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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/poverty-alleviation/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Thu, 03 Sep 2026 01:51:15 +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 Poverty Alleviation</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/poverty-alleviation/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>IMF lending programs linked with deforestation should be rethought (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/imf-lending-programs-causing-deforestation-should-be-rethought-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/imf-lending-programs-causing-deforestation-should-be-rethought-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2026 15:34:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kevin P. GallagherRishikesh Ram BhandaryTimon Forster]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/23151222/kalbar_drone_190742-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320324</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Community Development, Deforestation, Development, Environment, Environmental Policy, Finance, Forests, Governance, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Research, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The price of financial stability should not be environmental destruction. Yet when countries turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help, their forests may quietly suffer. The IMF is currently reviewing the design of its lending programs, and it is time for change. Its recipe for getting economies back on track often features required [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The price of financial stability should not be environmental destruction. Yet when countries turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for help, their forests may quietly suffer. The IMF is currently reviewing the design of its lending programs, and it is time for change. Its recipe for getting economies back on track often features required reforms such as cutting government expenditure, increasing revenue collection through taxes or utility tariff increases, winding down public ownership of state-owned enterprises and encouraging the private sector to step up: austerity in other words. These policies are meant to restore stability in times of crisis, but growing evidence shows that IMF programs often fall short in helping countries break out of the cycle of economic and financial distress. Instead, they can trigger collateral damage in the form of negative health outcomes, worsened poverty and inequality and eroded social protection. Image by Forster et al., 2026 (CC BY 4.0). Our new research provides evidence that these programs also have an important and often overlooked environmental dimension, revealing that countries experience 9.2% higher annual tree cover loss during years in which they are under an IMF program. In a typical three-year IMF program, this amounts to forest loss the size of Barbados. This finding comes as no surprise as IMF programs are known to generally cut government spending, and environmental protections are often the first to go. These conditions that come in exchange for financial assistance are a major shortcoming when it comes to effects on forests,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/imf-lending-programs-causing-deforestation-should-be-rethought-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/imf-lending-programs-causing-deforestation-should-be-rethought-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320324</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Shipping’s biofuel gamble could deepen Africa’s land squeeze and food insecurity (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/shippings-biofuel-gamble-could-deepen-africas-land-squeeze-and-food-insecurity-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/shippings-biofuel-gamble-could-deepen-africas-land-squeeze-and-food-insecurity-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Mar 2026 15:10:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Million BelaySusan Chomba]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/07145348/container-ship-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316050</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Biofuels, Business, carbon, Climate, Climate Change, Commentary, Farming, Food, food security, International Trade, Land Rights, Mitigation, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Shipping, Social Justice, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Africa&#8217;s future prosperity depends on how fast we can reduce emissions, especially from large polluting sectors like shipping. But using crops as fuel to cut emissions risks causing more harm than good. As countries gather at the UN&#8217;s International Maritime Organization (IMO) meeting in April to lay down the rules for future clean energy to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Africa&#8217;s future prosperity depends on how fast we can reduce emissions, especially from large polluting sectors like shipping. But using crops as fuel to cut emissions risks causing more harm than good. As countries gather at the UN&#8217;s International Maritime Organization (IMO) meeting in April to lay down the rules for future clean energy to power shipping, African governments must ensure that crop-based biofuels are not part of the solution. If that does happen, Africa might once again find itself paying the price for a transition from which it may not benefit. Shipping, as with other heavily polluting sectors, must decarbonize. But not all climate solutions are equal. The expansion of biofuels, often portrayed as ‘green’ in international shipping dialogues, could intensify pressures on land and food systems that are already stretched to the limit. As our work has shown, competition for land has reached a breaking point across Africa. Since 2000, hundreds of large-scale land deals have been recorded for industrial farming, carbon credits, mining, and biofuels. What is often presented as ‘unused’ or ‘marginal’ land is, in reality, the basis of livelihoods for small-scale farmers and Indigenous communities who are being displaced or stripped of control over their territories, which drives land inequality, rural poverty, and food insecurity. Biofuels for shipping risks accelerating this trajectory. Farmers at Yangambi, Democratic Republic of Congo. Image by Axel Fassio/CIFOR via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Shipping consumes roughly 300 million tons of fuel each year, and is responsible for 3% of global&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/shippings-biofuel-gamble-could-deepen-africas-land-squeeze-and-food-insecurity-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/shippings-biofuel-gamble-could-deepen-africas-land-squeeze-and-food-insecurity-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316050</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate-resilient housing models slow to gain ground in disaster-prone Bangladesh</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-resilient-housing-models-slow-to-gain-ground-in-disaster-prone-bangladesh/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-resilient-housing-models-slow-to-gain-ground-in-disaster-prone-bangladesh/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Mar 2026 06:06:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sadiqur Rahman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/13192957/Billal-Hossain-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315738</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Community Development, Disasters, Environment, Extreme Weather, Governance, Impact Of Climate Change, Infrastructure, NGOs, Poverty Alleviation, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Bangladesh’s low-lying terrain combined with the crisscrossed river network, which is cause for recurring floods, tidal surges and river erosion, and frequent cyclones make it vulnerable to climate change-related devastations. Between 2008 and 2024, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) recorded 123 disaster events that triggered huge displacement, including about 11.3 million people who experienced [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Bangladesh’s low-lying terrain combined with the crisscrossed river network, which is cause for recurring floods, tidal surges and river erosion, and frequent cyclones make it vulnerable to climate change-related devastations. Between 2008 and 2024, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) recorded 123 disaster events that triggered huge displacement, including about 11.3 million people who experienced pre-emptive evacuations during cyclones. IDMC assessed that many such movements, however, only last for a short period of time, but every year disasters still leave tens of thousands of people without hope of returning to their homes immediately after. In such a context, safe housing is a survival need instead of merely an infrastructural demand. However, the concept of safe or sustainable housing for the disaster victims still remains a donor-funded matter, as the use of climate-and-disaster-resilient construction plans and materials are not popular in Bangladesh. “Sustainable and safe housing is the first line of defense in disaster risk reduction,” says Mohammad Abu Sadeque, executive director of Centre for Housing and Building Research (HBRC), a private sector research hub focused on creating sustainable, affordable, and climate-resilient housing solutions. Sadeque has observed that conventional housing, especially in Bangladesh’s rural and low-income areas, often lacks structural safety and durability against cyclones and tidal surges, riverbank erosion, flooding, flash floods, salinity intrusion, earthquakes and heat stress. According to the government’s disaster-related statistics of 2021, more than half of the country’s households are non-concrete. Living in fragile tin-roofed or mud-walled structures, millions of families are exposed to the mounting&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-resilient-housing-models-slow-to-gain-ground-in-disaster-prone-bangladesh/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/climate-resilient-housing-models-slow-to-gain-ground-in-disaster-prone-bangladesh/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315738</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A forest garden project attempts to expand into the Sahel</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-forest-garden-project-attempts-to-expand-into-the-sahel/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-forest-garden-project-attempts-to-expand-into-the-sahel/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jul 2025 06:00:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/24214056/20231115_UNEP_Decade-on-Ecosystem-Restoration_African-Farmers-Transforming-Food-System_Senegal_Todd-Brown_14-e1753393737352-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303161</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Kenya, Mali, Sahel, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agroforestry, Climate Change, Conservation, Crops, Degraded Lands, Drought, Dry Forests, Erosion, Extreme Weather, Farming, Food, Hunger, Land Use Change, Monocultures, Natural Resources, Plants, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Reforestation, Trees, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Drought, irregular rainfall, deforestation, and the legacy of unsustainable human activities have left vast areas across the arid and semiarid regions of sub-Saharan Africa degraded, causing major challenges for the human population. According to environmentalists, one solution to this problem might be forest gardens. These “gardens” use regenerative agroforestry to revive patches of degraded agricultural [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Drought, irregular rainfall, deforestation, and the legacy of unsustainable human activities have left vast areas across the arid and semiarid regions of sub-Saharan Africa degraded, causing major challenges for the human population. According to environmentalists, one solution to this problem might be forest gardens. These “gardens” use regenerative agroforestry to revive patches of degraded agricultural land. In 2024, the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) selected a project led by Trees for the Future (TREES), a U.S.