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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?topic=poisoning&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/poisoning/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sun, 09 Aug 2026 07:06:56 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Poisoning</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/poisoning/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Rodent-killing baits threaten small wild cats and other wildlife</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rodent-killing-baits-threaten-small-wild-cats-and-other-wildlife/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rodent-killing-baits-threaten-small-wild-cats-and-other-wildlife/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 14:29:18 +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/20/2026/06/18054111/Image_6-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321399</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Australia, Global, North America, Oceania, South Africa, Southern Africa, United States, and Washington]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Carnivores, Cats, Chemicals, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Health, Mammals, Poisoning, Predators, Rodents, Small Cats, Toxicology, Wildlife, and Wolves]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Cat kills rodent. Cat eats rodent. Cat is exposed to potentially lethal rodenticides. That scenario is increasingly likely for many small wild cat species across the globe, and yet, only a handful of researchers are investigating this underrecognized conservation issue. Thus far, researchers confirmed that one wild cat population has declined from exposure to these [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Cat kills rodent. Cat eats rodent. Cat is exposed to potentially lethal rodenticides. That scenario is increasingly likely for many small wild cat species across the globe, and yet, only a handful of researchers are investigating this underrecognized conservation issue. Thus far, researchers confirmed that one wild cat population has declined from exposure to these poisons. That’s a small bobcat (Lynx rufus) living on Kiawah Island off the South Carolina coast in the U.S., which faces imminent local extinction due to rodenticides. Up until 2019, there was a stable population of these beloved cats, which are considered celebrities there, but that year, three cats died. Among them was a female that bled to death while giving birth. Postmortems revealed concoctions of rodenticides in each of the bobcats’ blood and livers. Over the next four years, there were 12 more victims and the bobcats’ overall survival rate fell to 39%. All tested positive for concentrations of anticoagulant rodenticides; some had been acutely poisoned, said Meghan Keating, a doctoral candidate at South Carolina’s Clemson University. That was a troubling sign for a population that now numbers less than 20 individuals. They are regularly exposed to rodenticides, as rodents (including rats) are a major part of their diet, Keating said. Also troubling is that her team found exposure to not just one, but a cocktail of rodenticides. “We haven&#8217;t had a bobcat test positive for less than two rodenticides,” she told Mongabay. Kiawah Island’s rodenticide-driven bobcat decline may be an outlier, given its&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rodent-killing-baits-threaten-small-wild-cats-and-other-wildlife/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rodent-killing-baits-threaten-small-wild-cats-and-other-wildlife/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321399</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia seizes mercury shipment bound for illegal mines in the Philippines</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/indonesia-seizes-mercury-shipment-bound-for-illegal-mines-in-the-philippines/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/indonesia-seizes-mercury-shipment-bound-for-illegal-mines-in-the-philippines/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 May 2026 16:23:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anggita Raissa]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/26103526/indonesia-illegal-mining-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320126</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Jakarta, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Gold Mining, Illegal Mining, Illegal Trade, Law, Law Enforcement, Mercury, Mining, Poisoning, Pollution, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Authorities at Indonesia’s largest port seized hundreds of kilograms of the toxic heavy metal mercury in late April. The bust reflects the vast scale of illegal mining underway in forests across much of Southeast Asia amid record-high gold prices. “This mercury was to be shipped to the Philippines using manipulated customs documents, so [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Authorities at Indonesia’s largest port seized hundreds of kilograms of the toxic heavy metal mercury in late April. The bust reflects the vast scale of illegal mining underway in forests across much of Southeast Asia amid record-high gold prices. “This mercury was to be shipped to the Philippines using manipulated customs documents, so that the cargo appeared to be textiles, clothing and carpets,” Victor Dean Mackbon, special investigations lead with the Jakarta Police, told Mongabay Indonesia. Police and customs officials said the 760 bottles of mercury were packed in cardboard and concealed within 145 rolls of carpet. Investigators allege the mercury was procured in Indonesia for a buyer in Davao, on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. Mercury is widely used to separate gold from crushed ore by miners in the illegal sector. But the heavy metal is also a potent neurotoxin linked to developmental disorders in children, as well as severe cognitive, neurological and physical impairment in adults. The seized mercury bottles displayed by authorities in Jakarta at a press conference. Image courtesy of Jakarta Police. Authorities have questioned nine people over the Jakarta seizure, and charged two — the alleged supplier and alleged exporter — with violations of trade and mining laws, for which they could face up to four years in jail. Victor said the suspected trafficking route may have been used to ship mercury to the Philippines since 2021. Davao, the alleged destination of the mercury consignment, is the political stronghold of the Duterte&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/indonesia-seizes-mercury-shipment-bound-for-illegal-mines-in-the-philippines/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/indonesia-seizes-mercury-shipment-bound-for-illegal-mines-in-the-philippines/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320126</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Tasmania, the mines have closed but the rivers remember</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-tasmania-the-mines-have-closed-but-the-rivers-remember/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-tasmania-the-mines-have-closed-but-the-rivers-remember/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Apr 2026 21:17:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Stefan Lovgren]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/16164414/4-King-River-drone-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317656</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia, Oceania, and Tasmania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, extractives, Fish, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Mining, Planetary Boundaries, Planetary Health, Poisoning, Pollution, Rivers, Toxicology, Waste, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The King River snakes through some of Tasmania’s most dramatic and diverse landscape, flowing past rainforest, button grass plains and the rugged peaks of the West Coast Range before emptying into a large bay near Strahan, a quiet fishing town. To the casual visitor, the winding stream looks as wild as the lightly settled country [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The King River snakes through some of Tasmania’s most dramatic and diverse landscape, flowing past rainforest, button grass plains and the rugged peaks of the West Coast Range before emptying into a large bay near Strahan, a quiet fishing town. To the casual visitor, the winding stream looks as wild as the lightly settled country around it. But on a February morning, the King’s tea-brown waters flowing past forested banks near the sea were disturbingly silent. The air hummed with large, persistent horseflies and little else. Healthy Tasmanian streams typically teem with aquatic insects, including mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies, which form the foundation of freshwater food webs. Not here. Along the lower King River, many aquatic species are gone; an enduring effect of copper mining above Queenstown, which sent uncounted tons of mine waste downstream. That pollution originated at Mount Lyell, one of Australia’s largest historic copper mines. Established in the early 1890s, its tailing piles discharged toxic contaminants into the nearby Queen River, a tributary that flows directly into the King. Historic mine workings at Mount Lyell near Queenstown, Tasmania state, Australia, where more than a century of copper mining has left a lasting environmental legacy that continues impacting biodiversity and posing risks to public health. Image by Stefan Lovgren. Although large-scale dumping ended long before the mine was finally closed in 2014, that hidden legacy of pollution remains embedded in river waters, sediments and floodplains. Surveys of aquatic life have repeatedly found that the sensitive species expected in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-tasmania-the-mines-have-closed-but-the-rivers-remember/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/in-tasmania-the-mines-have-closed-but-the-rivers-remember/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317656</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Staggering’ trade for belief-based use drives hooded vultures to near-extinction in Benin</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/staggering-trade-for-belief-based-use-drives-hooded-vultures-to-near-extinction-in-benin/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/staggering-trade-for-belief-based-use-drives-hooded-vultures-to-near-extinction-in-benin/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Mar 2026 16:38:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/24130527/1-Vautours_charognards_au_repos-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316180</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Benin, Guinea-Bissau, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Environment, Habitat Loss, Illegal Trade, Poisoning, Raptors, Religions, Trade, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife consumption, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The hooded vulture, a small, scruffy-looking raptor native to sub-Saharan Africa, gets its name from a patch of beige feathers on its head: It appears to be wearing a hood. Unlike other vulture species, hooded vultures (Necrosyrtes monachus) love human hubbub more than forests. They’re often seen around villages, scavenging for meat and garbage near [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The hooded vulture, a small, scruffy-looking raptor native to sub-Saharan Africa, gets its name from a patch of beige feathers on its head: It appears to be wearing a hood. Unlike other vulture species, hooded vultures (Necrosyrtes monachus) love human hubbub more than forests. They’re often seen around villages, scavenging for meat and garbage near abattoirs and landfills. “They&#8217;ve always been close to people &#8230; they&#8217;re kind of like the pigeons of West Africa,” said Nico Arcilla, president and research director at the International Bird Conservation Partnership (IBCP). Arcilla has studied many West African bird species, including hooded vultures. But that proximity to people has cost the birds a great deal. Since they don’t shy away from humans, they’re easily caught — often with poisoned or tobacco-laced bait on a fishhook — and sold. In parts of Nigeria, people eat hooded vultures. But the greatest demand comes from belief-based users such as practitioners of Vodún, a traditional religion that gave rise in the Western Hemisphere to voodoo. Many believers hold that vultures have magical superpowers that can influence luck, act as harbingers of rain, or signify misfortune. They use powdered vulture parts to make soaps to wash, and some display dried vulture carcasses or heads in their homes to bring good fortune, wealth and protection against witchcraft. Others say the birds have medicinal properties. There’s no recent estimate on the demand, but somewhere between 5,800 and 8,700 birds were traded illegally between 2008 and 2013 across West and Central Africa.