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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?topic=military&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/military/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Thu, 12 Nov 2026 09:45:31 +0000</lastBuildDate>
		<language>en-US</language>
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	<title>News on Military</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/military/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Solar initiative brings power to clinics and jobs to displaced youths in Cameroon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/solar-initiative-brings-power-to-clinics-and-jobs-to-displaced-youths-in-cameroon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/solar-initiative-brings-power-to-clinics-and-jobs-to-displaced-youths-in-cameroon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Oct 2026 15:52:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Yannick Kenné]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/26131319/Solar-Bright-Future-Img-20-1-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333877</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and Central Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Conflict, Energy, Environment, Governance, Health, One Health, Politics, Public Health, Solar Power, and War]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions, where a civil war has dragged on for 10 years, abundant sunshine has become a source of hope and opportunity for hundreds of young internally displaced people, and a lifeline for the next generation. The fighting has choked off job opportunities for youth and worsened the collapse of basic [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions, where a civil war has dragged on for 10 years, abundant sunshine has become a source of hope and opportunity for hundreds of young internally displaced people, and a lifeline for the next generation. The fighting has choked off job opportunities for youth and worsened the collapse of basic public services. Rural communities here face acute electricity shortages and have very limited access to quality health care. Mothers often give birth in the dark, and their children risk missing vital vaccines because clinics lack reliable power to provide lighting or appropriate cold storage for vaccines. To address these threats to newborn survival across local health centers, Cameroonian clean-energy company Solar Bright Future, a subsidiary of local NGO, Community Action for Advancing Sustainable Development (CAASDEV), set out to equip maternity wards with solar power in crisis-affected facilities through a program that trains young people displaced by the conflict. The company installs solar power systems for maternity lighting and solar-powered vaccine cold-chain systems for safe vaccine preservation, with temperature monitoring. Their systems can also support equipment such as echography or ultrasound machines and sterilization devices, depending on system capacity. Equipment that runs on solar power at the Tugi integrated health centre in the Northwest region of Cameroon. Image courtesy of Ndze Noel Lifogha/Solar Bright Future. The tragedy of the twins Ndze Noel Lifogha, chief executive of Solar Bright Future, said in an interview with Mongabay that the initiative grew out of a tragedy at a clinic&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/solar-initiative-brings-power-to-clinics-and-jobs-to-displaced-youths-in-cameroon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/solar-initiative-brings-power-to-clinics-and-jobs-to-displaced-youths-in-cameroon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333877</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Vietnam’s fishers face rising costs, declining catches and a contested sea</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/vietnams-fishers-face-rising-costs-declining-catches-and-a-contested-sea/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/vietnams-fishers-face-rising-costs-declining-catches-and-a-contested-sea/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Oct 2026 18:01:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Minh L Tran]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/02130412/vietnamese-fishers-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=331508</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Culture, Economics, Environment, Fisheries, Fishing, Governance, Marine, Oceans, Resource Conflict, and War]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[QUANG NGAI, Vietnam — When diesel prices in Vietnam hit an all-time high in March, Vo Huu Viet, a fisherman with more than 30 years at sea in Quang Ngai province in Central Vietnam, did something he rarely does. He stayed on shore. “The catch is simply not enough to make up for the labor of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[QUANG NGAI, Vietnam — When diesel prices in Vietnam hit an all-time high in March, Vo Huu Viet, a fisherman with more than 30 years at sea in Quang Ngai province in Central Vietnam, did something he rarely does. He stayed on shore. “The catch is simply not enough to make up for the labor of four men,” Viet said. Docking the aging wooden boat he inherited from his father means he, his wife, his crew and their families had to do other work, such as hauling heavy goods for other people, to make ends meet. Viet was hardly alone. In fishing ports around Vietnam, thousands of boats stayed docked for months as the fuel crisis made sea-bound trips unprofitable. The hike in fuel prices, fishers told Mongabay, didn’t just raise the cost of diesel — it raised the cost of everything else that supports a fishing boat, from ice to food. From March 1 to April 21 of this year, fishing activities around Vietnam fell 18.9% compared with the same time last year, from the nonprofit vessel-tracking platform Global Fishing Watch. For energy-intensive trawlers, the drop was 31%. As fuel prices spiked in Vietnam, fishing boats spent fewer hours on the water. Graphic by Andrés Alegria/Mongabay. Fuel is not the only pressure. Declining fish stocks — the result of years of unsustainable and illegal fishing, compounded by climate change — along with international pressures to tighten fishing enforcement and the growing presence of Chinese vessels add to the strain. The&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/vietnams-fishers-face-rising-costs-declining-catches-and-a-contested-sea/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/vietnams-fishers-face-rising-costs-declining-catches-and-a-contested-sea/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-331508</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Fatal WWII bomb blast in Indonesia was a result of illegal fishing activity, police say</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/fatal-wwii-bomb-blast-in-indonesia-was-a-result-of-illegal-fishing-activity-police-say/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/fatal-wwii-bomb-blast-in-indonesia-was-a-result-of-illegal-fishing-activity-police-say/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jul 2026 09:03:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Asrida Elisabeth]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/29084556/Explosives-and-other-remnants-of-World-War-II-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324751</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Culture, Disasters, Environment, Environmental Law, Fishing, Governance, Illegal Fishing, Islands, Law, Oceans, and War]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BIAK, Indonesia — The munition here had outlasted one of the Pacific&#8217;s fiercest World War II battles. Eight decades later, investigators in Indonesia said it exploded by the timber-framed houses in the coastal village of Fandoi on Indonesia&#8217;s Biak Island. Investigators and officials later concluded a group of local fishers were dismantling an unexploded munition [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BIAK, Indonesia — The munition here had outlasted one of the Pacific&#8217;s fiercest World War II battles. Eight decades later, investigators in Indonesia said it exploded by the timber-framed houses in the coastal village of Fandoi on Indonesia&#8217;s Biak Island. Investigators and officials later concluded a group of local fishers were dismantling an unexploded munition recovered from coastal waters off Papua, where some of the Pacific&#8217;s most intense fighting took place in 1944. “They take them and dismantle them on the island,” said Cliff Marlessy, who as director of the Indonesia Locally Managed Marine Area (ILMMA) works with communities to manage marine resources in Biak. Their deaths are the latest in a long legacy of unexploded wartime ordnance, which has killed or injured at least 25,000 people across neighboring Papua New Guinea since 1945, according to The HALO Trust, the world&#8217;s largest humanitarian mine-clearance organization. No concrete estimate exists for the death toll across Indonesia. Authorities have known about repurposing of unexploded bombs for decades, yet some fishers continue to recover wartime explosives for use in blast fishing despite the extreme danger. Goa Jepang — or &#8220;Goa Binsar,&#8221; as locals call it — is a Japanese military bunker from World War II. Image by Asrida Elisabeth/Mongabay Indonesia. Legacy of war New Guinea and its surrounding islands were among the Pacific&#8217;s most violent World War II theatres, while Allied forces advanced westward through Japanese-held territory. During this period, months of heavy bombing and naval combat left countless unexploded bombs and artillery&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/fatal-wwii-bomb-blast-in-indonesia-was-a-result-of-illegal-fishing-activity-police-say/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/fatal-wwii-bomb-blast-in-indonesia-was-a-result-of-illegal-fishing-activity-police-say/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324751</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can conservation change how the world sees the Strait of Hormuz? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/can-conservation-change-how-the-world-sees-the-strait-of-hormuz-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/can-conservation-change-how-the-world-sees-the-strait-of-hormuz-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jul 2026 15:37:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Iman Ebrahimi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/13142321/Moray-eel-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322992</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Iran, Kuwait, Middle East, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Coastal Ecosystems, Commentary, Conflict, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Estuaries, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Oil Spills, War, Water Pollution, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In recent months, the Strait of Hormuz has again been described in the language the world knows best: Oil, tankers, naval risk, energy security and war. That is understandable. Around one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments normally move through this narrow passage between Iran and Oman. When Hormuz is threatened, markets react [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In recent months, the Strait of Hormuz has again been described in the language the world knows best: Oil, tankers, naval risk, energy security and war. That is understandable. Around one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments normally move through this narrow passage between Iran and Oman. When Hormuz is threatened, markets react and governments calculate. But this is only one map of the strait. Conservation offers another. The Strait of Hormuz is not only an oil chokepoint. It is an ecological corridor: The narrow mouth through which the Persian Gulf exchanges water with the Gulf of Oman and the wider Indian Ocean, and through which islands, mangroves, seabird colonies, coral reefs, turtle nesting beaches and coastal communities are connected across borders. A pair of flamingos, Marawah Marine Biosphere Reserve, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Image courtesy of Maitha Bughanoom. This way of seeing Hormuz matters now because recent oil-related reports have not pointed to empty water. They have pointed toward real places: Shidvar, an uninhabited Ramsar island in Lavan, Iran, where damage to nearby oil infrastructure can quickly become a threat to a breeding ground for more than 80,000 terns each year; Qeshm and the Hara mangrove forests, the largest mangrove system in the Persian Gulf and also a Ramsar site; Kharg Island, and also small ports, fishing grounds and coastal waters where human life and wildlife are not easily separated. The full biological impact is still unclear but the geography already tells us enough: In the Persian Gulf,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/can-conservation-change-how-the-world-sees-the-strait-of-hormuz-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/can-conservation-change-how-the-world-sees-the-strait-of-hormuz-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322992</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>War reveals the isolation of Iran’s scientists</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/war-reveals-the-isolation-of-irans-scientists/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/war-reveals-the-isolation-of-irans-scientists/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jul 2026 18:39:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/03153524/greater-flamingo-Phoenicopterus-roseus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322511</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Iran, and Middle East]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Finance, Funding, NGOs, Politics, Research, Science, and War]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The smiles on the faces of Iman Ebrahimi and his colleagues in the photograph are revealing: After more than a month of war in Iran, a tenuous ceasefire in mid-April offered a brief window for the team to travel to one of Ebrahimi’s favorite field sites. Maharloo Lake is the “hottest spot for flamingo breeding [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The smiles on the faces of Iman Ebrahimi and his colleagues in the photograph are revealing: After more than a month of war in Iran, a tenuous ceasefire in mid-April offered a brief window for the team to travel to one of Ebrahimi’s favorite field sites. Maharloo Lake is the “hottest spot for flamingo breeding in Iran,” he said excitedly on a video call during a rare period of stable internet early in the war. They saw “at least 5,000” greater flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus) that day, he said, though there were probably more beyond the reach of their binoculars. “It was incredible.” A salt lake that tinges pink when summer heat shrinks its footprint, the lake was flush with water when they visited. “This is a very lovely place, but I&#8217;ve never seen Maharloo like this,” Ebrahimi said. The winter rains had been heavier than normal, to be sure, but he said he also suspects that agricultural and industrial activity, muted by the war, were drawing off less water from the lake — an unanticipated impact. Ebrahimi and his teammates from the NGO AvayeBoom Bird Conservation Society are doing their best to track the conflict’s effects on Iran’s environment. They’ve noticed, for example, shifts in bird aggregations, apparently moving away from areas that reverberate with airstrikes. But the war has also laid bare the damage caused by international sanctions imposed by the U.S., the EU and the U.N., along with other moves to cut Iran off from the rest of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/war-reveals-the-isolation-of-irans-scientists/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322511</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Studying giant devil rays through war in Gaza: Interview with Mohammed Abu Daya</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/studying-giant-devil-rays-through-war-in-gaza-interview-with-mohammed-abu-daya/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/studying-giant-devil-rays-through-war-in-gaza-interview-with-mohammed-abu-daya/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jun 2026 16:12:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Lyse Mauvais]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/22140029/a-Mohammed-Abu-Daya-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321575</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Middle East, and Palestine]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overfishing, Rays, Saltwater Fish, War, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On the messaging platform WhatsApp, Mohammed Abu Daya’s profile picture features an aerial view of Gaza City before the current war. A clutter of high-rise buildings rises against the sky; at their feet, a strip of sandy beach, bathed by the sun, and the dark blue sea, dotted with small fishing boats. The photograph bears [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On the messaging platform WhatsApp, Mohammed Abu Daya’s profile picture features an aerial view of Gaza City before the current war. A clutter of high-rise buildings rises against the sky; at their feet, a strip of sandy beach, bathed by the sun, and the dark blue sea, dotted with small fishing boats. The photograph bears witness to a landscape that no longer exists — aside from the sea. “Gaza is now a big prison, with two million people living among rubble and destroyed infrastructure,” the Palestinian marine ecologist told Mongabay in May 2026 over the phone. “Life in the Gaza Strip is miserable.” For many months now, he has been unable to go out to sea to carry out research in his field. Before the war, Abu Daya was a lecturer at several Palestinian universities including the University of Palestine in Gaza and a researcher at the now-shuttered National Research Center in Gaza. His research focuses on spinetail devil rays (Mobula mobular), sometimes called giant devil rays, a critically endangered species that can reach up to 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) in width. The Gaza-based conservationist is one among a handful of scientists worldwide who study this species. Historically, it was thought to be endemic to the Mediterranean Sea, until taxonomic revisions in the late 2010s led scientists to consider the Mediterranean populations as genetically connected to others in the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Indo-Pacific region. The majestic rays are thought to roam the entire Mediterranean, from the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/studying-giant-devil-rays-through-war-in-gaza-interview-with-mohammed-abu-daya/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321575</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>U.S. defense spending on critical minerals surges in the last decade</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/us-defense-spending-on-critical-minerals-surges-in-the-last-decade/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/us-defense-spending-on-critical-minerals-surges-in-the-last-decade/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jun 2026 00:27:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/09124419/4-Wild-horses-gallop-on-the-Fort-McDermitt-Paiute-Shoshone-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320809</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Critical Minerals, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Finance, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industry, Land Rights, Military, Mining, Mongabay investigation, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the past decade, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) spending for critical minerals transformed from virtually nonexistent into a major revenue stream, with the last five years delivering a dramatic surge in both contract volume and dollar value. The Pentagon and other defense-adjacent agencies&#8217; growing appetite for these projects is already visible in affected [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the past decade, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) spending for critical minerals transformed from virtually nonexistent into a major revenue stream, with the last five years delivering a dramatic surge in both contract volume and dollar value. The Pentagon and other defense-adjacent agencies&#8217; growing appetite for these projects is already visible in affected communities. Several of these communities impacted by DoD-funded projects told Mongabay that state backing has fast-tracked approvals without essential environmental safeguards or meaningful consultation by companies. For this research, Mongabay aggregated information from the USAspending database — an official open data source of federal spending information — about U.S. Department of Defense grants spending on critical mineral projects for military purposes between 2015 and 2025. This figure excludes Pentagon contracts, which is a major way that the Department of Defense (DoD) spends its money. The actual amount is likely larger given that some projects may not be public due to national security reasons, according to the Congressional Research Service (CRS). We decided to focus only on grants, as other types of contracts are generally non-binding and do not guarantee federal spending. Mongabay found that the federal agency provided an estimated $621 million on grants for critical mineral projects for defense purposes over the period, according to the USAspending database. Between 2021 and 2025, the DoD secured 24 agreements worth nearly $550 million (549.7 million) — up from just $31.3 million for three contracts in the previous five-year period. It poured the most funding into lithium&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/us-defense-spending-on-critical-minerals-surges-in-the-last-decade/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/us-defense-spending-on-critical-minerals-surges-in-the-last-decade/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320809</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How we tracked China’s deep-sea mining fleet</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/how-we-tracked-chinas-deep-sea-mining-fleet/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/how-we-tracked-chinas-deep-sea-mining-fleet/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jun 2026 20:33:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire AlbertsKara Fox]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/01160549/Model_of_Jiaolong_submersible_at_the_Five-Year_Achievements_Exhibition_-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320430</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[China, Cook Islands, Pacific Ocean, Polynesia, Taiwan, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Critical Minerals, Deep Sea Mining, Energy, Environment, Marine, Marine Conservation, Military, Mongabay Data Studio, Mongabay investigation, Oceans, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A version of this story was originally published by the Pulitzer Center, which supported Elizabeth Claire Alberts as an Ocean Reporting Network fellow. We didn’t set out to investigate China’s deep-sea mining fleet, but as our research into the burgeoning industry developed over our yearlong partnership, it became clear that an investigation into the fleet’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A version of this story was originally published by the Pulitzer Center, which supported Elizabeth Claire Alberts as an Ocean Reporting Network fellow. We didn’t set out to investigate China’s deep-sea mining fleet, but as our research into the burgeoning industry developed over our yearlong partnership, it became clear that an investigation into the fleet’s alleged military dual use was emerging as an important, untold story. Shortly after we embarked on our joint project, geopolitics around the deep-sea mining landscape began to shift dramatically. In February 2025, China signed an agreement with the Cook Islands government to collaborate on deep-sea mining research and exploration. At the same time, it was pursuing a similar deal with the archipelago nation of Kiribati, marking a notable expansion of Chinese influence in the Pacific. China holds the largest number of exploration contracts issued by the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the U.N.