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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/solutions/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Tue, 10 Nov 2026 20:04:38 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Solutions</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/solutions/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Beat it: Den Staat farmers in South Africa use drumming and fire to deter elephants</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/beat-it-den-staat-farmers-in-south-africa-use-drumming-and-fire-to-deter-elephants/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/beat-it-den-staat-farmers-in-south-africa-use-drumming-and-fire-to-deter-elephants/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Nov 2026 19:55:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bernard Chiguvare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/11/10153612/23618709582_fa74cd53b2_elephant-south-africa-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=335410</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Conflict, Conservation, Culture, Elephants, Environment, Farming, Fellows, Human-wildlife Conflict, Solutions, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“Last night we had a very big fight with an elephant in our tomato field,” said Joeman Moyo, a farmer at Den Staat farm in South Africa’s Limpopo region. “We used a torch &#8230; to make a fire. The elephant would go away but return when I put out the torch. I also burned a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“Last night we had a very big fight with an elephant in our tomato field,” said Joeman Moyo, a farmer at Den Staat farm in South Africa’s Limpopo region. “We used a torch &#8230; to make a fire. The elephant would go away but return when I put out the torch. I also burned a tire, but this did not scare it away for long. It kept coming back when the fire died down.” Moyo, who looks after a 5-hectare (12.4-acre) plot, described an experience reflecting the challenges facing Den Staat’s smallholder farmers, as elephants enter their fields at night and threaten crops that provide an income. Farmers use several creative methods to deter the animals, including beating metal tins, hanging empty white plastic containers on wires and lighting fires. The history of this land is important background for understanding the situation today. Den Staat is land reclaimed by a community whose members and ancestors were affected by forced removals under apartheid. The farm was returned to the Machete community in 2010, and it is now held collectively through a Community Property Association (CPA). (Left) Joeman Moyo showing one of the areas where an elephant destroyed his tomatoes the previous night. (Right) Moyo, where he burned tires the previous night to scare away elephants. Images by Bernard Chiguvare. Today, more than 160 people live on the farm where they often face encounters with elephants, which residents say are their biggest concern because they are the most destructive. However, elephants are&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/beat-it-den-staat-farmers-in-south-africa-use-drumming-and-fire-to-deter-elephants/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/beat-it-den-staat-farmers-in-south-africa-use-drumming-and-fire-to-deter-elephants/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-335410</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As loggerhead turtles spread west, Mediterranean beach resorts learn to share the sand</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/as-loggerhead-turtles-spread-west-mediterranean-beach-resorts-learn-to-share-the-sand/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/as-loggerhead-turtles-spread-west-mediterranean-beach-resorts-learn-to-share-the-sand/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Nov 2026 17:05:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anna NapolitanoManuela Callari]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/11/06133823/OceanImageBank_LewisBurnett_10-loggerhead-turtle-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=335169</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe and Mediterranean Sea]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Herps, Hope and optimism, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Reptiles, Sea Turtles, Solutions, Turtles, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ASCEA and CASTEL VOLTURNO, Italy, and BARCELONA, Spain — In the early hours of a warm July day, regular rows of still-folded sun umbrellas stand along the shores of Castel Volturno, a coastal town in the Italian region of Campania, located about 35 kilometers (22 miles) northwest of Naples. A small group gathers around a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ASCEA and CASTEL VOLTURNO, Italy, and BARCELONA, Spain — In the early hours of a warm July day, regular rows of still-folded sun umbrellas stand along the shores of Castel Volturno, a coastal town in the Italian region of Campania, located about 35 kilometers (22 miles) northwest of Naples. A small group gathers around a control screen while a drone flies along the coast, searching for tractor-like tracks emerging from the waves. At the slightest sign, group members will quickly reach the location and fence off the area. Summer is the nesting season for the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta). Loggerheads inhabit warm portions of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, as well as the Mediterranean Sea. However, despite its broad range, the species is listed as vulnerable to extinction by the IUCN. These large marine reptiles spend roughly two decades maturing at sea before the females return to land — usually to the same beaches where they hatched — to lay their own eggs. Historically, loggerhead nesting in the Mediterranean has been concentrated in the warm sands of the sea’s eastern and central basins — primarily in Greece, Türkiye, and Cyprus — while the western basin has served mainly as a foraging ground by juvenile turtles. But over the past five decades, increasing numbers of nests have begun to appear in the western basin, including on the shores of Italy, France, and Spain. Researcher Fulvio Maffucci pilots a drone use to find loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) nesting sites.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/as-loggerhead-turtles-spread-west-mediterranean-beach-resorts-learn-to-share-the-sand/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/as-loggerhead-turtles-spread-west-mediterranean-beach-resorts-learn-to-share-the-sand/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-335169</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Kenya launches $160 million conservation initiative to support communities and biodiversity</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/kenya-launches-160-million-conservation-initiative-to-support-communities-and-biodiversity/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/kenya-launches-160-million-conservation-initiative-to-support-communities-and-biodiversity/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Nov 2026 10:52:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Lynet Otieno]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/11/05164636/Rebecca-M-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=335064</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[30x30 conservation target, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation Solutions, Ecotourism, Finance, Governance, Plants, Science, Solutions, Tourism, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The government of Kenya has launched a 10-year, $160 million conservation program that will target 17.3 million hectares (43 million acres) of existing conservation areas and community-managed land across 31 counties. The government projects that the initiative, which also aims to establish 2.7 million hectares of new conserved areas, will benefit 1.6 million people and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The government of Kenya has launched a 10-year, $160 million conservation program that will target 17.3 million hectares (43 million acres) of existing conservation areas and community-managed land across 31 counties. The government projects that the initiative, which also aims to establish 2.7 million hectares of new conserved areas, will benefit 1.6 million people and create nearly 22,800 jobs. Dubbed Thamani Asili (which means “value of nature” in Swahili) the program, announced on Oct. 21, aims to secure long-term financing for protecting biodiversity while improving livelihoods, water security and climate resilience through an $80 million contribution from the government, which philanthropic partners are expected to match. Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Miano presided over the launch of the program at the Tsavo West National Park, southern Kenya, on behalf of Kenya’s President William Ruto. The 10-year initiative brings together the Kenyan government, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), NGO The Nature Conservancy (TNC), conservation initiative Enduring Earth and other conservation partners. “Using the Project Finance for Permanence (PFP) model, Thamani Asili establishes a long-term financing framework designed to move conservation beyond short-term funding cycles towards predictable investment, institutional accountability and measurable results,” a KWS press release about the initiative says. Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Tourism, Rebecca Miano, met with officials from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and other conservation partners ahead of presiding over the launch of a $160 million conservation-focused fund, Image courtesy of Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). There are four initial priority landscapes for this project:&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/kenya-launches-160-million-conservation-initiative-to-support-communities-and-biodiversity/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/kenya-launches-160-million-conservation-initiative-to-support-communities-and-biodiversity/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-335064</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesian company seeks CITES approval to breed and sell rare Asian golden cats</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/indonesian-company-seeks-cites-approval-to-breed-and-sell-rare-asian-golden-cats/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/indonesian-company-seeks-cites-approval-to-breed-and-sell-rare-asian-golden-cats/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Nov 2026 14:03:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda WenzelSpoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/11/05121758/1.-Allwetter-Zoo_banner-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=335038</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Business, Captive Breeding, Cats, Conservation, Controversial, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Law, Mammals, Pet Trade, Pets, Wildlife, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With their shiny golden or reddish-brown fur, round ears, and white and black facial markings, Asian golden cats are cute. But don’t let their looks fool you: these cats, native to China and South and Southeast Asia, are fiercely territorial, elusive, and highly solitary animals. Because of this, Asian golden cats (Catopuma temminckii) don’t reproduce [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[With their shiny golden or reddish-brown fur, round ears, and white and black facial markings, Asian golden cats are cute. But don’t let their looks fool you: these cats, native to China and South and Southeast Asia, are fiercely territorial, elusive, and highly solitary animals. Because of this, Asian golden cats (Catopuma temminckii) don’t reproduce well in captivity, and only a handful of zoos have bred them successfully, always for conservation purposes. Now, a private Indonesian company, PT Alam Nusantara Jayatama, wants to become the first in the world to commercially breed them in captivity, selling their offspring to exotic pet owners across the globe. The company is owned and run by Danny Gunalen, who owns several zoos and animal-breeding facilities in Indonesia. The Indonesian government plans to certify the facility as a legal breeder of Asian golden cats. In August, it sent a public notification to the Secretariat of CITES, the global wildlife trade treaty, which includes 184 nations and the European Union. The signatories to CITES have until Nov. 10, 2026, to object to the registration, otherwise the company will be authorized to export the cats. Only a handful of zoos around the world breed and display Asian golden cats. Image courtesy of @Zoo Heidelberg. The Asian golden cat is listed as a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List and is a protected species in most of the countries where it lives. Only about 7,000 are