LILONGWE — Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera has granted a presidential pardon to Lin Yunhua, a Chinese national sentenced to 14 years in prison for wildlife trafficking. Lin was among 37 inmates who received a presidential pardon as part of Malawi’s 61st independence anniversary celebrations on July 6. Conservationists have since expressed their disappointment, warning that Lin’s pardon might demotivate frontline officers working to protect Malawi’s wildlife.

“The news came as a shock to some of us,” Brighton Kumchedwa, director of Malawi’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife, told Mongabay by phone. “For us in the conservation sector, we didn’t expect a high-profile wildlife criminal of his caliber to be set free like that.”

While authorities have not published the pardon list, news of Lin’s impending pardon started spreading as early as April this year. Authorities at the time described the possibility as speculation, but more recently British newspaper The Telegraph reported that prison officials familiar with the pardon list confirmed that both Lin and his wife, Qin Hua Zhang, were included.

Malawian authorities arrested Lin, Zhang and 12 other members of a notorious wildlife crime syndicate that operated across Southern Africa, in 2019. At the time, Lin and Zhang were found in possession of elephant tusks, hippopotamus teeth, pangolin scales and rhino horns, and their arrest was welcomed by local and international civil society, some describing it as “the destruction of the Lin-Zhang gang.” Zhang was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2020; Lin received a 14-year sentence in 2021.

Wildlife and environmental campaigners say pardoning the pair sets a bad precedent for the country’s efforts to combat wildlife crimes, undermining public trust in the justice system.

“We are alarmed by the release of a major wildlife trafficker,” Patricio Ndadzela, country director for Malawi and Zambia at the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), said in a statement. “This sends the wrong signal to criminal networks and could seriously impact morale among those on the frontlines of conservation.”

While Zhang has reportedly left the country, Lin remains remanded on charges of bribing a prison official and a judge, offenses he allegedly committed while incarcerated.

Officials said the presidential pardons were awarded in accordance with Malawian laws. In a statement, secretary for homeland security, Steve Kayuni, said the pardons were limited to prisoners who had demonstrated good conduct and met the prescribed guidelines, and that the president’s decision was a “selective exercise” of clemency.

Moses Chabuka, executive director of the NGO Neno Active Youth in Development (NAYODE), told Mongabay by phone that Lin and Zhang’s pardons may have been a diplomatic concession to China.

“From an international relations perspective, the move may reflect Malawi’s desire to strengthen its diplomatic ties with China, which has been a significant investor in various sectors within the country,” Chabuka said.

Banner image: Yunhua Lin, left, at the court in Malawi in 2021. Image courtesy of Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).

The coffee industry faces many problems, from being the sixth-largest driver of deforestation worldwide to being rife with human rights abuses, including slavery and child labor. But coffee can be made sustainable and ethical, Etelle Higonnet, founder of the NGO Coffee Watch, said in an episode of Mongabay Newscast in June.

“To the best of my knowledge, there are literally millions of kids working in coffee, and if you have been drinking coffee your whole life, like me, you have been drinking child labor, slavery, and deforestation. You have been putting it into your body. So, we have got to change this,” Higonnet told host Mike DiGirolamo.

“[T]he good news is the solutions are here. They are simple. They’re already being executed by some of the world’s best coffee companies who have not gone bankrupt. In fact, they’re doing super well,” she added.

Higonnet said child labor is so prevalent that studies show 91% of Ethiopian, 74% of Colombian and 64% of Honduran coffee farming families use child workers.

More than 100 million people rely on the coffee industry for income, but most coffee farmers earn less than $2.15 a day. “Most of those farm workers are extraordinarily poor and mistreated,” she said.

While coffee farmers and workers get pennies, the commodity itself is currently seeing sky-high prices, which Higonnet said is linked to deforestation. “And when you have really high prices it prompts people to want to plant more coffee and then you have more deforestation. So actually it’s like a downward spiral of evil,” she said.

Higonnet said she believes the key to sustainable coffee is regenerative agroforestry, where coffee plants are grown in the shade of trees, which is how coffee was cultivated before commercialization.

Policies like the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) are also important, she said, calling it a “beautiful law.” Once implemented, EUDR would prohibit the entry of illegal or deforestation-tainted coffee imports into the EU.

“[T]he EUDR would be amazing if it came into force, it would transform global coffee. Because 26% of coffee goes to the EU,” Higonnet said, adding the law currently faces opposition and lobbying that has spread disinformation.

Complying with the EUDR isn’t as difficult as companies claim, Higonnet added.

“Satellite maps, that’s how you check your deforestation. There are so many service providers just dying to help companies figure out how to go deforestation-free,” she said.

