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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/saving-species-from-extinction/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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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 Saving Species From Extinction</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/saving-species-from-extinction/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Zero roadkill as Amazon canopy bridges secure 15,000 crossings</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/zero-roadkill-as-amazon-canopy-bridges-secure-15000-crossings/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/zero-roadkill-as-amazon-canopy-bridges-secure-15000-crossings/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Jul 2026 07:00:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Suzana Camargo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandre de Santi]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/20170143/4.-Macaco-aranha_Credito_Sergio-Leal-1-scaled-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324121</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation Solutions, Defaunation, Endangered Species, Forest Fragmentation, Fragmentation, Habitat Degradation, Mammals, Monkeys, Primates, Rewilding, Roadkill, Saving Species From Extinction, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For some of the world's rarest monkeys, the path to survival now runs through a simple network of ropes. ]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Around 7 a.m., with dense fog blanketing the landscape, biologist Gabriel Falquetto had already come across several road-killed animals along ES-164 highway in Brazil&#8217;s Espírito Santo state. He was on his way to Kaetés Private Natural Heritage Reserve (RPPN), in the Atlantic Forest, where he monitors wildlife and roadkill in the region. Suddenly, he spotted the lifeless body of a primate on the pavement. It was a buffy-headed marmoset (Callithrix flaviceps), a species listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. An estimated 2,500 individuals remain in the wild, making it one of the world&#8217;s most threatened primates. &#8220;It was extremely painful and discouraging,&#8221; Falquetto told Mongabay. &#8220;We travel through this region every day monitoring wildlife, and we celebrate every encounter with groups of buffy-headed marmosets in the forest.&#8221; &#8220;Finding an individual in those conditions brings a feeling of sadness and helplessness. Beyond the loss of that animal, the incident reminds us of the impacts our activities have on biodiversity.&#8221; About 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) away, on the road that leads to Alta Floresta, a small Amazon town in the far north of Mato Grosso state, cases like the buffy-headed marmoset&#8217;s roadkill have not been recorded since 2024. That year, eight canopy bridges were installed, connecting fragmented forest patches. Camera trap footage revealed that, over 15 months, the aerial wildlife crossings enabled 15,000 safe crossings by arboreal animals — and not a single roadkill. Installation of the first canopy bridges in Alta Floresta,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/zero-roadkill-as-amazon-canopy-bridges-secure-15000-crossings/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/zero-roadkill-as-amazon-canopy-bridges-secure-15000-crossings/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324121</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>On the brink of extinction, the Javan green magpie gets a conservation lifeline</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/on-the-brink-of-extinction-the-javan-green-magpie-gets-a-conservation-lifeline/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/on-the-brink-of-extinction-the-javan-green-magpie-gets-a-conservation-lifeline/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jun 2026 07:48:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/24112135/critically-endangered-Javan-green-magpie-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321758</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and West Java]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Critically Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Habitat Loss, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Teetering on the brink of extinction, Indonesia’s Javan green magpie may have a conservation lifeline after national and international conservation NGOs launched an action plan to preserve it in the wild. Javan green magpies (Cissa thalassina) are endemic to the upland forests of West Java province, but have been assessed as critically endangered, with as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Teetering on the brink of extinction, Indonesia’s Javan green magpie may have a conservation lifeline after national and international conservation NGOs launched an action plan to preserve it in the wild. Javan green magpies (Cissa thalassina) are endemic to the upland forests of West Java province, but have been assessed as critically endangered, with as few as 50 of the birds remaining in the wild. Habitat loss and poaching for the songbird trade have greatly reduced their numbers and led to local extinctions in some areas. “Very few have ever been recorded in the wild,” says Andrew Owen, head of birds at Chester Zoo in the U.K. “The fact that the Javan green magpie is now so rare is also a reason why some people want to catch them and keep them.” In recent years, the Javan green magpie has barely appeared in markets, experts say, though that’s likely due to its increasing rarity in the wild. Surveys carried out between 2018 and 2021 across 12 previously inhabited sites recorded no birds, raising the alarm. “We must assume that excessive trade has pushed this once reasonably widespread but perhaps never common species to the very brink of extinction,” the authors wrote in a 2023 study. These birds, known locally as ekek geling for their unique call, are sought after as so-called master birds in the songbird trade. Master birds rarely compete and instead are used to “train” competition birds. Javan green magpies received official protected status in 2019. With the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/on-the-brink-of-extinction-the-javan-green-magpie-gets-a-conservation-lifeline/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/on-the-brink-of-extinction-the-javan-green-magpie-gets-a-conservation-lifeline/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321758</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Amid efforts to save Australia’s southern cassowaries, their numbers remain unknown</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/amid-efforts-to-save-australias-southern-cassowaries-their-numbers-remain-unknown/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/amid-efforts-to-save-australias-southern-cassowaries-their-numbers-remain-unknown/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 May 2026 12:46:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Cooper Williams]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/20180858/5-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319831</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Ecosystem Engineers, Endangered Species, Environment, Rainforests, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With a striking blue neck, jet black plumage and bright red drooping wattles, the southern cassowary cuts an imposing figure in the dense tropical rainforests of Far North Queensland, Australia. Standing up to 2 meters (6.5 feet) tall and armed with razor-sharp claws, it is often labeled as the world’s most dangerous bird. In reality, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[With a striking blue neck, jet black plumage and bright red drooping wattles, the southern cassowary cuts an imposing figure in the dense tropical rainforests of Far North Queensland, Australia. Standing up to 2 meters (6.5 feet) tall and armed with razor-sharp claws, it is often labeled as the world’s most dangerous bird. In reality, it’s a shy, gentle and solitary animal rarely seen by people. While it’s listed as endangered under Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, southern cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) populations have always been difficult to track. “They occupy very rugged and remote terrain. So, to be able to find scats, get sightings through camera traps or collect DNA is very challenging,” said Wren McLean, a cassowary researcher and member of the Cassowary Recovery Team. Estimates have changed dramatically since the turn of the 21st century, growing from fewer than 1,500 birds in the early 2000s to around 4,400 in the most recent national survey, which was conducted between 2012 and 2014. Led by Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, that survey recommended that population monitoring become a “central component” of the species’ management and should be carried out more frequently. More than a decade later, that hasn’t happened. A camera trap image of an adult female cassowary roaming the Apudthama National Park in the Cape York Peninsula. Image courtesy of Wren McLean, Ipima Ikaya Aboriginal Corporation and Cape York NRM. The Cassowary Recovery Team has produced a new conservation plan for the species, set to be&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/amid-efforts-to-save-australias-southern-cassowaries-their-numbers-remain-unknown/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319831</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The European wildcat hovers between recovery and local extinction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-european-wildcat-hovers-between-recovery-and-local-extinction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-european-wildcat-hovers-between-recovery-and-local-extinction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 May 2026 13:12:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/07014556/Image_1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318902</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Czech Republic, Europe, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, and Turkey]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Cats, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Diseases, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Funding, Genetics, Habitat Loss, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Human-wildlife Conflict, Hunting, Mammals, Parasites, Population, Reintroductions, Saving Species From Extinction, Small Cats, Solutions, Species recovery, Wildlife, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A quiet comeback story is unfolding for the European wildcat in the Czech Republic’s Lusatian Mountains. Conservationists tracking this elusive species there have spotted a male and female, named Jonáš and Tonka, the first to be found in the region in nearly a century. This small cat species lives in forests across Europe. It’s doing [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A quiet comeback story is unfolding for the European wildcat in the Czech Republic’s Lusatian Mountains. Conservationists tracking this elusive species there have spotted a male and female, named Jonáš and Tonka, the first to be found in the region in nearly a century. This small cat species lives in forests across Europe. It’s doing relatively well in some places and is imperiled in others, like the Czech Republic, where it’s critically endangered. The European wildcat (Felis silvestris), which is around the size of a large housecat, was wiped out because of disappearing habitat — and persecution. They were considered vermin and killed because they preyed on poultry and they were hunted for sport. More recently, they’re sometimes hybridizing, breeding with domestic cats. Numbers are spotty across parts of their range, so overall population numbers and trends, whether they’re rebounding or declining, is currently unknown. That’s a challenge shared by many of the world’s 30-plus small wildcat species that are often overlooked by research and funding. But they are hanging on in the Czech Republic. Earlier this year, Tonka gave birth to at least three kittens, offering hope that a slow wildcat recovery may be underway. Conservationists set up “hair traps,” wooden posts smeared with a lure that attracts the wildcats, then analyzed DNA from fur they left behind when they rubbed on them to mark their territory, as cats do. Genetically confirmed records of wildcat births are “exceedingly rare” in the country, said Kristýna Chroboková, field coordinator with