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The mining dredges installed along the Nanay River have begun to consume sections of forest. Image courtesy of FCDS Peru.

Mercury, dredges and crime: Illegal mining ravages Peru’s Nanay River

Enrique Vera 31 Dec 2025
The Belo Monte hydropower dam on the Xingu River in Brazil’s Pará state. Image courtesy of TV Brasil.

Fish deformities expose ‘collapse’ of Xingu River’s pulse after construction of Belo Monte Dam

Tiago da Mota e Silva 31 Dec 2025
Sand mining in the Mekong

Mekong sand mining risks collapse of SE Asia’s largest freshwater lake, study finds

Carolyn Cowan 23 Dec 2025
A woman working on a landscape restoration project in Abijata-Shalla National Park, Ethiopia. Image by Solomon Yimer for Mongabay.

Ethiopian youth groups restore Rift valley lake & livelihoods

Solomon Yimer 22 Dec 2025
A woman gathers plants along the banks of the Mekong River while a child plays in the background. Water levels of the mighty Mekong River have dropped drastically due to drought-like conditions and damming upstream. The drop disrupts the region’s water supply, transport routes, and the livelihood of communities in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that more than one billion people will face water shortages due to climate change. Credit: © Greenpeace / Vinai Dithajohn

New mapping reveals hidden mining boom in Laos that threatens the Mekong

Andy Ball, Gerald Flynn, Konlaphat Siri 10 Dec 2025
The river survey team near the Zambian border. Image courtesy of Jen Guyton / TWP/NGOWP.

Scientists chart a new source, and length, for Africa’s famous Zambezi River

Ryan Truscott 3 Dec 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
Flowing from Myanmar into Thailand, the Kok River carries toxic runoff from rare earth mines into Chiang Mai province. Image supplied by Brian Eyler.

More Thai rivers and downstream communities at risk from Myanmar’s rare earth mines

Mongabay 20 Oct 2025

Cameroon inaugurates controversial dam despite local dissent

Yannick Kenné 10 Oct 2025
A fisher mends his net at Yettinahalla.

Turning a stream into a river: Inside India’s Yettinaholé diversion project

Shradha Triveni 2 Oct 2025
Giant South American river turtles nesting on a sandbank in the Amazon’s Guaporé River. Image courtesy of Omar Torrico/Wildlife Conservation Society.

Largest turtle nest in the world revealed in drone study

Shanna Hanbury 11 Sep 2025
Irrigation Dam 2 is just the latest in a string of dams being built atop protected forests within the Cardamom Mountains. Image supplied by source.

Cambodian irrigation dam construction threatens riverine communities in the Cardamoms

Gerald Flynn 10 Sep 2025
A 1.72-meter (5.6-foot), 102-kilogram (225-pound) Mekong giant barb caught in Tonle Sap Lake in December, 2002.

Shrinking Mekong megafish underlines risks to the river, study finds

Anton L. Delgado 26 Aug 2025
The sun rises on the Salween River, which serves as a vital lifeline for Karen communities on both sides of the Thai-Myanmar border. Image by Gerald Flynn / Mongabay.

Asia’s longest free-flowing river faces threats of dams and diversions

Mongabay.com 6 Aug 2025

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

Basten Gokkon 23 Jul 2025
The Wilderness Project team stops to conduct research on the island, surrounded by the waterberry trees’ fluted trunks.

Bicolored waterberry: The overlooked tree shaping Zambia’s rivers

Ryan Truscott 16 Jul 2025
While navigating the Kafue River inside the national park, the team regularly pauses to deliberate on the best route to take around hippos that block their way.

River of giants: Canoe team tracks hippos in one of Africa’s last strongholds

Ryan Truscott 15 Jul 2025
A herd of elephants gathers to drink beside the river several kilometers below Hook Bridge, on the main highway running through the middle of the park. Reid says elephants that had very specific distributions previously are now moving more freely through the park.

Wildlife & tourists on the up in Zambia’s Kafue Park: Q&A with manager Craig Reid

Ryan Truscott 15 Jul 2025
Expedition leader Mike Ross and boat captain Dominic Mwahamubi ease their canoe down rapids along the Kafue River.

‘Croc on a rock’: How a group of explorers suffers for science

Ryan Truscott 14 Jul 2025
A leopard caught on a camera trap in the Musekese Lumbeya section of Kafue National Park, where Musekese Conservation conducts its research into recovering carnivore populations.

A success story at Zambia’s leopard hotspot: Interview with ecologist Chisomo M’hango

Ryan Truscott 14 Jul 2025
Team makes their way down the center of the river in a canoe.

From cattle to crayfish, human pressures mount on Zambia’s Kafue River

Ryan Truscott 11 Jul 2025
Plans to blast the Pedral do Lourenço rock formation in the Tocantins River have been suspended by a court. Image courtesy of Antonio Cavalcante/Ascom Setran-PA.

Brazil court halts plan to blast 35-km river rock formation hosting endangered species

Shanna Hanbury 10 Jul 2025

Mining spill highlights need to protect Zambia’s vital Kafue River & its fish

Ryan Truscott 10 Jul 2025
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
Oil spill in Ecuador’s northwestern Esmeraldas municipality. Image courtesy of Eduardo Rebolledo Monsalve.

Esmeraldas oil spill in Ecuador devastates rivers and wildlife refuge

Shanna Hanbury 19 Mar 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

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