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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/resource-conflict/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Thu, 06 Aug 2026 16:56:14 +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 Resource Conflict</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/resource-conflict/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Palm oil expansion reignites decade-old Indigenous land conflict in Indonesia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/palm-oil-expansion-reignites-decade-old-indigenous-land-conflict-in-indonesia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/palm-oil-expansion-reignites-decade-old-indigenous-land-conflict-in-indonesia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Jul 2026 03:49:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas JongNiken D. Sitoningrum]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/31032649/image-32-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325017</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Business, Conflict, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Crops, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Palm Oil, Rainforest Destruction, Social Conflict, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Two palm oil companies embroiled in a long-running land dispute with an Indigenous community in Indonesian Borneo have resumed the clearing of rainforest and other land to expand their plantations for the first time in more than a decade. In June 2025, the Indigenous Dayak Benuaq community of Muara Tae reported that the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Two palm oil companies embroiled in a long-running land dispute with an Indigenous community in Indonesian Borneo have resumed the clearing of rainforest and other land to expand their plantations for the first time in more than a decade. In June 2025, the Indigenous Dayak Benuaq community of Muara Tae reported that the two companies — PT Borneo Surya Mining Jaya (BSMJ), owned by Singapore-listed First Resources, and PT Munte Waniq Jaya Perkasa (MWJP), a subsidiary of Malaysia-owned TSH Resources — had restarted land clearing and evictions in what the community says is its ancestral territory. The latest activities mark a new chapter in one of Indonesia&#8217;s highest-profile land conflicts involving the palm oil industry, which Mongabay covered in an in-depth report in 2015. Eviction activity using heavy equipment by PT BSMJ as of 2 June 2026 (c) Kaoem Telapak The dispute dates back to 2011-2012, when BSMJ and MWJP began bulldozing rainforest in an area claimed by Muara Tae, a village in West Kutai district, East Kalimantan province. The companies say they bought leasehold rights from residents of Muara Ponak, a village next to Muara Tae. But Muara Tae has contended the companies colluded with individuals in Muara Ponak who fraudulently signed away hundreds of hectares of Muara Tae’s communally held land, in exchange for hundreds of millions of rupiah in compensation. The district government facilitated the transactions by redrawing the Tae-Ponak border, increasing the latter’s territory at the expense of the former. The district chief at&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/palm-oil-expansion-reignites-decade-old-indigenous-land-conflict-in-indonesia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/palm-oil-expansion-reignites-decade-old-indigenous-land-conflict-in-indonesia/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325017</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Thai farmers fear water woes from planned LNG plant</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/thai-farmers-fear-water-woes-from-planned-lng-plant/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/thai-farmers-fear-water-woes-from-planned-lng-plant/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jun 2026 02:30:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/24093029/fisher-offloads-gear-in-front-of-a-liquefied-natural-gas-LNG-terminal-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321660</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Business, Drought, Energy, Environment, Farming, Fossil Fuels, Health, Industry, Natural Resources, Resource Conflict, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PHANOM SARAKHAM, Thailand — On a December afternoon, Suphut Hom Chunthit and his wife were tending to their 12 durian trees. Suphut showed reporters his homemade irrigation system, a series of pipes carrying water from the nearby Yang Deng canal. The durian trees were in their fourth year, Suphut said, so they should fruit and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PHANOM SARAKHAM, Thailand — On a December afternoon, Suphut Hom Chunthit and his wife were tending to their 12 durian trees. Suphut showed reporters his homemade irrigation system, a series of pipes carrying water from the nearby Yang Deng canal. The durian trees were in their fourth year, Suphut said, so they should fruit and be ready for harvest later in 2026 — if they survive. “Last year, we could only water the durian trees for 15 minutes a day,” said Suphut, who also grows cassava, rice, plums, rubber and rambutan in Phanom Sarakham, a district in Thailand’s Chachoengsao province. “It’s barely enough to keep them alive.” Three kilometers, less than 2 miles, down the road from Suphut’s 8-hectare (20-acre) farm sits the 304 Industrial Park (Chachoengsao), home to electronics, automotive and food-processing plants, and a biomass power station. The park is also the site of the planned 600-megawatt Burapa power plant. But locals like Suphut say they fear the liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility could exacerbate water shortages and air pollution linked to the expansion of industry in Chachoengsao. The Burapa plant will need up to 12,000 cubic meters (424,000 cubic feet) of water daily, per its 2021 environmental impact assessment (EIA) — equivalent to the daily consumption of some 49,000 Chachoengsao residents, as measured by a 2024 study. Meanwhile, Phanom Sarakham district already faces a “medium-high” risk of drought, according to the World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas. Suphut Hom Chunthit stands among durian trees on his&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/thai-farmers-fear-water-woes-from-planned-lng-plant/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/thai-farmers-fear-water-woes-from-planned-lng-plant/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321660</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil curbs Amazon deforestation in Piripkura, but ranchers’ cattle linger</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brazil-curbs-amazon-deforestation-in-piripkura-but-ranchers-cattle-linger/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brazil-curbs-amazon-deforestation-in-piripkura-but-ranchers-cattle-linger/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jun 2026 16:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/22144947/cattle-in-mato-grosso-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321585</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cattle, Conservation, Environment, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Law, Protected Areas, and Ranching]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A crackdown by the Brazilian government on land-grabbers who cleared primary Amazon forest for ranching and other agricultural activities in the Piripkura Indigenous Territory is yielding some results, with satellite analysis by Mongabay indicating a decline in deforestation. But one tricky problem remains, according to government agents and Indigenous rights organizations: removing their cattle. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A crackdown by the Brazilian government on land-grabbers who cleared primary Amazon forest for ranching and other agricultural activities in the Piripkura Indigenous Territory is yielding some results, with satellite analysis by Mongabay indicating a decline in deforestation. But one tricky problem remains, according to government agents and Indigenous rights organizations: removing their cattle. The 242,405-hectare (598,995-acre) Piripkura Indigenous Territory in west-central Brazil’s Mato Grosso state is home to the last two — known — Indigenous Piripkura people in voluntary isolation. According to Jair Candor, the coordinator of the Funai unit that protects isolated Indigenous groups, a third Piripkura person left the land and married into another tribe, the Karipuna, several decades ago. Funai, the country’s Indigenous affairs agency, has not yet ruled out the possibility that more isolated people live there. Ranchers coming in with their cattle to graze land have contributed to a large share of forest loss here. According to data from Global Forest Watch, the area lost a total tree cover of 1,769 hectares (4,371 acres) in 2021 — equivalent to 2,500 soccer fields — representing the largest increase since 2004, when the area lost was almost double (3,276 hectares, or 8,095 acres). Since the spike in 2021, due to successful operations by government agencies, deforestation has declined substantially, and despite a slight increase in 2023, losses remained far below 2021 levels and continued to decrease in 2024 and 2025. By 2025, tree cover loss had fallen to 106 hectares (262 acres). While deforestation has slowed&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brazil-curbs-amazon-deforestation-in-piripkura-but-ranchers-cattle-linger/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brazil-curbs-amazon-deforestation-in-piripkura-but-ranchers-cattle-linger/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321585</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Rio Indio, farmers fight Panama Canal reservoir project — and displacement</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-rio-indio-farmers-fight-panama-canal-reservoir-project-and-displacement/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-rio-indio-farmers-fight-panama-canal-reservoir-project-and-displacement/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jun 2026 15:20:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Monica Pelliccia]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/16150742/6-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321305</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Global, North America, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Canals, Controversial, Corporations, Dams, Development, Encroachment, Endangered Species, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Indigenous Peoples, Infrastructure, Resource Conflict, and Shipping]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LIMÓN DE CHAGRES, Panama — In Panama’s Rio Indio Basin, a $1.5 billion reservoir project aims to meet water demand for the next 50 years. But the project would displace dozens of farming communities, sparking widespread opposition to the reservoir’s construction. “We will give our lives to save Rio Indio! I came from Limón de [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LIMÓN DE CHAGRES, Panama — In Panama’s Rio Indio Basin, a $1.5 billion reservoir project aims to meet water demand for the next 50 years. But the project would displace dozens of farming communities, sparking widespread opposition to the reservoir’s construction. “We will give our lives to save Rio Indio! I came from Limón de Chagres, the first community that could be flooded to make space for the dam,” shouts Maricel Sanchéz at the microphone from a stage during a May 1 march in Panama City. “Today, I’m so proud to see how united we are in our resistance.” Sanchéz, 25, is the spokesperson for the Rio Indio farmers’ assembly, which is part of Coordinadora Campesina por la Vida (Peasant Coordinator for Life), a grassroots social and community organization of farmers, Indigenous communities and civic groups in Panama. During the march, she spoke out about their mobilization against the Río Indio reservoir: a $1.5 billion project by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP), Panama’s government agency responsible for managing the canal. Rio Indio is a 98-kilometer (about 61-mile) river in central Panama, flowing through the Costa Abajo area (home to 231 farming communities) to the Caribbean Sea. Here, the