As the planet warms, animals living in tropical mountains may find it increasingly difficult to shift to new areas, according to a new study.

Tropical mountains are particularly at risk when the impacts of climate change combine with changes in land use and human pressures, Chiara Dragonetti, co-author of the study published in June, told Mongabay in a video call.

Many mountain-dwelling species are endemic to those areas and can only tolerate climatic conditions within narrow limits, researchers have previously found. Higher altitudes may be the right temperature but the wrong habitat, and species already living at high altitudes can only shift so high. Eventually, animals can run out of safe space on a mountain in a pattern scientists have dubbed an “escalator to extinction.”  Changes in how mountain land is used can further limit animals’ movement.

Dragonetti wanted to understand how mountain wildlife will fare in a warming world, while also considering land-use changes and the species’ dispersal abilities. She and her colleagues analyzed existing global datasets of distribution for 395 different mountain-dwelling species, including 361 birds and 34 mammals, breaking them down by animals that can easily disperse, such as birds, and those that can’t easily relocate, such as sloths. They then used computer models to project where these species could occur in 2050, under future high and low greenhouse gas emissions scenarios.

The study found that under a high emissions scenario, wildlife would lose 16% more range (or places they can live) compared to a low emissions scenario.

“For a mountain species, the 16% is a big number actually, because most of the species are endemic,” Dragonetti said. Some 112 of the 361 bird species and 15 of the 34 mammal species are endemic to their region, the study says. Because many of these species exist only on a single mountain or a small mountain range, losing even a modest portion of their habitat could significantly increase their risk of extinction, Dragonetti added.

While climate change is the biggest factor in the need to move for mountain-dwelling animals, the study says land use change and the availability of habitat are significant in determining where the animals can go.

Tropical mountains are expected to experience much more land-use change than mountains in Europe or North America. Models that also included land-use data showed that mountain-dwelling wildlife in Central and South America and Oceania will be most at risk.

Ability to disperse also matters: More birds will be able to disperse, or move to a new range, than mammals by 2050, the study found. However, Dragonetti cautioned against drawing broad conclusions with a dataset of just 34 mammal species.

The authors say their study underscores the need to protect mountain habitats now and that their findings can “identify climatic refugia to understand where species will be safer.”

Banner image: Costa Rica’s Arenal Volcano at the foothills of the Cordillera de Tilaran mountain range. Image by Bobby Bascomb/Mongabay.

New data released by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) finds that, worldwide, South America has the most abuse allegations associated with large-scale mining for transition minerals over the past 15 years. Such minerals are essential for the shift away from fossil fuels and are critical for other industries, such as tech and defense. Many of the allegations were associated with environmental harm including water pollution and deforestation.

Roughly 36% of such abuse allegations recorded between 2010 and 2025 were in South America. Many of the abuses involved local community rights violations, labor rights violations and attacks against defenders.

Of the allegations reported worldwide in 2025, 17% were related to the abuse of Indigenous People’s rights, including their right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent before mining activities could take place in their territory.  

The researchers analyzed the BHRRC’s Transition Minerals Tracker to identify allegations of abuse related to mining nine key transitional minerals, including bauxite, cobalt, copper and lithium. They identified 329 allegations of abuse in 2025, up from 156 in 2024.

Between 2010 and 2025, Peru had the most reported allegations (174), followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo (151) and Chile (137).

“This year’s data really lays bare the cost of conflict: we’re seeing project delays and suspensions as a direct result of human rights concerns, which poses a real threat to the transition as a whole,” author of the report Blanca Racionero Gomez, natural resources and just energy transition senior researcher at the BHRRC, told Mongabay via email.

The tracker recorded 97 allegations of abuse in South America in 2025, nearly twice as many as were recorded in 2024. Globally, copper mining was associated with the most allegations of abuse in 2025. Some 33% of copper-associated allegations were recorded in South America; Africa had slightly more with 38%.

While South America has the highest number of allegations over the last 15 years, Africa had the most in 2025 at 100, a 122% increase compared to 2024, the report found.

Transition mineral mining is driving environmental degradation, human rights abuses and conflicts between industry and communities, the report found.

The BHRRC report identified “42 reported attacks against human rights and environmental defenders” globally in 2025, almost double the amount recorded in 2024.

Racionero said that mining companies, investors and governments should ensure that robust human rights protections and standards are embedded throughout mining processes. 

She added that “rights-based mineral governance, including corporate duty of care for human rights, shared prosperity and meaningful engagement, is essential to build resilient, sustainable, economically viable and rights-respecting supply chains of minerals.” 

Banner image: A demonstrator stands by police blocking access to Panama’s National Assembly as people protested against a new mining contract between Canada’s First Quantum Minerals and the Panamanian government for the Cobre Panama copper mine on Oct. 20, 2023. Photo by Arnulfo Franco via Associated Press.

Iranian security forces in Tehran arrested wildlife conservationists Houman Jowkar and Sepideh Kashani, alongside Sepideh’s sister, Sima Kashani, on July 1, 2026, according to reports from multiple Iranian news sources.

