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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/funding/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Thu, 13 Aug 2026 09:10:18 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Funding</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/funding/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>What conservation looks like from the outside: A conversation with Adam Falk after his first year as CEO of WCS</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/what-conservation-looks-like-from-the-outside/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/what-conservation-looks-like-from-the-outside/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Aug 2026 13:22:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/10202416/Adam-at-Jahoo-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325685</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Nature conservation Influencers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[30x30 conservation target, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Environment, Ex-situ Conservation, In-situ Conservation, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Other effective conservation measures (OECMs), philanthropy, Protected Areas, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Soon after becoming president and chief executive of the Wildlife Conservation Society, Adam Falk visited the giraffe keeper at the Bronx Zoo. What struck Falk was the source of the keeper’s commitment. If a giraffe needed help in the middle of the night, he said, the keeper would come in because of his bond with [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Soon after becoming president and chief executive of the Wildlife Conservation Society, Adam Falk visited the giraffe keeper at the Bronx Zoo. What struck Falk was the source of the keeper’s commitment. If a giraffe needed help in the middle of the night, he said, the keeper would come in because of his bond with the animal. Falk recognized something familiar. Before joining WCS, he had been a theoretical physicist, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, president of Williams College, and president of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Academics often pursue highly specialized work that matters deeply to them. A university leader has to support those individual efforts while helping the institution work toward shared goals. Falk found much the same challenge at WCS: leading people whose motivation is rooted in the work itself. Adam Falk with Joe Nappi, a Senior Keeper in the Mammal Department, and a Giraffe at the Bronx Zoo. Photo courtesy of WCS. He took over WCS in July 2025 without professional experience in zoology or conservation. That was unusual for the head of an institution founded in 1895, which now operates four zoos and an aquarium in New York alongside conservation programs in more than 50 countries. His first year gave him an outsider’s view of a field with its own history and assumptions. One of his early observations was that conservation work involves people as much as animals. Public campaigns often focus on wildlife, especially large and familiar species. Field programs depend on relationships&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/what-conservation-looks-like-from-the-outside/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/what-conservation-looks-like-from-the-outside/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325685</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Carbon markets alone won’t keep Southeast Asia’s forests standing, study says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/carbon-markets-alone-wont-keep-southeast-asias-forests-standing-study-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/carbon-markets-alone-wont-keep-southeast-asias-forests-standing-study-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Aug 2026 02:00:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/02095503/Banner_Pied-hornbill_RAB-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325137</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Biodiversity, Business, Carbon Credits, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Market, Carbon Sequestration, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Finance, Forest Carbon, Forestry, Forests, Funding, Mitigation, Rainforests, Research, Secondary Forests, Solutions, Sustainable Forest Management, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Lush, leafy and luxuriantly diverse, tropical forests are home to an immense array of plants, animals and fungi. They also provide humanity with water, clean air and flood protection, and lock vast amounts of carbon in their tree trunks, roots and soils. Yet, forest conservation often loses out to extractive industries and agribusiness when valued [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Lush, leafy and luxuriantly diverse, tropical forests are home to an immense array of plants, animals and fungi. They also provide humanity with water, clean air and flood protection, and lock vast amounts of carbon in their tree trunks, roots and soils. Yet, forest conservation often loses out to extractive industries and agribusiness when valued through a purely economic lens. As a result, forests across the planet continue to be cleared in pursuit of financial profits. Across Southeast Asia alone, nearly 68 million hectares (168 million acres) of forest was lost between 2001 and 2023, much of it cleared to make way for logging, plantations and agriculture, according to researchers. However, new research indicates “massive and untapped” conservation potential remains within commercial concessions across the region. The study, published in Nature Communications, analyzed satellite data from 3,754 logging, oil palm, timber and rubber plantation concessions across four countries: Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar. Roughly 42 million hectares (104 million acres) of intact forest was identified inside these concessions — an area larger than the entire country of Malaysia. Losing these forests could lead to emissions in the range of 1.2 gigatons of carbon dioxide over the next three decades, the study says, equivalent to 20% of all industrial carbon dioxide emissions across all 11 ASEAN countries between 2000 and 2023. Protection of forests inside production landscapes, therefore, presents a significant opportunity for conservation, the study authors say, if concession holders could be incentivized to switch from converting land to protecting it.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/carbon-markets-alone-wont-keep-southeast-asias-forests-standing-study-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/carbon-markets-alone-wont-keep-southeast-asias-forests-standing-study-says/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325137</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A fraction of promised climate money reaches Amazon communities: Interview with Latimpacto’s leaders</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-fraction-of-promised-climate-money-reaches-amazon-communities-interview-with-latimpactos-leaders/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-fraction-of-promised-climate-money-reaches-amazon-communities-interview-with-latimpactos-leaders/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jul 2026 13:41:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Beverley Choo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/08133405/Indigenous-peoples-sing-and-dance-as-they-participate-in-an-opening-ceremony-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322870</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, Finance, Forests, Funding, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Interviews, Law, philanthropy, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon is the largest rainforest on Earth, with many funders making financial commitments to conserve this crucial ecosystem. Yet, when the declarations are traced to the ground, the capital is rarely there. This is especially true for Indigenous and local communities that steward and depend on this ecosystem but remain severely under-resourced and overlooked. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon is the largest rainforest on Earth, with many funders making financial commitments to conserve this crucial ecosystem. Yet, when the declarations are traced to the ground, the capital is rarely there. This is especially true for Indigenous and local communities that steward and depend on this ecosystem but remain severely under-resourced and overlooked. Carolina Suárez Visbal and Juan David Ferreira know this pattern well. As CEO and programs director of Latimpacto — a Colombia-based network dedicated to mobilizing philanthropic and impact capital across Latin America — they have spent years navigating the gap between what the world promises the Amazon and what actually reaches the communities living within it. &#8220;One thing that worries us at Latimpacto about capital deployment is that people keep announcing funds and initiatives, but when you trace the record, this capital turns out to be very difficult to actually mobilize,&#8221; Ferreira told Mongabay at the Philanthropy Asia Summit 2026 in Singapore. &#8220;The investment thesis or the objectives of the fund do not align with the realities and the territories.&#8221; Latimpacto&#8217;s response has been to create infrastructure to build capacity for regional environmental funding. The organization&#8217;s Pan-Amazon Fellowship reshapes how capital is structured and deployed in the ecosystem by training funders to understand the Amazon not as a monolithic rainforest but as a heterogeneous and dynamic place with nine distinct national contexts, and both isolated Indigenous communities and cities of over 2 million people. Latimpacto&#8217;s initiative InNature Lab redefines what innovation means in an Amazonian&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-fraction-of-promised-climate-money-reaches-amazon-communities-interview-with-latimpactos-leaders/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322870</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>War reveals the isolation of Iran’s scientists</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/war-reveals-the-isolation-of-irans-scientists/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/war-reveals-the-isolation-of-irans-scientists/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jul 2026 18:39:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/03153524/greater-flamingo-Phoenicopterus-roseus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322511</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Iran, and Middle East]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Finance, Funding, NGOs, Politics, Research, Science, and War]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The smiles on the faces of Iman Ebrahimi and his colleagues in the photograph are revealing: After more than a month of war in Iran, a tenuous ceasefire in mid-April offered a brief window for the team to travel to one of Ebrahimi’s favorite field sites. Maharloo Lake is the “hottest spot for flamingo breeding [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The smiles on the faces of Iman Ebrahimi and his colleagues in the photograph are revealing: After more than a month of war in Iran, a tenuous ceasefire in mid-April offered a brief window for the team to travel to one of Ebrahimi’s favorite field sites. Maharloo Lake is the “hottest spot for flamingo breeding in Iran,” he said excitedly on a video call during a rare period of stable internet early in the war. They saw “at least 5,000” greater flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus) that day, he said, though there were probably more beyond the reach of their binoculars. “It was incredible.” A salt lake that tinges pink when summer heat shrinks its footprint, the lake was flush with water when they visited. “This is a very lovely place, but I&#8217;ve never seen Maharloo like this,” Ebrahimi said. The winter rains had been heavier than normal, to be sure, but he said he also suspects that agricultural and industrial activity, muted by the war, were drawing off less water from the lake — an unanticipated impact. Ebrahimi and his teammates from the NGO AvayeBoom Bird Conservation Society are doing their best to track the conflict’s effects on Iran’s environment. They’ve noticed, for example, shifts in bird aggregations, apparently moving away from areas that reverberate with airstrikes. But the war has also laid bare the damage caused by international sanctions imposed by the U.S., the EU and the U.N., along with other moves to cut Iran off from the rest of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/war-reveals-the-isolation-of-irans-scientists/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322511</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can a new methodology save the carbon market?