thought to remain in the wild, their numbers decreasing as forests&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/indonesian-company-seeks-cites-approval-to-breed-and-sell-rare-asian-golden-cats/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/indonesian-company-seeks-cites-approval-to-breed-and-sell-rare-asian-golden-cats/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-335038</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How a ‘living breakwater’ in Hawai‘i aims to create coral habitat and protect coastline</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/how-a-living-breakwater-in-hawaii-aims-to-create-coral-habitat-and-protect-coastline/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/how-a-living-breakwater-in-hawaii-aims-to-create-coral-habitat-and-protect-coastline/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Nov 2026 09:19:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jules Struck]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Autumn Spanne]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/11/04123831/a-hybrid-reef-system--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=334947</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Hawaii, North America, Oceania, Pacific Islands, Polynesia, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Impact Of Climate Change, Islands, Marine, Nature-based climate solutions, Oceans, Research, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On Sept. 8, Hurricane Lowell ripped across the Pacific Ocean and around Hawai‘i, sloshing huge waves onto O‘ahu’s west flank and spitting baseball-sized chunks of coral through the window of at least one home. Hawai‘i and its coastal highways, which loop several of the U.S. state’s seven inhabited islands, have been bruised by increasingly intense [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On Sept. 8, Hurricane Lowell ripped across the Pacific Ocean and around Hawai‘i, sloshing huge waves onto O‘ahu’s west flank and spitting baseball-sized chunks of coral through the window of at least one home. Hawai‘i and its coastal highways, which loop several of the U.S. state’s seven inhabited islands, have been bruised by increasingly intense storms fueled by warming seas due to human-caused climate change and the current “super” El Niño. But a project in a western harbor on the island of O‘ahu is testing an unusual method for calming the ocean to shield communities and infrastructure. “It’s the first artificial, call it a hybrid, reef designed to protect coastlines, so to reduce coastal erosion from wave energy,” Ben Jones, the project’s lead coordinator and director of ocean science and technology at the University of Hawai‘i’s Applied Research Laboratory, told Mongabay by phone. On Sept. 18, while the island was still wringing itself out from Lowell, the project team sank the first of 60 huge concrete structures 64 meters (210 feet) off Kalaeloa Harbor, an industrial port on West O‘ahu. Eight of the structures, which each weigh 4 metric tons, had been placed as of Oct. 20, Jones said, a feat of engineering that required a special shallow-water catamaran to float the pieces out to their final resting places. A large wave caused by Hurricane Lowell crashes on the west side of O‘ahu, Hawai‘i on Sept. 8, 2026. Image by AP Photos/Craig Fujii/Honolulu Civil Beat. The project was funded with&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/how-a-living-breakwater-in-hawaii-aims-to-create-coral-habitat-and-protect-coastline/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/how-a-living-breakwater-in-hawaii-aims-to-create-coral-habitat-and-protect-coastline/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-334947</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>UN recognizes ongoing restoration work inside Ethiopia’s Desa’a forest amid conflict</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/un-recognizes-ongoing-restoration-work-inside-ethiopias-desaa-forest-amid-conflict/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/un-recognizes-ongoing-restoration-work-inside-ethiopias-desaa-forest-amid-conflict/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Nov 2026 15:28:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie Toto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/11/03094624/1_20260509_UNEP-Decade-on-Ecosystem-Restoration_Ethiopias-Great-Rift-Valley_Sosina-Mengistu_13-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=334820</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Ethiopia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Governance, Land Conflict, Plants, Rainforests, Solutions, Trees, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On Oct. 29, 2026, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and FAO recognized the Desa’a project, an initiative to restore Ethiopia’s forests in the Great Rift Valley, as a World Restoration Flagship during the U.N. Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP17) in Yerevan, Armenia. “It is to inspire others to take action and revive nature,” Doreen Lynn [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On Oct. 29, 2026, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and FAO recognized the Desa’a project, an initiative to restore Ethiopia’s forests in the Great Rift Valley, as a World Restoration Flagship during the U.N. Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP17) in Yerevan, Armenia. “It is to inspire others to take action and revive nature,” Doreen Lynn Robinson, deputy director of the Ecosystems Division at UNEP, told Mongabay by phone. “Restoration, when it’s done well, brings stakeholders together because they’re working together to find solutions to common problems. We believe that by giving recognition to our flagships, they also receive some support. They’ll get technical support, monitoring support, and communication and advocacy support,” she continued. The initiative, officially called the “Restoring Desa&#8217;a landscape: Bringing the Great Rift Valley Back to Life,” is based in the Tigray region of northeastern Ethiopia, in what is known as the Afromontane forests. The Afromontane ecosystem extends across Africa, from the Arabian Peninsula south along the Rift Valley to the Drakensberg Mountains in the east, and consists of dryland forests located at elevations above 1,500 meters (4,900 feet). It is home to the endangered Ethiopian wolf (canis simensis), gelada monkey (theropithecus gelada) and giant lobelia (lobelia rhynchopetalum). This forest is also important for carbon storage, but it is on the verge of disappearing. At the beginning of the project in 2016, an estimated 74% of Ethiopia’s Desa’a Forest had “already disappeared.” Today, an estimated 70% of the remaining forest is considered degraded. Forest cover degradation can affect&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/un-recognizes-ongoing-restoration-work-inside-ethiopias-desaa-forest-amid-conflict/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-334820</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Diverse forests can better withstand extreme weather events, study finds. Here&#8217;s why</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/diverse-forests-can-better-withstand-extreme-weather-events-study-finds-heres-why/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/diverse-forests-can-better-withstand-extreme-weather-events-study-finds-heres-why/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Nov 2026 21:04:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claudia Geib]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/11/02164751/andy-holmes-TxkisEuUs7w-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=334712</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Earth Science, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Nature-based climate solutions, Plants, Research, Science, Solutions, Trees, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Forests around the world face mounting pressures as the climate changes.  In order to understand how they will fare, new research suggests looking at the forest for the trees — more specifically, the different types of trees within. The study, published in July in Nature Communications, examined thousands of acres of U.S. woodlands. It found [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Forests around the world face mounting pressures as the climate changes.  In order to understand how they will fare, new research suggests looking at the forest for the trees — more specifically, the different types of trees within. The study, published in July in Nature Communications, examined thousands of acres of U.S. woodlands. It found that the higher diversity of tree species in a forest, the better equipped it will be to handle the compound climate extremes that result from global warming, such as when extreme heat occurs at the same time as drought or unusually high rainfall. Previous research had already shown that diversity among tree species, broadly, made forests stronger. But most of this research had been smaller in scale, or on human-planted experimental plots. Confirming that diversity does indeed have a positive effect on the vast, complicated systems of natural forests somewhat surprised the paper’s lead author, Xuetao Qiao. “Before completing the analyses, we were genuinely uncertain whether we would be able to detect this relationship in real forests,” wrote Qiao, a postdoctoral researcher in ecology at Peking University in China, in an email to Mongabay. A mixture of five tree species at the Sardinilla plot in Panama, planted as part of the Tree Diversity Network. The plot reached 25 years in 2026, making it the oldest tropical tree diversity experiment, according to researchers. Image by Florian Schnabel. Additionally, most research into forests’ climate resilience has focused on how they weather single events, such as heat waves.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/diverse-forests-can-better-withstand-extreme-weather-events-study-finds-heres-why/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/11/diverse-forests-can-better-withstand-extreme-weather-events-study-finds-heres-why/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-334712</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Aztec methods and crocodiles: How biologists are restoring mangroves in Mexico</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/aztec-techniques-and-crocodiles-how-biologists-are-restoring-mangroves-in-mexico/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/aztec-techniques-and-crocodiles-how-biologists-are-restoring-mangroves-in-mexico/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Oct 2026 17:05:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Laura Allen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/30152724/Cocodrilo4-Morelets-crocodile--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=334543</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Mexico and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystems, Environment, Habitat, Herps, Mangroves, Reptiles, Restoration, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2017, Omar Trujillo Santos was sitting in a small wooden boat holding a crocodile, its skin soft like a snake. He helped untie the reptile, a juvenile Morelet’s crocodile, and carefully guided it into the dark water. It swam off to find a new home in the Alvarado Lagoons System in Veracruz, southeastern Mexico, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2017, Omar Trujillo Santos was sitting in a small wooden boat holding a crocodile, its skin soft like a snake. He helped untie the reptile, a juvenile Morelet’s crocodile, and carefully guided it into the dark water. It swam off to find a new home in the Alvarado Lagoons System in Veracruz, southeastern Mexico, completing the final phase of a mangrove restoration project. Studies suggest Mexico, a country rich in mangroves, has experienced the highest degree of mangrove loss in the Americas. Conservation and reforestation efforts seek to reverse this loss, yet many projects fail to restore a mature forest. Seedlings and young trees too often die due to improper planting techniques or unsuitable sites. Led by REVIVE, a nonprofit that works to boost biodiversity in the region, the Veracruz project aims to restore not just trees, but the mangrove ecosystem as a whole by employing Aztec-inspired planting methods to rebuild forests and using crocodiles to help maintain them. According to REVIVE, this technique has resulted in a fully restored forest. Conservationists involved in the project say they hope this success encourages others to consider how crocodiles could be used to benefit future mangrove restoration projects. Omar Trujillo Santos stands in front of a chinampa planted with mangrove seedings grown in a nursery. Image from Soto et al., 2026 (preprint) (CC BY 4.0). An ancient technique In 2006 when biologist Aníbal Ramírez Soto began working with mangroves in the wetlands around the Alvarado lagoons, he planted mangrove seedlings