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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/land-use-change/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Fri, 14 Aug 2026 15:31:14 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Land Use Change</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/land-use-change/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Costa Rica banana plantation destroyed protected wetland, complaint alleges</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/costa-rica-banana-plantation-destroyed-protected-wetland-complaint-alleges/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/costa-rica-banana-plantation-destroyed-protected-wetland-complaint-alleges/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jul 2026 19:09:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/30184410/1_Banana_plantain_in_Costa_Rica-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324864</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Business, Conservation, Crops, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Farming, Forest Fragmentation, Forests, Fragmentation, Freshwater, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Industrial Agriculture, Land Use Change, Monocultures, Natural Resources, Plantations, Protected Areas, Sustainable Forest Management, Water, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A legal complaint in Costa Rica has alleged that a banana plantation destroyed parts of a protected wetland in Bananito Sur, located in the Valle La Estrella district in the central province of Limón. Workers on the La Paz banana plantation, owned by Standard Fruit Company de Costa Rica, a subsidiary of Dole, cut down [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A legal complaint in Costa Rica has alleged that a banana plantation destroyed parts of a protected wetland in Bananito Sur, located in the Valle La Estrella district in the central province of Limón. Workers on the La Paz banana plantation, owned by Standard Fruit Company de Costa Rica, a subsidiary of Dole, cut down and burned vegetation inside an area listed on the country’s National Wetlands Registry, according to several complaints and a June 23 Supreme Court filing. In addition to environmental impacts, the dispute has raised questions about government transparency, with several agencies allegedly failing to provide information about what was happening in the area. “The government has to draw a line and say enough is enough, and stop the company. It hasn’t done that,” Marco Levy Virgo, president of the Association for the Development of Ecology, an environmental advocacy group, told Mongabay. Alleged destruction from the plantation. Image by Marco Levy Virgo. Banana plantations often require extensive pesticide use, as well as complex drainage systems with channels that transport water away from crops. Levy said he noticed damage related to that work at the start of the year. He submitted formal requests for information and technical data to the authorities, including the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE). In April, MINAE’s Caribbean Hydrological Unit, responsible for managing the country’s largest watersheds, published two reports describing an agricultural drainage channel passing through the wetland from the plantation, with cutting and burning running parallel to it. The cleared area measured between&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/costa-rica-banana-plantation-destroyed-protected-wetland-complaint-alleges/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/costa-rica-banana-plantation-destroyed-protected-wetland-complaint-alleges/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324864</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New analysis breaks down 2025 Amazon deforestation, with good news and bad news</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/new-analysis-breaks-down-2025-amazon-deforestation-with-good-news-and-bad-news/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/new-analysis-breaks-down-2025-amazon-deforestation-with-good-news-and-bad-news/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jun 2026 15:40:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/24001802/AP26169513813986-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321708</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Beef, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forest Destruction, Forests, Heatwave, Industrial Agriculture, Land Use Change, Logging, Meat, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Secondary Forests, Soy, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Each year, researchers at the University of Maryland’s GLAD Lab in the U.S. develop one of the most important data sets on global forest loss. The data is derived from NASA and European Space Agency satellite imagery and, in the Amazon Rainforest, often helps environmental groups and government officials make decisions about conservation. The figures [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Each year, researchers at the University of Maryland’s GLAD Lab in the U.S. develop one of the most important data sets on global forest loss. The data is derived from NASA and European Space Agency satellite imagery and, in the Amazon Rainforest, often helps environmental groups and government officials make decisions about conservation. The figures for 2025 were published at the end of April, following months of processing and quality checks. But a comprehensive analysis, highlighting year-on-year trends and hotspots, was only recently released by Mapping of the Andes Amazon Project (MAAP), an Amazon Conservation initiative to track forest loss in the Amazon basin. While the data suggests that several metrics for measuring forest loss are down from previous years, they’re still concerningly high overall, researchers said. Agriculture, cattle ranching and mining continue to destroy hundreds of thousands of hectares of primary forest, often in protected areas and Indigenous territory. “I have a hard time saying it’s good news if deforestation is lower than previous years, but was still a million [hectares],” Matt Finer, MAAP director and senior research specialist, told Mongabay. He said it’s far from the zero-deforestation rate needed in the region. A: Soy frontiers of southeast Brazil; B: Soy frontiers of southern Bolivia; C: Trans-Amazonian Highway; D: BR-364; E: Agricultural areas in central Peru; F: Arc of deforestation in northwest Colombia; G: Gold mining areas in southern and central Peru: H: Gold mining areas in northern Ecuador; I: Gold mining areas in Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname; J: Indigenous&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/new-analysis-breaks-down-2025-amazon-deforestation-with-good-news-and-bad-news/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321708</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pulp and paper giant APRIL&#8217;s supplier choices put FSC remedy process to the test</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-aprils-supplier-choices-put-fsc-remedy-process-to-the-test/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-aprils-supplier-choices-put-fsc-remedy-process-to-the-test/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 04:12:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/23034155/signal-2026-06-01-105626_002-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321620</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Kalimantan, Global, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Certification, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forest Products, Forestry, Forests, Industry, International Trade, Land Use Change, Logging, Pulp And Paper, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Supply Chain, Sustainability, Threats To Rainforests, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Pulp and paper giant APRIL&#8217;s recent decision to lower its deforestation commitments and source wood from two companies associated with extensive recent forest loss has created a new challenge for its relationship with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), with environmental groups urging the world&#8217;s leading forestry certifier to terminate the already suspended reassociation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Pulp and paper giant APRIL&#8217;s recent decision to lower its deforestation commitments and source wood from two companies associated with extensive recent forest loss has created a new challenge for its relationship with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), with environmental groups urging the world&#8217;s leading forestry certifier to terminate the already suspended reassociation process. In late May, APRIL announced it was reviewing its decade-old Sustainable Forest Management Policy (SFMP) 2.0 and lowering its deforestation cutoff date from 2015 to Dec. 31, 2020. The move allows Indonesia&#8217;s second-largest pulp and paper producer to source wood from PT Industrial Forest Plantation (IFP) and PT Mayawana Persada (Mayawana), two companies that have experienced some of the country&#8217;s largest recent forest losses. APRIL said the decision was necessary to address fibre shortages after the Indonesian government revoked the operating permits of four of its long-term suppliers earlier this year, affecting around 15% of its wood supply in Riau Province. According to data from the forest-monitoring platform Nusantara Atlas, together, IFP and Mayawana lost nearly 80,000 hectares (197,684 acres) of forest­­­­­ — an area almost half the size of London — between 2015 and 2024, including more than 54,000 hectares (133,436 acres) after 2020. This is more than any other forestry companies in Indonesia. Deforestation in the concession of PT Mayawana Persada, September 2020–April 2024 © Earthsight. Image source: Sentinel-2 via Copernicus Browser Environmental groups have criticized the move, arguing that it weakens a longstanding no-deforestation safeguard and sends a message that companies&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-aprils-supplier-choices-put-fsc-remedy-process-to-the-test/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-aprils-supplier-choices-put-fsc-remedy-process-to-the-test/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321620</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What’s at stake for the environment in Colombia’s upcoming election?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-colombias-upcoming-election/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-colombias-upcoming-election/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Jun 2026 15:55:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/06/21194943/colombia_1875-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321507</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation, Crime, Deforestation, Development, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystems, Energy Transition, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forests, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Land Conflict, Land Use Change, Organized Crime, Politics, Traditional People, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Colombia’s first round of presidential elections on May 31 saw right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella take the top spot with 43.7% of the vote, followed by left-wing candidate Iván Cepeda, with 40.9%. The future of the Colombian Amazon, the fossil fuel phaseout commitments made by current President Gustavo Petro and the rights of Indigenous [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Colombia’s first round of presidential elections on May 31 saw right-wing candidate Abelardo de la Espriella take the top spot with 43.7% of the vote, followed by left-wing candidate Iván Cepeda, with 40.9%. The future of the Colombian Amazon, the fossil fuel phaseout commitments made by current President Gustavo Petro and the rights of Indigenous peoples and other traditional communities are all at stake during the runoff on June 21. Colombia has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 51% by 2030 and has a legally binding net-zero target for 2050. Analysts at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) say Petro’s government made some progress, but deep reductions in emissions are critical, in particular from deforestation and agriculture, as well as reforms to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. As a result, who Colombia elects next will have major implications for the country’s climate ambitions. When Petro took office in 2022, he made the fossil fuel phaseout and environmental protection central features of his government’s agenda. He promised to become a leader in the defense of life, which involved transforming the country’s relationship with nature and “Total Peace” (Paz Total) — his administration’s flagship peace policy aimed to end Colombia’s decades-long armed conflict. Petro opposed new oil and gas exploration contracts and has been vocal about environmental justice and the energy transition at the international level, including at the United Nations General Assembly, the World Economic Forum in Davos and the United Nations Climate Change Conferences (COPs). In April,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-colombias-upcoming-election/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321507</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The long and winding road to safe highways: Inside the global movement to reconnect habitat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/the-long-and-winding-road-to-safe-highways-inside-the-global-movement-to-reconnect-habitat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/the-long-and-winding-road-to-safe-highways-inside-the-global-movement-to-reconnect-habitat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jun 2026 12:03:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ben Goldfarb]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/09164404/1.