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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/endangered-environmentalists/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>News on Endangered Environmentalists</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/endangered-environmentalists/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Monika Silva Koniuszek, 41, defended the everyday things corruption corrodes</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/monika-silva-koniuszek-41-defended-the-everyday-things-corruption-corrodes/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/monika-silva-koniuszek-41-defended-the-everyday-things-corruption-corrodes/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Jun 2026 15:23:49 +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/20/2026/06/18151921/Monika-Silva-helping-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321441</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Corruption, Endangered Environmentalists, Obituary, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; Montañita is a place many people intend to pass through. They come for surf, sun, music, and a stretch of Ecuador’s coast known for surf, music, and its free-spirited nature. Some stay longer. They open small businesses, learn the workings of the communes, put children into local schools, and begin to notice what visitors [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; Montañita is a place many people intend to pass through. They come for surf, sun, music, and a stretch of Ecuador’s coast known for surf, music, and its free-spirited nature. Some stay longer. They open small businesses, learn the workings of the communes, put children into local schools, and begin to notice what visitors often do not see: the sewage that is not properly treated, the public works that arrive without answers, the land whose ownership becomes uncertain, and the turtles whose nesting beaches are treated as available ground. For a woman from northern Poland, the change of country became something beyond expatriate life. Ecuador was where she made a home, ran a hostel, raised two daughters, and became part of Santa Elena’s disputes and loyalties. Monika Silva Koniuszek, who was found dead on June 8th at her home in Montañita, was 41. The circumstances of her death remain under investigation. In the weeks before she died, she had spoken publicly of warnings that there was a plan to kill her. She had alerted authorities and sought protection. After her death, Polish diplomats, the European Union, human-rights groups, and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights called for a thorough and independent inquiry. Her public work began with local problems. Montañita’s inadequate sewage system troubled her. So did the way decisions about beaches, mangroves, public land, and services seemed to benefit the same networks of power. She came to see poverty, malnutrition, poor infrastructure, and environmental damage as linked by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/monika-silva-koniuszek-41-defended-the-everyday-things-corruption-corrodes/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/monika-silva-koniuszek-41-defended-the-everyday-things-corruption-corrodes/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321441</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rights groups renew call to free jailed Cambodian environmental activists</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rights-groups-renew-call-to-free-jailed-cambodian-environmental-activists/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rights-groups-renew-call-to-free-jailed-cambodian-environmental-activists/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jun 2026 02:51:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/02191933/Phuon-Keorasmey-another-prominent-figure-of-Mother-Nature-Cambodia-is-arrested-on-July-2-2024_banner-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320620</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Climate Change, Community Development, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corruption, Crime, Deforestation, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Governance, Human Rights, Land Rights, Mining, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Seven hundred days after activists from the environmental group Mother Nature Cambodia were imprisoned on charges widely regarded as retaliatory for their activism, 73 international and Cambodian civil society organizations have renewed calls for their unconditional release. After a trial lasting just over a month, 10 activists from Mother Nature Cambodia were sentenced [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Seven hundred days after activists from the environmental group Mother Nature Cambodia were imprisoned on charges widely regarded as retaliatory for their activism, 73 international and Cambodian civil society organizations have renewed calls for their unconditional release. After a trial lasting just over a month, 10 activists from Mother Nature Cambodia were sentenced on July 2, 2024, to between six and eight years in prison. Only five of the defendants attended the hearings, which saw Long Kuntha, 28, Ly Chandaravuth, 26, Phuon Keoraksmey, 25, and Thun Ratha, 34, each sentenced to six years behind bars for plotting against the government; fellow activist Yim Leanghy, 36, received an eight-year sentence for both plotting against the government and insulting the king. The five activists who did not attend the trial were sentenced in absentia. The appeals hearing for all 10 convicted activists was slated to take place on June 2, but has been postponed indefinitely by the Phnom Penh Court of Appeals. “The MNC5 are incarcerated in prisons in overcrowded and harsh living conditions, separated from each other and spread out all across Cambodia, hundreds of kilometers away from their families and legal counsel,” wrote the 73 NGOs in an open letter addressed to Prime Minister Hun Manet. “The … NGOs who have signed this letter sincerely request you take immediate action to ensure the unjust convictions of these five activists are reversed either prior to or at their upcoming appeals court hearing in Phnom Penh, and that their freedom&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rights-groups-renew-call-to-free-jailed-cambodian-environmental-activists/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rights-groups-renew-call-to-free-jailed-cambodian-environmental-activists/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320620</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brooklyn Rivera, defender of Nicaragua’s Indigenous lands, dies in detention</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brooklyn-rivera-defender-of-nicaraguas-indigenous-lands-dies-in-detention/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brooklyn-rivera-defender-of-nicaraguas-indigenous-lands-dies-in-detention/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jun 2026 16:19:43 +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/20/2026/06/01190642/Brooklyn-Rivera-La-Prensa-1600x900-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320434</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, Mesoamerica, and Nicaragua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Endangered Environmentalists, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, and Obituary]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[La Moskitia, on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, is often treated in Managua as a frontier: timber, gold, cattle, rivers, votes, and military concern. To the Miskitu, Sumu-Mayangna, Rama, Garífuna, and Creole peoples who live there, it is older than the Nicaraguan state. Its forests, savannas, rivers, and marine life are part of a political claim as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[La Moskitia, on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, is often treated in Managua as a frontier: timber, gold, cattle, rivers, votes, and military concern. To the Miskitu, Sumu-Mayangna, Rama, Garífuna, and Creole peoples who live there, it is older than the Nicaraguan state. Its forests, savannas, rivers, and marine life are part of a political claim as well as a homeland. The demand has long been plain enough: land, autonomy, and a say over what happens there. Brooklyn Rivera Bryan spent most of his life carrying that demand into war, negotiation, electoral politics, exile, and prison. Known in Miskitu communities as Taupla Brooklyn, he died on May 30th, aged 73, in the custody of Daniel Ortega’s government. He had been detained since September 2023. For months the government denied holding him. It later acknowledged his imprisonment. No public trial was held. His family was denied visits. His public life began after the Sandinista revolution of 1979, when the new government sought to draw the Atlantic Coast into a national project directed from the Pacific. The Miskitu experience of that project was marked by surveillance, arrests, violence, and forced displacement. In 1981 Rivera was arrested while leading Misurasata, an Indigenous organization whose name linked the Miskitu, Sumu, Rama, and Sandinistas. By 1982, thousands of Miskitu had been moved from villages along the Río Coco. Many fled to Honduras. Rivera’s cause was narrower and more durable than the Cold War frame around him: an autonomous Indigenous territory in Yapti Tasba, the aboriginal homeland. That&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brooklyn-rivera-defender-of-nicaraguas-indigenous-lands-dies-in-detention/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brooklyn-rivera-defender-of-nicaraguas-indigenous-lands-dies-in-detention/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320434</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Givaldo Santos, Kaiowá and Guarani leader, was killed on May 1st, aged 40</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/givaldo-santos-kaiowa-and-guarani-leader-was-killed-on-may-1st-aged-40/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/givaldo-santos-kaiowa-and-guarani-leader-was-killed-on-may-1st-aged-40/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 May 2026 19:46:56 +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/20/2026/05/22194455/givaldo_kaiowa_guarani-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320029</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Endangered Environmentalists, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Obituary, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The MS-289 runs through the Taquaperi Reserve in southern Mato Grosso do Sul, between Coronel Sapucaia and Amambai. For the Kaiowá and Guarani, it is both a road and a reminder of the land disputes that have shaped life there for generations. It passes through territory where thousands of indigenous people live crowded into a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The MS-289 runs through the Taquaperi Reserve in southern Mato Grosso do Sul, between Coronel Sapucaia and Amambai. For the Kaiowá and Guarani, it is both a road and a reminder of the land disputes that have shaped life there for generations. It passes through territory where thousands of indigenous people live crowded into a reserve established nearly a century ago, while many of their traditional lands remain outside its boundaries. Violence has long accompanied these disputes. Over the past two decades, Kaiowá and Guarani communities have endured killings, threats, evictions, and recurring confrontations linked to efforts to reclaim ancestral territories. The conflicts have stretched across generations of leaders, officials, ranchers and judges. One of those leaders was Givaldo Santos. On the evening of May 1st, he was waiting for his brother near a bus stop inside the Taquaperi Reserve, between Coronel Sapucaia and Amambai. According to witnesses, two armed men arrived on a motorcycle and opened fire. He was hit several times and died before help could reach him. He was 40 years old. He left behind a wife and five children. Santos served as vice-chief of the Kaiowá and Guarani community in Taquaperi. Those who knew him struggled to explain the attack. Residents said he had no known personal enemies and had not reported receiving threats. The circumstances of the killing led many in the community to suspect it was an execution. Investigations remain ongoing. His responsibilities included representing families before authorities, helping organize community responses to disputes&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/givaldo-santos-kaiowa-and-guarani-leader-was-killed-on-may-1st-aged-40/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/givaldo-santos-kaiowa-and-guarani-leader-was-killed-on-may-1st-aged-40/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320029</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>RJ Nichole Ledesma, chronicler of unsettled ground on Negros Island, was killed last month. He was 30.