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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/soil-carbon/</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 Soil Carbon</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/soil-carbon/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>South Africa’s new gold rush: Big promises, closed books in new carbon frontier</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/south-africas-new-gold-rush-big-promises-closed-books-in-new-carbon-frontier/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/south-africas-new-gold-rush-big-promises-closed-books-in-new-carbon-frontier/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Sep 2026 16:10:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Leonie Joubert]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/02171203/southern-greater-kudu-Tragelaphus-strepsiceros-strepsiceros-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=328407</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Market, Climate Change, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Forest Carbon, Landscape Restoration, Restoration, Soil Carbon, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the third article in Mongabay&#8217;s three-part investigation of spekboom-led ecosystem restoration in South Africa. This is part of an award-winning collaboration between independent science writer Leonie Joubert, the Stellenbosch University School for Climate Studies, and the Henry Nxumalo Foundation which supports investigative journalism in Africa. Read parts one and two. GQEBERHA, South Africa [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the third article in Mongabay&#8217;s three-part investigation of spekboom-led ecosystem restoration in South Africa. This is part of an award-winning collaboration between independent science writer Leonie Joubert, the Stellenbosch University School for Climate Studies, and the Henry Nxumalo Foundation which supports investigative journalism in Africa. Read parts one and two. GQEBERHA, South Africa — Browsed. Heavily browsed. Knackered. This farm camp is well on the knackered side of the degradation scale, threadbare after decades of heavy livestock pressure. But the single shrub at Nick Hamp-Adam’s feet may help change that. It just needs a second chance. This young spekboom plant (Portulacaria afra) is more stocky shrub than rooted cutting. It’s had more time than usual in the nursery to bulk up ahead of being released into the wild. But for the moment, it&#8217;s stricken on its side, roots exposed. Hamp-Adams, general manager for Return to Thicket, one of the smaller restoration projects in this nook of South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, is about to set things right. He sinks to his knees, finds a hand-sized stone and begins reopening the original planting hole. “Kudu, most likely …&#8221; His breath is metered by his efforts with the digging tool. “… came through …” Strike. “… grabbed it …” Strike. “… probably wasn&#8217;t planted deep enough.” Strike. He’s gentle when he rights the plant, taking care as he tamps the soil around its roots. Tough plants, generally. Don’t need much coddling. Except during planting. Treat them like babies during planting.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/south-africas-new-gold-rush-big-promises-closed-books-in-new-carbon-frontier/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-328407</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Laser scanning forests may boost carbon estimates, but credibility questions linger</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/laser-scanning-forests-may-boost-carbon-estimates-but-credibility-questions-linger/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/laser-scanning-forests-may-boost-carbon-estimates-but-credibility-questions-linger/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Jun 2026 14:55:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shradha Triveni]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/26115840/Overlay1-1-1-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321918</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Geology, Mapping, Research, Science, Soil Carbon, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Forests are natural carbon sinks. But as reforestation of degraded land is becoming a global climate solution, a persistent question lingers: How do we know how much carbon a forest is actually storing? Researchers say ground-based laser scanning, or LiDAR, could improve the efficiency of measuring the outcomes of reforestation. And a recent paper published [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Forests are natural carbon sinks. But as reforestation of degraded land is becoming a global climate solution, a persistent question lingers: How do we know how much carbon a forest is actually storing? Researchers say ground-based laser scanning, or LiDAR, could improve the efficiency of measuring the outcomes of reforestation. And a recent paper published in Ecological Solutions and Evidence found that LiDAR scanning in Australia offered an improvement over other methods of carbon estimation. LiDAR instruments emit thousands of tiny laser pulses to create complex and intricate 3D maps of a forest’ structure, allowing researchers to more accurately estimate how much carbon is contained in its trees. Co-author of the paper Alexander W. Cheesman, a senior research fellow at James Cook University, North Queensland, Australia, calls the technology “transformative.” “Traditional field surveys heavily relied on manually measuring the height and diameter of a relatively small number of trees. But laser scanning captures the whole forest in 360 degrees, recording every stem, every branch and the shape of the canopy,” Cheesman told Mongabay during a virtual interview over Google Meet. In Australia, the Full Carbon Accounting Model (FullCAM) is the government’s main tool to track carbon stored in soil and roots (belowground carbon) and vegetation (aboveground carbon). It is used for national greenhouse gas reporting to the United Nations and to assess carbon credit within the country, through the government’s Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) Scheme. Rather than directly measuring carbon, FullCAM simulates the movement of carbon through ecosystems by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/laser-scanning-forests-may-boost-carbon-estimates-but-credibility-questions-linger/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/laser-scanning-forests-may-boost-carbon-estimates-but-credibility-questions-linger/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321918</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ancient Maya knowledge helps Guatemalan farmers cut agrochemical use</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/ancient-maya-knowledge-helps-guatemalan-farmers-cut-agrochemical-use/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/ancient-maya-knowledge-helps-guatemalan-farmers-cut-agrochemical-use/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jun 2026 11:05:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mark Hillsdon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/09105544/Actividad-control-de-plagas-y-preparacion-de-insecticidas-caseros-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320767</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Crops, Farming, Indigenous Peoples, Pesticides, Pollinators, Soil Carbon, Solutions, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the mountain villages of Guatemala’s Western Highlands, farmers are combining ancient Maya knowledge with modern sustainable farming techniques to protect their crops from pests and disease. Smallholders are creating homemade biopesticides using plants with strong smells and flavors to deter pests on their family plots. This is helping to cut back on the use [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the mountain villages of Guatemala’s Western Highlands, farmers are combining ancient Maya knowledge with modern sustainable farming techniques to protect their crops from pests and disease. Smallholders are creating homemade biopesticides using plants with strong smells and flavors to deter pests on their family plots. This is helping to cut back on the use of increasingly expensive agrochemicals, many of which have been labeled as dangerous to human health and linked to soil degradation. About 60 Guatemalan communities in the Western Highland departments of Sololá and Huehuetenango, as well as Chiquimula in the east, are working to revive these traditional techniques with support from the international development organization World Neighbors. Their focus is to restore and strengthen traditional knowledge, combining it with agroecological practices that help families produce surplus food they can sell to boost household incomes. “Traditional farming techniques are becoming popular because they are simple practices to apply, use local resources, and have proven to be effective,” Dayani Roche, a program associate at World Neighbors, told Mongabay via email. Rather than a single ancient recipe, farmers are using “a living combination of ancestral knowledge, local experimentation and more recent agroecological practices,” he said, which are “safer for families, soil, water and biodiversity than many chemical alternatives.” The Maya civilization, which once stretched across modern-day Central America, had a rich history of farming dating back to 2000 B.C.E. Its most celebrated agriculture system is the milpa, a form of intercropping that involves a mix of maize, beans and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/ancient-maya-knowledge-helps-guatemalan-farmers-cut-agrochemical-use/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/ancient-maya-knowledge-helps-guatemalan-farmers-cut-agrochemical-use/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320767</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>After quinoa’s boom, Bolivian farmers face degraded soils and climate stress</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/after-quinoas-boom-bolivian-farmers-face-degraded-soils-and-climate-stress/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/after-quinoas-boom-bolivian-farmers-face-degraded-soils-and-climate-stress/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2026 15:15:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Benjamin Swift]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/13161907/Benjamin-Swift_DJI_0055-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319215</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Crops, Drought, Ecosystems, Environment, Farming, Fertilizers, Impact Of Climate Change, Monocultures, Planetary Boundaries, Precipitation, Regenerative production landscapes, Restoration, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[AROMA MARKA, Bolivia — The rolling hills around the town of Aroma Marka are a cacophony of colors: golden-yellow, deep-red and purplish-black quinoa pods smatter the otherwise barren landscape here in Bolivia’s southern Altiplano, the Andean Plateau. At 3,800 meters (about 12,500 feet) above sea level, the Altiplano stretches across much of western Bolivia and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[AROMA MARKA, Bolivia — The rolling hills around the town of Aroma Marka are a cacophony of colors: golden-yellow, deep-red and purplish-black quinoa pods smatter the otherwise barren landscape here in Bolivia’s southern Altiplano, the Andean Plateau. At 3,800 meters (about 12,500 feet) above sea level, the Altiplano stretches across much of western Bolivia and into Peru, Chile and Argentina. Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) has been grown on the Altiplano since pre-Hispanic times, but it was only recently that the nutrient-dense pseudocereal was put on the global map, fueling a production boom in the Andes. Prices later tumbled as countries outside the region also began cultivating it. Yet the striking scenery belies the lasting scars the 2010-2014 quinoa boom left in the region. At its height, sky-high prices triggered a production frenzy, drawing former residents back from cities to plant the “golden grain.” But Walter Canaviri, a quinoa producer and local leader, remembers that the sudden spike came at a cost. “Everyone wanted to produce more,” he told Mongabay. In the rush to capitalize on the moment, some growers encroached on neighbors’ lands, leading to disputes. “It was a sad time for this area because everyone turned against everyone,” he said. While the quinoa boom brought a temporary boon for rural Andean Indigenous communities, it also came with the destruction of local ecosystems, soil degradation, and social conflict – all of which have been exacerbated by changes in regional weather patterns and global climate change. Though Bolivian producers like Canaviri are&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/after-quinoas-boom-bolivian-farmers-face-degraded-soils-and-climate-stress/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/after-quinoas-boom-bolivian-farmers-face-degraded-soils-and-climate-stress/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319215</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cerrado’s hidden carbon highlights gaps in Brazil’s conservation policy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/cerrados-hidden-carbon-highlights-gaps-in-brazils-conservation-policy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/cerrados-hidden-carbon-highlights-gaps-in-brazils-conservation-policy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2026 09:47:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Daniel Shailer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/07093915/Foto1_GuilhermeAlencar-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318792</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Cerrado, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Governance, Grasslands, Planetary Boundaries, Protected Areas, Reforestation, Research, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Fieldwork in the wet grasslands of the Brazilian Cerrado often means long trudges through head-high reeds, following tapir trails and watching for tick nests or boggy pitfalls. All this is made more difficult when your equipment is not waterproof. So in February 2024, when a thunderstorm broke over Chapada dos Veadeiros, a national park in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Fieldwork in the wet grasslands of the Brazilian Cerrado often means long trudges through head-high reeds, following tapir trails and watching for tick nests or boggy pitfalls. All this is made more difficult when your equipment is not waterproof. So in February 2024, when a thunderstorm broke over Chapada dos Veadeiros, a national park in the northeast of Goiás state, ecologist Larissa Verona and her team sprinted for their truck. “The rain passed in about 10 minutes, but when we returned, we saw a fire had started right in the middle of the road,” presumably from a lightning strike, she tells Mongabay in a video call. “Oh my god, we need to go,” she recalls thinking. “We don’t want to be here when the fire chief arrives.” Wildfires have become increasingly more common in the Cerrado, Brazil’s second-biggest biome (after the Amazon), which sprawls across 2 million square kilometers (about 770,000 square miles) and hosts a mix of savannas, grasslands and forested corridors. In the past half-century, some 55% of the Cerrado’s native vegetation has been cleared — largely to support the expansion of industrial monocultures and often with the justification that this biome holds less environmental value than the Amazon Rainforest to the west or the Atlantic Forest to the southeast. This has resulted in degraded soils and dwindling groundwater. But draining and clearing vegetation from the Cerrado’s peaty, wet grasslands, known locally as veredas and campos úmidos, could also threaten a critical carbon stockpile, according to recent research.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/cerrados-hidden-carbon-highlights-gaps-in-brazils-conservation-policy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/cerrados-hidden-carbon-highlights-gaps-in-brazils-conservation-policy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318792</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Ancient’ carbon venting from lakes in the Congo Basin peatlands: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/ancient-carbon-venting-from-lakes-in-the-congo-basin-peatlands-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/ancient-carbon-venting-from-lakes-in-the-congo-basin-peatlands-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Mar 2026 13:35:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/30170255/9_dinghy-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316575</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Climate, Conservation, Forest Carbon, Forests, Lakes, Peatlands, Research, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Across the central Congo Basin lies a bastion of carbon that scientists are just beginning to understand. First mapped only about a decade ago, the Cuvette Centrale peatlands are the size of England and hold some 30 billion metric tons of carbon. Over thousands of years, the swampy conditions in this part of Central Africa [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Across the central Congo Basin lies a bastion of carbon that scientists are just beginning to understand. First mapped only about a decade ago, the Cuvette Centrale peatlands are the size of England and hold some 30 billion metric tons of carbon. Over thousands of years, the swampy conditions in this part of Central Africa have slowed the decay of plant matter falling from the forest above. The process leads to the development of peat, and the peatlands in the Congo Basin are the largest known repository in the tropics. Across the millennia, enormous amounts of carbon have built up and been stashed away inside the peat. Recent research now suggests that some of that very old carbon may be returning to the atmosphere through lakes that form amid peatlands — similar to the way smoke escapes a fireplace through a chimney, according to the authors. It’s a finding that opens new questions about how we account for the cycling of carbon through these ecosystems and the resulting influence on climate change. Water draining forested landscapes meets water draining savanna landscapes at this confluence between the Fimi and Kasaï rivers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The reddish color of the Kasaï River originates from the iron oxides associated with clays of suspended sediments transported by the river, which are more predominant in savanna compared to forest. The much darker color of the Fimi River, which drains Lake Mai Ndombe, stems from organic materials that leach from leaves and soils&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/ancient-carbon-venting-from-lakes-in-the-congo-basin-peatlands-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316575</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A South African reserve shows how carbon can catalyze rewilding conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-south-african-reserve-shows-how-carbon-can-catalyze-rewilding-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-south-african-reserve-shows-how-carbon-can-catalyze-rewilding-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Mar 2026 17:06:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/27145726/gemsbok-Oryx-gazella-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316455</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Forest Carbon, Payments For Ecosystem Services, Private Reserves, Rewilding, Savannas, Soil Carbon, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TSWALU KALAHARI RESERVE, South Africa — From high on a promontory in the Korannaberg Mountains, a mountain zebra (Equus zebra hartmannae) peers down to the west across the green-dappled plain below, the sun rising behind. In the distance, wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) hunt in the veld, verdant after early rains. And nearby, white rhinos (Ceratotherium [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TSWALU KALAHARI RESERVE, South Africa — From high on a promontory in the Korannaberg Mountains, a mountain zebra (Equus zebra hartmannae) peers down to the west across the green-dappled plain below, the sun rising behind. In the distance, wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) hunt in the veld, verdant after early rains. And nearby, white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum) graze among thorny thickets. These species, and dozens more, persist here thanks to a decades-long effort to rewild a sliver of Southern Africa’s great desert and dry savanna. The Tswalu Kalahari Reserve has become a sanctuary for rare and threatened animals, drawing in a steady stream of well-heeled tourists from around the globe. More recently, the reserve’s managers have embarked on a quest to increase the carbon stored in its soils — a quest that relies heavily on the reserve’s animals. At first glance, places like Tswalu might not seem suited for stockpiling carbon. The Tswana people call this part of the world Kgalagadi — “the waterless place.” Fickle precipitation in the Kalahari averages a scant 10-50 centimeters (4-20 inches) annually, and much less in some years. That means the comparative lushness here in late 2025 could evaporate if the rains don’t carry on throughout the austral summer of the Southern Hemisphere. To date, most nature-based carbon storage efforts have focused on fast-growing tropical forests, expanding native or plantation tree cover that draws carbon out of the atmosphere. Soil carbon, by contrast, is slower to accumulate, and it’s more laborious and expensive to monitor.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-south-african-reserve-shows-how-carbon-can-catalyze-rewilding-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-south-african-reserve-shows-how-carbon-can-catalyze-rewilding-conservation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316455</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Brazil, regenerative farming advances, but deforestation still pressures ecosystems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-brazil-regenerative-farming-advances-but-deforestation-still-pressures-ecosystems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-brazil-regenerative-farming-advances-but-deforestation-still-pressures-ecosystems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Mar 2026 16:58:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mie Hoejris Dahl]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/17165558/BANNER-UF17MGJ-25178_0047-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315826</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Cattle, Climate Change, Commodity agriculture, Conservation, Crops, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Ecosystems, Farming, Forest Destruction, Habitat Degradation, Industrial Agriculture, Pesticides, Ranching, Restoration, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SINOP, Brazil — In Brazil’s Mato Grosso state, the country’s agricultural heartland, vast stretches of lush Amazon rainforest and Cerrado savanna give way to seemingly endless fields of soy. Located in a transition zone where the Amazon and Cerrado meet the Pantanal wetlands, about 90% of the state’s area was once covered in native vegetation. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SINOP, Brazil — In Brazil’s Mato Grosso state, the country’s agricultural heartland, vast stretches of lush Amazon rainforest and Cerrado savanna give way to seemingly endless fields of soy. Located in a transition zone where the Amazon and Cerrado meet the Pantanal wetlands, about 90% of the state’s area was once covered in native vegetation. But from the 1970s onward, agricultural innovation and public policies — including subsidies that encouraged farmers to settle and clear land in Mato Grosso — allowed the agricultural frontier to advance rapidly, turning Mato Grosso into one of Brazil’s main farming powerhouses. The Amazon, the world’s largest tropical rainforest, covers about 60% of Brazil. The Cerrado, one of the world’s most expansive savannas, spans some 2 million square kilometers (772,000 square miles) of tropical grasslands, trees and watersheds that regulate rainfall patterns and temperatures. About a fifth of the Brazilian Amazon has been deforested since monitoring began in 1985, and nearly half of the native vegetation of the Cerrado biome has been cleared for cattle and soy. Some of Mato Grosso’s former vast soy fields and cattle pasture have been left degraded — eroded grasslands that function neither as forest nor productive farmland. At a Biancon Group farm in Mato Grosso’s Itaúba municipality, Ivan Biancon, co-owner of the family-owned agribusiness group, scoops soil into his hands and lets it fall. The soil, he says, is now healthy enough to grow cotton, corn and soy beans. When he and his brother, Igor, first arrived, “these were&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-brazil-regenerative-farming-advances-but-deforestation-still-pressures-ecosystems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-brazil-regenerative-farming-advances-but-deforestation-still-pressures-ecosystems/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315826</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>UN recognition is latest boost to restoring spekboom across South Africa’s semidesert Karoo</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/un-recognition-is-latest-boost-to-restoring-spekboom-across-south-africas-semidesert-karoo/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/un-recognition-is-latest-boost-to-restoring-spekboom-across-south-africas-semidesert-karoo/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Feb 2026 12:40:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Joe Walsh]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/17121000/20250610_UNEP-Decade-on-Ecosystem-Restoration_South-African-Thicket_Todd-Brown_31-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314351</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Credits, Conservation, Desertification, Deserts, Drought, Ecosystems, Environment, Landscape Restoration, Plants, Reforestation, Restoration, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“Spekboom is everywhere, it’s all anyone talks about … what used to be an Angora goat farming town is now a spekboom town,” says field ecologist Rae Attridge. In the past two years, Nat Carbon, the carbon project developer Attridge works for, has planted 10,000 hectares (nearly 25,000 acres) of spekboom in the Klein Karoo, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“Spekboom is everywhere, it’s all anyone talks about … what used to be an Angora goat farming town is now a spekboom town,” says field ecologist Rae Attridge. In the past two years, Nat Carbon, the carbon project developer Attridge works for, has planted 10,000 hectares (nearly 25,000 acres) of spekboom in the Klein Karoo, a semidesert region of South Africa. Their work is the first phase of an effort to restore 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of degraded land on five farms near Jansenville in Eastern Cape province. The company is one of more than 60 entities carrying out spekboom thicket restoration projects across 800,000 hectares (2 million acres), all loosely tied up under what the United Nations calls the Thicket Restoration Movement. The Subtropical Thicket Restoration Programme was started in 2004 by the South African government with $8 million of funding intended to catalyze large-scale investment into thicket restoration efforts in the region. These were the first green shoots of a growing collection of projects now recognized by the U.N. In 2009, researchers had planted spekboom (Porticularia afra) on 331 quarter-hectare plots scattered across over roughly 7.5 million hectares (18.5 million acres) of the biome to evaluate the potential for restoration. These earlier experiments found that thicker stems would increase survival rates, but watering at planting time had a negligible impact. It also found that animals, both wild and domestic, easily found their way to these small poorly protected plots. An Angora goat in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/un-recognition-is-latest-boost-to-restoring-spekboom-across-south-africas-semidesert-karoo/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/un-recognition-is-latest-boost-to-restoring-spekboom-across-south-africas-semidesert-karoo/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314351</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mapping underground fungal networks: Interview with SPUN’s Toby Kiers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/mapping-underground-fungal-networks-interview-with-spuns-toby-kiers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/mapping-underground-fungal-networks-interview-with-spuns-toby-kiers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Feb 2026 10:16:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sarahengel]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/10233608/Banner-Image-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314068</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central America, East Asia, Global, Latin America, Mongolia, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Fungi, Interviews, Plants, Research, Soil Carbon, Symbiotic Relationships, Technology, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[All around her, scientists had their eyes set on studying flora and fauna that lived aboveground. But Toby Kiers’s interest always lay in the oft-overlooked biodiversity that existed beneath it. It was the mysterious nature of the vast mycorrhizal fungal networks that so fascinated Kiers. “It’s so alive, but humble and quiet,” Kiers, an evolutionary [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[All around her, scientists had their eyes set on studying flora and fauna that lived aboveground. But Toby Kiers’s interest always lay in the oft-overlooked biodiversity that existed beneath it. It was the mysterious nature of the vast mycorrhizal fungal networks that so fascinated Kiers. “It’s so alive, but humble and quiet,” Kiers, an evolutionary biologist and co-founder of the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN), an organization that’s working to map mycorrhizal fungi around the world, told Mongabay in a video interview. Mycorrhizal fungi, found in almost every soil system on the planet, have a crucial symbiotic relationship with plants. They live on plant roots and extract nitrogen, phosphorus and water from the soil for the plants. The plants, in return, feed carbon dioxide absorbed during photosynthesis to the fungi, which need it for their growth. As a result, a massive amount of CO2 — more than 13 billion metric tons, according to a 2023 study — moves from plants to these fungal networks, making them a crucial tool in carbon sequestration. But there’s more to it than meets the eye. The movement of nutrients and carbon between plants and fungal networks is a calculated barter system in which the fungal networks allocate nutrients for plants based on how much they get in return. “We still don’t understand how they are doing it,” Kiers said. “It’s almost like watching the best poker players in the world play a game of poker.” To understand more about these complicated&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/mapping-underground-fungal-networks-interview-with-spuns-toby-kiers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/mapping-underground-fungal-networks-interview-with-spuns-toby-kiers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314068</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pesticides found in 70% of European soils, harming beneficial life: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/pesticides-found-in-70-of-european-soils-harming-beneficial-life-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/pesticides-found-in-70-of-european-soils-harming-beneficial-life-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Feb 2026 19:29:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/06190852/header-Plump_Springtail_iNat_105831052_-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313903</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Chemicals, Environment, Fungi, Green, Insects, Pesticides, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For farmers, sometimes the easiest way to save a crop or prevent catastrophic insect damage is to spray a pesticide. But this common practice is wreaking havoc on the soil, according to new research published recently in the journal Nature. The study examined soil from 26 European countries, finding that pesticide contamination is widespread beyond [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For farmers, sometimes the easiest way to save a crop or prevent catastrophic insect damage is to spray a pesticide. But this common practice is wreaking havoc on the soil, according to new research published recently in the journal Nature. The study examined soil from 26 European countries, finding that pesticide contamination is widespread beyond agricultural lands and substantially damages the beneficial soil organisms essential for healthy ecosystems. Researchers found pesticide residues in 70% of the 373 soil samples collected from agricultural fields, grasslands and forests. The contamination emerged as the second-strongest factor shaping soil biodiversity patterns, surpassed only by basic soil properties like texture and pH. &#8220;This contamination has a major impact on various beneficial soil organisms, such as mycorrhizal fungi and nematodes, impairing their biodiversity,&#8221; Marcel van der Heijden, a professor at the University of Zurich&#8217;s Department of Plant and Microbial Biology and one of the study&#8217;s lead authors, said in a statement. Mycorrhizal fungi form partnerships with the roots of plants and generally help plants obtain minerals and water from soil. Image by Wilhelm Zimmerling PAR via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Mycorrhizal fungi, which form partnerships with plant roots to help crops absorb water and nutrients, were among the organisms most affected by pesticide exposure. The fungicide bixafen, commonly used to combat harmful fungi on cereal crops, proved especially damaging to multiple types of soil organisms studied. The harmful effects of pesticides on birds, bees and other insects have been well documented. However, impacts on soil&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/pesticides-found-in-70-of-european-soils-harming-beneficial-life-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/pesticides-found-in-70-of-european-soils-harming-beneficial-life-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313903</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Blew us away’: Researchers find nitrogen boost spurs faster tropical forest growth</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/blew-us-away-researchers-find-nitrogen-boost-spurs-faster-tropical-forest-growth/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/blew-us-away-researchers-find-nitrogen-boost-spurs-faster-tropical-forest-growth/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2026 17:10:05 +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/20/2026/01/30081255/c-A-root-nodule-on-a-legume-tree-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313530</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Global, Latin America, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Sequestration, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Nitrogen Cycle, Reforestation, Research, Restoration, Soil Carbon, Tropical Conservation Science, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Regenerating tropical forests pull carbon dioxide from the air, but a lack of nitrogen in the soil could slow this process, a new Nature Communications study has found. Restoring tropical forests is widely seen as one of the most important ways to mitigate climate change, but scientists still don’t fully understand how nutrient availability may [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Regenerating tropical forests pull carbon dioxide from the air, but a lack of nitrogen in the soil could slow this process, a new Nature Communications study has found. Restoring tropical forests is widely seen as one of the most important ways to mitigate climate change, but scientists still don’t fully understand how nutrient availability may constrain tree growth. That means we can’t really predict how quickly regenerating forests will accumulate carbon. Both nitrogen and phosphorus are critical for plant growth, but when forested land is cleared, nitrogen in disturbed soils can evaporate or wash away. Phosphorus is also thought to be limited in many tropical soils. Now, a large-scale experiment in Panama finds that a lack of nitrogen in soil limits the early stages of tropical forest regrowth. When researchers added nitrogen to recently cleared land, the trees grew nearly twice as fast. Recovering forest in Panama. Image by Wenguang Tang. The finding “totally blew us away” says study author Sarah Batterman, an ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and associate professor at the University of Leeds. “We didn&#8217;t realize that nitrogen could be that important in tropical forests, and the fact that the forest grew back twice as fast in the first decade was just kind of amazing.” The study took place within the Panama Canal Watershed in lowland tropical forest. To understand the impact of nutrient availability on tree growth, the researchers applied nitrogen and phosphorus, alone or in combination, to forest plots at different