Since 2009, no one has seen a Panamanian golden frog in the wild. These bright yellow frogs disappeared completely when an amphibian fungal disease, chytridiomycosis, swept through Panama reaching El Valle de Anton, the last stronghold of golden frogs.

Researchers at the Smithsonian Institution predicted these declines based on the pattern of disease spread, but to get ahead of the disease, a coalition of organizations built the the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project (PARC) with a mission to safeguard golden frogs (Atelopus zeteki) and other amphibians most at risk of extinction. After successfully breeding them in captivity, the project has begun releasing frogs to understand the science of rewilding these imperiled animals.

“We provide care for some of the most endangered amphibians in Panama, and now we are entering a new phase of our work to study the science of rewilding,” said Roberto Ibañez director of PARC.

The golden frog is endemic to Panama and was found only near fast-running streams flowing from the mountainous region of central Panama. Chytridiomycosis, the deadly fungus that infects a frog’s skin leading to death, can swim through water and hitch a ride on other wildlife, even on people’s shoes. The disease is still present in many other areas of Panama, so the release trial presents an opportunity to understand how frogs transition from human care to the wild.

Researchers released 100 golden frogs in soft-release pens, known as mesocosms, and came back to monitor them post-release. The frogs initially spent 12 weeks in the mesocosms, and about 70% of them died from chytridiomycosis. Although that number may seem stark, the data collected from the deceased frogs will be used to understand disease dynamics and how the animals regain their skin toxicity after consuming a wild diet. Many of the remaining frogs were fully released following the 12-week trial.

“These crucial data will inform our conservation strategy moving forward,” said Brian Gratwicke, conservation biologist with the Smithsonian Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. “Our earlier modeling suggested there may be release sites we can select that will be climatic refuges — places that are suitable for the frogs but too hot for the fungus. Our observations here show that we can maintain frogs for long periods in mesocosms, and if we discover signs that they regain their skin toxins, that will be important information as we roll out our release trials to other more climatically favorable places.”

Three other species were released in 2025 under the Smithsonian’s Tropical Amphibian Research Initiative. These included crowned tree frogs (Triprion spinosus), Pratt’s rocket frogs (Colostethus pratti) and lemur leaf frogs (Agalychnis lemur). The release trials have exceeded researchers’ expectations with excellent survivorship of lemur leaf frogs, while passive acoustic monitoring indicates that the crowned tree frogs and Pratt’s rocket frogs are surviving as well.

Banner image: Panamanian golden frogs in captivity in 2006. Image by Rhett Ayers Butler/Mongabay.

ROME (AP) — The Vatican on Friday launched a campaign to encourage divestment from mining industries, saying the Catholic Church should invest its money in ways that are consistent with its ecological teachings.

The effort, which also involves other Christian organizations, takes as its inspiration Pope Francis’ 2015 environmental encyclical “Praised Be.” The document, and the ecological movement it inspired, railed against the multinational corporations that pillage Earth’s natural resources, often at the expense of poor and Indigenous peoples.

The initiative is the brainchild of an existing ecumenical network of Catholic and other Christian denominations, the Churches and Mining Network, that is active in particular in Latin America.

The campaign aims to encourage local churches to review their investment strategies and divest where needed, and to share information especially with Indigenous groups about the types of extraction occurring on their lands.

Yolanda Flores, a leader of the Aymara peoples in Peru, teared up at a Vatican news conference describing how Indigenous mothers are left to fear they are poisoning their children because their drinking water has been polluted by extraction runoff.

“The big question is: Who finances this? Who provides the money to poison us?” she said.

Guatemalan Cardinal Álvaro Ramazzini recalled that when he was bishop of San Marcos, the Guatemalan government allowed a Canadian mining firm to explore, and then extract silver and gold from the land. While the project provided short-term employment to the local population, the ultimate winners were the shareholders, he said.

“Was it a legal activity? Yes. Was it an activity that promoted the holistic development of those communities? No,” Ramazzini said. “In terms of distributive justice: were the mining operations fair? No.”

Cardinal Fabio Baggio, the No. 2 in the Vatican’s ecology office, was asked if the Vatican had in the past invested in mining corporations and was now reviewing its strategies. He said he didn’t know, but added that whenever such campaigns are launched, it’s necessary to “also look in one’s home.”

Francis in 2022 formed an investment committee of church and outside financial experts to guarantee “the ethical nature of the Holy See’s securities investments according to the church’s social doctrine and at the same time their profitability, adequacy and risks.”

Last month, the Vatican bank announced two equity benchmarks that conform to ethical Catholic criteria and are aimed at serving as a reference for Catholic investments globally. They are the Morningstar IOR Eurozone Catholic Principles and the Morningstar IOR US Catholic Principles.

