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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/women-in-science/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Fri, 07 Aug 2026 14:38:05 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Women In Science</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/women-in-science/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>In Southeast Asia, peer-support network boosts women’s well-being in conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/in-southeast-asia-peer-support-network-boosts-womens-well-being-in-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/in-southeast-asia-peer-support-network-boosts-womens-well-being-in-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Jul 2026 08:21:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/06075921/Banner_Group-sharing-at-a-women-support-network-meeting.-Image-courtesy-of-ASAP-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322529</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Conservation leadership, Culture, Environment, Gender, Health, Solutions, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When Jessa Cabaay began working in marine conservation in the Philippines, she frequently found she was the only woman in the room. Her isolation meant she often felt anxious while presenting at stakeholder meetings, sensing her audience questioned her credibility. “Most of the fishing communities I was working with were older and male,” Cabaay says, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When Jessa Cabaay began working in marine conservation in the Philippines, she frequently found she was the only woman in the room. Her isolation meant she often felt anxious while presenting at stakeholder meetings, sensing her audience questioned her credibility. “Most of the fishing communities I was working with were older and male,” Cabaay says, describing her experience of discussions on planning out marine protected areas (MPAs). “They didn’t listen the first few times I tried to talk to them.” Cabaay says she observed that her male colleagues were rarely under the same pressure to prove their competence. Now the technical manager of Community Centered Conservation (C3), a Philippine-based nonprofit, she says the fishers’ skepticism likely reflected cultural beliefs held in many Philippine coastal communities that place women in domestic roles rather than professional ones. “There are expectations that as a woman, you follow; you cannot lead,” she says. Lacking female colleagues to turn to for support and advice, Cabaay persevered largely alone through her early-career struggles. Now, however, she finds strength and encouragement through a peer-support network that links female conservation professionals across Southeast Asia. Connecting with other women facing similar challenges has been a game changer, she says: “I realized I’m not struggling alone. We all feel the same.” The initiative, the Network of Women (NOW), is led by the Asian Species Action Partnership (ASAP), a Singapore-based interagency coalition that focuses on critically endangered species of land and freshwater vertebrates. Launched in 2021, the program combines in-person leadership&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/in-southeast-asia-peer-support-network-boosts-womens-well-being-in-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/in-southeast-asia-peer-support-network-boosts-womens-well-being-in-conservation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322529</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Java, a women’s collective is helping save gibbons through forest-inspired textiles</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-java-a-womens-collective-is-helping-save-gibbons-through-forest-inspired-textiles/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-java-a-womens-collective-is-helping-save-gibbons-through-forest-inspired-textiles/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jun 2026 02:00:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Falahi Mubarok]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/01143027/Kain-ecoprint-di-Basecamp-Ambu-Halimun-Foto_-Falahi-Mubarok-3--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320422</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Java, Southeast Asia, and West Java]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Apes, Biodiversity, Business, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Gibbons, Industry, Natural Resources, Primates, Wildlife, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BOGOR, Indonesia — In a village bordering Gunung Halimun-Salak National Park on the Indonesian island of Java, local people browse a row of fabrics carrying impressions of plants and the silhouette of the forest’s silvery gibbon. They are made by the women-led Ambu Halimun collective, whose name translates to “mothers of Halimun” in the local [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BOGOR, Indonesia — In a village bordering Gunung Halimun-Salak National Park on the Indonesian island of Java, local people browse a row of fabrics carrying impressions of plants and the silhouette of the forest’s silvery gibbon. They are made by the women-led Ambu Halimun collective, whose name translates to “mothers of Halimun” in the local dialect. The project focused on boiling and pressing distinctive local plants into motifs on fabric, which drew women like Mirna Maharani into closer observation of the vegetation surrounding the village of Citalahab. Species once overlooked, even dismissed as weeds, have since acquired new value as sources of color, pattern and identity, Mirna explained. “Now, we are preserving them,” said Mirna, 30, a mother of two. Formed in 2020 during the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, the goal of Ambu Halimun was to engage women in conservation while providing an arena to uplift economic agency and professional development. Ambu Halimun is a women&#8217;s empowerment group that produces eco-friendly textiles in Bogor, West Java. Image by Falahi Mubarok/Mongabay Indonesia. Primatologist Rahayu Oktaviani, co-founder of the Kiara Foundation, which came up with the Ambu Halimun initiative, said she wanted to seed an original approach to conservation that would benefit women in Citalahab. “The forest isn’t something that is separate to them,” Rahayu told Mongabay Indonesia. “That&#8217;s why we&#8217;re building a sense of ownership.” Last year, Rahayu received the Whitley Award in recognition of her organization’s grassroots conservation work with Java’s silvery gibbon (Hylobates moloch), which included the work&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-java-a-womens-collective-is-helping-save-gibbons-through-forest-inspired-textiles/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320422</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A Nigerian teen is turning agricultural waste into biodegradable sanitary pads</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/a-nigerian-teen-is-turning-agricultural-waste-into-biodegradable-sanitary-pads/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/a-nigerian-teen-is-turning-agricultural-waste-into-biodegradable-sanitary-pads/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2026 07:36:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimable Twahirwa]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/28073436/665830-PantiPads-8f54a6-original-1775732022-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320234</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Nigeria, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Circular Economy, Innovation, Prizes, Waste, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For many Nigerian women, access to sanitary pads remains a challenge. Even those who can obtain them, the prevalence of single-use menstrual products creates problems of its own. They contain plastics and chemicals and are not eco-friendly generating large amounts of waste. After learning that many traditional sanitary pads used contain up to 90% plastic [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For many Nigerian women, access to sanitary pads remains a challenge. Even those who can obtain them, the prevalence of single-use menstrual products creates problems of its own. They contain plastics and chemicals and are not eco-friendly generating large amounts of waste. After learning that many traditional sanitary pads used contain up to 90% plastic and can take hundreds of years to decompose, Nigerian teenager Raheema Auwal-Panti saw an opportunity to support women while helping the environment. The 15-year-old decided to use low-grade agricultural waste to make sanitary pads. She was motivated by a desire “to sweep up plastic pollution” in Nigeria. “[Even] if no one does something about it, I could do something about it,” said Auwal-Panti, who hails from Minna, the capital of Niger state in Nigeria. She founded ‘PantiPads’ in 2025. Auwal-Panti’s project was selected in a shortlist of 35 global teams for the 2026 Earth Prize, organized by the Earth Foundation, a Switzerland-based nonprofit that empowers, educates and inspires young people to tackle environmental challenges. In northern Nigeria, cassava processing generates significant agricultural waste, which poses environmental risks, particularly to soil quality. The waste includes solid and liquid components, such as cassava peelings, dried with non-dried banana leaves and corn husks. The biomass-rich waste, if poorly managed, can lead to environmental degradation, including organic pollution of water bodies and soil contamination. “Using these wastes to develop eco-friendly pads is currently helping to address menstrual stigma which remains a significant public health challenge that affects girls&#8217; education and overall well-being&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/a-nigerian-teen-is-turning-agricultural-waste-into-biodegradable-sanitary-pads/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/a-nigerian-teen-is-turning-agricultural-waste-into-biodegradable-sanitary-pads/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320234</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Studying the world’s largest gathering of forest elephants with sound and field observation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/studying-the-worlds-largest-gathering-of-forest-elephants-with-sound-and-field-observation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/studying-the-worlds-largest-gathering-of-forest-elephants-with-sound-and-field-observation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Apr 2026 14:46:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David AkanaRhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/19152433/ivonne-kienast-2026-16x9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316782</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Central African Republic, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Bioacoustics, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Education, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Gorillas, Great Apes, Indigenous Peoples, Interviews, Primates, Rainforests, Research, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildtech, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the far southwest of the Central African Republic, where dense forest gives way to a broad clearing, elephants gather in numbers rarely seen elsewhere. The place is known as Dzanga Bai. Forest elephants are among the least visible large mammals in Africa. In closed-canopy rainforest, they move in small groups, often at night, communicating [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the far southwest of the Central African Republic, where dense forest gives way to a broad clearing, elephants gather in numbers rarely seen elsewhere. The place is known as Dzanga Bai. Forest elephants are among the least visible large mammals in Africa. In closed-canopy rainforest, they move in small groups, often at night, communicating over long distances through low-frequency calls that travel beyond human hearing. Much of their social life unfolds out of sight. Dzanga Bai is one of the few places where that pattern breaks. Here, elephants emerge from the forest to feed on minerals in the soil. They linger. Families converge, separate, and return. Individuals can be recognized over years. Behaviors that are otherwise inferred—through tracks, fragments of sound, or brief encounters—can be followed more directly. Dzanga Bai in Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve, Central African Republic. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler For decades, the clearing has drawn researchers trying to understand a species that resists easy study. Long-term work here, including that of researchers such as Andrea Turkalo, has shaped much of what is known about forest elephants. Ivonne Kienast is part of that effort. She leads the Dzanga Forest Elephant Project, part of the Elephant Listening Project at Cornell University. Her work combines long-term behavioral observation with passive acoustic monitoring. The objective is to understand how forest elephants live and to detect early signs of change. In practice, this means continuous field presence, physically demanding work, and coordination across a network of relationships that extend well beyond&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/studying-the-worlds-largest-gathering-of-forest-elephants-with-sound-and-field-observation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/studying-the-worlds-largest-gathering-of-forest-elephants-with-sound-and-field-observation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316782</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ethiopian women plant trees, restoring lands &#038; livelihoods</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ethiopian-women-plant-trees-restoring-lands-livelihoods/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ethiopian-women-plant-trees-restoring-lands-livelihoods/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Apr 2026 20:37:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/01202432/IWDOMembersPlanting_SidamaEthiopia_RuhamaGetahun-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316752</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Ethiopia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Environment, Forests, Fuelwood, Landscape Restoration, NGOs, Solutions, Sustainability, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the southern Ethiopian region of Sidama, unsustainable farming practices and tree cutting for fuel are causing land degradation. In response, members of the Integrated Women’s Development Organization are planting indigenous trees, bananas and vegetables as well as desho (Pennisetum glaucifolium) and elephant grass (Cenchrus purpureus) for cattle fodder in an effort to restore damaged [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the southern Ethiopian region of Sidama, unsustainable farming practices and tree cutting for fuel are causing land degradation. In response, members of the Integrated Women’s Development Organization are planting indigenous trees, bananas and vegetables as well as desho (Pennisetum glaucifolium) and elephant grass (Cenchrus purpureus) for cattle fodder in an effort to restore damaged farmland and build more resilient livelihoods. In an email interview, IWDO’s general manager, Ruhama Getahun, told Mongabay that the women and youth who make up the NGO’s membership have planted more than 1,250 hectares (3,080 acres) since 2020. She said these initiatives have begun generating income for community members — particularly women — helping them rely less on forest products such as charcoal and firewood for survival. Negasi Solomon, a land and environment researcher at Tigray Institute of Policy Studies in Mek’ele, Ethiopia, told Mongabay that rapid population growth means the average size of a household’s land in the Sidama region has shrunk. This has pushed farmers to expand their plots onto fragile and steep hillsides. Solomon told Mongabay in an email that women are — or should be — central to land use and land restoration decisions in Sidama, and in Ethiopia in general, because of the role they play in day‑to‑day farm management. He noted, however, that many women in Ethiopia still face obstacles to taking up leadership roles. “Patriarchal norms and customary systems often concentrate land ownership and key decision‑making in men, while limiting women’s inheritance and control over land even where&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ethiopian-women-plant-trees-restoring-lands-livelihoods/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/ethiopian-women-plant-trees-restoring-lands-livelihoods/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316752</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Kenya’s Jomvu Creek, women help restore a vanishing coast through crab farming</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/in-kenyas-jomvu-creek-women-help-restore-a-vanishing-coast-through-crab-farming/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/in-kenyas-jomvu-creek-women-help-restore-a-vanishing-coast-through-crab-farming/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Feb 2026 18:13:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Asha Bekidusa]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/11041126/Scylla.serrata_MidaCreekKenya_Titi-UuiNaturalistCCBYNC4.0-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314071</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Aquaculture, Biodiversity, Coastal Ecosystems, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Ecosystems, Farming, Food, Gender, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MOMBASA COUNTY, Kenya — Five minutes’ walk up the hilly road from the mangroves lining the tidal flats of Jomvu Creek, the sharp scent of sea water fills the air. A dozen women fill a small hall with laughter and conversation. In the coastal villages of Mombasa county, these gatherings of women to manage informal [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MOMBASA COUNTY, Kenya — Five minutes’ walk up the hilly road from the mangroves lining the tidal flats of Jomvu Creek, the sharp scent of sea water fills the air. A dozen women fill a small hall with laughter and conversation. In the coastal villages of Mombasa county, these gatherings of women to manage informal savings and loans schemes are known as chamas. But this is no ordinary chama. Here, discussions revolve around tides, crab feed, cage repairs and mangrove seedlings. The women, aged 35-60 years, are members of Jomvu Women in Fisheries and Culture, a community-based organization determined to transform their livelihoods and their environment through an unlikely venture: mud crab farming. Four years ago, these same women were scattered across the village. Most worked as what is known locally as mama karanga, the Swahili term for the women who fry fish over charcoal fires for sale near the beaches where fishers land their catch. Some would have been selling fresh fish, and a few were at home, tending to children and grandchildren. But dwindling fish stocks, health problems from cooking smoke and the daily uncertainty of small-scale trade had begun to take their toll. When a Kenya Marine Fisheries and Socio-Economic Development (KEMFSED) project offered grants for blue-economy enterprises in 2021, a few of these women decided to take the opportunity. The women have converted crates used for transporting bread into cages for their crabs. Image by Asha Bekidusa for Mongabay. New concepts Crab farming was a completely&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/in-kenyas-jomvu-creek-women-help-restore-a-vanishing-coast-through-crab-farming/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314071</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The long struggle of women farmers to halt a zinc mine in North Sumatra</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/the-long-struggle-of-women-farmers-to-halt-a-zinc-mine-in-north-sumatra/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/the-long-struggle-of-women-farmers-to-halt-a-zinc-mine-in-north-sumatra/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Jan 2026 17:12:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tonggo Simangunsong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/26073116/Rainim-Purba-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313307</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, North Sumatra, Southeast Asia, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Farming, Gender, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industry, Land Rights, Law, Mining, Politics, Pollution, Protests, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SILIMA PUNGGA-PUNGGA DISTRICT, Indonesia — Rainim Purba first heard the rumor in 1996. Back then, in her mid-30s, villagers were saying a zinc mining company was going to operate near their village of Pandiangan, northeast of Indonesia’s North Sumatra province. It would also be near other villages like Longkotan. When rumor became reality, the company [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SILIMA PUNGGA-PUNGGA DISTRICT, Indonesia — Rainim Purba first heard the rumor in 1996. Back then, in her mid-30s, villagers were saying a zinc mining company was going to operate near their village of Pandiangan, northeast of Indonesia’s North Sumatra province. It would also be near other villages like Longkotan. When rumor became reality, the company promised some residents jobs delivering logistics to workers in the hills, and others were promised to be employed in the mine. Little did Rainim know at the time that she was going to spend two decades of her life joining women farmers to challenge the mine and set a legal precedent in the country. Along with 11 villagers, women led a lawsuit that ultimately won in court. When the environment ministry followed through with the ruling by revoking the company’s environmental permit in May 2025, it marked a legal first: confirmation that an environmental permit of its kind, created through a controversial 2020 law, can in fact be challenged in court. Women were at the forefront of the legal challenge against PT DPM’s mine. Image courtesy of YDPK. According to community activists, when the mining company PT Dairi Prima Mineral (PT DPM) first came to speak to villagers, they were never properly informed of the potential threats the mine could pose. Notably, this consisted of the plan to build a tailings dam in an area with frequent earthquakes, landslide risks and unstable volcanic ash. “They just gave us a verbal notification, no outreach,” she said.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/the-long-struggle-of-women-farmers-to-halt-a-zinc-mine-in-north-sumatra/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313307</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The Indigenous women changing the course of their communities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-indigenous-women-changing-the-course-of-their-communities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-indigenous-women-changing-the-course-of-their-communities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Dec 2025 12:27:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Astrid Arellano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/04122109/Captura-de-pantalla-2025-09-03-a-las-4.43.50-p.m-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310599</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, Mexico, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous women leaders don’t only sustain life in their territories; they are also active defenders of water, seeds, ancestral knowledge and biodiversity. Together, they lead environmental restoration processes and care for the health of their communities. They also pave the way for political participation, claiming spaces where decision-making affects their communities. “Our fight is collective [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous women leaders don’t only sustain life in their territories; they are also active defenders of water, seeds, ancestral knowledge and biodiversity. Together, they lead environmental restoration processes and care for the health of their communities. They also pave the way for political participation, claiming spaces where decision-making affects their communities. “Our fight is collective and our resistance is ancestral. Let’s continue sowing resistance, sowing identity,” says Ketty Marcelo, president of the National Organization of Indigenous Andean and Amazonian Women of Peru (ONAMIAP). Marcelo says the legacy of their female ancestors is an inspiration and also a guide for Indigenous women to face down historical challenges, resist structural racism and violence, promote economic justice, and strengthen identity in the next generation. In this article first published by Mongabay Latam for the International Day of Indigenous Women on Sept. 5, we share the initiatives