the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-european-wildcat-hovers-between-recovery-and-local-extinction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-european-wildcat-hovers-between-recovery-and-local-extinction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318902</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>US proposes endangered species protections for an imperiled Jamaican butterfly</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-proposes-endangered-species-protections-for-an-imperiled-jamaican-butterfly/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-proposes-endangered-species-protections-for-an-imperiled-jamaican-butterfly/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2026 12:04:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/06171317/Protographium-marcellinus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318851</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Caribbean, Jamaica, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, Environmental Law, Extinction, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Insects, Islands, Over-hunting, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Wildlife, and Wildlife consumption]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) recently proposed listing Jamaica’s most imperiled butterfly, the Jamaican kite swallowtail, as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The species (Protographium marcellinus), a small, fast-flying butterfly, flutters through its limestone forest home. Its wings, painted in streaks of bright turquoise and black with a dash of red, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) recently proposed listing Jamaica’s most imperiled butterfly, the Jamaican kite swallowtail, as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The species (Protographium marcellinus), a small, fast-flying butterfly, flutters through its limestone forest home. Its wings, painted in streaks of bright turquoise and black with a dash of red, sport long, narrow tails. These charismatic butterflies live on this island and nowhere else. In recent years, they’ve nearly disappeared. Back in the 1960s, scientists recorded about 750,000 individuals; that number has plummeted to between 50 and 250 today. In some years, they’ve seen none. It’s such an alarming decline that scientists say this swallowtail should jump two categories on the IUCN Red List, from vulnerable to critically endangered. “This listing would be a real turning point for this species,” said Dianne DuBois, senior scientist at the U.S.-based NGO Center for Biological Diversity, which has been fighting for ESA protections for the butterfly since 1994. After a few failed attempts, it sued USFWS in 2021, which resulted in the agency drawing up the current proposal. ESA listings prevent extinction in 99% of the species under the act, but the wait is often quite long, about 12 years on average. Time may not be on its side for the Jamaican kite swallowtail, which hangs on the brink of extinction. “We wish this proposal had come three decades ago,” DuBois said. “We really want to urge the Fish and Wildlife Service to work quickly to finalize these&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/us-proposes-endangered-species-protections-for-an-imperiled-jamaican-butterfly/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318851</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>World’s largest shark conference is set to begin in Sri Lanka next week</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/worlds-largest-shark-conference-is-set-to-begin-in-sri-lanka-next-week/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/worlds-largest-shark-conference-is-set-to-begin-in-sri-lanka-next-week/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 May 2026 08:17:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/01074744/Hammerheads_Edited-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318551</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Global, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Deep Sea, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Fish, Fisheries, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Oceans, Regulations, Research, Saving Species From Extinction, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — The Sharks International 2026 conference (SI2026), known to be the world’s largest gathering dedicated to sharks and rays, is set to take place in Colombo, Sri Lanka, May 4-8. Held once every four years, it is the premier global scientific conference focused exclusively on elasmobranchs, or sharks and rays, bringing together researchers, policymakers, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — The Sharks International 2026 conference (SI2026), known to be the world’s largest gathering dedicated to sharks and rays, is set to take place in Colombo, Sri Lanka, May 4-8. Held once every four years, it is the premier global scientific conference focused exclusively on elasmobranchs, or sharks and rays, bringing together researchers, policymakers, fisheries managers and conservation practitioners from around the world. Sharks International has previously been held in Australia (2010), South Africa (2014), Brazil (2018) and Spain (2022). The 2026 edition in Sri Lanka marks the first time Sharks International will be held in Asia, reflecting the region’s growing importance in global marine biodiversity and fisheries governance. Locally hosted and organized by Blue Resources Trust (BRT) with support from several international organizations, the conference aims to strengthen global collaboration as more than one-third of shark and ray species are threatened with extinction due to overfishing, habitat loss and weak enforcement of conservation measures. Daniel Fernando, the co-founder and director of the fisheries and policy program of the Colombo-based Blue Resources Trust (BRT), is a main organizer of Sharks International 2026. Image courtesy of BRT. The Sri Lanka meeting is considered particularly significant because the Indian Ocean is both a biodiversity hotspot and one of the world’s most heavily exploited shark fishing regions, said Daniel Fernando, BRT’s co-founder and director of fisheries and policy program. SI2026 will focus more on the urgent global priorities for shark and ray conservation, including halting population decline, reducing bycatch in industrial and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/worlds-largest-shark-conference-is-set-to-begin-in-sri-lanka-next-week/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318551</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil FOIA confirms Lula &#038; Macron talked before key CITES vote on endangered tree</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-foia-confirms-lula-macron-talked-before-key-cites-vote-on-endangered-tree/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-foia-confirms-lula-macron-talked-before-key-cites-vote-on-endangered-tree/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Apr 2026 00:01:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Emmanuelle PicaudFernanda WenzelSpoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/22100823/c-lula-and-macron-in-a-boat-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317918</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Europe, France, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Extinction, Forests, Governance, Mongabay investigation, Plants, Politics, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Supply Chain, timber trade, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Early in 2026, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s office denied that he had a phone call with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, about easing proposed trade restrictions on Brazil’s endangered national tree. The denial to Mongabay came during reporting for a story published in February about Brazil’s efforts to seek the highest trade [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Early in 2026, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s office denied that he had a phone call with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, about easing proposed trade restrictions on Brazil’s endangered national tree. The denial to Mongabay came during reporting for a story published in February about Brazil’s efforts to seek the highest trade protections for Brazilwood (Paubrasilia echinata) — safeguards that were diluted during a global summit of representatives to CITES, a wildlife trade treaty signed by 184 countries and the European Union. Now, following a response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Mongabay, Lula’s office confirmed that he had, in fact, been in communication with Macron just before a key vote on the proposal at the CITES conference, held five months ago in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The conversations between Lula and Macron were “regarding the negotiations then underway” as part of CITES deliberations, according to Brazil’s Special Advisory Office of the President of the Republic. The office responded to Mongabay’s FOIA request on April 6. It did not specify what was discussed and did not state if the talks happened over a phone call, text or other means. The FOIA response marks the first official confirmation that the two leaders were in communications at CITES over the issue. Native to the country’s Atlantic Forest and a national symbol, Brazilwood is coveted in the music industry to make high-quality violin bows, which sell for as high as 7,000 euros ($8,200) apiece. The demand has led the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-foia-confirms-lula-macron-talked-before-key-cites-vote-on-endangered-tree/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/brazil-foia-confirms-lula-macron-talked-before-key-cites-vote-on-endangered-tree/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317918</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Drones aid dugong conservation as threats mount across their range</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/drones-aid-dugong-conservation-as-threats-mount-across-their-range/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/drones-aid-dugong-conservation-as-threats-mount-across-their-range/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Apr 2026 18:03:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mark Hillsdon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/16142053/BANNER-Dugong_Marsa_Alam-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317639</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Drones, Dugong, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Fishing, Habitat Degradation, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Mammals, Oceans, Research, Saving Species From Extinction, Seagrass, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Drone technology is providing important new insights into the lives of dugongs, while also revealing the vital role they play in managing seagrass meadows, one of the ocean’s most important carbon sinks. Often referred to as sea cows, dugongs (Dugong dugon) are marine herbivores that can grow up to 3 meters (10 feet) long and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Drone technology is providing important new insights into the lives of dugongs, while also revealing the vital role they play in managing seagrass meadows, one of the ocean’s most important carbon sinks. Often referred to as sea cows, dugongs (Dugong dugon) are marine herbivores that can grow up to 3 meters (10 feet) long and weigh up to 420 kilograms (925 pounds). They feed almost exclusively on seagrass in shallow coastal waters across a wide range in the Indian and southeastern Pacific oceans. However, their population spread was revealed to be extremely uneven in an August 2025 report, published by the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) and touted as “offering the most comprehensive global update on the status and conservation needs of dugongs in over two decades.” By far the largest concentration of dugongs is in Australia, where an estimated 166,000 live in the country’s coastal waters, the CMS report shows. Other hotspots include the Arabian Gulf, the Red Sea, and Indonesia, while around 300 dugongs live along the coast of Mozambique, their last stronghold in Africa. But elsewhere the picture is less healthy. The IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, has listed the dugong as globally vulnerable to extinction for more than 40 years now. Some jurisdictions, such as the French territory of New Caledonia and Japan’s Nasei Islands, have listed the dugong as endangered. In 2022, research declared the species extinct in China. According to Helene Marsh, a professor of environmental sciences&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/drones-aid-dugong-conservation-as-threats-mount-across-their-range/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/drones-aid-dugong-conservation-as-threats-mount-across-their-range/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317639</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Americas