Commentary News

RSS
1182 stories
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
Oceanic white tip shark. Image courtesy of Mark Royer, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology.

For sharks on the brink of extinction, CITES Appendix II isn’t protective enough (commentary)

David Shiffman 20 Nov 2025
Tropical forest and river in Suriname. Image courtesy of Mark J. Plotkin.

Top ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin’s COP30 reflections on Amazon conservation (analysis)

Mark J. Plotkin 17 Nov 2025
Corals and fish in Lighthouse Reef atoll, Belize.

Are Belize’s fisheries policies delivering?

Rhett Ayers Butler 17 Nov 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 are key to a successful next generation of conservationists (commentary)

Paul Barnes 14 Nov 2025
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is in an arm wrestling match with environmental agents to unlock oil extraction on the Amazon North shore. Image by Ricardo Stuckert/PR.

Strategic ignorance, climate change and Amazonia (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 13 Nov 2025

Letters to the Future

13 Nov 2025
Fishing boats with nets, Grenada, Caribbean Credit: Hugh Whyte / Ocean Image Bank.

Embrace ‘blue’ foods as a climate strategy at COP30, fisheries ministers say (commentary)

André de Paula, Salvador Malheiro 11 Nov 2025
People in the Amazon rainforest understory. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

A blueprint for communicating about the Amazon rainforest (commentary)

Rhett Ayers Butler 9 Nov 2025
Rainforest, reef, and ocean on Maratua Island, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

Three tracks to rescue 1.5°C: fossil exit, forest protection, and nature’s carbon (commentary)

Ilona Szabó de Carvalho 8 Nov 2025

you're currently offline