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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/islands/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Tue, 03 Nov 2026 04:19:17 +0000</lastBuildDate>
		<language>en-US</language>
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<image>
	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Islands</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/islands/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Seabird guano and native trees keep islands above rising seas: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/seabird-guano-and-native-trees-keep-islands-above-rising-seas-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/seabird-guano-and-native-trees-keep-islands-above-rising-seas-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Oct 2026 16:48:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/21114336/3-red-footed-booby_Jon-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333438</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, Birds, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Invasive Species, Islands, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Research, Science, Sea Levels, Seabirds, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Low-lying tropical atoll islands appear remarkably vulnerable to climate change. But when shrouded with native forests and with abundant seabird populations, these islands may keep up with rising sea levels, a new study finds. Seabirds act as biological pumps, moving nutrients from feeding areas in the open ocean to roosting and nesting areas on land [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Low-lying tropical atoll islands appear remarkably vulnerable to climate change. But when shrouded with native forests and with abundant seabird populations, these islands may keep up with rising sea levels, a new study finds. Seabirds act as biological pumps, moving nutrients from feeding areas in the open ocean to roosting and nesting areas on land and, eventually, back into the ocean. The recent Science Advances study traces how energy from nutrient-dense seabird guano trickles through terrestrial and marine ecosystems on atoll islands. The findings show that these nutrients, along with native vegetation, boost processes that build and maintain the island’s reef and underlying structure, even in the face of rising seas. Rewilding atoll islands — many of which no longer support seabirds and have seen native forests replaced by coconut palms — builds climate resilience, as well as benefiting biodiversity, Nicholas Graham, distinguished professor at Lancaster University, England, and the study’s first author, told Mongabay in a video call. “It’s really telling us something about the islands themselves,” Graham said. “Seabirds and native vegetation actually support the resilience of the islands themselves to sea level rise, which I think is fascinating and really quite positive.” Atoll islands of Tetiaroa Atoll, French Polynesia. Seabirds and native vegetation make low-lying atoll islands more resilient to sea level rise due to climate change, according to a recent study. Image by Yadvinder Malhi. Graham and colleagues first began looking into the connection between seabirds, islands and reefs nearly a decade ago. At the time,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/seabird-guano-and-native-trees-keep-islands-above-rising-seas-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/seabird-guano-and-native-trees-keep-islands-above-rising-seas-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333438</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As yellow-eyed penguins disappear, conservationists focus on deaths in fishing nets</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/as-yellow-eyed-penguins-disappear-conservationists-focus-on-deaths-in-fishing-nets/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/as-yellow-eyed-penguins-disappear-conservationists-focus-on-deaths-in-fishing-nets/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Sep 2026 16:57:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/28113111/12-A-yellow-eyed-penguin-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=331013</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[New Zealand, Oceania, Pacific Islands, and Polynesia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Fishing, Governance, Islands, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Penguins, Seabirds, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[OTAGO PENINSULA, Aotearoa New Zealand — Sandfly Bay was long a key nesting area for yellow-eyed penguins (Megadyptes antipodes), noisy, pink-footed birds that spend long days foraging at sea. But this wild beach on the Otago Peninsula, like others nearby, has gone quiet. In 2024, the last breeding-age female at Sandfly Bay, who’d been consistently [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[OTAGO PENINSULA, Aotearoa New Zealand — Sandfly Bay was long a key nesting area for yellow-eyed penguins (Megadyptes antipodes), noisy, pink-footed birds that spend long days foraging at sea. But this wild beach on the Otago Peninsula, like others nearby, has gone quiet. In 2024, the last breeding-age female at Sandfly Bay, who’d been consistently producing chicks for a dozen years, drowned in a fishing net. Fishing has been one of many factors driving the species, which is only found in Aotearoa New Zealand, toward extinction. In the 2008-2009 breeding season, there were 739 breeding pairs in the “mainland” New Zealand population, which includes pairs on nearby islands. But the population has dropped since then to 117 pairs — a decline of more than 80%. These figures don’t account for yellow-eyed penguins on New Zealand’s remote southern islands, which are poorly surveyed. The IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, listed the species as endangered in its last assessment, in 2020, when the mainland population was still twice what it is now. Several experts told Mongabay that the species’ chances of survival are slim, though most said they still had faith. “I think I’d always like to say that there’s hope because otherwise why do you do what you do, but things are pretty dire,” Trudi Webster, a marine scientist who’s worked on research and conservation of the species for the past decade, told Mongabay. A number of organizations are working to save the yellow-eyed penguin, and much of the conservation&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/as-yellow-eyed-penguins-disappear-conservationists-focus-on-deaths-in-fishing-nets/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/as-yellow-eyed-penguins-disappear-conservationists-focus-on-deaths-in-fishing-nets/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-331013</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Singapore&#8217;s plan to merge several islands could wipe out coral reefs</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/singapores-plan-to-merge-several-islands-could-wipe-out-coral-reefs/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/singapores-plan-to-merge-several-islands-could-wipe-out-coral-reefs/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Sep 2026 08:49:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Robin Hicks]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/28012336/aa.-Bluespotted-ribbontail-ray-Pulau-Hantu-2017-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=330946</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Singapore, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Culture, Development, Ecosystems, Environment, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Islands, Law, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Traditional People, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SINGAPORE — “For seven thousand years, Singapore has changed around these reefs,” says Debby Ng, a Singaporean biologist who studies the city-state’s shrinking coastal and marine habitats. “They are still here.” Despite colonization, war, shipping and industrialization, reefs a few kilometers south of Singapore’s gleaming shoreline have endured. “It would be a tragedy if we [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SINGAPORE — “For seven thousand years, Singapore has changed around these reefs,” says Debby Ng, a Singaporean biologist who studies the city-state’s shrinking coastal and marine habitats. “They are still here.” Despite colonization, war, shipping and industrialization, reefs a few kilometers south of Singapore’s gleaming shoreline have endured. “It would be a tragedy if we were to lose them now — in peacetime, at the height of our prosperity, when we possess more knowledge and capacity to protect them than any generation before us,” Ng tells Mongabay. At a National Day rally on Aug. 23, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced plans to merge a cluster of islands sprawled across a few thousand hectares of seascape into a new “western island” for advanced manufacturing, energy and defense. No timeline for the western island project was given. Wong said reclamation would take place “over the coming decades” and that plans were being studied carefully. But the announcement has alarmed Singapore’s marine conservation community, which says the project could affect some of the country’s most biodiverse waters. The islands include Pulau Semakau, which houses Singapore’s offshore landfill, and Pulau Bukom, home to an oil refinery, as well as Pulau Sudong and smaller islands including Pulau Hantu, Pulau Jong and Pulau Sebarok. The area is estimated to contain some 590 hectares (1,460 acres) of coral reefs — about 60% of the total in Singapore — along with 22% of the city-state’s seagrass meadows and 5% of its mangroves. Black sun coral (Tubastraea micranthus), Singapore.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/singapores-plan-to-merge-several-islands-could-wipe-out-coral-reefs/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/singapores-plan-to-merge-several-islands-could-wipe-out-coral-reefs/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-330946</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Timor green pigeon nears extinction after decades of inaction, study warns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/timor-green-pigeon-nears-extinction-after-decades-of-inaction-study-warns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/timor-green-pigeon-nears-extinction-after-decades-of-inaction-study-warns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Aug 2026 16:31:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy Mihocik]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/12120441/Timor-green-pigeon-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326043</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Timor, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Islands, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On April 20, Jafet Potenzo Lopes was surveying the south coast of Manatuto municipality, in Timor-Leste, when he recorded something he had not seen in years: three Timor green pigeons, alive, in a location where the species had never been documented before. Lopes is one of Timor-Leste&#8217;s few field ecologists. He was born and raised [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On April 20, Jafet Potenzo Lopes was surveying the south coast of Manatuto municipality, in Timor-Leste, when he recorded something he had not seen in years: three Timor green pigeons, alive, in a location where the species had never been documented before. Lopes is one of Timor-Leste&#8217;s few field ecologists. He was born and raised in the village of Com, inside Nino Konis Santana National Park — the last place on Earth where a viable population of this species, Treron psittaceus, still survives. He has spent more than a decade walking through forests, coastal habitats and mountains across the country, documenting what remains. “Rediscovering the Timor green pigeon was one of the most emotional moments of my life,&#8221; he says. “I was almost crying when I saw them in the wild. In my heart and mind, I kept saying, ‘Yes, yes, they still exist.’” Researchers estimate that only 100-500 Timor green pigeons remain globally, and believe the true number is probably toward the lower end of that range. “Seeing them alive gave me hope,” Lopes says. But despite decades of concern for the endangered bird, the species still lacks a dedicated recovery program, regular population monitoring and sustained conservation investment. T. psittaceus inhabits the lowland forests of Timor, a Southeast Asian