Beavers are expanding their range into Canada’s western Arctic, and a recent study has reconstructed when these ecosystem engineers first became active in the area — sometime around 2008.

Historically, North American beavers (Castor canadensis) have been associated with boreal and temperate waterways. However, they’re increasingly being observed moving northward in the Arctic tundra. This range expansion is partly aided by a warming climate and the growth of shrubs they depend on to build their dams and lodges.

When local Indigenous communities in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region in the Canadian Arctic noticed an increase in beavers, they “flagged this as an urgent issue requiring investigation,” study lead author Georgia Hole, from Durham University in the U.K., told Mongabay by email.

Beavers are known for their ability to build dams in streams and rivers, which blocks the flow of water, creating ponds. For the Inuvialuit, the impacts of busy beavers led to “creeks running dry, dams blocking access to historic established travel routes and harvesting sites, and changes in vegetation,” said Hole, who carried out the work while at Anglia Ruskin University, U.K.

However, in the absence of long-term scientific monitoring, nobody knew exactly when the beavers had moved in and colonized this remote Canadian Arctic region.

When beavers chew through woody plants such as trees or shrubs, their browsing leaves behind scars in the stems’ growth rings. So, to peek back in time, the researchers examined growth rings in the stems of willow and alder shrubs — local species the beavers fell — and found they record “the moment a beaver appeared and started cutting them,” Hole said.

Researchers also looked at surface water levels in satellite images over time, and found that these time stamps coincided with an increase in flooding, possibly due to the beavers’ damming activity.

Hole said these two independent lines of evidence “tell the same story” — that beavers arrived in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region starting in 2008 and have been active in the area since. This timeline fits with the real-world experience of locals, she added.

Kevin Arey, an Indigenous environmental guardian and Imaryuk monitor who worked alongside the researchers, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that the beavers are everywhere and impacting the traditional way of life in the region. “What we do for a living, our fishing, our hunting, it’s making obstructions, moving water, making the rivers act differently,” Arey said.

Researchers say beaver ponds can also speed up the warming of permafrost, a concern in areas already impacted by climate change. Tracking beaver colonization and its impacts on landscapes with the new method will help inform local communities and decision-makers.

“The Arctic is transforming faster than many people may appreciate, and I hope this methodology helps us understand one ongoing change that would go otherwise go untracked,” Hole said.

Banner image: North American beaver in the Northwest Territories, Canada. Image courtesy of Helen Wheeler/Anglia Ruskin University.

Liberian policymakers have almost completed a framework for selling carbon credits to international buyers. But local environmental groups say they’re being shut out of a fast-tracked final review of the policy.

According to Jeanine Cooper, chief executive officer of Liberia’s Carbon Market Authority, the “penultimate” draft of the policy was nearing completion last week. In a phone interview with Mongabay, she said she expected a final version to be ready for President Joseph Boakai to sign soon.

“We do need to move on with different policies and regulations, so it behooves us to get it done as quickly as possible,” she said.

A prior draft of the policy, dated April 2026 and reviewed by Mongabay, details how Liberia will set up a registry for approved carbon projects and how revenue will be allocated from them.

The draft establishes that the Carbon Market Authority, which was set up through an executive order by Boakai late last year, would be in charge of selling Liberian carbon credits.

Communities who own the forests and land tied to those credits would receive at most 50% of the revenue.

That’s rankled some civil society groups in the country.

“If I own something, I own it 100%,” said Dayugar Johnson of the NGO Coalition, a group of Liberian community rights and environmental advocates. “So why should 50% come to me?”

Cooper told Mongabay that Liberia’s carbon markets will respect community resource ownership, and that civil society groups have had ample opportunities to comment on it.

“A core part of this policy is free, prior and informed consent, so nobody is going to take anything from anybody without their consent,” she said.

Johnson said Liberian NGOs expected the policy to go through a final public validation process, but those plans were scrapped in favor of a narrower technical review by government agencies. In an April 30 letter to Boakai, the NGO Coalition urged him not to sign the document without fully engaging stakeholders.

“We’ve been giving inputs, but sometimes the next version comes back with the same text, and we thought the place to clarify all of that was the national validation, which now they are cutting out of the process,” Johnson said.

Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that the African Development Bank (AfDB) was withholding a funding package for Liberia until the country finalized its carbon policy.

Cooper said the report was “not true.”

However,  Johnson shared with Mongabay what he said was a leaked email from the head of Liberia’s Environmental Protection Agency to government officials, which described the carbon policy as “linked to AfDB support for Liberia’s 2026 budget.”

“If the policy goes out as it is, it creates an opportunity for a law that will have a lot of loopholes. Communities could be marginalized, and that’s why we’re pushing back on it,” Johnson said.

Banner image: Forests in Liberia’s Sapo National Park. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — French and African leaders have announced more than $11 billion in renewable energy investments across Africa, underscoring the continent’s growing importance in the global push for cleaner energy and industrial development.

