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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/education/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Fri, 31 Jul 2026 13:05:13 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Education</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/education/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Sri Lanka prepares for impending El Niño with traditional and new approaches</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/sri-lanka-prepares-for-impending-el-nino-with-traditional-and-new-approaches/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/sri-lanka-prepares-for-impending-el-nino-with-traditional-and-new-approaches/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Jul 2026 13:05:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kamanthi Wickramasinghe]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/31104448/2-4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325032</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Agroecology, Conservation, Crops, Disasters, Drought, Environment, Extreme Weather, Farming, Food, Industrial Agriculture, Rice, Solutions, Subsistence Agriculture, Traditional Knowledge, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Even though Sri Lankan authorities are preparing to face an impending El Niño phenomenon, Rathnayaka Mudiyanselage Suwandarathne feels that the country may not be impacted as forecasted. A second generation farmer from Thalangama in the Colombo District, Suwandarathne knows about weather and has been leading an agricultural revolution by promoting the cultivation of heirloom varieties [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Even though Sri Lankan authorities are preparing to face an impending El Niño phenomenon, Rathnayaka Mudiyanselage Suwandarathne feels that the country may not be impacted as forecasted. A second generation farmer from Thalangama in the Colombo District, Suwandarathne knows about weather and has been leading an agricultural revolution by promoting the cultivation of heirloom varieties of rice. According to him, it is normal to experience a dry spell between July and September as forecasted. This period coincides with the Yala season, one of two paddy harvesting seasons in Sri Lanka. “By August, the dry period begins, and we need a dry season to obtain the harvest,” he told Mongabay. “We then conduct culturally significant events praying for rains. This is the cycle during the Yala season. Then again from December to March, there’s a drought season, which coincides with the Maha season. Long dry spells occur every four to seven years. But now, we have changed these harvesting cycles,” he said. The World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) monthly global seasonal climate update indicates an 80% probability of a rapid development into a strong El Niño event between July and September 2026. WMO Secretary General Celeste Saulo said that it would “intensify chances of drought and heavy rainfall and the risk of heatwaves on land and marine heatwaves in many regions of the world.” “When going by initial predictions, the time period for developing a very strong El Niño was between November 2026 and January 2027,” Ajith Wijemannage, head of the Meteorology&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/sri-lanka-prepares-for-impending-el-nino-with-traditional-and-new-approaches/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325032</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>Father Robert Athickal asked children to protect the living world</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/father-robert-athickal-asked-children-to-protect-the-living-world/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/father-robert-athickal-asked-children-to-protect-the-living-world/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Jul 2026 12:32:24 +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/20/2026/07/27002049/Father-Robert-Athickal-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324535</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Conservation and Religion and Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, India, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Culture, Education, Obituary, and Religions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; The first members had no office, no money, and little authority. They were schoolchildren in Patna, a crowded city on the Ganges, worried about the trees being cut around them. They met after class, visited other schools, planted saplings, and spoke to anyone willing to listen. Some traveled by bicycle to carry their message [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; The first members had no office, no money, and little authority. They were schoolchildren in Patna, a crowded city on the Ganges, worried about the trees being cut around them. They met after class, visited other schools, planted saplings, and spoke to anyone willing to listen. Some traveled by bicycle to carry their message farther. Their organization had a name, Tarumitra, meaning “Friends of Trees,” though for a time it consisted mainly of students and a small circle of adults helping them. Among those adults was a Jesuit priest who believed that children could be trusted with serious work. Father Robert Athickal, who died on July 19th, aged 73, spent nearly four decades developing that idea. From its beginnings in Patna in 1988, Tarumitra grew into one of India’s largest student environmental movements. It established groups in schools and colleges across the country, trained generations of young campaigners, and created a reserve for threatened plants from the Gangetic plain. &nbsp; Athickal had few of the resources usually available to someone building a national organization. There was no large funder behind the project and no government mandate. He relied on his position as a Jesuit teacher, the cooperation of schools, and his ability to persuade students and adults that local environmental problems deserved their attention. Tarumitra’s early campaigns were designed to be practical and easy to reproduce. Students cleaned neglected plots, planted roadside gardens, and turned former garbage dumps into what they called “Oxygen Belts.” Other school groups could follow&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/father-robert-athickal-asked-children-to-protect-the-living-world/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324535</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Research offers nature-positive path to end and reverse biodiversity loss</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/research-offers-nature-positive-path-to-end-and-reverse-biodiversity-loss/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/research-offers-nature-positive-path-to-end-and-reverse-biodiversity-loss/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Jul 2026 15:05:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/13144253/25545049372_de54bc4a94_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323143</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Governance, Habitat Loss, Indigenous Peoples, Research, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[From its nests high in the canopy of the Amazon, the harpy eagle depends on &#8212; and is critical to &#8212; the health of the forest around it. The species controls the numbers of animals such as sloths and monkeys that, unchecked, could consume too many leaves and turn the canopy into lace. But the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[From its nests high in the canopy of the Amazon, the harpy eagle depends on &#8212; and is critical to &#8212; the health of the forest around it. The species controls the numbers of animals such as sloths and monkeys that, unchecked, could consume too many leaves and turn the canopy into lace. But the massive loss of trees in the world’s largest rainforest has hampered the survival of the harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja). Too few tall trees in the vicinity of their nests means fledgling chicks don’t have enough safe places to land as they learn to fly. Habitat loss, along with hunting, has led to the bird’s listing as vulnerable by the IUCN. Removing it entirely could accelerate the demise of the entire ecosystem, conservationist Harvey Locke told Mongabay in an interview, which could have knock-on effects such as diminished rainfall on farmland in the region. “The harpy eagle is not just an amazingly cool bird,” said Locke, the co-founder of the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative based in Canada. “It&#8217;s not a luxury in that biome. It&#8217;s vital to it.” Just as other keystone species, such as elephants, beavers and bison, play similar roles in their respective environments, harpy eagles help hold together even heavily impacted ecosystems, Locke said. “If we pull these pieces out, it unravels,” he added. Research shows keystone species, such as the harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja) pictured here with a tufted capuchin (Cebus apella), play essential roles in maintaining the health of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/research-offers-nature-positive-path-to-end-and-reverse-biodiversity-loss/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/research-offers-nature-positive-path-to-end-and-reverse-biodiversity-loss/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323143</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In AI race, Indigenous values could guide environmental issues, researchers suggest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/in-ai-race-indigenous-values-could-guide-environmental-issues-researchers-suggest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/in-ai-race-indigenous-values-could-guide-environmental-issues-researchers-suggest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Jul 2026 17:33:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shradha Triveni]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/27193706/2.-Mapping-areas-using-applications-during-the-course-Courtesy-Evilene-Paixao-HAY-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322777</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Conservation Technology, data, Data centers, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Technology, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Nicole Horseherder has seen the impacts of unsustainable development on Indigenous communities. A Navajo environmental activist and co-founder of Tó Nizhóní Ání (Sacred Water Speaks), a Diné-led nonprofit organization based in Arizona in the U.S., she has spent years protecting water that sustains communities from industrial use. She sees parallels with today’s artificial intelligence development, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Nicole Horseherder has seen the impacts of unsustainable development on Indigenous communities. A Navajo environmental activist and co-founder of Tó Nizhóní Ání (Sacred Water Speaks), a Diné-led nonprofit organization based in Arizona in the U.S., she has spent years protecting water that sustains communities from industrial use. She sees parallels with today’s artificial intelligence development, she said. As technology is advancing at an unprecedented rate, a growing body of research is looking at Indigenous knowledge systems for guidance on ethical frameworks for AI. But for someone like Horseherder, Indigenous knowledge is not data to be harvested, she said. “It is built on thousands of years of real-time human observations on the changes in landscapes, the weather and the seasons, the directions of the moon, the sun and everything around us,” she said. Within the Navajo community, people living in different landscapes including the high-deserts, river valleys and dry to arid places have their own local knowledge systems. A recent study published in AI and Ethics journal examines how Indigenous ecological knowledge could reshape AI frameworks through an analysis of Navajo and Māori concepts. The paper drew on Māori value of Kaitiakitanga, or guardianship, and Navajo philosophy of Hózhó, meaning balance and harmony. The