of three women leaders from Peru, Mexico and Colombia, whose actions are paving the way toward a better future for Indigenous people. International Day of Indigenous Women has been celebrated every Sept. 5 since 1983 to give visibility to Indigenous women’s achievements and the challenges they face. Image courtesy of ONAMIAP. Peru: Naming water to protect it In Indigenous territories in Peru, each water spring has a name, and each of them is a symbol of resistance. Women are the guardians of the water, and each source is enshrined with a ceremony. In a healing ritual, the elders speak to the water, while the rest of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-indigenous-women-changing-the-course-of-their-communities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-indigenous-women-changing-the-course-of-their-communities/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310599</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Women can help rebuild our relationship with lions: Voices from the land (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/women-can-help-rebuild-our-relationship-with-lions-voices-from-the-land-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/women-can-help-rebuild-our-relationship-with-lions-voices-from-the-land-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Nov 2025 03:31:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mama SimbaVictoria Wanjohi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/06031845/Mama-Simba-Image-by-Anthony-Ochieng-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308927</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Voices from the Land]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Big Cats, Cats, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Culture, Gender, Human-wildlife Conflict, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Lions, Mammals, Religions, Solutions, Wildlife, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This series, Voices from the Land, brings together opinion pieces led and written by Indigenous peoples from around the world. Through these commentaries, we share our lived realities and reflections on urgent issues shaping our time — environmental destruction, our relationship with nature, and systemic injustice. We write from the heart of our communities, where [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This series, Voices from the Land, brings together opinion pieces led and written by Indigenous peoples from around the world. Through these commentaries, we share our lived realities and reflections on urgent issues shaping our time — environmental destruction, our relationship with nature, and systemic injustice. We write from the heart of our communities, where the impacts of these urgent crises are deeply felt, but also where solutions are rooted. Through this series, we speak from our territories, and ensure our truths are part of the global conversation. We, the Mama Simba (&#8220;Mothers of Lions&#8221; in Kiswahili) from Samburu, Kenya, have come a long way since we first approached the organization Ewaso Lions to become actively involved in its conservation work. Since 2007, Ewaso Lions has been working to support human-lion coexistence in a region of northern Kenya, today home to nearly 60 lions. When they were approached by us women from the Samburu community in 2013, it was a sign that a shift was about to happen — we wanted to be decision-makers in conservation efforts that concern us. However, with every new initiative comes a new challenge. Would we be accepted as decision makers? The program, Mama Simba, was built on the premise that if women, historically excluded from conservation decisions despite bearing its greatest burdens, were encouraged to lead conservation efforts, we could transform our community&#8217;s relationship with lions from conflict to coexistence. It acknowledged that lasting change requires shifting power, not just perceptions. This sounds good&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/women-can-help-rebuild-our-relationship-with-lions-voices-from-the-land-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/women-can-help-rebuild-our-relationship-with-lions-voices-from-the-land-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308927</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>An Indigenous women-led revolution fights fires in Brazil’s Cerrado</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/an-indigenous-women-led-revolution-fights-fires-in-brazils-cerrado/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/an-indigenous-women-led-revolution-fights-fires-in-brazils-cerrado/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Oct 2025 09:19:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mariana RosettiPaola Churchill]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/23091511/5d51fba2-da27-4773-909d-0e8bda7deb81-e1759780580999-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308192</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Cerrado, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Environmental Policy, Fires, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When they closed their eyes, the Bakairi people of the Santana Indigenous Territory in Brazil heard a sound similar to rain in the forest. It was reminiscent of a summer storm, the kind that arrives suddenly and drenches the vast Cerrado savanna. But instead of water, it was fire. The flames spread across the 73,000-hectare [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When they closed their eyes, the Bakairi people of the Santana Indigenous Territory in Brazil heard a sound similar to rain in the forest. It was reminiscent of a summer storm, the kind that arrives suddenly and drenches the vast Cerrado savanna. But instead of water, it was fire. The flames spread across the 73,000-hectare Indigenous territory in the municipality of Nobres, Mato Grosso state, burning trees, animals, medicinal plants, and everything else in their way. “A machine caught fire in the farm near the territory. The owners couldn’t control it, so it spread to our area,” says Edna Rodrigues Bakairi, a 39-year-old educator. As the fire advanced, the community waited for the authorities — municipal, state or federal — to authorize fire brigades to start containing the flames. “During that wait, the fire arrived and destroyed everything here,” Edna says. The incident, in 2018, left deep scars and forced the Bakairi to seek their own response. A community brigade was born from those ashes, and over the next six years it has prevented large-scale fires on the land. The difference from other Indigenous-led fire brigades? The prominence of women: of the 45 volunteers trained by a retired firefighter, 25 are women. Tragedy amid a national crisis It was Paulo Selva, a retired colonel from the Mato Grosso state fire department, who came up with a project to strengthen socioenvironmental resilience in the Bakairi community. He says he didn’t believe the official system could handle all the demands. “The fire&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/an-indigenous-women-led-revolution-fights-fires-in-brazils-cerrado/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/an-indigenous-women-led-revolution-fights-fires-in-brazils-cerrado/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308192</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous guardians successfully keep extractives out of Ecuador&#8217;s Amazon forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-guardians-successfully-keep-extractives-out-of-ecuadors-amazon-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-guardians-successfully-keep-extractives-out-of-ecuadors-amazon-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Oct 2025 22:31:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Brandi Morin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/22222210/Female-Indigenous-guard-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308057</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Amazon Illegal Deforestation, Indigenous-led conservation, Land rights and extractives, and Latin America]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Conservation, Culture, Environment, extractives, Forests, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Logging, Mining, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PAKAYAKU TERRITORY, Ecuador — Deep in the heart of Ecuador&#8217;s Amazon, where the Bobonaza River winds through ancient forests in Pastaza province, Sacha Gayas spreads out a hand-drawn map across her wooden kitchen table. Her fingers, stained with the rich earth of her homeland, trace the boundaries of 71,000 hectares (175,000 acres) of lands that her [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PAKAYAKU TERRITORY, Ecuador — Deep in the heart of Ecuador&#8217;s Amazon, where the Bobonaza River winds through ancient forests in Pastaza province, Sacha Gayas spreads out a hand-drawn map across her wooden kitchen table. Her fingers, stained with the rich earth of her homeland, trace the boundaries of 71,000 hectares (175,000 acres) of lands that her people have silently guarded for generations. &#8220;We are the hidden people,&#8221; she tells Mongabay. Gayas, 50, has spent decades defending what she and other Kichwa people of the Pakayaku community say outsiders cannot see or understand. For decades, the community living in lush Amazonian rainforests has successfully kept unsustainable logging, mining and oil extraction activities out of these lands while preserving their cultural traditions and ecological knowledge. In July, Mongabay visited the community to see the story of their resistance and conservation of vast forests, which few have been allowed to witness firsthand. Deep in Ecuador’s Amazon, where the Bobonaza River winds through ancient forests in Pastaza province. Image by Brandi Morin. Standing just 1.5 meters (5 feet) tall, Gayas commands the attention of those around her with every word. Her shoulder-length black hair gleams with the fresh application of wituk, a natural dye harvested from fruit plants that grow in the community&#8217;s backyards. Across her face, intricate designs painted in the same wituk ink create bold geometric patterns that will remain for a week — a canvas showing her identity as a guardian of this remote community. Seated at her wooden kitchen table in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-guardians-successfully-keep-extractives-out-of-ecuadors-amazon-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-guardians-successfully-keep-extractives-out-of-ecuadors-amazon-forests/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308057</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous women and the path to a just energy transition: Voices from the land (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/voices-from-the-land-indigenous-women-and-the-path-to-a-just-energy-transition-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/voices-from-the-land-indigenous-women-and-the-path-to-a-just-energy-transition-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Oct 2025 07:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Daniela De LeónGalina Angarova]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/15140431/IMG_6376-1200x800-1-e1760731721510-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307923</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Voices from the Land]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Critical Minerals, Energy, Gender, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Mining, Renewable Energy, Traditional Knowledge, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This series, Voices from the Land, brings together opinion pieces led and written by Indigenous peoples from around the world. Through these commentaries, we share our lived realities and reflections on urgent issues shaping our time — environmental destruction, our relationship with nature, and systemic injustice. We write from the heart of our communities, where [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This series, Voices from the Land, brings together opinion pieces led and written by Indigenous peoples from around the world. Through these commentaries, we share our lived realities and reflections on urgent issues shaping our time — environmental destruction, our relationship with nature, and systemic injustice. We write from the heart of our communities, where the impacts of these urgent crises are deeply felt, but also where solutions are rooted. Through this series, we