Newsletter 2022-03-24

FEATURED

From land mines to lifelines, Lebanon’s Shouf is a rare restoration success story by Elizabeth Fitt, Karl Wehbe [03/23/2022]

– The Shouf Biosphere Reserve is a living laboratory experimenting with degraded ecosystem recovery in ways that also boost the well-being of the human communities living there.
– Previous conservation efforts in the area involved using land mines and armed guards to stem illegal logging and reduce fire risk.
– Today, the reserve builds local skills and creates jobs in a bid to help the local community through Lebanon’s severe economic crisis.
– Managers are also employing adaptive techniques to build resilience in this climate change-hit landscape.

In Rio de Janeiro, a forest slowly returns to life, one species at a time by Daniele Bragança and Duda Menegassi for ((o))eco [03/21/2022]

– Rio de Janeiro’s Tijuca National Park has become a laboratory for the reintroduction of locally extinct species.
– A study shows that, of the 33 species of large and medium-sized mammals that used to occur in the Tijuca National Park area, only 11 remain today.
– A forest full of large trees but empty of animals is a forest on its deathbed, conservationists say, because animals’ interactions with plants play a crucial role in maintaining the health of the ecosystem.
– In the severely degraded and fragmented Atlantic Forest, where Tijuca is located, forests devoid of large animals such as tapirs, woolly spider monkeys and jaguars are a common phenomenon with serious consequences for the plant life.

Fourth round of U.N. talks fail to finalize a treaty to manage the high seas by Elizabeth Fitt [03/21/2022]

– U.N. member states met this month in New York to hash out a treaty governing the sustainable management of the high seas, resource-rich international waters that span about two-thirds of the ocean.
– Hopes were high that after 10 years of discussion and three previous negotiating sessions, delegates to the meeting would finalize a legally binding treaty.
– Talks ended March 18 with no deal, amid a failure to reach consensus on several key points, including how to establish marine protected areas on the high seas.
– A movement to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030 depends on the swift completion of a high seas treaty, and observers say a deal remains within reach by the end of the year.

‘Studying a ghost’: In Cape Town, urban caracals give researchers lots to ponder by Grace Hansen [03/21/2022]

– Researchers have spent years trapping and tracking the elusive caracal on the edges of the South African city of Cape Town to better understand the needs of these wild cats.
– Urban caracals have adapted their behavior in a number of ways to survive on the margins of the city, including hunting more during the day.
– Although highly adaptable, urban caracals face many challenges, including ingesting rat poison.- Researchers recommend more greenways to allow the animals to survive in these heavily modified environments.

Researchers turn to drones for that big-picture view of the forest canopy by Caitlin Looby [03/21/2022]

– Scientists need to collect data fast to understand how forests are changing due to climate change and deforestation.
– In a recent study, scientists flew drones over the forest canopy to learn more about tree mortality. The drones revealed new patterns because of the large areas they can cover. According to one researcher, a single drone can cover an area in a few days that would take a team a year on foot.
– Drones are also helping local and Indigenous communities monitor forest fires and deforestation as well as harvest resources more sustainably.
– Yet experts say that the useful tool should complement, and not replace, fieldwork done on the ground.

2021 Amazon deforestation map shows devastating impact of ranching, agriculture by Maxwell Radwin [03/21/2022]

– Amazon Conservation’s Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project (MAAP) found that around 1.9 million hectares (4.8 million acres) of the Amazon were lost last year, mostly in Brazil and Bolivia.
– The mapping data shine a light on the different causes of deforestation in each country, including agriculture, cattle ranching and road construction.
– The data also provide some positive takeaways, such as Peru’s successful crackdown on illegal mining, and a contiguous core section of Amazonian forest still acting as a carbon sink.

Probe finds palm oil firm illegally clearing forest in Sumatra wildlife haven by Hans Nicholas Jong [03/18/2022]

– An investigation by the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) indicates that a palm oil company in Sumatra has been clearing forests illegally since at least 2016.
– The extent of the clearing by PT Nia Yulided Bersaudara (NYB), nearly two and a half times the size of New York City’s Central Park, makes it the top deforester among companies that have an oil palm concession in Sumatra’s Leuser Ecosystem.
– RAN’s investigation found the company’s logging activities and timber royalty payments aren’t registered in government databases, and its initial permit was granted under suspicious circumstances by a politician related to the NYB president.
– Yet despite these red flags, NYB has so far managed to evade government measures to crack down on licensing irregularities and environmental violations in the palm oil industry, including the mass revocation of permits announced at the start of this year.

