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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/photos/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Mon, 31 Aug 2026 08:46:00 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Photos</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/photos/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>As Photo Ark turns 20, Joel Sartore photographs 18,000 animal species</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/as-the-photo-ark-turns-20-joel-sartore-photographs-18000-animal-species/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/as-the-photo-ark-turns-20-joel-sartore-photographs-18000-animal-species/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Aug 2026 15:16:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/28145437/06_Female-red-handfish_black-BG_cr-Joel-Sartore-National-Geographic-Photo-Ark_NG-3002036-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327768</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Culture, Endangered Species, Media, Photos, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For 20 years, Joel Sartore has been on a quest: to photograph every animal species in human care, and then some. This year, on the 20th anniversary of the Photo Ark somewhere in Australia, Sartore photographed the project&#8217;s 18,000th animal. He’s not totally sure which one pushed the project over the threshold, but gives it [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For 20 years, Joel Sartore has been on a quest: to photograph every animal species in human care, and then some. This year, on the 20th anniversary of the Photo Ark somewhere in Australia, Sartore photographed the project&#8217;s 18,000th animal. He’s not totally sure which one pushed the project over the threshold, but gives it to the critically endangered red handfish (Thymichthys politus) a grumpy, red Muppet of a fish that could use the publicity. When Mongabay asked Sartore, just a few days after the official anniversary, about the last animal he had photographed, he got very excited about a small moth on the screen door of his home in the U.S. state of Nebraska. He coaxed it into an old cup and photographed it. He was still waiting on an identification from a couple of moth experts, who, he notes, are night owls. Portrait of National Geographic photographer and PhotoARK founder Joel Sartore with frill necked lizard, (Chlamydosaurus kingii). Photo by Douglas Gimesy for National Geographic Photo Ark. If you find Joel, you’ll likely find him working. Midwestern-friendly, practical, and optimistic, the National Geographic photographer shoots wherever animals turn up. This includes zoos and aquariums, pet shops, bioblitzes — where scientists and volunteers race to find and document as many species as they can — stream samplings by the Tennessee Valley Authority (a power utility), a cave in Kenya, and, as in the case of the moth, on his porch. When it comes to scheduling, “I would say we&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/as-the-photo-ark-turns-20-joel-sartore-photographs-18000-animal-species/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/as-the-photo-ark-turns-20-joel-sartore-photographs-18000-animal-species/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327768</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Sri Lanka, animals pay the price for overcrowding and speeding jeeps</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-sri-lanka-animals-pay-the-price-for-overcrowding-and-speeding-jeeps/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-sri-lanka-animals-pay-the-price-for-overcrowding-and-speeding-jeeps/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Apr 2026 17:25:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kamanthi Wickramasinghe]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/17164435/1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317720</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Conservation, Ecotourism, Endangered Species, Environment, Ethics, Governance, Leopards, Mammals, National Parks, Parks, Photos, Protected Areas, Regulations, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[YALA, Sri Lanka — Spotting a leopard at Yala National Park, Sri Lanka’s most famous wildlife park located in the deep south, tops the list of priorities for many local and foreign wildlife enthusiasts. Block I of Yala National Park attracts the most number of visitors, as it is known to have the highest density [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[YALA, Sri Lanka — Spotting a leopard at Yala National Park, Sri Lanka’s most famous wildlife park located in the deep south, tops the list of priorities for many local and foreign wildlife enthusiasts. Block I of Yala National Park attracts the most number of visitors, as it is known to have the highest density of leopards, with at least one leopard per square kilometer (0.4 square miles). Due to this pressure, many visitors flock to Yala Block I all year round, with the hope of spotting one or more leopards, resulting in overcrowding, “leopard jams” and speeding jeeps, posing significant threats to its wildlife. Hit-and-run cases Past incidents indicate dangers associated with speeding jeeps for both humans and wildlife. In October 2011, a young leopard was killed in a hit-and-run safari jeep accident. Another jungle cat died in a hit-and-run incident in June 2012. Then, in September 2021, two safari jeeps carrying local and foreign visitors collided, injuring one local visitor. Recently, Lucas, a magnificent male leopard in the Block I area, made headlines when a safari jeep had come into close contact with the animal. The incident itself was mired in controversy, as some factions claimed the animal had been “slightly bumped” from behind, while park officials denied these claims. Ravindra Kumara, Yala National Park warden, told Mongabay the incident was not an accident as reported in the media. “Usually, when a safari jeep is close to an animal, jeep drivers have been advised to switch off the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-sri-lanka-animals-pay-the-price-for-overcrowding-and-speeding-jeeps/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-sri-lanka-animals-pay-the-price-for-overcrowding-and-speeding-jeeps/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317720</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Photos: In the Colombian Amazon, fishing binds a community to river and forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/photos-in-the-colombian-amazon-fishing-binds-a-community-to-river-and-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/photos-in-the-colombian-amazon-fishing-binds-a-community-to-river-and-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Feb 2026 16:09:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/26151320/Fishing-rod-2-e1772123553245-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314875</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Fish, Fishing, Freshwater Fish, Indigenous Peoples, Photos, Rivers, Traditional Knowledge, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[VAUPÉS, Colombia — The Vaupés River and its extensive network of waterways and lagoons in the southeastern Colombian department of the same name are integral to the Indigenous Macaquiño community, who lives along its banks. It provides them with water for drinking, bathing and washing, and also serves as a migration route and breeding ground [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[VAUPÉS, Colombia — The Vaupés River and its extensive network of waterways and lagoons in the southeastern Colombian department of the same name are integral to the Indigenous Macaquiño community, who lives along its banks. It provides them with water for drinking, bathing and washing, and also serves as a migration route and breeding ground for an abundance of fish, which they depend on for food. But for the Macaquiño community, these waters are more than just a food pantry, they told Mongabay. It forms part of the deep cultural and spiritual connection they have with their waters and the species that inhabit them. Their traditional calendar responds to its natural cycles, marked by the rainy and dry seasons, each with their own traditional rules and rituals dictating when the community can harvest food, fish and hunt. Omar Salvador Fernández Chequemarca and Harold Ferreira Romero, two fishers from the Indigenous Macaquiño community in Vaupés, fish in the Vaupés River. Image by Aimee Gabay/Mongabay. A fish caught from the waters of a flooded forest near the Indigenous Macaquiño community in Vaupés. Image by Aimee Gabay/Mongabay. Manuel Claudio Fernández, the captain of Macaquiño, said the community doesn’t just care for the land; they coexist with it. “How do we coexist? By respecting the forest, the articulation of spirits, the water, the forest and us humans. We, the people, depend on water and the forest. And the forest and water also depend on us.” While Macaquiño fishers still use some of the traditional&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/photos-in-the-colombian-amazon-fishing-binds-a-community-to-river-and-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/photos-in-the-colombian-amazon-fishing-binds-a-community-to-river-and-forest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314875</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Wildlife attacks and strange animal behavior — fake images spark conservation concerns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/wildlife-attacks-and-strange-animal-behavior-fake-images-spark-conservation-concerns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/wildlife-attacks-and-strange-animal-behavior-fake-images-spark-conservation-concerns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jan 2026 11:04:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/26155651/AI-generated-photo-of-a-puma-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313184</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Journalism, Photos, Social Media, Technology, Videos, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When Houssein Rayaleh received a WhatsApp message from a local ecotourism guide showing footage of a lioness in Djibouti, he was excited. The video showed the big cat running directly in front of a moving vehicle along Route Nationale 11, a road that Rayaleh knows well. This was shocking. Lions are officially extinct here: There [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When Houssein Rayaleh received a WhatsApp message from a local ecotourism guide showing footage of a lioness in Djibouti, he was excited. The video showed the big cat running directly in front of a moving vehicle along Route Nationale 11, a road that Rayaleh knows well. This was shocking. Lions are officially extinct here: There are no records of Panthera leo in this Horn of Africa country. “I said whoa, we have a lion in Djibouti,” says Rayaleh, the CEO and founder of the NGO Djibouti Nature. So he forwarded the video on to the Cat Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. “As it happened, it was a fake,” Rayaleh says. Certain details spring out in the video identifying it as an AI-generated video, says Urs Breitenmoser, co-chair of the group. “The lion behaves very strangely and there are also a few sequences where you can actually see that it is morphologically not quite correct.” https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/26153828/AI-generatedVideo_1.mp4 This  video of a lion sighting in Djibouti was debunked, created using AI. Lions are locally extinct there. Video courtesy of Houssein Rayaleh. Creator unknown. Luke Hunter, executive director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s big cats program, described the video as “obviously very fake” after viewing it. But to the untrained eye, these details are nearly impossible to spot, and some damage may already be done, Rayaleh says. It may have spread far and wide across the country via WhatsApp and social media channels. He received messages, including questions from&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/wildlife-attacks-and-strange-animal-behavior-fake-images-spark-conservation-concerns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/wildlife-attacks-and-strange-animal-behavior-fake-images-spark-conservation-concerns/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