-BANNER-IMG_2277-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320842</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Conservation Solutions, Conservation Technology, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forest Fragmentation, Fragmentation, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Infrastructure, Innovation, Land Use Change, Landscape Restoration, Mitigation, Regulations, Restoration, Roadkill, Roads, Solutions, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Threatened species, Transportation, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[One of the busiest highways in the western U.S. is I-25, a concrete artery that runs north to south across the state of Colorado, funneling roughly 100,000 cars per day through the fast-growing exurbs south of the capital, Denver. While I-25 facilitates human journeys, it disastrously truncates the movements of another set of commuters. For [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[One of the busiest highways in the western U.S. is I-25, a concrete artery that runs north to south across the state of Colorado, funneling roughly 100,000 cars per day through the fast-growing exurbs south of the capital, Denver. While I-25 facilitates human journeys, it disastrously truncates the movements of another set of commuters. For decades, mule deer, elk, black bears and other species have wandered onto the highway — with fatal consequences. Over a two-year period, from 2018 to 2020, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) tallied collisions with 76 deer, 15 bears and 10 pumas along a 14-mile (22.5-kilometer) stretch of asphalt. Moreover, the interstate’s walls of traffic deter many animals from even attempting to cross, preventing them from roaming between alpine forests and Colorado’s eastern prairies. Lately, however, this once-dangerous barrier has become far more accommodating to four-legged travelers. In 2021, Colorado completed the construction of five capacious, dirt-floored underpasses, flanked by more than 25 mi (40 km) of roadside fencing, to allow wildlife to meander safely and freely beneath I-25. A black bear approaches a vehicle on the Alcan (Alaska-Canada) Highway, possibly indicating how habituating animals to human food can lead to road conflicts. Image by Ben Goldfarb. And in December 2025, CDOT finished construction of an overpass, 200 feet wide by 209 long (61 by 64 meters), that arcs over six lanes of traffic near the town of Greenland. That makes it one of the largest human-made wildlife crossings on Earth. All told, CDOT says&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/the-long-and-winding-road-to-safe-highways-inside-the-global-movement-to-reconnect-habitat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320842</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The Amazon’s path from crisis to durability</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-amazons-path-from-crisis-to-durability/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-amazons-path-from-crisis-to-durability/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2026 23:05:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/28225126/amazon_201628_26-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320267</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Bioeconomy, Conservation Finance, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Rights, Land Use Change, Law Enforcement, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the Amazon, a forest can remain on the map while losing much of what makes it function. The Amazon rainforest is often discussed through a few familiar measures: deforestation, carbon, protected areas, and tipping points. Each is useful. But they do not fully explain why biodiversity continues to decline even where maps still show [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the Amazon, a forest can remain on the map while losing much of what makes it function. The Amazon rainforest is often discussed through a few familiar measures: deforestation, carbon, protected areas, and tipping points. Each is useful. But they do not fully explain why biodiversity continues to decline even where maps still show forest, laws exist, and international pledges sound ambitious. A territory can be recognized and still be invaded. A satellite can detect illegal clearing and still fail to trigger a penalty. A story can describe crisis and still leave readers unsure what can be done. Six gaps help explain the problem: finance and forest economy, governance, enforcement, forest function, Indigenous rights, and narrative. They overlap in ways that make each harder to close. The finance and forest-economy gap Protecting forests costs money every year. It requires staff, transport, monitoring, community work, legal support, fire control, restoration, and the ability to respond when illegal actors arrive. Yet the money available for those tasks remains far below the scale of the problem. Globally, UNEP estimates that forest investments need to reach about $300 billion a year by 2030 to meet climate, biodiversity, and land-degradation targets. The report also notes that this figure excludes some enabling conditions, including governance and law enforcement, which means the true need is probably higher. The Brazilian Amazon shows the imbalance more clearly. WWF and Conservation Strategy Fund estimate that Brazil needs about $12.8 billion a year to meet forest policy goals. Current positive&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-amazons-path-from-crisis-to-durability/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320267</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia reviews firms in river basins after latest floods affect 7% of Bornean province</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/indonesia-reviews-firms-in-river-basins-after-latest-floods-affect-7-of-bornean-province/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/indonesia-reviews-firms-in-river-basins-after-latest-floods-affect-7-of-bornean-province/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Mar 2026 13:38:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Riyad Dafhi Rizki]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/31101819/5-B-Warga-menggunakan-sampan-untuk-beraktivitas-selama-banjir-melanda-Kabupaten-Banjar.-Foto_-Riyad-Dafhi-Rizki_Mongabay-Indonesia-768x512-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316611</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Indonesia, South Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Flooding, Forests, Land Use Change, Planetary Health, Rivers, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANJAR, Indonesia – Indonesia’s government continues to review mines and plantations in the river basins of southern Borneo, months after more than 7% of the population there was impacted by flooding in December last year. “An audit is still in progress,” environment ministry spokesperson Yulia Suryanti told Mongabay Indonesia. South Kalimantan is one of five [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANJAR, Indonesia – Indonesia’s government continues to review mines and plantations in the river basins of southern Borneo, months after more than 7% of the population there was impacted by flooding in December last year. “An audit is still in progress,” environment ministry spokesperson Yulia Suryanti told Mongabay Indonesia. South Kalimantan is one of five Indonesian provinces on the highly biodiverse island of Borneo, which Indonesia shares with Brunei and Malaysia. The southeastern province is particularly vulnerable to flooding during the region’s main rainy season — at least 35 people were killed during major floods that destroyed more than 100,000 homes in 2021. The population of South Kalimantan was almost 4.4 million as of the 2020 census, the most recent conducted by the government. Meanwhile, data from Indonesia’s disaster management agency showed that nearly 290,000 people were affected by the latest annual floods since the beginning of December last year. Eleven out of the 13 cities and districts that make up the province experienced flooding by January. Civil society organizations say that likely reflects wholesale destruction of old-growth forest throughout the basins of the Barito and Maluka rivers, which run through the province and out into the Java Sea. The Barito is the second-longest river in Borneo, after the Kapuas. “Across South Kalimantan, especially in the mid and lower sections of the Barito River Basin, a lot of the forest cover has been lost,” said Anggi Prayoga, a forestry campaigner at Greenpeace Indonesia. The head of the forestry department in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/indonesia-reviews-firms-in-river-basins-after-latest-floods-affect-7-of-bornean-province/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/indonesia-reviews-firms-in-river-basins-after-latest-floods-affect-7-of-bornean-province/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316611</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Planters stranded amid degraded forests as Bangladesh agarwood scheme falters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/planters-stranded-by-degraded-forests-as-bangladesh-agarwood-scheme-falters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/planters-stranded-by-degraded-forests-as-bangladesh-agarwood-scheme-falters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Mar 2026 14:11:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashraful Haque]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/17140235/agarwood-bangladesh-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315835</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Farming, Governance, Industrial Agriculture, Land Use Change, Monocultures, Plantations, Timber, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Standing precariously on the slope of a tree-covered hill in Kaptai National Park in southeast Bangladesh, Mohammad Musa was clearing bushes with a machete. Our eyes widened in shock when he ran the machete over a couple of 2.4-meter-tall (8-foot-tall), healthy young fig plants that stuck their heads out of the bushes. “These will attract [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Standing precariously on the slope of a tree-covered hill in Kaptai National Park in southeast Bangladesh, Mohammad Musa was clearing bushes with a machete. Our eyes widened in shock when he ran the machete over a couple of 2.4-meter-tall (8-foot-tall), healthy young fig plants that stuck their heads out of the bushes. “These will attract mama,” he murmured. “See what this garden has become with all this nonsense.” Local Bengalis call elephants mama (maternal uncle) out of fear and respect, just like people living around the Sundarbans call tigers mama. The native wildlife-supporting fig plants are ‘nonsense’ to Musa because they grew on the edge of his agarwood (Aquilaria spp.) plantation, or garden as he calls it, planted on a 2-hectare (5-acre) piece of land in the national park in Kaptai upazila (sub-district) in Rangamati Hill district. Between 1998 and 2011, the Bangladesh Forest Department undertook two projects to create a total of 4,822 hectares (11,915 acres) of agarwood monoculture plantations in five divisions of the Forest Department. In the second project, from 2007 to 2011, 443 hectares (1,095 acres) of agarwood plantation was established in Kaptai National Park, according to official data gathered from the Management Planning Unit of the Forest Department. Musa is one of the local beneficiaries who cleared the forest patches and created the monoculture to earn revenue. The plantations are established under a participatory social forestry approach involving beneficiaries from local communities who plant and manage approved tree species on degraded forests and public lands&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/planters-stranded-by-degraded-forests-as-bangladesh-agarwood-scheme-falters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/planters-stranded-by-degraded-forests-as-bangladesh-agarwood-scheme-falters/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315835</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study