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		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?topic=mongabay-investigation&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/mongabay-investigation/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Wed, 05 Aug 2026 11:06:34 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Mongabay investigation</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/mongabay-investigation/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>A Tunisian phosphate plant that sickens children so US, Europe can get fertilizer</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-tunisian-phosphate-plant-that-sickens-children-so-us-europe-can-get-fertilizer/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-tunisian-phosphate-plant-that-sickens-children-so-us-europe-can-get-fertilizer/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jul 2026 02:00:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dawn KikelElisângela MendonçaKhadija Ben Salah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/21020526/h-KhadijaBenSalah-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324147</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, North Africa, and Tunisia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agrochemicals, Air Pollution, Business, Chemicals, Community Development, Environment, Fertilizers, Health, Industry, Mongabay investigation, Pollution, and Public Health]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Dalila grew up in the Tunisian coastal city of Gabès and is accustomed to the heavy, acrid smell from the state-owned phosphate processing plant about a 10-minute walk from her home. On days when noxious fumes fill the air, Dalila rushes to tightly shut the windows and tells her children to hurry indoors. She washes [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Dalila grew up in the Tunisian coastal city of Gabès and is accustomed to the heavy, acrid smell from the state-owned phosphate processing plant about a 10-minute walk from her home. On days when noxious fumes fill the air, Dalila rushes to tightly shut the windows and tells her children to hurry indoors. She washes them, believing it lessens harmful effects from chemicals. Emissions can last all day. Residents may get little or no advance warning. But one day in September 2025, children were at school when gases spread. Some students fell to the ground, complaining they had difficulty breathing. Others said they felt like they were suffocating. Dalila’s daughter said she felt like she was choking. Dalila rushed her to a government-run hospital. When she asked about test results or the type of substances that may have caused her difficulty breathing, Dalila said she did not get clear answers. The incident sickening the schoolchildren helped spark mass protests in the streets of Gabès, with people waving banners that read “Stop Pollution” and “Move The Plant.” It is not the first time that residents have protested water and air pollution from the factory. Dalila feels that she and others in Gabès are being ignored. They are far from alone. Fishermen report coastal waters were once abundant with fish, but, now, their nets come up empty. Scientific studies provide evidence that environmental damage poses a danger to the health of those living nearby. People take part in a demonstration against pollution&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-tunisian-phosphate-plant-that-sickens-children-so-us-europe-can-get-fertilizer/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-tunisian-phosphate-plant-that-sickens-children-so-us-europe-can-get-fertilizer/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324147</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Chasing Deforestation’ in Liberia: Behind the scenes with Mongabay</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/chasing-deforestation-in-liberia-behind-the-scenes-with-mongabay/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/chasing-deforestation-in-liberia-behind-the-scenes-with-mongabay/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jul 2026 21:46:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/15103439/Cocoa-12-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323482</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Chasing Deforestation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Cacao, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Governance, Industrial Agriculture, Mongabay investigation, Natural Resources, Tropical Deforestation, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay’s investigation into deforestation in Liberia started with a tip from a source last year. “There’s deforestation, and a migrant rights issue,” they said. Areas along the border with Côte d&#8217;Ivoire were losing vast swaths of rainforest to cacao farming. It was the beginning of a months-long journey that led us from the Liberian jungle [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay’s investigation into deforestation in Liberia started with a tip from a source last year. “There’s deforestation, and a migrant rights issue,” they said. Areas along the border with Côte d&#8217;Ivoire were losing vast swaths of rainforest to cacao farming. It was the beginning of a months-long journey that led us from the Liberian jungle to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, and through the history of West African labor migration. &nbsp; As a features writer for Mongabay’s Africa bureau, my work has brought me across the world. I’ve covered conservation conflicts, climate change, and the legacy of commodity extraction. These stories are always a window into the interconnected forces of modern life: economic inequalities, history, ecological change, geopolitics, and so on. I often joke that environmental reporters are really on every beat at once. Our societies were built on the exploitation of nature, and control over resources is one of the most fundamental expressions of power. Scratch the surface of an environmental story, and you’ll find one about how decisions are made, who gets to sit at the table, and what really matters to them. But few stories I’ve covered in my career pulled as many threads together as this one did. Mongabay Features Writer Ashoka Mukpo interviewing FDA rangers in Grand Gedeh, Liberia. Photo by Ashoka Mukpo for Mongabay. The tip wasn’t the first I’d heard of land deals for cocoa production in southeastern Liberia, an area where I’ve worked and reported in the past. Since 2024, civil society&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/chasing-deforestation-in-liberia-behind-the-scenes-with-mongabay/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/chasing-deforestation-in-liberia-behind-the-scenes-with-mongabay/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323482</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The vanishing forests on Liberia’s cocoa frontier</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/the-vanishing-forests-on-liberias-cocoa-frontier/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/the-vanishing-forests-on-liberias-cocoa-frontier/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jul 2026 21:38:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/15124037/Banner-image-Cocoa-28-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323492</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Chasing Deforestation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Business, Cacao, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Industrial Agriculture, Mongabay investigation, Natural Resources, Rainforests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[(GRAND GEDEH, Liberia) – Off in the woods beyond the ekki trees, a sharp crack cuts through the buzzing of insects. “It’s a tree falling,” says George Bowey, a baby-faced community eco-guard who works here in the proposed Kwa National Park, a thick tropical rainforest in southeastern Liberia. There are different ways to grow cacao. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[(GRAND GEDEH, Liberia) – Off in the woods beyond the ekki trees, a sharp crack cuts through the buzzing of insects. “It’s a tree falling,” says George Bowey, a baby-faced community eco-guard who works here in the proposed Kwa National Park, a thick tropical rainforest in southeastern Liberia. There are different ways to grow cacao. In one method, saplings are intercropped with other tree species so they form a diverse ecosystem. Or there’s another method, where plantation land is cleared by pouring gasoline on the base of native trees and setting their roots on fire so they wither and die. This is the method that migrant cacao workers from nearby Côte d’Ivoire have brought into Kwa. The Wild Chimpanzee Foundation&#8217;s George Bowey walks past a burned tree in the proposed Kwa National Park. Photo by Ashoka Mukpo for Mongabay. The sound of more trees falling echoes in the distance as Bowey picks his way through the bush. The other eco-guards and forest rangers here at Kwa call him “Gentle George.” With his upbeat personality, it’s not hard to see why. He bounds up a damp hillside, listing off some of the species found inside Kwa. “We got western chimpanzees, forest elephants, pygmy hippos, giant pangolins, white- and black-belly pangolins, we got a lot of animals in here, like leopards, golden cats, we got Diana monkeys, western black and white colobus, we got three types of crocodiles,” he says. Eventually he reaches his destination. The cool overgrowth suddenly gives way to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/the-vanishing-forests-on-liberias-cocoa-frontier/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323492</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>
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					<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>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320430</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>European Commission linked leather to deforestation, then ignored it</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/european-commission-linked-leather-to-deforestation-then-ignored-it/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/european-commission-linked-leather-to-deforestation-then-ignored-it/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2026 01:00:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elisângela MendonçaEmmanuelle Picaud]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/28213101/EuropeanCommission2-1-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320201</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Chaco, European Union, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, International Trade, leather, Mongabay investigation, Supply Chain, Trade, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The clock is ticking in Brussels. By June 1, the European Commission, the bloc’s executive body, is set to receive feedback on its proposal to remove leather, hides and skins from the EU’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). Officials, however, are trying to push this amendment even after the commission’s own research confirmed that cattle hides also [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The clock is ticking in Brussels. By June 1, the European Commission, the bloc’s executive body, is set to receive feedback on its proposal to remove leather, hides and skins from the EU’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). Officials, however, are trying to push this amendment even after the commission’s own research confirmed that cattle hides also drive forest loss, a Mongabay analysis shows. According to the commission’s Staff Working Document, research designed to support proposed regulations, leather can be associated with up to 390 square kilometers (149 square miles) of deforestation per year. That area is roughly twice the size of the city of Pisa, in the heart of Italy’s leather production and trade. This means that bovine hides could account for up to 17% of the total 2,280 km2 (880 mi2) deforestation risk linked to all commodities covered by the new regulation. Although the evidence is part of the documentation, the commission decided to ignore it and balance out “quantitative and qualitative considerations,” it said in the document. The commission&#8217;s Staff Working Document was published May 4, alongside a delegated act, as part of a proposed simplification package Brussels is putting forward ahead of the EUDR being enacted at the end of the year. After the public consultation, the commission could formally adopt the draft delegated act. Then the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union generally have two months to object. If they don’t, the changes will automatically be enacted. In its working documentation, the commission argues&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/european-commission-linked-leather-to-deforestation-then-ignored-it/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320201</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>EU moves to drop leather from deforestation law after industry lobbying</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/eu-moves-to-drop-leather-from-deforestation-law-after-industry-lobbying/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/eu-moves-to-drop-leather-from-deforestation-law-after-industry-lobbying/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 May 2026 01:57:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elisângela Mendonça]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/04202221/g.