NGOs alert U.N. to furtive 2-million-hectare carbon deal in Malaysian Borneo by John C. Cannon [03/17/2022]

– Civil society organizations have complained to the United Nations about an opaque “natural capital” agreement in the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo.
– The agreement, signed behind closed doors in October 2021, involved representatives from the state government and Hoch Standard Pte. Ltd., a Singaporean firm. But it did not involve substantive input from the state’s numerous Indigenous communities, many of whom live in or near forests.
– The terms ostensibly give Hoch Standard the right to monetize carbon and other natural capital from Sabah’s forests for 100 years.
– Along with the recent letter to the U.N., the state’s attorney general has questioned whether the agreement is enforceable without changes to key provisions. An Indigenous leader is also suing the state over the agreement, and Hoch Standard may be investigated by the Singaporean government after rival political party leaders in Sabah reported the company to Singapore’s ambassador in Malaysia.

NEWS

Chinese investment in Latin America plagues people and nature: Report By: Maxwell Radwin [24 Mar 2022]
– A report from the Collective on Chinese Financing and Investments, Human Rights and the Environment (CICDHA) lays out the impact that Chinese-funded infrastructure, energy and mining projects have had in Latin America.
– The report looked at 26 projects in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela.
– It found almost all of them contributed to deforestation and water pollution, as well as human rights violations against local and Indigenous communities.
– CICDHA’s report lays out numerous recommendations for improving the behavior of companies carrying out projects in Latin America, but expresses doubt about China’s willingness to make a good-faith attempt at improvements.

Study links many reported fisheries crimes to just a few repeat offenders By: Annelise Giseburt [24 Mar 2022]
– A new study in the journal Science Advances analyzed roughly 8,000 fisheries offenses reported globally between 2000 and 2020, a database the authors call the “largest existing repository” of reported fisheries offenses.
– The study shows that a small number of companies may be responsible for a large chunk of international industrial fisheries crimes.
– It also shows that the vessels committing abuses, such as unauthorized fishing and human rights and labor violations, often engaged in more than one offense.
– Illegal fishing accounts for one fourth the value of all landed seafood products, roughly $30 billion globally. It contributes to the depletion of fish and other marine wildlife populations.

Marine cold spells, a potential buffer against warming seas, are fading away By: Elizabeth Claire Alberts [24 Mar 2022]
– A new study has found that marine cold spells have decreased in number and intensity since the 1980s due to climate change.
– Marine cold spells can have both negative and positive impacts on the environment; they can wreak havoc on ecosystems like coral reefs, but they can also buffer the impacts of heat stress during marine heat waves.
– While marine cold spells are decreasing, marine heat waves are increasing — but the relationship between these two kinds of events still isn’t clear, the study says.

AI model shows how Amazon dams can be made less environmentally damaging By: Jennifer Ann Thomas [24 Mar 2022]
– Researchers have developed a model using artificial intelligence to analyze the environmental impacts of 351 hydropower dam projects currently under evaluation in the Amazon Basin.
– The model aims to provide information that would help planners and policymakers optimize the capacity and location of new dams to minimize their negative impacts.
– It also shows, however, that no proposed dam could ever have zero impact across all the environmental criteria, and that social impacts on local communities remain far too complex to model with AI.
– While other researchers have welcomed the new way of modeling the risks, they recommend an end to high-capacity hydropower projects in the Amazon and a greater focus on solar and wind power instead.

Stronghold for Africa’s rarest falcon discovered in reserve threatened by Mozambique insurgency By: Ryan Truscott [24 Mar 2022]
– A team of biologists has discovered a new nesting stronghold for Africa’s rarest falcon in northern Mozambique.
– Multiple active breeding sites of the Taita falcon were found in a survey of granite domes, or inselbergs, in Niassa Special Reserve.
– The survey findings may shift scientific understanding of the typical habitat of the Taita falcon, with an estimated population of no more than 1,000 scattered across East and Southern Africa.
– The Niassa reserve is threatened by poaching and illegal mining, as well as a new threat from an armed insurgency centered in nearby Cabo Delgado province.