					<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/26153828/AI-generatedVideo_1.mp4" length="0" type="video/mp4" />
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					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313184</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Jeff Foott, chronicler of ice, rock, and change, has died, aged 80</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/jeff-foott-chronicler-of-ice-rock-and-change-has-died-aged-80/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/jeff-foott-chronicler-of-ice-rock-and-change-has-died-aged-80/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Dec 2025 17:12:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/21155140/jeff-foott-bw-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311814</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Green, Obituary, and Photos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; For much of the second half of the 20th century, the American outdoors attracted a particular kind of devotee. They moved easily between disciplines, took seasonal work without much concern for titles, and regarded time in wild places as both education and obligation. Their lives did not unfold along a single career ladder so [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; For much of the second half of the 20th century, the American outdoors attracted a particular kind of devotee. They moved easily between disciplines, took seasonal work without much concern for titles, and regarded time in wild places as both education and obligation. Their lives did not unfold along a single career ladder so much as along ridgelines and river corridors. What bound them together was not ambition but sustained attention to the landscapes they moved through. One of them belonged to a generation that learned its craft before the word “environmentalism” had hardened into a movement. He came of age among climbers and skiers who fixed their own gear, slept where they could, and absorbed lessons directly from terrain and weather. Institutions followed later, as did audiences. The ethic was formed earlier, by habit rather than theory. Jeff Foott died on December 3, aged 80, of a rare form of leukemia. He was a climber, a naturalist, and a photographer whose work helped shape how wilderness and wildlife were seen by a mass audience, particularly at a moment when those subjects were still treated as marginal. His path into that work was indirect, even by the standards of his time. As a teenager in Berkeley in the late 1950s, he worked at the Ski Hut alongside climbers who would later become fixtures of Yosemite lore. He fitted carabiner gates for Chouinard Equipment in exchange for gear and spent long stretches living simply so he could stay in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/jeff-foott-chronicler-of-ice-rock-and-change-has-died-aged-80/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/jeff-foott-chronicler-of-ice-rock-and-change-has-died-aged-80/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311814</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Photos: Indigenous elders push for comeback of the revered Philippine crocodile</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indigenous-elders-push-for-comeback-of-the-revered-philippine-crocodile-photos/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indigenous-elders-push-for-comeback-of-the-revered-philippine-crocodile-photos/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Sep 2025 19:45:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Giacomo d’Orlando]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/13115247/10-releasing-a-juvenile-specimen-e1757620072498-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304195</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Culture, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Monocultures, Photos, Religions, Reptiles, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[DUNOY, Philippines — In the dense, tropical rainforests of the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park, an ancient predator drifts silently beneath the surface of still rivers. For Indigenous Agta elders, this reptile is not a menace, but a guardian. “We have always coexisted peacefully with crocodiles, and today I am passing on to my grandchildren [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[DUNOY, Philippines — In the dense, tropical rainforests of the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park, an ancient predator drifts silently beneath the surface of still rivers. For Indigenous Agta elders, this reptile is not a menace, but a guardian. “We have always coexisted peacefully with crocodiles, and today I am passing on to my grandchildren the same advice my parents gave me,” says Olalia Infiel, an Agta elder of Dunoy. “I often encountered crocodiles while washing clothes or bathing in the river. My parents always told me to speak to the crocodiles first and ask for their permission to share the same space.” The Philippine crocodile (Crocodylus mindorensis), a severely threatened crocodile species, is staging a slow but hopeful comeback in the wild, thanks to an alliance between science, tradition and community-led conservation. Once widespread across the Philippine archipelago, the species is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Fewer than 250 individuals survive in the wild today, local conservationists say, and most are confined to these rivers and wetlands of northeast Luzon. According to local conservationists, the Philippine crocodile’s survival in recent decades is highlighting how Indigenous knowledge, when integrated with conservation science, can support efforts to protect even the most endangered species. In the mythology and folklore of Indigenous peoples such as the Agta, crocodiles play a prominent role. In many cases, crocodiles are regarded as the embodiment of benevolent ancestors, known as anito, who are venerated as personal guardians and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indigenous-elders-push-for-comeback-of-the-revered-philippine-crocodile-photos/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indigenous-elders-push-for-comeback-of-the-revered-philippine-crocodile-photos/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304195</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservationists warn of targeted poaching behind Sri Lanka’s leopard killings</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/conservationists-warn-of-targeted-poaching-behind-sri-lankas-leopard-killings/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/conservationists-warn-of-targeted-poaching-behind-sri-lankas-leopard-killings/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Aug 2025 13:38:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/13130202/3-A-leopard-killed-in-28th-of-July-at-Gampola-c-DWC.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304223</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Bushmeat, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Crime, Habitat, Human-wildlife Conflict, Leopards, National Parks, Photos, Poaching, Protected Areas, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[POLONNARUWA, Sri Lanka — Wildlife conservationists have sounded the alarm that leopard poaching in Sri Lanka is being carried out more systematically than previously thought, following the arrest in early August of a group of suspected hunters carrying a freshly skinned carcass in Maduru Oya National Park. Conservation activist Sethil Muhandiram says there’s specific demand [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[POLONNARUWA, Sri Lanka — Wildlife conservationists have sounded the alarm that leopard poaching in Sri Lanka is being carried out more systematically than previously thought, following the arrest in early August of a group of suspected hunters carrying a freshly skinned carcass in Maduru Oya National Park. Conservation activist Sethil Muhandiram says there’s specific demand for skin, teeth, claws and even the flesh of leopards (Panthera pardus). He tells Mongabay this belies the prevailing conventional wisdom, echoed even by some conservation authorities, that leopards aren’t deliberately targeted by poachers in Sri Lanka, and that their killing is done opportunistically, when they succumb to traps set for wild boars or deer. Another common scenario for leopard deaths is retaliatory killing by farmers who blame the big cats for the loss of their livestock, says Muhandiram from LEOPOCON Sri Lanka, a nonprofit that focuses exclusively on the conservation of leopards and their ecosystems. But even then, there’s no intent to profit from the animal’s body parts, he adds. The recent case in Maduru Oya, and a string of other alleged poaching incidents, strongly suggests there’s more than just opportunistic killing going on, he says. “There is no reason for poachers to skin and carry an entire carcass unless they see value in it,” Muhandiram says. “This incident points to some other intent, either to extract meat, sell the pelt, or harvest body parts.” The arrest of suspected poachers with a skinned leopard carcass inside Maduru Oya National Park in Sri Lanka has&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/conservationists-warn-of-targeted-poaching-behind-sri-lankas-leopard-killings/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/conservationists-warn-of-targeted-poaching-behind-sri-lankas-leopard-killings/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304223</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mysterious sloth bear deaths raise alarm at Sri Lanka’s largest national park</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/mysterious-sloth-bear-deaths-raise-alarm-at-sri-lankas-largest-national-park/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/mysterious-sloth-bear-deaths-raise-alarm-at-sri-lankas-largest-national-park/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Mar 2025 05:26:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/29044423/B48A9084-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296681</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bears, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Mammals, Photos, Protected Areas, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Wilpattu, SRI LANKA – After a fruitful safari at Wilpattu National Park, wildlife photographer Rohan Fonseka and his colleagues ventured toward the Maradanmaduwa area, hoping to catch a glimpse of a sloth bear. Their luck held as a full-grown bear emerged from the dry zone forest, offering rare and memorable photo opportunities. But what seemed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Wilpattu, SRI LANKA – After a fruitful safari at Wilpattu National Park, wildlife photographer Rohan Fonseka and his colleagues ventured toward the Maradanmaduwa area, hoping to catch a glimpse of a sloth bear. Their luck held as a full-grown bear emerged from the dry zone forest, offering rare and memorable photo opportunities. But what seemed like a rewarding end to the day turned tragic the next morning, when the same bear’s lifeless body was found near the corridor of the Maradanmaduwa wildlife circuit bungalow. It was the second sloth bear death reported in Wilpattu in March, as just two weeks prior, a cub had been discovered dead, park warden Suranga Rathnayake confirmed. In January, another cub was also found dead, bringing this quarter’s death toll of sloth bears within the park to three. A sloth bear family in Wilpattu National Park in northern Sri Lanka. Image courtesy of Riaz Cader. These consecutive deaths have raised alarm among conservationists, particularly as sloth bears (Melursus ursinus inornatus) are elusive and rare in Sri Lanka. The Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) had warned in December 2024 of an outbreak of African swine fever (ASF) among wild boars. As opportunistic feeders, sloth bears are known to scavenge carrion, which causes concern of possible zoonotic transmission of ASF to these sloth bears. Wildlife veterinarian Chandana Jayasinghe, who oversees Wilpattu for the DWC, told Mongabay, “So far, we have no evidence of