-8314902334_838bcb1b13_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318700</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Chaco, European Union, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, International Trade, leather, Mongabay investigation, Supply Chain, Trade, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The leather industry spent most of the last year intensifying an already determined lobbying campaign in Brussels to win an exemption from the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation, or EUDR. The effort is paying off: on May 4, the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, formally proposed excluding leather, hides, and skins from the regulation’s product [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The leather industry spent most of the last year intensifying an already determined lobbying campaign in Brussels to win an exemption from the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation, or EUDR. The effort is paying off: on May 4, the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, formally proposed excluding leather, hides, and skins from the regulation’s product scope, ahead of the law being enacted at the end of the year. The Commission’s proposal is being introduced through a delegated act, a legal mechanism that allows the EU executive to amend non-essential parts of an existing law without reopening the whole regulation for a full legislative debate. This process is set to change the EUDR’s Annex I, which lists the commodities covered by the deforestation regulation. Legal experts, including Brussels-based Mayer Brown senior associate Irina Antoshevska, have previously identified this delegated act review as a critical opening for industries seeking to add or remove Combined Nomenclature (CN) customs codes from the regulation’s scope. Following the publication of the draft, citizens and other stakeholders can provide feedback until June 1, the Commission said in a statement. After that, the Commission could formally adopt the act. Then, the parliament and the Council of the European Union generally have two months to object. If they don’t, the changes will automatically be enacted. The leather exemption is part of a broader “simplification review” announced by the European Commission to ease administrative burdens linked to the EUDR. Behind the scenes, however, leather industry groups have seized on the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/eu-moves-to-drop-leather-from-deforestation-law-after-industry-lobbying/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/eu-moves-to-drop-leather-from-deforestation-law-after-industry-lobbying/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318700</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil FOIA confirms Lula &#038; Macron talked before key CITES vote on endangered tree</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-foia-confirms-lula-macron-talked-before-key-cites-vote-on-endangered-tree/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-foia-confirms-lula-macron-talked-before-key-cites-vote-on-endangered-tree/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Apr 2026 00:01:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Emmanuelle PicaudFernanda WenzelSpoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/22100823/c-lula-and-macron-in-a-boat-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317918</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Europe, France, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Extinction, Forests, Governance, Mongabay investigation, Plants, Politics, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Supply Chain, timber trade, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Early in 2026, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s office denied that he had a phone call with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, about easing proposed trade restrictions on Brazil’s endangered national tree. The denial to Mongabay came during reporting for a story published in February about Brazil’s efforts to seek the highest trade [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Early in 2026, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s office denied that he had a phone call with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, about easing proposed trade restrictions on Brazil’s endangered national tree. The denial to Mongabay came during reporting for a story published in February about Brazil’s efforts to seek the highest trade protections for Brazilwood (Paubrasilia echinata) — safeguards that were diluted during a global summit of representatives to CITES, a wildlife trade treaty signed by 184 countries and the European Union. Now, following a response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Mongabay, Lula’s office confirmed that he had, in fact, been in communication with Macron just before a key vote on the proposal at the CITES conference, held five months ago in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The conversations between Lula and Macron were “regarding the negotiations then underway” as part of CITES deliberations, according to Brazil’s Special Advisory Office of the President of the Republic. The office responded to Mongabay’s FOIA request on April 6. It did not specify what was discussed and did not state if the talks happened over a phone call, text or other means. The FOIA response marks the first official confirmation that the two leaders were in communications at CITES over the issue. Native to the country’s Atlantic Forest and a national symbol, Brazilwood is coveted in the music industry to make high-quality violin bows, which sell for as high as 7,000 euros ($8,200) apiece. The demand has led the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-foia-confirms-lula-macron-talked-before-key-cites-vote-on-endangered-tree/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-foia-confirms-lula-macron-talked-before-key-cites-vote-on-endangered-tree/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317918</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rio de Janeiro state bans shark meat for school meals</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/rio-de-janeiro-state-bans-shark-meat-for-school-meals/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/rio-de-janeiro-state-bans-shark-meat-for-school-meals/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Jan 2026 14:24:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Karla Mendes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/27095923/a.-BANNER-6121048750_093999bd41_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313393</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Animals, Biodiversity, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Policy, Fisheries, Fishing, Food, Governance, Health, Mongabay investigation, Oceans, Public Health, Sharks, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[RIO DE JANEIRO — The government of the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro has banned shark meat for meals in most of the schools it manages, citing health and environmental concerns. The move puts the state in line to become the first in Brazil to do so, and has drawn accolades from shark conservation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[RIO DE JANEIRO — The government of the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro has banned shark meat for meals in most of the schools it manages, citing health and environmental concerns. The move puts the state in line to become the first in Brazil to do so, and has drawn accolades from shark conservation and health advocates, on the one hand, and criticism from the seafood industry, on the other. &#8220;The suspension was based on technical, scientific, health, and environmental grounds … complying with the principle of precaution and comprehensive protection of children&#8221; as required under the Constitution and the guidelines of the National School Feeding Program, the state department of education told Mongabay in an emailed statement on Jan. 8. It said the decision to ban shark meat in school meals rested on evidence from the World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, a research institute affiliated with Brazil’s health ministry. Effective since Oct. 23, 2025, the shark meat ban was enacted through an administrative guideline emailed that day to the 1,200 schools run by the Rio de Janeiro state education department. These schools account for 95% of all schools managed by the state. The ban doesn’t apply to the roughly 10,400 other schools in the state that are managed by municipalities or private institutions. The guideline, seen by Mongabay, was signed by the education department&#8217;s food safety coordinator, Lívia Ribera Souza. It cited a technical note from marine&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/rio-de-janeiro-state-bans-shark-meat-for-school-meals/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/rio-de-janeiro-state-bans-shark-meat-for-school-meals/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313393</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The rise of CC35 and the business behind its climate deals</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/carbon-and-charisma-how-climate-network-cc35-tricked-its-way-to-the-limelight/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/carbon-and-charisma-how-climate-network-cc35-tricked-its-way-to-the-limelight/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Dec 2025 22:32:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Pallares]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/26194650/Landscape-1-Parque-Nacional-El-Impenetrable-Matias-Rebak-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311902</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Latin America, South America, and Spain]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Carbon, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Indigenous Peoples, Law Enforcement, Mongabay investigation, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This investigation was produced with support from the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). Isabel Alarcón contributed reporting from Ecuador. BARCELONA — Covering more than 65 million hectares (160 million acres) across Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, the Gran Chaco is South America’s second-largest forest after the Amazon Rainforest. Over the last decades, the dry forest [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This investigation was produced with support from the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). Isabel Alarcón contributed reporting from Ecuador. BARCELONA — Covering more than 65 million hectares (160 million