flyways atlas maps the routes of 89 at-risk migratory bird species</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/americas-flyways-atlas-maps-the-routes-of-89-at-risk-migratory-bird-species/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/americas-flyways-atlas-maps-the-routes-of-89-at-risk-migratory-bird-species/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Apr 2026 16:51:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Adam Litchkofski]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/16153833/4-cerulean-warbler-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317648</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Global, North America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Cities, Conservation, Conservation Technology, data, Environment, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Habitat Loss, Mapping, Migration, Research, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Announced at the end of March, the “Atlas for the Americas Flyways” website tracks high concentrations of migratory bird species at risk of major population declines along their routes throughout the Americas. This new United Nations-backed tool identifies heavily trafficked breeding grounds, migratory stopover locations and wintering areas, with the aim of providing policymakers and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Announced at the end of March, the “Atlas for the Americas Flyways” website tracks high concentrations of migratory bird species at risk of major population declines along their routes throughout the Americas. This new United Nations-backed tool identifies heavily trafficked breeding grounds, migratory stopover locations and wintering areas, with the aim of providing policymakers and conservationists with actionable, location-based guidance on where and how to protect and conserve these species. It closely tracks 89 at-risk migratory bird species out of the 622 that traverse North, Central and South America. Available for everyone to explore, the atlas presents a useful, fascinating and fun opportunity to explore the annual journeys of these birds. The atlas was developed by researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). Its mapping spans the 56 countries that make up the Americas, explains CMS executive secretary Amy Fraenkel, and focuses on the Atlantic, Pacific and mid-continent flyways. The buff-breasted sandpiper, highlighted in the new atlas, is a migratory bird species with an elevated risk of extinction due to rapid population declines driven by habitat loss in its South American wintering grounds and at migratory stopover sites. Image courtesy of Luke Seitz via Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The mapping tool was created using 20 years of data gathered on the Cornell Lab’s eBird website, an online database and citizen-science project that tracks bird distribution and abundance. Compiling the atlas wouldn’t have been possible, say researchers, without&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/americas-flyways-atlas-maps-the-routes-of-89-at-risk-migratory-bird-species/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/americas-flyways-atlas-maps-the-routes-of-89-at-risk-migratory-bird-species/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317648</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservation efforts help an endangered dipterocarp spread roots in Bangladesh</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/conservation-efforts-help-an-endangered-dipterocarp-spread-roots-in-bangladesh/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/conservation-efforts-help-an-endangered-dipterocarp-spread-roots-in-bangladesh/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Apr 2026 07:53:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sadiqur Rahman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/14075155/boilam-in-bangladesh-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317462</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Endangered Species, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Trees, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On Jan. 23, 2026, Mahbubul Islam Polash, a 34-year-old man from Bangladesh’s northern district of Sirajganj, traveled to Teknaf area in the southeastern coastal district of Cox’s Bazar, around 600 kilometers (373 miles) south of his hometown. Here, he planted a sapling of Anisoptera scaphula, a dipterocarp tree commonly known as boilam in Bangladesh. That [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On Jan. 23, 2026, Mahbubul Islam Polash, a 34-year-old man from Bangladesh’s northern district of Sirajganj, traveled to Teknaf area in the southeastern coastal district of Cox’s Bazar, around 600 kilometers (373 miles) south of his hometown. Here, he planted a sapling of Anisoptera scaphula, a dipterocarp tree commonly known as boilam in Bangladesh. That day marked the 64th planting of the endangered tree species, completing the plantation campaign in all the districts of the country. The campaign was launched on June 5, 2024, coinciding with World Environment Day, in the northwestern Rajshahi district. When Polash learned that the towering tree species was on the verge of extinction and birds like kites and vultures were losing nesting habitats, he pinned his focus on planting boilams. “Even if it was just one species, I wanted to spread it countrywide,” Polash tells Mongabay. In 2019, he says, he planned to collect its seeds or saplings from the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) and distribute them across the country. But his initial attempts to germinate boilam seeds failed. Undeterred he continued to try and, in 2023, he succeeded in the germination of 74 seeds from the 2,000 sourced from mother trees in the hilly Bandarban and Khagrachhari districts. The saplings were nurtured on a piece of land adjacent to Polash’s home in Sirajganj for a year until they reached a height of about 30-45 centimeters (12-18 inches). Finally, the boilam saplings were planted in 64 districts of Bangladesh. Polash spent 597 days and self-financed&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/conservation-efforts-help-an-endangered-dipterocarp-spread-roots-in-bangladesh/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/conservation-efforts-help-an-endangered-dipterocarp-spread-roots-in-bangladesh/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317462</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Decades after poaching drove them extinct, rhinos are back in the wild in Uganda</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/decades-after-poaching-drove-them-extinct-rhinos-are-back-in-the-wild-in-uganda/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/decades-after-poaching-drove-them-extinct-rhinos-are-back-in-the-wild-in-uganda/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Mar 2026 07:15:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Benjamin Jumbe]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/30123308/RhinoByCrate_ZiwaUganda_UWA-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316524</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Endangered Species, Extinction, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mammals, Poaching, Protected Areas, Rhinos, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, White Rhino, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Forty-three years after the last free-ranging rhinos were seen in the country, the Uganda Wildlife Authority has welcomed four southern white rhinos to Kidepo Valley National Park, in the country’s north, from a breeding sanctuary designed for the species’ reintroduction. “We are glad and privileged to be taking back rhinos much as it is a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Forty-three years after the last free-ranging rhinos were seen in the country, the Uganda Wildlife Authority has welcomed four southern white rhinos to Kidepo Valley National Park, in the country’s north, from a breeding sanctuary designed for the species’ reintroduction. “We are glad and privileged to be taking back rhinos much as it is a different subspecies from that that used to exist, because the northern white rhino is the one which used to exist there but was hunted to extinction,” UWA executive director James Musinguzi said at the Ziwa sanctuary on Mar. 17. According to the wildlife authority, a total of eight rhinos will be released in the park by May this year, marking the beginning of a longer process aimed at establishing a viable free-ranging rhino population in Kidepo Valley National Park. Kidepo Valley National Park. Image by Rod Waddington via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0). Uganda was once home to around 300 northern white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) and 400 eastern black rhinos (Diceros bicornis michaeli). But these populations were devastated by intense poaching that flourished amid the civil war that began in the late 1970s. The last of the country’s wild rhinos was killed in 1983. In 2005, a breeding program for rhinos was established at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary. Six southern white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum simum) — four from Kenya and two from a sanctuary in the U.S. — were introduced the following year, and by 2023, that herd had grown to 42, according to the sanctuary’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/decades-after-poaching-drove-them-extinct-rhinos-are-back-in-the-wild-in-uganda/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/decades-after-poaching-drove-them-extinct-rhinos-are-back-in-the-wild-in-uganda/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316524</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Defying drought and invasives, a feisty Australian marsupial makes a comeback</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/defying-drought-and-invasives-a-feisty-australian-marsupial-makes-a-comeback/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/defying-drought-and-invasives-a-feisty-australian-marsupial-makes-a-comeback/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Mar 2026 19:36:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jenny Denton]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Nandithachandraprakash]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/24132631/1-adult-ampurta-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316187</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Marsupials, Research, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The ampurta, a blond or brown guinea pig-sized marsupial, is distinctive for its short, fat tail that becomes a black mohawk at the tip. This micro-predator, also known as the crest-tailed mulgara, was once abundant in the arid, sandy landscapes of Central Australia as well as  Western Australia. But by 1994, it had been listed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The ampurta, a blond or brown guinea pig-sized marsupial, is distinctive for its short, fat tail that becomes a black mohawk at the tip. This micro-predator, also known as the crest-tailed mulgara, was once abundant in the arid, sandy landscapes of Central Australia as well as  Western Australia. But by 1994, it had been listed as nationally endangered. Humans were behind the decline of the ampurta (Dasycercus hillieri). A wave of dramatic wildlife declines and extinctions occurred in Central Australia from the 1930s to the 1960s as colonizers spread into the continent’s interior, converting land for agriculture and bringing in foreign animals, Chris Pavey, a wildlife ecologist at government research agency CSIRO, told Mongabay. The British had imported red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) for hunting parties, and the domestic cats (Felis catus) they brought along sometimes went feral. These introduced species altered the ecosystem and took a deadly toll on ampurtas and other small animals. But unlike most impacted species, ampurtas are making a big comeback. Their resurgence has occurred over the course of three decades, happening despite unprecedented, prolonged drought, which itself drives wildlife declines, and which tends to be more acute in arid regions. Research documenting the recovery was published in the journal Biological Conservation. Ecologist Dympna Cullen, who was then working on her Ph.D. at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), led the inquiry. She built on a 2016 study that tracked the ampurta’s initial bounce-back after rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus, also&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/defying-drought-and-invasives-a-feisty-australian-marsupial-makes-a-comeback/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/defying-drought-and-invasives-a-feisty-australian-marsupial-makes-a-comeback/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316187</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil wanted more protections for its endangered national tree. Then France called</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/brazil-wanted-more-protections-for-its-endangered-national-tree-then-france-called/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/brazil-wanted-more-protections-for-its-endangered-national-tree-then-france-called/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Feb 2026 08:30:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Emmanuelle PicaudFernanda WenzelSpoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/26124349/lula-macron-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314859</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Business, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Extinction, Forests, Governance, Plants, Politics, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Supply Chain, timber trade, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Just three months ago, Brazil seemed close to winning the highest level of international trade protections for the country’s symbol and namesake, the Brazilwood tree (Paubrasilia echinata). On Nov. 26, Brazil’s delegation was in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, for the summit of CITES, the global trade convention under which 184 countries plus the European Union have agreed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Just three months ago, Brazil seemed close to winning the highest level of international trade protections for the country’s symbol and namesake, the Brazilwood tree (Paubrasilia echinata). On Nov. 26, Brazil’s delegation was in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, for the summit of CITES, the global trade convention under which 184 countries plus the European Union have agreed on rules to protect wildlife from unsustainable commerce. The Brazilians were confident that they would gain approval for their formal proposal to protect the endangered tree from all international commercial trade. “There was massive support,” said a Brazilian delegate attending the meeting, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation. “There was a feeling that it would pass.” Found only in Brazil&#8217;s Atlantic Forest, P. echinata&#8217;s population declined by 84% over the last three generations, and is currently down to around 10,000 adult trees, according to Brazilian environmental officials. The species was exploited during colonial times to meet European demand for the red dye that comes from its wood and was used to color fabrics. Since the mid-18th century, the world’s music industry has prized the wood, also known as pernambuco, for its resonance, durability and flexibility for bows to play violins, cellos and other stringed instruments. Each bow can be worth up to 7,000 euros (more than $8,200), making the wood treasured not just by those in the music business, but also by smugglers. As the tree’s numbers dwindled, Brazil&#8217;s National Center for Flora Conservation (CNCFlora) escalated the species’ conservation status in 2024 from endangered&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/brazil-wanted-more-protections-for-its-endangered-national-tree-then-france-called/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/brazil-wanted-more-protections-for-its-endangered-national-tree-then-france-called/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314859</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Guanacos’ return to Gran Chaco restirs debate around wildlife translocations</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/guanacos-return-to-gran-chaco-restirs-debate-around-wildlife-translocations/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/guanacos-return-to-gran-chaco-restirs-debate-around-wildlife-translocations/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Feb 2026 17:28:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mark Hillsdon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/12164447/guanaco-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314209</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Endangered Species, Protected Areas, Research, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Species, Species recovery, Wildlife, Wildlife Rehabilitation, and Wildlife Rescues]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[After a 3,200-kilometer (2,000-mile) journey from Patagonia National Park to El Impenetrable National Park and a year spent adapting to their new environment, five guanacos, South America’s largest camelids, have been released into the wild. The guanacos (Lama guanicoe) are being reintroduced to boost the regional population across the Dry Chaco ecosystem in El Impenetrable [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[After a 3,200-kilometer (2,000-mile) journey from Patagonia National Park to El Impenetrable National Park and a year spent adapting to their new environment, five guanacos, South America’s largest camelids, have been released into the wild. The guanacos (Lama guanicoe) are being reintroduced to boost the regional population across the Dry Chaco ecosystem in El Impenetrable and are meant to play an important role in helping the park’s grasslands recover after decades of overgrazing by cattle. But although Rewilding Argentina, the wildlife conservation NGO that led the effort, labels this initiative a success, some Argentinian academics argue that translocations like these risk mixing guanaco populations with different genetic makeup and could be more harmful than good. The guanaco’s population is estimated at around 1.5-2.2 million across the continent’s southern and western grasslands. Between 81 to 86% of guanacos are found in Argentina, 14- 18% in Chile, while a small relict population inhabits northern Peru. However, the last recorded sighting of a guanaco in Argentina’s Chaco province was in 1913; hunting and the loss of grasslands to livestock farming have led to the species&#8217; local extinction, with only fragmented populations surviving on the border between Paraguay and Bolivia. The translocation of three females, a male and a juvenile guanaco was completed by Rewilding Argentina in coordination with Argentina’s National Parks Administration and the provinces of Chaco and Santa Cruz. The animals came from Patagonia, which, according to research, is home to around 90% of the guanacos in Argentina. The guanaco (Lama guanicoe)&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/guanacos-return-to-gran-chaco-restirs-debate-around-wildlife-translocations/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/guanacos-return-to-gran-chaco-restirs-debate-around-wildlife-translocations/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314209</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Measuring biodiversity in a world of tree-planting pledges</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/one-year-on-tgbs-benchmark-shows-how-to-restore-forests-for-biodiversity/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/one-year-on-tgbs-benchmark-shows-how-to-restore-forests-for-biodiversity/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jan 2026 16:54:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/12121050/Chimps_Photo-credit_Jane-Goodall-Institute-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312848</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Madagascar, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Sequestration, Certification, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forests, Invasive Species, Reforestation, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Trees, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There are around 60,000 known tree species in the world, and they can do amazing things: store carbon, provide people with food and firewood, shelter creatures big and small, and so much more. In the past two decades, numerous high-profile initiatives have announced ambitious restoration targets for forests. Restoring forests can bring all kinds of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There are around 60,000 known tree species in the world, and they can do amazing things: store carbon, provide people with food and firewood, shelter creatures big and small, and so much more. In the past two decades, numerous high-profile initiatives have announced ambitious restoration targets for forests. Restoring forests can bring all kinds of benefits and is widely seen as an effective nature-based solution to climate change and biodiversity loss. But planting the wrong trees, or planting them in the wrong places, is, at best, a missed opportunity — and at worst, can even harm biodiversity. In fact, a 2019 Nature commentary found that almost half the area pledged under the Bonn Challenge, a high-profile initiative to restore 350 million hectares (865 million acres) of degraded forest by 2030, was for plantation-style monocultures, and thus a poor strategy for both carbon sequestration and biodiversity. Meanwhile, half of the land pledged for reforestation under the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative was actually on savanna, a landscape not suitable for tree planting, according to a 2024 Science study. “It started to occur to us that there was potentially a problem here, particularly given the size of the pledges that were being made,” says Paul Smith, secretary-general at U.K.-based charity Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI). What was needed, Smith and colleagues thought, was some way to promote best practices and recognize projects that got things right. When they looked at existing certification standards, they found that none focused primarily on biodiversity. What’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/one-year-on-tgbs-benchmark-shows-how-to-restore-forests-for-biodiversity/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/one-year-on-tgbs-benchmark-shows-how-to-restore-forests-for-biodiversity/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312848</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>George Teariki-Mataki Mateariki, the Birdman of Atiu, has died, aged 67</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/george-teariki-mataki-mateariki-the-birdman-of-atiu-has-died-aged-67/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/george-teariki-mataki-mateariki-the-birdman-of-atiu-has-died-aged-67/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Dec 2025 14:00:35 +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/20/2025/12/29135729/birdman-george-bw-George-Teariki-Mataki-Mateariki-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312218</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Cook Islands, Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, and Polynesia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Islands, Obituary, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Species recovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In small island states, conservation has often depended less on formal institutions than on vigilance: watching harbors, checking traps, noticing what does not belong. The work is repetitive, practical, and easily overlooked. It rarely comes with titles or funding cycles that last longer than a season. Yet in places where a single invasive species can [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In small island states, conservation has often depended less on formal institutions than on vigilance: watching harbors, checking traps, noticing what does not belong. The work is repetitive, practical, and easily overlooked. It rarely comes with titles or funding cycles that last longer than a season. Yet in places where a single invasive species can erase centuries of evolution, that kind of attention determines whether a bird persists or disappears. The Cook Islands learned this lesson the hard way. By the late 20th century, several endemic birds were reduced to remnant populations, pushed to the margins by introduced predators and the slow erosion of habitat. Rescue efforts combined outside science with local knowledge, but success depended on whether those plans were enforced daily, at airstrips, wharves, and forest edges, long after visiting researchers had left. One of the people who made that enforcement real was George Teariki-Mataki Mateariki, who died on December 17, 2025. Known widely as Birdman George, he was neither an academic nor a policy advocate. He described himself as “a naturalist from the bush,” and he meant it literally. He learned by growing up on Atiu, by listening to elders, and by paying attention to birds closely