. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Heavy rainfall during the cacao flowering season is a major driver of Ghana&#8217;s recent harvest fluctuations, new research finds. A study published in September by researchers at the Harvard University Center for the Environment in the U.S. found that heavy rainfall during cacao’s flowering and early pod development is linked to significant yield decreases. The researchers described how short, untypical rains during the flowering season, together with dry-season drought, is a major reason for recent fluctuations in Ghana’s cacao production. Ghana and Côte d&#8217;Ivoire together account for about 60% of global cocoa production, making West Africa central to the world&#8217;s chocolate supply. Cacao seeds are the primary ingredient in chocolate. The authors raised concerns about how these changing rainfall patterns could affect Ghana’s cacao industry, which is one of the West African country’s most important agricultural sectors. “Along with dry-season drought, [heavy rainfall during flowering and early pod development], those two factors alone explain about two-thirds of the year-to-year variability in Ghana&#8217;s production,” lead researcher Anna Lea Albright from Harvard told Mongabay via email. A flowering cacao tree in Ecuador’s Los Bancos Canton. Image courtesy of Pablo Leautaud via iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0). Albright and her colleagues began looking into the issue in 2024, when global cacao prices surged after several poor harvests in West Africa. They considered several possible explanations for the trend, including aging trees, pests and diseases, gold mining, smuggling and weather. Analyzing daily rainfall and temperature records, the researchers noticed a pattern. Losses or gains during&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/heavy-rains-during-critical-period-of-cacao-cultivation-hit-ghanas-yields/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333406</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nigeria’s parks chief stresses conservation gains amid struggle to protect wildlife</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/nigerias-parks-chief-stresses-conservation-gains-amid-struggle-to-protect-wildlife/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/nigerias-parks-chief-stresses-conservation-gains-amid-struggle-to-protect-wildlife/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Oct 2026 12:03:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Akana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/20104510/489884393_4050728211875253_83195258688067382_n-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333217</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Nigeria, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Critical Minerals, Economics, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Governance, Mining, Natural Resources, trafficking, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Nigeria has scored a significant conservation victory with the closure of a major illegal gold mine near Gashaka-Gumti National Park, the country&#8217;s largest national park, according to National Park Service Ibrahim Musa Goni. An estimated 4,000 miners have been driven from the Kila mining area following an operation involving the National Park Service, the Nigerian [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Nigeria has scored a significant conservation victory with the closure of a major illegal gold mine near Gashaka-Gumti National Park, the country&#8217;s largest national park, according to National Park Service Ibrahim Musa Goni. An estimated 4,000 miners have been driven from the Kila mining area following an operation involving the National Park Service, the Nigerian military, state governments and conservation partner African Nature Investors (ANI). But Goni, conservator-general of Nigeria&#8217;s National Park Service, is under no illusion that the problem has been settled. The gold remains underground, and the miners could return. &#8220;There is a tendency the miners might come back,&#8221; he told Mongabay. For Goni, who has led the service since 2017, the Kila operation is one of the achievements of which he is most proud. He believes the approach could work in other Nigerian parks struggling with illegal mining and insecurity. Yet protecting these landscapes has come at a heavy price. Rangers have been injured and even killed confronting illegal miners and armed groups. Elsewhere, insecurity has forced the suspension of tourism in parts of Kainji Lake and Chad Basin national parks. Goni insists that 13 of the 17 national parks in Nigeria remain operational and active, even where access has become dangerous. Watch: Return to Gashaka-Gumti Read: Nigeria drove thousands of gold miners from a national park. But can it keep them out? There are other difficult questions. For example, what happens to the thousands of miners who have lost their livelihoods? Can the government keep them&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/nigerias-parks-chief-stresses-conservation-gains-amid-struggle-to-protect-wildlife/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333217</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Seagrass meadows may offer coastal communities a more nutritious catch than reefs</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/seagrass-meadows-may-offer-coastal-communities-a-more-nutritious-catch-than-reefs/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/seagrass-meadows-may-offer-coastal-communities-a-more-nutritious-catch-than-reefs/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Oct 2026 07:13:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rajeev Tyagi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/15150732/3-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=332718</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and East Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Economics, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Food, Freshwater Fish, Governance, Marine Animals, Nutrition, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Researchers surveyed 40 sites along the East African coastline from Kenya to Mozambique, studying seagrass and coral reef ecosystems. They found that when it comes to benefits for coastal communities, seagrasses bring something important to the plate. In a paper published in Cell Reports Sustainability, they write that while reefs support “greater fish biomass, abundance, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Researchers surveyed 40 sites along the East African coastline from Kenya to Mozambique, studying seagrass and coral reef ecosystems. They found that when it comes to benefits for coastal communities, seagrasses bring something important to the plate. In a paper published in Cell Reports Sustainability, they write that while reefs support “greater fish biomass, abundance, and richness overall,” fish communities living in seagrass meadows may provide a richer mix of nutrients when seen from the perspective of human sustenance. These marine habitats have gained prominence in recent years not only as fish nurseries but as carbon sinks and acting as the first line of defense against floods and storms. “Protecting seagrass meadows should therefore be seen not only as biodiversity conservation but also as a public health and food security priority,” the study authors write. Rabbitfish in a seagrass meadow. Image courtesy of Benjamin Jones. Lead author Benjamin Jones, a Ph.D. student at Stockholm University at the time of the research, said the study isn&#8217;t about comparing ecosystems, but rather about applying a new lens to marine conservation. Often, a marine ecosystem’s value is determined by fish production. But for vulnerable coastal communities, “the reliability of catching nutritious fish can be just as important as the total number of fish in the sea,” said Jones, who’s now the chief conservation officer at Project Seagrass, a U.K.-based environmental charity. Accounting for fish biomass and depth, the seagrass meadows studied were “1.6 times more nutritionally multifunctional” than coral reefs, according to the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/seagrass-meadows-may-offer-coastal-communities-a-more-nutritious-catch-than-reefs/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-332718</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Act before El Niño: Expert worries about deepening hunger in East and South Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/act-before-el-nino-expert-worries-about-deepening-hunger-in-east-and-south-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/act-before-el-nino-expert-worries-about-deepening-hunger-in-east-and-south-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Oct 2026 19:46:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Akana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/14194014/Banner-image-vehicule-et-inondation-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=332647</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and South Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Climate Science, Development, Earth Science, Economics, Environment, Food, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Health, Hunger, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Research, Science, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[El Niño, a naturally occurring climate pattern that involves unusually warm surface waters in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean can alter atmospheric circulation and significantly influence rainfall and temperatures patterns far beyond the ocean, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The WMO, the United Nations’ weather agency, says this warming is already [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[El Niño, a naturally occurring climate pattern that involves unusually warm surface waters in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean can alter atmospheric circulation and significantly influence rainfall and temperatures patterns far beyond the ocean, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The WMO, the United Nations’ weather agency, says this warming is already underway and getting stronger. In an Oct. 8 update, it put the chance of an El Niño continuing through February 2027 at nearly 100%. It expects the event to be strongest in December. Regional forecasters predict a 90% chance of heavier-than-usual rain in southern Ethiopia, central to southern Somalia and northeastern Kenya between October and December 2026. Excessive rainfall could cause flooding, destroy crops, spread disease and make health services inaccessible in some areas, depending on local conditions and the season. A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) map illustrates typical seasonal rainfall shifts associated with El Niño, rather than a specific forecast for 2026. Graphic courtesy of NOAA. Action Against Hunger, an international aid organization, says families in southern Madagascar are enduring food shortages earlier than usual following a season of poor harvests. Its teams are treating children for malnourishment, as households continue to endure worsening food insecurity. Cuts in aid are also making help to tackle malnourishment harder to obtain. The United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported on Aug. 21 that 205 health and nutrition facilities in Somalia had closed because of funding cuts, forcing families to travel farther to find care.