<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" >

	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?topic=extractives&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/extractives/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Thu, 27 Aug 2026 04:42:14 +0000</lastBuildDate>
		<language>en-US</language>
		<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
		<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
		<generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.4</generator>

<image>
	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on extractives</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/extractives/</link>
	<width>32</width>
	<height>32</height>
</image> 
				<item>
					<title>Cambodia’s banned sand trade with Singapore appears to be back</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/cambodias-banned-sand-trade-with-singapore-appears-to-be-back/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/cambodias-banned-sand-trade-with-singapore-appears-to-be-back/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Aug 2026 22:18:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Andy Ball]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/11152720/Mekong-Sand-Mining_Credit-Andy-Ball_00002-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325924</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Mekong Basin, Singapore, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Business, Coastal Ecosystems, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Environment, Environmental Law, extractives, Fisheries, Fishing, Governance, Illegal Mining, International Trade, Law, Mining, Natural Resources, Oceans, Rivers, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Authorities in Cambodia&#8217;s Koh Kong province say they&#8217;ve approved a sand mining operation exporting to Singapore, despite an export ban imposed by national authorities a decade ago after large-scale dredging was found to be damaging riverine and coastal ecosystems. The dredging is occurring in an area of the Trapeang Rung River that falls within the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Authorities in Cambodia&#8217;s Koh Kong province say they&#8217;ve approved a sand mining operation exporting to Singapore, despite an export ban imposed by national authorities a decade ago after large-scale dredging was found to be damaging riverine and coastal ecosystems. The dredging is occurring in an area of the Trapeang Rung River that falls within the boundaries of Tatai Wildlife Sanctuary and Botum Sakor National Park. Khlem Yonviseth, director of the Koh Kong provincial mining department, told Mongabay that the 2017 sand export ban had been lifted, and that his office had given a permit to the dredging operation and approved the exports. Yonviseth did not respond to a request to provide documentation of the ban being lifted. Mongabay was unable to locate any official announcement regarding the ban, and the relevant national agencies did not respond to requests for comment. Yonsiveth’s comments come after activist group Mother Nature Cambodia exposed the dredging operation in a video published July 14. In a subsequent video, published Aug. 8, the group tracked multiple cargo ships heading from Koh Kong Krao, Cambodia’s largest island, to Singapore’s Tuas Port. “How many more tons of Cambodian sand will be lost?” asks Lisa Mean, an activist with Mother Nature Cambodia, in the latest video. Analysis by Mongabay confirms that four of the ships identified by the group traveled to the Tuas Port, where a state-backed land reclamation project is currently underway. Mongabay has also found that the company Yonviseth said had been given a dredging license, Catalyst&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/cambodias-banned-sand-trade-with-singapore-appears-to-be-back/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/cambodias-banned-sand-trade-with-singapore-appears-to-be-back/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325924</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>UN regulator delays deep-sea mining rules, but extends criticized exploration contract</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/un-regulator-delays-deep-sea-mining-rules-but-extends-criticized-exploration-contract/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/un-regulator-delays-deep-sea-mining-rules-but-extends-criticized-exploration-contract/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jul 2026 20:46:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Autumn Spanne]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/29184144/dive05-benthic-jelly-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324837</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean, Jamaica, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deep Sea, Deep Sea Mining, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, extractives, Governance, Law, Marine, Mining, and Natural Resources]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The International Seabed Authority (ISA), the U.N.-associated regulator of seabed mining activities in areas beyond national jurisdiction, has extended a controversial deep-sea mining exploration contract and once again failed to finalize the rules needed to regulate commercial seabed mining. The ISA’s 36-member council, which met from July 13 to 24, decided to extend the exploration [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The International Seabed Authority (ISA), the U.N.-associated regulator of seabed mining activities in areas beyond national jurisdiction, has extended a controversial deep-sea mining exploration contract and once again failed to finalize the rules needed to regulate commercial seabed mining. The ISA’s 36-member council, which met from July 13 to 24, decided to extend the exploration contract for a subsidiary of Canadian deep-sea mining firm The Metals Company (TMC), allowing the company to retain exclusive exploration rights for blocks of the seabed in the Pacific Ocean. This decision stemmed from the ISA&#8217;s finding that TMC&#8217;s subsidiary, Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. (NORI), had met all the criteria for renewal. This move was met with criticism from both ISA council members and observers since another of TMC&#8217;s subsidiaries, TMC USA, is also pursuing deep-sea mining in the same areas outside of the ISA’s legal framework and, in early July, even launched a lawsuit against the ISA for its scrutiny of TMC’s activities. Louisa Casson of Greenpeace International, who was an observer at the council meeting, said in a statement that the ISA’s decision to extend TMC’s contract set a “dangerous precedent for both the deep sea and the rule of law” that also “calls into serious question the regulator’s ability to enforce basic compliance under its existing rules.” Organizations including Greenpeace International are critical of deep-sea mining, arguing that this activity would have devastating and likely irreversible effects on the marine environment.  Forty-five countries have also called for a moratorium or precautionary pause&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/un-regulator-delays-deep-sea-mining-rules-but-extends-criticized-exploration-contract/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/un-regulator-delays-deep-sea-mining-rules-but-extends-criticized-exploration-contract/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324837</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Activists allege Cambodia has resumed sea sand exports to Singapore</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/activists-allege-cambodia-has-resumed-sea-sand-exports-to-singapore/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/activists-allege-cambodia-has-resumed-sea-sand-exports-to-singapore/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Jul 2026 08:40:14 +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/20/2026/07/21082924/RESIZED-Photo-by-Drone-of-CMR-sand-barges-on-Trapang-Roung-river-2-July-202614-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324184</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Cambodia, Singapore, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Business, Corporate Social Responsibility, Ecosystems, Environment, extractives, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Governance, International Trade, Mining, Natural Resources, Oceans, Rivers, Saltwater Fish, Trade, and Turtles]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Environmental activism group Mother Nature Cambodia on July 14 posted a new video alleging that Cambodia has quietly resumed sand exports to Singapore after the trade was banned in 2017. The prohibition followed a scandal involving environmental degradation along Cambodian rivers linked to shipments of sand sold to Singapore for land reclamation projects. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Environmental activism group Mother Nature Cambodia on July 14 posted a new video alleging that Cambodia has quietly resumed sand exports to Singapore after the trade was banned in 2017. The prohibition followed a scandal involving environmental degradation along Cambodian rivers linked to shipments of sand sold to Singapore for land reclamation projects. In its latest video, Mother Nature Cambodia documented sand dredgers operating in waterways in Koh Kong province in Cambodia’s southwest, with footage appearing to show barges belonging to Catalyst Marine and Resources (Cambodia), a Singaporean-directed sand mining company that’s been registered in Cambodia since December 2024. Footage shows large-scale sand mining operations, including barges bearing the logo of Catalyst Marine and Resources, dredging sea sand from the coastal waterways of Koh Kong. Catalyst Marine and Resources’ barges were then tracked by Mother Nature Cambodia to two large cargo boats located just off the coast of Koh Kong Krao, Cambodia’s largest island, which is largely controlled by the Cambodian navy. Tracking devices on the cargo boats show those vessels are bound for Singapore, reigniting old fears that environmentally unsustainable sand dredging has resumed in Koh Kong to fuel land reclamation projects. “I have many questions, but today I will ask just one to Minister [of Mines and Energy] Keo Rattanak,” Lisa Mean, an activist with Mother Nature Cambodia, asks in the group’s latest video. “When did you quietly scrap the 2017 ban on sea sand exports?” Lisa then called on Cambodians to join the activist group&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/activists-allege-cambodia-has-resumed-sea-sand-exports-to-singapore/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/activists-allege-cambodia-has-resumed-sea-sand-exports-to-singapore/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324184</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>No corporation can buy the ‘right to destroy’: Interview with activist Raja Waseem Ahmed</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/no-corporation-can-buy-the-right-to-destroy-interview-with-activist-raja-waseem-ahmed/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/no-corporation-can-buy-the-right-to-destroy-interview-with-activist-raja-waseem-ahmed/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jul 2026 19:09:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Muhammad Talal]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/15144500/Katas_Raj_Temples_Near_Katas_Village_Punjab_Pakistan_10-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323388</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Pakistan, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Business, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Culture, Development, Environment, Environmental Law, extractives, Fellows, Governance, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, and Mongabay.org]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For generations, the Kahoon Valley in Pakistan’s Chakwal district in northwestern Punjab has thrived as a rich ecological haven. Its fertile soil has yielded lush, historical loquat orchards, while the surrounding scrub forests have provided vital refuge to diverse wildlife, including local peacock populations and rare mountain deer species. At the center of this landscape [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For generations, the Kahoon Valley in Pakistan’s Chakwal district in northwestern Punjab has thrived as a rich ecological haven. Its fertile soil has yielded lush, historical loquat orchards, while the surrounding scrub forests have provided vital refuge to diverse wildlife, including local peacock populations and rare mountain deer species. At the center of this landscape sit the Katas Raj Temples, an ancient Hindu pilgrimage site anchoring the region’s profound spiritual