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		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?topic=satellite-imagery&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/satellite-imagery/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Wed, 05 Aug 2026 18:56:07 +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 Satellite Imagery</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/satellite-imagery/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>New fire satellites offer hope for Amazon and other biomes, but local barriers remain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/new-fire-satellites-offer-hope-for-amazon-and-other-biomes-but-local-barriers-remain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/new-fire-satellites-offer-hope-for-amazon-and-other-biomes-but-local-barriers-remain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jul 2026 07:44:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Benjamin Swift]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/29232759/Benjamin-Swift_APC_0045-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324873</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Disasters, Drought, El Nino, Extreme Weather, Fires, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, Satellite Imagery, Solutions, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Record wildfires devastated South America in 2024, raging out of control in biomes where fire is a natural part of the ecosystem, but also entering rainforests that had never burned before. Driven by expanding industrial agriculture, an El Niño episode, and droughts worsened by global climate change, the thick smoke from the wildfires grounded flights, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Record wildfires devastated South America in 2024, raging out of control in biomes where fire is a natural part of the ecosystem, but also entering rainforests that had never burned before. Driven by expanding industrial agriculture, an El Niño episode, and droughts worsened by global climate change, the thick smoke from the wildfires grounded flights, shuttered schools, and caused lasting health problems. After favorable weather led to a reprieve from the most destructive fires worldwide last year, fire experts expect major wildfires to return to South America in 2026 and 2027. With fire season beginning in the continent, park rangers and firefighters hope that a trio of satellites launched in early July will provide more precise, rapidly updated data to wildland firefighters worldwide. The first three operational satellites from Earth Fire Alliance are meant to help improve global fire detection by providing frequent high-resolution wildfire data. These are part of the nonprofit’s FireSat program, which aims to deploy about 50 low-orbit satellites by 2030. The satellites are still being tested and calibrated, but in a few months, a first cohort of early adopters will gain access to the data. Once fully operational, the system could help fire agencies reduce emissions from wildfires worldwide by 5-10% yearly, according to Paul Bodnar, director of clean industry and special projects at the Bezos Earth Fund, which provided a $26 million grant to the program. The new satellites launch as the world enters an El Niño climate pattern that will likely mean drought and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/new-fire-satellites-offer-hope-for-amazon-and-other-biomes-but-local-barriers-remain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324873</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists use AI to produce first high-resolution map of global seagrass extent</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/scientists-use-ai-to-produce-first-high-resolution-map-of-global-seagrass-extent/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/scientists-use-ai-to-produce-first-high-resolution-map-of-global-seagrass-extent/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jul 2026 12:51:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/10103637/IMG_2026-07-10-031214-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323038</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Australia, Bahamas, Caribbean, Cuba, Global, Indonesia, North America, Oceania, Southeast Asia, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, data, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Mapping, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Mitigation, Oceans, Plants, Politics, Protected Areas, Remote Sensing, Research, Satellite Imagery, Science, Seagrass, Software, Technology, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Almost 70% of the global extent of seagrass meadows is found off the coasts of just five countries. However, only 21% of this fall within marine protected areas. These are some of the key findings from the first high-resolution map of seagrasses around the world. Scientists at Arizona State University in the U.S. used satellite [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Almost 70% of the global extent of seagrass meadows is found off the coasts of just five countries. However, only 21% of this fall within marine protected areas. These are some of the key findings from the first high-resolution map of seagrasses around the world. Scientists at Arizona State University in the U.S. used satellite imagery and artificial intelligence to map seagrass cover over two periods, 2019-2020 and 2023-2024. According to a study, recently published in the journal Nature, the team identified “148,506 km2 of seagrass globally,” or about 57,340 square miles, a combined area larger than England, with the majority lying in subtidal areas. “We wanted to map seagrass in a very accurate manner,” Jiwei Li, an assistant professor at ASU’s School of Ocean Futures, who led the study, told Mongabay in a video interview. “And tell people where the seagrass is and where there is potential to protect it.” Scientists mapped seagrass ecosystems using satellite data and AI technology. Pictured above is a satellite image from a coast off of Richmond, Canada, along with the seagrass ecosystems highlighted in green to the right. Image courtesy of Jiwei Li, Arizona State University. Seagrasses are the only flowering plant species in the ocean, and form vast meadows in shallow waters. Apart from being habitats for many marine species, these meadows are also crucial carbon sinks that can absorb CO2 35 times faster than terrestrial forests. They also protect coastlines and filter pollutants in the water. However, seagrass ecosystems face threats from&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/scientists-use-ai-to-produce-first-high-resolution-map-of-global-seagrass-extent/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323038</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Crackdown lets rainforest reclaim illegal road in rare win for the Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/crackdown-lets-rainforest-reclaim-illegal-road-in-rare-win-for-the-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/crackdown-lets-rainforest-reclaim-illegal-road-in-rare-win-for-the-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jul 2026 14:38:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rafael Spuldar]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/19153134/dirt-roads-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322254</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Crime, Development, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Governance, Indigenous Reserves, Indigenous Rights, Infrastructure, Law, Politics, Protected Areas, Remote Sensing, Roads, and Satellite Imagery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A vanishing road in the Xingu region exemplifies what is at stake in Brazil’s October election.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2022, an illegal road cutting the length of a full marathon through two strictly protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon threatened to do what conservationists feared most: Split the Xingu Socioenvironmental Corridor, a mosaic of Indigenous territories and conservation units covering some 26 million hectares (64 million acres), in half. Four years later, satellite images reveal the 42.8-kilometer (26.6-mile) road is gone, swallowed by regrowing forest — something rarely seen in the region. Its disappearance runs counter to everything that typically happens when a road appears in the Amazon. “Here, the road is the beginning of everything, the beginning of the devastation,” Bruno Ferreira, a researcher at the conservation nonprofit Imazon, part of the MapBiomas mapping network, told Mongabay. Usually, roads give birth to a set of new roads (legal or illegal) that spawn from the main one, creating a fishbone pattern in satellite images. Imazon research suggests that 95% of deforestation in the Amazon happens within 5 km (3 mi) of a road, meaning that illegal cattle ranching and logging would have been virtually unstoppable had this one road been consolidated. For the organizations monitoring the region around the Xingu, a key tributary of the Amazon, the now dead road is proof that the alliance between civil society and a willing government can reverse destruction that once seemed irreversible — and a reminder of what is at stake as Brazil heads into a tightly contested presidential election in October. Uncovered in 2022, the 42-kilometer-long illegal road ran along&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/crackdown-lets-rainforest-reclaim-illegal-road-in-rare-win-for-the-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322254</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can globally essential mangroves bounce back from deforestation? New study gives hope</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/can-globally-essential-mangroves-bounce-back-from-deforestation-new-study-gives-hope/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/can-globally-essential-mangroves-bounce-back-from-deforestation-new-study-gives-hope/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 15:17:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Schell]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/23114608/mangroves-and-corals-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321654</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Mangroves, Marine, Marine Conservation, Research, Satellite Imagery, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The world’s mangrove forests, critical coastal ecosystems feared to be on the brink of collapse, are making an unexpected recovery overall, according to research published in June 2026 by scientists at Tulane University in New Orleans in the U.S. The study found that as deforestation and degradation have slowed down over the past decade around [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The world’s mangrove forests, critical coastal ecosystems feared to be on the brink of collapse, are making an unexpected recovery overall, according to research published in June 2026 by scientists at Tulane University in New Orleans in the U.S. The study found that as deforestation and degradation have slowed down over the past decade around the globe, the woody plants have managed to bounce back in many areas. The study analyzed satellite data from the past four decades. It found that unexpected expansion and regrowth across the world began counterbalancing mangrove forest loss around 2010. The rate of gain has nearly outpaced losses, resulting in about a cumulative 1% global decline since the 1980s. The recovery is predominantly driven by expansion of mangroves into new areas rather than recovery of existing forests. Most previous studies on the issue have used radar, which struggles to distinguish mangroves from other ecosystems. This research created a 30-meter resolution annual data set from Landsat satellite images to more accurately identify mangroves around the world from 1984 to 2023. The study also found that mangroves are becoming less degraded. Within mangroves, a greater proportion are closed-canopy forests, which means they are denser, retain more carbon and help secure shorelines. These closed-canopy sections increased from about 50% of mangroves worldwide in the 1980s, to about 58% by 2023. “Our study shows some new ideas about [mangrove] recovery. We find that deforestation and degradation rates are slowing down,” said lead author of the study Zhen Zhang, a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/can-globally-essential-mangroves-bounce-back-from-deforestation-new-study-gives-hope/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321654</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Loopholes undermine palm oil industry’s