speak from our territories, and ensure our truths are part of the global conversation. Indigenous women hold a profound understanding of the world as an interwoven web of relationships among people, land, water and all living beings. In many Indigenous worldviews, well-being is collective, and the health of one element sustains the health of all. This perspective defies dominant Western paradigms that often separate humans from nature. As the world rushes toward a new economic era shaped by the energy and digital transitions, Indigenous women are reminding humanity that no technological progress can substitute for a broken relationship with the Earth. Their voices and leadership are essential to envisioning a future that is not only low-carbon but truly life-affirming. Through this commentary, we take the opportunity to reflect on the intersection of Indigenous women and the ongoing energy and digital transitions, exploring what these shifts mean for Indigenous peoples, and especially for Indigenous women, in relation to their rights, livelihoods and cultural continuity. Across the globe, Indigenous women stand at the frontlines of the energy transition&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/voices-from-the-land-indigenous-women-and-the-path-to-a-just-energy-transition-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307923</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Putumayo’s women guardians defend land and culture amid Colombia’s deforestation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/putumayos-women-guardians-defend-land-and-culture-amid-colombias-deforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/putumayos-women-guardians-defend-land-and-culture-amid-colombias-deforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Oct 2025 20:24:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Natalia Arbelaez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/15133452/PORTADA-Mujeres-de-Sibundoy-_-Sara-Arredondo-Baudo-Agencia-Publica-1200x675-1-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307688</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Women Defenders of the Colombian Amazon]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Gender, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Religions, Roads, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional People, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Sibundoy Valley in Putumayo, southwestern Colombia, is an ancestral territory inhabited by two sister ethnic groups: the Kamëntšá and the Inga, descendants of the Peruvian Incas. It is also the place where at least four rivers originate, including the Putumayo, which later joins the Caquetá before flowing into the Amazon. The valley is situated [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Sibundoy Valley in Putumayo, southwestern Colombia, is an ancestral territory inhabited by two sister ethnic groups: the Kamëntšá and the Inga, descendants of the Peruvian Incas. It is also the place where at least four rivers originate, including the Putumayo, which later joins the Caquetá before flowing into the Amazon. The valley is situated in a region of the Andes known as Nudo de los Pastos, before it branches into three separate mountain ranges, with peaks measuring up to 3,500 meters (11,400 feet) above the sea level and several páramos (high-altitude Andean ecosystems) surrounding it. Although far from the Amazonian lowlands, it is an essential part of the territory, providing water to the rest of Putumayo. Due to its climate, the Sibundoy Valley does not face the same challenges — such as illicit coca cultivation and armed groups — as the lower Putumayo, but it is threatened by cattle ranching and extensive plantations of beans, corn and lulo, which were established in the territory decades ago. Large-scale infrastructure projects such as the new road between San Francisco and Mocoa municipalities also pose a risk to conservation in the area. The Sibundoy Valley as seen from the mountains. Image by Laura Niño/La Silla Vacía. As part of a special on Indigenous guardians coordinated by Mongabay Latam, Colombia’s independent online news platform La Silla traveled to the Sibundoy Valley to learn about the work of three Indigenous women in the defense of this territory, who embody the efforts of many others.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/putumayos-women-guardians-defend-land-and-culture-amid-colombias-deforestation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307688</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Women in Mexico step up to protect the island farms traditionally inherited by men</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/women-in-mexico-step-up-to-protect-the-island-farms-traditionally-inherited-by-men/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/women-in-mexico-step-up-to-protect-the-island-farms-traditionally-inherited-by-men/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Oct 2025 13:04:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Associated PressTeresa de Miguel]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Lucia Torres]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/08100347/Cassandra-Garduno-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307201</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Farming, Food, food security, Freshwater, Gender, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Sustainability, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional People, Water, Water Pollution, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This story is a collaboration between The Associated Press and Mongabay. MEXICO CITY, Mexico — Jasmín Ordóñez looks out at the water as the wooden boat she is in crosses a narrow channel that connects a labyrinth of chinampas, island farms that were built by the Aztecs thousands of years ago. “Let’s close our eyes [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This story is a collaboration between The Associated Press and Mongabay. MEXICO CITY, Mexico — Jasmín Ordóñez looks out at the water as the wooden boat she is in crosses a narrow channel that connects a labyrinth of chinampas, island farms that were built by the Aztecs thousands of years ago. “Let’s close our eyes and ask our Mother Water for permission to sail in peace,” she says as the boat moves slowly, in contrast to the frenetic traffic of Mexico City just a few miles away. Ordóñez owns one of these island farms, first created with mud from the bottom of the lakes that once covered this area. When the boat arrives at her island, she proudly shows the corn and leafy greens she grows. Her ancestors owned chinampas, but she had to buy this one because women traditionally haven’t inherited them. “My grandmother didn’t get any land. Back then, most was left in the hands of men,” she said. At her side, Cassandra Garduño listens attentively. She also didn’t inherit the family chinampa. Today both are part of a small but growing group of women who have bought chinampas to cultivate sustainably in an effort to preserve an ecosystem that is increasingly threatened by urban development, mass tourism and water pollution. Jasmín Ordóñez, left, and Cassandra Garduño, right, cross an improvised bridge in Garduño&#8217;s chinampa, an island farm built by the Aztecs thousands of years ago, in San Gregorio Atlapulco, a borough of Mexico City, Sept. 20, 2025.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/women-in-mexico-step-up-to-protect-the-island-farms-traditionally-inherited-by-men/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307201</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Burkina Faso’s women farmers reviving the land with fertilizer trees</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/burkina-fasos-women-farmers-reviving-the-land-with-fertilizer-trees/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/burkina-fasos-women-farmers-reviving-the-land-with-fertilizer-trees/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Sep 2025 14:35:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Yvette Zongo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Christophe Assogba]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/25140012/image1-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306582</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Burkina Faso, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community Development, Conservation, Crops, Environment, Farming, Fertilizers, Food, food security, Gender, Subsistence Agriculture, Sustainability, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CASSOU, Burkina Faso — With her daba in hand, her back bent from decades in the fields, Maan — meaning “grandmother” in the local Nuni language of Burkina Faso’s Centre-Ouest region — isn’t ready to put down her hoe just yet. On this July afternoon, as the sun blazes overhead, the septuagenarian works cheerfully alongside [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CASSOU, Burkina Faso — With her daba in hand, her back bent from decades in the fields, Maan — meaning “grandmother” in the local Nuni language of Burkina Faso’s Centre-Ouest region — isn’t ready to put down her hoe just yet. On this July afternoon, as the sun blazes overhead, the septuagenarian works cheerfully alongside her 8-year-old grandson, weeding her plot near Cassou, a rural commune of some 54,000 inhabitants where she was born. The 2-hectare (5-acre) plot, which Maan Alima Tagnan inherited from her late husband, sustains her small family. For years, she has cultivated a mix of crops here. What draws the eye, however, is the unusual layout: carefully spaced rows of young trees alternating with mature ones, thriving among cowpeas, millet and other crops now nearing harvest. Maan Alima Tagnan under one of the trees she has planted in her field. Image by Yvette Zongo for Mongabay. This is agroforestry polyculture using “fertilizer trees,” an ancestral technique that the Association for the Promotion of Fertilizer Trees, Agroforestry and Forestry (APAF) has revived and modernized by introducing new varieties of nitrogen-fixing trees. “We haven’t invented anything — it’s nothing new to plant trees in fields to enrich the soil,” Firmin Hien, deputy executive director of APAF-Burkina Faso, tells Mongabay. “Our parents used to do it too, but people abandoned the practice with the arrival of chemical fertilizers.” His remarks are echoed by Cheick Zouré, a specialist in the rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems at Joseph Ki-Zerbo University in Burkina&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/burkina-fasos-women-farmers-reviving-the-land-with-fertilizer-trees/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306582</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indigenous women in Peru use technology to protect Amazon forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indigenous-women-in-peru-use-technology-to-protect-amazon-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indigenous-women-in-peru-use-technology-to-protect-amazon-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Sep 2025 19:11:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Astrid Arellano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</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=306548</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous-led conservation, Land rights and extractives, and Latin America]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Logging, Mining, Rainforests, Technology, Wildtech, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2017, when Betty Rubio began patrolling the forests of her ancestral land, she began to question why she was doing it. It wasn’t easy. She knew that tackling environmental crimes such as illegal logging and mining came with risks, and that as a woman, those risks were even greater. “My children would say to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2017, when Betty Rubio began patrolling the forests of her ancestral land, she began to question why she was doing it. It wasn’t easy. She knew that tackling environmental crimes such as illegal logging and mining came with risks, and that as a woman, those risks were even greater. “My children would say to me, ‘Mom, you’re fighting for things that aren’t yours. Who’s going to thank you? You’re the only one doing it, and no one else is saying anything,’” the Kichwa forest ranger recalls. But Rubio is clear that the purpose was bigger than herself. It was about protecting food, ancestral medicines and the future, not