acres) across Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, the Gran Chaco is South America’s second-largest forest after the Amazon Rainforest. Over the last decades, the dry forest ecosystem that fosters thousands of plant and animal species and 9 million people has lost about a quarter of its area to agriculture. In 2024, the Gran Chaco was especially threatened in Argentina’s Santiago del Estero province, where it lost 54,000 hectares (133,000 acres) of forest. A few years earlier, the province’s forest ecosystem was the object of an announcement at COP26 in Glasgow, U.K. On Nov. 2, 2021, Global Carbon Parks Inc., a Miami-based startup, announced a $200-million carbon contract with the province of Santiago del Estero that, according to several sources, would support nature conservation and decarbonization in the region. The startup aimed to trade in carbon credits from subnational protected areas. The announcement of the public-private arrangement was hosted by Capital Cities 35 (CC35), a climate alliance of mayors across the Americas that aims to build capacity to tackle climate change, implement the Paris Agreement and the U.N.’s 2030 Agenda. But findings from a Mongabay investigation suggest that the secretary-general of CC35, Argentinian Sebastián Navarro, used his position at CC35 in ways that benefited private carbon businesses like Global Carbon Parks, which he controlled through majority stakeholder Ethic International, Inc, a holding company&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/carbon-and-charisma-how-climate-network-cc35-tricked-its-way-to-the-limelight/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311902</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mongabay launches dedicated Oceans Desk to expand global reporting on marine ecosystems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/mongabay-launches-dedicated-oceans-desk-to-expand-global-reporting-on-marine-ecosystems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/mongabay-launches-dedicated-oceans-desk-to-expand-global-reporting-on-marine-ecosystems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Nov 2025 21:39:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alejandroprescottcornejo]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/11211024/Adobe-Express-file-34-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309341</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, China, Global, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Ecosystems, Illegal Fishing, Marine, Mongabay investigation, Oceans, Oil Spills, shark finning, and Sharks]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With increasing pressures from overfishing, habitat destruction, pollution and climate change, the health of the world’s oceans is imperiled. In response, Mongabay has launched a dedicated Oceans Desk composed of a global team of journalists specialized in reporting on oceans, fisheries and marine conservation. The desk, which includes editors, reporters and program directors from across [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[With increasing pressures from overfishing, habitat destruction, pollution and climate change, the health of the world’s oceans is imperiled. In response, Mongabay has launched a dedicated Oceans Desk composed of a global team of journalists specialized in reporting on oceans, fisheries and marine conservation. The desk, which includes editors, reporters and program directors from across Mongabay’s newsroom, marks a strategic shift to deepen coverage of marine ecosystems as part of the organization’s expanding environmental reporting. “One of our goals at Mongabay is to provide a planetary view of the environment, and understanding the ocean is crucial for grasping the state of life on Earth,” said Willie Shubert, Mongabay’s VP of programs and executive editor. “Our Oceans Desk delivers original and insightful journalism on often underreported topics that highlight humanity&#8217;s cultural, economic and political connections to the sea while also emphasizing the intrinsic value of a living and biodiverse ocean.” Driven by high reader interest, Mongabay’s oceans coverage has steadily expanded to become a top priority for the organization, with thousands of articles, videos and podcasts already published. “The ocean is vast and powerful, but threats from overfishing, climate change, pollution, and crime are pushing it to the brink,” Shubert said. “The voices of communities dependent on a healthy ocean, from fishers and marine biologists to policymakers and consumers, must be part of the story to address these problems. By building a dedicated desk that reports daily from across the world, we aim to inspire people to care for marine biodiversity&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/mongabay-launches-dedicated-oceans-desk-to-expand-global-reporting-on-marine-ecosystems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309341</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How a ‘green gold rush’ in the Amazon led to dubious carbon deals on Indigenous lands</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/how-a-green-gold-rush-in-the-amazon-led-to-dubious-carbon-deals-on-indigenous-lands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/how-a-green-gold-rush-in-the-amazon-led-to-dubious-carbon-deals-on-indigenous-lands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Nov 2025 19:06:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Pallares]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/04/20210856/amazon_200744-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309280</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Business, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, climate finance, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Finance, Forest Carbon, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Mongabay investigation, Nature-based climate solutions, Protected Areas, Social Justice, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BARCELONA — In December 2022, one of Brazil’s largest Indigenous territories and one of the smallest would each sign a 118-page, 10-year contract they would soon come to regret —as would faraway investors looking to capitalize on the billion-dollar carbon and biodiversity markets. In Brazil’s lush westernmost states of Amazonas and Acre, which border Peru, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BARCELONA — In December 2022, one of Brazil’s largest Indigenous territories and one of the smallest would each sign a 118-page, 10-year contract they would soon come to regret —as would faraway investors looking to capitalize on the billion-dollar carbon and biodiversity markets. In Brazil’s lush westernmost states of Amazonas and Acre, which border Peru, entities promising to turn rainforests into green gold have persuaded Indigenous communities to grant them exclusive rights to trade the ecosystem services provided by their lands, a Mongabay investigation has found. The contracts covered the trade in nature-based solutions, an umbrella term covering a wide range of ecosystem services, from carbon sequestration to biodiversity. The projects, covering more than 8.5 million hectares (21 million acres), failed to materialize in Brazil, with communities pleading to end the contracts, and one carbon certification program issuing a cease-and-desist letter. But the initiator of the scheme continued marketing the deals online and signed at least two more contracts without adequate consent from communities in the lowlands of Bolivia. The three entities that approached Indigenous representatives in Brazil are Biota, a family-run cooperative from Argentina peddling herbal products and nature-based solutions; Biotapass, a related “climatech” startup registered in Spain and the subject of a criminal case; and their Brazilian fixer, Comtxae, which used to provide satellite internet and solar panels to Indigenous villages and nonprofits. As inquiries from Brazil’s Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Federal Police are ongoing and Indigenous leaders worry about the validity of the contracts, some of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/how-a-green-gold-rush-in-the-amazon-led-to-dubious-carbon-deals-on-indigenous-lands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309280</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How we probed a maze of websites to tally Brazilian government shark meat orders</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/how-we-probed-a-maze-of-websites-to-tally-brazilian-government-shark-meat-orders/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/how-we-probed-a-maze-of-websites-to-tally-brazilian-government-shark-meat-orders/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Sep 2025 09:58:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kuang Keng Kuek SerPhilip Jacobson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/26100228/DSC03643-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306612</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Shark Meat Nation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Consumption, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Policy, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Food, Food Industry, Governance, Health, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Mongabay investigation, Oceans, Overconsumption, Public Health, Sharks, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay recently published an investigation revealing widespread Brazilian government purchases of shark meat to feed schoolchildren, hospital patients, prisoners and more. The series has generated public debate in the South American country, which, perhaps surprisingly, is the world’s largest consumer and importer of shark meat. The procurements raise concerns because sharks are being overfished — [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay recently published an investigation revealing widespread Brazilian government purchases of shark meat to feed schoolchildren, hospital patients, prisoners and more. The series has generated public debate in the South American country, which, perhaps surprisingly, is the world’s largest consumer and importer of shark meat. The procurements raise concerns because sharks are being overfished — globally, their populations in the open ocean have declined by an estimated 71% over the past half-century — and their meat tends to contain high levels of heavy metals, which can be especially dangerous for young children, pregnant and nursing mothers, and other vulnerable groups. As part of the research, we spent months combing through dozens of websites where Brazilian government agencies are legally required to publish their procurement records. It was challenging work, hunting down droplets of relevant data cataloged with inconsistent search terms across multiple obscure portals. In this article, we’ll tell you how we went about it in hopes of inspiring and easing the way for other journalists and researchers to continue this line of inquiry. Because it was also richly rewarding: We uncovered 1,012 shark meat tenders issued since 2004, and identified 5,900 public institutions — preschools, homeless shelters, maternity wards, military bases, elderly care facilities, governor’s residences, and more — that potentially received shark meat as part of these procurements. (Brazil-based Mongabay reporters Karla Mendes and Fernanda Wenzel also played key roles in the investigation, following up leads on the ground turned up by our data work.) The impetus for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/how-we-probed-a-maze-of-websites-to-tally-brazilian-government-shark-meat-orders/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/how-we-probed-a-maze-of-websites-to-tally-brazilian-government-shark-meat-orders/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306612</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Large-scale illegal wildlife shops in Laos found scamming Chinese tourists</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/large-scale-illegal-wildlife-shops-in-laos-found-scamming-chinese-tourists/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/large-scale-illegal-wildlife-shops-in-laos-found-scamming-chinese-tourists/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jul 