stages&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/blew-us-away-researchers-find-nitrogen-boost-spurs-faster-tropical-forest-growth/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313530</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Earth Rover Program seeks to track the world’s soil health</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/earth-rover-program-seeks-to-track-the-worlds-soil-health/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/earth-rover-program-seeks-to-track-the-worlds-soil-health/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Jan 2026 18:02:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/21162907/Women_smallholder_farmers_in_Kenya-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313172</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Degraded Lands, Earth Science, Environment, Food, Forest Carbon, Research, Science, Soil Carbon, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With a synchronized tap from run-of-the-mill hammers on metal plates resting on the ground, researchers kneeling in nine fields across four continents believe they’ve hit upon more than just the earth beneath their feet. “Waiting for it,” someone said. And then, “Waveforms!” “Excellent, waveforms!” another said, as the tiles on screen reveal EKG-like sets of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[With a synchronized tap from run-of-the-mill hammers on metal plates resting on the ground, researchers kneeling in nine fields across four continents believe they’ve hit upon more than just the earth beneath their feet. “Waiting for it,” someone said. And then, “Waveforms!” “Excellent, waveforms!” another said, as the tiles on screen reveal EKG-like sets of squiggles on laptops and smartphones from each of the locations. The video promotes the Earth Rover Program, a new effort to glean critical details about the soil from the way that a hammer tap tickles a set of sensors. It’s early days for the project. But its global team is working to bring the tools of seismology — known affectionately as “the science of the squiggle,” said co-founder Simon Jeffery — to bear on teasing apart the global puzzle of soil health. Jeffery and his fellow founders, geophysicist Tarje Nissen-Meyer and journalist George Monbiot, have staked out a far-reaching ambition to map soils with a cost-effective technology. They say they hope the program will equip farmers the world over with a better set of tools to grow crops and ensure that soils will remain healthy long into the future. “If we don’t have soil, then we don’t have the wonderful aboveground ecosystems that the vast majority of us enjoy so much,” Jeffery, a professor of soil ecology at Harper Adams University in the U.K., told Mongabay in an interview. He’s quick to point out that soil — the accumulated minerals, organic matter, droplets of liquid&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/earth-rover-program-seeks-to-track-the-worlds-soil-health/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/earth-rover-program-seeks-to-track-the-worlds-soil-health/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313172</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ditches on peatland oil palm plantations are an overlooked source of methane: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/ditches-on-peatland-oil-palm-plantations-are-an-overlooked-source-of-methane-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/ditches-on-peatland-oil-palm-plantations-are-an-overlooked-source-of-methane-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Dec 2025 14:18:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/30075343/Tropical-peatland-clearance-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312273</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Malaysia, Southeast Asia, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Methane, Peatlands, Politics, Research, Soil Carbon, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The water-filled ditches that laced through the oil palm plantation in Sarawak, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo, nagged at Kuno Kasak when he saw them in 2022. He knew that these canals, used to draw water out of spongy peatlands to make them suitable for agriculture, had been shown to be sources [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The water-filled ditches that laced through the oil palm plantation in Sarawak, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo, nagged at Kuno Kasak when he saw them in 2022. He knew that these canals, used to draw water out of spongy peatlands to make them suitable for agriculture, had been shown to be sources of methane. But just how much remains an open question, with too few data points to make estimates with certainty. Though methane dissipates more quickly in the atmosphere than CO2, it’s more than 20 times more effective at trapping heat. It’s also responsible for nearly a third of the global temperature rise since the industrial revolution, making accurate methane accounting imperative for addressing climate change. Kasak, a professor of environmental technology at Estonia’s University of Tartu, is the lead author of a recent study in which he and his colleagues report that methane from these drainage canals accounted for as much as 10% of the total greenhouse gases from a given hectare of the oil palm plantations they studied. At the same time, the ditches covered no more than 4% of the plantations’ total area. “This is significant because it means that previous estimates of emissions from drained peatlands likely underestimate the contribution from ditches, which are often ignored in global carbon accounting,” Kasak told Mongabay in an email. They also found that the ditches were sources of CO2. One of the oil palm plantations where Kasak and his colleagues sampled emissions from drainage ditches.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/ditches-on-peatland-oil-palm-plantations-are-an-overlooked-source-of-methane-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/ditches-on-peatland-oil-palm-plantations-are-an-overlooked-source-of-methane-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312273</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Huge ‘blue carbon’ offsetting project takes root in the mangroves of Sierra Leone</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/huge-blue-carbon-offsetting-project-takes-root-in-the-mangroves-of-sierra-leone/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/huge-blue-carbon-offsetting-project-takes-root-in-the-mangroves-of-sierra-leone/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Dec 2025 20:15:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward CarverMohamed Fofanah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/23151914/4-Community-members-plant-red-mangrove-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311956</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Blue Carbon, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Offsets, Carbon Sequestration, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Carbon, Governance, Islands, Mangroves, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Restoration, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BONTHE, Sierra Leone — On the island of Sherbro in Sierra Leone, as in much of the country, there’s limited access to vital services needed to make ends meet. “Here our people only rely on fishing and a few on agriculture and have nothing else to occupy our children, our youths,” Nenneh Sumaila, the chief [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BONTHE, Sierra Leone — On the island of Sherbro in Sierra Leone, as in much of the country, there’s limited access to vital services needed to make ends meet. “Here our people only rely on fishing and a few on agriculture and have nothing else to occupy our children, our youths,” Nenneh Sumaila, the chief of Gbomgboma, a village of about 300 people on the island, told Mongabay. “There are no good roads, no proper health facilities, there’s poor housing, electricity is a dream and the standard of living is poor.” One of the ways to make ends meet in Gbomgboma is by cultivating oil palm trees. But to process the fruit into palm oil, they need fuel for fire, which often comes from mangroves — one of many local uses for the wood. Cutting mangroves unsustainably turns them from a carbon sink into a source of greenhouse gas emissions and hurts their ability to foster biodiversity and provide other ecosystem services. “Blue carbon” projects aim to reverse this trend, and one called the Sherbro River Estuary Project has just been launched with more than 124 communities there. A wholly owned subsidiary of West Africa Blue, a Mauritius-based company, reportedly signed a deal with the communities in October that will reward them financially for conserving and restoring their mangroves. Company representatives told Mongabay that the funds will be generated by selling offsets on the voluntary carbon credit market, with revenues shared between West Africa Blue, the communities and the government&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/huge-blue-carbon-offsetting-project-takes-root-in-the-mangroves-of-sierra-leone/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/huge-blue-carbon-offsetting-project-takes-root-in-the-mangroves-of-sierra-leone/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311956</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Statewide survey aims to put California’s fungi on the conservation map</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/statewide-survey-aims-to-put-californias-fungi-on-the-conservation-map/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/statewide-survey-aims-to-put-californias-fungi-on-the-conservation-map/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Dec 2025 13:08:41 +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/20/2025/12/19121458/Image_2-LAPTOP-7JODAAGR-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311724</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Citizen Science, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, data, DNA, Drought, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Fires, Forests, Fungi, Nitrogen Cycle, Plants, Soil Carbon, Species, Species Discovery, Surveying, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Getting to The Cedars, an ecological preserve in California’s Sonoma county, is a slog. Multiple rivers and creeks must be crossed, and it can be tough going on an often storm-destroyed road. But it’s home to a rich diversity of species found nowhere else on Earth that are uniquely adapted to serpentine soil, composed of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Getting to The Cedars, an ecological preserve in California’s Sonoma county, is a slog. Multiple rivers and creeks must be crossed, and it can be tough going on an often storm-destroyed road. But it’s home to a rich diversity of species found nowhere else on Earth that are uniquely adapted to serpentine soil, composed of decomposed rock and rich in heavy metals. If you’re a fungi collector, it’s well worth the trip. Over the past two years, a dedicated team of mycologists — specialists in the study of fungi — and experienced mushroom collectors have combed California’s forests, rivers and mountains in often remote locations such as this, searching for and collecting fungi. Those making the arduous journey out to The Cedars have identified more than 100 new species, 25 of which are only known from the area. They snapped photos, which were then uploaded with all pertinent data to iNaturalist, a citizen scientist biodiversity database. Collections have been sent to labs where scientists extracted DNA for sequencing. Dried specimens are stored for safe keeping at California State University, East Bay, and the University of California, Los Angeles. This is part of an expansive effort to map the state’s fungal diversity, which has yielded thousands of specimens and is the first of its kind in North America, says Harte Singer, who heads genetic research at the California Fungal Diversity Survey (CA FUNDIS). The CA FUNDIS team collected thousands of fungi species from across California. Many of those collected are undescribed.