in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/aztec-techniques-and-crocodiles-how-biologists-are-restoring-mangroves-in-mexico/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/aztec-techniques-and-crocodiles-how-biologists-are-restoring-mangroves-in-mexico/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-334543</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Philippine village uses nature to defend against floods with bamboo, shells and husks</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/philippine-village-uses-nature-to-defend-against-floods-with-bamboo-shells-and-husks/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/philippine-village-uses-nature-to-defend-against-floods-with-bamboo-shells-and-husks/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Oct 2026 01:17:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Oliver Samson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Yenni Kwok]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/29135605/1000020683-Pamarawan-barangay-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=334387</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Philippines, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Disasters, Environment, Flooding, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Mangroves, Marine Conservation, Nature-based climate solutions, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Sea Levels, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PAMARAWAN, Philippines — For years, residents of Pamarawan barangay, or village, in the City of Malolos, had to live with floodwater inundating their streets as the southwest monsoon, known locally as hagabat, brought strong waves into the fishing village. It got even worse during typhoons. “When there was a typhoon, the waves would go over [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PAMARAWAN, Philippines — For years, residents of Pamarawan barangay, or village, in the City of Malolos, had to live with floodwater inundating their streets as the southwest monsoon, known locally as hagabat, brought strong waves into the fishing village. It got even worse during typhoons. “When there was a typhoon, the waves would go over the breakwater by almost a meter, a direct hit on the houses beside the dike,” said Roldan Dayao, secretary of Pamarawan, a low-lying fishing village at North Manila Bay that is only accessible by boat. The village already has a concrete breakwater that stands 3 to 4 meters (9-13 feet) high, Dayao said. But it does little to prevent the recurring flood. The situation changed after the construction of a nature-based coastal defense and flood control project. It used locally available materials, such as bamboo poles, oyster shells and coconut husks, to protect Pamarawan from tidal waves and storm surges. Interlocking, interconnected bamboo cribs now cover 14 hectares (35 acres) off the coast. The bamboo structures, alongside discarded oyster shells placed inside cocomesh, or coconut husk nets, serve as breakwaters that reduce incoming wave energy. Small boats inside a bamboo enclosure, part of a nature-based coastal defense and flood control project, in Pamarawan barangay, in Malolos City, Bulacan province, the Philippines, on Sept. 28, 2026. Image by Oliver Samson for Mongabay. The cribs also trap drifting mud and sand. Over time, the accumulated sediment is expected to gradually raise the seabed to a height sufficient&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/philippine-village-uses-nature-to-defend-against-floods-with-bamboo-shells-and-husks/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-334387</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Fires and weak monitoring hinder reforestation efforts in Mozambique</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/fires-and-weak-monitoring-hinder-reforestation-efforts-in-mozambique/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/fires-and-weak-monitoring-hinder-reforestation-efforts-in-mozambique/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Oct 2026 08:13:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Far Vubil]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/28154204/cenario-de-floresta-queimada-2-Foto-de-Far-Vubil-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=334239</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Disasters, Dry Forests, Economics, Environment, Fires, Forests, Governance, Plants, Solutions, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MOCUBA, Mozambique — Mozambique ranks among the 10 countries with the highest deforestation rates in the world. Each year, it loses about 267,000 hectares (660,000 acres) of forest, with the heaviest rates concentrated in the provinces of Nampula, Zambézia, and Manica. To counter this, a decade ago the country set an ambitious goal to reforest [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MOCUBA, Mozambique — Mozambique ranks among the 10 countries with the highest deforestation rates in the world. Each year, it loses about 267,000 hectares (660,000 acres) of forest, with the heaviest rates concentrated in the provinces of Nampula, Zambézia, and Manica. To counter this, a decade ago the country set an ambitious goal to reforest 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) by 2030, alongside a 2025 target to restore 52,000 hectares (128,500 acres) per year through 2029 on a budget of 105 billion meticais ($1.65 billion). To date, however, only 58,000 hectares (143,300 acres) have been reforested — a total that includes tree plantations established before the million-hectare goal was set, according to data compiled by Sá Nogueira Lisboa, a forestry professor and researcher at Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) in Maputo. Zambézia province in central Mozambique holds one of the country&#8217;s main forest areas, key to conserving biodiversity, regulating water resources, protecting soil, storing carbon, and supporting local communities. Yet it also faces severe pressure from deforestation, suffering some of the nation&#8217;s steepest losses in tree cover. Between 2000 and 2024, cumulative forest loss across the province reached 1.26 million hectares (3.11 million acres) — roughly 19% of its total forested area — according to the Provincial Directorate of Territorial Development and Environment (DPDTA). Replanting is critical to restore degraded landscapes, but inadequate follow-up monitoring has squandered much of that effort. A technician from the District Service for Economic Activities (SDAE) among trees with charred stems in the Tónduè Forest,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/fires-and-weak-monitoring-hinder-reforestation-efforts-in-mozambique/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/fires-and-weak-monitoring-hinder-reforestation-efforts-in-mozambique/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-334239</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Kashmir’s springs are drying up. Scientists say saving them starts uphill</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/kashmirs-springs-are-drying-up-scientists-say-saving-them-starts-uphill/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/kashmirs-springs-are-drying-up-scientists-say-saving-them-starts-uphill/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Oct 2026 22:19:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hashim Quraishi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/26144728/AP21173191783476-kashmir-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333899</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Himalayas, India, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystems, Environment, Fellows, Freshwater, Mongabay.org, Natural Resources, Restoration, Rivers, Solutions, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Shafeeqa, a 40-year-old resident of Cherwan village in Ganderbal district, north of Srinagar in Kashmir Valley, remembers a spring that once flowed with enough force to make diverting its water toward agricultural fields a difficult task. During her teenage years, she recalls, the water rushed so powerfully that her brother was once carried along by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Shafeeqa, a 40-year-old resident of Cherwan village in Ganderbal district, north of Srinagar in Kashmir Valley, remembers a spring that once flowed with enough force to make diverting its water toward agricultural fields a difficult task. During her teenage years, she recalls, the water rushed so powerfully that her brother was once carried along by the current. Over the past 5-6 years, however, Shafeeqa said the spring’s flow has diminished step by step. What was once a dependable source of water has become a reminder of how much the village may be losing. “Nature has blessed us with a great source, but it is we who have destroyed it with our own hands,” she said. Shafeeqa says she believes climate change has contributed to the spring’s decline. Research in the Sindh Basin lends support to her concern, although the reasons springs lose their flow can vary from one location to another. The answer may lie some distance uphill, beyond the spring’s visible outlet and in the landscapes where rainwater and melting snow seep into the ground. Springs are an essential water source for communities in the Kashmir Himalaya, particularly in mountain settlements where rivers run through deep valleys and are difficult to access. Their water supports households, livestock and agriculture. But changes in spring flow can threaten all three. A Kashmiri Muslim man prays beside a stream on the outskirts of Srinagar, 2020. Image by AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan. A 2023 study in Environment, Development and Sustainability by researchers at the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/kashmirs-springs-are-drying-up-scientists-say-saving-them-starts-uphill/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333899</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>IUCN’s Madhu Rao on the world’s protected areas: Progress, pressures and the race to 2030</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/iucns-madhu-rao-on-the-worlds-protected-areas-progress-pressures-and-the-race-to-2030/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/iucns-madhu-rao-on-the-worlds-protected-areas-progress-pressures-and-the-race-to-2030/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Oct 2026 13:56:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Akana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/21112232/amazon_200158-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333419</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[30x30 conservation target, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Economics, Ecosystems, Environment, Finance, Forests, Governance, Natural Resources, Protected Areas, Research, Solutions, Water, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A park ranger in the Democratic Republic of Congo survived an ambush that killed colleagues. In Cambodia, mines and dams are pressing against land set aside for wildlife. In the Amazon, illegal miners are changing tactics as authorities try to remove them from Indigenous territories. These are different places, with different problems documented by Mongabay, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A park ranger in the Democratic Republic of Congo survived an ambush that killed colleagues. In Cambodia, mines and dams are pressing against land set aside for wildlife. In the Amazon, illegal miners are changing tactics as authorities try to remove them from Indigenous territories. These are different places, with different problems documented by Mongabay, but they point to a question now confronting governments: How much protection does a protected area actually provide? That question will follow delegates to Yerevan, Armenia, for the U.N. Biodiversity Conference, COP17, from Oct. 19-30. In 2022, countries agreed to conserve at least 30% of land and inland waters and 30% of coastal and marine areas by 2030. The commitment, known as Target 3 or “30 by 30,” is not simply about drawing new boundaries on maps. It also requires conservation to work, ecosystems to remain connected and the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities to be respected. COP17 will conduct the first collective review of progress under the agreement. Also read: As global 30×30 goal lags, Colombia shows how progress can be made A new Earth Insight analysis maps oil, gas and mining concessions overlapping protected and conserved areas across the tropics, highlighting threats to global biodiversity goals. Image courtesy of Earth Insight. The evidence arriving ahead of the meeting is sobering. A new study by Earth Insight, the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas and other partners found that nearly 62 million hectares (153 million acres) of terrestrial protected and conserved