study’s authors said that traditional ecological knowledge embodies collective responsibility and could provide an ethical basis for questioning whether the scale of a proposed AI model is justifiable given its environmental cost, prioritizing ecological integrity over unbounded technological expansion. This rainforest in Ituri, DRC, is part of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/in-ai-race-indigenous-values-could-guide-environmental-issues-researchers-suggest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322777</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New Indonesia roadmap aims to protect Indigenous knowledge for biodiversity</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/new-indonesia-roadmap-aims-to-protect-indigenous-knowledge-for-biodiversity/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/new-indonesia-roadmap-aims-to-protect-indigenous-knowledge-for-biodiversity/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jul 2026 03:12:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/13105611/Penjaga-laut-kaombo-samuruu-kredit_-SIEJ-JPG-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322302</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[30x30 conservation target, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Ecosystems, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Law, Protected Areas, Traditional Knowledge, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government is developing a roadmap to protect local wisdom in biodiversity conservation, a move aimed at strengthening the recognition and protection of Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) whose traditional practices have long safeguarded some of the country&#8217;s richest ecosystems. The roadmap, the drafting of which began in June 2026, comes [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The Indonesian government is developing a roadmap to protect local wisdom in biodiversity conservation, a move aimed at strengthening the recognition and protection of Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs) whose traditional practices have long safeguarded some of the country&#8217;s richest ecosystems. The roadmap, the drafting of which began in June 2026, comes as Indonesia seeks to implement its commitments under the multilateral treaty Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM-GBF). The KM-GBF is a global agreement adopted in 2022 that recognizes the important role of Indigenous peoples and local communities in achieving biodiversity conservation. One of the framework&#8217;s targets, known as target &#8220;30&#215;30,&#8221; calls for conserving 30% of the world&#8217;s land and sea by 2030 while respecting the rights, territories and knowledge of Indigenous peoples. Indonesia is one of the world&#8217;s most biodiverse countries, harboring some of the planet&#8217;s highest levels of species richness and endemism. It is also home to an estimated 50 million to 70 million Indigenous people, or around one-fifth of the country&#8217;s population. Many of these communities inhabit forests, coasts and other ecosystems with exceptional biodiversity. According to the Working Group on Indigenous Peoples&#8217; and Community Conserved Areas and Territories Indonesia (WGII), a coalition of NGOs documenting community conservation, its spatial analysis identified more than 29 million hectares (71.6 million acres) of Indigenous territories and community-managed areas with the potential to qualify as Indigenous Peoples&#8217; and Community Conserved Areas and Territories (ICCAs). Nearly 70% of these areas overlap&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/new-indonesia-roadmap-aims-to-protect-indigenous-knowledge-for-biodiversity/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322302</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Updated standards make the case for restoration: ‘We have to create uplift&#8217;</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/updated-standards-make-the-case-for-restoration-we-have-to-create-uplift/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/updated-standards-make-the-case-for-restoration-we-have-to-create-uplift/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jul 2026 22:33:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/01215503/DSC_4944-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322279</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Business, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Landscape Restoration, Rehabilitation, Research, Restoration, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Society for Ecological Restoration, a U.S.-based conservation organization, published an updated set of standards and principles for restoring ecosystems on June 23, the third edition of the volume since 2016. Back then, the idea was to develop a way of thinking about and carrying out restoration that avoided some of the damage caused by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Society for Ecological Restoration, a U.S.-based conservation organization, published an updated set of standards and principles for restoring ecosystems on June 23, the third edition of the volume since 2016. Back then, the idea was to develop a way of thinking about and carrying out restoration that avoided some of the damage caused by projects focused on a narrowly defined target, says lead author George Gann. For example, enhancing carbon storage in forests could lead to monoculture tree plantations instead of productive habitats for biodiversity-rich ecosystems. The 2026 version of the manual also asserts do-no-harm principles and the importance of conserving native ecosystems, just as the first did in 2016. &#8220;But now we have to do more,&#8221; says Gann, international policy lead at the Society for Ecological Restoration. &#8220;We can&#8217;t just avoid collateral damage. We have to actually create recovery. We have to create &#8220;uplift&#8221; for biodiversity. Sapling planting in the Dering-Dibru Saikhowa Elephant Corridor in India. Image courtesy of Shiekh Marifatul Haq/Wildlife Trust of India. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, adopted in 2022, sets the goal of restoring 30% of all degraded ecosystems by 2030, and the United Nations has tagged 2021-2030 the &#8220;decade on restoration.&#8221; The standards and principles are specific, providing a set of tools for designing, implementing, and monitoring restoration work. At the same time, they&#8217;re &#8220;generic,&#8221; the authors note, allowing their application across diverse ecosystems facing different pathways to restoration. &#8220;These standards don&#8217;t tell you how to restore grasslands or mangroves,&#8221; Gann says. &#8220;They&#8217;re&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/updated-standards-make-the-case-for-restoration-we-have-to-create-uplift/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322279</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amazon floodplains cocoa offers a climate-resilient and sustainable chocolate</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/amazon-floodplains-cocoa-offers-a-climate-resilient-and-sustainable-chocolate/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/amazon-floodplains-cocoa-offers-a-climate-resilient-and-sustainable-chocolate/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jun 2026 18:10:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Cícero Pedrosa NetoSam Cowie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/25143734/CPN_Chocolate_Mongabay-243-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321624</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Bioeconomy, Cacao, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Crops, Drought, Environment, Ethics, Extreme Weather, Food, Forest Products, Forestry, Global Environmental Crisis, Indigenous Peoples, Natural Resources, Sustainable Forest Management, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A river community in Pará uses ancestral secrets to beat the climate crisis one chocolate bean at a time.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BACARENA, Brazil — Sunlight peeps through dense Amazonian foliage as Elene Elda Mota and her husband Giovanne guide their small motorboat down a narrow stream. Equipped with machetes and baskets, they disembark and make their way through the thick forest until they reach a tree bearing dozens of bright yellow cocoa pods. Here, in the Amazon floodplains of Barcarena, in northern Pará state, near where some Amazon rivers meet the Atlantic Ocean, cocoa grows in a natural agroforestry system. “Our cocoa is native cocoa,” Elene said. “We don’t plant our cocoa, we just manage it.” Protected and irrigated by the forest canopy of the floodplains, Elene’s cocoa is more resistant to pests like vassoura de bruxa, a fungus that devastated Brazilian crops in the 1980s, as well as climate change impacts like droughts and heavy rains. It also offers a diverse range of earthy, fruity and acidic flavors, which Elene has utilized to produce an expanding range of artisanal cocoa and chocolate products. Caramelized cocoa nibs are her best seller, she said, and she also produces artisanal chocolate bars, creams and other sweet spreads, cocoa powders and oils. Cocoa and chocolate producer Elene Elda Mota navigates an Amazon river and a new artisanal scene. Image by Cícero Pedrosa Neto. In recent years, the Amazon state of Pará, Brazil’s largest cocoa producer, has emerged as a new frontier, or terroir, for fine and artisanal chocolate. Like Burgundy wine from France or Ethiopian coffee, the concept of its terroir flavor is rooted&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/amazon-floodplains-cocoa-offers-a-climate-resilient-and-sustainable-chocolate/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321624</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Saudi parrotfish festival stretches scientific &#038; traditional ecological knowledge (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/saudi-parrotfish-festival-stretches-scientific-traditional-ecological-knowledge-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/saudi-parrotfish-festival-stretches-scientific-traditional-ecological-knowledge-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Jun 2026 21:54:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Laila Shaaban]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/18204506/Hareed-festival-2-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321484</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Indian Ocean, Middle East, and Saudi Arabia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Commentary, Coral Reefs, Fish, Fishing, Marine, Marine Animals, Oceans, Overfishing, Research, Saltwater Fish, Science, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“Al Dhiwaini!” HRH the Prince of Jazan called in the traditional way that spurred hundreds of people to sprint toward the water, carrying around nets and shouting. Standing on the shores of the Farasan Islands, I watched participants in the annual parrotfish festival pull fish from the sea en masse, with catches reaching up to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“Al Dhiwaini!” HRH the Prince of Jazan called in the traditional way that spurred hundreds of people to sprint toward the water, carrying around nets and shouting. Standing on the shores of the Farasan Islands, I watched participants in the annual parrotfish festival pull fish from the sea en masse, with catches reaching up to 78 kilograms (more than 170 pounds) of parrotfish per person. Known locally as hareed — or generally as longnose parrotfish (Hipposcarus harid) — the scale of extraction immediately triggered my instincts as a scientist, as the question asked itself: How is this sustainable? How do the fish keep coming back, year after year? But in that moment, there was nothing to do except run into the water, follow the fish, and give myself over to the thrill of it. From a time before living memory, the people of Farasan have followed the moon to this annual aggregation, a phenomenon so unique and described as the fish swimming willingly to their deaths; the fish seem