-affiliated deep-sea mining regulator, and is also its biggest financial contributor. It also operates the world’s largest oceanographic research fleet. Against this backdrop, we kept returning to a central question: was China’s pursuit of deep-sea mining driven solely for accessing mineral resources, or was it also shaped by broader geopolitical strategy? Through extensive reporting, we learned that China’s interest in seabed mining was motivated by both of these things, and that some of its vessels were engaged in both deep-sea mining work and militarily strategic surveillance. Meanwhile, deep-sea mining efforts have been gathering pace in the United States. In March 2025, The Metals Company,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/how-we-tracked-chinas-deep-sea-mining-fleet/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/how-we-tracked-chinas-deep-sea-mining-fleet/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320430</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Endangered Persian leopards persist across borders, despite hunters and landmines</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/endangered-persian-leopards-persist-across-borders-despite-hunters-and-landmines/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/endangered-persian-leopards-persist-across-borders-despite-hunters-and-landmines/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 May 2026 16:15:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kayleigh Long]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/15145758/captive-leopard-cat-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319523</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Asia, and Georgia (Country)]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Leopards, Mammals, Predators, Top Predators, War, Wildlife, Wildlife Corridors, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Last September, zoologist and conservationist Bejan Lortkipanidze received a video file from a collaborator, Zurab Gurielidze, the head of Georgia’s Tbilisi Zoo. Gurielidze offered no details, but told his friend to &#8220;just watch.&#8221; For several moments, Lortkipanidze saw nothing remarkable — just nighttime footage of a high fence topped with razor wire. Then a leopard [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Last September, zoologist and conservationist Bejan Lortkipanidze received a video file from a collaborator, Zurab Gurielidze, the head of Georgia’s Tbilisi Zoo. Gurielidze offered no details, but told his friend to &#8220;just watch.&#8221; For several moments, Lortkipanidze saw nothing remarkable — just nighttime footage of a high fence topped with razor wire. Then a leopard entered the frame. Lortkipanidze, who is co-founder of the Georgian conservation NGO NACRES, was stunned: It was just the third sighting of a Persian leopard (Panthera pardus tulliana) in the south Caucasus nation in 20 years. The footage wasn&#8217;t from a wildlife camera trap. It came from a standard CCTV camera that surveilled the perimeter of a new breeding enclosure for endangered Caucasian red deer (Cervus elaphus maral) in Algeti National Park, situated an hour west of Tbilisi. The video quickly circulated around the conservation community. Vazha Kochiashvili, a biologist with WWF Caucasus, saw it: It was sent to him by the man tasked with checking the deer enclosure footage for Georgia&#8217;s National Agency of Wildlife, Sergo Tabagari, who called him immediately after he saw the cat while reviewing footage. Kochiashvili said he had a hunch and asked his friend: &#8220;Does the leopard have three legs?&#8221; It did. The male leopard’s name is Aren and, over the last few years, he’s roamed across at least two international borders. Persian leopards once traversed a vast territory that lies between Russia, the Middle East and the Caspian and Black seas. They’re wide-ranging animals, and Aren’s journey underscores&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/endangered-persian-leopards-persist-across-borders-despite-hunters-and-landmines/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/endangered-persian-leopards-persist-across-borders-despite-hunters-and-landmines/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319523</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Arabian Gulf’s fragile marine ecosystem threatened by current crisis (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/arabian-gulfs-fragile-marine-ecosystem-threatened-by-current-crisis-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/arabian-gulfs-fragile-marine-ecosystem-threatened-by-current-crisis-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 May 2026 15:06:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Razan Al Mubarak]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/11143229/050A0598-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319117</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Abu Dhabi, Iran, Middle East, and Persian Gulf]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Coastal Ecosystems, Commentary, Conflict, Dugong, Ecosystems, Estuaries, Marine, Marine Animals, Oceans, Oil, Oil Spills, Pollution, Seabirds, War, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At this time of year, the waters of the Arabian Gulf support one of the most significant gatherings of marine life anywhere in the world. Thousands of dugongs congregate in shallow coastal areas, including mother-and-calf pairs, dependent on the 3,000 square kilometers (well over 1,000 square miles) of seagrass meadows in Abu Dhabi waters. Along [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At this time of year, the waters of the Arabian Gulf support one of the most significant gatherings of marine life anywhere in the world. Thousands of dugongs congregate in shallow coastal areas, including mother-and-calf pairs, dependent on the 3,000 square kilometers (well over 1,000 square miles) of seagrass meadows in Abu Dhabi waters. Along the same coastline, sea turtles return to nest, seabirds enter their breeding season, and migratory birds pass through wetlands that connect continents. Mangroves and coral reefs line these coasts. These ecosystems exist alongside the same coastal zones that support cities, energy and industrial infrastructure. They also underpin human life across the region. Tens of millions of people depend on desalination, drawing seawater from these same environments. Their survival, like ours, depends on clean water, intact habitats and stable environmental conditions. I have had the rare privilege, through my work, to witness these systems up close. Their richness is extraordinary, but so too is their fragility. The danger is that war turns that fragility into lasting damage. Indian Ocean humpback dolphin in Mangrove Marine National Park, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Image courtesy of Maitha Bughanoom. An airstrike on an oil tanker, or a collision, fire or loss of control by one of these vessels would release oil or other pollutants into shallow waters, where they spread rapidly across seagrass beds and coastal habitats. Water quality declines, oxygen levels fall, nesting sites are lost, and breeding cycles are disrupted. Local populations can collapse, and recovery becomes uncertain. The&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/arabian-gulfs-fragile-marine-ecosystem-threatened-by-current-crisis-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319117</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Energy crisis revives push to drill in Philippines’ largest intact wetland</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/energy-crisis-revives-push-to-drill-in-philippines-largest-intact-wetland/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/energy-crisis-revives-push-to-drill-in-philippines-largest-intact-wetland/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Apr 2026 21:11:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bong S. Sarmiento]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/17185118/Philippine-Duck-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317714</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Natural Gas, Oil, Oil Drilling, Politics, Resource Conflict, War, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MINDANAO, Philippines — There’s been a renewed push in the Philippines to develop oil and gas deposits in the southern Liguasan Marsh, prompted by the energy crisis caused by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which has drawn criticism from environmental groups. The 288,000-hectare (712,000-acre) Liguasan Marsh, the largest intact wetland in the Philippines and home [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MINDANAO, Philippines — There’s been a renewed push in the Philippines to develop oil and gas deposits in the southern Liguasan Marsh, prompted by the energy crisis caused by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which has drawn criticism from environmental groups. The 288,000-hectare (712,000-acre) Liguasan Marsh, the largest intact wetland in the Philippines and home to diverse fauna and flora, is considered by nonprofit conservation group BirdLife International an “important bird and biodiversity area” (IBA). A sizeable portion of Liguasan, on the southern island of Mindanao, has been declared a game refuge and bird sanctuary since 1941. The marsh is home to the critically endangered Philippine crocodile (Crocodylus mindorensis) and is the country’s last frontier for Tachybaptus ruficollis cotabato, a subspecies of the little grebe found only here, and the comb-crested jacana (Irediparra gallinacea). It also contains a significant volume of untapped oil and gas. A portion of the vast Liguasan Marsh beckons along the highway in Maguindanao province in the Bangsamoro region in the southern Philippines, in 2021. Image by Bong S. Sarmiento. In the 1990s, a joint exploration by the state-owned Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) and its Malaysian counterpart, Petronas, found that at least 202 million barrels of recoverable crude oil and 6 billion cubic feet of natural gas sit within Liguasan Marsh. Exploration did not proceed further due to ongoing conflict between government forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a 40,000-strong armed group fighting for the right of self-determination in the southern Philippines. A&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/energy-crisis-revives-push-to-drill-in-philippines-largest-intact-wetland/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317714</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Strait of Hormuz crisis should catalyze African biofertilizer production (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/strait-of-hormuz-crisis-should-catalyze-african-biofertilizer-production-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/strait-of-hormuz-crisis-should-catalyze-african-biofertilizer-production-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Apr 2026 00:44:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Susan