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/can-a-new-methodology-save-the-carbon-market/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/can-a-new-methodology-save-the-carbon-market/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jun 2026 10:22:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/18093229/Banner-Image-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321423</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Climate, climate finance, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Finance, Forests, Funding, Greenwashing, Human Rights, and Poverty]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[How can the beleaguered carbon market be saved? Carbon market pioneer Daniel Morrell’s solution is straightforward: Go back to the market&#8217;s roots by focusing less on carbon and more on biodiversity generation and community welfare. It might be easier said than done; nonetheless, he is giving it a shot. Morrell recently launched Balance, a new [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[How can the beleaguered carbon market be saved? Carbon market pioneer Daniel Morrell’s solution is straightforward: Go back to the market&#8217;s roots by focusing less on carbon and more on biodiversity generation and community welfare. It might be easier said than done; nonetheless, he is giving it a shot. Morrell recently launched Balance, a new avatar of the carbon credit that puts the focus primarily on biodiversity protection and generating new sources of income for local communities. With a three-pillared methodology, he plans to address biodiversity loss, poverty and climate breakdown with the aim of keeping forests intact long after projects have wrapped up. “Tackling any one of these in isolation is ineffective as they are structurally linked,” Morrell, CEO of Balance and climate advisor to the U.K. Prime Minister&#8217;s Office, 10 Downing Street, told Mongabay in an email interview. He said he wants Balance units to address these issues simultaneously rather than allowing people and companies to purchase “a ‘get out of jail free’ card to excuse emissions.” Dan Morrell launched Balance credits with the aim of saving the beleaguered carbon market by putting the spotlight on biodiversity protection and community welfare. Image courtesy of John Nguyen. For years, carbon offset projects have allowed people and companies to invest in forest restoration projects to cancel out, or offset, emissions they produce. However, the voluntary carbon market has faced widespread scrutiny for lacking transparency on how it measures the success of projects, leading to allegations of greenwashing. Many projects have&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/can-a-new-methodology-save-the-carbon-market/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321423</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil has protected much of the Amazon. It now has to pay for it.</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/brazil-has-protected-much-of-the-amazon-it-now-has-to-pay-for-it/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/brazil-has-protected-much-of-the-amazon-it-now-has-to-pay-for-it/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 May 2026 00:35:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/25225357/amazon_200260-16x9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320088</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Conservation Finance, Environment, Forests, Funding, Parks, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon, one of the most basic questions is not where the boundary lies. It is whether anyone has the money to manage what sits inside it. A reserve may exist in law. It may appear on maps, in international pledges, and in official counts of how much of Brazil [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon, one of the most basic questions is not where the boundary lies. It is whether anyone has the money to manage what sits inside it. A reserve may exist in law. It may appear on maps, in international pledges, and in official counts of how much of Brazil is under protection. On the ground, though, management depends on less visible things: staff, fuel, boats, radios, boundary markers, fire brigades, monitoring, community work, and the ability to respond when illegal miners, loggers, poachers, or land-grabbers arrive. A protected area without these things is still protected, but only in a narrow administrative sense. A gap measured in money A new paper in Environmental Conservation puts numbers to this gap. The study, by Helenilza Ferreira Albuquerque Cunha and colleagues, examined funding deficits in 300 federal protected areas in Brazil between 2014 and 2023. Together, those areas cover nearly 750,000 square kilometers, representing most of the protected areas managed by ICMBio, Brazil’s federal biodiversity agency. The researchers compared actual spending with evidence-based estimates of the minimum cost of managing each site. In 2023, 72% of the protected areas they studied were underfunded. The combined shortfall was equivalent to about $958 million in purchasing-power terms. The gap was largest in the Amazon. According to the paper, Amazonian protected areas had an average funding deficit of 79.2% in 2023. In practical terms, they received about one-fifth of what they needed. In the Atlantic Forest, the average deficit was 27.6%.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/brazil-has-protected-much-of-the-amazon-it-now-has-to-pay-for-it/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320088</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>FPC at a crossroads: clarity, credibility, and the cost of ambiguity (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/fpc-at-a-crossroads-clarity-credibility-and-the-cost-of-ambiguity-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/fpc-at-a-crossroads-clarity-credibility-and-the-cost-of-ambiguity-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2026 09:00:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Chip Fay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/14085329/jambi_220686-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319390</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Funding, Indigenous Peoples, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Three years on, the Forests, People, Climate initiative is struggling to say what it is—and why that matters more than anyone wants to admit. Since the Glasgow Climate Pact&#8217;s 2021 pledge to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030, major philanthropic foundations have mobilised billions of dollars behind that commitment. The Climate and Land Use Alliance [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Three years on, the Forests, People, Climate initiative is struggling to say what it is—and why that matters more than anyone wants to admit. Since the Glasgow Climate Pact&#8217;s 2021 pledge to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030, major philanthropic foundations have mobilised billions of dollars behind that commitment. The Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA), a collaborative of six philanthropies, pioneered the donor-collaborative approach and subsequently played a central role in creating the larger Forests, People, Climate (FPC) initiative. Together they shape the strategic alignment of some of the world&#8217;s largest private climate and land-use grant portfolios—determining which geographies and communities receive support and setting the terms of engagement between international philanthropy and forest-dependent peoples across the tropics. How these players collaborate has direct consequences for whether the global pledge to protect forests is met, and for the hundreds of millions of people whose lands, livelihoods, and futures depend on it. Over the past two decades, I have had a front-row seat to this evolution. I was there in the early days of CLUA, as we attempted something both pragmatic and ambitious: align strategies without surrendering institutional autonomy. FPC was born out of that lineage, as a recognition that the CLUA model might no longer be sufficient. The urgency of climate change had intensified. Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) had moved from the margins to the centre of discourse. And large-scale philanthropic commitments, particularly post-Glasgow, sought new mechanisms to do grant making differently. Three years on, however, FPC&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/fpc-at-a-crossroads-clarity-credibility-and-the-cost-of-ambiguity-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319390</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The European wildcat hovers between recovery and local extinction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-european-wildcat-hovers-between-recovery-and-local-extinction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-european-wildcat-hovers-between-recovery-and-local-extinction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 May 2026 13:12:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/07014556/Image_1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318902</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Czech Republic, Europe, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, and Turkey]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Cats, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Diseases, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Funding, Genetics, Habitat Loss, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Human-wildlife Conflict, Hunting, Mammals, Parasites, Population, Reintroductions, Saving Species From Extinction, Small Cats, Solutions, Species recovery, Wildlife, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A quiet comeback story is unfolding for the European wildcat in the Czech Republic’s Lusatian Mountains. Conservationists tracking this elusive species there have spotted a male and female, named Jonáš and Tonka, the first to be found in the region in nearly a century. This small cat species lives in forests across Europe. It’s doing [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A quiet comeback story is unfolding for the European wildcat in the Czech Republic’s Lusatian Mountains. Conservationists tracking this elusive species there have spotted a male and female, named Jonáš and Tonka, the first to be found in the region in nearly a century. This small cat species lives in forests across Europe. It’s doing relatively well in some places and is imperiled in others, like the Czech Republic, where it’s critically endangered. The European wildcat (Felis silvestris), which is around the size of a large housecat, was wiped out because of disappearing habitat — and persecution. They were considered vermin and killed because they preyed on poultry and they were hunted for sport. More recently, they’re sometimes hybridizing, breeding with domestic cats. Numbers are spotty across parts of their range, so overall population numbers and trends, whether they’re rebounding or declining, is currently unknown. That’s a challenge shared by many of the world’s 30-plus small wildcat species that are often overlooked by research and funding. But they are hanging on in the Czech Republic. Earlier this year, Tonka gave birth to at least three kittens, offering hope that a slow wildcat recovery may be underway. Conservationists set up “hair traps,” wooden posts smeared with a lure that attracts the wildcats, then analyzed DNA from fur they left behind when they rubbed on them to mark their territory, as cats do. Genetically confirmed records of wildcat births are “exceedingly rare” in the country, said Kristýna Chroboková, field coordinator with the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-european-wildcat-hovers-between-recovery-and-local-extinction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-european-wildcat-hovers-between-recovery-and-local-extinction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318902</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ocean