almost to be waiting to be caught. As a Saudi marine biology Ph.D. student, I know how much of the Red Sea remains scientifically uncharted, and this festival is exactly why science and traditional ecological knowledge must be woven together to manage marine systems. Participant at the annual Hareed Festival in the Farasan Islands, an archipelago in the Red Sea off the coast of Saudi Arabia, with his catch of parrotfish. Image courtesy of Laila Shaaban. When I asked locals where&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/saudi-parrotfish-festival-stretches-scientific-traditional-ecological-knowledge-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-321484</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ancient Maya knowledge helps Guatemalan farmers cut agrochemical use</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/ancient-maya-knowledge-helps-guatemalan-farmers-cut-agrochemical-use/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/ancient-maya-knowledge-helps-guatemalan-farmers-cut-agrochemical-use/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jun 2026 11:05:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mark Hillsdon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/09105544/Actividad-control-de-plagas-y-preparacion-de-insecticidas-caseros-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320767</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Crops, Farming, Indigenous Peoples, Pesticides, Pollinators, Soil Carbon, Solutions, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the mountain villages of Guatemala’s Western Highlands, farmers are combining ancient Maya knowledge with modern sustainable farming techniques to protect their crops from pests and disease. Smallholders are creating homemade biopesticides using plants with strong smells and flavors to deter pests on their family plots. This is helping to cut back on the use [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the mountain villages of Guatemala’s Western Highlands, farmers are combining ancient Maya knowledge with modern sustainable farming techniques to protect their crops from pests and disease. Smallholders are creating homemade biopesticides using plants with strong smells and flavors to deter pests on their family plots. This is helping to cut back on the use of increasingly expensive agrochemicals, many of which have been labeled as dangerous to human health and linked to soil degradation. About 60 Guatemalan communities in the Western Highland departments of Sololá and Huehuetenango, as well as Chiquimula in the east, are working to revive these traditional techniques with support from the international development organization World Neighbors. Their focus is to restore and strengthen traditional knowledge, combining it with agroecological practices that help families produce surplus food they can sell to boost household incomes. “Traditional farming techniques are becoming popular because they are simple practices to apply, use local resources, and have proven to be effective,” Dayani Roche, a program associate at World Neighbors, told Mongabay via email. Rather than a single ancient recipe, farmers are using “a living combination of ancestral knowledge, local experimentation and more recent agroecological practices,” he said, which are “safer for families, soil, water and biodiversity than many chemical alternatives.” The Maya civilization, which once stretched across modern-day Central America, had a rich history of farming dating back to 2000 B.C.E. Its most celebrated agriculture system is the milpa, a form of intercropping that involves a mix of maize, beans and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/ancient-maya-knowledge-helps-guatemalan-farmers-cut-agrochemical-use/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320767</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nepal prepares to hand over mega zoo project to conservation body</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/nepal-prepares-to-hand-over-mega-zoo-project-to-conservation-body/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/nepal-prepares-to-hand-over-mega-zoo-project-to-conservation-body/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 May 2026 14:47:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rajendra Pokherel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/22143045/525526832_1203197115179532_493804333274095580_n_processed-scaled-e1779460279216-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320002</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Captive Breeding, Conservation, Education, Ex-situ Conservation, Mammals, Megafauna, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Nepali officials are preparing to hand over the government’s ambitious new zoo to the country&#8217;s leading wildlife conservation body. Whether that body is up to the task is up for debate. Discussions around the proposed zoo in Suryabinayak municipality in central Nepal, which would span 259 hectares (640 acres) of community-managed forests on [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Nepali officials are preparing to hand over the government’s ambitious new zoo to the country&#8217;s leading wildlife conservation body. Whether that body is up to the task is up for debate. Discussions around the proposed zoo in Suryabinayak municipality in central Nepal, which would span 259 hectares (640 acres) of community-managed forests on the outskirts of Kathmandu, began in 2015. A groundbreaking ceremony was held in June 2016, attended by the then prime minister, K.P. Sharma Oli. After that, only limited preparatory work such as fencing and planning documents moved forward. The reason: lack of funds. Constructing and bringing it into operation is estimated to cost around 10 billion Nepali rupees($65.8 million). But the government has been allocating only around 15 million Nepali rupees ($98,700) a year towards it, mainly to pay for the staff’s salaries. A one-horned rhinoceros at the Central Zoo in Kathmandu. Image courtesy of NTNC. After the formation of the new government in March 2026, the then Ministry of Forests and Environment (now Ministry of Agriculture, Forest and Environment) assigned a committee to look for ways to start work on the new zoo. The committee recently recommended that the project be handed over to the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC), a semi-governmental body that already oversees the management of Nepal&#8217;s Central Zoo, in Kathmandu. &#8220;The committee analyzed what would happen if the government ran it versus handing it to NTNC,&#8221; said Maheshwar Dhakal, joint secretary at Ministry of Agriculture, Forest and Environment who&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/nepal-prepares-to-hand-over-mega-zoo-project-to-conservation-body/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320002</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Marine conservation suffers when the ocean is not accessible to all, especially on remote islands (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/marine-conservation-suffers-when-the-ocean-is-not-accessible-to-all-especially-on-remote-islands-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/marine-conservation-suffers-when-the-ocean-is-not-accessible-to-all-especially-on-remote-islands-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 May 2026 16:54:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elsie Gabriel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/15163150/pexels-lucasandrade-20340263-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319520</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Communication, Conservation, Ecosystems, Education, Environment, Green, Marine, Marine Conservation, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The global push to protect oceans is gaining momentum, from coral reef restoration to ambitious targets under the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Yet one critical dimension remains largely overlooked: accessibility. If the ocean is to be protected, it must first be experienced. Today, for millions of people, it remains fundamentally out of reach. This [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The global push to protect oceans is gaining momentum, from coral reef restoration to ambitious targets under the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. Yet one critical dimension remains largely overlooked: accessibility. If the ocean is to be protected, it must first be experienced. Today, for millions of people, it remains fundamentally out of reach. This is not just a social gap. It is a conservation failure. Ocean conservation depends on connection. People protect what they value, and they value what they can experience. Research shows that direct interaction with natural environments strengthens long-term environmental stewardship. Yet coastal and marine systems across much of the world remain structurally inaccessible to persons with disabilities, older populations, and marginalized communities. Workshop for residents of Lakshadweep, India, on accessible diving and ocean literacy. Image courtesy of Accessible Ocean Tourism. Beaches lack barrier-free access. Transport systems remain exclusionary. Marine experiences such as snorkeling and diving are rarely adapted. The result is a quiet but widespread exclusion from the ecosystems conservation seeks to protect. Globally, governments have committed to ensuring that no one is left behind under the Sustainable Development Goals. Yet in ocean spaces, exclusion persists. Accessibility is still treated as an afterthought, added through isolated initiatives rather than embedded into planning and conservation systems. This has direct consequences. When access to the ocean is limited, ocean literacy declines, while public understanding of marine ecosystems is a key driver of conservation outcomes. Communities that cannot engage with the ocean are less likely to participate in citizen science, conservation dialogue, or local stewardship. Conservation becomes something done for people,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/marine-conservation-suffers-when-the-ocean-is-not-accessible-to-all-especially-on-remote-islands-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-319520</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Karajarri celebrate Australia’s first ‘Sea Country’ Indigenous Protected Area</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/karajarri-celebrate-australias-first-sea-country-indigenous-protected-area/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/karajarri-celebrate-australias-first-sea-country-indigenous-protected-area/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2026 16:46:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/14114351/turtle-by-Dylan-Goldspink-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319450</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[30x30 conservation target, Biodiversity Hotspots, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Protected Areas, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In northwestern Australia lies a remote and wildly diverse region called the Kimberley. There, the iron-red soils of the Pindan Country connect forests and the Great Sandy Desert, all bracketed by a vast stretch of Indian Ocean coastline. Its springs and wetlands host migratory birds. Offshore, sawfish, as visually striking as they are rare, ply [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In northwestern Australia lies a remote and wildly diverse region called the Kimberley. There, the iron-red soils of the Pindan Country connect forests and the Great Sandy Desert, all bracketed by a vast stretch of Indian Ocean coastline. Its springs and wetlands host migratory birds. Offshore, sawfish, as visually striking as they are rare, ply the waters just beyond the unbroken Eighty Mile Beach, itself a nesting site for the little-known flatback turtle (Natator depressus). The Kimberley has also long been a home to humans, as rock art more than 17,000 years old attests, and among the heirs of that legacy are the Karajarri people. Over the past 30 years, the Karajarri secured