antideforestation pledges</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/loopholes-undermine-palm-oil-industrys-antideforestation-pledges/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/loopholes-undermine-palm-oil-industrys-antideforestation-pledges/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 May 2026 21:51:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/02173520/sabah_1209-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320195</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Certification, Commodity agriculture, Corporate Social Responsibility, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, EUDR, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Governance, International Trade, Monitoring, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, Satellite Imagery, and Supply Chain]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — More than a decade after the palm oil industry embraced a pledge to not deforest, clear tropical peatlands, or use exploitative practices, policies to that end now cover most of the global palm oil trade, as major traders, refiners and consumer brands have pledged to keep deforestation-linked palm oil out of their supply [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — More than a decade after the palm oil industry embraced a pledge to not deforest, clear tropical peatlands, or use exploitative practices, policies to that end now cover most of the global palm oil trade, as major traders, refiners and consumer brands have pledged to keep deforestation-linked palm oil out of their supply chains. However, deforestation linked to palm oil continues, particularly in Indonesia, the world’s largest producer of the commodity. Satellite analysis by forest-mapping initiative TheTreeMap shows 31,073 hectares (76,783 acres) of forest were cleared for palm oil in Indonesia in 2025, slightly higher than the 30,956 hectares (76,494 acres) recorded in 2024 — highlighting persistent gaps in how the industry enforces its zero-deforestation pledges. In some cases, palm oil from newly cleared land still enters supply chains that companies describe as deforestation-free. “No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation” (NDPE) policies aim to eliminate three major sources of harm in palm oil production: clearing natural forests, developing plantations on carbon-rich peatlands, and exploiting workers or local communities. By 2020, these commitments covered roughly 83% of palm oil refinery capacity in Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s main producing region. In recent years, companies have also built systems to enforce these pledges. Many now publish grievance mechanisms where violations can be reported, while third-party monitoring groups use satellite imagery to track forest loss and flag suspicious activity. Large-scale corporate deforestation in Indonesia has fallen compared to the mid-2010s, when some plantation companies were clearing vast areas of rainforest. Deforestation for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/loopholes-undermine-palm-oil-industrys-antideforestation-pledges/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320195</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil bill aims to ban satellite tool used to slow Amazon deforestation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-bill-aims-to-ban-satellite-tool-used-to-slow-amazon-deforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-bill-aims-to-ban-satellite-tool-used-to-slow-amazon-deforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Apr 2026 18:06:32 +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/20/2026/04/30115532/airbus_earthrise-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318472</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Conservation, Crime, data, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Illegal Mining, Law, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Regulations, Remote Sensing, and Satellite Imagery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The agribusiness caucus is pushing restrictions on the technology that has helped halve deforestation since 2023.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[​In May 2025, a delegation of angry politicians and agribusinessmen from the Brazilian state of Pará traveled to the national capital to protest against the actions of the federal environmental agency, IBAMA. Their frustration stemmed from embargoes imposed by IBAMA on 544 rural properties in the municipality of Altamira, one of the Amazon’s deforestation hotspots. In each case, satellite imagery had detected illegal forest clearing, prompting authorities to block the areas from further production activities. ​“Everyone came here to present their concerns and ask for solutions regarding productive areas in the state of Pará,” Pará Governor Helder Barbalho said at the time. ​Almost a year later, their resentment has been distilled into a new bill proposing a ban on the so-called remote embargoes. Today, IBAMA uses satellite imagery to identify where illegal deforestation is occurring. Once they detect a recently deforested area, environmental agents verify whether there’s an environmental license authorizing that clearance — in the Amazon, around 90% of forest felling is illegal. If there’s no authorization, the agency issues an embargo as a preventive measure from behind its computers. The system is one of the tools that helped the administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva halve deforestation numbers in the Amazon since taking office at the start of 2023. “Today we have a wealth of ultra-high-resolution satellite imagery, and we can cross-reference information from various databases,” Wallace Lopes, a representative of the federal environmental agents association, ASCEMA, told Mongabay. ​Jair Schmitt, director of environmental protection and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-bill-aims-to-ban-satellite-tool-used-to-slow-amazon-deforestation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318472</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A “good year” for forests changes less than it seems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-good-year-for-forests-changes-less-than-it-seems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-good-year-for-forests-changes-less-than-it-seems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Apr 2026 17:55:31 +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/20/2026/04/29175125/drc_2606697x-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318421</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Congo Basin, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Analysis, Climate Change, Conservation, data, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, El Nino, Environment, Fires, Forests, Green, Impact Of Climate Change, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The rate of tropical primary forest loss fell sharply in 2025, reversing the record highs of the year before. On paper, it looks like progress. In reality, the dip is likely only a temporary reprieve. The decline followed an exceptional year for wildfires. In 2024, drought helped drive some of the largest fire-related losses on [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The rate of tropical primary forest loss fell sharply in 2025, reversing the record highs of the year before. On paper, it looks like progress. In reality, the dip is likely only a temporary reprieve. The decline followed an exceptional year for wildfires. In 2024, drought helped drive some of the largest fire-related losses on record. In 2025, those climatic pressures eased, and the area lost to fire dropped with them. But the root causes—commodity-driven agricultural expansion, patchy enforcement, and growing climate stress—remain stubbornly in place. A single year’s improvement does not shift that fundamental footing. Tropical primary forest loss by year since 2002 What stands out is the pattern of loss. Forest loss is becoming less predictable, moving in sharper swings tied to weather as much as policy. Fire now accounts for a large share of global tree cover loss, and its behavior tracks temperature and rainfall extremes. When conditions align, losses surge. When they do not, they fall back. But the needle barely moves on the long-term trend: forest loss remains persistently high. Fire does not simply clear land; it hollows out forests in ways that make further loss more likely. Repeated burns thin canopies and dry the forest floor, eroding the processes that allow forests to recover. In parts of the Amazon, clearing has given way to a self-reinforcing cycle of decay, where degradation serves as a precursor to total forest loss. Climate is an increasingly active factor. Forecasts point to a likely El Niño in 2026,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-good-year-for-forests-changes-less-than-it-seems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318421</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>AI tool tracks spread of illegal gold mining in Amazon protected areas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ai-tool-tracks-spread-of-illegal-gold-mining-in-amazon-protected-areas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ai-tool-tracks-spread-of-illegal-gold-mining-in-amazon-protected-areas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Apr 2026 09:56:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Constance Malleret]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/06/11143403/foto_58-edit-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317945</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Latin America, Peru, South America, Suriname, and Venezuela]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Gold Mining, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, Mining, Protected Areas, and Satellite Imagery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In July 2025, the Indigenous Shuar people celebrated the end of a decade-long struggle when they received official titles for three communities — the Shuar Tunants, Kampan and Tsuntsuim –- within the Kutukú Shaimi Protected Forest, in the south of the Ecuadorean Amazon. But in one of those communities, satellite imagery shows that between August [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In July 2025, the Indigenous Shuar people celebrated the end of a decade-long struggle when they received official titles for three communities — the Shuar Tunants, Kampan and Tsuntsuim –- within the Kutukú Shaimi Protected Forest, in the south of the Ecuadorean Amazon. But in one of those communities, satellite imagery shows that between August and December 2025, a gaping hole appeared in the forest around a riverbend — a mining scar. Despite the Tunants territory’s newly formalized status, deforestation due to gold mining nearly tripled, reaching 2 hectares (5 acres) in size in the last three months of 2025, according to Amazon Mining Watch Panorama, a new quarterly report. The report shows that deforestation due to illegal gold mining continues to grow across the Amazon, threatening protected parts of the rainforest. In total, 6,000 hectares (more than 14,800 acres) — about seven times the size of Central Park in New York City — of new mining scars appeared across protected areas and Indigenous territories over the last three months of 2025. This mining is presumed to be illegal, as most Amazonian countries have legislation prohibiting mining in Indigenous territories and protected areas, with experts warning that greater law enforcement is needed. Most of the deforestation caused by mining during that period took place in Brazil, with roughly 2,000 hectares (about 5,000 acres) of forest being cleared. This was followed by Peru with 1,700 hectares (4,200 acres), and Guyana with 900 hectares (about 2,200 acres). New mining scars were also&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ai-tool-tracks-spread-of-illegal-gold-mining-in-amazon-protected-areas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ai-tool-tracks-spread-of-illegal-gold-mining-in-amazon-protected-areas/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317945</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tracking environmental crime in the Amazon: A conversation with Alexa Vélez</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/tracking-environmental-crime-in-the-amazon-a-conversation-with-alexa-velez/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/tracking-environmental-crime-in-the-amazon-a-conversation-with-alexa-velez/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Apr 2026 01:37:36 +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/20/2026/04/06223007/amazon_241208_123215013-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315312</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Conversations with Mongabay leaders]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Crime, Environment, Interviews, Interviews With Environmental Journalists, Journalism, and Satellite Imagery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Environmental crimes rarely occur in isolation. A road cut into a forest may appear first as a faint line in satellite imagery. Months later it becomes a corridor for timber, wildlife, and sometimes cocaine. The early stages often unfold far from capitals and rarely attract immediate scrutiny. When the evidence does emerge, it tends to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Environmental crimes rarely occur in isolation. A road cut into a forest may appear first as a faint line in satellite imagery. Months later it becomes a corridor for timber, wildlife, and sometimes cocaine. The early stages often unfold far from capitals and rarely attract immediate scrutiny. When the evidence does emerge, it tends to arrive through a patchwork of sources: scientists sharing coordinates, local communities describing unfamiliar aircraft, or reporters willing to spend months tracing how a clearing became a network. Environmental journalism in Latin America has grown around precisely these kinds of fragments. The region contains some of the world’s most biodiverse landscapes and some of its most persistent environmental activities. Illegal mining, wildlife trafficking, and forest clearing often intersect with organized crime and political interests. Yet sustained reporting on these issues has historically been limited. Many large news organizations treat the environment as an occasional beat rather than a structural concern. Investigative work requires time, technical expertise, and sometimes the willingness to operate in difficult or dangerous conditions. In recent years the practice has begun to change. Satellite imagery, open databases, and new mapping tools allow reporters to track environmental change with greater precision than was possible even a decade ago. A clearing detected in a remote basin can be compared against historical imagery, connected to land concessions, and matched with field reporting. What once depended largely on eyewitness accounts now involves a blend of remote sensing, traditional reporting, and collaboration across borders. Those collaborations have become&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/tracking-environmental-crime-in-the-amazon-a-conversation-with-alexa-velez/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/tracking-environmental-crime-in-the-amazon-a-conversation-with-alexa-velez/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315312</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Plenty of biodiversity data, but too few conservation answers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/plenty-of-biodiversity-data-but-too-few-conservation-answers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/plenty-of-biodiversity-data-but-too-few-conservation-answers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Mar 2026 13:52:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/25112058/car_6969z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316240</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Camera Trapping, Conservation, Conservation Technology, DNA, Environment, Monitoring, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Technology, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; For decades, conservation has depended on a deceptively simple act: counting. Scientists tally birds along migration routes, measure forest cover from satellites, or track wildlife populations through camera traps. These numbers underpin the decisions that shape environmental policy, from protected-area planning to international biodiversity targets. Yet the system that produces them is changing quickly, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; For decades, conservation has depended on a deceptively simple act: counting. Scientists tally birds along migration routes, measure forest cover from satellites, or track wildlife populations through camera traps. These numbers underpin the decisions that shape environmental policy, from protected-area planning to international biodiversity targets. Yet the system that produces them is changing quickly, and not always coherently. A recent PNAS perspective led by William Sutherland and dozens of collaborators argues that biodiversity measurement is entering a pivotal moment. The tools used to monitor nature have expanded dramatically, while demand for reliable data has grown across governments, businesses and international agreements. The authors argue that making use of this expanding stream of biodiversity data will require changes not only in technology but also in how evidence is organized, shared, and interpreted. Nine changes needed to deliver a radical transformation in biodiversity measurement. Adapted from Sutherland et al (2026) The scale of data collection alone illustrates the shift. Global biodiversity databases now incorporate millions of observations from citizen scientists, museum collections, environmental DNA sampling and automated sensors. The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), for example, adds hundreds of millions of species records each year, drawn from sources as varied as birdwatching apps and environmental impact assessments. In principle, this abundance opens new possibilities. Environmental DNA allows researchers to detect species from traces left in soil or water. Acoustic sensors can record entire soundscapes, with machine-learning systems identifying species calls automatically. Remote sensing tracks deforestation and habitat change in near real&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/plenty-of-biodiversity-data-but-too-few-conservation-answers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316240</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The ocean’s enforcement gap</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-oceans-enforcement-gap/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-oceans-enforcement-gap/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Mar 2026 22:33:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/09225852/greenpeace-GP1SXQFJ-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315393</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, Indonesia, Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, and Palau]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, data, Environment, Fisheries, Fishing, Governance, Infrastructure, Marine, Marine Protected Areas, Monitoring, Oceans, Ports, Protected Areas, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On paper, the sea is increasingly protected. Governments have designated vast marine protected areas (MPAs) and pledged to conserve 30% of the ocean by 2030. Maps shaded in reassuring blues now circulate widely. Yet the reality offshore often looks much the same as before. Industrial vessels still trawl through restricted waters, longliners set gear near [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On paper, the sea is increasingly protected. Governments have designated vast marine protected areas (MPAs) and pledged to conserve 30% of the ocean by 2030. Maps shaded in reassuring blues now circulate widely. Yet the reality offshore often looks much the same as before. Industrial vessels still trawl through restricted waters, longliners set gear near vulnerable habitats, and sanctions for violations are sporadic. The problem is not a shortage of rules. It is the unevenness of enforcement. Creating an MPA is politically attractive. It signals ambition at relatively modest cost, especially when the protected waters lie far offshore. Policing those areas is harder. Patrol vessels are expensive to operate, legal cases can drag on, and fisheries agencies are rarely flush with funds. In many countries, officials face a dilemma: announce new protections and earn international praise, or spend scarce resources enforcing existing ones and risk confrontation with powerful domestic interests. Frozen tuna are transferred from the Hung Hwa 202, a Taiwanese longliner, to the Hsiang Hao, a Panama-flagged reefer operating out of Tokyo, Japan, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise and crew are investigating distant water fishing fleet practices in the Mid-Atlantic during September and October 2019. Photo credit: © Tommy Trenchard Evidence presented in a widely-cited 2014 Nature paper suggests that compliance depends less on the size of protected areas than on whether rules are visible and credible. Studies comparing MPAs across regions consistently find that ecological benefits correlate with enforcement capacity. A&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-oceans-enforcement-gap/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315393</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Precision conservation: the rise of place-specific strategies where protection works best</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/where-conservation-works-best-the-rise-of-place-specific-strategies/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/where-conservation-works-best-the-rise-of-place-specific-strategies/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Mar 2026 00:04:21 +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/20/2023/04/28211141/st_pl_raja-ampat_230617-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315006</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Conservation, Environment, Green, Remote Sensing, and Satellite Imagery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Conservation has long wrestled with a deceptively simple question: not whether to act, but where action will matter most. Forest restoration, protected areas, wildlife corridors, and enforcement patrols all compete for limited funding across landscapes that differ enormously in ecology, governance, and human pressures. A growing body of research argues that improving outcomes depends less [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Conservation has long wrestled with a deceptively simple question: not whether to act, but where action will matter most. Forest restoration, protected areas, wildlife corridors, and enforcement patrols all compete for limited funding across landscapes that differ enormously in ecology, governance, and human pressures. A growing body of research argues that improving outcomes depends less on inventing new tools than on deploying existing ones more selectively — directing interventions to places where they are most likely to deliver benefits relative to doing nothing. A 2025 perspective by Rebecca Spake and colleagues, published in Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution, describes this idea using a new label: “precision ecology.” The authors argue conservation science should move beyond estimating average effects of interventions. The goal is to predict site-specific outcomes, allowing managers to tailor actions to local conditions. The proposal draws inspiration from precision medicine, which uses patient-level data to match treatments to individuals. At its core, the argument is pragmatic. Conservation operates in heterogeneous systems, where the same intervention can succeed in one place and fail in another. As Spake and colleagues note, implementation outcomes vary across landscapes due to complex ecological and social factors, making “one-size-fits-all” strategies unreliable. The paper outlines statistical approaches — many adapted from economics and machine learning — designed to estimate how the impact of a treatment varies with environmental context. In principle, such methods could identify which forest stands would gain the most carbon from restoration, which rivers would benefit most from buffer zones, or where invasive-species&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/where-conservation-works-best-the-rise-of-place-specific-strategies/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315006</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amazon deforestation on pace to be the lowest on record, says Brazil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-deforestation-on-pace-to-be-the-lowest-on-record-says-brazil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-deforestation-on-pace-to-be-the-lowest-on-record-says-brazil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Feb 2026 20:03:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/14165901/amazon_241209142713z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314394</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Brazil’s