Chomba]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/23081210/44366384701_940bc33dc5_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317598</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Agroecology, Biochar, Business, Conflict, Fertilizers, Food, food security, International Trade, Subsistence Agriculture, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Trade, and War]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In early mornings across rural Kenya, as the long rains approach, farmers are already at work. Fields are being cleared, seeds checked, and planting plans quietly rehearsed. But this year, alongside the usual uncertainties about soil quality, rain and pests, there is a more pressing question: will there be enough fertilizer, and will it be [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In early mornings across rural Kenya, as the long rains approach, farmers are already at work. Fields are being cleared, seeds checked, and planting plans quietly rehearsed. But this year, alongside the usual uncertainties about soil quality, rain and pests, there is a more pressing question: will there be enough fertilizer, and will it be affordable? Reports from the Middle East echo through their favorite radio stations as they wonder about the war’s effect on their lives. As tensions disrupt food, fuel and fertilizer flows through the Strait of Hormuz — a key artery for global exports and imports into Iran — Africa’s dependence on imported synthetic inputs is once again exposed. For many countries, from 20% to more than 50% of fertilizer supplies originate from Persian Gulf nations. Besides the production of fertilizer, fossil fuels are also crucial for driving farming machinery such as tractors, irrigation pumps, and of course vehicles that transport food from farms to markets. Africa is aware of her vulnerability as a result of the war in Iran and the previous disruptions from COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine, which have triggered policy and economic consequences. Frameworks such as the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Action Plan 2024-2034 aim to reduce reliance on imports by fostering local production. Currently, the Dangote Group, which operates Africa&#8217;s largest chemical fertilizer manufacturing complex, based in Nigeria, plans to triple its production to 9 million metric tons per annum. The group is also starting the construction of a $2&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/strait-of-hormuz-crisis-should-catalyze-african-biofertilizer-production-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317598</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>War on Iran disrupts efforts to save the Asiatic cheetah, world’s rarest big cat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/war-on-iran-disrupts-efforts-to-save-the-asiatic-cheetah-worlds-rarest-big-cat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/war-on-iran-disrupts-efforts-to-save-the-asiatic-cheetah-worlds-rarest-big-cat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Apr 2026 12:37:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kayleigh Long]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/08102943/Kooshki_the_Cheetah_in_Miandasht_Wildlife_Refuge_10.tiff-enhance-4x-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317162</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Iran, and Middle East]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Big Cats, Cats, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Environmentalists, Endangered Species, Human-wildlife Conflict, Protected Areas, War, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Before the war began in February 2026, there was some rare good news for Iran’s imperiled Asiatic cheetahs. Rangers spotted and filmed a female in the North Khorasan province accompanied by five cubs — a first. No more than four had ever been seen before, and every individual counts. The Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Before the war began in February 2026, there was some rare good news for Iran’s imperiled Asiatic cheetahs. Rangers spotted and filmed a female in the North Khorasan province accompanied by five cubs — a first. No more than four had ever been seen before, and every individual counts. The Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus) is the world’s most endangered big cat, and the number counted in the wild rose to 27. Bagher Nezami, national director of the Conservation of the Asiatic Cheetah Project, told Iranian state-controlled media that these were &#8220;ID-carded&#8221; cheetahs, known individuals being monitored by researchers. Another five remain in breeding sites and six in captivity, he said. This represented a significant leap: In August last year, the Tehran Times reported that just 20 were left in the wild. Nine days after the sighting of the five cubs, the United States and Israel launched coordinated strikes on Iran, prompting a swift retaliation that has since escalated into a regional conflict with global repercussions — and poses a new threat to a big cat that hovers on the brink of extinction. Kushki (male) is one of the last surviving Asiatic cheetahs in northeastern Iran’s Miandasht Wildlife Refuge. Image by Ehsan Kamali / Tasnim News Agency via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0). A species on the brink The Asiatic cheetah was once found throughout Central and Southwest Asia, with a range that spanned from the Arabian Peninsula to the Caspian Sea and as far east as India. However, this&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/war-on-iran-disrupts-efforts-to-save-the-asiatic-cheetah-worlds-rarest-big-cat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317162</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sri Lankan waters under ‘close watch’ following wreckage of Iranian warship</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/sri-lankan-waters-under-close-watch-following-wreckage-of-iranian-warship/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/sri-lankan-waters-under-close-watch-following-wreckage-of-iranian-warship/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Mar 2026 17:15:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kamanthi Wickramasinghe]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/06164217/Image-No-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315375</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Oil Spills, Pollution, and War]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[GALLE, Sri Lanka — On March 4, an Iranian Navy frigate IRIS Dena sank some 40-50 nautical miles off the southern coast of Galle, an important maritime route in Sri Lanka. According to the Sri Lanka Navy, at least 180 personnel were initially on board the ship and it was returning from the International Fleet [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[GALLE, Sri Lanka — On March 4, an Iranian Navy frigate IRIS Dena sank some 40-50 nautical miles off the southern coast of Galle, an important maritime route in Sri Lanka. According to the Sri Lanka Navy, at least 180 personnel were initially on board the ship and it was returning from the International Fleet Review 2026, a maritime exercise held in Visakhapatnam, India, when it sent out a distress signal. Following the incident, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that a U.S. submarine sank the Iranian warship in international waters, describing it as the first such sinking of an enemy ship by a U.S. submarine since World War II. For Sri Lanka, a strategic location at the confluence of important maritime routes, it is both a politically and environmentally distressing moment.  Speaking to media in Colombo, Buddhika Sampath, spokesman for the Sri Lanka Navy, said search and rescue troops were deployed as soon as the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre received the distress call. “We didn’t see a ship except for some oil patches and life rafts,” Sampath told local journalists at a media briefing. “The Navy rescued 32 individuals aboard the ship, but by the time we reached the frigate, several bodies were floating near the vessel,” he said. Map shows Sri Lanka’s exclusive economic zone. Image courtesy of the Maritime Boundaries Geodatabase, Flanders Marine Institute. No oil spill yet Speaking to Mongabay, Sampath confirmed that an oil spill has not been detected yet. A total of 90 bodies&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/sri-lankan-waters-under-close-watch-following-wreckage-of-iranian-warship/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315375</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In the race for DRC’s critical minerals, community forests are on the frontline</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/in-the-race-for-drcs-critical-minerals-community-forests-stand-on-the-frontline/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/in-the-race-for-drcs-critical-minerals-community-forests-stand-on-the-frontline/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jan 2026 08:00:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Didier MakalLatoya Abulu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://news.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/927W7CV-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312862</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Cobalt Capital and Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Clean Energy, Conservation, Critical Minerals, Environment, Environmental Policy, extractives, Forests, Illegal Mining, Industry, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Military, Mining, Politics, Savannas, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LIKASI, Democratic Republic of Congo — North of the limits of the Lukutwe community forest concession, two armed soldiers stepped in front of Valery Kyembo and his visitors. Wearing a bright orange vest with the logo of a reforestation project, Kyembo was guiding our journalists through a heavily deforested area in the copper-cobalt belt of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LIKASI, Democratic Republic of Congo — North of the limits of the Lukutwe community forest concession, two armed soldiers stepped in front of Valery Kyembo and his visitors. Wearing a bright orange vest with the logo of a reforestation project, Kyembo was guiding our journalists through a heavily deforested area in the copper-cobalt belt of the Democratic Republic of Congo, stepping around newly planted seedlings, when he was stopped by members of the FARDC, the national armed forces. Behind them stood a barrier to control access to a semi-industrial mine. &#8220;We are visiting the boundaries of our community’s property,&#8221; Kyembo tried to explain, before one of the soldiers brandished his automatic weapon to make him turn back. The land in question is the Lukutwe community forest concession (CFCL), 70 kilometers (43 miles) from Lubumbashi, the second-largest city in the DRC. The concession is a titled property created in the mineral-rich area of southeastern DRC by village leaders who sought to protect their land rights and miombo forests against a growing wave of mining companies taking up lands. Valery Kyembo walking in the Lukutwe forest concession in Likasi on November 26, 2025. Image by Glody MURHABAZI / AFP. Ten years ago, the displacement of nearby famers from the villages of Bungubungu and Shilasimba by Société d&#8217;Exploitation de Kipoi (SEK), a company owned by Australia-based Tiger Resources in search of copper and cobalt, sparked worry in Lukutwe village that their village could be next. &#8220;That’s why when the environmental project came to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/in-the-race-for-drcs-critical-minerals-community-forests-stand-on-the-frontline/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312862</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>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>Uncovering