Millennia of Indigenous history faces erasure as mining grips Brazil’s Tapajós By: Maurício Angelo [24 Mar 2022]
– Archaeological studies in the Tapajós region of Brazil’s Pará state have unearthed rich historical knowledge about the human occupation of the Amazon, recording some of the most ancient relics found in the Americas.
– But the region has become the target of industrialized illegal mining, which is leaving massive destruction in its wake and threatening to erase tens of thousands of years of historical discoveries.
– Hydroelectric plants, ports, waterways, railways and dams are also planned in the region, which would also directly impact Indigenous and local communities.
– At the same time, the Brazilian government under President Jair Bolsonaro has slashed funding for research and issued executive orders allowing caves to be demolished and prospecting to be made easier.

Indigenous land rights take center stage in a new global framework for biodiversity conservation (commentary) By: Karl Burkart [24 Mar 2022]
– Indigenous land rights have taken center stage at negotiations currently underway in Geneva for the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity.
– Karl Burkart, Deputy Director of One Earth, says this is a critically important development: “If we truly want to achieve the top-level goal of the UN Convention — to save biodiversity and reverse the extinction crisis — we must simultaneously secure the land rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities at scale. We cannot achieve one goal without achieving the other.”
– Burkart sees the new global biodiversity framework (GBF) as an opportunity to advance both: “In the new GBF, all Indigenous and community lands that provide natural habitat for species could and should be incorporated into government targets, provided those communities are given proper land tenure and territorial finance for their conservation efforts.”
– This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

In Indonesia’s Spice Islands, some farmers are going back to organic By: Mahmud Ichi [24 Mar 2022]
– Kamil Ishak is one of the few organic farmers on the island of Ternate in Indonesia’s North Maluku province, part of the legendary Spice Islands.
– These organic farmers are moving away from agrochemicals and turning to organic fertilizers and pesticides, often making it themselves.
– Local authorities are supporting the organic farming initiative and encouraging more farmers to adopt the method.

Podcast: Crucial to conservation, Indigenous communities’ global environmental leadership continues By: Mike Gaworecki [24 Mar 2022]
– On this Earth Month episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we highlight the growing recognition of the role Indigenous peoples play as the world’s top conservationists.
– We speak with author Michelle Nijhuis, whose latest book, Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction, is a history of the modern conservation movement. She tells us about the book and what it has to say about how Indigenous communities and their traditional ecological knowledge have finally come to be acknowledged as vital to the cause of conservation.
– We also speak with Dr. Julie Thorstenson, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the director of the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society. She tells us that the 574 tribes in the United States manage more than 140 million acres of land, and that many of them are working to conserve and reintroduce endangered or declining wildlife, from bison and condors to salmon and ferrets.

Bird-counting app kindles interest in Nepal’s rich avian life By: Abhaya Raj Joshi [23 Mar 2022]
– Nepali bird enthusiasts used a mobile app in February to record sightings of birds in their neighborhoods, in an initiative inspired by the Great Backyard Bird Count.
– In addition to being a tool for citizen engagement, initiatives like this help scientists assess bird population across the country, conservationists say.
– The success of the February campaign has encouraged organizers to conduct another round in May.

Stamping out savanna fires doesn’t bolster carbon sink by much, study finds By: Mongabay.com [23 Mar 2022]
– Stamping out fires in the African savanna generates smaller carbon sequestration gains than previously thought, an analysis published in the journal Nature found.
– The data from a decades-long experiment in South Africa’s Kruger National Park raises questions about whether fire suppression in savannas can help in combating climate change, according to an accompanying commentary.
– Shrubs and grasses that make up the savanna store more carbon below ground, on average, than forests, which is one reason why fires aren’t as damaging in these landscapes.
– Even for plots in the national park subject to intense fire activity, the researchers found that root and soil carbon stores are largely preserved.

Ships sunk in nuclear tests host diverse corals, study says. But do we need them? By: Elizabeth Claire Alberts [23 Mar 2022]
– Researchers surveyed 29 warships at Bikini Atoll and Chuuk Lagoon and found that they hosted up to a third of coral genera found on natural reefs in neighboring regions.
– This study has led researchers to ask a controversial question: Can these kinds of shipwrecks act as biodiversity havens for corals?
– While the study does not provide an answer to this question, the authors say this idea should be explored.
– Climate change is one of the biggest threats to coral reefs since rising temperatures can cause widespread bleaching events.