island divided between Timor-Leste and the Indonesian region of West Timor. Less than 10% of the island’s original forest cover remains. A recent survey of the species published in the journal Oryx, the most comprehensive ever conducted, compiled more&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/timor-green-pigeon-nears-extinction-after-decades-of-inaction-study-warns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/timor-green-pigeon-nears-extinction-after-decades-of-inaction-study-warns/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326043</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Fatal WWII bomb blast in Indonesia was a result of illegal fishing activity, police say</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/fatal-wwii-bomb-blast-in-indonesia-was-a-result-of-illegal-fishing-activity-police-say/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/fatal-wwii-bomb-blast-in-indonesia-was-a-result-of-illegal-fishing-activity-police-say/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jul 2026 09:03:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Asrida Elisabeth]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/29084556/Explosives-and-other-remnants-of-World-War-II-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324751</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Culture, Disasters, Environment, Environmental Law, Fishing, Governance, Illegal Fishing, Islands, Law, Oceans, and War]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BIAK, Indonesia — The munition here had outlasted one of the Pacific&#8217;s fiercest World War II battles. Eight decades later, investigators in Indonesia said it exploded by the timber-framed houses in the coastal village of Fandoi on Indonesia&#8217;s Biak Island. Investigators and officials later concluded a group of local fishers were dismantling an unexploded munition [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BIAK, Indonesia — The munition here had outlasted one of the Pacific&#8217;s fiercest World War II battles. Eight decades later, investigators in Indonesia said it exploded by the timber-framed houses in the coastal village of Fandoi on Indonesia&#8217;s Biak Island. Investigators and officials later concluded a group of local fishers were dismantling an unexploded munition recovered from coastal waters off Papua, where some of the Pacific&#8217;s most intense fighting took place in 1944. “They take them and dismantle them on the island,” said Cliff Marlessy, who as director of the Indonesia Locally Managed Marine Area (ILMMA) works with communities to manage marine resources in Biak. Their deaths are the latest in a long legacy of unexploded wartime ordnance, which has killed or injured at least 25,000 people across neighboring Papua New Guinea since 1945, according to The HALO Trust, the world&#8217;s largest humanitarian mine-clearance organization. No concrete estimate exists for the death toll across Indonesia. Authorities have known about repurposing of unexploded bombs for decades, yet some fishers continue to recover wartime explosives for use in blast fishing despite the extreme danger. Goa Jepang — or &#8220;Goa Binsar,&#8221; as locals call it — is a Japanese military bunker from World War II. Image by Asrida Elisabeth/Mongabay Indonesia. Legacy of war New Guinea and its surrounding islands were among the Pacific&#8217;s most violent World War II theatres, while Allied forces advanced westward through Japanese-held territory. During this period, months of heavy bombing and naval combat left countless unexploded bombs and artillery&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/fatal-wwii-bomb-blast-in-indonesia-was-a-result-of-illegal-fishing-activity-police-say/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/fatal-wwii-bomb-blast-in-indonesia-was-a-result-of-illegal-fishing-activity-police-say/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324751</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cabo Verde program and its fishers have been protecting the sea for 10 years</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/cabo-verde-program-and-its-fishers-have-been-protecting-the-sea-for-10-years/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/cabo-verde-program-and-its-fishers-have-been-protecting-the-sea-for-10-years/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Jul 2026 16:44:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alice PistolesiMonica Pelliccia]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/07073226/8-port-of-Mosteiros-on-Fogo-Island-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322706</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cape Verde, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Islands, Marine, Marine Conservation, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[FOGO, Cabo Verde — Alberto Martius had just returned to shore in his white and blue wooden boat with his 18-year-old son, Leandro. The pair had been fishing off their home island of Fogo in the Cabo Verde archipelago off northwestern Africa. While out, they were also keeping an eye on the sea. “I’m proud [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[FOGO, Cabo Verde — Alberto Martius had just returned to shore in his white and blue wooden boat with his 18-year-old son, Leandro. The pair had been fishing off their home island of Fogo in the Cabo Verde archipelago off northwestern Africa. While out, they were also keeping an eye on the sea. “I’m proud my son is following in my footsteps, protecting the ocean,” Martius told Mongabay. “I feel I’m doing the right thing to protect the sea. Almost every day, I’m patrolling this area to monitor marine animals and make them return as numerous as they were when I was a little kid.” The Martiuses volunteer with an initiative called Guardians of the Sea that celebrated its 10th anniversary in June. Run by eight local and international NGOs and led by the Maio Biodiversity Foundation at the national level, it trains and supports fishers to serve as voluntary ocean observers as they go about their daily fishing work. Among other tasks, they monitor megafauna and collect data on illegal activities during their fishing trips. Around 190 fishers are involved, working around seven of the archipelago’s 10 islands. The program launched on the island of Maio in 2016 and expanded to its seventh island, São Antão, with 30 guardians, in 2024. Fishers have always been a pillar of Cabo Verde&#8217;s economy and identity. The country hosts a fleet of around 1,535 vessels, ranging from artisanal to semi-industrial, and the sector provides a livelihood for coastal families. Alberto Martius with&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/cabo-verde-program-and-its-fishers-have-been-protecting-the-sea-for-10-years/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/cabo-verde-program-and-its-fishers-have-been-protecting-the-sea-for-10-years/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322706</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>US prepares to auction leases for seabed mining blocks in federal waters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-prepares-to-auction-leases-for-seabed-mining-blocks-in-federal-waters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-prepares-to-auction-leases-for-seabed-mining-blocks-in-federal-waters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 May 2026 20:29:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/27100412/sea-star-coral-ex1702-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320180</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Alaska, Pacific Islands, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deep Sea Mining, Ecosystems, Environment, extractives, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Industry, Islands, Marine, Marine Conservation, Mining, Oceans, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is part 1 of a two-part series examining the U.S.’s efforts to begin deep-sea mining in federal waters. Part 1 explores the process behind proposed lease sales in U.S. federal waters and reactions to those plans. Part 2 examines the regulations that would govern the industry. The U.S. agency responsible for overseeing deep-sea mining [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is part 1 of a two-part series examining the U.S.’s efforts to begin deep-sea mining in federal waters. Part 1 explores the process behind proposed lease sales in U.S. federal waters and reactions to those plans. Part 2 examines the regulations that would govern the industry. The U.S. agency responsible for overseeing deep-sea mining in federal waters is preparing to auction off seabed blocks within months — a step that could kick-start commercial-scale deep-sea mining and make the U.S. one of the first countries to allow it. Deep-sea mining has not yet begun anywhere in the world. Opponents say it could cause widespread and irreversible damage to the marine environment if it begins, while supporters say it could provide an important source of critical minerals. In a budgetary document released in April 2026, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) indicated it intends to hold at least three offshore lease sales during the 2026 and 2027 fiscal years. The lease sales will take place through competitive auctions, providing a pathway for winning companies to gain exclusive rights to explore and exploit minerals in designated tracts of seabed. The first sale is slated for the federal waters of American Samoa in August 2026; a second in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) in November 2026; and a third in Alaska in 2027. A spokesperson for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the U.S. agency currently responsible for the development of offshore energy and mineral resources on the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-prepares-to-auction-leases-for-seabed-mining-blocks-in-federal-waters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-prepares-to-auction-leases-for-seabed-mining-blocks-in-federal-waters/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320180</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Philippine fishing and Indigenous communities wary of clean energy boom in Marcos stronghold</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/philippine-fishing-and-indigenous-communities-wary-of-clean-energy-boom-in-marcos-stronghold/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/philippine-fishing-and-indigenous-communities-wary-of-clean-energy-boom-in-marcos-stronghold/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 May 2026 23:28:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Michael Beltran]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/13110218/Ed-Singson-shows-off-the-seaweed-in-his-bucket-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319296</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Business, Clean Energy, Conservation, Energy, Fishing, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Islands, Just Transition, Marine, Marine Conservation, Offshore Wind, Renewable Energy, Solar Power, and Wind Power]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PASUQUIN, Philippines — Crouched on the beach under the hot noon sun, a fisherman flattens a black sheet of seaweed on a bamboo mat rolled out on the sand. Wearing a straw hat wide enough to shade his entire body, he tucks his legs in to avoid getting burned. Gamet, a rare and coveted variety [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PASUQUIN, Philippines — Crouched on the beach under the hot noon sun, a fisherman flattens a black sheet of seaweed on a bamboo mat rolled out on the sand. Wearing a straw hat wide enough to shade his entire body, he tucks his legs in to avoid getting burned. Gamet, a rare and coveted variety of seaweed local to the coasts of the Philippines’ Ilocos Norte province, is both a staple to fishing communities and a popular souvenir for travelers. But harvesting the highly sought-after seaweed can be a dangerous task. Like the better-known nori, it belongs to the Bangiaceae family of red algae and grows exclusively on the sharp, pointed rocks along the cooler waters of the northern Philippine coast. At the other end of the beach, Ed Singson, leader of the local fishing association, has just come ashore with a bucket of fresh gamet. Taking a handful of seaweed from his bucket, he says, “We will protest on the seas for this if we have to.” Singson, 55, and his fellow fisherfolk have learned from local authorities about plans by a foreign company to build a vast stretch of offshore wind turbines on traditional fishing grounds. They say they fear the construction, vibrations and, eventually, the completed structures could disrupt their fishing routes and local marine life. A fisher in Burgos, Ilocos Norte, flattens a sheet of Gamet to dry on the beach. Image by Michael Beltran for Mongabay. ‘Renewable energy capital’ Ilocos Norte, the northwestern tip of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/philippine-fishing-and-indigenous-communities-wary-of-clean-energy-boom-in-marcos-stronghold/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/philippine-fishing-and-indigenous-communities-wary-of-clean-energy-boom-in-marcos-stronghold/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319296</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Long dubbed a ‘climate refuge,’ warming Tasmanian forests need our help</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/long-dubbed-a-climate-refuge-warming-tasmanian-forests-need-our-help/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/long-dubbed-a-climate-refuge-warming-tasmanian-forests-need-our-help/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 May 2026 21:31:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Stefan Lovgren]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/12184852/2.