areas&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/iucns-madhu-rao-on-the-worlds-protected-areas-progress-pressures-and-the-race-to-2030/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/iucns-madhu-rao-on-the-worlds-protected-areas-progress-pressures-and-the-race-to-2030/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333419</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sustainable silvopasture is popular with US farmers despite waning financial supports</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/sustainable-silvopasture-is-popular-with-u-s-farmers-despite-waning-financial-supports/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/sustainable-silvopasture-is-popular-with-u-s-farmers-despite-waning-financial-supports/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Oct 2026 13:34:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/20224010/silvopasture-sheep-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333104</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Climate Change, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Food, Livestock, Natural Resources, Nature-based climate solutions, Pasture, Solutions, and Sustainability]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[VERSHIRE, Vermont – When Sabra Ewing and Sebastian Lousada bought a tired dairy farm with pastures featuring old apple trees alongside sprouting maples, it was obvious that the grass below these trees&#8217; crowns was a lot lusher than in the open. Then they noticed their sheep began to prefer those shady spots, and their manure [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[VERSHIRE, Vermont – When Sabra Ewing and Sebastian Lousada bought a tired dairy farm with pastures featuring old apple trees alongside sprouting maples, it was obvious that the grass below these trees&#8217; crowns was a lot lusher than in the open. Then they noticed their sheep began to prefer those shady spots, and their manure added to the richness of the grass and of the other annual plants growing underneath. &#8220;You do a lot of observation when you&#8217;re a farmer, and when we put the heritage sheep in the orchard, we quickly noticed,&#8221; Ewing said in a phone interview after Mongabay&#8217;s recent visit. Then the couple discovered a grant program offered by the American Farmland Trust that would help them incorporate more kinds of trees into the 30 acres (just over 12 hectares) of pasture on their overall 250 acres (nearly 102 hectares). &#8220;I pounced on it, because I was already excited about this,&#8221; Ewing said. Flag Hill Farm co-owner Sebastian Lousada provides water to heritage breeds of sheep grazing under 80 varieties of apple and other sorts of useful trees, Vershire, VT. Image by Erik Hoffner for Mongabay. That grant and other financial supports like one from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)&#8217;s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) helped turn their Flag Hill Farm – which now grazes heritage breeds of sheep under 80 varieties of apples plus other useful trees, to produce high quality wool, hard cider and brandy created in an on-farm distillery – into an idyllic,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/sustainable-silvopasture-is-popular-with-u-s-farmers-despite-waning-financial-supports/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333104</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Heavy rains during critical period of cacao cultivation hit Ghana’s yields</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/heavy-rains-during-critical-period-of-cacao-cultivation-hit-ghanas-yields/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/heavy-rains-during-critical-period-of-cacao-cultivation-hit-ghanas-yields/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Oct 2026 10:32:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/21095641/a.-%C2%A9-mwintirew-original-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333406</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Ghana, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Cacao, Crops, Drought, Economics, Ecosystems, Environment, Farming, Forests, Governance, Plants, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Heavy rainfall during the cacao flowering season is a major driver of Ghana&#8217;s recent harvest fluctuations, new research finds. A study published in September by researchers at the Harvard University Center for the Environment in the U.S. found that heavy rainfall during cacao’s flowering and early pod development is linked to significant yield decreases. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Heavy rainfall during the cacao flowering season is a major driver of Ghana&#8217;s recent harvest fluctuations, new research finds. A study published in September by researchers at the Harvard University Center for the Environment in the U.S. found that heavy rainfall during cacao’s flowering and early pod development is linked to significant yield decreases. The researchers described how short, untypical rains during the flowering season, together with dry-season drought, is a major reason for recent fluctuations in Ghana’s cacao production. Ghana and Côte d&#8217;Ivoire together account for about 60% of global cocoa production, making West Africa central to the world&#8217;s chocolate supply. Cacao seeds are the primary ingredient in chocolate. The authors raised concerns about how these changing rainfall patterns could affect Ghana’s cacao industry, which is one of the West African country’s most important agricultural sectors. “Along with dry-season drought, [heavy rainfall during flowering and early pod development], those two factors alone explain about two-thirds of the year-to-year variability in Ghana&#8217;s production,” lead researcher Anna Lea Albright from Harvard told Mongabay via email. A flowering cacao tree in Ecuador’s Los Bancos Canton. Image courtesy of Pablo Leautaud via iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0). Albright and her colleagues began looking into the issue in 2024, when global cacao prices surged after several poor harvests in West Africa. They considered several possible explanations for the trend, including aging trees, pests and diseases, gold mining, smuggling and weather. Analyzing daily rainfall and temperature records, the researchers noticed a pattern. Losses or gains during&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/heavy-rains-during-critical-period-of-cacao-cultivation-hit-ghanas-yields/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/heavy-rains-during-critical-period-of-cacao-cultivation-hit-ghanas-yields/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333406</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Delegates at biodiversity COP17 should follow the lead of Global South women (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/delegates-at-biodiversity-cop17-should-follow-the-lead-of-global-south-women-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/delegates-at-biodiversity-cop17-should-follow-the-lead-of-global-south-women-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Oct 2026 00:40:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Valentina Figuera Martínez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/24184300/Captura-de-pantalla-2025-06-26-a-las-1.57.38-p.m-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333386</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Finance, Gender, Governance, Nature-based climate solutions, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As global leaders convene in Armenia this week for the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) conference of the parties (COP17), it is difficult to ignore how women’s oppression is deeply intertwined with the exploitation of ecosystems. After almost two decades of pledges, biodiversity action remains underfunded, forest loss continues to be a growing threat, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As global leaders convene in Armenia this week for the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) conference of the parties (COP17), it is difficult to ignore how women’s oppression is deeply intertwined with the exploitation of ecosystems. After almost two decades of pledges, biodiversity action remains underfunded, forest loss continues to be a growing threat, socio-ecological transitions are a low priority, and ecosystems are spiraling toward collapse. The impacts of resulting climate disasters and biodiversity destruction are not felt equally, yet gender justice issues also remain unresolved within these international talks. In Yerevan, Armenia, countries will consider the first global review of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), which was the first formal assessment to measure progress since its adoption in 2022. COP17 is also poised to advance efforts on biodiversity finance under the umbrella of common but differentiated responsibilities. But progress cannot be measured only in targets, financial commitments and international mechanisms. We should also ask a more basic question: What can we learn from the people who are already protecting biodiversity in their territories? Women leading agroecology and community conservation initiatives in Zambia. Image courtesy of Kapyanga Women Association &amp; Zamsof. While hundreds of policymakers spend long hours negotiating decisions to promote false solutions and powerful corporate actors lobby to continue profiting from biodiversity destruction and obstruct environmental regulations, women from the Global South continue working without big cameras or fancy social media presences to protect what is left of their territories. They are ensuring the continuation of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/delegates-at-biodiversity-cop17-should-follow-the-lead-of-global-south-women-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/delegates-at-biodiversity-cop17-should-follow-the-lead-of-global-south-women-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333386</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Recycled glass offers a potential new tool to restore a vanishing coastline</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/recycled-glass-offers-a-potential-new-tool-to-restore-a-vanishing-coastline/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/recycled-glass-offers-a-potential-new-tool-to-restore-a-vanishing-coastline/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Oct 2026 15:35:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fernanda Biasoli]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Autumn Spanne]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/20143608/a.-%C2%A9-Sean-Krieg-original-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333302</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Louisiana, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystems, Environment, Erosion, Fish, Landscape Restoration, Marine, Recycling, Research, Restoration, Saltwater Fish, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Every 100 minutes, the U.S. state of Louisiana loses a soccer field’s worth of land to coastal erosion. It’s a natural process intensified by the acceleration of sea level rise and human activities like oil and gas extraction and alterations to the course of the Mississippi River. During the past century, the state lost 4,662 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Every 100 minutes, the U.S. state of Louisiana loses a soccer field’s worth of land to coastal erosion. It’s a natural process intensified by the acceleration of sea level rise and human activities like oil and gas extraction and alterations to the course of the Mississippi River. During the past century, the state lost 4,662 square kilometers (1,800 square miles) of land. Vanishing wetlands and altered estuaries make coastal communities, ecosystems and economies — including Louisiana’s $319 billion seafood industry — increasingly vulnerable to hurricanes, storms, and floods. The state has spent billions of dollars on restoration, including using offshore sand and river sediment to rebuild barrier islands and shorelines. But suitable sediment for these massive projects is in short supply. Since 2020, a New Orleans-based company called Glass Half Full has been testing a potential solution: Transforming used glass bottles into sand and gravel to construct small experimental islands and berms for coastal restoration projects. Before such projects can be scaled up, however, the effects of introducing these fill materials into the environment must be better understood. So Glass Half Full teamed up with Tulane University in New Orleans to create Project ReCoast, a five-year research project funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation that explores the use of sand made from recycled glass in coastal restoration. One of the resulting studies, published in the journal Restoration Ecology in April, found no significant differences in survival of several native estuarine animals exposed to recycled glass sand compared with