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/act-before-el-nino-expert-worries-about-deepening-hunger-in-east-and-south-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-332647</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>South African coal mine advances amid legal challenge and mounting water concerns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/south-african-coal-mine-advances-amid-legal-challenge-and-mounting-water-concerns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/south-african-coal-mine-advances-amid-legal-challenge-and-mounting-water-concerns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Oct 2026 12:31:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elaine Mills]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/14111040/1_Coal-plant-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=332558</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Coal, Economics, Environment, Environmental Policy, Governance, Illegal Mining, Mining, Natural Resources, Politics, Rivers, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A Chinese-controlled coal mine in South Africa’s Limpopo province is moving toward full production even as a legal challenge mounted by a coalition of community members and environmental groups remains unresolved amid concerns about water security in the region. Kinetic Development Group controls MC Mining, whose Makhado hard-coking-coal project is expected to reach steady-state operation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A Chinese-controlled coal mine in South Africa’s Limpopo province is moving toward full production even as a legal challenge mounted by a coalition of community members and environmental groups remains unresolved amid concerns about water security in the region. Kinetic Development Group controls MC Mining, whose Makhado hard-coking-coal project is expected to reach steady-state operation by the end of the year. Earlier this year, the Hong Kong-listed Kinetic group acquired a 51% stake in MC Mining for $90 million. The open-cast mine lies within the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve, which includes the Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the Ramsar-designated Makuleke wetlands. Environmental groups say clearing for the mine has destroyed sensitive habitat, including protected baobab and marula trees native to the region’s savannas and woodlands. The Makhado mine’s coal-handling and processing plant (CHPP). Image courtesy of MC Mining. Contested environmental authorization Makhado’s developers first received an environmental authorization, or EA, in August 2013. This original authorization has been amended several times over the years, and one such amendment has become highly controversial. In May 2021, the then-Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) amended the Makhado EA to remove a condition that required mining to begin by a fixed deadline. In June 2021, a coalition of community, farming, and environmental groups appealed the decision to remove the deadline. (The DMRE has since become the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources.) The appellants argued the DMRE had effectively given the project an open-ended authorization without proper public participation&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/south-african-coal-mine-advances-amid-legal-challenge-and-mounting-water-concerns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-332558</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Vietnam’s fishers face rising costs, declining catches and a contested sea</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/vietnams-fishers-face-rising-costs-declining-catches-and-a-contested-sea/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/vietnams-fishers-face-rising-costs-declining-catches-and-a-contested-sea/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Oct 2026 18:01:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Minh L Tran]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/02130412/vietnamese-fishers-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=331508</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Culture, Economics, Environment, Fisheries, Fishing, Governance, Marine, Oceans, Resource Conflict, and War]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[QUANG NGAI, Vietnam — When diesel prices in Vietnam hit an all-time high in March, Vo Huu Viet, a fisherman with more than 30 years at sea in Quang Ngai province in Central Vietnam, did something he rarely does. He stayed on shore. “The catch is simply not enough to make up for the labor of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[QUANG NGAI, Vietnam — When diesel prices in Vietnam hit an all-time high in March, Vo Huu Viet, a fisherman with more than 30 years at sea in Quang Ngai province in Central Vietnam, did something he rarely does. He stayed on shore. “The catch is simply not enough to make up for the labor of four men,” Viet said. Docking the aging wooden boat he inherited from his father means he, his wife, his crew and their families had to do other work, such as hauling heavy goods for other people, to make ends meet. Viet was hardly alone. In fishing ports around Vietnam, thousands of boats stayed docked for months as the fuel crisis made sea-bound trips unprofitable. The hike in fuel prices, fishers told Mongabay, didn’t just raise the cost of diesel — it raised the cost of everything else that supports a fishing boat, from ice to food. From March 1 to April 21 of this year, fishing activities around Vietnam fell 18.9% compared with the same time last year, from the nonprofit vessel-tracking platform Global Fishing Watch. For energy-intensive trawlers, the drop was 31%. As fuel prices spiked in Vietnam, fishing boats spent fewer hours on the water. Graphic by Andrés Alegria/Mongabay. Fuel is not the only pressure. Declining fish stocks — the result of years of unsustainable and illegal fishing, compounded by climate change — along with international pressures to tighten fishing enforcement and the growing presence of Chinese vessels add to the strain. The&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/vietnams-fishers-face-rising-costs-declining-catches-and-a-contested-sea/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-331508</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Namibia greenlights controversial project to dredge phosphate from seabed</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/namibia-greenlights-controversial-project-to-dredge-phosphate-from-seabed/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/namibia-greenlights-controversial-project-to-dredge-phosphate-from-seabed/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Sep 2026 11:28:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jemima Beukes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/01094118/19393956375_9d683b0734_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=328136</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Namibia, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Economics, Ecosystems, Environment, Governance, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Ocean Acidification, Ocean Warming, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Namibia has granted an environmental clearance to a controversial marine phosphate extraction project. The clearance allows the Sandpiper Project, operated by Namibian Marine Phosphate (NMP), to dredge the seabed off the coast of Walvis Bay for phosphate. Environmentalists are concerned about the impact on the country’s fisheries sector and the potential health impacts from consuming [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Namibia has granted an environmental clearance to a controversial marine phosphate extraction project. The clearance allows the Sandpiper Project, operated by Namibian Marine Phosphate (NMP), to dredge the seabed off the coast of Walvis Bay for phosphate. Environmentalists are concerned about the impact on the country’s fisheries sector and the potential health impacts from consuming fish that breed in the areas earmarked for dredging. The Environmental Clearance Certificate (ECC) granted to NMP by the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) on Aug. 5 allows industrial mining within concession 170 (ML 170) off the west coast of Namibia in country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The concession area covers roughly 2,234 square kilometers (863 square miles) of the Atlantic seabed, according to the company’s website. NMP plans to dredge phosphate-rich sediments present in the seafloor at depths of 180-250 meters. Dredging is the removal of sediments and debris from the bottom of lakes, rivers, harbors and other water bodies. Nonprofit Ocean Conservation Namibia (OCN) has strongly criticized the decision to issue the ECC, saying “that the large-scale development could have significant impacts on the Benguela marine ecosystem, Namibia’s fishing industry, and marine conservation.” Saltpans in Walvis Bay, Namibia. Image courtesy by David Stanley via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). The Benguela Marine ecosystem along the coast of southwestern Africa is one of the world’s most productive coastal upwelling zones, areas where deep, cold water rises to the surface, bringing nutrients to the surface. An area off the shores of southern Namibia is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/namibia-greenlights-controversial-project-to-dredge-phosphate-from-seabed/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-328136</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>UN fund for sharing biodiversity benefits struggles for attention — and money</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/un-fund-for-sharing-biodiversity-benefits-struggles-for-attention-and-money/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/un-fund-for-sharing-biodiversity-benefits-struggles-for-attention-and-money/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Sep 2026 07:17:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mactilda Mbenywe]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/01021940/31248760644_5d0887d57d_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=328108</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, climate finance, Conservation Finance, data, Economics, Genetics, Governance, Research, Science, Technology, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[NAIROBI — On Nov. 19, 2025, a small U.K.