Indigenous communities transform a Mexican desert landscape into forest By: Juan Mayorga [23 Mar 2022]
– In the Mexican state of Oaxaca, 22 communities have taken on the challenge of reviving soils depleted by centuries of overgrazing.
– Over the last two decades, they’ve managed to restore at least 20,000 hectares (49,000 acres), turning many sites into burgeoning forests.
– The task is especially challenging because the communities are starting from “less than zero” — having to find ways to restore their soil before they can even think about planting trees.
– The success of the initiative means the communities can now look forward to more options for forest-based livelihood, such as agroforestry or even selling carbon credits.

Deforestation for palm oil falls in Southeast Asia, but is it a trend or a blip? By: Hans Nicholas Jong [23 Mar 2022]
– Deforestation for oil palm cultivation in Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea dropped in 2021 to its lowest level since 2017, according to a new analysis by Chain Reaction Research (CRR).
– This marks the second straight year of declining palm-linked deforestation in this region, which produces more than 80% of the world’s palm oil, despite the price of the commodity hitting all-time highs last year and this year.
– Researchers attribute the decline in deforestation to an increasing number of companies adopting no-deforestation policies, and smaller companies without such commitments simply running out of forest to clear.
– But concerns over future deforestation persist as the Indonesian government ramps up its palm-oil based biodiesel program, which sources some of its palm oil from companies that are known deforesters.

Multiyear ice thinner than thought as Arctic sea ice reaches winter max: Studies By: Alec Luhn [22 Mar 2022]
– Arctic sea ice has reached its yearly maximum extent at 14.88 million sq. km., the 10th lowest on record. The up-and-down story of sea ice extent in the past year highlights how unpredictable it can be from season to season, even as the overall decline continues.
– A study employing new satellite data found that Arctic multiyear sea ice — ice that survives the summer melt — is thinning even faster than previously thought and has lost a third of its volume in just two decades.
– This comes as Antarctic sea ice extent hit a record summer low, raising questions whether it is beginning a long-term decline, although experts are wary of drawing conclusions yet.
– While summer Arctic sea ice is predicted to mostly disappear by 2050, a new study suggests we could likely preserve it through 2100 by aggressively cutting methane emissions by 2030, along with reaching net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050.

In Brazil, a forest community fights to remain on its traditional land By: Natalia Guerrero, Sue Branford [22 Mar 2022]
– Traditional communities living within the limits of the Jureia-Itatins Ecological Station, a formally protected area in São Paulo state, are expecting a crucial ruling to decide whether they can remain on their traditionally occupied land.
– These communities, known as Caiçaras, were established centuries ago along the southern coastline of Brazil, but the state forestry foundation, which manages the protected area, demolished the houses of some inhabitants in 2019, alleging violations of the strong restrictions on human activity it had imposed.
– The ensuing legal battle has seen the Caiçara families win a decision to be allowed to rebuild their homes, but this was overturned just days later on environmental concerns raised by the forest foundation.
– However, several studies show that the presence of these communities in conservation areas helps protect biodiversity instead of destroying it, and other Brazilian government agencies already recognize the need to work with traditional communities as the best “guardians of the forest.”

Donors must rethink Africa’s flagging olution, new evaluation shows (commentary) By: Timothy Wise [22 Mar 2022]
– A scathing new analysis of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) finds that the program is failing at its objective to increase food security on the continent, despite massive funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the US, UK, and German governments.
– On March 30, critics of AGRA will brief U.S. congressional aides about why they think it is doing more harm than good.
– As fertilizer and food prices spike with rising energy prices from the Russia-Ukraine war, African farmers and governments need the kind of resilient, low-cost alternatives that techniques like agroecology offer, a new opinion piece argues.
– This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Chemical recycling: ‘Green’ plastics solution makes more pollution: Report By: Claire Asher [22 Mar 2022]
– The plastics industry claims that ‘chemical recycling’ or ‘advanced recycling’ technologies, which use heat or solvents to convert waste plastic into chemical feedstocks that can potentially be further processed into new plastics, are a green alternative to mechanical recycling.
– But according to a new report, five out of eight U.S. facilities assessed use chemical processes to produce combustible fuel, not new plastics. In addition, facilities are disposing of large amounts of hazardous waste which in some cases includes benzene — a known carcinogen — lead, cadmium and chromium.
– Critics say the chemical recycling industry’s multi-step incineration processes are polluting and generating greenhouse gases without alleviating virgin plastic demand. Environmental permits for six U.S. facilities allow release of hazardous air pollutants that can cause cancer or birth defects.
– A new UN framework to fight global plastic pollution could offer nations flexibility over how they meet recycling targets, potentially allowing the industry to lobby for policy incentives and regulatory exemptions for plastic-to-fuel techniques — policies that may threaten the environment and public health, say experts.