heritage. However, the unchecked expansion of mega cement factories in the early 2000s transformed this natural sanctuary into a toxic industrial zone. Relentless industrial pumping reportedly caused the water table to crash from 36 meters (120 feet) to 122 m (402 ft). This extreme depletion withered the famous loquat trees and displaced native birds, also draining the sacred Katas Raj pond. Determined to save his homeland from erasure, Raja Waseem Ahmed, an environmental activist, brought together residents from neighboring villages to establish the Kahoon Protection Committee to defend the Kahoon Valley against the extreme ecological and social damages caused by heavy industrialization. Waseem utilized environmental legislation and led a forensic legal campaign that exposed the manipulated environmental approval documents eventually driving the Supreme Court of Pakistan to intervene on its own accord, resulting in a historic verdict that banned factories from draining local groundwater and slapped the industry with huge fines. In retaliation for his activism, Waseem was struck by unjustified anti-terrorism lawsuits, temporarily exiled from his native district by local authorities, and subjected to stress so harsh that it&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/no-corporation-can-buy-the-right-to-destroy-interview-with-activist-raja-waseem-ahmed/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/no-corporation-can-buy-the-right-to-destroy-interview-with-activist-raja-waseem-ahmed/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323388</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil’s expanding offshore oil frontier puts biodiversity at risk: study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/brazils-expanding-offshore-oil-frontier-puts-biodiversity-at-risk-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/brazils-expanding-offshore-oil-frontier-puts-biodiversity-at-risk-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jul 2026 15:42:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Daniel Shailer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/06151639/mesophotic-reef-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322398</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity Hotspots, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Energy, Environment, extractives, Fish, Fossil Fuels, Health, Marine, Oil, Oil Drilling, Oil Spills, Pollution, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In late August 2019, fishing communities along the northeast coast of Brazil reported black oily stains washing up on beaches, with crude clumping between the roots of mangroves, on the shells of turtles and on growing numbers of beached fish. The origin of the spill was never confirmed: Then-president Jair Bolsonaro first blamed a Venezuelan [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In late August 2019, fishing communities along the northeast coast of Brazil reported black oily stains washing up on beaches, with crude clumping between the roots of mangroves, on the shells of turtles and on growing numbers of beached fish. The origin of the spill was never confirmed: Then-president Jair Bolsonaro first blamed a Venezuelan tanker, then Greenpeace. What was soon clear, however, was the scale of the disaster. Carried by strong winds and ocean currents, by early 2020 the oil had contaminated thousands of kilometers of coastline across all nine Brazilian states in the region. As the country’s government issued its first oil exploration licenses off the northeast coast in two decades earlier this year, research published last month looks to predict the scale and spread of a potential future spill. According to the study, outdated marine habitat maps and a failure to consider expansion across multiple sites in the region has led officials to underestimate the environmental risks of oil spills, especially for seagrass meadows and deepwater corals. Regions where a spill is more likely to happen should prepare an emergency response, the paper recommends, while “areas of high conservation importance but relatively lower oil spill risk” could be targeted for new or expanded Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) as a precaution. “Most of the licensing just looks at one activity in one location: not the whole seascape,” Rafael Magris, an ecologist at the Chico Mendez Institute for Biodiversity Conservation and lead author of the research, told Mongabay in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/brazils-expanding-offshore-oil-frontier-puts-biodiversity-at-risk-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/brazils-expanding-offshore-oil-frontier-puts-biodiversity-at-risk-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322398</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Experts say ‘bare bones’ US laws are unfit to regulate nascent deep-sea mining industry</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/experts-say-bare-bones-us-laws-are-unfit-to-regulate-nascent-deep-sea-mining-industry/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/experts-say-bare-bones-us-laws-are-unfit-to-regulate-nascent-deep-sea-mining-industry/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jun 2026 16:14:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/09093544/u.-AP16274011795020-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320805</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Critical Minerals, Deep Sea, Deep Sea Mining, Environment, Environmental Law, extractives, Governance, Industry, Law, Marine, Marine Conservation, Mining, Oceans, and Regulations]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is part 2 of a two-part series examining the U.S.’s efforts to begin deep-sea mining in federal waters. Part 2 examines the regulations that would govern the industry. Part 1 explored the process behind proposed lease sales in U.S. federal waters and reactions to those plans. The deep-sea mining industry could launch in the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is part 2 of a two-part series examining the U.S.’s efforts to begin deep-sea mining in federal waters. Part 2 examines the regulations that would govern the industry. Part 1 explored the process behind proposed lease sales in U.S. federal waters and reactions to those plans. The deep-sea mining industry could launch in the near future in U.S. federal waters. Yet legal experts and former government officials warn that the regulations that would govern this industry are outdated and lack important oversight provisions. In April 2025, the Trump administration signaled its intention to enter the global race to mine the deep sea when it released an executive order calling for the development of the industry. Following the administration’s direction, in April 2026 the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) announced its plans to hold a series of seabed lease sales over the course of this year and into early next. The first one is slated for August in American Samoa, with subsequent lease sales planned for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and Alaska. If these go forward, they could mark the first commercial lease processes for deep-sea mining anywhere in the world. Critics say deep-sea mining could cause large-scale and irreversible damage to the marine environment, and some governments in areas slated for leasing have even taken steps to ban deep-sea mining. In 2024, the governor of American Samoa enacted a moratorium on seabed mining from its territorial waters, which extend 3 nautical miles (5.6 kilometers)&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/experts-say-bare-bones-us-laws-are-unfit-to-regulate-nascent-deep-sea-mining-industry/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/experts-say-bare-bones-us-laws-are-unfit-to-regulate-nascent-deep-sea-mining-industry/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320805</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Northern Thai residents march for action on polluted rivers. &#8216;This is an emergency&#8217;</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/northern-thai-residents-march-for-action-on-polluted-rivers-this-is-an-emergency/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/northern-thai-residents-march-for-action-on-polluted-rivers-this-is-an-emergency/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jun 2026 04:19:30 +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/20/2026/06/08040458/Peace_Walk_Chiang_Rai_06-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320710</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Myanmar, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Energy Transition, Environment, extractives, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Illegal Mining, International Trade, Mining, Politics, Pollution, Public Health, Renewable Energy, Rivers, Traditional People, Tropics, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — More than 600 residents of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces embarked May 31 on a roughly 68-kilometer, six-day ‘peace walk’ to demand the Thai government take action on the river pollution crisis that has seen Thai rivers polluted with heavy metals. The ensemble of affected residents, civil society groups, monks and students [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — More than 600 residents of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces embarked May 31 on a roughly 68-kilometer, six-day ‘peace walk’ to demand the Thai government take action on the river pollution crisis that has seen Thai rivers polluted with heavy metals. The ensemble of affected residents, civil society groups, monks and students marched from Tha Ton subdistrict in Chiang Mai to the city of Chiang Rai in northern Thailand, reaching their destination on June 5, World Environment Day. For more than a year, Thailand’s Pollution Control Department has reported dangerous levels of arsenic, mercury, cadmium and other heavy metals in rivers across northern Thailand, with mining operations across eastern Myanmar suspected to be responsible for the pollution. “We are walking because our rivers are slowly dying,” Pianporn Deetes, executive director of the Rivers and Rights Foundation, which helped to organize the peace walk, told Mongabay by phone. “Toxic contamination from unregulated mining upstream is already affecting water, fish, food, livelihoods, and public health. We do not want to wait until more people become sick. This is an emergency.” Pianporn said the walk (42 miles) was about taking collective action to share information, document impacts and build public pressure in a bid to force the government to address the issue, which Pianporn said has, so far, been lacking. “Monitoring has improved, but action has not matched the scale of the crisis,” she said. “We need urgent diplomatic engagement with neighboring countries, stronger health monitoring, transparency, and action to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/northern-thai-residents-march-for-action-on-polluted-rivers-this-is-an-emergency/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/northern-thai-residents-march-for-action-on-polluted-rivers-this-is-an-emergency/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320710</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Peru and Brazil, extractivism threatens Indigenous people in isolation: Report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-peru-and-brazil-extractivism-threatens-indigenous-people-in-isolation-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-peru-and-brazil-extractivism-threatens-indigenous-people-in-isolation-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jun 2026 21:58:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/18170846/6-Yavari-Tapiche-Territorial-Corridor-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320678</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, extractives, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Infrastructure, Land Rights, Mining, Oil Drilling, Protected Areas, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation and Initial Contact (PIACI) in the Yavarí-Tapiche Territorial Corridor, one of the largest contiguous, intact forests in the Amazon and home to the world’s highest concentrations of PIACI, are under threat by extractive and large-scale industrial activities, which pose an existential threat to its inhabitants and the ecosystems they depend [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples in Voluntary Isolation and Initial Contact (PIACI) in the Yavarí-Tapiche Territorial Corridor, one of the largest contiguous, intact forests in the Amazon and home to the world’s highest concentrations of PIACI, are under threat by extractive and large-scale industrial activities, which pose an existential threat to