-based artificial intelligence startup called TierraViva AI transferred $1,000 to a United Nations trust account. It was the first payment ever received by the Cali Fund, a mechanism created at the U.N. biodiversity summit a year earlier in Cali, Colombia. The fund’s objective appears straightforward: to get [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[NAIROBI — On Nov. 19, 2025, a small U.K.-based artificial intelligence startup called TierraViva AI transferred $1,000 to a United Nations trust account. It was the first payment ever received by the Cali Fund, a mechanism created at the U.N. biodiversity summit a year earlier in Cali, Colombia. The fund’s objective appears straightforward: to get companies that benefit from “digital sequence information” — the policy term for digitized genetic information from biodiversity from around the world — to share some of those benefits with the countries that host that biodiversity and the Indigenous peoples and local communities who protect it. The Cali Fund formally opened for contributions on Feb. 25, 2025. As of August, this year, it had two confirmed contributions totaling $6,000. That’s far short of the $1 billion a year that the fund was expected to mobilize. TierraViva’s chief executive told Carbon Brief that the payment was an “ice-breaker,” intended to encourage other companies “who may be hesitating.” A second company, U.S. biotech firm Ginkgo Bioworks, had announced its intention to contribute earlier in the year but had not yet transferred any money. In July, another U,K-based company, biotech firm Prozomix, contributed $5,000 to the fund (though per current rules, it did not have to). “Nobody knows about the fund,” Astrid Schomaker, executive secretary of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), told Mongabay in an interview at the U.N. Environment Programme headquarters in Nairobi, where negotiators gathered in late July and August for preparatory meetings ahead of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/un-fund-for-sharing-biodiversity-benefits-struggles-for-attention-and-money/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-328108</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A sea cucumber venture in Zanzibar seeks to balance business and conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/a-sea-cucumber-venture-in-zanzibar-seeks-to-balance-business-and-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/a-sea-cucumber-venture-in-zanzibar-seeks-to-balance-business-and-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Aug 2026 14:45:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Akana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/28133301/005-Mpogo1-2-1200x800-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327729</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Business, Conservation, Economics, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Marine, Natural Resources, Oceans, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PEMBA, Tanzania — Like many coastal communities across East Africa, the residents of Shamiani have grown accustomed to watching the sea yield less and less. Warming waters, degraded marine habitats and decades of fishing pressure have all taken a toll on the resources that once sustained local livelihoods, according to community members. On Tanzania&#8217;s Pemba [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PEMBA, Tanzania — Like many coastal communities across East Africa, the residents of Shamiani have grown accustomed to watching the sea yield less and less. Warming waters, degraded marine habitats and decades of fishing pressure have all taken a toll on the resources that once sustained local livelihoods, according to community members. On Tanzania&#8217;s Pemba Island, a part of the semi-autonomous region of Zanzibar, Shamiani is no exception. Here, however, residents are trying something different. Ropes now mark out protected sections of shallow seagrass meadows, the result of months of community meetings and negotiations over how the area should be managed. For generations, the island&#8217;s coastal waters have supported fishing families. But in recent years, many residents say nearshore resources have steadily declined. Sea cucumbers, once abundant enough to be harvested and processed locally, have become increasingly scarce. Fishers and gleaners now work harder for smaller returns, trying to make a living from coastal waters that many say are less productive than they once were. A view of the no-take zone operated by Asili in Shamiani, on Pemba Island, where protected sections of shallow seagrass meadows are used to grow sea cucumbers. The area was established following months of community meetings and negotiations over its management. Image by David Akana/Mongabay. That decline is what led Asili, a Tanzania-based aquaculture company working with communities in Pemba since 2022 to ranch sea cucumbers inside locally protected marine areas. The model aims to restore depleted coastal ecosystems, generate income from a high-value export&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/a-sea-cucumber-venture-in-zanzibar-seeks-to-balance-business-and-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/a-sea-cucumber-venture-in-zanzibar-seeks-to-balance-business-and-conservation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327729</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘They will do it legally or illegally’: Interview with James Giahyue on Liberia’s cocoa boom</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/they-will-do-it-legally-or-illegally-interview-with-james-giahyue-on-liberias-cocoa-boom/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/they-will-do-it-legally-or-illegally-interview-with-james-giahyue-on-liberias-cocoa-boom/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Aug 2026 11:05:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/23115512/James-QA-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327377</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Chasing Deforestation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Economics, Ecosystems, Environment, forest degradation, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Natural Resources, Rainforest Destruction, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2024, the price of cacao on world markets spiked dramatically, nearly quintupling from what it had been a year earlier. Prices have since dropped, but along with a land crunch in Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s top producer of the commodity, the prospect of high financial rewards have helped to drive a rapid expansion of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2024, the price of cacao on world markets spiked dramatically, nearly quintupling from what it had been a year earlier. Prices have since dropped, but along with a land crunch in Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s top producer of the commodity, the prospect of high financial rewards have helped to drive a rapid expansion of new plantations in the forests of southeastern Liberia. This region contains some of West Africa’s last intact rainforest. The land on which these plantations are being developed is customarily owned by local communities, and many of their residents have been eager to reap the rewards of the cacao market. Handshake deals between them and migrants from neighboring Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso is now driving a wave of deforestation. “The people of the southeast, where you have a lot of forests, have realized or seen that cocoa can give them more money than they get from other traditional things like charcoal burning and subsistence farming,” says Liberian journalist James Giahyue. “It’s like a new phenomenon, and a new opportunity.” As editor-in-chief of news outlet The DayLight, Giahyue has guided extensive coverage of environmental issues in Liberia. He was an integral member of a Mongabay reporting team that published an investigation into deforestation there this past July. He spoke to Ashoka Mukpo from his base in Monrovia. The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity. &nbsp; Mongabay: A big part of the cocoa story in Liberia is migration. So many of these cocoa workers that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/they-will-do-it-legally-or-illegally-interview-with-james-giahyue-on-liberias-cocoa-boom/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/they-will-do-it-legally-or-illegally-interview-with-james-giahyue-on-liberias-cocoa-boom/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327377</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Polluted waterways and water shortages complicate the fight against Ebola in the DRC</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/polluted-waterways-and-water-shortages-complicate-the-fight-against-ebola-in-the-drc/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/polluted-waterways-and-water-shortages-complicate-the-fight-against-ebola-in-the-drc/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Aug 2026 05:30:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie Toto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/21153424/002-IMG_9540-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326929</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Economics, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Governance, Health, One Health, Planetary Health, Pollution, Public Health, Research, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In