Bob Weir, who died on January 10th, was best known as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. For decades he was also an unusually persistent environmental advocate, one who treated land, forests, and climate not as metaphors but as material systems under pressure. His activism ran alongside his music for most of his adult life and often demanded more from him than the comfortable alignment of celebrity and cause.

Weir’s environmental engagement sharpened in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the destruction of tropical rainforests and old-growth forests entered public debate with new urgency. In 1988, the Grateful Dead helped convene a press conference at the United Nations to draw attention to rainforest loss, working with Greenpeace, the Rainforest Action Network (he would later become an honorary member of the board of directors), and Cultural Survival. Weir spoke plainly about the issue. It was, he said, “not really an aesthetic issue,” but one of survival. Forest loss, he argued, was already reshaping climate and weather systems, whether people lived near rainforests or not.

In 1992, his concern became more pointed. While on tour, Weir wrote an op-ed for The New York Times opposing a bill that would have opened millions of acres of Montana national forest to logging, mining, and road-building. He called it a public land giveaway and challenged claims that industrial logging protected jobs. “Two or three guys can clear-cut a forest in a day,” he said later, describing a system that stripped land quickly while leaving communities poorer. He followed the article with lobbying visits to Capitol Hill and a live appearance on CNN, enduring personal attacks from lawmakers who dismissed him as an interloper.

Weir’s advocacy rarely stayed abstract. He supported efforts to curb illegal logging through backing of the Lacey Act and signed statements warning that rainforest destruction endangered ecosystems, livelihoods, and climate stability. He argued that financial institutions and consumer markets were as implicated as chainsaws, and that pressure had to be applied where money moved.

In 2017, Weir was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme. In that role, he spoke about climate change, renewable energy, deforestation, and the use of technology to mobilize public action. “Together we can help keep our planet healthy and prosperous for future generations,” he said at his appointment, framing environmental protection as a practical obligation rather than a moral abstraction.

Weir often resisted the idea that musicians should lead political movements. Power made him wary. Yet he accepted that visibility carried responsibility. If music could gather people, it could also direct attention. That, for him, was reason enough to act.

Header image: Bob Weir, from his web site.

The birth of twin mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is raising hopes for the survival of one of the world’s most threatened great apes. 

 “For me, it is a huge sign of hope and a great way to start the new year,” Katie Fawcett,      science director with the DRC-based Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center (GRACE) told Mongabay in a phone call.

 The twins were delivered by a mother gorilla named Mafuko and were discovered Jan. 3 in Virunga National Park, in the DRC. The two newborns are male. Both appeared to be in healthy condition, the park team shared in a press release.

 “It is very rare. Since I was born, I think it has happened fewer than 10 times. It is a very great and unusual event,” Fawcett said. In 2025 GRACE successfully rewilded three gorillas in Virunga National Park.

 Mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) are found only in the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda where they live almost entirely in the national parks of East Africa’s Virunga Mountains. Mountain gorillas are one of two subspecies of eastern gorillas (G. beringei). They are considered endangered, while eastern gorillas as a whole are critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).    

 Virunga park authorities are celebrating the twin birth as a success from “ongoing conservation efforts to support the continued growth of the endangered mountain gorilla population,” the park said in a statement to Mongabay.

 However, caring for the twins remains a challenge for their mom and for park staff. Mafuko gave birth to another set of twins in 2016 but they died at just a week old. “Additional monitoring and protection measures will be deployed to closely observe the twins and support their health and survival during this critical early period,” the park said in a statement to Mongabay.

Monitoring efforts are further complicated by ongoing security challenges in the park since the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda. Mafuko lost her mother to armed individuals in 2007, according to the park. That same year, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) recorded 10 mountain gorilla deaths. According to UNEP, one of the main drivers behind these killings was demand for charcoal. Armed groups use the park’s quality trees to produce charcoal, leading to habitat loss and gorillas caught in the crossfire of armed conflict.

The security situation deteriorated further with the resurgence of the M23 armed rebel movement, which now controls a large portion of the park. Escalating conflict between M23, DRC armed forces, militias and local self-defense groups has fueled poaching, deforestation, habitat loss and illegal trafficking. Still, park authorities, supported by local communities, continue their work to protect and support mountain gorillas in Virunga.

 Banner image: Mafuko holding her two newborns. Additional monitoring and protection measures will be deployed to make sure they survive, according to the park. Image courtesy of Virunga National Park.

An international minerals treaty proposed by Colombia and Oman at the seventh United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-7) encountered resistance from several member states, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran, Chile and Uganda. The initiative ultimately emerged as a nonbinding resolution after days of negotiations.

The proposal was debated at UNEA-7 in Nairobi, Kenya, Dec. 8-12. Colombia and Oman pushed for binding and nonbinding measures to address the social and environmental impacts of mining and the recovery of resources from mining waste. Their proposal was rejected by a broad group of states in favor of a nonbinding resolution to enhance international dialogue and cooperation on mineral governance as well as resource recovery from mining waste and tailings.

“As mineral demand surges due to the energy transition and digitalization, the resolution represents a step toward better protections for ecosystems and communities,” Charlotte Boyer, a consultant at the Natural Resource Governance Institute, told Mongabay over email. “However, many countries and observers called for stronger language to move beyond dialogue toward policymaking.”

“In particular, the resolution stops short of committing to explore international binding standards leaving a gap between the scale of impacts on the ground and the ambition of the global response,” she added.