finds livestock pushing lions away from shared rangeland in Kenya</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/study-finds-livestock-pushing-lions-away-from-shared-rangeland-in-kenya/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/study-finds-livestock-pushing-lions-away-from-shared-rangeland-in-kenya/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Mar 2026 20:05:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/12195736/Lions_Kenya_MaraPredatorConservationProgram-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315684</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Cattle, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Endangered Species, Human-wildlife Conflict, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Lions, Mammals, National Parks, Pasture, Predators, Solutions, Top Predators, Tourism, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Lions, Africa’s largest predators, are a near-universal source of fear for the continent’s wildlife. But in Kenya, it’s the king of the jungle that’s now becoming fearful — of domestic livestock. In Kenya, most wildlife is found outside formally protected areas. The lions, zebras and elephants that attract tourists mostly live in pastoralist rangeland. For [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Lions, Africa’s largest predators, are a near-universal source of fear for the continent’s wildlife. But in Kenya, it’s the king of the jungle that’s now becoming fearful — of domestic livestock. In Kenya, most wildlife is found outside formally protected areas. The lions, zebras and elephants that attract tourists mostly live in pastoralist rangeland. For farmers and herders, this can be both a curse — coexistence is hard work where predators sometimes attack livestock and cattle compete with wild herbivores for grass — and a blessing — many community-owned conservancies profitably lease portions of their land to tourism operators for safaris and lodges, generating revenue for their members. In most conservancies’ grazing plans, herders can make use of the entire landscape. This allows grazing pressure to be more evenly distributed, but it also assumes that when herders and their livestock aren’t present in an area, other herbivores and the predators that hunt them make free use of the space. Niels Mogensen, a biologist with the Mara Predator Conservation Program, a Kenya Wildlife Trust initiative aimed at preserving large carnivores, says no one had actually checked to see if this was true before now. A lioness with cubs, Mara Conservancy, Kenya. Image by Ross Pollack via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).  Between 2015 and 2023, he and his colleagues carried out surveys at seven community-owned wildlife conservancies in the Mara ecosystem. They covered nearly 69,000 kilometers (43,000 miles) in total, collecting data about the presence of lions, and wild and domestic herbivores.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/study-finds-livestock-pushing-lions-away-from-shared-rangeland-in-kenya/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/study-finds-livestock-pushing-lions-away-from-shared-rangeland-in-kenya/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315684</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Farmers fear displacement, drought, flooding tied to Cambodia’s Funan Techo Canal</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/farmers-fear-displacement-drought-flooding-tied-to-cambodias-funan-techo-canal/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/farmers-fear-displacement-drought-flooding-tied-to-cambodias-funan-techo-canal/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Feb 2026 06:33:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald FlynnPhoung Vantha]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/12060609/FTC-pt-2-banner-img-v1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314184</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Mekong Basin, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Canals, Conservation, Drought, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Farming, Fish, Fishing, Flooding, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Governance, Infrastructure, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Rivers, Traditional People, Tropics, Water, Water Scarcity, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the second of two stories about the potential impact of Cambodia’s planned Funan Techo Canal. Read part one, about consequences for coastal communities and wildlife, here. TAKEO, Cambodia — Thet Chanton finally finished construction on his new home along the banks of the Prek Bassac (Bassac creek) in Prey Sambor village, a small farming [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the second of two stories about the potential impact of Cambodia’s planned Funan Techo Canal. Read part one, about consequences for coastal communities and wildlife, here. TAKEO, Cambodia — Thet Chanton finally finished construction on his new home along the banks of the Prek Bassac (Bassac creek) in Prey Sambor village, a small farming community in Cambodia’s southern province of Takeo. That was in June 2024. Just five months later, when Mongabay first interviewed Chanton in November 2024, he said local authorities had already told him his house would need to be demolished. “We had a meeting with the village chief, but there were commune, district and provincial authorities there too,” Chanton said. “They told us that Prek Bassac will be studied to become part of the Funan Techo Canal.” The canal is a controversial new waterway the Cambodian government is planning to link the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand. It will cut a 180-kilometer (112-mile) trench through farms, wetlands and homes in Kandal, Takeo, Kampot and Kep provinces as it goes. Chanton’s household is one of 400 the government estimates will lose their houses to the mega-project’s construction. The same estimates suggest that, in total, 2,305 households consisting of 11,525 people will be directly impacted in some way by the Funan Techo Canal. “We spent about $20,000 to build this house, but we did that with a $10,000 microfinance loan,” said Chanton, who owned a small rice farm around his newly built home when Mongabay met&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/farmers-fear-displacement-drought-flooding-tied-to-cambodias-funan-techo-canal/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/farmers-fear-displacement-drought-flooding-tied-to-cambodias-funan-techo-canal/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314184</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil’s Atlantic Forest Indigenous lands show strong restoration gains</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/brazils-atlantic-forest-indigenous-lands-show-strong-restoration-gains/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/brazils-atlantic-forest-indigenous-lands-show-strong-restoration-gains/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Feb 2026 17:34:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/11230520/DJI_0154-e1770851184733-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314108</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Land Reform, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Law, Rainforests, Reforestation, Religions, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“The land is the greatest asset we have,” said Luzineth Pataxó, a Pataxó leader from the Caramuru-Paraguaçu Indigenous Territory, in the Atlantic forests of Brazil’s Bahia state. “Our people have always taken care of our territory and forests because it is from them that we derive our livelihoods … and connect with the sacred beings [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“The land is the greatest asset we have,” said Luzineth Pataxó, a Pataxó leader from the Caramuru-Paraguaçu Indigenous Territory, in the Atlantic forests of Brazil’s Bahia state. “Our people have always taken care of our territory and forests because it is from them that we derive our livelihoods … and connect with the sacred beings that inhabit them.” These efforts have paid off, some research suggests. A recent study comparing different land tenure regimes in the Brazil’s Atlantic Forest found that Indigenous lands and agrarian-reform settlements have greater restoration gains than private properties. “As part of the study, we isolated and compared many different land tenure regimes to private properties through our analysis design, and the staggering result was for Indigenous lands,” said Rayna Benzeev, one of the study authors. The research comparison included Indigenous lands, territories of descendants of Afro-Brazilian runaway enslaved people (Quilombola), agrarian-reform settlements, protected areas and private properties. “There are [on average] 189 hectares [467 acres] more long-term restoration gains on Indigenous lands compared to private properties.” While the study found positive outcomes on Indigenous lands, Benzeev noted that the study did not directly measure the factors driving these results. After analyzing restoration gains and reversals across 1.9 million territories in the Atlantic Forest from 1985 to 2022, the authors also found that Indigenous lands and agrarian-reform settlements had higher rates of restoration reversals (restored forests later deforested). Each had 21 hectares (52 acres) and roughly 4.5 hectares (11 acres) more restoration reversals than private properties,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/brazils-atlantic-forest-indigenous-lands-show-strong-restoration-gains/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/brazils-atlantic-forest-indigenous-lands-show-strong-restoration-gains/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314108</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Communities join global push to protect European, Arctic &#038; US peatlands</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/local-communities-join-global-push-to-protect-european-arctic-us-peatlands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/local-communities-join-global-push-to-protect-european-arctic-us-peatlands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Feb 2026 16:55:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/05091906/Gray-Jay-Admiral-Rd-feeders-Sax-Zim-Bog-MN-IMG_1096-scaled-e1770283761208-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313759</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic, Canada, Europe, Finland, Minnesota, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, boreal forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Culture, Environment, food security, Indigenous Peoples, Land Use Change, Landscape Restoration, Peatlands, Restoration, Rewilding, Rivers, Wetlands, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[After her father’s death, Bigga-Helena Magga and her sister were determined that their ancestral homeland, Alttokangas, a Sámi boreal forest and peatland in Finland’s Inari municipality, would not be turned into a commercial forestry operation. “We chose to take care and protect our inherited site located along the Ivalojoki river, which held great significance to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[After her father’s death, Bigga-Helena Magga and her sister were determined that their ancestral homeland, Alttokangas, a Sámi boreal forest and peatland in Finland’s Inari municipality, would not be turned into a commercial forestry operation. “We chose to take care and protect our inherited site located along the Ivalojoki river, which held great significance to Sámi culture and way of life,” said Magga, a Sámi leader from the Ivalo community. What began as a personal restoration project gained momentum in 2024, when it was formally recognized as the first Indigenous and community conserved area (ICCA) in Sámi lands located in Finland. That same year, they joined an effort to create what may be the world’s first coordinated restoration hubs across boreal and Arctic peatlands in Europe and North America. A key goal is for communities across Canada, the U.S. and Europe’s Arctic to work simultaneously to find a shared framework for restoration that conserves peatlands’ rich soil carbon and mitigates climate change. Kunnijänkkä intact peatland facing Northeast, the Pallas-Ounas National Park visible on the horizon. Image courtesy of Mika Honkalinna / Snowchange Cooperative. The initiative, part of the Climate Breakthrough Award program, builds on peatland conservation and restoration work led by Snowchange Cooperative, a Finland-based organization that launched its first landscape rewilding project in 2018. At the time, the effort restored peatlands from eight sites totaling 8,800 hectares (21,745 acres) to 188 sites in 2024, affecting up to 62,000 hectares (153,205 acres) in Finland. The program expands on this