ACP plans to create a reservoir to provide water to nearby Gatun Lake (the northern entrance of the Panama Canal in the Atlantic Ocean) to meet water demand for the next 50 years for human consumption and for canal operations, especially during droughts. The construction is expected to begin in 2027 and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-rio-indio-farmers-fight-panama-canal-reservoir-project-and-displacement/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-rio-indio-farmers-fight-panama-canal-reservoir-project-and-displacement/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321305</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>It&#8217;s time to engage Mennonite communities in reducing deforestation across Latin America (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/its-time-to-engage-mennonite-communities-to-reduce-deforestation-in-latin-america-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/its-time-to-engage-mennonite-communities-to-reduce-deforestation-in-latin-america-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jun 2026 21:16:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/08174714/CH_20220608_0015-Edit-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320555</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Analysis, Avoided Deforestation, Commentary, Community Development, Deforestation, Development, Forests, Governance, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Rainforests, Religions, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the global debate over tropical deforestation, the usual cast of villains is well established: agribusiness, global supply chains, cattle ranchers, and governments granting land concessions for political support. One actor rarely appears in this narrative yet has played a consequential role in transforming the South American lowland frontier: The Mennonite agricultural colonist. For more [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the global debate over tropical deforestation, the usual cast of villains is well established: agribusiness, global supply chains, cattle ranchers, and governments granting land concessions for political support. One actor rarely appears in this narrative yet has played a consequential role in transforming the South American lowland frontier: The Mennonite agricultural colonist. For more than five decades, Mennonite communities have functioned as systematic agents of agricultural frontier expansion in the Gran Chaco and Andean Amazon, methodically clearing forests, draining wetlands, and catalyzing waves of deforestation that extend far beyond any individual colony. Mennonite communities operate within the law. They purchase land through formal channels, build permanent communities, and transfer agronomic knowledge to surrounding populations. Their values emphasize hard work, communal solidarity, and a theological relationship to land as stewardship. None of this changes the ecological outcome: Wherever a Mennonite colony is established, forests fall. Faith, mobility and colony formation Mennonites are an Anabaptist denomination rooted in the 16-century Reformation, distinguished by pacifism, communal life, and cultural separation from mainstream society. Conservative congregations — whose ancestors moved from Russia to Canada, then to Mexico, Belize and South America — are organized around a local congregation that functions simultaneously as a religious community, governance structure, credit cooperative and social welfare system. When a colony is established, it is an orderly community with collective decision-making, shared infrastructure, and a coherent plan for the future. Forest being cut, burned, and prepared by a Mennonite colony before planting crops. Image courtesy of Mario Silvero.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/its-time-to-engage-mennonite-communities-to-reduce-deforestation-in-latin-america-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/its-time-to-engage-mennonite-communities-to-reduce-deforestation-in-latin-america-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320555</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brooklyn Rivera, defender of Nicaragua’s Indigenous lands, dies in detention</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brooklyn-rivera-defender-of-nicaraguas-indigenous-lands-dies-in-detention/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brooklyn-rivera-defender-of-nicaraguas-indigenous-lands-dies-in-detention/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jun 2026 16:19:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/01190642/Brooklyn-Rivera-La-Prensa-1600x900-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320434</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Latin America, Mesoamerica, and Nicaragua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Endangered Environmentalists, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, and Obituary]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[La Moskitia, on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, is often treated in Managua as a frontier: timber, gold, cattle, rivers, votes, and military concern. To the Miskitu, Sumu-Mayangna, Rama, Garífuna, and Creole peoples who live there, it is older than the Nicaraguan state. Its forests, savannas, rivers, and marine life are part of a political claim as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[La Moskitia, on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, is often treated in Managua as a frontier: timber, gold, cattle, rivers, votes, and military concern. To the Miskitu, Sumu-Mayangna, Rama, Garífuna, and Creole peoples who live there, it is older than the Nicaraguan state. Its forests, savannas, rivers, and marine life are part of a political claim as well as a homeland. The demand has long been plain enough: land, autonomy, and a say over what happens there. Brooklyn Rivera Bryan spent most of his life carrying that demand into war, negotiation, electoral politics, exile, and prison. Known in Miskitu communities as Taupla Brooklyn, he died on May 30th, aged 73, in the custody of Daniel Ortega’s government. He had been detained since September 2023. For months the government denied holding him. It later acknowledged his imprisonment. No public trial was held. His family was denied visits. His public life began after the Sandinista revolution of 1979, when the new government sought to draw the Atlantic Coast into a national project directed from the Pacific. The Miskitu experience of that project was marked by surveillance, arrests, violence, and forced displacement. In 1981 Rivera was arrested while leading Misurasata, an Indigenous organization whose name linked the Miskitu, Sumu, Rama, and Sandinistas. By 1982, thousands of Miskitu had been moved from villages along the Río Coco. Many fled to Honduras. Rivera’s cause was narrower and more durable than the Cold War frame around him: an autonomous Indigenous territory in Yapti Tasba, the aboriginal homeland. That&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brooklyn-rivera-defender-of-nicaraguas-indigenous-lands-dies-in-detention/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/brooklyn-rivera-defender-of-nicaraguas-indigenous-lands-dies-in-detention/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320434</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A law to help Bolivian farmers may actually increase land grabbing, critics warn</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/a-law-to-help-bolivian-farmers-may-actually-increase-land-grabbing-critics-warn/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/a-law-to-help-bolivian-farmers-may-actually-increase-land-grabbing-critics-warn/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 May 2026 16:39:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/11162445/AP26124736616291-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319146</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Farming, Indigenous Peoples, Land Grabbing, Politics, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new land reform push in Bolivia meant to expand small farmers’ economic opportunities has sparked protests, with critics warning the law could put rural and Indigenous families at risk of eviction and accelerate the expansion of large-scale agribusiness. The law, passed in April, lets farmers reclassify their land so that it can be used [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new land reform push in Bolivia meant to expand small farmers’ economic opportunities has sparked protests, with critics warning the law could put rural and Indigenous families at risk of eviction and accelerate the expansion of large-scale agribusiness. The law, passed in April, lets farmers reclassify their land so that it can be used as collateral, allowing them to access bank loans and establish businesses. But doing so means they would forfeit their right to regulations meant to protect them from seizure, which could allow big businesses to more easily buy up land, some advocacy groups say. Backlash has been especially strong in the departments of Santa Cruz and Beni, where large-scale soy and cattle operators have contributed to some of the highest deforestation rates on the continent. “Bolivia needs policies that strengthen rural development with equity, not rules that weaken rights, erode agrarian institutions, and put at risk the territorial basis of life,” a coalition of 11 environmental and land development groups said a March statement after the law was approved by the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the national legislature. Bolivian law establishes different categories for different kinds of properties and their uses. “Small” properties aren’t considered an economic asset but rather a source of subsistence for the owner and family — a “patrimony” that’s exempt from being divided up or seized by the government. “Medium” properties involve the production of goods with hired workers, and can be transferred, sold and mortgaged. Owners have to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/a-law-to-help-bolivian-farmers-may-actually-increase-land-grabbing-critics-warn/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319146</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Marine resource conflicts in Africa revolve mostly around access: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/marine-resource-conflicts-in-africa-revolve-mostly-around-access-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/marine-resource-conflicts-in-africa-revolve-mostly-around-access-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Apr 2026 17:54:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/28144955/16144755323_8373062a17_4k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318283</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Marine, Marine Conservation, Natural Resources, Oceans, Overfishing, Research, Resource Conflict, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Marine resource conflicts can arise when industrial vessels enter coastal waters used by small-scale fishers, a port is built on a mangrove restoration site or a shipping lane runs through a marine protected area. A new study identified more than 1,000 such conflicts in Africa over an 11-year period and found that nearly 75% were [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Marine resource conflicts can arise when industrial vessels enter coastal waters used by small-scale fishers, a port is built on a mangrove restoration site or a shipping lane runs through a marine protected area. A new study identified more than 1,000 such conflicts in Africa over an 11-year period and found that nearly 75% were disputes over access to spaces and resources. The study, published April 17 in the journal One Earth, calls for more participatory and transparent governance to reduce conflicts, warning that without such reforms, conflicts could derail African policymakers’ sustainability and equity goals. “Ensuring meaningful participation of affected groups is one of the biggest takeaways,&#8221; Elizabeth Selig, managing director at the Center for Ocean Solutions at Stanford University in the U.S. and lead author of the study, told Mongabay. &#8220;If you embed [these groups] within decision-making processes and are conscious of [future] actions that could