its inhabitants and the ecosystems they depend on. This is according to a new report co-authored by Earth Insight, the Regional Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the East (ORPIO), the Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB) and the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP). The report finds that oil and gas blocks overlap with 10% of the 16-million-hectare (39.5-million-acre) corridor, including almost 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres) of intact tropical moist forest, 907,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) of Key Biodiversity Areas and 713,000 hectares (1.8 million acres) of protected areas. “Pressure from hydrocarbons is increasing on the Peruvian side of the Yavarí Tapiche corridor,” Edith Espejo, senior program manager at Earth Insight and author of the report, told Mongabay over WhatsApp messages. “Our report serves as a warning for the irreversible harm that could take place if these oil blocks move into this corridor. Mining concessions within and on the peripheries of the corridor also pose a threat of encroachment and contamination of waterways.” A critical corridor for ecosystems and Indigenous communities The Yavarí-Tapiche Corridor covers Brazil’s western border states of Amazonas and Acre and Peru’s Loreto and Ucayali departments in the Amazon&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-peru-and-brazil-extractivism-threatens-indigenous-people-in-isolation-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-peru-and-brazil-extractivism-threatens-indigenous-people-in-isolation-report/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320678</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>US prepares to auction leases for seabed mining blocks in federal waters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-prepares-to-auction-leases-for-seabed-mining-blocks-in-federal-waters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-prepares-to-auction-leases-for-seabed-mining-blocks-in-federal-waters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 May 2026 20:29:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/27100412/sea-star-coral-ex1702-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320180</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Pacific Islands, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deep Sea Mining, Ecosystems, Environment, extractives, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Industry, Islands, Marine, Marine Conservation, Mining, Oceans, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is part 1 of a two-part series examining the U.S.’s efforts to begin deep-sea mining in federal waters. Part 1 explores the process behind proposed lease sales in U.S. federal waters and reactions to those plans. Part 2 examines the regulations that would govern the industry. The U.S. agency responsible for overseeing deep-sea mining [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is part 1 of a two-part series examining the U.S.’s efforts to begin deep-sea mining in federal waters. Part 1 explores the process behind proposed lease sales in U.S. federal waters and reactions to those plans. Part 2 examines the regulations that would govern the industry. The U.S. agency responsible for overseeing deep-sea mining in federal waters is preparing to auction off seabed blocks within months — a step that could kick-start commercial-scale deep-sea mining and make the U.S. one of the first countries to allow it. Deep-sea mining has not yet begun anywhere in the world. Opponents say it could cause widespread and irreversible damage to the marine environment if it begins, while supporters say it could provide an important source of critical minerals. In a budgetary document released in April 2026, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) indicated it intends to hold at least three offshore lease sales during the 2026 and 2027 fiscal years. The lease sales will take place through competitive auctions, providing a pathway for winning companies to gain exclusive rights to explore and exploit minerals in designated tracts of seabed. The first sale is slated for the federal waters of American Samoa in August 2026; a second in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) in November 2026; and a third in Alaska in 2027. A spokesperson for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the U.S. agency currently responsible for the development of offshore energy and mineral resources on the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-prepares-to-auction-leases-for-seabed-mining-blocks-in-federal-waters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-prepares-to-auction-leases-for-seabed-mining-blocks-in-federal-waters/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320180</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Dangerous arsenic levels detected in Thailand’s Mekong mainstream for first time</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/dangerous-arsenic-levels-detected-in-thailands-mekong-mainstream-for-first-time/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/dangerous-arsenic-levels-detected-in-thailands-mekong-mainstream-for-first-time/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 May 2026 02:47:35 +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/20/2025/06/09223648/Fishers-Mekong-near-Chiang-Khong-3_stefan-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318973</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, China, Laos, Mekong Basin, Myanmar, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Dolphins, Drinking Water, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Energy Transition, extractives, Farming, Fish, Fisheries, Freshwater, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Hydroelectric Power, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Mining, Pollution, Rivers, Science, Tropics, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Thai authorities have found what they described as dangerous levels of arsenic contamination in sediment from the Mekong River and three of its tributaries in the northern provinces of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. Heavy metal pollution has been reported from key tributaries of the Mekong for more than a year now, but [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Thai authorities have found what they described as dangerous levels of arsenic contamination in sediment from the Mekong River and three of its tributaries in the northern provinces of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. Heavy metal pollution has been reported from key tributaries of the Mekong for more than a year now, but the tests conducted in March by Thailand’s Pollution Control Department mark the first time that arsenic contamination has been detected on the mainstream of the Mekong, a vital transboundary river that supports thousands of plant and wildlife species and the livelihoods of millions of people. The test results published in mid-April show that sediment taken from three separate monitoring stations along the Mekong mainstream contained arsenic concentrations of between 73 and 296 milligrams per kilogram of sediment. According to the Pollution Control Department, concentrations of less than 10 mg/kg are considered broadly safe for aquatic life; levels higher than 33 mg/kg are deemed dangerous. Arsenic levels in sediment taken from various points along the Kok, Sai and Ruak rivers, key tributaries of the Mekong, all ranged from below the 33 mg/kg safe limit up to 57 mg/kg, the Pollution Control Department said via its official Facebook page, noting the contamination appears to be spreading through the river system. Thailand&#8217;s Pollution Control Department posted results of the sediment tests to their official Facebook page on April 10, 2026. Image sourced from the Pollution Control Department&#8217;s Facebook. Heavy metal pollution in the Mekong Basin has been widely&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/dangerous-arsenic-levels-detected-in-thailands-mekong-mainstream-for-first-time/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/dangerous-arsenic-levels-detected-in-thailands-mekong-mainstream-for-first-time/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318973</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cambodia tested waters amid pollution claims; months later, still no public results</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/cambodia-tested-waters-amid-pollution-claims-months-later-still-no-public-results/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/cambodia-tested-waters-amid-pollution-claims-months-later-still-no-public-results/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 May 2026 03:45:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Andy BallGerald FlynnPhoung Vantha]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/04025851/November-2025_Mongabay_Virachey-Mining-12-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318641</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Mekong Basin, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Chemicals, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Ecosystems, extractives, Fish, Fisheries, Freshwater, Gold Mining, Governance, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Mining, Public Health, Rivers, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Authorities from Cambodia’s Ministry of Environment were dispatched to Mondul Yorn, a small village in the remote northeastern province of Ratanakiri, on Feb. 13 to conduct water and sediment testing on the O’Ta Bouk River following community complaints of health problems linked to declining water quality. Then, from Feb. 17-20, the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Authorities from Cambodia’s Ministry of Environment were dispatched to Mondul Yorn, a small village in the remote northeastern province of Ratanakiri, on Feb. 13 to conduct water and sediment testing on the O’Ta Bouk River following community complaints of health problems linked to declining water quality. Then, from Feb. 17-20, the Inland Fisheries Research and Development Institute (IFReDI), a government agency that sits under the Fisheries Administration, sent two teams to catch 34 species of fish from the Sesan River and the O’Ta Bouk, a tributary that flows into the Sesan, itself a key tributary of the Mekong River. The O’Ta Bouk flows south through a gold mining operation in Ta Veng district before it reaches Mondul Yorn, where Indigenous Brao communities have reported experiencing skin rashes and itching sensations after coming into contact with the river’s water since gold mining began in mid-2023. To date, no results of water, sediment or fish sampling have been made public, despite experts urging more comprehensive testing and communities languishing in uncertainty over the safety of the river. IFReDI officials taking samples on the Sesan River in February 2026. Photo sourced from IFReDI&#8217;s Facebook. A park in peril Villagers living along the O’Ta Bouk report the river had turned brown and murky starting roughly in mid-2023; the mud on its banks, sticky. Many of the Brao farmers and fishers have avoided entering the water, drinking it or bathing in it or fishing in the river. These problems persisted when&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/cambodia-tested-waters-amid-pollution-claims-months-later-still-no-public-results/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/cambodia-tested-waters-amid-pollution-claims-months-later-still-no-public-results/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318641</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Luis Yanza, campaigner who battled big oil in the Amazon rainforest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/luis-yanza-campaigner-who-battled-big-oil-in-the-amazon-rainforest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/luis-yanza-campaigner-who-battled-big-oil-in-the-amazon-rainforest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Apr 2026 01:37:53 +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/20/2026/04/21013032/Luis-Yanza-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317840</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Environmental Law, extractives, Fossil Fuels, Indigenous Peoples, Obituary, Oil, Oil Drilling, and Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For much of the late 20th century, oil development in the Ecuadorian Amazon proceeded with little restraint. Wastewater and drilling residues were discharged into rivers or left in open pits. Forest was cleared. Communities downstream relied on contaminated water for drinking, cooking, and bathing. Over time, residents reported rising rates of illness, including cancers and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For