initiative&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/local-communities-join-global-push-to-protect-european-arctic-us-peatlands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/local-communities-join-global-push-to-protect-european-arctic-us-peatlands/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313759</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The fair costs for forest rehabilitation in Indonesia (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/the-fair-costs-for-forest-rehabilitation-in-indonesia-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/the-fair-costs-for-forest-rehabilitation-in-indonesia-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Feb 2026 13:19:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aida Greenbury]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/07/02134045/kalbar_drone_190836-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313621</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Land Use Change, Landscape Restoration, Plantations, Rainforests, Reforestation, Rehabilitation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A week ago, the media reported that the Ministry of Forestry estimated the total cost of rehabilitating Indonesia’s forests and critical lands at Rp153.78 trillion, or about US$9.2 billion, over nine years, ending in 2034. The Ministry plans to rehabilitate 12 million hectares of critical land by then, including 6.3 million hectares within forest areas [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A week ago, the media reported that the Ministry of Forestry estimated the total cost of rehabilitating Indonesia’s forests and critical lands at Rp153.78 trillion, or about US$9.2 billion, over nine years, ending in 2034. The Ministry plans to rehabilitate 12 million hectares of critical land by then, including 6.3 million hectares within forest areas and 5.7 million hectares outside. On average, about 1.3 million hectares will be rehabilitated annually, requiring roughly Rp17.08 trillion in funding from the State Budget (APBN) and regional budgets. Additional financing will also depend on domestic and international cooperation, as well as commitments to watershed-area rehabilitation by holders of Forest Area Use Permits (PPKH) and Forest Utilization Business Permits (PBPH). Ecosystem restoration efforts will also be supported through carbon schemes and corporate social responsibility (CSR). It’s not yet clear where the 12 million hectares are located, how the number was derived, which indicators were used, or what their actual condition is. It’s also unclear how this overlaps with the 12.7 million hectares under the Ministry’s Social Forestry Program. In November 2024, the Forestry Minister announced his intention to develop a roadmap and strategic plan to reforest 12 million hectares of degraded forest, following a statement by the President’s Special Envoy for Climate, who said that 12.7 million hectares of damaged forest in Indonesia would be reforested at COP29 in Azerbaijan. I have not seen this roadmap made publicly available. Despite this confusion, it is critical that a large-scale forest rehabilitation program ensure transparency for the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/the-fair-costs-for-forest-rehabilitation-in-indonesia-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/the-fair-costs-for-forest-rehabilitation-in-indonesia-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313621</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Australia’s land-use squeeze</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/australias-land-use-squeeze/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/australias-land-use-squeeze/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jan 2026 22:53:59 +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/20/2026/01/29225240/australia_fnq_0493-26-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313300</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Cattle, Cities, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forests, Green, Habitat Degradation, Land Use Change, Logging, and Ranching]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay recently launched the Australian Biodiversity Special Reporting Project, which will produce sustained, high-quality journalism on Australia’s unique wildlife, ecosystems, and the threats they face—including habitat destruction, invasive species, climate change, and extractive industries. Journalists interested in being involved can learn more via Mongabay.org. Australia likes to think of itself as a country with space [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay recently launched the Australian Biodiversity Special Reporting Project, which will produce sustained, high-quality journalism on Australia’s unique wildlife, ecosystems, and the threats they face—including habitat destruction, invasive species, climate change, and extractive industries. Journalists interested in being involved can learn more via Mongabay.org. Australia likes to think of itself as a country with space to spare. On maps it is a continent with most of its people pressed into a thin coastal rim, leaving a vast interior that looks empty. Ecologically, that impression is misleading. Much of Australia’s biodiversity is concentrated in habitats that sit close to where people farm, build, log, and dig. Over the past 20–30 years, land use change has continued to reshape those places. The result has been a slow narrowing of options for wildlife, even in a nation that prides itself on its natural heritage. The basic story is not complicated. Native vegetation is cleared or degraded. Habitat becomes smaller, more fragmented, and less resilient. Populations thin out. Some disappear. Australia’s national environment reporting treats habitat loss and modification as one of the major pressures on biodiversity, alongside invasive species and climate change. A continent of fragments Australia has already lost a meaningful share of its native vegetation since European settlement, and the long-run trend is still reflected in modern landscapes. The 2021 State of the Environment report notes that native vegetation has been replaced across large areas by agriculture, cities, and infrastructure, with some vegetation groups losing a substantial portion of their original&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/australias-land-use-squeeze/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/australias-land-use-squeeze/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313300</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>IUCN launches group to conserve at-risk microbes vital to life on Earth</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/iucn-launches-group-to-conserve-at-risk-microbes-vital-to-life-on-earth/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/iucn-launches-group-to-conserve-at-risk-microbes-vital-to-life-on-earth/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Jan 2026 21:12:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/21192536/Image_1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313188</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Global Environmental Crisis, Habitat Loss, Health, Land Use Change, Microorganisms, Oceans, Planetary Health, Plants, Pollution, Water, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Invisible in their trillions, microbes dwell in our bodies, grow in soils, live on trees and are integral to planetary health. Yet the huge oversized roles these teeming biodiverse microbial communities play as a foundation for life on Earth is often overlooked. And so, too, are the threats microorganisms face, especially from humanity’s actions. But [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Invisible in their trillions, microbes dwell in our bodies, grow in soils, live on trees and are integral to planetary health. Yet the huge oversized roles these teeming biodiverse microbial communities play as a foundation for life on Earth is often overlooked. And so, too, are the threats microorganisms face, especially from humanity’s actions. But this scientific inattention is about to end, as a newly launched International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) species survival commission focuses on microbiology and dire threats to microbial species. “I think this is a huge milestone for microbiologists, but also for conservation overall, because for the first time, we have an official recognition that microbes need to be included in the conservation agenda,” says Raquel Peixoto, co-chair of the IUCN specialist group and chair of the Marine Science Program at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia. “We cannot talk about either climate change or biodiversity loss without talking about microbes, because we need them to keep the ecosystems healthy and working, and we need them to keep the organisms working,” she adds. All plants and animals host invisible communities of microbes. These vast unseen microbiomes are fundamental to life as we know it, but these invisible ecosystems are also threatened by numerous intensifying pressures, including pollution, climate change and land use change. Prochlorococcus microorganisms in the world’s oceans produce vast amounts of oxygen via photosynthesis. Increasing water temperatures could cause declines of this invaluable microbe. A recent study estimates that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/iucn-launches-group-to-conserve-at-risk-microbes-vital-to-life-on-earth/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/iucn-launches-group-to-conserve-at-risk-microbes-vital-to-life-on-earth/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313188</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Is South Asia becoming inhospitable for migratory birds?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/is-south-asia-becoming-inhospitable-for-migratory-birds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/is-south-asia-becoming-inhospitable-for-migratory-birds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Jan 2026 10:19:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sadiqur Rahman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/21095547/birds-fisherman-bangladesh-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313163</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Environment, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Land Use Change, Migration, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Every winter, millions of birds fly thousands of kilometers via the Central Asian Flyway (CAF) and East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF), from the frozen expanses of Siberia and Central Asia to the warmer South Asia and beyond. The birds’ migration depends on a chain of intact ecosystems: primarily wetlands, riverine forests and coastal mangroves, which serve [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Every winter, millions of birds fly thousands of kilometers via the Central Asian Flyway (CAF) and East Asian-Australasian Flyway (EAAF), from the frozen expanses of Siberia and Central Asia to the warmer South Asia and beyond. The birds’ migration depends on a chain of intact ecosystems: primarily wetlands, riverine forests and coastal mangroves, which serve as their crucial stopover sites for rest and refueling. However, today, many of these habitats and food sources are disappearing. Researchers from Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, India, the Maldives, Bhutan and Sri Lanka have assessed that wetland conversion amid agricultural expansion and rapid urbanization, unplanned fishing and pollution are degrading the wetlands, mudflats and river systems across South Asia. Bangladeshi ornithologist Sayam U. Chowdhury, a researcher at the Conservation Research Institute (CRI) under the University of Cambridge, explains how rapid urbanization and the loss of natural wetlands pose a serious threat to migratory waterbirds. Although many people associate waterbirds with fish, most migratory species — including ducks, geese and shorebirds — rely on shallow wetlands, mudflats and nearby agricultural lands. They primarily feed on aquatic vegetation, seeds and invertebrates rather than fish. “When waterbodies are drained, polluted or heavily altered, it destroys the habitats and food resources these birds depend on during their non-breeding season,” Chowdhury tells Mongabay. Bangladesh lies within both the Central Asian and the East Asian-Australian flyways and provides habitat for around 310 migratory bird species, according to Bangladesh’s National Report of COP13’s Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/is-south-asia-becoming-inhospitable-for-migratory-birds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/is-south-asia-becoming-inhospitable-for-migratory-birds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313163</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Involuntary parks: Human conflict is creating unintended refuges for