forest loss in gorilla park six months after M23 offensive in the DRC</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/uncovering-forest-loss-in-gorilla-park-six-months-after-m23-offensive-in-the-drc/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/uncovering-forest-loss-in-gorilla-park-six-months-after-m23-offensive-in-the-drc/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Jul 2025 21:23:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie TotoLatoya Abulu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/28051436/52647428455_45a6f7984d_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303302</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, and East Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Deforestation, Forest Loss, Forests, Human Rights, Illegal Logging, Illegal Trade, International Trade, Logging, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Trade, and War]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Six months ago, the M23 rebel group seized Goma, one of the largest cities in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the time since, local activists and satellite images compiled by Mongabay have identified sites with soaring forest loss in Kahuzi-Biega National Park, southwest of Goma. In this vast area of primary [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Six months ago, the M23 rebel group seized Goma, one of the largest cities in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the time since, local activists and satellite images compiled by Mongabay have identified sites with soaring forest loss in Kahuzi-Biega National Park, southwest of Goma. In this vast area of primary forest, home to eastern lowland gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri), researchers attribute these spikes of forest loss to the expansion of illegal charcoal production, collapsing conservation enforcement, and land conflicts. In November 2021, the Rwanda-backed rebel group resurfaced in the DRC’s North Kivu province after nearly a decade of relative absence from the region. Events escalated in January and February 2025, when M23 launched a rapid offensive and seized control of critical areas in both North and South Kivu provinces, including the respective provincial capitals, Goma and Bukavu. These areas remain under M23 control to this day. Beyond these major cities, the armed group also controls access to key mining zones and globally significant protected areas, such as Virunga National Park and Kahuzi-Biega National Park, both UNESCO World Heritage Sites. So far, the conflict is having a tangible impact on biodiversity by exacerbating existing conservation challenges and deforestation, researchers say. In Kahuzi-Biega, satellite images from Copernicus, the Earth observation component of the European Union’s space program, show sharp declines in forest cover between January and July 2025. Areas that were green six months ago, covered in lush, primary forest, now show patches of bare earth. Mongabay&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/uncovering-forest-loss-in-gorilla-park-six-months-after-m23-offensive-in-the-drc/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303302</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Poaching intensifies in M23-occupied areas of Virunga National Park</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/poaching-intensifies-in-m23-occupied-areas-of-virunga-national-park/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/poaching-intensifies-in-m23-occupied-areas-of-virunga-national-park/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Apr 2025 20:19:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/30201847/21271677985_88ac6d680d_k-e1746044266982-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298437</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, and East Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conflict, Corruption, Deforestation, Forests, Gorillas, Illegal Trade, Rainforests, Traditional People, Tropical Deforestation, War, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The intensifying security crisis in parts of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over the years is undermining wildlife protection in Virunga National Park, say officials and local residents. The growing clashes in early 2025 between the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo, local militias known as the Wazalendo, and the M23 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The intensifying security crisis in parts of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over the years is undermining wildlife protection in Virunga National Park, say officials and local residents. The growing clashes in early 2025 between the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo, local militias known as the Wazalendo, and the M23 (March 23 movement), which occupies large territory in the national park, is leading to poaching and illegal trade. Some residents are taking advantage of the climate of insecurity to carry out illegal activities that are destroying habitats, often cooperating with armed groups, according to a 2023 report by the Centre for Education for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development (CEPED). On March 11, 2025, park authorities discovered a young gorilla caught in a poacher’s trap. &#8220;Thanks to the rapid intervention of our monitoring team and veterinarians, Fazili [the young gorilla] received emergency care, including the removal of the trap and treatment for his injuries,&#8221; stated officials on the Virunga National Park’s X account (formerly Twitter). Partial view of a mountain range in Virunga National Park in North Kivu, DRC. Image by MONUSCO/Abel Kavanagh via Wikimédia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0). A representative from CREDHO, an environmental and human rights research center in North Kivu, explained that since April 2024, eco-guards had to leave several strategic positions due to M23 threats. These include Rwindi in Rutshuru territory, in the heart of Virunga National Park at the crossroads between Kiwanja-Kanyabayonga on national road number two linking the territories of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/poaching-intensifies-in-m23-occupied-areas-of-virunga-national-park/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/poaching-intensifies-in-m23-occupied-areas-of-virunga-national-park/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298437</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Military-backed plantation project in Indonesian Papua triggers rights concerns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/military-backed-plantation-project-in-indonesian-papua-triggers-rights-concerns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/military-backed-plantation-project-in-indonesian-papua-triggers-rights-concerns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Apr 2025 03:29:26 +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/20/2024/10/03084212/IMG-20240815-WA0068-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298369</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, agribusiness, Agriculture, Conflict, Deforestation, Environment, Food, food security, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Military, Rainforests, and Social Conflict]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s national human rights commission has found a slew of legal and rights violations in a government-backed project to establish large-scale plantations in the eastern region of Papua. The so-called food estate project, categorized by the government as being of strategic national importance, or PSN, aims to clear 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres) of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s national human rights commission has found a slew of legal and rights violations in a government-backed project to establish large-scale plantations in the eastern region of Papua. The so-called food estate project, categorized by the government as being of strategic national importance, or PSN, aims to clear 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres) of land in Merauke district, two-thirds of it for sugarcane plantations and the rest for rice fields — an area 45 times the size of Jakarta. The rights commission, known as Komnas HAM, launched an investigation after receiving complaints last year from four Indigenous tribes whose ancestral lands overlap with the food estate. The tribes — the Malind, Maklew, Khimaima and Yei — alleged that the project violated their land rights and impacted their livelihoods. Komnas HAM, which is funded by the government but operates independently, quizzed officials involved in the project from the local and national governments. Based on these inquiries, it said it had found indications of land grabbing, environmental degradation, militarization and intimidation. For one, Komnas HAM said the Indigenous communities hadn’t given consent to transfer or use their customary lands for the project. When the government zoned their areas for the food estate project, it never properly consulted them, the inquiry found. However, these communities lack strong legal standing to defend their territories, as their land rights aren’t formally recognized by the government. The only basis for their Indigenous territorial claims is participatory mapping — carried out by themselves — of their&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/military-backed-plantation-project-in-indonesian-papua-triggers-rights-concerns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298369</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Armed groups and junta profit as toxic mines devour southern Myanmar</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/armed-groups-and-junta-profit-as-toxic-mines-devour-southern-myanmar/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/armed-groups-and-junta-profit-as-toxic-mines-devour-southern-myanmar/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Apr 2025 18:45:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dawei Watch]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/22224424/Mining-site-in-Ye-Phyu-Township-Tanintharyi-around-October-2024--768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297954</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Myanmar, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Environment, Gold Mining, Governance, Illegal Mining, Land Use Change, Mining, Politics, Pollution, Rivers, War, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In July 2024, Maung Tu, 40, a manager at a mining company, purchased a betel nut farm of 2.4 hectares, or 6 acres, near the southern tip of Myanmar for nearly seven times the market price, paying approximately 200 million kyat (about $50,000 at the black-market exchange rate). He has little interest in the cash [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In July 2024, Maung Tu, 40, a manager at a mining company, purchased a betel nut farm of 2.4 hectares, or 6 acres, near the southern tip of Myanmar for nearly seven times the market price, paying approximately 200 million kyat (about $50,000 at the black-market exchange rate). He has little interest in the cash crop, despite the long-held cultural tradition of chewing betel nuts in the country. Instead, his focus is on extracting metal from the land. “If the price of lead is good, the land price is good. They are directly proportional. If I am confident about the land’s potential, I will pay whatever price they ask,” Maung Tu said. This is because while mining is more dangerous, the profit margin is staggeringly high compared to farming. &#8220;The primary mineral products from Tanintharyi are tin and tungsten, with lead extracted as a byproduct during the mining process,” explains