-Dove-Lake-Cradle-Mountain-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319252</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia, Oceania, and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Impact Of Climate Change, Islands, Rainforests, Research, Temperate Forests, Temperatures, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TASMANIA, Australia — A shaded creek winds through fern forest along the Lilydale Falls Trail in northern Tasmania. As hikers pass by, researcher Todd Walsh reaches into the slow-moving water and beneath a rock to pull out a juvenile giant freshwater crayfish caught in one of his live traps. In streams like this one, he [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TASMANIA, Australia — A shaded creek winds through fern forest along the Lilydale Falls Trail in northern Tasmania. As hikers pass by, researcher Todd Walsh reaches into the slow-moving water and beneath a rock to pull out a juvenile giant freshwater crayfish caught in one of his live traps. In streams like this one, he says, present day temperatures rarely climb above about 21° Celsius (69.8° Fahrenheit). “The lethal temperature seems to be about 23°[C, or 73.4°F] for these guys,” says Walsh, an independent crayfish expert who has studied the animals for decades and is known locally as the “Lobster Man.” Walsh says he has encountered a few other Tasmanian creeks reaching 25-26°C (77-78.8°F), which would exceed the species’ apparent thermal limits, and he hasn’t found any crayfish in those streams. Crayfish expert Todd Walsh checks a live trap in a shaded stream in northern Tasmania, where cold, forested waterways provide critical habitat for the giant freshwater crayfish. Image by Stefan Lovgren. A juvenile Tasmanian giant freshwater crayfish. Few survive to adulthood, making the loss of habitat for young individuals a major threat to the species. Image by Stefan Lovgren. The Tasmanian giant freshwater crayfish (Astacopsis gouldi), also dubbed the giant freshwater lobster (even though it’s not a lobster), is the largest freshwater invertebrate on Earth, capable of growing up to a meter long (more than 3 feet) and living for decades. It occurs only in northern Tasmania’s cool, forested river watersheds — habitat that has remained colder and wetter&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/long-dubbed-a-climate-refuge-warming-tasmanian-forests-need-our-help/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/long-dubbed-a-climate-refuge-warming-tasmanian-forests-need-our-help/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319252</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>US proposes endangered species protections for an imperiled Jamaican butterfly</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-proposes-endangered-species-protections-for-an-imperiled-jamaican-butterfly/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-proposes-endangered-species-protections-for-an-imperiled-jamaican-butterfly/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2026 12:04:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/06171317/Protographium-marcellinus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318851</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean, Jamaica, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, Environmental Law, Extinction, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Insects, Islands, Over-hunting, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Wildlife, and Wildlife consumption]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) recently proposed listing Jamaica’s most imperiled butterfly, the Jamaican kite swallowtail, as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The species (Protographium marcellinus), a small, fast-flying butterfly, flutters through its limestone forest home. Its wings, painted in streaks of bright turquoise and black with a dash of red, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) recently proposed listing Jamaica’s most imperiled butterfly, the Jamaican kite swallowtail, as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The species (Protographium marcellinus), a small, fast-flying butterfly, flutters through its limestone forest home. Its wings, painted in streaks of bright turquoise and black with a dash of red, sport long, narrow tails. These charismatic butterflies live on this island and nowhere else. In recent years, they’ve nearly disappeared. Back in the 1960s, scientists recorded about 750,000 individuals; that number has plummeted to between 50 and 250 today. In some years, they’ve seen none. It’s such an alarming decline that scientists say this swallowtail should jump two categories on the IUCN Red List, from vulnerable to critically endangered. “This listing would be a real turning point for this species,” said Dianne DuBois, senior scientist at the U.S.-based NGO Center for Biological Diversity, which has been fighting for ESA protections for the butterfly since 1994. After a few failed attempts, it sued USFWS in 2021, which resulted in the agency drawing up the current proposal. ESA listings prevent extinction in 99% of the species under the act, but the wait is often quite long, about 12 years on average. Time may not be on its side for the Jamaican kite swallowtail, which hangs on the brink of extinction. “We wish this proposal had come three decades ago,” DuBois said. “We really want to urge the Fish and Wildlife Service to work quickly to finalize these&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-proposes-endangered-species-protections-for-an-imperiled-jamaican-butterfly/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-proposes-endangered-species-protections-for-an-imperiled-jamaican-butterfly/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318851</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Half of seabirds are declining. Protecting marine flyways could help save them</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/half-of-seabirds-are-declining-protecting-marine-flyways-could-help-save-them/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/half-of-seabirds-are-declining-protecting-marine-flyways-could-help-save-them/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Apr 2026 01:00:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/09230341/galapagos_2414294z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317300</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Bycatch, Climate Change, Conservation, Endangered Species, Islands, Marine, Marine Animals, Migration, Oceans, and Seabirds]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; Animals that cross borders often encounter conservation systems that stop at them. Migratory species move through jurisdictions with little regard for political boundaries, relying on habitats spread across large distances and governed by different rules. The result is patchy protection, overlapping threats, and declining populations. Seabirds make this problem clear. They range across entire [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; Animals that cross borders often encounter conservation systems that stop at them. Migratory species move through jurisdictions with little regard for political boundaries, relying on habitats spread across large distances and governed by different rules. The result is patchy protection, overlapping threats, and declining populations. Seabirds make this problem clear. They range across entire ocean basins, breeding on remote islands, feeding in distant waters, and passing through multiple national zones along the way. Nearly half of migratory species are in decline, and seabirds are among the most threatened groups. Their conservation requires coordination across places and seasons, which has been difficult to sustain. On land, one organizing idea has helped. The concept of “flyways” groups migration into broad, recurring routes. It has been used to align governments, focus research, and guide investment. Over time, it has helped coordinate conservation efforts, especially for waterbirds. A policy paper, published last month in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology, applies the same framework to the ocean. Overlap of the marine flyways and national waters (Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) in dark blue lines). Purple colored national waters denote CMS Parties and green represent Non-­ Party states. Maps are in Robinson projection, with (a) centered at 0° and (b) centered at 140° W. From Morten et al (2026) Recent advances in tracking have made this possible. By analyzing the movements of long-distance pelagic species, a team of researchers from BirdLife International, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), and multiple&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/half-of-seabirds-are-declining-protecting-marine-flyways-could-help-save-them/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/half-of-seabirds-are-declining-protecting-marine-flyways-could-help-save-them/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317300</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Is the Galápagos damselfish extinct?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/is-the-galapagos-damselfish-extinct/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/is-the-galapagos-damselfish-extinct/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Apr 2026 01:06:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/05013742/Galapagos_damselfish-Azurina_eupalama-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316982</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Galapagos, Latin America, Pacific Ocean, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, El Nino, Endangered Species, Extinction, Fish, Islands, Marine, Marine Animals, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; A small, blue-gray fish that once gathered in loose schools along the rocky shores of the Galápagos Islands has become the subject of a more precise question: whether it is already gone. The Galápagos damselfish (Azurina eupalama) has not been recorded since 1983. Before that, it was regularly encountered. Specimens were collected by nearly [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; A small, blue-gray fish that once gathered in loose schools along the rocky shores of the Galápagos Islands has become the subject of a more precise question: whether it is already gone. The Galápagos damselfish (Azurina eupalama) has not been recorded since 1983. Before that, it was regularly encountered. Specimens were collected by nearly every major scientific expedition to the islands across the 20th century, and divers could expect to find it at multiple sites. Its disappearance has therefore drawn attention not only for its outcome, but for its abruptness. Azurina eupalama, engraving of type specimen from Heller &#038; Snodgrass (1903). A recent paper by Jack Stein Grove and Benjamin Victor revisits the evidence and concludes that the species is now likely extinct. The paper, published in the Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation, assembles historical records, ecological context, and decades of unsuccessful searches to argue that the absence is no longer plausibly explained by oversight. The timing points to a specific event. The last confirmed sighting came in the