wildlife</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/involuntary-parks-human-conflict-is-creating-unintended-refuges-for-wildlife/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/involuntary-parks-human-conflict-is-creating-unintended-refuges-for-wildlife/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jan 2026 16:10:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/15133046/11-BANNER-IMAGE-Mule-deer-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312997</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Land Conflict, Land Use Change, Planetary Boundaries, Pollution, War, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Few locations on Earth are as haunting or deeply ironic as so-called involuntary parks — places too toxic, dangerous, or otherwise made off-limits for human habitation, but which have paradoxically and unintentionally become sanctuaries for wildlife in our absence. As the name coined by science fiction author Bruce Sterling suggests, involuntary parks weren’t established for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Few locations on Earth are as haunting or deeply ironic as so-called involuntary parks — places too toxic, dangerous, or otherwise made off-limits for human habitation, but which have paradoxically and unintentionally become sanctuaries for wildlife in our absence. As the name coined by science fiction author Bruce Sterling suggests, involuntary parks weren’t established for conservation — and in many cases aren’t formally recognized as preserves. Some encompass former nuclear, military or manufacturing complexes and/or their buffer zones. Some are sites of major environmental disasters, former battlefields laced with unexploded munitions, or slices of no-man’s land demarcating tense borders between geopolitical rivals. Landmine warning sign in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a legacy of the 1992-1995 Bosnian War. In Ukraine, land mines have rendered large areas off-limits to people, while past wars left huge areas pocked by land mines in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Myanmar, Iraq, Syria, Angola and elsewhere, despite a global treaty banning their use. Image by Darij Zadnikar via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). Despite their often destructive origins, a growing number of these involuntary parks have, over time, been officially designated as protected wildlife refuges or cross-border peace parks, actively managed by government organizations and advocated for by citizens and researchers — not so “involuntary” anymore. It’s an attractive narrative. But without sufficient context, the genesis of an involuntary park (a process also controversially dubbed passive rewilding) can “imply that nature simply fixes itself, or that in the absence of human intervention, a favorable recovery inevitably occurs at sites that may&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/involuntary-parks-human-conflict-is-creating-unintended-refuges-for-wildlife/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/involuntary-parks-human-conflict-is-creating-unintended-refuges-for-wildlife/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312997</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can we create new inland seas to lower sea level rise? Interview with researcher Amir AghaKouchak</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/can-we-create-new-inland-seas-to-lower-sea-level-rise-interview-with-researcher-amir-aghakouchak/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/can-we-create-new-inland-seas-to-lower-sea-level-rise-interview-with-researcher-amir-aghakouchak/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Dec 2025 16:18:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/08125940/Krzysztof-Ziarnek-Kenraiz-Soda_schweinfurthii_kz02-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310742</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Egypt, and North Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Deserts, Environment, Extreme Weather, Impact Of Climate Change, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Land Use Change, Oceans, Politics, and Sea Levels]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Sea levels are rising, threatening coastal areas, including cities, around the world. Due to climate change, the global ocean has already risen by 21-24 centimeters (about 8-9.5 inches) since 1880, and the rate is accelerating, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A new climate idea aims to slow this rise by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Sea levels are rising, threatening coastal areas, including cities, around the world. Due to climate change, the global ocean has already risen by 21-24 centimeters (about 8-9.5 inches) since 1880, and the rate is accelerating, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A new climate idea aims to slow this rise by moving seawater to reflood inland depressions. The main causes of sea level rise are ice packs melting and the volume of water in the ocean expanding as Earth’s temperature increases due to human-caused climate change. Depending on the ferocity with which we cut greenhouse gas emissions, predictions of future sea level rise vary widely. According to NOAA, if we cap the global temperature rise at just 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels — nearly impossible at this point — the sea level would rise an additional 30 cm (12 in) by 2100. If emissions remain at the very high end of estimates, sea levels could rise by 200 cm (6.6 feet) by the end of the century, flooding many of the world’s coastlines and affecting tens of millions of people. There are even worse scenarios: if we lose much of Greenland’s ice sheet or the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica — dubbed the Doomsday Glacier — the resultant rise in water level could affect billions. A new research grant is looking at the idea of reflooding lowland depressions to alleviate the problem on the coasts, starting with the Qattara Depression, a massive low-lying desert area&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/can-we-create-new-inland-seas-to-lower-sea-level-rise-interview-with-researcher-amir-aghakouchak/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/can-we-create-new-inland-seas-to-lower-sea-level-rise-interview-with-researcher-amir-aghakouchak/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310742</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New riverside lake in Nepal wins hearts, but faces government opposition</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/new-riverside-lake-in-nepal-wins-hearts-but-faces-government-opposition/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/new-riverside-lake-in-nepal-wins-hearts-but-faces-government-opposition/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Nov 2025 16:26:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Suresh Bidari]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/28152601/IMG_9578-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310313</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cities, Conservation, Corruption, Dams, Drought, Environment, Environmental Law, Freshwater, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Lakes, Land Use Change, Politics, Rivers, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SARLAHI, Nepal — Nepali social media influencer Ishtu Karki recently posted photos and videos enjoying a motorboat ride on the Bagmati Lake, popularly known as Bharat Taal, in Sarlahi district in the country’s southern plains. “We have such a wonderful pond here in Sarlahi … You don’t need to go to Bangkok or Phuket now,” [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SARLAHI, Nepal — Nepali social media influencer Ishtu Karki recently posted photos and videos enjoying a motorboat ride on the Bagmati Lake, popularly known as Bharat Taal, in Sarlahi district in the country’s southern plains. “We have such a wonderful pond here in Sarlahi … You don’t need to go to Bangkok or Phuket now,” she said about the lake adjoining Bagmati River. The 33.8-hectare (83.54-acre) lake, commissioned by Bagmati municipality mayor Bharat Bahadur Thapa — hence the name — and built in 2021, attracts visitors not just from Nepal, but also from across the border in India in large numbers. On a recent November afternoon, Mongabay saw seven Nepali tourists pay 300 rupees ($2.1) each for a boat ride. A young Indian couple paid 100 rupees (70 cents) for a short horse ride on the bank and 50 rupees (35 cents) more for a video clip. “We have limited drinking water supplies here, but I like to come here to see the lake,” said Satendra Kumar, who visits the lake occasionally from his home in neighboring Bihar state, India. Tourists from India and Nepal visit Bharat Taal in Nepal. Image by Nakul Sah. But the next time visitors such as Karki and Kumar return to the lake, it may not be there. Since its construction, the lake has shot up as a popular cross-border attraction with economic, groundwater recharge and biodiversity benefits, but ongoing legal cases, lack of long-term environmental and biodiversity safeguards, inadequate waste management, and unclear jurisdiction&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/new-riverside-lake-in-nepal-wins-hearts-but-faces-government-opposition/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310313</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bird diversity drops in human-dominated habitats, Nepal study suggests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/bird-diversity-drops-in-human-dominated-habitats-nepal-study-suggests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/bird-diversity-drops-in-human-dominated-habitats-nepal-study-suggests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Nov 2025 13:55:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/26131636/3-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310196</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Birds, Conservation, Deforestation, Drinking Water, Environment, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Land Use Change, Landscape Restoration, Rivers, Species, Water, Water Scarcity, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Birds prefer to live in a mix of forests, fields and wetlands, but human activities such as logging, hunting and sand and gravel mining are taking a toll on such mosaics in Nepal’s southern plains, a recent study shows. The research, published in the Journal of Environmental Management, suggests such a mosaic of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Birds prefer to live in a mix of forests, fields and wetlands, but human activities such as logging, hunting and sand and gravel mining are taking a toll on such mosaics in Nepal’s southern plains, a recent study shows. The research, published in the Journal of Environmental Management, suggests such a mosaic of connected habitats coupled with a reduction of disturbances from human activities such as extraction may help boost not only the numbers of birds, but species as well. “We found that while birds seek heterogeneity in their habitats, human activities are increasingly homogenizing the landscapes at the cost of bird habitats,” said Hem Bahadur Katuwal, assistant professor at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences. As part of the study, researchers studied the diversity, ecological traits and functions (habitat, diet, mobility and body size) and ancestry of 238 randomly selected bird species in an anthropogenic (farmland and settlement) and a natural (forest and riverine) habitat within the Parsa-Koshi Complex (PKC) in southern Nepal for more than a year. “We chose the study area because it is not only rich in natural habitat, but it also has the highest population density in Nepal,” Katuwal said. Grey Heron spotted in the study area. Image courtesy of Hem Bahadur Katuwal. Katuwal and his team then used computer models to compare this data with the level of human activity and landscape patterns in the same area, aiming to see if human activities acted like a &#8220;filter&#8221; that only allowed&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/bird-diversity-drops-in-human-dominated-habitats-nepal-study-suggests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/bird-diversity-drops-in-human-dominated-habitats-nepal-study-suggests/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310196</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous Dayak resist new southern Borneo national park amid global protection deficit</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/indigenous-dayak-resist-new-southern-borneo-national-park-amid-global-protection-deficit/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/indigenous-dayak-resist-new-southern-borneo-national-park-amid-global-protection-deficit/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Nov 2025 10:10:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rendy TisnaRiyad Dafhi