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/statewide-survey-aims-to-put-californias-fungi-on-the-conservation-map/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/statewide-survey-aims-to-put-californias-fungi-on-the-conservation-map/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311724</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Banned for years, dangerous pesticides persist in Nigerian farming</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/banned-for-years-dangerous-pesticides-persist-in-nigerian-farming/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/banned-for-years-dangerous-pesticides-persist-in-nigerian-farming/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Dec 2025 20:15:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Samuel Ogunsona]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/12115728/Nigeria-women-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311227</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Nigeria, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Chemicals, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Farming, Health, Pesticides, Pollution, Public Health, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The sun rises over lush farm fields of on the outskirts of Lagos. For more than 20 years, a farmer named Joe has tilled the land, coaxing life from the earth and reaping bountiful harvests. But here, beneath the surface of this idyllic scene, lies a complex web of challenges — chief among them, the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The sun rises over lush farm fields of on the outskirts of Lagos. For more than 20 years, a farmer named Joe has tilled the land, coaxing life from the earth and reaping bountiful harvests. But here, beneath the surface of this idyllic scene, lies a complex web of challenges — chief among them, the relentless threat of pests. Joe’s story is one of trial and error, of desperation and loss, and of the unintended consequences of relying on chemical pesticides. “I planted scent leaf [African basil] on my farmland, it started germinating … that was the beginning and first time planting such seedlings, so I didn’t know how tough it could be,” Joe recalls, his voice laced with a mix of frustration and resignation while speaking to Mongabay. He notes an abundance of aphids and caterpillars on his plants, which present a constant challenge. “I came to my farmland one fateful morning and I saw a lot of insects flying around my farm,” he says. “They have taken over my scent leaf. That incident resulted in total loss of my investment because no one could buy that produce.” That experience marked a turning point in his farming career. Desperate to protect his livelihood, Joe turned to chemical pesticides, convinced they held the key to safeguarding his crops. But the pesticides that promised to save Joe’s crops have become a double-edged sword for him. The substances he used are called organochlorine pesticides, which have been linked to soil degradation, the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/banned-for-years-dangerous-pesticides-persist-in-nigerian-farming/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/banned-for-years-dangerous-pesticides-persist-in-nigerian-farming/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311227</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Why Sweden’s forest policy matters to the world (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/why-swedens-forest-policy-matters-to-the-world-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/why-swedens-forest-policy-matters-to-the-world-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Nov 2025 23:04:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Emil Siekkinen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/06/17195817/MarcusWestberg-5-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309137</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, European Union, Global, and Sweden]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, boreal forests, Business, carbon, Climate, Climate Change, Commentary, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forestry, Forests, Soil Carbon, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The deep, dark forests of northern Europe supplied people with wood, timber and food for millennia. They gave rise to myths, legends and fairy tales, and offered refuge to the persecuted. Over time, though, the forests themselves became subjugated, forced to submit to the will of humankind as forestry turned into a mighty machinery. Sweden [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The deep, dark forests of northern Europe supplied people with wood, timber and food for millennia. They gave rise to myths, legends and fairy tales, and offered refuge to the persecuted. Over time, though, the forests themselves became subjugated, forced to submit to the will of humankind as forestry turned into a mighty machinery. Sweden is one of the world’s largest exporters of forest-based products: paper, timber, cardboard and biofuels travel across the globe, ending up in your packaging, your books, in your homes. Decisions made in Sweden about how forests are managed ripple outward far beyond the kingdom&#8217;s borders. That is why the Swedish government’s recent forestry inquiry should matter not just to those living in Sweden, but to anyone concerned about the global climate crisis. The inquiry’s central message is clear: increase forest growth, harvest more biomass, and thereby contribute to the green transition. This might sound promising. More trees mean more carbon absorbed, more wood products to replace unsustainable products. But the plan overlooks the most important part of the forest: the soil. Sweden&#8217;s oldest boreal forests are carpeted with berries and lichens, which reindeer rely on for winter forage. Photo courtesy of Staffan Widstrand. Most of the carbon in a forest is not in the trees we see, but locked into the ground, in roots, humus, fungi, microbes, and the intricate networks of life below. When forestry is intensified — through shorter rotation times, clear-cutting, heavy machines compacting the earth, and the removal of branches and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/why-swedens-forest-policy-matters-to-the-world-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/why-swedens-forest-policy-matters-to-the-world-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309137</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Report identifies 10 emerging tech solutions to enhance planetary health</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/report-identifies-ten-emerging-tech-solutions-to-enhance-planetary-health/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/report-identifies-ten-emerging-tech-solutions-to-enhance-planetary-health/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Nov 2025 21:41:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Julian Reingold]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/03121034/0-Banner-image-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308719</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Conservation Technology, data, Ecosystems, Energy, Environment, Food Waste, Infrastructure, Innovation, Planetary Health, Research, Restoration, Soil Carbon, Solutions, Sustainability, Technology, Water, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In a world deluged by dire environmental news and seemingly short on scalable solutions, a recent report spotlights 10 breakthrough technological innovations that could accelerate global efforts to tackle climate change, restore ecosystems, build long-term resilience, and improve planetary health. This inaugural report was researched and published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and open [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In a world deluged by dire environmental news and seemingly short on scalable solutions, a recent report spotlights 10 breakthrough technological innovations that could accelerate global efforts to tackle climate change, restore ecosystems, build long-term resilience, and improve planetary health. This inaugural report was researched and published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and open science publisher Frontiers. “From breakthroughs in clean energy and resource efficiency, to innovations in materials, agriculture and ecosystem restoration, these solutions have the potential to address and mitigate key drivers of planetary boundary transgressions,” said Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and chair of the Frontiers Planet Prize&#8217;s Jury of 100. Of course, no single technology can solve the complex environmental challenges humanity faces, Rockström noted, but a suite of emerging technologies offers new ways of transforming economies within Earth&#8217;s safe operating space. Three tech solutions highlighted here in this article include: timely and specific Earth observation (conducted via AI data synthesis); automated food waste upcycling (turning scraps into valued resources); and green concrete (transforming global construction). The seven other tech solutions found in the report are precision fermentation (to create animal-free proteins); green ammonia production (for decarbonizing synthetic fertilizer manufacture); methane capture and utilization (converting a potent greenhouse gas into a valuable resource); next-gen bi-direction charging (making stored battery power more flexible); modular geothermal energy (scaling up renewable heat and electricity); regeneration desalination (to recover lost resources and deliver clean water); and soil health technology convergence (restoring soil health&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/report-identifies-ten-emerging-tech-solutions-to-enhance-planetary-health/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/report-identifies-ten-emerging-tech-solutions-to-enhance-planetary-health/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308719</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>There’s far less land available for reforestation than we think, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/theres-far-less-land-available-for-reforestation-than-we-think-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/theres-far-less-land-available-for-reforestation-than-we-think-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Oct 2025 15:08:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/02142050/AP25212528587062-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306964</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, data, Deforestation, Ecology, Environment, food security, Food Vs Forests Debate, Forest Carbon, Forests, Fossil Fuels, Land Use Change, Mammals, Mapping, Plants, Rainforests, Reforestation, Remote Sensing, Research, Soil Carbon, Solutions, Trees, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, Water, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Josep “Pep” Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project, says he believes countries large and small need to think twice before pledging to collectively plant billions of trees as a primary emissions-reduction strategy to meet climate action goals. “We have somehow sold reforestation as a kind of easier path [to fighting climate change], and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Josep “Pep” Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project, says he believes countries large and small need to think twice before pledging to collectively plant billions of trees as a primary emissions-reduction strategy to meet climate action goals. “We have somehow sold reforestation as a kind of easier path [to fighting climate change], and it’s not easy at all,” Canadell told Mongabay. “In my view, it’s not even easier than carbon capture and storage, a technology we’re still developing. That’s because when you bring humans into landscapes and try managing landscapes where people live, all of a sudden, this stuff becomes very complex.” Canadell is the co-author of a new study in Science that found, among other things, that the amount of land deemed suitable for newly planted and restored forests — an area roughly the size of India — quickly shrinks by as much as two-thirds when taking into account adverse impacts on biodiversity, food security and water resources. The study used new modeling tools to create global maps of soil carbon change that show carbon gains and losses, especially in topsoil. Researchers mapped the global carbon sequestration rates after forestation based on existing tree-planting pledges, then compared that with the realistic limits of those pledges. They also sorted through permanent land use changes after deforestation — for agriculture and ranching, for example — and recognized that ever returning those lands to forests was highly unlikely. In real terms, the study found that the potential to store an&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/theres-far-less-land-available-for-reforestation-than-we-think-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/theres-far-less-land-available-for-reforestation-than-we-think-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306964</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Warming triggers unprecedented carbon loss from tropical soils, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/warming-triggers-unprecedented-carbon-loss-from-tropical-soils-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/warming-triggers-unprecedented-carbon-loss-from-tropical-soils-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Sep 2025 15:34:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claire Asher]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/15140515/39704576121_1a126c447b_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305963</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, North America, Puerto Rico, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Research, Soil Carbon, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Climate warming could cause much greater soil carbon losses in the tropics than previously predicted, with potentially dire consequences for the global climate, according to a new study published in Nature Communications. Tropical forests store around a third of the world’s soil carbon and exchange more CO2 with the atmosphere than any other land biome. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Climate warming could cause much greater soil carbon losses in the tropics than previously predicted, with potentially dire consequences for the global climate, according to a new study published in Nature Communications. Tropical forests store around a third of the world’s soil carbon and exchange more CO2 with the atmosphere than any other land biome. So even a relatively small shift in the balance of carbon uptake and release by tropical soils could have a big impact on atmospheric CO2 levels and the world’s climate. Air temperatures in the tropics are predicted to increase by as much as 6° Celsius (10.8° Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, but how this will impact soil carbon stores is largely unknown. “Tropical forests house the majority of the world&#8217;s biodiversity, but they’re also these incredible biogeochemical engines that cycle huge amounts of carbon into and out of the atmosphere,” says Tana Wood, the study’s lead author and an ecosystem ecologist and biogeochemist at the USDA Forest Service’s International Institute of Tropical Forestry. The prevailing scientific view was that tropical ecosystems would be less sensitive to warming than those in higher latitudes. As a result, research on soil responses to warming in the tropics has lagged behind studies in temperate and Arctic ecosystems. To date, only two long-term field experiments have investigated how tropical soils respond to warming. One of these, which warmed soils in a Panama tropical forest, reported a 55% increase in soil CO2 emissions after two years. Now, results from&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/warming-triggers-unprecedented-carbon-loss-from-tropical-soils-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/warming-triggers-unprecedented-carbon-loss-from-tropical-soils-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305963</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Soil carbon: Crucial ally or potential threat to net-zero commitments?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/soil-carbon-crucial-ally-or-potential-threat-to-net-zero-commitments/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/soil-carbon-crucial-ally-or-potential-threat-to-net-zero-commitments/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Sep 2025 15:17:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claire Asher]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/03093438/0-BANNER-8053614949_982fecf12d_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305321</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, data, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Fossil Fuels, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Industrial Agriculture, Land Use Change, Politics, Research, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The daily destruction of nature’s carbon stores is happening right before our eyes, as forests are ravaged by catastrophic wildfires and vast tracts of wildlands are cleared for agriculture. But even greater stores of carbon lie hidden beneath our feet, and they too are under threat. The world’s soils are a gigantic carbon sink that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The daily destruction of nature’s carbon stores is happening right before our eyes, as forests are ravaged by catastrophic wildfires and vast tracts of wildlands are cleared for agriculture. But even greater stores of carbon lie hidden beneath our feet, and they too are under threat. The world’s soils are a gigantic carbon sink that has so far played a vital, outsized role in mitigating humanity’s excessive carbon emissions. But climate change, industrialized agriculture and other human activities threaten to degrade global soil carbon storage — maybe dangerously so. Preserving the ecosystem services of this subterranean environment is crucial to meeting global net zero commitments. The global soil carbon sink: An uncertain future Earth’s top 2 meters (6 feet) of soil contain an astonishing 2.5 trillion metric tons of carbon — more than is held in living vegetation and the atmosphere combined. But this is not a static store: Soils are constantly gaining and losing carbon as plants, fungi, bacteria and animals act upon them. An estimated 60 billion metric tons of carbon flow in and out of the soil every year, more than three times the scale of human emissions. “That flux in and out of the soils can be the biggest determinant of atmospheric CO2 levels,” says Jonathan Sanderman, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center in the U.S. But as the climate warms, the balance of carbon flowing in and out of soil is being disrupted, with potentially disastrous consequences. Estimates suggest that global soils&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/soil-carbon-crucial-ally-or-potential-threat-to-net-zero-commitments/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/soil-carbon-crucial-ally-or-potential-threat-to-net-zero-commitments/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305321</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Global warming is altering storms lightning, impacting tropical forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/global-warming-is-altering-storms-lightning-impacting-tropical-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/global-warming-is-altering-storms-lightning-impacting-tropical-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jul 2025 14:37:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/23144404/Adobe-Express-file-8-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303045</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, North America, South America, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Disasters, Extreme Weather, Fires, Forest Carbon, Forests, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Soil Carbon, Storms, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A climate change-induced surge in brief but intense thunderstorms poses a growing but underrecognized threat to trees in tropical forests, a finding that could have major implications for carbon storage and tropical biodiversity under future global warming scenarios. That’s according to a recently published paper, which determines that short-lived but powerful convective storms — combining [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A climate change-induced surge in brief but intense thunderstorms poses a growing but underrecognized threat to trees in tropical forests, a finding that could have major implications for carbon storage and tropical biodiversity under future global warming scenarios. That’s according to a recently published paper, which determines that short-lived but powerful convective storms — combining high winds with lightning — have become a major driver of tree mortality in Panama and elsewhere in the tropics. Researchers estimate storm activity may already cause 30 to 60% of tree mortality in tropical forests globally. Concerningly, that percentage is likely to rise, with data showing tropical storm activity increasing 5-25% every decade, according to study lead author Evan Gora, a forest ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. “If storms are [already] this major driver of mortality as a baseline, and storm activity is [also] increasing, then that would suggest that storms are killing a lot more trees,” Gora says. But, as the paper notes, there are still limited data from around the tropics with most work on storm impacts concentrated in Panama, Brazil and Borneo. Yet for Gora, his team’s findings coincide with observations that tree mortality has been increasing over the past several decades in the Amazon and Australia, suggesting storms may be playing a role. Research suggests that tree mortality due to lightning may be lower in Central African forests compared with other tropical regions, says Bianca Zoletto. There are still high levels of uncertainty as to how intensifying&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/global-warming-is-altering-storms-lightning-impacting-tropical-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/global-warming-is-altering-storms-lightning-impacting-tropical-forests/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303045</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Borneo project hopes to prove that forests and oil palms can coexist</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/borneo-project-hopes-to-prove-that-forests-and-oil-palms-can-coexist/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/borneo-project-hopes-to-prove-that-forests-and-oil-palms-can-coexist/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 May 2025 00:50:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Louise Hunt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/14235348/RIV_0908-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299033</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Ecosystems, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Habitat, Industrial Agriculture, Landscape Restoration, Palm Oil, Plantations, Primates, Rainforests, Reforestation, Restoration, Soil Carbon, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Kinabatangan River is the last major area in Malaysian Borneo’s Sabah state with a semblance of forest corridor linking the interior rainforest with mangroves on the east coast, according to Marc Ancrenaz, scientific director of Sabah-based NGO Hutan. It’s a hub for biodiversity, with orangutans, proboscis monkeys and pygmy elephants among the threatened species [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Kinabatangan River is the last major area in Malaysian Borneo’s Sabah state with a semblance of forest corridor linking the interior rainforest with mangroves on the east coast, according to Marc Ancrenaz, scientific director of Sabah-based NGO Hutan. It’s a hub for biodiversity, with orangutans, proboscis monkeys and pygmy elephants among the threatened species that dwell there. But most of the floodplain has been converted to agriculture, mainly oil palm, leaving a “very fragmented, very degraded,” landscape, Ancrenaz says. “We still have about 50,000 hectares [124,000 acres] of protected forest on both sides of the river, but they are isolated from one another, so a lot of wildlife is stuck in these forest islands. Unfortunately, they are not enough to sustain viable populations of orangutan and other species,” says Ancrenaz, who co-founded the community-based environmental NGO with Isabelle Lackman 30 years ago with a mission to conserve Borneo’s iconic wildlife. At 560 kilometers (350 miles), the Kinabatangan is Malaysia&#8217;s second-longest river. Image by Alain Rival/TRAILS Monoculture oil palm plantations expanded rapidly in Malaysia and Indonesia in recent decades. While they’ve been a commercial success, the large-scale deforestation of rainforest and peatlands that they’ve wrought has damaged biodiversity and ecosystems. “We know we need to diversify this landscape. So far, the oil palm industry views other trees as competitors, that’s why they go for monoculture,” Ancrenaz says. But this mindset is starting to shift, as agroforestry, in which crops and livestock are grown among native trees and shrubs, is gaining&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/borneo-project-hopes-to-prove-that-forests-and-oil-palms-can-coexist/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/borneo-project-hopes-to-prove-that-forests-and-oil-palms-can-coexist/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299033</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New