only for Puerto Arica, her community, but also for many others living along the Napo River Basin in Loreto, the Amazonian region bordering Peru and Ecuador. At the time, she was one of only three forest monitors from her community — the other two were men — who helped launch the monitoring project led by the Organization of the Indigenous Peoples of the Eastern Amazon (known by its Spanish-language acronym, ORPIO), with support from the Rainforest Foundation US (RFUS). Since then, women have stepped into leadership roles in what was once considered an exclusively male field. Today, alongside Rubio, more than 30 women have forged new paths through the Amazon Rainforest. Betty Rubio, an Indigenous forest monitor, encourages women to get involved in monitoring their territories and forests. Image courtesy of Rainforest Foundation US. “It’s always been thought that this work&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indigenous-women-in-peru-use-technology-to-protect-amazon-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indigenous-women-in-peru-use-technology-to-protect-amazon-forests/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306548</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Women-led patrols and fire prevention restore forests in northern Thailand</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/women-led-patrols-and-fire-prevention-restore-forests-in-northern-thailand/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/women-led-patrols-and-fire-prevention-restore-forests-in-northern-thailand/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Sep 2025 01:16:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/07121601/905a2de0-2c62-44cb-a6bf-97045a5af337-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306038</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Dry Forests, Environment, Fires, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Reforestation, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BAN PONG, Thailand — “Look at these ones over here!” calls Chamran Tahpan, as she crouches next to a mound of damp leaves on the forest floor. A cluster of mushrooms sprouts from the center of the earthy-smelling pile. “These are hed khon, termite mushrooms,” says Rachaprapa Kamphud, 55, who leads the Ban Pong community [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BAN PONG, Thailand — “Look at these ones over here!” calls Chamran Tahpan, as she crouches next to a mound of damp leaves on the forest floor. A cluster of mushrooms sprouts from the center of the earthy-smelling pile. “These are hed khon, termite mushrooms,” says Rachaprapa Kamphud, 55, who leads the Ban Pong community forest and fire management group in northern Thailand’s Lampang province. Edible mushrooms like hed khon, along with a variety of other nontimber products, such as bamboo shoots, leafy greens and red ant eggs, can fetch high prices in local markets, she says, offering villagers a modest income. By keeping the forest soil moist using small check dams designed to slow the flow of minor streams, Rachaprapa says they need only pile up humid leaves and soil to yield wild mushrooms year-round. There’s no need to set fire to the leaf litter to stimulate their growth — a common but risky method many nearby communities rely on. “The moist fallen leaves are a natural fertilizer and give the trees the nutrients they need to grow tall,” Rachaprapa says as she leads 10 members of the community forest group — eight of them women — through the trees to harvest edible items and carry out repairs to a newly built check dam. “Even in the dry season, there’s moisture in our forest soil.” Rachaprapa and her fellow volunteers began restoring the 40-hectare (100-acre) forest from a peanut plantation in 2007. They planted native trees and revived the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/women-led-patrols-and-fire-prevention-restore-forests-in-northern-thailand/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306038</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New report recommends ways to increase women’s access to funding</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-report-recommends-ways-to-increase-womens-access-to-funding/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-report-recommends-ways-to-increase-womens-access-to-funding/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Sep 2025 07:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/29140348/20-Gurung-women-harvesting-foxtail-millet-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305443</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Forests, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Finance, Funding, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Solutions, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new report, published ahead of the International Day of Indigenous Women on Sept. 5, analyzed structural barriers faced by Indigenous, Afro-descendant and other local community women’s organizations in accessing funding for conservation, land rights and gender equality projects — and it offers several recommendations to address these challenges. “When women have secure land and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new report, published ahead of the International Day of Indigenous Women on Sept. 5, analyzed structural barriers faced by Indigenous, Afro-descendant and other local community women’s organizations in accessing funding for conservation, land rights and gender equality projects — and it offers several recommendations to address these challenges. “When women have secure land and resource rights, deforestation rates fall, food security improves, and communities are more resilient,” Omaira Bolaños, Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) program director and research project lead, told Mongabay via email. “Yet despite this central role, women remain underrepresented in decision-making and severely underfunded.” The latest report by global coalitions RRI and the Women in Global South Alliance (WiGSA) found that most of the grants that organizations in the WiGSA network receive are short-term, lasting two years or less, and very little funding reaches women directly, instead going through intermediaries such as international NGOs. “It is necessary for philanthropists, donors and cooperation agencies to understand that it is important, and the moment has come, to provide direct access to financing for communities,” said Sara Omi Casamá, an Emberá Indigenous woman from Panamá and president of the Coordination of Territorial Women Leaders of the Mesoamerican Alliance of Peoples and Forests, who contributed to the report as a member of WiGSA. “This is crucial as a form of justice, as reparation for the constant violations of rights that communities face, particularly affecting children and women.” Along Colombia’s Pacific coast, women belonging to the Afro-Colombian community who harvest piangüa&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/new-report-recommends-ways-to-increase-womens-access-to-funding/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305443</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How science links extreme weather disasters to climate change: Interview with WWA’s Clair Barnes</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/how-science-links-extreme-weather-disasters/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/how-science-links-extreme-weather-disasters/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Aug 2025 11:53:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kristine Sabillo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/25105456/AP25201283121710-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304875</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Earth Science, Environment, Environmental Law, Extreme Weather, Flooding, Governance, Green, Heatwave, Landslides, Oceans, Politics, Research, Science, Storms, Weather, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Human activities have been the major driver of climate change since the advent of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-1800s. As greenhouse gas levels, primarily carbon dioxide due to the burning of fossil fuels, have increased in the atmosphere, Earth’s air and oceans have warmed in response — and scientists have warned this warming is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Human activities have been the major driver of climate change since the advent of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-1800s. As greenhouse gas levels, primarily carbon dioxide due to the burning of fossil fuels, have increased in the atmosphere, Earth’s air and oceans have warmed in response — and scientists have warned this warming is shifting weather patterns and can make extreme weather like heat, drought and floods worse. But scientifically attributing extreme weather events to climate change versus other natural processes or human activities has been tricky. Since 2014, the World Weather Attribution, an initiative of researchers from around the world, has pioneered methods that allow them to understand if human-induced climate change had a role to play in current extreme weather events. Mongabay has reported on several such WWA rapid attribution studies, from the deadly 2025 rainfall in the U.S. to the 2023 Amazon drought. Recently, Mongabay’s Kristine Sabillo sat down with WWA researcher and environmental statistician Clair Barnes, from Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute–Climate Change and the Environment, to learn more about the WWA’s rapid analyses. The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Mongabay: Can you explain how WWA started and what kind of extreme weather events trigger a rapid attribution study? Clair Barnes: Attribution studies have been done for a long time, but they would typically go through the peer-review process, which takes a very long time. So by the time the studies would come out, everyone had forgotten about the event.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/how-science-links-extreme-weather-disasters/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304875</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Across Southeast Asia, Indigenous women challenge extraction and erasure</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/across-southeast-asia-indigenous-women-challenge-extraction-and-erasure/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/across-southeast-asia-indigenous-women-challenge-extraction-and-erasure/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jul 2025 21:04:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hướng Thiện]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/25170629/Lumads-hold-slogans-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303181</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conflict, Environment, Environmental Law, Gender, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Law, Protests, Social Conflict, Social Justice, Violence, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A few years ago, Maria Suryanti Jun had idea little idea of what an environmental defender was. Nor did she have any intention of becoming one. But since December 2022, when a geothermal project was approved for her community in Poco Leok — which sits on an active volcano in the Indonesian province of East [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A few years ago, Maria Suryanti Jun had idea little idea of what an environmental defender was. Nor did she have any intention of becoming one. But since December 2022, when a geothermal project was approved for her community in Poco Leok — which sits on an active volcano in the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara — Maria, now 46 years old, stepped up to advocate for her hometown. In a series of demonstrations against the project, funded by German development bank KfW, Maria and other Indigenous residents have protested what they feel is a lack of transparency from the project developers. This includes scant consultation with the community about the project and its environmental and cultural impacts. Today, Maria is one of the most prominent faces of the Poco Leok movement. But, as a woman and an Indigenous person, she has encountered numerous obstacles in her journey as an activist. Indigenous communities face disproportionately high levels of poverty and are also likely to be disproportionately affected by extractive projects, due to poverty, social marginalization and cultural and economic links to nature. In