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/staggering-trade-for-belief-based-use-drives-hooded-vultures-to-near-extinction-in-benin/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/staggering-trade-for-belief-based-use-drives-hooded-vultures-to-near-extinction-in-benin/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316180</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Satellite images identify vulture breeding colonies by their droppings</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/satellite-images-identify-vulture-breeding-colonies-by-their-droppings/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/satellite-images-identify-vulture-breeding-colonies-by-their-droppings/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Mar 2026 19:21:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/05140548/Vulture_11.NestingColony_BomaPlateauSouthSudan_MeganClaase-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315248</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Chad, East Africa, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Poaching, Poisoning, Predators, Raptors, Scavengers, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Populations of Rüppell’s vultures have fallen by more than 90% over the past four decades. Knowing exactly where these critically endangered birds breed can allow conservationists to put protective measures in place. But Rüppell’s historically occupied a vast swathe of West, Central and East Africa; finding their remaining colonies is a daunting task. A team [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Populations of Rüppell’s vultures have fallen by more than 90% over the past four decades. Knowing exactly where these critically endangered birds breed can allow conservationists to put protective measures in place. But Rüppell’s historically occupied a vast swathe of West, Central and East Africa; finding their remaining colonies is a daunting task. A team of researchers says it has successfully tested a way to find vulture colonies remotely, pinpointing dozens of potential sites across seven countries using open-access satellite imagery. The vultures helped. Like other cliff-nesting birds, their droppings lavishly daub cliff faces below their nests with whitewash. Bulgarian ornithologist Ivaylo Angelov, zoomed in on satellite images of mountainous areas across more than 6 million square kilometers (2.3 million square miles), seeking out cliffs over 20 meters (65 feet) high as well as sites documented in old bird atlases of the region. Ivaylo Angelov studies a Rüppell’s vulture nesting colony in Ethiopia in 2009. Image courtesy of Nikolay Terziev. Angelov and his colleagues pinpointed 232 previously undocumented nesting sites. Most of these were in Sudan, South Sudan and Chad, but they found others in the Central African Republic, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia. The work took weeks but was “immensely satisfying.” “I love geography, I love travel, and it was an absolute joy for me to zoom in and check all these incredible mountains,” Angelov says. “I had the feeling that I’m there.” In the region surrounding Sudan’s Jebel Marra mountains, in the southwest of the country, the team located&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/satellite-images-identify-vulture-breeding-colonies-by-their-droppings/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/satellite-images-identify-vulture-breeding-colonies-by-their-droppings/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315248</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Malawi’s solar boom is leaving a toxic legacy of lead waste</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/malawis-solar-boom-is-leaving-a-toxic-legacy-of-lead-waste/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/malawis-solar-boom-is-leaving-a-toxic-legacy-of-lead-waste/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Feb 2026 09:03:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/20080916/MountingSolarPanel_Malawi_JonStrandWikimediaBYSA4-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314494</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Malawi]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Development, Development, Economics, Energy, Environment, Environmental Policy, Governance, NGOs, Poisoning, Renewable Energy, Solar Power, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[-15.778962096499813, 35.01512751075972]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BLANTYRE, Malawi — On Lagson Gumbo’s side of the stream, BCA is a slum. Running parallel to the trickle of murky water is a narrow, dusty street lined with small, unplastered houses and shops trading in groceries, cheap alcohol and artisan services for residents of this crowded sector of Malawi’s principal commercial city, Blantyre. On [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BLANTYRE, Malawi — On Lagson Gumbo’s side of the stream, BCA is a slum. Running parallel to the trickle of murky water is a narrow, dusty street lined with small, unplastered houses and shops trading in groceries, cheap alcohol and artisan services for residents of this crowded sector of Malawi’s principal commercial city, Blantyre. On the stream’s other bank is an affluent neighborhood with the same name. In the wealthy BCA, Blantyre’s City Council provides waste collection services, removing rubbish to a site on the city’s outskirts. It’s an open landfill where people from low-income settlements scavenge for whatever they find worth for reuse or sale. On the side where Gumbo lives and works, there’s no formal waste management. Residents dump rubbish from homes and shops into the stream. Kitchen waste and used nappies, old tires and plastic bottles and carrier bags get thrown into gullies and any other unoccupied spaces nearby. There are also batteries. At his makeshift workshop, Gumbo sorts through metal plates he has extracted from expired lead-acid batteries. Before him is a smoldering charcoal stove and a plastic bag filled with pellets of lead — also extracted from batteries. He puts the lead in a small tin container, pours acid over it and sets it on the stove to heat. “These pieces were positive cells in the batteries,” he says, gesturing to the plates he’s laid out on a small worktable. “When a battery stops functioning, it is not the negative electrodes that have expired. It&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/malawis-solar-boom-is-leaving-a-toxic-legacy-of-lead-waste/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/malawis-solar-boom-is-leaving-a-toxic-legacy-of-lead-waste/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314494</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Africa’s vulture safe zones face tough test across vast landscapes</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/africas-vulture-safe-zones-face-tough-test-across-vast-landscapes/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/africas-vulture-safe-zones-face-tough-test-across-vast-landscapes/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Feb 2026 10:39:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/19102209/white-backed-vulture-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314481</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, Southern Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Poaching, Poisoning, Predators, Raptors, Scavengers, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Protecting vulture populations in Africa presents some unique challenges for conservationists. These slow-breeding and ecologically vital scavengers range over vast territories and are vulnerable to poisons targeting other species and expanding infrastructure like power lines. Creating “vulture safe zones” has emerged as a way to address these broad and varied threats, but putting them into [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Protecting vulture populations in Africa presents some unique challenges for conservationists. These slow-breeding and ecologically vital scavengers range over vast territories and are vulnerable to poisons targeting other species and expanding infrastructure like power lines. Creating “vulture safe zones” has emerged as a way to address these broad and varied threats, but putting them into practice is proving difficult. South Africa’s oldest vulture safe zone is centered in Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, in the southern Kalahari Desert. Since the 114,000-hectare (282,000-acre) safe zone was established in 2019, on land owned by the wealthy Oppenheimer family, its managers have taken steps to protect critically endangered white-backed vultures (Gyps africanus) and endangered lappet-faced vultures (Torgos tracheliotos) nesting there. Establishing the reserve as a safe zone involved things like covering reservoirs with nets to prevent drowning, and halting the use of lead ammunition. Wendy Panaino, an ecologist at Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, told Mongabay that, ultimately, the aim is to make this 120,000-hectare (296,000-acre) reserve a safe haven for threatened species like the white-backed, lappet-faced and white-headed vulture (Trigonoceps occipitalis). “Tswalu was a massive success,” says Linda van der Heever, species project manager at BirdLife South Africa. “It really is, in many senses, a textbook vulture safe zone.” A vulture in Tswalu-Kalahari Reserve, South Africa. This reserve was designated as vulture safe zone in 2019. Image courtesy of Duncan MacFadyen / Tswalu-Kalahari Reserve. In the past decade, several safe zone projects of this kind have kicked off in Africa, each adopting a variety of measures&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/africas-vulture-safe-zones-face-tough-test-across-vast-landscapes/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/africas-vulture-safe-zones-face-tough-test-across-vast-landscapes/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314481</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Insects are moving pharmaceutical pollutants from rivers to land; risks unknown</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/insects-are-moving-pharmaceutical-pollutants-from-rivers-to-land-risks-unknown/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/insects-are-moving-pharmaceutical-pollutants-from-rivers-to-land-risks-unknown/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Feb 2026 15:59:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/13093317/Image_2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314235</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Health, Insects, Planetary Health, Poisoning, Pollution, Public Health, Waste, Water Pollution, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Pharmaceuticals that people globally rely on for daily health — including antibiotics, antidepressants and painkillers — are entering ecosystems via wastewater, posing poorly understood risks. Once there, aquatic insects can accumulate these chemical contaminants, with their predators transporting them back onto land, raising concern among scientists. A recent paper found that a host of pharmaceuticals [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Pharmaceuticals that people globally rely on for daily health — including antibiotics, antidepressants and painkillers — are entering ecosystems via wastewater, posing poorly understood risks. Once there, aquatic insects can accumulate these chemical contaminants, with their predators transporting them back onto land, raising concern among scientists. A recent paper found that a host of pharmaceuticals can accumulate in winged species such as caddisflies and mayflies at different life stages, with the quantity varying among species. The paper’s first author, Marek Let, from the University of South Bohemia, says pharmaceutical pollution might not be as concerning as pesticide contaminants because medical drugs are generally found in low concentrations. But he adds that some pharmaceutical compounds can be incredibly toxic. These include sertraline (the active ingredient of the commonly prescribed antidepressant Zoloft), which his study found can bioamplify in caddisflies, increasing in concentration as the insect passes through its life cycle. Other antidepressants, including norsertraline and venlafaxine (the active ingredient in the popular prescription drug Effexor), as well as theophylline (prescribed to treat asthma symptoms) also bioamplify in caddisflies. A wastewater discharge pipe. Even when wastewater is treated it can still contain pollutants, including pharmaceuticals. So building more wastewater treatment plants is not the optimal solution, Previšić says. “Our input needs to be reduced.” Image by U.S. Department of Agriculture via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). “This study also proves that the pharmaceuticals do not stay in the water, and they can be emitted into the terrestrial environment and contaminate some terrestrial predators,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/insects-are-moving-pharmaceutical-pollutants-from-rivers-to-land-risks-unknown/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/insects-are-moving-pharmaceutical-pollutants-from-rivers-to-land-risks-unknown/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314235</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Forever chemical’ contamination could undermine sea otters’ fragile recovery in Canada</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/forever-chemical-contamination-could-undermine-sea-otters-fragile-recovery-in-canada/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/forever-chemical-contamination-could-undermine-sea-otters-fragile-recovery-in-canada/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Nov 2025 18:05:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/21140214/Sea-otter-morro-bay_13-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309965</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Canada and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Chemicals, Conservation, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Oceans, Poisoning, Pollution, Research, Toxicology, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Sea otters living along the coastline of Canada’s British Columbia province carry residues of “forever chemicals” in their bodies, according to a new study,  and those living near dense human populations or shipping lanes are the most heavily impacted. The research was published in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, authored principally by scientists at [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Sea otters living along the coastline of Canada’s British Columbia province carry residues of “forever chemicals” in their bodies, according to a new study,  and those living near dense human populations or shipping lanes are the most heavily impacted. The research was published in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, authored principally by scientists at the University of British Columbia (UBC). While most health research on exposure to long-lived, human-made chemicals — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, better known as PFAS — have been human studies, scientists are growing increasingly aware that wildlife are also at risk. It’s now well-established that in humans, PFAS can cause cancer or liver damage, lower immunity, impair fertility and trigger other health problems. This study on sea otters (Enhydra lutris) analyzed tissue samples from 11 animals that had recently died. All carried PFAS in their livers. Forever chemicals were developed and first manufactured in the mid-20th century by 3M and Dupont. They make products stain, water and heat resistant — and can take hundreds or thousands of years to break down. They’re now ubiquitous worldwide, found in everything from human blood and drinking water to soils used to grow food and the marine environment. Sea otters, which live in coastal waters across the North Pacific Ocean, are endangered and their populations are decreasing, according to the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. Numerous threats, from habitat loss to a warming ocean and pollution, could erase progress that has brought the species back from local extinction. Oil&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/forever-chemical-contamination-could-undermine-sea-otters-fragile-recovery-in-canada/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/forever-chemical-contamination-could-undermine-sea-otters-fragile-recovery-in-canada/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309965</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Colony of world’s highest-flying bird under threat in Uganda</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-west-africa-hooded-vultures-vanish-as-abattoirs-modernize-2/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-west-africa-hooded-vultures-vanish-as-abattoirs-modernize-2/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Oct 2025 11:51:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Musinguzi BlansheRyan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/28122547/Masai_Mara_National_Reserve_03_-_Ruppells_vulture_Gyps_rueppelli-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308411</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Poaching, Poisoning, Predators, Raptors, Scavengers, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LUKU CENTRAL FOREST RESERVE, Uganda — Ornithologist Ivan Oruka stops suddenly near the foot of a cliff that’s streaked with the telltale whitewash of bird droppings. He quickly presses his binoculars to his eyes. Against the clear blue sky, on a bright September morning, at least 29 large birds circle effortlessly above on broad, dark [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LUKU CENTRAL FOREST RESERVE, Uganda — Ornithologist Ivan Oruka stops suddenly near the foot of a cliff that’s streaked with the telltale whitewash of bird droppings. He quickly presses his binoculars to his eyes. Against the clear blue sky, on a bright September morning, at least 29 large birds circle effortlessly above on broad, dark wings. “Can you see them?” Oruka says. “Observe clearly, see how they move? Can you see that bird is carrying nest construction materials?” The birds are Rüppell’s vultures (Gyps rueppelli), a critically endangered species, and the cliff is their nesting colony. Across their former strongholds in West, Central and East Africa, Rüppell’s vulture numbers have declined by more than 90% over the past 40 years or so. Once common across Uganda’s national parks, the birds, whose dark feathers edged with silver give them a handsome scaled appearance, and which also have the reputation for being the world’s highest fliers, are now rarely seen. Luku Central Forest Reserve, covering just over 4,000 hectares (nearly 10,000 acres) in Uganda’s West Nile region, is an exception. It’s the only place in Uganda where the vultures are known to breed. But for how much longer is uncertain. Luku is under threat, in part due to its location. Vultures, Luku forest reserve, Uganda. Image by Musinguzi Blanshe for Mongabay. A cliff in the Luku reserve hosts the only known nesting colony of critically-endangered Rüppell’s vultures in Uganda. Image courtesy of Ivan Oruka. A threatened refuge Arua district shares its western&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-west-africa-hooded-vultures-vanish-as-abattoirs-modernize-2/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-west-africa-hooded-vultures-vanish-as-abattoirs-modernize-2/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308411</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mass vulture poisonings expose need for cross-border action in Southern Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mass-vulture-poisonings-expose-need-for-cross-border-action-in-southern-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mass-vulture-poisonings-expose-need-for-cross-border-action-in-southern-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Sep 2025 16:15:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/18122618/Image_2-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306186</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, South Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Poaching, Poisoning, Predators, Raptors, Scavengers, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A cluster of mass vulture poisonings earlier this year has drawn attention to an alarming, ongoing problem in the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area that straddles South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. According to the African Wildlife Poisoning Database, more than 2,400 vultures have died from poisoning in the GLTFCA, including in South Africa’s famed Kruger [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A cluster of mass vulture poisonings earlier this year has drawn attention to an alarming, ongoing problem in the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area that straddles South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. According to the African Wildlife Poisoning Database, more than 2,400 vultures have died from poisoning in the GLTFCA, including in South Africa’s famed Kruger National Park, in the past decade. As wide-ranging, slow-breeding keystone species of this landscape’s ecology, vultures need urgent action to protect them, conservation authorities say. Other raptors, as well as mammal carnivores like hyenas, leopards and lions, have also been poisoned. The Endangered Wildlife Trust, which operates the poisoning database in cooperation with the Peregrine Fund, says approximately 53 lions have been killed by poison in this vast cross-border protected area since 2015. In just the past two years, 14 lions are known to have died from poisoning and a further 10 more caught in snares and then killed by poachers. John Davies, project coordinator of raptor conservation and research at the Endangered Wildlife Trust, says the series of mass poisonings in May and June triggered meetings involving South Africa National Parks (SANParks), conservation NGOs and other authorities to assess where systems were lacking and could be improved. “I think that&#8217;s a big positive,” Davies tells Mongabay. André Botha, co-chair of the Vulture Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, also expresses cautious optimism. “We have witnessed similar meetings in the past, with limited results, but I trust that the current high&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mass-vulture-poisonings-expose-need-for-cross-border-action-in-southern-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mass-vulture-poisonings-expose-need-for-cross-border-action-in-southern-africa/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306186</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Poisoning crisis could drive vulture extinction in South Africa’s Kruger region</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/poisoning-crisis-could-drive-vulture-extinction-in-south-africas-kruger-region/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/poisoning-crisis-could-drive-vulture-extinction-in-south-africas-kruger-region/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Sep 2025 08:53:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/15151612/Image_1-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305978</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Poaching, Poisoning, Predators, Raptors, Scavengers, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A spate of poisoning events this year has killed more than 400 vultures in and near South Africa’s Kruger National Park. In May, 49 vultures died after feasting on a poisoned giraffe carcass. A similar incident soon afterward killed 123 vultures, the vast majority critically endangered white-backed vultures (Gyps africanus). Later that same month, another [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A spate of poisoning events this year has killed more than 400 vultures in and near South Africa’s Kruger National Park. In May, 49 vultures died after feasting on a poisoned giraffe carcass. A similar incident soon afterward killed 123 vultures, the vast majority critically endangered white-backed vultures (Gyps africanus). Later that same month, another incident, in the nearby Lionspruit Game Reserve, claimed the lives of more than 100 vultures. In late June, a further 127 vultures along with seven crocodiles and a black-backed jackal died after a buffalo was laced with poisoned in Kruger. These events caused a media stir, but they also only tell part of the story, says André Botha, co-chair of the Vulture Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. Since 2015, more than 2,000 vultures have been poisoned in Kruger National Park and the wider Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA). “The media spin placed on the most recent of these incidents seems to totally ignore this fact and the lack of coordinated action to address this challenge by the statutory institutions, especially on the South African side,” Botha says. A mass poisoning incident claimed the lives of 120 vultures in Kruger National Park in May this year. Image courtesy of the Endangered Wildlife Trust. The GLTFCA spans a conservation area of roughly 35,000 square kilometers (13,500 square miles) — an area that straddles the borders of South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and includes protected areas like Kruger, Limpopo and Gonarezhou national parks.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/poisoning-crisis-could-drive-vulture-extinction-in-south-africas-kruger-region/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/poisoning-crisis-could-drive-vulture-extinction-in-south-africas-kruger-region/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305978</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Agencies race to prevent new food crisis as locusts return to northern Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/agencies-race-to-prevent-new-food-crisis-as-locusts-return-to-northern-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/agencies-race-to-prevent-new-food-crisis-as-locusts-return-to-northern-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jul 2025 17:25:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Stephanie Achieng’]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/03085409/Driving-through-a-Desert-Locust-swarm-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301865</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Algeria, Chad, East Africa, Niger, North Africa, and Tunisia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Chemicals, Climate Change, Conservation, Crops, Disasters, Environment, Farming, Food, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Human-wildlife Conflict, Insects, Monitoring, Pesticides, Poisoning, Pollution, Weather, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[NAIROBI — Swarms of desert locusts are moving across parts of North Africa. With unusually heavy rains in late 2024 supporting growth of vegetation, and rising temperatures since February 2025 speeding their reproductive cycle, ideal breeding conditions for locusts are in place. Significant outbreaks have already been reported in Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, while smaller [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[NAIROBI — Swarms of desert locusts are moving across parts of North Africa. With unusually heavy rains in late 2024 supporting growth of vegetation, and rising temperatures since February 2025 speeding their reproductive cycle, ideal breeding conditions for locusts are in place. Significant outbreaks have already been reported in Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, while smaller bands have appeared elsewhere across the Sahara Desert’s northern boundary, and in Saudi Arabia. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and its regional partners have issued caution-level alerts for Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Chad, and Niger. The FAO is coordinating efforts with national authorities to prevent the insects from spreading south into the Sahel, where further rains could trigger a new wave of breeding. “The current outbreaks are due to very favorable breeding conditions over a six-month period in the northern Sahel, following significant rainfall in August and September 2024,” said Cyril Piou of FAO’s Desert Locust Information Service (DLIS). Newly hatched desert locusts near Medenine, Tunisia. Image © Cyril Piou/FAO. Map of desert locusts&#8217; breeding and invasion areas courtesy of FAO. For now, these outbreaks are significant, but not on the scale of those that preceded swarms that devastated East Africa in 2019 and 2020. That earlier crisis affected more than 20 countries, with swarms covering hundreds of square kilometers and threatening the food security of more than 20 million people. It was triggered by an unusual combination of cyclones and sustained rains that enabled desert locusts to breed rapidly&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/agencies-race-to-prevent-new-food-crisis-as-locusts-return-to-northern-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/agencies-race-to-prevent-new-food-crisis-as-locusts-return-to-northern-africa/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301865</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘It’s our garden’: PNG villages fight to prevent mine waste dumping in the sea</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/its-our-garden-png-villages-fight-to-prevent-mine-waste-dumping-in-the-sea/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/its-our-garden-png-villages-fight-to-prevent-mine-waste-dumping-in-the-sea/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jun 2025 02:37:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/12163117/Boat-Keleino-and-his-colleagues-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300702</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Oceania and Papua New Guinea]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Chemicals, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Gold Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Law, Marine Conservation, Mining, Nutrient Pollution, Oceans, Poisoning, Politics, Pollution, Social Justice, Waste, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Three communities in Papua New Guinea are waiting for the country’s Supreme Court to decide whether their concerns about the dumping of mine waste in the sea near their homes merit cancellation of an environmental permit for mining that the government issued in 2020. U.S.-based Newmont Corporation and South Africa’s Harmony Gold Ltd., the partners [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Three communities in Papua New Guinea are waiting for the country’s Supreme Court to decide whether their concerns about the dumping of mine waste in the sea near their homes merit cancellation of an environmental permit for mining that the government issued in 2020. U.S.-based Newmont Corporation and South Africa’s Harmony Gold Ltd., the partners in the development of the Wafi-Golpu copper and gold mine in Morobe province, want to pipe a slurry of leftover sediment, known as tailings, through a 103-kilometer (64-mile) pipeline. According to the companies’ plans, the tailings will travel from the mine through the pipeline until being discharged 200 meters (about 660 feet) under the sea at a point less than 1 km (0.6 mi) offshore in the Huon Gulf along PNG’s northern coastline. The method is known as deep-sea tailings placement (DSTP), and in December 2020, PNG’s Conservation and Environmental Protection Authority (CEPA) approved the plan laid out in the companies’ environmental impact statement (EIS). That approval triggered a series of legal battles beginning in 2021 that questioned whether Huon Gulf communities had been adequately informed of the risks of DSTP. Most recently, three leaders representing the villages of Labu Butu, Wagang and Yanga, located near the pipeline, sued CEPA’s leader and the government. Initially, the lawsuits aimed to stop the government from issuing a permit for large-scale mines called a “special mining lease” that would allow the project to move forward, citing the possibility of “catastrophic and irreplaceable damage to the marine environment and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/its-our-garden-png-villages-fight-to-prevent-mine-waste-dumping-in-the-sea/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/its-our-garden-png-villages-fight-to-prevent-mine-waste-dumping-in-the-sea/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300702</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Central Java villages take fast fashion to the cleaners at Indonesia’s Supreme Court</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/central-java-villages-take-fast-fashion-to-the-cleaners-at-indonesias-supreme-court/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/central-java-villages-take-fast-fashion-to-the-cleaners-at-indonesias-supreme-court/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 May 2025 00:56:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[T. Handoko]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/14132715/IMG_2627-1200x800-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299072</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Java, Indonesia, Java, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Business, Environment, Environmental Law, Fashion industry, Fish, Fishing, Freshwater, Industry, Poisoning, Pollution, Rivers, Supply Chain, Sustainability, Waste, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SUKOHARJO, Indonesia — Sarmi recalls the unusual blight that fell over Gupit village around 2017, when doves and finches appeared to vanish from the sky. “With pollution that acrid and poisonous, there weren’t any birds or animals around — they all went away,” she told Mongabay Indonesia. Life in this part of Sukoharjo, a subdued [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SUKOHARJO, Indonesia — Sarmi recalls the unusual blight that fell over Gupit village around 2017, when doves and finches appeared to vanish from the sky. “With pollution that acrid and poisonous, there weren’t any birds or animals around — they all went away,” she told Mongabay Indonesia. Life in this part of Sukoharjo, a subdued farming district on the island of Java, changed in 2017 when Indonesia’s largest textile group, known as Sritex, opened a factory run by one of its subsidiaries, PT Rayon Utama Makmur (RUM), to supply rayon fibers, also called viscose, to the global fast fashion industry. RUM stopped operating in mid-2023, one of the early dominoes leading up to Sritex itself folding on March 1 this year after being declared bankrupt for missed debt repayments. Sritex had made uniforms for Indonesia’s military and supplied garments to high-street fixtures like H&amp;M and Uniqlo. But sales at the group slumped from around $1.3 billion in 2019 to less than $850 million a year later as the coronavirus pandemic weakened consumer demand. More than 10,000 workers lost their jobs overnight as Sritex stopped operating in March, after the cabinet of President Prabowo Subianto mulled a rescue for the country’s largest textile company, which had started out as a simple shop in the 1960s. As officials in Central Java surveyed the collapse of the province’s biggest employer, Sarmi and 184 others celebrated vindication in court. “Even my child&#8217;s vertigo, thank God, is gone,” Sarmi said. “He used to need treatment&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/central-java-villages-take-fast-fashion-to-the-cleaners-at-indonesias-supreme-court/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/central-java-villages-take-fast-fashion-to-the-cleaners-at-indonesias-supreme-court/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299072</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cape vulture conservation offers hope, but challenges remain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/cape-vulture-conservation-offers-hope-but-challenges-remain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/cape-vulture-conservation-offers-hope-but-challenges-remain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2025 07:26:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/13102051/CapeVulture.Gyps_.coprotheres_JanRoseFlickrBYNCSA2.0-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298994</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Ghana, Namibia, South Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Poaching, Poisoning, Predators, Raptors, Scavengers, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Earlier this year, the vulture conservation organization Vulpro hailed the return of Cape vultures to a farm in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, near Mountain Zebra National Park. That marked the first time this species has been seen in the area for 30 years, according to the organization. “There&#8217;s more and more movement and foraging [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Earlier this year, the vulture conservation organization Vulpro hailed the return of Cape vultures to a farm in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, near Mountain Zebra National Park. That marked the first time this species has been seen in the area for 30 years, according to the organization. “There&#8217;s more and more movement and foraging of the birds, and they are now finding these historical areas that they used to occur in and that it&#8217;s now safe again, which I think is incredibly exciting,” says Kerri Wolter, CEO of Vulpro. The Cape vulture (Gyps coprotheres) is Southern Africa’s largest and only endemic vulture species. Beginning in the 1970s, Cape vulture colonies across the region shrank and many disappeared. It’s estimated that between 1992 and 2007, the species’ population in South Africa dropped by as much as 70%. But in 2021, the Cape vulture’s conservation status improved from endangered to vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. An assessment that finds a vulture species is at decreased risk of extinction is “borderline unheard of,” says John Davies, senior field officer in the birds of prey program at the Endangered Wildlife Trust, a South African conservation NGO. Seven of the nine vulture species found across Southern Africa, included the Cape vulture, fall into one of the threatened categories in the IUCN; three of them — the white-backed (Gyps africanus), white-headed (Trigonoceps occipitalis) and hooded (Necrosyrtes monachus) vultures — are considered critically endangered by the IUCN. Against this general decline, the story of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/cape-vulture-conservation-offers-hope-but-challenges-remain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/cape-vulture-conservation-offers-hope-but-challenges-remain/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298994</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In West Africa, hooded vultures vanish as abattoirs modernize</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/in-west-africa-hooded-vultures-vanish-as-abattoirs-modernize/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/in-west-africa-hooded-vultures-vanish-as-abattoirs-modernize/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Apr 2025 06:49:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/23105351/HoodedVulture.Necrosyrtus.monachus_Gambia2017_PeteRichmanFlickrBY2.0-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298043</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Benin, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Poaching, Poisoning, Predators, Raptors, Scavengers, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Critically endangered hooded vultures in Nigeria that once fed on the carcasses of wild animals are now largely dependent on scraps discarded by people. But changes in the way waste is disposed of at slaughterhouses has left them desperately short of food, researchers say. In the 1970s, hooded vultures (Necrosyrtes monachus) were among at least [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Critically endangered hooded vultures in Nigeria that once fed on the carcasses of wild animals are now largely dependent on scraps discarded by people. But changes in the way waste is disposed of at slaughterhouses has left them desperately short of food, researchers say. In the 1970s, hooded vultures (Necrosyrtes monachus) were among at least seven different vulture species that soared across Nigerian skies, according to historical records; now only they and palm-nut vultures (Gypohierax angolensis) persist, and numbers of both are dropping drastically. Food scarcity is playing a significant role in driving this decline, says ornithologist Michael Manja Williams, a Ph.D. candidate at Nigeria’s Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University. In the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, vultures could find carcasses in the wild to feed on, he says. But overhunting of wild mammals depleted that vital food source, leaving the birds increasingly reliant on humans. A hooded vulture in The Gambia: Across West Africa, hooded and palm-nut vultures have a long association with human communities’ waste. Changes in abattoir practices are now depriving these species of a vital source of food. Image by Pete Richman via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0) “In the early ’80s and ’90s, abattoirs were the central places that you could find [hooded] vultures,” Williams says, while noting that the birds face fierce competition at these sites from feral dogs and people. “The vultures fear the dogs; they won’t come where there are canines. So, you see the vultures hovering around.” The implications for the vultures are stark.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/in-west-africa-hooded-vultures-vanish-as-abattoirs-modernize/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/in-west-africa-hooded-vultures-vanish-as-abattoirs-modernize/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298043</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indiscriminate pesticide use threatens Bangladesh honey bees</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/indiscriminate-pesticide-use-threatens-bangladesh-honeybees/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/indiscriminate-pesticide-use-threatens-bangladesh-honeybees/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Mar 2025 07:11:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sadiqur Rahman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/27064423/beekeepers-bangladesh-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296568</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Bees, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Farming, Food Industry, Insects, Pesticides, Poisoning, Pollinators, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In February, during the flowering time of black cumin (Nigella sativa), beekeeper Pavel Hossen set up an apiary on leased barren land adjacent to farmer Abdul Hakim’s crop field in Kazirhat of Shariatpur, a district under Dhaka division and an emerging hub of spices, including the black cumin seeds. Pavel deployed Apis mellifera honey bees [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In February, during the flowering time of black cumin (Nigella sativa), beekeeper Pavel Hossen set up an apiary on leased barren land adjacent to farmer Abdul Hakim’s crop field in Kazirhat of Shariatpur, a district under Dhaka division and an emerging hub of spices, including the black cumin seeds. Pavel deployed Apis mellifera honey bees to collect nectar from the blooming cumin flowers. However, the hive boxes didn’t yield as much honey as expected. “Bees cannot forage freely across insecticide-treated crop fields. Their population growth is also slowing down,” Pavel recently told Mongabay. During a visit to Kazirhat in late February, the village’s agricultural landscape appeared fragmented by plots of different crops, including rice, wheat, coriander, black cumin, garlic, mustard and other vegetables. The use of agricultural chemicals like neonicotinoids as insecticides is popular with the cultivation of most of the mentioned crops. However, very few farmers know the permissible doses or potential effects of excessive use of insect killers on bees. Most of the farmers, like Abdul Hakim, said, “I spray the amount of chemicals that the sellers advise.” In a village market, agricultural chemical sellers with expertise in conservation of biodiversity is a rare thing. Entomologists and apiculturists have observed that rampant use of agricultural chemicals like neonicotinoids, present in different doses in nearly 600 brand products in Bangladesh, poses serious threats to bee colonies and other pollinators. “Because of food shortages, limited foraging grounds and frequent poisoning from insecticides, the population of honey bees is decreasing alarmingly,” said&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/indiscriminate-pesticide-use-threatens-bangladesh-honeybees/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/indiscriminate-pesticide-use-threatens-bangladesh-honeybees/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296568</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Drowned lands and poisoned waters threaten Peru’s campesinos and their livestock</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/drowned-lands-and-poisoned-waters-threaten-perus-campesinos-and-their-livestock/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/drowned-lands-and-poisoned-waters-threaten-perus-campesinos-and-their-livestock/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Mar 2025 15:19:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/25142521/Peru-lake-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296435</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Dams, Ecosystems, Environment, Flooding, Food, Freshwater, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Hydroelectric Power, Lakes, Land Rights, Livestock, Mining, Poisoning, Public Health, Waste, Water, Water Pollution, Water Scarcity, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ever since the Upamayo Dam on Peru’s Lake Chinchaycocha was built in 1932, floods have become a frequent occurrence in the area for several months a year. From January to May, entire homes and pasturelands are swallowed whole by water, forcing campesino families to migrate with their livestock to higher ground. But there’s something else [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ever since the Upamayo Dam on Peru’s Lake Chinchaycocha was built in 1932, floods have become a frequent occurrence in the area for several months a year. From January to May, entire homes and pasturelands are swallowed whole by water, forcing campesino families to migrate with their livestock to higher ground. But there’s something else in the flooded waters: it’s also contaminated by the Cerro de Pasco mining district upstream. When they can return in late June, residents say the pastures smell and are unsafe for animals to graze in. But few have a choice; they never received compensation for other lands. So their cattle and sheep that must eat the grass sometimes develop sepsis and die. Others pick up unknown diseases, and farmers find them running aimlessly, almost mindlessly. There have been so many deaths one community had to open a cemetery specifically for livestock. “When we see that cattle are already sick, we have to kill them to eat them before they die, but we’re poisoning ourselves,” Micaela Espinoza, a campesina farmer from the Chaquinilnioc community in Vicco district, Pasco department, told Mongabay by phone. “It shows on our skin, on our hands. It shows because we are eating an infected animal. But we prefer to kill them to eat them before they die on their own and we lose, because it’s a source of livelihoods for all these families.” Studies carried out by the National Water Authority show the presence of heavy metals in the water in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/drowned-lands-and-poisoned-waters-threaten-perus-campesinos-and-their-livestock/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296435</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Microplastic within humans now a health crisis: Interview with ‘Plastic People’ filmmakers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/microplastic-within-humans-now-a-health-crisis-interview-with-plastic-people-filmmakers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/microplastic-within-humans-now-a-health-crisis-interview-with-plastic-people-filmmakers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Mar 2025 12:53:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/19115137/PlastIcPeople_1920x1080_20240103-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296052</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Beyond the screen: DCEFF]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Consumption, Environment, Environmental Law, Film, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Industry, Interviews, Media, Microplastics, Nutrient Pollution, Overconsumption, Planetary Health, Plastic, Poisoning, Pollution, Public Health, Research, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In a lab in Türkiye, researcher Sedat Gündoğdu zooms in on the image of a small red fiber. For the first time on film, viewers are witnessing microplastics in the human brain. The moment is emblematic of an emerging environmental and health crisis affecting nearly every corner of life on Earth, from the deepest depths [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In a lab in Türkiye, researcher Sedat Gündoğdu zooms in on the image of a small red fiber. For the first time on film, viewers are witnessing microplastics in the human brain. The moment is emblematic of an emerging environmental and health crisis affecting nearly every corner of life on Earth, from the deepest depths of the ocean to the blood in our veins. Microplastics, it seems, are everywhere. The award-winning documentary Plastic People: The Hidden Crisis of Microplastics follows science journalist Ziya Tong as she examines her own body for microplastic contamination and traces the latest microplastic science and solutions around the globe. The thesis: we are all becoming “plastic people.” “I was surprised at the ubiquity of microplastics in the human body,” Rick Smith, executive producer of the documentary, said in an interview with Mongabay. The film grew out of Smith’s 2020 reporting for The Globe and Mail, in which he worked with scientists to test his own body for microplastics. “The question isn’t, ‘do we have microplastics in us?’” Smith said. “The question is, ‘how much?’ And the question isn’t where in the human body microplastics exist. The question is, ‘where doesn’t it exist?’ We haven’t actually found a human organ without measurable microplastic levels yet.” The film takes viewers on a global journey, tracking researchers who are finding microplastics not only in the environment but in human bloodstreams, brains and placentas. Recent studies confirm these findings, showing that microplastics have infiltrated virtually every part of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/microplastic-within-humans-now-a-health-crisis-interview-with-plastic-people-filmmakers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/microplastic-within-humans-now-a-health-crisis-interview-with-plastic-people-filmmakers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296052</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Microplastics are sickening and killing wildlife, disrupting Earth systems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/microplastics-are-sickening-and-killing-wildlife-disrupting-earth-systems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/microplastics-are-sickening-and-killing-wildlife-disrupting-earth-systems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Nov 2024 15:43:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/21110656/bottlenose-dolphin-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290402</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Animals, Birds, Chemicals, Conservation, Consumption, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Health, Mammals, Microplastics, Natural Gas, Oceans, Oil, Overconsumption, Planetary Health, Plastic, Poisoning, Politics, Pollution, Seabirds, Water Pollution, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Bottlenose dolphins leapt and torpedoed through the shallow turquoise waters off Florida’s Sarasota Bay. Then, a research team moved in, quickly corralling the small pod in a large net. With the speed of a race car pit crew, veterinarians, biologists and their assistants examined the animals, checking vital signs while taking skin, blood and other [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Bottlenose dolphins leapt and torpedoed through the shallow turquoise waters off Florida’s Sarasota Bay. Then, a research team moved in, quickly corralling the small pod in a large net. With the speed of a race car pit crew, veterinarians, biologists and their assistants examined the animals, checking vital signs while taking skin, blood and other samples. They held a petri dish over each dolphin’s blowhole until it exhaled, with an intensity similar to a human cough. Then, they rolled up the net and the dolphins swam off unharmed. A pod in Louisiana’s Barataria Bay was similarly tested. Generations of dolphins have been part of this ongoing dolphin health study, run by the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program since 1970. It tracks populations and individuals and also looks for health issues related to pollutants in the marine environment. In the lab, scientists discovered that all 11 of the dolphins had breathed out microplastic fibers, shed from synthetic clothing, says Leslie B. Hart, associate professor at the College of Charleston and an author on this research. The fibers resembled those found in human lungs in previous studies, proving that dolphins, like us, are breathing plastic. In people, microplastic has been linked to poor lung function and possible lung disease. An earlier collaboration linked phthalates circulating in the dolphins’ blood to alterations in their thyroid hormone levels — an effect also found in humans that can impact nearly every organ in the body. Phthalates, toxic chemicals found in flexible plastics, readily leach into the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/microplastics-are-sickening-and-killing-wildlife-disrupting-earth-systems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/microplastics-are-sickening-and-killing-wildlife-disrupting-earth-systems/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290402</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The plastics crisis is now a global human health crisis, experts say</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-plastics-crisis-is-now-a-global-human-health-crisis-experts-say/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-plastics-crisis-is-now-a-global-human-health-crisis-experts-say/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Nov 2024 18:15:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alden Wicker]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/19131858/pexels-mumtahina-tanni-1080117-8395838-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290316</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Coal, Conservation, Consumption, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Health, Microplastics, Natural Gas, Oceans, Oil, Overconsumption, Planetary Health, Plastic, Poisoning, Politics, Pollution, Protests, Public Health, Regulations, Social Justice, Toxicology, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It’s been clear for some time: We’re in the midst of a rapidly escalating global plastics crisis. More than 11 billion metric tons of virgin plastics were produced worldwide from 1950 to 2022. And the rate of production has soared, with at least 71% of all plastics ever made produced in the 21st century. Of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It’s been clear for some time: We’re in the midst of a rapidly escalating global plastics crisis. More than 11 billion metric tons of virgin plastics were produced worldwide from 1950 to 2022. And the rate of production has soared, with at least 71% of all plastics ever made produced in the 21st century. Of all those billions of tons manufactured, three-quarters were discarded in landfills, open dumps or directly into the environment. Today, our oceans, beaches, rivers, cities and wild places are awash in discarded plastic and synthetic textiles, while microplastics have been detected from pole to pole, on remote mountaintops and in clouds. In view of the tremendous buildup of visible trash, it’s not surprising that the plastics crisis so far has mostly been treated as a problem of poor waste management and consumer choice. Likewise, efforts for a fix have largely focused on recycling and consumer education. But talking about plastic as a litter problem ignores one of the most alarming facets of our plastic addiction: its impacts on human health. Fast-mounting evidence points to microplastics entering the human body and doing internal damage. Likewise, thousands of chemicals that leach out of plastics are finding their way into our bodies (via food wrappers, storage containers, cooking utensils and other routes) with some of those chemicals linked to a range of health impacts, including immune suppression and cancer. In a new report out Nov. 7th in the journal One Earth, an international group of researchers attempted to gather&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-plastics-crisis-is-now-a-global-human-health-crisis-experts-say/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-plastics-crisis-is-now-a-global-human-health-crisis-experts-say/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290316</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bobcats are back, and they’re helping protect people from zoonotic disease</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/bobcats-are-back-and-theyre-helping-protect-people-from-zoonotic-disease/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/bobcats-are-back-and-theyre-helping-protect-people-from-zoonotic-disease/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Nov 2024 18:34:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Christine Woodside]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/12161435/bobcat-in-snow-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289980</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest, Canada, Mexico, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Diseases, Environment, Extinction, Habitat, Mammals, Poisoning, Predators, Public Health, Small Cats, Top Predators, Wildlife, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A bobcat, with its characteristic reddish fur and black markings, trots across a snow-covered field in central Oregon, in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, hunting birds at the Warm Springs National Fish Hatchery. It could almost be mistaken for a giant domestic cat, except for its massive legs, a shorter neck than any house feline, ears [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A bobcat, with its characteristic reddish fur and black markings, trots across a snow-covered field in central Oregon, in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, hunting birds at the Warm Springs National Fish Hatchery. It could almost be mistaken for a giant domestic cat, except for its massive legs, a shorter neck than any house feline, ears topped with thin tufts of dark fur, and a stubby tail standing up straight. Though seldom seen by people, Lynx rufus is the most successful small wildcat in North America. “Bobcats are in the process of a large-scale recovery and have an almost continental distribution, in the United States, at least — from the West to the East, and North to South,” said Taal Levi, a biologist at Oregon State University who studies the effects of hunting, disease and climate change on wildlife. Bobcat numbers were nearly nil by around 1900, but have rebounded to several million today, ranging from southern Canada through the contiguous United States into southern Mexico. They’re resilient, even when living at the edge of asphalt and near people. Bobcats remain wild and elusive while hunting and residing near towns. Security cameras often catch them skulking down roads and up driveways, sometimes rummaging in people’s gardens, chasing a rabbit, or tossing around a mouse snatched from beneath a foundation. Bobcats also use human-built hiking trails — or, perhaps, it’s humans who made trails along the bobcats’ forested routes. “I often saw them hunting on the trails I ran [near San Francisco,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/bobcats-are-back-and-theyre-helping-protect-people-from-zoonotic-disease/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/bobcats-are-back-and-theyre-helping-protect-people-from-zoonotic-disease/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
					<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/12154412/1-USFWS-bobcat-video.mp4" length="773421" type="video/mp4" />
					<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289980</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Hooded vultures in Ghana and South Africa on the brink, study says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/hooded-vultures-in-ghana-and-south-africa-on-the-brink-study-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/hooded-vultures-in-ghana-and-south-africa-on-the-brink-study-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Sep 2024 09:49:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Ashoka]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/13095546/Image-2-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287401</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Ghana, South Africa, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Poaching, Poisoning, Predators, Raptors, Scavengers, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[High rates of inbreeding among hooded vultures in Ghana and South Africa spell trouble for their future, according to a newly published study. The study found that despite wide differences in the population size of the birds in the two countries, both face similar risks associated with low genetic diversity. It underlined the need to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[High rates of inbreeding among hooded vultures in Ghana and South Africa spell trouble for their future, according to a newly published study. The study found that despite wide differences in the population size of the birds in the two countries, both face similar risks associated with low genetic diversity. It underlined the need to protect hooded vultures (Necrosyrtes monachus) in both countries from hunting and habitat loss. Researchers gathered molted feathers from vulture nests in Ghana, where this species is considered highly endangered due to rapid population declines but remains abundant for now, and in South Africa, where it’s estimated that only 100-200 mature adults remain, mostly in Kruger National Park. Despite the variance in their overall population size, the birds in both countries showed high levels of inbreeding and low genetic diversity — a “troubling” finding, according to the authors. The study showed that while the number of hooded vultures in South Africa is dwindling, there’s still a basis for their population to recover. “It still does have some unique genetic components which are important to conserve,” said study co-author Sandi Willows-Munro, an associate professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Hooded vultures play a critical ecosystem role in both countries, scavenging on carcasses and thus removing disease and potentially harmful bacteria. Low rates of genetic diversity would mean that these populations are vulnerable to threats, such as disease outbreaks, and less adaptable to environmental change. Researchers had initially thought that Ghana’s relatively large population of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/hooded-vultures-in-ghana-and-south-africa-on-the-brink-study-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/hooded-vultures-in-ghana-and-south-africa-on-the-brink-study-says/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287401</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Polluting copper mine in Java suspended as farmers decry lost crops</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/polluting-copper-mine-in-java-suspended-as-farmers-decry-lost-crops/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/polluting-copper-mine-in-java-suspended-as-farmers-decry-lost-crops/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Aug 2024 16:04:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Asad Asnawi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/30143613/Pacitan-mining-operations-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286771</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Java, Indonesia, Java, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Climate Change, Copper, Crops, Environment, Food, Food Industry, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Mining, Poisoning, Politics, Pollution, Rice, Tropical Forests, Water, Water Pollution, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PACITAN, Indonesia — Indonesia’s mining ministry has ordered a suspension of operations at a controversial copper mine on Java Island following claims by local farmers that it was responsible for massive pollution wrecking the livelihoods of 200 families living downriver. Rice-farming families in Cokrokembang village, Pacitan district, have for more than a year been affected [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PACITAN, Indonesia — Indonesia’s mining ministry has ordered a suspension of operations at a controversial copper mine on Java Island following claims by local farmers that it was responsible for massive pollution wrecking the livelihoods of 200 families living downriver. Rice-farming families in Cokrokembang village, Pacitan district, have for more than a year been affected by contaminated water from the Kedung Pinihan River, which irrigates the community’s rice fields. The farmers attribute this pollution of the river to waste from the copper mine operated by PT Gemilang Limpah Internusa (GLI). “We received information … that GLI was temporarily stopped by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources,” Cici Roudlotul Jannah, the head of the district environmental agency, told Mongabay Indonesia in a text message. Rice farmers across Indonesia have faced overwhelming difficulties since the severe drought caused by the 2023 El Niño and positive Indian Ocean dipole. The situation was made worse by rising input costs and limited access to affordable fertilizer following Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine, two of the world’s biggest fertilizer exporters. Contamination from the mine, located in Kluwih village, is suspected of seeping into the Kedung Pinihan River. The pollution has visibly affected the water, with boulders in the river turning a yellowish orange, and farmers reporting that their crops are failing to develop. Badrul Amali, a lawyer for GLI, confirmed that the mining ministry had ordered the company to suspend operations. “I need to emphasize that this is only a temporary suspension, not a closure,” Badrul&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/polluting-copper-mine-in-java-suspended-as-farmers-decry-lost-crops/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/polluting-copper-mine-in-java-suspended-as-farmers-decry-lost-crops/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286771</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Time to highlight South Asia’s less-studied vultures: Interview with Krishna Bhusal</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/time-to-highlight-south-asias-less-studied-vultures-interview-with-krishna-bhusal/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/time-to-highlight-south-asias-less-studied-vultures-interview-with-krishna-bhusal/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Aug 2024 09:53:30 +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/20/2024/08/23094041/39022906415_54d083557d_5k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286462</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Poisoning, Raptors, Research, Saving Species From Extinction, Scavengers, Solutions, and Vultures]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — The story of South Asia’s vultures has been a tragedy played out at warp speed, especially for griffon vultures, characterized by a slim head and long, slender neck, and belonging to the genus Gyps. Populations of these raptors are believed to have collapsed by as much as 99% between the 1990s and early [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — The story of South Asia’s vultures has been a tragedy played out at warp speed, especially for griffon vultures, characterized by a slim head and long, slender neck, and belonging to the genus Gyps. Populations of these raptors are believed to have collapsed by as much as 99% between the 1990s and early 2000s. Until 2004, the cause of this precipitous decline was a mystery. That year, U.S. veterinarian J. Lindsay Oaks and his team reported a high correlation between the kidney failure that they found was killing vultures, and residues of diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory drug given to livestock. The vultures, essentially, were being poisoned by feeding on carrion that had been fed the drug. The finding sent shockwaves across the Indian subcontinent, and governments started testing the hypothesis among their own vulture populations. After finding strong evidence that this was indeed the case, countries across the region and beyond started taking active measures to save the birds of prey. Autopsies showed that when an animal treated with diclofenac died, traces of the medicine remained in carcass for up to a week. Vultures that fed on the carcasses experienced a spike uric acid level in the blood and developed visceral gout, preventing the kidney from filtering out uric acid, and eventually leading to the death of the bird. A single contaminated cow carcass could kill around 350-800 vultures, researchers found. Krishna Prasad Bhusal has been at the forefront of vulture conservation and research in Nepal since the diclofenac&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/time-to-highlight-south-asias-less-studied-vultures-interview-with-krishna-bhusal/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/time-to-highlight-south-asias-less-studied-vultures-interview-with-krishna-bhusal/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286462</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can nations ever get artisanal gold mining right?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/can-nations-ever-get-artisanal-gold-mining-right/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/can-nations-ever-get-artisanal-gold-mining-right/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Aug 2024 17:38:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/13114258/8-Small-scale-miner-using-mercury-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286036</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Colombia, Ghana, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Environmental Law, Gold Mining, Health, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industry, Mercury, Mining, Poisoning, Pollution, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is a pillar of stability and opportunity for at least 16 million people worldwide, particularly in rural, impoverished communities. But with these pros also come cons. Given the serious contamination and environmental degradation associated with it, nations around the world are pushing for more sustainable laws and regulations. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is a pillar of stability and opportunity for at least 16 million people worldwide, particularly in rural, impoverished communities. But with these pros also come cons. Given the serious contamination and environmental degradation associated with it, nations around the world are pushing for more sustainable laws and regulations. The question remains for policymakers, however: Can policymakers ever get it right? Several studies have demonstrated the harmful effects of ASGM on communities and the environment. One of the greatest problems is the use of mercury to separate gold from the ore, with the waste then released into the environment, leading to air, soil and water pollution that threatens biodiversity and human health. Another issue is deforestation without a rehabilitation process, which legal mines are often required to have. “There are a lot of illegal mining activities in the small-scale mining space that are creating a lot of environmental issues, such as pollution of river bodies,” Philip Bawah, a member of the Ghana National Association of Small-Scale Miners (GNASSM), told Mongabay. The challenge, he said, is proper regulation and government assistance to turn these operations into legal businesses that follow environmental protocols. “There are a lot of lapses from the authorities concerned,” Bawah told Mongabay. Small-scale gold mining in Ghana. Image by Mirko Winkler / planetGOLD. Nations around the world are keen to find ways to make mining more sustainable, given that so many people depend on it for income and security. In fragile and conflict-affected&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/can-nations-ever-get-artisanal-gold-mining-right/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/can-nations-ever-get-artisanal-gold-mining-right/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286036</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Action plan to save West African vultures targets threat from belief-based use</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/action-plan-to-save-west-african-vultures-targets-threat-from-belief-based-use/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/action-plan-to-save-west-african-vultures-targets-threat-from-belief-based-use/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Jun 2024 11:41:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/13115356/White-headedVulture.TrigonocepsOccipitalis_MoleNPGhana_NikBorrowFlickrBYNC2.0-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283192</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Poaching, Poisoning, Raptors, Scavengers, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Conservation organizations and international bodies have launched a 20-year action plan to save vultures in West Africa, specifically targeting the threat of belief-based use. The West African Vulture Conservation Action Plan (WAVCAP) spans 16 countries, with the aim to bring trade of the scavengers, identified as the primary driver of a rapid decline, to a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Conservation organizations and international bodies have launched a 20-year action plan to save vultures in West Africa, specifically targeting the threat of belief-based use. The West African Vulture Conservation Action Plan (WAVCAP) spans 16 countries, with the aim to bring trade of the scavengers, identified as the primary driver of a rapid decline, to a halt. Raptors and vultures are in decline across the whole continent due to habitat loss, electrocution, loss of food sources, intentional and unintentional poisoning, human-wildlife conflict, and more. A paper published earlier this year underlined a precipitous collapse in vulture numbers, finding that most vulture species are increasingly holed up in protected areas. The decline is particularly severe in West Africa, says study co-author Umberto Gallo-Orsi, who coordinates raptor conservation for the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS). In 2020, more than 2,000 critically endangered hooded vultures (Necrosyrtes monachus) were found poisoned at several sites in Guinea-Bissau over a two-week period. “Because birds were found without their heads and other parts, it is obvious that the reason behind the incident was the trade, and probably international trade, of vulture parts for belief-based use,” Gallo-Orsi says. The mass killings prompted conservationists to investigate the threat and laid the groundwork for the multiyear action plan for West Africa to save dwindling vulture populations, he adds. “Belief-based use” is a catchall term that includes demand for a wide range of traditional medicine practices, “fetish” beliefs, and cultural practices. Raptor experts have long been aware of the hunting of vultures&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/action-plan-to-save-west-african-vultures-targets-threat-from-belief-based-use/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/action-plan-to-save-west-african-vultures-targets-threat-from-belief-based-use/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283192</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tapirs in Brazil’s Cerrado inspire research on human health &#038; pesticides</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/tapirs-in-brazils-cerrado-inspire-research-on-human-health-pesticides/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/tapirs-in-brazils-cerrado-inspire-research-on-human-health-pesticides/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Apr 2024 16:49:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Michael Esquer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/10152938/A-tapir-Victor-Sanches-INCAB-IPE-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280810</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Cerrado and Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Cerrado, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Animals, Chemicals, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Farming, Fellows, Habitat Loss, Pesticides, Poisoning, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It was in 2015 when researchers were attempting to capture tapirs (Tapirus terrestris) in the Brazilian Cerrado to install monitoring collars so they could study the species. While trying to complete the anesthetic procedure, they noticed that the anesthesia was not working, and as a result, they had to supplement the doses for the procedure [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It was in 2015 when researchers were attempting to capture tapirs (Tapirus terrestris) in the Brazilian Cerrado to install monitoring collars so they could study the species. While trying to complete the anesthetic procedure, they noticed that the anesthesia was not working, and as a result, they had to supplement the doses for the procedure to take effect. This was the catalyst for research that revealed years later that tapirs in the region were contaminated with various types of pesticides and had alterations in organs important for metabolism. At the time, researchers hypothesized that something in the tapirs’ bodies was interfering with the anesthesia. One possibility was pesticide exposure, which is linked to changes in the metabolic process. Now, another hypothesis raised by the researchers back then has recently been confirmed: Residents of the same region also show contamination by pesticides. The tapir findings prompted researchers to collect biological samples from roughly 100 nearby residents, and more than 30 people tested positive for some form of pesticide, with more than one chemical present in some cases. The most widely used pesticide in Brazil, glyphosate, was found in more than 20 people. The work, released in a technical report in February, was conducted by researchers from the National Initiative for the Brazilian Tapir Conservation (INCAB) of the Institute of Ecological Research (IPÊ), who are preparing a paper on the research for publication in a scientific journal. This research shows how animals are providing information and inspiration for studies with humans, which&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/tapirs-in-brazils-cerrado-inspire-research-on-human-health-pesticides/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/tapirs-in-brazils-cerrado-inspire-research-on-human-health-pesticides/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280810</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Beneath the surface, a toxic tide threatens Bangladesh&#8217;s water lifeline</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/beneath-the-surface-a-toxic-tide-threatens-bangladeshs-water-lifeline/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/beneath-the-surface-a-toxic-tide-threatens-bangladeshs-water-lifeline/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Mar 2024 13:24:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mahadi Al Hasnat]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/28130805/bangladesh-paddy-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280405</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Crops, Diseases, Drinking Water, Environment, Health, Industry, Poisoning, Pollution, Public Health, Rice, Waste, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Imagine a mother in a rural village drawing water from a well with her pitcher. This seemingly ordinary water holds her family&#8217;s future — for drinking, cooking and bathing. But beneath the surface lurks a hidden threat: contamination by arsenic, salinity and heavy metals, silently poisoning the lifeline for millions in Bangladesh. Despite 98% of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Imagine a mother in a rural village drawing water from a well with her pitcher. This seemingly ordinary water holds her family&#8217;s future — for drinking, cooking and bathing. But beneath the surface lurks a hidden threat: contamination by arsenic, salinity and heavy metals, silently poisoning the lifeline for millions in Bangladesh. Despite 98% of people having water access, only 59% enjoy safe drinking water that meets quality standards. This leaves 68.3 million people vulnerable to illnesses and developmental issues. Moreover, just 15% of the population has piped water, with the poorest hit hardest, according to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF&#8217;s Joint Monitoring Programme. To understand the problem, in 2020 the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) a vast project. Equipped with 901 monitoring wells, including those plunging to depths of 1,100 feet, the project exposed a disconcerting reality throughout the 2020-21 monsoon and dry seasons. Anwar Zahid, BWDB&#8217;s director of groundwater hydrology, revealed alarming arsenic levels just below the surface, surpassing safe limits, notably in floodplains and deltas. “Bangladesh&#8217;s acceptable limit for arsenic is five times higher than the WHO standard — 50 micrograms per liter [µg/L]. Water samples analyzed indicated levels below this limit, but certain regions exceeded 10 µg/L standard, reaching an alarming 311 µg/L in Shariatpur,” he said, . “Areas of particular concern include flood plains and delta areas, excluding , Madhupur Garh and Teesta Fan regions, where arsenic levels are alarming at depths below 50 meters [164 feet],” Zahid told Mongabay.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/beneath-the-surface-a-toxic-tide-threatens-bangladeshs-water-lifeline/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/beneath-the-surface-a-toxic-tide-threatens-bangladeshs-water-lifeline/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280405</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Java rice farmers suffer crop failure as copper mine pollutes local irrigation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/java-rice-farmers-suffer-crop-failure-as-copper-mine-pollutes-local-irrigation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/java-rice-farmers-suffer-crop-failure-as-copper-mine-pollutes-local-irrigation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Mar 2024 15:12:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Asad Asnawi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/11151134/Parno--768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279620</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Java, Indonesia, Java, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Climate Change, Copper, Crops, Environment, Food, Food Industry, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Mining, Poisoning, Politics, Pollution, Rice, Tropical Forests, Water, Water Pollution, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PACITAN, Indonesia — Parno looked weary at he stared out over his rice field, occasionally shaking his head as he considered prospects for the coming harvest. “How can I not be angry?” the 69-year-old told Mongabay Indonesia at his field in Cokrokembang village. “It’s been 20 days and the plants are not growing.” Like many [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PACITAN, Indonesia — Parno looked weary at he stared out over his rice field, occasionally shaking his head as he considered prospects for the coming harvest. “How can I not be angry?” the 69-year-old told Mongabay Indonesia at his field in Cokrokembang village. “It’s been 20 days and the plants are not growing.” Like many farmers here in this northern pocket of East Java’s Pacitan district, Parno has long suspected his rice plants were failing due to contamination of the community’s irrigation source. He blames pollution from a copper mine in the hills above his field operated by PT Gemilang Limpah Internusa (GLI). Rice fields in the area that use water from other sources seemed to be thriving. And the fields farther downstream were healthy enough. However, Parno’s rice plants appeared stunted, wilting under the sun with a sickly yellow tint. GLI’s copper mine is located in the upland in Kluwih village, around 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) northwest of Parno’s farm. Waste from the mine appears to have seeped into the Kedung Pinihan River, which runs through a valley passing Cokrokembang’s rice fields. The pollution in the river is visible with the naked eye: some rounded boulders in the water have turned a lurid yellowish orange, while mud deposits thickened the further Mongabay followed it upstream toward the mining concession. Parno has tried planting soybeans and corn, but the results were even worse and all the plants died. He tried to replant the entire field with rice, but the new&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/java-rice-farmers-suffer-crop-failure-as-copper-mine-pollutes-local-irrigation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279620</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In climate-related flooding, a Ugandan river turns poisonous</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/in-climate-related-flooding-a-ugandan-river-turns-poisonous/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/in-climate-related-flooding-a-ugandan-river-turns-poisonous/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Mar 2024 10:57:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/06054504/20-hippos-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279510</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering Climate Now]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Chemicals, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Conservation, Disasters, Environment, Extreme Weather, Flooding, Governance, Human Rights, Impact Of Climate Change, Mining, Poisoning, Poverty, Rivers, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the second of a two-part series on climate-related disasters in western Uganda. Read Part One here. KASESE, Uganda — Right as the Nyamwamba River emerges from the foothills of western Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains and begins its final descent onto the savanna, it passes by a curious sight. On the far bank from the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the second of a two-part series on climate-related disasters in western Uganda. Read Part One here. KASESE, Uganda — Right as the Nyamwamba River emerges from the foothills of western Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains and begins its final descent onto the savanna, it passes by a curious sight. On the far bank from the road, past piles of sun-bleached stones on the now-dry riverbed, the earth has been disturbed. Towering walls stand naked and exposed amid the surrounding hills, as if a mighty hand has taken a scoop from the very landscape itself. Sheer cliffs emerge abruptly from the green scrub above, crashing downward into a flat, brownish pit of sand and rocks. This is a copper tailings pool. Along with its siblings, it’s poisoning this part of Uganda. The pools were built to hold waste from a mine once operated by Falconbridge, a Canadian company that ruled over the Rwenzori foothills from the 1950s to late ’70s. In its heyday, Falconbridge’s copper mine, based just up the road in the small town of Kilembe, was the churning engine of Uganda’s economy. The mine once employed more than 6,000 people and accounted for nearly a third of the country’s GDP. Falconbridge was chased out of Uganda by Idi Amin in 1977, who nationalized the mine in the final years of his rule, convinced that his government could run it as well as the Canadians and keep more of the copper’s value at home. By 1982, it was shuttered. In&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/in-climate-related-flooding-a-ugandan-river-turns-poisonous/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279510</doi>				</item>
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