affect them, you are more likely to be able to avoid conflict.” Effects of an oil spill are visible at Goi Creek, Nigeria, in August 2010. Conflicts related to oil spills in Nigeria appear in a marine resource conflict database created by Stanford University researcher Elizabath Selig and her co-authors. Image by Friends of the Earth Netherlands via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). The ocean is a site of both increased conservation interest and economic activity, Selig and her co-authors write. “The compound impacts of a growing ocean economy, climate-change-associated shifts in marine resources&#8217; availability, and the expansion of spatial conservation measures&#8221; increases&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/marine-resource-conflicts-in-africa-revolve-mostly-around-access-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318283</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Asia’s longest free-flowing river contaminated by arsenic linked to Myanmar mines</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/asias-longest-free-flowing-river-contaminated-by-arsenic-linked-to-myanmar-mines/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/asias-longest-free-flowing-river-contaminated-by-arsenic-linked-to-myanmar-mines/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Apr 2026 02:52:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/14102130/IMG_0208-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317477</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Myanmar, Salween River, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Chemicals, Critical Minerals, Drinking Water, Ecosystems, Energy Transition, extractives, Fisheries, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Gold Mining, Governance, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, International Trade, Mining, Pollution, Public Health, Renewable Energy, Resource Conflict, Rivers, Traditional People, Tropics, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MAE HONG SON, Thailand — Saw Si Paw Rak Salween guns the wooden fishing boat’s engine and steers along the river that inspired his family name. He is ethnic Karen — his parents migrated from Myanmar’s side of the Salween River to the Thai side. When he acquired Thai citizenship, Saw Si Paw had to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MAE HONG SON, Thailand — Saw Si Paw Rak Salween guns the wooden fishing boat’s engine and steers along the river that inspired his family name. He is ethnic Karen — his parents migrated from Myanmar’s side of the Salween River to the Thai side. When he acquired Thai citizenship, Saw Si Paw had to select his own family name, a convention not followed in much of Myanmar. He settled on Rak Salween, which translates to “Love the Salween River.” Saw Si Paw’s love for the wild, free-flowing waterway extends beyond his chosen name. Together with his father, he guides the boat to his family’s 8-meter (26-foot) fishing nets left overnight on the Myanmar side of the river. Fishing is all he’s ever known, having learned the trade from his father and plied it on the Salween his entire life. So, it was especially jarring for him to hear about toxic chemicals recently found in the Salween. Independent testing of the Salween River began in September 2025, when researchers from Thailand’s Institute of Health Sciences Research at Chiang Mai University found alarming levels of contamination detected in the nearby Kok, Sai and Ruak rivers in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai in Thailand, much of which has been linked to unregulated mining in Myanmar. In particular, rare earth mines exporting crucial minerals — needed for artificial intelligence, mobile phones, laptops, electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies, among other things — have been blamed. But the mining of gold and various critical&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/asias-longest-free-flowing-river-contaminated-by-arsenic-linked-to-myanmar-mines/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317477</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Energy crisis revives push to drill in Philippines’ largest intact wetland</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/energy-crisis-revives-push-to-drill-in-philippines-largest-intact-wetland/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/energy-crisis-revives-push-to-drill-in-philippines-largest-intact-wetland/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Apr 2026 21:11:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bong S. Sarmiento]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/17185118/Philippine-Duck-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317714</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Natural Gas, Oil, Oil Drilling, Politics, Resource Conflict, War, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MINDANAO, Philippines — There’s been a renewed push in the Philippines to develop oil and gas deposits in the southern Liguasan Marsh, prompted by the energy crisis caused by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which has drawn criticism from environmental groups. The 288,000-hectare (712,000-acre) Liguasan Marsh, the largest intact wetland in the Philippines and home [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MINDANAO, Philippines — There’s been a renewed push in the Philippines to develop oil and gas deposits in the southern Liguasan Marsh, prompted by the energy crisis caused by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which has drawn criticism from environmental groups. The 288,000-hectare (712,000-acre) Liguasan Marsh, the largest intact wetland in the Philippines and home to diverse fauna and flora, is considered by nonprofit conservation group BirdLife International an “important bird and biodiversity area” (IBA). A sizeable portion of Liguasan, on the southern island of Mindanao, has been declared a game refuge and bird sanctuary since 1941. The marsh is home to the critically endangered Philippine crocodile (Crocodylus mindorensis) and is the country’s last frontier for Tachybaptus ruficollis cotabato, a subspecies of the little grebe found only here, and the comb-crested jacana (Irediparra gallinacea). It also contains a significant volume of untapped oil and gas. A portion of the vast Liguasan Marsh beckons along the highway in Maguindanao province in the Bangsamoro region in the southern Philippines, in 2021. Image by Bong S. Sarmiento. In the 1990s, a joint exploration by the state-owned Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) and its Malaysian counterpart, Petronas, found that at least 202 million barrels of recoverable crude oil and 6 billion cubic feet of natural gas sit within Liguasan Marsh. Exploration did not proceed further due to ongoing conflict between government forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a 40,000-strong armed group fighting for the right of self-determination in the southern Philippines. A&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/energy-crisis-revives-push-to-drill-in-philippines-largest-intact-wetland/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/energy-crisis-revives-push-to-drill-in-philippines-largest-intact-wetland/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317714</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Second progress report shows little action on World Bank redress plan at Liberian plantation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/second-progress-report-shows-little-action-on-world-bank-redress-plan-at-liberian-plantation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/second-progress-report-shows-little-action-on-world-bank-redress-plan-at-liberian-plantation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Apr 2026 10:07:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/04104621/woman-sex-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317077</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conflict, Corporate Social Responsibility, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Law, Plantations, Rubber, Social Conflict, Social Justice, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A year after the World Bank approved a plan to redress community grievances over inadequate compensation and sexual harassment at Liberia’s Salala Rubber Corporation, a progress report provides little evidence that any of its key commitments have been implemented. In February, the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, published a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A year after the World Bank approved a plan to redress community grievances over inadequate compensation and sexual harassment at Liberia’s Salala Rubber Corporation, a progress report provides little evidence that any of its key commitments have been implemented. In February, the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, published a second report on progress with the action plan. “IFC will continue to engage with key stakeholders over the coming months to explore the feasibility of MAP implementation.” But Windor Smith, from the Liberian civil society organization Alliance for Rural Democracy, which works with affected communities around the Salala plantation, told Mongabay she does not know which stakeholders the IFC is engaging with. “The situation is still the same. There is no engagement, no consultation with the communities and supporting organizations.” Luxembourg-based multinational Socfin took over the rubber plantation in 2007 and received an IFC loan of $10 million to rehabilitate and expand it. Community members started voicing grievances soon thereafter. Dissatisfied with the company’s response, they filed a complaint with the Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, IFC’s independent watchdog, in 2019, alleging sexual harassment, inadequate compensation for their rubber trees and food crops lost and a flawed land acquisition process. Read more about Socfin&#8217;s plantations in Africa. Four years later, the CAO completed its investigation, concluding that many of the complaints were valid. The IFC developed an action plan, which it committed to implementing along with Socfin. In contrast to what followed many previous CAO investigations, the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/second-progress-report-shows-little-action-on-world-bank-redress-plan-at-liberian-plantation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317077</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Thai data center boom sparks fears of water shortage, air pollution</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/thai-data-center-boom-sparks-fears-of-water-shortage-air-pollution/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/thai-data-center-boom-sparks-fears-of-water-shortage-air-pollution/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Mar 2026 03:54:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald Flynn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/10054228/20251216__DATA-CENTER_THAILAND_ANDY-BALL-5-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315482</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Artificial Intelligence, Community Development, data, Data centers, Economics, Ecosystems, Energy, Energy Transition, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Infrastructure, Natural Resources, Planetary Health, Renewable Energy, Resource Conflict, Rivers, Technology, Traditional People, Waste, Water, Water Pollution, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This story was produced in collaboration with the Environmental Reporting Collective (ERC). Read the ERC’s story on the impacts of data centers globally here. CHONBURI, Thailand — The sun had yet to rise at 6 a.m., but Sarayuth Sonlacksa was already crouched on his wooden jetty, hoisting up plastic crates of crabs from his pond [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This story was produced in collaboration with the Environmental Reporting Collective (ERC). Read the ERC’s story on the impacts of data centers globally here. CHONBURI, Thailand — The sun had yet to rise at 6 a.m., but Sarayuth Sonlacksa was already crouched on his wooden jetty, hoisting up plastic crates of crabs from his pond to see if any had reached the size needed to sell to restaurants in Bangkok. He’s