-based NGO, as one of seven world restoration flagships for its “forest garden approach” used in five countries in sub-Saharan Africa. These flagships promote restoration projects around the world that show potential to tackle challenges at scale and provide financial support. “Forest gardens promote healthy soil and diverse crops, leading to increased income and access to healthier food,” Enoch Makobi, country director for TREES in Uganda, told Mongabay. “Farmers are fighting climate change and can overcome poverty and hunger.” While NGO leaders say they’re optimistic about the outcomes of the project so far and their plans for expansion, some other conservationists have expressed skepticism, pointing to a lack of scientific evidence on impacts and the difficulty international NGOs face in tackling local problems and needs. A forest garden is a modern term for an ancient agroforestry model that mixes shrubs, herbs, vines, fruit and nut trees, and perennial vegetables, with the aim of supplying communities with food, medicine and animal feed. According to scientists, forest gardens can have significant&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-forest-garden-project-attempts-to-expand-into-the-sahel/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-forest-garden-project-attempts-to-expand-into-the-sahel/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303161</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Uganda community group restores shea groves and livelihoods</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/uganda-community-group-restores-shea-groves-and-livelihoods/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/uganda-community-group-restores-shea-groves-and-livelihoods/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Feb 2025 11:00:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Pat LarubiSam Schramski]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/10101428/Photo-5-Sorting-from-the-pan-fried-sheanut-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294176</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Culture, Development, Gender, Poverty Alleviation, Sustainable Development, Traditional Knowledge, Tropical Forests, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PADER DISTRICT, Uganda —  As the early morning mist lifts over the plains of northern Uganda, women gather at the Pader Shea Nut and Agro-processing Society&#8217;s nursery. Grown from seeds collected across the parkland landscape that dominates this district, hundreds of shea seedlings stand in neat, carefully tended rows under thatched shelters to protect them [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PADER DISTRICT, Uganda —  As the early morning mist lifts over the plains of northern Uganda, women gather at the Pader Shea Nut and Agro-processing Society&#8217;s nursery. Grown from seeds collected across the parkland landscape that dominates this district, hundreds of shea seedlings stand in neat, carefully tended rows under thatched shelters to protect them from the harsh sun that will soon burn through the morning&#8217;s mist. The women are here to collect seedlings to transplant into their fields. As part of a larger effort to restore Uganda&#8217;s shea parklands, the cooperative has successfully rehabilitated more than 500 hectares (1,240 acres) of degraded land, integrating shea trees (Vitellaria paradoxa) and other native species with maize and sunflower crops. The shea nut cooperative&#8217;s story began in 2004, during one of the darkest periods of Uganda&#8217;s modern history. &#8220;The group started with six members,&#8221; says Sarah Norah, one of the cooperative&#8217;s leaders. &#8220;By then we were in the [internally displaced people&#8217;s] camp. So life was not easy. We were being given food by the United Nations besides cooking oil and corn flour. And sometimes we could run out of those things.&#8221; A shea sapling: members of the Pader Shea Nut and Agro-processing Society are protecting and nurturing young trees like these to ensure their survival. Image by Pat Larubi for Mongabay. Shea parklands The fruit of the shea tree has long formed a key part of food systems in northern Uganda. A mature tree produces 15-20 kilograms (33-44 pounds) of green, egg-shaped&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/uganda-community-group-restores-shea-groves-and-livelihoods/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/uganda-community-group-restores-shea-groves-and-livelihoods/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294176</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Shea&#8217;s silent guardians restore Uganda&#8217;s traditional parklands</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/sheas-silent-guardians-restore-ugandas-traditional-parklands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/sheas-silent-guardians-restore-ugandas-traditional-parklands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Feb 2025 17:33:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Pat LarubiSam Schramski]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/07090926/Photo-X-Maureen-Otika-Kanya-Akanya-Shea-Growers-Group-in-Latanya-sub-county-Pader-district-Uganda-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294071</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Culture, Development, Gender, Poverty Alleviation, Sustainable Development, Traditional Knowledge, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PADER DISTRICT, Uganda — In northern Uganda&#8217;s Pader district, farmers are working to preserve agricultural landscapes that have fed their communities for generations. These shea parklands, where carefully maintained trees grow among food crops, represent centuries of agricultural knowledge at risk of being lost. Unlike natural forests, these parklands are agricultural landscapes shaped by generations [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PADER DISTRICT, Uganda — In northern Uganda&#8217;s Pader district, farmers are working to preserve agricultural landscapes that have fed their communities for generations. These shea parklands, where carefully maintained trees grow among food crops, represent centuries of agricultural knowledge at risk of being lost. Unlike natural forests, these parklands are agricultural landscapes shaped by generations of farmers. According to research submitted to the Global Shea Alliance, communities historically created landscapes that balanced crop production with ecological diversity by selecting which trees to preserve during field clearing, and encouraging their natural regeneration on fallow land. The shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa) is central to this system. &#8220;The shea nut tree and its products have been very significant in our traditional culture from time immemorial,&#8221; says Gillian Josephine P&#8217;Ochen in Lapaya village. &#8220;In our parklands, we have more than 50 other tree species that are also very significant in the ecosystem. I prefer to call this a paradise in the woods and a pharmaceutical arena. Because when you look at all the tree species, they are medicinal in one way or the other.&#8221; She points to a mature African cherry (Prunus africana) growing alongside shea trees. &#8220;This tree&#8217;s bark has been used to treat fevers for generations,&#8221; she says. &#8220;Its thick leaves fall and decompose slowly, enriching the soil for our crops. This is how our ancestors designed these parklands — every species has multiple purposes.&#8221; Passion fruit and jackfruit trees add to the landscape&#8217;s diversity, providing additional food crops. The integration of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/sheas-silent-guardians-restore-ugandas-traditional-parklands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/sheas-silent-guardians-restore-ugandas-traditional-parklands/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294071</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In the battle against plastic pollution, Asia&#8217;s informal workers are critical allies (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/in-the-battle-against-plastic-pollution-asias-informal-workers-are-critical-allies-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/in-the-battle-against-plastic-pollution-asias-informal-workers-are-critical-allies-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Oct 2024 17:14:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annerieke Douma]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/02/19013621/83A2078-copy-e1727883583606-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288110</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, India, Indonesia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Development, Ecosystems, Environment, Marine, Oceans, Plastic, Pollution, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Sustainable Development, Waste, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, a waste worker from Binh Dinh, Vietnam, has worked in the waste collection industry for four decades. She has spent every day at the landfill – her home and source of income – since she was a child. Like many developing economies in the region, Vietnam has limited household waste separation. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, a waste worker from Binh Dinh, Vietnam, has worked in the waste collection industry for four decades. She has spent every day at the landfill – her home and source of income – since she was a child. Like many developing economies in the region, Vietnam has limited household waste separation. Informal workers like Thuy support 90% of plastics recycling in the country, separating materials by hand and delivering them to collection centers. Southeast Asia is the source of over half of the world&#8217;s ocean plastic, due to inadequate waste management infrastructure in many emerging economies. But these rapidly developing markets also present huge potential for impact when it comes to the global fight against plastic pollution, and harnessing the informal workforce will be a central part of the solution. While a patchwork of solutions is emerging across Asia, greater collaboration between the public, private and nonprofit sectors can tap into this critical global workforce while also providing opportunities to protect livelihoods for informal workers on a much larger scale. Thuy and her counterparts in other developing countries form a vast network of approximately 20 million workers who contribute to almost 60% of global plastics recycling. Despite the critical role they play, their contributions are often overlooked, and they endure deplorable conditions with inadequate pay, child labor, and health risks. But experience shows us that integrating informal workers, harnessing their specific skills and contributions, can result in more transparent and efficient value chains for recycled plastics in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/in-the-battle-against-plastic-pollution-asias-informal-workers-are-critical-allies-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/in-the-battle-against-plastic-pollution-asias-informal-workers-are-critical-allies-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288110</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Global ‘Slow Food’ movement embraces agroecology (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/global-slow-food-movement-embraces-and-advances-agroecology-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/global-slow-food-movement-embraces-and-advances-agroecology-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Sep 2024 19:06:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Mukiibi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/04/12215035/13992749734_744c0a0a2a_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287783</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, European Union, Global, Italy, Malawi, Southern Africa, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, agribusiness, Agriculture, Agroecology, Commentary, Environment, Food, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, Poverty, and Poverty Alleviation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[I have spent more than 20 years visiting communities and working with farmers around Uganda and across East and southern Africa. I have come to realize that there are many farmers who are trying their best to produce food in a way that harms neither the environment nor consumers. But many of these farmers are [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[I have spent more than 20 years visiting communities and working with farmers around Uganda and across East and southern Africa. I have come to realize that there are many farmers who are trying their best to produce food in a way that harms neither the environment nor consumers. But many of these farmers are trapped in a corrupt system designed to benefit those who provide – and profit – from chemical inputs. How do we help them to break out of this bubble, and how do we create a network where they can share their motivations, their feelings, their practical knowledge and their experiences? Farmers need to be brought together so that they help each other move towards good, clean and fair production of food. And they need to be brought together because farmers are also bearers of knowledge. Uniting them in a network is the best way to free themselves from the trap of growing input-heavy, export-focused monocultures. My name is Edward Mukiibi. Since 2022 I have served as the president of the world’s largest food movement, Slow Food. In 2007 I was just an agriculture student at Makerere University in Kampala, but I was already working closely with farmers. I