Cambodian project aims to revive flagging fish populations in Tonle Sap Lake By: Carolyn Cowan [22 Mar 2022]
– Struggling freshwater fish populations in the Mekong River catchment received a boost earlier this month when a team of scientists and fisheries specialists released 1,500 captive-reared juvenile fish into Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia.
– Experts say the release is the first step in rejuvenating the Mekong’s depleted fish populations and fisheries, which have been suffering in recent years due to overfishing, drought, habitat destruction, and the impacts of upstream dams on the Mekong River’s natural flow.
– The fish, including critically endangered Mekong giant catfish and giant barb, and endangered striped river catfish, were released into a series of fish sanctuaries and community conservation areas that protect crucial fish nursery habitat in Tonle Sap Lake, the world’s most productive inland fishery.
– Long-term survival of the Mekong’s threatened fish species will also depend on protection of migration corridors and upstream spawning grounds, and on maintenance of free-flowing and connected watercourses, say experts.

‘Right moon for fishing’: Study finds gravitational impacts on plants, animals By: Sibélia Zanon [22 Mar 2022]
– A recent review of the scientific literature shows that the gravitational forces that cause the tides are also associated with the rhythms of organisms such as plants, crustaceans and corals.
– Researchers say gravitational cycles are not being accounted for in scientific experiments that otherwise control for various environmental factors in the laboratory.
– In the field of gravitational effects, many practices that are repeated out of popular wisdom, such as the best time to cut wood or plant crops, still don’t have scientific backing.

Brazil’s ecosystem of crime in the Amazon (commentary) By: Laura Waisbich; Melina Risso; and Ilona Szabo [21 Mar 2022]
– Drawing on records between 2016 and 2021, the Igarapé Institute recently documented 369 federal police operations in the nine states of Brazil’s Legal Amazon, categorizing the type of illegal activities involved.
– The research found that illicit activities, from drug trafficking to illegal timber extraction, often occur in tandem: “Such complex interactions point to the transnational dimensions of organized crime, raising tricky questions about cross border cooperation, which is still a work in progress.”
– The Igarapé Institute’s Laura Waisbich, Melina Risso, and Ilona Szabo review the findings and what they mean for efforts to address deforestation in Earth’s largest rainforest.
– This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Pharmaceutical water pollution detected deep in the Brazilian Amazon By: Jenny Gonzales [21 Mar 2022]
– Major rivers in the Amazon Basin of Brazil are contaminated with a wide range of pharmaceuticals as well as with sewage and wastewater, largely coming from urban centers in the region, according to recent research.
– Water samples taken along the Amazon, Negro, Tapajós and Tocantins rivers, and small urban tributaries that pass through the region’s cities, including Manaus, Santarém, Belém and Macapá contained 40 pharmaceuticals out of 43 in concentrations that have the potential to affect 50-80% of the local aquatic species.
– Experts explain that a major cause of freshwater contamination is the Amazon Basin’s rapidly growing population along with the government’s failure to provide adequate sanitation infrastructure — even though that has long been promised. Most of the region’s sewage is untreated, a solvable problem if properly funded.