2025 08:00:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/21121045/AP760576283416-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302848</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, China, Laos, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Consumption, Crime, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Law, Law Enforcement, Mongabay investigation, Organized Crime, Poaching, Tourism, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Traditional Medicine, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LUANG PRABANG, Laos — “No coffee, no coffee,” repeated the security guard. His smile stood in stark contrast to his faded camouflage fatigues and the machine gun slung over his shoulder. Few cafés in the sleepy Laotian tourist town of Luang Prabang boast armed guards, but Kin Liao Coffee is not the average café. While [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LUANG PRABANG, Laos — “No coffee, no coffee,” repeated the security guard. His smile stood in stark contrast to his faded camouflage fatigues and the machine gun slung over his shoulder. Few cafés in the sleepy Laotian tourist town of Luang Prabang boast armed guards, but Kin Liao Coffee is not the average café. While it’s unclear if Kin Liao Coffee actually serves coffee, the café situated on the side of the road near the Kuang Si waterfall has been found to illegally sell a wide array of ivory, rhino horn and bear bile products, as well as Angong Niuhuang Wan — a traditional Chinese medicine that is often manufactured in North Korea using powdered rhino horn. Kin Liao Coffee is just one of more than 20 locations across Luang Prabang and the Laotian capital of Vientiane identified in a joint investigation between Mongabay and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) as selling illegal wildlife products at scale. These shops appear to exclusively cater to Chinese tourists, specifically those visiting Laos on pre-arranged low-budget package tours. The tours target elderly Chinese nationals, promising them all-inclusive trips to explore the historic ties between the two countries, often via the China-Laos railway. Upon arrival, tour groups are ferried from one shop to another, where sellers — mostly Chinese nationals themselves — use coercive and manipulative sales tactics to pressure tourists into buying illegal wildlife products, most of which are sold at inflated prices, the investigation found. Large ivory carvings, some&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/large-scale-illegal-wildlife-shops-in-laos-found-scamming-chinese-tourists/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/large-scale-illegal-wildlife-shops-in-laos-found-scamming-chinese-tourists/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302848</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia convicts trafficking accomplice in a Javan rhino poaching scandal</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/indonesia-convicts-trafficking-accomplice-in-a-javan-rhino-poaching-scandal/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/indonesia-convicts-trafficking-accomplice-in-a-javan-rhino-poaching-scandal/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2025 05:25:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Donny Iqbal]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/31180931/javan-rhino-courtesy-of-KLHK-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299700</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Asian Rhinos]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Java, Southeast Asia, and West Java]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Green, In-situ Conservation, Javan Rhinos, Mammals, Megafauna, Mongabay investigation, Poaching, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Rhinos, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia’s highest court has overturned the acquittal of an accused translator who facilitated transactions in the international trade of poached rhino horns. The Supreme Court in Indonesia recently sentenced 72-year-old Liem Hoo Kwan Willy to one year in prison for helping communications between an Indonesian trader and a Chinese buyer in the trafficking of Javan [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia’s highest court has overturned the acquittal of an accused translator who facilitated transactions in the international trade of poached rhino horns. The Supreme Court in Indonesia recently sentenced 72-year-old Liem Hoo Kwan Willy to one year in prison for helping communications between an Indonesian trader and a Chinese buyer in the trafficking of Javan rhino (Rhinoceros sondaicus) horns. The ruling is part of a year-long crackdown by Indonesian conservation authorities on international wildlife trade that stemmed from the discovery in 2024 of organized poaching of Javan rhinos in their only habitat, Ujung Kulon National Park, Banten province. The conservation director-general Satyawan Pudyatmoko praised the decision and the prosecutor’s efforts, saying it reinforces Indonesia’s commitment to protecting the Javan rhino by holding all parties in the illegal wildlife trade accountable. Liem Hoo Kwan Willy has been found guilty in an illegal Javan rhino trade. Image by Donny Iqbal/Mongabay-Indonesia. Willy was previously cleared of all charges by Banten’s Pandeglang District Court despite evidence such as phone records and texts linking him to the transactions and renting the Chinese buyer a room in his house. The lead judge on the three-member panel overruled his colleagues, arguing that Willy didn’t profit from facilitating the transactions of the rhino horns. Meanwhile, the same district court in July 2024 convicted and sentenced Yogi Purwadi, the Indonesian trader whom Willy helped with translations, to four and a half years in prison. The court a month earlier had also convicted and sentenced to a record 12 years&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/indonesia-convicts-trafficking-accomplice-in-a-javan-rhino-poaching-scandal/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/indonesia-convicts-trafficking-accomplice-in-a-javan-rhino-poaching-scandal/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299700</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Oil companies have downplayed extent of spills in Gulf of Mexico, investigation finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/oil-companies-have-downplayed-extent-of-spills-in-gulf-of-mexico-investigation-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/oil-companies-have-downplayed-extent-of-spills-in-gulf-of-mexico-investigation-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Apr 2025 16:30:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gibran Mena AguilarMichelle Carrere]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/28155110/fisher-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298221</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Ecosystems, Environmental Law, extractives, Fish, Fishing, Indigenous Peoples, Law, Law Enforcement, Marine, Marine Conservation, Mongabay investigation, Oceans, Oil, Oil Spills, Pollution, Social Justice, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[One morning in early April 2024, Elías Naal Hernández set out with his fishing net to try his luck in the waters of Isla Aguada, off the coast of southeastern Mexico. The town sits between the Gulf of Mexico and the Laguna de Términos, the country’s largest coastal lagoon. Until he arrived, the fisherman could [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[One morning in early April 2024, Elías Naal Hernández set out with his fishing net to try his luck in the waters of Isla Aguada, off the coast of southeastern Mexico. The town sits between the Gulf of Mexico and the Laguna de Términos, the country’s largest coastal lagoon. Until he arrived, the fisherman could not begin to imagine the devastating scene he would face that morning at the sea. “It was an enormous slick: miles and miles of oil. We would catch it in water buckets and they would fill up because of how much there was,” said Hernández. The only thing he caught that day — by the bucketful — was oil. The spill was also detected via satellite imagery by scientists who have spent years studying oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico. Their satellite images show evidence of potential oil slicks beginning March 7, 2024. The oil slicks appeared to originate near infrastructure owned by Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), a Mexican state-owned company responsible for extracting oil from the Gulf of Mexico. Pemex provides 80% of the nation’s crude oil. Although Pemex was legally required to report the oil spill, the company did not do so. Naal Hernández said that when he went public with the spill, Pemex downplayed the event, arguing that it was a natural release of oil. This response is heard all too often by fishers who report spills, which, according to Naal Hernández, do not have the characteristics of a natural event. The&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/oil-companies-have-downplayed-extent-of-spills-in-gulf-of-mexico-investigation-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/oil-companies-have-downplayed-extent-of-spills-in-gulf-of-mexico-investigation-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298221</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Panama conducts large illegal fishing bust in protected Pacific waters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/panama-conducts-large-illegal-fishing-bust-in-protected-pacific-waters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/panama-conducts-large-illegal-fishing-bust-in-protected-pacific-waters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Mar 2025 14:25:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/28135933/OceanImageBank_NicolasJob_6-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296649</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, North America, Pacific Ocean, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Food, Food Industry, Governance, Illegal Fishing, Illegal Trade, Industry, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Mongabay investigation, Oceans, Overfishing, Politics, Saltwater Fish, Surveillance, and Tuna]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Panamanian authorities seized six longliner vessels on Jan. 20 for fishing illegally in protected waters. They also opened an investigation into an additional 10 vessels that surveillance data showed had apparently been fishing in the area but left by the time authorities arrived. The seizures took place in the Cordillera de Coiba, a marine protected [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Panamanian authorities seized six longliner vessels on Jan. 20 for fishing illegally in protected waters. They also opened an investigation into an additional 10 vessels that surveillance data showed had apparently been fishing in the area but left by the time authorities arrived. The seizures took place in the Cordillera de Coiba, a marine protected area that’s part of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor, which connects several MPAs in four countries. It was the largest illegal fishing bust in the history of Panama’s MPAs, according to a government press release. “This was big news, and it came as a surprise for everyone,” Annissamyd Del Cid, the Panama national coordinator at WildAid, a San Fransisco-based NGO, told Mongabay. The group has worked in the Eastern Tropical Pacific since 2010, including helping to bolster authorities’ monitoring capacities, and works with the Panamanian government to help protect the Cordillera de Coiba. The fishing vessels, whose activity is still under investigation, were Panamanian-flagged, meaning they were registered in the country. But no identifying information has been released publicly, so the nationality of the owners isn’t clear. Panama serves as a major “flag of convenience” state, used by vessel owners around the world, often to avoid stricter regulations elsewhere. Panamanian authorities detected the first entry into the MPA on Jan. 