Indigenous community saves Colombia’s poison dart frog from coca and logging
One of the most poisonous animals on earth, the golden dart frog carries enough toxins in its body to kill 10 people. If it enters the blood stream, the toxin…
The complete guide to restoring your soil: Q&A with soil expert Dale Strickler
Son of a sharecropper and lifetime farmer, Dale Strickler has lived his life by the soil. Strickler grew up in an impoverished area near the Ozarks in the U.S. Midwest,…
With loss of forests, Bali villages find themselves vulnerable to disaster
PENYARINGAN, Indonesia — Stretching across Bali’s southwest coast and up into the mountainous hinterland is Jembrana, one of the least populated of the Indonesian island’s nine administrative districts. Its name…
Lack of resolution mechanisms allow palm oil conflicts to fester in Indonesia
JAKARTA — Indonesia has no effective mechanism for resolving its epidemic of land conflicts between rural communities and palm oil companies, according to a new study. Indonesia is the world’s…
For South Africa’s dwindling renosterveld, there’s now a ‘panic button’ app
The rhinos are long gone, as are other large mammals like the now-extinct quagga and bluebuck. Conservationists are now fighting to preserve what remains of the renosterveld, South Africa's most…
In Brazil, an agribusiness haven’s green pivot leaves many skeptical
A project originally aimed to fuel agribusiness in one of the most heavily deforested parts of the Brazilian Amazon is now being touted by the government as a “green” and…
Forests for sale: How land traffickers profit by slicing up Bolivia’s protected areas
SAN IGNACIO DE VELASCO, Bolivia — On Feb. 12, 2021, Bolivian conservationists joyfully celebrated the creation of the Bajo Paraguá Municipal Protected Area. Located in the municipality of San Ignacio…
Fighting climate change is a dirty job, but soils can do it | Problem Solved
While it’s clear that soil can help limit the impacts of climate change, leveraging its power requires a menu of solutions at many scales. Most of them require big policy…
Community tree nursery and garden bring a ray of hope to Zimbabwean village
GURUVE, Zimbabwe — To get to Nyamukondiwa village in Guruve district in rural Zimbabwe, you have to navigate through 170 kilometers, or 106 miles, of mountainous terrain from the capital,…
At a ‘certified’ palm oil plantation in Nigeria, soldiers and conflict over land
When the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was created by a coalition of industry giants, retailers, banks, and NGOs in 2004, it was supposed to be the catalyst for…
EU proposes ambitious ban on products tied to legal and illegal deforestation
The European Union is considering an ambitious new proposal that would regulate imports of products linked to global forest loss. The law would require suppliers to prove their products haven’t…
Report: Orangutans and their habitat in Indonesia need full protection now
JAKARTA — Protecting all remaining orangutans and their forest habitat in Indonesia will provide a bastion for the survival of Asia’s only great ape, wildlife experts say in a new…
Young forests can help heal tropical aquatic ecosystems: Study
Scientists have long identified a link between livestock production and deforestation, with reams of research showing the detrimental effect of agricultural activities on natural resources. Little is known, however, about…
Bali’s new highway project sparks concerns about agriculture and conservation areas
BALI, Indonesia — Concerns over a major highway project in Bali are mounting, with a new study revealing how the road would affect the island’s signature farmlands. The idea of…
For Kenyan farmers, organic fertilizer bokashi brings the land back to life
KARUNGARU, Kenya — Karungaru village in eastern Kenya’s Tharaka Nithi county is dry — so dry that even the resilient acacia trees have shed their leaves to cope. But amid…
Ambitious English rewilding project aims to give 20% of land ‘back to nature’
WildEast hopes to rewild large, interconnected tracts in East Anglia and also introduce regenerative farming practices on farmland still in use, but some local farmers complain the project lacks consultation.
