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Banner image of smoggy air in Dakar, Senegal, by Issiaga via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Study links long-term exposure to air pollution with increased dementia risk

Kristine Sabillo 5 Aug 2025
Park guide Luana Wanessa Assunção points at the remarkable Painel do Pilão, which could be the first-ever solar calendar of the Americas. Image by Peter Speetjens.

Soy crops squeeze Amazon park with 11,000-year-old rock paintings in Brazil

Peter Speetjens 4 Aug 2025
Resident Huỳnh Ngọc Vân at his old seaside home, surrounded by demolished houses cleared for the project, late April 2025.

Rapid development, legal changes put pressure on Vietnam’s forestland

Le Quynh 4 Aug 2025

Centralized governance in the Guianas and economic legacy

Timothy J. Killeen 1 Aug 2025
Banner image of a remotely operated vehicle KIEL 6000 holding a manganese nodule in the sought-after Clarion-Clipperton Zone by the ROV-Team/GEOMAR via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).

UN meeting closes with no moratorium on deep-sea mining; groups lament

Kristine Sabillo 1 Aug 2025

Ecuador axes environment ministry as officials scramble to revive economy

Maxwell Radwin 1 Aug 2025
The Amazon Rainforest in Brazil. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Community patrolling reduced environmental crime by 80% in the Amazon

Rhett Ayers Butler 1 Aug 2025
Plastic washed up on a beach in Barcelona.

As UN plastic treaty talks face possible deadlock, what are the ways forward?

Tosca Ballerini 31 Jul 2025
A view of Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, a small city on the southwest coast. Image courtesy of ICC.

‘Nothing about us without us’: Inuit leader Sara Olsvig on ocean politics

Edward Carver 31 Jul 2025
An Indigenous group in a boat in the Ucayali River.

Recently contacted Indigenous in Peru want REDD+ and conservationists to stay away

Kimberley Brown 31 Jul 2025
Miners work at a legal mining concession in Huaypetue, Madre de Dios, Peru. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

Mexico’s rising mercury trade fuels toxic gold mining in Latin America: Report

Maxwell Radwin 30 Jul 2025
Banner image of stream restoration being done in Aarhus, Denmark. Image courtesy of Casper Tybjerg/TTF.

Ambitious Denmark project starts farm-to-forest conversion

Kristine Sabillo 30 Jul 2025
Joseph Vargas and Wilma Abanil in their home

As gas giants move in, Philippine fishers fight for their seas and survival

Nick Aspinwall 29 Jul 2025

That ‘fish’ on the menu? In Brazil’s schools and prisons, it’s often shark

Philip Jacobson | Karla Mendes | Kuang Keng Kuek Ser 29 Jul 2025

Coral restoration after devasting Deepwater Horizon spill shows promise

Mongabay.com 28 Jul 2025
Mangroves in Raja Ampat.

Reversing damage to the world’s mangrove forests

Kristine Sabillo 25 Jul 2025
A part of Putumayo rainforest showing areas of deforestation.

Illegal roads expand in Colombia’s deforestation hotspots

Mie Hoejris Dahl 25 Jul 2025
Scimitar-horned oryx in Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim Faunal Reserve in Chad. Image by Inyathi via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

US NGO signs deal to manage huge nature reserve in Chad

Ashoka Mukpo 25 Jul 2025
Campaigners in The Hague, Netherlands, where the ICJ gave its advisory opinion. Image courtesy of Tengbeh Kamara/Greenpeace.

Historic court ruling says countries legally bound to prevent climate harm

Shreya Dasgupta 24 Jul 2025
The Amazon Rainforest in Ecuador. Image by Rhett Ayers Butler.

Ecuador’s new protected areas law sparks debate over security, development

Maxwell Radwin 23 Jul 2025
The endangered dhole is also known as the Asiatic wild dog.

Nepal launches action plan to boost endangered dhole conservation

Mongabay.com 23 Jul 2025
Banner image of a cattle ranch in the Paraguayan Chaco by Peer V via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Pasture and agricultural expansion in Gran Chaco drive biodiversity loss: Study

Kristine Sabillo 23 Jul 2025

An aging leopard’s suffering sparks ethical debate in Sri Lanka

Mongabay.com 23 Jul 2025

Sacred sites & cultural practices key to Indonesia fish conservation: Study

Basten Gokkon 23 Jul 2025
A woman sits under a tree surrounded by dry waste in East Java.