The commitments were unveiled Tuesday during a closed-door CEO forum held alongside the France-Africa Summit in Nairobi, attended by French President Emmanuel Macron, Kenyan President William Ruto and leaders from more than 30 African countries.

Executives from major companies including TotalEnergies, EDF, Kenya Airways and Rubis Energy announced projects spanning sustainable aviation fuel, hydropower, solar energy, wind generation and clean cooking initiatives.

“Africa has a historic opportunity to not only participate in the global energy transition but to help lead it,” Ruto told delegates at the summit. “For Africa, this energy transition must also be an industrial transition.”

Among the headline deals, Kenya Airways and Rubis Energy signed an agreement to jointly develop what the companies described as Africa’s first sustainable aviation fuel production facility in Kenya. The refinery is expected to produce 32,000 metric tons of sustainable aviation fuel annually.

“While we currently depend entirely on imports, this refinery allows us to produce a sustainable, local version of that fuel,” said George Kamal, acting CEO of Kenya Airways. “Sustainable, renewable biogenic fuel is the optimal route for airlines to reach the goal of the International Civil Aviation Organization to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.”

TotalEnergies said it plans to spend $10 billion in Africa by 2030, including a $2 billion renewable energy project in Rwanda and $400 million for clean cooking initiatives in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Électricité de France (EDF) also announced plans for a 2-gigawatt hydropower project. The firm has invested in major hydropower and renewable projects across Africa, including the 1.5-gigawatt Mphanda Nkuwa project in Mozambique alongside TotalEnergies. It also has projects in Cameroon and Malawi.

Global Telecom committed $350 million toward the construction of a 250-megawatt solar plant in Zambia, while Meridian said it would invest $200 million to double the capacity of Kenya’s Kipeto wind power project to 200 megawatts.

African governments are increasingly seeking renewable energy financing as the continent works to expand electricity access to millions of people while avoiding the high-carbon development pathways followed by many industrialized nations.

At the end of the summit, African leaders pledged to promote green industrialization through investment in renewable or clean energy. They also called for additional investments.

Analysts say the latest announcements reflect growing competition among global powers and multinational corporations seeking influence in Africa’s emerging green economy, where vast solar, wind and hydropower potential remains largely untapped.

By Allan Olingo, Associated Press

Banner Image: A solar installation in Mali. Image ©Curt Carnemark/World Bank via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

The sawfish, recognizable by its distinctive saw-shaped snout or rostrum, is now thought to be “functionally extinct” in Sri Lankan waters. This, researchers say, means that while a few individuals may still exist, their numbers are likely too low to maintain a viable breeding population, reports contributor Malaka Rodrigo for Mongabay.

In a 2021 study, researchers from the Colombo-based nonprofit Blue Resources Trust (BRT), interviewed 300 fishers across 21 harbors to assess the status of the species. The results showed a stark generational gap.

While fishers over the age of 50 remembered sawfish as once abundant, none of the fishers under the age of 30 could even identify the animal from photographs, Akshay Tanna with the BRT told Mongabay. He added that roughly half of the older fishers who had seen one had not encountered a sawfish since 1992.

The last confirmed record of a sawfish in Sri Lanka, the researchers found, was a chance encounter in 2017 off the eastern coast, when a fisher had photographed the animal and framed its picture.

Marine biologist and study co-author Sahan Thilakaratna said three of five species of sawfish have historically been recorded in Sri Lankan waters: the narrow sawfish (Anoxypristis cuspidata), the largetooth sawfish (Pristis pristis) and the green sawfish (P. zijsron). All are currently listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List. Globally, their decline is driven by overfishing, habitat loss and bycatch. The sawfish’s rostrum, which it uses as a sensory organ and weapon to hunt, easily becomes entangled in fishing nets, making them highly vulnerable to accidental capture.

Recovery for these rays is particularly challenging due to their biology: they grow slowly, mature late, and produce few offspring, said Rima Jabado, chair of the Shark Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. However, researchers say there’s a ray of hope.

Thilakaratna recorded a fisher who had caught a juvenile sawfish in brackish waters in Balapitiya in southern Sri Lanka nearly a decade ago, suggesting that refuges for the species might still exist. “Sawfish do use brackish habitats as breeding and nursery grounds, and these environments are critical for their survival,” he said.

Thilakaratna also found cultural records that suggest there’s potential for community-based conservation actions for the sawfish. He visited churches in coastal fishing communities where he saw preserved sawfish rostra presented as offerings. “Fishers offer the sawfish rostra to churches as acts of gratitude or for protection at sea,” he said.

To prevent the sawfish’s local extinction, Jabado called for coordinated conservation efforts, including protecting key estuarine habitats, incentivizing fishers to release bycatch, and strengthening science-based policies. She added these measures could also support the recovery of sawfishes and other threatened rays such as guitarfishes and wedgefishes.

Read the full story by Malaka Rodrigo here.

Banner image of a largetooth sawfish at the Georgia Aquarium. Image by David Iliff via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

The destruction of coastal wetlands for illegal tin mining and oil palm plantations is to blame for a surge in crocodile attacks on people on Indonesia’s Bangka Island, residents say.