Ndrele, a commercial center in Ituri with nearly 40,000 inhabitants, there is virtually no access to safe drinking water. Children leave home at 5:30 a.m. to fetch water for their families and often spend hours doing this activity. They usually don&#8217;t return before 11 a.m. or noon. “It&#8217;s a serious problem, and it&#8217;s the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In Ndrele, a commercial center in Ituri with nearly 40,000 inhabitants, there is virtually no access to safe drinking water. Children leave home at 5:30 a.m. to fetch water for their families and often spend hours doing this activity. They usually don&#8217;t return before 11 a.m. or noon. “It&#8217;s a serious problem, and it&#8217;s the same everywhere,” Jacques Pithua, deputy coordinator of civil society group “Forces vives des Djukoth,” told Mongabay by phone. Pithua lives near Ndrele, in Mahagi, in Ituri province bordering Lake Albert in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In May 2026, the DRC declared its 17th Ebola outbreak in the province. To prevent Ebola transmission, health authorities recommend frequent handwashing, among other measures, but in many parts of Ituri, clean water remains scarce. The current Ebola outbreak is the largest in terms of case numbers for the DRC, and it is also the fastest spreading. The rising number of cases, over 5,000 recorded as of Aug 17 and more than 2,400 deaths in three months, has prompted health agencies including the Africa CDC to adapt its strategy. A joint response plan also calls for an assessment and strengthening of water, sanitation and hygiene services in health facilities within communities and provides training. Oxfam, a confederation of NGOs, which is also involved in the response to the outbreak, warned in a statement that “most health facilities in the areas hardest hit by Ebola still lack access to safe water and adequate sanitation facilities.” Ebola is not&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/polluted-waterways-and-water-shortages-complicate-the-fight-against-ebola-in-the-drc/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/polluted-waterways-and-water-shortages-complicate-the-fight-against-ebola-in-the-drc/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326929</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Spain &#038; South Africa, communities use restoration to &#8216;grow&#8217; fire insurance (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-spain-south-africa-communities-use-restoration-to-grow-fire-insurance-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-spain-south-africa-communities-use-restoration-to-grow-fire-insurance-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2026 19:24:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claire PattersonPenelope Choussat]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/24184231/Screenshot-2026-07-14-at-18.24.44-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327163</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Europe, Global, South Africa, Southern Africa, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Finance, Fires, Forests, Landscape Restoration, Nature-based climate solutions, Restoration, Solutions, and Sustainable Forest Management]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Huddled shoulder to shoulder, a flicker of glowing orange illuminates the faces gathered around. The world quiets. The dark presses in from every side, and the cold with it. At the center of it all, a fire is roaring. Fire warmed us, fed us, and kept the dark at bay long after the sun went [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Huddled shoulder to shoulder, a flicker of glowing orange illuminates the faces gathered around. The world quiets. The dark presses in from every side, and the cold with it. At the center of it all, a fire is roaring. Fire warmed us, fed us, and kept the dark at bay long after the sun went down, allowing us to gather together when solitude was the alternative. But the same flames that draw people together can just as easily tear through a landscape, destroying livelihoods and communities. Whether they do depends on the condition of the land itself. In some cases, fires are a natural part of the ecosystem. But when forests are poorly managed they become fuel waiting for a spark. Invasive vegetation, in particular, can burn hotter and more explosively than the indigenous ecosystems it displaces, turning a landscape adapted to survive fire into one that is destroyed by it. Restore the landscape, and you don&#8217;t eliminate fire, but you can change how fire behaves. In that sense, healthy landscapes act as vital risk infrastructure, reducing the likelihood that a spark becomes a catastrophe. The landscapes of Spain&#8217;s Muga Valley and South Africa&#8217;s Langkloof share a history of poor management that has left them degraded and exposed to wildfire. Today, both areas are discovering that managing fire as a part of restoring ecosystems is vital to protecting both communities and economies from disaster. Two hours north of Barcelona, the Muga Valley is verdant but increasingly vulnerable to fire after&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-spain-south-africa-communities-use-restoration-to-grow-fire-insurance-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/in-spain-south-africa-communities-use-restoration-to-grow-fire-insurance-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327163</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Angola’s peatlands highly underestimated, new study suggests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/angolas-peatlands-highly-underestimated-new-study-suggests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/angolas-peatlands-highly-underestimated-new-study-suggests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Aug 2026 17:28:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/21170945/NS111981040_NGSOWP16_Zach-Vincent_0316_River-Expedition_Days-12-13-14_DJI_0023-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326922</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Angola, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Economics, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Governance, Industrial Agriculture, Natural Resources, Oceans, Research, Subsistence Agriculture, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Southwestern African nation of Angola has much more peatland than previously thought, new research suggests. In a study published on August 20 in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, researchers mapped out peatlands in the Angolan Highlands Water Tower (AHWT). This vast landscape stores and regulates freshwater in central Angola and feeds freshwater systems [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Southwestern African nation of Angola has much more peatland than previously thought, new research suggests. In a study published on August 20 in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, researchers mapped out peatlands in the Angolan Highlands Water Tower (AHWT). This vast landscape stores and regulates freshwater in central Angola and feeds freshwater systems across southern Africa including the Okavango Basin. The researchers estimate that overall peatlands cover between 2.28–2.94 % of the of the AHWT. They found 8,662 km² (3,344 square miles) of peatland cover with high certainty (81–100% probability) and 11,167 km² (4,311 square miles) with low certainty (51–100% probability). Peatlands are areas of land where the surface layer consists of plant material that has partially decomposed. According to the study, they cover around three per cent of the world’s land surface but are estimated to store up to a third of the world’s soil carbon. In October 2025, Angola designated an area of 53,000 km² (20,463 square miles) in the AHWT as the country’s first Ramsar Site or Wetland of International Importance. The site was selected due to its sponge effect which absorbs, retains, filters, and ultimately supplies freshwater into the rivers that carry water to wetlands far and wide. A water tower is a highland area that produces a large amount of water, relative to its spatial scope. Study author Mauro Lourenço collecting the peat material during the research for this study. Image courtesy of Jennifer Guyton. One of them is the Okavango Delta in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/angolas-peatlands-highly-underestimated-new-study-suggests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/angolas-peatlands-highly-underestimated-new-study-suggests/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326922</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Land crisis and ‘green revolution’ practices trap millions of Malawi’s farmers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/land-crisis-and-green-revolution-practices-trap-millions-of-malawis-farmers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/land-crisis-and-green-revolution-practices-trap-millions-of-malawis-farmers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Aug 2026 07:30:34 +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/20/2026/08/17101100/BRIGHT_LastonMchisweWithCabbage2_ThyoloDistrictMalawi_CharlesMpaka-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326364</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Malawi, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Commodity agriculture, Community Development, Development, Economics, Environment, Farming, Fertilizers, Food, Food Industry, Food Prices, and Impact Of Climate Change]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[GOLIATI, Malawi — All that’s left to eat in Tapiwa Ligomeka’s one-room home is stored in a small plastic basin in one corner. Two days earlier, her husband came home with 2 kilos of maize meal, about 5 pounds — all he could afford to buy after a day hustling for casual work carrying traders’ [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[GOLIATI, Malawi — All that’s left to eat in Tapiwa Ligomeka’s one-room home is stored in a small plastic basin in one corner. Two days earlier, her husband came home with 2 kilos of maize meal, about 5 pounds — all he could afford to buy after a day hustling for casual work carrying traders’ goods at a nearby market, here in southern Malawi’s Thyolo district. On the day Mongabay visits her home, Ligomeka has just returned to her thatched-roof house in the village of Goliati, clutching a bundle of dry maize and pigeon pea stalks to make a fire later, her 