latest satellite alerts indicate that deforestation in the Amazon has continued to fall into early 2026, extending a downward trend that began after a sharp rise earlier in the decade. Data released by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) show that 1,325 square kilometers of forest clearing were detected between Aug. 1, 2025 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Brazil’s latest satellite alerts indicate that deforestation in the Amazon has continued to fall into early 2026, extending a downward trend that began after a sharp rise earlier in the decade. Data released by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) show that 1,325 square kilometers of forest clearing were detected between Aug. 1, 2025 — the start of Brazil’s deforestation year — and Jan. 31, 2026. That is down from 2,050 square kilometers during the same period a year earlier and represents the lowest figure for this interval since 2014. Over a longer horizon, the picture is similarly positive from a conservation perspective. Alerts for the trailing 12 months totaled 3,770 square kilometers, compared with 4,245 square kilometers at this time last year, also the lowest since 2014. These figures come from INPE’s DETER system, which uses near-real-time satellite imagery primarily to guide enforcement. While less precise than annual surveys, DETER is widely regarded as a reliable indicator of short-term trends. Accumulated deforestation for Aug 1-Jan 31 in recent years according to INPE&#8217;s DETER alert system. Image by Mongabay Data from INPE&#8217;s DETER and Imazon&#8217;s SAD detection systems showing deforestation in the Legal Amazon (&#8220;Amazonia&#8221;). Image by Mongabay Speaking at a press conference announcing the data last week, Environment Minister Marina Silva said the decline reflects coordinated government action. She noted that most high-deforestation municipalities have now joined federal initiatives aimed at curbing illegal clearing. “Of the 81 municipalities with the highest deforestation rates, 70 have already made this&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-deforestation-on-pace-to-be-the-lowest-on-record-says-brazil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/amazon-deforestation-on-pace-to-be-the-lowest-on-record-says-brazil/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314394</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists can’t agree on where the world’s forests are</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/scientists-cant-agree-on-where-the-worlds-forests-are/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/scientists-cant-agree-on-where-the-worlds-forests-are/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Feb 2026 17:42:43 +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/20/2026/02/17172325/cape-york-satellite-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314385</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Brazil, East Africa, Global, India, Kenya, Latin America, South America, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, data, Environment, Forests, Green, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Temperate Forests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A deceptively simple question underlies many global environmental policies: where, exactly, are the world’s forests? A new study suggests the answer depends heavily on which map one consults—and that the differences are large enough to reshape climate targets, conservation priorities, and development spending. Researchers Sarah Castle, Peter Newton, Johan Oldekop, Kathy Baylis, and Daniel Miller [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A deceptively simple question underlies many global environmental policies: where, exactly, are the world’s forests? A new study suggests the answer depends heavily on which map one consults—and that the differences are large enough to reshape climate targets, conservation priorities, and development spending. Researchers Sarah Castle, Peter Newton, Johan Oldekop, Kathy Baylis, and Daniel Miller compared ten widely used global forest datasets derived from satellite imagery. These products underpin everything from carbon accounting to biodiversity assessments. Yet they rarely agree. Across the area identified as forest by at least one dataset, only about 26% was classified as forest by all of them. Even after adjusting maps to a common spatial scale, agreement improved only modestly. This divergence stems partly from differing definitions. Some datasets count areas with sparse tree cover as forest; others require dense canopy. A threshold of 10% canopy cover, for example, will include savannas and woodland mosaics, while a 70% threshold captures only closed forests. Resolution also matters. High-resolution imagery can detect narrow forest strips or small patches that coarser data miss. Methodological choices—such as sensor type, machine-learning algorithm, and training data—introduce further variation. A) Spatial agreement of forest cover classifications between eight land cover datasets. Spatial agreement is defined as the number of datasets that define a pixel as forest, between 1 and 8. Full agreement between all eight datasets corresponds to a value of eight (dark green), and no agreement between the datasets corresponds to a value of 1 (dark purple). No color (gray) indicates&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/scientists-cant-agree-on-where-the-worlds-forests-are/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/scientists-cant-agree-on-where-the-worlds-forests-are/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314385</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The year in rainforests 2025: Deforestation fell; the risks did not</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-year-in-rainforests-2025-deforestation-fell-the-risks-did-not/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-year-in-rainforests-2025-deforestation-fell-the-risks-did-not/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Dec 2025 20:11:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/26174503/14-brunei_251114145042_0254z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312083</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Brazil, Central Africa, Colombia, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Global, Indonesia, Latin America, Peru, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Green, Illegal Logging, Illegal Trade, Indigenous Peoples, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Redd, Regulations, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Technology, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Year-end review]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The story of the world’s tropical forests in 2025 was not one of dramatic reversal, but one shaped by accumulated pressure. In several regions, deforestation slowed. In others, loss continued in less visible forms, shaped by fire, degradation, and political choices not limited to large-scale clearing alone. Governments continued to speak the language of protection, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The story of the world’s tropical forests in 2025 was not one of dramatic reversal, but one shaped by accumulated pressure. In several regions, deforestation slowed. In others, loss continued in less visible forms, shaped by fire, degradation, and political choices not limited to large-scale clearing alone. Governments continued to speak the language of protection, even as infrastructure, extraction, and energy projects advanced into forest landscapes. Progress was real, though uneven, and the distance between policy commitments and conditions on the ground remained substantial. What distinguished the year was the growing influence of indirect forces, rather than a single driver of loss. Heat, drought, and past damage increasingly shaped forest outcomes, even where new clearing slowed. Commodity markets rewarded persistence more than short-lived price spikes. Finance shifted away from individual projects toward broader fiscal tools. Enforcement mattered, alongside institutional credibility and the ability to operate consistently over time. At the global level, climate diplomacy continued, with limited appetite for binding decisions. COP30 avoided collapse and deferred the hardest choices. Forests remained prominent in rhetoric while enforceable outcomes remained limited. Market-based tools—carbon credits, trade regulation, and conservation finance—advanced unevenly, shaped as much by political confidence and capacity as by technical design. Taken together, 2025 underscored that tropical forests are now shaped more by interacting systems rather than single policies. Finance, science, enforcement, conflict, and climate stress increasingly operate together, often reinforcing one another. This review traces where those systems functioned, where they faltered, and what that means for the forests caught&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-year-in-rainforests-2025-deforestation-fell-the-risks-did-not/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312083</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Soy giants quietly prepare for EU deforestation law; impacts still uncertain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/soy-giants-quietly-prepare-for-eu-deforestation-law-impacts-still-uncertain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/soy-giants-quietly-prepare-for-eu-deforestation-law-impacts-still-uncertain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Nov 2025 13:19:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marina Martinez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/12130428/5-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309383</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Cerrado, European Union, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Commodity agriculture, data, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Industrial Agriculture, Law Enforcement, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Soy, Supply Chain, Sustainability, Transparency, and Tropical Deforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) approaches its implementation, companies involved in supply chains for soy and other commodities reaching the EU market will soon have to prove that their products do not come from areas deforested after 2020 and that their operations comply with local environmental and human rights laws. This will be [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) approaches its implementation, companies involved in supply chains for soy and other commodities reaching the EU market will soon have to prove that their products do not come from areas deforested after 2020 and that their operations comply with local environmental and human rights laws. This will be particularly challenging for the soy sector, as soybean production has long been a major driver of deforestation, especially in South America. Initially scheduled to take effect in December 2024, the EUDR was postponed for a year, with the European Commission recently proposing an additional grace period to give companies more time to prepare. To find out how ready the soy sector is, Mongabay reached out to five of the world’s largest traders: ADM, AMAGGI, Bunge, Cargill and COFCO International. Responses ranged from “no comment” to no reply. Despite the silence, experts from trade associations and NGOs say big soy traders are already operationally prepared to meet EUDR requirements. “The information we have, which they [traders and soy sector associations] usually share with us, is that they are 100% prepared,” Tiago Reis, conservation specialist at WWF-Brazil, told Mongabay in a voice message. “Some even questioned the proposal to extend the [EUDR] deadline, because they had already invested … so they would be ready to comply.” Patchwork of legal forest reserves, pasture and soy farms in the Brazilian Amazon. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. Data from Global Canopy’s Forest 500 report show that in 2024, nearly half&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/soy-giants-quietly-prepare-for-eu-deforestation-law-impacts-still-uncertain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/soy-giants-quietly-prepare-for-eu-deforestation-law-impacts-still-uncertain/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309383</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Heading into COP, Brazil’s Amazon deforestation rate is falling. What about fires?