Higonnet encouraged coffee drinkers to support brands that are “great for forests, great for farmers” and to tell their favorite shops to source organic and ethical coffee. She added people can also visit the Coffee Watch website to sign petitions that call for changes in the industry.

Listen to the full podcast episode here.

Banner image of a cup of coffee by shixugang via Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0).

A major new report released July 15^th warns that wetlands, among the world’s most valuable yet most threatened ecosystems, are vanishing faster than any other natural system. However, it also offers a clear and hopeful road map for reversing the trend.

The “Global Wetland Outlook 2025,” published by the Secretariat of the Convention on Wetlands (better known as the Ramsar Convention), reveals that 22% of the world’s wetlands have been lost since 1970 and an additional one-fifth of the world’s remaining wetlands could be at risk by mid-century without urgent action.

Despite covering just 6% of Earth’s surface, wetlands deliver ecosystem services valued at more than 7.5% of global GDP — up to $39 trillion annually — including water purification, carbon storage, coastal protection, and support for food systems and livelihoods.

“Wetlands are fundamental to the water cycle, to our global response to climate change, and to the wellbeing of billions,” said Hugh Robertson, chair of the Ramsar Convention’s Scientific and Technical Review Panel.  

The report highlights the urgent need to shift from damage control to forward-thinking investments. It lays out four transformative pathways: integrating wetlands into national planning; embedding them in climate and biodiversity finance; recognizing their central role in the global hydrological cycle; and mobilizing blended public-private finance to scale up protection and restoration.

Despite their ecological value, wetlands receive less than 9% of all climate finance earmarked for nature-based solutions. “Wetlands remain overlooked in budgets, underrepresented in plans, and underfunded in action,” Musonda Mumba, secretary-general of the Ramsar Convention, said in a press release.

Progress is possible

Despite the bleak trends, the report showcases examples of what’s possible. In Zambia’s Kafue Flats, an initial $300,000 restoration initiative has grown into a $1 million annual investment that sustains biodiversity and the ecosystem services that support roughly 1.3 million people. Meanwhile, the Regional Flyway Initiative, a $3 billion partnership across Asia, is restoring more than 140 wetlands critical to migratory birds and nearly 200 million people.

The report estimates that effective conservation and restoration of 5.5 million square kilometers (2.1 million square miles) of wetlands — an area half the size of Canada — is needed to meet global biodiversity and climate targets. That effort requires a massive increase in funding — far beyond current commitments, which remain at just 0.25% of global GDP.

The release of the report in Nairobi comes ahead of the Ramsar Convention’s COP15 summit, set for July 23-31 in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

Banner image: Aerial view of the Monboyo River and peatland forest of Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Image courtesy of Daniel Beltrá/Greenpeace.

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries.

In the damp undergrowth of Cameroon’s Lobéké National Park, where forest elephants slip through the forest unheard and gorillas emerge with the dusk, one woman charts a course both personal and profound.

Marlyse Bebeguewa was once just a name on the roster of porters, hauling gear for others. Today, she’s at the forefront of conservation in one of Central Africa’s richest but least-accessible protected areas, report Mongabay’s David Akana and Yannick Kenné.

Born in 1987 into a Bantu family, Bebeguewa was raised by her mother after her father died assisting scientists in the forest. Financial hardship forced her to leave school early. But rather than succumb to circumstance, she followed the trail — both literal and metaphorical — blazed by her father.

At 18, she took a job as a porter. A year later, she trained as a guide. By 2014, when Lobéké’s management sought ecological monitoring assistants, she was the only woman selected, and promptly made team leader.

Her rise, achieved without formal education beyond secondary school, reflects the latent capacity often overlooked in local communities. It’s also an implicit rebuke to a conservation model that has historically marginalized Indigenous and local actors, especially women.

Now a consultant with WWF, Bebeguewa uses acoustic sensors and camera traps to track threatened species and detect threats, merging new technology with on-the-ground knowledge. She mentors other women and works to bridge divides between Bantu and Baka communities — relationships that remain fraught in a region marked by deep inequities.

Yet the barriers she confronts are not just cultural or gendered. Lobéké remains chronically underfunded, difficult to reach, and underutilized as a tourism asset.

“We need more communication tools,” Bebeguewa says, referring to the basic radios shared among teams.

Still, Bebeguewa endures. Her work is both an act of remembrance and an investment in the future. She has built a home, educated her children, and dreams of a day when her descendants might take up the same cause.

“Even if I’m no longer working there someday, I hope my children or grandchildren will continue in this field.”

Banner image: Marlyse Bebeguewa hiking in the heart of Lobéké National Park, southeastern Cameroon. Image by Yannick Kenné for Mongabay.

The Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA) continues to prevent villagers from farming or herding cattle in an area marked for expansion of a national park, the U.S.-based Oakland Institute said in a report released July 1. Ruaha National Park is the site of a long-running dispute between roughly 80,000 people who live in the proposed expansion zone and the Tanzanian government, which issued a notice in 2023 that it intended to double the park’s size to 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres).