legal recognition of their claims to the land, later establishing an Indigenous Protected Area (IPA), Karajarri Pirra Ngurra, that now covers an area of land nearly the size of Rwanda in the state of Western Australia. They also developed a ranger program that draws on long-held cultural knowledge of the landscape. In March 2026, the Karajarri people dedicated Karajarri Jurarr Ngurra, Australia’s first “Sea Country” IPA, comprising 237,489 hectares (nearly 587,000 acres) of marine and coastal ecosystems. It includes part of Malumpurr, the Karajarri word for Eighty Mile Beach. The IPA “strengthens long‑standing efforts by Karajarri Traditional Owners and Karajarri Rangers to protect the region’s biodiversity and keep Country healthy,” Malarndirri McCarthy, Australia’s minister for Indigenous Australians, said in a March 20 government statement about the Karajarri Sea Country IPA dedication. The aim of the Karajarri IPAs&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/karajarri-celebrate-australias-first-sea-country-indigenous-protected-area/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319450</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How grape farmers are restoring Armenia’s wine heritage while safeguarding ecosystems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/how-grape-farmers-are-restoring-armenias-wine-heritage-while-safeguarding-ecosystems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/how-grape-farmers-are-restoring-armenias-wine-heritage-while-safeguarding-ecosystems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 May 2026 20:29:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kushane Chobanyan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/08140224/ZET_3113-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319015</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Armenia and Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Farming, Food, Food Industry, Traditional Knowledge, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[AGHAVNADZOR, Armenia — It’s 6 a.m. as the rising sun illuminates apricot-colored cliffs in central Armenia. It’s so still that even the distant buzz of a bee can be heard. Coca-Cola bottles filled with homemade wine for sale line the narrow road leading to acres of grapes growing quietly in an unusual vineyard. At 1,300 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[AGHAVNADZOR, Armenia — It’s 6 a.m. as the rising sun illuminates apricot-colored cliffs in central Armenia. It’s so still that even the distant buzz of a bee can be heard. Coca-Cola bottles filled with homemade wine for sale line the narrow road leading to acres of grapes growing quietly in an unusual vineyard. At 1,300 meters (about 4,300 feet) above sea level, Trinity Canyon Vineyards seems like it’s flirting with the sun. Located in Vayots Dzor province, where winters are bitterly cold and summers hot, Trinity Canyon and other vineyards use “vertical viticulture” to grow grapes among the mountains. Unlike many other wine-producing countries, where vineyards are cultivated horizontally on more level ground, in Armenia vineyards rise from 1,100-1,600 m (3,600-5,250 feet), with elevation affecting climate, soil and harvest timing. With the country’s rocky terrain, even terracing is difficult. “As a result, most Armenian vineyards, including those in Vayots Dzor, are planted on [natural] plateaus — flat elevated areas that allow the vines to thrive despite the challenging terrain,” Artem Parseghyan, the head winemaker at Trinity Canyon, tells Mongabay. Parseghyan spends his life on the road, driving between Yerevan, the capital, and Vayots Dzor. Born and raised in Russia, Parseghyan studied viticulture and enology (the science of winemaking) in France and Germany. In 2013, when Trinity Canyon was established, Parseghyan came to Armenia to work at what was then one of the country’s few vineyards. Vineyards in Vayots Dzor, the heartland of Armenian wine. Image courtesy of the Vine and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/how-grape-farmers-are-restoring-armenias-wine-heritage-while-safeguarding-ecosystems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319015</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What Indigenous youth filmmaking reveals about environmental communication (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/what-indigenous-youth-filmmaking-reveals-about-environmental-communication-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/what-indigenous-youth-filmmaking-reveals-about-environmental-communication-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2026 16:38:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jamille Pinheiro Dias]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/07162429/DSC_1829-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318951</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Atlantic Forest, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Arts, Commentary, Communication, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Film, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Rainforests, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A machete is typically an instrument for clearing dense brush or, in a certain kind of movie, for fending off a terrifying monster. Yet, deep in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil’s Bahia state, I learned that a machete is also used for a much friendlier purpose: slicing green mangoes to eat with salt. That simple, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A machete is typically an instrument for clearing dense brush or, in a certain kind of movie, for fending off a terrifying monster. Yet, deep in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil’s Bahia state, I learned that a machete is also used for a much friendlier purpose: slicing green mangoes to eat with salt. That simple, unexpected twist — where anticipated horror dissolves into communal joy — captures exactly what happened when we asked the students in the Indigenous Tupinambá villages of Serra do Padeiro and Tukum what kind of movies they liked. The room immediately buzzed with a rapid-fire list: K-dramas, slapstick comedies, high-speed action, or blood-chilling horror. Before anyone had even picked up a camera, the space was already overflowing with a multiplicity of cinematic worlds and different ideas about what a story could be. I had traveled to southern Bahia in March 2026 with Indigenous filmmaker Olinda Tupinambá and a group of creatives. As a researcher at the University of London’s School of Advanced Study, I am co-developing our project titled “Environmental Education and Film in the Atlantic Forest: Eco-Activism Through Indigenous Perspectives” with support from the British Academy. Our goal was simple: to demystify filmmaking by using everyday smartphones as creative tools, and to challenge what audiences often assume about Indigenous cinema. Students, project leads, and facilitators during the workshop in the Serra do Padeiro village, Tupinambá de Olivença Territory (Bahia, Brazil), part of the British Academy–funded Environmental Education and Film in the Atlantic Forest: Eco-Activism Through&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/what-indigenous-youth-filmmaking-reveals-about-environmental-communication-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/what-indigenous-youth-filmmaking-reveals-about-environmental-communication-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318951</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Using songlines, elders codify traditional knowledge to care for Country</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/using-songlines-elders-codify-traditional-knowledge-to-care-for-country/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/using-songlines-elders-codify-traditional-knowledge-to-care-for-country/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2026 16:35:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anthony Ham]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/07001403/DSC_8090-scaled-e1778171080149-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318952</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous-led conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Culture, Deserts, Indigenous Peoples, Protected Areas, Religions, Solutions, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional People, and Wildlife Rangers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LAJAMANU, Australia — A group of Warlpiri men and women gathered along one of the most remote tracks in Australia and stared intently at the ground. Here in the Tanami Desert, along the dirt back road between Lajamanu and Tennant Creek, they all agreed that the tracks they could see told a story: A dingo, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LAJAMANU, Australia — A group of Warlpiri men and women gathered along one of the most remote tracks in Australia and stared intently at the ground. Here in the Tanami Desert, along the dirt back road between Lajamanu and Tennant Creek, they all agreed that the tracks they could see told a story: A dingo, a black-headed python and a hopping mouse had all passed this way. They argued over the finer points — when exactly the animals had left these signs, whether the python was pursuing the mouse or whether it was an adult or juvenile dingo. But from these seemingly random marks in the sand, they were able to piece together a picture of what had occurred, in what order or when. These were the Warlpiri’s kuyu pungu (expert trackers), capable of reading the deserts of Australia in precise detail. Everyone here was born, and has lived, in the desert for most of their lives. They learned the essential skills of a self-sufficient desert life as their ancestors had, by observing their elders out in the desert. They have a profound connection with the land, and from that flows an intimate understanding of their world, one that encompasses everything from ecology to spirituality. Footprints in the sand along a sandy track outside Lajamanu. Image by Anthony Ham. And yet, often for a younger generation of Warlpiri, many of whom lived in towns with only irregular excursions into the countryside, such opportunities are rare. Which is why the Warlpiri&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/using-songlines-elders-codify-traditional-knowledge-to-care-for-country/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/using-songlines-elders-codify-traditional-knowledge-to-care-for-country/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318952</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Nepal’s plains, traditional bins help keep food safe from heat, floods</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/in-nepals-plains-traditional-bins-help-keep-food-safe-from-heat-floods/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/in-nepals-plains-traditional-bins-help-keep-food-safe-from-heat-floods/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 May 2026 17:22:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tanka Dhakal]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/04115851/02_Dehari-kitchen-2--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318664</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate Change, Conservation, Culture, Extreme Weather, Food, food security, Indigenous Peoples, Temperatures, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional People, and Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[DANG, Nepal — With the start of the summer season in Nepal, farmers are worried about keeping their grain safe from extreme heat and insect infestation. But at Chattrapati Yadav’s home in Dang in western Nepal, that is not a concern thanks to handmade earthen pots passed down from previous generations. The 70‑year‑old learned the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[DANG, Nepal — With the start of the summer season in Nepal, farmers are worried about keeping their grain safe from extreme heat and insect infestation. But at Chattrapati Yadav’s home in Dang in western Nepal, that is not a concern thanks to handmade earthen pots passed down from previous generations. The 70‑year‑old learned