Commentary News

Most of us have places where we feel safe — a tree in our backyard, a den in our house, a beach in our town. But these days, some “safe…

After the United States pulled out of the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement, combating climate change at local scales in the U.S. has become increasingly important to meet greenhouse gas (GHG)…

The scientific imprimatur fell on us just six months ago: Yes, the extinction crisis we are witnessing is only the beginning of a wave of mass ecocide of non-human life…

The Bolsonaro administration is downplaying new data showing a major surge in Amazon deforestation, but a close look at the numbers shows that the statistics are even worse than they appear at first glance.

Over the past few days, the Kincade Fire has burned nearly 75,000 acres in Sonoma County, California, forcing 180,000 people to evacuate. Miles away, the Getty Fire burned through more…

Nearly 25 years ago, I had an experience that dramatically altered my life’s course, and ultimately inspired me to establish Mongabay, which with more than 4 million monthly readers is…

Evidence of success. It is the holy grail sought by teachers, health workers, engineers, natural resource managers, policy makers, and funders. Like us, all have the same wish: “Just let…

In May of 2015, ten people were arrested and three charged in Yunnan, China.  They had killed a Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) and were selling its meat. The panda’s paws…

Last year, when we published the report High Risk in the Rainforest, it was far from the first time that palm oil company Golden-Agri Resources (GAR) and its subsidiary Golden…

On a hot, muggy day in October, an exotic pet trapper in an Indonesian forest snatched a young Javan gibbon from its mother, stuffed the animal in a sack, and…

This summer, the United Nations Human Rights Council published a warning about a not-so-distant dystopia: the rich will pay to dodge the worst impacts of climate change, and the poor…

From the devaluation of the peso and changing weather patterns to meeting the growing demand for soybeans over corn and wheat, farmers across Argentina have had to contend with new…

This commentary is in response to Scheffers et al. (2019). Global wildlife trade across the tree of life, published in Science this month. A response to this commentary from the…

As Indonesia’s forests go up in smoke, the world may be losing a lot more than we currently understand.

I've been working on combating the illegal and unsustainable international wildlife trade for more than 30 years. There have been successes and setbacks along the way, but I can say…

Despite over six weeks of firefighting, the infernos destroying Bolivia’s forests continue to spread. 5.3 million hectares (about 13.1 million acres) — an area larger than the whole of Costa…

At the end of August, countries from across the world came together at the 18th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP18) to the Convention on International Trade in…

What I remember most from that summer, ten years ago, are the juxtapositions: bumpy dirt roads and freshly paved highways, expansive cattle ranches and squatters waiting for land rights, dense…

Forests don’t have it easy. Even when they escape being cleared for farmland, pastures, or cities, many of them are battered by a variety of other human pressures. Damage to…

The imperative for nature conservation has never been greater. A widely publicized intergovernmental report predicts extinction for more than a million species over the next few decades unless we drastically…