aftermath of the 1982–83 El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), one of the most intense on record. During such episodes, the cold, nutrient-rich upwelling that sustains the Galápagos marine ecosystem weakens or stops. Warmer, less productive water spreads across the archipelago, reducing plankton availability and disrupting food webs. For a species like the Galápagos damselfish, this would have been consequential. It was an obligate planktivore, dependent on the steady supply of microscopic organisms that thrive under normal upwelling conditions. It&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/is-the-galapagos-damselfish-extinct/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/is-the-galapagos-damselfish-extinct/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316982</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Works on planned luxury resort on Pemba island go ahead despite concerns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/works-on-planned-luxury-resort-on-pemba-island-go-ahead-despite-concerns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/works-on-planned-luxury-resort-on-pemba-island-go-ahead-despite-concerns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Mar 2026 16:39:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/10163217/9B-Road-building-VC-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315515</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Insects, Islands, Mammals, Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Earlier this year, workers built a concrete perimeter wall for a planned resort on Pemba Island off the coast of Tanzania. There’s scant public information about the Mantuli development, but the wall is just a few hundred meters west of the 1,440-hectare (3,558-acre) Ngezi-Vumawimbi Nature Forest Reserve, where scientists have identified more than 80 new [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Earlier this year, workers built a concrete perimeter wall for a planned resort on Pemba Island off the coast of Tanzania. There’s scant public information about the Mantuli development, but the wall is just a few hundred meters west of the 1,440-hectare (3,558-acre) Ngezi-Vumawimbi Nature Forest Reserve, where scientists have identified more than 80 new species of plants in recent years — some of which they fear would be driven to extinction by the development. According to a noticeboard near the forest and plans previously published on the website of South Africa-based Acoarch Architects, the luxury resort’s chalets, pools, fitness center and coffee lounge will stretch along 3 kilometers (nearly 2 miles) of Vumawimbi Beach, denying residents of nearby Makangale village access to the sea. Some of the online content has since been removed, and the architecture firm didn’t respond to Mongabay’s inquiries. Tim Caro is an evolutionary ecologist who has conducted research in the area and is a member of U.K.-registered charity Friends of Ngezi, which works with communities and promotes conservation of the forest. He said around a third of Makangale residents are involved in fishing, launching their boats from Vumawimbi Beach, which is also a popular recreational spot for island residents. &#8220;According to weekly reports we receive from members of the community, the perimeter wall blocks Makangale villagers&#8217; access to their fishing sites, to the graves of their ancestors, to their football field, and to paths to other villages,&#8221; a representative of Friends of Ngezi told Mongabay&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/works-on-planned-luxury-resort-on-pemba-island-go-ahead-despite-concerns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/works-on-planned-luxury-resort-on-pemba-island-go-ahead-despite-concerns/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315515</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Azores dodges proposal to overturn no-fishing zones in its giant new MPA network</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/azores-dodges-proposal-to-overturn-no-fishing-zones-in-its-giant-new-mpa-network/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/azores-dodges-proposal-to-overturn-no-fishing-zones-in-its-giant-new-mpa-network/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Feb 2026 19:29:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maria José Mendes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/23192451/b.-OceanImageBank_EllenCuylaerts_01-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314634</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Ocean, Europe, and Portugal]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Cetaceans, Conservation, Dolphins, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Fishing, Islands, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, Regulations, Sea Turtles, Seabirds, and Tuna]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SÃO MATEUS, Portugal — Winter forced Emanuel Alves to remove his boat from the water at the port of São Mateus in the Azores, the Portuguese archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean. The 64-year-old fisher expressed concern about the giant network of marine protected areas that permeates the archipelago. &#8220;Where are we going to fish [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SÃO MATEUS, Portugal — Winter forced Emanuel Alves to remove his boat from the water at the port of São Mateus in the Azores, the Portuguese archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean. The 64-year-old fisher expressed concern about the giant network of marine protected areas that permeates the archipelago. &#8220;Where are we going to fish now?” he asked. The law establishing the Azores Marine Protected Areas Network was approved in October 2024 and took effect just recently, on Jan. 1 this year. The network now safeguards 30% of Azorean waters, 287,000 square kilometers (110,800 square miles) of seascape sheltering a rich array of marine life. Not two weeks later, on Jan. 15, the Azores Parliament voted to uphold a core provision of the MPA network, after it came under fire in recent months: No fishing inside the fully protected areas, which constitute half the vast network. Pico Mountain on Pico Island in the Azores, the tallest mountain in Portugal at 2,351 meters (7,713 feet). Image by Maria José Mendes for Mongabay. The vote effectively killed an earlier move to open these areas to pole-and-line tuna fishing that would have been “catastrophic and damaging to the region,” according to Luís Bernardo Brito e Abreu, coordinator of Blue Azores, a Portugal-based partnership between the Azores regional government, the U.S.-based nonprofit Waitt Institute and the Portugal-based Oceano Azul Foundation that began advocating for the establishment of the MPA network in 2019. “[The] criterion for a total protection area is indeed total protection; there&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/azores-dodges-proposal-to-overturn-no-fishing-zones-in-its-giant-new-mpa-network/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/azores-dodges-proposal-to-overturn-no-fishing-zones-in-its-giant-new-mpa-network/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314634</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cambodia’s canal mega-project threatens coastal communities and marine life</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/cambodias-canal-mega-project-threatens-coastal-communities-and-marine-life/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/cambodias-canal-mega-project-threatens-coastal-communities-and-marine-life/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Feb 2026 02:16:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald FlynnPhoung Vantha]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/09074250/IMG_0071-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313950</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Cambodia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Carbon Sequestration, Conservation, Ecosystems, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Governance, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Infrastructure, Islands, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Overfishing, Pollution, Restoration, and Seagrass]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the first of two stories about the potential impact of Cambodia’s planned Funan Techo Canal. Part two, about consequences for inland communities and wildlife, can be read here. KEP, Cambodia — “Nobody from the government has spoken to us directly about how we’ll be affected,” Mae Vuthy told Mongabay while he sat on his [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the first of two stories about the potential impact of Cambodia’s planned Funan Techo Canal. Part two, about consequences for inland communities and wildlife, can be read here. KEP, Cambodia — “Nobody from the government has spoken to us directly about how we’ll be affected,” Mae Vuthy told Mongabay while he sat on his longtail fishing boat moored off the coast of Angkoal commune in Cambodia’s Kep province. “We’re all concerned, we’re all fishers, so we need access to the water, but what can we do? We have no power.” That morning, in November 2024, Vuthy had just returned to shore after laying crab traps and collecting fishing nets that he’d left in the Gulf of Thailand overnight. It had been a disappointing haul for Vuthy and his crew, but not a surprising one. Rampant illegal fishing and breakneck coastal development have left Cambodia’s marine fisheries reeling for years. Now, on top of the dwindling catches he pulls from the water and the increased pressure from land privatization along the coast, Vuthy, the fishing community and the marine lifeforms of Kep’s waters face a new threat. The Funan Techo Canal, which will link the Mekong River in inland Kandal province to the sea in Kep, looks set to turn the sleepy fishing commune of Angkoal into a bustling port and logistics hub. Mongabay has followed this mega-project’s development for more than a year. We’ve spoken with more than 50 people living along the canal’s proposed route in Kandal, Takeo,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/cambodias-canal-mega-project-threatens-coastal-communities-and-marine-life/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/cambodias-canal-mega-project-threatens-coastal-communities-and-marine-life/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313950</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Vanuatu communities move to protect taro, an ancestral climate-resilient crop (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/vanuatu-communities-move-to-protect-taro-an-ancestral-climate-resilient-crop-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/vanuatu-communities-move-to-protect-taro-an-ancestral-climate-resilient-crop-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Jan 2026 18:50:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Monica Kidd]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/26182316/Richard-Rojo3-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313365</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Oceania, Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, and Vanuatu]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agroecology, Analysis, Climate Change, Commentary, Disasters, Food, food security, Islands, Plants, Storms, Subsistence Agriculture, Sustainability, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The packed-earth trail winds through the dense and tangled forest of Vanuatu, the ocean crashing just meters to our right. Richard Rojo’s feet don’t mind the stones and stumps, and he carries a bush knife and a repurposed rice sack. It’s a path well-trodden for Rojo, who’s lived here in the village of Tasmate on [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The packed-earth trail winds through the dense and tangled forest of Vanuatu, the ocean crashing just meters to our right. Richard Rojo’s feet don’t mind the stones and stumps, and he carries a bush knife and a repurposed rice sack. It’s a path well-trodden for Rojo, who’s lived here in the village of Tasmate on Vanuatu’s remote west coast of Espiritu Santo Island as a subsistence farmer and fisher all his 40-ish years. I walk-jog to keep up with him as he talks to me over his shoulder, idly whacking at an occasional vine with his knife. We’ve been traveling together a few days now in his open boat up and down this coast, on a reporting trip with the Sunset Santo Environmental Network (SSEN) team so I can see for myself the way villages here are