8-month-old baby strapped to her back. It’s coming up to noon on a Sunday; her husband is still out watering his tomato crop near the river. “I’ll wait for him,” says Ligomeka, 18, dropping her bundle by the cold fireplace on the verandah. “This flour cannot make enough nsima for us to eat separately.” Nsima is the Chewa term for Malawi’s staple dish, a stiff porridge made from maize flour and usually eaten with vegetables, legumes, and, for those who can afford it, meat or fish. “It also means there won’t be anything for us to eat this evening,” Ligomeka says, measuring the flour with scoops of her right hand. “Sometimes, that goes on for two days.” She says the couple harvested 178 kg (392 lb) of maize from their small farm in March. They couldn’t afford fertilizer for their plot, which measures less than half an acre,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/land-crisis-and-green-revolution-practices-trap-millions-of-malawis-farmers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326364</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>&#8216;To speak of agroecology is to speak of farmers’ autonomy&#8217;: Interview with Olga Muthambe</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/to-speak-of-agroecology-is-to-speak-of-farmers-autonomy-interview-with-olga-muthambe/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/to-speak-of-agroecology-is-to-speak-of-farmers-autonomy-interview-with-olga-muthambe/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Aug 2026 12:34:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Far Vubil]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/14152821/Olga-corte-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326233</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, agribusiness, Agriculture, Agroecology, Business, Conflict, Conservation, Economics, Environment, Food, Food Industry, food security, Governance, Natural Resources, and Social Conflict]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In Mozambique, southeast Africa, more than 1,600 women participate in agroecological practice programs across the provinces of Maputo and Gaza (both in the south), Tete (central region) and Cabo Delgado (far north). These initiatives are led by Hikone Moçambique, a civil society association founded in 2013 that seeks to empower rural women. The organization’s work [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In Mozambique, southeast Africa, more than 1,600 women participate in agroecological practice programs across the provinces of Maputo and Gaza (both in the south), Tete (central region) and Cabo Delgado (far north). These initiatives are led by Hikone Moçambique, a civil society association founded in 2013 that seeks to empower rural women. The organization’s work focuses primarily on Mozambican women facing social vulnerability. The displacement of local populations, with resulting impacts on livelihoods, along with expropriation and concentration of land and resources, are some of the most common adverse effects associated with extractive industries that often amount to appropriation of nature through labor exploitation. According to Hikone Moçambique, extractive industries also undermine food sovereignty and exacerbate inequalities, disproportionately affecting women, who lose their income-generating alternatives. Hikone was co-founded by Mozambican social activist and current executive director Olga Muthambe. A feminist, community development practitioner, self-taught educator and mother of seven, she has over 30 years of experience with rural communities. In the 1990s, Muthambe worked with women and youth rehabilitation projects following the civil war in Mozambique (1977-1992), where she led initiatives to ensure food security. Decades later, in 2021, in the midst of another armed conflict in Cabo Delgado, the NGO expanded its work to support women affected by violence and forced displacement, which impacted around one million people in that province alone. Throughout its history, the organization has worked with more than 5,000 women across various activities, including training, community gatherings and seminars throughout Mozambique. In 2025, Muthambe also&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/to-speak-of-agroecology-is-to-speak-of-farmers-autonomy-interview-with-olga-muthambe/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/to-speak-of-agroecology-is-to-speak-of-farmers-autonomy-interview-with-olga-muthambe/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326233</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Urban heat islands have solutions; many tropical cities can’t afford them</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/urban-heat-islands-have-solutions-many-tropical-cities-cant-afford-them/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/urban-heat-islands-have-solutions-many-tropical-cities-cant-afford-them/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Aug 2026 00:34:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Adam Litchkofski]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/12214622/5-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326095</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, China, East Asia, Global, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Jakarta, Nigeria, Singapore, Southeast Asia, Tropics, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, Cities, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Development, Disasters, Earth Science, Economics, El Nino, Energy, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fossil Fuels, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Heatwave, Impact Of Climate Change, Infrastructure, Natural Resources, Planetary Boundaries, Planetary Health, Plants, Poverty, Public Health, Research, Science, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Temperatures, Trees, Tropical Conservation Science, urban ecology, Weather, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Urban heat islands pose a growing global health threat. But in tropical cities, the peril is surging. Already burdened by hot-humid equatorial weather, global warming, intense poverty, rapid urbanization, and a lack of cooling infrastructure, tropical city officials now face a powerful 2026-2027 El Niño that could put millions of vulnerable urban dwellers at risk. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Urban heat islands pose a growing global health threat. But in tropical cities, the peril is surging. Already burdened by hot-humid equatorial weather, global warming, intense poverty, rapid urbanization, and a lack of cooling infrastructure, tropical city officials now face a powerful 2026-2027 El Niño that could put millions of vulnerable urban dwellers at risk. Heat islands form because artificial surfaces, like roads and rooftops, trap heat by day and release it by night, never giving highly-urbanized spaces time to cool. When climate change-induced heat domes stall over cities, temperatures can soar for weeks into the triple digits. Every “city has a rhythm, it has a metabolism,” Matthias Roth, a National University of Singapore researcher, told Mongabay in a video interview. “The metabolism of each city — especially how incoming solar energy is divided between heating surfaces, warming the air, evaporating water, and being stored in the ground and buildings — influences how much energy heats up buildings, surfaces, and air. The prevalence of concrete and asphalt and the absence of vegetation creates a heat island.” But not all tropical urban heat islands (UHIs) are created equally, with the severity of their heat burdens dependent on innovative city planning and the financial clout to keep pace with global warming. In wealthy Singapore (which has devoted high levels of funding to curb UHI effects), air temperatures can still swell; compact high-rise building complexes there can see outdoor temperatures 4.3° Celsius (7.9° Fahrenheit) above rural areas. But in poorer cities, like Lagos,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/urban-heat-islands-have-solutions-many-tropical-cities-cant-afford-them/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/urban-heat-islands-have-solutions-many-tropical-cities-cant-afford-them/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326095</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As DRC confronts largest Ebola outbreak, health agencies revise strategy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/as-drc-confronts-largest-ebola-outbreak-health-agencies-revise-strategy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/as-drc-confronts-largest-ebola-outbreak-health-agencies-revise-strategy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Aug 2026 11:11:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.org]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/12093240/Preparing_to_enter_Ebola_treatment_unit_4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326013</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Diseases, Ebola, Economics, Environment, Forests, Governance, Health, One Health, Planetary Health, Public Health, Research, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) recorded more than 4,300 Ebola cases with more than 2,000 deaths as of Aug. 9, making this the country’s largest outbreak, to date. In the last major Ebola outbreak, the country reported around 3,500 confirmed and probable cases over two years (2018-20). However, this time, the number was surpassed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) recorded more than 4,300 Ebola cases with more than 2,000 deaths as of Aug. 9, making this the country’s largest outbreak, to date. In the last major Ebola outbreak, the country reported around 3,500 confirmed and probable cases over two years (2018-20). However, this time, the number was surpassed in just 12 weeks from the time the outbreak was officially declared on May 15 of this year, making it the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak on record. “The scale of these epidemic reveals, for the first time, the gravity of the situation and forces us to rethink our response strategies in order to provide a more effective and better-coordinated response,” Dr. Jean Kaseya, director-general of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), said during an online press briefing on Aug. 6. In May, the DRC declared its 17th Ebola outbreak in Ituri province, which borders Uganda. Kaseya said the official figures provide only a partial picture of the epidemic&#8217;s true scale