The World Bank was drawn into this dispute through a now-defunct project meant to boost tourism at regional parks including Ruaha, which attracts fewer visitors than other more famous conservation areas like the Serengeti.

Ruaha is known for its large herds of elephant and buffalo and is home to roughly 10% of Africa’s remaining lion population. At 20,000 square kilometers (7,700 square miles), including the expansion, Ruaha is currently Tanzania’s largest national park.

After two villagers filed a complaint in 2023, an investigation by the World Bank’s inspection panel found that its safeguard policies on resettlement and human rights had not been adequately followed. The bank canceled the project early this year.

The cancellation was followed by a management action plan (MAP) intended to provide redress for villagers affected by the project. Under the plan, $2.8 million will be provided to some of the impacted communities for alternative livelihood projects and development.

“This fund will directly benefit 10,000 vulnerable community members in Mbarali district, Mbeya region, including water user associations, smallholder farmers and livestock keepers,” Nathan Belete, World Bank division director for Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, told Mongabay.

An additional $110 million will be directed to a nationwide climate action project  including communities in the Ruaha expansion zone. The plan also establishes a new grievance mechanism for people living around Ruaha to report human rights abuses by TANAPA’s rangers.

But Oakland Institute director Anuradha Mittal said the plan doesn’t adequately compensate those affected.

“The MAP is a shameful, carelessly patched together plan that fails to respond to the severity of the Inspection Panel’s findings,” Mittal told Mongabay.

According to related documents, bank officials have been assured that no resettlements will happen around Ruaha in the “foreseeable future.”

However, the recent Oakland Institute report says TANAPA rangers continue to prevent villagers in the expansion zone from grazing their cattle. The report also says rangers shot and killed two people since the spring. Police have reportedly taken four rangers into custody after the incidents.

A TANAPA spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

“As one of Tanzania’s largest financers, the bank holds major leverage and undeniable influence over decisions made by the government, especially as they directly relate to bank-funded projects. It must use this power to ensure the government reinstates previous park boundaries and provides adequate compensation and redress to those affected,” Mittal said.

Banner image: Maasai herder in Morogoro, near Ruaha National Park. Image by Shengena Killel/ILRI via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

A new report finds that up to 20% of the world’s wetlands could be lost in the next 25 years.

The “Global Wetland Outlook 2025,” produced under the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty for wetland conservation, uses satellite imagery, peer-reviewed studies, and economic data to create a complete picture of an ecosystem in peril. It also outlines the actions necessary to reverse the trend.

The report was published ahead of the convention’s summit, taking place in Zimbabwe from July 23-31, when delegates from more than 170 countries will gather to address the growing wetland decline.

Since 1970, more than 4 million square kilometers (1.6 million square miles) of 11 types of wetlands — an area larger than India — have been lost, the report finds. That means a 22% decline in the global extent of lakes, peatlands, bogs, marshes, rivers, mangroves, seagrass, kelp forests, coral reefs and tidal flats that once provided crucial ecosystem services, including storm protection, water filtration, carbon sequestration and habitat. Roughly 40% of the world’s plant and animal species rely on wetlands at some point in their lives.

The 14 million km2 (5.5 million mi2) of remaining wetlands provide $8 trillion to $39 trillion in ecosystem services each year, the report notes. However, roughly a quarter are degraded and being destroyed at a rate of 0.52% per year. It’s a global issue, but most pronounced in low-income regions including Latin America, Africa and the Caribbean.

The biggest threats to wetlands include land-use change, pollution, invasive species, and climate change impacts such as drought and flooding.

The report lists several ways to provide financial support for wetland conservation, such as by placing a value on the ecosystem services they provide, innovating financial investments, and a mix of public and private investments.

“The Global Wetland Outlook offers a path forward: urgently scaling up investment in locally led solutions to protect and restore wetlands for people, nature and climate,” Julie Mulonga, director of Wetlands International Eastern Africa, said in an emailed statement.

Estimates suggest that $275 billion to $550 billion will be needed annually to reach conservation goals.  The report notes that protecting existing wetlands is far less expensive than restoring degraded ones.

Despite the higher costs of restoration, several case studies in the report highlight the benefits of restoration. In the U.K., for instance, an assessment found that the restoration of Wicken Fen, a peatland, would deliver far greater value — in terms of ecosystem services such as flood regulation — than the alternative of farming.

“The Global Wetland Outlook is a sobering read, but it does showcase pathways to a brighter future — if we all work together,” Coenraad Krijger, CEO of Wetlands International, said in a statement.

Banner image of sunset in a wetland, by Steve Wall via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).