research finds substantial peat deposits in Colombia’s conflicted Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/new-research-finds-substantial-peat-deposits-in-colombias-conflicted-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/new-research-finds-substantial-peat-deposits-in-colombias-conflicted-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Apr 2025 19:48:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Erik Iverson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Amazon]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/23113910/banner-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298059</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Sequestration, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Carbon, Freshwater, Governance, Peatlands, Research, Satellite Imagery, Soil Carbon, Tropical Forests, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the heart of the Colombian Amazon, the towering mountains of the Serranía del Chiribiquete harbor secrets including South America’s oldest rock art. The remote site was off-limits and poorly known for decades, as Chiribiquete National Park was also a stronghold for the guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Now, in the wake of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the heart of the Colombian Amazon, the towering mountains of the Serranía del Chiribiquete harbor secrets including South America’s oldest rock art. The remote site was off-limits and poorly known for decades, as Chiribiquete National Park was also a stronghold for the guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Now, in the wake of a shaky peace process that has provided greater security and access to some regions, the park is revealing another secret: In the shadow of the mountains lie some of the densest peat deposits in South America. Peat is the accumulation of partially decayed organic matter in wetlands, compressed by time into dense soils that store more carbon per hectare than any other type of landscape. When left undisturbed, peatlands grow slowly every year, locking away carbon in low-oxygen water that prevents full decomposition. But when people drain and dry peatlands for agriculture, they can become “carbon bombs,” rapidly releasing massive amounts of planet-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The burning of huge peat areas in Indonesia in recent years has covered the country in smoke and made it one of the world’s worst carbon emitters from land use change. A new study, published in Environmental Research Letters, reveals that peatlands in Colombia — poorly known before now — are widespread and carbon-dense, making the country the site of South America’s largest known reserves, after Peru. Carried out with painstaking ground-truthing amid a fluctuating security situation, the study highlights the need to understand and conserve these&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/new-research-finds-substantial-peat-deposits-in-colombias-conflicted-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/new-research-finds-substantial-peat-deposits-in-colombias-conflicted-amazon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298059</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Beyond reforestation, let’s try ‘proforestation’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/beyond-reforestation-lets-try-proforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/beyond-reforestation-lets-try-proforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Mar 2025 16:39:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sruthi Gurudev]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/26162107/Pinus-strobus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296518</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Sequestration, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forest Destruction, Forestry, Forests, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Logging, Old Growth Forests, Protected Areas, Reforestation, Soil Carbon, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Edward Faison, an ecologist at the Highstead Foundation, stood quietly in a patch of forest that stretched for miles in all directions. Above him, the needles from white pine trees swayed — common in the Adirondack Forest Preserve in northern New York state. He stepped past downed wood and big, broken snags, observing how the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Edward Faison, an ecologist at the Highstead Foundation, stood quietly in a patch of forest that stretched for miles in all directions. Above him, the needles from white pine trees swayed — common in the Adirondack Forest Preserve in northern New York state. He stepped past downed wood and big, broken snags, observing how the forest functioned with minimal interference. “These forests have been essentially unmanaged for over 125 years. To see them continue to thrive and accumulate carbon, recover from natural disturbances and develop complexity without our help reveal just how resilient these systems are,” Faison says. Protected from logging in 1894 by an act of the New York Legislature, the Adirondack Forest Preserve (AFP) is a model of natural forest growth, or letting forests simply “get on with it.” The largest trees, white pines (Pinus strobus), are more than a century old and stretch more than 150 feet tall and are 4-5 feet in diameter. The AFP, the largest wilderness preserve in the eastern United States, is a prime example of what researchers have come to call “proforestation.” Coined in 2019 by Tufts University professor William Moomaw and Trinity College professor of applied science Susan Masino, the term proforestation describes the process of allowing existing forests to continue growing without human interference until they achieve their full ecological potential for carbon sequestration and biological diversity. Proforestation is considered a natural climate solution, i.e., a strategy to steward the Earth’s vegetation to increase the removal of carbon dioxide (CO2)&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/beyond-reforestation-lets-try-proforestation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296518</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Experts question benefits of Colombian forestation project led by top oil trader</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/experts-question-benefits-of-colombian-forestation-project-led-by-top-oil-trader/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/experts-question-benefits-of-colombian-forestation-project-led-by-top-oil-trader/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Dec 2024 12:00:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carla Ruas]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/20221317/A-recently-planted-forest-of-the-project-shows-mostly-eucalyptus-trees_image-by-Trafigura-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292160</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, climate finance, Climate Justice, Community Development, Conservation, Deforestation, Forest Carbon, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Monocultures, Oil, Plantations, Reforestation, Soil Carbon, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At last month’s COP29 climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, oil-trading giant Trafigura announced that it was injecting $100 million into the company’s Brújula Verde tree-planting project in Colombia. Working in partnership with green investment platform GenZero, the initiative aims to ultimately plant 36 million mixed-species trees across 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) in the country’s eastern [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At last month’s COP29 climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, oil-trading giant Trafigura announced that it was injecting $100 million into the company’s Brújula Verde tree-planting project in Colombia. Working in partnership with green investment platform GenZero, the initiative aims to ultimately plant 36 million mixed-species trees across 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) in the country’s eastern plains. The company has vowed to restore biodiversity in the region within three decades while producing and selling carbon credits. But environmental experts question whether the project can deliver the promised ecological and climate benefits. A crucial sticking point is that the area it plans to turn into a forest was never a forest to begin with. Headquartered in Singapore, Trafigura is among the world’s largest traders of commodities such as metals, oil and natural gas. In recent years, the company, whose 2023 revenue exceeded $240 billion, has faced a series of corruption scandals and declining oil prices, resulting in a 73% drop in net profits in the first quarter of 2024. Increasingly, it has turned to the voluntary carbon market, championing forest carbon projects in Colombia, Pakistan and Southern Africa. In Colombia, the company has already mapped out two dozen tree farms spanning 617 hectares (1,525 acres) in the department of Vichada. The area, bordering El Tuparro National Park in the south, consists of wet and dry savanna with sparse tree cover near local rivers. While Trafigura has labeled these lands on its website as “degraded” and in need of reforestation, some experts argue&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/experts-question-benefits-of-colombian-forestation-project-led-by-top-oil-trader/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/experts-question-benefits-of-colombian-forestation-project-led-by-top-oil-trader/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292160</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Storing CO2 in rock: Carbon mineralization holds climate promise but needs scale-up</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/storing-co2-in-rock-carbon-mineralization-holds-climate-promise-but-needs-scale-up/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/storing-co2-in-rock-carbon-mineralization-holds-climate-promise-but-needs-scale-up/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Dec 2024 16:07:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/03132208/1-injection-well-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291114</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Policy, Geology, Impact Of Climate Change, Planetary Boundaries, Politics, Pollution, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Rocks play a vital yet often unrecognized role in the carbon cycle. Through a natural process that has helped regulate Earth’s temperature for millennia, chemical reactions transform atmospheric carbon dioxide into solid carbonate minerals and lock it away underground, practically forever. That carbon mineralization process, if enhanced and quickened, could be used to store atmospheric [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Rocks play a vital yet often unrecognized role in the carbon cycle. Through a natural process that has helped regulate Earth’s temperature for millennia, chemical reactions transform atmospheric carbon dioxide into solid carbonate minerals and lock it away underground, practically forever. That carbon mineralization process, if enhanced and quickened, could be used to store atmospheric carbon, and be especially useful in dealing with legacy emissions and those from hard-to-abate sources. “There is strong consensus among leading scientists that we do need [CO2 removal and storage] alongside deep emissions reductions” to avoid the impacts of catastrophic climate change, says Katie Lebling, an associate at the World Resources Institute, a global nonprofit. Today, scientists are tapping into the natural mineralization process and working out how to more rapidly store atmospheric carbon dioxide underground. This carbon storage technology, dubbed subsurface or in-situ carbon mineralization, involves injecting carbon dioxide (and often water) directly into certain rock types to speed up the chemical reactions that transform the gas into a solid. When paired with a carbon capture method (such as direct air capture) it is a type of carbon capture and storage (CCS). The most suitable rocks within which mineralization can occur are those high in magnesium and calcium, as they react quickly with CO2 and form stable carbonate minerals — rocks like igneous basalts. These rocks are plentiful in many places around the world. This method has already been demonstrated at a number of sites, first and most notably in Iceland, and interest