volunteered for a project to promote a new hybrid maize variety, supposedly drought-resistant, in western Uganda. I was convinced that this was the right way to produce more food: more high-yielding varieties grown with more external inputs like fertilizers. Edward Mukiibi in the field. Image courtesy of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/global-slow-food-movement-embraces-and-advances-agroecology-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/global-slow-food-movement-embraces-and-advances-agroecology-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287783</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>$35m debt-for-nature deal aims to protect Indonesia’s coral reefs</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/35m-debt-for-nature-deal-aims-to-protect-indonesias-coral-reefs/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/35m-debt-for-nature-deal-aims-to-protect-indonesias-coral-reefs/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Aug 2024 16:51:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[M Ambari]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/30154104/terumbu-karang-raja-ampat-KI-Ronal-scaled_LARGE-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286782</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Coral Reefs, Debt-for-nature, Ecosystems, Finance, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Monitoring, Oceans, and Poverty Alleviation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A milestone debt-for-nature agreement to conserve coral reefs in Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelagic country, has drawn a mix of optimism and skepticism from environmentalists. While welcoming the flush of funding and attention to the country’s imperiled reef ecosystems, some warn that to be successful, the agreement must reshape the way reef conservation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A milestone debt-for-nature agreement to conserve coral reefs in Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelagic country, has drawn a mix of optimism and skepticism from environmentalists. While welcoming the flush of funding and attention to the country’s imperiled reef ecosystems, some warn that to be successful, the agreement must reshape the way reef conservation is practiced, in particular by enhancing monitoring of project outcomes. “If we want to continue coral reef restoration and conservation projects over the next nine years in the same way as before, then we will repeat the same failures,” Parid Ridwanuddin, oceans lead at the Indonesian Forum for the Environment, a prominent national pressure group known as Walhi, told Mongabay Indonesia. The $35 million debt-for-nature swap between Indonesia and the U.S. aims to conserve coral reefs in eastern Indonesia over the next nine years, with the funding offset by canceled sovereign debt payable to the U.S. On Aug. 8 the Global Fund for Coral Reefs (GFCR) formally announced the deal, although the governments of Indonesia and the U.S. had sealed it in July. The GFCR, an international public-private finance body, provided financial and technical support for the debt swap, according to the announcement. “This agreement helps reinforce the idea that a healthy ocean is in the global interest and a shared responsibility,” said Victor Gustaaf Manoppo, director-general of marine management at Indonesia’s Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries. Indonesian conservation organizations Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara (YKAN) and Yayasan Konservasi Cakrawala Indonesia (YKCI), along with their&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/35m-debt-for-nature-deal-aims-to-protect-indonesias-coral-reefs/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/35m-debt-for-nature-deal-aims-to-protect-indonesias-coral-reefs/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286782</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rio&#8217;s grassroots agroforestry sustains birds, bees &#038; communities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/rios-grassroots-agroforestry-sustains-birds-bees-communities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/rios-grassroots-agroforestry-sustains-birds-bees-communities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Aug 2024 15:23:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bernardo Araujo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/13134552/2023-building-the-pergola-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286034</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Cities, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Poverty Alleviation, Solutions, Sustainability, Trees, and urban ecology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[RIO DE JANEIRO – I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived at Cocotá. The large plaza, 11 hectares (27 acres) snatched from the sea by land reclamation more than five decades ago, was all too familiar. Everything in it was more or less as I remembered, from the skate tracks and sport courts [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[RIO DE JANEIRO – I didn’t know what to expect when I arrived at Cocotá. The large plaza, 11 hectares (27 acres) snatched from the sea by land reclamation more than five decades ago, was all too familiar. Everything in it was more or less as I remembered, from the skate tracks and sport courts to the concrete benches and walkways. Everything, save for the small, curious cluster of trees I’d come to visit, which looked more like a small forest than just another garden built by the city administration. Cocotá is a neighborhood of Governor&#8217;s Island (or Ilha do Governador), a 39-square-kilometer (15-square-mile) island in the northeastern part of Rio de Janeiro. A large section of the island is occupied by the Brazilian Air Force and Rio’s international airport, leaving roughly half of its area to the more than 200,000 residents. Not long ago, I used to be one of them, which made the object of my visit all the more surprising: I would never expect an agroforest — where useful trees, shrubs and annual plants are grown together in a system that provides fruits, vegetables and habitat for animals — to take root here, in the middle of my city. My hosts for the evening were enjoying the shade of the miniature “food forest,” as agroforestry plots are often called. Victor Huggo, a local architect, rose from his seat at the roots of a jambolan tree (Malabar plum, Syzygium cumini) to greet me. Across from him was Lucas&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/rios-grassroots-agroforestry-sustains-birds-bees-communities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/rios-grassroots-agroforestry-sustains-birds-bees-communities/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286034</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Agroforestry offers Thai rubber farmers a pathway to profit and sustainability</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/agroforestry-offers-thai-rubber-farmers-a-pathway-to-profit-and-sustainability/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/agroforestry-offers-thai-rubber-farmers-a-pathway-to-profit-and-sustainability/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Jul 2024 14:24:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/31125619/DSCF0749-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=285418</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Development, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Food, food security, Forest Products, Forests, Poverty Alleviation, Rubber, Solutions, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Little by little, the canopy of branches and interlocking leaves closes overhead as our vehicle rollicks deeper into the plantation. Pakamart Tongkam points from the driver’s seat into the stark thicket of rubber trees that now surround us: “When I was a child, I slept out there in a small hut while my [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BANGKOK — Little by little, the canopy of branches and interlocking leaves closes overhead as our vehicle rollicks deeper into the plantation. Pakamart Tongkam points from the driver’s seat into the stark thicket of rubber trees that now surround us: “When I was a child, I slept out there in a small hut while my mum and dad worked in the plantation through the night.” Several years later, as an adolescent, Pakamart helped her parents with their daily rubber tapping. The routine was grueling, she tells Mongabay during a visit to Nathawi district in southern Thailand’s Songkhla province, a heartland of rubber production. Rising at 2 a.m., the family would trek through the humid plantation to strip the bark of hundreds of individual rubber trees to collect the milky latex. Most of all, Pakamart recalls an overriding air of uncertainty: if it rained during the two-hour window of time it took for the latex to drip into the collection bowls, the entire day’s yield would be ruined: “No income for that day,” she says. Relying on a single crop meant such poor harvests were devastating for their livelihood. But despite the precarious conditions, rubber farming is a major source of income for more than a million smallholder farmers in Thailand, who together produce 90% of the country’s sizeable annual yields of natural rubber. Rubber has historically been a major driver of deforestation across Southeast Asia. And with recent studies showing that at least 2 million hectares (5 million acres) of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/agroforestry-offers-thai-rubber-farmers-a-pathway-to-profit-and-sustainability/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-285418</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lebanese youths take up rods and reels to learn sustainable fishing</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/lebanese-youths-take-up-rods-and-reels-to-learn-sustainable-fishing/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/lebanese-youths-take-up-rods-and-reels-to-learn-sustainable-fishing/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Mar 2024 15:54:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Amélie David]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/27141753/ossam-labanon-fishing-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280325</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Lebanon, and Middle East]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Education, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Food, food security, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Illegal Fishing, Marine Conservation, NGOs, Oceans, Poverty Alleviation, Saltwater Fish, Sustainability, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[AMCHIT, Lebanon — Amchit’s harbor bustles with activity on a sunny January morning, one of the first in more than three weeks. A group of 16 youths from the coastal village of Bnine, in Akkar district, one of Lebanon&#8217;s poorest regions, gathers at the docks, where a long wooden boat is tied up. Divided into [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[AMCHIT, Lebanon — Amchit’s harbor bustles with activity on a sunny January morning, one of the first in more than three weeks. A group of 16 youths from the coastal village of Bnine, in Akkar district, one of Lebanon&#8217;s poorest regions, gathers at the docks, where a long wooden boat is tied up. Divided into two groups, one prepares to set sail, the other to learn the art of knot-tying. The first group, smiling and singing, rushes to the boat, unable to hide their excitement. Captain Jeannot, otherwise known as Jean Saad, welcomes the youths, led by fisher Solange Sfeir, on board the Coco. Greeting them warmly, Sfeir hands each trainee a fishing rod, a large black bucket, and a hat to prevent sunstroke. Sitting on two benches, the young men and women observe all Sfeir’s movements and listen carefully to their trainer for the day. The fisher holds a disassembled fishing rod. “What is the name of this part?” she asks. &#8220;Reel!