philanthropy: small sums for a vast domain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ocean-philanthropy-small-sums-for-a-vast-domain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ocean-philanthropy-small-sums-for-a-vast-domain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 May 2026 00:35:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/07014337/OceanImageBank_EllenCuylaerts_01-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318899</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Conservation Finance, Ecosystems, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, philanthropy, and Shipping]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For a realm that covers most of the planet, the ocean attracts a modest share of charitable attention. In philanthropic terms, it remains a niche cause: widely discussed, but thinly financed. That gap has narrowed in recent years, though only slightly and from a low base. Estimates suggest that ocean-focused philanthropy accounts for well under [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For a realm that covers most of the planet, the ocean attracts a modest share of charitable attention. In philanthropic terms, it remains a niche cause: widely discussed, but thinly financed. That gap has narrowed in recent years, though only slightly and from a low base. Estimates suggest that ocean-focused philanthropy accounts for well under 1% of global charitable giving, despite the ocean’s role in climate regulation, food production, and trade. In absolute terms, funding has grown. Annual contributions rose from roughly $430 million in 2010 to about $1 billion by 2022, with foundation funding reaching around $1.2 billion in recent years, according to a report published last November by CEA Consulting. Total Foundation Ocean Funding (2015–2024). Graphic from &#8220;Funding Trends 2025: Tracking the State of Global Ocean Funding&#8221;. Ocean Philanthropic Funding from Legacy Funders and New Entrants (2015–2024). Legacy funders include grants data from any funders who began grantmaking in 2015 or earlier. New entrants include grants data from any funders who began grantmaking in the ocean space after 2015. Graphic from &#8220;Funding Trends 2025: Tracking the State of Global Ocean Funding&#8221;. Funding Trends 2025: Tracking the State of Global Ocean Funding estimates that foundation funding grew from roughly $633 million in 2015 before flattening over the past two years. Growth has come from larger commitments by established donors and the entry of new ones, though spending now appears to have leveled off. The field is concentrated. Very concentrated. A small group of foundations accounts for a large share&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ocean-philanthropy-small-sums-for-a-vast-domain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318899</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia should avoid controversial programs to fund conservation (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/indonesia-should-avoid-controversial-programs-to-fund-conservation-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/indonesia-should-avoid-controversial-programs-to-fund-conservation-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 May 2026 17:57:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mohammad Yunus]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/08145329/sumatran-elephants-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319016</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Credits, climate finance, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Ecotourism, Environment, Finance, and Funding]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Protecting nature is still a struggle due to funding gaps that governments across developing countries are struggling to close. Indonesia is no exception. For instance, its national parks are chronically underfunded, receiving only about $5 per hectare ($2 per acre) per year, far below the estimated needs of around $18/hectare ($7.30/acre) per year. This long-standing [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Protecting nature is still a struggle due to funding gaps that governments across developing countries are struggling to close. Indonesia is no exception. For instance, its national parks are chronically underfunded, receiving only about $5 per hectare ($2 per acre) per year, far below the estimated needs of around $18/hectare ($7.30/acre) per year. This long-standing shortfall has contributed to ongoing risks of degradation. While various financing innovations are being explored, no long-lasting solution has yet fully closed the gap, and searching for effective approaches is increasingly urgent. The Indonesian government has begun exploring ways to address this funding crisis, with officials arguing that national parks should become more financially self-sustaining rather than rely entirely on state budgets. To this end, the government will initiate programs such as carbon credits and premium tourism within national parks. One frequently cited pilot project is Way Kambas National Park (WKNP), one of the critical habitats for critically endangered species such as the Sumatran elephant, Sumatran tiger and Sumatran rhino. The government hopes these initiatives will strengthen conservation and provide economic benefits to surrounding communities. However, these programs are not without controversy. While the government presents them as innovative solutions, concerns appear about governance, transparency, and whose interests they ultimately serve. An investigative report by Tempo highlights the influence of politically connected actors and commercial interests, raising concerns that profit motives could outweigh stated goals such as strengthening conservation and benefiting local communities. Additionally, critics report that the planning process has lacked transparency, with some&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/indonesia-should-avoid-controversial-programs-to-fund-conservation-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/indonesia-should-avoid-controversial-programs-to-fund-conservation-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319016</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How underinvesting in information threatens our collective well-being</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/how-underinvesting-in-information-threatens-our-collective-well-being/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/how-underinvesting-in-information-threatens-our-collective-well-being/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Apr 2026 14:21:00 +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/20/2020/08/16134741/peru-tigre_-3o17_-75o2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316493</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Environment, information ecosystem, Journalism, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This essay is adapted from the article, &#8220;Information as Civic Infrastructure—and How Philanthropy Can Support the Ecosystem,&#8221; which was originally published in Nonprofit Quarterly on March 3, 2026. Philanthropy has grown accustomed to funding the &#8220;final&#8221; solution. It is comfortable buying land, backing new technologies, and underwriting the services or policies that address urgent problems. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This essay is adapted from the article, &#8220;Information as Civic Infrastructure—and How Philanthropy Can Support the Ecosystem,&#8221; which was originally published in Nonprofit Quarterly on March 3, 2026. Philanthropy has grown accustomed to funding the &#8220;final&#8221; solution. It is comfortable buying land, backing new technologies, and underwriting the services or policies that address urgent problems. Yet, it often overlooks the very social foundation those solutions stand on: a shared, reliable information environment. Today, that foundation is cracking. This fragility extends beyond the spread of falsehoods. It appears as indifference to accuracy, fatigue from complexity, and a growing difficulty in judging what deserves attention. In many places, facts still exist, but they travel poorly. They arrive late and out of context, their credibility stripped away before they even reach the public. The result is not always disagreement; more often it is disengagement. For donors concerned with climate change, biodiversity loss, public health, or democratic governance, this crumbling foundation puts even the best-funded programs at risk—a blind spot many donors haven&#8217;t yet addressed. Programs may be well designed and generously funded, yet fail to gain traction because the informational terrain beneath them has shifted. Projects that rely on public oversight, regulatory follow-through, or market response depend on the availability of trusted, usable information. Environmental harm offers a clear illustration. Deforestation, overfishing, and illegal mining tend to accelerate where monitoring is weak and scrutiny sporadic. This is not because laws do not exist, but because violations go unrecorded or unnoticed. When documentation does&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/how-underinvesting-in-information-threatens-our-collective-well-being/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/how-underinvesting-in-information-threatens-our-collective-well-being/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316493</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Paul Brainerd turned computers into printing presses and fortune into conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/paul-brainerd-turned-computers-into-printing-presses-and-fortune-into-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/paul-brainerd-turned-computers-into-printing-presses-and-fortune-into-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Mar 2026 01:34:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/04012848/Paul-Brainerd-Aldus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315173</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Obituary, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Paul Brainerd did two things that rarely sit comfortably together. He helped make publishing cheaper and easier, then spent much of what he earned trying to protect the landscapes that were being consumed by growth. He died on February 15th 2026, aged 78, at his home on Bainbridge Island, Washington. In the 1980s, when most [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Paul Brainerd did two things that rarely sit comfortably together. He helped make publishing cheaper and easier, then spent much of what he earned trying to protect the landscapes that were being consumed by growth. He died on February 15th 2026, aged 78, at his home on Bainbridge Island, Washington. In the 1980s, when most people still thought of computers as glorified typewriters, he helped turn them into printing presses. In the 1990s and after, as the Pacific Northwest’s wealth compounded, he tried to steer some of it into civic capacity: organizations that could win fights, not merely stage them. His money came from software. His method was closer to editing. Brainerd was born in Medford, Oregon, in 1947. He studied at the University of Oregon and later earned a master’s degree in journalism at the University of Minnesota. He worked in newspapers, but not in the romantic way. He was drawn to production, workflow, the awkward interface between an idea and a printed page. That interest took him to Atex, a company that built newsroom systems. When Kodak bought Atex and closed a research center in the early 1980s, Brainerd and several engineers found themselves unemployed and restless. In 1984 they founded Aldus in Seattle. Within a year they shipped PageMaker, software that, paired with Apple’s Macintosh and Adobe’s PostScript, let ordinary users design pages that printed as they appeared on screen. Brainerd coined the phrase “desktop publishing,” a neat bit of compression that made a technical shift feel&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/paul-brainerd-turned-computers-into-printing-presses-and-fortune-into-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315173</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Local communities are