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/heading-into-cop-brazils-amazon-deforestation-rate-is-falling-what-about-fires/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/heading-into-cop-brazils-amazon-deforestation-rate-is-falling-what-about-fires/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Oct 2025 21:49:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/30215831/deforesation-in-the-amazon-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308606</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Fires, forest degradation, Forests, Governance, Green, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As the world’s attention turns toward COP30 in Belém next month, the story of Brazil’s Amazon is shifting—though not quite in a straightforward way. According to the government’s satellite-based monitoring system, INPE’s PRODES, deforestation in the region known as the “Legal Amazon” totaled 5,796 square kilometers for the 12 months ending July 31st, 2025. That’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As the world’s attention turns toward COP30 in Belém next month, the story of Brazil’s Amazon is shifting—though not quite in a straightforward way. According to the government’s satellite-based monitoring system, INPE’s PRODES, deforestation in the region known as the “Legal Amazon” totaled 5,796 square kilometers for the 12 months ending July 31st, 2025. That’s 11% drop from 6,518 square kilometers in the same period a year earlier and the lowest annual tally since 2014. Meanwhile, the Brazilian NGO Imazon independently estimated a similar decline using its near-real-time detection system, SAD. Annual deforestation in the Legal Amazon (Amazonia) from 1988-2025, according to a preliminary estimate from Brazil&#8217;s national space research institute, INPE. Annual deforestation in the Cerrado from 1988-2025, according to a preliminary estimate from Brazil&#8217;s national space research institute, INPE. Deforestation also fell in Brazil&#8217;s Cerrado, a wooded savanna ecosystem that neighbors the Amazon rainforest. Clearing fell 11.5% to 7,235 square kilometers, a six-year low. On its face, the data suggest progress. The steep fall under Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva—first during his initial presidency from 2003 to 2011, then again since January 2023—marks a clear reversal of his predecessor’s tenure, when deforestation soared as protections were rolled back and razing of forests were actively encouraged. But while land clearing for farms has edged down, another threat looms. The nature of forest loss is changing, and fire now plays a far larger role. Forest degradation from selective logging, cumulative clearing, and the “fish-bone” sprawl of roads—combined with hotter, drier&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/heading-into-cop-brazils-amazon-deforestation-rate-is-falling-what-about-fires/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308606</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists rethink Serengeti migration numbers with satellite, AI tools</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/scientists-rethink-serengeti-migration-numbers-with-satellite-ai-tools/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/scientists-rethink-serengeti-migration-numbers-with-satellite-ai-tools/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Oct 2025 14:19:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/03125638/charl-durand-Yu8GhTbbmc-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307041</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Kenya, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Artificial Intelligence, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Environment, Mammals, Migration, Research, Satellite Imagery, Technology, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[If you’ve watched The Lion King, you probably remember the scene where Mufasa falls into and is trampled by a massive herd of stampeding wildebeests. In real life, as one of the largest mammal migrations in the world, it’s as hectic as it is on the screen. However, a recent AI-powered satellite survey found that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[If you’ve watched The Lion King, you probably remember the scene where Mufasa falls into and is trampled by a massive herd of stampeding wildebeests. In real life, as one of the largest mammal migrations in the world, it’s as hectic as it is on the screen. However, a recent AI-powered satellite survey found that the actual number of wildebeests migrating across the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem might not be as high as the million-plus figure widely cited for the past half-century. A study published in the journal PNAS Nexus described how a team of scientists used satellite imagery and deep-learning models to find there were “fewer than 600,000 individuals — approximately half the widely cited estimate of 1.3 million wildebeest, which has remained largely unchanged since the 1970s.” “We&#8217;re not trying to say that there&#8217;s 700,000 that have died or that they&#8217;re missing,” Isla Duporge, one of the lead authors of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University in the U.S., told Mongabay in a video interview. “We were surprised to find so many fewer compared to findings from aerial surveys. We&#8217;re just opening up the question as to why different methods are producing rather different results.” Wildebeests, along with zebras and other animals, follow the rains and migrate in a circular path through Kenya and Tanzania. They travel 800 kilometers (500 miles) during each cycle in pursuit of areas with better food and grass. The migration is crucial for the ecosystem as the animals fertilize the soil while&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/scientists-rethink-serengeti-migration-numbers-with-satellite-ai-tools/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307041</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Satellite data show burst of deforestation in Myanmar rare earth mining hotspots</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/satellite-data-show-burst-of-deforestation-in-myanmar-rare-earth-mining-hotspots/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/satellite-data-show-burst-of-deforestation-in-myanmar-rare-earth-mining-hotspots/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Sep 2025 15:51:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Latoya AbuluSonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/16075624/drone-shot-of-mining-site-in-Myanmar-EARTH-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305968</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Myanmar, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, data, Deforestation, Deforestation Alert System, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, Land Use Change, Mining, Pollution, Rainforests, Regulations, Remote Sensing, Rivers, Satellite Imagery, Social Conflict, Tropical Deforestation, War, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Myanmar’s Kachin state, near the border with China, is a global hub for rare earth minerals. But the dearth of regulations over mining these resources has come at a steep cost to the area’s subtropical and moist forests, according to researchers and satellite imagery collected by Mongabay. Civil society sources in the region, who requested [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Myanmar’s Kachin state, near the border with China, is a global hub for rare earth minerals. But the dearth of regulations over mining these resources has come at a steep cost to the area’s subtropical and moist forests, according to researchers and satellite imagery collected by Mongabay. Civil society sources in the region, who requested anonymity due to security concerns in the warring country, say mining activities are also causing alarming impacts on human health, women, soil and rivers. A spokesperson from a local organization in Myanmar told Mongabay that mining in Chipwi and Momauk townships, where much of the state’s rare earth mining is concentrated, increased rapidly in late 2021, the year the coup d’état and civil war began. This was “especially in areas under informal control or lacking proper environmental oversight,” the spokesperson said. Bhamo is another township where rare earth mining is taking place. “There has [also] been a noticeable rise in deforestation since around 2018, with sharp increases particularly around mining zones due to road construction, land clearing for extraction activities, and widespread tree cutting for fuelwood or to dry the rare earth sludge,” the spokesperson told Mongabay by text message. From 2018 to 2024, Chipwi, Momauk and Bhamo lost about 32,720 hectares (80,850 acres) of tree cover, according to data from Global Forest Watch. Momauk saw the highest loss, with 12,100 hectares (about 30,000 acres). Mining has since slowed down or been suspended in some places after the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), whose armed wing&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/satellite-data-show-burst-of-deforestation-in-myanmar-rare-earth-mining-hotspots/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305968</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ani Dasgupta watched wetlands tame floods in Kigali. He believes nature is infrastructure we can fund.</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/ani-dasgupta-watched-wetlands-tame-floods-in-kigali-he-believes-nature-is-infrastructure-we-can-fund/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/ani-dasgupta-watched-wetlands-tame-floods-in-kigali-he-believes-nature-is-infrastructure-we-can-fund/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Sep 2025 21:11:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/13221124/lake-chad-maxar-2025-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305875</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Nature conservation Influencers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, India, Indonesia, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Forests, Green, Green Design, Infrastructure, Interviews, Nature-based climate solutions, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Solutions, Sustainable Development, Technology, Tropical Forests, Wetlands, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ani Dasgupta has spent a career trying to make cities fairer and the planet more livable, first as an architect in training, then as a World Bank hand in the churn of post-disaster recovery, and now as President and CEO of the World Resources Institute. His path runs from Delhi’s informal settlements to Banda Aceh [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ani Dasgupta has spent a career trying to make cities fairer and the planet more livable, first as an architect in training, then as a World Bank hand in the churn of post-disaster recovery, and now as President and CEO of the World Resources Institute. His path runs from Delhi’s informal settlements to Banda Aceh after the 2004 tsunami to WRI’s global platform, where he argues that climate, nature, and development rise or fall together. The point, he says, is not elegant plans but outcomes that improve daily life. “Leadership isn’t about hierarchy or control, but about moral purpose, trust and collaboration.” Aceh provided the template. As the World Bank’s infrastructure lead in Indonesia, he coordinated dozens of donors with no formal authority, a lesson in convening rather than commanding. That experience animates his book, The New Global Possible, and his term of art for the work ahead: orchestration. In practice, he means stitching together actors who rarely meet so that local projects can take root and endure. “It’s about connecting funders, governments, NGOs and local communities so that projects can take root and sustain themselves.” Macadamia nut harvesting. Image by Third Factor Productions and WRI. The example he likes is decidedly unglamorous: a Kenyan macadamia venture that pays farmers promptly, restores degraded land, and turns a restoration pledge into steady income. Early catalytic support came via Terrafund for AFR100; commercial finance followed. Dasgupta is not blind to scale. He contends that nature delivers mitigation and adaptation at once, but&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/ani-dasgupta-watched-wetlands-tame-floods-in-kigali-he-believes-nature-is-infrastructure-we-can-fund/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305875</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>NASA satellites show surge in Indonesia hotspots as 2025 fires send smoke to Malaysia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/nasa-satellites-show-surge-in-indonesia-hotspots-as-2025-fires-send-smoke-to-malaysia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/nasa-satellites-show-surge-in-indonesia-hotspots-as-2025-fires-send-smoke-to-malaysia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Aug 