much of the late 20th century, oil development in the Ecuadorian Amazon proceeded with little restraint. Wastewater and drilling residues were discharged into rivers or left in open pits. Forest was cleared. Communities downstream relied on contaminated water for drinking, cooking, and bathing. Over time, residents reported rising rates of illness, including cancers and respiratory disease. People might argue about the scale of the contamination, but no one could argue that it wasn&#8217;t visible. By the early 1990s, the region had become a test of whether affected communities could use the law to hold a multinational oil company to account. That effort took shape as a long legal battle against Texaco, later acquired by Chevron. It moved between jurisdictions, from New York to Ecuador, and drew in tens of thousands of plaintiffs from Indigenous and settler communities. The case would last decades. It required organizing across remote territories, gathering testimony and evidence, and sustaining attention in a legal process designed to exhaust both. Luis Yanza was central to that work. He died on March 27th 2026, from cancer, after years spent in the same landscapes where contamination was alleged to have taken hold. His role was not primarily in courtrooms. While lawyers argued motions and judges weighed jurisdiction, he traveled the back roads and rivers of the northern Amazon, meeting communities, explaining the case, and maintaining a coalition that spanned more than 80 villages and several Indigenous peoples. Luis Yanza in his youth. Yanza grew up in Lago Agrio,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/luis-yanza-campaigner-who-battled-big-oil-in-the-amazon-rainforest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/luis-yanza-campaigner-who-battled-big-oil-in-the-amazon-rainforest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317840</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Goldman Prize winner Alannah Hurley fights Pebble Mine “from a place of love”</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/goldman-prize-winner-alannah-hurley-fights-pebble-mine-from-a-place-of-love/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/goldman-prize-winner-alannah-hurley-fights-pebble-mine-from-a-place-of-love/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Apr 2026 21:41:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claudia Geib]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/20213426/Media-Room-Alannah_Credit-Goldman-Environmental-Prize_07-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317824</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous-led conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, extractives, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, and Mining]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the early 2000s, Alannah Acaq Hurley began working over her college summer breaks to spread awareness among rural communities in Southeast Alaska about a project called Pebble Mine: a pit 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) wide and 180 meters (600 feet) deep proposed at the head of Bristol Bay — the largest sockeye salmon fishery [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the early 2000s, Alannah Acaq Hurley began working over her college summer breaks to spread awareness among rural communities in Southeast Alaska about a project called Pebble Mine: a pit 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) wide and 180 meters (600 feet) deep proposed at the head of Bristol Bay — the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world, and the waters that Hurley and her family call home. In 2001, the Canadian company Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. obtained mineral leases to deposits in the area for what would have been the largest open-pit mine in North America. Decades later, Hurley is now the executive director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay (UTBB), and the work to stop Pebble continues. Hurley has received a 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize for her work in organizing an opposition that seems poised to bring the proposed copper and gold mine to a halt. After a 2023 veto of the project by the Environmental Protection Agency due to “unacceptable adverse effects” on the region’s salmon fishery and a surprising court filing by the Department of Justice under President Donald Trump’s administration supporting that veto earlier in 2026, more than two decades of work by local advocates seem to have turned the winds against the Pebble Mine project. Yet Hurley said the work to protect the region — home to the Yup&#8217;ik, Dena&#8217;ina, and Alutiiq tribal nations, and to eagles and moose, bears and whales — is far from over. “Our tribes have never changed their&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/goldman-prize-winner-alannah-hurley-fights-pebble-mine-from-a-place-of-love/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/goldman-prize-winner-alannah-hurley-fights-pebble-mine-from-a-place-of-love/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317824</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Asia’s longest free-flowing river contaminated by arsenic linked to Myanmar mines</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/asias-longest-free-flowing-river-contaminated-by-arsenic-linked-to-myanmar-mines/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/asias-longest-free-flowing-river-contaminated-by-arsenic-linked-to-myanmar-mines/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Apr 2026 02:52:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/14102130/IMG_0208-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317477</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Myanmar, Salween River, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Chemicals, Critical Minerals, Drinking Water, Ecosystems, Energy Transition, extractives, Fisheries, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Gold Mining, Governance, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, International Trade, Mining, Pollution, Public Health, Renewable Energy, Resource Conflict, Rivers, Traditional People, Tropics, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MAE HONG SON, Thailand — Saw Si Paw Rak Salween guns the wooden fishing boat’s engine and steers along the river that inspired his family name. He is ethnic Karen — his parents migrated from Myanmar’s side of the Salween River to the Thai side. When he acquired Thai citizenship, Saw Si Paw had to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MAE HONG SON, Thailand — Saw Si Paw Rak Salween guns the wooden fishing boat’s engine and steers along the river that inspired his family name. He is ethnic Karen — his parents migrated from Myanmar’s side of the Salween River to the Thai side. When he acquired Thai citizenship, Saw Si Paw had to select his own family name, a convention not followed in much of Myanmar. He settled on Rak Salween, which translates to “Love the Salween River.” Saw Si Paw’s love for the wild, free-flowing waterway extends beyond his chosen name. Together with his father, he guides the boat to his family’s 8-meter (26-foot) fishing nets left overnight on the Myanmar side of the river. Fishing is all he’s ever known, having learned the trade from his father and plied it on the Salween his entire life. So, it was especially jarring for him to hear about toxic chemicals recently found in the Salween. Independent testing of the Salween River began in September 2025, when researchers from Thailand’s Institute of Health Sciences Research at Chiang Mai University found alarming levels of contamination detected in the nearby Kok, Sai and Ruak rivers in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai in Thailand, much of which has been linked to unregulated mining in Myanmar. In particular, rare earth mines exporting crucial minerals — needed for artificial intelligence, mobile phones, laptops, electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies, among other things — have been blamed. But the mining of gold and various critical&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/asias-longest-free-flowing-river-contaminated-by-arsenic-linked-to-myanmar-mines/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/asias-longest-free-flowing-river-contaminated-by-arsenic-linked-to-myanmar-mines/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317477</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Tasmania, the mines have closed but the rivers remember</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-tasmania-the-mines-have-closed-but-the-rivers-remember/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-tasmania-the-mines-have-closed-but-the-rivers-remember/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Apr 2026 21:17:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Stefan Lovgren]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/16164414/4-King-River-drone-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317656</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia, Oceania, and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, extractives, Fish, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Mining, Planetary Boundaries, Planetary Health, Poisoning, Pollution, Rivers, Toxicology, Waste, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The King River snakes through some of Tasmania’s most dramatic and diverse landscape, flowing past rainforest, button grass plains and the rugged peaks of the West Coast Range before emptying into a large bay near Strahan, a quiet fishing town. To the casual visitor, the winding stream looks as wild as the lightly settled country [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The King River snakes through some of Tasmania’s most dramatic and diverse landscape, flowing past rainforest, button grass plains and the rugged peaks of the West Coast Range before emptying into a large bay near Strahan, a quiet fishing town. To the casual visitor, the winding stream looks as wild as the lightly settled country around it. But on a February morning, the King’s tea-brown waters flowing past forested banks near the sea were disturbingly silent. The air hummed with large, persistent horseflies and little else. Healthy Tasmanian streams typically teem with aquatic insects, including mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies, which form the foundation of freshwater food webs. Not here. Along the lower King River, many aquatic species are gone; an enduring effect of copper mining above Queenstown, which sent uncounted tons of mine waste downstream. That pollution originated at Mount Lyell, one of Australia’s largest historic copper mines. Established in the early 1890s, its tailing piles discharged toxic contaminants into the nearby Queen River, a tributary that flows directly into the King. Historic mine workings at Mount Lyell near Queenstown, Tasmania state, Australia, where more than a century of copper mining has left a lasting environmental legacy that continues impacting biodiversity and posing risks to public health. Image by Stefan Lovgren. Although large-scale dumping ended long before the mine was finally closed in 2014, that hidden legacy of pollution remains embedded in river waters, sediments and floodplains. Surveys of aquatic life have repeatedly found that the sensitive species expected in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-tasmania-the-mines-have-closed-but-the-rivers-remember/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-tasmania-the-mines-have-closed-but-the-rivers-remember/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317656</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>10 forces that could reshape the future of the world’s forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/10-forces-that-could-reshape-the-future-of-the-worlds-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/10-forces-that-could-reshape-the-future-of-the-worlds-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Apr 2026 00:59:21 +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/20/2025/12/18201846/brunei_251114145219_0263z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316981</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Carbon Market, climate finance, Conservation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, extractives, Forest Carbon, Forestry, Governance, Illegal Logging, International Trade, Mining, Monitoring, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Technology, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The forces shaping forests in the coming decade extend beyond any single driver. Shifts in politics, finance and technology are unfolding at once, often in ways that reinforce each other. The result is greater uncertainty for ecosystems and