conservation’s most undervalued asset (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/local-communities-are-conservations-most-undervalued-asset-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/local-communities-are-conservations-most-undervalued-asset-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Mar 2026 00:08:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Damian BellJosé MonteiroMonicah MbibaMoreangels Mbizah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/07210434/restoration-workers-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315067</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Environment, Finance, Governance, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[African conservation stakeholders will soon gather for the 5th Business of Conservation Congress in Nairobi, led by African Leadership University. As they build the case for investing in nature-based business, the focus is on markets, enterprise models and blended finance. However, a crucial question remains: what actually makes conservation investable, resilient and scalable? Conservation has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[African conservation stakeholders will soon gather for the 5th Business of Conservation Congress in Nairobi, led by African Leadership University. As they build the case for investing in nature-based business, the focus is on markets, enterprise models and blended finance. However, a crucial question remains: what actually makes conservation investable, resilient and scalable? Conservation has attracted significant funding, and yet biodiversity loss and climate change continue to accelerate. As new financial tools are discussed and refined, it is also worth reflecting — as a network of conservation funders and doers — on whether the money poured in through the last 30 years has worked; whether we have solved the problems; and whether the current operating model will carry us through the next 30. The problem is not a lack of commitment or capital; it is a misreading of how conservation works in practice. In our experience, community-led conservation is more efficient and resilient than traditional top-down models because it places authority closer to those who depend directly on the land. By embedding rules within locally legitimate institutions, it reduces enforcement and transaction costs and strengthens compliance through social trust. A recent analysis of wildlife management areas (WMAs) is a good example. Pastoral communities in Tanzania’s Tarangire ecosystem use WMAs to defend their land and livelihoods, even without full devolution of management rights, showing how conservation can serve local interests while protecting wildlife habitat. If community-led models are genuinely more efficient, that advantage should be visible in how conservation is delivered&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/local-communities-are-conservations-most-undervalued-asset-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315067</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘An epidemic of suffering’: Why are conservationists breaking down?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/an-epidemic-of-suffering-why-are-conservationists-breaking-down/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/an-epidemic-of-suffering-why-are-conservationists-breaking-down/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Mar 2026 16:57:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/27012413/e.-usfws-turnbull-nwr-waterfowl-surveys-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314942</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Philosophy, Environment, Funding, Gender, Health, and Psychology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In December 2024, Rachel Graham, executive director of the Belize-based marine nonprofit MarAlliance, posted on LinkedIn that she knew “5 wildlife &#38; conservation scientists who have taken their lives this year so far.” She called it a “crisis” that needed tackling. The post went viral, garnering about 18,000 impressions and 45 comments. “I&#8217;m seeing a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In December 2024, Rachel Graham, executive director of the Belize-based marine nonprofit MarAlliance, posted on LinkedIn that she knew “5 wildlife &amp; conservation scientists who have taken their lives this year so far.” She called it a “crisis” that needed tackling. The post went viral, garnering about 18,000 impressions and 45 comments. “I&#8217;m seeing a true crisis in the conservation community,” Graham tells Mongabay. People become conservationists because they care, Graham says, but that can also lead to huge mental health problems in an age of biodiversity decline, climate change and environmental distress. Add to that the perils of the sector — often low wages, poor job security, overworking, dependence on fickle grants and burnout — and you have a ripe recipe for mental health issues. “If your identity is inextricably linked [to a mission], then when this is imperiled, the threat becomes very personal,” Graham says. “That, to me, I think, is really one of the biggest cruxes of the problem that we&#8217;re seeing right now in conservation.” Dr. Rachel Graham is a marine conservation scientist and founder of the international nonprofit MarAlliance. Based in Central America for three decades, she works across sectors to advance conservation of threatened marine wildlife while supporting sustainable fisheries and coastal livelihoods. Partnering with fishers, she has helped pioneer co-created shark research and management approaches that strengthen policy, local stewardship, and income opportunities. Her demand- and management-driven research on sharks, rays, and finfish has informed protected area designations, species protections, and fisheries policy&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/an-epidemic-of-suffering-why-are-conservationists-breaking-down/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314942</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The power of cities over the seas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-power-of-cities-over-the-seas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-power-of-cities-over-the-seas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Mar 2026 14:10:00 +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/20/2026/02/24233832/Abu-Dhabi-satellite-esa-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314674</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Cities, Commentary, data, Fisheries, Fishing, Food, food security, Governance, Illegal Fishing, Infrastructure, Marine, Oceans, Overfishing, philanthropy, Ports, Remote Sensing, Supply Chain, and Sustainability]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Debates about ocean protection tend to orbit national governments and multilateral treaties. Fisheries quotas, shipping rules, and marine reserves are usually negotiated by states. Yet much of the activity that determines the ocean’s health passes through cities. Ports regulate entry. Municipal buyers decide what seafood is served in schools and hospitals. Urban air-quality rules shape [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Debates about ocean protection tend to orbit national governments and multilateral treaties. Fisheries quotas, shipping rules, and marine reserves are usually negotiated by states. Yet much of the activity that determines the ocean’s health passes through cities. Ports regulate entry. Municipal buyers decide what seafood is served in schools and hospitals. Urban air-quality rules shape how ships fuel and operate at berth. Taken together, these levers suggest that coastal cities may exert more practical influence over the seas than is commonly acknowledged. Consider the modern port, which is less a waterfront than a complex regulatory zone. Ships cannot simply arrive and unload. They must comply with local safety, environmental, and operational requirements. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, for instance, introduced a Clean Air Action Plan that has pushed shipping lines toward cleaner fuels, shore power, and newer vessels. The primary motivation was urban smog, not marine conservation. Still, the result has been a measurable reduction in greenhouse gases and particulate pollution across one of the world’s busiest maritime corridors. When ports tighten standards, global shipping companies adjust, because the trade is too valuable to forgo. Procurement offers another underappreciated channel. Large metropolitan governments purchase enormous volumes of food for public institutions. If those buyers adopt sustainability criteria for seafood, they can influence supply chains in ways that national policy often struggles to achieve. Several U.S. cities now use guidelines informed by organizations such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program. In Brazil, reporting revealed that shark&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-power-of-cities-over-the-seas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-power-of-cities-over-the-seas/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314674</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Big biodiversity goals run up against small funding realities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/big-biodiversity-goals-run-up-against-small-funding-realities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/big-biodiversity-goals-run-up-against-small-funding-realities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Feb 2026 19:23:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/25184549/m.-Hyacinth-Macaw-Anodorhynchus-hyacinthinus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314817</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, Latin America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Funding, Habitat Loss, Indigenous Peoples, Politics, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Mexico’s sundry landscapes have few parallels. Straddling the northern boundary of the Tropic of Cancer, the country boasts low-lying deserts and humid rainforests, scrubby chaparral and tangled mangroves, with long spines of the Sierra Madre stitching the country’s starkly different biomes together. Mexico is home to the third-most mammal species of any country and supports [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Mexico’s sundry landscapes have few parallels. Straddling the northern boundary of the Tropic of Cancer, the country boasts low-lying deserts and humid rainforests, scrubby chaparral and tangled mangroves, with long spines of the Sierra Madre stitching the country’s starkly different biomes together. Mexico is home to the third-most mammal species of any country and supports a whopping 864 species of reptiles, nearly half of which occur only within Mexico’s borders. What’s more, human culture is deeply intertwined with the natural world here, with known traditional uses for almost a quarter — some 5,000 species — of its plants. “Mexico is a ‘megadiverse’ country,” Daniela Carrión, senior director of project design and oversight at the NGO Conservation International, tells Mongabay. The “megadiverse“ moniker is ascribed to 17 countries holding most of the world’s biodiversity. They typically have high levels of endemic species, plants in particular, that occur nowhere else on Earth. Still, Carrión adds, Mexico “faces a lot of challenges that are similar to all countries in terms of land use options and climate change.” Deforestation for agriculture, as well as logging, water scarcity and sea level rise, all threaten to strain the country’s resilience. The Mexican government has a long history of conservation, Carrión says, with recent moves to boost protected areas to 95 million hectares (235 million acres), covering 14% of the country’s land and a quarter of its seas and oceans by the end of 2024. But maintaining such large areas, which the country hopes to expand on&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/big-biodiversity-goals-run-up-against-small-funding-realities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/big-biodiversity-goals-run-up-against-small-funding-realities/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314817</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘We have to bring trust’ into funding talks: Valéria Paye on Indigenous-led