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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
Hydropower dam in Kulekhani, one of the larges reservoir-type power stations in Nepal. Image by Abhaya Raj Joshi/ Mongabay.

Nepal’s hydropower developers watch closely as court nears key verdict

Abhaya Raj Joshi 2 Aug 2025
AnIndian pitta (Pitta brachyura)

Can rainwater-fed ponds revive Bangladesh’s hilly streams?

Sadiqur Rahman 1 Aug 2025
Residents transport drinking water from Humaita to the Paraizinho community, along a dry part of the Madeira River, a tributary of the Amazon River, amid a drought, Amazonas state, Brazil, Sep. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Edmar Barros, File)

Report reveals severe impact of last year’s drought on Amazonian communities

Aimee Gabay 31 Jul 2025
A forest gardener waters vegetables in his forest garden in Kaffrine, Senegal.

A forest garden project attempts to expand into the Sahel

Victoria Schneider 28 Jul 2025

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

Basten Gokkon 23 Jul 2025
Heavy rainfall in Colombia and Venezuela caused deadly landslides and widespread flooding in June. A new analysis now points to rapid urbanization, deforestation, mining and overgrazing as having reduced the region’s climate resilience. 
 “The rapid growth of population and informal settlements in areas prone to landslides, particularly in Colombia, puts people and infrastructure at risk,” the World Weather Attribution (WWA), a network of scientists evaluating extreme weather events, said in its latest rapid analysis. It said the informal communities are growing as people seek livelihoods in cities or are displaced due to conflict. Roop Singh, report co-author from the Netherlands-based Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, said at a media briefing that pasture- and agriculture-driven deforestation rose over the past two decades, increasing “the risk of landslides because tree roots are no longer binding and anchoring the soils.”
 The heavy rains during the last week of June triggered widespread flooding and damage in Colombia; a landslide in Antioquia department killed 27 people. In Venezuela, rivers overflowed, and smaller landslides cut off rural communities. WWA said in its report that rains in these regions had persisted since April, and that the June rain fell on already saturated ground where the deadly landslide occurred, and in rivers with already high levels of water. The scientists examined the total rainfall from April-June this year over the Magdalena River catchment in Colombia and the Falcón and Maracaibo basins in Venezuela. They also studied data on the accumulated rainfall from June 20-24 in the affected states in the Venezuelan Llanos, a grassland plain. “Neither events were particularly extreme,” Mariam Zachariah, co-author and research associate at Imperial College London, said at the briefing. The WWA analysis showed the heavy rain that fell in June is common, expected every 10 years in Colombia and every three years in Venezuela. The scientists also used climate models to understand the influence of human-induced climate change on the rains, but the findings were inconclusive. Instead, the models projected a drying trend for Colombia and mixed results for Venezuela. Friederike Otto, co-author and climate science professor at Imperial College London, said not being able to show clear linkages to climate change doesn’t mean there’s no influence. The researchers attributed some of the uncertainty to a lack of long-term observational weather data and weather stations in the region. “Unfortunately, extreme weather is not well understood in northern South America,” Paola A. Arias, a professor at the University of Antioquia, said in a statement. “We urgently need more investment in climate science to understand shifting risks and prepare for what’s ahead. More science will save lives." Zachariah said Colombia and Venezuela must prepare for both rainfall and drought, and build resilience to extreme weather. Banner image: People look at their destroyed home after a deadly landslide was triggered by heavy rain in Colombia’s Antioquia department on June 25, 2025. Image by AP Photo/Fredy Amariles.

Deadly landslide and flooding in Colombia and Venezuela linked to rapid urbanization

Kristine Sabillo 18 Jul 2025
Amanda L. Cordeiro (left), a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Minnesota and Daniela F. Cusack, Associate Professor in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability at Colorado State University at one of their research sites to investigate how root systems react to climatic changes.

Tropical forest roots show strain as changes aboveground filter below

Petro Kotzé 15 Jul 2025
4 people standing in front of a lake waving.

How private funding helped one NGO survive the USAID cuts

Aimee Gabay 10 Jul 2025
Year-round, the Katakhal carries pitch-black water to the Akhaura locality. A fisher sets up his fishing net.