2025 13:08:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/07/24234827/indonesia_20150815-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304212</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Business, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, data, Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forests, Peatlands, Pollution, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s 2025 fire season is spiraling into one of the worst in recent memory, with a sharp spike in hotspots and toxic haze already choking parts of Malaysia. Forest and peat fires, mostly caused by deliberate land clearing for agriculture, are an annual problem in Indonesia that strain relations with neighboring countries. July [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s 2025 fire season is spiraling into one of the worst in recent memory, with a sharp spike in hotspots and toxic haze already choking parts of Malaysia. Forest and peat fires, mostly caused by deliberate land clearing for agriculture, are an annual problem in Indonesia that strain relations with neighboring countries. July 2025 has seen a dramatic escalation in fire activity across Indonesia with official data from NASA satellites showing a surge in fire hotspots compared with previous months. NASA’s VIIRS (S-NPP) satellite detected 794 hotspots in July — up nearly tenfold from June and more than thirtyfold from May. The hotspots in July also represent a more than tenfold increase from the same period last year (68 in July 2024) and are significantly higher than the 532 hotspots recorded in July 2023. Graph showing hotspots in Indonesia from 2023 to 2025 based on NASA’s VIIRS (S-NPP) satellite. Image courtesy of Indonesia&#8217;s Ministry of Environment. Data from NASA’s Terra and Aqua MODIS satellites paint a similar picture, showing 879 hotspots in July, a more than tenfold increase from May, and are higher than the same period last year (463 in July 2024 and 776 in July 2023). While VIIRS has finer resolution and detects smaller fires, MODIS captures a wider range of fire activity multiple times per day. These are all high-confidence hotspots, meaning satellite algorithms consider them very likely to be actual vegetation fires, not false alarms. The sharp spike in fire activity highlights how the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/nasa-satellites-show-surge-in-indonesia-hotspots-as-2025-fires-send-smoke-to-malaysia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304212</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Where there’s political will, there’s a way to stop tropical deforestation, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/where-theres-political-will-theres-a-way-to-stop-tropical-deforestation-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/where-theres-political-will-theres-a-way-to-stop-tropical-deforestation-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jul 2025 16:26:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/23143018/herps_208130-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303044</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Asia, Brazil, Global, Indonesia, South America, Southeast Asia, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Conservation Technology, data, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Research, Satellite Imagery, Saving Rainforests, Tropical Conservation Science, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Political will is among the most important factors in preventing tropical deforestation, according to a group of experts surveyed for a new study — with strong political commitment often arising out of long-term “public pressure” and civil society advocacy for forest protection. The research, published July 22 in the journal Conservation Letters, turns the question [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Political will is among the most important factors in preventing tropical deforestation, according to a group of experts surveyed for a new study — with strong political commitment often arising out of long-term “public pressure” and civil society advocacy for forest protection. The research, published July 22 in the journal Conservation Letters, turns the question of what causes the loss of tropical forests “on its head,” looking instead at what prevents it, says co-author Rachael Garrett, a professor of conservation and development at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. Brazil and Indonesia have managed to slow deforestation rates amid pressure from rapidly expanding agriculture, leading the team to ask, “Why do these places still have so much forest?” Garrett says. Deforestation rates in Brazil, home to more tropical rainforest than any other country on Earth, dipped substantially between 2004 and 2012. And while annual forest loss there climbed back up in the 2010s, it has dropped again in recent years. Similarly, in Indonesia, the expansion of oil palm plantations devastated large swaths of forest in the past, but those rates, too, have slowed. Deforestation for an oil palm plantation in Borneo, Indonesia. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. Because Brazil and Indonesia boast so much forest, much research has focused on how to stop deforestation there. Often, those studies look at the impact of specific policies and mechanisms (such as Brazil’s Forest Code or Indonesia’s sustainable palm oil certification effort) and their relationship to deforestation declines measured by satellite analysis,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/where-theres-political-will-theres-a-way-to-stop-tropical-deforestation-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/where-theres-political-will-theres-a-way-to-stop-tropical-deforestation-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303044</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New research finds substantial peat deposits in Colombia’s conflicted Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/new-research-finds-substantial-peat-deposits-in-colombias-conflicted-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/new-research-finds-substantial-peat-deposits-in-colombias-conflicted-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Apr 2025 19:48:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Erik Iverson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/23113910/banner-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298059</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Sequestration, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Carbon, Freshwater, Governance, Peatlands, Research, Satellite Imagery, Soil Carbon, Tropical Forests, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the heart of the Colombian Amazon, the towering mountains of the Serranía del Chiribiquete harbor secrets including South America’s oldest rock art. The remote site was off-limits and poorly known for decades, as Chiribiquete National Park was also a stronghold for the guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Now, in the wake of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the heart of the Colombian Amazon, the towering mountains of the Serranía del Chiribiquete harbor secrets including South America’s oldest rock art. The remote site was off-limits and poorly known for decades, as Chiribiquete National Park was also a stronghold for the guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Now, in the wake of a shaky peace process that has provided greater security and access to some regions, the park is revealing another secret: In the shadow of the mountains lie some of the densest peat deposits in South America. Peat is the accumulation of partially decayed organic matter in wetlands, compressed by time into dense soils that store more carbon per hectare than any other type of landscape. When left undisturbed, peatlands grow slowly every year, locking away carbon in low-oxygen water that prevents full decomposition. But when people drain and dry peatlands for agriculture, they can become “carbon bombs,” rapidly releasing massive amounts of planet-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The burning of huge peat areas in Indonesia in recent years has covered the country in smoke and made it one of the world’s worst carbon emitters from land use change. A new study, published in Environmental Research Letters, reveals that peatlands in Colombia — poorly known before now — are widespread and carbon-dense, making the country the site of South America’s largest known reserves, after Peru. Carried out with painstaking ground-truthing amid a fluctuating security situation, the study highlights the need to understand and conserve these&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/new-research-finds-substantial-peat-deposits-in-colombias-conflicted-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/new-research-finds-substantial-peat-deposits-in-colombias-conflicted-amazon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298059</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Companies banking on tech and collaboration to comply with EUDR</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/companies-banking-on-tech-and-collaboration-to-comply-with-eudr/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/companies-banking-on-tech-and-collaboration-to-comply-with-eudr/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Dec 2024 10:00:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sarah Brown]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/30221832/Logging-trucks-Brazil-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292549</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, European Union, Latin America, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Blockchain, Cacao, Commodity agriculture, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, data, Deforestation, Environment, EUDR, Forests, Mapping, Monitoring, Palm Oil, Pulp And Paper, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Soy, Supply Chain, Technology, Tropical Deforestation, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The EU Deforestation Regulation, or EUDR, will require companies importing certain products into the European Union to trace the origins of these products all the way back up the supply chain to prove that they’re not associated with deforestation. It takes effect at the end of 2025, presenting companies with major logistical challenges, including issues [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The EU Deforestation Regulation, or EUDR, will require companies importing certain products into the European Union to trace the origins of these products all the way back up the supply chain to prove that they’re not associated with deforestation. It takes effect at the end of 2025, presenting companies with major logistical challenges, including issues of accurate reporting across multiple countries, compliance with local laws, and ensuring small farmers remain a part of global supply chains. That’s led businesses to turn to technological solutions for help complying ahead of the deadline. Originally scheduled to take effect this month, the EUDR was postponed by a year over concerns that many businesses weren’t ready. Representing a significant step in the EU&#8217;s efforts to curb climate change through supply chain accountability, the EUDR targets products that use soy, coffee, palm oil, cocoa, timber, rubber and beef — all commodities that have historically contributed to deforestation in the countries in which they’re produced. Products associated with deforestation or irregular land conversion after a cutoff date of Dec. 31, 2020, will be barred from import into the EU. Brazil’s AMACRO region, the triple border between the states of Amazonas, Acre, and Rondônia, have long been the target of deforestation, invasion of public lands, mining, burning, and logging. Image © Bruno Kelly/Greenpeace. But tracing each product’s journey from farm to factory to consumer requires accurate data reporting and strong relationships with suppliers at every stage of the supply chain: a daunting task for companies with thousands&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/companies-banking-on-tech-and-collaboration-to-comply-with-eudr/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/companies-banking-on-tech-and-collaboration-to-comply-with-eudr/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292549</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The year in tropical rainforests: 