10. In the days that followed, three state agencies — the National Aeronaval Service (SENAN), the Aquatic Resources Authority of Panama (ARAP), and the Ministry of Environment — used aerial and satellite-based surveillance to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/panama-conducts-large-illegal-fishing-bust-in-protected-pacific-waters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/panama-conducts-large-illegal-fishing-bust-in-protected-pacific-waters/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296649</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mineral exploitation overshadows green diplomacy in Congo’s Sangha region</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/mineral-exploitation-overshadows-green-diplomacy-in-congos-sangha-region/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/mineral-exploitation-overshadows-green-diplomacy-in-congos-sangha-region/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2025 15:45:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie Toto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Christophe Assogba]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/30154711/D9B95459-DC46-491A-B0EC-5E3CAFB9AFCE_1_105_c-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293643</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Mongabay investigation, Politics, Pollution, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This article was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations Network in collaboration with the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP). Read the first part of this two-part series. BAMEGOARD, Republic of Congo — Deep in the heart of a lush green forest, an excavator is hard at work, turning over [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This article was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations Network in collaboration with the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP). Read the first part of this two-part series. BAMEGOARD, Republic of Congo — Deep in the heart of a lush green forest, an excavator is hard at work, turning over the earth in search of gold. The surrounding landscape is devastated — centuries-old trees have been uprooted, and streams that were once drinkable are now vast, muddy stretches of uninviting water. We are near the village of Bamegoard (also spelled Bamegod) in the Sangha region of northern Republic of Congo. Aristide Elong, the administrative chief officer of the village, used to come to this forest to fish and collect drinking water. But today, that is no longer possible. “There used to be forest here, but now the landscape is destroyed — there are no trees left. The river is just mud. How can we get the water back? We can’t drink it, and the fish can’t survive in water like this,” he says. Over the past eight months, Mongabay has investigated the issuing of at least 79 semi-industrial gold mining and exploration permits in the Sangha region by Congolese Minister of Mines Pierre Oba over the last four years. In part one of this investigative report, we described significant environmental degradation and damage at sites we visited. This destruction is taking place in an area designated for a Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/mineral-exploitation-overshadows-green-diplomacy-in-congos-sangha-region/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/mineral-exploitation-overshadows-green-diplomacy-in-congos-sangha-region/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293643</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Probe details the playbook of one of Amazon’s top land grabbers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/probe-details-the-playbook-of-one-of-amazons-top-land-grabbers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/probe-details-the-playbook-of-one-of-amazons-top-land-grabbers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jan 2025 17:36:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda Wenzel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/17151530/Beyond-Fire_Cattle_12_DSC_2938-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293087</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Cattle, Conservation, Crime, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Reserves, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Logging, Mongabay investigation, Organized Crime, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Ranching, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[According to the Brazilian Federal Police, Bruno Heller is one of Amazon's largest deforesters and relied on legal and technical advice, including a fake contract, bribing police officers, and near-real-time monitoring of deforestation work through satellite imagery, investigators said.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On Feb. 15, 2021, Brazilian cattle farmer Bruno Heller shared a contract with one of his employees, selling the Serra Formosa ranch to him. More than two years later, when Heller was targeted by a major Federal Police probe into land grabbing, it became clear that this was the first step in a sophisticated plan to steal and deforest a large chunk of public land. The date on the contract, March 16, 2006, was far earlier than the date it was actually drawn up. But there were other issues. According to investigators, the contract was a work of fiction. The 3,000-hectare (7,300-acre) property was never sold to Heller’s employee, who acted as a mere front — a common tactic in the Brazilian Amazon to evade punishment for criminal activities. Heller knew his next steps wouldn&#8217;t go unnoticed. He was preparing the ground so authorities would place the blame elsewhere. Investigations have shown that the rancher&#8217;s area of expertise is land grabbing in the southwest of Pará state, at the margins of the BR-163 road — one of the Amazon&#8217;s main deforestation hotspots, where large plots of rainforest are cleared for cattle ranching and soy crops. There, in the municipality of Altamira, near Castelo dos Sonhos district, Heller and his family members registered more than 24,000 hectares (59,300 acres) in their names, an area larger than the U.S. city of Boston. Authorities concluded that most of it spans unallocated public land, areas that belong to the federal or state governments and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/probe-details-the-playbook-of-one-of-amazons-top-land-grabbers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/probe-details-the-playbook-of-one-of-amazons-top-land-grabbers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293087</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mining in a forest conservation site clouds Republic of Congo’s carbon credit scheme</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/mining-in-a-forest-conservation-site-clouds-republic-of-congos-carbon-credit-scheme/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/mining-in-a-forest-conservation-site-clouds-republic-of-congos-carbon-credit-scheme/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jan 2025 08:00:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie Toto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Christophe Assogba]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/14151257/Photo-Mine-ouverte-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292921</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity credits, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Carbon, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Mining, Mongabay Data Studio, Mongabay investigation, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This article was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations Network in collaboration with the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP). It is the first part of a two-part series, read part two here. Environmentalist Justin Landry Chekoua says he’s shocked by images of century-old trees uprooted and rivers contaminated in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This article was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations Network in collaboration with the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP). It is the first part of a two-part series, read part two here. Environmentalist Justin Landry Chekoua says he’s shocked by images of century-old trees uprooted and rivers contaminated in the northern Sangha region of the Republic of Congo. Mongabay had taken photos of an open-pit gold mine within the boundaries of an area designated as part of the Sangha Likouala REDD+ program. “Looking at it &#8230; this is a mining operation with no regard for sustainability,” Chekoua says. Over the past eight months, Mongabay has conducted an in-depth investigation into the Sangha Likouala REDD+ initiative. We traveled to the Sangha region, reviewed hundreds of official documents, and uncovered a troubling reality: since the REDD+ project’s launch in 2020, the country’s mining minister, Pierre Oba, has issued at least 79 semi-industrial gold mining and exploration permits. This marks a sharp increase from the period between 2017 and 2020, when only eight mining permits were officially issued in the same region, according to a Ministry of Finance report. By definition, a REDD+ project is designed to reduce deforestation and forest degradation. Yet in the Sangha region, 14% of the territory has already been marked out for gold exploration. This doesn’t account for permits to search for the other minerals, such as iron, that are mined on an industrial scale in the area. The consequences for the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/mining-in-a-forest-conservation-site-clouds-republic-of-congos-carbon-credit-scheme/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/mining-in-a-forest-conservation-site-clouds-republic-of-congos-carbon-credit-scheme/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292921</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>High-flying concessions: Clandestine airstrips, coca crops invade Ucayali’s forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/high-flying-concessions-clandestine-airstrips-coca-crops-invade-ucayalis-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/high-flying-concessions-clandestine-airstrips-coca-crops-invade-ucayalis-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Dec 2024 09:52:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay Latam]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/02121205/Foto-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291020</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Airstrips]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Forests, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Mongabay Data Studio, Mongabay investigation, Rainforests, Satellite Imagery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Zooming in on the Peruvian jungle, many hectares of deforestation can be seen amid the thick vegetation, like huge scars hidden among the foliage. They’re dispersed between the forests in the departments of Ucayali, Loreto, Huánuco, Madre de Dios, Pasco and Cusco. Some are very close to rivers, others just meters away from tracks or [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Zooming in on the Peruvian jungle, many hectares of deforestation can be seen amid the thick vegetation, like huge scars hidden among the foliage. They’re dispersed between the forests in the departments of Ucayali, Loreto, Huánuco, Madre de Dios, Pasco and Cusco. Some are very close to rivers, others just meters away from tracks or roads, and many are in the middle of protected areas. After more than 10 months of research, a team coordinated by Mongabay Latam confirmed that these openings in the middle of the jungle are clandestine airstrips. Many of them are built in or around native communities’ territories, close to protected areas or inside Indigenous reserves. With information obtained from the Peruvian police’s antinarcotics unit, DIRANDRO; the departmental government of Ucayali, GORE Ucayali; OpenStreetMap; and used an AI visual search to review satellite imagery, we identified a total of 128 illegal airstrips across six departments in the Peruvian