</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/rj-nichole-ledesma-chronicler-of-unsettled-ground-on-negros-island-was-killed-last-month-he-was-30/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/rj-nichole-ledesma-chronicler-of-unsettled-ground-on-negros-island-was-killed-last-month-he-was-30/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 May 2026 15:32:30 +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/20/2026/05/03151913/RJ-Nichole-Ledesma-bw-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318634</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Endangered Environmentalists, Human Rights, Journalism, Murdered Journalists, Obituary, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[RJ Nichole Ledesma’s journalism returned again and again to land: who worked it, who owned it, who was pushed from it, and what happened when projects planned elsewhere arrived in villages with little warning. In Negros, an island shaped by sugar plantations, labor struggles and long conflict, he reported from places where environmental change was [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[RJ Nichole Ledesma’s journalism returned again and again to land: who worked it, who owned it, who was pushed from it, and what happened when projects planned elsewhere arrived in villages with little warning. In Negros, an island shaped by sugar plantations, labor struggles and long conflict, he reported from places where environmental change was not an abstraction. It appeared as proposed energy projects on agricultural land, a hydropower venture, a palm-oil plantation, or reclamation along a coast where fisherfolk made their living. He was 30 when he was killed on April 19th during a Philippine Army operation in Toboso, Negros Occidental. The military said the operation targeted suspected rebels of the New People’s Army and left 19 people dead. The Committee to Protect Journalists, citing news reports and the Altermidya Network, said Ledesma was a writer and editor at Paghimutad-Negros and had been reporting on the effects of renewable-energy projects. Altermidya and Human Rights Advocates Negros said he was not at the initial clash site, but in a separate community during a military pursuit operation. The army disputed accounts that some of those killed were civilians. The circumstances of his death remain contested. The shape of his work is easier to see. RJ Ledesma. Photo via Altermidya Ledesma came to journalism through campus reporting at the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod, where he studied psychology and became editor-in-chief of The Spectrum. There he learned the practical habits of reporting: listening, checking, documenting, and standing by a story&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/rj-nichole-ledesma-chronicler-of-unsettled-ground-on-negros-island-was-killed-last-month-he-was-30/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/rj-nichole-ledesma-chronicler-of-unsettled-ground-on-negros-island-was-killed-last-month-he-was-30/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318634</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Young conservationists are building hope &#038; optimism despite challenging times (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/young-conservationists-are-building-hope-optimism-despite-challenging-times-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/young-conservationists-are-building-hope-optimism-despite-challenging-times-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Apr 2026 16:49:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Erfan FirouziMaria HashmiQazi Hammad MueenTaras Bains]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/28160642/IMG-20240919-WA0013-e1777392643191-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318238</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, and Health]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Several recent articles at Mongabay regarding mental health in the conservation sector provide a much-needed overview of an issue not talked about enough: that conservationists face a mental health crisis, an “epidemic of suffering” that is nestled within a complex biodiversity crisis. We are in a profession in which loss is a normal, everyday occurrence. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Several recent articles at Mongabay regarding mental health in the conservation sector provide a much-needed overview of an issue not talked about enough: that conservationists face a mental health crisis, an “epidemic of suffering” that is nestled within a complex biodiversity crisis. We are in a profession in which loss is a normal, everyday occurrence. The foundation of this sector lies in the passion of conservationists working tirelessly to understand, document and mitigate biodiversity and its loss. With that passion comes a job profile that is marked by exploitative practices, low wages and a general lack of support for dealing with mental well-being. Coupled with few benefits and a front-row seat to biodiversity loss and de-prioritization of conservation actions, a pertinent question arises: Is there a reason for hope? As young conservationists starting out in the field, following “conservation optimism” as a philosophy, we think so! Sometimes conservation work can make one feel like a lone tree on a mountain, but young conservationists say there&#8217;s a lot of room for hope and optimism amid the challenges. Image courtesy of Qazi Hammad Mueen. Language matters Conservation is marred by a language of crisis. This might not be the root of the mental health crisis in the field, but it is a major contributor. Hope is a delicate word to use in a field riddled with anxiety and despair. Its power, nonetheless, can be an enabling force for rebalancing the discourse around conservation and what it can achieve. How then do we&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/young-conservationists-are-building-hope-optimism-despite-challenging-times-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/young-conservationists-are-building-hope-optimism-despite-challenging-times-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318238</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>We can navigate conservation’s ‘epidemic of suffering’ by building a culture of care (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/we-can-navigate-conservations-epidemic-of-suffering-by-building-a-culture-of-care-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/we-can-navigate-conservations-epidemic-of-suffering-by-building-a-culture-of-care-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Apr 2026 14:03:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jen MillerKelly Guilbeau]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/21133102/redwoods_YosemiteUSA_creditJenMiller-e1776778567738-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317870</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, and Health]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Recent Mongabay articles by Jeremy Hance, Vik Mohan and Nerissa Chao, and Rhett Butler have laid bare a painful reality in conservation: the emotional price of witnessing biodiversity loss, the “epidemic of suffering” and burnout, and the psychological stresses assailing professionals on the frontlines. These articles document eco-grief, compassion fatigue, isolation, and moral injury with [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Recent Mongabay articles by Jeremy Hance, Vik Mohan and Nerissa Chao, and Rhett Butler have laid bare a painful reality in conservation: the emotional price of witnessing biodiversity loss, the “epidemic of suffering” and burnout, and the psychological stresses assailing professionals on the frontlines. These articles document eco-grief, compassion fatigue, isolation, and moral injury with clarity and urgency, giving voice to struggles that many conservationists have carried in silence. What these pieces don&#8217;t fully highlight is that conservationists are not standing idly by. Just as we dedicate ourselves to protecting ecosystems and species under pressure, we are simultaneously advocating for our own well-being by stepping up to support one another by building practical solutions from within the field itself. In early 2025, amid growing global instability for conservationists — job losses, funding shortfalls, and relentless ecological decline — we founded Revive, a global working group of the Society for Conservation Biology. Revive is a community of practice created by conservationists, for conservationists. Our approach is simple yet potent, and informed by more than 100 working group members in 30 countries as well as peer-reviewed evidence: equip individuals, teams, and organizations with evidence-based resilience tools to reshape the norms of our workforce. Together, we are building a culture of care that supports an inspired, emotionally resilient conservation community where well-being is valued and nourished as a foundational part of our work. Co-author Kelly Guilbeau with a graphic facilitator’s depiction of a keynote address on creating a culture of care for a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/we-can-navigate-conservations-epidemic-of-suffering-by-building-a-culture-of-care-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/we-can-navigate-conservations-epidemic-of-suffering-by-building-a-culture-of-care-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317870</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>War on Iran disrupts efforts to save the Asiatic cheetah, world’s rarest big cat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/war-on-iran-disrupts-efforts-to-save-the-asiatic-cheetah-worlds-rarest-big-cat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/war-on-iran-disrupts-efforts-to-save-the-asiatic-cheetah-worlds-rarest-big-cat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Apr 2026 12:37:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kayleigh Long]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/08102943/Kooshki_the_Cheetah_in_Miandasht_Wildlife_Refuge_10.tiff-enhance-4x-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317162</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Iran, and Middle East]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Big Cats, Cats, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Environmentalists, Endangered Species, Human-wildlife Conflict, Protected Areas, War, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Before the war began in February 2026, there was some rare good news for Iran’s imperiled Asiatic cheetahs. Rangers spotted and filmed a female in the North Khorasan province accompanied by five cubs — a first. No more than four had ever been seen before, and every individual counts. The Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Before the war began in February 2026, there was some rare good news for Iran’s imperiled Asiatic cheetahs. Rangers spotted and filmed a female in the North Khorasan province accompanied by five cubs — a first. No more than four had ever been seen before, and every individual counts. The Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus) is the world’s most endangered big cat, and the number counted in the wild rose to 27. Bagher Nezami, national director of the Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah Project, told Iranian state-controlled media that these were &#8220;ID-carded&#8221; cheetahs, known individuals being monitored by researchers. Another five remain in breeding sites and six in captivity, he said. This represented a significant leap: In August last year, the Tehran Times reported that just 20 were left in the wild. Nine days after the sighting of the five cubs, the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran, prompting a swift retaliation that has since escalated into a regional conflict with global repercussions — and poses a new threat to a big cat that hovers on the brink of extinction. Kushki (male) is one of the last surviving Asiatic cheetahs in northeastern Iran’s Miandasht Wildlife Refuge. Image by Ehsan Kamali / Tasnim News Agency via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0). A