Mongabay Indonesia contributor Taufik Wijaya reported that in February this year, a 40-year-old fisherman was killed by a saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) in the Menduk River. He was possibly the 21st victim of a crocodile attack in the last five years on Bangka Island, according to local wildlife charity the Alobi Foundation. The attacks have also resulted in 12 crocodiles being killed and dozens of humans and crocs injured during the same period.

People have lived in the wetlands of the Menduk River estuary since the 7th century, but the recent rise in crocodile attacks has been attributed to the region’s changing landscape.

Approximately 1,000 hectares (around 2,500 acres) of oil palm plantations and 250 illegal tin mining sites have taken over the Menduk wetlands, according to Suhadi, a resident of Menduk village and the manager of a community group established by Indonesia’s largest environmental NGO, Walhi.

Bangka and neighboring Belitung Island were once responsible for more than a quarter of global tin production. Much of the environmental degradation is a legacy of that tin mining, researchers say, including possible illegal mining that became the focus of a massive recent corruption scandal.

As the wetlands are destroyed, crocodiles are forced to migrate to new territories, leading to increased aggression and territorial disputes, said Endi R. Yusuf, manager of the Alobi Foundation’s animal rescue center.

Residents say they’re increasingly fearful of entering the water to fish or farm, and fish stocks are declining as wetlands degrade.

Over time, climate change may also affect crocodiles, as warmer temperatures may raise their metabolism and increase human water use, further compounding the risk of encounters, researchers noted in a 2023 study.

With the Alobi Foundation’s animal sanctuary on Bangka currently at capacity, Endi said protecting habitats is crucial. “A conservation area is really needed in the Bangka-Belitung islands to accommodate [saltwater] crocodiles,” he said, adding that the charity had identified intact wetlands in Central Bangka district where such a zone could be created.

Jessix Amundian, director of the nonprofit Tumbek for Earth, noted that creating a conservation area for saltwater crocodiles isn’t enough. He said the condition of the island’s rivers, swamps and mangroves needs to be restored.

Suhadi told Mongabay Indonesia that the root of the conflict must be addressed first. “If we want to stop the conflict, we must stop destroying wetlands,” he said.

Read the full story by Taufik Wijaya here.

Banner image: A captive crocodile at the Alobi Foundation’s wildlife rescue center in January 2026. Image by Nopri Ismi/Mongabay Indonesia.

Agriculture is the biggest driver of peatland loss in Indonesia, Peru and the Democratic Republic of Congo, home to the largest expanses of tropical peatlands in the world, a recent study has found.

Peatlands are crucial in the fight against climate change: They cover less than 3% of the world’s landmass, but sequester more carbon than any other terrestrial ecosystem. Yet, the boggy wetlands are being deforested and drained at unsustainable rates, releasing climate-warming greenhouse gases. However, scientists have lacked a clear understanding of the emissions associated with the different drivers of recent tropical peatland degradation.

In the new study, researchers analyzed satellite imagery from 2020-2021 to determine what’s driving peatland conversion in Indonesia, Peru and the DRC, and to quantify the greenhouse gas emissions associated with it.

Logging emerged as a key driver of tropical peatland loss in all three countries. Mining and road development were major factors in Indonesia and Peru. However, agriculture was by far the biggest driver across all three regions, the study found.

In Indonesia, where large-scale agriculture was the leading source of emissions, agriculture overall accounted for 67% of peatland conversion. In Peru, smallholder agriculture was most responsible, for the 61% of agricultural conversion. In the DRC, smallholder agriculture alone accounted for 93% of peatland conversion and 94% of emissions, with no significant role by large-scale agriculture.

Tropical peatlands are often cleared by burning, which the study found accounted for roughly half the total greenhouse gas emissions of the conversion. “Fire emits a very high amount of greenhouse gases over a very short period of time,” lead author Karimon Nesha, from Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands, told Mongabay in a video call. That’s because fire quickly releases the carbon stored in both vegetation and soil.

The study found that the initial emissions in 2020 from fires used to clear peatlands was 19-20 times higher than the emissions from decaying peat the following year. However, scientists know that peat continues to decompose for decades and can eventually release roughly the same amount of emissions as the initial period of peatland draining, clearing and burning.

Overall, researchers found the highest greenhouse gas emissions in the DRC, home to the largest tropical peatland in the world, the Cuvette Centrale. However, Shona Jenkins, a research fellow at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, who wasn’t involved in the study, questioned part of the methodology quantifying the emissions.

She said the peatland map the researchers used may overestimate peatland depth in the DRC, meaning emissions there “could be vastly overestimated.”

While some uncertainty may remain around emissions estimates, Nesha said the path to reducing peatland emissions is clear: Don’t use fire, which generates the most short-term emissions, and “rewet” drained peatlands; cover them with water to stop the decomposition that results in long-term emissions.

Banner image: Aerial view of a peatland forest in the DRC. Image © Daniel Beltrá/Greenpeace.