Southeast Asia, the rights and status of Indigenous communities are often not fully recognized by national governments. Women, meanwhile, are often doubly disadvantaged within and outside of their communities, due to traditional gender roles and limited opportunities for education or self-development. Maria and other women from Poco Leoka are at the forefront of opposing is an expansion of the controversial Ulumbu geothermal plant. Image courtesy of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/across-southeast-asia-indigenous-women-challenge-extraction-and-erasure/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303181</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>From porter to conservation leader, the inspiring journey of Marlyse Bebeguewa in Cameroon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/from-porter-to-conservation-leader-the-inspiring-journey-of-marlyse-bebeguewa-in-cameroon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/from-porter-to-conservation-leader-the-inspiring-journey-of-marlyse-bebeguewa-in-cameroon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2025 13:00:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David AkanaYannick Kenné]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/23175312/Marlyse-Bebeguewa_1624v2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301198</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and Central Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Forests, Gender, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Mambélé, CAMEROON — When most 18-year-olds envision their future, few imagine carrying heavy loads through dense equatorial forest. Yet for Marlyse Bebeguewa, now a 38-year-old forest monitoring consultant in Cameroon’s Lobéké National Park, that was just the beginning of an impactful conservation career. “I feel fine, as usual. I’m not tired. I’m actually happy to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Mambélé, CAMEROON — When most 18-year-olds envision their future, few imagine carrying heavy loads through dense equatorial forest. Yet for Marlyse Bebeguewa, now a 38-year-old forest monitoring consultant in Cameroon’s Lobéké National Park, that was just the beginning of an impactful conservation career. “I feel fine, as usual. I’m not tired. I’m actually happy to be working with some people — it energizes me,” Bebeguewa told Mongabay Africa when we sat down with her for an interview recently in Lobéké National Park. “I don’t get tired; I’m always on the move and motivated.” Born into a Bantu family in 1987, Bebeguewa was one of eight children raised by her mother after her father’s death. He had fallen ill and died while assisting scientists conducting research in the pristine forests of southeastern Cameroon. The loss plunged the family into financial hardship, forcing Bebeguewa to leave her studies before completing high school. “After dropping out, I had nothing to do,” she explained. “Since my father worked in the forest, I thought I could follow that path.” Bebeguewa’s journey from a school dropout to a conservation professional is among the many underreported stories of women working in conservation across Africa — often bridging the gap between scientific research, community knowledge and forest protection in some of the region’s most remote landscapes. In 2009, as a young girl, she approached the nascent conservation service and joined the porters’ team, carrying supplies into the uncharted rainforest. That same year, she seized a second opportunity: Community&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/from-porter-to-conservation-leader-the-inspiring-journey-of-marlyse-bebeguewa-in-cameroon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301198</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Peru, Yine women show how defending the Amazon supports local livelihoods</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/in-peru-yine-women-show-how-defending-the-amazon-supports-local-livelihoods/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/in-peru-yine-women-show-how-defending-the-amazon-supports-local-livelihoods/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Jun 2025 10:57:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Geraldine Santos]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/18105540/Vista-aerea-de-la-Comunidad-Nativa-de-Monte-Salvado-localizada-en-la-zona-de-influencua-del-Parque-Nacional-Alto-Purus-%C2%A9Amaru-_-FZS-Peru-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300984</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Forests, Indigenous Peoples, National Parks, Rainforests, Sustainability, Trees, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As Linda Alvarado, a young Indigenous Yine leader, travels through the forest in the depths of the Peruvian Amazon, she collects clusters of murumuru seeds. These honeycomb-shaped structures fall from the Astrocaryum murumuru palms that reach heights of up to 10 meters (33 feet). Alvarado and her “sisters,” what she calls the other women from [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As Linda Alvarado, a young Indigenous Yine leader, travels through the forest in the depths of the Peruvian Amazon, she collects clusters of murumuru seeds. These honeycomb-shaped structures fall from the Astrocaryum murumuru palms that reach heights of up to 10 meters (33 feet). Alvarado and her “sisters,” what she calls the other women from the community of Monte Salvado in the Madre de Dios region, use these seeds to craft necklaces and bracelets bearing the script of the Yine people. The Yine are an Amazonian Indigenous people from southern Peru. Since precolonial times they’ve traveled to exchange products with other Amazonian and Andean communities. The community of Monte Salvado, where Alvarado lives, borders Madre de Dios Territorial Reserve and is also within the buffer zone of Alto Purús National Park. Both protected areas are home to Indigenous peoples choosing to live in isolation. Over the past 20 years, sightings of these isolated communities have increased. One of the most recent sightings was in October 2024, when a group of about 100 members of the Mashco-Piro, an uncontacted Indigenous community, intercepted a boat whose passengers included Jorge Hernani Alvarado, the protection agent for FENAMAD, an association of Indigenous groups from the Madre de Dios region. Jorge is also the brother of Linda Alvarado. The murumuru palm forest in the community of Monte Salvado. Image courtesy of Cristina Soto for FZS Peru. “The Mashco-Piro are forced to move to other territories because illegal loggers are invading their land and affecting their&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/in-peru-yine-women-show-how-defending-the-amazon-supports-local-livelihoods/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300984</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesian women sustain seaweed traditions in a changing climate</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/indonesian-women-sustain-seaweed-traditions-in-a-changing-climate/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/indonesian-women-sustain-seaweed-traditions-in-a-changing-climate/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jun 2025 22:29:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maddy Bolt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/09113813/IMG_3108-e1749469134299-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300402</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bali, Indian Ocean, Indonesia, Oceania, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, algae, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Reefs, COVID-19, Culture, Development, Ecosystems, Ecotourism, Environment, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, Islands, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Restoration, Tourism, Traditional Knowledge, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[NUSA PENIDA, Indonesia — Storm clouds loom overhead as Nyoman Mitri peers out at rows of seaweed lines stretching across the shallow tidal waters of Nusa Penida. Her weathered hands move with practiced ease as she secures a strand of green seaweed to a rope. “It never used to be like this,” she says. “It’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[NUSA PENIDA, Indonesia — Storm clouds loom overhead as Nyoman Mitri peers out at rows of seaweed lines stretching across the shallow tidal waters of Nusa Penida. Her weathered hands move with practiced ease as she secures a strand of green seaweed to a rope. “It never used to be like this,” she says. “It’s only been the last 10 years or so that rain has begun to seriously damage the seaweed.” Ibu Mitri, or Mrs. Mitri, as she’s known by her community, is sharing her seaweed cultivation techniques with a few tourists. Together, they sort through fresh seaweed, discarding damaged strands and carefully tying healthy green ones onto lengths of rope, preparing them to be returned to the sea and fastened to wooden posts, where they’ll continue growing until the next harvest. As she ties hundreds of strands of seaweed back onto the lines, lulled into a methodical rhythm, she begins to share her concerns: the changing climate, increasing development, and the growing unreliability of each harvest. With a shy smile, she speaks of how increased rainfall and more frequent storms have threatened traditions once guided by the seasons, not by storms. Nyoman Mitri (right) and a visiting volunteer gather freshly harvested seaweed in the shallows of Nusa Penida before bringing it ashore for sorting and quality control. Ecotourism provides seaweed farmers with an additional way to sustain traditions.  Image by Maddy Bolt for Mongabay. &nbsp; Nestled between the rocky shores of Lombok and the popular vacation destination of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/indonesian-women-sustain-seaweed-traditions-in-a-changing-climate/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300402</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Silvery lining for Java’s endangered gibbon as Rahayu Oktaviani wins Whitley prize</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/silvery-lining-for-javas-endangered-gibbon-as-rahayu-oktaviani-wins-whitley-prize/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/silvery-lining-for-javas-endangered-gibbon-as-rahayu-oktaviani-wins-whitley-prize/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 May 2025 03:11:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nuswantoro]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/26051403/Owa_Jawa_Hylobates_moloch-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299626</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Java, Southeast Asia, and West Java]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Gibbons, Habitat Loss, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Hunting, Mammals, Primates, Rainforests, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia — Rahayu Oktaviani revered the work of Canadian primatologist Biruté Galdikas while a student in the mid-2000s, aspiring to join her hero in protecting the Bornean orangutan, which would be classified several years later as a critically endangered species. In the end, a lack of research funding kept the Borneo forest canopy out [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia — Rahayu Oktaviani revered the work of Canadian primatologist Biruté Galdikas while a student in the mid-2000s, aspiring to join her hero in protecting the Bornean orangutan, which would be classified several years later as a critically endangered species. In the end, a lack of research funding kept the Borneo forest canopy out of reach for Ayu, as she’s better known, upon graduation. “So, I turned to the Javan gibbon,” Ayu told Mongabay Indonesia. An hour west of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), her alma mater and Indonesia’s top forestry university, Ayu was instead drawn by the distinctive call of the silvery gibbon from Gunung Halimun-Salak National Park, named after the twin active volcanoes at its heart. “I heard that voice every time I went into the forest,” Ayu said. Last month, Ayu won the prestigious Whitley Award, which recognizes achievements in grassroots conservation, to advance her work on protection of Java’s silvery gibbon. Ayu follows past winners like Amanda Vincent, today a world expert on seahorses, who won the inaugural Whitley Award in 1994 to study seahorses in the Philippines. “Drawing on a decade of research into gibbon behaviour and habitat needs, Ayu and her team at Kiara (Konservasi Ekosistem Alam Nusantara) will work with community members, park rangers and managers to build capacity, monitor biodiversity and guide conservation strategies toward a shared vision,” the U.K.-based Whitley Fund for Nature wrote in a release. Rahayu Oktaviani has dedicated 17 years of her life to saving the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/silvery-lining-for-javas-endangered-gibbon-as-rahayu-oktaviani-wins-whitley-prize/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299626</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In India, folklore is a tool that helps women save the greater adjutant stork</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/in-india-folklore-is-a-tool-that-helps-women-save-the-greater-adjutant-stork/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/in-india-folklore-is-a-tool-that-helps-women-save-the-greater-adjutant-stork/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 May 2025 17:38:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Angana Chakrabarti]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/14233849/Leptoptilos_dubius_Assam_2007-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299050</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia and India]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Animals, Birds, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Fellows, Wildlife, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Come hear the hargila&#8217;s speech With a cry of the heart&#8217;s eyes Hear o hear me out Please do not chop down our trees Do not erase our forests How are we going to keep living How are we going to keep living The voice of 43-year-old Daibaki Saikia, a resident of Dadara village in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Come hear the hargila&#8217;s speech With a cry of the heart&#8217;s eyes Hear o hear me out Please do not chop down our trees Do not erase our forests How are we going to keep living How are we going to keep living The voice of 43-year-old Daibaki Saikia, a resident of Dadara village in Assam’s Kamrup district, crackled through this journalist’s phone. She sang a folk song she had penned about the greater adjutant stork, locally called the hargila (Assamese for bone-swallower) for its distinctive neck. A greater adjutant, known locally as a hargila, feeding in Kaziranga National Park in Assam, India. Image by Dr. Raju Kasambe via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Several years ago, Daibaki would never have thought to sing in praise of a bird, especially one that has been described as a “prodigy of ugliness.” The scraggly looking bird, which can be recognized by its bald head, a wedged-shaped beak and dangly orange pouch that hangs loose from its neck, was admonished in many places in Assam until a few years back. Daibaki told Mongabay, “I used to think of this as a dirty, smelly bird.” It was a view that was widely held among the people in her village and villages around. They would callously attack the greater adjutant storks (Leptoptilos dubius) with stones and cut down the trees where they would nest. So in 2007, when conservationist and wildlife biologist Purnima Devi Barman ventured to Dadara and the nearby villages of Singimari and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/in-india-folklore-is-a-tool-that-helps-women-save-the-greater-adjutant-stork/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299050</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘It has been worth it’: The local women saving Yucatán’s mangroves</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/it-has-been-worth-it-the-local-women-saving-yucatans-mangroves/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/it-has-been-worth-it-the-local-women-saving-yucatans-mangroves/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Apr 2025 16:00:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Astrid Arellano]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/25145530/Las-Chelemeras-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298181</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Coastal Ecosystems, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Ecosystems, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Gender, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Landscape Restoration, Mangroves, Oceans, Reforestation, Restoration, Trees, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The women of Chelem, a fishing community on the northern coast of the Mexican state of Yucatán, hadn’t planned to work in mangrove restoration. At first, it was simply an opportunity to make money to support their families, so they signed up for the project. It was 2010, and the initiative, led by the Center [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The women of Chelem, a fishing community on the northern coast of the Mexican state of Yucatán, hadn’t planned to work in mangrove restoration. At first, it was simply an opportunity to make money to support their families, so they signed up for the project. It was 2010, and the initiative, led by the Center for Research and Advanced Studies (CINVESTA) at the National Polytechnic Institute, aimed to restore a mangrove forest that had been devastated by the construction of a port in the late 1960s. The group has since come to be known as Las Chelemeras (“the women of Chelem”), who have learned to restore and defend mangroves and who, 15 years later, continue to do so. Keila Vázquez, coordinator of Las Chelemeras, remembers this place, known as the Yucalpetén bend, as barren. “It was caused by dredging for a nearby port,” Vázquez says. “All the gravel from the port was dumped there: the topography changed, the salinity increased and the water stopped flowing.” That’s where Las Chelemeras came in. The 14 women in the group, ranging in age from 30 to 85, learned about the different mangrove tree species of the area and what they needed to survive and grow, Vázquez says. “Despite being from the coast, we didn’t know why the mangroves were important,” Vázquez says. “For example, they protect against cyclones and act as nurseries for commercial marine species such as prawns. Now we understand how much they benefit us.” She adds, “We know that each&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/it-has-been-worth-it-the-local-women-saving-yucatans-mangroves/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298181</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In an ancient Javanese sultanate, coastal women battle climate fallout</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/in-an-ancient-javanese-sultanate-coastal-women-battle-climate-fallout/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/in-an-ancient-javanese-sultanate-coastal-women-battle-climate-fallout/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Apr 2025 02:55:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Irfan Maulana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/15075217/Women-in-Timbul-Seloko-Village-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297543</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Java, Indonesia, Java, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Climate Justice, Conservation, Environment, Erosion, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Food, Gender, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Overfishing, Sea Levels, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[DEMAK, Indonesia — The Java Sea has pursued Sunarti for years, first submerging her birthplace in Timbulsloko village, before forcing the mother of two to flee inland on the northern coast of Demak district in Indonesia’s Central Java province. “I became unemployed,” the 53-year-old told Mongabay Indonesia. “The crops we planted wouldn’t grow. I asked [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[DEMAK, Indonesia — The Java Sea has pursued Sunarti for years, first submerging her birthplace in Timbulsloko village, before forcing the mother of two to flee inland on the northern coast of Demak district in Indonesia’s Central Java province. “I became unemployed,” the 53-year-old told Mongabay Indonesia. “The crops we planted wouldn’t grow. I asked God, ‘Why is my life like this?’” As each year passed, brackish water claimed more of the Demak coast, flooding the fields and fishponds in this farming district of 1.2 million people. The water invaded homes and places of business after breaching flood defenses built by communities to hold back the tide. When floodwater intruded into cemeteries, families confronted grief for their loved ones once again. “The water gradually rose up and the roads were submerged,” Sunarti said. “In the end, my father and I went to Semarang on a bicycle.” Sunarti’s new start in Indonesia’s sixth-largest city, a busy port of almost 2 million people, at first involved casual work peeling onions and laboring on construction sites. Later, the mother of two trained to work in the fisheries sector. However, most fishers on Java’s north coast, a region known as Pantura, are themselves struggling to adapt to changes at sea off the world’s most populous island. Mongabay reporting has documented Pantura’s fishers sailing ever farther from home just to sustain a living, as the costs of doing business mount. Overfishing has pushed many fisheries to the brink of collapse or beyond, but research shows&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/in-an-ancient-javanese-sultanate-coastal-women-battle-climate-fallout/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297543</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Where war once raged in Iraq, Yezidi women plant hope</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/where-war-once-raged-in-iraq-yezidi-women-plant-hope/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/where-war-once-raged-in-iraq-yezidi-women-plant-hope/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Apr 2025 15:25:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Robert Bociaga]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/14123702/Yezidi-women-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297536</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Iraq, and Middle East]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Desertification, Ecosystems, Education, Environment, Forestry, Gender, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Landscape Restoration, Restoration, Sustainable Development, Trees, War, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[KHANKE, Iraq — In the wind-swept town of Khanke in northern Iraq, a fragile tree stands as a quiet symbol of resilience. Its slender trunk bends slightly in the dry breeze, its roots gripping soil once strewn with plastic waste. Beneath its shade, a group of women gathers: survivors of war, displacement, and unimaginable loss. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[KHANKE, Iraq — In the wind-swept town of Khanke in northern Iraq, a fragile tree stands as a quiet symbol of resilience. Its slender trunk bends slightly in the dry breeze, its roots gripping soil once strewn with plastic waste. Beneath its shade, a group of women gathers: survivors of war, displacement, and unimaginable loss. Yet here, they are not victims — they are custodians of renewal. These women, many of them ethnic Yezidis who escaped the 2014 ISIS genocide in Sinjar district, are rebuilding not just their lives, but the landscape around them. Armed with shovels and buckets, they have turned barren spaces into green sanctuaries, planting more than 2,000 trees and nurturing hope in a place where despair once took root. Their efforts are part of Clean Green, a grassroots environmental initiative founded by Yezidi women determined to restore their surroundings. The project began with just five volunteers in 2023 but has since grown into a network of more than 40 members who plant trees, recycle, and teach children about environmental stewardship. For Suzan Haskani, a Yezidi woman who fled ISIS at the age of 14, joining Clean Green brought purpose. “When I first arrived in Khanke, I wasn’t thinking about trees or cleaning,” she says. “I was thinking about safety, like everyone else.” That sense of safety, however, feels fragile. Even as some displaced families now mull returning to Sinjar, they say their homeland has changed. “Even if Sinjar was safe, people can’t farm like before,” says&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/where-war-once-raged-in-iraq-yezidi-women-plant-hope/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297536</doi>				</item>
