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In March, IBAMA dismantled an illegal mining operation in the Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Territory in Roraima. This image from Operation Xapiri shows rocks resulting from bedrock blasting. After being crushed, the ore is processed using cyanide to separate the gold from other minerals.

Cyanide ponds from illegal mining threaten Amazon Indigenous territory

Elizabeth Oliveira 2 Nov 2026
Over the past century, humanity has invented thousands of novel chemicals.

Global framework urgently needed to assess emerging health risks of novel chemicals, experts say

Claire Asher 27 Oct 2026
African savannah elephants in Kenya (Loxodonta africana). Image by Julie Larsen ©Wild-life Conservation Society.

Large animals are living carbon stores. Does that make saving them a climate solution?

John Cannon 20 Oct 2026
As the world grapples with the growing plastic pollution crisis, new accounting methods pushed by the chemical recycling industry could undermine national and international recycling targets and distract from real policy solutions, critics say.

Plastic industry bookkeeping plans hide chemical recycling harms, critics say

Claire Asher 16 Oct 2026

Lawmakers in Suriname call for investigation, stricter oversight amid new mining activity

Maxwell Radwin 9 Oct 2026
The Peruvian government launches the 2025 anchoveta season with a 3-million-ton quota, the second-highest in the last 13 years. Image by Ministerio de la Produccion - Produce via Flickr. Public domain.

A chemical kept fishmeal from catching fire. Then scientists raised cancer concerns

Ian Urbina 9 Oct 2026

Death of anti-plague lab worker in Russia prompts quarantines and international concern

Naina Rao 7 Oct 2026

Since US intervention, Venezuela’s illegal mining crisis has only worsened, critics say

Maxwell Radwin 15 Sep 2026

Court rules residents of a US city don’t have a constitutional right to lead-free water

Bobby Bascomb 10 Sep 2026

New analysis maps mercury threat to 951 Amazon communities in three countries

Alexa Vélez, Vanessa Romo, Daniela Quintero Díaz 8 Sep 2026
The southern greater kudu

South Africa’s new gold rush: Big promises, closed books in new carbon frontier

Leonie Joubert 3 Sep 2026

As Australia expands seismic testing, experts warn of profound effects on sealife

Theoné van der Merwe 22 Jul 2026

Vietnam’s coffee boom fueled by decades of deforestation, report finds

Naina Rao 22 Jul 2026
The main phosphate factory in Gabès. Image by Khadija Ben Salah.

A Tunisian phosphate plant that sickens children so US, Europe can get fertilizer

Khadija Ben Salah, Dawn Kikel, Elisângela Mendonça 22 Jul 2026
The Congo Basin is home to critically endangered African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis).

Can selective logging help the Congo Basin store more carbon?

Claudia Geib 2 Jul 2026
Two images captured by LiDAR at different times and overlaid: one of young tree seedlings (pink), the other of the trees (blue) after two years of growth.

Laser scanning forests may boost carbon estimates, but credibility questions linger

Shradha Triveni 26 Jun 2026
While caracals are classified as species of least concern overall, some populations are seriously declining, with some local extinctions; rodenticides join habitat loss, hunting, conflict with humans and other threats to their survival.

Rodent-killing baits threaten small wild cats and other wildlife

Sean Mowbray 23 Jun 2026
Limited recycling capacity and weak monitoring continue to fuel illegal imports and informal e-waste recycling in Bangladesh.

Illegal e-waste trade turns Bangladesh into net importer

Sajibur Rahman 9 Jun 2026
The blue shark is one of the widest-ranging sharks in the world, and its meat is the most commonly traded in commercial markets. Image courtesy of Prochym/Adobe Stock.

Shark Meat Nation

1 Jun 2026
The remnants of Upper Guinean Tropical Rainforest within Sierra Leone are home to a multitude of species, many of them threatened, such as the white-necked rockfowl (Picathartes gymnocephalus). Image by Charles J. Sharp via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

A ‘symphony’ of wildlife suggests carbon financing is working in Sierra Leone

Claudia Geib 27 May 2026
Illegal sand and gold mining

Indonesia seizes mercury shipment bound for illegal mines in the Philippines

Anggita Raissa 26 May 2026
Fisherman from the Sawré Muybu Indigenous Territory with his catch from the Tapajós River. Image courtesy of Luis Ushirobira/InfoAmazonia.

Artisanal mines in Brazil a front for gold laundering, investigation shows

Mongabay.com 21 May 2026

Liberia’s carbon market policy nears completion amid pushback

Ashoka Mukpo 13 May 2026

Cerrado’s hidden carbon highlights gaps in Brazil’s conservation policy

Daniel Shailer 7 May 2026
Fishers collect their nets on the Sesan River, just a few hundred meters from the O’Ta Bouk-Sesan confluence. Fishers who use the O’Ta Bouk told Mongabay that their catches have declined significantly over the past three years. Photo by Andy Ball/Mongabay.

Cambodia tested waters amid pollution claims; months later, still no public results

Andy Ball, Gerald Flynn, Phoung Vantha 4 May 2026
Women in the river pulling fish net; Hoa Lu, Ha Nam Ninh Province, Red River Delta Region, Vietnam.

Laos can do more to mitigate chemical pollution of rivers flowing into Vietnam (analysis)

Pham Phan Long 30 Apr 2026
Pa Haw, father of Saw Si Paw, takes to the Salween River each morning to inspect their nets for fish, despite heavy metal contamination linked to mining sites upstream. Photo by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.

Asia’s longest free-flowing river contaminated by arsenic linked to Myanmar mines

Gerald Flynn 20 Apr 2026

BP sued in Kenya over alleged toxic waste from 1980s oil exploration

Associated Press 16 Apr 2026
Palm trees, which make up 20% of the trees in the Amazon, grow mixed among various tree and grass species in the southern Peruvian Amazon lowlands of Manu National Park.

Novel research finds unexpected climate resilience in up to 36% of Amazon forest

Justin Catanoso 10 Apr 2026
Agroforestry in Ethiopia. Image by Trees ForTheFuture via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

Who gives up land for the world’s climate fixes?

Rhett Ayers Butler 1 Apr 2026
A dinghy used to sample the lake. Image courtesy of Travis W. Drake.

‘Ancient’ carbon venting from lakes in the Congo Basin peatlands: Study

John Cannon 31 Mar 2026
A gemsbok (Oryx gazella), also known as the South African oryx, in a mixed herd of herbivores at Tswalu. Image by John Cannon/Mongabay.

A South African reserve shows how carbon can catalyze rewilding conservation

John Cannon 27 Mar 2026

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