the craft of making the pots from her mother. She eventually taught it to her daughters and granddaughters. “My granddaughter made this one, and that one was made by my mother‑in‑law,” Yadav said, pointing to the cylindrical and rectangular storage vessels. Across Nepal’s Terai, members of Indigenous communities, including the Tharu and Yadav, keep their grains safe using the dehari (traditional seed storage bins) secured by ancestral craftsmanship and Indigenous knowledge honed over centuries. These continue to stand the test of time even amid climatic stresses. “We use locally available mud and husk with some dung; we don’t use anything that isn’t available here,” Yadav said. “It takes around a week to make and a month to dry them.” If protected from water, a dehari can even outlast its maker. Dehari, traditional food grain and seed storage earthen pots made out of clay soil and husk inside Chattrapati Yadav’s family home in Dang, Nepal. These pots have been used to store grains for generations by Indigenous and local communities, including Tharu and Yadav. Image by Tanka Dhakal. A Tharu village in Chitwan, Nepal. Image by tearsxintherain via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). Climate-resilient storage In the Terai,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/in-nepals-plains-traditional-bins-help-keep-food-safe-from-heat-floods/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318664</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Studying the world’s largest gathering of forest elephants with sound and field observation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/studying-the-worlds-largest-gathering-of-forest-elephants-with-sound-and-field-observation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/studying-the-worlds-largest-gathering-of-forest-elephants-with-sound-and-field-observation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Apr 2026 14:46:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David AkanaRhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/19152433/ivonne-kienast-2026-16x9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316782</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Central African Republic, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Bioacoustics, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Education, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Gorillas, Great Apes, Indigenous Peoples, Interviews, Primates, Rainforests, Research, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildtech, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the far southwest of the Central African Republic, where dense forest gives way to a broad clearing, elephants gather in numbers rarely seen elsewhere. The place is known as Dzanga Bai. Forest elephants are among the least visible large mammals in Africa. In closed-canopy rainforest, they move in small groups, often at night, communicating [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the far southwest of the Central African Republic, where dense forest gives way to a broad clearing, elephants gather in numbers rarely seen elsewhere. The place is known as Dzanga Bai. Forest elephants are among the least visible large mammals in Africa. In closed-canopy rainforest, they move in small groups, often at night, communicating over long distances through low-frequency calls that travel beyond human hearing. Much of their social life unfolds out of sight. Dzanga Bai is one of the few places where that pattern breaks. Here, elephants emerge from the forest to feed on minerals in the soil. They linger. Families converge, separate, and return. Individuals can be recognized over years. Behaviors that are otherwise inferred—through tracks, fragments of sound, or brief encounters—can be followed more directly. Dzanga Bai in Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve, Central African Republic. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler For decades, the clearing has drawn researchers trying to understand a species that resists easy study. Long-term work here, including that of researchers such as Andrea Turkalo, has shaped much of what is known about forest elephants. Ivonne Kienast is part of that effort. She leads the Dzanga Forest Elephant Project, part of the Elephant Listening Project at Cornell University. Her work combines long-term behavioral observation with passive acoustic monitoring. The objective is to understand how forest elephants live and to detect early signs of change. In practice, this means continuous field presence, physically demanding work, and coordination across a network of relationships that extend well beyond&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/studying-the-worlds-largest-gathering-of-forest-elephants-with-sound-and-field-observation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316782</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Rediscovered’ species in Papua spotlight importance of Indigenous knowledge</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/rediscovered-species-in-papua-spotlights-importance-of-indigenous-knowledge/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/rediscovered-species-in-papua-spotlights-importance-of-indigenous-knowledge/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Apr 2026 02:22:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/14103750/20230611-BE4A9979-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317487</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, New Guinea, Oceania, Papua, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Mammals, Marsupials, Rediscovered Species, Research, Traditional Knowledge, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It started with a set of photographs, taken of an animal captured in 2015 on the Bird’s Head Peninsula in Indonesian Papua, the western half of the island of New Guinea. The smallish animal with “large hands” looked a bit like a slow loris, a small primate that doesn’t live on the island, or perhaps [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It started with a set of photographs, taken of an animal captured in 2015 on the Bird’s Head Peninsula in Indonesian Papua, the western half of the island of New Guinea. The smallish animal with “large hands” looked a bit like a slow loris, a small primate that doesn’t live on the island, or perhaps a cuscus, which, like this specimen, is also a marsupial. Further inspection of the photos, however, suggested it might be something else altogether, a species long thought lost to extinction — by scientists, anyway. Interviews in local communities provided a breadcrumb trail suggesting that a forest-dwelling glider, known — again, to science — only from millennia-old fragments of teeth and bone, might yet live in the forests of Indonesian Papua. Several years later, Rika Korain was approached by her longtime friend and colleague, Australian mammalogist Tim Flannery, who asked if she might help him get a bead on whether the animal still existed. Korain, a human rights lawyer and Indigenous Maybrat woman, immediately thought of the elders from the Tambrauw people, a group that lives close to the Maybrat and with whom they share traditions in common. “I’m from the Bird’s Head area,” she says. “I told [Flannery], let’s find out from my clan, from my people’s side. Let’s try to talk with the elders or especially the hunters who always go to the jungle to find out whether they see this particular animal.” So in 2023, she and Flannery spoke with two Tambrauw elders,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/rediscovered-species-in-papua-spotlights-importance-of-indigenous-knowledge/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317487</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A reforestation corridor in Madagascar offers a future for lemurs and locals</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-reforestation-corridor-in-madagascar-offers-a-future-for-lemurs-and-locals/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-reforestation-corridor-in-madagascar-offers-a-future-for-lemurs-and-locals/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Apr 2026 22:07:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marina Martinez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/14174849/1-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317476</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Madagascar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Ecotourism, Education, Environment, forest degradation, Forest Fragmentation, Forests, Fragmentation, Fungi, Health, Lemurs, Mammals, Plants, Primates, Reforestation, Restoration, Trees, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In eastern Madagascar, Andasibe-Mantadia National Park and the Analamazoatra Special Reserve shelter around a dozen species of lemurs, alongside an extraordinary array of animals and plants, many of which are found nowhere else on Earth. Once connected by continuous rainforest, the landscape was fractured in the 1960s, when large stretches were cleared for agriculture and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In eastern Madagascar, Andasibe-Mantadia National Park and the Analamazoatra Special Reserve shelter around a dozen species of lemurs, alongside an extraordinary array of animals and plants, many of which are found nowhere else on Earth. Once connected by continuous rainforest, the landscape was fractured in the 1960s, when large stretches were cleared for agriculture and cattle pasture. What remained was a patchwork of forest fragments separated by degraded land, limiting wildlife movement and threatening biodiversity. Today, a coalition of researchers, conservationists and local communities is working to reverse that fragmentation by rebuilding a forest corridor from the ground up. The reforestation corridor connecting Andasibe-Mantadia and Analamazoatra, launched in 2023, aims to restore 150 hectares (370 acres) of native forest and reconnect these two critical habitats. Led by the Mad Dog Initiative (MDI), a Madagascar-based wildlife conservation NGO, in partnership with The Dr. Abigail Ross Foundation for Applied Conservation (TDARFAC, a nonprofit conservation organization focused on Madagascar), Association Mitsinjo and Ecovision Village, the project represents a unique convergence of science, private investment and community action. It began not with a grand plan, but with an exchange of ideas and a shared commitment. As Kim Valenta of MDI recalled, she first recognized the physical disconnect between these two protected areas in 2017, while leading sterilization and vaccination campaigns to limit the impacts of free-roaming pets on wildlife in the region. She then met others who were also committed to restoring the broken landscape. “We looked at some maps, and shortly after I&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-reforestation-corridor-in-madagascar-offers-a-future-for-lemurs-and-locals/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317476</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Māori knowledge shows climate change domino effects on forest food chains</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/maori-knowledge-shows-climate-change-domino-effects-on-forest-food-chains/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/maori-knowledge-shows-climate-change-domino-effects-on-forest-food-chains/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Apr 2026 20:26:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Monica Evans]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/14200310/Phil-Lyver-second-from-left-and-Tuawhenua-kaumatua-elders.