species on the brink The Asiatic cheetah was once found throughout Central and Southwest Asia, with a range that spanned from the Arabian Peninsula to the Caspian Sea and as far east as India. However, this&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/war-on-iran-disrupts-efforts-to-save-the-asiatic-cheetah-worlds-rarest-big-cat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/war-on-iran-disrupts-efforts-to-save-the-asiatic-cheetah-worlds-rarest-big-cat/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317162</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservation depends on rangers. Their wellbeing is often an afterthought</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/conservation-depends-on-rangers-their-wellbeing-is-often-an-afterthought/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/conservation-depends-on-rangers-their-wellbeing-is-often-an-afterthought/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Mar 2026 09:27:07 +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/20/2026/03/25132348/drc_20260323_121951202-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316495</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Protected Areas, Violence, Wildlife, and Wildlife Rangers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; The gunfire began just before six in the morning. At first, Christine Lain thought it might be a drill. Upemba National Park had run exercises like this before. Rangers had trained for the possibility that armed groups might one day come for the headquarters. The park had lived with that risk for years. But [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; The gunfire began just before six in the morning. At first, Christine Lain thought it might be a drill. Upemba National Park had run exercises like this before. Rangers had trained for the possibility that armed groups might one day come for the headquarters. The park had lived with that risk for years. But the sound did not stop. It intensified. “We immediately realized that the intensity of the firing was so high that it was certainly not a drill,” she later told Mongabay’s Ashoka Mukpo. What followed lasted most of the day. By the end, three rangers and four civilian staff were dead. Survivors had hidden in a crawl space while armed men searched the building below them. Others ran through tall grass under fire, unsure who would make it out. “Everybody got traumatized,” Lain said. “The whole station, everybody.” The attack on Upemba in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was unusually large. It was also familiar. Across the world’s protected areas, violence against rangers is no longer rare. “214 of our colleagues have been killed in confrontations with militias intent on poaching and illegal invasions,” Emmanuel de Merode, the director of Virunga National Park in DRC, who was shot twice through the chest in an attack in 2014, told Mongabay last week. In some places it is tied to organized poaching. In others, to insurgencies, land disputes, or politics that extend well beyond park boundaries. The details change. The pattern does not. Rangers are often&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/conservation-depends-on-rangers-their-wellbeing-is-often-an-afterthought/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/conservation-depends-on-rangers-their-wellbeing-is-often-an-afterthought/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316495</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A profession built on hope, strained by loss</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-emotional-price-of-conservation-work/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-emotional-price-of-conservation-work/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Mar 2026 22:50:49 +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/20/2026/03/26143802/the-cost-of-caring-in-a-dying-world-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316338</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Conservation leadership, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Gender, and Health]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Earlier this month, Jeremy Hance’s “‘An epidemic of suffering’: Why are conservationists breaking down?” and the follow-up commentary “Emotional and psychological stresses beleaguer conservation professionals” by Vik Mohan and Nerissa Chao gave fresh urgency—and language—to a crisis many in conservation have been naming quietly for years. This piece builds on their reporting and reflections, and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Earlier this month, Jeremy Hance’s “‘An epidemic of suffering’: Why are conservationists breaking down?” and the follow-up commentary “Emotional and psychological stresses beleaguer conservation professionals” by Vik Mohan and Nerissa Chao gave fresh urgency—and language—to a crisis many in conservation have been naming quietly for years. This piece builds on their reporting and reflections, and draws as well on my own earlier work, including “Conservation’s silent strain: Nature’s protectors face a mental health crisis,” along with other writing I’ve done on loss, grief, and endurance in the field. It also sits alongside the Nature Obituaries Project, a series of tributes to fallen conservationists, scientists, and environmental defenders, rooted in the belief that the people who protect life on Earth are not expendable. I’m not writing as a clinician here. I’m writing as someone listening to what conservationists keep describing, across roles and regions. There is a particular kind of exhaustion that does not come from long hours alone. It comes from paying attention. Conservationists are trained to notice what most people do not see: a reef that has lost its vibrancy and color, a forest that no longer holds the same birds, a river that carries less life each season. They are trained to count, to measure, to document change with discipline. But they are also people who entered the work because they love something outside themselves. A species. A place. A living world that felt worth protecting. That love is not a weakness. It is the fuel. And lately, it&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-emotional-price-of-conservation-work/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-emotional-price-of-conservation-work/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316338</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Behind the scenes of the Amazon’s gold rush: Director Richard Ladkani on the making of ‘Yanuni’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/behind-the-scenes-of-the-amazons-gold-rush-director-richard-ladkani-on-the-making-of-yanuni/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/behind-the-scenes-of-the-amazons-gold-rush-director-richard-ladkani-on-the-making-of-yanuni/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Mar 2026 19:18:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/25184957/YANUNI_Juma_Xipaia_home_village1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316291</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Beyond the screen: DCEFF and Indigenous-led conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conflict, Crime, Deforestation, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Gold Mining, Human Rights, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Mining, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Austrian director and cinematographer Richard Ladkani knew little about the Amazon Rainforest before he decided to make a film about it. It was 2019. Fires raged across the Amazon. Ladkani had just finished his film Sea of Shadows, about the desperate effort to rescue the critically endangered vaquita porpoise in the Sea of Cortés and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Austrian director and cinematographer Richard Ladkani knew little about the Amazon Rainforest before he decided to make a film about it. It was 2019. Fires raged across the Amazon. Ladkani had just finished his film Sea of Shadows, about the desperate effort to rescue the critically endangered vaquita porpoise in the Sea of Cortés and the drug cartels and traffickers threatening its habitat. He was inhaling news about the fires, which got him thinking: “Is there a movie out there that really explains to people, emotionally, that this is our Amazon? That we&#8217;re losing not a remote place far away in Brazil or South America, but that this actually relates to us, wherever you live on the planet?” Ladkani soon found that the impact-driven film he envisioned did not exist. And so, the first seeds of Yanuni were sown. Filmed across two worlds, the Brazilian capital Brasília and a remote village in the Xipaya Indigenous Territory, the documentary film focuses on Juma Xipaia, an Indigenous chief from the Brazilian Amazon. It centers her ongoing effort to confront illegal gold miners, land grabbers and multinational corporations threatening the Amazon’s forests, alongside her husband, Hugo Loss, the head of special operations at Brazil’s environmental protection agency, IBAMA, who leads dangerous operations to crack down on illegal mining deep in the rainforest. The film captures the personal realities environmental defenders face in the Amazon and features rare video of an IBAMA mission to combat illegal miners. Juma Xipaia is central to the movie&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/behind-the-scenes-of-the-amazons-gold-rush-director-richard-ladkani-on-the-making-of-yanuni/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/behind-the-scenes-of-the-amazons-gold-rush-director-richard-ladkani-on-the-making-of-yanuni/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316291</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A decade after the death of Berta Cáceres, we can no longer tolerate threats to environmental activists (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-decade-after-the-death-of-berta-caceres-we-can-no-longer-tolerate-threats-to-environmental-activists-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-decade-after-the-death-of-berta-caceres-we-can-no-longer-tolerate-threats-to-environmental-activists-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Mar 2026 14:43:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Michael Sutton]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/06/28101014/8_0314-honoring-river-defenders-brazils-munduruku-people-AmazoWatch-copy-e1773674548672-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315779</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Global, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Commentary, Conflict, Crime, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Environmental Heroes, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Organized Crime, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Environmental activist Berta Cáceres won the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015 for successfully halting the Agua Zarca project, a massive hydropower development along the Gualcarque River in her native Honduras. On March 3, 2016, 10 years ago this month, gunmen hired by executives of the company building the dam assassinated her for her activism. Since [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Environmental activist Berta Cáceres won the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015 for successfully halting the Agua Zarca project, a massive hydropower development along the Gualcarque River in her native Honduras. On March 3, 2016, 10 years ago this month, gunmen hired by executives of the company building the dam assassinated her for her activism. Since then, Berta has become a global symbol of courage and sacrifice in the face of greed and violence. Her legacy is powerful, but her martyrdom for simply protecting her community is unacceptable. In January, an independent group of experts appointed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights released a comprehensive report on the assassination. They found that Berta’s murder was the result of a coordinated criminal operation to defeat opposition to the Agua Zarca project. Worse, international development funds intended for the hydroelectric project were diverted to the purchase of Indigenous land, surveillance, armed incursions, and Berta’s murder. Berta’s assassination is not an isolated case. Many environmental defenders’ stories resemble David vs. Goliath, as they frequently tangle with powerful, well-funded industries and governments — and the webs of corruption that sometimes link them. According to Global Witness, 2,253 