able to farm crabs this far inland, said Sarayuth, a former biochemist, thanks to the unique ecosystem provided by the mix of seawater, brackish water and freshwater that flows through the Bang Pakong River into the creeks near his home on the border between Chachoengsao and Chonburi provinces in eastern Thailand. But that delicate balance, he fears, may be upended by a new data center being built in Chonburi’s Khlong Tamru subdistrict, 10 kilometers (6 miles) from his crab farm in Chachoengsao province. The facility is one of at least 19 data centers reportedly planned or under construction in Chonburi and neighboring Rayong province. With the data centers springing up in an already heavily industrialized area that has struggled with water shortages and pollution, local residents say they fear the new sector could make the situation worse. “For me, data centers are better than normal factories,” Sarayuth said. “But for sure they will result in more water conflict, with more competition for resources, and more wastewater.” Sarayuth Sonlacksa inspects his crab farm, some 10 km from the construction site&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/thai-data-center-boom-sparks-fears-of-water-shortage-air-pollution/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315482</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Concern among Indigenous leaders, relief for a few, as Amazon Soy Moratorium falters</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/concern-among-indigenous-leaders-relief-for-a-few-as-amazon-soy-moratorium-falters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/concern-among-indigenous-leaders-relief-for-a-few-as-amazon-soy-moratorium-falters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Mar 2026 18:33:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rubens Valente]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/03170640/AP23126774484902-scaled-e1772557745837-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315066</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Agribusiness, Indigenous Peoples and Conservation, and Latin America]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Soy, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BRASÍLIA — Indigenous leaders and researchers in Brazil say an end to a key zero-deforestation agreement, the Amazon Soy Moratorium, will increase deforestation around Indigenous lands and encourage the invasion of their territories for soy farming. Already, some are pointing to forest loss advancing near one Indigenous land following efforts to curtail the agreement. Meanwhile, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BRASÍLIA — Indigenous leaders and researchers in Brazil say an end to a key zero-deforestation agreement, the Amazon Soy Moratorium, will increase deforestation around Indigenous lands and encourage the invasion of their territories for soy farming. Already, some are pointing to forest loss advancing near one Indigenous land following efforts to curtail the agreement. Meanwhile, a few Indigenous leaders are seeing an economic opportunity as companies pull out of the agreement. Members in communities that sell soy farmed on their lands say they already do so sustainably and that the agreement unfairly penalizes their product. Mongabay spoke with stakeholders across various sectors, from Indigenous leaders and corporate entities, to conservationists and government officials — people across Brazil’s political spectrum — to get their take on what the possible dissolution of the moratorium may mean for Indigenous peoples and their lands in the Amazon. A section of the Amazon rainforest stands next to soy fields in Belterra, Para state, Brazil, on Nov. 30, 2019. Image by AP Photo/Leo Correa. The moratorium is a voluntary pact between companies, public agencies and NGOs to reduce deforestation in the Amazon. Participants agree to ban from their supply chains any soy produced in areas of the Amazon deforested after July 2008. While the expansion of soy farms grew by 361% from 2006 to 2023 as farmers prioritized converting already cleared lands, fresh deforestation in the Amazon for soy farms dramatically dropped to 1% in the first 10 years after the agreement came into force in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/concern-among-indigenous-leaders-relief-for-a-few-as-amazon-soy-moratorium-falters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315066</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amazon riverfolk warn blasting rocks for shipping route will kill fisheries</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-riverfolk-warn-blasting-rocks-for-shipping-route-will-kill-fisheries/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-riverfolk-warn-blasting-rocks-for-shipping-route-will-kill-fisheries/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Feb 2026 07:00:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tiffany Higgins]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/24171114/IMG_3295-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314688</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Freshwater Fish, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Law, Politics, Resource Conflict, Rivers, Social Justice, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional People, and Transportation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Generations of fishers have called these rocky formations home. Now, they say Brazil is not hearing their knowledge.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ITUPIRANGA, Brazil — Ronaldo Macena and Erlan Moraes, traditional riverfolk leaders whose families have lived for generations on the Lourenção Rocks fishery on the Amazon’s Tocantins River, were hopeful in September when a federal judge visited their villages. For several generations, Macena told the judge, the peoples of the Pedral do Lourenção riverfolk territory, as they call it, have thrived in its rocky reaches, gaining not just income and dignified livelihoods but also cultural identification from fishing its stony subaquatic canyons that reach to more than 76 meters (250 feet) deep. But as the federal government seeks to open the river as a new shipping route, their rights have been systematically violated, Macena said, by a federal government that hasn’t treated them as traditional peoples with a distinct “culture, language and traditions” — but instead lumped riverfolk in with urban peoples, leaving their traditional knowledge, fishing and even existence barely acknowledged in government records. Brazil’s federal transport agencies plan to explode the deep, rocky river territory of the Pedral do Lourenção, as riverfolk call it (formally known as Pedral do Lourenço), a first step toward a riverway on the Tocantins River meant to expand exports of grains, minerals and cattle. The project is being executed by Brazil’s infrastructure transport department (DNIT), with studies by the Brazilian engineering consulting firm DTA Engenharia. To turn the river into a shipping route, authorities decided to blow up the rocks of a 35-kilometer (21.7-mile) section of the Lourenção, which is 43-kilometers (26.7-miles) long and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-riverfolk-warn-blasting-rocks-for-shipping-route-will-kill-fisheries/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-riverfolk-warn-blasting-rocks-for-shipping-route-will-kill-fisheries/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314688</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Farmers fear displacement, drought, flooding tied to Cambodia’s Funan Techo Canal</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/farmers-fear-displacement-drought-flooding-tied-to-cambodias-funan-techo-canal/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/farmers-fear-displacement-drought-flooding-tied-to-cambodias-funan-techo-canal/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Feb 2026 06:33:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald FlynnPhoung Vantha]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/12060609/FTC-pt-2-banner-img-v1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314184</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Mekong Basin, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Canals, Conservation, Drought, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Farming, Fish, Fishing, Flooding, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Governance, Infrastructure, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Land Use Change, Rivers, Traditional People, Tropics, Water, Water Scarcity, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the second of two stories about the potential impact of Cambodia’s planned Funan Techo Canal. Read part one, about consequences for coastal communities and wildlife, here. TAKEO, Cambodia — Thet Chanton finally finished construction on his new home along the banks of the Prek Bassac (Bassac creek) in Prey Sambor village, a small farming [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the second of two stories about the potential impact of Cambodia’s planned Funan Techo Canal. Read part one, about consequences for coastal communities and wildlife, here. TAKEO, Cambodia — Thet Chanton finally finished construction on his new home along the banks of the Prek Bassac (Bassac creek) in Prey Sambor village, a small farming community in Cambodia’s southern province of Takeo. That was in June 2024. Just five months later, when Mongabay first interviewed Chanton in November 2024, he said local authorities had already told him his house would need to be demolished. “We had a meeting with the village chief, but there were commune, district and provincial authorities there too,” Chanton said. “They told us that Prek Bassac will be studied to become part of the Funan Techo Canal.” The canal is a controversial new waterway the Cambodian government is planning to link the Mekong River to the Gulf of Thailand. It will cut a 180-kilometer (112-mile) trench through farms, wetlands and homes in Kandal, Takeo, Kampot and Kep provinces as it goes. Chanton’s household is one of 400 the government estimates will lose their houses to the mega-project’s construction. The same estimates suggest that, in total, 2,305 households consisting of 11,525 people will be directly impacted in some way by the Funan Techo Canal. “We spent about $20,000 to build this house, but we did that with a $10,000 microfinance loan,” said Chanton, who owned a small rice farm around his newly built home when Mongabay met&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/farmers-fear-displacement-drought-flooding-tied-to-cambodias-funan-techo-canal/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314184</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amazon deforestation may rise 30% as major traders exit historic soy pact</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-deforestation-may-rise-30-as-major-traders-exit-historic-soy-pact/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-deforestation-may-rise-30-as-major-traders-exit-historic-soy-pact/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Feb 2026 20:09:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda Wenzel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/02195242/AP24305472746663-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313652</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Climate Change, Conflict, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As global soy giants walk away from a landmark pact, land grabbers move in to clear the forest for new crops. ]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Major soy traders operating in Brazil announced in early January that they would abandon one of the world&#8217;s most successful zero-deforestation agreements, known as the soy moratorium. As a result, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon may increase by up to 30% by 2045, according to the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), pushing the rainforest toward the much-feared tipping point. The coup de grâce to the 20-year-long soy moratorium, under which companies voluntarily agreed to ban soy grown in areas deforested after 2008, came from the Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries(Abiove). Representing some of the world&#8217;s largest soy traders, like Cargill, Bunge, Amaggi and ADM, the trade association announced in a statement on Jan. 5 that it “began negotiations to withdraw from the Soy Moratorium Commitment Agreement.” Brazil is the world&#8217;s largest soy exporter, and Abiove&#8217;s members account for nearly 45% of these shipments, according to 2022 data from commodity supply-chain watchdog Trase. The decision followed a new law in Mato Grosso state, Brazil&#8217;s largest soy producer. The legislation, which went into effect Jan. 1, allows the state government to suspend tax breaks to companies adopting environmental criteria beyond those required by Brazilian law, such as the soy moratorium. In Brazil, deforestation is permitted under rules for each biome — 20% for properties in the Amazon, 65-80% in the Cerrado, and so on. This means that a farmer who deforested their land after 2008 couldn’t sell soy to moratorium members even when complying with Brazilian deforestation laws. “Abiove understands that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-deforestation-may-rise-30-as-major-traders-exit-historic-soy-pact/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313652</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Peru to invest $7.6 billion to continue critical minerals extraction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/peru-to-invest-7-6-billion-to-continue-critical-minerals-extraction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/peru-to-invest-7-6-billion-to-continue-critical-minerals-extraction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2026 22:50:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/28144258/1047925-whatsapp-image-2024-10-28-at-9-30-18-am-1-768x501.