-Photo-by-Manaaki-Whenua-Landcare-Research-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317537</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[New Zealand and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Food, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Science, Traditional Knowledge, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[RAGLAN, Aotearoa New Zealand — Imagine a forest floor so thick with juicy, crunchy purple tawa (Beilschmiedia tawa) fruit in summertime that you can’t cross it without skidding and falling. Birds so fat with toromiro (Pectinopitys ferruginea) berries that they explode when you shoot them. Pigs that don’t bother to dig in the ground because [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[RAGLAN, Aotearoa New Zealand — Imagine a forest floor so thick with juicy, crunchy purple tawa (Beilschmiedia tawa) fruit in summertime that you can’t cross it without skidding and falling. Birds so fat with toromiro (Pectinopitys ferruginea) berries that they explode when you shoot them. Pigs that don’t bother to dig in the ground because there’s so much food on top of it for the taking. For elder Māori of the Tūhoe Tuawhenua and Ngāti Whare iwi (tribal groups) in Aotearoa New Zealand’s North Island, such phenomena used to be commonplace. But they’re now a distant memory. The fruits of the Te Urewera and Whirinaki forests used to set, ripen and drop with rhythmic regularity, and people who lived there were attuned to those beats and their impact across the food chain. In the past three decades, those patterns have started to falter. Over a decades-long engagement process, an Indigenous-led team of researchers has drawn on mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) to document and understand changes in these forests across the last 75 years. Their new study tracks, for the first time, fruiting changes in line with shifting climatic patterns in the country. Elders and scientists show how relatively subtle shifts like the timing of fruit ripening can cascade through such diverse issues as soil health, food systems and culture. Image by Jacqui Geux via iNaturalist (CC BY 4.0). The kererū, also known as the New Zealand pigeon (Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae). Image courtesy of Phil Lyver. “The forest itself has signaled change,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/maori-knowledge-shows-climate-change-domino-effects-on-forest-food-chains/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/maori-knowledge-shows-climate-change-domino-effects-on-forest-food-chains/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317537</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Wildlife concerns remain after Kenya court ruling over luxury safari camp</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/wildlife-concerns-remain-after-kenya-court-ruling-over-luxury-safari-camp/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/wildlife-concerns-remain-after-kenya-court-ruling-over-luxury-safari-camp/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Apr 2026 09:13:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie Toto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elodietoto]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/01192301/a.-BANNER-Wildebeest_Jumping_Into_the_Mara_River-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316695</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Kenya, Serengeti, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Law, Mammals, Tourism, Traditional Knowledge, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the end of a saga that has stirred nature and tourism enthusiasts in Kenya for the past six months. The Environment and Land Court at Narok dismissed a petition filed in August 2025 by Meitamei Olol Dapash, director of the Institute for Maasai Education, Research and Conservation. The environmentalist had opposed the opening [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the end of a saga that has stirred nature and tourism enthusiasts in Kenya for the past six months. The Environment and Land Court at Narok dismissed a petition filed in August 2025 by Meitamei Olol Dapash, director of the Institute for Maasai Education, Research and Conservation. The environmentalist had opposed the opening of the Ritz-Carlton, Masai Mara Safari Camp, operated by Lazizi Mara Ltd. “The Court finds that it lacks jurisdiction to deal with this matter as there are relevant alternative disputes resolution mechanisms, which were not employed by the Plaintiffs and therefore this suit was prematurely filed, and the Court is divested of Jurisdiction. Without Jurisdiction, the Court’s hands are tied,” the court decision states. The Narok court, in its ruling, specifies that the plaintiff, before filing a claim, should have filed a complaint under Section 117 of the Wildlife Conservation and Management Act, which stipulates that all remedies, including community-based ones, must be pursued, and also appealed under Section 129 of the Environmental Management and Coordination Act. For further information, Mongabay contacted the Narok court and county authorities, but they did not respond to our interview request. From the perspective of environmentalists like Johnson Yiamat, the ruling is sending the wrong message. “I feel that procedural outcomes should not overshadow the substance of the concerns that were raised,” he said in a message to Mongabay. Yiamat is a Maasai and founder of Osotua Green Alliance, a community-led organization focused on biodiversity conservation, climate action and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/wildlife-concerns-remain-after-kenya-court-ruling-over-luxury-safari-camp/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/wildlife-concerns-remain-after-kenya-court-ruling-over-luxury-safari-camp/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316695</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A Congo Basin-led bioeconomy could boost Central Africa’s green transition (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Apr 2026 16:27:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Metolo Foyet]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/05115844/ForestElephant.Loxodonta.cyclotis_NgounieGabon_marcusgmeineriNaturalistBYNC4.0-BANNER-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317006</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Biodiversity, Bioeconomy, Commentary, Community Development, Environment, Forest Products, Forests, Green, Rainforests, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Trade, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional Medicine, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Congo Basin, often referred to as the “second lungs of Earth,” holds immense potential for leading Central Africa’s green transition. Home to the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest and second-largest reserve of drinkable water (holding 50% of all of Africa’s water resources), the region covers more than 3.7 million square kilometers (nearly 1.5 million square [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Congo Basin, often referred to as the “second lungs of Earth,” holds immense potential for leading Central Africa’s green transition. Home to the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest and second-largest reserve of drinkable water (holding 50% of all of Africa’s water resources), the region covers more than 3.7 million square kilometers (nearly 1.5 million square miles), absorbs more carbon dioxide than any other region in the world — with an annual net carbon dioxide absorption six times that of the Amazon Rainforest — and spans six countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon), storing around 30 billion metric tons of carbon. This critical ecological zone harbors immense biodiversity and natural resources, making it a strategic hub for the emerging global bioeconomy. However, learning from the Eastern African experience, realizing this potential requires a shift from extractive industries to sustainable, nature-based economies that prioritize long-term ecological health and local prosperity. Beyond its ecological importance — containing more than 10,000 species of plants, 1,000 species of birds, and 400 species of mammals, including iconic ones like the forest elephant and the critically endangered western lowland gorilla — the region stands at a critical juncture in the global minerals race, holding a significant share of the world&#8217;s strategic assets like lithium, cobalt, gold, and rare earth elements — key components shaping global power and the future of the energy transition. Despite this wealth, the Congo Basin’s economic strategies have often relied on the “dig&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317006</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Traditional protection proves more successful for clams in American Samoa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/traditional-protection-proves-more-successful-for-clams-in-american-samoa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/traditional-protection-proves-more-successful-for-clams-in-american-samoa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Mar 2026 05:27:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/27091942/Giant-Clam-Tridacna-maxima-in-American-Samoa-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316429</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Oceania, Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Culture, Ecosystems, Environmental Law, Indigenous Peoples, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Molluscs, Oceans, Research, Sustainability, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional People, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For coastal Indigenous communities in American Samoa, giant clams are deeply rooted in fa‘a Sāmoa (the Samoan way of life) and local food systems. According to the findings of a study published in PeerJ, it is village-based protections like fa‘asao (fishery closures) that have helped conserve giant clams lying in the islands’ shallow water coral [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For coastal Indigenous communities in American Samoa, giant clams are deeply rooted in fa‘a Sāmoa (the Samoan way of life) and local food systems. According to the findings of a study published in PeerJ, it is village-based protections like fa‘asao (fishery closures) that have helped conserve giant clams lying in the islands’ shallow water coral reefs. The authors found that the highest clam densities and species are located in remote sites and areas under traditional village enforcement, outperforming federally designated no-take zones on the most populated island. The authors examined giant clam population trends, clam densities and distributions, and species composition across six islands — Tutuila, Aunuʻu, Ofu, Olosega, Taʻū and Muliāva — from 1994/5 to surveys conducted between 2022-24. While the highly populated island of Tutuila had the lowest clam densities with 83.5 individuals per hectare (33.8 per acre), remote islands like Taʻū and Muliāva showed higher densities up to 812 to 1,166 per hectare (328 to 471 per acre). On Tutuila, which had multiple types of management zones, subsistence and remote sites had the highest densities of giant clams, followed by remote areas, then village protected areas. Federal no-take sites held the lowest mean density of clams overall on the island. “By restoring local stewardship, cultural accountability, and respect for customary marine tenure values, community-led systems like fa‘asao have strengthened marine ecosystem conservation through village-based fishery closures,” Dimary Ulberg, an Indigenous Samoan and program manager of the Community-based Fisheries Management Program (CBFMP) at the Department of Marine and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/traditional-protection-proves-more-successful-for-clams-in-american-samoa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/traditional-protection-proves-more-successful-for-clams-in-american-samoa/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316429</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate change tests Nepal’s wild and domesticated yaks </title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-change-tests-nepals-wild-and-domesticated-yaks/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-change-tests-nepals-wild-and-domesticated-yaks/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Mar 2026 09:11:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/27070859/IMG_9939-e1774595484405-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316414</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Cattle, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Habitat