Indigenous groups call for gov’t intervention as land grabbers invade Bolivian protected area
This article is part of a journalistic collaboration between Mongabay Latam and El Deber, a Bolivian news source. On Feb. 15, three days after the creation of Bajo Paraguá…
New study helps cattle ranchers monitor ecological impact on U.S. rangelands
Cattle ranchers in the U.S. will soon have a systematic way of measuring the ecological impact that their industry has on rangeland ecosystems across the country. A new study published…
You can move an elephant to the jungle, but it won’t stay there, study says
In 2012, researchers in Sri Lanka tracked the movements of a dozen “problem elephants” that had been translocated into protected areas due to conflict with humans. Their findings were worrying:…
Forest declarations are nice, but profitability determines land use in the Amazon (Book excerpt)
Editor’s note: Tim Killeen provides an update on the state of the Amazon in his new book “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon Wilderness – Success and Failure in the Fight…
Bornean communities locked into 2-million-hectare carbon deal they don’t know about
Leaders in Sabah, a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo, have signed a profit-sharing deal to market carbon and other natural capital from more than 2 million hectares (4.9…
Under Bolsonaro, Indigenous Yanomami see surge in child malnutrition deaths
On May 10, the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo reported on child malnutrition in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory, located in the country’s northern Amazonian region. It featured the image of…
In China, agroforestry serves up tea with a spoonful of sustainability
SINGAPORE — On a vast plateau atop Jingmai Mountain in Yunnan, China, nearly a mile above sea level, grows a forest of ancient tea trees. During summer, silvery cobwebs line…
Indigenous lands under siege as buffalo frenzy grips the Amazon
TRINCHEIRA INDIGENOUS TERRITORY, Brazil — Deep in the Trincheira reserve, our motor boat winds through a maze of streams, or igarapés, sliding past dense submerged rainforest. It halts on the…
Brazil’s Indigenous Xavante strangled by agribusiness, slammed by COVID-19
Beneath the intense sun of Brazil’s Central-West region, protesters paraded their bodies painted black and red — with charcoal and annatto, from the urucum (achiote) plant — and adorned with…
Your açaí smoothie may be destroying floodplain forests in the Amazon
Açaí has always been part of the Amazonian diet. Locals consume the round, purple fruit, which grows in bunches on the Euterpe oleracea palm tree, almost daily. In the mid-1990s,…
For Indonesian farmers used to ‘instant’ results, going organic is a tough sell
PITU SUNGGU, Indonesia — Arief Sore holds up a clutch of desiccated rice stalks a short distance from the unusual arable field he tills in Pangkep district on Indonesia's Sulawesi…
Indonesian farmers resisting an iron mine run up against a sultan
This article is the result of a collaboration between Mongabay, Gatra, SoloPos.com, KabarMedan.com and Merdeka.com. KULON PROGO, Indonesia — On the coastline south of one of Java's oldest kingdoms, a…
Inga tree points to way out of slash-and-burn for Central American farmers
Like many rural families in Central America, Martín García and his sons devoted part of every growing season to slashing and burning a new strip of their land, knowing that…
Deprived of their forests, Uganda’s Batwa adapt their sustainable practices
KISORO, Uganda — It’s been three decades since the Ugandan government evicted the Batwa people, an Indigenous group commonly known as Pygmies, from their forest lands. The reason for their…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Indigenous groups call for gov’t intervention as land grabbers invade Bolivian protected area
- Indigenous lands under siege as buffalo frenzy grips the Amazon
- Deforestation soars in Nigeria’s gorilla habitat: ‘We are running out of time’
- Deforestation notches up along logging roads on PNG’s New Britain Island
Oceans
- Advocates welcome halt to shortfin mako shark fishing, call for longer ban
- Technology and tradition team up to watch over a sacred island’s sea turtles
- Countries fail to agree on Antarctic conservation measures for fifth straight year
- Despite deals, plans and bans, the Mediterranean is awash in plastic
Amazon Conservation
- Amazon deforestation unexpectedly surges 22% to highest level since 2006
- COP-26: Amazonia’s Indigenous peoples are vital to fighting global warming (commentary)
- BR-319 highway hearings: An attack on Brazil’s interests and Amazonia’s future (commentary)
- Amazon, meet Amazon: Tech giant rolls out rainforest carbon offset project
Land rights and extractives
- Illegal mining threatens Indigenous land at foot of Philippines’ tallest peak
- Legal challenge to South Africa mine expansion looks to set new landmark
- Struggle endures for Philippine community pitted against gold miner
- In Peru’s Amazon, deforestation and crime sweep through Indigenous communities
Endangered Environmentalists
- The Kichwa woman fighting drug traffickers and loggers in the Peruvian Amazon
- Rights groups demand end to Cambodia’s persecution of green activists
- With Indigenous rights at stake in Brasília, a territory is attacked in Paraty
- Brazil’s Bolsonaro vowed to work with Indigenous people. Now he’s investigating them
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- From Flores to Papua: Meet 10 of Indonesia’s mangrove guardians
- Why I stand for my tribe’s forest: It gives us food, culture, and life (commentary)
- Reforesting a village in Indonesia, one batch of gourmet beans at a time
- Restoring Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem, one small farm at a time
Conservation Effectiveness
- Young forests can help heal tropical aquatic ecosystems: Study
- How sharing and learning from failures can transform conservation (commentary)
- Is planting trees as good for the Earth as everyone says?
- ‘Bad science’: Planting frenzy misses the grasslands for the trees
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Bali’s new highway project sparks concerns about agriculture and conservation areas
- Deforestation notches up along logging roads on PNG’s New Britain Island
- Plantations and roads strip away Papua’s forests. They’re just getting started
- Indonesian farmers refuse to budge for train line through karst landscape