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313414</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Critical Minerals, Environment, Environmental Law, Indigenous Peoples, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Mining, Politics, Pollution, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Peru plans to reinforce its mining sector this year with billions of dollars in investment across several ongoing projects, some of them with a history of environmental damage. The Ministry of Energy and Mines announced it will invest $7.6 billion to expand and improve mining operations that extract zinc, lead, tin, silver, copper and gold. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Peru plans to reinforce its mining sector this year with billions of dollars in investment across several ongoing projects, some of them with a history of environmental damage. The Ministry of Energy and Mines announced it will invest $7.6 billion to expand and improve mining operations that extract zinc, lead, tin, silver, copper and gold. While many of these minerals are critical for the clean energy transition, their extraction has also contributed to pollution and land use change. “Peru currently has exceptional conditions to continue leading the production of strategic minerals, attract new investments and consolidate its position as an indispensable player in the global energy transition,” a statement from the ministry said. Many of the minerals found in Peru are vital for developing batteries, turbines, solar panels and other technology that will lower global carbon emission rates. In recent years, the country has been working to better leverage those resources by establishing new international agreements on energy issues and strengthening the mining sector. The $7.6 billion will mostly go to upgrading infrastructure and operation safety and efficiency at eight mine sites, in some cases extending their lifespans by several years. These include Pampa de Pongo, Cerro Verde and Zafranal mines in the Arequipa region, the Corani mine in the Puno region and the Huarón mine in the Pasco region. Others will expand land use and mineral processing to help increase output. While that contributes to the clean energy market, it also comes with environmental risks. The Huancapetí mine in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/peru-to-invest-7-6-billion-to-continue-critical-minerals-extraction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313414</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How US intervention could deepen Venezuela’s environmental crisis</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/how-us-intervention-could-deepen-venezuelas-environmental-crisis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/how-us-intervention-could-deepen-venezuelas-environmental-crisis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jan 2026 17:32:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/20165903/AP25285837186921-1-768x500.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313124</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, South America, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forests, Gold Mining, Governance, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Law, Law Enforcement, Mining, Oil, Oil Drilling, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When U.S. forces entered Venezuela earlier this month and removed President Nicolás Maduro, officials framed the intervention as a strategic economic opportunity. President Donald Trump repeatedly pointed to the country’s oil reserves and rare earth minerals, saying U.S. companies stood to earn billions of dollars. Less attention has been paid to the environmental risks of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When U.S. forces entered Venezuela earlier this month and removed President Nicolás Maduro, officials framed the intervention as a strategic economic opportunity. President Donald Trump repeatedly pointed to the country’s oil reserves and rare earth minerals, saying U.S. companies stood to earn billions of dollars. Less attention has been paid to the environmental risks of his plan. More than half of Venezuela is covered by forest, some of it in the Amazon Basin. It also has grasslands, wetlands and thousands of kilometers of Caribbean coastline. These ecosystems were already under strain under the Maduro government, but critics warn that foreign intervention could intensify the damage. “If environmental risks aren’t taken into account in this process, we’re probably facing a potential environmental catastrophe of a very large magnitude,” Eduardo Klein, a marine ecology professor at Simón Bolívar University in Caracas, told Mongabay. Venezuela has an estimated 300 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves, the largest in the world. Yet it produces slightly less than a million barrels a day, far below many other oil-producing countries with smaller reserves. By international standards, Venezuela’s oil is heavier than in other parts of the world, making it more costly and requiring special processing equipment. The government has also allowed pipelines and refineries to fall into disrepair over the last 20 years, the result of financial mismanagement, corruption, an untrained workforce and sanctions. In 2024, there were at least 65 oil spills across eight states, according to the Venezuelan Observatory for Political Ecology. It also&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/how-us-intervention-could-deepen-venezuelas-environmental-crisis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313124</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Guatemala’s eco defenders reel from surge in killings and persecution</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/guatemalas-eco-defenders-reel-from-surge-in-killings-and-persecution/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/guatemalas-eco-defenders-reel-from-surge-in-killings-and-persecution/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jan 2026 07:57:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gonzalo Ortuño López]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/02075043/portada-gt-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312504</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, Latin America, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conflict, Conservation, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Politics, Protected Areas, Resource Conflict, Social Conflict, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Environmental and territorial defenders in Guatemala face a critical moment as violence targeting them increases across the country. In 2024, at least 20 such defenders were killed for their work, up from four in 2023, according to a report by advocacy NGO Global Witness. The country was second only to Colombia in the number of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Environmental and territorial defenders in Guatemala face a critical moment as violence targeting them increases across the country. In 2024, at least 20 such defenders were killed for their work, up from four in 2023, according to a report by advocacy NGO Global Witness. The country was second only to Colombia in the number of defenders killed or disappeared, accounting for 13% of the total cases identified worldwide by Global Witness. As a proportion of the country’s population, the number also leaves Guatemala with the highest rate of killings of environmental defenders in the world. The report says that at least 10 of those killed were Indigenous or campesino individuals. Since 2012, Global Witness has documented 106 killings and disappearances of environmental defenders in Guatemala, half of them Indigenous people and a fifth campesinos, who were engaged in defending their rights to land or opposing the extraction of natural resources. Mongabay Latam interviewed the report authors, along with activists and defenders, who agreed that the main factors behind the increase in violence are a land distribution system that has historically benefited the elite, the continued violation of Indigenous peoples’ rights, and the spread of organized crime. The Campesino Committee of the Highlands (CCDA) has reported killings and criminalization of its members. Image courtesy of CCDA. The new political landscape When Bernardo Arévalo took office as president in January 2024, he and his party, Movimiento Semilla, had the broad backing of Guatemala’s Indigenous peoples. But this hasn’t translated into a reduction&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/guatemalas-eco-defenders-reel-from-surge-in-killings-and-persecution/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312504</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brickmaking keeps eating farmland as Bangladesh misses clean-build goal</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/brickmaking-keeps-eating-farmland-as-bangladesh-misses-clean-build-goal/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/brickmaking-keeps-eating-farmland-as-bangladesh-misses-clean-build-goal/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jan 2026 05:54:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/02054809/brick-kiln-bangladesh-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312500</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Cities, Environment, Environmental Law, Farming, Governance, Infrastructure, Land Conflict, Natural Resources, and Resource Conflict]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2019, Bangladesh set a target to end the use of traditional bricks and switch to concrete blocks in all government construction works by June 2025. Aimed at preventing the loss of farmland and the high greenhouse gas emissions associated with brickmaking, the result has largely been “a failure,” according to a top official. “Initially, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2019, Bangladesh set a target to end the use of traditional bricks and switch to concrete blocks in all government construction works by June 2025. Aimed at preventing the loss of farmland and the high greenhouse gas emissions associated with brickmaking, the result has largely been “a failure,” according to a top official. “Initially, our target was to use concrete blocks and hollow bricks in all kinds of government works including building public infrastructures, roads, etc.,” Syeda Rizwana Hasan, an adviser to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), told Mongabay. “Unfortunately, most of the government works have continued to be carried out with the traditional bricks, which mostly made the target a failure.” Various government departments run a