enough to know when something was wrong. Atiu, a raised coral island without mass tourism or large resorts, became central to the recovery of the Rarotongan flycatcher, or kakerori. By the early 1990s only 29 remained, all on Rarotonga, where ship rats had overwhelmed them. When conservationists decided to create&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/george-teariki-mataki-mateariki-the-birdman-of-atiu-has-died-aged-67/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/george-teariki-mataki-mateariki-the-birdman-of-atiu-has-died-aged-67/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312218</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Artificial incubation gives Colombia’s threatened Andean condor a new lifeline</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/artificial-incubation-gives-colombias-threatened-andean-condor-a-new-lifeline/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/artificial-incubation-gives-colombias-threatened-andean-condor-a-new-lifeline/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Dec 2025 12:23:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Christina Noriega]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/02111525/Banner-Martin-Brogger-aaMIA_3117-Andean-Condor-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310429</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Birds, Captive Breeding, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Endangered Species, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Invasive Species, Raptors, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Threatened species, Wildlife, Wildlife Rehabilitation, and Wildlife Rescues]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In an isolated backroom of a nature reserve near Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, Wayra, a recently hatched condor chick, is a symbol of hope for Fernando Castro, a wildlife specialist. Castro, 33, says he sees in the small fluff of gray down the future of the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus) in Colombia. Wayra is the latest [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In an isolated backroom of a nature reserve near Bogotá, Colombia’s capital, Wayra, a recently hatched condor chick, is a symbol of hope for Fernando Castro, a wildlife specialist. Castro, 33, says he sees in the small fluff of gray down the future of the Andean condor (Vultur gryphus) in Colombia. Wayra is the latest Andean condor chick hatched through an artificial incubation program run by the Jaime Duque Park Foundation, a Colombian nonprofit working to conserve the species. At Jaime Duque Park, a theme park a 30-minute drive from Bogotá, which includes two nature reserves, conservationists are working to breed the species at a faster pace than would happen naturally, in a bid to give the Americas’ largest flying bird a better chance at recovery. Over the past two centuries, Andean condor populations have been steadily declining across the seven countries they inhabit: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. The population plunged in the 20th century as people settling in the Andean highlands killed the scavenging birds because of the mistaken belief that they were to blame for livestock deaths. Habitat loss and lead contamination from ammunition left in animal carcasses further devastated the species. Today, the Andean condor is classified on the IUCN Red List as vulnerable to extinction. The IUCN assessment, carried out in 2020, estimates there are about 6,700 individual condors remaining across the species’ range. But their situation varies across countries. In Venezuela, the species is believed to have gone locally extinct, and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/artificial-incubation-gives-colombias-threatened-andean-condor-a-new-lifeline/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/artificial-incubation-gives-colombias-threatened-andean-condor-a-new-lifeline/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310429</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Botanists decode secret life of rare plants to ensure reintroduction success</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/botanists-decode-secret-life-of-rare-plants-to-ensure-reintroduction-success/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/botanists-decode-secret-life-of-rare-plants-to-ensure-reintroduction-success/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Nov 2025 16:42:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Katarina Zimmer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/25114255/11-MAGNOLIAFRUIT-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310116</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Easter Island, Global, Mauritius, Philippines, and South Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Botany, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forestry, Forests, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Plants, Reintroductions, Research, Restoration, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Trees, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It was 2006 and Ismail Ebrahim, a botanist with the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), was worried. While surveying one of the last remaining patches of renosterveld shrubland in South Africa’s Paarl region, near Cape Town, he and his team of citizen scientists found a small, yellow-flowered daisy species: Marasmodes undulata. It had long [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It was 2006 and Ismail Ebrahim, a botanist with the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), was worried. While surveying one of the last remaining patches of renosterveld shrubland in South Africa’s Paarl region, near Cape Town, he and his team of citizen scientists found a small, yellow-flowered daisy species: Marasmodes undulata. It had long been thought extinct, with the last 200-strong population observed at the same location near the town of Paarl in the 1980s. Now, Ebrahim’s team had discovered an even smaller population, numbering just 27 individuals. The citizen scientists had to act quickly to stave off species oblivion. Competing vegetation was choking out the small daisies, so Ebrahim’s team took the calculated risk of setting fire to the site to level the playing field and stimulate seedling growth for the fire-adapted daisy. But no M. undulata reappeared at first, and those popping up in subsequent years disappeared. “Every time we went back to the site, we found less plants,” Ebrahim recalls. Why put so much focus on conserving a diminutive shrubland flower? Among the diverse inhabitants of the renosterveld, few species are more easily overlooked than M. undulata, which botanist Donovan Kirkwood, the curator of the Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden affectionately called the “ugly duckling daisy” before his untimely death in August. But just like other renosterveld plants, M. undulata belongs there, forming part of an ecosystem that becomes more sensitive to collapse with every species that is lost. Like a Jenga tower block, the little daisy&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/botanists-decode-secret-life-of-rare-plants-to-ensure-reintroduction-success/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/botanists-decode-secret-life-of-rare-plants-to-ensure-reintroduction-success/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310116</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A slowdown, not salvation: what new extinction data reveal about the state of life on Earth</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-slowdown-not-salvation-what-new-extinction-data-reveal-about-the-state-of-life-on-earth/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-slowdown-not-salvation-what-new-extinction-data-reveal-about-the-state-of-life-on-earth/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Nov 2025 21:21:08 +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/20/2025/11/17205718/dodo-bird-icon-256x90-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309675</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Green, Habitat Loss, Impact Of Climate Change, Invasive Species, Islands, Mass Extinction, Overexploitation, Pollution, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For decades, biologists have warned that humanity is precipitating a sixth mass extinction. By some estimates, species are vanishing at up to a thousand times the natural background rate. Yet a new study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests the picture is more complicated. Extinctions, it finds, may have peaked a century ago—and declined [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For decades, biologists have warned that humanity is precipitating a sixth mass extinction. By some estimates, species are vanishing at up to a thousand times the natural background rate. Yet a new study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests the picture is more complicated. Extinctions, it finds, may have peaked a century ago—and declined since. Kristen Saban and John Wiens of the University of Arizona examined 912 documented extinctions among plants and animals over the past 500 years. Their analysis, covering nearly two million assessed species, shows that losses rose steeply through the 1800s and early 1900s before slowing. Extinction rates for vertebrates, arthropods, and plants have generally decreased over the past century. The trend runs counter to the popular narrative of an accelerating biodiversity collapse. The number of extinctions are shown for each century since 1500. From Saban and Wiens (2025) &nbsp; Extinctions over time. The number of extinctions are shown for each decade since 1800 (b). For each time period, Saban and Wiens give the number of species that were inferred to have gone extinct in that time period, based primarily on the dates when each species was last seen. From Saban and Wiens (2025) That finding, however, offers little comfort. The apparent lull in recorded extinctions may reflect where and how humans look, not a reprieve for nature. Most known extinctions occurred on islands, where invasive rats, pigs, and goats devastated native fauna and flora. Today’s drivers—deforestation, pollution, and climate change—are concentrated on continents, where declines&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-slowdown-not-salvation-what-new-extinction-data-reveal-about-the-state-of-life-on-earth/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-slowdown-not-salvation-what-new-extinction-data-reveal-about-the-state-of-life-on-earth/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309675</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Uphill battle to save California’s endangered mountain yellow-legged frog</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/uphill-battle-to-save-californias-endangered-mountain-yellow-legged-frog/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/uphill-battle-to-save-californias-endangered-mountain-yellow-legged-frog/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Oct 2025 16:32:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/10094533/Image_6-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307350</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Drought, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Fires, Frogs, Fungi, Habitat Degradation, Lakes, Pollution, Reintroductions, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Trees, Water, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Earlier this year, 350 endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs hopped into their new home in Bluff Lake in Southern California’s San Bernardino Mountains. It’s the latest step in a long-running battle fought by authorities, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and conservationists to stave [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Earlier this year, 350 endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs hopped into their new home in Bluff Lake in Southern California’s San Bernardino Mountains. It’s the latest step in a long-running battle fought by authorities, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and conservationists to stave off extinction of this highly threatened species. The mountain yellow-legged frog (Rana muscosa), despite its name, can display a wide array of color variations, often a mix of brown and yellow, but also gray, red, or greenish-brown. There are two distinct populations of this medium-sized frog: one in Southern California and another up north in the Sierra Nevada. An endangered mountain yellow-legged frog leaps into its new home after being released into the lake. This release, a collaboration between Birch Aquarium, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, UCLA and