By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press

Banner image: Yolanda Flores, leader of the Aymara people in Peru, speaks during a press conference for the launch of a Mining Divestment Platform, at the Vatican, Friday, March 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Commercial deep-sea mining hasn’t yet begun, but it soon could — with the potential to reshape vast stretches of the ocean as companies move to extract minerals from the seafloor. However, this nascent industry lacks a set of international rules to govern it, and a recent meeting of the regulatory body charged with drafting one has adjourned with big gaps remaining.

 Leticia Carvalho, Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the UN-associated deep-sea mining regulator, has stressed the importance of completing the rules to govern seabed exploitation — known as the mining code — by the end of this year. Completing this task has become a critical test for the ISA since the U.S., which is not a member state of the ISA, fast-tracked deep-sea mining plans with apparent disregard for international law.

Completing the mining code would ultimately make the U.S. “a less attractive option for companies” by making any moves to mine outside of ISA regulations “highly problematic,” Carvalho said at a press briefing in response to a question from Mongabay.

 “I continue to be very confident and trust that this year there will be great progress … of the mining code that will take the International Seabed Authority from the era of exploration to the era of exploitation of mineral resources in the deep sea,” Carvalho said.

However, the meeting closed on Mar. 19 without a clear timeline for finishing the mining code.

Pradeep Singh of Lisbon-based ocean conservation non-profit Oceano Azul, who attended the ISA meeting as an observer, told Mongabay he believes it’s “highly unlikely” the code will be finished this year.

“We’re making progress, but we still have a lot more that we need to complete before we can get to adoption of a robust set of regulations that truly represents the best interest of humankind,” Singh said.

Key issues that remain unresolved include setting standards and guidelines — such as environmental thresholds — clarifying how resource benefits would be shared and determining whether the regulations will apply to all forms of deep-sea mining or only to polymetallic nodule extraction.

Julian Jackson, the deep-sea mining lead at Washington D.C.-based Pew Charitable Trusts, told Mongabay that the code shouldn’t be rushed.

“This is a frontline novel industry that will be taking place far offshore and far below the surface, and is inherently destructive. So, I don’t think it’s unreasonable that it’s taking a long time.”

While the ISA deliberates, the U.S. is moving forward with plans to mine the deep-sea in both international and domestic waters, following an executive order from President Trump. In January, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a U.S. agency that will oversee deep-sea mining in international waters based on U.S. domestic law, approved a rule allowing companies to apply for both exploration and exploitation licenses at the same time. The Metals Company announced it had submitted an application under this new rule.

Banner image: A jellyfish in the genus Botrynema. Image courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration.

World Rewilding Day on March 20 celebrates human efforts to rewild and restore degraded areas. Rewilding can focus on a single species, a city park, or even an entire island, and Mongabay has reported on such efforts from around the word.

Rewilding in France’s Dauphiné Alps

France’s largest rewilding project is underway in the Dauphiné Alps, in the south of the country. In the 18^th century, much of the region was cleared for agriculture. But with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, many people abandoned farms and moved to cities. Left undisturbed, native trees and wildlife slowly began coming back.

“It allows us to build on what’s been done already,” Olivier Raynaud, director of Rewilding France and leader of the Dauphiné Alps project, told Mongabay. “We’re not starting from scratch.”

Four species of vultures have already been reintroduced, following successful breeding in captivity. They’re crucial for ridding the area of disease-spreading carrion and have become a tourist attraction.

Next, the project plans to bring back large herbivores, including Polish konik ponies and Scottish Galloway cattle, which are expected to spread seeds that will eventually grow into a forest.

Project leaders also hope to bring back the locally endangered Eurasian lynx and eventually wolves — though the wolf plan has so far faced pushback from locals who see the predators as a threat to livestock.

Rewilding the world’s largest volcanic lake

Lake Toba, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, is the largest volcanic lake in the world and historically home to diverse wildlife including gibbons and endemic fish species. However, over the last two decades, nearly a quarter of its old-growth forest has been cleared, causing ash, trash and pesticides to run off into the lake.

Retired civil servant Wilmar Eliaser Simandjorang has dedicated himself to rewilding the lake and advocating for stricter environmental laws to protect the area. He has worked with local communities to build grassroots networks aimed at reforesting the region.

“I motivated residents to understand that planting trees was like planting their own future,” Wilmar told Mongabay.

Rewilding, one species at a time

Many projects focus on specific species for rewilding, often animals that are threatened or key ecosystem engineers.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, conservationists released four critically endangered female gorillas, rescued from the illegal wildlife trade, into Virunga National Park. The Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center (GRACE), which prepared the great apes for their release, reports that they’ve successfully integrated into the wild population.

In Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, brown howler monkeys (Alouatta guariba) were dying en masse following an outbreak of yellow fever. So scientists tweaked a yellow fever vaccine meant for humans and successfully treated the monkeys before reintroducing them to Tijuca National Park in Rio de Janeiro. Brown howlers are excellent seed dispersers and are expected to help restore the degraded park.

Banner image: The four gorillas on the day they were reintroduced to Virunga National Park. Image courtesy of GRACE.