Degradation, Indigenous Peoples, Pasture, Traditional Knowledge, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — In the rugged mountains of the Dolpo region in western Nepal, Youngdung Jhama Lama spent her childhood herding nagton (domesticated yaks) across the vast alpine pastures. Two decades on, mobile herding has greatly changed. “We only have four yaks left now,” said the 24-year-old resident of Vijer (Tra) village in Nepal’s largest and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — In the rugged mountains of the Dolpo region in western Nepal, Youngdung Jhama Lama spent her childhood herding nagton (domesticated yaks) across the vast alpine pastures. Two decades on, mobile herding has greatly changed. “We only have four yaks left now,” said the 24-year-old resident of Vijer (Tra) village in Nepal’s largest and remotest district, Dolpa. For traditional herders such as Lama, rearing yaks (Bos grunniens), valued for transport, meat and wool, is becoming challenging due to rising costs, climate change, lack of local markets for yak produce, frequent spread of diseases and other socioeconomic pressures. This has not only increased challenges for domesticated yaks, but also for their wild cousins (Bos mutus). “My family sold dozens of them in the neighboring Mustang district last fall because it was more labor-intensive and costly to rear them, and we had limited kharka (pastureland/rangeland) to graze them,” Lama said. Many young people across the Himalayan rangelands are leaving for better opportunities in big cities or abroad, creating a shortage of labor. According to the National Population and Housing Census 2021 Internal Migration in Nepal report, in the country’s mountains, in-migration increased from 9,698 (2.2%) in 1971 to 75,542 (2.4%) in 2021, but excess out-migration resulted in a negative net migration of -543,966 by 2021. According to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), climate change is affecting Himalayan high-altitude ecosystems used for grazing. It is altering how water circulates in these landscapes, changing the timing and availability of moisture.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-change-tests-nepals-wild-and-domesticated-yaks/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-change-tests-nepals-wild-and-domesticated-yaks/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316414</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New farming method replaces traditional jhum in crowding Bangladesh hills</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/new-farming-method-replaces-traditional-jhum-in-crowding-bangladesh-hills/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/new-farming-method-replaces-traditional-jhum-in-crowding-bangladesh-hills/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Mar 2026 13:33:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sifayet Ullah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/25131455/cucumbers-in-bangladesh-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316273</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Conservation, Crops, Culture, Environment, Farming, Indigenous Peoples, Traditional Knowledge, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Cucumber and bitter gourd plants climbed over bamboo trellises, their fruits swaying gently in the breeze, while Milan Tanchangya, a 43-year-old farmer, plucked the cucumbers using a knife and placed them in a basket. Only a few years ago, he used this land for jhum, the traditional multi-crop shifting cultivation method of Indigenous communities in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Cucumber and bitter gourd plants climbed over bamboo trellises, their fruits swaying gently in the breeze, while Milan Tanchangya, a 43-year-old farmer, plucked the cucumbers using a knife and placed them in a basket. Only a few years ago, he used this land for jhum, the traditional multi-crop shifting cultivation method of Indigenous communities in southeastern Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) comprised of Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachhari districts. But declining yields forced him to look for new ways to feed his seven-member family. To make ends meet, he started a different cultivation system, locally called machan — a method that uses bamboo trellises, allowing vegetables to grow above the ground. This method of cash crop farming not only protects crops from pests and viral diseases but also has more seasons of vegetable production than Milan’s previous jhum plots. “If I can manage the trellises well, I can harvest several crops a year, and the soil remains intact,” Milan said from his land, which has already grown a green canopy, in Suwalok union’s Amtali area, Bandarban district. He said machan farming has transformed life for him and other farmers in the hills as vegetables such as bitter gourd, cucumber and beans now provide steady incomes, while also reducing soil erosion on steep slopes as they’re raised crops. “I now earn an additional 70,000 takas [$570] to 80,000 takas [$651] every year,” he said. Vegetables grow on bamboo machan trellises along hill slopes in the Sualok area of Bandarban Sadar upazila. Image&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/new-farming-method-replaces-traditional-jhum-in-crowding-bangladesh-hills/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/new-farming-method-replaces-traditional-jhum-in-crowding-bangladesh-hills/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316273</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How a community defended its ancestral forest from logging</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/how-a-community-defended-its-ancestral-forest-from-logging/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/how-a-community-defended-its-ancestral-forest-from-logging/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Mar 2026 15:45:57 +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/20/2025/09/09162922/gabon_massaha_2149_25-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315762</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Gabon]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Conservation Technology, data, Deforestation, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Logging, Mapping, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Solutions, Technology, Traditional Knowledge, Tropical Forests, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; To the cartographers of the modern conservation world, the forests of northeastern Gabon can appear almost empty. Satellite images show a deep green canopy stretching across the Congo Basin. Global datasets classify large tracts as “intact forest landscapes”, areas supposedly free of industrial disturbance and largely untouched by people. On paper, such forests look [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; To the cartographers of the modern conservation world, the forests of northeastern Gabon can appear almost empty. Satellite images show a deep green canopy stretching across the Congo Basin. Global datasets classify large tracts as “intact forest landscapes”, areas supposedly free of industrial disturbance and largely untouched by people. On paper, such forests look pristine. The reality, as residents of the village of Massaha know well, is more complicated. In recent years the community has been fighting to protect a stretch of rainforest south of their village from industrial logging. The forest, known locally as Ibola Dja Bana Ba Massaha—“the reserve of all Massaha’s children”—lies within a concession once allocated to a logging company. For generations the people of Massaha have hunted, fished and farmed there. Sacred lakes and ritual sites lie beneath the canopy. The remains of ancestral villages dot the forest floor. Yet none of this appeared on the maps that guided official decisions. The gap between these two views of the forest is the subject of a recent study examining Massaha’s campaign to document its territory. The researchers compared global conservation maps and colonial-era cartography with a detailed map created by the community itself. The result reveals something striking: the forest that appears empty in official datasets is, in fact, layered with history and meaning. Image courtesy of Ivindo FM. Massaha’s map emerged from an unusually collaborative process. Using participatory geographic tools, villagers gathered to project satellite images of their territory onto a wall. Elders identified&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/how-a-community-defended-its-ancestral-forest-from-logging/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/how-a-community-defended-its-ancestral-forest-from-logging/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315762</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous knowledge helps guide conservation of Australia’s endangered northern quoll</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/indigenous-knowledge-helps-guide-conservation-of-australias-endangered-northern-quoll/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/indigenous-knowledge-helps-guide-conservation-of-australias-endangered-northern-quoll/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Mar 2026 21:36:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nick Rodway]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/09172923/northern-quoll-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315444</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Carnivores, Conservation, Culture, Endangered Species, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Mammals, Marsupials, Research, Traditional Knowledge, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Despite its widespread biodiversity, Australia holds an unenviable record when it comes to wildlife: the highest mammalian extinction rate in the world. Since the arrival of Europeans and colonial expansion, at least 40 terrestrial mammal species have been lost, and others are facing serious threats. Notable among these is the northern quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus), a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Despite its widespread biodiversity, Australia holds an unenviable record when it comes to wildlife: the highest mammalian extinction rate in the world. Since the arrival of Europeans and colonial expansion, at least 40 terrestrial mammal species have been lost, and others are facing serious threats. Notable among these is the northern quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus), a small, carnivorous marsupial that ranges through tropical areas of the continent and is considered endangered on the IUCN Red List due to threats posed by introduced animals gone feral, habitat change, and landscape degradation. The loss of mammalian biodiversity has coincided with widespread threats to the preservation of First Nations cultural knowledge in Australia. Over the past two centuries, Indigenous people have been forcibly removed from their lands and resettled in other parts of the continent. During this time, traditional land management practices and cultural knowledge of local biodiversity have largely not been considered by the scientific establishment. Now, however, a recent study has used Indigenous cultural and ecological knowledge (ICEK) alongside Western scientific methods as way to help conserve northern quolls, and potentially other species, into the future. The study, published in January in the journal Wildlife Research, was led by members of the Martu people, whose traditional lands span portions of the western desert region in Western Australia, the country’s largest state. Northern quolls, known in the Martu language as wiminyji, were only identified by modern science in this part of the country in 2012, despite Martu elders knowing of the species’ presence&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/indigenous-knowledge-helps-guide-conservation-of-australias-endangered-northern-quoll/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315444</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Birds