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Indigenous people attend the People's Summit during the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30). Photo by Rafa Pereira/COP30.

Top 10 Indigenous news stories that marked 2025

Aimee Gabay 29 Dec 2025
A Magar local affected by the Tanahu Hydropower project. Image by Sanjog Laapaa Magar, INWOLAG.

Fights against development projects marks 2025 for Nepal’s Indigenous people

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 29 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
A jaguar

The Amazon in 2026: A challenging year ahead, now off the center stage

Alexandre de Santi 22 Dec 2025
Conservationists, environmental defenders, and scientists who died in 2025.

Environmental defenders & conservationists who died in 2025

Rhett Ayers Butler 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
Ruyumbu Musango, head of law enforcement at Nyungwe National Park, with members of the park’s ranger detachment. Photo by Ashoka Mukpo for Mongabay.

A Thin Green Line: The 2,000-strong ranger force of African Parks

Ashoka Mukpo 16 Dec 2025
Herders cross the Lungasamba pass with their yaks. Image by Chyamtang-Kathmandu Welfare Society.

Nepal Indigenous leaders refile writ petition against hydropower project

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 12 Dec 2025
TotalEnergies’ Mozambique LNG Afungi Park construction site. Image courtesy of Justiça Ambiental.

UK, Dutch agencies pull funding from Total’s controversial Mozambique LNG project

Victoria Schneider 10 Dec 2025

Hope, solidarity & disappointment: A familiar mix for Indigenous delegates at COP30

Hans Nicholas Jong 10 Dec 2025

Environmental activists remain jailed in Cambodia on Human Rights Defenders Day

Mongabay.com 9 Dec 2025

In Chocó, river defenders say race for energy transition threatens lifelines

Euan Wallace 8 Dec 2025

Across Latin America populist regimes challenge nature conservation goals

Timothy J. Killeen 8 Dec 2025

From COP30 to Sri Lanka, indigenous voices shape climate & food sovereignty

Malaka Rodrigo 5 Dec 2025

In wake of Cyclone Ditwah, Sri Lanka faces continuing disaster risks

Kamanthi Wickramasinghe 4 Dec 2025
Devastation left behind by illegal gold mining within the borders of the Sararé Indigenous territory in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Image courtesy of IBAMA.

Brazilian Amazon’s most violent city tied to illegal gold mining on Indigenous land

Shanna Hanbury 3 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
Beach wheelchairs provided by Point Reyes National Seashore Association, a group that manages the northern part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area in California, United States. Image credit: PRNA / Zoe Duerksen-Salm

Unequal access to nature: Few outdoor spaces in Europe and the U.S. accommodate sensory, mental disabilities

Albert Chern 3 Dec 2025
A Bornean orangutan.

Indigenous Dayak sound alarm as palm oil firm razes orangutan habitat in Borneo

Hans Nicholas Jong 2 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
Forestry in Indonesia

SE Asia forest carbon projects sidelining social, biodiversity benefits, study finds

Carolyn Cowan 1 Dec 2025
Maasai people in the Nashulai Maasai Conservancy. Image © Marianne Nord, courtesy of Nashulai Maasai Conservancy.

In Kenya, Maasai private landowners come together to protect wildlife corridors

Elodie Toto 1 Dec 2025
Satellite image showing the destruction of the Sararé Indigenous Territory in Mato Grosso state, Brazil, left behind by illegal gold mining. Image via Google.

One small Indigenous territory emerges as illegal mining hotspot in Brazil’s Amazon

Shanna Hanbury 28 Nov 2025
A Manggarai village in Flores.

As agroforestry declines in Indonesia’s Flores, a traditional ecological lexicon fades with it

Keith Anthony Fabro 28 Nov 2025
Indigenous participants at the Free Land Camp on April 10, where they discuss rights, territorial protection, and their role in COP30. Image by AP Photo/Eraldo Peres.

What was achieved for Indigenous peoples at COP30?

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 27 Nov 2025

What’s at stake for the environment in Honduras’ presidential election?

Maxwell Radwin 26 Nov 2025
A juvenile bonobo (Pan paniscus) gazes at an uncertain future.

DRC hit by record deforestation in 2024, satellite data show

Ruth Kamnitzer 26 Nov 2025
Women of Masaka embark on cassava cultivation. The plantation areas are located in the heart of the community of Mabaka in the Kwango region. Image by Ley Uwera. Courtesy of The Tenure Facility.

Rights to millions of hectares of Indigenous & local communities’ lands restored by ‘barefoot lawyers’

Mike DiGirolamo 25 Nov 2025
Global March of Indigenous Peoples at COP30 in Belém. Image courtesy of Bruno Peres/Agência Brasil.

Brazil aims for alternative route to fossil fuel road map after COP30 failure

Carla Ruas 25 Nov 2025
Marina Silva, Brazil's Minister of the Environment and Climate Change (left), Fernando Haddad, Brazil's Minister of Finance (center), and Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sônia Guajajara (right) during a press conference on the Tropical Forest Forever Fund (TFFF). Image courtesy of Rafa Neddermeyer/COP30 Brasil Amazônia/PR.

Brazil’s forest fund faces a slow takeoff at COP30 despite initial support

Carla Ruas 24 Nov 2025
Satellite imagery from February 2025 shows the transformation of the landscape at Global Green's gold mine, which is believed to be contaminating the O'Ta Bouk River. Image provided by Google Earth, Maxar Technologies.

Toxic runoff from politically linked gold mine poisons Cambodian rivers, communities

Andy Ball, Gerald Flynn, Phoung Vantha 24 Nov 2025

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