a Myanmar mining expert in Tanintharyi. ”Before being processed abroad, the raw mineral ores contain a mixture of lead, tin, and tungsten.” Once mined, the raw materials are transported to Thailand, to be cleaned and processed, and then on to China. Local sellers said they don’t know who the eventual Chinese buyers are or what the metals are used for — but said armed groups in Myanmar and Thai traders are involved. Tin and tungsten have a wide variety of industrial applications, ranging from aerospace components to electrodes. Globally, the vast majority of lead consumption is for use in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/armed-groups-and-junta-profit-as-toxic-mines-devour-southern-myanmar/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297954</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Where war once raged in Iraq, Yezidi women plant hope</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/where-war-once-raged-in-iraq-yezidi-women-plant-hope/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/where-war-once-raged-in-iraq-yezidi-women-plant-hope/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Apr 2025 15:25:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Robert Bociaga]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/14123702/Yezidi-women-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297536</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Iraq, and Middle East]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Desertification, Ecosystems, Education, Environment, Forestry, Gender, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Landscape Restoration, Restoration, Sustainable Development, Trees, War, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KHANKE, Iraq — In the wind-swept town of Khanke in northern Iraq, a fragile tree stands as a quiet symbol of resilience. Its slender trunk bends slightly in the dry breeze, its roots gripping soil once strewn with plastic waste. Beneath its shade, a group of women gathers: survivors of war, displacement, and unimaginable loss. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KHANKE, Iraq — In the wind-swept town of Khanke in northern Iraq, a fragile tree stands as a quiet symbol of resilience. Its slender trunk bends slightly in the dry breeze, its roots gripping soil once strewn with plastic waste. Beneath its shade, a group of women gathers: survivors of war, displacement, and unimaginable loss. Yet here, they are not victims — they are custodians of renewal. These women, many of them ethnic Yezidis who escaped the 2014 ISIS genocide in Sinjar district, are rebuilding not just their lives, but the landscape around them. Armed with shovels and buckets, they have turned barren spaces into green sanctuaries, planting more than 2,000 trees and nurturing hope in a place where despair once took root. Their efforts are part of Clean Green, a grassroots environmental initiative founded by Yezidi women determined to restore their surroundings. The project began with just five volunteers in 2023 but has since grown into a network of more than 40 members who plant trees, recycle, and teach children about environmental stewardship. For Suzan Haskani, a Yezidi woman who fled ISIS at the age of 14, joining Clean Green brought purpose. “When I first arrived in Khanke, I wasn’t thinking about trees or cleaning,” she says. “I was thinking about safety, like everyone else.” That sense of safety, however, feels fragile. Even as some displaced families now mull returning to Sinjar, they say their homeland has changed. “Even if Sinjar was safe, people can’t farm like before,” says&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/where-war-once-raged-in-iraq-yezidi-women-plant-hope/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/where-war-once-raged-in-iraq-yezidi-women-plant-hope/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297536</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous communities in Indonesia demand halt to land-grabbing government projects</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/indigenous-communities-in-indonesia-demand-halt-to-land-grabbing-government-projects/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/indigenous-communities-in-indonesia-demand-halt-to-land-grabbing-government-projects/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Mar 2025 05:37:07 +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/20/2025/03/26052636/WhatsApp-Image-2025-03-18-at-12.10.12-r30zi6yx64lxuopi3pgd0070hlbk6ypvsgjv6ll8y0-768x500.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296480</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conflict, Environment, Food, Food Industry, food security, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Infrastructure, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Military, Plantations, Protests, Rainforests, Social Conflict, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Hundreds of Indigenous people and civil society groups in Indonesia are demanding an end to government projects that have seized their lands, fueled violence, and stripped them of their rights. In the second week of March, more than 250 members of Indigenous and local communities affected by projects classified as being of strategic [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Hundreds of Indigenous people and civil society groups in Indonesia are demanding an end to government projects that have seized their lands, fueled violence, and stripped them of their rights. In the second week of March, more than 250 members of Indigenous and local communities affected by projects classified as being of strategic national importance, or PSN, gathered in Merauke, a district in Indonesia’s Papua region bordering Papua New Guinea. Over four days, attendees shared their experiences of displacement and suffering caused by PSN projects, which include roads, dams, power plants, industrial estates and plantations. The communities represented at the dialogue included those impacted by food estate projects in the provinces of North Sumatra, Central Kalimantan, Papua and South Papua; the Rempang Eco City project in the Riau Islands province; the Nusantara capital city (IKN) project in East Kalimantan; the Poco Leok geothermal project in East Nusa Tenggara; extractive industries related to biofuel in Jambi; various projects in West Papua; and the expansion of oil palm plantations across the wider Papua region. Some community members have been displaced from their ancestral lands. Others, who continue fighting for their land rights, face violence at the hands of the military and police. According to the Agrarian Reform Consortium (KPA), there were 154 PSN-related conflicts from 2020 to 2024, affecting 103,000 families and 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of land. The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) received 114 complaints related to PSN between 2020 and 2023, including allegations&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/indigenous-communities-in-indonesia-demand-halt-to-land-grabbing-government-projects/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296480</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In ‘The Battle for Laikipia,’ the human face of resource conflict in Kenya</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/in-the-battle-for-laikipia-the-human-face-of-resource-conflict-in-kenya/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/in-the-battle-for-laikipia-the-human-face-of-resource-conflict-in-kenya/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Mar 2025 15:18:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/17142413/PAOPEN-5-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296331</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Beyond the screen: DCEFF and Pastoralists in a Changing World]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Environment, Film, Global Environmental Crisis, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Resource Conflict, War, Water, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KIMANA, Kenya — Lush, fertile and green, the Laikipia highlands of Kenya are renowned for their beauty and abundant grasses that feed its wildlife and livestock. They’re also the theater of some of the longest-running land disputes in the country. Traditionally occupied by the Maasai, along with their Maa-speaking cousins the Samburu and other pastoralists, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KIMANA, Kenya — Lush, fertile and green, the Laikipia highlands of Kenya are renowned for their beauty and abundant grasses that feed its wildlife and livestock. They’re also the theater of some of the longest-running land disputes in the country. Traditionally occupied by the Maasai, along with their Maa-speaking cousins the Samburu and other pastoralists, Laikipia county has a temperate climate and suitability for agriculture that made it highly coveted by British settlers at the turn of the 20th century. By 1911, colonial authorities had moved nearly all the Maasai to distant reserves in the country’s south, converting land that had been used for livestock forage into farms and cattle ranches. The echoes of this period still reverberate today. After independence, many settlers fled Laikipia for Europe — but the land they left behind did not revert back to the pastoralists who once grazed their herds there. Much of it was transferred to other Kenyans to be used for farming, or remained in the hands of the families that chose to remain. Today, massive ranches and wildlife conservancies cover more than half the county’s 9,532 square kilometers (3,680 square miles), the bulk of which are owned by descendants of those families or investors they sold them to. In the last decade, some of these ranches have been the locus of conflict between their owners and pastoralist communities who believe they were established on stolen land. Spurred on by a series of droughts, some Samburu “invaded” the ranches to look for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/in-the-battle-for-laikipia-the-human-face-of-resource-conflict-in-kenya/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296331</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The environmental toll of the M23 conflict in eastern DRC (Analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/the-environmental-toll-of-the-m23-conflict-in-eastern-drc-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/the-environmental-toll-of-the-m23-conflict-in-eastern-drc-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Mar 2025 14:55:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fergus O’Leary SimpsonJoel MasselinkLara Collart]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/21102829/Mountain_Gorilla_Humba_family_%E2%80%93_Virunga_National_Park_31-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295333</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, and East Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forests, Gorillas, Governance, Illegal Logging, Illegal Mining, Logging, Mammals, Mining, National Parks, Politics, Rainforests, Resource Conflict, War, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The resurgence of the M23 (March 23 movement) rebel group has once again drawn global attention to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The humanitarian crisis—millions displaced, thousands killed, a ‘public health nightmare’ unfolding—rightly dominates headlines. Yet the conflict is having another significant and often overlooked impact: on the environment. The Kivu provinces, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The resurgence of the M23 (March 23 movement) rebel group has once again drawn global attention to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The humanitarian crisis—millions displaced, thousands killed, a ‘public health nightmare’ unfolding—rightly dominates headlines. Yet the conflict is having another