other&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/recycled-glass-offers-a-potential-new-tool-to-restore-a-vanishing-coastline/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/recycled-glass-offers-a-potential-new-tool-to-restore-a-vanishing-coastline/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333302</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Farmworkers’ health matters: South Africa looks to alternatives for chemical pesticides</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/farmworkers-health-matters-south-africa-looks-to-alternatives-for-chemical-pesticides/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/farmworkers-health-matters-south-africa-looks-to-alternatives-for-chemical-pesticides/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Oct 2026 06:22:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anna Weekes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/15093158/1128207757_ddbb6e382f_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=332706</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Environment, Farming, Food, Food Industry, Health, Poisoning, Pollution, Public Health, Solutions, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Insects like fall armyworm or mealybugs can decimate food and commercial crops; like their counterparts elsewhere in the world, South Africa’s small and large farmers alike use synthetic chemical pesticides to control these and other pests. But about 385 million cases of unintentional acute pesticide poisoning are reported worldwide each year, according to the Pesticide [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Insects like fall armyworm or mealybugs can decimate food and commercial crops; like their counterparts elsewhere in the world, South Africa’s small and large farmers alike use synthetic chemical pesticides to control these and other pests. But about 385 million cases of unintentional acute pesticide poisoning are reported worldwide each year, according to the Pesticide Action Network, an umbrella group of more than 600 NGOs in 90 countries campaigning to reduce the use of chemical pesticides. As researchers look for alternatives, new pesticides that use genetic technologies are raising questions about what should replace hazardous agricultural chemicals. Colette Solomon, co-director of Women on Farms Project, an organization that advocates for farm workers and farm dwellers in South Africa, says pesticides are often sprayed while female farm workers are harvesting crops. In many cases, these workers, mostly women, are not provided with gloves or other protective equipment, she told Mongabay, as hand protection is seen as impractical for the handling of delicate fruit such as grapes. “[The workers] are not provided with PPE, such as hand protection, or they&#8217;re not practical for the delicate types of work they do, leaving them to handle contaminated vines barehanded, as well as breathing in these chemicals” Solomon said. Even when agrochemicals aren&#8217;t sprayed while women are working, they must often re-enter vineyards soon after they have been sprayed, she added in an email interview, and because farm workers&#8217; homes are often located next to vineyards, pesticides can also drift into their houses. Led by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/farmworkers-health-matters-south-africa-looks-to-alternatives-for-chemical-pesticides/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/farmworkers-health-matters-south-africa-looks-to-alternatives-for-chemical-pesticides/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-332706</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesian women cash in on mangrove restoration: Interview with community leader Wisye Sahambangung</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/indonesian-women-cash-in-on-mangrove-restoration-interview-with-community-leader-wisye-sahambangung/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/indonesian-women-cash-in-on-mangrove-restoration-interview-with-community-leader-wisye-sahambangung/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Oct 2026 07:57:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Annisa Dinulislam]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Yenni Kwok]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/16144823/Photo-2-Wisye-Sahambangung-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=332892</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, North Sulawesi, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Coastal Ecosystems, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Conservation Solutions, Culture, Ecosystems, Environment, Fellows, Gender, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Landscape Restoration, Mangroves, Marine, Restoration, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Wisye Sahambangung is a fisher, community leader, and mangrove conservationist from Sarawet, a coastal Indonesian village in North Sulawesi province. Since 2022, the 45-year-old has led Rhizopora, a women’s group that restores mangroves and helps create economic opportunities for women in the village. Rhizopora, named after the Rhizophora genus of mangrove trees, has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Wisye Sahambangung is a fisher, community leader, and mangrove conservationist from Sarawet, a coastal Indonesian village in North Sulawesi province. Since 2022, the 45-year-old has led Rhizopora, a women’s group that restores mangroves and helps create economic opportunities for women in the village. Rhizopora, named after the Rhizophora genus of mangrove trees, has become a community-based conservation movement. Its members collect mangrove propagules and seedlings, support restoration projects, monitor coastal areas, and teach other villagers how to plant mangroves. They revive the mangrove forest that is home to crabs and fish, which are their primary source of income. In collaboration with the NGOs Yayasan Bumi Tangguh and CARE Indonesia, Rhizopora helped plant 30,000 mangrove trees during an eight-month restoration project this year. For Wisye, protecting mangroves is about protecting the people who depend on the coast. The group sells seedlings, collects and sells mud crabs, and runs savings-and-loans activities that boost their incomes. Her work has taken her from Sarawet’s muddy coastal areas to an international forum in Australia, where she shared the women’s experiences of protecting their coastal environment. “Since Rhizopora was established, Sarawet has become more widely known nationally and internationally,” she said proudly. Wisye Sahambangung in Australia during her trip to Melbourne for Women Deliver 2026. Image courtesy of Wisye Sahambangung. Wisye spoke with Mongabay via video call about how she leads Rhizopora in protecting coastal ecosystems while creating income opportunities for women in the community, the challenges of community-led conservation, and the impact on&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/indonesian-women-cash-in-on-mangrove-restoration-interview-with-community-leader-wisye-sahambangung/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/indonesian-women-cash-in-on-mangrove-restoration-interview-with-community-leader-wisye-sahambangung/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-332892</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The uplifting story of one of Zimbabwe’s pioneering women rangers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/the-uplifting-story-of-one-of-zimbabwes-pioneering-women-rangers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/the-uplifting-story-of-one-of-zimbabwes-pioneering-women-rangers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Oct 2026 19:03:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Akana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/16191522/W2iBT42Q-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=333004</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forests, Gender, Governance, Politics, Rainforests, Solutions, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Wildlife Rangers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For Nyaradzo Auxilia Hoto, one of the most memorable moments of becoming a wildlife ranger was a trip to town. She and her fellow recruits walked through the streets in their new uniforms, on their way to open bank accounts. Soon, they would receive their first salaries. For a woman who had struggled to make [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For Nyaradzo Auxilia Hoto, one of the most memorable moments of becoming a wildlife ranger was a trip to town. She and her fellow recruits walked through the streets in their new uniforms, on their way to open bank accounts. Soon, they would receive their first salaries. For a woman who had struggled to make ends meet in rural Zimbabwe, it was an extraordinary moment. “We were very proud,” she recalled. Hoto, 34, grew up in Huyo, a village in Zimbabwe’s Lower Zambezi Valley, where her family depended largely on growing and selling vegetables. Money was scarce, and although she had done well at school, she could not afford to continue her education beyond secondary school. Marriage, she hoped, might offer a better life. Instead, she says, she endured nearly four years with a violent husband before deciding to leave. She returned to her parents’ home with her young daughter and resumed working in the family garden. Her fortunes changed in 2017, when the International Anti-Poaching Foundation began recruiting local women for Akashinga, a new wildlife protection initiative. Hoto was among 16 women selected from roughly 100 applicants. Many men in her community doubted that women could confront poachers or withstand the demands of ranger work. She went anyway. Within a few years, she had become a ranger sergeant, leading other women on patrol. She later returned to university, graduating in 2023 with a degree in wildlife, ecology and conservation. Today, she works as a biodiversity officer with Akashinga, using&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/the-uplifting-story-of-one-of-zimbabwes-pioneering-women-rangers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/the-uplifting-story-of-one-of-zimbabwes-pioneering-women-rangers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-333004</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>From paper parks to lasting protection, here’s what works in marine conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/from-paper-parks-to-lasting-protection-heres-what-works-in-marine-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/from-paper-parks-to-lasting-protection-heres-what-works-in-marine-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Oct 2026 03:23:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/12123146/64-Peruvian-artisanal-fisher-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=332276</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mesoamerica, Mexico, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Fisheries, Fishing, Mangroves, Marine, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, Restoration, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In recent years, there has been a steady stream of ocean conservation pledges, from French Polynesia extending marine protection across its nearly 5 million-square-kilometer exclusive economic zone, including more than 1 million square kilometers of highly or fully protected waters, to the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor (CMAR), where Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Panama [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In recent years, there has been a steady stream of ocean conservation pledges, from French Polynesia extending marine protection across its nearly 5 million-square-kilometer exclusive economic zone, including more than 1 million square kilometers of highly or fully protected waters, to the Eastern Tropical Pacific Marine Corridor (CMAR), where Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Panama agreed to establish a contiguous, transboundary safe passage of more than 500,000 square kilometers (193,000 square miles) for migratory species. There is also much greater recognition of the contributions made by traditional stewards, including Indigenous communities, artisanal fishers, and other coastal communities. On paper, at least, this would seem to bode well for progress toward protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030. Yet at the same time that these announcements are being made, we also hear about “paper parks” — those protected in name only — industrial fishing vessels entering protected areas, boats turning off their transponders, and abandoned fishing gear drifting through supposedly protected waters. Coral reef in the Pacific. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler / Mongabay Over the summer, looking across academic literature and Mongabay’s multilingual coverage, I tried to pin down what the evidence actually shows about marine conservation outcomes in the Americas. Merging peer-reviewed datasets with field reporting has its limitations, but it helps bridge a common divide: studies document broader ecological trends, while journalists track the political compromises and enforcement lapses that shape what happens on the water. Unsurprisingly, the central takeaway is that marine conservation is most likely to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/from-paper-parks-to-lasting-protection-heres-what-works-in-marine-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/from-paper-parks-to-lasting-protection-heres-what-works-in-marine-conservation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-332276</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Artificial mangrove roots offer a stopgap for Thailand’s eroding coastline</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/artificial-mangrove-roots-offer-a-stopgap-for-thailands-eroding-coastline/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/artificial-mangrove-roots-offer-a-stopgap-for-thailands-eroding-coastline/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Oct 2026 02:01:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/14130912/CP_01-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=332587</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Erosion, Infrastructure, Mangroves, Nature-based climate solutions, Oceans, Research, Sea Levels, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Residents of Phra Samut Chedi, one of Thailand’s most erosion-prone districts, have long struggled against coastal erosion. It’s located in the muddy heart of the Chao Phraya River Delta, where Bangkok’s major watercourse empties into the Gulf of Thailand. Here, roughly 20-60 meters (about 66-200 feet) of land is claimed by the sea annually, eating [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Residents of Phra Samut Chedi, one of Thailand’s most erosion-prone districts, have long struggled against coastal erosion. It’s located in the muddy heart of the Chao Phraya River Delta, where Bangkok’s major watercourse empties into the Gulf of Thailand. Here, roughly 20-60 meters (about 66-200 feet) of land is claimed by the sea annually, eating into farmland and forcing families to relocate their homes. However, a new study suggests a new coastal defense system based on artificial mangrove roots could offer struggling communities some respite. Trialed at 11 sites in Phra Samut Chedi and other parts of Samut Prakan province over 15 months, the nature-inspired system encouraged a varying amount of sediment deposition at 10 of the sites, according to the study published in Ocean &amp; Coastal Management. Success varied by site, ranging from 16-88 centimeters (6-35 inches) of sediment retention, depending on localized conditions. By helping stabilize the shoreline, the researchers say the system could potentially function as an effective hybrid nature-based solution — a mechanism whereby engineered or “bioinspired” structures work in consort with natural ecological processes, such as mangrove restoration. Butsawan Bidorn, senior author of the study and an assistant professor of coastal engineering at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, said the dynamic nature of the Chao Phraya Delta means rapid and accessible solutions are key. “Aquaculture farmers sent us a video of the waves hitting their dikes,” Butsawan told Mongabay in an interview. “By the next day, the dike had collapsed and they’d lost everything. They need&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/artificial-mangrove-roots-offer-a-stopgap-for-thailands-eroding-coastline/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/artificial-mangrove-roots-offer-a-stopgap-for-thailands-eroding-coastline/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-332587</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mangroves gain ground globally, marking turnaround after decades of loss</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/mangroves-gain-ground-globally-marking-turnaround-after-decades-of-loss/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/mangroves-gain-ground-globally-marking-turnaround-after-decades-of-loss/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Oct 2026 16:54:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Samuel Ogunsona]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Autumn Spanne]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/14134939/a.-cymatics-in-IgPRUfFP6sU-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=332579</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Loss, Habitat Loss, Mangroves, Marine, Marine Conservation, Nature-based climate solutions, Oceans, Research, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[After decades of losses, new data show the world’s mangrove forests are beginning to rebound. It marks a modest but significant turnaround for the salt-tolerant coastal trees and shrubs, which provide vital ecosystem services, including carbon storage, habitat for thousands of species and protection from storms and erosion. Global mangrove cover increased by 477 square [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[After decades of losses, new data show the world’s mangrove forests are beginning to rebound. It marks a modest but significant turnaround for the salt-tolerant coastal trees and shrubs, which provide vital ecosystem services, including carbon storage, habitat for thousands of species and protection from storms and erosion. Global mangrove cover increased by 477 square kilometers (184 square miles) between 1985 and 2025, according to the latest Global Mangrove Watch (GMW) data released in July. Restoration and stronger protections drove the modest net gains, which represent a 0.3% increase over four decades. The new assessment follows a separate study, published in June, that reached a similar conclusion about overall growth in mangrove cover. GMW, a mapping initiative of the NGO consortium known as the Global Mangrove Alliance, has tracked mangrove gains and losses since 2011. In this third update, researchers used 10-meter (33-foot) resolution satellite imagery and machine learning to map changes in mangrove cover across 108 countries. It’s the first of the updates to span a 39-year period, from 1985 to 2024, according to Lammert Hilarides, the GMW program lead at the Netherlands-based NGO Wetlands International. The previous version only tracked changes in the data since 1996, covering about 24 years. “The importance of tracking changes in mangroves lies in the need to have accurate information if you want to successfully halt loss, protect and restore mangroves,” Hilarides told Mongabay by email. He added that the new data show significant differences between regions, countries and the timing of gains&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/mangroves-gain-ground-globally-marking-turnaround-after-decades-of-loss/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/mangroves-gain-ground-globally-marking-turnaround-after-decades-of-loss/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-332579</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Two rare pregnancies spark hope for Sumatran rhinos — but also concerns about inbreeding</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/two-rare-pregnancies-spark-hope-for-sumatran-rhinos-but-also-concerns-about-inbreeding/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/two-rare-pregnancies-spark-hope-for-sumatran-rhinos-but-also-concerns-about-inbreeding/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Oct 2026 04:39:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/05/01213423/Ratu-and-baby-Sumatran-rhino-514x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=332545</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Lampung, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Captive Breeding, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Environment, Happy-upbeat Environmental, In-situ Conservation, Mammals, Megafauna, Rhinos, Saving Species From Extinction, Sumatran Rhino, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Two critically endangered Sumatran rhinos are pregnant at an Indonesian sanctuary, a rare success for a species reduced to a few dozen animals in the wild. The pregnancies also highlight the genetic constraints facing the country’s captive-breeding program. Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry and the NGO Yayasan Badak Indonesia (YABI), which manages the sanctuary, announced the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Two critically endangered Sumatran rhinos are pregnant at an Indonesian sanctuary, a rare success for a species reduced to a few dozen animals in the wild. The pregnancies also highlight the genetic constraints facing the country’s captive-breeding program. Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry and the NGO Yayasan Badak Indonesia (YABI), which manages the sanctuary, announced the pregnancies on Oct. 3. A female named Ratu is carrying her fourth calf, fathered by Andalas, while her daughter Delilah is carrying her second calf, fathered by Harapan. Both are due around May 2027. Ratu was captured from the wild in Sumatra in 2005, while Andalas and Harapan, who are full brothers, were born at Cincinnati Zoo in the U.S. in 2001 and 2007, respectively. Delilah was born to Ratu and Andalas at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in 2016 — meaning the father of Delilah’s calf is her paternal uncle. Experts at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary seek to pair the least-related males and females possible, Nina Fascione, executive director of the International Rhino Foundation, told Mongabay in an email. They also must consider factors such as differences in body size, she said, but their choices are limited by the small number of rhinos under human care. The 11 animals in Indonesia’s breeding program are the only captive Sumatran rhinos in the world, and all of the males in the program are related. “The current critical situation outweighs the genetic diversity considerations,” Fascione said. Ratu, a captive female Sumatran rhino, is expecting her fourth calf. Image&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/two-rare-pregnancies-spark-hope-for-sumatran-rhinos-but-also-concerns-about-inbreeding/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/two-rare-pregnancies-spark-hope-for-sumatran-rhinos-but-also-concerns-about-inbreeding/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-332545</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia says it no longer needs forests for rice. What happens to projects underway?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/indonesia-says-it-no-longer-needs-forests-for-rice-what-happens-to-projects-underway/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/indonesia-says-it-no-longer-needs-forests-for-rice-what-happens-to-projects-underway/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Oct 2026 12:12:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/12120446/Tractors-and-Excavators-of-PT-Global-Papua-Abadi-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=332229</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, Southeast Asia, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Avoided Deforestation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystems, Food, Food Industry, Food Vs Forests Debate, forest degradation, Forest Fragmentation, Forest Loss, Forestry, Forests, Grasslands, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Savannas, Tropical Deforestation, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia says it no longer needs to expand rice cultivation into forest areas, but it has yet to explain what the announcement means for large-scale food and energy projects already underway in Papua and Kalimantan. Presidential Special Envoy for Climate and Energy Hashim Djojohadikusumo said Oct. 6 that Indonesia had achieved rice self-sufficiency [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia says it no longer needs to expand rice cultivation into forest areas, but it has yet to explain what the announcement means for large-scale food and energy projects already underway in Papua and Kalimantan. Presidential Special Envoy for Climate and Energy Hashim Djojohadikusumo said Oct. 6 that Indonesia had achieved rice self-sufficiency three years ahead of schedule and no longer needed the previously announced 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) for food production. “The government sees no further need for expanding rice cultivation areas in the so-called forest areas and forest zones that were announced a few years ago,” Hashim said in Jakarta. At the same event, President’s Special Envoy for Multilateralism and International Trade Mari Pangestu said future food and biofuel production would instead be directed toward degraded land. The announcement appears to mark a shift from a government push that environmentalists have described as one of the world’s largest deforestation projects, involving vast rice and sugarcane plantations in southern Papua. But less than two weeks before Hashim’s announcement, the Ministry of Forestry designated about 5.67 million hectares (14 million acres) of forest through its 2026 Forest Utilization Direction Map, or PAPH, as areas that could be proposed for forest-utilization permits, including for food security and energy, as well as forest rehabilitation. “This means there is an inconsistency between the statements issued by public officials,” Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) campaigner for essential ecosystems Musdalifah Jamal told Mongabay by phone. “This contradiction shows us that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/indonesia-says-it-no-longer-needs-forests-for-rice-what-happens-to-projects-underway/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/indonesia-says-it-no-longer-needs-forests-for-rice-what-happens-to-projects-underway/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-332229</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sri Lanka elephant found with a gunshot wound. How can tuskers be protected?