Amazon. We confirmed the presence of 76 of these through approximately 60 interviews with Indigenous leaders, community members, prosecutors, experts and civil servants. Of this number, 45 are in Ucayali and were built for drug trafficking. The collaboration with Earth Genome was supported by the Pulitzer Center. “We found drug laboratories and clandestine airstrips mostly in the [province] of Atalaya [in Ucayali],” said Pedro Velásquez, deputy prosecutor of the Ucayali Special Prosecutor’s Office for Illicit Drug Trafficking. “Drug traffickers often use native communities or hard-to-access areas with no land registry and position themselves there; they know which areas&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/high-flying-concessions-clandestine-airstrips-coca-crops-invade-ucayalis-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/high-flying-concessions-clandestine-airstrips-coca-crops-invade-ucayalis-forests/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291020</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Narco airstrips beset Indigenous communities in Peruvian Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/narco-airstrips-beset-indigenous-communities-in-peruvian-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/narco-airstrips-beset-indigenous-communities-in-peruvian-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Dec 2024 12:18:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay Latam]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/03100239/PISTA-CHANCHAMAYO-ABRE-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291108</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Airstrips and Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Endangered Environmentalists, Forests, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Mongabay Data Studio, Mongabay investigation, Rainforests, Satellite Imagery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The boat comes to a halt, shuddering against the dirt bank that rises from the edge of the Ucayali River. Sixto, tanned and with a frown cutting deep furrows across his forehead, jumps ashore. He strides up to a flat area dotted with banana plantations, yucca crops and scattered foliage. He raises his hand and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The boat comes to a halt, shuddering against the dirt bank that rises from the edge of the Ucayali River. Sixto, tanned and with a frown cutting deep furrows across his forehead, jumps ashore. He strides up to a flat area dotted with banana plantations, yucca crops and scattered foliage. He raises his hand and waves. He then follows a path that penetrates a wall of trees, passes through mudflats and traces the undergrowth that thickens the forest. He doesn’t speak. He knows where to go, and that’s all that’s needed. At intervals he says, barely whispering: “It won’t be long now.” During each stretch, as he keeps up his pace, Sixto scans the horizon, although it’s always the same scene of trees and scattered green. The dense jungle he passes through lies in Tahuanía district, Atalaya province, in the Peruvian Amazon. Thirty-four minutes into this trek along this tangled route, the roof formed by the treetops suddenly opens up to reveal a huge rectangle of bare earth. “It is 985 meters [3,232 feet], a big ‘cancha’ [field],” he whispers, and points to the other end: “We’ve arrived.” No drug planes have taken off yet from this clandestine airstrip. This stretch was prepared five years ago, but with the COVID-19 outbreak, there was no need for traffickers to find new ways to get their drug shipments out, Sixto recalls, now less tense, more talkative. He was one of the young men who prepared the land after it was cleared. He&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/narco-airstrips-beset-indigenous-communities-in-peruvian-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/narco-airstrips-beset-indigenous-communities-in-peruvian-amazon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291108</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>15 illegal narco-trafficking airstrips found near Peru Indigenous communities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/15-illegal-narco-trafficking-airstrips-found-near-peru-indigenous-communities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/15-illegal-narco-trafficking-airstrips-found-near-peru-indigenous-communities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Dec 2024 09:54:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay Latam]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/27113614/Huacamayo-Abridor-3-Max-Cabello-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290775</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Airstrips and Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Endangered Environmentalists, Forests, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Mongabay Data Studio, Mongabay investigation, Rainforests, Satellite Imagery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The hum of a small plane is heard overhead during a community assembly, but no one looks up. Conversation rises naturally over the sound as the engine’s intense roar fades into the background. The aircraft takes five minutes to pass over an Indigenous community located between the districts of Yuyapichis and Puerto Bermúdez, its course [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The hum of a small plane is heard overhead during a community assembly, but no one looks up. Conversation rises naturally over the sound as the engine’s intense roar fades into the background. The aircraft takes five minutes to pass over an Indigenous community located between the districts of Yuyapichis and Puerto Bermúdez, its course traceable by simply following the sound — today, the plane is hidden from view by clouds. On the morning of Sunday, April 21, 2024, this Yanesha community, nestled between the regions of Huánuco and Pasco in Peru’s central rainforests, is hosting a gathering of Indigenous residents from Huánuco and its two annexes. Some have arrived by boat, navigating up the Pachitea River, which forms at the confluence of the Pichis and the Palcazu rivers. At least 200 people are present, focused on discussing one central concern: securing legal titles for their lands. Nothing else can distract them today — not the sound of the small plane, nor the clandestine airstrips surrounding the community that daily serve drug trafficking. Yanesha community members on the way to their community assembly. Image by Mongabay Latam. “Didn’t you hear what was happening earlier? That’s them. I don’t know where they are going,” a local source told us in hushed tones, confirming the aircraft’s departure. “From here, whatever they take with them will go to other areas of Yuyapichis. That’s where they fly,” he says. “It used to be more regular, busier. There was even a bit of money in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/15-illegal-narco-trafficking-airstrips-found-near-peru-indigenous-communities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/15-illegal-narco-trafficking-airstrips-found-near-peru-indigenous-communities/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290775</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How German government funds are used to dispossess Tanzania’s Maasai in Serengeti land grab</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/how-german-government-funds-and-tanzanian-conservation-agencies-fuel-the-serengeti-land-grab/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/how-german-government-funds-and-tanzanian-conservation-agencies-fuel-the-serengeti-land-grab/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Nov 2024 17:50:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Benjamin Hindrichs]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/29172624/A-Maasai-looking-over-Ololosokwan_1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290943</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Serengeti, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Governance, Human Rights, Human-wildlife Conflict, Indigenous Peoples, Land Conflict, Mongabay investigation, Protected Areas, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A Tanzanian journalist contributed to this report, but has requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the story. OLOLOSOKWAN, Tanzania — Just days after rangers from Serengeti National Park confiscated Lankenua Sainguran&#8217;s cattle and pushed her family into poverty, the German ambassador to Tanzania ceremonially handed over the keys to new facilities for the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A Tanzanian journalist contributed to this report, but has requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the story. OLOLOSOKWAN, Tanzania — Just days after rangers from Serengeti National Park confiscated Lankenua Sainguran&#8217;s cattle and pushed her family into poverty, the German ambassador to Tanzania ceremonially handed over the keys to new facilities for the park&#8217;s conservation authorities. While pictures were taken and handshakes exchanged, 70 kilometers (43 miles) away on the outskirts of the park, Serengeti rangers were organizing and funding a massive eviction operation, burning 185 Maasai homes and leaving 6,800 people homeless. Sainguran, whose name was changed for security reasons, still remembers the day, she said. Columns of smoke rose into the sky and shouts filled the air. For her and many Maasai pastoralists who roamed these lands with their livestock like their ancestors did, the violence in August 2017 in Loliondo upended their lives. Over the past 15 years, the Tanzanian government has forcibly displaced thousands of Maasai from ancestral lands to curtain off nature and hunting reserves along the eastern border of Serengeti National Park, called the Pololeti and Loliondo game controlled areas. At the same time, it launched a relocation program for the voluntary relocation of Maasai from the iconic Ngorongoro Conservation Area. But these plans included cutting funding for schools and healthcare centers to pressure Maasai residents into “voluntary” relocation to a village 600 km (370 mi) away, reported Human Rights Watch. This investigation has found that the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), an&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/how-german-government-funds-and-tanzanian-conservation-agencies-fuel-the-serengeti-land-grab/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/how-german-government-funds-and-tanzanian-conservation-agencies-fuel-the-serengeti-land-grab/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290943</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The illegal runways exposing the Kakataibo people to drug violence in Peru</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-illegal-runways-exposing-the-kakataibo-people-to-drug-violence-in-peru/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-illegal-runways-exposing-the-kakataibo-people-to-drug-violence-in-peru/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Nov 2024 12:30:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay Latam]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/29150332/edited-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290700</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Airstrips and Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Endangered Environmentalists, Forests, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Mongabay Data Studio, Mongabay investigation, Rainforests, Satellite Imagery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The audience erupts into cheers and applause. The emcee has just announced the four finalists of the “Miss Juan Chávez Muquinuy” beauty pageant, who take the stage for their final walk down the runway. The competitors are all schoolgirls between 13 and 15 years old, parading in tops, shorts and platform heels. It&#8217;s 8 p.m., [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The audience erupts into cheers and applause. The emcee has just announced the four finalists of the “Miss Juan Chávez Muquinuy” beauty pageant, who take the stage for their final walk down the runway. The competitors