African swine fever transmission to other species.” However, the bear carcasses were heavily infested&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/mysterious-sloth-bear-deaths-raise-alarm-at-sri-lankas-largest-national-park/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/mysterious-sloth-bear-deaths-raise-alarm-at-sri-lankas-largest-national-park/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296681</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ecology vs. development in Karachi: Interview with photographer Salman Baloch</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/ecology-vs-development-in-karachi-interview-with-photographer-salman-baloch/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/ecology-vs-development-in-karachi-interview-with-photographer-salman-baloch/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Feb 2025 16:07:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Waqas Alam Angaria]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/14134757/Malir-River-Near-Damloti-Check-Dam-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294439</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Pakistan, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Cities, Conservation, Development, Ecology, Environment, Environmental Law, Fellows, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Infrastructure, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Photos, urban ecology, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Pakistan&#8217;s largest city, Karachi, is home to more than 20 million people and has been in the news many times due to climate-related issues such as heat waves, urban flooding and bad air quality. On the city&#8217;s eastern side lies Malir, Karachi’s largest district, on the banks of the Malir River, home to Indigenous Sindhi [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Pakistan&#8217;s largest city, Karachi, is home to more than 20 million people and has been in the news many times due to climate-related issues such as heat waves, urban flooding and bad air quality. On the city&#8217;s eastern side lies Malir, Karachi’s largest district, on the banks of the Malir River, home to Indigenous Sindhi and Baloch tribes for centuries. Malir means greenery in the Sindhi language and it was long famous for guava, green chiles, jambolan (Syzygium cumini) and many sorts of vegetable crops and fruit orchids. The Malir riverbed also hosts migrant and local bird species like Asian koel (Eudynamys scolopaceus), Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) and purple sunbird (Cinnyris asiaticus). Like any other agrarian society, people lived here communally for centuries. However, rapid urbanization and development projects threaten Malir’s land, river, flora and fauna today. Wildlife photographer, activist and writer Salman Baloch is among those who see these development projects as an attempt to erase natural heritage, wildlife and Indigenous history. When asked about his childhood memories, Baloch said, “They brought cranes upon us in the name of development. I was a 10-year-old kid when I realized that we were losing something. … “Small-scale peasants, who couldn’t afford to pay heavy bills, started selling their lands to real estate and gradually, wildlife habitat started disappearing. This is not what we wanted,” Baloch explained. Since 2020, a 39-km (24-mi) Malir Expressway project has caused anxiety and distrust among Malir’s Indigenous population. The expressway is a public-private partnership between the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/ecology-vs-development-in-karachi-interview-with-photographer-salman-baloch/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/ecology-vs-development-in-karachi-interview-with-photographer-salman-baloch/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294439</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Calls for protection as new images emerge of uncontacted Amazonian tribe</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/calls-for-protection-as-new-images-emerge-of-uncontacted-amazonian-tribe/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/calls-for-protection-as-new-images-emerge-of-uncontacted-amazonian-tribe/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Jan 2025 16:05:24 +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/20/2025/01/24123740/imagens-dos-indigenas-de-2024-4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293376</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Photos, Rainforests, and Uncontacted Tribes]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Unprecedented images of uncontacted Indigenous people in Brazil’s Massaco Indigenous Territory, in the Amazon region, have prompted a push for greater enforcement to protect the land of these vulnerable populations.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Unprecedented images of uncontacted Indigenous people in Brazil’s Massaco Indigenous Territory, in the Amazon region, have prompted a push for greater enforcement to protect the land of these vulnerable populations. The images, released earlier this month by Funai, the federal agency for Indigenous affairs, revealed a group of nine men, ranging in age from about 20 to 40 years. A trail camera installed in the Indigenous territory had captured the images in February 2024, Funai said, showing the men were collecting machetes and axes left behind by a 2021 expedition. Upon retrieving the data from the camera, officials found — “unsurprisingly” — spiked traps left by the group in the area before they left the site, Funai added. “We can see that it was a planned and organized approach, with a group of people, only men, most of them young, prepared with countless made-up sticks that were placed in the areas where the non-Indigenous people were present and on the trail itself, where they arrived and returned in case anyone followed them,” Altair Algayer, a Funai sertanista, someone deeply knowledgeable about the remote Brazilian wilderness, said in a news release. A trail camera installed in the Massaco Indigenous Territory captured unprecedented images of a group of nine men from an uncontacted tribe collecting machetes and axes left behind by officials from Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency, Funai. Image courtesy of Funai. Between January and April 2024, Funai officials recorded traces and activities of uncontacted groups in the Massaco territory. Beyond the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/calls-for-protection-as-new-images-emerge-of-uncontacted-amazonian-tribe/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/calls-for-protection-as-new-images-emerge-of-uncontacted-amazonian-tribe/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293376</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How conservation photographer Cristina Mittermeier uses visual storytelling to inspire action</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/how-conservation-photographer-cristina-mittermeier-uses-visual-storytelling-to-inspire-action/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/how-conservation-photographer-cristina-mittermeier-uses-visual-storytelling-to-inspire-action/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Dec 2024 03:29:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/07014150/%C2%A9cristinamittermeier_190429_26666_AJOUT-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291331</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Nature conservation Influencers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Communication, Consumption, Environment, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Oceans, and Photos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Conservation photography occupies a unique space, blending the art of visual storytelling with the urgency of environmental advocacy. Cristina Mittermeier, a pioneering figure in this field, has spent decades capturing the fragile beauty of our planet while amplifying the voices of its stewards—particularly those often overlooked in mainstream narratives. Her lens does more than document; [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Conservation photography occupies a unique space, blending the art of visual storytelling with the urgency of environmental advocacy. Cristina Mittermeier, a pioneering figure in this field, has spent decades capturing the fragile beauty of our planet while amplifying the voices of its stewards—particularly those often overlooked in mainstream narratives. Her lens does more than document; it inspires action and offers hope in an era overshadowed by despair. Raised in the semi-rural outskirts of Mexico, Mittermeier’s early love for nature blossomed in an environment where exploration was encouraged, and books about ocean explorers and pirate adventures fueled her imagination. This passion led her to study marine biology, a field she initially pursued with the dream of studying whales but soon realized came with the stark realities of environmental degradation. Witnessing the devastating impacts of industrial fishing firsthand catalyzed a shift in her trajectory. &#8220;What I wanted to do was scream at the top of my lungs for the whole world to understand how important and fragile the ocean is,&#8221; she explained in a recent exchange with Mongabay. Science, while essential, felt insufficient to galvanize the broader public. Photography, discovered serendipitously, became her chosen medium—a universal language that could bridge the gap between data and emotion. They meet beneath a swirling surface, greeting each other like long lost friends. The massive hammerhead, aptly named “Queen” by the locals, turns gracefully to swim alongside her human companion in the peaceful shallows of the Bahamas. Her career has taken her from polar regions to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/how-conservation-photographer-cristina-mittermeier-uses-visual-storytelling-to-inspire-action/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/how-conservation-photographer-cristina-mittermeier-uses-visual-storytelling-to-inspire-action/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291331</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ridiculously rare photo catches Asian caracal swimming a river in India</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/ridiculously-rare-photo-catches-asian-caracal-swimming-a-river-in-india/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/ridiculously-rare-photo-catches-asian-caracal-swimming-a-river-in-india/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 May 2024 15:30:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/10143919/caracal-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281953</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Almost Famous Animals]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, India, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Cats, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Mammals, Photos, Predators, Small Cats, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[If you’ve ever thought of the caracal before, you’ve probably pictured it inhabiting the savannas of Africa, its long-fringed ears sticking up above the wild grasses. But although the caracal (Caracal caracal) is best known from its African habitats, a tiny population persists in India. It’s here, on the Chambal River, that a tourist, Vaibhav [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[If you’ve ever thought of the caracal before, you’ve probably pictured it inhabiting the savannas of Africa, its long-fringed ears sticking up above the wild grasses. But although the caracal (Caracal caracal) is best known from its African habitats, a tiny population persists in India. It’s here, on the Chambal River, that a tourist, Vaibhav Sanghavi, took an astoundingly unusual photo of a caracal — a medium-sized wild cat with stunning ears — swimming the large river. The photo is noteworthy not only because of the cat’s unusual aquatic behavior, but because it was taken in Madhya Pradesh, a central Indian state where the caracal was recently declared extinct by the Forestry Department. “Quite surprising!” is how Shreyas Vijay describes the photo. “This is likely the first-ever recorded instance of such behavior in