in the eastern DRC. In remote villages and rural areas, which are among the hardest hit, many cases may go undetected by surveillance systems due to difficult access and operational constraints. Health workers transporting an Ebola patient to a treatment center. Image by Moses Sawasawa/Associated Press. The World Health Organization and the Africa CDC had previously estimated that the DRC needed $1.4 billion to tackle the crisis in a comprehensive manner, including for humanitarian response, and that available funding was well below that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/as-drc-confronts-largest-ebola-outbreak-health-agencies-revise-strategy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/as-drc-confronts-largest-ebola-outbreak-health-agencies-revise-strategy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326013</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mariano Cenamo, advocate for a sustainable Amazon bioeconomy, has died, aged 46</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/mariano-cenamo-advocate-for-a-sustainable-amazon-bioeconomy-has-died-aged-46/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/mariano-cenamo-advocate-for-a-sustainable-amazon-bioeconomy-has-died-aged-46/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Aug 2026 00:02:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/09220720/Mariano_Cenamo_Renato-Stockler_FolhaPress-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325742</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Conservation Finance, Environment, Environmental Services, Forest Carbon, Forests, Natural Capital, Nature-based climate solutions, Obituary, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Rainforests, Redd, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For people trying to protect the Amazon, one problem has persisted for decades. A hectare of intact forest stores carbon, regulates water, supports wildlife, and provides food and materials for the people who live there. Much of that value does not appear in an economic ledger. Cattle, timber, soy, and gold do. For a farmer, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For people trying to protect the Amazon, one problem has persisted for decades. A hectare of intact forest stores carbon, regulates water, supports wildlife, and provides food and materials for the people who live there. Much of that value does not appear in an economic ledger. Cattle, timber, soy, and gold do. For a farmer, a company, or a local government, clearing forest can therefore produce income more readily than keeping it standing. The Amazon bioeconomy grew from efforts to change that calculation. It includes forest products, agroforestry, biotechnology, carbon markets, and other businesses that depend on maintaining living forests. The aim is to make such activities commercially viable at a scale that matters. Mariano Cenamo spent most of his career working on that problem. He was 23 when he moved from São Paulo to Manaus in 2003. Trained as a forestry engineer at the University of São Paulo, he had first come to the Amazon for an internship. He stayed at the encouragement of Virgílio Viana, a former professor who was then Amazonas state&#8217;s environment secretary. Cenamo was struck by the gap between conservation work and the economic realities of people living in the forest. Environmental groups were doing important work, he later recalled, but local livelihoods often sat outside the conservation discussion. In 2004 he helped establish what became Idesam, the Institute for the Conservation and Sustainable Development of the Amazon. At first there was barely an institution. Cenamo later described himself as an &#8220;ING&#8221;, an indivíduo não&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/mariano-cenamo-advocate-for-a-sustainable-amazon-bioeconomy-has-died-aged-46/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325742</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Environmental activists in Kenya concerned over billionaire&#8217;s planned oil refinery</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/environmental-activists-in-kenya-concerned-over-billionaires-planned-oil-refinery/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/environmental-activists-in-kenya-concerned-over-billionaires-planned-oil-refinery/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Aug 2026 11:06:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Amina Chombo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/05101433/Aliko-Dangote-768x441.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325399</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Development, Economics, Energy, Environment, Environmental Policy, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Natural Resources, Oil, Oil Drilling, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Billionaire Aliko Dangote’s choice of Lamu, Kenya, for his oil refinery project, estimated to cost $17 billion, has elicited mixed reactions, with environmental activists warning of its potential risks to the local ecosystem and the community’s livelihoods, while the government is playing up its economic benefits. The Nigerian business tycoon’s decision to locate the refinery [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Billionaire Aliko Dangote’s choice of Lamu, Kenya, for his oil refinery project, estimated to cost $17 billion, has elicited mixed reactions, with environmental activists warning of its potential risks to the local ecosystem and the community’s livelihoods, while the government is playing up its economic benefits. The Nigerian business tycoon’s decision to locate the refinery in Lamu, follows months of speculation about whether the project will go ahead in Kenya, Uganda or Tanzania. Devakumar Edwin, Dangote Industries Limited’s vice president, who is in charge of the oil and gas division, told Reuters that the project, with a capacity to refine at least 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day, would be completed within three years. The crude oil is expected to come from within the East Africa region. If completed, the Lamu project would work like a similar one owned by Dangote Industries in Lagos, Nigeria, which can refine at least 650,000 barrels of crude oil in a day. It is currently the biggest oil refinery in Africa. Speaking earlier in July, Kenyan President William Ruto said Kenya had struck a deal with Dangote to have the project in Lamu. He said the project would benefit East and Central Africa, as well as create at least 60,000 jobs for Kenyans during its construction and then operation. Kenyan President William Ruto speaking at State House in Nairobi on July 8, 2026. Image courtesy of Public Service Commission. Concerns about environmental impact Meanwhile, environmental activists have called for transparency and sufficient involvement&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/environmental-activists-in-kenya-concerned-over-billionaires-planned-oil-refinery/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325399</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Global hunger levels fall but Africa still lags behind, UN report finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/global-hunger-levels-fall-but-africa-still-lags-behind-un-report-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/global-hunger-levels-fall-but-africa-still-lags-behind-un-report-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Aug 2026 13:22:06 +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/20/2026/08/04112439/HarvestingSorghum_Sudan2011_AfricaRenewalFlickrBYNCSA2.0-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325306</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Commodity agriculture, Economics, Environment, Farming, Fertilizers, Governance, Industrial Agriculture, Research, and Subsistence Agriculture]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In its latest report on food security and nutrition around the world, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization says the number of people facing hunger globally has declined for the third consecutive year, but Africa still has the highest number of people with insufficient food. The FAO report estimated that 20% of Africans faced hunger [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In its latest report on food security and nutrition around the world, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization says the number of people facing hunger globally has declined for the third consecutive year, but Africa still has the highest number of people with insufficient food. The FAO report estimated that 20% of Africans faced hunger in 2025, compared to just 6% in Asia, and nearly 5% in Latin America and the Caribbean. The FAO report says the number of people facing hunger globally fell from 8.6% in 2022 to 7.8% in 2025. It further estimates that in 2025, hunger affected 14 million people less than in 2024 and 43 million less people than in 2022. In 2030, the report projects between 510 and 520 million people will be food insecure worldwide and more than half of them (56%) will be in Africa. Dry lakebed in Mabalane district, Mozambique: climate shocks are amongst the reasons for food insecurity in Africa. Image by Aurélie Marrier d&#8217;Unienville / IFRC via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). “While the prevalence rate of undernourishment slightly stabilized at 20.0% in 2025, demographic pressure actually pushed the absolute number of hungry people [in Africa] to a record 309 million, surpassing Asia for the first time,” David Laborde, director of the FAO’s Agrifood Economics Division, told Mongabay via email. Laborde said that severe cuts to development aid, armed conflict, and climate shocks have hindered food production on the continent over the past decade. Erratic rains and rising temperature have affected&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/global-hunger-levels-fall-but-africa-still-lags-behind-un-report-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325306</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ebola responders persevere in the DRC as Uganda nears end of outbreak</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/ebola-responders-persevere-in-the-drc-as-uganda-nears-end-of-outbreak/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/ebola-responders-persevere-in-the-drc-as-uganda-nears-end-of-outbreak/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Aug 2026 18:19:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie Toto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/03103124/image1_Un-travailleur-se-desinfecte-au-Centre-medical-evangelique-de-Bunia_BIS-1536x1024-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325162</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Diseases, Ebola, Economics, Ecosystems, Environment, Governance, Health, One Health, Planetary Health, Public Health, Research, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Several members of the Ebola response gathered on July 15, 2026, outside the Ebola Treatment Center (ETC) in Bunia, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to protest their working conditions. Demonstrators said they had not received their risk allowances for several weeks, payments that are supposed to be made by the Congolese government. &#8220;It&#8217;s outrageous [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Several members of the Ebola response gathered on July 15, 2026, outside the Ebola Treatment Center (ETC) in Bunia, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to protest their working conditions. Demonstrators said they had not received their risk allowances for several weeks, payments that are supposed to be made by the Congolese government. &#8220;It&#8217;s outrageous for such a high-risk job,&#8221; Robert Uyergiu Mambo, a community leader and French teacher in Bunia, Ituri province, told Mongabay by phone. Although he is not officially part of the Ebola response, his position within the Alur community, an ethnic group living in northwestern Uganda and northeastern DRC, has made him an important local ally. Uyergiu Mambo, a volunteer host on the community radio station Radio Terra FM, which states it has an audience of five million listeners, said he was frustrated with the situation, but not surprised. &#8220;It&#8217;s common for government employees to go unpaid for long periods. Recently, the minister [Samuel Roger Kamba, minister of Public Health, Hygiene and Social Welfare] came here and managed to calm tensions, but there has been a lot of frustration among Ebola response workers lately and protests have continued one after another,” he said. “If nothing changes, the protests will continue. The problem is that it is paralyzing the response.” It is not unusual for Congolese civil servants to work for months without receiving their salaries, a situation that has long fueled corruption across the country. It was a part of life even under Mobutu Sese Seko,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/ebola-responders-persevere-in-the-drc-as-uganda-nears-end-of-outbreak/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325162</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate shocks hit hydropower in Southern Africa, reviving interest in coal</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/climate-shocks-hit-hydropower-in-southern-africa-reviving-interest-in-coal/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/climate-shocks-hit-hydropower-in-southern-africa-reviving-interest-in-coal/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Jul 2026 14:19:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Chisapi Kumbutso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/31093919/The_Kariba_Dam_wall_from_the_middle-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325029</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Science, Coal, Development, Economics, Ecosystems, Energy, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Hydroelectric Power, Natural Resources, Research, Solar Power, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LUSAKA —For years, Zambia and Zimbabwe have boasted of enviable success in harnessing hydropower. More than 80% of Zambia’s power supply and about half of neighboring Zimbabwe’s supply came from hydropower sources in 2024. But climate change has continued to expose the fragility of this dependence. Successive droughts, linked to the 2023-24 El Niño, caused [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LUSAKA —For years, Zambia and Zimbabwe have boasted of enviable success in harnessing hydropower. More than 80% of Zambia’s power supply and about half of neighboring Zimbabwe’s supply came from hydropower sources in 2024. But climate change has continued to expose the fragility of this dependence. Successive droughts, linked to the 2023-24 El Niño, caused water levels in Lake Kariba, formed by a dam on Zambezi River, to drop, drastically reducing electricity generation. It precipitated one of the region’s worst energy crises in decades. Against this backdrop, coal re-emerged as an attractive, although controversial, option. According to the Global Energy Monitor&#8217;s Boom and Bust Coal 2026 report, Zambia and Zimbabwe accounted for more than two-thirds of all new coal power proposals announced in Africa in 2025. Some energy experts argue that coal offers the quickest route to stabilizing electricity supplies and sustaining industrial growth, particularly for the mining sector. Electricity systems in Zimbabwe and Zambia power mining activities, industries and help meet the needs of growing urban populations. However, others warn that expanding coal-fired power risks locking both countries into decades of carbon emissions at a time when renewable energy technologies — especially solar — are becoming increasingly affordable. For Zimbabwe, however, coal has never completely disappeared from that country&#8217;s energy landscape. Power Shift Africa Campaigns Manager Kudakwashe Manjonjo said Zimbabwe&#8217;s reliance on coal is rooted in history. “Zimbabwe has always been a significant coal-producing country. I live in Hwange, home to one of the largest coal mines on the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/climate-shocks-hit-hydropower-in-southern-africa-reviving-interest-in-coal/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/climate-shocks-hit-hydropower-in-southern-africa-reviving-interest-in-coal/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325029</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Kenyan teen leads charge on tree planting and climate awareness</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/kenyan-teen-leads-charge-on-tree-planting-and-climate-awareness/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/kenyan-teen-leads-charge-on-tree-planting-and-climate-awareness/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jul 2026 09:03:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Lynet Otieno]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Ashoka]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/28114108/Baraka-Main-photo-768x493.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324658</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Books, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Culture, Economics, Education, Environment, Forests, Health, Media, Plants, Research, Solutions, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Baraka Moruri has been passionate about the environment since he was 6. Now 13, the Kenyan climate champion says he has planted more than 7,600 trees with the help of family, friends and private organizations. “My goal is unlimited. I want to plant over 1 million trees before I turn 18,” he says. On March [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Baraka Moruri has been passionate about the environment since he was 6. Now 13, the Kenyan climate champion says he has planted more than 7,600 trees with the help of family, friends and private organizations. “My goal is unlimited. I want to plant over 1 million trees before I turn 18,” he says. On March 20 this year, Baraka and his family launched Go Green with Baraka, a book calling for young people in Africa to lead in protecting the environment. Baraka is Little Mister Environment Kenya, and the ambassador of Plant Your Age, an initiative started by the Green Africa Foundation following the death in 2011 of Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai at the age of 71. Her work inspired him to become involved in climate action. “Once, as I was doing my agriculture class assignment that involved researching about Prof Wangari Maathai, I watched a video in which she was being denied her rights. She later won a global award because of her love for the environment,” Baraka says. Baraka Moruri with his younger sister, as he holds ‘Go Green With Baraka’, a book he authored. Photo by Lawrine Moruri. Baraka’s father Arnold Warinda (left), his mother Lawrine Moruri and a friend during the launch of ‘Go Green With Baraka’ in Nairobi in January 2026. Photo by Lawrine Moruri. The impacts of climate change fall especially hard on children in countries like Kenya. The newly released “Children’s Climate Risk Report” by UNICEF describes how children in East and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/kenyan-teen-leads-charge-on-tree-planting-and-climate-awareness/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324658</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>One scientist’s mission to save Ghana’s disappearing guitarfish</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/one-scientists-mission-to-save-ghanas-disappearing-guitarfish/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/one-scientists-mission-to-save-ghanas-disappearing-guitarfish/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jul 2026 08:34:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Awudu Salami Sulemana Yoda]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/24082518/Blackchin-guitarfish-02-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324489</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Ghana, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Economics, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Freshwater Fish, Governance, Illegal Fishing, Marine Animals, Oceans, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Fishers from western and central Ghana are renowned in the region, traveling the length of the West African coastline to cast their nets in the richest fishing grounds. These migrant fishers, relying on beach and purse seining, dry their catch to preserve them for transport to distant markets. Fish is an important dietary component for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Fishers from western and central Ghana are renowned in the region, traveling the length of the West African coastline to cast their nets in the richest fishing grounds. These migrant fishers, relying on beach and purse seining, dry their catch to preserve them