are all schoolgirls between 13 and 15 years old, parading in tops, shorts and platform heels. It&#8217;s 8 p.m., and although there&#8217;s no electricity in the village, the ceremony venue is lit using solar panels, and music booms through two huge speakers. &#8220;Until three years ago, the winner was decided by the number of raffle tickets sold by each salon. Now we celebrate properly,&#8221; the mother of one of the contestants says. Nearly the whole village is gathered to witness the coronation of a new queen in an Indigenous community of the Kakataibo ethnic group, located in the province of Padre Abad, in the jungle of Peru&#8217;s Ucayali region. The Kakataibo are a warrior people who have historically lived between the regions of Loreto, Ucayali and Huánuco, in a vast territory split in two by the Federico Basadre Highway. In the northern area they live with the Indigenous Shipibo-Conibo people, in the towns of Nuevo Edén, La Cumbre, Muruinia, Santa Rosita de Apua, Santa Rosa, Yamino and Mariscal Cáceres. In the south, they reside in the Native communities of Santa Martha, Puerto Nuevo, Sinchi Roca I, Sinchi Roca II, Unipacuyacu and Puerto Azul. These groups have a key cultural role, as they form a security cord around the Kakataibo North and South Indigenous Reserve,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-illegal-runways-exposing-the-kakataibo-people-to-drug-violence-in-peru/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290700</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>More alarms over Indonesia rhino poaching after latest trafficking bust</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/sumatran-javan-rhino-horn-trafficking-indonesia-wildlife-poaching-endangered/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/sumatran-javan-rhino-horn-trafficking-indonesia-wildlife-poaching-endangered/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Sep 2024 13:32:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Donny IqbalNopri Ismi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/11/24013125/Harapan-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286901</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Asian Rhinos]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Java, South Sumatra, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, and West Java]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Green, In-situ Conservation, Javan Rhinos, Mammals, Megafauna, Mongabay investigation, Poaching, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Rhinos, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Sumatran Rhino, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PALEMBANG/PANDEGLANG, Indonesia — Authorities in Indonesia are investigating possible links between a recent bust of rhino horns for sale and a killing spree of Javan rhinos still being uncovered in court. Police working with agents from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry announced on Aug. 27 the arrest of a 60-year-old man in Palembang, South [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PALEMBANG/PANDEGLANG, Indonesia — Authorities in Indonesia are investigating possible links between a recent bust of rhino horns for sale and a killing spree of Javan rhinos still being uncovered in court. Police working with agents from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry announced on Aug. 27 the arrest of a 60-year-old man in Palembang, South Sumatra province, for allegedly attempting to sell eight rhino horns, five tobacco pipes made of elephant ivory, and three pipes made from dugong tusks. The arrest took place on Aug. 23 during a string operation as the suspect, identified only by the initials Z.A., attempted to sell the products. Authorities said they identified four of the rhino horns as belonging to Indonesian species, and the other four from abroad, but didn’t specify which ones. Indonesia is home to two critically endangered rhino species, the Sumatran (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) and Javan (Rhinoceros sondaicus), each with a total estimated population of less than 100. “This is a transnational crime,” Rasio Ridho Sani, the environment ministry’s director-general of law enforcement, told reporters. “We continue to strengthen the partnership with international law enforcement agencies, such as the Interpol and UNODC [United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime].” Conservation authorities and local police in Palembang, South Sumatra, announced the arrest of a 60-year-old suspect, in the orange vest, for alleged trafficking of eight rhino horns and elephant and dugong ivory. Image courtesy of the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry. Rasio said the arrest followed a long investigation by the ministry’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/sumatran-javan-rhino-horn-trafficking-indonesia-wildlife-poaching-endangered/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/sumatran-javan-rhino-horn-trafficking-indonesia-wildlife-poaching-endangered/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286901</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Luxury hunting firm linked to decades of poaching in Tanzania, whistleblowers say</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/luxury-hunting-firm-linked-to-decades-of-poaching-in-tanzania-whistleblowers-say/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/luxury-hunting-firm-linked-to-decades-of-poaching-in-tanzania-whistleblowers-say/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Aug 2024 09:49:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/21225837/2-Ngorongoro-giraffe-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286382</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bushmeat, Conservation, Crime, Environment, Environmental Policy, Ethics, Giraffes, Governance, Hunting, Illegal Trade, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Mongabay investigation, Poaching, Protected Areas, Trophy Hunting, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LOLIONDO, Tanzania — Whistleblowers speaking to Mongabay have reported instances of poaching over decades in Tanzania linked to a luxury hunting firm catering to the United Arab Emirates’ elites and royals. The insiders are from Ortello — sometimes spelled Otterlo — Business Corporation (OBC), which operates shoots in Loliondo, part of Tanzania’s northern Ngorongoro district. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LOLIONDO, Tanzania — Whistleblowers speaking to Mongabay have reported instances of poaching over decades in Tanzania linked to a luxury hunting firm catering to the United Arab Emirates’ elites and royals. The insiders are from Ortello — sometimes spelled Otterlo — Business Corporation (OBC), which operates shoots in Loliondo, part of Tanzania’s northern Ngorongoro district. Interviews with the sources, who requested pseudonyms due to safety concerns, provide a rare insight into OBC-organized hunting expeditions, which attracted members of UAE royalty and their associates at least once or twice a year from the 1990s until as late as 2016. They report that some of these trips culminated in live animals being flown abroad. Exports of live wildlife have been outlawed in Tanzania since 2016 to protect rare animals and birds. In 2022, lawmakers swiftly reversed a controversial decision to lift the ban that had been in place for six years. The sources’ testimony comes as Tanzanian authorities have served waves of eviction notices affecting Maasai pastoralists in and around Loliondo, as part of efforts to lease 1,500 square kilometers (580 square miles) of ancestral land to OBC. In 2023, an Amnesty International report condemned government forces for violence and mass arrests that left an estimated 70,000 Maasai without access to their traditional grazing areas. To verify the whistleblowers’ allegations as fully as possible, we observed OBC’s hunting estate, interviewed nearby villagers and obtained court documents, company filings and shipping records. Based in Dubai, OBC was registered as a foreign company in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/luxury-hunting-firm-linked-to-decades-of-poaching-in-tanzania-whistleblowers-say/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286382</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Javan rhino poaching saga reveals serious security lapse</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/javan-rhino-poaching-horn-ujung-kulon-national-park-indonesia-wildlife-trafficking/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/javan-rhino-poaching-horn-ujung-kulon-national-park-indonesia-wildlife-trafficking/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Aug 2024 12:11:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay Indonesia]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/04/26074216/IMG-20180424-WA0007-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285440</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Asian Rhinos]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Java, Southeast Asia, and West Java]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Green, In-situ Conservation, Javan Rhinos, Mammals, Megafauna, Mongabay investigation, Poaching, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Rhinos, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PANDEGLANG/JAKARTA, Indonesia — A recent revelation that up to 26 Javan rhinos may have been poached, out of a total population of 70-odd, has come as a major blow to conservation efforts in Indonesia. The still-unfolding case has highlighted flaws in security management at Ujung Kulon National Park, the last place on Earth where this [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PANDEGLANG/JAKARTA, Indonesia — A recent revelation that up to 26 Javan rhinos may have been poached, out of a total population of 70-odd, has come as a major blow to conservation efforts in Indonesia. The still-unfolding case has highlighted flaws in security management at Ujung Kulon National Park, the last place on Earth where this critically endangered species is found. In June, Mongabay Indonesia conducted a comprehensive investigation, including data analysis, ground checking and discussions with multiple sources in and around the park, to determine how two poaching gangs were able to carry out a killing spree for years in one of the most heavily patrolled and surveilled protected areas in the world. We found strong indications suggesting a key member of the patrol team may have been feeding information to the poachers. The latter, for their part, had access to funding, weapons and hunting expertise. While some progress has been made in uncovering the methods used by the poachers, many questions remain unanswered, casting the future of the Javan rhino (Rhinoceros sondaicus) into doubt. Ujung Kulon National Park is located at the westernmost tip of the island of Java. A Javan rhino immerses itself in the Cigenter River in Ujung Kulon National Park. Image by Stephen Belcher courtesy of Ujung Kulon National Park. Yusup, 53, who heads a local youth organization, lives just 50 meters (160 feet) from the house of Sunendi bin Karnadi, 32, the poaching kingpin who in June was convicted and sentenced to a record 12&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/javan-rhino-poaching-horn-ujung-kulon-national-park-indonesia-wildlife-trafficking/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/javan-rhino-poaching-horn-ujung-kulon-national-park-indonesia-wildlife-trafficking/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285440</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mongabay investigation is turned into art for World Press Freedom Day event</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/mongabay-investigation-is-turned-into-art-for-world-press-freedom-day-event/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/mongabay-investigation-is-turned-into-art-for-world-press-freedom-day-event/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 May 2024 19:13:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Karla Mendes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karla Mendes]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/21100844/art-installation-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282320</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Arts, Consumption, Controversial, Environmental Law, Health, Indigenous Peoples, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Mongabay investigation, Overconsumption, Palm Oil, Planetary Health, Plantations, Plastic, Roads, Social Justice, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay’s award-winning investigation that revealed water contamination from palm oil plantations in Indigenous territories in the Brazilian Amazon inspired an art installation at UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day Conference in Santiago; the artwork was also exhibited at Chile’s Museum of Contemporary Art.