&#8221; the group answers enthusiastically. She smiles, pleased by how well her students remember their lessons from the two-day classroom session they’ve already done. In it, these young people learned about the sea, the species of fish and their sizes, the fishing seasons, and everything else a fisher should know. Today, they will put this into practice: learning how to fish at sea and tie knots the correct way. This training is part of a program created by the Lebanese NGO Friends of Nature that aims to train&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/lebanese-youths-take-up-rods-and-reels-to-learn-sustainable-fishing/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/lebanese-youths-take-up-rods-and-reels-to-learn-sustainable-fishing/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280325</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Fish deaths near Rio Tinto mine in Madagascar dredge up community grievances</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/fish-deaths-near-rio-tinto-mine-in-madagascar-dredge-up-community-grievances/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/fish-deaths-near-rio-tinto-mine-in-madagascar-dredge-up-community-grievances/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 May 2023 10:19:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/12155025/fish-deaths-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=268549</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Madagascar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Development, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Developing Countries, Development, Environmental Law, Fish, Fishing, food security, Human Rights, Mining, Pollution, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Social Justice, Sustainable Development, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LAKE AMBAVARANO, Madagascar — On March 5, 2022, following days of cyclone-induced flooding, executives at the Rio Tinto-owned QMM mine in Madagascar shot off an urgent request to the country’s water regulator. They wanted to release 1 million cubic meters (264 million gallons) of wastew ater into the Mandromondromotra River that flows along the mine’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LAKE AMBAVARANO, Madagascar — On March 5, 2022, following days of cyclone-induced flooding, executives at the Rio Tinto-owned QMM mine in Madagascar shot off an urgent request to the country’s water regulator. They wanted to release 1 million cubic meters (264 million gallons) of wastew ater into the Mandromondromotra River that flows along the mine’s northeastern perimeter. A few days later, Simon Razanandriana’s eldest son, Derrick, came home with distressing news: Thousands of dead fish were floating on Lake Ambavarano, where their family has fished for generations. “No one can help us. Even the government works with QMM,” Simon Razanandriana said. Image by Malavika Vyawahare/Mongabay. The Mandromondromotra drains into Ambavarano, which is one of a string of estuarine lakes located between the mine and the Indian Ocean. The fishing hamlet of Manaka, or Emanaka, where the Razanandriana family lives, sits on the sandy bank separating the lakes and the sea. Plying their dugout canoes on subdued lake waters, fishers can sometimes hear the whirr of the mine’s heavy machinery over the roar of the ocean. Civil society groups say the mine’s effluent enters neighboring water bodies with alarming regularity, endangering people’s health and robbing them of their livelihoods, and that the mining company is doing little to better the lives of Malagasy people most impacted by its activities. They say the threat posed by the mine grows as climatic changes bring more destructive storms to Madagascar’s shores. A lake that belches dead fish The city of Fort Dauphin. Image by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/fish-deaths-near-rio-tinto-mine-in-madagascar-dredge-up-community-grievances/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/fish-deaths-near-rio-tinto-mine-in-madagascar-dredge-up-community-grievances/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-268549</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>It&#8217;s time to embrace community-led conservation vs. the colonial kind (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/its-time-to-embrace-community-led-conservation-vs-the-colonial-kind-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/its-time-to-embrace-community-led-conservation-vs-the-colonial-kind-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 May 2023 19:54:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Audrey Moreng]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/15154753/animals_zh_129-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=268593</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Fiji, Oceania, and Pacific Islands]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Colonialism, Colonization, Commentary, Conservation, Funding, Indigenous Peoples, Marine Protected Areas, National Parks, Parks, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Protected Areas, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When I lived on the remote island of Beqa, in Fiji, I watched as foreign-based NGOs entered villages and told Fijians how to live their lives, saying things like “no more eating ika bula (sea turtle),” and “it is time you stop fishing kawakawa (grouper).” These environmental NGOs had good intentions, of course, but their [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When I lived on the remote island of Beqa, in Fiji, I watched as foreign-based NGOs entered villages and told Fijians how to live their lives, saying things like “no more eating ika bula (sea turtle),” and “it is time you stop fishing kawakawa (grouper).” These environmental NGOs had good intentions, of course, but their work was ineffective. Why would a Fijian man who has been eating ika bula for traditional occasions since childhood suddenly stop because some white guy who spent three days in his village told him to? Why do international conservation organizations often ask Indigenous people to halt their traditional and sustainable practices instead of focusing on larger issues at play, such as the bycatch of giant fishing vessels? I went into conservation to answer the call to better our planet. People like me who want to dedicate their career to help this earth and all of its species will not accomplish anything by allowing any sort of continuance of traditional conservation. Most of our current models of international conservation are dated and ineffective. If we want to make real change, we need to change our mindsets. We need to challenge current conservation practice. The village of Naceva, Beqa, Fiji on a cloudy day. Image courtesy of Audrey Moreng. Some of international conservation today still takes on a new form of colonialism. Colonialism is the exploitation of people, often Indigenous, by a foreign power. It usually involves taking resources, making the colonizer more powerful, all while furthering&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/its-time-to-embrace-community-led-conservation-vs-the-colonial-kind-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/its-time-to-embrace-community-led-conservation-vs-the-colonial-kind-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-268593</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rio Tinto must repair the damage caused by their Madagascar mine (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/rio-tinto-must-repair-the-damage-caused-by-their-madagascar-mine-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/rio-tinto-must-repair-the-damage-caused-by-their-madagascar-mine-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Apr 2023 13:33:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ketakandriana Rafitoson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/04/26222447/RT-QMM-peninsula-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=267940</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Madagascar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Community Development, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Developing Countries, Development, food security, Human Rights, Mining, Pollution, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Sustainable Development, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Rio Tinto’s sprawling Qit Minerals Madagascar (QMM) mining operation is situated in one of the poorest regions of the fifth poorest country in the world. It lies in an area near Fort-Dauphin on the far southeastern coast of Madagascar, where 91% of people live in poverty and 80% of the rural population wholly depend on [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Rio Tinto’s sprawling Qit Minerals Madagascar (QMM) mining operation is situated in one of the poorest regions of the fifth poorest country in the world. It lies in an area near Fort-Dauphin on the far southeastern coast of Madagascar, where 91% of people live in poverty and 80% of the rural population wholly depend on natural resources for their survival. The ilmenite-producing QMM mine has made their lives immeasurably harder, pushing them deeper into poverty. And it has done so in various ways which have been comprehensively documented over many years, including in research we at Publish What You Pay-Madagascar produced in 2022. The mining operation has contaminated water, with uranium levels found to be 50 times higher than the WHO safe drinking water guidelines in some parts of the waterways and lakes adjacent to the mine, which the majority of the 15,000 people living near the site use for drinking and domestic purposes. Fish allegedly killed by a 2022 QMM mine tailings dam release. Photo courtesy of Andrew Lees Trust. Meanwhile food insecurity has intensified, as soil fertility has decreased and local peoples’ access to land has been reduced &#8211; meaning fewer pastures for cattle. These hardships were compounded a year ago, when the mine’s tailings dam failed twice. To prevent the dam’s total collapse, the QMM operations released a million cubic meters of mine wastewater. In the following days, hundreds of dead fish were found floating in downstream lakes, precipitating a fishing ban which hit local fisher folks’&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/rio-tinto-must-repair-the-damage-caused-by-their-madagascar-mine-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/rio-tinto-must-repair-the-damage-caused-by-their-madagascar-mine-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-267940</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Agroecology is a poverty solution in Haiti (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/agroecology-is-a-poverty-solution-in-haiti-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/agroecology-is-a-poverty-solution-in-haiti-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Mar 2023 05:20:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Cantave Jean-BaptisteSteve Brescia]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/03/06003100/Woman-AE-farmer-Haiti-Ben-Depp-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=266146</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean, Haiti, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Commentary, Community Forests, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Farming, Food, food security, Forestry, Nature-based climate solutions, Poverty Alleviation, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Haiti is facing a profound political and economic crisis.  Functional governance that serves the interests of Haiti’s people is largely nonexistent.  One of the necessities to overcome this crisis is transitioning from the extractive environmental and economic model that has long plagued the country to one that is regenerative and good for Haitians and their [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Haiti is facing a profound political and economic crisis.  Functional governance that serves the interests of Haiti’s people is largely nonexistent.  One of the necessities to overcome this crisis is transitioning from the extractive environmental and economic model that has long plagued the country to one that is regenerative and good for Haitians and their environment. In July of 2021 President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated, and the current Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, is unelected. In fact, Haiti now has no elected government officials at local or national levels since the terms of 10 Senators expired on January 10, 2023. Armed gangs control over half of the neighborhoods and streets in Port-au-Prince, and have significant influence outside of the capital as well. They are inter-connected with many police and politicians.  Haiti’s electoral council is not currently able to organize elections, and the conditions for safe voting would not exist if they did.  