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/sri-lanka-elephant-found-with-a-gunshot-wound-how-can-tuskers-be-protected/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/sri-lanka-elephant-found-with-a-gunshot-wound-how-can-tuskers-be-protected/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Oct 2026 16:39:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malaka Rodrigo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/09151713/1.-the-tusker-Kavanthissa-in-middle-with-Chandi-left-and-Raghu-right-c-Pathum-Bandara--768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=332143</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[South Asia and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Welfare, Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation Solutions, Controversial, Elephants, Endangered Species, flagship species, Habitat, Human-wildlife Conflict, Ivory, Mammals, Solutions, Wildlife, Wildlife Corridors, and Wildlife Rescues]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO –- Wildlife enthusiast Pathum Bandara watched Kavantissa, believed to be Sri Lanka’s tallest living tusker, moving gently through the landscape on Sept. 20 around Galgamuwa in the island’s northwestern dry zone, a well-known human-elephant conflict zone. The following day, Bandara noticed that the elephant was limping. A closer look revealed a gunshot wound on [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO –- Wildlife enthusiast Pathum Bandara watched Kavantissa, believed to be Sri Lanka’s tallest living tusker, moving gently through the landscape on Sept. 20 around Galgamuwa in the island’s northwestern dry zone, a well-known human-elephant conflict zone. The following day, Bandara noticed that the elephant was limping. A closer look revealed a gunshot wound on his right foreleg, close to the knee. The discovery was alarming because an untreated gunshot wound could become infected and cause severe trauma, potentially threatening an elephant’s ability to walk, feed and survive. The Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) dispatched a team to treat the elephant. DWC’s veterinary surgeon Isuru Hewakottage said Kavantissa was sedated to enable the cleaning and treatment of the wound. He received several rounds of powerful antibiotics and remains under observation. Following treatment, Kavantissa has begun moving between small forest patches, sometimes crossing human settlements and the well-known elephant passage near Galgamuwa. The tusker appeared to be recovering but became aggressive after the gunshot injury, sometimes even chasing villagers and wildlife officers, exposing the tusker to renewed threats including the possibility of being fired at, Bandara told Mongabay. Iconic tusker Kavantissa, left, with Sankha, a young elephant, photographed in 2022. Sankha had a mobility restriction caused by a previous gunshot injury and died after falling into a pit. Image courtesy of Pathum Bandara. Bandara recalls the plight of another young tusker once closely associated with Kavantissa. Sankha, a young tusker, was about half Kavantissa’s age and was often seen together during&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/sri-lanka-elephant-found-with-a-gunshot-wound-how-can-tuskers-be-protected/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-332143</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Science, Indigenous knowledge team up to restore Canada&#8217;s kelp. (Sea otters help, too.)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/science-indigenous-knowledge-team-up-to-restore-canadas-kelp-sea-otters-help-too/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/science-indigenous-knowledge-team-up-to-restore-canadas-kelp-sea-otters-help-too/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Oct 2026 14:44:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jennifer Cole]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/02162939/a.-BANNER-Liam-Ragan-original-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=331571</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[British Columbia, Canada, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Culture, Ecosystems, Education, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Oceans, Research, Restoration, Science, Seagrass, Solutions, Traditional Knowledge, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Emily Fulton spends a lot of time in a small boat cruising the waters of Clayoquot Sound off the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. As the marine program manager for the nonprofit Redd Fish Restoration Society, she regularly checks on a newly created kelp nursery growing within the traditional territory of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Emily Fulton spends a lot of time in a small boat cruising the waters of Clayoquot Sound off the west coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. As the marine program manager for the nonprofit Redd Fish Restoration Society, she regularly checks on a newly created kelp nursery growing within the traditional territory of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation. “We have grown a lot of kelp,” Fulton told Mongabay in a phone interview. Touted by its organizers as the largest kelp restoration project on the West Coast of North America, the nursery has planted more than 4,200 square meters (45,200 square feet) of new kelp habitat since launching in early 2026. That’s the footprint of three and a half Olympic-size swimming pools. The team grows baby bull kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana) and giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) on four lines; each 330 meters (1,083 feet) long, submerged below the water’s surface and away from seafloor predators such as sea urchins. As the kelp grows and matures, they’ll take some of it off the lines and transplant it to sites throughout Clayoquot Sound, to restore degraded kelp forests and also seed new ones. Getting a project of this scale up and running has cost almost a quarter of a million Canadian dollars. The funding has come from various sources, including the provincial government, the World Wildlife Fund of Canada and the Clayoquot Biosphere Trust. Managing the project alongside Redd Fish is West Coast Kelp, a business devoted to kelp restoration and the Tla-o-qui-aht&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/science-indigenous-knowledge-team-up-to-restore-canadas-kelp-sea-otters-help-too/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-331571</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘There could be local extinction’: The fight to protect Indonesia’s orangutans as El Niño fuels fires</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/there-could-be-local-extinction-the-fight-to-protect-indonesias-orangutans-as-el-nino-fuels-fires/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/there-could-be-local-extinction-the-fight-to-protect-indonesias-orangutans-as-el-nino-fuels-fires/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Oct 2026 11:08:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/09065841/Orangutan-Sampurna1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=331642</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Southeast Asia, and West Kalimantan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Critically Endangered Species, Disasters, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Extreme Weather, Fires, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Great Apes, Landscape Restoration, Mammals, Orangutans, Peatlands, Primates, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Restoration, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Wetlands, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Fires burning within rainforests that contain more than half of the world’s critically endangered Bornean orangutan population have prompted scientists and experts to call for urgent action in response to the escalating fires across Indonesia. The warning comes as Indonesia faces a severe fire season fueled by strong El Niño conditions, with conservationists [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Fires burning within rainforests that contain more than half of the world’s critically endangered Bornean orangutan population have prompted scientists and experts to call for urgent action in response to the escalating fires across Indonesia. The warning comes as Indonesia faces a severe fire season fueled by strong El Niño conditions, with conservationists scrambling to rescue wildlife trapped in burning landscapes. Fires are burning in rainforests that contain 13 of the 20 largest remaining populations of Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus). Shaded and outlined areas show current IUCN Extant (resident) orangutan range in Kalimantan. Image courtesy of the Orangutan Conservation Initiative. Red circles show individual satellite detections overlapping current IUCN Extant (resident) orangutan range. As of Sept. 22, the Ministry of Forestry reported that 100 wildlife, including 53 Bornean orangutans, had been rescued. Rescuers have found some orangutans suffering severe physical injuries after escaping the fires. In Central Kalimantan, an approximately 4-year-old orangutan named Novita was found trapped in a burning area near Sebangau National Park in Central Kalimantan province with serious burns on all four hands and feet, according to local news Betahita. She was later taken to a rehabilitation center for treatment. In locations where orangutans are surrounded by fire and have nowhere to go, they can “literally burn alive,” said Borneo Nature Foundation (BNF) CEO Anton Nurcahyo. The risk may be particularly high for females with young, Anton told Mongabay. Their tendency to remain in established home ranges can be a disadvantage during fires, while females&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/there-could-be-local-extinction-the-fight-to-protect-indonesias-orangutans-as-el-nino-fuels-fires/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/there-could-be-local-extinction-the-fight-to-protect-indonesias-orangutans-as-el-nino-fuels-fires/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-331642</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How to grow $25K into community-led conservation: Interview with Tanzania’s Mwambao</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/how-to-grow-25k-into-community-led-conservation-interview-with-tanzanias-mwambao/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/how-to-grow-25k-into-community-led-conservation-interview-with-tanzanias-mwambao/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Oct 2026 13:58:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Akana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawhare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/02134417/70739416_1145382202323166_5232273015621812224_n-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=331539</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Interviews with conservation players, and Marine]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[UNGUJA, Tanzania — Decades before they would partner to build a marine conservation organization together, Ali Thani and Lorna Slade crossed paths in Tanzania. Years later, Slade returned to the East African country researching tourism for her master’s degree when she became involved in an initiative aimed at strengthening the knowledge and rights of local [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[UNGUJA, Tanzania — Decades before they would partner to build a marine conservation organization together, Ali Thani and Lorna Slade crossed paths in Tanzania. Years later, Slade returned to the East African country researching tourism for her master’s degree when she became involved in an initiative aimed at strengthening the knowledge and rights of local resource stewards. Then came the 2008 global financial crisis. The organization backing the initiative withdrew from Tanzania, providing only a fraction of the funds it had earlier promised — $25,000 — and an idea worth pursuing. “So