Rizki]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/18100750/1001354092-1200x800-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309722</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conflict, Conservation, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Use Change, National Parks, Protests, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANJARMASIN, Indonesia — A growing coalition of Indigenous communities, students and civil society organizations from Borneo is rallying against fast-moving plans to establish a new national park in the remote Meratus mountain range. “The Meratus forest is our mother,” said Anang Suriani, a spokesperson for the Dayak Indigenous community from Kambiayin, a village in South [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANJARMASIN, Indonesia — A growing coalition of Indigenous communities, students and civil society organizations from Borneo is rallying against fast-moving plans to establish a new national park in the remote Meratus mountain range. “The Meratus forest is our mother,” said Anang Suriani, a spokesperson for the Dayak Indigenous community from Kambiayin, a village in South Kalimantan province that falls within the borders of the proposed Meratus Mountains National Park. “It&#8217;s a place where we live, farm, forage, practice tradition and obtain medicine,” he added. “Making it a national park is tantamount to destroying us.” The government plans to zone Meratus Mountains National Park over 119,779 hectares (295,980 acres), an area twice the size of the city of Chicago, or more than 50% larger than the country of Singapore. Since Indonesia’s independence in 1945, successive governments have established 57 national parks across the country, the largest of which is Lorentz National Park in Papua, at around 2.5 million hectares (6.2 million acres), an area 30 times larger than Singapore. The smallest, Kelimutu National Park on Flores island, is slightly smaller than the city state. South Kalimantan is one of only four of the 38 provinces across Indonesia that doesn’t have a national park. However, in April this year, UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural office, designated the Meratus Mountains as a Global Geopark for its “fascinating geological record of complex tectonic evolution beginning in the Jurassic period, 201 to 145 million years ago.” Officials in Indonesia unveiled the national park draft in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/indigenous-dayak-resist-new-southern-borneo-national-park-amid-global-protection-deficit/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/indigenous-dayak-resist-new-southern-borneo-national-park-amid-global-protection-deficit/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309722</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Honduras, local communities miss out on benefits of large-scale renewables</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/in-honduras-local-communities-miss-out-on-benefits-of-large-scale-renewables/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/in-honduras-local-communities-miss-out-on-benefits-of-large-scale-renewables/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Nov 2025 14:19:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mie Hoejris Dahl]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/06140753/The-Marcovia-Solar-project.-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308874</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Clean Energy, Community Development, Conservation, Corporations, Deforestation, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Energy Transition, Forest Loss, Governance, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Land Conflict, Land Use Change, Renewable Energy, and Solar Power]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CHOLUTECA, Honduras — Under the slogan “Without human rights, there is no energy sovereignty,” more than 100 community members and activists gathered in mid-July at the Casa Real Hotel in Choluteca, a city in southern Honduras near the Nicaraguan border. At the event, participants — a mix of nonprofit leaders and community members — questioned [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CHOLUTECA, Honduras — Under the slogan “Without human rights, there is no energy sovereignty,” more than 100 community members and activists gathered in mid-July at the Casa Real Hotel in Choluteca, a city in southern Honduras near the Nicaraguan border. At the event, participants — a mix of nonprofit leaders and community members — questioned the fairness of large-scale renewable energy projects in their territories, claiming the projects leave them without water and forests, and exposed to extreme heat. Yet reliable data on the impacts of renewable energy projects in southern Honduras remain scarce. In Honduras, where fossil fuels account for about 38% of the electricity supply, and where the World Bank estimates that about 1.4 million people lack access to electricity, experts told Mongabay that there’s an urgent need for an energy transition. That need will grow as the climate warms and national energy demand rises by a projected 39% from 2025 to 2035. Yet, community members in southern Honduras say large renewable energy projects come at the expense of the environment and of their well-being. They blame solar, wind and hydroelectric projects for deforestation, droughts and floods, and describe unbearable temperatures near solar farms. Some who have opposed the large-scale renewable energy projects have been threatened, displaced or even killed. Families living adjacent to solar projects in Choluteca report still lacking access to electricity. Many say they don’t feel the benefits of the energy transition; they either pay high prices for power or remain without, while the jobs&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/in-honduras-local-communities-miss-out-on-benefits-of-large-scale-renewables/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/in-honduras-local-communities-miss-out-on-benefits-of-large-scale-renewables/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308874</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Biodiversity loss due to land use change could be highly underestimated: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/biodiversity-loss-due-to-land-use-change-could-be-highly-underestimated-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/biodiversity-loss-due-to-land-use-change-could-be-highly-underestimated-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Oct 2025 10:00:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mark Hillsdon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/04/04160611/5-plate-billed-mountain-toucan-is-native-to-Ecuador-and-a-portion-of-Colombia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307580</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Cattle, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Endangered Species, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Habitat Loss, Land Use Change, Pasture, Planetary Boundaries, Ranching, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A survey of Colombian birdlife, which evolved over more than a decade into the world’s largest-ever ornithological study, has found that clearing forests to create new pastures is causing as much as 60% more damage to biodiversity than previously thought. Until now, research into the impact on biodiversity of land use change has generally involved [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A survey of Colombian birdlife, which evolved over more than a decade into the world’s largest-ever ornithological study, has found that clearing forests to create new pastures is causing as much as 60% more damage to biodiversity than previously thought. Until now, research into the impact on biodiversity of land use change has generally involved small-scale, local surveys. But this approach does not accurately represent the larger-scale damage caused to nature, says study co-author David Edwards, a professor of plant ecology at the University of Cambridge. When forests are converted to pasture, some species win and others lose, he explains, and measuring the biodiversity loss at a local scale does not capture the larger-scale effect of these land clearances, which are occurring across the ranges of many different species. “When people want to understand the wider impact of deforestation on biodiversity, they tend to do a local survey and extrapolate the results,” Edwards tells Mongabay in a phone interview. “But the problem is that tree clearance is occurring at massive spatial scales, across all sorts of different habitats and elevations.” By focusing on isolated sites, researchers were missing how these effects accumulate across regions, he says. Large areas of Tinigua National Natural Park have been razed for illegal livestock ranching. Image by María Jimena Neira Niño. In 2024, Colombia lost 113,608 hectares (about 280,700 acres) of forest, a 43% increase compared with 2023, when deforestation had dropped to its lowest level in more than two decades. But while organized crime,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/biodiversity-loss-due-to-land-use-change-could-be-highly-underestimated-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/biodiversity-loss-due-to-land-use-change-could-be-highly-underestimated-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307580</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>There’s far less land available for reforestation than we think, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/theres-far-less-land-available-for-reforestation-than-we-think-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/theres-far-less-land-available-for-reforestation-than-we-think-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Oct 2025 15:08:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/02142050/AP25212528587062-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306964</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, data, Deforestation, Ecology, Environment, food security, Food Vs Forests Debate, Forest Carbon, Forests, Fossil Fuels, Land Use Change, Mammals, Mapping, Plants, Rainforests, Reforestation, Remote Sensing, Research, Soil Carbon, Solutions, Trees, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, Water, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Josep “Pep” Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project, says he believes countries large and small need to think twice before pledging to collectively plant billions of trees as a primary emissions-reduction strategy to meet climate action goals. “We have somehow sold reforestation as a kind of easier path [to fighting climate change], and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Josep “Pep” Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project, says he believes countries large and small need to think twice before pledging to collectively plant billions of trees as a primary emissions-reduction strategy to meet climate action goals. “We have somehow sold reforestation as a kind of easier path [to fighting climate change], and it’s not easy at all,” Canadell told Mongabay. “In my view, it’s not even easier than carbon capture and storage, a technology we’re still developing. That’s because when you bring humans into landscapes and try managing landscapes where people live, all of a sudden, this stuff becomes very complex.” Canadell is the co-author of a new study in Science that found, among other things, that the amount of land deemed suitable for newly planted and restored forests — an area roughly the size of India — quickly shrinks by as much as two-thirds when taking into account adverse impacts on biodiversity, food security and water resources. The study used new modeling tools to create global maps of soil carbon change that show carbon gains and losses, especially in topsoil. Researchers mapped the global carbon sequestration rates after forestation based on existing tree-planting pledges, then compared that with the realistic limits of those pledges. They also sorted through permanent land use changes after deforestation — for agriculture and ranching, for example — and recognized that ever returning those lands to forests was highly unlikely. In real terms, the study found that the potential to store an&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/theres-far-less-land-available-for-reforestation-than-we-think-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/theres-far-less-land-available-for-reforestation-than-we-think-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306964</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Norway fund drops Eramet over Indonesia mine threatening forests, Indigenous tribe</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/norway-fund-drops-eramet-over-indonesia-mine-threatening-forests-indigenous-tribe/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/norway-fund-drops-eramet-over-indonesia-mine-threatening-forests-indigenous-tribe/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Sep 2025 