wide range of construction projects, including the Ministry of Housing and Public Works, the Education Engineering Department and the Roads and Highways Department. “Of them, only the public works ministry reached its use of 100% clean materials while the others are far behind the target,” Hasan said. Md. Ziuaul Haque, additional director-general of the Department of Environment, said a new deadline for the transition is being planned. “As per our estimation, around 30-40% of the total government works have come under the use of alternative building materials so far,” he said. “We are planning to set a new timeline and impose strict directions to the related government agencies to meet the goal of 100% use of clean bricks.” Damaging to land and climate A boom in infrastructure and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/brickmaking-keeps-eating-farmland-as-bangladesh-misses-clean-build-goal/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312500</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A nuclear power plan exposes Kenya’s deeper land rights issues</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-nuclear-power-plan-exposes-kenyas-deeper-land-rights-issues/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-nuclear-power-plan-exposes-kenyas-deeper-land-rights-issues/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Dec 2025 17:49:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie Toto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/29174550/31906826794_53f70466fe_k-e1767030711716-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312259</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Energy, Governance, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Law, Nuclear Power, and Protests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[From the shores of Sanita Kitole’s quiet coastal town of Uyombo in southern Kenya, one can see dolphins bobbing in the water from time to time. The environmental activist has grown deeply attached to the biodiversity of his region, he says, located in Watamu Marine National Park. For several years now, he’s been working with [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[From the shores of Sanita Kitole’s quiet coastal town of Uyombo in southern Kenya, one can see dolphins bobbing in the water from time to time. The environmental activist has grown deeply attached to the biodiversity of his region, he says, located in Watamu Marine National Park. For several years now, he’s been working with community groups, especially women, to reforest mangroves and develop sustainable businesses in Mida Creek. But over the past two years, the town of Uyombo has made headlines, thanks to the government eyeing the area as the site for the first nuclear power plant in Kenya. According to NuPEA, the national nuclear power regulator, the country’s development ambitions could significantly increase its electricity needs, rendering the current electricity production, generated largely by hydropower, insufficient. The potential project has triggered anger among the largely fishing-dependent local population, who say they fear losing their land, their access to the sea, and their livelihoods. “[The proponent of the nuclear plant] just came here. They tell you this is the place that we have chosen to build the power plant. That&#8217;s all. And then you lose everything,” Kitole says. Residents also say the plan for managing radioactive waste is unclear to them, and highlight the project’s proximity to Watamu Marine National Park and Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Protests have erupted over the plans. ​​“They didn’t involve us from the start, didn’t explain what nuclear energy is. When we asked questions, we got arrested,” Kitole says. But despite protests,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-nuclear-power-plan-exposes-kenyas-deeper-land-rights-issues/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312259</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Top 10 Indigenous news stories that marked 2025</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/top-10-indigenous-news-stories-that-marked-2025/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/top-10-indigenous-news-stories-that-marked-2025/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Dec 2025 16:00:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/10035751/54921851385_181af8ccc9_c-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312174</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Critical Minerals, Environment, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Mining, Politics, and Resource Conflict]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[2025 saw a mix of news sweep through Indigenous communities around the world, touching on issues both new and old. Efforts to increase direct funding to support Indigenous peoples’ land rights have persisted for more than two decades now, but this past year dealt a setback to those efforts as a result of the sudden [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[2025 saw a mix of news sweep through Indigenous communities around the world, touching on issues both new and old. Efforts to increase direct funding to support Indigenous peoples’ land rights have persisted for more than two decades now, but this past year dealt a setback to those efforts as a result of the sudden USAID funding cuts in January. That put additional strain on community-led conservation efforts in places like Ethiopia and in the Amazon Basin. Indigenous representation at climate talks was another perennial pain point. And while there was an unprecedented number of Indigenous delegates at this year’s U.N. climate conference in Brazil, COP30, Mongabay reported on the continued failure of these summits to involve Indigenous peoples in decision-making. And as always, Indigenous communities around the world continued the struggle to protect their territories, with the search for so-called critical minerals posing an increasingly serious threat. Many of these mining projects were approved without communities’ consent or sufficient environmental safeguards. Meanwhile, the age-old problem of illegal artisanal mining on Indigenous lands continued, perpetuating the pollution of the forests and rivers they depend on. The past year also saw big solutions stories. Indigenous peoples formed Indigenous guards, some of them led by women, who blend traditional protection strategies with modern technologies to protect their forests and prevent invasions of their lands. Mongabay also reported on Indigenous-led conservation initiatives to save wildlife, restore watersheds and resist the advance of monoculture farming and deforestation — even when few receive compensation for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/top-10-indigenous-news-stories-that-marked-2025/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312174</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Photos: Tourism ambitions clash with local livelihoods on Indonesia’s Lombok Island</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/photos-tourism-ambitions-clash-with-local-livelihoods-on-indonesias-lombok-island/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/photos-tourism-ambitions-clash-with-local-livelihoods-on-indonesias-lombok-island/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Dec 2025 15:45:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Helena Ureta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/12103351/tanjung-11-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311185</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Lombok, Southeast Asia, and West Nusa Tenggara]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Coastal Ecosystems, Community Development, Conservation, Development, Environment, Governance, Resource Conflict, Social Justice, and Tourism]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TANJUNG AAN BEACH, Indonesia — Here on the southern coast of Indonesia’s Lombok Island, dozens of residents have been told to dismantle their food stalls and leave the shoreline to make way for the Mandalika tourism development project. Once a place where families sold coconuts, rented out surfboards and cooked for visitors, Tanjung Aan Beach [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TANJUNG AAN BEACH, Indonesia — Here on the southern coast of Indonesia’s Lombok Island, dozens of residents have been told to dismantle their food stalls and leave the shoreline to make way for the Mandalika tourism development project. Once a place where families sold coconuts, rented out surfboards and cooked for visitors, Tanjung Aan Beach is now lined with debris, temporary shelters and the remains of the structures that stood for years. “I’ve had my warung [food stall] here for more than a decade,” says Ani, who now sells snacks from a table built with scrap wood. “They told us to move, but they didn’t give us a clear place to go.” The Mandalika project is part of Indonesia’s “10 New Balis” strategy, meant to establish tourism hubs in lesser-known parts of the archipelago and boost international visitors. A race circuit built as part of the project has already hosted international events like the MotoGP and World Superbike races, with resorts and other facilities still being developed. But while officials have promoted the jobs and infrastructure they say the project will bring, many residents say they were given little notice before being told to leave, and that they received no compensation or alternative livelihood assistance. Their accounts offer a picture of a community trying to adapt while watching their source of income disappear. An excavator clearing the ground for new construction along Tanjung Aan Beach. Image by Helena Ureta for Mongabay. The landscape of ruins left after the demolition of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/photos-tourism-ambitions-clash-with-local-livelihoods-on-indonesias-lombok-island/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311185</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The Amazon in 2026: A challenging year ahead, now off the center stage</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-amazon-in-2026-a-challenging-year-ahead-now-off-the-center-stage/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-amazon-in-2026-a-challenging-year-ahead-now-off-the-center-stage/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Dec 2025 14:27:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/19151029/Parque_Estadual_Encontro_das_Aguas_Thomas-Fuhrmann_2023-_01_Jaguar_-_Panthera_onca_swimming-scaled-e1710871756906-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311879</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Bioeconomy, Climate Change, Conflict, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As Belém's COP30 ended in compromise, political forces moved swiftly to accelerate destruction far from the global spotlight. 
