Solving Global Grand Challenges, One MOOC at a Time
A newly-launched online course aims to address the complex challenges facing conservation and development.
Understanding the ghost of the mountain
The grayish-white form of the ghost of the mountain slinks through the snowcapped slopes of Central Asia. Its remote, harsh habitat, cryptic coat and elusive nature have impeded investigation and…
Bringing Star Trek tricorder analysis to the 21st century
Handheld, palm-sized, lightweight DNA preparation and sequencing devices are coming your way soon.
Online forest mapping made easy
Global Forest Watch enables you to monitor tree cover and forest change for your region of interest in a free online platform.
Empowering smartphone users to bear witness to illegal wildlife trade
Jostling through the narrow turns of a market on the outskirts of Bangkok, you might concernedly notice vendors displaying delicate ivory carvings, dried tiger penises and bottles of bear bile…
Light, long-lasting and low-cost: the technology needs of field conservationists and wildlife researchers
Results of an assessment of the technology needs of front-line conservationists and researchers that informs wildtech.mongabay.com
Participatory Mapping in the Mobile Age
Deep in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains, with peaks that soar over 18,000 feet over the Colombian coast, the Kogi people live on roughly six million isolated from…
Tech for Tigers: keeping tabs on forest habitat to conserve an iconic cat
Satellite analysis reveals tiger habitats are more intact than expected; an area large enough to double the wild tiger population remains
After the NGOs: can Wakatobi National Park survive on its own?
This is the second story in a three-part series exploring changes in Indonesia’s network of marine protected areas through the lens of Wakatobi National Park. Read the first one here.…
Stemming the tide: A new tool in wildlife crime whodunits
When Ross McEwing, technical director of the TRACE Wildlife Forensics Network, learned about a new technique for testing rhino horn DNA, he knew the tool could help bring wildlife traffickers in Vietnam to justice.
Indonesia losing billions from illegal logging
Indonesia lost nearly $9 billion in state revenue from unreported timber sales between 2003 and 2014, according to a recent, presidentially sanctioned investigation by the national antigraft agency into the…
Video: the conservation drone revolution
The use of small autonomous flying vehicles — model airplanes to hobbyists — is revolutionizing the field of conservation, enabling researchers to track wildlife, monitor for poachers, and survey inaccessible…
Using model airplanes to help save the planet
One of the coolest endeavors I've come across in recent years of reporting has been the effort to develop "conservation drones" — model aircraft that are now being used to…
Scientists build app to automatically identify species based on their calls
Call recognition for animals. New technology makes it possible to automatically identify species by their vocalizations. The software and hardware system, detailed in the current issue of the journal PeerJ,…
Google puts $5M toward anti-poaching drone technology
Google.org, Google Corp's philanthropic arm, earlier this month pledged $5 million toward efforts combat wildlife poaching. The grant is going to the World Wildlife Fund to help the conservation giant…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Bolivia’s El Curichi Las Garzas protected area taken over by land-grabbers
- Authorities struggle to protect Bolivian national park from drug-fueled deforestation
- Poverty and plantations: Nigerian reserve struggles against the odds
- Logging, road construction continue to fuel forest loss in Papua New Guinea
Oceans
- Fewer fish and more rules lead to illegal catches, Italian fishers say
- Fishing by dodgy fleets hurts economies, jobs in developing countries: Report
- Warming seas push India’s fishers into distant, and more dangerous, waters
- No protection from bottom trawling for seamount chain in northern Pacific
Amazon Conservation
- Deforestation haunts top Peruvian reserve and its Indigenous communities
- Amid record-high fires across the Amazon, Brazil loses primary forests
- A web of front people conceals environmental offenders in the Amazon
- Brazil boosts protection of Amazon mangroves with new reserves in Pará state
Land rights and extractives
- Women weave a culture of resistance and agroecology in Ecuador’s Intag Valley
- Hyundai ends aluminum deal with Adaro Minerals following K-pop protest
- Brazil’s illegal gold trade takes a hammering, but persists underground
- Maluku bone collector unearths troubling consequence of coastal abrasion
Endangered Environmentalists
- Indonesian activists face jail over FB posts flagging damage to marine park
- Vietnamese environmentalist sentenced to 3 years in prison for tax evasion
- Son of slain Quilombola leader will still strive for community’s rights
- Video: Five Tembé Indigenous activists shot in Amazonian ‘palm oil war’
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- Fenced in by Sulawesi national park, Indigenous women make forestry breakout
- In Borneo, the ‘Power of Mama’ fight Indonesia’s wildfires with all-woman crew
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
- After 20 years and thousands of trees planted, Kalimantan’s veteran forester persists
Conservation Effectiveness
- The conservation sector must communicate better (commentary)
- Thailand tries nature-based water management to adapt to climate change
- Forest restoration to boost biomass doesn’t have to sacrifice tree diversity
- How scientists and a community are bringing a Bornean river corridor back to life
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Study: Indonesia’s new capital city threatens stable proboscis monkey population
- Indonesia’s new capital ‘won’t sacrifice the environment’: Q&A with Nusantara’s Myrna Asnawati Safitri
- Small farmers in limbo as Cambodia wavers on Tonle Sap conservation rules
- To build its ‘green’ capital city, Indonesia runs a road through a biodiverse forest
