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Firefighters battle a wildfire spreading through a forested area near Concepcion, Chile, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Javier Torres, File)

Tipping points and ecosystem collapse are the real geopolitical risk (commentary)

Robert Muggah 9 Feb 2026
A fawn sprints across a road as the Sugar Fire, part of the Beckwourth Complex Fire, burns in Plumas National Forest, Calif., July 8, 2021. Photo credit: AP Photo/Noah Berger

What is lost when environmental coverage is cut

Rhett Ayers Butler 6 Feb 2026
Destroyed trees inside the Apamprama reserve. Image by Awudu Salami Sulemana Yoda.

Successful campaign proves Ghana’s forests are worth more than gold (commentary)

Daryl Bosu 5 Feb 2026
Puzzle of a natural history museum diorama. Image by Erik Hoffner for Mongabay.

Conservation programs must embrace causal evidence when evaluating impact (commentary)

Tanya O’Garra 3 Feb 2026
Drained, cleared, and burned peat forest in Indonesian Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler

The fair costs for forest rehabilitation in Indonesia (commentary)

Aida Greenbury 2 Feb 2026
Redwood forest in Big Basin, California. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

On Mongabay’s legacy

Rhett Ayers Butler 30 Jan 2026
The Dayak Bahau community in Long Isun expresses its complaint. Image courtesy of Accountability Counsel.

World Bank carbon program risks further infringing upon rights of Indonesian Indigenous community (commentary)

Fuat Edi Kurniawan, Sadar Ginting, Anna Christi Suwardi 28 Jan 2026
Food security activist Richard Rojo in his Vanuatu taro garden. Image courtesy of Monica Kidd.

Vanuatu communities move to protect taro, an ancestral climate-resilient crop (analysis)

Monica Kidd 26 Jan 2026
Southern right whales in South Africa. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler

Making 60% of the ocean manageable (Commentary)

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Jan 2026
After burning off the mercury, a relatively pure piece of gold remains. Image by Thomas Graham for Mongabay.

Turning the Amazon’s toxic gold mine waste liability into economic opportunity (analysis)

Timothy J. Killeen 13 Jan 2026
Tame Sumatran elephants were brought in to help clean up flood-affected residential areas in Meunasah Bie village, Meurah Dua district, Pidie Jaya.

A catastrophe that might offer a glimpse of hope for Indonesia (commentary)

Aida Greenbury 11 Jan 2026
Rainforest rainbow in Sabah. Image by Rhett Butler for Mongabay.

AI-centered conservation efforts can only be ethical if Indigenous people help lead them (commentary)

McKalee Steen, Magali de Bruyn 9 Jan 2026
Two members of the Prey Preah Roka Community Network – a grassroots activism group made up of communities around the wildlife sanctuary - document an illegally logged tree in the wildlife sanctuary. The grassroots group regularly patrol the wildlife sanctuary, documenting any illegal logging they come across by marking GPS coordinates, as well as taking a note of the species and diameter of the trees. Image by: Andy Ball / Mongabay.

Environmental crime prevention is moving into the diplomatic mainstream (commentary)

Robert Muggah 8 Jan 2026
Sperm whales inside Azores MPA Network. Image courtesy of Andy Mann/National Geographic.

Azores must respect its exceptional network of marine protected areas (commentary)

Enric Sala 5 Jan 2026
The Amazon rainforest. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler.

The climate fight may not be won in the Amazon, but it can be lost there

Rhett Ayers Butler 5 Jan 2026
Purisima Creek, California in December 2025. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

The conservation ledger: What we lost and what we gained in 2025

Rhett Ayers Butler 1 Jan 2026
Scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini), photographed in Yonaguni, Japan.

Top ocean news stories of 2025 (commentary)

Alfredo Giron, Ana Spalding, Erin Skoczylas, Vanessa Constant 24 Dec 2025
A woman stands among coffee bushes in Colombia. Image courtesy of Juliana Cajiao Raigosa.

Agroforestry grows in popularity among central Colombia’s coffee farmers (analysis)

Juliana Cajiao Raigosa 23 Dec 2025
Expansive areas of Australia are Country stewarded by Indigenous communities. Image courtesy of Emma Lee.

Will Australia’s main environment law continue marginalizing Indigenous authority, despite overhaul? (commentary)

Ali Kandi, Emma Lee 22 Dec 2025
Emergent rainforest tree in the Amazon. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler for Mongabay.

BRICS+ offers Indigenous & local communities ways to advance environmental and social goals (analysis)

Metolo Foyet 22 Dec 2025
An Indigenous Mbuti hunting group inside Okapi National Reserve. Photo ©️ Brent Stirton/Getty Images.jpg

Protected areas in Africa are vital but local perceptions vary (commentary)

Heidi Kretser, Diane Detoeuf, Michelle Wieland, Jessica L’Roe 19 Dec 2025
Drone photo of a river meandering through the Alto Mayo landscape. The diversity of rivers and wetlands in the region contribute to the extraordinary variety of plants and animals found there, and are critical for sustaining local Indigenous communities. Image by Trond Larsen courtesy of Conservation International.

When abandoned conservation projects are counted as progress, what are we protecting? (commentary)

Ajay Sawant 18 Dec 2025
Monkeys traverse unprotected electric lines in Costa Rica, a situation that leads to deaths of many monkeys, sloths, kinkajous and more. Image courtesy of International Animal Rescue.

Costa Rica’s ‘shocking’ wildlife crisis: Nation must move to prevent animal electrocution (commentary)

Elena Kukovica 17 Dec 2025
Healthy reef off the coast of Panaon Island. Image courtesy of Danny Ocampo / Oceana.

Philippines’ newest marine protected area ‘sets inspiring example’ (commentary)

Antha Williams, Loren Legarda 16 Dec 2025
kathmandu aerial view

Nepal’s cities must plan for resilience and inclusion for the future & nature (commentary)

Hitesh Raj Pant 11 Dec 2025
Fishing gear. Image courtesy of Thomas Merritt via Unsplash.

‘Myopic’ fisheries managers toy with a new ‘tragedy of the commons’ (commentary)

Charles Clover 9 Dec 2025
Brazil is the largest eucalyptus producer in the world. Eucalyptus production has been linked to several social and environmental violations such as land grabbing, human right abuses, and environmental harm from use of pesticides to biodiversity loss. Image © Markus Mauthe/Greenpeace.

Assessments argue carbon offsets are failing communities and climate goals (commentary)

GRAIN 5 Dec 2025
Malocas (traditional longhouses) of Indigenous communities in isolation on the Peru-Brazil border. Image by ORPIO.

Respecting uncontacted peoples can protect biodiversity and our humanity (commentary)

Kerry Bowman 3 Dec 2025
Small-scale fishers unloading buckets of fish from their boats in South Sulawesi, Indonesia.

Healthy oceans are a human right (commentary)

Nathan Bennett 1 Dec 2025
Early-career conservationists take part in the 2025 EDGE Conservation Tools Course, part of a global fellowship program that supports emerging leaders to drive locally led conservation. Image by Paul Barnes /EDGE of Existence, Zoological Society of London.

Small grants can empower the next generation of conservationists

Rhett Ayers Butler 1 Dec 2025
A farmer cuts cacao pods from the tree in Colombia.

Conservation can emphasize human well-being to navigate its current funding crisis (commentary)

24 Nov 2025
Delegates listen to Brazilian President Lula deliver the opening speech of the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit in Belém, Thursday, Nov. 6. Image by AP Photo/Eraldo Peres.

It’s time to end the carbon offset era, COP30 scientists & communities say (commentary)

Tom Picken 21 Nov 2025

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