Haiti is already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and the poverty and food crisis is growing. In 2022, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) ranked Haiti in the 10 worst hunger crises in the world, with 4.3 million (over 37% of the population) in need of immediate food assistance. International attention to Haiti typically rises when internal events and turmoil threaten to spill over and affect other nations – whether in the form of the ‘dangerous example’ of a successful slave revolt that established the independent nation in 1804; the flow of boat people and refugees to the US and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/agroecology-is-a-poverty-solution-in-haiti-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/agroecology-is-a-poverty-solution-in-haiti-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-266146</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sustainable fish farming &#038; agroecology buoy Kenyan communities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/sustainable-fish-farming-agroecology-buoy-kenyan-communities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/sustainable-fish-farming-agroecology-buoy-kenyan-communities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Feb 2023 19:16:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Njagi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/07/01195548/6393634293_852de966e4_b-495x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=265355</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Aquaculture, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Fish, Food, food security, Food Waste, Freshwater Fish, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Poverty Alleviation, Sustainability, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[GATUNGA, Kenya — The dry spell that troubled Kenya for the past few years has shaken the country’s rural food systems. But Japheth Nthiga, a farmer from Karethani village in central Kenya, has been netting some comforts during the difficult stretch. That’s because Nthiga has converted part of his land to fish ponds, and while [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[GATUNGA, Kenya — The dry spell that troubled Kenya for the past few years has shaken the country’s rural food systems. But Japheth Nthiga, a farmer from Karethani village in central Kenya, has been netting some comforts during the difficult stretch. That’s because Nthiga has converted part of his land to fish ponds, and while the rest of his farm supports livestock and food crops — green grams (mung beans), sorghum, millet and corn — it’s the liquid half-acre that has kept him smiling since 2013. “The fish I farm here are for local consumption. I also earn some good income when I sell the catch at the local market. I do not feel worried when my food crops fail to produce a harvest,” said the 51-year-old father of five, who farms tilapia and catfish. Japheth Nthiga raises tilapia and catfish in fish ponds on his farm in central Kenya. Image by David Njagi for Mongabay. It’s easy to understand Nthiga’s sense of fulfillment. His village, which sits about 150 kilometers (90 miles) from the edge of Mount Kenya Forest, has been wracked by prolonged and repeated droughts for most of the past decade. To navigate the dry spells, farmers, especially those from upstream communities, have intensified their use of synthetic fertilizers to boost crop yields, leading to pollution of rivers and loss of soil nutrients in the region, according to Venter Mwongera, the communications and advocacy coordinator at the nonprofit African Biodiversity Network. As a result, rural food systems&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/sustainable-fish-farming-agroecology-buoy-kenyan-communities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/sustainable-fish-farming-agroecology-buoy-kenyan-communities/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-265355</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Chile&#8217;s denial of Dominga port project is a just energy transition victory and lesson (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/chiles-denial-of-dominga-port-project-is-a-just-energy-transition-victory-and-lesson-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/chiles-denial-of-dominga-port-project-is-a-just-energy-transition-victory-and-lesson-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jan 2023 20:52:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Daniel Gajardo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/01/24175058/humboldt-penguins-e1674582782960-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=264801</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Chile, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Commentary, Community Development, Conservation, Development, Ecosystems, Energy, Environment, Infrastructure, Land Rights, Marine, Marine Conservation, Mining, Oceans, Ports, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Renewable Energy, Sustainable Development, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Imagine having to choose between having water or a mining project in your backyard. Or between having a job or polluting your community. What would you choose? This dichotomy is the choice that the people of La Higuera in northern Chile were proposed by Dominga’s project developers. However, this false framing – which is faced [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Imagine having to choose between having water or a mining project in your backyard. Or between having a job or polluting your community. What would you choose? This dichotomy is the choice that the people of La Higuera in northern Chile were proposed by Dominga’s project developers. However, this false framing – which is faced an innumerable number of times by communities around the globe – hides the fact that the people of La Higuera (and the world) should not have to choose between prosperity and healthy ecosystems; we can have – and deserve – both. Moving away from our current environmental and climate crises means moving beyond a trade-off between caring for our planet and caring for ourselves. The failure to recognize this interdependence brought us here in the first place. Last Wednesday, January 18, the Chilean committee of ministers rejected the port and mining project “Dominga.” Despite the fact that project representatives will appeal the decision in Chilean environmental courts, this is a strong signal against a project that exemplifies the tensions of the energy transition. The project jeopardized the livelihood of local communities, many of them Indigenous, and marine ecosystems surrounding the Humboldt Penguin National Reserve, a global biodiversity hotspot. Valued at $2.5 billion, Dominga consists of an iron and copper open-pit mine, a port for mineral exports, and a water desalination plant. Its history has been rife with controversy, from putting mining and fishing interest at odds to two rejections by environmental authorities, and a Supreme Court case.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/chiles-denial-of-dominga-port-project-is-a-just-energy-transition-victory-and-lesson-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/chiles-denial-of-dominga-port-project-is-a-just-energy-transition-victory-and-lesson-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-264801</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Dammed, now mined: Indigenous Brazilians fight for the Xingu River’s future</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/dammed-now-mined-indigenous-brazilians-fight-for-the-xingu-rivers-future/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/dammed-now-mined-indigenous-brazilians-fight-for-the-xingu-rivers-future/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jan 2023 07:58:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Andrew Johnson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/28192941/ACJ-20211008-Ressaca-01-e1671467098811-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=264170</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conservation, Corruption, Crime, Dams, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forests, Globalization, Gold Mining, Green, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Infrastructure, International Trade, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Law, Mining, Murdered Activists, Politics, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Social Justice, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Canadian mining company Belo Sun wants to build a huge gold mine in the Big Bend of the Xingu region, in Pará; project foresees the extraction of 74 tons of gold in 20 years of operation.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On a humid July afternoon, just as the sun was beginning to set over the Xingu River in the Brazilian Amazon, a young mother was preparing afternoon coffee when her phone rang. When she answered, a female voice claimed to have important information to share. “Send an audio,” the mother replied, distracted by the boiling pots and the child playing on the concrete floor. “I can’t,” said the voice, sounding urgent through the weak connection. “I have to talk to you right now.” The woman reported that hired gunmen were in the area looking for a community member who had just left town. He had been an outspoken opponent of a local mining project and had already received threats. The mother became worried: she had known the man since he was a child, and now he may never be able to return home to his family. In this remote and tight-knit community, these families fear constantly for each other’s safety. According to a study by Global Witness, Brazil was the most dangerous country in the world for environmental defenders this past decade. Vila da Ressaca, a community of around 600 residents near the city of Altamira in the Amazonian state of Pará, is located in the middle of the so-called Big Bend of the Xingu, or Volta Grande in Portuguese. The river makes a peculiar S-turn here that’s significant and unique for both and ecological and anthropological reasons. The community’s few dozen mostly wooden shacks surrounded by forests, pasture and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/dammed-now-mined-indigenous-brazilians-fight-for-the-xingu-rivers-future/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/dammed-now-mined-indigenous-brazilians-fight-for-the-xingu-rivers-future/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-264170</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Weakening of agrarian reform program increases violence against settlers in Brazilian Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/weakening-of-agrarian-reform-program-increases-violence-against-settlers-in-brazilian-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/weakening-of-agrarian-reform-program-increases-violence-against-settlers-in-brazilian-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jan 2023 19:57:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Andrew Johnson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/28184749/ACJ_Settlement-10-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=264168</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Conservation, Corruption, Crime, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, food security, Forests, Globalization, Gold Mining, Green, Illegal Mining, Infrastructure, International Trade, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Law, Mining, Murdered Activists, Politics, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Social Justice, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Residents of a landless worker’s settlement in Anapu, Pará state in Brazil’s Amazon region, accuse the Federal Government of favoring large landowners, land grabbers and corporations at the expense of poor and landless peasants.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[They came at night, shadowy figures moving silently, flashlights scanning the dirt path between walls of grass. Arriving at a small wood shack covered by a thin sheet of metal, they emptied the contents of a plastic bottle and set it ablaze. At daybreak, the 43-year-old farmer José Garcia solemnly inspected what was left of his home for the past three years. Planks of charred wood smoldered on the concrete floor. The twisted metal springs of a mattress stretched outward as if to escape the flames. Hard to replace would be the small gas stove, along with dozens of saplings the farmer hoped to watch grow like his four children. It was the third attack this year. The 54 families of Lot 96 make up one-half of the Sister Dorothy Stang Settlement Project (PA), a farming community on the eastern bank of the Xingu River near Anapu in Brazil’s Pará state, named after the American nun murdered in 2005 for devoting herself to the cause of social and environmental justice in the lawless frontier of the Amazon. More than a decade later, the injustice which she fought against and took her life has only worsened under the right-wing administration of Jair Bolsonaro. Residents accuse the government of favoring large landowners and corporations at the expense of poor, landless peasants. “They don’t want us here,” says Garcia, remembering the history of the bloodstained region where he grew up. “Many have been killed over a piece of land.” Like those before him,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/weakening-of-agrarian-reform-program-increases-violence-against-settlers-in-brazilian-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/weakening-of-agrarian-reform-program-increases-violence-against-settlers-in-brazilian-amazon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-264168</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>With fracking promising a quick energy boost, can Colombia say no?