environmental activists have been killed worldwide since 2012, and many more have been victimized. In September 2025, Global Witness reported that at least 146 land and environmental defenders were killed or disappeared in 2024, with a plurality in Latin America. According to the World Economic Forum, at least 175 park rangers were killed in the line of duty across 41 countries in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-decade-after-the-death-of-berta-caceres-we-can-no-longer-tolerate-threats-to-environmental-activists-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-decade-after-the-death-of-berta-caceres-we-can-no-longer-tolerate-threats-to-environmental-activists-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315779</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cambodia&#8217;s Supreme Court denies release of five imprisoned environmental activists</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/cambodias-supreme-court-denies-release-of-five-imprisoned-environmental-activists/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/cambodias-supreme-court-denies-release-of-five-imprisoned-environmental-activists/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Mar 2026 17:04:46 +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/20/2026/03/16171105/IMG_0033-1200x800-copy-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315778</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Beyond the screen: DCEFF]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Law Enforcement, Politics, and Protests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Five environmental activists in Cambodia will remain in prison, where they have been for more than 622 days, after the country&#8217;s Supreme Court decided not to allow them to go free as they appeal their convictions. On July 2, 2024, Ly Chandaravuth, Phuon Keoraksmey, Long Kunthea and Thun Ratha were sentenced to six years each [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Five environmental activists in Cambodia will remain in prison, where they have been for more than 622 days, after the country&#8217;s Supreme Court decided not to allow them to go free as they appeal their convictions. On July 2, 2024, Ly Chandaravuth, Phuon Keoraksmey, Long Kunthea and Thun Ratha were sentenced to six years each in prison for plotting against the government. Yim Leanghy received a sentence of eight years, along with a fine of 10 million riel (about $2,500), for plotting against the government and insulting Cambodia&#8217;s king. The five activists are members of Mother Nature Cambodia, a group that has campaigned against logging, dams and the mining of coastal sand for export. Five other members of the group also received sentences in absentia in 2024. Mongabay chronicled the lead-up to their trial in the film The Clearing, as well as their acceptance of the Right Livelihood Award “for their fearless and engaging activism to preserve Cambodia’s natural environment in the context of a highly restricted democratic space.” Chandaravuth, Keoraksmey, Kunthea, Ratha and Leanghy have appealed their sentences, which stem from charges related to their environmental activism. All five had also previously been jailed on the same charges before being released on bail in 2021. Ly Chandaravuth leaves the Supreme Court on Feb. 23, 2026, after his trial on an application for release. Image courtesy of LICADHO. Phuon Keoraksmey before she was taken to prison on July 2, 2024. Image courtesy of Mother Nature Cambodia. The original date for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/cambodias-supreme-court-denies-release-of-five-imprisoned-environmental-activists/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315778</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Environmental defenders &#038; conservationists who died in 2025</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/environmental-defenders-conservationists-who-died-in-2025/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/environmental-defenders-conservationists-who-died-in-2025/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Dec 2025 02:14:45 +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/20/2025/12/21212401/obituaries-2025-2560px-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311798</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Animal Welfare, Conservation, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Environmental Heroes, Green, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Murdered Activists, Violence, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[I write short obituaries for people who spent their lives protecting parts of the natural world. I work on them in the margins of other responsibilities, yet they have become a constant. In 2025, I produced over 70. The people I write about are often described as conservationists, scientists, activists, or defenders. Those labels are [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[I write short obituaries for people who spent their lives protecting parts of the natural world. I work on them in the margins of other responsibilities, yet they have become a constant. In 2025, I produced over 70. The people I write about are often described as conservationists, scientists, activists, or defenders. Those labels are accurate, but incomplete. What unites them is not a profession so much as a posture: they stood between something living and the forces wearing it down. They did so for decades, usually without much recognition and often at personal cost. Some of the names will be widely recognized. Others will mean little to most readers. That imbalance is part of the point. Public memory tends to favor visibility over impact, and charisma over endurance. Yet many of the most consequential figures in environmental protection work far from cameras and conferences. They negotiate land boundaries, calm conflicts, train rangers, translate science, or stay when leaving would be easier. Their influence is cumulative, and it rarely lends itself to headlines. Writing about death has a clarifying effect. Obituaries strip away what is temporary. What remains is a record of choices. Again and again, the lives I wrote about this year followed a similar arc: an encounter with a place or species, a long commitment to its survival, and years of persistence within systems that were often indifferent or hostile. Success, where it came, was partial. Failure was common. Quitting was always an option, and usually declined. These&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/environmental-defenders-conservationists-who-died-in-2025/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311798</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A killing with precedent: Kaiowá man&#8217;s murder fits a pattern in Brazil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-killing-with-precedent-kaiowa-mans-murder-fits-a-pattern-in-brazil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-killing-with-precedent-kaiowa-mans-murder-fits-a-pattern-in-brazil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Nov 2025 23:44:54 +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/20/2025/11/21232617/Vicente-Fernandes-Vilhalva-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309988</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Endangered Environmentalists and Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Green, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Early on November 16th, gunfire broke the quiet around Pyelito Kue in southern Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. By dawn, the Kaiowá were counting their wounded and laying out the body of Vicente Kaiowá e Guarani, a father [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Early on November 16th, gunfire broke the quiet around Pyelito Kue in southern Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. By dawn, the Kaiowá were counting their wounded and laying out the body of Vicente Kaiowá e Guarani, a father and spokesman for a people who have spent decades trying to return to the places they call tekoha. He was killed with a shot to the head. His community says the men who pulled the trigger arrived in the dark, well armed and organized. Police later suggested the crime stemmed from an internal dispute. The Kaiowá insist otherwise. Vicente’s name now joins a list that has grown long. Attacks against the Kaiowá of Pyelito Kue and Mbarakay have become a grim fixture of life in the state’s southern cone. The communities have endured raids, fires, beatings, and expulsions for years at the hands of militias linked to ranchers, with the state’s own forces often appearing more eager to protect private property than to enforce constitutional rights. The frustration and anger is evident. “We no longer accept being treated as invaders on our own land,” read a statement issued by Aty Guasu, a Guarani Kaiowá organization. “We lost a warrior,” said a relative after the assault. It was not the first such loss, and no one pretends it will be the last. The village of Ypoi by Mídia Ninja. The tekoha of Pyelito Kue and Mbarakay&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-killing-with-precedent-kaiowa-mans-murder-fits-a-pattern-in-brazil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309988</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Our zeal is unwavering’: 3 environmental defenders share trials, tribulations, hopes</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/our-zeal-is-unwavering-3-environmental-defenders-share-trials-tribulations-hopes/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/our-zeal-is-unwavering-3-environmental-defenders-share-trials-tribulations-hopes/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Nov 2025 11:47:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Akana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/12112500/0e255778-9168-41f4-b695-acbb60d4b246-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309367</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conservation, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Interviews, Social Justice, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2023, a staggering 196 land and environmental defenders lost their lives worldwide, according to a report by Global Witness. Since 2012, more than 2,100 defenders have been victims of violence, highlighting the increasing dangers faced by those who bravely advocate for the conservation of their lands and the environment. During the 2024 U.N. Climate [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2023, a staggering 196 land and environmental defenders lost their lives worldwide, according to a report by Global Witness. Since 2012, more than 2,100 defenders have been victims of violence, highlighting the increasing dangers faced by those who bravely advocate for the conservation of their lands and the environment. During the 2024 U.N. Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, Mongabay met with three environmental defenders from Colombia, Uganda and the Philippines. Though the host country limited protest within the city, these three activists joined several others from developing countries to make their voices heard. These three guardians of nature shared their personal experiences and the enormous challenges they face in their fight for environmental justice. They spoke about the motivations that drive them to continue their work, even in the face of daunting human rights records in their countries. Most importantly, they offered insights into what fuels their hope and resilience amidst such adversity. Gina Marcela Cortés Valderrama is from Colombia. Her advocacy focuses on climate and gender justice, with current emphasis on the intersections between feminism, decoloniality and degrowth. While a major peace accord between rebels and the military was signed in 2016, increasing numbers of human right defenders and social leaders have been killed in the Latin American country. In 2023 alone, 79 environmental human rights defenders were killed, most of them members of ethnic communities and campesinos fighting to defend their land, according to the Stokeholm International Peace Research Institute. Climate activists rally at the COP29&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/our-zeal-is-unwavering-3-environmental-defenders-share-trials-tribulations-hopes/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309367</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Thai agri giant CPF sues activist over claims linking it to invasive fish outbreak</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/thai-agri-giant-cpf-sues-activist-over-claims-linking-it-to-invasive-fish-outbreak/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/thai-agri-giant-cpf-sues-activist-over-claims-linking-it-to-invasive-fish-outbreak/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Nov 2025 08:43:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/04083625/DSCF7491-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308772</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Animals, Aquaculture, Biodiversity, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Ecosystems, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Food Industry, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Habitat Degradation, Industrial Agriculture, Invasive Species, Marine, Rivers, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The secretary-general of a Thai agricultural watchdog is facing a lawsuit that observers say is part of corporate efforts to silence citizens who are calling for greater accountability over the outbreak of an invasive species of fish wreaking havoc in Thailand’s waterways. Witoon Lianchamroon of the BIOTHAI Foundation, a Thailand-based food sovereignty NGO, appeared at [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The secretary-general of a Thai agricultural watchdog is facing a lawsuit that observers say is part of corporate efforts to silence citizens who are calling for greater accountability over the outbreak of an invasive species of fish wreaking havoc in Thailand’s waterways. Witoon Lianchamroon of the BIOTHAI Foundation, a Thailand-based food sovereignty NGO, appeared at Nonthaburi Provincial Court Oct. 22 for the first hearing of a defamation lawsuit filed against him by Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF). The firm, a subsidiary of Thailand’s largest agricultural conglomerate, CP Group, alleges he spread false and misleading information linking it to the outbreak of blackchin tilapia (Sarotherodon melanotheron), a highly invasive species of fish. The case stems from a public conference hosted by the BIOTHAI Foundation in July 2024, when Witoon alleged during a presentation that the invasive fish outbreak was linked to an aquaculture facility operated by CPF in Samut Songkhram province. At the event, Witoon also urged the firm to take responsibility for losses to farmers’ livelihoods and the outbreak’s escalating ecological harms. Blackchin tilapia, a species native to brackish coastal habitats in West Africa, breeds rapidly year-round, can survive in both freshwater and saltwater, and has an omnivorous diet. As such, it has outcompeted both native and commercially farmed species, harming aquaculture businesses in at least 19 provinces where it has already spread. CPF came under scrutiny over the matter because it obtained a permit from the Department of Fisheries to import the species in 2010, shortly before the first detections&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/thai-agri-giant-cpf-sues-activist-over-claims-linking-it-to-invasive-fish-outbreak/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/thai-agri-giant-cpf-sues-activist-over-claims-linking-it-to-invasive-fish-outbreak/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308772</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Dom Phillips &#038; Bruno Pereira ‘would be killed again,’ Indigenous leader says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/dom-phillips-bruno-pereira-would-be-killed-again-indigenous-leader-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/dom-phillips-bruno-pereira-would-be-killed-again-indigenous-leader-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Oct 2025 17:29:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Karla Mendes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karla Mendes]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/24122158/upscalemedia-transformed-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308184</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Journalism, Murdered Journalists, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SÃO PAULO AND RIO DE JANEIRO — Despite government efforts to halt violence in the Amazon region where British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira were killed three years ago, the threats remain, prominent Indigenous leader Beto Marubo said. “Unfortunately, I can say that if Dom and Bruno were in the Javari Valley [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SÃO PAULO AND RIO DE JANEIRO — Despite government efforts to halt violence in the Amazon region where British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira were killed three years ago, the threats remain, prominent Indigenous leader Beto Marubo said. “Unfortunately, I can say that if Dom and Bruno were in the Javari Valley today, they would be killed again,” Marubo told Mongabay in an interview in São Paulo, referring to the lack of permanent presence of the federal government in Amazonas state. On June 5, 2022, Phillips and Pereira were brutally killed in the Javari Valley; none of the perpetrators have been brought to trial. According to Marubo, authorities did make an effort to take some specific actions in the Javari Valley, including raids and investigations led by the Federal Police and by the federal environmental agency, IBAMA, in addition to opening channels of dialogue with the community, but it didn’t solve the problem. “It didn’t have the impact we expected that all the repercussions of the case would have on those in power, unfortunately. So, the factors that caused the killings remain the same: drug trafficking and the increase in invasions of Indigenous lands”, said Marubo, who represents the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Vale do Javari (UNIVAJA) in Brasília, Brazil&#8217;s capital. Portrait of prominent Indigenous leader, Beto Marubo, by renowned Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado. Image courtesy of the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Vale do Javari (UNIVAJA). In a news release published in June,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/dom-phillips-bruno-pereira-would-be-killed-again-indigenous-leader-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308184</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Report finds 226 Indigenous land defenders in Peru at risk of violence</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/report-finds-226-indigenous-land-defenders-in-peru-at-risk-of-violence/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/report-finds-226-indigenous-land-defenders-in-peru-at-risk-of-violence/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Sep 2025 17:25:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Yvette Sierra Praeli]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/29172239/LINA-Y-LITA-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306748</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, extractives, Forests, Human Rights, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Mining, Palm Oil, Rainforests, and trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous territories and the people who defend them in the Peruvian Amazon face a litany of growing threats, activist groups warn in a recent report. In defending their land rights in the face of incursions by criminal, extractive and infrastructure activities, Indigenous peoples run the risk of harassment, criminalization, and even death, they warn. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous territories and the people who defend them in the Peruvian Amazon face a litany of growing threats, activist groups warn in a recent report. In defending their land rights in the face of incursions by criminal, extractive and infrastructure activities, Indigenous peoples run the risk of harassment, criminalization, and even death, they warn. The “Situation of Indigenous Defenders in Ucayali, 2024” report by ProPurús and AIDESEP, an umbrella group of Indigenous associations in the Peruvian Amazon, recorded 226 cases between 2010 and 2024 of Indigenous defenders in “situations of risk” in the region. Deforestation caused by the creation of the Bolognesi–Puerto Breu road in Ucayali. Image courtesy of Upper Amazon Conservancy. The report covers the department of Ucayali; Puerto Inca province in Huánuco department to the west of Ucayali; and two districts — Padre Márquez and Contamana  — in Loreto department to the north. According to the study, one in every 13 environmental defenders in Ucayali was killed during the study period. Between 2019 and 2024 alone, 11 environmental defenders were killed here, followed by Huánuco with a toll of eight killed. The report’s findings were presented May 15 at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru in Lima. They provide a comprehensive look into the threats facing environmental defenders in the three departments, which are home to the 13 Indigenous federations and nearly 260 Indigenous communities that comprise ORAU, AIDESEP’s Ucayali chapter. Among the threats driving violence against Indigenous defenders in the Amazon, the report cites “illegal economies, including&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/report-finds-226-indigenous-land-defenders-in-peru-at-risk-of-violence/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306748</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Death of activist critical of geothermal project raises alarm in Indonesia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/death-of-activist-critical-of-geothermal-project-raises-alarm-in-indonesia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/death-of-activist-critical-of-geothermal-project-raises-alarm-in-indonesia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Sep 2025 11:51:17 +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/20/2017/11/28171554/9682828898_68bd00a76c_h-e1667320220111-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305714</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Nusa Tenggara, Flores, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Alternative Energy, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Deforestation, Endangered Environmentalists, Energy, Environment, Geothermal Energy, Human Rights, Illegal Logging, Mangroves, Murdered Activists, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The mysterious death of Vian Ruma, a 30-year-old activist opposing a geothermal project on Flores Island, has intensified calls for stronger protection of environmental defenders in Indonesia, where attacks against them have more than doubled this year. Vian was found dead in Nagekeo district on Sept. 5, hanging from a rafter inside a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The mysterious death of Vian Ruma, a 30-year-old activist opposing a geothermal project on Flores Island, has intensified calls for stronger protection of environmental defenders in Indonesia, where attacks against them have more than doubled this year. Vian was found dead in Nagekeo district on Sept. 5, hanging from a rafter inside a bamboo hut. His family allege foul play, noting that his body was reportedly hanging from a shoelace, and his feet were in contact with the floor. They say this undermines the notion that he died from hanging. Eda Tukan, a close friend, said Vian was one of the local youths courageous enough to fight against the geothermal project on Flores Island. The project has been widely opposed, including by the local Catholic archdiocese. “This week we had planned another action to continue voicing opposition to the geothermal project. Vian was one of the driving forces,” Eda said as quoted by Indonesian daily Kompas. “Sadly, he is no longer with us.” The Nagekeo district police chief, Rachmad Muchamad Salili, said police are currently investigating the cause of Vian Ruma’s death. “We are still conducting a deeper investigation, we still cannot confirm [the cause of death],” he said as quoted by local news outlet. The government designated Flores, in East Nusa Tenggara province, a “geothermal island” in 2017, with the potential to generate nearly 1,000 megawatts of clean electricity thanks to the high level of seismic activity in the region. But communities have resisted the developments, citing&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/death-of-activist-critical-of-geothermal-project-raises-alarm-in-indonesia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305714</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Jailed Vietnamese civil society leader wins award, boosting calls for his release</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/jailed-vietnamese-civil-society-leader-wins-award-boosting-calls-for-his-release/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/jailed-vietnamese-civil-society-leader-wins-award-boosting-calls-for-his-release/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Aug 2025 02:51:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jenny Denton]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/01075429/1377a3a8-39e5-4f09-a607-c0ecb8f326a2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303524</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Climate Change, Conservation, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Human Rights, Politics, Pollution, Social Justice, and Sustainability]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On the fourth anniversary of his imprisonment, Vietnamese environmentalist Dang Dinh Bach, who was sentenced to five years on tax evasion charges, has been recognized with a prestigious international award. The 46-year-old was officially presented the Roger N. Baldwin Medal of Liberty in July by the president of the U.S.