Burning, burying and banning: Indonesia’s cities struggle to manage their garbage

Jeff Hutton 23 Jul 2025
With support from the DGM, Indigenous Cibarani people from Indonesia secured an official customary forest designation, enabling them to improve their livelihoods. Photo by CIF.

How a quiet climate finance model is funneling money directly to communities

Aimee Gabay 22 Jul 2025
Mangrove forest in the Philippines. Image courtesy of the National Blue Carbon Action Partnership (NBCAP).

Blue carbon ecosystems are key for protecting the Philippines from climate shocks (commentary)

Jurgenne H. Primavera / Rona Joy Loma / Emily Richardson 22 Jul 2025
Mamiraua reserve. Image courtesy of Thiago A. Lacerda via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Community patrols can slash environmental crime by 80% (commentary)

Caetano Franco 21 Jul 2025
Rain over a tropical island in the South Pacific in April 2025. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Conservation’s silent strain: Nature’s protectors face a mental health crisis

Rhett Ayers Butler 21 Jul 2025
Food served on areca leaf and other biodegradable tableware.

Bangladesh turns to nature for biodegradable plates to replace plastic ones

Mongabay.com 18 Jul 2025
Beekeepers monitoring hive boxes at Kazirhat, Shariatpur.

Honey bees in Bangladesh suffer from indiscriminate pesticide use

Mongabay.com 18 Jul 2025
Heavy rainfall in Colombia and Venezuela caused deadly landslides and widespread flooding in June. A new analysis now points to rapid urbanization, deforestation, mining and overgrazing as having reduced the region’s climate resilience. 
 “The rapid growth of population and informal settlements in areas prone to landslides, particularly in Colombia, puts people and infrastructure at risk,” the World Weather Attribution (WWA), a network of scientists evaluating extreme weather events, said in its latest rapid analysis. It said the informal communities are growing as people seek livelihoods in cities or are displaced due to conflict. Roop Singh, report co-author from the Netherlands-based Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, said at a media briefing that pasture- and agriculture-driven deforestation rose over the past two decades, increasing “the risk of landslides because tree roots are no longer binding and anchoring the soils.”
 The heavy rains during the last week of June triggered widespread flooding and damage in Colombia; a landslide in Antioquia department killed 27 people. In Venezuela, rivers overflowed, and smaller landslides cut off rural communities. WWA said in its report that rains in these regions had persisted since April, and that the June rain fell on already saturated ground where the deadly landslide occurred, and in rivers with already high levels of water. The scientists examined the total rainfall from April-June this year over the Magdalena River catchment in Colombia and the Falcón and Maracaibo basins in Venezuela. They also studied data on the accumulated rainfall from June 20-24 in the affected states in the Venezuelan Llanos, a grassland plain. “Neither events were particularly extreme,” Mariam Zachariah, co-author and research associate at Imperial College London, said at the briefing. The WWA analysis showed the heavy rain that fell in June is common, expected every 10 years in Colombia and every three years in Venezuela. The scientists also used climate models to understand the influence of human-induced climate change on the rains, but the findings were inconclusive. Instead, the models projected a drying trend for Colombia and mixed results for Venezuela. Friederike Otto, co-author and climate science professor at Imperial College London, said not being able to show clear linkages to climate change doesn’t mean there’s no influence. The researchers attributed some of the uncertainty to a lack of long-term observational weather data and weather stations in the region. “Unfortunately, extreme weather is not well understood in northern South America,” Paola A. Arias, a professor at the University of Antioquia, said in a statement. “We urgently need more investment in climate science to understand shifting risks and prepare for what’s ahead. More science will save lives." Zachariah said Colombia and Venezuela must prepare for both rainfall and drought, and build resilience to extreme weather. Banner image: People look at their destroyed home after a deadly landslide was triggered by heavy rain in Colombia’s Antioquia department on June 25, 2025. Image by AP Photo/Fredy Amariles.

Deadly landslide and flooding in Colombia and Venezuela linked to rapid urbanization

Kristine Sabillo 18 Jul 2025

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