funds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/we-have-to-bring-trust-into-funding-talks-valeria-paye-on-indigenous-led-funds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/we-have-to-bring-trust-into-funding-talks-valeria-paye-on-indigenous-led-funds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Feb 2026 15:13:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alexandre de SantiHolly C. Jonas]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/09144428/1-suggested-banner-Povo-Xavante-by-Andre-Dib-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313973</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Climate Justice, Conservation, Environment, Funding, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Emotions were running high when Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced the formal recognition of several Indigenous territories at COP30, the U.N. climate conference held in the Amazonian city of Belém. For Indigenous peoples in one of those territories — the 22,000-square-kilometer (8,500-square-mile) Kaxuyana-Tunayana Territory — it was a landmark moment in a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Emotions were running high when Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced the formal recognition of several Indigenous territories at COP30, the U.N. climate conference held in the Amazonian city of Belém. For Indigenous peoples in one of those territories — the 22,000-square-kilometer (8,500-square-mile) Kaxuyana-Tunayana Territory — it was a landmark moment in a decades-long struggle for recognition and self-determination. One of the organizations supporting this work behind the scenes, the Podáali Fund, is at the forefront of a shift in philanthropy: the rise of Indigenous-led funds. The mainstream philanthropic sector can be financially conservative by nature. Philanthropic foundations are generally established to exist “in perpetuity” and investment strategies tend to be risk-averse; only a small proportion of the available wealth is distributed each year through grants. Foundation grants are often short-term, administration-heavy and restricted to the funder’s priorities, with decisions made far away from the people and places they are supporting. However, there is growing momentum around trust-based philanthropy and dedicated funds led by the rights-holders and movements they are serving, including women, youth and Indigenous peoples. Indigenous-led funds are created, governed and managed by Indigenous peoples and rooted in their worldviews and values such as respect, reciprocity and trust. The Podáali Fund, the Indigenous fund for the Brazilian Amazon, is one such example. Indigenous leaders invested more than 10 years in discussions and preparations before the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB) formally established it in 2020. One of their goals is to enable&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/we-have-to-bring-trust-into-funding-talks-valeria-paye-on-indigenous-led-funds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/we-have-to-bring-trust-into-funding-talks-valeria-paye-on-indigenous-led-funds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313973</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservation programs must embrace causal evidence when evaluating impact (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/conservation-programs-must-embrace-causal-evidence-when-evaluating-impact-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/conservation-programs-must-embrace-causal-evidence-when-evaluating-impact-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Feb 2026 18:19:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tanya O’Garra]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/06/28194157/giraffe-puzzle-copy-e1687990363682-768x411.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313673</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Environment, Finance, Funding, Global Environmental Crisis, philanthropy, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2006, Paul Ferraro and Subhrendu Pattanayak issued an urgent warning: conservation lacked the causal evidence needed to know what actually works. This mattered because decades of conservation efforts were failing to stall the decline in biodiversity around the world, suggesting that scarce funding was potentially being diverted to well-intentioned but ineffective efforts, rather than [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2006, Paul Ferraro and Subhrendu Pattanayak issued an urgent warning: conservation lacked the causal evidence needed to know what actually works. This mattered because decades of conservation efforts were failing to stall the decline in biodiversity around the world, suggesting that scarce funding was potentially being diverted to well-intentioned but ineffective efforts, rather than toward approaches with demonstrable impact — hence the title of their paper, “Money for nothing?” The message was clear: conservationists needed to start examining whether their actions were actually causing the desired effects. A classic study published two years later showed why this mattered. In 2008, Kwaw Andam and colleagues, including Ferraro, found that protected areas were less effective at reducing deforestation than earlier research had claimed. The problem was that the earlier studies hadn’t accounted for the fact that protected areas are often created far from roads and towns, places where deforestation is already less likely. By failing to account for this location bias, protected areas appeared more effective simply because they were located in places that were less likely to be deforested in the first place. The protected area example illustrates the pitfalls of relying on correlation to infer impact. Most of us are familiar with the refrain that &#8220;correlation is not causation,&#8221; yet correlation remains seductive simply because it’s easier to observe that two things happen together, than to prove that one caused the other. We may observe that forests inside protected boundaries remain standing while surrounding forests disappear. But without ruling&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/conservation-programs-must-embrace-causal-evidence-when-evaluating-impact-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313673</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Africa mulls gap in climate adaptation finance for agriculture</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/africa-mulls-gap-in-climate-adaptation-finance-for-agriculture/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/africa-mulls-gap-in-climate-adaptation-finance-for-agriculture/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Dec 2025 18:30:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimable Twahirwa]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/19220131/In_the_mud-e1766773466835-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312085</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Climate Justice, Environment, Farming, Finance, Funding, Governance, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The agriculture sector’s adaptation to climate change in Africa remains severely underfunded, say stakeholders after the U.N. climate talks came to a conclusion in November 2025. Despite an increase in financial pledges for adaptation at the climate conference, on the ground, there’s a gap of approximately $365 billion through 2035, and skepticism that international institutions [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The agriculture sector’s adaptation to climate change in Africa remains severely underfunded, say stakeholders after the U.N. climate talks came to a conclusion in November 2025. Despite an increase in financial pledges for adaptation at the climate conference, on the ground, there’s a gap of approximately $365 billion through 2035, and skepticism that international institutions will help fill the shortfall. “We need to keep reminding the world that this is a matter of urgency. The longer we wait to address issues, the more exponentially the costs rise,” Jiwoh Abdulai, the environment minister of Sierra Leone, told Mongabay. “We say this because we understand governments around the world are tightening their budgets, they&#8217;re reducing overseas development assistance.” According to latest estimates by the Global Center on Adaptation, at current funding levels, Africa will have $195 billion for overall adaptation by 2035, falling short of the more than $1.6 trillion researchers say may be needed. Agriculture remains the major recipient of current climate adaptation finance, receiving around 26% (or $3.4 billion) per year. “The current gap in climate adaptation finance for African agriculture is not just a funding shortfall — it is a continuation of an unequal global economic order where those who did the least to cause the crisis carry its heaviest burdens,” said Samuel Ogallah, head of the climate change unit at the African Union. African governments provide almost as much adaptation finance in the form of grants as multilateral and bilateral financiers. In Tishimale Village, Ethiopia, Belachew and 147&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/africa-mulls-gap-in-climate-adaptation-finance-for-agriculture/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312085</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>When abandoned conservation projects are counted as progress, what are we protecting? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/when-abandoned-conservation-projects-are-counted-as-progress-what-are-we-protecting-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/when-abandoned-conservation-projects-are-counted-as-progress-what-are-we-protecting-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Dec 2025 18:38:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ajay Sawant]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/27180208/landscape-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311669</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Environment, Finance, philanthropy, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COP30 has come and gone, leaving behind a familiar mix of new commitments and renewed political promises. But amid the declarations of progress, one issue that received almost backhanded attention is the quiet abandonment of conservation projects after their high-profile launches. New research published in Nature Ecology &#38; Evolution by a team co-led by Matthew [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COP30 has come and gone, leaving behind a familiar mix of new commitments and renewed political promises. But amid the declarations of progress, one issue that received almost backhanded attention is the quiet abandonment of conservation projects after their high-profile launches. New research published in Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution by a team co-led by Matthew Clark at the University of Sydney’s Thriving Oceans Research Hub shows just how widespread the problem is. Across nine major community-based conservation programs studied in Africa, roughly one-third of participating groups stopped carrying out their conservation responsibilities because implementation simply fell apart. Clark warns that this figure is likely an underestimate, representing only a sliver of a much larger and largely undocumented global pattern. The scale of this problem is staggering. Between 1892 and 2018, governments around the world collectively undermined legal protections for conservation areas through 3,749 documented events, known as Protected Area Downgrading, Downsizing and Degazettement (PADDD), affecting approximately 2 million square kilometers (more than 772,000 square miles) across 73 countries. To put this in a perspective, the total area stripped of protections is equivalent to the size of Greenland. Nearly two-thirds of these rollbacks were directly linked to industrial-scale resource extraction, including mining, oil exploration, and large infrastructure projects. But besides the formal and informal withdrawals, one thing that has remained consistent is the existence of these efforts as being “ongoing” if only on paper. Conservationists in the field must often make quick decisions, and reflecting on those decisions later can increase&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/when-abandoned-conservation-projects-are-counted-as-progress-what-are-we-protecting-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311669</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>African