-based organization Human Rights First. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On the fourth anniversary of his imprisonment, Vietnamese environmentalist Dang Dinh Bach, who was sentenced to five years on tax evasion charges, has been recognized with a prestigious international award. The 46-year-old was officially presented the Roger N. Baldwin Medal of Liberty in July by the president of the U.S.-based organization Human Rights First. The prize, which honors those who “champion human rights despite immense personal risk,” was accepted by Bach’s wife on his behalf in an online ceremony. The distinguished public interest lawyer had been chosen by an independent jury “in recognition of his lifetime commitment to protecting communities in Vietnam from the harmful effects of pollution and the climate crisis,” Human Rights First president Uzra Zeya said. According to Zeya, Bach’s detention has been marked by “rampant human rights violations,” including reports he had been beaten and mistreated. Bach has also undertaken several hunger strikes. On July 18, the U.N. Human Rights Committee published its findings on the fourth periodic review of Vietnam as a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, expressing serious concerns over the treatment of political prisoners and increased restrictions on freedoms of association and expression and on independent civil society organizations, among other issues. A montage of dozens of signs and social media posts calling for Bach&#8217;s release. Image via StandWithBach.org. The four-year anniversary of Bach’s arrest sparked renewed calls from organizations around the world for his urgent and unconditional release, with Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Asia Pacific&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/jailed-vietnamese-civil-society-leader-wins-award-boosting-calls-for-his-release/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/jailed-vietnamese-civil-society-leader-wins-award-boosting-calls-for-his-release/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303524</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Dom Phillips’ posthumous book centers on collaborative work for saving the Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/dom-phillips-posthumous-book-centers-on-collaborative-work-for-saving-the-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/dom-phillips-posthumous-book-centers-on-collaborative-work-for-saving-the-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 May 2025 17:02:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Karla Mendes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karla Mendes]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/30140506/1-7-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299950</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Books, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Murdered Journalists, Rainforest Destruction, Threats To Rainforests, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;You can&#8217;t stop important, high-quality journalistic work.&#8221; Alessandra Sampaio, widow of British journalist Dom Phillips, says it was the main driver that led her to unite forces with his friends to finish his book after he was killed in 2022. &#8220;As soon as the tragedy happened, it became very clear to me and also to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;You can&#8217;t stop important, high-quality journalistic work.&#8221; Alessandra Sampaio, widow of British journalist Dom Phillips, says it was the main driver that led her to unite forces with his friends to finish his book after he was killed in 2022. &#8220;As soon as the tragedy happened, it became very clear to me and also to [Dom&#8217;s] journalist friends, from whom I had a lot of support, that it was important to finish the book,&#8221; Sampaio tells Mongabay in a video interview. On June 5, 2022, Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira were brutally killed in the Javari Valley region, in the Brazilian Amazon. The British journalist was investigating illegal fishing in the region, aimed to be the second-last trip for his book, according to Sampaio. Near the Brazil-Colombia-Peru triple border, the Javari Valley region is a hotspot for organized crime, including drug traffickers, illegal loggers and poachers. The region is home to the second-largest Indigenous territory in Brazil — 8.5 million hectares (21 million acres), an area twice the size of Switzerland — and an estimated 17 isolated Indigenous groups live there, with little to no contact with the rest of the world. The cover of the U.S. edition of Dom Phillips&#8217; book, which will be launched in the U.S. on June 9. Three years later, How to save the Amazon: A journalist&#8217;s fatal quest for answers, by Phillips with contributors, will be launched beginning May 31 in the United Kingdom, the United States and Brazil, accompanied by dedicated events&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/dom-phillips-posthumous-book-centers-on-collaborative-work-for-saving-the-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/dom-phillips-posthumous-book-centers-on-collaborative-work-for-saving-the-amazon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299950</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Attacks on Cambodian environmental journalist continue to pile up</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/attacks-on-cambodian-environmental-journalist-continue-to-pile-up/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/attacks-on-cambodian-environmental-journalist-continue-to-pile-up/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 May 2025 06:30:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald FlynnNehru Pry]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/12060503/C1292.00_02_10_08.Still001-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298923</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Community Forests, Corruption, Crime, Deforestation, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Illegal Logging, Journalism, Land Grabbing, Media, Mining, Monitoring, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and timber trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Ouk Mao, a Cambodian environmental journalist, was reporting on the continued logging of Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary when he was attacked on March 24 by a group of men he identified, including a former police officer. Mao, who has previously helped Mongabay to expose the destruction of a community forest in Stung Treng province, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Ouk Mao, a Cambodian environmental journalist, was reporting on the continued logging of Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary when he was attacked on March 24 by a group of men he identified, including a former police officer. Mao, who has previously helped Mongabay to expose the destruction of a community forest in Stung Treng province, had been working for a local online news outlet and was traveling into the beleaguered wildlife sanctuary with a colleague to follow up on a tip. According to Mao’s sources, loggers were clearing a patch of protected forest with an excavator — the common precursor to a land grab. Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary is a lowland rainforest spanning roughly 490,000 hectares (1.2 million acres) and straddling four provinces, including Stung Treng, in central Cambodia. Despite its protected status, Prey Lang has long been targeted by illegal timber traders, mining companies and poachers, with officials tasked with protecting the forest often accused of being complicit in its destruction. Mao and his colleague were able to locate the excavator, taking photos and videos, while also documenting the trail of deforestation that had been left in its wake. At around 2 p.m. on March 24, as the group was leaving Prey Lang, with Mao and his colleague heading back to their homes in Stung Treng province, they were stopped by four men. “They demanded we delete our footage and photos,” Mao said. Screenshot of footage recorded by Ouk Mao&#8217;s colleague documenting the physical attack by on the journalist.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/attacks-on-cambodian-environmental-journalist-continue-to-pile-up/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/attacks-on-cambodian-environmental-journalist-continue-to-pile-up/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298923</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mother Nature Cambodia activists denied bail by Supreme Court</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/mother-nature-cambodia-activists-denied-bail-by-supreme-court/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/mother-nature-cambodia-activists-denied-bail-by-supreme-court/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 May 2025 18:24:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/02191925/Justice-is-dead_-reads-a-sign-carried-by-Mother-Nature-Cambodia-activists-en-route-to-court-on-July-2-2024-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298561</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — On the morning of April 30, Cambodia’s Supreme Court denied bail to five environmental activists from Mother Nature Cambodia who are currently facing prison sentences ranging from six to eight years on charges of plotting against the government and insulting the king. On July 2, 2024, environmental activists Ly Chandaravuth (25), Phuon Keorasmey [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — On the morning of April 30, Cambodia’s Supreme Court denied bail to five environmental activists from Mother Nature Cambodia who are currently facing prison sentences ranging from six to eight years on charges of plotting against the government and insulting the king. On July 2, 2024, environmental activists Ly Chandaravuth (25), Phuon Keorasmey (24), Long Kunthea (27) and Thun Ratha (33) received six-year prison sentences while Yim Leanghy (35) was handed an eight-year sentence. The activists are currently appealing their convictions and were seeking bail after having spent more than nine months behind bars. The award-winning environmental activism group has long organized peaceful demonstrations aiming to preserve Cambodia’s natural resources, tackling issues such as sand mining, deforestation and land rights — a stance that has put them at odds with politically connected tycoons. (Left to right) Ly Chandaravuth, Long Kunthea, Phuon Keoreaksmey, Thun Ratha and Yim Leanghy of Mother Nature Cambodia say farewell to supporters before entering the court on May 29, 2024. Image by Gerald Flynn / Mongabay. All five of the imprisoned activists had already served prison sentences in relation to their activism but were released on bail in November 2021 on the condition that they stopped their environmental work. The charges against them were never dropped, providing a pretext for the Cambodian government to arrest them again in 2024. But Judge Kong Srim, vice president of the Supreme Court, upheld the Feb. 17 verdict of the Phnom Penh Appeals Court, denying bail to the five&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/mother-nature-cambodia-activists-denied-bail-by-supreme-court/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298561</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How tortoise conservationist Hery Razafimamonjiraibe manages risks to antipoaching teams</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/you-have-to-be-passionate-interview-with-turtle-survival-alliances-hery-razafimamonjiraibe/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/you-have-to-be-passionate-interview-with-turtle-survival-alliances-hery-razafimamonjiraibe/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jan 2025 07:34:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/10073117/Banner_IMG_1455-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292807</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Madagascar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Governance, Herps, Interviews, Poaching, Reptiles, Turtles And Tortoises, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Madagascar is home to weird and wonderful creatures that occur nowhere else on the planet. In many parts of the island, this biodiversity is under pressure due to wildlife trafficking, industrial-scale fishing and the destruction of forests. Yet it is fast becoming one of the world’s most dangerous places for those who work to protect [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Madagascar is home to weird and wonderful creatures that occur nowhere else on the planet. In many parts of the island, this biodiversity is under pressure due to wildlife trafficking, industrial-scale fishing and the destruction of forests. Yet it is fast becoming one of the world’s most dangerous places for those who work to protect the environment. Environmental defenders are increasingly threatened, attacked and even killed in reaction to their efforts to protect the country’s natural resources. Recent prominent cases include Angélique Decampe Razafindrazoary, who in 2023 received death threats due to her work protecting the Vohibola forest in eastern Madagascar. And in June 2024, communities in the same region’s Moramanga district were shocked by the murder of Raymond Rakotoarisoa, the vice president of a local forest protection association. The government frequently fails to protect activists taking a stand against illegal activities, sometimes instead subjecting them to arbitrary detention and unfair trial, according to Amnesty International’s latest country report on Madagascar. Hery Razafimamonjiraibe, Madagascar country director for U.S.-based NGO Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA), is only too familiar with the security risks to the country’s environmental defenders. “[These cases] are very worrying and raise awareness of the need for specific legislation and actions to protect whistleblowers in Madagascar,” he tells Mongabay. Razafimamonjiraibe inspects a juvenile radiated tortoise at the TSA’s Androy tortoise rescue center. Image by Carolyn Cowan/Mongabay. Razafimamonjiraibe leads conservation teams to protect radiated tortoises (Astrochelys radiata) in southern Madagascar’s spiny forests. The tortoises are targeted both as domestic bushmeat&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/you-have-to-be-passionate-interview-with-turtle-survival-alliances-hery-razafimamonjiraibe/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/you-have-to-be-passionate-interview-with-turtle-survival-alliances-hery-razafimamonjiraibe/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292807</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Southeast Asia in review: 2024</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/southeast-asia-in-review-2024/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/southeast-asia-in-review-2024/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Dec 2024 04:33:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn CowanGerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/08190458/WFFT-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292507</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Southeast Asia, Thailand, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Critical Minerals, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Electric Cars, Endangered Environmentalists, Endangered Species, Environment, extractives, Extreme Weather, Flooding, Hydroelectric Power, Impact Of Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industrial Agriculture, Infrastructure, Journalism, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Mining, Murdered Journalists, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Redd, Renewable Energy, Roads, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[2024 was a year marked by a COP climate summit so dismal that many governments and analysts questioned whether the annual meetings are even worth holding. While world leaders failed to secure meaningful action, extreme weather events battered Southeast Asia, underscoring the deadly consequences of inaction on climate change and the urgent need for inclusive [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[2024 was a year marked by a COP climate summit so dismal that many governments and analysts questioned whether the annual meetings are even worth holding. While world leaders failed to secure meaningful action, extreme weather events battered Southeast Asia, underscoring the deadly consequences of inaction on climate change and the urgent need for inclusive solutions. An early summer heat wave that climate scientists said would have been “impossible” without the climate crisis saw temperatures soar across the region. Amid the deadly and unprecedented temperatures, farmers faced water shortages and ruined fruit and rice harvests. The onset of the wet season brought no respite, with intensified typhoons and flash floods taking a devastating toll on northern Vietnam, the Philippines and parts of Thailand. The storms left urban centers and farmland in tatters, displacing people, devastating crops and triggering deadly landslides. The Ngao River, a Mekong tributary, burst its banks flooding more than 2,000 Rai of pomelo orchards in late Aug-mid-Sept, photographed on Sept 20, 2024. Image courtesy of Rak Chiang Khong Conservation Group / International Rivers. Carbon market calamities One mechanism aimed at countering global emissions to reduce to the likelihood and severity of these climatic tumults is the carbon market. However, the sale of carbon credits to offset fossil fuel emissions and reduce deforestation has come under increased scrutiny in Southeast Asia. The region is home to a significant portion of the world’s tropical forests, and carbon industry players reported that REDD+ projects here could generate up to $27.7&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/southeast-asia-in-review-2024/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292507</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Narco airstrips beset Indigenous communities in Peruvian Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/narco-airstrips-beset-indigenous-communities-in-peruvian-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/narco-airstrips-beset-indigenous-communities-in-peruvian-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Dec 2024 12:18:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay Latam]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/03100239/PISTA-CHANCHAMAYO-ABRE-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291108</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Airstrips and Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Endangered Environmentalists, Forests, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Mongabay Data Studio, Mongabay investigation, Rainforests, Satellite Imagery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The boat comes to a halt, shuddering against the dirt bank that rises from the edge of the Ucayali River. Sixto, tanned and with a frown cutting deep furrows across his forehead, jumps ashore. He strides up to a flat area dotted with banana plantations, yucca crops and scattered foliage. He raises his hand and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The boat comes to a halt, shuddering against the dirt bank that rises from the edge of the Ucayali River. Sixto, tanned and with a frown cutting deep furrows across his forehead, jumps ashore. He strides up to a flat area dotted with banana plantations, yucca crops and scattered foliage. He raises his hand and waves. He then follows a path that penetrates a wall of trees, passes through mudflats and traces the undergrowth that thickens the forest. He doesn’t speak. He knows where to go, and that’s all that’s needed. At intervals he says, barely whispering: “It won’t be long now.” During each stretch, as he keeps up his pace, Sixto scans the horizon, although it’s always the same scene of trees and scattered green. The dense jungle he passes through lies in Tahuanía district, Atalaya province, in the Peruvian Amazon. Thirty-four minutes into this trek along this tangled route, the roof formed by the treetops suddenly opens up to reveal a huge rectangle of bare earth. “It is 985 meters [3,232 feet], a big ‘cancha’ [field],” he whispers, and points to the other end: “We’ve arrived.” No drug planes have taken off yet from this clandestine airstrip. This stretch was prepared five years ago, but with the COVID-19 outbreak, there was no need for traffickers to find new ways to get their drug shipments out, Sixto recalls, now less tense, more talkative. He was one of the young men who prepared the land after it was cleared. He&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/narco-airstrips-beset-indigenous-communities-in-peruvian-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291108</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>15 illegal narco-trafficking airstrips found near Peru Indigenous communities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/15-illegal-narco-trafficking-airstrips-found-near-peru-indigenous-communities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/15-illegal-narco-trafficking-airstrips-found-near-peru-indigenous-communities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Dec 2024 09:54:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay Latam]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/27113614/Huacamayo-Abridor-3-Max-Cabello-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290775</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Airstrips and Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Endangered Environmentalists, Forests, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Mongabay Data Studio, Mongabay investigation, Rainforests, Satellite Imagery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The hum of a small plane is heard overhead during a community assembly, but no one looks up. Conversation rises naturally over the sound as the engine’s intense roar fades into the background. The aircraft takes five minutes to pass over an Indigenous community located between the districts of Yuyapichis and Puerto Bermúdez, its course [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The hum of a small plane is heard overhead during a community assembly, but no one looks up. Conversation rises naturally over the sound as the engine’s intense roar fades into the background. The aircraft takes five minutes to pass over an Indigenous community located between the districts of Yuyapichis and Puerto Bermúdez, its course traceable by simply following the sound — today, the plane is hidden from view by clouds. On the morning of Sunday, April 21, 2024, this Yanesha community, nestled between the regions of Huánuco and Pasco in Peru’s central rainforests, is hosting a gathering of Indigenous residents from Huánuco and its two annexes. Some have arrived by boat, navigating up the Pachitea River, which forms at the confluence of the Pichis and the Palcazu rivers. At least 200 people are present, focused on discussing one central concern: securing legal titles for their lands. Nothing else can distract them today — not the sound of the small plane, nor the clandestine airstrips surrounding the community that daily serve drug trafficking. Yanesha community members on the way to their community assembly. Image by Mongabay Latam. “Didn’t you hear what was happening earlier? That’s them. I don’t know where they are going,” a local source told us in hushed tones, confirming the aircraft’s departure. “From here, whatever they take with them will go to other areas of Yuyapichis. That’s where they fly,” he says. “It used to be more regular, busier. There was even a bit of money in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/15-illegal-narco-trafficking-airstrips-found-near-peru-indigenous-communities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/15-illegal-narco-trafficking-airstrips-found-near-peru-indigenous-communities/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290775</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The illegal runways exposing the Kakataibo people to drug violence in Peru</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-illegal-runways-exposing-the-kakataibo-people-to-drug-violence-in-peru/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-illegal-runways-exposing-the-kakataibo-people-to-drug-violence-in-peru/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Nov 2024 12:30:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay Latam]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/29150332/edited-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290700</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Airstrips and Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Endangered Environmentalists, Forests, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Mongabay Data Studio, Mongabay investigation, Rainforests, Satellite Imagery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The audience erupts into cheers and applause. The emcee has just announced the four finalists of the “Miss Juan Chávez Muquinuy” beauty pageant, who take the stage for their final walk down the runway. The competitors are all schoolgirls between 13 and 15 years old, parading in tops, shorts and platform heels. It&#8217;s 8 p.m., [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The audience erupts into cheers and applause. The emcee has just announced the four finalists of the “Miss Juan Chávez Muquinuy” beauty pageant, who take the stage for their final walk down the runway. The competitors are all schoolgirls between 13 and 15 years old, parading in tops, shorts and platform heels. It&#8217;s 8 p.m., and although there&#8217;s no electricity in the village, the ceremony venue is lit using solar panels, and music booms through two huge speakers. &#8220;Until three years ago, the winner was decided by the number of raffle tickets sold by each salon. Now we celebrate properly,&#8221; the mother of one of the contestants says. Nearly the whole village is gathered to witness the coronation of a new queen in an Indigenous community of the Kakataibo ethnic group, located in the province of Padre Abad, in the jungle of Peru&#8217;s Ucayali region. The Kakataibo are a warrior people who have historically lived between the regions of Loreto, Ucayali and Huánuco, in a vast territory split in two by the Federico Basadre Highway. In the northern area they live with the Indigenous Shipibo-Conibo people, in the towns of Nuevo Edén, La Cumbre, Muruinia, Santa Rosita de Apua, Santa Rosa, Yamino and Mariscal Cáceres. In the south, they reside in the Native communities of Santa Martha, Puerto Nuevo, Sinchi Roca I, Sinchi Roca II, Unipacuyacu and Puerto Azul. These groups have a key cultural role, as they form a security cord around the Kakataibo North and South Indigenous Reserve,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-illegal-runways-exposing-the-kakataibo-people-to-drug-violence-in-peru/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-illegal-runways-exposing-the-kakataibo-people-to-drug-violence-in-peru/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290700</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Six activists arrested in Cambodia while investigating illegal logging</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/six-activists-arrested-in-cambodia-while-investigating-illegal-logging/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/six-activists-arrested-in-cambodia-while-investigating-illegal-logging/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Nov 2024 18:56:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald FlynnNehru Pry]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/25182644/Time-and-date-stamped-photo-of-the-environmental-activists-being-detained-by-military-personnel.-Photo-supplied-by-source-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290643</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Environmentalists, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Illegal Logging, Logging, Politics, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[STUNG TRENG, Cambodia — Six environmental activists in Cambodia have been released without charge after being arrested and held for nearly three days by Cambodian military. The activists, including Ouch Leng, a winner of the prestigious Goldman Prize for grassroots environmentalists, had been investigating an illegal logging operation in a national park. Their arrest is just [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[STUNG TRENG, Cambodia — Six environmental activists in Cambodia have been released without charge after being arrested and held for nearly three days by Cambodian military. The activists, including Ouch Leng, a winner of the prestigious Goldman Prize for grassroots environmentalists, had been investigating an illegal logging operation in a national park. Their arrest is just the latest in a string of crackdowns against environmentalists and journalists in the Southeast Asian nation. At roughly 8:10 a.m. on Nov. 23, Ouch Leng and fellow activists Tat Oudom, Heng Sros, Out Latin, Men Mat and Prum Mao were detained by the military in Talat commune, Sesan district, roughly 10 kilometers (6 miles) from a known logging operation inside Veun Sai-Siem Pang National Park in the country’s northern Stung Treng province. Authorities withheld the activists’ whereabouts for roughly 12 hours before civil society groups were able to confirm their arrest. On the morning of Nov. 24, the group was transferred to the Stung Treng police commissariat, where they were interrogated and held until their release on the afternoon of Nov. 25. After being held for nearly three days, the activists were released without charge on Nov. 25. (Left to right) Men Mat, Prum Mao, Tat Oudom, Out Latin, Heng Sros and Ouch Leng leave the Stung Treng provincial police commissariat. Image courtesy of Ma Chettra. Men Kong, spokesperson for the Stung Treng provincial administration, said the activists were arrested “because they entered an area protected and managed by the authorities to prevent illegal loggers.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/six-activists-arrested-in-cambodia-while-investigating-illegal-logging/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/six-activists-arrested-in-cambodia-while-investigating-illegal-logging/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290643</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The underreported killing of Colombia’s Indigenous land guardian, ‘The Wolf’ (Photos)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-underreported-killing-of-colombias-indigenous-land-guardian-the-wolf-photos/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-underreported-killing-of-colombias-indigenous-land-guardian-the-wolf-photos/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Nov 2024 16:27:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anna AbrahamCesar QuirozTony Kirby]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/06162247/3-His-fellow-guardians-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289737</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conflict, Conservation, Crime, Drug Trade, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Media, Murdered Activists, Organized Crime, Politics, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BOGOTÁ, Colombia — While music played in Bogotá&#8217;s streets and a sense of victory filled the air after a long protest, Ana Graciela received a new appointment on her calendar: the funeral of Carlos Andrés Ascué Tumbo. Nicknamed Lobo (meaning “wolf” in Spanish), the esteemed Indigenous guardian and educational coordinator was killed Aug. 29, while his [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BOGOTÁ, Colombia — While music played in Bogotá&#8217;s streets and a sense of victory filled the air after a long protest, Ana Graciela received a new appointment on her calendar: the funeral of Carlos Andrés Ascué Tumbo. Nicknamed Lobo (meaning “wolf” in Spanish), the esteemed Indigenous guardian and educational coordinator was killed Aug. 29, while his fellow guardians, the Kiwe Thegnas (or Indigenous Guard of Cauca) were protesting for better security in Cauca, Colombia. The region has increasingly become dangerous with incursions by illegal armed groups. “The situation is tough. Women and children are being killed [almost] every day,” said Ana Graciela Tombé, coordinator of the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca. The Bogotá protest gathered more than 4,000 people, in what is known as a minga in the Andean tradition, against escalating violence in the region. After eight days, on Aug. 28, the Indigenous communities succeeded in getting President Gustavo Petro to sign a new decree, the Economic and Environmental Territorial Authority, which grants Indigenous territories greater autonomy to take judicial action against violence within their lands. But the sentiment is bittersweet for the Indigenous Nasa and Misak activists in Ana’s homeland of Cauca, particularly in Pueblo Nuevo, a nationally recognized Indigenous territory (resguardo). They’ve lost a dear leader and role model, impassioned with protecting their ancestral territory, forests and youth from illegal armed groups. Labeled the deadliest country for environmental defenders in 2023, Carlos, 30, was the 115th social leader killed in Colombia this year, according to the Development and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-underreported-killing-of-colombias-indigenous-land-guardian-the-wolf-photos/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289737</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Report links killings to environmental crimes in Peru’s Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/report-links-killings-to-environmental-crimes-in-perus-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/report-links-killings-to-environmental-crimes-in-perus-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Sep 2024 14:08:51 +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/20/2024/09/12113216/people-boat-peru-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287329</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conflict, Conservation, Crime, Drug Trade, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Logging, Murdered Activists, Organized Crime, Politics, Rainforests, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ten years ago, four Indigenous Asháninka environmental defenders were murdered in the forests near their community of Saweto in Peru’s Amazon Ucayali region. In 2023, a court in Pucallpa found three loggers guilty of aggravated homicide against the leaders, sentencing them to 28 years and three months in prison. However, this case has since been [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ten years ago, four Indigenous Asháninka environmental defenders were murdered in the forests near their community of Saweto in Peru’s Amazon Ucayali region. In 2023, a court in Pucallpa found three loggers guilty of aggravated homicide against the leaders, sentencing them to 28 years and three months in prison. However, this case has since been appealed. Today, members of the Asháninka community say they continue to fear for their lives. “The problem is still there,” said the wife of one of the four leaders, who wished to remain anonymous for safety reasons. “I am in trouble and so is the community. For the loggers, this work is not finished. They keep cutting down the trees in the village, and they say if you come to bother us, you will be killed.” According to a new report by the Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP), the estimated 29 environmental defenders killed in the Peruvian Amazon between 2010 and 2022 may be connected to environment-related crimes, such as illegal mining, logging and coca cultivation. This is because many of the killings disproportionately occurred in geographic clusters that coincide with these activities. This violence has increased in recent years with almost half of the killings occurring since 2020. The wife of one of the Indigenous leaders killed in 2014 told Mongabay that she had to leave the community to seek safety in a nearby city. This has been a huge challenge, as she previously relied on the forest to sustain herself and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/report-links-killings-to-environmental-crimes-in-perus-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287329</doi>				</item>
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