Asiatic caracals.” Vijay, the founder of India’s Caracal Conservation and Research Project, spends most of his time studying the charismatic cats in Gujarat state, west of Madhya Pradesh. The caracal is endangered in India according to the IUCN Red List, with fewer than 100 individuals estimated across the whole country. In addition to Africa and India, the caracal is also found in the Middle East as well as Central and Southwest Asia. Tourist Vaibhav Sanghavi took an unusual photo of a caracal swimming the large Chambal river. Image by Vaibhav Sanghavi. Researchers have observed caracals fording rivers in Africa; that includes Vijay, who saw one swim the Berk River in South Africa. But this is a first&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/ridiculously-rare-photo-catches-asian-caracal-swimming-a-river-in-india/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/ridiculously-rare-photo-catches-asian-caracal-swimming-a-river-in-india/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281953</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>[Photos] New book is a stunning glimpse of Asia’s wildlife and landscapes</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/photos-new-book-is-a-stunning-glimpse-of-asias-wildlife-and-landscapes/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/photos-new-book-is-a-stunning-glimpse-of-asias-wildlife-and-landscapes/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jan 2024 01:33:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/11115406/Banner_06-e1705023375499-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=277554</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, South Asia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Books, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Forests, Interviews, Islands, Mammals, Megafauna, Mountains, Photos, Protected Areas, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For the past two decades, wildlife photographer and writer Bjorn Olesen and travel writer Fanny Lai have published books aimed at raising awareness of conservation in Asia. Beginning in 2012, the husband-and-wife team have spotlighted efforts to save the giant panda; showcased the spectrum of wildlife in Borneo; and provided rare insights in Asia’s forests [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For the past two decades, wildlife photographer and writer Bjorn Olesen and travel writer Fanny Lai have published books aimed at raising awareness of conservation in Asia. Beginning in 2012, the husband-and-wife team have spotlighted efforts to save the giant panda; showcased the spectrum of wildlife in Borneo; and provided rare insights in Asia’s forests in support of nature conservation organizations. Now, their fourth photo book, Asia&#8217;s Greatest Wildlife Sanctuaries, gives a glimpse of what’s at stake in Asia’s forests, wetlands, islands and mountains, taking the reader to 27 of the region’s most spectacular protected areas across 14 countries. All royalties from the book will go to support BirdLife International in its conservation work in Asia. Throughout the book, intimate images of wildlife and habitats by Olesen and two dozen contributing photographers create an accompaniment to the stories of government, NGO and community efforts that led to some of Asia’s most notable conservation successes. From exquisite birds-of-paradise in Indonesia’s Papua region, to critically endangered ibises confined to tiny pockets of remaining habitat in northern Cambodia, the book is a wonderful portrayal of the region’s birdlife. Other animals, such as snow leopards, red pandas, rhinos, elephants and a plethora of primates, are also warmly depicted. Cover of Asia’s Greatest Wildlife Sanctuaries, written by Bjorn Olesen and Fanny Lai. Narrowing down the wildlife reserves to feature in the book was perhaps the toughest challenge of all, Olesen told Mongabay. The selection “encapsulates our travels, spanning more than 20 years of wildlife sojourns&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/photos-new-book-is-a-stunning-glimpse-of-asias-wildlife-and-landscapes/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/photos-new-book-is-a-stunning-glimpse-of-asias-wildlife-and-landscapes/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-277554</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Photos: Fiji’s first Indigenous-owned carbon credit project</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/photos-fijis-first-indigenous-owned-carbon-credit-project/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/photos-fijis-first-indigenous-owned-carbon-credit-project/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Sep 2023 15:42:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Monica Evans]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/09/12105757/2-Drawa-village-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=273186</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Offset Markets, Indigenous Peoples and Conservation, and Indigenous-led conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Fiji, Oceania, and Pacific Islands]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Culture, Environment, Governance, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Natural Resources, Nature-based climate solutions, Photos, Solutions, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LABASA, Fiji — No one finds their way to the village of Drawa by accident. To get there, you must first board a tiny plane to Labasa, the biggest town on Fiji’s Vanua Levu Island. Driving southwest past hectares of sugarcane plantations and forests riven with gashes of red earth, you’ll pass pickup trucks piled [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LABASA, Fiji — No one finds their way to the village of Drawa by accident. To get there, you must first board a tiny plane to Labasa, the biggest town on Fiji’s Vanua Levu Island. Driving southwest past hectares of sugarcane plantations and forests riven with gashes of red earth, you’ll pass pickup trucks piled high and wide with tightly bound stacks of the starchy cane stems, and loggers tugging loads of freshly cut tree trunks to one of the island’s many sawmills. When you turn off the highway onto an unassuming gravel side road in the center of the island, your four-wheel-drive vehicle will shudder and shake as the track deteriorates into humps and hollows of greasy orange mud. But the view more than makes up for it: you’ll ford perfectly clear rivers and climb precipitously through tracts of deep-green cloud forest, before eventually parking among a scattering of colorful timber houses at the bend of a river at the very end of the road. The road to Drawa village. In the background lies Lutukina village, whose residents are also participating in the carbon credit project. Image by Monica Evans for Mongabay. This small settlement is a hub for Fiji’s first verified forest carbon project, which has been selling carbon credits on the voluntary market through the Plan Vivo standard since 2018, with the help of local NGO Live &amp; Learn Environmental Education and the Australia-based Nakau Programme. Lead forest ranger Jerry Lotawa, second right, and Live &amp; Learn&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/photos-fijis-first-indigenous-owned-carbon-credit-project/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-273186</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New research shines a light on Sri Lanka fireflies</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/new-research-shines-a-light-on-sri-lanka-fireflies/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/new-research-shines-a-light-on-sri-lanka-fireflies/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jul 2023 12:21:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/07/15115742/3.-Fireflies-in-a-fores-c-Image-by-Kiwi-Chen-from-Pixabay-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=270971</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Beetles, Environment, Habitat Degradation, Insects, Photos, Research, and Species Discovery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Fireflies, with their bioluminescent rears, are fascinating species that appeal to people’s imaginations, especially those of children. In Sri Lanka, the first systematic study of fireflies was carried out by British naturalists in the 18th century, but afterward, there was a loss of interest in studying these fascinating creatures. Shedding new light on [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Fireflies, with their bioluminescent rears, are fascinating species that appeal to people’s imaginations, especially those of children. In Sri Lanka, the first systematic study of fireflies was carried out by British naturalists in the 18th century, but afterward, there was a loss of interest in studying these fascinating creatures. Shedding new light on Sri Lanka’s firefly fauna, researchers and at least one enthusiastic amateur continue to study them today, resulting in several discoveries. Sri Lanka is home to 16 firefly species, while Abscondita perplexa and Asymmetricata humeralis are more common and show a countrywide distribution. In 2022, research on A. humeralis conducted by Dammika Wijekoon and Hemantha Wegiriya of the University of Ruhuna showed that male A. humeralis can look different in color and pattern, highlighting that there can be more secrets in the world of fireflies to be investigated. Luciola nicolleri was recorded after a lapse of 100 years since its initial description in 1922 by a British naturalist. Image courtesy of Dhammika Wijekoon. Wijekoon and Wegiriya initiated their study on fireflies in 2009 and have already made several significant discoveries. In 2010, the researchers recorded Curtos costipennis for the first time in Sri Lanka, making it the first firefly member of the genus Curtos found in Sri Lanka. Their study in 2022 re-recorded Luciola nicolleri after a lapse of 100 years. The species was first described in 1922. L. nicolleri has not been recorded since its discovery, a highly significant finding as it was considered possibly&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/07/new-research-shines-a-light-on-sri-lanka-fireflies/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-270971</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Enigmatic binturong photographed in Nepal for the first time</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/enigmatic-binturong-photographed-in-nepal-for-the-first-time/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/enigmatic-binturong-photographed-in-nepal-for-the-first-time/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Sep 2022 16:06:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/29154456/1280px-Schlafriger_Binturong-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=260904</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bears, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Mammals, New Discovery, Photos, and Species Discovery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — This past July 20, Radha Krishna Rijal noticed a strange animal struggling in the drainage channel of his house in the Parshyang neighborhood of western Nepal’s Pokhara Valley. He’d never seen such an animal before, he tells Mongabay: it was small, with a long tail and a furry body. “It had rained continuously [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — This past July 20, Radha Krishna Rijal noticed a strange animal struggling in the drainage channel of his house in the Parshyang neighborhood of western Nepal’s Pokhara Valley. He’d never seen such an animal before, he tells Mongabay: it was small, with a long tail and a furry body. “It had rained continuously for over a day, and I saw this animal, which was the size of a baby cat in the drainage of my house,” Rijal says. He called his neighbors, who took photos of the animals and tried to guess what it was, but coming up blank. “Many of the elders of the settlement said it was an otter, but we couldn’t reach a conclusion even after googling,” Rijal says. So he sent the photos to a friend who might know, conservationist Tulasi Prasa Dahal at the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC). Dahal passed on the photo to an NTNC colleague, Madhu Chetri, who duly identified it as the rare bearcat, or binturong, Arctictis binturong, and circulated the image among experts to get their opinion. The bearcat, which looks like the hybrid that its name invokes, had long been thought to roam the forests of eastern Nepal, but there have been no confirmed sightings of this species that’s categorized as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. According to the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, the binturong is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. It&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/enigmatic-binturong-photographed-in-nepal-for-the-first-time/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-260904</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Chinese pond heron spotted in Nepal for first time</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/chinese-pond-heron-spotted-in-nepal-for-first-time/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/chinese-pond-heron-spotted-in-nepal-for-first-time/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jun 2022 12:16:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/06/08121034/IMG-7999-1-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256966</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Freshwater, Photos, Protected Areas, Research, Species Discovery, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — The list of bird species found in Nepal has now grown to 891, after a bird never before seen in the country was spotted at a national park in the south. Photographers Raju Tamang and Prem Bomjan snapped a picture of the Chinese pond heron (Ardeola bacchus) in Chitwan National Park, better known [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — The list of bird species found in Nepal has now grown to 891, after a bird never before seen in the country was spotted at a national park in the south. Photographers Raju Tamang and Prem Bomjan snapped a picture of the Chinese pond heron (Ardeola bacchus) in Chitwan National Park, better known for its Bengal tigers and greater one-horned rhinos. &#8220;I found the bird early morning on June 1,&#8221; said Tamang, adding he enjoys going on morning walks around the national park area photographing the birds. Nepali photographers Bomjan and Tamang who photographed the Chinese pond heron. Image courtesy of Raju Tamang &#8220;I saw the bird on a farm and thought it was an Indian pond heron, which looks similar,&#8221; he told Mongabay. &#8220;But I thought something was amiss as its neck was unusually red and I came back to have another look. When I tried to take a photo, it flew to a nearby tree.&#8221; Tamang said he then called his friend and fellow photographer Bomjan. As word spread about the bird, locals spotted it again on June 7. The Chinese pond heron is typically found in wetland areas in China and parts of Southeast Asia. &#8220;We have verified the image and confirmed that it is a Chinese pond heron,&#8221; said Tulsi Subedi, chair of the Nepal Bird Record Committee under the Nepal Ornithological Union. In 2018, the union, working with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Reserves, drew up a list of birds known&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/chinese-pond-heron-spotted-in-nepal-for-first-time/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256966</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Researchers compile largest-ever photo database of Amazon wildlife</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/researchers-compile-largest-ever-photo-database-of-amazon-wildlife/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/researchers-compile-largest-ever-photo-database-of-amazon-wildlife/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 May 2022 10:27:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/20103753/spectacled-bear-Tremarctos-ornatus-also-known-as-the-Andean-bear-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256021</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, Conservation, data, Photos, Rainforests, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the world’s largest rainforest, wildlife crawls, hops, flies and prowls through every nook and cranny. Most animals are adept at hiding from humans, though, so finding them can be tough. To do so, many researchers rely on camera traps — motion sensing, often camouflaged cameras placed strategically throughout the forest. Scientists have been gathering [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the world’s largest rainforest, wildlife crawls, hops, flies and prowls through every nook and cranny. Most animals are adept at hiding from humans, though, so finding them can be tough. To do so, many researchers rely on camera traps — motion sensing, often camouflaged cameras placed strategically throughout the forest. Scientists have been gathering camera trap images across the Amazon for the past few decades, but that data has remained scattered, until now. A group of researchers have compiled more than 154,000 records of camera trap images, recording 317 species: 185 birds, 119 mammals and 13 reptiles. The new data paper, published in the journal Ecology, draws upon records from 147 scientists representing 122 research institutions and was led by the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and Friedrich Schiller University Jena. (Left) Omar Andy, Walter Andy and Abner Andy, Kichwa parabiologists from Nueva Providencia in Yasuní National Park, and (right) Miguel Angel Pozo, from Ministry of the Environment of Ecuador, and Julia Salvador, WCS Ecuador, fixing camera traps in the forest. Images by WCS. This is the first study to compile and standardize camera trap images from across the Amazon at this scale, and covers Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. &#8220;The dataset provides basic information about species presence and abundance in the forest and can be used to answer questions on an Amazon scale,&#8221; Ana Carolina Antunes, the lead author of the study told Mongabay in an email. The thousands of images “will&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/researchers-compile-largest-ever-photo-database-of-amazon-wildlife/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256021</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Carnivore sightings highlight richness of Nepal’s Trans-Himalayan region</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/carnivore-sightings-highlight-richness-of-nepals-trans-himalayan-region/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/carnivore-sightings-highlight-richness-of-nepals-trans-himalayan-region/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Apr 2022 15:13:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/04/21145616/pole-cat-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=255010</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Camera Trapping, Cats, Photos, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Scientists in Nepal have recorded three carnivore species outside the country’s protected area network for the first time, highlighting the potential for more discoveries in the little-explored Trans-Himalayan region. The steppe polecat (Mustela eversmanii), Pallas&#8217;s cat (Otocolobus manul) and the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) were documented between July and September 2021 in Limi [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Scientists in Nepal have recorded three carnivore species outside the country’s protected area network for the first time, highlighting the potential for more discoveries in the little-explored Trans-Himalayan region. The steppe polecat (Mustela eversmanii), Pallas&#8217;s cat (Otocolobus manul) and the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) were documented between July and September 2021 in Limi Valley, Humla district, close to the border with China, Nepal&#8217;s Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation and the Department of Forests and Soil Conservation said in a joint statement. Research into the flora and fauna of Nepal&#8217;s Trans-Himalayan region, home to iconic species such as snow leopards and wild yaks, has been limited compared to the hills and the plains where better-known species such as greater one-horned rhinos and Bengal tigers are found. “The number one reason is that Humla was the last district in Nepal to be connected to the road network,” said Naresh Kusi, who photographed the polecat. “The other reason is that it’s pretty expensive to camp in the wilderness for months and physically demanding as well. That’s why many researchers, even those who have worked in the region for some time are reluctant to continue.” The climate in this part of Nepal is different from the rest of the country as it lies north of the Himalayan range. The world’s highest peaks cast what’s known as a rain shadow over the region, meaning it misses out on the monsoon rains that drench the rest of the country between July and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/carnivore-sightings-highlight-richness-of-nepals-trans-himalayan-region/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-255010</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Giving up’: Amazon is losing its resilience under human pressure, study shows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/giving-up-amazon-is-losing-its-resilience-under-human-pressure-study-shows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/giving-up-amazon-is-losing-its-resilience-under-human-pressure-study-shows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Mar 2022 18:49:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/24025937/rainforests-composite-2021-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=254188</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Cattle, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forests, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Illegal Logging, International Trade, Logging, Meat, Pasture, Photos, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Ranching, Research, Roads, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Soy, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon Rainforest is resilient: the largest rainforest on the planet has been around for at least 55 million years, surviving repeated ice ages and warming. But human impacts, combined with climate change, are decreasing that resiliency, causing the forest to lose its ability to bounce back from repeated disturbances, according to a new study published [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon Rainforest is resilient: the largest rainforest on the planet has been around for at least 55 million years, surviving repeated ice ages and warming. But human impacts, combined with climate change, are decreasing that resiliency, causing the forest to lose its ability to bounce back from repeated disturbances, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. “We had an idea that we might see a loss of resilience in a couple of areas of the Amazon, but not to the extent we found,” Chris Boulton, a researcher at the University of Exeter, U.K., and lead author of the study, told Mongabay. “It doesn’t come from a modeling study that tells us something about future changes that are to some people a long way off, it shows that the rainforest is under stress right now.” Boulton and his team found that three-quarters of the Amazon has lost some resilience since 2000, meaning the forest is losing its ability to recover biomass as quickly after events such as droughts. This loss of resilience is especially high in regions close to human activity and with less rainfall. “In other words, it’s recovering slower compared to 15 years ago or so,” Boulton said. A red-bellied tamarin (Saguinus labiatus), a primate that lives in the Lábrea region of the Amazon. Image by Nils Axel Braathen via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). Using remote-sensing data from satellites that measure the water content of plants in the forest, researchers were able to determine&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/giving-up-amazon-is-losing-its-resilience-under-human-pressure-study-shows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
					<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/09/11102215/ZoomC.mp4" length="773749" type="video/mp4" />
					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-254188</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mongabay’s top Amazon stories from 2021</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/mongabays-top-amazon-stories-from-2021/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/mongabays-top-amazon-stories-from-2021/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Dec 2021 15:03:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/08/04142040/brazil_GP1SVODS_PressMedia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=251254</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Cattle, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Philosophy, Conservation Solutions, Controversial, COVID-19, Crime, Culture, Deforestation, Disasters, Diseases, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Ethnocide, Fires, Forest Destruction, Forestry, Forests, Green, Health, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Innovation, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Logging, Mining, National Parks, Parks, Pasture, Photos, Politics, Pollution, Protected Areas, Public Health, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Ranching, Research, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For the Amazon, 2021 was yet another year under the pandemic where the onslaught against nature never seemed to end. Deforestation continues, surging at year’s end Deforestation continued in the Brazilian Amazon, surging at the year’s end to reach its highest level since 2006. Agriculture is the primary culprit. In the Amazon, forests are cleared [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For the Amazon, 2021 was yet another year under the pandemic where the onslaught against nature never seemed to end. Deforestation continues, surging at year’s end Deforestation continued in the Brazilian Amazon, surging at the year’s end to reach its highest level since 2006. Agriculture is the primary culprit. In the Amazon, forests are cleared and burned largely to make way for cattle and soy. More than 13,235 square kilometers (5,110 square miles) of rainforest — an area three times the size of the city of São Paulo — was cleared between Aug. 1, 2020, and July 31, 2021, according to data released by the Brazilian government in November. Deforestation hotspots across the Amazon in 2021 (as of September 18). Data: University of Maryland (GLAD), Amazon Conservation Association/MAAP. Image courtesy of MAAP. This year, Mongabay reported on forest loss driven by illegal logging, palm oil, mining, roads, and some unlikely offenders, including açaí (the fruit in your smoothie bowl) and ayahuasca. Most of the deforestation in Brazil was clustered around roads. Satellite-based mapping of seven of Brazil’s nine Amazonian states shows the “terrifying” progression of logging toward the core of the Amazon. Experts say that lack of transparency around logging makes it difficult to determine how much of that logging is illegal. And so did the fires After the slash comes the burn. Fires don’t occur naturally in the Amazon, but are set deliberately to clear felled trees and plants, making way for crops and cattle. Overall, 76% of Amazon&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/mongabays-top-amazon-stories-from-2021/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/mongabays-top-amazon-stories-from-2021/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-251254</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘The images are confronting’: Q&#038;A with animal photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/the-images-are-confronting-qa-with-animal-photojournalist-jo-anne-mcarthur/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/the-images-are-confronting-qa-with-animal-photojournalist-jo-anne-mcarthur/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Oct 2021 18:26:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/10/20145931/WAM8023-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=248373</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animal Intelligence, Animal Rights, Animal Welfare, Animals, Baby Animals, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, COVID-19, Crime, Environment, Pandemics, Photos, Pollution, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On the title page of Hidden: Animals in the Anthropocene is a black-and-white portrait of a lamb. The little animal, probably only a few weeks old, stands alone on the stained concrete floor of a slaughterhouse at a live animal market in China. The lamb gazes forward, its chin lifted, almost like it’s trying to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On the title page of Hidden: Animals in the Anthropocene is a black-and-white portrait of a lamb. The little animal, probably only a few weeks old, stands alone on the stained concrete floor of a slaughterhouse at a live animal market in China. The lamb gazes forward, its chin lifted, almost like it’s trying to catch the eye of the photographer. Shortly after the image was taken, the young lamb was likely killed for its meat. In the pages that follow, there are photos of battery hens standing on the dead bodies of their companions in crammed cages in Spain; the heads of slaughtered dogs tossed into a bowl at a market in Cambodia; piles of fish gasping for air after being caught by an industrial trawler off the coast of France. Some of the most confronting pictures are those that show animals in blood-smeared slaughterhouses, wide-eyed as they watch people kill their companions shortly before their turn arrives. “There&#8217;s a lot of wildlife photography out there and photography of companion animals, but [not of] these hidden animals,” Jo-Anne McArthur, co-editor of the book, told Mongabay in an interview. “We’re just like, ‘Oh, well, they&#8217;re for our consumption. They’re not worthy of any attention. That&#8217;s different.’ But it’s not different.” McArthur, an award-winning photographer who has spent more than 20 years photographing the human-animal relationship, and who was once diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder due to the intensity of her work, says the photographs in Hidden follow in the tradition&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/the-images-are-confronting-qa-with-animal-photojournalist-jo-anne-mcarthur/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/the-images-are-confronting-qa-with-animal-photojournalist-jo-anne-mcarthur/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-248373</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Countering Bolsonaro&#8217;s UN speech, Greenpeace releases Amazon deforestation photos</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/countering-bolsonaros-un-speech-greenpeace-releases-amazon-deforestation-photos/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/countering-bolsonaros-un-speech-greenpeace-releases-amazon-deforestation-photos/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Sep 2021 23:59:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/09/22010227/GP1SVZWW-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=247392</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Green, Photos, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Hours after Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro painted a rosy picture of his administration&#8217;s environmental record during a United Nations speech, Greenpeace and other environmental groups released a set of photos showing continued deforestation and fires in Earth&#8217;s largest rainforest. Speaking to the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro cited [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Hours after Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro painted a rosy picture of his administration&#8217;s environmental record during a United Nations speech, Greenpeace and other environmental groups released a set of photos showing continued deforestation and fires in Earth&#8217;s largest rainforest. Speaking to the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro cited a 32 percent reduction in deforestation in the month of August relative to a year ago, the country&#8217;s near decade-old Forest Code, and lands set aside as Indigenous territories — which he&#8217;s fought to undermine and dismantle — as evidence of Brazil&#8217;s contributions toward mitigating climate change. “Which other country in the world has a policy of environmental protection like ours?” asked Bolsonaro, during his 12-minute speech, where he also acknowledged the country was facing “great environmental challenges.” Aerial view of an area in the Amazon deforested for cattle ranching in Lábrea, Amazonas state on Sep 15, 2021. Photo © Victor Moriyama / Amazônia em Chamas (Amazon in Flames Alliance) Aerial view of an area in the Amazon deforested for cattle ranching in Lábrea, Amazonas state on Sep 15, 2021. Photo © Victor Moriyama / Amazônia em Chamas (Amazon in Flames Alliance) Aerial view of an area in the Amazon deforested for cattle ranching in Lábrea, Amazonas state on Sep 15, 2021. Photo © Victor Moriyama / Amazônia em Chamas (Amazon in Flames Alliance) But activists pushed back on Bolsonaro&#8217;s statement, noting rising deforestation in the Amazon and his administration&#8217;s rollback of environmental laws and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/countering-bolsonaros-un-speech-greenpeace-releases-amazon-deforestation-photos/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-247392</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Soy and cattle team up to drive deforestation in South America: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/study-shows-how-soy-cattle-team-up-to-drive-deforestation-in-south-america/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/study-shows-how-soy-cattle-team-up-to-drive-deforestation-in-south-america/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jul 2021 14:22:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/07/12134945/soy_brazil_Hansen-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=244687</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Commodities]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Argentina, Atlantic Forest, Bolivia, Brazil, Cerrado, Paraguay, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Cattle, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forest Destruction, Forests, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Infrastructure, International Trade, Meat, Pasture, Photos, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Ranching, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Soy, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As the human population grows, so does our demand for food, and soy is one of the key crops meeting that demand. Found in far more than tofu, soy is the largest source of protein for animal feed (such as cattle) and the second-largest source of vegetable oil globally after palm oil. The largest soy [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As the human population grows, so does our demand for food, and soy is one of the key crops meeting that demand. Found in far more than tofu, soy is the largest source of protein for animal feed (such as cattle) and the second-largest source of vegetable oil globally after palm oil. The largest soy importer, China, saw a 2,000% increase in soy imports over the past two decades, with the majority going to feed livestock to meet the Chinese population’s increasing meat consumption. “As long as the whole market is increasing meat consumption and developing countries are getting wealthier per capita and they&#8217;re changing their diets, we&#8217;re going to see soybean expand,” Matt Hansen, a professor in the Department of Geographical Sciences at the University of Maryland, told Mongabay. Rising global soy production has led to the clearing of forests, especially in the tropics. More than half of the world’s soy is grown in South America, and between 2000 and 2019, the production of the crop on the continent has doubled, according to new research published in the journal Nature Sustainability. Deforestation for soy in the Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay. The researchers used satellite imagery to identify areas of soy cultivation. Guided by this data, five teams drove around the continent to verify the extent of farms across all the biomes where soy is grown: the Amazon Rainforest, the Atlantic Forest, the Cerrado scrubland, the Chaco dry forest, the Chiquitania savanna, the Pampas grassland, the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/study-shows-how-soy-cattle-team-up-to-drive-deforestation-in-south-america/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-244687</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Exhibition showcases Claudia Andujar’s half-century fight for the Yanomami</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/exhibition-showcases-claudia-andujars-half-century-fight-for-the-yanomami/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/exhibition-showcases-claudia-andujars-half-century-fight-for-the-yanomami/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jun 2021 08:50:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sue Branford]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/06/24075114/header2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=244077</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conservation, Environment, Gold Mining, Governance, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Mining, Photos, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Saving Rainforests, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The renowned photographer endured the Nazi occupation. Settling in Brazil, she fought for the founding of the Yanomami Indigenous Territory, long under attack by illegal miners. A new photo exhibition celebrates her life and the Yanomami people.