threatened by climate change. We walk for about 10 minutes as I pepper Rojo with questions. We pass towering trees covered with epiphytic plants and wade across a river before popping out into a clearing the size of a few soccer pitches. Coconut palms edge the far side and, in front of us, earthen berms enclose a shallow rectangular pool maybe 5 by 50 meters (roughly 16 by 164 feet). Inside are rows and rows of chest-high plants with heart-shaped leaves: Colocasia esculenta, or water taro. Rojo sets down his knife and bag and wades into the pool. “I will go replace some that are dying like this one,” he says, finding his&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/vanuatu-communities-move-to-protect-taro-an-ancestral-climate-resilient-crop-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/vanuatu-communities-move-to-protect-taro-an-ancestral-climate-resilient-crop-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313365</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>From south to north, Sri Lanka’s cricket dreams undermine fragile ecosystems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/from-south-to-north-sri-lankas-cricket-dreams-undermine-fragile-ecosystems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/from-south-to-north-sri-lankas-cricket-dreams-undermine-fragile-ecosystems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Jan 2026 13:51:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/19123959/1-Mandathivu-island-c-Muhunthan-Balachandiran-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313088</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Development, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Fishing, Forest Destruction, Governance, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Infrastructure, Islands, Mangroves, Marine, Planetary Boundaries, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Cricket is more than a sport in Sri Lanka. It is woven into the country’s postindependence identity, a unifying passion that cuts across class, ethnicity and geography. Yet in recent years, the push to expand cricket infrastructure has increasingly collided with fragile ecosystems, triggering uncomfortable questions about development priorities, environmental governance and climate [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Cricket is more than a sport in Sri Lanka. It is woven into the country’s postindependence identity, a unifying passion that cuts across class, ethnicity and geography. Yet in recent years, the push to expand cricket infrastructure has increasingly collided with fragile ecosystems, triggering uncomfortable questions about development priorities, environmental governance and climate resilience. The latest controversy centers around plans to build an international cricket stadium on Mandaitivu, a small island off the Jaffna Peninsula in Sri Lanka’s Northern province. Environmentalists warn that the proposal threatens a sensitive coastal ecosystem already under pressure from sea-level rise, flooding and postwar development. Mandaitivu Island has a traditional fishing community that relies on prawns and crabs for its livelihood, and the mangrove ecosystems are their breeding ground. Image courtesy of Muhunthan Balachandiran. In September, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake launched the construction, stating that the Jaffna International Cricket Stadium will not merely be a venue for cricket, but a symbol of national unity. Prasanna Rodrigo, media spokesperson for Sri Lanka Cricket, confirms a delay in commencing construction due to Cyclone Ditwah but says development work is being carried out as planned to have the project commissioned for international matches by 2027. This international cricket ground is part of Sri Lanka Cricket’s broader initiative to develop a modern sports city in Jaffna covering a total area of 56 hectares (138 acres), Rodrigo told Mongabay. Mandaitivu is a low-lying island of 7.6 square kilometers (2.9 square miles), rising only about 5 meters (16 feet) above sea&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/from-south-to-north-sri-lankas-cricket-dreams-undermine-fragile-ecosystems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/from-south-to-north-sri-lankas-cricket-dreams-undermine-fragile-ecosystems/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313088</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Up close with Mexico’s fish-eating bats: Interview with researcher José Juan Flores Martínez</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/up-close-with-mexicos-fish-eating-bats-interview-with-researcher-jose-juan-flores-martinez/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/up-close-with-mexicos-fish-eating-bats-interview-with-researcher-jose-juan-flores-martinez/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Dec 2025 17:54:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Astrid Arellano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/30230254/murcielago-pescador-cover3-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312388</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bats, Coastal Ecosystems, Deserts, Ecology, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Evolution, Fishing, Green, Interviews, Invasive Species, Islands, Mammals, Marine, Oceans, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the early 2000s, José Juan Flores Martínez was studying for a bachelor’s degree in biology and working as a volunteer in a program designed to control invasive rodents on islands in the Gulf of California in northwestern Mexico, which are home to several seabird colonies. On one of those expeditions, his group traveled to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the early 2000s, José Juan Flores Martínez was studying for a bachelor’s degree in biology and working as a volunteer in a program designed to control invasive rodents on islands in the Gulf of California in northwestern Mexico, which are home to several seabird colonies. On one of those expeditions, his group traveled to Isla Partida Norte near the city of La Paz, where something surprised them: they heard bats. Accustomed to seeing them in caves, Flores Martínez was intrigued when he saw them coming out from between the rocks and making clicking sounds under his feet. “It surprised me to find out that they were on an island, in the middle of the desert, under extreme conditions: They can resist sub[-freezing] temperatures and heat above 50 degrees [Celsius, or about 122° Fahrenheit],” said Flores Martínez, now an academic technician at the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s (UNAM) Institute of Biology. “But it was much more surprising to me that, when I began to ask questions, I was told that they feed on fish.” They were fish-eating bats (Myotis vivesi), and they fascinated Flores Martínez. This fascination led him, along with researcher Gerardo Herrera Montalvo, to embark on a scientific journey that has lasted a quarter of a century and counting. The fish-eating bat is the largest bat in its genus, reaching up to 16 centimeters (about 6 inches) in length. Its long, shiny fur is waterproof, which comes in handy as it maneuvers above the surface of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/up-close-with-mexicos-fish-eating-bats-interview-with-researcher-jose-juan-flores-martinez/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/up-close-with-mexicos-fish-eating-bats-interview-with-researcher-jose-juan-flores-martinez/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312388</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A small preserve leads a big effort to save native plants in the Bahamas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-small-preserve-leads-a-big-effort-to-save-native-plants-in-the-bahamas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-small-preserve-leads-a-big-effort-to-save-native-plants-in-the-bahamas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Dec 2025 19:37:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marlowe Starling]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/30141924/3290-The-orchids-at-Levy-Preserve--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312307</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bahamas, Caribbean, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Islands, Plants, Protected Areas, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ELEUTHERA, Bahamas — Tucked away beside the main road that runs along Eleuthera, a narrow island in the Bahamas, the Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve holds 12 hectares (30 acres) of dense subtropical dry forest. Black witch moths (Ascalapha odorata), as large as bats, zigzag between the branches as fluorescent wasps hum along the path’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ELEUTHERA, Bahamas — Tucked away beside the main road that runs along Eleuthera, a narrow island in the Bahamas, the Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve holds 12 hectares (30 acres) of dense subtropical dry forest. Black witch moths (Ascalapha odorata), as large as bats, zigzag between the branches as fluorescent wasps hum along the path’s edge. Orchard spiders (Leucauge venusta) sit on sprawling webs between mangrove roots. Meter-high termite mounds surround the bases of tree trunks. Native Jamaican slider turtles (Trachemys terrapen) sunbathe in the artificial wetland. Tree lizards, frogs and nonvenomous snakes make the preserve their home, too. Just two decades ago, the same plot of land belonged to a hotel, with stretches of abandoned farmland. After philanthropist Shelby White purchased the land, and after many years of restoring the property, it became an accredited botanical garden. Today, it’s known for its conservation, research and education on native Bahamian plants. The Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve is funded and managed through a partnership between the Bahamas National Trust, which oversees the country’s national parks, and the philanthropic Leon Levy Foundation based in New York City. Now, it’s the island’s standout example of native plant diversity and a hub for Caribbean plant knowledge. Native Jamaican sliders (Trachemys terrapen), freshwater turtles found in the Bahamas and other Caribbean islands, bask in the artificial wetland. Image by Marlowe Starling for Mongabay. Regrowing the forest The Bahamas’ subtropical dry forests are characterized by nutrient-poor soils, lots of limestone, shrubs, hardwood trees, and frequent&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-small-preserve-leads-a-big-effort-to-save-native-plants-in-the-bahamas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312307</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Elizabeth Erasito, custodian of Fiji’s parks and places</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/elizabeth-erasito-custodian-of-fijis-parks-and-places/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/elizabeth-erasito-custodian-of-fijis-parks-and-places/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Dec 2025 04:04:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/29140809/Elizabeth-Erasito-v2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312222</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Fiji, Pacific Islands, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Green, Islands, and Obituary]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The work of conservation in small island states is rarely abstract. It is shaped by land that is limited, institutions that are thinly resourced, and pressures that arrive from far beyond national borders. Decisions about forests, rivers, reefs, and historic sites are often framed as technical choices, but they are more often political ones, balancing [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The work of conservation in small island states is rarely abstract. It is shaped by land that is limited, institutions that are thinly resourced, and pressures that arrive from far beyond national borders. Decisions about forests, rivers, reefs, and historic sites are often framed as technical choices, but they are more often political ones, balancing development promises against damage that cannot easily be reversed. In Fiji, those tensions were especially visible in the management of protected areas and heritage sites. National parks were expected to serve several purposes at once: conservation, public access, cultural continuity, and economic opportunity. They were also expected to endure storms, fires, invasive species, and illegal extraction, frequently with too little staff and money. Holding those contradictions together required patience, administrative skill, and a tolerance for slow progress. One of the figures who spent much of her working life doing exactly that was Elizabeth Erasito. She joined the National Trust of Fiji in 1997 and rose to become its director, a position she held for more than two decades. Under her leadership, the Trust managed a small but symbolically important network of parks and historic places, from coastal dunes to forest reserves and archaeological sites. Her focus was less on expansion than on making protection function in practice. Elizabeth Erasito. From the National Trust. She spoke plainly about constraints. Monitoring, she argued, mattered more than declarations. In public remarks she described the need for practical tools to track encroachment, fires, invasive species, and illegal sand mining.