Tropical rivers News

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Boats sporting "No Dam" parade down the Salween River along the Thai-Myanmar border in March 2025. Image by Gerald Flynn / Mongabay.

Specter of dams and diversion looms over Southeast Asia’s Salween River

Gerald Flynn 19 Jun 2025

Rare earth rush in Myanmar blamed for toxic river spillover into Thailand

Stefan Lovgren 9 Jun 2025

Brazil set to blast 35 km river rock formation for new Amazon shipping route

André Schröder 2 Jun 2025
A young river dweller docks on the bank of the Madeira River in the late afternoon, near the town of Borba, Amazonas. Image by Bruno Kelly.

Amazon people brace for a drier future along the endangered Madeira River

Kevin Damasio 5 May 2025
Protesters in Thailand

Thai citizens protest plans for Mekong dam amid transboundary concerns

Carolyn Cowan 10 Dec 2024
Flooding in Thailand

Record-breaking floods in northern Thailand intensify scrutiny of Mekong dam project

Carolyn Cowan 24 Sep 2024

Extreme drought pushes Amazon’s main rivers to lowest-ever levels

Fernanda Wenzel 11 Sep 2024
Abijata-Shalla National Park’s management is working to build a common understanding of how deforestation and other activities affect the landscape on which communities and wildlife depend. Image by Solomon Yimer for Mongabay.

Holistic care for an Ethiopian lake system: Interview with Redwan Mohammed

Solomon Yimer 6 Aug 2024
Lake Turkana. Image by Aocrane via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

Small steps towards larger goal of protecting East African wetlands

Petro Kotzé 6 Aug 2024
Harvard researchers Evan Routhier and Faiz Haque during the sample collections at dawn in the Paraná do Jacaré, in the Negro River in mid-September 2023.

Study to benchmark water quality finds key Amazon tributary in good shape

Kevin Damasio 15 Jul 2024

Global migratory freshwater fish populations plummet by 81%: Report

Liz Kimbrough 8 Jul 2024
Farming in Myanmar

Will the Mekong and Salween pay the price of China’s energy transition?

Carolyn Cowan 22 May 2024
Xayaburi Dam

Banks backing Mekong hydropower failing on due diligence, report reveals

Carolyn Cowan 20 May 2024
Nubian flapshell turtle (Cyclanorbis elegans) in its preferred riverbank habitat. Image courtesy of ONG OeBenin via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-NC).

Nile Basin farmers grow food forests to restore wetlands and bring back a turtle

David Njagi 28 Feb 2024
Mekong River

Hydropower in doubt as climate impacts Mekong Basin water availability

Carolyn Cowan 21 Feb 2024
Dorado catfish. Image courtesy of Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá via Macaulay Library.

Amazon catfish must be protected by the Convention on Migratory Species COP-14 (commentary)

Mariana Varese 8 Feb 2024

Mangrove crab sustainability is vital for fishers in Indonesia’s Aru Islands

Ridzki R. Sigit 31 Jan 2024
Thailand flood, 2011

Thailand tries nature-based water management to adapt to climate change

Carolyn Cowan 7 Dec 2023
Community tree nursery

How scientists and a community are bringing a Bornean river corridor back to life

Carolyn Cowan 22 Nov 2023
Aerial view of the NGOWP team's mekoro along the Cuando River.

New study pushes for protection of one of Africa’s ‘least understood treasures’

Ryan Truscott 15 Nov 2023
Rice farmers in Vietnam

Dam-building on Mekong poses risk to regional industries, report says

Carolyn Cowan 8 Nov 2023
Villagers of Muanda.

Oil firm Perenco eyes new blocks in DRC amid criticism of its track record

Elodie Toto 24 Oct 2023
Aerial image of Tinipak River.

‘It gives life’: Philippine tribe fights to save a sacred river from a dam

Keith Anthony Fabro 9 May 2023
Mekong giant catfish

‘Chasing giants’: Q&A with megafish biologist and author Zeb Hogan

Carolyn Cowan 9 May 2023
Fishing in the Sepik River.

Power of traditional beliefs lies at the heart of an anti-mine campaign in PNG

Jim Tan 17 Apr 2023
Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia.

Robust river governance key to restoring Mekong River vitality in face of dams

Carolyn Cowan 30 Mar 2023
Fishers pull in nets on Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia

As hydropower dams quell the Mekong’s life force, what are the costs?

Carolyn Cowan 29 Mar 2023

Loss of wetlands threatens South Sumatra’s rich fish-preserving tradition

Fadhil Nugraha, Mahesa Putra 15 Mar 2023
Forests of Bolivia.

Reciprocal Water Agreements protect millions of hectares of Bolivian forest

Michelle Carrere 19 Jan 2023

Unsustainable fishing to be banned in Irrawaddy dolphin’s Bornean sanctuary

Basten Gokkon 22 Dec 2022
Karama River

Sulawesi hydropower dam could flood important archaeological sites

Agus Mawan 14 Dec 2022
Cambodia's fisheries and food security are at stake as dams continue to blight the Mekong River

Cambodian mega dam’s resurrection on the Mekong ‘the beginning of the end’

Gerald Flynn, Nehru Pry 15 Sep 2022