they said, ‘OK, well, it’s a good idea. We have $25,000, so here you are,’” Slade recalls. That modest beginning would eventually become the Mwambao Coastal Community Network, a locally rooted organization now working with coastal communities across Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania, with an annual budget of around $3.5 million. For Thani, a coastal Tanzanian who had worked in government and with larger conservation organizations, Mwambao grew from a conviction that conservation could not simply be designed elsewhere and brought to communities. People who depend on natural resources, he says, should have the knowledge, capacity, and authority to help manage them. That idea has wider resonance as countries pursue the global goal of conserving 30% of the world’s land and oceans by 2030. Local organizations and communities are expected to shoulder much of that work, even as many struggle to secure the long-term funding available to larger international organizations and intermediaries. Mwambao’s work includes supporting community fisheries management,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/how-to-grow-25k-into-community-led-conservation-interview-with-tanzanias-mwambao/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-331539</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A year ago today, Jane Goodall died at 91. Her message is more important than ever</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/a-year-ago-today-jane-goodall-died-at-91-her-message-is-more-important-than-ever/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/a-year-ago-today-jane-goodall-died-at-91-her-message-is-more-important-than-ever/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Oct 2026 14:53:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/10/01144321/jane-goodall-2024-16x9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=331443</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Environmental Heroes, Hope and optimism, and Jane Goodall]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; This is an abridged version of a piece I wrote shortly after her death a year today. I find it hard to believe Jane Goodall is gone. She was more than an icon to me. She was a friend, a mentor, and someone whose presence felt like both a gift and a lesson. Our [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; This is an abridged version of a piece I wrote shortly after her death a year today. I find it hard to believe Jane Goodall is gone. She was more than an icon to me. She was a friend, a mentor, and someone whose presence felt like both a gift and a lesson. Our friendship began in the most Jane way possible: an email that opened, “Yes, this is the real Jane Goodall,” followed by a request that I not share her “secret email address.” She said she admired Mongabay and wanted to meet. That message was the start of thirteen years of laughs, tears, and conversations that often stretched late into the night over vegan Indian food and a glass of whisky in her hotel room—even though I rarely drink or stay out late. Jane had a way of making every encounter feel personal. When she first met my children, she lit up as if she had been waiting her whole life for them to enter the room. She crouched to their level, told stories, and pulled up YouTube videos of rats performing clever tricks. “Aren’t they marvelous?” she said, with the same awe she once expressed for the chimpanzees of Gombe. She told my son he was an inspiration for starting a trash cleanup at his school.  She believed hope was not simply a feeling but a tool. Hope, she would tell me, creates agency. The larger the crisis, the more powerless people feel. But small, local&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/a-year-ago-today-jane-goodall-died-at-91-her-message-is-more-important-than-ever/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-331443</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia’s new peatland agency faces questions over what it will do differently</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/indonesias-new-peatland-agency-faces-questions-over-what-it-will-do-differently/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/indonesias-new-peatland-agency-faces-questions-over-what-it-will-do-differently/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Oct 2026 04:19:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/25175923/AP26223596463482-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=331364</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation Solutions, Disasters, Ecosystems, Extreme Weather, Fires, Global Environmental Crisis, Landscape Restoration, Mangroves, Marine, Peatlands, Restoration, Solutions, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — In 2016, following the most devastating land and forest fires in its recorded history the previous year, the Indonesian government set up an agency to restore peatlands, among the worst-hit biomes during the disaster. A decade later, following the most devastating land and forest fires since the 2015 season, the current government has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — In 2016, following the most devastating land and forest fires in its recorded history the previous year, the Indonesian government set up an agency to restore peatlands, among the worst-hit biomes during the disaster. A decade later, following the most devastating land and forest fires since the 2015 season, the current government has once again set up an agency to restore peatlands — prompting questions over what impact, if any, this new body will have. The National Peatland and Mangrove Management Agency, or BPGMN, was announced by Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni following a meeting at the State Palace in Jakarta on Sept. 24 between President Prabowo Subianto and a group of 22 experts. Like the earlier Peatland and Mangrove Restoration Agency (BRGM) established by Prabowo’s predecessor, Joko Widodo, which was shuttered in December 2024, the new agency will report directly to the president and be staffed by scientists and professionals, according to Raja Juli. For some observers, that begs the question of why Prabowo didn’t renew the BRGM’s mandate and instead let it expire, and what the BPGMN will do differently. “The BPGMN must not stop at changing the institution’s name,” said Uli Arta Siagian, national campaign coordinator for Walhi, Indonesia’s biggest environmental advocacy group. “The experience of the BRGM, which was disbanded at the end of 2024 after operating for nearly a decade, shows that changing the institutional structure does not automatically guarantee better governance. “The BPGMN must have a mandate, authority, success indicators, and working&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/indonesias-new-peatland-agency-faces-questions-over-what-it-will-do-differently/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-331364</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New releases a leap forward for endangered frog in southern California</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/new-releases-a-leap-forward-for-endangered-frog-in-southern-california/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/new-releases-a-leap-forward-for-endangered-frog-in-southern-california/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Sep 2026 19:59:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/30104452/Image-3_-Adult-southern-mountain-yellow-legged-frogs-inside-tank-at-L.A.-Zoo-bio-secure-amphibian-headstarting-facility_photo-co-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=331219</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Amphibians, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Endangered Species, Frogs, Habitat, Herps, Invasive Species, Reintroductions, Research, Rewilding, Science, Solutions, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Frog release days always start early, at about 4 a.m., so that staff can get up to the site before the day gets too hot, said Erin Lundy, manager of conservation initiatives at the Aquarium of the Pacific in the U.S. The first challenge is catching the frogs. A newly morphed southern mountain yellow-legged frog [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Frog release days always start early, at about 4 a.m., so that staff can get up to the site before the day gets too hot, said Erin Lundy, manager of conservation initiatives at the Aquarium of the Pacific in the U.S. The first challenge is catching the frogs. A newly morphed southern mountain yellow-legged frog (Rana muscosa) is about an inch long, fast, and very good at squeezing into cracks, Lundy said. It can take a couple of hours for staff to scoop them all up from the tanks. Lundy prefers grabbing them with gloved hands, though others use nets. The aquarium has been rearing southern mountain yellow-legged frogs since 2021, as part of a multi-agency, 20-plus-year conservation effort for the species, a Southern California amphibian listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List. Head-starting the frogs by ushering them through metamorphosis in captivity boosts their odds of survive, Lundy said. This year’s cohort arrived at the aquarium late last summer as 2-month-old tadpoles from the Los Angeles Zoo, where they were bred. Through winter and into spring, aquarium staff watched as their limbs erupted and tails slowly reabsorbed. By August, most were ready for life in the wild. (Metamorphosis for this species takes from one to five years in the wild, and is highly variable in captivity. Those that did not fully metamorphosize by the release date will be held back and released as larger adults next summer). Developing southern mountain yellow-legged frog (Rana muscosa) embryos inside eggs at&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/new-releases-a-leap-forward-for-endangered-frog-in-southern-california/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-331219</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Turning vulnerable livestock into four-eyed beasts helps protect them in Zimbabwe</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/turning-vulnerable-livestock-into-four-eyed-beasts-helps-protect-them-in-zimbabwe/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/turning-vulnerable-livestock-into-four-eyed-beasts-helps-protect-them-in-zimbabwe/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Sep 2026 08:09:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Cecil Dzwowa]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/29232742/YawningLionPanthera.leo_Julie-LarsenWCS-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=331196</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Biodiversity, Carnivores, Cattle, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Human-wildlife Conflict, and Livestock]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[NYANGOMBE, Zimbabwe — In the first six months of 2026, the local council in Chiredzi recorded 317 cases of human-wildlife conflict in this district of southeastern Zimbabwe. In villages like Nyangombe, which is flanked by large game reserves such as Save Valley Conservancy and Nyangombe Community Conservancy, residents say wildlife frequently eat their crops and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[NYANGOMBE, Zimbabwe — In the first six months of 2026, the local council in Chiredzi recorded 317 cases of human-wildlife conflict in this district of southeastern Zimbabwe. In villages like Nyangombe, which is flanked by large game reserves such as Save Valley Conservancy and Nyangombe Community Conservancy, residents say wildlife frequently eat their crops and attack livestock or even people. “Buffaloes destroy crops and spread diseases, while wild dogs, jackals, leopards and even lions target livestock,” Edson Mabika, a farmer in Nyangombe, told Mongabay. Mabika said he lost four sheep and a calf to wild animals in less than 10 days despite having a secure kraal and an experienced herd boy with three dogs. The loss prompted Mabika to think outside the box to protect his livestock. He asked a friend, a former game-reserve ranger, for suggestions on how to scare away wild predators without getting in harm’s way. His friend’s advice caught him by surprise: “He just advised me to try drawing eyes on the butts of my animals,” Mabika said. One of Edson Mabika&#8217;s cows, with decoy eyes painted on its rump. Image by Cecil Dzwowa for Mongabay. Mabika thought the former ranger was joking, but says his friend kept insisting. In January 2025, he painted black and white eyes on the backsides of about a third of his livestock. The first victims of the fake “butt eyes” were a pack of local dogs who barked aggressively after being startled by the new &#8220;eyes&#8221; on the livestock. Mabika&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/turning-vulnerable-livestock-into-four-eyed-beasts-helps-protect-them-in-zimbabwe/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-331196</doi>				</item>
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