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/with-fracking-promising-a-quick-energy-boost-can-colombia-say-no/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/with-fracking-promising-a-quick-energy-boost-can-colombia-say-no/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Oct 2022 10:32:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dimitri Selibas]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/10165336/image1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=261319</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Development, Energy, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Mining, Mongabay Data Studio, Poverty Alleviation, Renewable Energy, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“For the first time ever, there is a government that is against fracking,” says Amarilys Llanos Navarro. An activist and lawyer with the Cesar Without Fracking and Gas Movement, an anti-extractivist movement in Colombia’s northern department of Cesar, Llanos is referring to Gustavo Petro, who took office as president in August and has vowed to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“For the first time ever, there is a government that is against fracking,” says Amarilys Llanos Navarro. An activist and lawyer with the Cesar Without Fracking and Gas Movement, an anti-extractivist movement in Colombia’s northern department of Cesar, Llanos is referring to Gustavo Petro, who took office as president in August and has vowed to ban fracking. Anti-fracking legislation has never managed to pass Colombia’s parliament. But in August, several NGOs put forward a bill prohibiting fracking across the country, including controversial pilot projects testing the feasibility of fracking, shale gas and tar sands extraction. With the change in government and broad support against extractivism, Llanos says she’s hopeful that this time the bill will pass. Fracking first came to prominence in Colombia in 2014, when the government of Juan Manuel Santos introduced regulations to promote commercial production. The Colombia Free of Fracking Alliance (ACLF), a civil society movement of about 100 organizations, including Llanos&#8217;s, has been campaigning against the practice since 2016. “The argument that mining generates employment is not true,” Llanos says. Fracking is now promising the same things as coal mines did 30 years ago in her home department of Cesar, she tells Mongabay. But while Cesar has the highest coal production in the country, contributing to about 2% of national GDP, it remains the fourth-poorest of Colombia’s 32 departments, with the second-highest unemployment rate. “These are extremely poor territories where the promise of development has not arrived and where the social and environmental impacts associated with&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/with-fracking-promising-a-quick-energy-boost-can-colombia-say-no/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/with-fracking-promising-a-quick-energy-boost-can-colombia-say-no/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-261319</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Viable, just &#038; necessary’: Agroecology is a movement in Brazil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/viable-just-necessary-agroecology-is-a-movement-in-brazil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/viable-just-necessary-agroecology-is-a-movement-in-brazil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Sep 2022 17:31:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anna Lappé]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/13151232/MST-agroecology-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=260192</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Land Rights, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Landless Workers Movement in Brazil (or MST, its acronym in Portuguese) is one of the largest social movements in the world. Born in the early 1980s at the end of the country’s 21-year military dictatorship and in the midst of persistent land inequality, the movement has been at the forefront of land reform in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Landless Workers Movement in Brazil (or MST, its acronym in Portuguese) is one of the largest social movements in the world. Born in the early 1980s at the end of the country’s 21-year military dictatorship and in the midst of persistent land inequality, the movement has been at the forefront of land reform in Brazil for decades. Their work is focused on making a reality of the country’s constitutional promise that land should ‘serve a social purpose.’ Against a backdrop of great inequality – 10% of the largest farms occupy nearly three-quarters of agricultural land – the MST has been organizing families to occupy, settle, and farm throughout the country. In the four decades since its creation, the MST has organized more than 350,000 families to create communities, cooperatives, farms, small-scale food processing enterprises, and farmers markets. An additional 90,000 families still live in informal encampments on contested land, struggling for official land title. Education and training in sustainable agricultural practices have always been core to the movement’s work, with its commitment to agroecology deepening in 2000 when the MST identified agroecology as key to its strategy of building resilient food systems. Since then, the MST has been developing training centers for agroecology for its members, and beyond. At the beginning of the pandemic, MST launched an ongoing national campaign to take food from the settlements to vulnerable populations in cities: this collection center organized by ELAA for people living in the outskirts of the state capital, Curitiba, offers&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/viable-just-necessary-agroecology-is-a-movement-in-brazil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/viable-just-necessary-agroecology-is-a-movement-in-brazil/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-260192</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Let it grow: Q&#038;A with reforestation and land restoration visionary Tony Rinaudo</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/let-it-grow-qa-with-reforestation-and-land-restoration-visionary-tony-rinaudo/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/let-it-grow-qa-with-reforestation-and-land-restoration-visionary-tony-rinaudo/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Aug 2022 20:33:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/17190820/vQ8UPCuE-e1660763932519-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=259300</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Global, Niger, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community Development, Ecosystems, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Landscape Restoration, Mitigation, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Reforestation, Restoration, Sustainable Development, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Tony Rinaudo is an Australian agronomist who was given the Right Livelihood Award in 2018 for demonstrating how drylands can be re-greened on a large scale at minimal cost, making livelihood improvements like agroforestry and honey production possible for millions of people. After spinning his wheels for years while managing a failing reforestation project in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tony Rinaudo is an Australian agronomist who was given the Right Livelihood Award in 2018 for demonstrating how drylands can be re-greened on a large scale at minimal cost, making livelihood improvements like agroforestry and honey production possible for millions of people. After spinning his wheels for years while managing a failing reforestation project in Niger, a perhaps divine inspiration spurred him to look more closely at the land he was trying to plant tree seedlings in: what he saw was a former forest just waiting to regrow itself. From this seed was born Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR), an elegantly simple approach to re-greening degraded lands from tree stumps and seed stocks still alive in degraded soils, which only need a farmer&#8217;s encouragement to sprout forth again. Rinaudo, who is now the Principal Climate Action Advisor for the NGO World Vision Australia, answered Mongabay&#8217;s questions about the technique&#8217;s power and promise via email while on tour promoting his new book on the topic, &#8220;The Forest Underground.&#8221; His answers have been edited for clarity and brevity. Mongabay: You popularized this technique of regrowing trees from existing root systems and seeds still intact on cleared land. Can you explain how it works and when you first noticed the regenerative potential lying just below the soil&#8217;s surface? Tony Rinaudo: A working definition of FMNR is a community-led approach to naturally regenerating degraded landscapes and ecosystems. It is a sustainable land management approach that seeks to engage and empower land users (farmers, pastoralists,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/let-it-grow-qa-with-reforestation-and-land-restoration-visionary-tony-rinaudo/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/let-it-grow-qa-with-reforestation-and-land-restoration-visionary-tony-rinaudo/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-259300</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Farmer-to-farmer agroecology: Q&#038;A with Chukki Nanjundaswamy of Amrita Bhoomi Learning Centre</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/farmer-to-farmer-agroecology-qa-with-chukki-nanjundaswamy-of-amrita-bhoomi-learning-centre/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/farmer-to-farmer-agroecology-qa-with-chukki-nanjundaswamy-of-amrita-bhoomi-learning-centre/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Aug 2022 16:17:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anna Lappé]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/03/10220700/smallholder-in-Lao_1210px-768x451.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258847</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, India, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, agribusiness, Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Agroecology, Corporate Social Responsibility, COVID-19, Education, Green, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Sustainability, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Nestled in a verdant valley in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, about a four-hour drive southwest of Bengaluru, the agroecology learning center Amrita Bhoomi is one of dozens of farmer-to-farmer training hubs around the world focused on agroecology. The center was born out of organizing efforts of the local farmers’ movement KRRS (Karnataka Rajya [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Nestled in a verdant valley in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, about a four-hour drive southwest of Bengaluru, the agroecology learning center Amrita Bhoomi is one of dozens of farmer-to-farmer training hubs around the world focused on agroecology. The center was born out of organizing efforts of the local farmers’ movement KRRS (Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha) founded by Professor Mahantha Devaru Nanjundaswamy in the early 2000s. The movement’s leadership envisioned a teaching center where farmers could share their agroecological practices, learn new techniques, and situate themselves in a Gandhian tradition of organizing for social justice. In 2002, movement leadership purchased the land that the center still occupies today, a biodiversity haven home to 80 cultivated acres growing dozens of varieties of crops from dryland horticulture – like mangoes and jackfruit – to coconuts and bananas, modeling rainfed farming in lieu of expensive irrigation. Shortly after breaking ground, Nanjundaswamy passed away, but his daughter Chukki Nanjundaswamy, who was 22-years old at the time and having been raised in the movement, joined the center’s leadership and has been growing the organization ever since, working to create an organization that can be an inspiration for local farmers, and many more who visit from around the world. As part of a series on agroecology for Mongabay, author and sustainable food advocate Anna Lappé had a chance to catch up with Nanjundaswamy. The two last met in person in early 2020 just before COVID-19 lockdown, when Lappé traveled to Amrita Bhoomi as part of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/farmer-to-farmer-agroecology-qa-with-chukki-nanjundaswamy-of-amrita-bhoomi-learning-centre/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/farmer-to-farmer-agroecology-qa-with-chukki-nanjundaswamy-of-amrita-bhoomi-learning-centre/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258847</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Return to agroforestry empowers women in Nepal</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/return-to-agroforestry-empowers-women-in-nepal/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/return-to-agroforestry-empowers-women-in-nepal/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jul 2022 03:52:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhaya Raj Joshi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/07/08091315/nepal-women-agroforestry--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258103</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Nepal, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Farming, Food, food