Poor waste management turns dump sites into death traps for Sri Lanka’s elephants By: Malaka Rodrigo [20 Mar 2022]
– Across Sri Lanka, municipal waste is regularly discarded in open garbage dumps, many of which are located near protected areas and other wildlife habitat, drawing elephants there in search of food.
– The deaths of several such foraging elephants has garnered global attention, thanks to a recent AP news report tweeted out by Leonardo DiCaprio, but local conservationists say they’ve been warning about the problem for a long time.
– A former head of the Department of Wildlife Conservation says decisions on where to establish new dump sites often ignore wildlife concerns, driven by “short-sighted, politically motivated” planning.
– But just keeping the elephants out of the dumps isn’t a solution; many of these animals are accustomed to raiding local farms for crops — a habit that they very quickly return to when dump sites are shut down, leading to yet another problem of human-elephant conflict.

Indigenous communities in Ecuador struggle with the aftermath of another oil spill By: Diego Cazar Baquero [18 Mar 2022]
– In January, Ecuador’s Heavy Crude Oil Pipeline ruptured, contaminating more than 20,000 square meters of the Cayambe Coca National Park.
– Sources say contaminated water reached dozens of Indigenous Kichwa communities in the provinces of Napo and Sucumbíos.
– Three pipelines ruptured in the same area in April 2020, spilling more than 15,000 barrels of oil into the Coca River and affecting more than 27,000 members of downstream Indigenous communities.
– This story is a collaboration between Mongabay Latam and Ecuador’s La Barra Espaciadora.

World’s biggest tropical crop bank opens in Colombia, taking food research high tech By: Liz Kimbrough [18 Mar 2022]
– Colombia has inaugurated the world’s largest repository for beans, cassava and tropical forages near the city of Cali.
– To withstand droughts, heat, floods and disease, crops need to be resilient, and that resiliency comes from genetic diversity.
– The Future Seeds facility will not only safeguard the biodiversity of important tropical crops, but is also expected to serve as a living laboratory for some of the most advanced technologies in agricultural research including a rover built by Google’s Project Mineral, and the use of artificial intelligence.

‘We have a full pharmacopoeia of plants’: Q&A with Māori researcher Nicola Macdonald By: Monica Evans [18 Mar 2022]
– Aotearoa New Zealand’s green-lipped mussel industry provides a relatively sustainable source of animal protein, but the plastic ropes used to catch mussel larvae are a source of marine plastic pollution.
– Researchers are using mātauranga (Māori traditional knowledge) and Western science to work out whether natural fiber ropes, made from native species traditionally used by Māori, could provide a suitable and biodegradable alternative.
– Mongabay spoke with Indigenous researcher Nicola Macdonald about the research process, the findings so far, and the team’s hopes for helping create a more sustainable aquaculture industry.

Road project threatens to derail Nepal’s conservation gains, study says By: Abhaya Raj Joshi [18 Mar 2022]
– A new study rates the risk that existing and planned roads pose to tigers, wolves and other apex predators around the world.
– In the case of Nepal, the study also identifies sloth bears, wild dogs and clouded leopards as among the animals most at risk.
– The new Postal Highway being built in the nation’s south could impact eight major protected areas in Nepal and five transboundary protected areas in India.
– The threats posed by roads to wildlife include vehicle collisions, habitat fragmentation, and increased poaching pressure.

Sloth, giant armadillo, and fishing cat conservationists win Future for Nature Award 2022 By: Erik Hoffner [18 Mar 2022]
– Three people known for their work with sloths, fishing cats and giant armadillos were announced this week as winners of the 2022 Future for Nature Award.
– Tiasa Adhya of India, Gabriel Massocato from Brazil, and Rebecca Cliffe in Costa Rica each earn a cash prize they will use to advance their work with these endangered animals and ecosystems.
– One will use the funding to acquire a dog specially trained to detect the presence of sloths, a cryptic species whose populations are challenging to estimate.

PREVIOUS FEATURES

Podcast: Tree kangaroos may be key to New Guinea forest conservation by Mike DiGirolamo [03/16/2022]
Climate-positive, high-tech metals are polluting Earth, but solutions await by Claire Asher [03/15/2022]
To fight invaders, Munduruku women wield drone cameras and cellphones by Joana Moncau and Elpida Nikou from Repórter Brasil [03/15/2022]
Thai tourism elephants are ‘far better off’ in forests: Q&A with photographer Adam Oswell by Carolyn Cowan [03/15/2022]
In Brazil, Indigenous Ka’apor take their territory’s defense into their own hands by Andrew Johnson [03/14/2022]

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