]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Amazon enters 2026 carrying the bitter taste of compromise. The world’s attention was fixed on Belém for the COP30 summit in November, transforming the Brazilian city into a brief, intense stage for climate diplomacy, where ambitious calls for a fossil fuel phaseout ultimately died on the negotiating floor. Yet, in 2025, the true battle for the rainforest was fought far from the Blue Zone. In the quiet shadows, powerful political forces moved to roll back environmental protections in Brazil (which holds 64% of the rainforest), successfully passing the anti-conservation bills and green-lighting critical infrastructure projects. This dual reality — grand promises versus accelerated development on the frontier — set the defining tension for the year, even as a more hopeful, grassroots movement gained momentum, finding new, valuable purpose for biodiversity in innovations, proving the rainforest is worth far more standing than cut. COP30 was wrapped in global expectations. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva opened the summit by proposing a road map to enable humankind to overcome its dependence on fossil fuels in a fair and planned manner and to halt deforestation. However, the ambitious calls for a fossil fuel phaseout were excluded from the official COP outcomes. In response, Brazil, alongside the Colombian and Dutch delegations, agreed to develop road maps outside the formal U.N. process. This effort will culminate in the First International Conference on the Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels, scheduled for April 2026, in Santa Marta, Colombia, to negotiate an equitable Fossil Fuel&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-amazon-in-2026-a-challenging-year-ahead-now-off-the-center-stage/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311879</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In the Amazon, lack of transparency and corruption undermine the environment</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/in-the-amazon-lack-of-transparency-and-corruption-undermine-the-environment/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/in-the-amazon-lack-of-transparency-and-corruption-undermine-the-environment/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Dec 2025 11:00:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mayra]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/16040940/PORTADA-BRASIL-Beyond-Fire_Mining_04_DSC_2834-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311448</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Perfect Storm in the Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Corruption, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Governance, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Law, Law Enforcement, Organized Crime, Politics, Rainforests, Timber, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Brazil’s Ministério Público Federal has demonstrated how an ambitious corps of prosecutors can foster compliance with environmental laws. After charges are filed and indictments served, however, the forum for law enforcement shifts to the courtroom, which in the jurisdictions of the Pan Amazon usually translates into inaction and impunity. Failure to enforce environmental law in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Brazil’s Ministério Público Federal has demonstrated how an ambitious corps of prosecutors can foster compliance with environmental laws. After charges are filed and indictments served, however, the forum for law enforcement shifts to the courtroom, which in the jurisdictions of the Pan Amazon usually translates into inaction and impunity. Failure to enforce environmental law in the courts is part of a larger problem of political corruption and judicial dysfunction. Just as illegal loggers and land grabbers rarely see the inside of a jail, individuals guilty of bribery, embezzlement and money laundering also largely escape punishment. Success in fighting environmental crime depends on a society’s ability to isolate its judicial system from political corruption. Fighting corruption in the judicial system and enforcing environmental laws go hand in hand. Corruption takes many forms, but in the overwhelming number of acts of political corruption that infect government, it is usually a crime of commission, where the guilty parties proactively offer or solicit bribes or kickbacks, or engage in money laundering. This type of malfeasance occurs within the judicial system, but there is a more insidious form of corruption that contaminates the criminal justice system. The failure to act when its officers are legally obligated to do so is a crime of omission; sometimes referred to as ‘wilful blindness’, it describes the behavior of prosecutors who abuse their ‘power of discretion’ to bring charges – or not. For judges, it might be their ability to delay a case until the statute of limitations terminates&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/in-the-amazon-lack-of-transparency-and-corruption-undermine-the-environment/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311448</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Malaysian companies dominate PNG forest-clearance permits: report</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/malaysian-companies-dominate-png-forest-clearance-permits-report/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/malaysian-companies-dominate-png-forest-clearance-permits-report/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Dec 2025 05:54:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/01/25103418/tree-kangaroo-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310979</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, New Guinea, Oceania, Papua New Guinea, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Birds, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Policy, Farming, Forests, FPIC, Indigenous Peoples, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Logging, Rainforests, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Papua New Guinea’s rainforests, which span 28.2 million hectares (69.6 million acres), are among the most biodiverse in the world, hosting an estimated 5-8% of all species. The country also has one of the world’s highest rates of communal land ownership, with around 97% of land legally recognized as being customary tenure. Despite the ecological [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Papua New Guinea’s rainforests, which span 28.2 million hectares (69.6 million acres), are among the most biodiverse in the world, hosting an estimated 5-8% of all species. The country also has one of the world’s highest rates of communal land ownership, with around 97% of land legally recognized as being customary tenure. Despite the ecological significance of the country’s forests, and the existence of laws to ensure customary landowners retain control of what happens on their traditional lands, Papua New Guinea also hosts a major timber trade — frequently topping global lists of tropical log exporters — with the profits concentrated in the hands of foreign corporations. A recent report from RimbaWatch, a Kuala Lumpur-based research and advocacy organization, examined in detail how land-conversion permits facilitate the clearance of PNG’s forests, and what role the companies linked to Malaysia play in the ongoing timber trade. The report focused on Forest Clearing Authorities (FCAs), which are permits issued by the Papua New Guinea Forest Authority (PNGFA) that allow large-scale conversions — exceeding 50 hectares (123 acres) — of natural forests for agricultural or other land-use development projects. The stated purpose of these licenses is to create sustainable jobs and income for the country’s people via development projects, but critics say that, in practice, these licenses  have been used to facilitate large-scale logging. As of 2024, one-third of the timber exported from the country came from companies operating on an FCA permit. RimbaWatch found that 65 out of 67 active FCAs are&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/malaysian-companies-dominate-png-forest-clearance-permits-report/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310979</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Assessments argue carbon offsets are failing communities and climate goals (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/assessments-argue-carbon-offsets-are-a-false-unjust-climate-solution-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/assessments-argue-carbon-offsets-are-a-false-unjust-climate-solution-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Dec 2025 19:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[GRAIN]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/27093058/eucalyptus-monoculture-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310678</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Madagascar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Business, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Offsets, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Commentary, Environment, Finance, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Redd, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Land Matrix, a collaboration between the International Land Coalition and several universities, just published a new report on land deals for carbon offsets. Carbon offsets are “credits” sold to polluters who buy them to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions. The Land Matrix documented 9 million hectares (more than 22 million acres) that are [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Land Matrix, a collaboration between the International Land Coalition and several universities, just published a new report on land deals for carbon offsets. Carbon offsets are “credits” sold to polluters who buy them to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions. The Land Matrix documented 9 million hectares (more than 22 million acres) that are subject to these land deals worldwide. At GRAIN, we came to a similar figure when we tallied carbon land deals last year. However, there are some major differences between these two assessments that we want to highlight. The Land Matrix looked at land deals from the year 2000 onward. They included projects for avoided deforestation (often known as REDD+) as well as tree planting, wetland restoration and grassland management. Two-thirds of the land they accounted for are for REDD+ projects alone. GRAIN, on the other hand, looked at land deals concluded between 2016 and March 2024, and did not include REDD+ or wetland or grassland restoration and management. We only looked at projects where lands were taken over to plant trees and other crops to produce carbon offsets for companies. The Land Matrix data only cover low- and middle-income countries, but exclude China “due to the lack of a country partner.” GRAIN’s data also focused on the Global South, but included China — which we learned was one of the top targets for land-based carbon offset projects. The Land Matrix data set also excludes carbon offset projects where the land claims predate 2000, leaving out&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/assessments-argue-carbon-offsets-are-a-false-unjust-climate-solution-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-310678</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>DRC hit by record deforestation in 2024, satellite data show</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/drc-hit-by-record-deforestation-in-2024-satellite-data-show/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/drc-hit-by-record-deforestation-in-2024-satellite-data-show/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Nov 2025 17:19:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/26160309/chimpu-baby-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310220</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conflict, data, Deforestation, Fires, Forest Loss, Forests, Human Rights, Illegal Logging, Logging, Old Growth Forests, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Resource Conflict, Slash-and-burn, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Africa’s great Congo Basin rainforest, often called the Earth’s second lung, covers an area about the size of India. Millions of people depend directly on the forest for food, energy and income. It is home to our closest relatives and some of the planet’s most threatened wildlife — gorillas (Gorilla sp.), chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), bonobos [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Africa’s great Congo Basin rainforest, often called the Earth’s second lung, covers an area about the size of India. Millions of people depend directly on the forest for food, energy and income. It is home to our closest relatives and some of the planet’s most threatened wildlife — gorillas (Gorilla sp.), chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), bonobos (Pan paniscus), okapi (Okapia johnstoni), forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) and more. The humid forest with towering trees and extensive peatlands also helps regulate our global climate, taking in greenhouse gases emitted far beyond the forest’s borders. Sixty percent of the Congo Basin rainforest lies within the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and around 70% of the DRC was covered in natural forest as of 2020, according to data visualized on the Global Forest Watch (GFW) platform. From 2002 to 2024, the DRC lost 7.1% of its forest cover, according to GFW satellite data, and experienced the third-largest absolute amount of primary forest loss globally, behind Brazil and Indonesia. (This estimate may be conservative and the actual