security, Gender, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KAVRE, Nepal – Srijana Karki still remembers her childhood when she visited her grandfather&#8217;s farm. &#8220;The green fields were dotted with various fruit trees and we would get to eat different varieties of fruits from the farm,&#8221; Karki, South Asia director at the NGO World Neighbors, says. But these days, when she visits the farm, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KAVRE, Nepal – Srijana Karki still remembers her childhood when she visited her grandfather&#8217;s farm. &#8220;The green fields were dotted with various fruit trees and we would get to eat different varieties of fruits from the farm,&#8221; Karki, South Asia director at the NGO World Neighbors, says. But these days, when she visits the farm, she finds that the trees have gone missing. &#8220;Following the green revolution, farmers were encouraged to practice monoculture and use a lot of chemical fertilizer,&#8221; said Karki. &#8220;They were led to believe that the trees only occupy space and add unwanted shade to the farm,&#8221; she added. However, globally and in Nepal, the notions propagated by the green revolution are being challenged by agroforestry, a system that combines trees with shrubs, crops, and livestock in a system that produces food, supports biodiversity, builds organic content in soils, boosts water tables, and sequesters carbon from the atmosphere. Farmers in different parts of the country such as Kavre district, adjacent to the capital Kathmandu, have now decided to return to traditional agroforestry practices for these multi-fold benefits they offer. One such program run by World Neighbors, an NGO based in the US, not only ticks almost all the boxes on the list of benefits offered by agroforestry, but also empowers women. This is important in the context of Nepal, as it witnesses a mass migration of men to cities, both inside the country and abroad, in search of employment, leaving women, children and the elderly in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/return-to-agroforestry-empowers-women-in-nepal/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/return-to-agroforestry-empowers-women-in-nepal/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258103</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Does citizen ownership of natural resources hold the key to realizing deforestation commitments? (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/does-citizen-ownership-of-natural-resources-hold-the-key-to-realizing-deforestation-commitments-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/does-citizen-ownership-of-natural-resources-hold-the-key-to-realizing-deforestation-commitments-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jun 2022 20:51:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Han Overman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/03/15080644/Logging-trucks-grumiers-in-Gabon-e1654548469359-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256840</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, Guyana, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Climate Change, climate finance, Commentary, Conservation Finance, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Deforestation, Developing Countries, Development, Forests, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Redd, Sustainable Development, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Many words and billions in funding were pledged at last year’s ‘Nature COP’ in Glasgow, resulting in a global commitment to stop deforestation by 2030. However, the challenge of how to achieve this explicit and ambitious goal was less clear at the event and in subsequent reporting. The emerging main approaches are direct funding of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Many words and billions in funding were pledged at last year’s ‘Nature COP’ in Glasgow, resulting in a global commitment to stop deforestation by 2030. However, the challenge of how to achieve this explicit and ambitious goal was less clear at the event and in subsequent reporting. The emerging main approaches are direct funding of forest protection and land rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs), combined with increased demand-side pressure for deforestation-free commodities. However, given past performance and little to directly address the main powerful commodity drivers of forest loss (beef, palm oil, soy, timber, minerals), the overall effectiveness towards stopping deforestation by 2030 may be limited in practice. For instance, forestland owned by or designated to IPLC is currently estimated at 14% of total forest area (with 67% government administered). Expansion of IPLC forestlands would increase commercial pressure on non-IPLC forestland, if not increase tension between the two tenure types. In addition, as long as commercial forest uses yield more public revenue and employment than IPLC lands, the inclination of decision-making governments seems evident. Clearly, the international influence on land use in sovereign developing countries is limited and can only be done through incentives and international market regulations. But what if the domestic opinion on commodity sectors could be influenced? Recent quantitative research suggests this can have a huge potential for both forest conservation and boosting equitable national welfare, from several billion U.S. dollars of homegrown net public revenue per year, per developing country. Development and expansion&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/does-citizen-ownership-of-natural-resources-hold-the-key-to-realizing-deforestation-commitments-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/does-citizen-ownership-of-natural-resources-hold-the-key-to-realizing-deforestation-commitments-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256840</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Malawi steps up action against illegal charcoal trade (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/malawi-steps-up-action-against-illegal-charcoal-trade-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/malawi-steps-up-action-against-illegal-charcoal-trade-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 May 2022 12:33:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nicholas J. Parkinson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/11013113/IMG_20220308_075703-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=255608</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Malawi, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, charcoal, Commentary, Community Development, Deforestation, Development, Forests, Illegal Trade, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Sustainable Development, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Daniel Kabichi’s telephone has been ringing a lot lately. As head of law enforcement operations within Malawi’s Department of Forestry, he represents the country’s latest strategy to fight deforestation and the increasingly worrisome trend of illegal and unsustainable charcoal. There is no investigative unit for forestry-related crimes in Malawi, so the Forestry Department’s work is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Daniel Kabichi’s telephone has been ringing a lot lately. As head of law enforcement operations within Malawi’s Department of Forestry, he represents the country’s latest strategy to fight deforestation and the increasingly worrisome trend of illegal and unsustainable charcoal. There is no investigative unit for forestry-related crimes in Malawi, so the Forestry Department’s work is even more important. Thanks to the adoption of a new amendment to the country’s Forestry Act, which treats charcoal as a forest product, the government now has the authority to use stronger penalties, fines and jail time, as a disincentive to illegal forest activity. Under the amended law, crimes for the production, transport and commerce of illegal charcoal are treated similar to other as illegal activities (like illegal logging). Every week, he gets dozens of calls. One of those calls led to the arrest of a “prominent person” who was moving and selling illegal charcoal around the city of Blantyre. Kabichi triangulated the information with Malawi’s Criminal Investigation Unit, and they made the arrest. The suspect was charged under the new law, and a magistrate fined him three million kwacha, or approximately $3,700 (US). It was the first time in Malawi’s history that somebody was fined this much for illegal charcoal. A large charcoal kiln containing more than 40 trees smolders in the Dzalanyama Forest Reserve, over 60km from Malawi&#8217;s capital of Lilongwe. The process of burning illegal charcoal, from cutting to sales, can take between 3 and 4 months. Image courtesy of Nicholas J&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/malawi-steps-up-action-against-illegal-charcoal-trade-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/malawi-steps-up-action-against-illegal-charcoal-trade-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-255608</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Reframing trophy hunting’s socio-economic benefits in Namibia (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/reframing-trophy-huntings-socio-economic-benefits-in-namibia-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/reframing-trophy-huntings-socio-economic-benefits-in-namibia-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Apr 2022 23:36:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Frowin Becker]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/04/28195323/1280px-Professional_hunter_with_a_hunting_guest_Kalahari_Namibia_01-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=255298</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Namibia, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Commentary, Community Development, Conservation, Environment, Mammals, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Racism, Social Justice, Sustainable Development, Tourism, Trophy Hunting, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With the relatively recent proposal in the British parliament to ban the import of wildlife trophies, the issue has once again taken center stage among factions of the global conservation community. Despite the potential ban’s limited impact on its own trophy hunting industry, Namibia is often raised as a case study to make a strong [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[With the relatively recent proposal in the British parliament to ban the import of wildlife trophies, the issue has once again taken center stage among factions of the global conservation community. Despite the potential ban’s limited impact on its own trophy hunting industry, Namibia is often raised as a case study to make a strong argument for a morally contentious practice that has been adapted into a conservation strategy. Most of Namibia’s hunting clients are either EU or US citizens, making a ban in the UK no immediate threat. Data from 2016 suggest that only 4% of Namibia’s hunting clients are even likely to be British. However, as other African conservation sectors stand to lose valuable clientele, fears over a hugely impactful precedent have put Namibia’s conservation and hunting fraternities on high alert as well. Fears arise from revenue generated through trophy hunting being diminished by a blanket ban; revenue often earmarked for conservation and in Namibia’s case, rural poverty alleviation. While not untrue, this framing neglects some socio-political history, which is still playing itself out today. Gemsbok (Oryx gazella) are the largest of the Oryx species and are a common target of trophy hunters visiting Namibia. Image by Joachim Huber via Wikimedia Commons. The country’s conservancy-based conservation model has distinguished itself by conferring rights to wildlife resource use to communally-run conservancies. This was enacted through a legislative amendment back in 1996, after Namibia gained independence from South Africa in 1990. Before that, rights to wildlife resources were reserved for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/reframing-trophy-huntings-socio-economic-benefits-in-namibia-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/reframing-trophy-huntings-socio-economic-benefits-in-namibia-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-255298</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Donors must rethink Africa’s flagging Green Revolution, new evaluation shows (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/donors-must-rethink-africas-flagging-green-revolution-new-evaluation-shows-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/donors-must-rethink-africas-flagging-green-revolution-new-evaluation-shows-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Mar 2022 15:30:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy A. Wise]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/03/22150325/Blog_West_Africa_Seeds-1284x523-1-768x493.