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/elizabeth-erasito-custodian-of-fijis-parks-and-places/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312222</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>George Teariki-Mataki Mateariki, the Birdman of Atiu, has died, aged 67</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/george-teariki-mataki-mateariki-the-birdman-of-atiu-has-died-aged-67/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/george-teariki-mataki-mateariki-the-birdman-of-atiu-has-died-aged-67/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Dec 2025 14:00:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/29135729/birdman-george-bw-George-Teariki-Mataki-Mateariki-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312218</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Cook Islands, Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, and Polynesia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Islands, Obituary, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Species recovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In small island states, conservation has often depended less on formal institutions than on vigilance: watching harbors, checking traps, noticing what does not belong. The work is repetitive, practical, and easily overlooked. It rarely comes with titles or funding cycles that last longer than a season. Yet in places where a single invasive species can [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In small island states, conservation has often depended less on formal institutions than on vigilance: watching harbors, checking traps, noticing what does not belong. The work is repetitive, practical, and easily overlooked. It rarely comes with titles or funding cycles that last longer than a season. Yet in places where a single invasive species can erase centuries of evolution, that kind of attention determines whether a bird persists or disappears. The Cook Islands learned this lesson the hard way. By the late 20th century, several endemic birds were reduced to remnant populations, pushed to the margins by introduced predators and the slow erosion of habitat. Rescue efforts combined outside science with local knowledge, but success depended on whether those plans were enforced daily, at airstrips, wharves, and forest edges, long after visiting researchers had left. One of the people who made that enforcement real was George Teariki-Mataki Mateariki, who died on December 17, 2025. Known widely as Birdman George, he was neither an academic nor a policy advocate. He described himself as “a naturalist from the bush,” and he meant it literally. He learned by growing up on Atiu, by listening to elders, and by paying attention to birds closely enough to know when something was wrong. Atiu, a raised coral island without mass tourism or large resorts, became central to the recovery of the Rarotongan flycatcher, or kakerori. By the early 1990s only 29 remained, all on Rarotonga, where ship rats had overwhelmed them. When conservationists decided to create&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/george-teariki-mataki-mateariki-the-birdman-of-atiu-has-died-aged-67/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312218</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Huge ‘blue carbon’ offsetting project takes root in the mangroves of Sierra Leone</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/huge-blue-carbon-offsetting-project-takes-root-in-the-mangroves-of-sierra-leone/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/huge-blue-carbon-offsetting-project-takes-root-in-the-mangroves-of-sierra-leone/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Dec 2025 20:15:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward CarverMohamed Fofanah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/23151914/4-Community-members-plant-red-mangrove-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311956</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Blue Carbon, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Offsets, Carbon Sequestration, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Carbon, Governance, Islands, Mangroves, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Restoration, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BONTHE, Sierra Leone — On the island of Sherbro in Sierra Leone, as in much of the country, there’s limited access to vital services needed to make ends meet. “Here our people only rely on fishing and a few on agriculture and have nothing else to occupy our children, our youths,” Nenneh Sumaila, the chief [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BONTHE, Sierra Leone — On the island of Sherbro in Sierra Leone, as in much of the country, there’s limited access to vital services needed to make ends meet. “Here our people only rely on fishing and a few on agriculture and have nothing else to occupy our children, our youths,” Nenneh Sumaila, the chief of Gbomgboma, a village of about 300 people on the island, told Mongabay. “There are no good roads, no proper health facilities, there’s poor housing, electricity is a dream and the standard of living is poor.” One of the ways to make ends meet in Gbomgboma is by cultivating oil palm trees. But to process the fruit into palm oil, they need fuel for fire, which often comes from mangroves — one of many local uses for the wood. Cutting mangroves unsustainably turns them from a carbon sink into a source of greenhouse gas emissions and hurts their ability to foster biodiversity and provide other ecosystem services. “Blue carbon” projects aim to reverse this trend, and one called the Sherbro River Estuary Project has just been launched with more than 124 communities there. A wholly owned subsidiary of West Africa Blue, a Mauritius-based company, reportedly signed a deal with the communities in October that will reward them financially for conserving and restoring their mangroves. Company representatives told Mongabay that the funds will be generated by selling offsets on the voluntary carbon credit market, with revenues shared between West Africa Blue, the communities and the government&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/huge-blue-carbon-offsetting-project-takes-root-in-the-mangroves-of-sierra-leone/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311956</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Reforestation and wild pig decline spark surge in miniature deer in Singapore</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/reforestation-and-wild-pig-decline-spark-surge-in-miniature-deer-in-singapore/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/reforestation-and-wild-pig-decline-spark-surge-in-miniature-deer-in-singapore/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Dec 2025 18:02:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/08175216/Banner_GMD-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310790</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Singapore, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Diseases, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Recovery, Forests, Green, Islands, Mammals, Reforestation, Research, Restoration, Ungulates, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Rabbit-sized, nocturnal and elusive, the greater mouse-deer hadn’t been seen in Singapore for more than 80 years. Researchers long presumed it was locally extinct. In 2008, however, researchers confirmed sightings of the pint-sized ungulates, Tragulus napu, on Pulau Ubin, a 10-square-kilometer (4-square-mile) island in the Johor Strait that separates Singapore’s main island from Peninsular Malaysia [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Rabbit-sized, nocturnal and elusive, the greater mouse-deer hadn’t been seen in Singapore for more than 80 years. Researchers long presumed it was locally extinct. In 2008, however, researchers confirmed sightings of the pint-sized ungulates, Tragulus napu, on Pulau Ubin, a 10-square-kilometer (4-square-mile) island in the Johor Strait that separates Singapore’s main island from Peninsular Malaysia to the north. The team quickly set up a monitoring program to learn more about the small population. They expected to see numbers slowly recover as new suitable habitats became available thanks to ongoing forest restoration programs on the island. But the scale of what they recorded over the next 15 years astonished them. “I had to perform the analyses multiple times and check my data to be sure there was no mistake,” Marcus Chua, curator of mammals at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum at the National University of Singapore, told Mongabay. In a new study published in Biological Conservation, Chua and his colleagues document a fivefold increase in the population density of greater mouse-deer on Pulau Ubin between 2009 and 2024. By 2024, the mouse-deer population density was three times higher than previously recorded anywhere in the species’ range. While the rehabilitation of forest habitats will have given the mouse-deer an initial boost, the researchers conclude the most dramatic surge was triggered by the outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) in 2023. The virus, which is infectious and deadly to wild and domestic pigs, wiped out more than 98% of Singapore’s wild&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/reforestation-and-wild-pig-decline-spark-surge-in-miniature-deer-in-singapore/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310790</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>For fossil fuel-dependent islands, ocean thermal energy offers a lifeline</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/for-fossil-fuel-dependent-islands-ocean-thermal-energy-offers-a-lifeline/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/for-fossil-fuel-dependent-islands-ocean-thermal-energy-offers-a-lifeline/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Dec 2025 16:20:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/03130547/8-OTEC-systems-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310511</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Clean Energy, Climate Change, Conservation, Energy, Environment, Geothermal Energy, Infrastructure, Islands, Oceans, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A small floating pilot device deployed off the Canary Islands could one day prove pivotal to unlocking clean energy for tropical island and coastal communities by harnessing seawater heat. At least, that’s the hope of the EU-funded project that’s using a system known as ocean thermal energy conversion, or OTEC. Experts are hot on OTEC, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A small floating pilot device deployed off the Canary Islands could one day prove pivotal to unlocking clean energy for tropical island and coastal communities by harnessing seawater heat. At least, that’s the hope of the EU-funded project that’s using a system known as ocean thermal energy conversion, or OTEC. Experts are hot on OTEC, a century-old theoretical means of extracting energy from the oceans. In a closed-loop system, warm surface seawater passes through a heat exchanger to evaporate a working fluid, such as ammonia, which vaporizes to turn a turbine. Then, cold deep-ocean water is pumped up from a depth of around 750 meters (nearly 2,500 feet) as a coolant to return the gas to liquid form, completing the cycle. For the process to function, a temperature difference of 20° Celsius (36° Fahrenheit) or more is needed between surface and deep waters. “The potential for OTEC to provide power and other value-added streams is really high in the tropical and subtropical areas,” says Andrea Copping, a faculty fellow at the University of Washington