Bangladeshi village grapples with contaminated water flowing in from India

Abu Siddique, Sadiqur Rahman 3 Jul 2025

As Thailand’s fishing cats face habitat loss & conflict, experts seek resolution

Carolyn Cowan 3 Jul 2025
The abandoned village of Samjung, with ancient caves carved in the cliffs in the background, is seen in the Mustang region, 462 kilometers west of Kathmandu, Nepal, Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Ancient Himalayan village relocates as climate shifts reshape daily life

Associated Press 1 Jul 2025
Julio and Isaac Blanco fish octopus along the coast of Asturias, Spain, using traditional nasas cages.

Two coasts, one struggle for octopus fishers battling overfishing and warming waters

Davide Mancini, Paola Margu 30 Jun 2025
The Miami Bull, a robot-like statue of a bull, is meant to emulate Wall Street’s “Charging Bull,” and was unveiled to kick off the Bitcoin 2022 conference.

Bitcoin boom comes with huge intensifying environmental footprint

Gerry McGovern, Sue Branford 25 Jun 2025
The last of the sea nomads cling to their roots in a changing world

From catching fish to picking trash, Thailand’s sea nomads are forced off the water

Mongabay.com 25 Jun 2025
Fungi are our climate allies | Against All Odds

Of mushrooms and mycelium: How fungi are powering eco-friendly solutions

Mongabay.com 24 Jun 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
Munduruku people from the Sawré Muybu village gather in an assembly to receive feedback from Fiocruz on the hair sample test results determining levels of mercury contamination in people. Image by Joao Paulo Guimaeres via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

After crackdown on illegal miners, Indigenous Munduruku still grapple with health aftermath

Karla Mendes, Fernanda Wenzel 16 Jun 2025
Rescuers evacuate people from a flooded hospital following landslides and flash flooding in India's northeast state of Manipur, Sunday, June 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Donald Sairem)

Heavy rains inundate northeast India

Kristine Sabillo 6 Jun 2025
A woman in the field in the Bien La commune.

Study shows Vietnam’s ethnic communities’ grapple with hydropower plant impacts

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 5 Jun 2025
Nontoxic dye released from an artificial upwelling experiment off the Canary Islands. That experiment, set to last weeks, ended after just one day when the pump failed. “To most of us that proved … the technical readiness of this approach is not there,” says Michael Sswat, a postdoctoral researcher at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, who was part of the research team.

Marine artificial upwelling, problematic climate solution slow to advance

Sean Mowbray 2 Jun 2025
A seminomadic man carries water in the Cholistan Desert.

In Pakistan, desert irrigation plans spark protests & fears among Sindh farmers

Waqas Alam Angaria 28 May 2025
Future of Mexican communal land in limbo as mining company overstays agreement

Future of Mexican communal land in limbo as mining company overstays agreement

Aimee Gabay 27 May 2025
Fishers camp in grass shelters at Mbenje Island, which is located 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the beachshore of Lake Malawi, in a cluster of fivesix islands. – Image by Charles Mpaka for Mongabay.

Community-led system boosts fisheries in a corner of fast-depleting Lake Malawi

Mongabay.com 14 May 2025
Banner image of oil palm plantation in Malaysia by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Study offers new tool to compare environmental impacts of crops

Kristine Sabillo 13 May 2025
Aftermath of the Mariana Dam collapse in Minas Gerais.

Report urges stricter mining standards to manage climate and social impacts

Aimee Gabay 9 May 2025

Dredging and pollution threaten fishing in the Niger River

Mariam Sanogo 8 May 2025
Olivier Nsengimana, founder of Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association. Image courtesy James Rooney/National Geographic Society.

Rwanda’s Olivier Nsengimana inspires protection for gray crowned cranes in East Africa

Musinguzi Blanshe 30 Apr 2025
A towering tailings pile sits directly behind a residence in Poço Dantas. Image by Rebeca Binda.

In Brazil’s Jequitinhonha valley, communities share how to reduce lithium mining impacts

Amanda Magnani, Rebeca Binda 30 Apr 2025
eucalyptus forest

Eucalyptus for Brazil’s steelmaking dries out communities in Minas Gerais

Daniel Camargos, Emmanuelle Picaud, Simone Fant 29 Apr 2025
A flamingo in Salar de Uyuni, southwestern Bolivia.

Bolivian communities push back against foreign-backed lithium projects

Carla Ruas 17 Apr 2025

Lithium Triangle mining may strain water sources more than expected, study says

Maxwell Radwin 4 Apr 2025

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