Big Bear Alpine Zoo, is part of a long-running reintroduction program that began in 2010. Image courtesy of Birch Aquarium at Scripps/Alex Feltes. Biologists say this frog was once so common you couldn’t walk through its range without tripping on one. That’s far from the case today in Southern California. The last comprehensive surveys carried out in 2023 counted fewer than 200 adults in the wild. Though exact numbers are unclear, conservationists say the northern population is much more robust. The southern reintroductions began in 2010 in the San Jacinto Mountains. This year’s release is part of what Sean Bruce, assistant curator of fishes and invertebrates at&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/uphill-battle-to-save-californias-endangered-mountain-yellow-legged-frog/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/uphill-battle-to-save-californias-endangered-mountain-yellow-legged-frog/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307350</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indochinese leopards face ‘bleak’ future, but hope persists</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indochinese-leopards-face-bleak-future-but-hope-persists/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indochinese-leopards-face-bleak-future-but-hope-persists/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Oct 2025 23:19:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ana Norman Bermúdez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/07065223/Indochinese-leopards-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307138</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Leopards, Mammals, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PETCHABURI, Thailand — Swaths of butterflies flutter around Chalong Thongsong and his team of rangers and researchers as they walk along a muddy trail into the forest of Kaeng Krachan National Park. The biggest of Thailand’s national parks, Kaeng Krachan is home to more than 450 wild animal species. Arriving at a camera trap chained [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PETCHABURI, Thailand — Swaths of butterflies flutter around Chalong Thongsong and his team of rangers and researchers as they walk along a muddy trail into the forest of Kaeng Krachan National Park. The biggest of Thailand’s national parks, Kaeng Krachan is home to more than 450 wild animal species. Arriving at a camera trap chained to a tree, the rangers work quickly: one unlocks the camera cage and removes the memory card, which another plugs into a laptop. A civet, a pack of dholes, and even a family of elephants appear on the screen. At the third camera-trap site, they find what they’re looking for. Gathered around the laptop, they watch, mesmerized, as a leopard strolls along the very footpath they’re now standing on. “We estimate that, within the 1,000-square-kilometer [nearly 400-square-mile] study area, there is a density of around 3-4 leopards per 100 km²,” says Chalong, the park’s technical forestry officer. That works out to about 8-10 leopards per 100 mi2. A leopard caught on a camera trap in Kaeng Krachan National Park. Image courtesy of Kaeng Krachan National Park. A critically endangered subspecies The Indochinese leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri), a subspecies native to the Southeast Asia mainland, is listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List. The latest population estimate ranges from 77 to 766 individuals — highlighting both the subspecies’ rarity and the difficulty of studying it. “It is almost impossible to accurately estimate leopard population numbers at a broad scale with any degree of precision,”&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indochinese-leopards-face-bleak-future-but-hope-persists/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indochinese-leopards-face-bleak-future-but-hope-persists/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307138</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous-led protections spark Bali starling’s recovery in the wild</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-led-protections-spark-bali-starlings-recovery-in-the-wild/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-led-protections-spark-bali-starlings-recovery-in-the-wild/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Oct 2025 16:21:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Heather Physioc]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/02141920/bali-starling-bird-sanctuary-heather-physioc-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306996</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bali, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Captive Breeding, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Extinction, Habitat Loss, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Islands, Law Enforcement, Poaching, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Species recovery, Traditional Knowledge, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[NUSA PENIDA, Indonesia — Two young conservation workers rattle up on a motorbike and dismount at the edge of a coconut grove. Picking through husks, fallen fronds and stray plastic bottles, they scan the canopy, waiting in stillness. For nearly 20 minutes, nothing stirs. Then, a flash of white. A Bali starling (Leucopsar rothschildi) pokes [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[NUSA PENIDA, Indonesia — Two young conservation workers rattle up on a motorbike and dismount at the edge of a coconut grove. Picking through husks, fallen fronds and stray plastic bottles, they scan the canopy, waiting in stillness. For nearly 20 minutes, nothing stirs. Then, a flash of white. A Bali starling (Leucopsar rothschildi) pokes its head from the hollow of a dead palm and darts into view before settling on a nearby branch. Moments later its mate follows, the pair taking turns caring for the nest and foraging for food. This natural cavity nest, which sits beside an artificial nest box, is only the second ever recorded on Nusa Penida, a small island off the coast of Bali. This family of starlings, also known as Bali mynas, are among the world’s rarest birds, endemic to Bali and once reduced to just six individuals in the wild. Each sighting marks a sign of hope for a species making a cautious comeback through community leadership, cultural tradition and grassroots conservation. The near collapse of the Bali starling Songbird-keeping surged across Indonesia in the mid-20th century, driven by migration, rising incomes and competitions that elevated melodious birds as status symbols. The Bali starling, prized for its striking white plumage and distinctive call, became a coveted target for collectors and trappers. Despite official protections dating back to 1958, weak enforcement across the archipelago allowed a lucrative trade to flourish, fueling an economy of trappers, breeders, trainers and cage sellers. Strict bans have sometimes&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-led-protections-spark-bali-starlings-recovery-in-the-wild/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306996</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Funding is needed to save Samoa’s ‘little dodo’ from extinction (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/funding-is-needed-save-samoas-little-dodo-from-extinction-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/funding-is-needed-save-samoas-little-dodo-from-extinction-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Sep 2025 16:27:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gianluca Serra]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/18152124/manumea-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306169</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Pacific Islands and Samoa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bioacoustics, Birding, Birds, Commentary, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Ecotourism, Endangered Species, Environment, Ethics, Extinction, Funding, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Islands, philanthropy, Rainforests, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Sustainable Development, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It’s early August 2025. Deep in the rainforests of Upolu, on the island of Samoa, Moeumu “Moe” Uili and I have paused our hike, counting the seconds between coo calls from an unseen pigeon hidden in the dense canopy. Moe mutters, “Nah, the intervals between the calls are too irregular. That’s got to be a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It’s early August 2025. Deep in the rainforests of Upolu, on the island of Samoa, Moeumu “Moe” Uili and I have paused our hike, counting the seconds between coo calls from an unseen pigeon hidden in the dense canopy. Moe mutters, “Nah, the intervals between the calls are too irregular. That’s got to be a lupe,” referring to the much more common Pacific imperial pigeon (Ducula pacifica). “Are you still using the number of coo calls per sequence to distinguish lupe from manumea?” I ask per the latter bird and the object of our search: the tooth-billed pigeon (Didunculus strigirostris), also called “the little dodo.” “Not anymore,” she replies. “Turns out lupe can have sequences of up to 40 calls &#8230;” “Damn,” I sigh. A bird &#8216;hide&#8217; or &#8216;blind&#8217; built in Uafato in hopes of facilitating an extremely rare sighting of an adult manumea, Samoa&#8217;s critically endangered &#8216;little dodo.&#8217; Image courtesy of Samoa Conservation Society. It’s been a few years since I last joined a manumea search, and I’m glad to be here again. The rainforest of Samoa still enchants me — its timeless atmosphere, stifling humidity, slippery trails, and chorus of bizarre bird calls. Towering tree ferns, giant leaves, dangling lichens, parasitic orchids and humongous strangling ficus (“the kings of the forest,” or aoa in Samoan) all surrounded by a cacophony of pigeons, doves and honey-eaters. Among them, the high-pitched whistles of the ma‘oma‘o (Gymnomyza samoensis), an endangered and endemic giant honey-eater, pierces the stillness. It’s one of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/funding-is-needed-save-samoas-little-dodo-from-extinction-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306169</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Newly hatched Socorro dove chicks bring hope to species extinct in the wild</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/newly-hatched-socorro-dove-chicks-bring-hope-to-species-extinct-in-the-wild/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/newly-hatched-socorro-dove-chicks-bring-hope-to-species-extinct-in-the-wild/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Aug 2025 14:15:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/29140233/Eight-Socorro-doves-a-species-extinct-in-the-wild-have-hatched-at-Chester-Zoo-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305168</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Mexico]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Extinction, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Invasive Species, Saving Species From Extinction, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Eight Socorro dove chicks hatched at Chester Zoo in the UK this year. These brown floofs represent a significant milestone for a species that is extinct in the wild. Socorro doves (Zenaida graysoni) once lived on Socorro Island, located 400 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of Mexico&#8217;s Baja California coast. Old reports describe birds that walked [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Eight Socorro dove chicks hatched at Chester Zoo in the UK this year. These brown floofs represent a significant milestone for a species that is extinct in the wild. Socorro doves (Zenaida graysoni) once lived on Socorro Island, located 400 kilometers (250 miles) southwest of Mexico&#8217;s Baja California coast. Old reports describe birds that walked right through human camps and over people&#8217;s boots without fear. This friendly behavior would later cost them their lives. The trouble started when sheep arrived in the 1800s and ate the plants the doves needed. A naval base built in 1957 brought the final blow. An adult Socorro dove at Chester Zoo. Just 200 birds survive in conservation zoos globally Image courtesy of Chester Zoo. &#8220;Navy staff and their families brought house cats which became wild and caused terrible damage to the native wildlife, including the Socorro dove population, which was last seen in the wild in 1972,&#8221; Andrew Owen, head of Chester Zoo&#8217;s bird department, said in a statement. The feral cats hunted these trusting birds with deadly effect. Scientists who searched the island in 1978 and 1981 found no doves left. The species only