is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/storing-co2-in-rock-carbon-mineralization-holds-climate-promise-but-needs-scale-up/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291114</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Calls for caution as enhanced rock weathering shows carbon capture promise</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/calls-for-caution-as-enhanced-rock-weathering-shows-carbon-capture-promise/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/calls-for-caution-as-enhanced-rock-weathering-shows-carbon-capture-promise/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Oct 2024 15:08:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/29142654/Image_6_Aerial-Shot-of-Crushed-Wollastonite-Being-Spread-on-Local-Farmland-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289361</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Earth Science, Environment, Extreme Weather, Geoengineering, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Impact Of Climate Change, Politics, Research, Science, Soil Carbon, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It sounds like a simple solution: Spread some crushed silicate rock atop the world’s vast agricultural lands to absorb atmospheric carbon and thereby tackle climate change at a large scale. But many challenges and questions abound regarding the technique. Known as enhanced rock weathering (ERW) this carbon dioxide removal (CDR) climate solution, a form of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It sounds like a simple solution: Spread some crushed silicate rock atop the world’s vast agricultural lands to absorb atmospheric carbon and thereby tackle climate change at a large scale. But many challenges and questions abound regarding the technique. Known as enhanced rock weathering (ERW) this carbon dioxide removal (CDR) climate solution, a form of geoengineering, is on the rise as startups and established companies plow ahead with small-scale deployments around the globe. Enhanced rock weathering aims to replicate a natural part of Earth’s carbon cycle: Silicate rock, such as volcanic basalt, is spread over agricultural land, where exposure to precipitation triggers chemical reactions that “draw down” CO2 from the atmosphere, converting it to carbonates. These carbonates blend with, and filter down through, soils, until they are washed into rivers and eventually oceans, where they’re locked away for thousands of years. At least that’s the theory. Proponents describe the ERW process as a “win-win” that can store atmospheric CO2, while simultaneously helping farmers enrich their lands; when the silicates break down, they release minerals and nutrients, balancing pH and nourishing soils, which some studies suggest can boost crop yields. Research also suggests that if deployed at scale, enhanced rock weathering could lock away billions of tons of carbon dioxide, with some of the world’s largest emitters — such as the U.S., China, India and Brazil — showing the greatest CO2 storage potential due to their extensive agricultural lands and potential weathering rates. Unlike most other geoengineering methods, enhanced rock weathering&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/calls-for-caution-as-enhanced-rock-weathering-shows-carbon-capture-promise/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/calls-for-caution-as-enhanced-rock-weathering-shows-carbon-capture-promise/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289361</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Biochar could play big role in Bhutan’s carbon storage — but it’s news to farmers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/biochar-could-play-big-role-in-bhutans-carbon-storage-but-its-news-to-farmers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/biochar-could-play-big-role-in-bhutans-carbon-storage-but-its-news-to-farmers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jul 2024 02:00:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Choki Wangmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/23170833/1-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284842</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agroecology, carbon, Carbon Offsets, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Farming, Fellows, Global Warming, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Mitigation, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A recent study reveals Bhutan&#8217;s potential to store 68% of its greenhouse gas emissions by converting crop residues into biochar, the highest among 12 countries noted in the report. This innovative approach could position Bhutan as a leader in sustainable agriculture and significant emissions reduction. Biochar is a carbon-rich, lightweight, black material that looks like [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A recent study reveals Bhutan&#8217;s potential to store 68% of its greenhouse gas emissions by converting crop residues into biochar, the highest among 12 countries noted in the report. This innovative approach could position Bhutan as a leader in sustainable agriculture and significant emissions reduction. Biochar is a carbon-rich, lightweight, black material that looks like charcoal and is used in soil to help crops grow. It has potential for mitigating climate change because the carbon in biochar can remain in the soil for a long time, rather than being released into the atmosphere as CO2. Globally, biochar has gained popularity due to its potential for mitigating climate change and improving soil health. A 2021 research review shows that biochar can store carbon, reduce greenhouse gases, boost plant growth, clean up heavy metal pollution and improve resource use, making it important for climate action, food security and sustainable practices. But the full potential of crop residue for use in biochar had not been fully studied, so a research team set out to create a set of high-resolution maps indicating crop residues and their estimated potential use in biochar in countries around the world. Bhutan came out on top. By turning crop leftovers into biochar, Bhutan can lower its emissions even more. Bhutan is already considered carbon-neutral, with emissions of 1.559 megatons of CO2, not counting land use changes and forestry. The country’s constitution requires 60% of land to be under forest cover at all times, which aids Bhutan’s position as a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/biochar-could-play-big-role-in-bhutans-carbon-storage-but-its-news-to-farmers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284842</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘It is indeed our problem’: Interview with Mário Soares on Brazil’s mangroves</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/it-is-indeed-our-problem-interview-with-mario-soares-on-brazils-mangroves/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/it-is-indeed-our-problem-interview-with-mario-soares-on-brazils-mangroves/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jul 2024 11:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Vitor Alexandre Araujo Prado dos Anjos]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/28132732/kingfisher-brazil-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283858</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Fellows, Forest Carbon, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Mangroves, Marine, Marine Conservation, Mitigation, Oceans, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As a child, Mário Soares ventured into a mangrove in the Guaratiba neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro for the first time. Throughout his life&#8217;s journey, this place remained with him. After graduating in oceanography and conducting research on a mangrove crab species in Sepetiba Bay, Soares decided to shift his focus to ecosystem ecology. During [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As a child, Mário Soares ventured into a mangrove in the Guaratiba neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro for the first time. Throughout his life&#8217;s journey, this place remained with him. After graduating in oceanography and conducting research on a mangrove crab species in Sepetiba Bay, Soares decided to shift his focus to ecosystem ecology. During his doctoral studies at the University of São Paulo, he returned to Guaratiba to study the mangroves of the region and later served as the chief of the Guaratiba Biological Reserve. Today, with more than 30 years of experience studying mangroves, Soares is a professor in the Department of Biological Oceanography at Rio de Janeiro State University and leads the Mangrove Studies Center (NEMA). Here, he has conducted pioneering research in Brazil on the impacts of climate change on mangroves and their role in carbon sequestration. Through NEMA, he adopts a transdisciplinary approach to mangrove research, collaborating with fields such as chemical oceanography, geography, political science and anthropology. As a result, he engages in applied science, working closely with environmental managers, and over the past 15 years, he has also delved into socioenvironmental conflicts in diverse contexts across Brazil. With more than 30 years of experience studying mangroves, Mário Soares is a professor in the Department of Biological Oceanography at Rio de Janeiro State University and leads the Mangrove Studies Center (NEMA). Image courtesy of the Mangrove Studies Center Collection &#8211; NEMA/UERJ. Soares recently talked with Mongabay in a video call. The following interview has&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/it-is-indeed-our-problem-interview-with-mario-soares-on-brazils-mangroves/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283858</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>34,000-year-old termite mounds in South Africa are still being used</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/34000-year-old-termite-mounds-in-south-africa-are-still-being-used/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/34000-year-old-termite-mounds-in-south-africa-are-still-being-used/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jun 2024 15:18:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/28104243/termite-mound-5-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283844</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, carbon, Conservation, Environment, Insects, New Discovery, Research, Science, Soil Carbon, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Inhabited termite mounds along the Buffels River in Namaqualand, South Africa, are an astounding 34,000 years old, according to a new study. Termites are a diverse group of insects that play a vital ecological role by breaking down organic matter. They live in complex social groups, and some species create large underground nests. These can [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Inhabited termite mounds along the Buffels River in Namaqualand, South Africa, are an astounding 34,000 years old, according to a new study. Termites are a diverse group of insects that play a vital ecological role by breaking down organic matter. They live in complex social groups, and some species create large underground nests. These can include extensive tunnels and chambers where the termites live and store plant material. Some termite mounds can be very old; in 2018, researchers discovered termite mounds in Brazil that were 4,000 years old. But a recent Science of The Total Environment study has discovered that termite mounds inhabited by southern harvester termites (Microhodotermes viator) in Namaqualand are far, far older. Using radiocarbon dating, the researchers found that the mounds have been used by termites for 34,000 years, since before the last Ice Age. During this period, humans were busy making cave art while a few Neanderthals were still hanging on in southern Europe. The world was still full of megafauna like woolly mammoths, saber-toothed cats and giant sloths. The study also gives an unparalleled view of the past climate cycles in the region, and points to a previously unexplored role of termites in storing carbon, says Michele Francis, a senior lecturer at Stellenbosch University and the study’s lead author. “Our gut told us [the mounds] were special, and when we dug through and saw these old nests and termites, we thought ‘wow,’” Francis says. “It&#8217;s like watching a video of the past.” Purple wildflowers growing&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/34000-year-old-termite-mounds-in-south-africa-are-still-being-used/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283844</doi>				</item>
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