environment programs still try to fill funding gap since USAID freeze</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/african-environment-programs-still-try-to-fill-funding-gap-since-usaid-freeze/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/african-environment-programs-still-try-to-fill-funding-gap-since-usaid-freeze/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Dec 2025 18:30:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fanta Mabo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/11091839/ivory-stacking-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311086</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Climate Change Denial, Climate Justice, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Fellows, Finance, Funding, Governance, Impact Of Climate Change, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Nearly a year after U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze U.S. development aid, USAID has permanently closed its offices in several African countries. Behind this move lies a huge collapse in climate financing, threatening dozens of ongoing environmental initiatives. Experts and observers are increasingly concerned about a funding vacuum that neither Europe nor billionaire [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Nearly a year after U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze U.S. development aid, USAID has permanently closed its offices in several African countries. Behind this move lies a huge collapse in climate financing, threatening dozens of ongoing environmental initiatives. Experts and observers are increasingly concerned about a funding vacuum that neither Europe nor billionaire philanthropists seem ready to fill. Originally announced as a temporary 90-day suspension, the shutdown of USAID (United States Agency for International Development) programs now appears to be a permanent rupture in U.S.-Africa cooperation. Since April 20, the expiration date of Trump’s moratorium, have been notified of a total halt in funding. focused on energy transition and climate resilience have even been reassigned to the U.S. Department of State, which has stated it will only continue them if they are deemed essential to saving human lives, a former USAID employee, who asked to remain anonymous for political reasons, told Mongabay during an interview in Cameroon. In this context, USAID offices have shut down, and funding for projects related to biodiversity, conservation and anti-desertification efforts and have stopped in many African countries. This sudden disengagement comes at a time when the continent is already struggling with a major green finance deficit. Morris Wamah, the director for the Liberian Initiative for Development Services, who worked implementing USAID funding in Liberian land reform, looks at a local map in June, amid global cuts to USAID funding. Image by AP Photo/Annie Risemberg. A continent neglected amid climate emergency Africa receives&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/african-environment-programs-still-try-to-fill-funding-gap-since-usaid-freeze/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311086</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New financial tools boost traditional bioeconomy projects in the Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/new-financial-tools-boost-traditional-bioeconomy-projects-in-the-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/new-financial-tools-boost-traditional-bioeconomy-projects-in-the-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Dec 2025 13:48:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sarah Brown]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/31113242/Cerrado-Brazil-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308629</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Atlantic Forest, Brazil, Caatinga, Cerrado, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Bioeconomy, Climate, climate finance, Climate Justice, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Culture, Deforestation, Environment, Finance, Food, Forests, Funding, Indigenous Peoples, Rainforests, Sustainability, Traditional Knowledge, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When rigid loans fail to reach forest communities, they work in favor of invaders.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[From the Amazon Rainforest to the Cerrado savanna, enterprises led by Indigenous and traditional communities play a vital role in protecting forests and restoring degraded Brazilian landscapes. At the same time, they provide an important source of income for marginalized groups, strengthening Brazil’s bioeconomy environment. Sustainable forest-based businesses include the harvesting of açaí berries (Euterpe oleracea) and Brazil nuts (Bertholletia excelsa), and the production of andiroba oil (Carapa guianensis). They also cover agroecological and agroforestry farming, community-based ecotourism, restoration and reforestation services, and the production of cultural goods such as artisanal crafts. Some of these projects even create community-level financial mechanisms, like cooperative banks. Yet many setbacks prevent them from scaling up. Problems range from initiatives not being formally recognized as businesses by conventional financial institutions, to barriers to accessing Brazilian administrative and regulatory infrastructure — such as registration systems, licensing and operational support, all needed to establish and run a business. “One of the main challenges faced by Indigenous peoples and traditional communities lies in how most financing mechanisms are structured,” Rose Apurinã, deputy director of Podáali, an Indigenous-run fund for the Brazilian Amazon, told Mongabay. “They are based on external, colonial and centralized logics that disregard these peoples’ own forms of social organization.” She added, “The majority of grant opportunities and funding sources impose technical, bureaucratic and institutional barriers that make it difficult — or even impossible — for people in the territories to access resources directly.” Açaí extraction provides income for local communities while helping to keep&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/new-financial-tools-boost-traditional-bioeconomy-projects-in-the-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308629</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Experts say wealthy nations owe Africa double its climate adaptation needs</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/experts-say-wealthy-nations-owe-africa-double-its-climate-adaptation-needs/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/experts-say-wealthy-nations-owe-africa-double-its-climate-adaptation-needs/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Nov 2025 15:56:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/19142801/UNDP-Benin-54309263116_d4d62b9472_o-1-e1763737276780-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309969</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Adaptation To Climate Change, climate finance, Finance, and Funding]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As negotiations at this year’s United Nations climate summit, or COP30, near the finish line in Belém, Brazil, the gap in financing for climate adaptation continues to be a sticking point. New pledges amounting to $135 million for the Adaptation Fund, a U.N.-backed financial mechanism to help vulnerable countries cope with the impacts of climate [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As negotiations at this year’s United Nations climate summit, or COP30, near the finish line in Belém, Brazil, the gap in financing for climate adaptation continues to be a sticking point. New pledges amounting to $135 million for the Adaptation Fund, a U.N.-backed financial mechanism to help vulnerable countries cope with the impacts of climate change, were announced during the talks. However, a U.N. report released in October shows that the “adaptation gap,” the difference between what it costs to adapt to climate change and the actual amount of money available, runs in the billions of dollars. This is also the case for countries in Africa, which have contributed little to the problem of climate change. Some experts argue that given the role that Africa and, in particular, its forests play in stowing away planet-warming carbon, it is owed double the amount that it needs in additional adaptation funds. “Africa has already made a substantial preliminary contribution to global climate action,” Richard Munang, deputy regional director for Africa at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), told Mongabay. The estimated funding gap for Africa is $51 billion, according to the latest UNEP report. Home to nearly a fifth of the world’s population, Africa emits only 4% of annual global emissions. Its forests, with the Congo Basin at the core, remove 1.1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year. If converted to carbon credits and traded at the fair price determined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/experts-say-wealthy-nations-owe-africa-double-its-climate-adaptation-needs/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309969</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>With COP30, Indigenous Brazilians strive for new resources to protect nature</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/with-cop30-indigenous-brazilians-strive-for-new-resources-to-protect-nature/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/with-cop30-indigenous-brazilians-strive-for-new-resources-to-protect-nature/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Nov 2025 09:52:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sara Baptista]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/20094552/Atividade-do-Fundo-Ruti-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309884</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[climate finance, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Environment, Funding, and Indigenous Peoples]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For many Brazilians, the country’s Indigenous peoples are considered the main protectors of nature. This is one of the key findings of a new Greenpeace survey published in October: according to the study, when it comes to caring for the forests, 80% of respondents trust Indigenous groups over any other national institution. Yet the global [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For many Brazilians, the country’s Indigenous peoples are considered the main protectors of nature. This is one of the key findings of a new Greenpeace survey published in October: according to the study, when it comes to caring for the forests, 80% of respondents trust Indigenous groups over any other national institution. Yet the global flow of money on which environmental protection depends for survival still follows a different dynamic. Globally, Indigenous peoples and traditional groups — such as quilombolas, Afro-Brazilian inhabitants of communities originally established by runaway enslaved people — receive less than 1% of the funds given to environmental preservation and climate change mitigation projects. The number, which points to a major socioenvironmental paradox, is included in a 2021 report by the Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN). According to the NGO, the inability to manage these financial transfers is one of the main reasons why the money doesn’t reach these groups. Without a proper management structure to handle the capital, it says, many Brazilian communities will remain tied to other organizations higher up the financing chain, such as international NGOs and state-led initiatives. RFN’s analysis shows that this dispersed model has loose ends. One of the biggest issues is related to traditional projects’ dependence on intermediaries: due to high operational costs, the total amount actually reaching local groups ends up being reduced. At the same time, the conventional financing structure includes steps that don’t correspond to the realities of traditional life, such as stringent deadlines and bureaucratic procedures, which&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/with-cop30-indigenous-brazilians-strive-for-new-resources-to-protect-nature/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/with-cop30-indigenous-brazilians-strive-for-new-resources-to-protect-nature/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309884</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Small