survived because of quick thinking almost a century ago. In 1925, a California Academy of Sciences expedition took 17 Socorro doves back to the U.S. Every dove alive today comes from those birds. Today, all of the known remaining birds live in zoos across North America and Europe. About 200 birds make up the entire surviving population, according to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/newly-hatched-socorro-dove-chicks-bring-hope-to-species-extinct-in-the-wild/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305168</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Social media post sparks rediscovery of endemic Sri Lanka rainforest plant</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/social-media-post-sparks-rediscovery-of-endemic-sri-lanka-rainforest-plant/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/social-media-post-sparks-rediscovery-of-endemic-sri-lanka-rainforest-plant/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Aug 2025 03:31:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/26031644/1-Pini-beraliya-Flowers-c-Amila-Perera-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304897</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Ecology, Environment, Extinction, Flowers, Green, Habitat Loss, Plants, Rediscovered Species, Research, Saving Species From Extinction, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — In 2012, Sri Lanka’s National Red List delivered a grim verdict on endemic Pini- Beraliya, the towering dipterocarp Doona ovalifolia (syn. Shorea ovalifolia) tree by categorizing it as “extinct in the wild.” For decades, the species was known mainly from a single cultivated specimen in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Peradeniya in central [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — In 2012, Sri Lanka’s National Red List delivered a grim verdict on endemic Pini- Beraliya, the towering dipterocarp Doona ovalifolia (syn. Shorea ovalifolia) tree by categorizing it as “extinct in the wild.” For decades, the species was known mainly from a single cultivated specimen in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Peradeniya in central Sri Lanka. That solitary tree, rising above the landscaped grounds, became a living relic of a vanished rainforest giant, a symbol of both loss and the faint hope that somewhere, perhaps, the species still survived. The first clue that Pini-Beraliya might still exist in the wild surfaced unexpectedly via a Facebook post. In May 2018, a member of the Facebook group “Medicinal Plant Identification” posted about the tree, requesting the group’s hundred thousand members to report any sightings. Within hours, Lasith Prageeth from Ayagama in Ratnapura district responded, “We have this tree in our village.” At first, the group’s administrators were cautious. Several related dipterocarp species occur in Sri Lanka, and misidentifications are common, so they requested photographs from Prageeth. When he uploaded images of the leaves, botanists quickly recognized it as a member of the Beraliya family. Still, confirmation required more than leaves. Pini-Beraliya seeds, with their distinctive two-winged fruits typical of the Dipterocarpus family, are adapted for wind dispersal. Image courtesy of Amila Perera. How rediscovery happened Curious and excited, group administrator Bhathiya Gopallawa suspected it might be just a small Beraliya sapling. But to his amazement, Prageeth revealed it was a fully&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/social-media-post-sparks-rediscovery-of-endemic-sri-lanka-rainforest-plant/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304897</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>US proposes zero new protections for traded wildlife at upcoming CITES CoP</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/us-proposes-zero-new-protections-for-traded-wildlife-at-upcoming-cites-cop/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/us-proposes-zero-new-protections-for-traded-wildlife-at-upcoming-cites-cop/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Aug 2025 15:09:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/15082624/india_165187-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304329</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Asia, Global, North America, United States, and Uzbekistan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Crime, Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, Environment, Environmental Policy, Governance, Illegal Trade, International Trade, Politics, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Sustainability, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At the end of 2025, representatives from 185 countries will convene in Uzbekistan to discuss the fate of sharks, African hornbills, hyenas, vultures, palm trees and other threatened species. The group’s decisions will, in part, decide the survival and the future of widely traded fauna and flora as they vote whether to set limits on or [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At the end of 2025, representatives from 185 countries will convene in Uzbekistan to discuss the fate of sharks, African hornbills, hyenas, vultures, palm trees and other threatened species. The group’s decisions will, in part, decide the survival and the future of widely traded fauna and flora as they vote whether to set limits on or bar the international trade of these species and their parts, including fins, heads and skins. This will be the 20th meeting of signatories to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES), one of the world’s oldest conservation treaties. These “Conference of the Parties” (CoP) discussions, held once every three years, will convene from Nov. 24 to Dec. 5 in Samarkand. They offer an opportunity for the world to rein in the unsustainable, multibillion-dollar wildlife trade, both legal and illegal. For species like the elephants, rhinos, tigers and numerous others, trade is the greatest threat to their long-term survival. The United States has traditionally been a leader in conservation, affording and securing protections to species at risk, including those exploited by trade. But this year, the country&#8217;s role seems to have weakened as a leader at CITES: It has sponsored only four proposals for consideration at the upcoming CoP, the lowest in the last 10 CoPs — 25 years. In total, 51 proposals are up for discussion to regulate or ban the international commercial trade of wildlife and its products. For the first time, none of the U.S.-backed proposals support&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/us-proposes-zero-new-protections-for-traded-wildlife-at-upcoming-cites-cop/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304329</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New report warns 54% of turtles and tortoises are at risk of extinction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/new-report-warns-54-of-turtles-and-tortoises-are-at-risk-of-extinction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/new-report-warns-54-of-turtles-and-tortoises-are-at-risk-of-extinction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Aug 2025 19:32:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/08202026/Screenshot-2025-09-08-at-3.19.42-PM-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304381</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Habitat Loss, Illegal Trade, Marine, Marine Animals, Oceans, Reptiles, Saving Species From Extinction, Sea Turtles, Solutions, Species, Turtles, Turtles And Tortoises, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“Most people have a turtle story, whether that&#8217;s seeing a turtle at an aquarium, having a turtle as a pet as a kid, or they helped one cross the road, or one happened across their backyard one day,&#8221; Jordan Gray, from the Turtle Survival Alliance, told Mongabay. For many Indigenous cultures, turtles hold profound spiritual [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“Most people have a turtle story, whether that&#8217;s seeing a turtle at an aquarium, having a turtle as a pet as a kid, or they helped one cross the road, or one happened across their backyard one day,&#8221; Jordan Gray, from the Turtle Survival Alliance, told Mongabay. For many Indigenous cultures, turtles hold profound spiritual significance. Some refer to North America itself as Turtle Island. These ancient creatures seem to inspire an innate human connection, but these survivors of the age of dinosaurs now face their greatest challenge: us. More than half of the world&#8217;s turtle and tortoise species now face extinction, according to the 2025 &#8220;Turtles in Trouble: The World&#8217;s Most Endangered Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles&#8221; report compiled by the Turtle Conservation Coalition. According to the report, 196 of the world&#8217;s 359 living turtle and tortoise species are now considered threatened under the criteria of the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. Of these, 134 species (36.8%) are classified as endangered or critically endangered. The situation has deteriorated since the last major evaluation seven years ago. Five species have gone extinct in modern times. &#8220;The crisis is worsening,” said Gray, one of the report&#8217;s editors. “Despite all of our collective efforts as a global turtle conservation community, the number and percentage of threatened species have increased&#8230;But, there are success stories that offer hope.&#8221; The report lists the top 66 species facing the most imminent threat of extinction. To identify the species in most immediate peril, the Turtle Conservation Coalition&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/new-report-warns-54-of-turtles-and-tortoises-are-at-risk-of-extinction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304381</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>On a Patagonian plateau, a microendemic frog makes a hopeful comeback</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/on-a-patagonian-plateau-a-microendemic-frog-makes-a-hopeful-comeback/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/on-a-patagonian-plateau-a-microendemic-frog-makes-a-hopeful-comeback/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jun 2025 12:44:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mark Hillsdon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/19144925/Federico-_Kacoliris-_2025_Argentina-Somuncura_Species_Frog-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301082</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Argentina, Latin America, Patagonia, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Amphibians, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Frogs, Global Environmental Crisis, Invasive Species, Protected Areas, Research, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A first look at Argentina’s Somuncurá Plateau reveals features somewhat predictable for a Patagonian steppe: shrubs, grass, plains, and rocky outcrops. Only the occasional volcanic peak breaks the monotony of the landscape spanning an area larger than Switzerland across the provinces of Rio Negro and Chubut. But in this apparent monotony, life abounds as the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[A first look at Argentina’s Somuncurá Plateau reveals features somewhat predictable for a Patagonian steppe: shrubs, grass, plains, and rocky outcrops. Only the occasional volcanic peak breaks the monotony of the landscape spanning an area larger than Switzerland across the provinces of Rio Negro and Chubut. But in this apparent monotony, life abounds as the plateau’s conditions make it one of Patagonia’s key biodiversity areas and home to several endemic species.  Among those, one critically endangered species has caught the attention of researchers and, more recently, of the wider conservation world. Measuring less than 5 centimeters (2 inches) in length, the El Rincon stream frog (Pleurodema somuncurense) relies on the warm headwaters of the Valcheta stream, fed by the Somuncurá’s hot springs. Here, the microendemic amphibian, whose habitat measures no more than 10 square kilometers (3.7 square miles), finds refuge from the plateau’s large temperature variations.  