amount even higher, according to GFW, as previous methods it had used to measure tree cover loss between 2001 and 2015 likely led to underestimations.) Annual primary forest loss in the DRC grew steadily over the past five years and spiked to a record high of 590,000 hectares (1.5 million acres) in 2024, according to GFW data. That’s up from 530,000 hectares (1.3 million acres) of primary forest loss in 2023 and 510,000 hectares in 2022. The data show&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/drc-hit-by-record-deforestation-in-2024-satellite-data-show/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310220</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil aims for alternative route to fossil fuel road map after COP30 failure</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/brazil-aims-for-alternative-route-to-fossil-fuel-road-map-after-cop30-failure/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/brazil-aims-for-alternative-route-to-fossil-fuel-road-map-after-cop30-failure/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Nov 2025 13:51:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carla Ruas]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/25125453/marcha-cop30-crop-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310125</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Climate Change, Conflict, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Phaseout plan gained unexpected momentum at the summit, only to vanish from the final deal and unlock a new stage. ]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BELÉM, Brazil — In April 2026, a new summit in Santa Marta, Colombia, promises to advance on one crucial point the U.N. climate summits have been failing to address after 30 editions: planning the transition to a world without fossil fuels. An action plan for a phaseout was once again left out of COP official outcomes in the Amazonian city of Belém, which held the event for two weeks ending Nov. 22. Although Brazil spearheaded a road map to move away from planet-warming fossil fuels, it was never included in the official agenda — despite expectations following COP28’s call for a transition. Brazil hosted COP30 with high promises despite its scaling environmental contradictions, such as green-lighting the exploration of oil on the Amazon coast weeks before the event. However, the Belém summit was presented as the “implementation COP” and the “COP of the truth” in official banners. In a powerful opening speech, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva first launched the road map proposal. “We need road maps that will enable humankind, in a fair and planned manner, to overcome its dependence on fossil fuels, halt and reverse deforestation and mobilize resources to achieve these goals,” he said. Lula’s speech was within the spirit of mutirão, which initially took over negotiations in Belém. The Portuguese word with roots in the Indigenous language Tupi-Guarani means making a “collective effort” to achieve concrete results. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, with COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago on his left and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/brazil-aims-for-alternative-route-to-fossil-fuel-road-map-after-cop30-failure/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310125</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil’s forest fund faces a slow takeoff at COP30 despite initial support</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/brazils-forest-fund-faces-a-slow-takeoff-at-cop30-despite-initial-support/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/brazils-forest-fund-faces-a-slow-takeoff-at-cop30-despite-initial-support/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Nov 2025 13:46:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carla Ruas]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/24131407/54906380111_f74478d95c_o-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310080</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Climate Change, Conflict, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Operational rifts and budget constraints choked ambitious funding from rich nations for TFFF at Belém’s summit. ]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BELÉM, Brazil — Brazil’s big climate finance bet, the Tropical Forests Forever Facility (TFFF), attracted $6.7 billion in sponsor capital at COP30, below the $25 billion initially required to roll out the initiative at full scale. Global North countries have been hesitant to commit funds, often alleging domestic budget constraints. Yet, Brazilian officials insist the fund can begin operating on a smaller scale and a prolonged timeline. TFFF, led by the Brazilian government and hosted by the World Bank, offers an innovative proposal to finance the conservation of tropical forests. The idea is to raise $125 billion in public and private capital to invest in capital markets — primarily in long-term sustainable bonds issued by developing countries. The plan initially requires $25 billion in junior “sponsor” capital, mostly from Global North governments. These funds would function as a safety net to attract an additional $100 billion from private investors. Profits generated by the fund would first pay dividends to investors, then reimburse sponsors, and the remaining balance would be distributed to eligible forest nations. The goal is to pay tropical forest countries $4 per hectare (2.5 acres) of preserved forest each year, based on satellite monitoring — an amount that could be reduced based on degradation or deforestation. Of that total, 20% would go to Indigenous peoples and local communities, although how those funds would be distributed locally is still unclear. Brazil pitched TFFF as one of its flagship contributions to COP30, held in the Amazonian city of Belém at the end of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/brazils-forest-fund-faces-a-slow-takeoff-at-cop30-despite-initial-support/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310080</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lesotho communities allege greenwashing by project transferring water to South Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/lesotho-communities-allege-greenwashing-by-project-transferring-water-to-south-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/lesotho-communities-allege-greenwashing-by-project-transferring-water-to-south-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Nov 2025 17:31:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/21165528/High_mountain_Shepherds-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309980</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Negotiating Africa's Energy Future]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Lesotho, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Conflict, Dams, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Freshwater, Global Environmental Crisis, Greenwashing, Hydroelectric Power, Politics, Renewable Energy, Resource Conflict, Rivers, Social Justice, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Communities in Lesotho have filed a complaint with the African Development Bank over a controversial initiative that transfers water from the country to neighboring South Africa, one of the biggest such schemes on the African continent. The Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), currently in its second phase, is funded in part by the African Development [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Communities in Lesotho have filed a complaint with the African Development Bank over a controversial initiative that transfers water from the country to neighboring South Africa, one of the biggest such schemes on the African continent. The Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), currently in its second phase, is funded in part by the African Development Bank (AfDB). In the complaint submitted to the bank’s Independent Recourse Mechanism, seen by Mongabay, the complainants accuse the developers of promoting the LHWP as a climate mitigation project and ignoring its impacts on their communities and the environment, and call it “greenwashing.” “Some in the community say they were better off without the project, because instead of bringing a development that is expected from such projects, it has, in fact, brought them poverty,” said Mosa Letsie, a lawyer at the Seinoli Legal Centre (SLC) in Lesotho. The center provides legal assistance and advice to marginalized communities and worked with the affected communities to submit the complaint. Letsie said women were disproportionately impacted. Falls short in every respect, from inadequate consultation to compensation to the lack of benefits. The LHWP diverts water from the Senqu-Orange river system in the Lesotho highlands, through a series of dams, to the water-poor Gauteng province of South Africa, home to the country’s economic nerve center: the greater Johannesburg area. The centerpiece of phase 2 is the Polihali dam and reservoir. While the project documents explicitly state how much water will be transferred to South Africa, they make only promises&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/lesotho-communities-allege-greenwashing-by-project-transferring-water-to-south-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309980</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Protecting Vietnam’s vast caves may have sparked a wildlife comeback</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/protecting-vietnams-vast-caves-may-have-sparked-a-wildlife-comeback/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/protecting-vietnams-vast-caves-may-have-sparked-a-wildlife-comeback/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Nov 2025 03:23:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Joshua Zukas]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/11060141/Maze-cave-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309239</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Caves, Conservation, Ecotourism, Environment, Environmental Law, Exploration, Sustainability, Tourism, Travel, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Thirty-five years ago, a Vietnamese hunter stumbled across the biggest cave on the planet — then promptly lost it. Hồ Khanh was deep in the 400-million-year-old karst limestone landscape that straddles central Vietnam and Laos. Beneath Hồ’s feet lay wet cave systems that spanned hundreds of kilometers, but his focus was on the tangled jungle [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Thirty-five years ago, a Vietnamese hunter stumbled across the biggest cave on the planet — then promptly lost it. Hồ Khanh was deep in the 400-million-year-old karst limestone landscape that straddles central Vietnam and Laos. Beneath Hồ’s feet lay wet cave systems that spanned hundreds of kilometers, but his focus was on the tangled jungle above. Here he hunted slow lorises, which he hawked as pets, and pangolins, whose scales are used in traditional medicine (and which perhaps helped spread COVID-19 from bats to humans). What he prized most, however, was agarwood, a rare, valuable and fragrant heartwood that could be carved into ornaments or burned as incense. When a sudden storm broke, Hồ slipped into a cave for cover. The hammering rain blurred the world into noise, yet it couldn’t drown out the blustering chambers from the cave’s dark depths. When the skies cleared, Hồ resumed his hunt. With time, the memory of this small crack in the mountain dimmed, and Hồ returned to his primary income source: looting the jungle. “Back then, we barely saw any wildlife,” recalls Howard Limbert, who began exploring the wilderness’s caves with his wife, Deb, in the 1990s. After several expeditions with the British Caving Association (BCA) in what became Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park in 2001, the Limberts were convinced that the region concealed vast, unknown caves. In 2007, when they heard Hồ’s story of a narrow opening that led to howling chambers, their curiosity was piqued. The three struck up a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/protecting-vietnams-vast-caves-may-have-sparked-a-wildlife-comeback/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309239</doi>				</item>
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