are changing — and Indigenous memory is the longest record we have</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/birds-are-changing-and-indigenous-memory-is-the-longest-record-we-have/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/birds-are-changing-and-indigenous-memory-is-the-longest-record-we-have/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Mar 2026 15:37:04 +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/20/2026/03/02034439/Royal-Flycatcher-16x9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315034</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Anthropology, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Culture, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Indigenous Peoples, Monitoring, Rainforests, Research, Traditional Knowledge, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Conservation has long depended on measurement. Populations are counted, habitats mapped, trends plotted against baselines that often extend back only a few decades. Yet many ecosystems began changing long before systematic monitoring began. In much of the world, the longest continuous records of environmental change reside not in databases but in memory, language, and daily [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Conservation has long depended on measurement. Populations are counted, habitats mapped, trends plotted against baselines that often extend back only a few decades. Yet many ecosystems began changing long before systematic monitoring began. In much of the world, the longest continuous records of environmental change reside not in databases but in memory, language, and daily practice. A growing body of research suggests that these forms of knowledge are not merely anecdotal supplements to science; they can reveal patterns otherwise invisible, including shifts in species composition, behavior, and condition. A recent global study illustrates the point with clearly. Researchers worked with ten Indigenous and local communities across three continents, asking adults to recall the most common birds around their territories today and during their childhoods. The survey produced nearly 7,000 reports covering 283 species over roughly eighty years. When matched with scientific data on body size, the responses indicated a consistent shift toward smaller-bodied birds, amounting to an estimated 72% reduction in average body mass across sites. Locations of the 10 study sites. Figure from Fernández-Llamazares, Á. et al. (2025) This finding echoes scientific literature documenting widespread avian decline. Long-term studies in tropical forests, for example, have recorded large drops in abundance even in areas with little direct disturbance, with capture rates in some Amazonian sites falling by about half over two decades. What is striking in the new work is not only the pattern itself but the method. The signal emerges from lived experience accumulated across generations, a type of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/birds-are-changing-and-indigenous-memory-is-the-longest-record-we-have/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/birds-are-changing-and-indigenous-memory-is-the-longest-record-we-have/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315034</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Photos: In the Colombian Amazon, fishing binds a community to river and forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/photos-in-the-colombian-amazon-fishing-binds-a-community-to-river-and-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/photos-in-the-colombian-amazon-fishing-binds-a-community-to-river-and-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Feb 2026 16:09:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/26151320/Fishing-rod-2-e1772123553245-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314875</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Fish, Fishing, Freshwater Fish, Indigenous Peoples, Photos, Rivers, Traditional Knowledge, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[VAUPÉS, Colombia — The Vaupés River and its extensive network of waterways and lagoons in the southeastern Colombian department of the same name are integral to the Indigenous Macaquiño community, who lives along its banks. It provides them with water for drinking, bathing and washing, and also serves as a migration route and breeding ground [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[VAUPÉS, Colombia — The Vaupés River and its extensive network of waterways and lagoons in the southeastern Colombian department of the same name are integral to the Indigenous Macaquiño community, who lives along its banks. It provides them with water for drinking, bathing and washing, and also serves as a migration route and breeding ground for an abundance of fish, which they depend on for food. But for the Macaquiño community, these waters are more than just a food pantry, they told Mongabay. It forms part of the deep cultural and spiritual connection they have with their waters and the species that inhabit them. Their traditional calendar responds to its natural cycles, marked by the rainy and dry seasons, each with their own traditional rules and rituals dictating when the community can harvest food, fish and hunt. Omar Salvador Fernández Chequemarca and Harold Ferreira Romero, two fishers from the Indigenous Macaquiño community in Vaupés, fish in the Vaupés River. Image by Aimee Gabay/Mongabay. A fish caught from the waters of a flooded forest near the Indigenous Macaquiño community in Vaupés. Image by Aimee Gabay/Mongabay. Manuel Claudio Fernández, the captain of Macaquiño, said the community doesn’t just care for the land; they coexist with it. “How do we coexist? By respecting the forest, the articulation of spirits, the water, the forest and us humans. We, the people, depend on water and the forest. And the forest and water also depend on us.” While Macaquiño fishers still use some of the traditional&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/photos-in-the-colombian-amazon-fishing-binds-a-community-to-river-and-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314875</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Profitable cash crop trend in Bangladesh’s hills affects regional ecology</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/profitable-cash-crop-trend-in-bangladeshs-hills-affects-regional-ecology/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/profitable-cash-crop-trend-in-bangladeshs-hills-affects-regional-ecology/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Feb 2026 09:44:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/26093741/Bananas_Pritilata_Hall_University_of_Chittagong_01-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314840</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Conservation, Crops, Ecology, Environment, Farming, Monocultures, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The hill people of Bangladesh have been moving to profitable cash crops for the last couple of decades, dropping traditional agricultural practices. However, the economic gain soon turned into ecological damages, including severe soil erosion and water crisis. The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region in Bangladesh, comprising three districts — Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarbans — [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The hill people of Bangladesh have been moving to profitable cash crops for the last couple of decades, dropping traditional agricultural practices. However, the economic gain soon turned into ecological damages, including severe soil erosion and water crisis. The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region in Bangladesh, comprising three districts — Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarbans — has a unique hill forest landscape and rich biodiversity and is home to several Indigenous communities. The agricultural people of CHT have long been accustomed to the shifting, or slash-and-burn, cultivation process, locally known as jhum. Jhum cultivation is a process where farmers use a piece of land for cropping for one to three years, then leave it fallow for five to 20 years. They later clear rain-fed trees and bushes using the slash-and-burn method to make it arable again. A 2016 study mentioned that, lately, people of the region are farming pineapple, banana, papaya, turmeric and ginger, which are usually cultivated on the same land every year. “Cultivating cash crops has become very common in the region now, and these crops do not need the land to be kept fallow. All the changes come through different initiatives, including government and non-government projects, and also by the social influencers and corporates,” said Ratan Kumar Dey, former project manager at Anando, a Bangladeshi nonprofit that empowers rural populations. Dey worked in CHT for 18 years till 2025. Smoke and fire rise over land used for jhum cultivation on the hills of Bandarban, CHT. Image by Ariful&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/profitable-cash-crop-trend-in-bangladeshs-hills-affects-regional-ecology/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314840</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amazon riverfolk warn blasting rocks for shipping route will kill fisheries</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-riverfolk-warn-blasting-rocks-for-shipping-route-will-kill-fisheries/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-riverfolk-warn-blasting-rocks-for-shipping-route-will-kill-fisheries/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Feb 2026 07:00:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tiffany Higgins]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/24171114/IMG_3295-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314688</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Freshwater Fish, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Law, Politics, Resource Conflict, Rivers, Social Justice, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional People, and Transportation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Generations of fishers have called these rocky formations home. Now, they say Brazil is not hearing their knowledge.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ITUPIRANGA, Brazil — Ronaldo Macena and Erlan Moraes, traditional riverfolk leaders whose families have lived for generations on the Lourenção Rocks fishery on the Amazon’s Tocantins River, were hopeful in September when a federal judge visited their villages. For several generations, Macena told the judge, the peoples of the Pedral do Lourenção riverfolk territory, as they call it, have thrived in its rocky reaches, gaining not just income and dignified livelihoods but also cultural identification from fishing its stony subaquatic canyons that reach to more than 76 meters (250 feet) deep. But as the federal government seeks to open the river as a new shipping route, their rights have been systematically violated, Macena said, by a federal government that hasn’t treated them as traditional peoples with a distinct “culture, language and traditions” — but instead lumped riverfolk in with urban peoples, leaving their traditional knowledge, fishing and even existence barely acknowledged in government records. Brazil’s federal transport agencies plan to explode the deep, rocky river territory of the Pedral do Lourenção, as riverfolk call it (formally known as Pedral do Lourenço), a first step toward a riverway on the Tocantins River meant to expand exports of grains, minerals and cattle. The project is being executed by Brazil’s infrastructure transport department (DNIT), with studies by the Brazilian engineering consulting firm DTA Engenharia. To turn the river into a shipping route, authorities decided to blow up the rocks of a 35-kilometer (21.7-mile) section of the Lourenção, which is 43-kilometers (26.7-miles) long and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-riverfolk-warn-blasting-rocks-for-shipping-route-will-kill-fisheries/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314688</doi>				</item>
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