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network where Karla Mendes is a fellow. SANTIAGO, Chile — An award-winning investigation by Mongabay that revealed water contamination from oil palm plantations in Indigenous territories in the Brazilian Amazon was featured at an art installation at UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day Conference in Santiago this month. The artwork was also exhibited at Chile’s Museum of Contemporary Art. A supermarket cart, tipping over under a mountain of products and spilling waste in river water — represented by melted plastic bottles — was placed at the entrance of the main pavilion of the Gabriela Mistral Library, where UNESCO’s event took place from May 3-4. Inspired by the Mongabay investigation, theater design students from the University of Chile worked together with this reporter to create the concept of an art exhibition to highlight the hidden environmental damages of “sustainable” palm oil coming from the many products found in grocery stores that consumers buy with no awareness of the impacts. “Here are all the things that we people go to the supermarket, take the offers, take the sales — oferta in Spanish — we just take them from the supermarket and put them in our cart. And we see here the cart is already full and it spills everything else, it spills all the contamination that’s coming from the palm oil industry,&#8221; says Cristian Canto, manager of the artwork, explaining that the plastic bottles represent the Amazon region visited by this reporter and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/mongabay-investigation-is-turned-into-art-for-world-press-freedom-day-event/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282320</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Impunity and pollution abound in DRC mining along the road to the energy transition</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/impunity-and-pollution-abound-in-drc-mining-along-the-road-to-energy-transition/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/impunity-and-pollution-abound-in-drc-mining-along-the-road-to-energy-transition/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2024 14:04:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Didier Makal]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/09192731/Loading-of-minerals-from-artisanal-mines-in-Kakanda.-Photo-by-Didier-Makal-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281888</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Cobalt Capital]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Air Pollution, Business, Clean Energy, cobalt, Conflict, Copper, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corruption, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Health, Human Rights, Just Transition, Land Rights, Law, Law Enforcement, Mining, Mongabay Data Studio, Mongabay investigation, Politics, Pollution, Public Health, Social Justice, Trade, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network. &#160; LUBUMBASHI, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) — On Oct. 13, 2023, on National Road 39, a police officer gestures for us to slow down. The narrow road has been reduced to a single lane from the usual two. A damaged truck lies [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network. &nbsp; LUBUMBASHI, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) — On Oct. 13, 2023, on National Road 39, a police officer gestures for us to slow down. The narrow road has been reduced to a single lane from the usual two. A damaged truck lies in the Dikulwe River, to the left of the bridge to Fungurume, in Lualaba province in southeast DRC. To the right, downstream of the river, the bridge’s guardrails are gone, and another wrecked truck lies overturned. A yellowish substance remains on the riverbank. The reeds in the riverbed under the bridge are burned. It’s sulfuric acid, used for cobalt and copper mining, critical minerals in the energy transition and the lifeblood of the regional economy. Agents clean the river with masks that have seen better days. Click the play button here to listen to an audio version of this article: Sulfur on the ground in Dikuluwe. Image by Didier Makal. The cleanup will take more than a week, some say. Five kilometers (3 miles) downstream in Kibangabwa, residents continue to collect dead fish following the acid spill in the river, their source of drinking water. However, on the day of the accident, Jacques Mumba, the head of the Fungurume environmental department, wanted to assure everyone that there would be no danger to the population. According to Mumba, the river would decontaminate itself 30 minutes later. The company that caused the spill faced no known consequences.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/impunity-and-pollution-abound-in-drc-mining-along-the-road-to-energy-transition/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/impunity-and-pollution-abound-in-drc-mining-along-the-road-to-energy-transition/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281888</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A web of front people conceals environmental offenders in the Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/a-web-of-front-people-conceals-environmental-offenders-in-the-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/a-web-of-front-people-conceals-environmental-offenders-in-the-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Apr 2024 15:00:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda Wenzel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/19153754/cattle-amazon-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281184</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Cattle Investigations, Amazon Conservation, and Investigation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Cattle, Conservation, Crime, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Reserves, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Logging, Mongabay investigation, Organized Crime, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Ranching, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A paper trail left by a notorious land grabber reveals how he used relatives and an employee as fronts to evade environmental fines and lawsuits, shedding light on this widespread practice in the Brazilian Amazon.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BUJARI, Brazil — &#8220;This one is famous!&#8221; the attendant at a farm equipment store in the town of Bujari exclaimed when asked about José Carlos Bronca. The name is also familiar to the man working at a small barbecue restaurant and to a farmer with half a dozen head of cattle on his property at the margins of the federal road connecting Bujari to Rio Branco, the capital of Brazil’s Acre state. &#8220;This is a big farmer,&#8221; he said, mentioning Bronca&#8217;s ranch on the outskirts of town. Read this story in Portuguese at Repórter Brasil&#8217;s site.  Bronca, who was a sponsor of Bujari&#8217;s agribusiness fair, Expo Bujari, and has been decorated as a Rio Branco citizen by the City Council, also co-owns the slaughterhouse chain Frigonosso, which has facilities in the states of Acre, Amazonas, Rondônia, São Paulo and Mato Grosso. The entrepreneur is 71 years old, tall, with black hair diligently combed back. Bronca likes to share photos on Instagram of his holidays in Aruba and his meetings with important politicians, where he’s always dressed with &#8220;flair and elegance,&#8221; as he puts it. During the administration of Jair Bolsonaro, from 2019 to 2022, Bronca’s visits to Brazil’s capital, Brasília, became especially busy, with meetings with authorities and entities like the then-secretary of land issues, Nabhan Garcia, and the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry. He also took part in a video conference with the then-minister of agriculture, Tereza Cristina. José Carlos Bronca, right, with Nenê Junqueira, the former Acre agriculture&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/a-web-of-front-people-conceals-environmental-offenders-in-the-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281184</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Snack giant PepsiCo sourced palm oil from razed Indigenous land &#8211; investigation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/snack-giant-pepsico-sourced-palm-oil-from-razed-indigenous-land-investigation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/snack-giant-pepsico-sourced-palm-oil-from-razed-indigenous-land-investigation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Apr 2024 15:30:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Andrew WasleyAramís CastroElisângela Mendonça]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/18113639/Aceite-de-palmas-abridora-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281077</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Investigation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Business, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Food, Food Industry, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Mongabay investigation, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, and Supply Chain]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The US food and drink giant PepsiCo has been linked through its supply chain to Amazon deforestation and the invasion of Indigenous lands in Peru, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ), Mongabay and Peruvian outlet Ojo Público can reveal. For at least three years, PepsiCo’s Peruvian suppliers have been sourcing palm oil from deforested territory [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The US food and drink giant PepsiCo has been linked through its supply chain to Amazon deforestation and the invasion of Indigenous lands in Peru, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ), Mongabay and Peruvian outlet Ojo Público can reveal. For at least three years, PepsiCo’s Peruvian suppliers have been sourcing palm oil from deforested territory claimed by the Shipibo-Konibo people in Ucayali, eastern Peru. The company, which manufactures snacks including Cheetos and Gatorade, runs a factory in Mexico that buys Peruvian palm oil after it has been processed at a Mexican refinery. That refinery buys from a Peruvian consortium, Sol de Palma, that shares storage facilities with Ocho Sur, a notorious US-funded business accused of repeated environmental and human rights violations. The storage facilities mix the various batches of palm oil, meaning PepsiCo products likely contain Ocho Sur oil despite no longer buying directly from the company. Ocho Sur is linked to 15,500 hectares (38,301 acres) of forest loss in the past decade – both within its own property and through its direct suppliers. While some of the forest loss took place under other companies, satellite analyses by the Center for Climate Crime Analysis (CCCA) and TBIJ show clear deforestation on Ocho Sur’s land in the past three years. Palm oil production in Peru has more than doubled in the past decade and Ucayali, a hotspot for cultivation on the border with Brazil, now has the country’s second-highest rate of forest loss. It’s estimated that about 30% of the country’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/snack-giant-pepsico-sourced-palm-oil-from-razed-indigenous-land-investigation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281077</doi>				</item>
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