Jowkar and Sepideh, who are married, are experts on the critically endangered Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus venaticus) and were previously arrested in 2018 on espionage charges related to their alleged use of camera traps. The cheetah subspecies, found only in Iran, is believed to have fewer than 30 individuals  remaining in the wild.

Hojjat Kermani, the trio’s attorney, told media that security agents confiscated electronic devices during a raid at the couple’s residence, before taking all three into custody.

The conservation NGO Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) expressed “profound concern and alarm” over the detentions. It urged Iranian authorities to clarify the group’s legal status and whereabouts.

Mongabay previously reported that Jowkar and Sepideh were members of the now-defunct Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation (PWHF), a Tehran-based conservation organization. They were among a group of eight conservationists arrested in January 2018 on charges alleging use of wildlife camera traps for the purpose of spying on Iran, including monitoring the country’s missile program.

Those 2018 charges were widely condemned by the international scientific community as baseless. One of the arrested researchers, Kavous Seyed Emami, died in custody with Iranian authorities saying the death was a suicide, a claim doubted by Seyed Emami’s family. Jowkar and Sepideh were eventually pardoned and released in April 2024 after serving six years in Tehran’s Evin Prison.

Authorities haven’t officially stated reasons for the arrest of Sima Kashani, Sepideh’s sister.

In a statement released on Instagram, Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Australian-British academic whose research background is in Middle East political science and who was also arrested in Iran on separate espionage charges in 2018, said the Iranian conservationists are “not political activists.” Moore-Gilbert was Sepideh Kashani’s former cellmate.

“They haven’t been involved in politics and there’s no reason for their arrest,” she said. “Please raise the fate of these three brave Iranians, wherever and to whomever you can that might help. Transparency is the only way, shining a spotlight is the only way that we can ensure their safe treatment and potential freedom.”

Moore-Gilbert added that Sima Kashani suffers from multiple sclerosis and requires critical medical treatment, while the sisters’ father is also “very, very unwell”.

WCS said in its statement that they “respectfully call upon the relevant authorities in the Islamic Republic of Iran to clarify the legal status and current whereabouts of Ms. Kashani, Mr. Jowkar, and Sima Kashani immediately.”

“Through their pioneering work with the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation, they dedicated years to studying and preserving the few remaining individuals of this unique [Asiatic cheetah] population,” WCS added.

Mongabay previously reported that the initial 2018 crackdown had a major chilling effect on conservation activities and scientific collaboration in Iran.

Banner image of an Asiatic cheetah. Image by Ehsan Kamali via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).

Researchers in Nigeria have cultivated a wild mushroom species using sawdust, an agricultural waste product. This could help develop farming of local mushrooms in Nigeria and other parts of Africa, they report in a recent study.

Lentinus squarrosulus is a wild mushroom that typically grows on decaying logs in wild habitats across tropical forests, including in eastern Nigeria. This mushroom is both edible and has medicinal value, and is at risk of becoming scarce in the wild because of habitat destruction. If domesticated, however, this mushroom could be an inexpensive and reliable source of protein, mushroom researcher Chiemeziem Agbonma Onyeka told Mongabay by email.

“Mushroom farming in Africa is still developing,” Onyeka said. “In many regions, there is still limited awareness that mushrooms can be cultivated as a reliable year-round agricultural crop rather than only collected from the wild during specific seasons.”

Onyeka set out to learn how to cultivate L. squarrosulus for her doctoral work at the Federal University of Technology in Owerri, Nigeria. Her goal was to find a way to provide a year-round crop that people could grow, reliably and safely, using waste as a growing material or substrate.

Onyeka and her colleagues collected wild L. squarrosulus and tried cultivating them on sawdust from three different types of wood: mango (Mangifera indica), African breadfruit (Treculia Africana) and African pear (Dacryodes edulis). Sawdust is a common byproduct of agriculture and forestry waste.

The researchers found that L. squarrosulus mushrooms grew fastest and generated the greatest number of fruiting bodies on the sawdust of the African breadfruit tree, followed by sawdust from mango wood.

In Nigeria, mushrooms have received less research investment and support than staple crops, Onyeka said. “Nevertheless, there is growing interest in mushroom cultivation across the continent, particularly due to its nutritional value and ability to utilize agricultural waste.”

Onyeka said she hopes her success with cultivating L. squarrosulus can help spread commercial mushroom farming in Nigeria, but added that it will be a gradual transition. “The immediate focus is on refining and standardizing cultivation protocols to ensure reproducibility at scale,” she said. “Engagement with farmers, extension systems, and private-sector partners will be essential for translation into commercial production.”

Onyeka’s advice for prospective mushroom farmers is to seek proper training, and build a strong foundation, including understanding the production process and hygiene required.

Omoanghe Isikhuemhen, a mushroom expert from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, U.S., who wasn’t involved in the study, told Mongabay by email that the study leaves out an important metric of economic potential: biological efficiency. It measures the yield of fresh mushroom per unit of substrate used for cultivation. He said that the profitability and economic benefits of L. squarrosulus cultivation might be difficult to realize, depending on the biological efficiency of the cultivation process.