grants are key to a successful next generation of conservationists (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/small-grants-are-key-to-a-successful-next-generation-of-conservationists-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/small-grants-are-key-to-a-successful-next-generation-of-conservationists-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Nov 2025 02:00:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Paul Barnes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/13221742/EDGE-CTC-c-Dr-Paul-Barnes-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309537</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[England, Global, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation leadership, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Finance, Funding, philanthropy, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In a meeting room in a head office in London, a handful of early-career conservationists from around the world sat in a circle on the floor to share their challenges of working in conservation. The conversation was sobering. From affording everyday bills, juggling multiple unsecured jobs and dealing with burnout to harassment in the field, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In a meeting room in a head office in London, a handful of early-career conservationists from around the world sat in a circle on the floor to share their challenges of working in conservation. The conversation was sobering. From affording everyday bills, juggling multiple unsecured jobs and dealing with burnout to harassment in the field, threats by extractive industries and abduction by narcotic gangs, the breadth of burdens on these young emerging leaders was astonishing. After three more similar workshops hosted by the project I lead — the Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) EDGE of Existence program — and fast-forward a year, my inbox holds 1,700 applications for our annual fellowship call, a bewildering demand for perhaps 10 places and all for roles that encounter the burdens described in the workshops. This kind of demand is not unusual; I’ve heard similar ratios for other fellowships and small grant schemes. In the same month, numerous blows to funding pipelines for organizations, both large and small, worldwide, have surfaced. Now, like many others, we find ourselves facing a sharp juxtaposition: an overwhelming demand from talented, dedicated teams working on urgent conservation projects that are ready for implementation, contrasted with decreasing, fragile and unpredictable upstream funding. Many young conservationists like Lucero Vaca, shown here conducting a jaguar study, have struggled to make a career in the sector, yet as she told Mongabay in 2017, &#8220;If we stop underestimating people based on their age and [help] young conservationists [carry] out their innovative ideas, we&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/small-grants-are-key-to-a-successful-next-generation-of-conservationists-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/small-grants-are-key-to-a-successful-next-generation-of-conservationists-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309537</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>To fix the climate, simply empower Indigenous people (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/to-fix-the-climate-simply-empower-indigenous-people-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/to-fix-the-climate-simply-empower-indigenous-people-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Nov 2025 18:58:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kiki Taufik]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/29031511/ecuador_20230401_215052697-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309219</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Brazil, Congo Basin, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Environment, Finance, Funding, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Climate change is the defining issue of our age. While nations search for complex technological solutions at this year’s high-stakes climate meeting in the Amazon city of Belém, a simpler yet powerful answer has been waiting in the wings. I saw it firsthand in the forests of West Papua’s Bird’s Head Peninsula in the company [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Climate change is the defining issue of our age. While nations search for complex technological solutions at this year’s high-stakes climate meeting in the Amazon city of Belém, a simpler yet powerful answer has been waiting in the wings. I saw it firsthand in the forests of West Papua’s Bird’s Head Peninsula in the company of Indigenous youth from the Amazon, the Congo Basin, and Borneo. They showed me a truth that the world has been overlooking: one of the most effective climate solutions lies in empowering Indigenous people. In this way, we can prevent an immense amount of carbon emissions from deforestation and preserve priceless biodiversity and all the benefits we reap from it. It’s a strategy that more than pays for itself. A recent Forest Defender Camp at Sira village in Southwest Papua featured 89 delegates ranging from Papuan Indigenous youths from 7 customary areas to Indigenous representatives from communities in the Congo Basin, the Amazon, and Borneo. Image courtesy of Greenpeace. The first piece of good news is that it is simple. The rest of the good news is that we can put it into practice right now, and that it needn’t cost too much. Ending fossil fuels, transforming global food systems – these are essential but they’re expensive and they take time. They often require re-skilling whole workforces. While that hard and slow work is underway, Indonesia can score an immediate goal by finally enacting the Indigenous Peoples Bill, and by providing Indigenous communities access to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/to-fix-the-climate-simply-empower-indigenous-people-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309219</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>No, Bill Gates, we don’t have to choose between people &#038; planet (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/no-bill-gates-we-dont-have-to-choose-between-people-planet-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/no-bill-gates-we-dont-have-to-choose-between-people-planet-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Nov 2025 16:12:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mary Robinson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/11081601/jambi_220653_2560px-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309000</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Commentary, Development, Ethics, Finance, Forests, Fossil Fuels, Funding, Governance, philanthropy, Social Justice, Sustainable Development, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Bill Gates has long been a leading voice in the global response to human health and climate change. His climate investments and advocacy have helped drive innovation, expand access to clean energy and push climate action higher on the world’s agenda. However, his recent essay, “Three Tough Truths About Climate,” marks a dangerous shift that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Bill Gates has long been a leading voice in the global response to human health and climate change. His climate investments and advocacy have helped drive innovation, expand access to clean energy and push climate action higher on the world’s agenda. However, his recent essay, “Three Tough Truths About Climate,” marks a dangerous shift that could undermine that contribution. Gates writes with admirable nuance, and his proposed shift to focus finance on outcomes that reduce human suffering, rather than emissions reduction, projects a tone of reason and compassion. However, I read his reflections with concern and believe that his framing risks reinforcing three misconceptions that could slow, rather than accelerate, progress at a critical moment for the planet and its most vulnerable populations. First, the suggestion that the world must choose between financing development and financing climate action falsely presents a zero-sum situation. By suggesting that we must prioritize one over the other, Gates assumes that we live in a world where our current scarcity of development and climate resources is fixed for all time. While cuts to overseas development budgets in countries like the United States, France, Germany and the U.K. have decreased resources at the moment, there are numerous strategies to reverse that trend that we must seek to advance. This should begin with public pressure for governments to restore and enhance their aid budgets. Countries should also follow through on their collective commitment to remove the more than $1 trillion in fossil fuel subsidies and the $500&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/no-bill-gates-we-dont-have-to-choose-between-people-planet-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309000</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate finance must reach Indigenous communities at COP30 &#038; beyond (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/climate-finance-must-reach-indigenous-communities-at-cop30-beyond-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/climate-finance-must-reach-indigenous-communities-at-cop30-beyond-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Nov 2025 17:19:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Suzanne PelletierVictor Gil]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/04/26193812/AKM-in-boat-in-forest-e1691598299442-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308876</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Global, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Commentary, Conservation Finance, Finance, Forests, Funding, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Rainforests, Traditional Knowledge, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As the COP30 climate summit in the Amazon draws near, pressure is mounting to get funding directly into the hands of Indigenous and local community organizations who are the frontline defenders of the world’s rainforests. Donors are waking up to the powerful truth that funding Indigenous and local communities is one of the highest-impact investments [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As the COP30 climate summit in the Amazon draws near, pressure is mounting to get funding directly into the hands of Indigenous and local community organizations who are the frontline defenders of the world’s rainforests. Donors are waking up to the powerful truth that funding Indigenous and local communities is one of the highest-impact investments we can make for forest protection and climate action. This momentum is encouraging. Still, the numbers tell a stark story. Indigenous and local communities protect 36% of the world’s intact tropical forests, yet receive less than 1% of international climate finance. This contradiction threatens global climate goals and leaves the most effective forest guardians without the resources they need. Behind this funding gap lie systemic barriers: rigid eligibility rules, donor requirements designed for large institutions, and administrative hurdles that shut out grassroots organizations. For decades, many intermediary organizations tried to bridge these gaps. Still, in practice, some evolved into permanent gatekeepers, unintentionally absorbing resources that could have more directly supported the organizations and communities they aimed to serve. Indigenous conservationist Juan Julio Durand is one of the founding members of Junglekeepers, which has protected  50,000 acres of the Peruvian Amazon. Photo courtesy of Mohsin Kazmi. But intermediary organizations don’t always have to be gatekeepers. Our experience at Rainforest Foundation US and its Indigenous partners shows that when structured thoughtfully, intermediary organizations can clear the way rather than complicate it. They can break the funding bottlenecks while deliberately shifting power and, over time, help Indigenous organizations&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/climate-finance-must-reach-indigenous-communities-at-cop30-beyond-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308876</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Investing in the next generation