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					<title>A Kichwa women&#8217;s collective uses ecotourism to safeguard Ecuador’s Amazon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/a-kichwa-women-collective-uses-ecotourism-to-safeguard-ecuadors-amazon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/a-kichwa-women-collective-uses-ecotourism-to-safeguard-ecuadors-amazon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Apr 2025 11:53:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ana Cristina Alvarado]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/01114819/IMG_9419-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296833</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Ecuador, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Culture, Ecotourism, Environment, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Traditional Knowledge, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For members of the Sani Warmi collective in Amazonian Ecuador, the day begins before sunrise. They tend to the chacra — their agroforestry garden — and harvest plantain, yuca, palm heart and bijao leaves. They feed the cachama fish in the tanks and catch some of them. Throughout the day, they will receive at least [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[For members of the Sani Warmi collective in Amazonian Ecuador, the day begins before sunrise. They tend to the chacra — their agroforestry garden — and harvest plantain, yuca, palm heart and bijao leaves. They feed the cachama fish in the tanks and catch some of them. Throughout the day, they will receive at least one group of tourists who want to learn how Amazonian Indigenous peoples manage to live somewhere that, seen from above, appears impenetrable. The collective’s cofounder, Senaida Cerda, and president, Jesenia Santi, say that Sani Warmi was formed so that the women of the community could earn some money and not depend on their husbands. “It’s a wonderful project that empowers women; they have been to able gain knowledge and generate an income for their day-to-day,” says Cerda. Sunset in Sani Isla. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. Between Yasuni National Park and Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve in northeastern Ecuador is the Kichwa Sani Isla community. Getting there from the city of Coca involves a two-hour boat ride on the Napo River. The waterway is fringed by thick forests, and occasional gas flares that rise above the canopy. Gas flaring signals the presence of the oil industry: All along the route, there are barges carrying hydrocarbons in tanks labelled “inflammable” or “dangerous.” Well-trained eyes and ears will be able to spot macaws, parrots and other birds flying over in the early hours of the morning. They will also see several species of monkeys resting or swinging through the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/a-kichwa-women-collective-uses-ecotourism-to-safeguard-ecuadors-amazon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296833</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Colombia’s women clam collectors protect Pacific mangroves and mollusks</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/colombias-women-clam-collectors-protect-pacific-mangroves-and-mollusks/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/colombias-women-clam-collectors-protect-pacific-mangroves-and-mollusks/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Apr 2025 10:36:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Catherine Ellis]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/01102401/Monitors-within-the-association-like-Marlin-Valencia-are-in-charge-of-control-rest-areas-for-the-mangroves-and-piangua-CREDIT-Raices-Piangueras-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296825</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Colombia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Coastal Ecosystems, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Food, Mangroves, Marine, Nature-based climate solutions, Protected Areas, Restoration, Solutions, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the green-fringed inlet of Bahía Málaga, tucked along Colombia’s Pacific coast in the department of Valle del Cauca, Marlin Valencia’s melodic voice drifts among the tangled roots of the mangrove trees. As she sings, she crouches down and swirls her glove-covered hand in the soft mud, searching for piangüa (Anadara tuberculosa), a small black-shelled [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[In the green-fringed inlet of Bahía Málaga, tucked along Colombia’s Pacific coast in the department of Valle del Cauca, Marlin Valencia’s melodic voice drifts among the tangled roots of the mangrove trees. As she sings, she crouches down and swirls her glove-covered hand in the soft mud, searching for piangüa (Anadara tuberculosa), a small black-shelled clam that her ancestors have harvested for centuries. “We have to search much harder to find piangüa than we did before,” she says, briefly pausing mid-song and pulling her empty, mud-covered hand from the thick, brown, salty sludge. “Now other people come here, too, and take so many of them,” Valencia adds woefully. Piangüa, which is found roughly between the Pacific coasts of Mexico and Peru, provides an income for more than 11,000 women in Colombia’s Pacific region. The Afro-Colombian communities scattered around Bahía Málaga, which is home to nearly 1,400 plant and animal species, call it their “black gold.” For generations, piangüa has been their livelihood, a nutrient-rich food source and an important symbol of cultural heritage.  But in recent years, the piangüeras, primarily women who harvest piangüa, have witnessed its population dwindle. Commercialization and overharvesting, particularly driven by exports to Ecuador, where about 80% of Colombian piangüa ends up, started to put a significant strain on piangüa numbers, as well as on the local ancestral traditions tied to it.  Piangua is a black shelled mollusk that is eaten in stews and ceviches. Image by Catherine Ellis. Realizing they could do little to mitigate&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/colombias-women-clam-collectors-protect-pacific-mangroves-and-mollusks/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296825</doi>				</item>
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					<title>Women in Ghana plant ‘diversion’ trees to protect shea trees and their livelihoods</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/women-in-ghana-plant-diversion-trees-to-protect-shea-trees-and-their-livelihoods/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/women-in-ghana-plant-diversion-trees-to-protect-shea-trees-and-their-livelihoods/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Mar 2025 07:00:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/07215755/40132068671_aea784cf4a_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295494</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Ghana, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Development, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Economics, Forestry, Landscape Restoration, Reforestation, Trees, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As the growing demand for charcoal and firewood hastens the decline of shea trees in Ghana, communities living on the fringes of the country’s Mole National Park are planting fast-growing trees of other species as a buffer. The logic of the effort is for communities to instead cut down the fast-growing tree species for their [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As the growing demand for charcoal and firewood hastens the decline of shea trees in Ghana, communities living on the fringes of the country’s Mole National Park are planting fast-growing trees of other species as a buffer. The logic of the effort is for communities to instead cut down the fast-growing tree species for their energy needs, leaving the native shea species behind for sustainable harvesting of key commodities for trade, like shea nuts and butter. So far, the trees have many benefits over shea species, like growing faster and being more resistant to fires, but shea trees also produce more efficient charcoal. Around 300 community members in the towns of Mognori and Yazori are engaged in the effort by planting the seedlings of two species, the Gum Arabic tree (Vachellia nilotica) and Paperback Thorn (Vachellia sieberiana) (both formally known as acacia) and occasionally selling the firewood. The majority, about 60%, are women, who typically take dominant roles in the country&#8217;s shea harvesting and trade. They have so far planted 53,434 seedlings on 158.11 hectares (390 acres) of land as part of a forest landscape restoration and sustainable wood energy project by the IUCN and A Rocha Ghana. As the seedlings grow into trees, women told Mongabay they are one of the best firewood substitutes for indigenous tree species of shea. Taking part in this effort, they said, helps protect their livelihoods and makes them travel shorter distances for firewood. “Women can now depend on acacia trees [former name] for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/women-in-ghana-plant-diversion-trees-to-protect-shea-trees-and-their-livelihoods/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295494</doi>				</item>
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					<title>Conservation education is about people too: Interview with Gabon’s Léa Moussavou</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/conservation-education-is-about-people-too-interview-with-gabons-lea-moussavou/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/conservation-education-is-about-people-too-interview-with-gabons-lea-moussavou/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Feb 2025 18:48:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fanta Mabo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/14094717/Conservation-Justice-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294418</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Gabon]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Education, Environment, Fellows, Interviews, Wildlife, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Gabon’s biodiversity is among the largest and most diverse wild ecosystems in the world, with nearly 90% of its territory covered in rainforests. The country is home to some of the world’s most iconic species such as elephants, pangolins, gorillas, chimpanzees as well as panthers and hippopotamuses. The need to protect this environment prompts the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Gabon’s biodiversity is among the largest and most diverse wild ecosystems in the world, with nearly 90% of its territory covered in rainforests. The country is home to some of the world’s most iconic species such as elephants, pangolins, gorillas, chimpanzees as well as panthers and hippopotamuses. The need to protect this environment prompts the need to educate young generations. But for environmental educator Léa Coralie Moussavou, it’s important to note: Conservation is not just protecting wildlife species and forests; it’s also about helping local communities. In 2013, a study carried out by Gabon&#8217;s national parks agency, in collaboration with the WWF and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), revealed that poachers had killed around 11,100 elephants, or 44-77% of the population, in and around Minkébé National Park, located in the northeast. Since then, in a bid to safeguard the country’s rich wildlife heritage, the NGO Conservation Justice (CJ) has worked with the Gabonese authorities to arrest poachers (more than 500 in the last 15 years) and ensure that the country’s wildlife law is applied. Article 275 of this law subjects poachers to 3-6 months&#8217; imprisonment and a fine between 100,000 and 10 million Central African CFA francs ($158-$15,800). Conservation Justice is also active in environmental education, with almost 7,350 pupils being educated across Gabon in 2024. To mark World Environment Education Day, celebrated every year on Jan. 26, Moussavou spoke with Mongabay about her work as head of community education and environmental awareness at Conservation Justice. This interview has been&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/conservation-education-is-about-people-too-interview-with-gabons-lea-moussavou/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294418</doi>				</item>
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