01:40:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/09060958/Nickel-mining-activity-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306096</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, North Maluku, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Biodiversity Hotspots, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Critical Minerals, Deforestation, Electric Cars, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Just Transition, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Norway’s $1.6 trillion state pension fund has dropped French miner Eramet from its investment portfolio over its role in a vast Indonesian nickel mine accused of destroying rainforest and threatening one of the world’s few remaining uncontacted Indigenous groups. The Government Pension Fund Global, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, held a 0.44% [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Norway’s $1.6 trillion state pension fund has dropped French miner Eramet from its investment portfolio over its role in a vast Indonesian nickel mine accused of destroying rainforest and threatening one of the world’s few remaining uncontacted Indigenous groups. The Government Pension Fund Global, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, held a 0.44% stake in Eramet worth $6.8 million as of June 30, according to fund data. The divestment followed a recommendation from the fund’s Council on Ethics, which cited “an unacceptable risk” of severe environmental damage and gross human rights violations from Eramet’s operations in Indonesia. The decision comes as Indonesian authorities revealed that PT Weda Bay Nickel (WBN), the Eramet-operated mine in Halmahera, was running 148 hectares (366 acres) of unlicensed mining inside state forest. Authorities have since seized back the land. Indonesia is the world’s top producer of nickel, is a key ingredient in electric vehicle batteries, making the mine’s output critical to the global energy transition. But the Weda Bay case highlights the mounting tension between demand for “green” minerals and the destruction of tropical ecosystems and Indigenous lands. Eramet&#8217;s Weda Bay Nickel mine on the territory of the uncontacted Forest Tobelo people in Halmahera, Indonesia. Image courtesy of Survival International. Biodiversity hotspot under threat Weda Bay Nickel is the world’s largest nickel mine, located on Halmahera Island, part of the Wallacea Biodiversity Hotspot. A 2024 assessment identified the entire mining concession as critical habitat under International Finance Corporation (IFC) standards — home to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/norway-fund-drops-eramet-over-indonesia-mine-threatening-forests-indigenous-tribe/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/norway-fund-drops-eramet-over-indonesia-mine-threatening-forests-indigenous-tribe/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306096</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Satellite data show burst of deforestation in Myanmar rare earth mining hotspots</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/satellite-data-show-burst-of-deforestation-in-myanmar-rare-earth-mining-hotspots/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/satellite-data-show-burst-of-deforestation-in-myanmar-rare-earth-mining-hotspots/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Sep 2025 15:51:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Latoya AbuluSonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/16075624/drone-shot-of-mining-site-in-Myanmar-EARTH-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305968</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Myanmar, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, data, Deforestation, Deforestation Alert System, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, Land Use Change, Mining, Pollution, Rainforests, Regulations, Remote Sensing, Rivers, Satellite Imagery, Social Conflict, Tropical Deforestation, War, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Myanmar’s Kachin state, near the border with China, is a global hub for rare earth minerals. But the dearth of regulations over mining these resources has come at a steep cost to the area’s subtropical and moist forests, according to researchers and satellite imagery collected by Mongabay. Civil society sources in the region, who requested [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Myanmar’s Kachin state, near the border with China, is a global hub for rare earth minerals. But the dearth of regulations over mining these resources has come at a steep cost to the area’s subtropical and moist forests, according to researchers and satellite imagery collected by Mongabay. Civil society sources in the region, who requested anonymity due to security concerns in the warring country, say mining activities are also causing alarming impacts on human health, women, soil and rivers. A spokesperson from a local organization in Myanmar told Mongabay that mining in Chipwi and Momauk townships, where much of the state’s rare earth mining is concentrated, increased rapidly in late 2021, the year the coup d’état and civil war began. This was “especially in areas under informal control or lacking proper environmental oversight,” the spokesperson said. Bhamo is another township where rare earth mining is taking place. “There has [also] been a noticeable rise in deforestation since around 2018, with sharp increases particularly around mining zones due to road construction, land clearing for extraction activities, and widespread tree cutting for fuelwood or to dry the rare earth sludge,” the spokesperson told Mongabay by text message. From 2018 to 2024, Chipwi, Momauk and Bhamo lost about 32,720 hectares (80,850 acres) of tree cover, according to data from Global Forest Watch. Momauk saw the highest loss, with 12,100 hectares (about 30,000 acres). Mining has since slowed down or been suspended in some places after the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), whose armed wing&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/satellite-data-show-burst-of-deforestation-in-myanmar-rare-earth-mining-hotspots/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/satellite-data-show-burst-of-deforestation-in-myanmar-rare-earth-mining-hotspots/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305968</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rare earth rush endangers rural communities and conservation areas in Brazil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/rare-earth-rush-endangers-rural-communities-and-conservation-areas-in-brazil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/rare-earth-rush-endangers-rural-communities-and-conservation-areas-in-brazil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Sep 2025 15:30:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fábio Bispofrom The Mining ObservatoryLúcio LambranhoMaurício Angelo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/15152532/AP25209842758828-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305995</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil and China]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Community-based Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Forest Destruction, Land Conflict, Land Reform, Land Rights, Land Speculation, Land Use Change, Mining, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Brazil ranks among the countries with the largest reserves of rare earth elements. But scaling up the extraction of these metals, used in various high-tech applications and essential to the clean energy transition, could lead to an increase conflicts in at least five Brazilian states, activists warn. Brazil holds 23% of global rare earth reserves, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Brazil ranks among the countries with the largest reserves of rare earth elements. But scaling up the extraction of these metals, used in various high-tech applications and essential to the clean energy transition, could lead to an increase conflicts in at least five Brazilian states, activists warn. Brazil holds 23% of global rare earth reserves, according to the 2025 U.S. Mineral Commodity Summaries. That makes it second only to China, which controls the supply chain for minerals in terms of both reserves and processing, and has used this to wield geopolitical influence. However, Brazilian production remains at an early stage, accounting for only 1% of the global market. This is expected to change quickly with new projects currently in progress. The increased interest in rare earths is raising fears among community leaders in the country. Rural settlements that have been demarcated by INCRA, the national land reform institute, are now facing requests to explore for these minerals on their territory. According to research by the Mining Observatory, there are 187 applications for rare earth mining targeting 96 INCRA-registered settlements across Brazil. The state of Bahia has the most, with 88 applications, followed by Goiás with 53 and Pernambuco with 21. The search for rare earths in these areas, which overlap with settlements, is led by mostly obscure companies. The 600-year-old tree vs. the mine The two most advanced applications target the Reunidas Pau Brasil Sustainable Development Project, a rural settlement established in Bahia’s Itamaraju municipality. According to National Mining Agency&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/rare-earth-rush-endangers-rural-communities-and-conservation-areas-in-brazil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/rare-earth-rush-endangers-rural-communities-and-conservation-areas-in-brazil/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305995</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Madagascar’s dry forests need attention, and Verreaux’s sifakas could help</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/madagascars-dry-forests-need-attention-and-verreauxs-sifakas-could-help/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/madagascars-dry-forests-need-attention-and-verreauxs-sifakas-could-help/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Sep 2025 14:35:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mino Rakotovao]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/15104055/Verreauxs-Sifaka-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305893</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Madagascar, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Dry Forests, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Fires, forest degradation, Forest Fragmentation, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Hunting, Land Use Change, Lemurs, Mammals, Parks, Primates, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Research, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ANTANANARIVO — Which tropical habitats are worthy of conservation? Humid forests, with their dazzling species counts, easily gain notice. Dry forests may not boast the same numbers, but their unique rhythms of life are just as vital — and a charismatic inhabitant, the Verreaux’s sifaka, is helping make their case in Madagascar. “Conservation efforts and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ANTANANARIVO — Which tropical habitats are worthy of conservation? Humid forests, with their dazzling species counts, easily gain notice. Dry forests may not boast the same numbers, but their unique rhythms of life are just as vital — and a charismatic inhabitant, the Verreaux’s sifaka, is helping make their case in Madagascar. “Conservation efforts and international funding have long focused on the eastern rainforests, by both conservation organizations or by development organizations, in Madagascar and globally,” primatologist Rebecca Lewis told Mongabay, “[Meanwhile], in the west and southwest [of Madagascar], the situation is just as serious, with widespread food insecurity, increased bushmeat hunting, and similar threats like deforestation and reliance of local communities on forest resources.” At the recently-concluded International Primatological Society (IPS) congress, Lewis, founder of Ankoatsifaka Initiative for Dry Forests (AID Forests), advocated for inclusion of Verreaux’s sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi) on the most recent list of the World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates not only because the species is critically endangered, but also because its listing could serve as a rallying point to protect its habitat in Madagascar’s dry forests. Found across southern and southwestern Madagascar, Verreaux’s sifaka is a diurnal lemur that lives in family groups and holds local cultural significance. As a seed disperser, it plays a vital role in regenerating and maintaining the diverse forests and habitats it occupies. This primate is classed as critically endangered by the IUCN, the global conservation authority, due to severe threats from habitat loss, hunting and, in some areas, low genetic&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/madagascars-dry-forests-need-attention-and-verreauxs-sifakas-could-help/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305893</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>EUDR implementation comes laden with potential unintended consequences</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/eudr-implementation-comes-laden-with-potential-unintended-consequences/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/eudr-implementation-comes-laden-with-potential-unintended-consequences/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Sep 2025 19:05:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/04150701/Image_7-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
