Tropical forests News

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Scarlet macaw in Costa Rica. Frugivores are important seed dispersers. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

How quickly do tropical forests recover? Faster than expected, but slower than it seems

Rhett Ayers Butler 8 Apr 2026

Mennonites from Belize spark deforestation fears with new settlement plans in Suriname

Maxwell Radwin 8 Apr 2026
Emergent rainforest tree in the Amazon. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler for Mongabay.

Indigenous & community leaders say, ‘secure forest financing with us, not for us’ (commentary)

Inés Morales Lastra, José Ivanildo, Levi Sucre 7 Apr 2026
A forest elephant near Ngounié, Gabon. Image by marcusgmeiner via iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0)

A Congo Basin-led bioeconomy could boost Central Africa’s green transition (analysis)

Metolo Foyet 6 Apr 2026
“For mothers and young elephants, Dzanga Bai becomes something of a playground and a very safe place,” says Yvonne Kienast, project manager and head researcher of the Dzanga Forest Elephant Project. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

A unique clearing in Central Africa draws elephants from the dense forests

David Akana 6 Apr 2026
Key deer (Odocoileus virginianus clavium), a tiny and endangered subspecies of white-tailed deer, walk along mangroves in Big Pine Key, Florida. Image courtes of AP Photo/Lynne Sladky.

Green and gray: Mangroves and dikes show potential in protecting shorelines together

Claudia Geib 2 Apr 2026

Working together, Indigenous peoples & researchers describe new Amazonian palm

Sofia Moutinho 1 Apr 2026
A lemur eating a strawberry guava. Image courtesy of Natalee Phelps.

An invasive guava is muscling out Madagascar’s forests — and lemurs are helping

Ryan Truscott 31 Mar 2026

Brazilian settlers turn to reforestation in ambitious land recovery plan

Sibélia Zanon 30 Mar 2026

Palm oil clearing advances in Bornean orangutan habitat despite red flags

Hans Nicholas Jong 26 Mar 2026

In Laos, ancestral spirits are helping save one of the world’s rarest crocodiles

Liz Kimbrough 25 Mar 2026
Tourists visit the Kusuma Bangsa Park in Nusantara. Image by Niken Sitoningrum/Mongabay Indonesia.

Indonesia court orders release of withheld impact studies on new capital

Niken D. Sitoningrum 19 Mar 2026

Facebook shuts Indonesia groups after Mongabay and Bellingcat report illegal wildlife trade

Achmad Rizki Muazam, Foeke Postma 19 Mar 2026

Indonesia plan to rezone elephant reserve for carbon trading and tourism sparks backlash

Hans Nicholas Jong 19 Mar 2026
Ariel toucans in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Image courtesy of Flávia Zagury.

Toucans reintroduced 50 years ago disperse seeds of endangered trees in Brazil

Shanna Hanbury 17 Mar 2026
The endangered Hildegarde’s tomb bat (Taphozous hildegardeae) in flight near its roost in the caves of Mount Suswa, Kenya, during a conservation monitoring survey. Image courtesy of Bat Conservation International.

At dusk in Kenya’s caves, scientists study the hidden lives of bats

Sharon Muzaki 17 Mar 2026
Massaha forest. Image by ZB.

How a community defended its ancestral forest from logging

Rhett Ayers Butler 16 Mar 2026
Examining coffee plants in the fields of a CoopeTarrazú grower.

Costa Rica’s head start may mask tougher EUDR road ahead

Claudia Geib 13 Mar 2026
Wood pellets for biomass energy. Image courtesy of Dogwood Alliance.

Forest advocates accuse EU energy firm of Dutch biomass certification fraud

Justin Catanoso 13 Mar 2026
What used to be a dirt road through the heart of the Ngezi Forest Nature Reserve has recently been widened to facilitate development. Image courtesy of Viola Clausnitzer.

Works on planned luxury resort on Pemba island go ahead despite concerns

Victoria Schneider 10 Mar 2026

Sumatra officials stress environment checks continue in wake of deadly cyclone

Jaka Hendra Baittri 10 Mar 2026

Ecuador’s new ecological corridor connects Andes and Amazon ecosystems

Maxwell Radwin 9 Mar 2026
The Pesalat Reforestation Project in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, restores forest within a national park degraded by fire and logging.

Study maps tree-planting risks and rewards for climate and biodiversity

Ruth Kamnitzer 9 Mar 2026
The Cerrado in Correntina, Bahia. Image courtesy of Thomas Bauer / Earthsight.

The Cerrado is threatened but crucial for Brazil’s biodiversity & water security (commentary)

Cássio Cardoso Pereira, Walisson Kenedy-Siqueira, Domingos de Jesus Rodrigues, Rodolfo Salm, Philip M. Fearnside 9 Mar 2026
An Araucaria angustifolia, a critically endangered conifer, in Itatiaia National Park in the Atlantic Forest.

Restoration of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest may hinge on market for native plants

Sarah Derouin 6 Mar 2026
Gelada baboons (Theropithecus gelada) in Ethiopia’s Semien Mountains. Image by Alastair Rae via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Climate or biodiversity? Global study maps out forestation’s dilemma

John Cannon 6 Mar 2026

Beetle known for ravaging mango trees now killing baobabs, study finds

Charles Mpaka 5 Mar 2026

Cameroon’s decade of conflict leaves apes and conservationists in peril

Orji Sunday 3 Mar 2026
Royal flycatcher (Onychorhynchus coronatus). Photo by Mileniusz Spanowicz / WCS.

Birds are changing — and Indigenous memory is the longest record we have

Rhett Ayers Butler 3 Mar 2026

Agroforestry offers market-based way to boost Amazon rains & farmer incomes (analysis)

Timothy J. Killeen 25 Feb 2026

Indigenous communities oppose Papua forest rezoning for palm oil

Hans Nicholas Jong 25 Feb 2026
Smoke from a fire in Far North Queensland, Australia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

After logging bans, Australia turns to “forest thinning”. Does it reduce fire risk?

Rhett Ayers Butler 23 Feb 2026

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