of environmental journalists (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/investing-in-the-next-generation-of-environmental-journalists-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/investing-in-the-next-generation-of-environmental-journalists-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Nov 2025 23:40:29 +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/20/2025/10/20222757/ca_20251019_231241427z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308766</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Environment, Green, Hope and optimism, information ecosystem, Journalism, Mongabay.org, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The global environmental crisis is also a crisis of information. The destruction of forests, reefs, and rivers proceeds faster than our ability to explain it. Yet in many countries, the people best placed to tell these stories lack the means, mentorship, or editorial backing to do so. For emerging journalists—and for those shifting from other [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The global environmental crisis is also a crisis of information. The destruction of forests, reefs, and rivers proceeds faster than our ability to explain it. Yet in many countries, the people best placed to tell these stories lack the means, mentorship, or editorial backing to do so. For emerging journalists—and for those shifting from other beats into environmental reporting—the gap between curiosity and capability can be decisive. Bridging it is not charity; it is strategy. When newsrooms shrink, environmental coverage is often the first to go. Science desks are absorbed, travel budgets vanish, and reporters who once covered courts or crime are suddenly asked to decipher climate policy. Many bring deep investigative instincts, but not the technical literacy to interpret satellite data, read environmental and social impact assessments, or distinguish credible science from spin. Without support, their reporting risks being shallow or silenced. With it, they can become powerful chroniclers of how environmental change reshapes lives and economies. This is where structured opportunities—paid fellowships, editorial mentorship, and global professional networks—matter. Programs such as Mongabay’s Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship, which has supported about 40 early-career journalists since 2022, show how targeted investment can transform both journalism and environmental governance. The idea is simple: pair local knowledge and experience with professional guidance, and the result is sharper, more trusted storytelling. Mongabay Latam&#8217;s program for Indigenous communicators in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The first cohort included two Shuar reporters and one Kichwa reporter. Fellows from Indonesia to Nigeria have uncovered illegal mining,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/investing-in-the-next-generation-of-environmental-journalists-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308766</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Why independent journalism is a strategic investment for philanthropy (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/supporting-journalism-the-catalytic-role-of-independently-verified-information-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/supporting-journalism-the-catalytic-role-of-independently-verified-information-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Oct 2025 21:06:31 +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/20/2025/10/26204649/philanthropy-should-fund-journalism-v2-256x90-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308316</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Environment, Green, information ecosystem, Journalism, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When a logging concession in Gabon threatened a community’s ancestral forest, their appeals to officials went nowhere—until someone wrote about it. Once the facts reached the public record, the environment minister revoked the company’s permit and moved to legally protect the forest, officially recognizing a community’s stewardship. That episode revealed a quieter truth: journalism is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When a logging concession in Gabon threatened a community’s ancestral forest, their appeals to officials went nowhere—until someone wrote about it. Once the facts reached the public record, the environment minister revoked the company’s permit and moved to legally protect the forest, officially recognizing a community’s stewardship. That episode revealed a quieter truth: journalism is not a substitute for policy or enforcement, yet it supplies the conditions those actions require, credible information delivered in time and in public. It can convert private harm into shared knowledge, and shared knowledge into collective pressure. For philanthropists focused on climate and biodiversity, supporting journalism may seem peripheral compared with protecting land, funding clean technology, or reforming supply chains. In practice, it is a high-leverage investment that strengthens and multiplies the effectiveness of all the above. Environmental damage thrives in opacity—unrecorded deforestation, unverified carbon credits, unexamined subsidies. Independent reporting drags those risks into daylight, creating the accountability that allows other interventions to work. Consider the case of United Cacao in Peru. When the company raised $10 million on the London Stock Exchange to fund a “sustainable” cacao plantation, it presented itself as restoring the rainforest. A short series of investigative reports, supported by satellite imagery and local sources, revealed that more than 2,000 hectares of Amazonian forest had already been cleared. The reporting itself represented a modest portion of the newsroom’s overall budget, yet its consequences were vast. The Peruvian government revoked the permit; the company was later delisted, curtailing the planned expansion that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/supporting-journalism-the-catalytic-role-of-independently-verified-information-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308316</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Trust-based philanthropy: Lessons from MacKenzie Scott and Laurene Powell Jobs (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/trust-based-philanthropy-lessons-from-mackenzie-scott-and-laurene-powell-job/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/trust-based-philanthropy-lessons-from-mackenzie-scott-and-laurene-powell-job/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Oct 2025 22:18:44 +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/20/2025/10/20221304/Starling_Murmuration-2501x1668-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307984</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs and Navigating conservation's crisis]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Environment, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[More than eight hundred years ago, Maimonides wrote that the highest form of giving is to make charity itself unnecessary. That wisdom feels newly relevant today as questions about power and purpose continue to shape modern philanthropy. Last week, writing in The Wall Street Journal Laurene Powell Jobs revisited the idea, warning that too often [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[More than eight hundred years ago, Maimonides wrote that the highest form of giving is to make charity itself unnecessary. That wisdom feels newly relevant today as questions about power and purpose continue to shape modern philanthropy. Last week, writing in The Wall Street Journal Laurene Powell Jobs revisited the idea, warning that too often wealth becomes a substitute for participation. In her words, “giving that expects control is anything but generous.” When donations become instruments of direction—when benefactors seek to decide what matters and who gets to belong—philanthropy drifts from “love of humanity” toward a contest for influence. MacKenzie Scott offered another image: a murmuration of starlings, millions of birds moving as one without a leader. Their direction, she noted, emerges from continuous response to one another’s movements. Her metaphor captures what the next evolution of philanthropy might look like—decentralized, adaptive, and animated by trust. Both women are describing, from different vantage points, a common transformation. Powell Jobs warns against power disguised as generosity; Scott imagines generosity as shared participation. Each challenges the notion that change flows downward from donor to recipient. And both point toward what many frontline and movement leaders across the Global South have long understood: real and lasting progress happens through proximity, not prescription. Image by Rhett Ayers Butler Philanthropy rarely lacks ambition or compassion, but its operating systems often remain transactional. The habits that define much of institutional giving—short cycles, risk aversion, and an insistence on measurable outcomes—shape behavior even among those trying to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/trust-based-philanthropy-lessons-from-mackenzie-scott-and-laurene-powell-job/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307984</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Supporting frontline leadership in a time of crisis (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/supporting-frontline-leadership-in-a-time-of-crisis-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/supporting-frontline-leadership-in-a-time-of-crisis-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Oct 2025 16:15:55 +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/20/2025/10/12131930/ca_nisene_marks_17068-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307454</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs and Navigating conservation's crisis]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, Funding, Green, Indigenous Peoples, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A few weeks ago, I wrote about navigating conservation’s crisis. During Climate Week in New York, I joined discussions with grassroots leaders from the Global South that offered a sharper view of how philanthropy meets—and sometimes misses—the realities of frontline work. Their reflections highlighted dynamics that merit further exploration. &#160; Philanthropy is purportedly rooted in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A few weeks ago, I wrote about navigating conservation’s crisis. During Climate Week in New York, I joined discussions with grassroots leaders from the Global South that offered a sharper view of how philanthropy meets—and sometimes misses—the realities of frontline work. Their reflections highlighted dynamics that merit further exploration. An invitation The conservation field is facing a radical new reality: accelerating ecological decline, shrinking civic space, and shifting political and financial landscapes. At Mongabay, we believe this moment demands not only reporting, but reflection. We are inviting voices from across the sector to contribute commentaries that ask hard questions and explore how crisis can also be opportunity. If you work in conservation, what lessons, pivots, or strategies do you see emerging? Where is adaptation already happening—and what should come next? We welcome your reflections as part of a broader discourse on how conservation can meet this era with creativity, courage, and clarity. To submit a commentary for consideration, please see the guidance under Commentaries/editorials on our submissions page. &nbsp; Philanthropy is purportedly rooted in a ‘love of humanity’, yet its operating systems are often transactional. Of course, “philanthropy” encompasses an extraordinary range of actors, from small family foundations to major multilateral donors, and not all fall into the same patterns. Still, the prevailing norms that govern much of the sector—short grant cycles, risk aversion, and an emphasis on measurable outcomes—tend to shape behavior even among those trying to work differently. For many frontline conservation and climate justice groups, already juggling&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/supporting-frontline-leadership-in-a-time-of-crisis-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307454</doi>				</item>
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