2024</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-year-in-tropical-rainforests-2024/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-year-in-tropical-rainforests-2024/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Dec 2024 00:25:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/24155125/Slide1-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292245</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Brazil, Colombia, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Ecuador, Global, Indonesia, Latin America, Peru, South America, Southeast Asia, and Suriname]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Green, Illegal Logging, Illegal Trade, Indigenous Peoples, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Redd, Regulations, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Technology, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Year-end review]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The year 2024 saw significant developments in tropical rainforest conservation, deforestation, and degradation. While progress in some regions provided glimmers of hope, systemic challenges and emerging threats highlighted the fragility of these ecosystems. Although a complete comparison of tropical forest loss in 2024 with previous years is not yet available, there are currently no indications [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The year 2024 saw significant developments in tropical rainforest conservation, deforestation, and degradation. While progress in some regions provided glimmers of hope, systemic challenges and emerging threats highlighted the fragility of these ecosystems. Although a complete comparison of tropical forest loss in 2024 with previous years is not yet available, there are currently no indications that this year’s loss will be markedly higher. A sharp decline in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon—partially offset by widespread forest fires—suggests the overall rate of loss may be lower. This analysis explores key storylines that shaped tropical rainforests in 2024. &nbsp; Previous year-in-reviews: 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | The 2010s | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2009 Contents Brazil | Suriname | Indonesia | Congo Basin | EUDR | Conservation finance | Carbon market | Biodiversity credits | Forest science | Remote sensing | 30&#215;30 | Illegality in the Amazon | Politics A respite in the Brazilian Amazon: Deforestation declines amid rising fires The Brazilian Amazon experienced a notable decline in deforestation in 2024, offering a rare glimmer of optimism for the embattled rainforest. According to Brazil&#8217;s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), forest loss fell by 30.6% between August 2023 and July 2024, reaching its lowest level in nine years. The 6,288 square kilometers of rainforest cleared—a swath roughly the size of Delaware—marks the smallest annual loss since 2015. The slowdown is part of a three-year trend&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-year-in-tropical-rainforests-2024/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/the-year-in-tropical-rainforests-2024/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292245</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>High-flying concessions: Clandestine airstrips, coca crops invade Ucayali’s forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/high-flying-concessions-clandestine-airstrips-coca-crops-invade-ucayalis-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/high-flying-concessions-clandestine-airstrips-coca-crops-invade-ucayalis-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Dec 2024 09:52:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay Latam]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/02121205/Foto-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291020</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Airstrips]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Forests, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Mongabay Data Studio, Mongabay investigation, Rainforests, Satellite Imagery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Zooming in on the Peruvian jungle, many hectares of deforestation can be seen amid the thick vegetation, like huge scars hidden among the foliage. They’re dispersed between the forests in the departments of Ucayali, Loreto, Huánuco, Madre de Dios, Pasco and Cusco. Some are very close to rivers, others just meters away from tracks or [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Zooming in on the Peruvian jungle, many hectares of deforestation can be seen amid the thick vegetation, like huge scars hidden among the foliage. They’re dispersed between the forests in the departments of Ucayali, Loreto, Huánuco, Madre de Dios, Pasco and Cusco. Some are very close to rivers, others just meters away from tracks or roads, and many are in the middle of protected areas. After more than 10 months of research, a team coordinated by Mongabay Latam confirmed that these openings in the middle of the jungle are clandestine airstrips. Many of them are built in or around native communities’ territories, close to protected areas or inside Indigenous reserves. With information obtained from the Peruvian police’s antinarcotics unit, DIRANDRO; the departmental government of Ucayali, GORE Ucayali; OpenStreetMap; and used an AI visual search to review satellite imagery, we identified a total of 128 illegal airstrips across six departments in the Peruvian Amazon. We confirmed the presence of 76 of these through approximately 60 interviews with Indigenous leaders, community members, prosecutors, experts and civil servants. Of this number, 45 are in Ucayali and were built for drug trafficking. The collaboration with Earth Genome was supported by the Pulitzer Center. “We found drug laboratories and clandestine airstrips mostly in the [province] of Atalaya [in Ucayali],” said Pedro Velásquez, deputy prosecutor of the Ucayali Special Prosecutor’s Office for Illicit Drug Trafficking. “Drug traffickers often use native communities or hard-to-access areas with no land registry and position themselves there; they know which areas&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/high-flying-concessions-clandestine-airstrips-coca-crops-invade-ucayalis-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/high-flying-concessions-clandestine-airstrips-coca-crops-invade-ucayalis-forests/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291020</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Satellites and lidar get AI boost to count forest carbon stock worldwide</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/satellites-and-lidar-get-ai-boost-to-count-forest-carbon-stock-worldwide/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/satellites-and-lidar-get-ai-boost-to-count-forest-carbon-stock-worldwide/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Dec 2024 14:35:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/09143232/gabon-forest-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291358</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, carbon, Carbon Sequestration, Conservation, Conservation Technology, data, Deforestation, Forest Carbon, Forests, LiDAR, Monitoring, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Satellite data have long told us where forests are and how they’re faring. Lidar, laser-based radar mounted on planes or satellites like the International Space Station, has helped us map forests in 3D. A newly launched tool has now thrown artificial intelligence into the mix. Earth-imaging company Planet has combined data from its vast constellation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Satellite data have long told us where forests are and how they’re faring. Lidar, laser-based radar mounted on planes or satellites like the International Space Station, has helped us map forests in 3D. A newly launched tool has now thrown artificial intelligence into the mix. Earth-imaging company Planet has combined data from its vast constellation of satellites with globally available lidar data to build an AI-powered tool that can estimate where and how carbon is stored in remote and inaccessible forests around the world. In quarterly data sets that have a resolution as fine as 3 meters (10 feet), the Forest Carbon Monitoring tool estimates aboveground carbon, tree height, and canopy cover of forests. “It will help us understand aspects of the forest that might not be initially accessible to the naked eye,” Andrew Zolli, chief impact officer at Planet, told Mongabay in a video interview. While satellite images have helped scientists, conservationists and enforcement agencies track how forest cover changes over time, they can’t tell how much carbon a forest stores. Understanding that requires mapping the forest in 3D and measuring aboveground biomass. Lidar sensors that emit laser beams have long played an important role in calculating this. Scientists observe the time it takes for the light to reflect off trees, leaves and branches, and use that to calculate the dimensions of trees. Lidar data, especially from NASA&#8217;s GEDI mission that’s deployed on the ISS and maps forests from space, have been crucial to understanding forest biomass in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/satellites-and-lidar-get-ai-boost-to-count-forest-carbon-stock-worldwide/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/satellites-and-lidar-get-ai-boost-to-count-forest-carbon-stock-worldwide/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291358</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Narco airstrips beset Indigenous communities in Peruvian Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/narco-airstrips-beset-indigenous-communities-in-peruvian-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/narco-airstrips-beset-indigenous-communities-in-peruvian-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Dec 2024 12:18:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay Latam]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/03100239/PISTA-CHANCHAMAYO-ABRE-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291108</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Airstrips and Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Endangered Environmentalists, Forests, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Mongabay Data Studio, Mongabay investigation, Rainforests, Satellite Imagery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The boat comes to a halt, shuddering against the dirt bank that rises from the edge of the Ucayali River. Sixto, tanned and with a frown cutting deep furrows across his forehead, jumps ashore. He strides up to a flat area dotted with banana plantations, yucca crops and scattered foliage. He raises his hand and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The boat comes to a halt, shuddering against the dirt bank that rises from the edge of the Ucayali River. Sixto, tanned and with a frown cutting deep furrows across his forehead, jumps ashore. He strides up to a flat area dotted with banana plantations, yucca crops and scattered foliage. He raises his hand and waves. He then follows a path that penetrates a wall of trees, passes through mudflats and traces the undergrowth that thickens the forest. He doesn’t speak. He knows where to go, and that’s all that’s needed. At intervals he says, barely whispering: “It won’t be long now.” During each stretch, as he keeps up his pace, Sixto scans the horizon, although it’s always the same scene of trees and scattered green. The dense jungle he passes through lies in Tahuanía district, Atalaya province, in the Peruvian Amazon. Thirty-four minutes into this trek along this tangled route, the roof formed by the treetops suddenly opens up to reveal a huge rectangle of bare earth. “It is 985 meters [3,232 feet], a big ‘cancha’ [field],” he whispers, and points to the other end: “We’ve arrived.” No drug planes have taken off yet from this clandestine airstrip. This stretch was prepared five years ago, but with the COVID-19 outbreak, there was no need for traffickers to find new ways to get their drug shipments out, Sixto recalls, now less tense, more talkative. He was one of the young men who prepared the land after it was cleared. He&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/narco-airstrips-beset-indigenous-communities-in-peruvian-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/narco-airstrips-beset-indigenous-communities-in-peruvian-amazon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291108</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>15 illegal narco-trafficking airstrips found near Peru Indigenous