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Oriental pied hornbill

Carbon markets alone won’t keep Southeast Asia’s forests standing, study says

Carolyn Cowan 4 Aug 2026
Croslet horseshoe bat

Study investigates how to prevent viral spread from bat guano in Southeast Asia

Carolyn Cowan 28 Jul 2026
John H. Rappole. Photo courtesy of the Post Journal

Smithsonian ornithologist John Rappole reconsidered why birds migrate

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Jul 2026
White-bellied pangolins captured in southeastern Nigeria and destined for trade. Image courtesy of Alex Moore.

Pangolin DNA study links local wild meat markets to global trafficking networks

Shanna Hanbury 21 Jul 2026
A local community in Karenni collected garbage in 2025.

Community conservation under fire: Interview with Myanmar’s Clean Mountains founder

Esther J 15 Jul 2026

Southeast Asian mangroves shift from historic decline to net growth

Naina Rao 13 Jul 2026
Himalayan Pangolin, Manis aurita museum speciment

Himalayan pangolin emerges as distinct species, 189 years after first described

Abhaya Raj Joshi 7 Jul 2026
Chinese pangolin

In Bangladesh, scientists learn what happens after rescued pangolins return to the wild

Carolyn Cowan 16 Jun 2026
A full-circle rainbow arcing over a vast oil palm plantation in Jambi, Indonesia, carved out of what was once native rainforest. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Southeast Asian nations chart important new course toward environmental justice (commentary)

John Knox 11 Jun 2026
Buddhist monks who participated in the Peace Walk arrive to attend a ceremony marking World Environment Day in Chiang Rai, Thailand, on 5 June 2026. Photo by Ta Mwe.

Northern Thai residents march for action on polluted rivers. ‘This is an emergency’

Gerald Flynn 8 Jun 2026
Banner image of Myanmar teak courtesy of EIA.

Luxury yacht maker Sunseeker pleads guilty to violating a US environmental law

Naina Rao 27 May 2026
Fishers in the Mekong River near Chiang Khong, Thailand. Elevated arsenic levels at testing sites in the Mekong indicate that contamination may be spreading into this vital waterway. Image by Stefan Lovgren.

Dangerous arsenic levels detected in Thailand’s Mekong mainstream for first time

Gerald Flynn 8 May 2026
Pa Haw, father of Saw Si Paw, takes to the Salween River each morning to inspect their nets for fish, despite heavy metal contamination linked to mining sites upstream. Photo by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.

Asia’s longest free-flowing river contaminated by arsenic linked to Myanmar mines

Gerald Flynn 20 Apr 2026
White-bellied heron

Local conservationists sustain research on threatened heron amid Myanmar instability

Carolyn Cowan 30 Mar 2026
A captive sand cat in Nushi, Pakistan. Illegal trade is occurring amid a paucity of information about population sizes of small cat populations, says Sheikh. “It's going under the radar to a big extent, and hardly anything is being done to actively stop it or to mitigate this threat.”

Big cats get the press, but small wildcats are being poached and trafficked in silence

Sean Mowbray 25 Feb 2026
Bat in a cave in Myanmar

In Myanmar’s limestone hills, people and bats are often too close for comfort

Carolyn Cowan 25 Feb 2026
Orchid

Myanmar’s botanical data gaps risk its unique flora, collaborations could help, study says

Carolyn Cowan 13 Jan 2026
Smoke rises from a coal-burning power plant. Refuse-derived fuel (RDF), which includes large amounts of plastics, is replacing fossil fuels in some energy and industrial furnaces. But critics say this practice is merely replacing one dirty fuel for another.

Boom in burning waste for fuel could put human health and environment at risk

Sean Mowbray 10 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
Leaching ponds have been drilled into the mountains of Laos, using a mix of toxic chemicals to separate the rare earth minerals from the other materials siphoned out of the ground. Image supplied by source.

Rare earth mining expands into Laos, threatening entire Mekong River

Mongabay 27 Oct 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
In just a few months, Global Green have cleared vast swathes of forest in Prey Lang, opening the northern section of the wildlife sanctuary up to more potential deforestation. Image by Gerald Flynn / Mongabay.

Protected areas hit hard as Mekong countries’ forest cover shrank in 2024

Gerald Flynn 6 Oct 2025
Drone shot of a mining site in Myanmar.

Satellite data show burst of deforestation in Myanmar rare earth mining hotspots

Latoya Abulu, Sonam Lama Hyolmo 16 Sep 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
Indigenous Lumad women hold slogans during a rally outside a military headquarters in the Philippines in 2018

Across Southeast Asia, Indigenous women challenge extraction and erasure

Hướng Thiện 25 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

Armed groups and junta profit as toxic mines devour southern Myanmar

Dawei Watch 23 Apr 2025
Timber truck

Timber trade watchdog urges Poland to halt imports of Myanmar ‘blood timber’

Carolyn Cowan 20 Feb 2025

Southeast Asia in review: 2024

Carolyn Cowan, Gerald Flynn 30 Dec 2024
Landscape of the Thawthi Taw-Oo Indigenous Park. Image courtesy of the Thawthi Taw-Oo Indigenous Park Committee.

Communities launch new Thawthi Taw-Oo Indigenous Park amid Myanmar civil war

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 17 Dec 2024
Hylomys macarong, a smooth hedgehog

Greater Mekong serves up 234 new species in a year, from fanged hedgehog to diva viper

Carolyn Cowan 16 Dec 2024

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