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											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Brazil, Cerrado, East Africa, Ethiopia, Ghana, Global, Indonesia, South America, Southeast Asia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Cacao, Coffee, Conservation, Crops, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Farming, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Globalization, International Trade, Land Use Change, Palm Oil, Pasture, Politics, Regulations, Supply Chain, Timber, Timber Laws, timber trade, Trade, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Set to enter into force Dec. 30, 2025, the European Union’s deforestation-free products regulation (EUDR) aims to halt the bloc’s contribution to global forest loss. Experts Mongabay spoke to agree the EUDR promises to become a landmark legislative tool for curbing commodities supply chain-related deforestation at the international level. But those analysts also warn of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Set to enter into force Dec. 30, 2025, the European Union’s deforestation-free products regulation (EUDR) aims to halt the bloc’s contribution to global forest loss. Experts Mongabay spoke to agree the EUDR promises to become a landmark legislative tool for curbing commodities supply chain-related deforestation at the international level. But those analysts also warn of “unintended consequences” built into the law that could imperil the initiative’s objectives and effectiveness and in some cases raise the risk of further deforestation or land use change spreading to other ecosystems. Once it is implemented, the EUDR requires producers of a wide range of commodities — including cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy and wood — prove their products are not being sourced from land deforested after Dec. 31, 2020. EUDR implementation was delayed in 2024 when transnational companies and commodity producing nations complained to the EU of being unprepared for the law. That hiatus raised widespread concerns the delay might be used for “watering down” the statute. But the postponement could also allow time for potential EUDR defects to be addressed. The Rainforest Alliance, for example, which has supported the law from its inception, “definitely saw the unintended consequences from the start,” says Fanny Gauttier, the NGO’s European public affairs lead. Prime among those unintended consequences, she says, is the possibility of the EUDR accidentally excluding many of the world’s smallholder farmers. Other experts point to the potential “leakage” of commodities once destined for EUDR nations being shipped to unregulated markets. Add&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/eudr-implementation-comes-laden-with-potential-unintended-consequences/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305415</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New study pinpoints tree-planting hotspots for climate and biodiversity gains</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-study-pinpoints-tree-planting-hotspots-for-climate-and-biodiversity-gains/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-study-pinpoints-tree-planting-hotspots-for-climate-and-biodiversity-gains/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Sep 2025 15:19:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marina Martinez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/02111641/1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305279</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Restoration Solutions]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Global, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, data, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Regeneration, Forests, Fossil Fuels, Land Use Change, Mapping, Plants, Reforestation, Restoration, Trees, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Reforestation is gaining global momentum as a climate solution, but scientists warn that planting trees indiscriminately isn’t effective. Its success depends on how and, crucially, where it’s done. A new study in Nature Communications, co-authored by scientists from The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and other institutions, seeks to advance global reforestation efforts by mapping the locations [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Reforestation is gaining global momentum as a climate solution, but scientists warn that planting trees indiscriminately isn’t effective. Its success depends on how and, crucially, where it’s done. A new study in Nature Communications, co-authored by scientists from The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and other institutions, seeks to advance global reforestation efforts by mapping the locations where tree planting and forest regrowth are most likely to deliver climate, biodiversity and community benefits. The authors compiled their findings into a web-based tool called the Reforestation Hub. “Reforestation is a readily-available, scalable, cost-effective carbon removal solution, but we have neither time nor resources to restore trees everywhere,” said study co-author Susan Cook-Patton, lead reforestation scientist at TNC. “Our goal with this research was to help accelerate action by highlighting the places where reforestation holds the greatest promise for people, nature, and climate,” she added in an email interview that Mongabay conducted with the TNC team. Burning within Tesso Nilo National Park in Indonesia. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. Their research builds on previous maps of tree cover restoration potential, refining them by excluding areas where planting trees could do more harm than good, such as non-forested and fire-prone grasslands and savannas. Kurt Fesenmyer, the study lead author and TNC’s forest spatial data scientist, said earlier maps have been critiqued for three main reasons: how they defined “forest”; the data quality; and the lack of safeguards to ensure positive outcomes for people and the environment. “In developing our new map, we sought to address&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-study-pinpoints-tree-planting-hotspots-for-climate-and-biodiversity-gains/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305279</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Soil carbon: Crucial ally or potential threat to net-zero commitments?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/soil-carbon-crucial-ally-or-potential-threat-to-net-zero-commitments/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/soil-carbon-crucial-ally-or-potential-threat-to-net-zero-commitments/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Sep 2025 15:17:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claire Asher]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/03093438/0-BANNER-8053614949_982fecf12d_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305321</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, data, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Fossil Fuels, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Industrial Agriculture, Land Use Change, Politics, Research, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The daily destruction of nature’s carbon stores is happening right before our eyes, as forests are ravaged by catastrophic wildfires and vast tracts of wildlands are cleared for agriculture. But even greater stores of carbon lie hidden beneath our feet, and they too are under threat. The world’s soils are a gigantic carbon sink that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The daily destruction of nature’s carbon stores is happening right before our eyes, as forests are ravaged by catastrophic wildfires and vast tracts of wildlands are cleared for agriculture. But even greater stores of carbon lie hidden beneath our feet, and they too are under threat. The world’s soils are a gigantic carbon sink that has so far played a vital, outsized role in mitigating humanity’s excessive carbon emissions. But climate change, industrialized agriculture and other human activities threaten to degrade global soil carbon storage — maybe dangerously so. Preserving the ecosystem services of this subterranean environment is crucial to meeting global net zero commitments. The global soil carbon sink: An uncertain future Earth’s top 2 meters (6 feet) of soil contain an astonishing 2.5 trillion metric tons of carbon — more than is held in living vegetation and the atmosphere combined. But this is not a static store: Soils are constantly gaining and losing carbon as plants, fungi, bacteria and animals act upon them. An estimated 60 billion metric tons of carbon flow in and out of the soil every year, more than three times the scale of human emissions. “That flux in and out of the soils can be the biggest determinant of atmospheric CO2 levels,” says Jonathan Sanderman, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in the U.S. But as the climate warms, the balance of carbon flowing in and out of soil is being disrupted, with potentially disastrous consequences. Estimates suggest that global soils&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/soil-carbon-crucial-ally-or-potential-threat-to-net-zero-commitments/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305321</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Strategies against deforestation across the Amazon Basin</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/strategies-against-deforestation-across-the-amazon-basin/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/strategies-against-deforestation-across-the-amazon-basin/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Aug 2025 16:00:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/31193900/amazon_203445-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303572</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Deforestation, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Regulations, Sustainable Development, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The command-and-control approach to reducing or eliminating environmental wrongdoing depends on both carrots and sticks. The carrots are largely linked to the private sector and are predicated on access to markets. The sticks all depend on the public sector and include administrative sanctions, such as the denial of environmental licences and the imposition of fines [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The command-and-control approach to reducing or eliminating environmental wrongdoing depends on both carrots and sticks. The carrots are largely linked to the private sector and are predicated on access to markets. The sticks all depend on the public sector and include administrative sanctions, such as the denial of environmental licences and the imposition of fines for noncompliance using both administrative and civil law. The biggest stick is law enforcement via the criminal justice system. The application of the criminal code has been lax on pioneer landscapes, including for murder, fraud, slavery and drug trafficking, to name a few of the most common serious felonies. Criminal action flourishes because of the absence of strong institutions, accompanied by a culture of noncompliance reinforced by judicial inaction and political corruption. It is not surprising that environmental crimes, which perpetrators probably view as victimless crimes, are considered acceptable, because broad sectors of society pursue economic models that violate rules governing land use, land tenure, mining, forestry and agriculture. Forest regeneration in the Amazon Rainforest in Orellana, Ecuador. Image by Rhett A. Butler. The official policy of all the Pan Amazonian nations is to promote forest conservation and halt, or at least greatly reduce, deforestation. The most successful strategies have been to create and manage protected areas while formalizing the territorial rights of Indigenous peoples, as well as restricting the types of productive activities within geographically demarcated multiple-use reserves and communal landholdings. Less successful have been policies intended to motivate landholders to stop clearing forest&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/strategies-against-deforestation-across-the-amazon-basin/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303572</doi>				</item>
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