for those who depend on them. A new horizon scan, published in Forest Policy and Economics and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The forces shaping forests in the coming decade extend beyond any single driver. Shifts in politics, finance and technology are unfolding at once, often in ways that reinforce each other. The result is greater uncertainty for ecosystems and for those who depend on them. A new horizon scan, published in Forest Policy and Economics and led by Matilda Kabutey-Ongor, sets out to map these changes. The paper draws on structured consultation with researchers and practitioners and identifies ten emerging issues likely to matter between now and the early 2030s. They include the retreat of traditional aid, the spread of artificial intelligence, and a renewed push for mineral extraction. What stands out is how quickly these developments are unfolding. Institutions are not keeping up. Some of the most immediate changes are financial. For decades, conservation and forest governance have relied on public funding from wealthier countries. That support is weakening. Cuts to development assistance and research budgets threaten not only field projects but also the monitoring systems that underpin them. Philanthropy may offset part of the loss, though likely at a smaller scale and with less predictability. New forms of finance are emerging alongside this. Forest carbon markets continue to evolve, driven by regulation and corporate commitments, even as concerns remain over how credits are calculated and who benefits. At the same time, funds intended to channel money directly to Indigenous peoples and local communities are beginning to take shape. In some cases, they bypass governments and traditional intermediaries. Emerging issues&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/10-forces-that-could-reshape-the-future-of-the-worlds-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/10-forces-that-could-reshape-the-future-of-the-worlds-forests/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316981</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Landslides claim more than 220 lives in DRC’s Rubaya coltan mining site</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/landslides-claim-more-than-220-lives-in-drcs-rubaya-coltan-mining-site/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/landslides-claim-more-than-220-lives-in-drcs-rubaya-coltan-mining-site/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Feb 2026 07:09:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Didier Makal]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/27133330/13406579753_9b72465784_b-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313944</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[cobalt, Critical Minerals, Energy, extractives, Human Rights, Mining, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[More than 220 people were killed in two successive landslides on Jan. 28 and 29 in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The victims were artisanal miners known as “diggers.” The accident occurred at the Luwowo mining site in Gasasa, within the Rubaya mining perimeter in Masisi territory, North Kivu. Mines in this area produce around [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[More than 220 people were killed in two successive landslides on Jan. 28 and 29 in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The victims were artisanal miners known as “diggers.” The accident occurred at the Luwowo mining site in Gasasa, within the Rubaya mining perimeter in Masisi territory, North Kivu. Mines in this area produce around 15% of the global supply of coltan. Since April 2024, this area has been controlled by the M23, the largest armed group in Congolese territory, supported by Rwanda, according to the United Nations. The accident occurred as a result of successive risky activities on the rugged and unstable terrain, which was prone to landslides. Prior to the accident, heavy rains had fallen on the region until Jan. 27, the day before. On Jan. 28, the first landslide occurred, according to Ignace Tusali, a journalist with Rubaya&#8217;s Amani community radio station, who was contacted by Mongabay on Feb. 1. This landslide was followed by another on Jan. 29. An ecological tragedy The diggers work with pickaxes. They delve into long tunnels that they dig in search of coltan, a mineral essential in the manufacture of various gadgets, including cell phones. These tunnels often do not comply with safety measures such as the distance between diggers to ensure soil stability. Inside, where copper and cobalt are mined by hand, the tunnel walls are supported only by pieces of wood, as is also the case in Katanga in southeastern DRC, where previous accidents have occurred. Around the Luwowo&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/landslides-claim-more-than-220-lives-in-drcs-rubaya-coltan-mining-site/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/landslides-claim-more-than-220-lives-in-drcs-rubaya-coltan-mining-site/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313944</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In the race for DRC’s critical minerals, community forests are on the frontline</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/in-the-race-for-drcs-critical-minerals-community-forests-stand-on-the-frontline/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/in-the-race-for-drcs-critical-minerals-community-forests-stand-on-the-frontline/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jan 2026 08:00:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Didier MakalLatoya Abulu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://news.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/927W7CV-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312862</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Cobalt Capital and Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Clean Energy, Conservation, Critical Minerals, Environment, Environmental Policy, extractives, Forests, Illegal Mining, Industry, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Military, Mining, Politics, Savannas, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LIKASI, Democratic Republic of Congo — North of the limits of the Lukutwe community forest concession, two armed soldiers stepped in front of Valery Kyembo and his visitors. Wearing a bright orange vest with the logo of a reforestation project, Kyembo was guiding our journalists through a heavily deforested area in the copper-cobalt belt of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LIKASI, Democratic Republic of Congo — North of the limits of the Lukutwe community forest concession, two armed soldiers stepped in front of Valery Kyembo and his visitors. Wearing a bright orange vest with the logo of a reforestation project, Kyembo was guiding our journalists through a heavily deforested area in the copper-cobalt belt of the Democratic Republic of Congo, stepping around newly planted seedlings, when he was stopped by members of the FARDC, the national armed forces. Behind them stood a barrier to control access to a semi-industrial mine. &#8220;We are visiting the boundaries of our community’s property,&#8221; Kyembo tried to explain, before one of the soldiers brandished his automatic weapon to make him turn back. The land in question is the Lukutwe community forest concession (CFCL), 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Lubumbashi, the second-largest city in the DRC. The concession is a titled property created in the mineral-rich area of southeastern DRC by village leaders who sought to protect their land rights and miombo forests against a growing wave of mining companies taking up lands. Valery Kyembo walking in the Lukutwe forest concession in Likasi on November 26, 2025. Image by Glody MURHABAZI / AFP. Ten years ago, the displacement of nearby famers from the villages of Bungubungu and Shilasimba by Société d&#8217;Exploitation de Kipoi (SEK), a company owned by Australia-based Tiger Resources in search of copper and cobalt, sparked worry in Lukutwe village that their village could be next. &#8220;That’s why when the environmental project came to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/in-the-race-for-drcs-critical-minerals-community-forests-stand-on-the-frontline/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/in-the-race-for-drcs-critical-minerals-community-forests-stand-on-the-frontline/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312862</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Latin America in 2025: Conservation promises collide with crime and extraction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/latin-america-in-2025-conservation-promises-collide-with-crime-and-extraction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/latin-america-in-2025-conservation-promises-collide-with-crime-and-extraction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Dec 2025 11:00:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mie Hoejris Dahl]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/27223844/amazon_201359z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312295</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, extractives, Governance, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Mining, Oil Drilling, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MEXICO CITY — Throughout 2025, Latin America remained a battleground between efforts to conserve some of the world’s most valuable ecosystems and mounting pressure from organized crime and legal extractive industries pushing into new frontiers. Home to about 40% of the world’s known species, Latin America is one of the world’s most biodiverse regions: It [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MEXICO CITY — Throughout 2025, Latin America remained a battleground between efforts to conserve some of the world’s most valuable ecosystems and mounting pressure from organized crime and legal extractive industries pushing into new frontiers. Home to about 40% of the world’s known species, Latin America is one of the world’s most biodiverse regions: It holds roughly half of the world’s tropical forests, and at the same time has more than 60% of the planet’s known lithium reserves, 45% of its copper, and significant shares of graphite, silver and zinc that are central to the global energy transition While some governments strengthened environmental laws, multilateral commitments and financing mechanisms to protect forests, oceans and biodiversity, the overall state of the environment continued to deteriorate. In 2025, Latin America emerged as a focus of the global environmental agenda. On the heels of the U.N. biodiversity summit, COP16, in Cali, Colombia, in late 2024, the region also hosted the climate summit, COP30, in Belém, Brazil, in November 2025. According to Alejandra Laina, director for food, land and water at the World Resources Institute (WRI) in Colombia, Latin American governments shared several milestones in 2025: a wave of updated National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans submitted after COP16, and updates to countries’ climate commitments, with a strong focus on climate adaptation, restoration and the recognition of Indigenous people in decision-making processes. Yet 2025 was also marked by escalating threats to the environment. Organized crime and illicit economies, particularly illegal mining and logging, expanded&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/latin-america-in-2025-conservation-promises-collide-with-crime-and-extraction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/latin-america-in-2025-conservation-promises-collide-with-crime-and-extraction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312295</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New mapping reveals hidden mining boom in Laos that threatens the Mekong</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/new-mapping-reveals-hidden-mining-boom-in-laos-that-threatens-the-mekong/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/new-mapping-reveals-hidden-mining-boom-in-laos-that-threatens-the-mekong/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Dec 2025 05:02:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Andy BallGerald FlynnKonlaphat Siri]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/10044442/l.