The species was described by scientists in the late 1960s, but went on to be largely ignored by science until the early 2000s, when it became increasingly exposed to habitat loss, invasive species and cattle ranching. That earned it the status of critically endangered on the IUCN Red List, making it one of the world’s most threatened amphibians. Argentina’s Somuncurá Plateau provides an unexpected haven for microendemic species. Image courtesy of Federico Kacoliris. Federico Kacoliris has long studied the El Rincon stream frog. Aside from adding knowledge about the species and its habitats, Kacoliris, who leads the Somuncurá Foundation, has mobilized a conservation movement&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/on-a-patagonian-plateau-a-microendemic-frog-makes-a-hopeful-comeback/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301082</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Bangladesh aims to revive five critically endangered plants</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/bangladesh-aims-to-revive-five-critically-endangered-plants/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/bangladesh-aims-to-revive-five-critically-endangered-plants/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jun 2025 10:33:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/06/23112414/Bulbophyllum-roxburghii-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300643</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forestry, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Plants, Restoration, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For the first time in its history, Bangladesh is attempting to protect five species from extinction by increasing their numbers and strengthening their population in the wild. The floral species are bulborox (Bulbophyllum roxburghii), the small-bulb orchid Bulbophyllum oblongum, dwarf date palm (Phoenix acaulis), chaulmoogra (Hydnocarpus kurzii) and bash pata (Podocarpus neriifolius). All of them are [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[For the first time in its history, Bangladesh is attempting to protect five species from extinction by increasing their numbers and strengthening their population in the wild. The floral species are bulborox (Bulbophyllum roxburghii), the small-bulb orchid Bulbophyllum oblongum, dwarf date palm (Phoenix acaulis), chaulmoogra (Hydnocarpus kurzii) and bash pata (Podocarpus neriifolius). All of them are identified as critically endangered in the country&#8217;s first-ever Plant Red List of Bangladesh published in November 2024. In the Red List, 1,000 species were assessed from five plant groups. Of these, 271 species were categorized as least concern, 256 species as data deficient, while 395 species were collectively termed threatened, including five critically endangered species, 128 endangered and 262 vulnerable. A total of 70 species were assessed as near threatened and seven species were assessed as regionally extinct. One species was found to be extinct in the wild. According to the Red List, bulborox and the small-bulb orchids currently exist in only a particular area of the Sundarbans, while the dwarf date palm is currently present in only the sal (Shorea robusta) forest in the northern district of Dinajpur. A minimal number of chaulmoogra trees are currently located in the forests of Bandarban, Rangamati, Cox&#8217;s Bazar, Chittagong, Moulvibazar and Habiganj districts. Though the bash pata plant can currently be found in different locations of Cox&#8217;s Bazar, Rangamati, Bandarban, Khagrachhari, Moulvibazar and Habiganj districts, as well as in the National Botanical Garden, there are only 111 of them in the country. According to a note, the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/bangladesh-aims-to-revive-five-critically-endangered-plants/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300643</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Seventy southern white rhinos arrive at their new home in Rwanda from South Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/seventy-southern-white-rhinos-arrive-at-their-new-home-in-rwanda-from-south-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/seventy-southern-white-rhinos-arrive-at-their-new-home-in-rwanda-from-south-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jun 2025 16:27:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Graeme Green]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/10161644/TranslocatedRhinoRewild_AkageraNPRwanda_GaelVandeWeghe-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300548</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Crime, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Hunting, Illegal Trade, Mammals, Over-hunting, Poaching, Protected Areas, Rhinos, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, White Rhino, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Seventy southern white rhinos have successfully completed a journey from South Africa to Rwanda’s Akagera National Park. It’s the first international translocation from Platinum Rhino, a massive captive breeding operation that was put up for auction in 2023, after years of financial difficulties. When no bidders came forward, African Parks bought the 7,800-hectare property, which [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Seventy southern white rhinos have successfully completed a journey from South Africa to Rwanda’s Akagera National Park. It’s the first international translocation from Platinum Rhino, a massive captive breeding operation that was put up for auction in 2023, after years of financial difficulties. When no bidders came forward, African Parks bought the 7,800-hectare property, which sits 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Johannesburg, and its 2,000 rhinos — as well as giraffes, zebras and other species — for an undisclosed sum. Platinum Rhino was renamed Rhino Rewild. The rhinos represent around 15% of the world’s total population of white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum). African Parks’ Rhino Rewild Initiative aims to disperse the animals to safe, well-managed protected areas across Africa, creating new strongholds and bolstering existing populations. The first 40 rhinos were translocated from Rhino Rewild to Munywana Conservancy, a private game reserve in South Africa’s KwaZulu Natal province. Now, 70 rhinos have been moved to Akagera. A white rhino adjusts to its new home in Rwanda&#8217;s Akagera National Park. Image © Wiktoria West. “Akagera can potentially hold significant numbers of white rhino,” said Donovan Jooste, rhino rewilding project manager for African Parks. “This, in addition to the fact that Rwanda’s a stable country with a government that’s very supportive of our work, means this rhino population could be very important for the species’ long-term success. African Parks relocated a herd of 30 rhino to Akagera in 2021, which we’re thrilled to say has grown. This gives us comfort in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/seventy-southern-white-rhinos-arrive-at-their-new-home-in-rwanda-from-south-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300548</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia convicts trafficking accomplice in a Javan rhino poaching scandal</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/indonesia-convicts-trafficking-accomplice-in-a-javan-rhino-poaching-scandal/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/indonesia-convicts-trafficking-accomplice-in-a-javan-rhino-poaching-scandal/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2025 05:25:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Donny Iqbal]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/31180931/javan-rhino-courtesy-of-KLHK-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299700</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Asian Rhinos]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Java, Southeast Asia, and West Java]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Green, In-situ Conservation, Javan Rhinos, Mammals, Megafauna, Mongabay investigation, Poaching, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Rhinos, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia’s highest court has overturned the acquittal of an accused translator who facilitated transactions in the international trade of poached rhino horns. The Supreme Court in Indonesia recently sentenced 72-year-old Liem Hoo Kwan Willy to one year in prison for helping communications between an Indonesian trader and a Chinese buyer in the trafficking of Javan [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia’s highest court has overturned the acquittal of an accused translator who facilitated transactions in the international trade of poached rhino horns. The Supreme Court in Indonesia recently sentenced 72-year-old Liem Hoo Kwan Willy to one year in prison for helping communications between an Indonesian trader and a Chinese buyer in the trafficking of Javan rhino (Rhinoceros sondaicus) horns. The ruling is part of a year-long crackdown by Indonesian conservation authorities on international wildlife trade that stemmed from the discovery in 2024 of organized poaching of Javan rhinos in their only habitat, Ujung Kulon National Park, Banten province. The conservation director-general Satyawan Pudyatmoko praised the decision and the prosecutor’s efforts, saying it reinforces Indonesia’s commitment to protecting the Javan rhino by holding all parties in the illegal wildlife trade accountable. Liem Hoo Kwan Willy has been found guilty in an illegal Javan rhino trade. Image by Donny Iqbal/Mongabay-Indonesia. Willy was previously cleared of all charges by Banten’s Pandeglang District Court despite evidence such as phone records and texts linking him to the transactions and renting the Chinese buyer a room in his house. The lead judge on the three-member panel overruled his colleagues, arguing that Willy didn’t profit from facilitating the transactions of the rhino horns. Meanwhile, the same district court in July 2024 convicted and sentenced Yogi Purwadi, the Indonesian trader whom Willy helped with translations, to four and a half years in prison. The court a month earlier had also convicted and sentenced to a record 12 years&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/indonesia-convicts-trafficking-accomplice-in-a-javan-rhino-poaching-scandal/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299700</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists rediscover a Mexican rabbit they hadn’t seen in 120 years</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/scientists-rediscover-a-mexican-rabbit-they-hadnt-seen-in-120-years/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/scientists-rediscover-a-mexican-rabbit-they-hadnt-seen-in-120-years/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 May 2025 19:51:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Astrid Arellano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/23115111/RCNX0025-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299558</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Mammals, Rediscovered Species, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Footage captured in 2024 of a small rabbit hopping about in front of a camera trap had scientists baffled. The juvenile, with gray-brown fur and a black tail, didn’t resemble any known species in the Sierra Madre del Sur, in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero. Biologist Fernando Ruiz-Gutiérrez anxiously searched his records and consulted [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Footage captured in 2024 of a small rabbit hopping about in front of a camera trap had scientists baffled. The juvenile, with gray-brown fur and a black tail, didn’t resemble any known species in the Sierra Madre del Sur, in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero. Biologist Fernando Ruiz-Gutiérrez anxiously searched his records and consulted with colleagues to confirm his hypothesis. A few kilometers away, ecologist José Alberto Almazán-Catalán had the answer: having captured an adult specimen years earlier and conducted a series of studies, he now had irrefutable proof that the Omiltemi cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus insonus), believed to be extinct for the past 120 years, was still alive. The last time scientists knowingly encountered the Omiltemi cottontail was in 1904, when U.S. naturalist Edward William Nelson described it for the first time. Habitat loss, poaching and subsistence hunting have been the biggest threats to the species throughout its existence, which is why it took more than a century to rediscover the elusive rabbit, hidden in the forest. “It was very exciting to pin down an animal that we not only believed to be extinct but that also has an almost mythical quality, because the furs we have in Mexico are not as precise as we would like since they were not taken by a mammalogist but donated by campesinos [small-scale farmers],” says Almazán-Catalán, president of the Institute for the Management and Conservation of Biodiversity (INMACOB), a Mexican NGO. “We really weren’t sure this rabbit existed. It could’ve been an&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/scientists-rediscover-a-mexican-rabbit-they-hadnt-seen-in-120-years/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299558</doi>				</item>
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