for transport to distant markets. Fish is an important dietary component for West Africans, according to Ghanaian marine biologist Issah Seidu, but its availability is under threat. “There has been a tremendous decline in fish like the tunas, anchovies, mackerel,” he told Mongabay. “And in response, the fishermen have switched gears from the traditional fishing tools to now using gillnet to target these species as their last safety net to support their livelihood.” Issah Seidu with two colleagues from his NGO, Aqualife. Image courtesy of Issah Seidu. As well as bony fish, elasmobranches — like sharks and rays, whose skeletons are made of cartilage — are much sought after. Fifty years ago, sawfish and wedgefish were widely found in shallow water along Ghana’s coast; today, both groups of elasmobranches have been fished to local extinction. Seidu, the founder of a marine conservation NGO called AquaLife, said fishers he’s interviewed for his research say sawfish haven’t been seen in Ghanaian waters since the 1980s, and it’s now been more than eight years since wedgefish were last caught. He said guitarfish, a group of rays, could be next. “Guitarfish are at a tipping point,” Seidu told Mongabay in an interview in March, “owing to their lucrative and high-value white&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/one-scientists-mission-to-save-ghanas-disappearing-guitarfish/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324489</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous advocates push for rights protections around AI data centers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/indigenous-advocates-push-for-rights-protections-around-ai-data-centers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/indigenous-advocates-push-for-rights-protections-around-ai-data-centers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jul 2026 13:59:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/16134609/emrip-4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323706</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Artificial Intelligence, Data centers, Development, Economics, Energy, Environment, Human Rights, Infrastructure, Technology, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Artificial intelligence is said to be the transformative technology of our time, with the potential to reshape our world on a global scale, according to research. Yet AI&#8217;s potential is underpinned by the need for hyperscale data centers, the large, energy-intensive sites that house servers and IT equipment. As tech companies and governments continue to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Artificial intelligence is said to be the transformative technology of our time, with the potential to reshape our world on a global scale, according to research. Yet AI&#8217;s potential is underpinned by the need for hyperscale data centers, the large, energy-intensive sites that house servers and IT equipment. As tech companies and governments continue to develop this infrastructure at scale, Indigenous peoples from Brazil to Canada affected by the projects have responded in different ways. Some have raised concerns about pressure on water resources and inadequate consultation, while others have embraced the projects for their economic benefits. In July 2026, at a meeting of the U.N. Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP), Indigenous leaders, government representatives and experts called for data center projects to comply with the principles of free, prior and informed consent, or FPIC. They also explored whether growing AI infrastructure can be developed in ways that advance Indigenous priorities and rights. During a panel discussion on the second day of the EMRIP meeting, Indigenous delegates said that policies to ensure that AI does not harvest Indigenous knowledge without consent are of equal importance to protections for Indigenous lands and waters. “AI is resource-intensive and requires vast amounts of energy,” said Maren Storslett, a member of the Sámi Parliament in Norway at the meeting. “In Sápmi, we already see how large data centers put [immense] pressure on our territories. This forces a conversation about priorities and limits and we need to be at the table&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/indigenous-advocates-push-for-rights-protections-around-ai-data-centers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323706</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How Brazil’s federal fiscal policy hinders Amazon Rainforest conservation (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-brazils-federal-fiscal-policy-hinders-amazon-rainforest-conservation-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-brazils-federal-fiscal-policy-hinders-amazon-rainforest-conservation-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jul 2026 14:05:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[João Gabriel de Araujo Oliveira]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/04/10170753/amazon_200509-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323538</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Economics, Ecosystems, Environment, Finance, Forests, Governance, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The forests of the Brazilian Amazon are, by any measure, among the most important ecosystems on Earth. They absorb carbon on a planetary scale, regulate rainfall across South America, and shelter biodiversity that science is still cataloging. International negotiations, carbon markets, and diplomatic agreements all rest on the assumption that these forests will remain standing. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The forests of the Brazilian Amazon are, by any measure, among the most important ecosystems on Earth. They absorb carbon on a planetary scale, regulate rainfall across South America, and shelter biodiversity that science is still cataloging. International negotiations, carbon markets, and diplomatic agreements all rest on the assumption that these forests will remain standing. Yet while the Amazon spans nine Brazilian states, the three whose territory is most overwhelmingly forest — and which therefore carry the heaviest share of the conservation burden — are among the poorest and most fiscally dependent in the country. The states of Amapá, Acre, and Amazonas operate on budgets so dependent on federal transfers that they have almost no fiscal room to act on their own. That is not a coincidence. It is a design flaw in Brazil&#8217;s fiscal constitution, and it is getting worse. The argument here is simple: Brazil cannot credibly lead global climate diplomacy while its Amazonian states remain fiscally trapped. The forest will not protect itself. And the states responsible for protecting it do not have the money to do so. Tropical forest near Atalaia do Norte, Amazonas, Brazil. Image by Gloria Pallares for Mongabay. What the budgets show Amapá is larger than Ecuador. Nearly three-quarters of its territory is classified as federally protected land — national parks, Indigenous reserves, and conservation units — that the state is legally obligated to maintain but receives no specific compensation for. In 2025, more than 60% of its entire state budget came from&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/how-brazils-federal-fiscal-policy-hinders-amazon-rainforest-conservation-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-323538</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Fossil fuel-based mega projects displace locals in Bangladesh, pushing youth out</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/fossil-fuel-based-mega-projects-displace-locals-in-bangladesh-pushing-youth-out/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/fossil-fuel-based-mega-projects-displace-locals-in-bangladesh-pushing-youth-out/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jul 2026 13:07:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Eyamin Sajid]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/13123859/Matarbari-coal-power-plant04-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323215</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Coal, Coastal Ecosystems, Developing Countries, Development, Economics, Energy, Environment, Fisheries, Fishing, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Land Rights, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Eid is usually a day of laughter and joy for most people in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation of 170 million in South Asia. But for Muhammad Gura Miya, it became a day of sadness and mourning after his only son left home on Eid in 2025 and never returned. Gura Miya, a 65-year-old resident of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Eid is usually a day of laughter and joy for most people in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation of 170 million in South Asia. But for Muhammad Gura Miya, it became a day of sadness and mourning after his only son left home on Eid in 2025 and never returned. Gura Miya, a 65-year-old resident of Maheshkhali sub-district of Bangladesh’s southeastern coastal district Cox’s Bazar, now spends his days in distress over the loss of his son. “He was my only hope and support. I don’t know where he is, or whether he is alive or dead,” Miya said. Miya is not alone. Mongabay spoke with dozens of families whose sons or household heads are missing or dead after attempting to migrate to Malaysia for work. On April 14, 2026, a small boat carrying around 250 people, including Bangladeshi nationals and Rohingya refugees, capsized in the Andaman Sea while en route to Malaysia. Only nine people were rescued; the rest remain missing. Young, unskilled people in this coastal area are risking illegal migration across the Bay of Bengal in small boats as fossil fuel projects, ports and petrochemical complexes threaten their ancestral livelihoods. A study on irregular migration from Bangladesh to Malaysia through the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea found that Cox’s Bazar has become a new hub for human trafficking to Malaysia. Construction of Matarbari deep sea port. Image by Muhammad Mostafigur Rahman. A ship at the construction of Matarbari deep sea port. Image by Muhammad Mostafigur Rahman.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/fossil-fuel-based-mega-projects-displace-locals-in-bangladesh-pushing-youth-out/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323215</doi>				</item>
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