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“This small place in the immensity of the Amazon forest is my place and will always be so. I am linked to the Indians, to the land, to the fundamental struggle.” Claudia Andujar, the renowned Brazilian photographer, is celebrating her 90th birthday this month, and to commemorate her achievements, as a photographer, artist and an Indigenous campaigner, the London exhibition center the Barbican is holding a major exhibition of her work. Andujar personally experienced two horrifically traumatizing 20th century events half a world apart: the Holocaust in Europe, and the Indigenous Yanomami’s struggle for survival in the Brazilian Amazon. It is probable that without Claudia’s tireless efforts as an Indigenous advocate that Brazil’s then–president, Fernando Collor de Mello, would not have created the Yanomami Indigenous Territory (covering 9.7 million hectares, or 23.9 million acres), on the eve of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 — a great victory for the Yanomami and an inspiration to Indigenous people around the world. Claudia Andujar at 90. Image courtesy of TV Cultura. Life under the Nazis Born in Switzerland and brought up in Transylvania, then part of Hungary, Claudia had a Hungarian Jewish father and Swiss Christian mother. After her parents separated, she went to live with her mother. “My father disappeared in the early 1940s. I was a child and didn’t know what was going on, but I just had this feeling that something terrible was happening,” she recalls. She knew that the Hungarian government, allied to Nazi Germany,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/exhibition-showcases-claudia-andujars-half-century-fight-for-the-yanomami/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-244077</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Amazônia must live on’: Photographer Sebastião Salgado returns home with his new book</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/amazonia-must-live-on-photographer-sebastiao-salgado-returns-home-with-his-new-book/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/amazonia-must-live-on-photographer-sebastiao-salgado-returns-home-with-his-new-book/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 May 2021 06:07:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Peter Speetjens]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/05/18154209/xl_salgado_amazonia_p209-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=242647</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cattle, Conservation, Controversial, Crime, Culture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Ethnocide, Forests, Green, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Logging, Pasture, Photos, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Ranching, Saving Rainforests, Social Justice, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado traveled the Amazon for six years to capture nature and the people of the world’s largest rainforest, now depicted in his new book, Amazônia.  ]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; Cover of Amazônia. The book is published by Taschen in May and listed at $150 (Hardcover, 35.8 x 26 cm, 4.19 kg, 528 pages). &nbsp; Having photographed people and landscapes in more than 100 countries, Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado has returned to the country of his birth for his latest book, Amazônia, which is at once an ode to the beauty of the world’s largest rainforest and a cry for its preservation. For six years, Salgado, now 77, traveled the Amazon to portray its trees, rivers, mountains, forests and people in his trademark black-and-white style in an attempt to capture the heart and soul of a region that for many people, both in and outside Brazil, remains the great unknown. “For me, it is the last frontier, a mysterious universe of its own, where the immense power of nature can be felt as nowhere else on Earth,” Salgado writes in the foreword. “Here is a forest stretching to infinity that contains one-tenth of all living plant and animal species, the world’s largest single natural laboratory.” Over more than 500 pages, Amazônia offers a wide mix of images, from aerial photography to intimate portraits, which, thanks to Salgado’s eye for light, drama and detail, turn into still lifes of a timeless quality. Zo’é men in the Zo’é Indigenous Territory, in the state of Pará. Image by Sebastião Salgado. So we see the Maiá River meandering through the land like a vein of silver, towering cloud formations like castles in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/amazonia-must-live-on-photographer-sebastiao-salgado-returns-home-with-his-new-book/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-242647</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>With baby animals, patience pays: Photographer describes new book of intimate portraits</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/with-baby-animals-patience-pays-photographer-describes-new-book-of-intimate-portraits/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/with-baby-animals-patience-pays-photographer-describes-new-book-of-intimate-portraits/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 May 2021 19:17:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/05/03172915/baby-pangolin-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=242220</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Baby Animals, Conservation, Environment, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Interviews, Photos, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Suzi Eszterhas is an award-winning wildlife photographer whose work adorns over 100 cover and feature stories for publications from TIME to Smithsonian, BBC Wildlife, The New York Times, and Ranger Rick. With 21 books in print and another three in progress, she is always on the go but it&#8217;s usually a case of &#8216;hurry up [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Suzi Eszterhas is an award-winning wildlife photographer whose work adorns over 100 cover and feature stories for publications from TIME to Smithsonian, BBC Wildlife, The New York Times, and Ranger Rick. With 21 books in print and another three in progress, she is always on the go but it&#8217;s usually a case of &#8216;hurry up and wait.&#8217; Best known for her work documenting newborn animals and family life in the wild, she&#8217;s constantly ready for biologists to alert her about a new birth which sends her hurrying out the door, but upon arriving it can be weeks before she makes her first images, as she waits for wary parents to become used to her presence. Eszterhas is a dedicated conservationist, too, and raises funds and awareness for environmental organizations around the globe, and recently founded Girls Who Click, a non-profit dedicated to encouraging young women to enter this male-dominated profession. She was recently named as Outstanding Nature Photographer of the Year by the North American Nature Photography Association, and despite her busy schedule took a few minutes to answer Mongabay&#8217;s questions about her latest book, &#8220;New on Earth: Baby Animals in the Wild.&#8221; Mongabay: You&#8217;re well known for images of baby animals, why is this your focus? Suzi Eszterhas: When I was six years old my parents bought me a point and shoot camera, which I used to photograph my cats in my backyard and then later told people that they were lions on the African savanna or tigers in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/with-baby-animals-patience-pays-photographer-describes-new-book-of-intimate-portraits/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-242220</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nature drone photos: 2020 highlights (Insider)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/nature-drone-photos-2020-highlights-insider/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/nature-drone-photos-2020-highlights-insider/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Dec 2020 04:50:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/12/18230734/kauai_drone_200052-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=238067</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, California, Colombia, and Peru]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Drones, Environment, and Photos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we implemented a travel moratorium for staff and contributing journalists in March 2020. In practice, this meant we stopped assigning stories that required travel and strongly dissuaded journalists from undertaking reporting trips for Mongabay. We did this because we recognize travel puts journalists at great potential risk of contracting [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we implemented a travel moratorium for staff and contributing journalists in March 2020. In practice, this meant we stopped assigning stories that required travel and strongly dissuaded journalists from undertaking reporting trips for Mongabay. We did this because we recognize travel puts journalists at great potential risk of contracting the disease as well as becoming vectors for spreading the virus to the communities they visit, especially isolated indigenous communities. Our international network of contributors and staffed enabled us to be responsive as local conditions changed in certain geographies however. This policy meant my only international travel occurred pre-pandemic, when I met with Mongabay-Latam in Colombia and did a short visit to the Colombia-Brazil-Peru border region in the Amazon. Therefore most of the nature drone highlights presented below are either from that trip or close to my home in California. I hope you enjoy. Zacambu river and an oxbow lake in the Peruvian Amazon Waves breaking on a beach in California. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Amazon rainforest in Brazil Sea turtle in the Pacific. Flooded forest in the Amazon California redwood trees Devil&#8217;s Peak in California Rainforest creek in the Colombian Amazon Pine forest in the Sierra Nevada Sunrise over the Amazon rainforest Rainforest tree with magenta flowers Agriculture and trees in California Sunset in the Amazon Blackwater oxbow lake in the Amazon Lake in the California Sierra Nevada Flooded forest in the Amazon California redwood trees in San Mateo County Rainforest creek in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/nature-drone-photos-2020-highlights-insider/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/nature-drone-photos-2020-highlights-insider/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-238067</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Greenpeace photos illuminate illegal Amazon fires</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/09/greenpeace-photos-expose-illegal-amazon-fires/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/09/greenpeace-photos-expose-illegal-amazon-fires/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Sep 2020 19:10:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/09/01155208/GP0STURQD_AmazonFiresAug20_PressMedia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=234436</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forests, Green, Photos, Rainforests, Satellite Imagery, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Greenpeace has released dramatic new photos of illegal fires burning in the Brazilian Amazon. The aerial images — captured by photographer Christian Braga over the states of Rondonia, Amazonas, Pará, and Mato Grosso from August 16-18, 2020 — show fires burning through recently deforested areas, agricultural areas, degraded forests, and on the edges of dense [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Greenpeace has released dramatic new photos of illegal fires burning in the Brazilian Amazon. The aerial images — captured by photographer Christian Braga over the states of Rondonia, Amazonas, Pará, and Mato Grosso from August 16-18, 2020 — show fires burning through recently deforested areas, agricultural areas, degraded forests, and on the edges of dense tropical forests. Some of the fires are burning on the borders of state forests, indigenous territories, and protected areas, according to GPS data. Three images showing a fire in an area that registered Prodes deforestation warnings between 2017-2019. This recently deforested area is near the border of the Kaxarari Indigenous territory, in Lábrea, Amazonas state. Taken 17 Aug, 2020. CREDIT: © Christian Braga / Greenpeac “The fires in the Amazon are not natural,&#8221; said Rômulo Batista, Amazon campaigner at Greenpeace Brazil, in a statement. &#8220;They are criminally set by farmers and land-grabbers to tear the forest down in order to expand the agribusiness.&#8221; Under pressure from the international community, coalitions of investors, and major corporations over rising deforestation in the Amazon, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro issued a 120-day ban on fires July 15th, 2020. But satellite data shows the decree is being widely ignored. An analysis published last week documented more than 500 major fires in the Brazilian Amazon since late May 2020. Meanwhile Brazil&#8217;s national space research institute INPE registered 29,308 fire hotspots in August, nearly as many as last August, when the region&#8217;s fires made worldwide headlines. Fire near the Rio Branco in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/09/greenpeace-photos-expose-illegal-amazon-fires/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-234436</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Where there’s cattle ranching and soybean farming, there’s fire, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/where-theres-cattle-ranching-and-soybean-farming-theres-fire-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/where-theres-cattle-ranching-and-soybean-farming-theres-fire-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jul 2020 07:19:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marcelo Coppola]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/07/17183042/8AjMzE2Mmpjci5SbvNmLhJ3b0lGZl9GZhJnclNGQsFmcldmcvRXakVmOzIDNwQDN0kDM0ozZlBnauETN3ADMwQTN1YkMlQTN1YkMlAzN0YjRyUiN4ETN1gjM1cjMf1SNx0yXt92YuIHct1SaGJTJGJTJBNTJwRHdopzN-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=232625</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Illegal Deforestation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Cattle, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forestry, Forests, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, International Trade, Meat, Pasture, Photos, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Ranching, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Soy, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Most of the fires in the Amazon rainforest last year were associated with industrial agriculture, according to a study cross-referencing NASA satellite data with corporate supply chains. 
]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Images of the fires burning in the Amazon rainforest last August caught the whole world’s attention. Government leaders, multilateral organizations, environmentalists and celebrities cried out with concern over the planet’s largest tropical rainforest. “The Amazon must be protected,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres tweeted. “Our war on nature must end,” climate activist Greta Thunberg said. But the actual extent of the environmental disaster only became known this past January, when INPE, the Brazilian space agency, released the final count of the fires that had burned in the Amazon: 89,000 alerts over 12 months, a jump of 30% over 2018. The increase is worrisome, experts say, despite that fact that the number is lower than the historical record of 109,000. At the peak of the crisis, President Jair Bolsonaro blamed NGOs working in the region. Environmental Minister Ricardo Salles pinned it on the dry season, despite stronger rains in 2019 than in the previous year. Researchers of the Amazon biome, however, attribute the fires to other factors. Fire alerts in Brazil between July and October 2019, based on data from NASA VIIRS. Image courtesy of Google Earth. Land speculation is one of the main culprits. It’s a high-paying business that involves invading public lands, cutting and removing the most valuable trees, and then clearing the brush with tractors and chains. When the vegetation has dried after a few weeks, what was once forest is burned off, and new pastureland is seeded in expectation of a buyer. “It’s easy money. Squatters on public&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/where-theres-cattle-ranching-and-soybean-farming-theres-fire-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-232625</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amazon fires rage despite official ban, Greenpeace photos reveal</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/fires-rage-in-the-amazon-despite-official-ban-greenpeace-photos-reveal/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/fires-rage-in-the-amazon-despite-official-ban-greenpeace-photos-reveal/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jul 2020 15:43:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/07/17131442/GP1SU5AB_PressMedia-copy-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=232606</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forests, Photos, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Farmers, ranchers, and land speculators in the Brazilian Amazon are continuing to burn forests despite an official government ban on burning in the region, reveal photographs released today by Greenpeace Brazil. The photos, captured during flyovers conducted between July 7th and 10th in the state of Mato Grosso, documented fires in recently cleared areas and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Farmers, ranchers, and land speculators in the Brazilian Amazon are continuing to burn forests despite an official government ban on burning in the region, reveal photographs released today by Greenpeace Brazil. The photos, captured during flyovers conducted between July 7th and 10th in the state of Mato Grosso, documented fires in recently cleared areas and adjacent forests. Greenpeace said it also found evidence of &#8220;areas being prepared for burning&#8221; in spite of &#8220;an absolute moratorium&#8221; on fire decreed last week by Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourão. Hotspot directly in the forest, next to a freshly deforested area, with Deter warning, in Alta Floresta, Mato Grosso state. © Christian Braga / Greenpeace Hotspot directly in the forest, next to a freshly deforested area, with Deter warning, in Alta Floresta, Mato Grosso state. © Christian Braga / Greenpeace Greenpeace Brazil campaigner Romulo Batista said the photos show the government needs to take more active measures to control fires and deforestation in the Amazon. &#8220;As Bolsonaro’s 2019 fire moratorium already showed, banning fires alone doesn&#8217;t work,&#8221; said Batista in a statement. &#8220;Protecting the capacity to monitor and stop environmental destruction and to enforce the law &#8211; which Bolsonaro continues to systematically dismantle &#8211; is essential.&#8221; Hotspot directly in the forest, next to a freshly deforested area, with Deter warning, in Alta Floresta, Mato Grosso state. © Christian Braga / Greenpeace Forest remainders burning in an area registered by the last Prodes (Brazilian Amazon Satellite Monitoring Project), in Juara, Mato Grosso state. © Christian&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/fires-rage-in-the-amazon-despite-official-ban-greenpeace-photos-reveal/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-232606</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Camera snaps first ever glimpse of a troop of the world’s rarest gorilla</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/camera-snaps-first-ever-glimpse-of-a-troop-of-the-worlds-rarest-gorilla/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/camera-snaps-first-ever-glimpse-of-a-troop-of-the-worlds-rarest-gorilla/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jul 2020 07:34:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/07/10073317/RCNX0472-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=232327</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Cameroon, Nigeria, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, cameras, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Conservation Technology, Critically Endangered Species, Gorillas, Great Apes, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Photos, Primates, Remote Sensing, Solutions, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There are only about 300 Cross River gorillas left in the world, making them the rarest subspecies of gorilla, or indeed any great ape. But in late June, a camera located in Nigeria’s Mbe Mountains captured an encouraging sight: a group of Cross River gorillas, including several infants and juveniles, moseying past the lens. This [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There are only about 300 Cross River gorillas left in the world, making them the rarest subspecies of gorilla, or indeed any great ape. But in late June, a camera located in Nigeria’s Mbe Mountains captured an encouraging sight: a group of Cross River gorillas, including several infants and juveniles, moseying past the lens. This is the first time such a large group of Cross River gorillas (Gorilla gorilla diehli), including babies, has ever been photographed together, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), an organization that works with local community members to actively protect these animals. Before this, there were only a few known images of the critically endangered subspecies, which came from camera traps in both Cameroon and Nigeria. These include pictures of an adult gorilla with a missing hand, likely from a snare injury, a lone silverback, as well as a mother gorilla carrying a single baby on her back. “It is extremely exciting to see so many young Cross River gorillas — an encouraging indication that these gorillas are now well protected and reproducing successfully, after previous decades of hunting,” Inaoyom Imong, director of WCS Nigeria’s Cross River landscape, said in a statement. “While hunters in the region may no longer target gorillas, the threat of hunting remains, and we need to continue to improve the effectiveness of our protection efforts.” A group of Cross River gorillas in the Mbe Mountains. Image by WCS Nigeria. Andrew Dunn, Nigeria country director for WCS, told Mongabay in an&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/camera-snaps-first-ever-glimpse-of-a-troop-of-the-worlds-rarest-gorilla/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-232327</doi>				</item>
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