The unrecognized cost of Indonesia’s fires (commentary)
As Indonesia’s forests go up in smoke, the world may be losing a lot more than we currently understand.
Study reveals a fragile web of knowledge linking plants to people
“I once asked a Matapí elder if he could spare an hour or two to tell me about what palms he knew, and how he used them,” says Rodrigo Cámara-Leret,…
In Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa, Gullele Botanical Garden captivates city dwellers
ADDIS ABABA — Five miles northwest of Addis Ababa’s thriving city center is the lush Gullele Botanic Garden (GBG), the first well-established site of its kind in Ethiopia that covers…
In the Solomon Islands, making amends in the name of conservation
Wearing nothing more than leaves hanging from belts of woven vegetation, the three scientists stand in the rain with little idea of what to expect. They’ve lived and worked with…
Indigenous communities in post-FARC Colombia struggle to destigmatize sacred coca leaf
SIERRA NEVADA DE SANTA MARTA, Colombia — Asdrúbal Torres Torres places the thin, opaque leaf between his cheek and gums and begins to chew a sacred plant that has perhaps…
Social media, e-commerce sites facilitate illegal orchid trade
Reports of illegal trafficking in elephant ivory or rhino horn abound, but plants are actually more frequent victims of the illicit trade than wildlife. In fact, roughly 30,000 of the…
For Kenya’s Yiaku, medicinal herbs are their forest’s blessing and curse
Read the other stories in this three-part profile of the Yiaku’s management of their ancestral forest: A forest of their own: The Yiaku as Kenya’s model forest stewards Kenya: Bees…
More than one-third of critically endangered plants cannot be conserved in seed banks
New research finds that seed banking alone is not sufficient to conserve the world’s threatened plant and tree species. According to a paper published in the journal Nature Plants this…
Reliance on natural healing cultivates respect for nature in Indonesian village
PAKULI INDUK, Indonesia — In a remote village on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi lies a small garden of near-mythic repute — a place whose stewards grow not mere plants, but…
Audio: Amazon tribe’s traditional medicine encyclopedia gets an update, and conservation effectiveness in Madagascar examined
On today’s episode, we’ll get an update on an ambitious effort to document traditional indigenous healing and medicinal practices in the Amazon and speak with the reporter behind Mongabay’s popular…
Orangutans process plants into medicine, study finds
The natural world is full of medicines, many of which have been tapped by pharmaceutical companies to derive products that adorn our drugstore shelves and bathroom cabinets. But humans aren’t…
Conservation leaders in Africa call for a crackdown on biopiracy
Today, Malaysia is one of the world’s biggest producers of palm oil. Together with Indonesia, the Southeast Asian country contributes some 85 percent of the global supply. But this has…
What would you do if you had “nature’s pharmacy” in your backyard?
TENA, Ecuador - Benjamin Mamallacta Alvarado and his wife Dalia Tapuy Calapucha were both recently sick, but instead of going to a pharmacy to pick up medication, they went into their…
Scientists say Amazon biodiversity could help fuel Fourth Industrial Revolution
Scientists say that the Amazon’s rich diversity of life and the knowledge of its indigenous peoples could be paired with recent advances in biological, digital, and material science technologies to…
Local communities rush to save Kenya’s only lowland rainforest
Concentrated in the Congo Basin, lush Guineo-Congolian rainforests stretch across Africa's midsection, from West Africa down to northern Angola and eastward towards the Great Rift Valley. But only one small…
The miraculous Moringa tree: potential solution for world malnutrition
As the human population continues to grow, the effects of climate change and rapid development increasingly threaten and destroy agricultural lands vital to feed the 7.3 billion people now inhabiting…
Economic models for forests often neglect value of biodiversity
Tropical forests provide countless goods and services that help sustain human life. Given the rapid conversion of forests to agricultural lands, scientists say it is critical that we prioritize conservation…
What we can learn from uncontacted rainforest tribes
Mark Plotkin speaking at TED Global in October in Brazil. If you have ever wondered about the connection between giant hallucinogenic frogs, uncontacted peoples, conservation, and climate change — and…
Helping the Amazon’s ‘Jaguar People’ protect their culture and traditional wisdom
Portrait of a Matsés woman. Photo by Alicia Fox. Tribes in the Amazon are increasingly exposed to the outside world by choice or circumstance. The fallout of outside contact has…
Livelihoods depend on the environment in the Western Ghats
Red mangroves of Uttar Kannada. Photo by: Viraj Singh. In the Uttar Kannada district of the Western Ghats, the livelihood of the average individual depends largely on the well being…
Special series
Endangered environmentalists
- Fighting to save an endangered ape, Indonesian activists fear for their lives
- Iran sentences eight conservationists convicted of spying
- Watchdog denounces arrests of four anti-mining activists in Indonesia
Indonesias forest guardians
- Reforesting a village in Indonesia, one batch of gourmet beans at a time
- Restoring Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem, one small farm at a time
- Indigenous Iban community defends rainforests, but awaits lands rights recognition
Amazon infrastructure
- Belo Monte boondoggle: Brazil’s biggest, costliest dam may be unviable
- Amazon’s Mura indigenous group demands input over giant mining project
- Mega-mining project slated for Brazilian Amazon sparks controversy
Asian rhinos
- Indonesian officials wield sharia law in defense of Sumatran rhinos
- Love triangle complicates efforts to breed Sumatran rhinos
- Indonesia to capture 3 wild Sumatran rhinos to add to breeding population