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=253982</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Commentary, Development, Foreign Aid, Funding, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Sustainability, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A critical new donor-funded evaluation of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has confirmed what African civil society and faith leaders have claimed: “AGRA did not meet its headline goal of increased incomes and food security for 9 million smallholders.” The evaluation should be a wake up call, and not just for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[A critical new donor-funded evaluation of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has confirmed what African civil society and faith leaders have claimed: “AGRA did not meet its headline goal of increased incomes and food security for 9 million smallholders.” The evaluation should be a wake up call, and not just for the private and bilateral donors that have bankrolled this 15-year-old effort to the tune of $1 billion. It should also rouse African governments to repurpose their agricultural subsidies from the Green Revolution package of commercial seeds and fertilizers to agroecology and other low-cost, low-input approaches. They have been providing as much as $1 billion per year for such input subsidies. Failing Africa’s farmers Carried out by consulting firm Mathematica, the evaluation confirms that the Green Revolution has failed to achieve AGRA’s stated goal to “catalyze a farming revolution in Africa.&#8221; Wambui Mwihaki, a farmer from central Kenya, takes stock of her thriving maize crop following adoption of agroecology. Image by David Njagi for Mongabay. The assessment was funded by AGRA’s primary sponsor, the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation, on behalf of other lead donors in AGRA’s Partnership for Inclusive Agricultural Transformation in Africa (PIATA): the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth &amp; Development Office; the Rockefeller Foundation; the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); and Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. The evaluation includes a summary of findings, a statistical appendix, and AGRA’s formal responses to the findings, all available publicly. Such transparency is welcome. AGRA&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/donors-must-rethink-africas-flagging-green-revolution-new-evaluation-shows-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-253982</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>NGOs alert U.N. to furtive 2-million-hectare carbon deal in Malaysian Borneo</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/ngos-alert-u-n-to-furtive-2-million-hectare-carbon-deal-in-malaysian-borneo/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/ngos-alert-u-n-to-furtive-2-million-hectare-carbon-deal-in-malaysian-borneo/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Mar 2022 04:28:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/03/17041352/orangutan-sabah-borneo-malaysia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=253861</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation and Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Kalimantan, Malaysia, North Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, climate finance, Conflict, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Culture, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Finance, Forest Carbon, forest degradation, Forests, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Land Speculation, Landscape Restoration, Logging, Mining, Nature-based climate solutions, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Politics, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, public lands, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Redd, Reforestation, Restoration, Solutions, Sustainable Forest Management, Traditional People, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Organizations in the Malaysian state of Sabah have filed a complaint with the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples about a once-secretive deal aimed at locking up the rights to credits for carbon and other “natural capital” from the state’s forests. Several leaders in Sabah signed the nature conservation agreement, or NCA, with [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Organizations in the Malaysian state of Sabah have filed a complaint with the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples about a once-secretive deal aimed at locking up the rights to credits for carbon and other “natural capital” from the state’s forests. Several leaders in Sabah signed the nature conservation agreement, or NCA, with representatives from a Singaporean firm called Hoch Standard Pte. Ltd. on Oct. 28, 2021. The NCA laid out a revenue-sharing plan that covered the right to sell credits from the ecosystem services provided by 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) of forest for at least the next 100 years. Proponents of the deal said it would provide funding for economic development to the state and ensure the covered area is protected from logging and other destructive impacts. But the terms were finalized by and large without the knowledge of Indigenous and forest-dependent communities living in Sabah, said Peter Burgess, an Australian businessman who said he was involved in negotiating the agreement, in a November 2021 interview with Mongabay. Since Mongabay published an article on Nov. 9 that first made the details of the NCA public, attacks on the legality and ethical rigor of the arrangement have beleaguered the deal and its proponents. Many skeptics argue that the lack of transparency calls into question whether the deal is binding or enforceable. A rope bridge connected to a community in the Crocker Range. Image by John C. Cannon/Mongabay. “We are taking this issue to the United Nations&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/ngos-alert-u-n-to-furtive-2-million-hectare-carbon-deal-in-malaysian-borneo/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-253861</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Malaysian officials dampen prospects for giant, secret carbon deal in Sabah</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/malaysian-officials-dampen-prospects-for-giant-secret-carbon-deal-in-sabah/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/malaysian-officials-dampen-prospects-for-giant-secret-carbon-deal-in-sabah/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Feb 2022 20:33:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/10182013/20171104-135807-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=252580</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Offset Markets and Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Malaysia, Sabah, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Development, Economics, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Services, Forest Carbon, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forests, Global Warming, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Land Speculation, Landscape Restoration, Mitigation, Nature-based climate solutions, NGOs, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Politics, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Redd, Reforestation, Restoration, Solutions, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[An agreement for the rights to the natural capital covering 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) in Malaysian Borneo for the next 100 years “in its present form is legally impotent,” according to Nor Asiah Mohd Yusof, the attorney general for the state of Sabah. Nor Asiah’s assertions are the strongest signal yet that the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[An agreement for the rights to the natural capital covering 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) in Malaysian Borneo for the next 100 years “in its present form is legally impotent,” according to Nor Asiah Mohd Yusof, the attorney general for the state of Sabah. Nor Asiah’s assertions are the strongest signal yet that the sweeping pact involving a Singaporean shell company lacks the support of key leaders in the state. “The State Government will not permit any land to be leased, transferred or otherwise &#8216;handed over&#8217; as part of any carbon trading or carbon monetisation program,” she said in a Feb. 9 statement. “This includes the proposed NCA.” The NCA, short for nature conservation agreement, was signed between leaders of the state of Sabah and representatives of Singapore-based Hoch Standard Ptd. Ltd. on Oct. 28, 2021. Though the specifics of the NCA remain vague, it enlists Hoch Standard to help the state sell credits for carbon sequestration, water provisioning and other natural capital stemming from the protection of Sabah’s forests from logging and other potentially destructive uses. In return for its services, Hoch Standard will get 30% of the revenue, according to the deal’s terms. A community in western Sabah. Image by John C. Cannon/Mongabay. Mongabay reported on Nov. 9 that the deal had been struck in secret. One person who said he was involved in the negotiations — Peter Burgess, the Australian CEO of Malaysia-based Global Nature Capital Sdn. Bhd. and Tierra Australia Pty. Ltd. — told Mongabay&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/malaysian-officials-dampen-prospects-for-giant-secret-carbon-deal-in-sabah/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-252580</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous leader sues over Borneo natural capital deal</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/indigenous-leader-sues-over-borneo-natural-capital-deal/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/indigenous-leader-sues-over-borneo-natural-capital-deal/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Dec 2021 10:06:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/17093708/Drone-shot-of-Kg.-Sosogon-Suyad-Kota-Marudu-Credits-to-PACOS-Trust-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=250809</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Offset Markets and Covering Climate Now]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Malaysia, Sabah, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Development, Economics, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Services, Forest Carbon, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forests, Global Warming, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Human Rights, Hydroelectric Power, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Land Speculation, Landscape Restoration, Mitigation, Nature-based climate solutions, NGOs, Palm Oil, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Politics, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Redd, Reforestation, Restoration, Solutions, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Update Feb. 10, 2022: Sabah&#8217;s attorney general says the consent of Indigenous communities is required for this agreement to move forward. Read the update here. Adrian Lasimbang, an Indigenous leader in Malaysian Borneo, is suing the state of Sabah, contesting a recently signed agreement selling the rights to carbon and other natural capital from 2 million [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Update Feb. 10, 2022: Sabah&#8217;s attorney general says the consent of Indigenous communities is required for this agreement to move forward. Read the update here. Adrian Lasimbang, an Indigenous leader in Malaysian Borneo, is suing the state of Sabah, contesting a recently signed agreement selling the rights to carbon and other natural capital from 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) of forest to a foreign company for the next 100 years. The deal allows Hoch Standard Pte. Ltd., a Singaporean holding company, to sell credits for carbon and other natural capital, such as the provision of clean water, on the global market. It also calls for the protection and restoration of forests that would make these credits possible. And it stipulates that Sabah’s 70% share of the revenues, which according to the agreement’s backers, would go to funding employment, education and health care set forth by guidelines such as the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. The remaining 30% of revenues would go to Hoch Standard. Tawai Forest Reserve in Sabah, seen from the air. Image © LEAP. Civil society and Indigenous communities have criticized the agreement, which was signed by representatives of the state government and a Singapore-based company on Oct. 28. They say it bypassed substantive input and consent from the people living in and around Sabah’s forests. And, until recently, the framers of the agreement have shared scant information about the company (or companies) involved in the agreement and who they are led by. Lasimbang, who is a technical adviser&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/indigenous-leader-sues-over-borneo-natural-capital-deal/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-250809</doi>				</item>
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