Banner image: Lentinus squarrosulus mushrooms. Image by Vengolis via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Palmyra Atoll in the North Pacific is one of the most remote island systems on Earth. A native rainforest tree on the island performs a critical ecological service by providing nesting sites for thousands of seabirds, whose guano fuels the surrounding coral reefs. But a new study revealed that this entire cycle depends on an invisible partner: Symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi.

Researchers mapped the fungal diversity across the atoll and discovered the native pisonia (Pisonia grandis) trees have a 100%  with a specific genus of fungi called Tomentella — meaning the trees depend on the fungi to survive. These fungi capture intense pulses of nitrogen and phosphorus from bird guano that would otherwise wash into the ocean. This relationship was present in every tree the team sampled.

“Most ectomycorrhizal fungi struggle in extremely nutrient-rich soils, but the Tomentella fungi associated with Pisonia appear to be adapted to the high phosphorus levels created by seabird guano,” study co-author Alex Wegmann told Mongabay over email. “This suggests a long evolutionary partnership between the fungi, the trees, and the massive seabird colonies that shape these atoll ecosystems.”

The discovery has major implications for the ongoing effort to restore Palmyra’s native forests by removing 1.5 million invasive coconut palms. The study found that Tomentella abundance drops off sharply when there are more than 250 meters (820 feet) away from a pisonia tree. Therefore, natural regeneration might fail in large areas cleared of coconut palms, because the necessary fungi aren’t present in the soil, the study authors suggested.

Wegmann said it’s possible that conservationists will need to “inoculate” soils with fungi to ensure the success of reforestation. “Especially in areas far from existing Pisonia forests where Tomentella becomes much less common or in atoll forest systems where Pisonia has been absent for long periods due to legacy coconut palm agriculture or other impacts,” he said. “However, we still need additional field experiments to determine whether fungal inoculation significantly improves seedling survival and growth.”

The study also revealed that Palmyra is a hotbed for globally rare, and potentially new, species of fungi that have never been recorded in worldwide databases. These fungi were even found colonizing aerial roots hanging 1.5 meters (4.92 feet) in the air, suggesting they might be dispersed by wind or birds.

Furthermore, the study said the atoll’s hundreds of thousands of land crabs, some with a leg span more than three feet across, according to Wegmann, were found to be “ecosystem engineers” for this microbial world. By excavating and mixing the soil, crabs significantly increase total fungal richness within their burrows.

“Atoll forests may contain unique microbial communities found nowhere else on Earth,” Wegmann said. “Protecting this hidden biodiversity is important because these microbes can play critical roles in ecosystem health, resilience, and forest regeneration .”

Banner image: Pisonia grandis in Palmyra Atoll. Image credit to Society for the Protection of Underground Networks.

The U.K government has announced that it will advance long-delayed regulations on commodities linked to deforestation. On June 23, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) issued a press release promising to “take forward new rules” that will force companies in Great Britain to carry out due diligence on the products they sell.

“Under the proposals UK businesses who trade in commodities sourced from rainforests such as soy, palm oil, cocoa and rubber will need to check that their supply chains are not contributing to illegal deforestation,” it said.

The rules have been anticipated since the passage of the U.K.’s Environment Act in 2021. “Schedule 17” of the Act established a legal basis for strict rules covering forest risk commodities, but the U.K. government has yet to issue those rules or submit them to Parliament. The slow implementation of Schedule 17 has drawn the ire of environmental groups and their allies.

 In a press release, U.K.-based NGO Forest Coalition welcomed the latest announcement.

“In our view the delay has been unacceptable because the U.K. imports deforestation-tainted commodities,” said Cassie Dummett, the group’s coordinator, in a phone interview with Mongabay. “That means members of the public are buying deforestation in the food they buy, unwittingly.”

The U.K. government said the regulation will closely mirror the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which, despite repeated delays, is set to take effect at the end of 2026. Both rules will cover a similar set of commodities, including cattle, cocoa, palm oil, rubber and soy. By aligning the two regulations, the U.K. will be able to avoid thorny trade issues with the bloc. It will also prevent complications for Northern Ireland, which remains part of the EU’s single market.

 “The aim is that the information GB businesses must hold will be broadly the same as what is needed for a due diligence statement when exporting to the EU or moving goods to Northern Ireland under the EUDR,” the U.K. government wrote in a policy brief that accompanied the announcement.

 At least initially, the two sets of rules will diverge on one critical point. The U.K.’s regulation only covers commodities linked to deforestation if that deforestation is illegal in the exporting country. The EUDR, on the other hand, applies to all forms of deforestation.

 In practice, this means that if an exporting country legalizes deforestation, it can export  products linked to deforestation into the U.K. but not the EU. The U.K. government has stated its intention to close that gap, but it won’t happen under the new rules.

 “That requires legislation separate from these anticipated regulations,” Dummett said. “We want to see movement on that as soon as possible.”

 The agency said it expects to submit updated regulations to parliament for a vote at some point in 2027.

 Banner image: Deforestation for oil palm in the Amazon rainforest. Image by Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay.