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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/population/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Fri, 07 Aug 2026 02:59:06 +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 Population</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/population/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Nepal&#8217;s newest national parks drive tiger recovery, but new concerns arise</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/nepals-newest-national-parks-drive-tiger-recovery-but-new-concerns-arise/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/nepals-newest-national-parks-drive-tiger-recovery-but-new-concerns-arise/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Aug 2026 05:19:07 +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/20/2026/08/05050531/2-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325363</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Camera Trapping, Habitat Loss, Invasive Species, Leopards, Mammals, National Parks, Parks, Population, Tigers, UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Nepal is now home to an estimated 429 wild tigers, up from 355 four years ago and nearly four-fold from 16 years ago, the country&#8217;s conservation officials reported on the occasion of World Tiger Day. As the country celebrates this historic achievement, a closer look at the latest numbers reveals an uneven recovery. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Nepal is now home to an estimated 429 wild tigers, up from 355 four years ago and nearly four-fold from 16 years ago, the country&#8217;s conservation officials reported on the occasion of World Tiger Day. As the country celebrates this historic achievement, a closer look at the latest numbers reveals an uneven recovery. Nepal&#8217;s youngest national parks are driving nearly all the growth, while Bardiya, the country&#8217;s second-oldest park, has fewer tigers. This could lead to more conflict between not just people and tigers, but people and leopards as well in and around the new national parks, according to recent studies. Three factors appear to be behind this split: water availability, animal movement both within and outside the country, and spread of invasive species. &#8220;The results from the survey reflect the positive outcomes of ongoing efforts in the field of tiger conservation in Nepal, such as habitat conservation and management, poaching control, conservation of prey species, and biological corridor conservation,&#8221; said Bed Kumar Dhakal, spokesperson for the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation. Chitwan, the country&#8217;s oldest national park, still leads by far in raw numbers. But the newer parks (Banke, Parsa and Shuklaphanta) are where growth is concentrated, while the country&#8217;s two oldest parks, Chitwan and Bardiya, are showing the slowest growth or an outright decline. &nbsp; This graph shows changes in tiger population in different national parks in Nepal. Image courtesy of DNPWC/Nepal. The numbers are rooted in a global pledge made in November 2010.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/nepals-newest-national-parks-drive-tiger-recovery-but-new-concerns-arise/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325363</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The European wildcat hovers between recovery and local extinction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-european-wildcat-hovers-between-recovery-and-local-extinction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-european-wildcat-hovers-between-recovery-and-local-extinction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 May 2026 13:12:52 +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/20/2026/05/07014556/Image_1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318902</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Czech Republic, Europe, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, and Turkey]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Cats, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Diseases, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Funding, Genetics, Habitat Loss, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Human-wildlife Conflict, Hunting, Mammals, Parasites, Population, Reintroductions, Saving Species From Extinction, Small Cats, Solutions, Species recovery, Wildlife, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A quiet comeback story is unfolding for the European wildcat in the Czech Republic’s Lusatian Mountains. Conservationists tracking this elusive species there have spotted a male and female, named Jonáš and Tonka, the first to be found in the region in nearly a century. This small cat species lives in forests across Europe. It’s doing [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A quiet comeback story is unfolding for the European wildcat in the Czech Republic’s Lusatian Mountains. Conservationists tracking this elusive species there have spotted a male and female, named Jonáš and Tonka, the first to be found in the region in nearly a century. This small cat species lives in forests across Europe. It’s doing relatively well in some places and is imperiled in others, like the Czech Republic, where it’s critically endangered. The European wildcat (Felis silvestris), which is around the size of a large housecat, was wiped out because of disappearing habitat — and persecution. They were considered vermin and killed because they preyed on poultry and they were hunted for sport. More recently, they’re sometimes hybridizing, breeding with domestic cats. Numbers are spotty across parts of their range, so overall population numbers and trends, whether they’re rebounding or declining, is currently unknown. That’s a challenge shared by many of the world’s 30-plus small wildcat species that are often overlooked by research and funding. But they are hanging on in the Czech Republic. Earlier this year, Tonka gave birth to at least three kittens, offering hope that a slow wildcat recovery may be underway. Conservationists set up “hair traps,” wooden posts smeared with a lure that attracts the wildcats, then analyzed DNA from fur they left behind when they rubbed on them to mark their territory, as cats do. Genetically confirmed records of wildcat births are “exceedingly rare” in the country, said Kristýna Chroboková, field coordinator with the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-european-wildcat-hovers-between-recovery-and-local-extinction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318902</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Paul Ehrlich, ‘Population Bomb’ ecologist, dies at 93</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/paul-ehrlich-population-bomb-ecologist-dies-at-93/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/paul-ehrlich-population-bomb-ecologist-dies-at-93/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Mar 2026 17:54:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/18154036/Paul_R_Ehrlich-1-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315912</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Controversial, Environment, Obituary, Overpopulation, and Population]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The modern environmental movement acquired many of its arguments from scientists who studied forests, oceans and the atmosphere. Few supplied it with a warning as stark, or as controversial, as that delivered by Paul Ehrlich. A population biologist trained on insects, he became one of the most recognizable public intellectuals of the environmental age. His [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The modern environmental movement acquired many of its arguments from scientists who studied forests, oceans and the atmosphere. Few supplied it with a warning as stark, or as controversial, as that delivered by Paul Ehrlich. A population biologist trained on insects, he became one of the most recognizable public intellectuals of the environmental age. His predictions of famine and ecological strain in The Population Bomb helped shape debate about limits to growth in the late 20th century. They also made him a lightning rod. Ehrlich, who died March 13 at 93, spent most of his professional life at Stanford University. His formal training was in entomology and population biology. As a young researcher, he studied butterflies with the meticulous patience of a field naturalist, cataloging how species dispersed across landscapes and how small populations survived. Those studies, often conducted with his wife and collaborator, Anne Ehrlich, helped illuminate ideas about population structure, extinction risk and habitat fragmentation. They were technical contributions, widely respected within ecology. Public fame arrived by a different route. In 1968, Ehrlich published The Population Bomb, a short, urgent book that argued that rapid human population growth threatened to outstrip the planet’s capacity to provide food and resources. Its opening pages were deliberately blunt. Ehrlich wrote that “the battle to feed all of humanity is over,” predicting that hundreds of millions might die in famines during the following decades. The book appeared at a moment when global population growth rates were historically high and food shortages had&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/paul-ehrlich-population-bomb-ecologist-dies-at-93/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315912</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sri Lanka looks to build disaster-resilient housing after devastating cyclone</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/sri-lanka-looks-to-build-disaster-resilient-housing-after-devastating-cyclone/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/sri-lanka-looks-to-build-disaster-resilient-housing-after-devastating-cyclone/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Dec 2025 04:41:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kamanthi Wickramasinghe]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/27041803/House-damaged-following-a-landslide-in-Kandapola-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312070</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Buffer Zones, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Disasters, Environment, Governance, Mountains, Population, Regulations, Research, Storms, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ARANAYAKA, Sri Lanka — Bandara Jayaratne from Beraliya, a village in the Aranayaka region in Sri Lanka, is among the fortunate individuals who escaped a landslide on Nov. 28 that occurred right behind his house. Landslides aren’t a new phenomenon in this part of the country. In 2016, at least a 100 people died when [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ARANAYAKA, Sri Lanka — Bandara Jayaratne from Beraliya, a village in the Aranayaka region in Sri Lanka, is among the fortunate individuals who escaped a landslide on Nov. 28 that occurred right behind his house. Landslides aren’t a new phenomenon in this part of the country. In 2016, at least a 100 people died when a massive landslide occurred in the same area. It also displaced more than 2,000 families and affected some 350,000 people. Due to the vulnerability of this location, many families were evacuated in 2016, but most returned to their homes once the weather conditions improved. Today, though, after the landslides triggered by Cyclone Ditwah at the end of November, many residents say they’re reluctant to return home, and are instead awaiting assistance from the government for relocation to safer sites. “I managed to take my parents to a relative’s house near the town as a temporary measure,” Jayaratne, who is temporarily displaced, tells Mongabay. “Right now, I’m unable to go to my house as the roads are still blocked and my house is no longer safe to be inhabited.” Features of a disaster-resilient house suitable for slopes according to Sri Lanka’s newly formulated hazard-resilient construction manual. Image courtesy of NBRO. Cyclone Ditwah affected thousands of people like Jayaratne, who saw their homes damaged or outright destroyed by landslides. The recent most report from Sri Lanka’s Disaster Management Centre (DMC) says 6,228 houses were fully damaged, and more than 100,000 partially damaged. A landslide hazard zonation mapping&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/sri-lanka-looks-to-build-disaster-resilient-housing-after-devastating-cyclone/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312070</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Belém faces its social and natural demons as host to COP30</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/belem-faces-its-social-and-natural-demons-as-host-to-cop30/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/belem-faces-its-social-and-natural-demons-as-host-to-cop30/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Oct 2025 18:37:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Peter Speetjens]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/28182217/AP25161055433115-crop-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308427</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cities, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Extreme Weather, Flooding, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Infrastructure, Population, Rainforests, Rivers, Temperatures, Trees, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Once a major river city, Belém turned its back on the water, leaving 40% of its urban area vulnerable to floods. ]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BELÉM, Brazil — The 17th-century Presépio Fort offers a great view of old and new Belém. Small wooden boats sail back and forth. The strikingly blue Ver-o-Peso fish hall seems even bluer in the morning sun. Next door to Ver-o-Peso, dozens of stands sell açai with fried fish, souvenirs and a stunning variety of fruits, nuts and herbs from the Amazon Rainforest. The grand Belle Epoque mansions are a far cry from the residential towers piercing the sky and the urban slums located farther south. From Nov. 10-21, this setting will host the COP30 climate summit and more than 50,000 visitors. Following summits in Dubai and Baku — both cities intimately linked with the oil industry — there was a sense of hope and relief among environmentalists when Belém, the capital of the Amazonian state of Pará, was announced in May 2023 as the 2025 host. Known as the “gateway” to the Amazon, Belém would be able to attract people’s attention to the plight and potential of the rainforest, which plays a vital role in keeping the average global temperature rise under 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit), as stipulated in the 2016 Paris Agreement. In contrast with the last two “oil COPs,” the upcoming summit has been dubbed the “forest COP.” However, while Belém is located northeast of the Amazon Rainforest, in the delta of the Guamá and Acará rivers, experts and citizens who spoke with Mongabay questioned whether visitors and authorities will have a unique chance to get a glimpse&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/belem-faces-its-social-and-natural-demons-as-host-to-cop30/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308427</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>IUCN upholds long-tailed macaques’ endangered status after complaint</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/iucn-upholds-long-tailed-macaques-endangered-status-after-complaint/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/iucn-upholds-long-tailed-macaques-endangered-status-after-complaint/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Oct 2025 04:50:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/30071210/long-tailed-macaque-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307660</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Animal Rights, Animal Welfare, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Illegal Trade, International Trade, Monkeys, Pet Trade, Poaching, Population, Primates, Protected Areas, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — The long-tailed macaque will remain on the Red List of the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, despite objections from the biomedical industry arguing the designation hampers research that relies on the primate to test vaccines and drugs. The IUCN escalated the conservation status of the species, Macaca fascicularis, from vulnerable to endangered in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — The long-tailed macaque will remain on the Red List of the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, despite objections from the biomedical industry arguing the designation hampers research that relies on the primate to test vaccines and drugs. The IUCN escalated the conservation status of the species, Macaca fascicularis, from vulnerable to endangered in 2022 after macaques poached from the wild were found to have been laundered into breeding farms in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam supplying laboratories abroad. The National Association for Biomedical Research (NABR), a U.S. lobby group, challenged the listing, but the latest assessment, published Oct. 10, found that wild populations of the macaque had declined by 50-70% over the past three decades. That led the IUCN to reaffirm the species’ endangered listing. “I’m happy to see science prevail, but I’m not happy to see the long-tailed macaques endangered,” Malene Friis Hansen, co-author of the assessment and a leading researcher on the species at Aarhus University in Denmark, told Mongabay by phone. “This is a species of primate that shouldn’t be in this situation — that we’ve pushed such an adaptive synanthrope to this stage should be an eye-opener.” The NABR filed its complaint in 2023, alleging conflicts of interest and scientific errors had influenced the original endangered listing. But last week, the IUCN announced an internal investigation had found no breach of its conflict-of-interest policy. While the IUCN acknowledged that the original assessment contained some “emotive, value-laden language,” it deemed this had no impact on the listing.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/iucn-upholds-long-tailed-macaques-endangered-status-after-complaint/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307660</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amid challenges, Nepal plans its latest tiger &#038; rhino counts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/amid-challenges-nepal-plans-its-latest-tiger-rhino-counts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/amid-challenges-nepal-plans-its-latest-tiger-rhino-counts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Oct 2025 02:04:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/14071213/4106094460_bd6180bd5f_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306858</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, DNA, Elephants, Endangered Species, Mammals, National Parks, One-horned Rhinos, Poaching, Population, Protected Areas, and Tigers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; &#160; KATHMANDU — After delays, Nepal is set to conduct its tiger survey and rhino count starting between December and March next year. The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC), in collaboration with partner organizations, aims to conduct the count in five tiger-bearing and four rhino-bearing national parks of Nepal, including Parsa, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; &nbsp; KATHMANDU — After delays, Nepal is set to conduct its tiger survey and rhino count starting between December and March next year. The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC), in collaboration with partner organizations, aims to conduct the count in five tiger-bearing and four rhino-bearing national parks of Nepal, including Parsa, Banke, Bardiya, Chitwan, and Shuklaphanta. “Given the numerous delays for the census this year, we are planning to begin the tiger survey in December and rhino count in March,” said Haribhadra Acharya, information officer and senior ecologist at DNPWC. Despite a budget crunch caused by the USAID funding pullout this year and recent political unrest, Acharya said the department and partner organizations are in the planning phase and have formed advisory, technical and field task committees for effective and impact-driven surveys. While the tiger count is estimated to cost around 15 million rupees ($105,000), the rhino census is expected to cost 20 million rupees ($140,000). Although the censuses faced delays due to budget constraints, Acharya said the government plans to conduct the population counts through financial support received from different agencies and organizations, including the WWF Nepal, Zoological Society of Nepal and National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC). Rhinos in Chitwan National Park. Image by John Nabelek/OSU via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0). “We also plan to update the Tiger and Prey Base Monitoring Protocol 2017, which ensures two weeks of camera trapping duration for survey and sampling purposes. But the update would extend the duration&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/amid-challenges-nepal-plans-its-latest-tiger-rhino-counts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306858</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Park guardians or destroyers? Study dissects 2 narratives of DRC’s Indigenous Batwa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/park-guardians-or-destroyers-study-dissects-2-narratives-of-drcs-indigenous-batwa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/park-guardians-or-destroyers-study-dissects-2-narratives-of-drcs-indigenous-batwa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Sep 2025 19:05:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Blaise Kasereka Makuta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/11083545/1-Young-Grauers-Gorillas-in-Kahuzi-Biega-national-park-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305766</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, charcoal, Conflict, Conservation, Controversial, Fellows, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, National Parks, Population, Protected Areas, Rainforests, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Long celebrated by some NGOs and Indigenous rights activists as the guardians of the forest, the Batwa of South Kivu had lived inside what is now Kahuzi-Biega National Park (KBNP) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) until the 20th century, when they were expelled by the Congolese government, at that time MPR (Popular Movement [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Long celebrated by some NGOs and Indigenous rights activists as the guardians of the forest, the Batwa of South Kivu had lived inside what is now Kahuzi-Biega National Park (KBNP) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) until the 20th century, when they were expelled by the Congolese government, at that time MPR (Popular Movement of Revolution), which demanded the creation of the park. As the park expanded into the mid-1970s, Batwa people were displaced from one location to another without their agreement or consent. According to their accounts and to those of researchers, evicted people suffered from a lack of support for their material needs, discrimination, social marginalization and poverty. “In October 2018, after multiple promises to provide them with land outside the park were broken … groups of Batwa started to return to the park’s highland sector,” write the authors of a recent study published in World Development. “Around 2,000 members of the Batwa community, including men, women and children, returned to the park over the following months.” “After we returned to the park, we relocated some of our former villages and began to rebuild our old houses, our churches, and prepare our former fields for cultivation,” Amos Bahiya Bikulo, a Batwa resident of Kalehe in South Kivu and secretary at the Center for Supporting People with Disabilities for Development, told Mongabay. In a forceful manner, Congolese authorities and park managers deployed military personnel to dislodge them from this land, deeply significant as the birthplace and burial ground&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/park-guardians-or-destroyers-study-dissects-2-narratives-of-drcs-indigenous-batwa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305766</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>US funding shortfall halts Nepal’s rhino census, sparks debate over methods</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/us-funding-shortfall-halts-nepals-rhino-census-sparks-debate-over-methods/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/us-funding-shortfall-halts-nepals-rhino-census-sparks-debate-over-methods/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2025 00:28:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Deepak Adhikari]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/29000434/rhino-census-nepal-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299820</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Developing Countries, Elephants, Foreign Aid, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, One-horned Rhinos, and Population]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — In March 2021, dozens of elephants marched through the grasslands and sal (Shorea robusta) forests of Chitwan National Park, their riders armed with GPS devices and notebooks, searching for one of Asia’s most iconic megafauna: the greater one-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis). The labor-intensive census mobilized more than 300 people and spanned three protected [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — In March 2021, dozens of elephants marched through the grasslands and sal (Shorea robusta) forests of Chitwan National Park, their riders armed with GPS devices and notebooks, searching for one of Asia’s most iconic megafauna: the greater one-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis). The labor-intensive census mobilized more than 300 people and spanned three protected areas and 21 habitat blocks. It ended with a population estimate of 752 rhinos — a 16% increase from the last census in 2015, raising hope for the species classified as ‘vulnerable’ by IUCN, the global conservation authority. Now, for the first time in decades, Nepal has canceled its national rhino count, citing a lack of funds. “We’ve decided to carry out the census next year,” said Bed Kumar Dhakal, spokesperson for the country’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC). The quinquennial rhino census, which takes nearly a month, costs an estimated $115,000-155,000 (around 15-20 million Nepali rupees). Two one-horned rhinos seen in Nepal. Image courtesy of NTNC. Early this year, the Trump Administration in the U.S. launched a policy to reduce overseas spending, shutting down the activities of its main aid agency USAID. Nepal had anticipated support from USAID’s Jal Jungle project, with longtime conservation partners including WWF, Zoological Society of London and National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC) also expected to share the rest of the expenses. After the USAID pullout, the government decided to cancel the census plans. Some conservationists, however, argue that this pause presents an opportunity to rethink&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/us-funding-shortfall-halts-nepals-rhino-census-sparks-debate-over-methods/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299820</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Farmers in Nepal and India see red as blue bulls raid their crops</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/farmers-in-nepal-and-india-see-red-as-blue-bulls-raid-their-crops/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/farmers-in-nepal-and-india-see-red-as-blue-bulls-raid-their-crops/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Mar 2025 16:18:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mukesh Pokhrel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/07/25114957/nilgai-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295449</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, India, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Antelope, Biodiversity, Conservation, Farming, Human Migration, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Overpopulation, and Top Predators]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LUMBINI, Nepal — Three years ago, Ram Chandra Kurmi, a farmer from the village of Gaidahawa in south-western Nepal, abandoned his small vegetable plot . The 39-year-old, who once supported his family of five through farming, now struggles to make a stable income. The culprit, he says, is the uncontrolled proliferation of nilgais, or blue [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LUMBINI, Nepal — Three years ago, Ram Chandra Kurmi, a farmer from the village of Gaidahawa in south-western Nepal, abandoned his small vegetable plot . The 39-year-old, who once supported his family of five through farming, now struggles to make a stable income. The culprit, he says, is the uncontrolled proliferation of nilgais, or blue bulls (Boselaphus tragocamelus), a large antelope species native to this region. “Nilgais come at night when no one’s around to shoo them away and munch on the vegetables,” he said. “I couldn’t do anything about it, so I had to quit farming altogether.” Kurmi’s story is echoed across the Indo-Gangetic plains that straddle the Nepal-India border region, where marginalized farming communities complain of government inaction to address the problem. The nilgai, whose return to neighboring Bangladesh after nearly a century was celebrated there, is typically found at elevations ranging from 75-300 meters (about 300-1,000 ft). It’s been described as having the body of a horse and head of an antelope. Making it even more distinctive is the fact that adult males are iron-blue to light gray in color, hence the name nilgai (“blue cow”). It’s also been said to have the “appetite of a cow, the speed of a horse, and the alertness of a dog.” Nepal’s government lacks official data on nilgais outside the country’s national parks, but a 2018 Ministry of Forests and Environment assessment estimated 300-350 individuals across several border districts, such as Rupandehi (where the town of Gaidahawa is located), Kapilvastu,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/farmers-in-nepal-and-india-see-red-as-blue-bulls-raid-their-crops/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295449</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The Pan Amazon as a hotspot of cultural diversity</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/the-pan-amazon-as-a-hotspot-of-cultural-diversity/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/the-pan-amazon-as-a-hotspot-of-cultural-diversity/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Feb 2025 23:53:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/07190714/PORTADA-ecuador_231428-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294136</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Community Development, Culture, Deforestation, Farming, Human Migration, Indigenous Peoples, Migration, Mining, Organized Crime, Population, Rainforest Destruction, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon is renowned for its cultural diversity, particularly the ethnic diversity of its Indigenous nations, but also the cultural traditions of numerous other distinctive groups that have migrated into the Amazon over five centuries. The region’s demographic history reflects that of its constituent nations, all of which are an amalgam of Indigenous people who [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon is renowned for its cultural diversity, particularly the ethnic diversity of its Indigenous nations, but also the cultural traditions of numerous other distinctive groups that have migrated into the Amazon over five centuries. The region’s demographic history reflects that of its constituent nations, all of which are an amalgam of Indigenous people who have interbred, to varying degrees, with immigrants from Europe, Africa and Asia. This complex genetic history has been moulded by social, economic and political phenomena that have further differentiated the populations into a diverse assemblage of social groups. Knowing how people self-identify and view each other is essential when trying to understand how those cultural legacies influence the trajectory of Amazonian development. Traditional communities Social advocates and academics use this term to describe families with livelihoods that are highly dependent upon forest and aquatic resources. Their reliance on natural ecosystems is an integral part of their cultural tradition, and most view themselves, and are viewed by others, as stewards who will conserve forest resources for future generations. Indigenous nations. There are more than 340 Indigenous groups in the Pan Amazon that self-identify with a specific ethnic lineage. Those with the strongest cultural identity continue to speak their native language and reside within territories they view as their ancestral homeland. This number includes communities that have experienced various amounts of cultural loss and/or modification of their cultural traditions, as well as urban dwellers who retain their ethnic identity while partially joining a different stakeholder group (urban&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/the-pan-amazon-as-a-hotspot-of-cultural-diversity/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294136</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Collective action, civil disobedience and blockades in the Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/collective-action-civil-disobedience-and-blockades-in-the-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/collective-action-civil-disobedience-and-blockades-in-the-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2025 18:26:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/29170059/March-Digindad_CIPCA_m_565_img12-dsc02944-2-768x486.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293589</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Industry, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Politics, Population, Protests, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Pan Amazon has a legacy of both violent and non-violent protest that dates from the onset of European colonization, through the Brazilian Empire and the Andean Republics of the nineteenth century, and is now a significant, often decisive, political tactic in the twenty-first century. In the High Andes, rebellion is the legacy of a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Pan Amazon has a legacy of both violent and non-violent protest that dates from the onset of European colonization, through the Brazilian Empire and the Andean Republics of the nineteenth century, and is now a significant, often decisive, political tactic in the twenty-first century. In the High Andes, rebellion is the legacy of a large Indigenous population and centuries-long resistance to domination by European and Creole elites. The first armed uprising was organized in 1542 by an Inca aristocrat, Túpac Amaru, but such action became more common in the eighteenth century, when peasants staged more than 140 protests against excessive taxes and forced labor, which culminated in the Grand Rebellion of 1780. Indigenous troops were essential in the wars for independence at Cuzco (1814) and Charcas (1825), and native uprisings roiled republican governments at Puno (1867), Huaraz (1885) and Chimborazo (1870). In Brazil, Indigenous populations were exterminated, enslaved or geographically marginalized, but the exploitation of Caboclo peasants created a climate of resentment that led to the Cabanagem revolt between 1835 and 1840, while Afro-Brazilians fleeing enslavement established hundreds of autonomous Quilombola communities in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Subsequently, Acre was transformed by the migration of Nordestinos, who organized self-governing entities known as colocações that allowed them to avoid exploitation by local rubber barons. A similar dynamic occurred on the Guiana Coast, where enslaved populations rebelled multiple times until slavery was abolished in Guyana (1834), French Guiana (1848) and Suriname (1863). The unwillingness of the newly freed Afro-Guianese to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/collective-action-civil-disobedience-and-blockades-in-the-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293589</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservation and the rise of corporations in the Pan Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/conservation-and-the-rise-of-corporations-in-the-pan-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/conservation-and-the-rise-of-corporations-in-the-pan-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jan 2025 14:15:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/02165845/PORTADA-rio-das-mortes-brazil_1119-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292619</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Latin America, Peru, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Community Development, Conservation, Corporations, Deforestation, extractives, Forest Loss, Forests, Human Migration, Land Grabbing, Logging, Migration, Mining, Palm Oil, Population, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The constituency for the conservation of the Pan Amazon is broad-based and diverse. Academics and civil society organizations have been successful in framing conservation of the Amazon as an issue of global importance. They have formed an alliance with Indigenous and traditional peoples, and have convinced a majority of urban populations that the Amazonian ecosystem [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The constituency for the conservation of the Pan Amazon is broad-based and diverse. Academics and civil society organizations have been successful in framing conservation of the Amazon as an issue of global importance. They have formed an alliance with Indigenous and traditional peoples, and have convinced a majority of urban populations that the Amazonian ecosystem is a natural asset that will benefit future generations. Most citizens of the region’s subnational jurisdictions also support the principles of sustainable development and generally accept the consensus view of the need to conserve the region’s biodiversity and ecosystem services. Nonetheless, this generalized support has not translated into a change in the production systems that are driving deforestation and other forms of environmental degradation. This apparent contradiction is the logical result of people’s economic dependence on conventional development. Most citizens of the Pan Amazon depend either directly or indirectly on extractive production models and the economic growth that occurs when natural capital is converted into financial capital. Advocates for conventional development likewise originate from a similarly broad and diverse populace, but this view is particularly strong in communities composed of recent immigrants and their descendants who live on or near the agricultural frontier. They include obvious stakeholders, such as farmers, ranchers and miners, but also their employees, service providers and supply chain intermediaries. Proponents of orthodox development occupy key positions in the conventional economy and consequently have an outsized influence on decisions that drive investment. This group includes the executives of banks, construction companies, manufacturing&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/conservation-and-the-rise-of-corporations-in-the-pan-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292619</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The particularities of the migratory movement in Venezuela, the Guianas and Suriname</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-particularities-of-the-migratory-movement-in-venezuela-the-guianas-and-suriname/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-particularities-of-the-migratory-movement-in-venezuela-the-guianas-and-suriname/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Dec 2024 17:03:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/07153906/RioCauca-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292382</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Colombia, French Guiana, Guiana Shield, Latin America, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Drought, Forests, Human Migration, Indigenous Peoples, Migration, Mining, Population, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The modern history of internal migration in Colombia began in a manner that was not unlike the processes organized by the governments in Brazil and the other Andean countries in the 1960s and early 1970s. However, that process was derailed first by a civil war and subsequently by the production of illicit drugs, largely because [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The modern history of internal migration in Colombia began in a manner that was not unlike the processes organized by the governments in Brazil and the other Andean countries in the 1960s and early 1970s. However, that process was derailed first by a civil war and subsequently by the production of illicit drugs, largely because of tactics pursued by the Fuerzas Armada Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). The conflict effectively suppressed state infrastructure investment while freezing land acquisition by middle-class families and investors. At the same time, however, it fuelled the migration of displaced peasants, who opted to cultivate coca under the protective umbrella of the FARC. The conflict officially ended in 2017 via the so-called Peace Process, which brought momentous change to the Colombian Amazon. The FARC no longer exists as an organized military entity, but it has been replaced by criminal groups composed of demobilized guerillas and militia members. Unfortunately, the state has not established a meaningful presence in the region and the cessation of hostilities has triggered a land rush supercharged by the drug trade and the cattle industry. Two young people ride a motorbike on the street that divides Tabatinga in Brazil from Leticia in Colombia. Crime rates have risen sharply in the region. Image by Ivan Brehaut. Migratory pathways Before the civil war, the administration of President Carlos Lleras Restrepo (1966–1970) created the Instituto Nacional de Colonización (INCOR) in an attempt to respond to the demand for land by the rural poor. The strategy was supported&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-particularities-of-the-migratory-movement-in-venezuela-the-guianas-and-suriname/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292382</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The fuel that moves people: the Ecuadorian case</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-fuel-that-moves-people-the-ecuadorian-case/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-fuel-that-moves-people-the-ecuadorian-case/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Dec 2024 20:50:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/20003600/portada-EC_16122024-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292082</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Colonization, Deforestation, extractives, Human Migration, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Land Rights, Migration, Mining, National Parks, Oil, Oil Spills, Population, Protected Areas, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Throughout most of the twentieth century, the Ecuadorian authorities pursued a geopolitical strategy that reflected a long-held conviction that they were cheated out of large territories in the Western Amazon. Most of their claims were adjudicated in favor of Peru and they were on the losing side of border disputes in 1860, 1903 and 1941. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Throughout most of the twentieth century, the Ecuadorian authorities pursued a geopolitical strategy that reflected a long-held conviction that they were cheated out of large territories in the Western Amazon. Most of their claims were adjudicated in favor of Peru and they were on the losing side of border disputes in 1860, 1903 and 1941. Consequently, successive governments were intent on not losing another square meter of what they fervently believed was their national territory, a policy that led to the construction of several highways and deliberate policies to foster migration into their lowland provinces. Peru and Ecuador resolved their differences in 1998, after another border dispute, via an arbitration process coordinated by the governments of Brazil, Argentina, Chile and the United States. In the process, the countries established paired national parks on both sides of the border, and an ambitious IIRSA-sponsored initiative was launched to provide Ecuador with direct access to the Amazon waterway at Puerto Morona. The resolution of the border conflict and the much-improved transportation infrastructure opened up the Cordillera del Condor to large-scale mining operations operated by Canadian and Chinese corporations. The road network in Amazonian Ecuador closely corresponds to the petroleum pipeline system, partly because the government promoted settlement along service roads during the 1970s. Data sources: GEM (2023) and RAISG (2022). Migratory pathways Migration into Amazonian Ecuador has occurred via four highway routes that connect urban centers in the Andes with a town or small city in the lowlands; from north to south, they&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-fuel-that-moves-people-the-ecuadorian-case/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-fuel-that-moves-people-the-ecuadorian-case/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292082</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Armed conflict, not Batwa people, at heart of Grauer’s gorillas&#8217; past decline in DRC park</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/armed-conflict-not-batwa-people-biggest-factor-in-decline-of-grauers-gorillas-in-drc-park/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/armed-conflict-not-batwa-people-biggest-factor-in-decline-of-grauers-gorillas-in-drc-park/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Dec 2024 18:09:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimable TwahirwaLatoya Abulu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/07/06145853/Grauers-Gorillas_Kahuzi-Biega_April-2014-34-scaled-e1734369681806-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291739</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation, Controversial, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Forests, Gorillas, Indigenous Peoples, Mammals, National Parks, Population, Protected Areas, Rainforests, and Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new study has concluded that the decline in Grauer’s gorillas in a sector of their main stronghold in the Democratic Republic of Congo was the result of the impacts of armed conflict, rather than the presence or absence of Indigenous communities. With the end of the Second Congo War in 2003, gorilla populations in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new study has concluded that the decline in Grauer’s gorillas in a sector of their main stronghold in the Democratic Republic of Congo was the result of the impacts of armed conflict, rather than the presence or absence of Indigenous communities. With the end of the Second Congo War in 2003, gorilla populations in Kahuzi-Biega National Park’s highland sector rose back up, where they’ve remained since one of the latest estimates. The international group of authors said their analysis challenges two opposing narratives around the Indigenous Batwa people native to the area: on one hand, some conservation authorities view the Batwa as forest destroyers responsible for gorilla decline; on the other, some Indigenous rights activists say the decline occurred because the Batwa were evicted and no longer present to care for the forest. The situation is more complex than this dichotomy, the researchers told Mongabay. Kahuzi-Biega National Park used to be home to thousands of Indigenous Batwa people before they were forcibly evicted in the 1970s, with no alternative lands. Today, the highland sector of the park serves as a center for tourism of Grauer’s gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri), a critically endangered subspecies of the eastern gorilla, and the park’s headquarters. In the last several years, Indigenous rights advocates and conservation authorities have debated over the imposition of “fortress conservation” and the Batwa peoples’ role in biodiversity loss. According to field survey data analyzed for the new study, after the Batwa were removed from the park, gorilla numbers remained&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/armed-conflict-not-batwa-people-biggest-factor-in-decline-of-grauers-gorillas-in-drc-park/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291739</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Peru&#8217;s modern history of migration and settlement</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/perus-modern-history-of-migration-and-settlement/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/perus-modern-history-of-migration-and-settlement/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Dec 2024 10:20:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/11154913/wayquecha-peru_220139-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291467</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Cities, coca plantations, Corruption, Deforestation, Human Migration, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Migration, Mining, Palm Oil, Plantations, Population, Rainforests, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Policies designed to occupy and populate the Peruvian Amazon began about seventy years ago with the construction of a trunk highway connecting Pucallpa on the Ucayali River with Lima. Named after a Peruvian historian, the construction of the Carretera Federico Basadre is a landmark event in the nation’s history, because it provided the first reliable [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Policies designed to occupy and populate the Peruvian Amazon began about seventy years ago with the construction of a trunk highway connecting Pucallpa on the Ucayali River with Lima. Named after a Peruvian historian, the construction of the Carretera Federico Basadre is a landmark event in the nation’s history, because it provided the first reliable means of communication between the capital and the Amazonian provinces that make up more than fifty per cent of Peru’s territory. The next major initiative began when the government added a northern spur through the montane forests of the Huallaga Valley, which was intended to integrate its northern Amazonian provinces while opening a lush tropical valley to agricultural development. Construction of these two highways was financed with state resources in the 1970s, when a left-wing military government had limited access to international finance. After a return to civilian government in the 1980s, multilateral institutions financed several project-based initiatives, but these were soon sidelined when the country entered a period of civil unrest that impeded economic growth and foreign investment. The economy improved in the 1990s following the end of the civil war, and the government, then led by Alberto Fujimori, initiated a series of system-wide investments in transportation infrastructure using public money leveraged with loans from the IDB. The system-wide approach was complemented in 2000 with the Initiative for the Integration of the Regional Infrastructure of South America (IIRSA), which improved the strategic planning of highway investments in general, while promoting public-private partnerships (PPP) to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/perus-modern-history-of-migration-and-settlement/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/perus-modern-history-of-migration-and-settlement/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291467</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bolivia&#8217;s internal colonization and its March to the East</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/bolivias-internal-colonization-and-its-march-to-the-east/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/bolivias-internal-colonization-and-its-march-to-the-east/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Dec 2024 16:30:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/03193022/bolivia_drone_190309-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291144</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Colonization, Deforestation, Governance, Human Migration, Indigenous Peoples, Industrial Agriculture, Infrastructure, Lithium, Migration, Mining, Population, Rainforests, and Soy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the middle decades of the twentieth century, Bolivian society was profoundly traumatized by the Chaco War and the loss of about thirty per cent of its national territory; before that, it had ceded Acre to Brazil and its coastal provinces to Chile. Schoolchildren learn at an early age that Bolivia lost those territories because [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the middle decades of the twentieth century, Bolivian society was profoundly traumatized by the Chaco War and the loss of about thirty per cent of its national territory; before that, it had ceded Acre to Brazil and its coastal provinces to Chile. Schoolchildren learn at an early age that Bolivia lost those territories because the country failed to occupy them. Consequently, it welcomed the assistance in 1942 when a team of economists sponsored by the US Embassy outlined a strategy for focusing future development on the sparsely populated plains of its eastern lowland territories. Known as Plan Bohan, after its lead author, the document outlined a series of investments and resettlement initiatives that were referred to as the ‘Marcha hacia el Oriente’. In the 1950s and 1960s, this strategy led to the construction of all-weather roads linking the Andean highlands with the lowlands in Santa Cruz, Cochabamba and La Paz. US financial assistance via the Alliance for Progress was part of a broader strategy to combat the spread of leftist ideologies, particularly the guerilla insurgency led by Che Guevara in 1967. Multilateral agencies subsequently supported key investments, including highways linking the Chapare colonization zone with the agro-industrial landscapes of Santa Cruz, as well as export corridors to both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. Initiatives sponsored by the World Bank to promote food security and export commodities were leveraged with private-sector investments to create an export industry and key motor of job creation. The two landscapes impacted by these investments,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/bolivias-internal-colonization-and-its-march-to-the-east/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291144</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Migration opens up new territories in the Brazilian Amazon in the 20th century</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/migration-opens-up-new-territories-in-the-brazilian-amazon-in-the-20th-century/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/migration-opens-up-new-territories-in-the-brazilian-amazon-in-the-20th-century/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Nov 2024 10:27:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/28031134/GP0STUPV3_AmazonFiresAug20_PressMedia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290827</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Deforestation, Governance, Habitat Loss, Indigenous Peoples, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Infrastructure, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Migration, Mining, Population, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There have been three major sources of Brazilian immigrants in the twentieth century: the Northeast, where emigration offers one of the few realistic opportunities to escape poverty; the South, where middle-class families embraced an opportunity to continue a farming tradition; and the Central West, where immigrants have flowed northward as part of an organic expansion [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There have been three major sources of Brazilian immigrants in the twentieth century: the Northeast, where emigration offers one of the few realistic opportunities to escape poverty; the South, where middle-class families embraced an opportunity to continue a farming tradition; and the Central West, where immigrants have flowed northward as part of an organic expansion of the agricultural frontier. Internal migration within the Amazon responds to gold rushes and land grabs when roads are about to be improved, as well as job opportunities at large-scale infrastructure projects, such as industrial mines and hydropower plants. The most persistent trend is the flow of people from rural to urban communities. Immigrants have included entrepreneurs, professionals and cattle ranchers, but a much larger cohort has consisted of impoverished or marginalized families seeking economic opportunity. Migration was first stimulated by the construction of the Rodovia Belem-Brasília. Built between 1958 and 1960, this transportation corridor linked the new capital with the largest city in the Amazon and triggered the first land rush into the Legal Amazon. During this period, the state governments of Pará and Goiás commercialized millions of hectares of land to promote colonization and settlement by affluent and middle-class families. An even larger migratory flow occurred in the 1970s, however, when large-scale highway building led to the construction of the Rodovia Transamazônica (BR-175), the railway to the Carajás mining district (EF-315), and the trunk highway connecting the municipalities of Eastern Pará (BR-158). In the 2010 census, 725,000 residents of Pará listed their origin&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/migration-opens-up-new-territories-in-the-brazilian-amazon-in-the-20th-century/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290827</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The calm before the storm: The first half of the 20th century in the Pan Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-calm-before-the-storm-the-first-half-of-the-20th-century-in-the-pan-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-calm-before-the-storm-the-first-half-of-the-20th-century-in-the-pan-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Nov 2024 11:15:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/07193744/WWII-soldados-do-boracha-768x489.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289832</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Colonization, Culture, Deforestation, Governance, Human Migration, Indigenous Peoples, Industry, Plantations, Politics, Population, Rainforest Destruction, and Rubber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The period between the end of the rubber boom and the onset of the colonisation frenzy that began in the 1960s was a time of relative stasis in the Amazon. The governments negotiated the final configuration of their international borders with a series of treaties that formalised the facts-on-the-ground that had been established during the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The period between the end of the rubber boom and the onset of the colonisation frenzy that began in the 1960s was a time of relative stasis in the Amazon. The governments negotiated the final configuration of their international borders with a series of treaties that formalised the facts-on-the-ground that had been established during the rubber boom. Amazonian rubber production did not disappear, at least not in Brazil, where the government subsidised an industry that employed tens of thousands of individuals. Revenues fell from US$ 2.8 billion in 1910 to less than US$ 175 million by 1925, while domestic consumption stabilised at between 15,000 and 20,000 tons per year. Most of the migrants stayed and adapted to their new home. The collapse in the price of rubber coincided with an increase in demand for the Castanha do Para. Known in international commerce as the Brazil nut, it became popular in the United States in the 1920s, when families included it as a treat in the traditional Christmas stocking. Although harvests could be quite variable (Figure 6.6), the duopoly provided seringueiros with a level of economic security and probably avoided a mass exodus. Between 1910 and 1920, the population of Pará fell by only about 10% (50,000), but it increased by 30% in Acre (18,000) and 1.5% in Amazonas (5,000). The population stabilized at about 1.4 million in the five jurisdictions of the Northern Region until the next major geopolitical event that changed its future. Natural rubber production reached a historic&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-calm-before-the-storm-the-first-half-of-the-20th-century-in-the-pan-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289832</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Evolution of the Pan Amazon in the post-Jesuit era</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/evolution-of-the-pan-amazon-in-the-post-jesuit-era/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/evolution-of-the-pan-amazon-in-the-post-jesuit-era/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Oct 2024 21:13:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/30231300/Ph6.2-Forte_Principe_da_Beira-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289417</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Ecuador, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Culture, Human Migration, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Migration, Population, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Because of their privileged status as a transnational religious institution and their allegiance to the pope, the Jesuits enjoyed considerable autonomy from both the Spanish and Portuguese crowns. This status allowed them to avoid taxes and disregard the colonial elites, who envied their ability to monopolize labor and resources. Colonial dissatisfaction was exacerbated by palace [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Because of their privileged status as a transnational religious institution and their allegiance to the pope, the Jesuits enjoyed considerable autonomy from both the Spanish and Portuguese crowns. This status allowed them to avoid taxes and disregard the colonial elites, who envied their ability to monopolize labor and resources. Colonial dissatisfaction was exacerbated by palace intrigue in Lisbon and Madrid, as well as in Rome, which led to their expulsion from the Portuguese and Spanish empires in 1759 and 1767, respectively. In Maynas, Chiquitos and Moxos, responsibility for administering the productive assets of the reducciones was assumed by civil authorities as representatives of the crown, while the missions’ spiritual operations were passed to diocesan clergy. Wholesale dysfunction motivated the Spanish to transfer the religious system to the Franciscans in 1780, but the separation of the economic means of production from religious control denied the friars the means of supporting the missions, and by 1804 the entire system had essentially collapsed. In Maynas, the advance of the Portuguese was kept in check by the military post at Iquitos, but access to the region was now organized via the colonial towns on the upper Marañón (Jaen) and Huallaga (Moyobamba) rivers, which were linked to the coast by an Inca road that traversed a low point in the Andean Cordillera (Huancabamba Gap). Administrative control was now exercised from Lima (Virreinato del Perú) rather than Quito (Audiencia de Quito). This arrangement was formalized in 1801, when the region was organized as the Comandancia General&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/evolution-of-the-pan-amazon-in-the-post-jesuit-era/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289417</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As Nepal counts its snow leopards, even the best estimate is still a guess</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/as-nepal-counts-its-snow-leopards-even-the-best-estimate-is-still-a-guess/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/as-nepal-counts-its-snow-leopards-even-the-best-estimate-is-still-a-guess/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Oct 2024 13:24:06 +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/20/2024/10/30130800/WWF-Nepal-Sanjog-Rai-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289442</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, Cats, Conservation, Conservation Technology, DNA, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Mountains, Population, Snow Leopards, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Scientists and government officials have embarked on the uphill task of coming up with a number, or even just a range, for the population of snow leopards in the Himalayan country. To do so, they’re having to rely on several fragmented studies carried out during different periods of time in different landscapes across [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — Scientists and government officials have embarked on the uphill task of coming up with a number, or even just a range, for the population of snow leopards in the Himalayan country. To do so, they’re having to rely on several fragmented studies carried out during different periods of time in different landscapes across the country. The undertaking is Nepal’s commitment to the Population Assessment of the World&#8217;s Snow Leopards program, or PAWS. The program was adopted in 2019 by 12 countries that host populations of snow leopards (Panthera uncia) and is part of the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Program (GSLEP). &#8220;Previous snow leopard population studies in Nepal as well as many other countries often faced limitations due to sampling bias, with smaller, high-density areas leading to inflated population estimates,” said Rinzin Phunjok Lama, a snow leopard researcher who’s on the newly formed government committee to conduct the count. Because the range countries hadn’t agreed on a standardized approach, it became challenging to compare and aggregate data across regions before PAWS was rolled out. In the context of Nepal, pioneering telemetry work by researcher Rodney Jackson and his team in the late 1980s and early ’90s form the bedrock of population estimates within the country. They first estimated the snow leopard population in Nepal to be around 150-300 in 1979 and later revised the number up to 350-500 individuals based on a computerized habitat suitability model. In 2009, researchers from WWF and the Department of National Parks&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/as-nepal-counts-its-snow-leopards-even-the-best-estimate-is-still-a-guess/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289442</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Impacts and legacies of migration across the Pan Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/impacts-and-legacies-of-migration-across-the-pan-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/impacts-and-legacies-of-migration-across-the-pan-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Oct 2024 09:15:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/23193115/Acampamento_ao_Longo_da_Ferrovia_Madeira-Mamore_-_669_Acervo_do_Museu_Paulista_da_USP_cropped-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289119</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Latin America, Paraguay, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Colonialism, Colonization, Culture, Diseases, Human Migration, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Migration, Population, Rainforests, and Religions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Most of the Pan Amazonian population consists of immigrants or their descendants. They arrived over centuries, motivated by historical events that moulded their self-identity. This diverse assemblage of people represents a broad range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds, which is further stratified by economic opportunity – or the lack thereof. Immigration into the Amazon followed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Most of the Pan Amazonian population consists of immigrants or their descendants. They arrived over centuries, motivated by historical events that moulded their self-identity. This diverse assemblage of people represents a broad range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds, which is further stratified by economic opportunity – or the lack thereof. Immigration into the Amazon followed routes that were determined by proximity and access, first via the river network and then by highways that were constructed specifically to facilitate colonization. The differences amongst the groups are reflected in their production systems, which explain, in part, why the different regions of the Amazon have followed distinct development trajectories. The first wave: Jesuits versus bandeirantes The first European explorers of the Amazon were soon followed by missionaries affiliated with the Society of Jesus, more commonly known as Jesuits. Although few in number, probably fewer less than 3,000 individuals over 150 years of mission activity, they had a massive impact on the cultural and political history of the Pan Amazon. Nominally non-state actors, these highly educated clerics played an important role in stabilizing the frontier zones that separated the Spanish and Portuguese empires. The Jesuits deliberately founded outposts in remote landscapes as part of their evangelical mission to convert native populations. Isolation, however, also allowed them to pursue their philosophical agenda free from the interference of colonial power. Their approach relied on innovative tactics, such as preaching in the native language, but their goal was also novel: to create autonomous communities based on early&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/impacts-and-legacies-of-migration-across-the-pan-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289119</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rural-urban migration across the Amazon Basin</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/rural-urban-migration-across-the-amazon-basin/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/rural-urban-migration-across-the-amazon-basin/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Oct 2024 10:57:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/17173542/shutterstock_2153049643_REDUCIDA--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288925</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Human Migration, Land Conflict, Migration, Mining, Population, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Rural-to-urban migration is a worldwide phenomenon and the Amazon is no exception. Nonetheless, a very large proportion of its immigrants are small farmers who originally came from the High Andes and Northeastern Brazil, wagering their future on the frontier landscapes of the Pan Amazon. This flow of people into rural communities slowed dramatically after about [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Rural-to-urban migration is a worldwide phenomenon and the Amazon is no exception. Nonetheless, a very large proportion of its immigrants are small farmers who originally came from the High Andes and Northeastern Brazil, wagering their future on the frontier landscapes of the Pan Amazon. This flow of people into rural communities slowed dramatically after about 2000, when rural families began to move their primary place of residence to urban centers. In Brazil and Bolivia, they tend to move to Amazonian cities, large and small; in Amazonian Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, however, they are more likely to move to cities in the highlands or on the coast. In Brazil, the relative proportion of rural and urban residents in the Legal Amazon was approximately equivalent before 1990; however, by 2000 more than seventy per cent of residents resided in what the national census bureau considers urban areas. Most of the rural-to-urban migration has flowed to the six largest metropolitan centers: Manaus, Belem/Ananindeua, São Luiz, Cuiabá/Varzea Grande, Porto Velho and Macapá/Santana. There has been a similar expansion of intermediate and small cities, many of which are the administrative centers for municipalities renowned for their role in agricultural supply chains (Itaitatuba [AM], Sorriso, Sinop [MT], Tailândia [PA], Ji-Paraná [RO]), corporate mines (Marabá, Parauapebas, Oriximiná [PA]), wildcat mining towns (Itaituba [PA], Pontes e Lacerda (MT), or cattle landscapes renowned for high rates of deforestation (Altamira, São Félix do Xingu [PA], Humaita [AM]). Most doubled their populations between 2000 and 2010 and have been growing at&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/rural-urban-migration-across-the-amazon-basin/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288925</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous communities in the Amazon fight for full recognition</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/indigenous-communities-in-the-amazon-jungle-fight-for-full-recognition/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/indigenous-communities-in-the-amazon-jungle-fight-for-full-recognition/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Oct 2024 10:59:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/08041436/shutterstock_2155701315-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288332</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Guyana, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Culture, Deforestation, Human Migration, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Migration, Population, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Amazonian lowlands were home to several hundred ethnic groups living in tens of thousands of villages with a population estimated at between four and fifteen million inhabitants. Over millennia, these societies transformed landscapes along the main stem of the Amazon River and its major southern tributaries by developing [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Amazonian lowlands were home to several hundred ethnic groups living in tens of thousands of villages with a population estimated at between four and fifteen million inhabitants. Over millennia, these societies transformed landscapes along the main stem of the Amazon River and its major southern tributaries by developing agricultural practices that created dark earth soils, a technology that improved the physical and chemical properties of tropical soils, increased their productivity and ensured their sustainable use over centuries. These rural societies for the most part lacked large urban centers, but were sufficiently sophisticated to domesticate dozens of plant species and manipulate natural populations in native forests to create managed groves dominated by species that provided food and fiber. Simultaneously, cultures occupying the seasonal forest and savanna regions on the southern rim of the Amazon engineered landscapes by building mounds, causeways and ditch systems that improved crop yields while creating logistical systems that supported even denser populations. Tragically, all of these societies collapsed in the fifteenth and sixteenth and centuries, when epidemics caused by pathogens introduced during the Colombian Exchange burned through their communities. Although archaeology has yet to discover all the gruesome details, these societies were particularly susceptible to pandemics because of their relatively high population density and a trade network that promoted cultural interactions. The population is believed to have fallen to fewer than 400,000 individuals in a cataclysmic demographic collapse. The number of ethnic groups that existed before the ‘Great Dying’ is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/indigenous-communities-in-the-amazon-jungle-fight-for-full-recognition/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288332</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The people who make up the Pan-Amazonian melting pot: regional demographics</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/the-people-who-make-up-the-pan-amazonian-melting-pot-the-demographics-of-a-region/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/the-people-who-make-up-the-pan-amazonian-melting-pot-the-demographics-of-a-region/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Oct 2024 20:50:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/03204417/shutterstock_1826399957-copy-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288185</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Colombia, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Human Migration, Indigenous Peoples, Migration, Population, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[One reason it is possible to be optimistic about the future of the Pan Amazon is that none of the countries must deal with an impending demographic explosion. This was not always the case. In the 1970s, high birth rates and Roman Catholic traditions suggested that Latin America was facing a demographic time bomb. Populations [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[One reason it is possible to be optimistic about the future of the Pan Amazon is that none of the countries must deal with an impending demographic explosion. This was not always the case. In the 1970s, high birth rates and Roman Catholic traditions suggested that Latin America was facing a demographic time bomb. Populations in Amazonian countries were expanding by 2.4% to 3.5 % annually, a rate that would have doubled their population every twenty years. The colonization schemes of the 1970s and 1980s were conceived, in part, to create a safety valve for an expanding population. Except for Venezuela, population growth in the Pan Amazonian countries has fallen to between 1% and 0.5% per year, placing them in a group of countries that includes the United States, Canada and Spain. Brazil has the lowest rate, while Ecuador and Bolivia have the highest. Venezuela has complicated this panorama with its economic implosion, which has led to the mass migration of approximately seven million economic refugees between 2014 and 2023. Most have resettled in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, which show uncharacteristically high growth rates during those years. The population growth of the Pan Amazon, stratified by country and temporal period. The mean annual change shows a peak in the 1980s and 1990s. Data sourced from national statistical agencies: Bolivia (INE); Brazil (IBGE); Colombia (DANE); Ecuador (INEC); F. Guiana (INSEE); Guyana (BS); Peru (INEI); Suriname (ABS); Venezuela (INE). Currently, the jurisdictions within the Pan Amazon are home to approximately 43 million&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/the-people-who-make-up-the-pan-amazonian-melting-pot-the-demographics-of-a-region/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288185</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>CHAPTER 6. Culture and demographics defines the Pan Amazon&#8217;s present</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/chapter-6-culture-and-demographics-defines-the-pan-amazons-present/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/chapter-6-culture-and-demographics-defines-the-pan-amazons-present/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Sep 2024 11:56:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/23171803/PORTADA_CH6-inicio-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287727</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Colombia, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Colonialism, Conservation, Culture, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Policy, extractives, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, Human Migration, Indigenous Peoples, Migration, Natural Resources, Oil, Politics, Population, Rainforests, Regulations, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Infrastructure investments, agricultural production systems, land speculation and the exploitation of mineral resources have all been identified as drivers of deforestation and hydrological degradation in the Pan Amazon. These forces do not act in isolation, but are the consequence of people who act within cultural spaces defined by history and circumstance. Farmers, ranchers, miners, urban [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Infrastructure investments, agricultural production systems, land speculation and the exploitation of mineral resources have all been identified as drivers of deforestation and hydrological degradation in the Pan Amazon. These forces do not act in isolation, but are the consequence of people who act within cultural spaces defined by history and circumstance. Farmers, ranchers, miners, urban elites and the blue-collar workforce are all people pursuing their individual economic interests. Politicians respond to citizens’ demands for economic growth, job creation and an improved standard of living, while businesspeople seek to make a profit and increase their shareholders’ net worth. By necessity or design, people make decisions with extremely short horizons and are usually forced to choose among a limited number of options determined by public policies and market exigencies. The current state of the Pan Amazon is product of a complex dynamic that has evolved over centuries. Paramount is the resiliency of its Indigenous cultures, which have withstood the onslaught of colonial and republican exploitation, particularly the events of a rubber boom (1879–1912) and the nationalist development policies of the last half of the twentieth century, when governments adopted policies specifically designed to populate and transform their Amazonian provinces. Migration has radically transformed the Amazon, creating a population that is highly dependent on the conventional economy and global commodity markets. Although the development policies that transformed the region after 1970 were largely focused on rural production strategies, internal migration has led to a concentration of people – and talent – in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/chapter-6-culture-and-demographics-defines-the-pan-amazons-present/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287727</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Messengers of the gods: Nara’s ‘sacred’ deer at a conservation crossroads</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/messengers-of-the-gods-naras-sacred-deer-at-a-conservation-crossroads/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/messengers-of-the-gods-naras-sacred-deer-at-a-conservation-crossroads/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 May 2024 14:38:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annelise Giseburt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/22135818/1-Deer-at-Kasugayama.-Image-by-Annelise-Giseburt-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282385</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Asia, and Japan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystem Engineers, Ecosystems, Environment, Genetics, Habitat, Mammals, Overpopulation, Religions, Research, Tourism, Traditional People, Ungulates, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Japan’s Shinto religion often conserved natural lands as sacred sites, banning logging and protecting animals. But in Nara, community conflicts with deer have raised questions over how far such protections should extend.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Nara, a city in central Japan and an ancient national capital from 710 to 784 C.E., is today perhaps best known for its “sacred” deer. According to legend, Takemikazuchi-no-mikoto, a deity in the Shinto pantheon, was carried by a sacred deer to Nara’s Kasuga Taisha Shrine upon its founding in 768, more than 1200 years ago, “for the prosperity of the nation and happiness of the people.” Ever since, deer living near the shrine have been protected, more or less, as “messengers of the gods.” These days, roughly 1,300 sacred deer mingle freely with tourists in the 660-hectare (1,630-acre) Nara Park, a public space that includes Kasuga Taisha Shrine, Buddhist temples and a protected forest. The grounds, shrine and temples draw roughly 13 million visitors annually. As tourists snap photos, the animals eagerly wait to be hand-fed “deer crackers” purchased from park vendors. Deer living near the shrine have been protected, more or less, as “messengers of the gods” for more than 1200 year ago. Image by Alfonso Jimenez via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0). In recent years, Japanese researchers have used genetic analysis to determine whether Nara’s deer are truly unique. They found that the population’s long history of protection has isolated their gene pool, making them genetically distinct, though not a separate species, from the deer in surrounding areas. However, the strong protection measures have been called into question in recent decades as the Nara deer have been caught up in conservation and community controversy. Across Japan, populations of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/messengers-of-the-gods-naras-sacred-deer-at-a-conservation-crossroads/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282385</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What drives and halts tropical deforestation? Analyzing 24 years of data</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/what-drives-and-halts-tropical-deforestation-study-analyzes-24-years-of-data/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/what-drives-and-halts-tropical-deforestation-study-analyzes-24-years-of-data/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Aug 2023 15:38:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/19145342/ecuador_237058-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=272529</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Cattle, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Green, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Pasture, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Population, Rainforests, Ranching, Reforestation, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Tropics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With the climate crisis in full swing, world leaders have made pledges to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030. In a new meta-analysis, researchers synthesized the findings of 320 studies about what is associated with more or less deforestation in the tropics. According to the study, published in the journal Review of Environmental Economics [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[With the climate crisis in full swing, world leaders have made pledges to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030. In a new meta-analysis, researchers synthesized the findings of 320 studies about what is associated with more or less deforestation in the tropics. According to the study, published in the journal Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, converting land for farming and raising cattle is a significant driver of deforestation. In the Amazon, for example, 70% of deforestation has been linked to clearing for cattle pastures. Building more roads and expanding cities into forests almost always leads to more deforestation in tropical areas. The more accessible a forest is, the more likely it is to be cut. Population growth also means more people cut forests for housing and farming. “They’re things that many people already know,” study co-author Jonah Busch of Conservation International told Mongabay in an email. “But we can state them with the confidence that comes from a comprehensive, systematic, quantitative, review of hundreds of studies over 24 years.” Fires blaze across the Amazon forest in Altamira in Pará in 2019, one of the state’s worst years for fires and deforestation. Most Amazon deforestation is caused by slash and burn agriculture, creating pastures for cattle. Image © Victor Moriyama/Greenpeace. On the flip side, forests on steeper, sloping hills and higher elevations are subject to less deforestation because they’re harder to access. Stronger protections for parks and nature reserves also help slow deforestation, as does better law enforcement and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/what-drives-and-halts-tropical-deforestation-study-analyzes-24-years-of-data/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/what-drives-and-halts-tropical-deforestation-study-analyzes-24-years-of-data/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-272529</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can community payments with no strings attached benefit biodiversity?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/can-community-payments-with-no-strings-attached-benefit-biodiversity/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/can-community-payments-with-no-strings-attached-benefit-biodiversity/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jun 2023 13:26:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/06/13105656/black-shanked-douc-langur-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=269704</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forests and Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, charcoal, Community Development, Community Forests, Conservation, Crops, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forests, Illegal Logging, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Population, Poverty, Redd, Subsistence Agriculture, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Hundreds of millions of people around the world live in spots considered critical for the protection of wildlife. More than three-quarters of these populations exist in less-industrialized countries, where poverty can contribute to the loss of biodiversity in the pursuit of meeting basic needs Recently, in a study in the journal Nature Sustainability published May [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Hundreds of millions of people around the world live in spots considered critical for the protection of wildlife. More than three-quarters of these populations exist in less-industrialized countries, where poverty can contribute to the loss of biodiversity in the pursuit of meeting basic needs Recently, in a study in the journal Nature Sustainability published May 18, a team of researchers calculated the cost of providing a conservation basic income (CBI) to the people living around biodiversity-rich parks and reserves or other vital areas for species protection, particularly in low- or middle-income countries. The CBI concept stems from similar proposals for what’s known as universal basic income, with the aim of providing a stable source of income and potentially benefiting biodiversity and nature in general. There isn’t a lot of research on how effective a CBI — or on universal basic incomes, for that matter — would be. Where evidence for CBI does exist, it paints a mixed picture. It sometimes benefits the environment but other times leaves habitats worse off. Critically, the money wouldn’t have restrictions or conditions, leaving recipients to spend it as they see fit. That freedom provides a “more just, more equitable” pathway to conservation, as opposed to more traditional measures that are often top-down and impose costs on local people, said lead author Emiel de Lange, an interdisciplinary conservation scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society in Cambodia. Cleared patches for farmland amid the forest near a wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia. Image by John Cannon/Mongabay. “[CBI] can&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/can-community-payments-with-no-strings-attached-benefit-biodiversity/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/can-community-payments-with-no-strings-attached-benefit-biodiversity/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-269704</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Human migration to Nepal’s tiger capital adds to conservation challenges</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/human-migration-to-nepals-tiger-capital-adds-to-conservation-challenges/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/human-migration-to-nepals-tiger-capital-adds-to-conservation-challenges/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Mar 2023 01:20:38 +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/20/2023/03/27161142/IMG_20230306_171617-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=266895</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cities, Community Forests, Conservation, Farming, Fuelwood, Human Migration, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Migration, Poaching, Pollution, Population, Rhinos, Rivers, Tigers, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — The B.P. Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital in Nepal’s central Bharatpur city, Chitwan District, bustles as patients, most of them from the country’s northern hilly areas, line up for their turn. Doctors in white coats dart from one room to another, while nurses in scrubs attend to patients. The facility is one of the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[KATHMANDU — The B.P. Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital in Nepal’s central Bharatpur city, Chitwan District, bustles as patients, most of them from the country’s northern hilly areas, line up for their turn. Doctors in white coats dart from one room to another, while nurses in scrubs attend to patients. The facility is one of the more than a dozen specialized hospitals, both private and public, that have sprung up in Chitwan, better known to the outside world for Chitwan National Park — a UNESCO World Heritage Site, important biodiversity hotspot, and home to the one-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) and the Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris). Chitwan, which continues to lure Nepalis from across the country to its fertile plains, is fast becoming a top destination for those seeking better access to health services. The district now has one of the highest population growth rates in the country thanks to rapid urbanization, according to recently released census figures. This has left conservationists concerned about the prospect of increased human pressure on the forests and wildlife of the region. Tourists on an elephant safari view rhinos in Chitwan National Park. Tourism has become a crucial source of revenue for the surrounding communities. Public domain image. “That rising population in Chitwan definitely adds to challenges in conserving forests and biodiversity,” said Jhamak Bahadur Karki, former chief warden of the national park and a faculty member at Kathmandu Forestry College. According to the 2021 census, Chitwan’s population that year grew by 2.07%, higher than the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/human-migration-to-nepals-tiger-capital-adds-to-conservation-challenges/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-266895</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Changing circumstances turn ‘sustainable communities’ into deforestation drivers: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/changing-circumstances-turn-sustainable-communities-into-deforestation-drivers-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/changing-circumstances-turn-sustainable-communities-into-deforestation-drivers-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Feb 2023 22:59:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kimberley Brown]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/06130735/indonesia-people-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=265183</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, charcoal, Community Development, Community Forests, Conservation, Crops, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forests, Illegal Logging, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Population, Poverty, Redd, Subsistence Agriculture, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Subsistence communities, those who live off the forest and lead largely sustainable lifestyles, can actually become drivers of forest loss and degradation under certain circumstances, according to a new study. This happens when external changes put pressure on their traditional lifestyles. This could be anything from market demands that shift agriculture practices to increased populations [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Subsistence communities, those who live off the forest and lead largely sustainable lifestyles, can actually become drivers of forest loss and degradation under certain circumstances, according to a new study. This happens when external changes put pressure on their traditional lifestyles. This could be anything from market demands that shift agriculture practices to increased populations in need of resources living in forest areas. These shifts could make communities another alarming source of carbon emissions, say researchers. Subsistence communities have often been associated with low environmental impact and a small carbon footprint. But as external pressures and demand for natural resources increase, these communities tend to intensify their forest activities to meet their basic needs, at the same time releasing more carbon stocks into the atmosphere from forest destruction, according to researchers. Aleu Gomez prepares silk cotton tree saplings for reforestation in community forests. Image courtesy of Jason Florio/United Purpose. In the new study published in the journal Carbon Footprints, researchers set out to look at this phenomenon on a global scale. They did a systemic review of 101 scientific reports, all based in the tropics, to see if they could identify the livelihood activities and triggers that lead to forest degradation. Thirty-nine reports are in Africa, 33 in Asia, and 29 in Latin America. The authors point out that these are the same sustainable communities, such as Indigenous and local people (IPLCs), that will be the first ones impacted by forest loss and climate change, as they continue to depend&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/changing-circumstances-turn-sustainable-communities-into-deforestation-drivers-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-265183</doi>				</item>
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