significant and often overlooked impact: on the environment. The Kivu provinces, where the fighting is concentrated, are part of one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots, the Albertine Rift. Home to endangered species such as eastern lowland and mountain gorillas, as well as two UNESCO World Heritage Sites — Virunga and Kahuzi-Biega National Parks — the region is under increasing environmental pressure. Its protected areas, with resource-rich and rugged terrains, have historically served as ideal rear operating bases for non-state armed groups. Since the early 1990s, a series of conflicts have led to domino effects and left deep scars on the region’s forests and wildlife. In South Kivu’s Kahuzi-Biega National Park, for example, elephants were nearly wiped out in the early 2000s. Gorilla populations also plummeted, but as the conflict subsided and armed groups gradually withdrew from the park — along with strengthened law enforcement — their numbers began recovering to pre-conflict levels. The most recent round of conflict threatens to undo these hard-won gains. Our analysis highlights a sharp increase in deforestation since the recent conflict started in late 2021. This has been driven by a mixture of population displacements, the disruption of conservation law enforcement, and the involvement of different armed actors in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/the-environmental-toll-of-the-m23-conflict-in-eastern-drc-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295333</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Gaza and West Bank farmers salvage olive harvest amid displacement, destruction and Israeli settler violence</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/gaza-and-west-bank-farmers-salvage-olive-harvest-amid-displacement-destruction-and-israeli-settler-violence/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/gaza-and-west-bank-farmers-salvage-olive-harvest-amid-displacement-destruction-and-israeli-settler-violence/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Mar 2025 15:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Fitt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/04125753/Nursery-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295217</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Gaza, Middle East, Palestine, and West Bank]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Farming, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Trees, and War]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[After Israel and the de facto government of the Gaza Strip, Hamas, agreed to a ceasefire beginning Jan. 19, Gaza’s olive farmers headed back to what’s left of their Khan Yunis and Rafah olive groves for an unprecedented January 2025 harvest. Bombing by the Israeli government over the last year reduced the Gaza Strip’s 37 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[After Israel and the de facto government of the Gaza Strip, Hamas, agreed to a ceasefire beginning Jan. 19, Gaza’s olive farmers headed back to what’s left of their Khan Yunis and Rafah olive groves for an unprecedented January 2025 harvest. Bombing by the Israeli government over the last year reduced the Gaza Strip’s 37 olive presses to just four, according to the U.N. humanitarian affairs office (OCHA), and most displaced farmers could not reach their groves in 2024 for the usual October-November harvest. The Israeli government launched this latest 15-month- long attack on the Gaza Strip in response to a Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7 2023. “Around 74% of the cultivated olive area was destroyed … equivalent to the loss of approximately 2,290,000 olive trees,” Mahmoud Fatafta, spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture told Mongabay. It’s a small harvest at around 50 tons so far, but scarce rainfall this winter means lower water content in the olives, which preserved oil quality despite the two-month wait, according to Fatafta. Farmers were not able to test oil quality in the labs, because those had also been destroyed, so experienced sensory taste testers were used instead, he noted. Meanwhile, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Israeli settler attacks tripled on olive farmers and their land during the 2024 harvest, compared with the three years prior, according OCHA. “We witnessed increased settler violence, including the burning of ancient trees and theft of both olives and young saplings,” said Aya Gazawi Faour,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/gaza-and-west-bank-farmers-salvage-olive-harvest-amid-displacement-destruction-and-israeli-settler-violence/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/gaza-and-west-bank-farmers-salvage-olive-harvest-amid-displacement-destruction-and-israeli-settler-violence/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295217</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Timber trade watchdog urges Poland to halt imports of Myanmar ‘blood timber’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/timber-trade-watchdog-urges-poland-to-halt-imports-of-myanmar-blood-timber/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/timber-trade-watchdog-urges-poland-to-halt-imports-of-myanmar-blood-timber/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Feb 2025 13:19:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/20131412/Timber_truck-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294758</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Europe, Myanmar, Poland, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Loss, Forestry, Forests, Illegal Logging, International Trade, Logging, Military, Rainforests, Timber, Timber Laws, and timber trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Highly prized teak from Myanmar continues to be imported into Poland, despite EU sanctions on the Southeast Asian country’s state-run timber monopoly following the 2021 military coup and violent crackdown on citizens. Environmental law nonprofit ClientEarth last month formally requested the Polish timber trade regulator urgently inspect firms engaging in the trade and take serious [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Highly prized teak from Myanmar continues to be imported into Poland, despite EU sanctions on the Southeast Asian country’s state-run timber monopoly following the 2021 military coup and violent crackdown on citizens. Environmental law nonprofit ClientEarth last month formally requested the Polish timber trade regulator urgently inspect firms engaging in the trade and take serious action to prevent imports of the banned timber. According to data from the Polish Central Statistical Office, the country imported more than $11.5 million worth of Myanmar timber between 2021 and 2024. Most imports were of teak (Tectona grandis), a durable and weather-resistant wood coveted by luxury furniture and yacht manufacturers. In its formal request to the Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection, ClientEarth said the persistent trade not only infringes the EU sanctions, but also brings Poland, an EU member state, into violation of the EU Timber Regulations (EUTR). The bloc ruled in 2020 that any import of Myanmar teak into the EU violates the EUTR because it’s not possible to determine whether it was harvested legally. The nonprofit previously raised a complaint about Poland’s non-compliance with the EUTR with the Council of the European Union in June 2023. However, it said it has yet to receive any response to its complaints, either from Polish authorities or through EU channels. “The EUTR rules are a key tool in the fight against the trade in illegal timber, but they need to be implemented effectively,” said Ranja Łuszczek, a lawyer at ClientEarth. “The lack of adequate action&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/timber-trade-watchdog-urges-poland-to-halt-imports-of-myanmar-blood-timber/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294758</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Environmental &#038; rights activists flee and hide as M23 captures DRC’s cities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/environmental-rights-activists-flee-and-hide-as-m23-captures-drcs-cities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/environmental-rights-activists-flee-and-hide-as-m23-captures-drcs-cities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Feb 2025 05:00:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie Toto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/17232217/8.-20140329-171047-2-1-e1739834552646-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294556</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Endangered Environmentalists]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Democratic Republic Of Congo, East Africa, and Rwanda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conflict, Conservation, Critical Minerals, Environment, Forests, Human Rights, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Mining, Poverty, Rainforests, Resource Conflict, and War]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“Since Goma fell, I&#8217;ve lived in fear. I don&#8217;t dare leave my house.” These are the words of Justin Shamutwa Masumbuko, general coordinator of the Indigenous rights NGO ADELIPO-Congo. For several months now, he and his organization have been visiting camps for internally displaced people in and around the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) eastern [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“Since Goma fell, I&#8217;ve lived in fear. I don&#8217;t dare leave my house.” These are the words of Justin Shamutwa Masumbuko, general coordinator of the Indigenous rights NGO ADELIPO-Congo. For several months now, he and his organization have been visiting camps for internally displaced people in and around the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) eastern city of Goma. They were there to help Indigenous Batwa people, who, according to him, continue to face discrimination, segregation and lack of social services while they fled armed conflict. But today, among those fleeing conflict and hiding in the region are activists like Shamutwa and environmentalists, who were among the few to denounce illegal extractive activities and protect natural resources in the mineral-rich region. Their work, they say, puts them in jeopardy. A recent freezing of foreign aid, like USAID, has also left some Congolese conservationists without salaries and wary of how they will support themselves and their families during the conflict. Since the resurgence of the armed group M23 (March 23 Movement) in 2021, fighting with other armed groups and the DRC’s military forced people throughout the eastern North Kivu province to escape. Over time, at least nine displacement camps sprung up in the province’s capital, Goma, sheltering hundreds of thousands of people in extremely poor conditions. In January, fighting intensified and forced another 400,000 people to flee, according to the United Nations refugee agency. On Jan. 21, the M23, in association with Rwanda’s military (the Rwanda Defence Force), seized Minova (a town&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/environmental-rights-activists-flee-and-hide-as-m23-captures-drcs-cities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294556</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia’s militarized crackdown on illegal forest use sparks human rights concerns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/indonesias-militarized-crackdown-on-illegal-forest-use-sparks-human-rights-concerns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/indonesias-militarized-crackdown-on-illegal-forest-use-sparks-human-rights-concerns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Feb 2025 13:57:27 +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/20/2025/02/17092635/Loreng_PDL_Khas_Matra_Darat_saat_HUT_TNI_2023-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294527</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Corporations, Encroachment, Environment, Forests, Illegal Logging, Illegal Trade, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Palm Oil, Plantations, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Social Conflict, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s president has drafted the military to lead the reclamation of illegally occupied forest areas throughout the country, while the Ministry of Forestry has partnered with it to protect and rehabilitate forest areas. These have prompted warnings of a backslide to heavy-handed evictions targeting largely powerless Indigenous and local communities. Under a regulation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s president has drafted the military to lead the reclamation of illegally occupied forest areas throughout the country, while the Ministry of Forestry has partnered with it to protect and rehabilitate forest areas. These have prompted warnings of a backslide to heavy-handed evictions targeting largely powerless Indigenous and local communities. Under a regulation issued in January, President Prabowo Subianto says he aims to crack down on illegal activities inside forest areas, such as oil palm cultivation and mining. Illegal oil palm plantations alone occupy a combined forest area of 3.37 million hectares (8.33 million acres), larger than Belgium, and account for a significant portion of oil palm output in Indonesia, the world’s top producer of the commodity. But activists say this new presidential regulation only adds to the woes of Indigenous and forest communities, with plantation companies having little to fear from it. Uli Arta Siagian, forests and plantations lead at the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), the country’s biggest green NGO, pointed to the long history of authorities cracking down on small farmers and Indigenous communities farming a handful of hectares, instead of corporations running industrial-scale plantations. She said the regulation appears to make no distinction between large-scale corporate activities with those of local communities, including Indigenous peoples who have historically faced tenure conflicts due to unilateral forest area designations. This approach further risks criminalizing communities engaged in subsistence activities within forest areas, she said. “Judging from the long history of this country, it is easier&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/indonesias-militarized-crackdown-on-illegal-forest-use-sparks-human-rights-concerns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294527</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Nepal’s Chitwan, elephant’s shooting, death raises eyebrows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/in-nepals-chitwan-makuna-elephants-shooting-death-raises-eyebrows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/in-nepals-chitwan-makuna-elephants-shooting-death-raises-eyebrows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Feb 2025 01:25:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/07011052/makuna-elephant-chitwan-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294048</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Elephants, Endangered Species, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Military, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — On the morning of Feb. 5, a soldier deployed at the Chitwan National Park shot a wild elephant (Elephas maximus) after it allegedly attacked an elephant patrol attempting to guide it back into the jungle. According to the national park, the makuna (a name given to bulls without tusks) charged at the patrol [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — On the morning of Feb. 5, a soldier deployed at the Chitwan National Park shot a wild elephant (Elephas maximus) after it allegedly attacked an elephant patrol attempting to guide it back into the jungle. According to the national park, the makuna (a name given to bulls without tusks) charged at the patrol party, throwing ranger Shyam Tamang off his mount. To save the ranger, the soldier fired at the animal, and it later died, according to a release issued by the Chitwan National Park following the incident. Although it appears to be a straightforward case of self-defense, some conservationists and activists say the incident involving an elephant that had been radio-collared only a few months ago, is concerning. “The team couldn’t do anything to stop the elephant,” said Abinash Thapa Magar, information officer at the national park. “As the lives of the team members were at risk, the soldier opened fire aiming for its legs,” he added. But the bullet struck the animal’s neck and it died. Wild Asian elephants, categorize such as the makuna and its herd once roamed the entire east-west corridor of Nepal’s southern plains. Although their historic population remains unknown for paucity of records, the flood plains of the Koshi, Gandaki and Karnali provided enough food for them and the lack of human settlement meant they could move freely. But today, the human migration rush to the terai, development of roads and infrastructure hindered their free movement. The makuna, first seen in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/in-nepals-chitwan-makuna-elephants-shooting-death-raises-eyebrows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294048</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Military-backed conservation ‘without firing a single shot’: Interview with Nepal’s Babu Krishna Karki</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/military-backed-conservation-without-firing-a-single-shot-interview-with-nepals-babu-krishna-karki/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/military-backed-conservation-without-firing-a-single-shot-interview-with-nepals-babu-krishna-karki/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Feb 2025 06:51:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/04055638/babu-krishna-karki-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293838</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Crime, Environment, Governance, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Law Enforcement, Military, NGOs, Poaching, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — In the 1970s, Nepal’s government faced major challenges conserving the fertile flood plains of the country’s south. The region is the natural habitat of the iconic greater one-horned rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) and Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris), and their populations were declining rapidly due to poaching and conflict with humans. The forested banks of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — In the 1970s, Nepal’s government faced major challenges conserving the fertile flood plains of the country’s south. The region is the natural habitat of the iconic greater one-horned rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) and Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris), and their populations were declining rapidly due to poaching and conflict with humans. The forested banks of the Narayani River were also being degraded at unprecedented levels. To address these problems, then government at the time decided to establish the country’s first national park, Chitwan, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The main idea behind the undertaking was to revive the population of rhinos (as well as tigers and other threatened species) by preventing poaching and habitat destruction, Similarly, the park would help manage land degradation and conserve the region’s outstanding flora and fauna. And the park’s operations, led by local communities, would help them and the government generate revenue from tourism. To achieve these objectives, the government decided to deploy the military. This deployment, to Chitwan and the other protected areas that would follow over the years, was a turning point in the country’s conservation history. Proponents say Nepal would have lost its rhinos and tigers without their active role, while critics label it militarized conservation that marginalizes local communities, the traditional custodians of the land. Half a century on, the debate continues. Few people are better placed to reflect on the military’s role in conservation in Nepal than Babu Krishna Karki, a retired military general who worked at several national&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/military-backed-conservation-without-firing-a-single-shot-interview-with-nepals-babu-krishna-karki/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293838</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Introducing wildlife crime to Nepal’s law enforcement: Interview with Prasanna Yonzon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/training-law-enforcement-to-deal-with-wildlife-crime-interview-with-prasanna-yonzon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/training-law-enforcement-to-deal-with-wildlife-crime-interview-with-prasanna-yonzon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jan 2025 04:27:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/28024052/DSC_1263-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293501</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Crime, Environment, Governance, Illegal Trade, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Law Enforcement, Military, NGOs, Poaching, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU, Nepal — Wildlife crime continues to plague Nepal, even as the law enforcement strives at the forefront. The country functions both as a source and transit hub for wildlife trade. Most of the wildlife crimes reported here revolve around the illicit hunting and smuggling of its iconic megafauna such as tigers (Panthera tigris), greater [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU, Nepal — Wildlife crime continues to plague Nepal, even as the law enforcement strives at the forefront. The country functions both as a source and transit hub for wildlife trade. Most of the wildlife crimes reported here revolve around the illicit hunting and smuggling of its iconic megafauna such as tigers (Panthera tigris), greater one-horned rhinos (Rhinoceros unicornis) and snow leopards (Panthera uncia). Other animals that make it to the black market, according to seizure records, include clouded leopards (Neofelis nebulosa), Himalayan musk deer (Moschus chrysogaster), black bears (Ursus thibetanus) and pangolins (Manis sp.), along with various avian species and turtles. In this context, law enforcement agencies often find themselves challenged by the adaptability, and audacity, of criminal networks that circumvent regulations and exploit security loopholes. Officials say around 120 to 130 cases of wildlife crime are recorded across the country’s protected areas and division forest offices every year, although official data isn’t available. When conservationist Prasanna Yonzon started his work at the NGO Wildlife Conservation Nepal (WCN) 22 years ago, the country’s law enforcement authorities hadn’t yet prioritized tracking and dismantling wildlife crime networks. Yonzon took on the challenge to do something about it and, for the last two decades, has been organizing training workshops, developing resource materials for identifying wildlife products, and conducting awareness activities for enforcement agencies and other stakeholders. Considered as one Nepal’s pioneering NGOs working in the field of wildlife crime, WCN works closely with national park authorities, law enforcement agencies and other related&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/training-law-enforcement-to-deal-with-wildlife-crime-interview-with-prasanna-yonzon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293501</doi>				</item>
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