-GP0KGK_Low-res-800px-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310956</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Laos, Mekong Basin, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Chemicals, Ecosystems, extractives, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Gold Mining, Governance, Illegal Mining, Mining, Pollution, Public Health, Rivers, Traditional People, Tropics, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — A new satellite analysis from U.S. think tank the Stimson Center has identified 517 suspected mines along rivers in Laos, including major tributaries of the Mekong, Southeast Asia’s longest river, heightening concerns about contamination of waterways that sustain local communities. Stimson has not ground-truthed the mine sites identified through satellite imagery, but Mongabay spoke [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — A new satellite analysis from U.S. think tank the Stimson Center has identified 517 suspected mines along rivers in Laos, including major tributaries of the Mekong, Southeast Asia’s longest river, heightening concerns about contamination of waterways that sustain local communities. Stimson has not ground-truthed the mine sites identified through satellite imagery, but Mongabay spoke by phone with several government officials in Laos’s southern border province of Attapeu, home to 188 mines in the data, who said illegal mining remains widespread despite recent crackdowns. “We still see officials carrying out inspections and confiscating equipment” from illegal mines in Attapeu, said one government official who spoke to Mongabay on condition of anonymity due to the limited press freedoms in Laos. The analysis shines new light on the scale of mining in river basins across mainland Southeast Asia. The issue previously caught the spotlight in northern Thailand earlier this year after dangerous levels of arsenic were found to be flowing downstream from unregulated gold mines in Myanmar’s Shan state. A proliferation of rare earth mines in Laos and Myanmar has also raised concerns about deforestation, displacement of local communities, and the transboundary contamination of rivers flowing downstream into Thailand and Vietnam. Using satellite imagery analysis, the Stimson Center has produced a dataset of various mining types identified across mainland Southeast Asia&#8217;s river basins. Image by Emilie Languedoc / Mongabay. Besides Laos, the analysis flagged 1,868 mines in Myanmar, 17 in Cambodia and one in Malaysia, believed to be a mix of gold,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/new-mapping-reveals-hidden-mining-boom-in-laos-that-threatens-the-mekong/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/new-mapping-reveals-hidden-mining-boom-in-laos-that-threatens-the-mekong/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310956</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Across Latin America populist regimes challenge nature conservation goals</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/across-latin-america-populist-regimes-challenge-nature-conservation-goals/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/across-latin-america-populist-regimes-challenge-nature-conservation-goals/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Dec 2025 12:00:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/05172501/reunion-ex-presidentes-achivo-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310658</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Commodity agriculture, Conservation, Environmental Law, extractives, Forest Destruction, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industrial Agriculture, Land Rights, Oil Drilling, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The election of populist politicians seldom bodes well for the people of the Amazon or the conservation of its biodiversity and ecosystem services. Most are just stylistic versions of the generic politician: individuals motivated by self-interest who portray themselves as champions of the common man or woman. Occasionally, however, a charismatic individual appears who succeeds [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The election of populist politicians seldom bodes well for the people of the Amazon or the conservation of its biodiversity and ecosystem services. Most are just stylistic versions of the generic politician: individuals motivated by self-interest who portray themselves as champions of the common man or woman. Occasionally, however, a charismatic individual appears who succeeds beyond the normal confines of the political arena to completely dominate electoral politics. Almost invariably, this person will have authoritarian tendencies and work to weaken institutional integrity, pervert electoral systems and persecute the opposition using a corrupt judicial system. They can arise from either the left or right, but they share a disdain for democratic principles and the rule of law. Populist demagogues are adept at appealing to the emotions of the so-called common man or woman; they employ simple language and use slogans that resonate with the public&#8217;s frustrations with the slow (or nonexistent) pace of economic and social reform. They use polarising rhetoric to exploit societal divisions projected as ‘us versus them’, which may be racial, geographic, class or a combination of all three. Exploiting anger at the status quo is common to their political playbook, an easy tactic because of the self-dealing of elites who have enriched themselves while underinvesting in the working poor. Invariably, they promise simplistic solutions to complex issues, ignoring both science and economic theory. The assault on elites is usually extended to foreign organizations, particularly those associated with multilateral organisations controlled by the advanced economies. This sets the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/across-latin-america-populist-regimes-challenge-nature-conservation-goals/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/across-latin-america-populist-regimes-challenge-nature-conservation-goals/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310658</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A fragile Sri Lankan island fights back against the threat of mineral extraction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-fragile-sri-lankan-island-fights-back-against-the-threat-of-mineral-extraction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-fragile-sri-lankan-island-fights-back-against-the-threat-of-mineral-extraction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Nov 2025 15:20:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/28144745/Mannar-Protest-against-sand-mining-c-Fian-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310298</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Birds, Critical Minerals, Ecosystems, Environment, extractives, Governance, Industry, Islands, Land Rights, Protected Areas, and Seabirds]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — “Cries in silence, her veins robbed by greedy hands, each grain of stolen sand buries a future beneath the lands” — these lines from the song Karunilam (‘black sand’ in Tamil), composed by the young artiste Eric Fernando, give voice to the land and people of Mannar Island, in northwestern Sri Lanka. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — “Cries in silence, her veins robbed by greedy hands, each grain of stolen sand buries a future beneath the lands” — these lines from the song Karunilam (‘black sand’ in Tamil), composed by the young artiste Eric Fernando, give voice to the land and people of Mannar Island, in northwestern Sri Lanka. The song blends melancholy and defiance, mourning the potential destruction posed by the proposed ilmenite mineral sand extraction from this ecologically significant island. Fernando describes Karunilam as a protest anthem, reflecting the sorrow and anger of the local community over the threat to Mannar’s fragile ecosystems, coastal beauty and traditional livelihoods by the proposed sand mining. The song also calls for unity among the islanders to safeguard land rights and cultural heritage against exploitation. Ilmenite, sometimes also called ‘black gold,’ deposited along the beaches of Mannar. Image by Nagamuthu Piratheeparajah. A fragile, globally important ecosystem Ilmenite, the mineral of contention in this instance, is used to produce titanium dioxide (TiO₂), used in paints, plastics and cosmetics, and titanium metal, used for aerospace material, medical implants and corrosion-resistant alloys. Pulmoddai region in northern Sri Lanka is historically one of the world’s largest ilmenite deposits. Mannar’s deposits were first noted in British colonial geological surveys in the early 20th century, but the Sri Lankan civil war (1983–2009) delayed exploration until the 2010s. Commercial interest grew in the mid-2010s when the Australia-based Titanium Sands Limited began extensive drilling in Mannar Island. Residents grew concerned as hundreds of exploratory holes&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-fragile-sri-lankan-island-fights-back-against-the-threat-of-mineral-extraction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-fragile-sri-lankan-island-fights-back-against-the-threat-of-mineral-extraction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310298</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>AI data center revolution sucks up world’s energy, water, materials</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/ai-data-center-revolution-sucks-up-worlds-energy-water-materials/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/ai-data-center-revolution-sucks-up-worlds-energy-water-materials/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Nov 2025 18:49:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerry McGovernSue Branford]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/21123024/fog-4666170_1920-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309490</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Conservation, Data centers, Energy, Environment, extractives, Fossil Fuels, Global Environmental Crisis, Human Rights, Infrastructure, Nuclear Power, Pollution, Social Justice, Solar Power, Technology, Water, Water Pollution, and Wind Power]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2024, the state of Querétaro in north-central Mexico suffered its worst drought in a century, impacting crops and communities. Seventeen of the state’s 18 municipalities were affected, putting drinking water access at risk for thousands of families, according to CONAGUA, Mexico’s National Water Commission. With freshwater already diminished due to worsening climate change, Querétaro [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2024, the state of Querétaro in north-central Mexico suffered its worst drought in a century, impacting crops and communities. Seventeen of the state’s 18 municipalities were affected, putting drinking water access at risk for thousands of families, according to CONAGUA, Mexico’s National Water Commission. With freshwater already diminished due to worsening climate change, Querétaro residents now fear a more calamitous future, with the announcement that 32 new data centers — the physical facilities needed to satisfy humanity’s insatiable desire for Internet-sourced data — planned for the state. Most recently, on Sept. 25, U.S. tech firm CloudHQ announced plans to spend $4.8 billion building Mexico’s biggest ever “hyperscale” data center campus in Querétaro, most likely for cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) computing. It appears likely the state will emerge as Mexico’s data center capital, with a strong emphasis on AI capabilities. The Querétaro growth spurt has angered some local activists, who argue authorities have their priorities wrong, elevating the needs of transnational corporate tech giants like Microsoft and Amazon, above those of local communities. “Water is what’s needed for the people, not for these industries,” campaigner Teresa Roldán says. Environmentalist Teresa Roldán Soria (left), is aiding local residents in an area known as Los Sabinos in the municipality of Pedro Escobedo in Querétaro state, Mexico. Here she joins with local people to defend a spring and age-old ahuehuete (Taxodium mucronatum) trees against development. The ahuehute, also known as the Montezuma cypress, is Mexico’s national tree. Image courtesy of Teresa Roldán&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/ai-data-center-revolution-sucks-up-worlds-energy-water-materials/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/ai-data-center-revolution-sucks-up-worlds-energy-water-materials/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309490</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>These banks fund oil &#038; gas in the Amazon amid climate crisis: Report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/these-banks-fund-oil-gas-in-the-amazon-amid-climate-crisis-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/these-banks-fund-oil-gas-in-the-amazon-amid-climate-crisis-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Nov 2025 16:34:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Constance Malleret]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/07095405/Nemonte-Nenquimo-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308813</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Banking, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Deforestation, Environment, extractives, Finance, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Natural Gas, Oceans, Oil, Oil Drilling, Oil Spills, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Deep in the Peruvian Amazon, a sprawling industrial facility has been carved out of the rainforest. This is the Camisea Gas Complex, a natural gas mega-field operated by a consortium of oil companies led by Argentina’s Pluspetrol. The complex now supplies 70% of Peru’s liquefied petroleum gas, primarily used for cooking. But the project has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Deep in the Peruvian Amazon, a sprawling industrial facility has been carved out of the rainforest. This is the Camisea Gas Complex, a natural gas mega-field operated by a consortium of oil companies led by Argentina’s Pluspetrol. The complex now supplies 70% of Peru’s liquefied petroleum gas, primarily used for cooking. But the project has left behind a trail of socioenvironmental rights violations, from threats to the survival of isolated Indigenous people to failure to provide energy access to the communities closest to the complex — and on the frontlines of the multiple gas leaks that have contaminated the forest in the 20 years since production began. In September, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, deemed Pluspetrol responsible for environmental damage and Indigenous rights violations in the Peruvian Amazon. A plethora of banks help fund the Camisea Gas Complex. According to nonprofit Stand.earth, Pluspetrol’s local subsidiary and fellow consortium members Repsol and Hunt Oil Peru have received $3.1 billion in financing since 2016. At least 16 banks — including Citibank, JPMorganChase, Itaú Unibanco and HSBC — have provided funding in the last year. These numbers are part of a new report, “Banks vs. The Amazon,” which uncovers how global financial institutions continue to direct resources toward oil and gas extraction in Amazonia, contributing to the destruction of the rainforest and the rise of carbon emissions that contribute to higher global temperatures — despite some banks having adopted policies to end this. Between January 2024 and June 2025, direct&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/these-banks-fund-oil-gas-in-the-amazon-amid-climate-crisis-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/these-banks-fund-oil-gas-in-the-amazon-amid-climate-crisis-report/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308813</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Report urges full protection of world’s 196 uncontacted Indigenous peoples</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/report-urges-full-protection-of-worlds-196-uncontacted-indigenous-peoples/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/report-urges-full-protection-of-worlds-196-uncontacted-indigenous-peoples/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Oct 2025 14:22:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sue Branford]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/27113221/Photo-9-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308336</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Asia, Brazil, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Latin America, Pacific Islands, Peru, South America, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Conservation, Culture, Development, Diseases, Drug Trade, Environment, extractives, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Logging, Mining, Oil Drilling, Rainforests, Uncontacted Tribes, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“My children died. My mother died. My husband died. My brothers, my sisters, my aunts and uncles. I saw the bones sticking out of their rotting corpses inside the longhouse. We were too weak to bury them. I was left alone with my two baby brothers. All my family died, and all we got in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“My children died. My mother died. My husband died. My brothers, my sisters, my aunts and uncles. I saw the bones sticking out of their rotting corpses inside the longhouse. We were too weak to bury them. I was left alone with my two baby brothers. All my family died, and all we got in return were a few machetes.” This story comes from a Matis Indigenous woman living in Brazil and speaking to an anthropologist in the 1990s. Her people were almost wiped out in the years after they were initially contacted by outsiders in the 1970s. Loggers and wildcat miners brought in diseases, mainly influenza, against which the Matis had little resistance. Testimonies like this one from the Matis Indigenous woman convinced Survival International of the urgent need to campaign to safeguard the collective rights of the Indigenous, tribal and uncontacted peoples of the world, whom the human rights organization says must be left alone and fully protected. On Oct. 27, the NGO published a 300-page report, Uncontacted Indigenous Peoples: at the Edge of Survival, documenting the past and looming threats posed by contact and offering up the experiences of numerous Indigenous peoples whose lives have been uprooted, disrupted and forever changed by contact. It states: “In particular, the rush by extractive industries and agribusiness to seize the resources of uncontacted peoples risks their total annihilation.” A Tupá Matis Indigenous person near the Itui river in the Javari Valley, Brazil. The Matis were devastated by western diseases after&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/report-urges-full-protection-of-worlds-196-uncontacted-indigenous-peoples/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/report-urges-full-protection-of-worlds-196-uncontacted-indigenous-peoples/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308336</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rare earth mining expands into Laos, threatening entire Mekong River</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/rare-earth-mining-expands-into-laos-threatening-entire-mekong-river/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/rare-earth-mining-expands-into-laos-threatening-entire-mekong-river/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Oct 2025 02:17:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/27015457/Laos-rare-earth-mine-leaching-ponds-2025-banner-image-V1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308321</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Southeast Asia, Thailand, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Critical Minerals, Drinking Water, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Energy Transition, extractives, Fisheries, Freshwater, Governance, Habitat Degradation, Illegal Mining, International Trade, Mining, Pollution, Protected Areas, Rivers, Toxicology, Traditional People, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — New data show a recent proliferation of rare earth mines across river basins in Laos, potentially posing a transboundary water pollution threat to Vietnam and the entire Mekong River system. The new findings suggest that Chinese demand for rare earth minerals has led to the industry’s expansion into Laos, even though rare earth mineral [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — New data show a recent proliferation of rare earth mines across river basins in Laos, potentially posing a transboundary water pollution threat to Vietnam and the entire Mekong River system. The new findings suggest that Chinese demand for rare earth minerals has led to the industry’s expansion into Laos, even though rare earth mineral extraction is currently illegal there. Research from U.S.-based think tank the Stimson Center has identified 27 rare earth mines that have opened across river basins in Laos since 2022, including seven identified via satellite imagery analysis as having opened this year. Twenty-three of these mines appear to be in protected areas, but it’s unclear whether or not they’re operating with permission from officials. Fifteen of these mines are operating within the Mekong River Basin: 12 on the Nam Khan River and three on the Nam Ngiep River, both of which feed into the Mekong, the roughly 4,900-kilometer (3,000-mile) river that flows from Tibet through Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam before emptying into the South China Sea. The Mekong River Basin is a biodiversity hotspot that sustains the lives of more than 50 million people who rely on it for food, water and livelihoods. Another 10 rare earth mines were identified by the Stimson Center on the Nam Hao and Nam Xan rivers, in the Ma River Basin, where they not only pose a transboundary risk to Vietnam, but also to the Nam Xam National Biodiversity Conservation Area on the border of Laos and Vietnam,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/rare-earth-mining-expands-into-laos-threatening-entire-mekong-river/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/rare-earth-mining-expands-into-laos-threatening-entire-mekong-river/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308321</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous guardians successfully keep extractives out of Ecuador&#8217;s Amazon forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-guardians-successfully-keep-extractives-out-of-ecuadors-amazon-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-guardians-successfully-keep-extractives-out-of-ecuadors-amazon-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Oct 2025 22:31:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Brandi Morin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/22222210/Female-Indigenous-guard-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308057</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Illegal Deforestation, Indigenous-led conservation, and Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Conservation, Culture, Environment, extractives, Forests, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Logging, Mining, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PAKAYAKU TERRITORY, Ecuador — Deep in the heart of Ecuador&#8217;s Amazon, where the Bobonaza River winds through ancient forests in Pastaza province, Sacha Gayas spreads out a hand-drawn map across her wooden kitchen table. Her fingers, stained with the rich earth of her homeland, trace the boundaries of 71,000 hectares (175,000 acres) of lands that her [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PAKAYAKU TERRITORY, Ecuador — Deep in the heart of Ecuador&#8217;s Amazon, where the Bobonaza River winds through ancient forests in Pastaza province, Sacha Gayas spreads out a hand-drawn map across her wooden kitchen table. Her fingers, stained with the rich earth of her homeland, trace the boundaries of 71,000 hectares (175,000 acres) of lands that her people have silently guarded for generations. &#8220;We are the hidden people,&#8221; she tells Mongabay. Gayas, 50, has spent decades defending what she and other Kichwa people of the Pakayaku community say outsiders cannot see or understand. For decades, the community living in lush Amazonian rainforests has successfully kept unsustainable logging, mining and oil extraction activities out of these lands while preserving their cultural traditions and ecological knowledge. In July, Mongabay visited the community to see the story of their resistance and conservation of vast forests, which few have been allowed to witness firsthand. Deep in Ecuador’s Amazon, where the Bobonaza River winds through ancient forests in Pastaza province. Image by Brandi Morin. Standing just 1.5 meters (5 feet) tall, Gayas commands the attention of those around her with every word. Her shoulder-length black hair gleams with the fresh application of wituk, a natural dye harvested from fruit plants that grow in the community&#8217;s backyards. Across her face, intricate designs painted in the same wituk ink create bold geometric patterns that will remain for a week — a canvas showing her identity as a guardian of this remote community. Seated at her wooden kitchen table in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-guardians-successfully-keep-extractives-out-of-ecuadors-amazon-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-guardians-successfully-keep-extractives-out-of-ecuadors-amazon-forests/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308057</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>More Thai rivers and downstream communities at risk from Myanmar’s rare earth mines</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/more-thai-rivers-and-downstream-communities-at-risk-from-myanmars-rare-earth-mines/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/more-thai-rivers-and-downstream-communities-at-risk-from-myanmars-rare-earth-mines/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Oct 