communities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/15-illegal-narco-trafficking-airstrips-found-near-peru-indigenous-communities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/15-illegal-narco-trafficking-airstrips-found-near-peru-indigenous-communities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Dec 2024 09:54:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay Latam]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/27113614/Huacamayo-Abridor-3-Max-Cabello-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290775</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Airstrips and Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Endangered Environmentalists, Forests, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Mongabay Data Studio, Mongabay investigation, Rainforests, Satellite Imagery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The hum of a small plane is heard overhead during a community assembly, but no one looks up. Conversation rises naturally over the sound as the engine’s intense roar fades into the background. The aircraft takes five minutes to pass over an Indigenous community located between the districts of Yuyapichis and Puerto Bermúdez, its course [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The hum of a small plane is heard overhead during a community assembly, but no one looks up. Conversation rises naturally over the sound as the engine’s intense roar fades into the background. The aircraft takes five minutes to pass over an Indigenous community located between the districts of Yuyapichis and Puerto Bermúdez, its course traceable by simply following the sound — today, the plane is hidden from view by clouds. On the morning of Sunday, April 21, 2024, this Yanesha community, nestled between the regions of Huánuco and Pasco in Peru’s central rainforests, is hosting a gathering of Indigenous residents from Huánuco and its two annexes. Some have arrived by boat, navigating up the Pachitea River, which forms at the confluence of the Pichis and the Palcazu rivers. At least 200 people are present, focused on discussing one central concern: securing legal titles for their lands. Nothing else can distract them today — not the sound of the small plane, nor the clandestine airstrips surrounding the community that daily serve drug trafficking. Yanesha community members on the way to their community assembly. Image by Mongabay Latam. “Didn’t you hear what was happening earlier? That’s them. I don’t know where they are going,” a local source told us in hushed tones, confirming the aircraft’s departure. “From here, whatever they take with them will go to other areas of Yuyapichis. That’s where they fly,” he says. “It used to be more regular, busier. There was even a bit of money in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/15-illegal-narco-trafficking-airstrips-found-near-peru-indigenous-communities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290775</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Satellite data show bursts of deforestation continue in Indonesian national park</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/satellite-data-show-bursts-of-deforestation-continue-in-indonesian-national-park/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/satellite-data-show-bursts-of-deforestation-continue-in-indonesian-national-park/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Nov 2024 19:43:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/30193103/sumatra_9232-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290970</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Riau, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Critically Endangered Species, data, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Green, Habitat Loss, Industrial Agriculture, National Parks, Old Growth Forests, Palm Oil, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Tigers, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When the Indonesian government established Tesso Nilo National Park in 2004 on a former logging concession, little could it have known that the legacy of logging and deforestation would continue years after granting it official protection. The park, which was expanded in 2009, now covers more than 80,000 hectares of land in Sumatra’s Riau province, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When the Indonesian government established Tesso Nilo National Park in 2004 on a former logging concession, little could it have known that the legacy of logging and deforestation would continue years after granting it official protection. The park, which was expanded in 2009, now covers more than 80,000 hectares of land in Sumatra’s Riau province, and is one of the last tracts of lowland forest blocks that remains on the island. Tesso Nilo National Park is home to nearly 3% of the world’s mammals, according to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) – Indonesia, including the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) and the Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus), both critically endangered. It also boasts more than 4,000 plant species within its borders — one of the highest levels of lowland plant diversity in the world. As few as 400 Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris sumatrae) may persist in the wild. Image by Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay. However, for decades since its designation of a national park, Tesso Nilo has experienced unabated deforestation, driven by illegal logging, establishment of palm oil plantations within the national park, and encroachments in the form of villages. A 2018 investigation from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) found that nearly three-fourths of Tesso Nilo is converted into palm oil plantations, and related deforestation has continued to destroy primary forest in the park. Satellite data from monitoring platform Global Forest Watch (GFW) show Tesso Nilo lost 78% of its primary forest cover between 2009 and 2023. And preliminary data&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/satellite-data-show-bursts-of-deforestation-continue-in-indonesian-national-park/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290970</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The illegal runways exposing the Kakataibo people to drug violence in Peru</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-illegal-runways-exposing-the-kakataibo-people-to-drug-violence-in-peru/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-illegal-runways-exposing-the-kakataibo-people-to-drug-violence-in-peru/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Nov 2024 12:30:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay Latam]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/29150332/edited-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290700</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Airstrips and Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Endangered Environmentalists, Forests, Illegal Logging, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Mongabay Data Studio, Mongabay investigation, Rainforests, Satellite Imagery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The audience erupts into cheers and applause. The emcee has just announced the four finalists of the “Miss Juan Chávez Muquinuy” beauty pageant, who take the stage for their final walk down the runway. The competitors are all schoolgirls between 13 and 15 years old, parading in tops, shorts and platform heels. It&#8217;s 8 p.m., [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The audience erupts into cheers and applause. The emcee has just announced the four finalists of the “Miss Juan Chávez Muquinuy” beauty pageant, who take the stage for their final walk down the runway. The competitors are all schoolgirls between 13 and 15 years old, parading in tops, shorts and platform heels. It&#8217;s 8 p.m., and although there&#8217;s no electricity in the village, the ceremony venue is lit using solar panels, and music booms through two huge speakers. &#8220;Until three years ago, the winner was decided by the number of raffle tickets sold by each salon. Now we celebrate properly,&#8221; the mother of one of the contestants says. Nearly the whole village is gathered to witness the coronation of a new queen in an Indigenous community of the Kakataibo ethnic group, located in the province of Padre Abad, in the jungle of Peru&#8217;s Ucayali region. The Kakataibo are a warrior people who have historically lived between the regions of Loreto, Ucayali and Huánuco, in a vast territory split in two by the Federico Basadre Highway. In the northern area they live with the Indigenous Shipibo-Conibo people, in the towns of Nuevo Edén, La Cumbre, Muruinia, Santa Rosita de Apua, Santa Rosa, Yamino and Mariscal Cáceres. In the south, they reside in the Native communities of Santa Martha, Puerto Nuevo, Sinchi Roca I, Sinchi Roca II, Unipacuyacu and Puerto Azul. These groups have a key cultural role, as they form a security cord around the Kakataibo North and South Indigenous Reserve,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/the-illegal-runways-exposing-the-kakataibo-people-to-drug-violence-in-peru/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290700</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New transmission lines cut a Cambodian rainforest sanctuary in half</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/new-transmission-lines-cut-a-cambodian-rainforest-sanctuary-in-half/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/new-transmission-lines-cut-a-cambodian-rainforest-sanctuary-in-half/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Nov 2024 02:45:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gerald FlynnPhoung Vantha]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/27015212/DJI_0038-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=290760</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Cambodia, Laos, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Sequestration, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corruption, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Deforestation Alert System, Drivers Of Deforestation, Endangered Species, Energy, Forest Carbon, Forest Fragmentation, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Illegal Logging, Infrastructure, Logging, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Satellite Imagery, Selective Logging, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[STUNG TRENG, Cambodia — In early October, work began on power lines that will run about 300 kilometers, or 190 miles, and that conservationists have labeled “a death sentence” to Cambodia’s Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary. The transmission lines are slated to run from a substation on the outskirts of the capital, Phnom Penh, to Cambodia’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[STUNG TRENG, Cambodia — In early October, work began on power lines that will run about 300 kilometers, or 190 miles, and that conservationists have labeled “a death sentence” to Cambodia’s Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary. The transmission lines are slated to run from a substation on the outskirts of the capital, Phnom Penh, to Cambodia’s northeastern border with Laos, slicing through the densest part of the 490,000-hectare (1.2-million-acre) protected rainforest, vital wildlife habitats and two existing REDD+ projects. The 500-kilovolt transmission line project has remained largely dormant since it was initially approved in 2020, although the years that followed saw conservationists decry its potential environmental impacts. As of Nov. 18, satellite imagery shows a route 30 meters wide and 5.8 kilometers long (100 feet by 3.6 miles) has been cleared through the wildlife sanctuary’s northeastern section in Stung Treng province. The freshly cut track follows a route mapped out as one option for the transmission lines by Electricité du Cambodge, the state-owned electricity utility, in April 2021. If completed as mapped, the lines will run 65 km (40 mi) through Prey Lang. The rainforest surrounding the plotted route provides habitat for a wide array of wildlife, including the endangered Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) and pileated gibbon (Hylobates pileatus), as well as the Sunda pangolin (Manis javanica) and banteng (Bos javanicus), both of which are listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List. Prey Lang also houses hundreds of plant species, including 14 known to be at risk of extinction&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/new-transmission-lines-cut-a-cambodian-rainforest-sanctuary-in-half/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-290760</doi>				</item>
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