A 50-meter (164-foot) mountain of waste at Indonesia’s Bantargebang landfill, the country’s largest, recently collapsed following days of extreme rainfall that destabilized the massive, saturated pile. The tragedy resulted in seven confirmed deaths.

The head of Jakarta’s search and rescue office, Desiana Kartika Bahari, said the victims included two garbage truck drivers, three scavengers and two food stall sellers who had been working or resting near the landfill at the time of the collapse. Six people managed to escape the disaster. As of March 10, Bahari confirmed that no additional missing people had been reported by families.

Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq characterized the tragedy as the “tip of the iceberg” of Jakarta’s failed waste management. After inspecting the site, he emphasized that the disaster was a serious warning to the provincial government to immediately end open dumping, the practice of illegally piling waste without proper containment.

“This incident should not have happened if waste management had been carried out in accordance with regulations,” Nurofiq told Antara, a state news agency in Indonesia. According to the ministry, the site currently holds 80 million tons of waste, which far exceeds its safe capacity.

Nurofiq noted that a 2009 law states that negligence resulting in death carries a prison sentence of 5-10 years and fines of up to 10 billion rupiah (US$590,000). The ministry has since initiated a formal investigation into alleged negligence from the site management.

Local residents also voiced their frustration. Putri Yorika, who lives 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the site, noted that the 110-hectare (272-acre) facility is essentially a ticking time bomb. “Every day more trash is dumped and piled without treatment,” she told “The soil sinks, the waste doesn’t decompose, and these accidents keep happening, endangering both the community and workers.”

The Bantargebang site has a history of tragedies, including a residential landslide in 2003 and a collapse in 2006 that buried dozens of waste pickers. More recently, in January 2026, a foundation collapse dragged three garbage trucks into a riverbed. Environmental watchdog Walhi told The Jakarta Post this was at least the fifth trash avalanche in the Greater Jakarta region over the past six months.

Wiratni Budhijanto, a chemical engineering professor at Gadjah Mada University, argued the underlying issue is how the city views waste. “The root of the problem is actually because waste management is still considered disposal, not processing,” she said in a university release. She noted that without source-reduction efforts, landfills will continue to reach dangerous heights.

As a long-term strategy, the Jakarta government plans to transition Bantargebang to store only inorganic waste. This plan relies on strengthening waste separation and optimizing the refuse-derived fuel facility in Rorotan, North Jakarta, which is designed to process 1,000 tons of waste per day.

Banner image: An excavator collects garbage at the Bantargebang Integrated Waste Disposal Site. Image by Kuncoro Widyo Rumpoko via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

In 2024, the mother of a 6-month-old baby described to the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) what happened to her son after one of Africa’s largest copper and cobalt processing complexes was built just a few hundred meters from their home.

“One evening, he started vomiting blood. He vomited more than three times, and then he died. That’s when I realized his death was caused by air pollution. I am not alone in this situation.” The mother and her child lived in Manomapia, in southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The facility that allegedly sickened her child is owned by Tenke Fungurume Mining (TFM), a Congolese subsidiary of the Chinese company CMOC. The mine is set to provide 100,000 metric tons of copper to the United States.

The processing facility, roughly the size of 500 football fields, according to the EIA, is known as the “30K plant” because it can process 30,000 tons of mixed copper-cobalt ore per day. Both copper and cobalt are key components in lithium-ion batteries, used in electric vehicles, computers and smartphones.

“From the moment 30K began operating in 2023, people in Manomapia began complaining about really serious health issues, including vomiting and coughing up blood, life-threatening respiratory infections and maternal health complications,” Luke Allen, Africa program campaigner for EIA, told Mongabay in a phone call.

Allen spent three years investigating the issue, conducting air quality monitoring and reviewing from a nearby clinic, later analyzed by an independent expert. “We found that levels of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) in the air were far beyond the thresholds considered safe for human exposure by organizations such as the World Health Organization,” Allen said. “There was a significant increase in the number of people presenting with severe respiratory symptoms after the 30K facility began operating, particularly symptoms consistent with exposure to high levels of sulfur dioxide,” he added.

SO₂ is known to irritate eyes, mucous membranes, skin and the respiratory system. According to the United States National Library of Medicine, “There have been several case reports of human deaths following acute exposure to high concentrations of sulfur dioxide.”

Mongabay contacted Tenke Fungurume Mining for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication. However, in a letter sent to the EIA, the mining company stated, “TFM maintains emissions within safe limits that pose no health risks. No evidence establishes a causal link between the illness and the operations of the 30K Plant.”

However, Jacques Gardon, research director at France’s Research Institute for Development (IRD) and a specialist in mining pollution, told Mongabay that the minerals are being extracted under unsafe conditions. “The problem is that minerals must be sold at prices that allow them to be mined under proper conditions. What we are seeing here is more than an injustice, it’s a tragedy.”

Banner image: A child with red irritated eyes near the 30K plant in DRC. Image courtesy of Luke Allen.