2025 03:08:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/20024951/WhatsApp-Image-2025-10-08-at-10.22.31-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307939</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Mekong Basin, Myanmar, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Critical Minerals, Ecosystems, extractives, Freshwater, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, International Trade, Mining, Public Health, Rainforests, Resource Conflict, Rivers, Toxicology, Traditional People, Tropics, Waste, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — New satellite data identified 513 sites of rare-earth mining that have cropped up across at least six key tributaries of the Mekong, Salween and Irrawaddy rivers in Myanmar over the past 10 years. These include 40 believed to have opened this year alone, with the total marking a dramatic increase from previous estimates and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — New satellite data identified 513 sites of rare-earth mining that have cropped up across at least six key tributaries of the Mekong, Salween and Irrawaddy rivers in Myanmar over the past 10 years. These include 40 believed to have opened this year alone, with the total marking a dramatic increase from previous estimates and suggesting the risk of transboundary river pollution is significantly higher than once thought. The new data and analysis from nonprofit think tank the Stimson Center, published Sept. 22, warns that the proliferation of unregulated mining operations in Myanmar, which are already having dire outcomes in northern Thailand’s Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces, could be worse for the region’s rivers than expected. Brian Eyler, director of the Stimson Center’s Southeast Asia program, who conducted research on the river contamination in northern Thailand, said further testing is urgently needed. He urged other countries to begin testing their waterways potentially as far afield as Cambodia and Vietnam, because the potential for acids, heavy metals, arsenic and other toxins linked to mining flowing downstream is now significantly higher than previously reported. This testing, he added, needs to include the water, sediment and surrounding soil from rivers. It was the “sticky mud” that inundated parts of northern Thailand following heavy rainfall that first alerted his team to contamination on the Kok River, which flows into Chiang Mai’s Mae Ai district from Myanmar, before going on to feed into the Mekong River in Chiang Saen district, Chiang Rai. “That’s what’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/more-thai-rivers-and-downstream-communities-at-risk-from-myanmars-rare-earth-mines/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/more-thai-rivers-and-downstream-communities-at-risk-from-myanmars-rare-earth-mines/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307939</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Peru considers stripping protections for Indigenous people and their territories</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/peru-considers-stripping-protections-for-indigenous-people-and-their-territories/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/peru-considers-stripping-protections-for-indigenous-people-and-their-territories/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Oct 2025 22:00:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/13214722/peru_220711-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307438</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, extractives, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Mining, Oil, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Peru is on the verge of rolling back several longstanding protections for Indigenous people and their territories, critics warn. Several bills working their way through Congress would loosen restrictions for oil and gas drilling, and make it harder for Indigenous people to obtain protected status for their land. At the same time, government agencies have [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Peru is on the verge of rolling back several longstanding protections for Indigenous people and their territories, critics warn. Several bills working their way through Congress would loosen restrictions for oil and gas drilling, and make it harder for Indigenous people to obtain protected status for their land. At the same time, government agencies have voted down the creation of a reserve for uncontacted tribes, with some officials denying their existence. Together, the multiple policies amount to an “extermination” campaign, some advocacy groups said. “We express our outright rejection of the constant violation of human rights, as well as of the policies and regulations promoted by an oppressive, discriminatory and genocidal government, which favors criminal organizations and illegal economies,” said a September statement from the Interethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Rainforest (AIDESEP), which represents thousands of communities across the country. In July, lawmakers proposed modifying the country’s protected natural areas law to make it easier to extract “renewable and non-renewable resources” near and inside of protected areas. If passed, national parks and reserves would be open to oil drilling, mining, fishing and agroforestry when deemed to be in the national interest. Under the new version of the law, the creation of new protected areas would need the approval of not just the Ministry of Environment, but also the Ministry of Energy and Mines. Indigenous leaders meet with officials to discuss a proposed reserve in Loreto. Image courtesy of the Regional Organization of Indigenous Peoples of the Peruvian&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/peru-considers-stripping-protections-for-indigenous-people-and-their-territories/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/peru-considers-stripping-protections-for-indigenous-people-and-their-territories/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307438</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>MPs across Latin America unite to stop fossil fuels in the Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/mps-across-latin-america-unite-to-stop-fossil-fuels-in-the-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/mps-across-latin-america-unite-to-stop-fossil-fuels-in-the-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Oct 2025 13:05:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mie Hoejris Dahl]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/14165711/amazon_241209121112x-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307268</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Latin America, and Peru]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, extractives, Forest Loss, Governance, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Law Enforcement, Mining, Natural Gas, Oil Drilling, Politics, Protected Areas, Saving Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BOGOTÁ, Colombia and SÃO PAULO, Brazil — On Oct. 7 in Brazil’s National Congress in Brasília, lawmakers, Indigenous leaders and civil society representatives gathered to present a global parliamentary investigation into the effort to phase out fossil fuels in the Amazon. The investigation, led by Parliamentarians for a Fossil-Free Future, a network of more than [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BOGOTÁ, Colombia and SÃO PAULO, Brazil — On Oct. 7 in Brazil’s National Congress in Brasília, lawmakers, Indigenous leaders and civil society representatives gathered to present a global parliamentary investigation into the effort to phase out fossil fuels in the Amazon. The investigation, led by Parliamentarians for a Fossil-Free Future, a network of more than 900 lawmakers from 96 countries, resulted in a report, which documents the impacts of fossil fuel activities in the Amazon, including deforestation, pollution and social conflicts, and proposes how to move toward a fossil-free Amazon. Prior to presenting the report, parliamentarians from Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador put forward bills in their national legislatures to stop fossil fuel expansion in the Amazon regions of their countries. A parliamentarian in Bolivia presented a bill along the same lines on Oct. 7, following the release of the report. It is the first time parliamentarians have united in a call for a no-expansion zone for fossil fuels in the Amazon, presenting law proposals in five of the Amazon’s nine countries. The parliamentarians hope COP30 in Belém will put a special focus on the Amazon, the world’s largest tropical rainforest, as a key piece in addressing global climate change. Yet, fossil fuel extraction remains central to many Amazon economies, with countries continuing to invest heavily in petroleum projects. Oil and gas fuel the Amazon’s crisis Oil and gas exploration covers about 1.3 million square kilometers (more than 500,000 square miles) in the Amazon — roughly double the size of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/mps-across-latin-america-unite-to-stop-fossil-fuels-in-the-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/mps-across-latin-america-unite-to-stop-fossil-fuels-in-the-amazon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307268</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>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/report-finds-226-indigenous-land-defenders-in-peru-at-risk-of-violence/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306748</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Latin America, energy transition stirs a rise in human rights lawsuits</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/in-latin-america-energy-transition-stirs-a-rise-in-human-rights-lawsuits/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/in-latin-america-energy-transition-stirs-a-rise-in-human-rights-lawsuits/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Jul 2025 17:37:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/07085426/AP23213733148760-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301940</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Clean Energy, Climate Change, Energy, Environment, extractives, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Law, Mining, Protected Areas, Renewable Energy, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new report by the Business &#38; Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) finds that more than half of the 95 legal cases initiated around the world since 2009 by those impacted by the energy transition were documented in Latin America and the Caribbean (53%). Indigenous peoples filed almost half of all cases recorded worldwide (47%). [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new report by the Business &amp; Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) finds that more than half of the 95 legal cases initiated around the world since 2009 by those impacted by the energy transition were documented in Latin America and the Caribbean (53%). Indigenous peoples filed almost half of all cases recorded worldwide (47%). “People affected by transition minerals mining projects or renewable energy projects are increasingly resorting to courts to make sure that those projects respect their rights,” Elodie Aba, senior legal researcher at the BHRRC and lead author of the report, told Mongabay over a video call. “Most of the time, litigation is going to be the last resort for them. But when there’s no other choice, we can see that people are more aware of their rights now and [are] actually using the tools at their disposal for that.&#8221;  The researchers analyzed the BHRRC’s just transition litigation tool to assess the status of human rights lawsuits against transition mineral mining firms and renewable energy companies. Mining for minerals used in the global energy transition, such as bauxite, copper and lithium, was the sector with the most lawsuits, representing more than 70% of all cases analyzed. In Latin America and the Caribbean, 76% of cases involved transitional mineral mining. Across the world, 71% of transition mineral mining cases focused on the projects’ environmental impacts, while more than 60% included water access issues or water pollution. Research has shown that mining processes, such as ore extraction and mineral&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/in-latin-america-energy-transition-stirs-a-rise-in-human-rights-lawsuits/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/in-latin-america-energy-transition-stirs-a-rise-in-human-rights-lawsuits/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301940</doi>				</item>
			</channel>
</rss>