in the U.S. “You really are talking about base load power, so 24/7 power, which is more than you can say, really, about pretty much any other renewable.” This is by no means a new technology or idea. OTEC was first conceived as a way to produce electricity in the 19th century. Fast forward to the 1970s and ’80s, and a host of tests were being performed. U.S. President Jimmy Carter pushed forward the idea of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/for-fossil-fuel-dependent-islands-ocean-thermal-energy-offers-a-lifeline/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310511</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Filipinos wade through floodwaters due to sinking land, rising sea &#038; corruption</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/filipinos-wade-through-floodwaters-due-to-sinking-land-rising-sea-corruption/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/filipinos-wade-through-floodwaters-due-to-sinking-land-rising-sea-corruption/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Dec 2025 04:09:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jewel S. Cabrera]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/03141129/Batasan-Island-aerial-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310476</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Justice, Coastal Ecosystems, Corruption, Disasters, Environment, Flooding, Governance, Infrastructure, Islands, Oceans, Politics, Sea Levels, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LOS BAÑOS, Philippines — Flooded homes and submerged roads are now reshaping life in coastal and island communities in the Philippines, showing how a combination of hazards are influencing the way communities adapt and struggle to cope with climate change. In the central Philippines, island barangays — administrative units akin to villages — in Tubigon [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LOS BAÑOS, Philippines — Flooded homes and submerged roads are now reshaping life in coastal and island communities in the Philippines, showing how a combination of hazards are influencing the way communities adapt and struggle to cope with climate change. In the central Philippines, island barangays — administrative units akin to villages — in Tubigon town might soon be submerged due to land subsidence, brought by a major earthquake in 2013. Meanwhile, Hagonoy town, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Manila, has been suffering from persistent floodwaters due to land subsidence from excessive groundwater extraction, among other factors. Globally, around 40% of the population lives in coastal areas, according to the U.N. More than 850 million people live in low elevated coastal zones (LECZs) less than 10 meters (33 feet) above sea level, including more than 150 million living less than 5 m (16 ft) above sea level — mostly located in East and Southeast Asia, the U.N. Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) reported. As sea levels continue to rise while some lands sink, coastal and island communities alike are left to adapt and live with the floodwaters. Between 2000 and 2019, an estimated 1.6 billion people were affected by different types of flooding, threatening infrastructure and disrupting basic services, according to the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). In the Philippines, revelations of corruption linked to public-funded flood control infrastructure projects since July have sparked public outrage, prompting an anti-corruption movement and leading thousands to protest in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/filipinos-wade-through-floodwaters-due-to-sinking-land-rising-sea-corruption/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310476</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A fragile Sri Lankan island fights back against the threat of mineral extraction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-fragile-sri-lankan-island-fights-back-against-the-threat-of-mineral-extraction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-fragile-sri-lankan-island-fights-back-against-the-threat-of-mineral-extraction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Nov 2025 15:20:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/28144745/Mannar-Protest-against-sand-mining-c-Fian-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310298</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Birds, Critical Minerals, Ecosystems, Environment, extractives, Governance, Industry, Islands, Land Rights, Protected Areas, and Seabirds]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — “Cries in silence, her veins robbed by greedy hands, each grain of stolen sand buries a future beneath the lands” — these lines from the song Karunilam (‘black sand’ in Tamil), composed by the young artiste Eric Fernando, give voice to the land and people of Mannar Island, in northwestern Sri Lanka. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — “Cries in silence, her veins robbed by greedy hands, each grain of stolen sand buries a future beneath the lands” — these lines from the song Karunilam (‘black sand’ in Tamil), composed by the young artiste Eric Fernando, give voice to the land and people of Mannar Island, in northwestern Sri Lanka. The song blends melancholy and defiance, mourning the potential destruction posed by the proposed ilmenite mineral sand extraction from this ecologically significant island. Fernando describes Karunilam as a protest anthem, reflecting the sorrow and anger of the local community over the threat to Mannar’s fragile ecosystems, coastal beauty and traditional livelihoods by the proposed sand mining. The song also calls for unity among the islanders to safeguard land rights and cultural heritage against exploitation. Ilmenite, sometimes also called ‘black gold,’ deposited along the beaches of Mannar. Image by Nagamuthu Piratheeparajah. A fragile, globally important ecosystem Ilmenite, the mineral of contention in this instance, is used to produce titanium dioxide (TiO₂), used in paints, plastics and cosmetics, and titanium metal, used for aerospace material, medical implants and corrosion-resistant alloys. Pulmoddai region in northern Sri Lanka is historically one of the world’s largest ilmenite deposits. Mannar’s deposits were first noted in British colonial geological surveys in the early 20th century, but the Sri Lankan civil war (1983–2009) delayed exploration until the 2010s. Commercial interest grew in the mid-2010s when the Australia-based Titanium Sands Limited began extensive drilling in Mannar Island. Residents grew concerned as hundreds of exploratory holes&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-fragile-sri-lankan-island-fights-back-against-the-threat-of-mineral-extraction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310298</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A slowdown, not salvation: what new extinction data reveal about the state of life on Earth</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-slowdown-not-salvation-what-new-extinction-data-reveal-about-the-state-of-life-on-earth/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-slowdown-not-salvation-what-new-extinction-data-reveal-about-the-state-of-life-on-earth/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Nov 2025 21:21:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/17205718/dodo-bird-icon-256x90-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309675</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Green, Habitat Loss, Impact Of Climate Change, Invasive Species, Islands, Mass Extinction, Overexploitation, Pollution, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For decades, biologists have warned that humanity is precipitating a sixth mass extinction. By some estimates, species are vanishing at up to a thousand times the natural background rate. Yet a new study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests the picture is more complicated. Extinctions, it finds, may have peaked a century ago—and declined [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For decades, biologists have warned that humanity is precipitating a sixth mass extinction. By some estimates, species are vanishing at up to a thousand times the natural background rate. Yet a new study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests the picture is more complicated. Extinctions, it finds, may have peaked a century ago—and declined since. Kristen Saban and John Wiens of the University of Arizona examined 912 documented extinctions among plants and animals over the past 500 years. Their analysis, covering nearly two million assessed species, shows that losses rose steeply through the 1800s and early 1900s before slowing. Extinction rates for vertebrates, arthropods, and plants have generally decreased over the past century. The trend runs counter to the popular narrative of an accelerating biodiversity collapse. The number of extinctions are shown for each century since 1500. From Saban and Wiens (2025) &nbsp; Extinctions over time. The number of extinctions are shown for each decade since 1800 (b). For each time period, Saban and Wiens give the number of species that were inferred to have gone extinct in that time period, based primarily on the dates when each species was last seen. From Saban and Wiens (2025) That finding, however, offers little comfort. The apparent lull in recorded extinctions may reflect where and how humans look, not a reprieve for nature. Most known extinctions occurred on islands, where invasive rats, pigs, and goats devastated native fauna and flora. Today’s drivers—deforestation, pollution, and climate change—are concentrated on continents, where declines&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-slowdown-not-salvation-what-new-extinction-data-reveal-about-the-state-of-life-on-earth/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309675</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In memory of the Christmas Island shrew</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-memory-of-the-christmas-island-shrew/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-memory-of-the-christmas-island-shrew/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Oct 2025 15:19:48 +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/20/2025/10/24151654/shrew-16x9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308285</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Green, Invasive Species, Islands, Mammals, Obituary, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It never weighed more than a spoonful of sugar. Five or six grams of life, soft-furred and sharp-nosed, moving through the roots and leaf litter of a tiny island in the Indian Ocean. At night, its voice—a thin, high cry, part bat and part whisper—once filled the forest of Christmas Island. Now the forest is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It never weighed more than a spoonful of sugar. Five or six grams of life, soft-furred and sharp-nosed, moving through the roots and leaf litter of a tiny island in the Indian Ocean. At night, its voice—a thin, high cry, part bat and part whisper—once filled the forest of Christmas Island. Now the forest is silent. The Christmas Island shrew, Crocidura trichura, has been declared extinct. Few knew it lived, fewer still that it was Australian, at least by jurisdiction. Biogeographically, Christmas Island belongs to the Sundaic world—no marsupials, no kangaroos, only the small and secretive species typical of Southeast Asia. The shrew was a castaway that arrived tens of thousands of years ago, likely clinging to a raft of vegetation from what is now Java. On this isolated outpost, it built a quiet lineage of survivors. When British naturalists arrived in the 1890s, they found the forest alive with its shrill chatter. “Extremely common,” they wrote. And then, almost at once, it vanished. The black rats came first, stowaways in bales of hay brought by miners drawn to the island’s phosphate riches. With them came a parasite, Trypanosoma lewisi, that swept through the island’s naïve mammals like a plague. Within years, both native rats were gone. By 1908, the shrew was presumed lost too. Its name lingered only in museum drawers and in the footnotes of field reports. Yet it was not quite gone. Half a century later, in 1958, two shrews appeared as bulldozers tore into the forest&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-memory-of-the-christmas-island-shrew/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308285</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Zanzibar must act to conserve its natural &#038; cultural heritage for the future (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/zanzibar-must-act-to-conserve-its-natural-cultural-heritage-for-the-future-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/zanzibar-must-act-to-conserve-its-natural-cultural-heritage-for-the-future-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Oct 2025 14:46:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tim Caro]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/22131650/Zanzibar-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308126</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Indian Ocean, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Development, Ecotourism, Governance, Islands, Protected Areas, Sustainable Development, and Tourism]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Zanzibar has a reputation as an island paradise in the Indian Ocean. Lying 20 kilometers (12 miles) off the East African mainland, it is governed as a semiautonomous zone of the United Republic of Tanzania and consists of two large islands — Unguja (1,666 square kilometers, or 643 square miles) to the south, and Pemba [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Zanzibar has a reputation as an island paradise in the Indian Ocean. Lying 20 kilometers (12 miles) off the East African mainland, it is governed as a semiautonomous zone of the United Republic of Tanzania and consists of two large islands — Unguja (1,666 square kilometers, or 643 square miles) to the south, and Pemba (988 km2, or 381 mi2) to the north, each with several small outlying islets mostly on their western sides. The archipelago is one of the most densely populated areas of Africa, with a total population of 1.9 million, according to the 2022 census. With a 3.8% annual population growth rate and mean household size of five people, there is immense pressure on natural resources. Nonetheless, the archipelago still has unique tropical broadleaf coastal forests, old-growth trees, and mangroves with rare and endemic species. Moreover, communities are still largely forest-dependent. A decision fork has emerged between development and conservation on these islands: over the last 30 years, a huge tourism industry has developed on Unguja with its sandy beaches (more than 500 hotels), although not on Pemba with its mainly rocky coastline (with approximately 20 hotels). The archipelago now receives more than 100,000 visitors a month in the holiday season, and the 106,108 visitors in July 2025 represented a 31% increase from 2024. Most of these visitors go to Unguja, where much of the tourist development has occurred with little consideration for the environment. Examples include new tarmac roads running through the protected Masingini Forest Reserve,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/zanzibar-must-act-to-conserve-its-natural-cultural-heritage-for-the-future-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-308126</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia retiree rewilds world’s largest volcano lake as church demands plantation closures</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indonesia-retiree-rewilds-worlds-largest-volcano-lake-as-church-demands-plantation-closures/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indonesia-retiree-rewilds-worlds-largest-volcano-lake-as-church-demands-plantation-closures/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Oct 2025 03:54:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sri Wahyuni]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/24190725/Wilmar-Eliaser-Simandjorang-head-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307777</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, North Sumatra, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Conservation leadership, Ecosystems, Environment, Governance, Islands, Lakes, Landscape Restoration, Restoration, Rewilding, and Volcanoes]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SAMOSIR, Indonesia — On retirement from public life, Wilmar Eliaser Simandjorang found a quiet place on a hillside overlooking Lake Toba, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, to write about this landscape sacred to the region’s Batak people. “If we don&#8217;t pay attention to this, Lake Toba will be just a memory,” Wilmar told Mongabay [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SAMOSIR, Indonesia — On retirement from public life, Wilmar Eliaser Simandjorang found a quiet place on a hillside overlooking Lake Toba, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, to write about this landscape sacred to the region’s Batak people. “If we don&#8217;t pay attention to this, Lake Toba will be just a memory,” Wilmar told Mongabay Indonesia at his home near the lake, the site of a volcanic eruption 74,000 years ago that plunged the world into global winter and famine. More recently, North Sumatra province’s environment department has warned of a burgeoning pollution problem from the waste dumped into Toba, the largest volcanic lake in the world. Many here in this subdued lakeside region today, which is home to Sumatra’s ethnic Batak people (and the center of seven districts in North Sumatra province), say a complex array of changes taking place around the Toba landscape are reaching a tipping point. “The forest is being cut down, both legally and illegally — biodiversity is being burned,” Wilmar said. “Rainwater is just running off; it carries ash, trash and pesticides into the lake.” A study of 60 water samples published in the journal Advances in Oceanography and Limnology in 2024 confirms worrying local testimony. The research, conducted in 2020-2021 by scientists from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, Indonesia’s premier forestry university, indicated intensive ecological distress. Researchers revealed nitrogen levels greater than the safe threshold set by Indonesia’s environment ministry, threatening both fish and water quality. Civil society organizations, church groups and community&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indonesia-retiree-rewilds-worlds-largest-volcano-lake-as-church-demands-plantation-closures/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307777</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Indonesia’s Mentawai Islands, youths blend ancestral and world faiths to protect forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-indonesias-mentawai-islands-youths-blend-ancestral-and-world-faiths-to-protect-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-indonesias-mentawai-islands-youths-blend-ancestral-and-world-faiths-to-protect-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Oct 2025 15:53:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Keith Anthony Fabro]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/13141219/Sikerei-mentawai-explore-the-jungle-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307509</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Conservation and Religion]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Culture, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Islands, Land Rights, Logging, Religions, Sustainable Forest Management, Traditional Knowledge, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Off the western coast of Sumatra, the Mentawai Islands rise from the Indian Ocean in a patchwork of emerald forests and winding rivers. The canopy shelters endemic macaques and gibbons, hornbills and orchids, while coastal villages still echo with rituals that tie people to the land and sea. Among the younger generation of Indigenous Mentawai, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Off the western coast of Sumatra, the Mentawai Islands rise from the Indian Ocean in a patchwork of emerald forests and winding rivers. The canopy shelters endemic macaques and gibbons, hornbills and orchids, while coastal villages still echo with rituals that tie people to the land and sea. Among the younger generation of Indigenous Mentawai, an ancestral belief system known as Arat Sabulungan continues to influence how forests are understood and used. The cosmology teaches that every tree, river and animal is alive with spirits whose balance must be honored. Although the influence of world religions is eroding these beliefs, researchers have found that Indigenous youths are balancing the two. Young islanders who grow up attending church services or mosque prayers still join their elders in ritual clearings, offering chants and tokens before cutting trees or casting fishing nets. “Mentawai youth today reinterpret their ancestral heritage in diverse ways,” researcher Dwi Wahyuni from Imam Bonjol State Islamic University in Padang, on the Sumatran mainland, told Mongabay. This practice remains central to their identity — but it is also under strain. Logging, modernization and shifting values test how faithfully this balance and the traditional beliefs are carried forward. In a recently published study, Dwi and colleagues from Imam Bonjol set out to understand this tension. Conducted in five villages on the Mentawai islands of Siberut and Sipora, the ethnographic work examined how Mentawai youth are blending Arat Sabulungan with Christianity and Islam, and what this means for both culture and conservation.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-indonesias-mentawai-islands-youths-blend-ancestral-and-world-faiths-to-protect-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307509</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study warns up to a quarter of Philippine vertebrates risk extinction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/study-warns-up-to-a-quarter-of-philippine-vertebrates-risk-extinction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/study-warns-up-to-a-quarter-of-philippine-vertebrates-risk-extinction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Oct 2025 21:10:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Keith Anthony Fabro]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/01120233/philippine-eagle-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306890</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Islands, Politics, Research, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Philippines, long recognized as one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots, could lose nearly a quarter of its unique land-dwelling vertebrate species unless urgent conservation action is taken, according to a new study. In a paper published in Science of The Total Environment, researchers assessed 1,294 species of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Philippines, long recognized as one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots, could lose nearly a quarter of its unique land-dwelling vertebrate species unless urgent conservation action is taken, according to a new study. In a paper published in Science of The Total Environment, researchers assessed 1,294 species of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. They calculated extinction risks and knowledge gaps by analyzing conservation status data, studying threat patterns using statistical models, and mapping species distributions with geographic information systems to identify underresearched species and their protection status. Results showed that 15-23% of land vertebrates included in the study are at risk of extinction. Amphibians are the most threatened, with 24% of species at risk, followed by mammals at 19%. Birds (15%) and reptiles (11%) fared slightly better but still showed troubling declines. “Many species are already on the brink of extinction due to multiple threats,” lead author Krizler Tanalgo of the University of Southern Mindanao told Mongabay. “Alarmingly, despite their vulnerability, many remain poorly studied and documented, leaving critical knowledge gaps that heighten their risk of inappropriate or insufficient conservation measures.” Found only in the Philippines, the near threatened Philippine tarsier (Carlito syrichta), is one of the country&#8217;s many rare and endemic  species. Image by Jeroen Hellingman via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). Endemism and overlooked species According to the study, the Philippines’ fragmented geography has fueled speciation, the process in which separate populations of a species evolve into distinct species of their own. This has resulted in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/study-warns-up-to-a-quarter-of-philippine-vertebrates-risk-extinction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306890</doi>				</item>
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