Tommi Kauppila is a research professor for the Geological Survey of Finland, which provided Finland’s Ministry of Environment with expert support on the minerals resolution at UNEA-7. He told Mongabay that Colombia and Oman originally submitted separate proposals in which Colombia pushed for a legally binding international instrument to address the social and environmental impacts of mining for minerals and metals, while Oman focused on the circular economy of minerals. The two approaches were eventually combined in a single proposal.

Imran Shaikh is the managing director of Green Tech Mining & Services, which advised Oman’s Ministry of Energy and Minerals and its Environment Authority. Shaikh told Mongabay over email that “Oman sees the resolution not as an endpoint, but as a platform. There is confidence that through continued engagement with UNEP [the U.N. Environment Programme] and member states, the dialogue can evolve into clearer guidance, shared principles, and eventually stronger international norms, grounded in real-world implementation rather than abstract commitments.”

He said Oman plans to submit a “version 2.0” resolution at UNEA-8 in 2027.

Banner image: Refined tellurium, a rare mineral used in solar panels that was once discarded along with the other mine tailings, is shown at the Rio Tinto Kennecott refinery in Magna, Utah. Image by AP Photo/Rick Bowmer.

The world’s largest buyers of Brazilian soy have announced a plan to exit from a landmark antideforestation agreement, the Amazon Soy Moratorium. The voluntary agreement between soy agribusinesses and industry associations prevented most soy linked to deforestation from entering global supply chains for nearly two decades.

The decision was communicated on Dec. 25, just before a new state tax law in Mato Grosso, Brazil’s biggest soy-producing state, went into effect on January 1^st. The law eliminates tax breaks and access to public land for any companies that were signatories to the moratorium.

The Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries, known as ABIOVE, notified civil society groups that it would withdrawing from the voluntary pact, which is expected to take 30 days to go into effect.

“It is a setback that practically pushes us back 15 to 20 years,” Mauricio Voivodic, executive director at WWF-Brasil, told Mongabay by phone.

ABIOVE’s logo, along with those of multinational grain traders it represents, has already been removed from the moratorium’s official website. The companies including Cargill, ADM, Bunge, Louis Dreyfus Company and COFCO International are among the biggest soy purchasers and traders in the world.

It remains unclear if all companies will permanently leave the agreement.

“ABIOVE’s announcement is the beginning of a withdrawal process, but company participation is voluntary. Some companies may decide to stay and others may decide to leave. We still do not know,” Voivodic added.

The Soy Moratorium blocks the purchase of soy grown on land deforested in the Amazon after July 2008. Between 2009 and 2022, deforestation fell by 69% in municipalities monitored under the moratorium, even as soy planting in the Amazon rose by 344%, according to Greenpeace Brasil. Only 3.4% of soy produced in the biome now falls outside the agreement’s rules.

ABIOVE said that the agreement “fulfilled its historical role” and left an “incontestable legacy” for sustainable soy production in a statement shared with Mongabay. The group also said it expects Brazilian environmental laws to ensure continued forest protection and market access.

Environmental groups including WWF-Brasil and Greenpeace Brasil say withdrawing from the Moratorium will likely result in more deforestation and point out that the Brazilian Supreme Court will still weigh in on the constitutionality of Mato Grosso’s new tax law.

Between August 2024 and July 2025, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon declined by 11%. All states of the Brazilian Amazon registered a decrease in deforestation, except for Mato Grosso, which saw a 25% increase.

“Large multinational companies are prioritizing the maintenance of a state subsidy, using public funds, at the expense of guaranteeing zero deforestation, knowing that this decision will increase deforestation,” Voivodic said.

Banner image: Deforestation in Mato Grosso state. Image © Paulo Pereira/Greenpeace.

In December 2022, nearly 200 nations committed to protecting 30% of Earth’s lands and waters by 2030. As of 2025, about 9.6% of the world’s oceans are now covered by marine protected areas, according to the latest global tracking data by the World Database on Protected Areas. This marks a 1.2% increase in 2025, up from 8.4% coverage in 2024.

There are now 16,608 marine protected areas (MPAs) globally, covering nearly 35 million square kilometers (13.5 million square miles) of the ocean — an area more than twice the size of Russia. However, only 3.2% of these areas are considered highly or fully protected, according to the Marine Conservation Institute’s MPAtlas. This raises concerns about areas that are protected on paper only, including ones that allow bottom trawling and other highly destructive activities.

Mongabay chronicled some of the progress made toward protecting the oceans in 2025:

French Polynesia announces world’s largest marine protected area

In June, French Polynesia (Mā’ohi Nui), an autonomous territory in the Pacific that’s a part of the French Republic, announced it would protect the territory’s entire exclusive economic zone, amounting to 4.8 million km2 (1.9 million mi2) of its waters. Of this, more than 1 million km2 (nearly 420,000 mi2) is set to be highly and fully protected, where no extractive fishing or mining is allowed. The announcement has not yet been written into law.

Coral hotspot off Philippines’ Panaon Island

In August, the Philippines created the Panaon Island Protected Seascape, protecting 612 km2 (236 mi2) within the Pacific Coral Triangle. The region is home to more marine species than anywhere else in the world, endangered whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) and endangered Philippine ducks (Anas luzonica).

Pakistan declares a third marine protected area

In September, Pakistan declared a marine protected area around Miani Hor Lagoon, a biodiversity hotspot on the country’s central coast. The measure protects mangrove forests and bird and marine mammal species, such as Dalmatian pelicans (Pelecanus crispus) and endangered Indian Ocean humpback dolphins (Sousa plumbea). Measuring nearly 43 km2 (16.5 mi2), the area protected isn’t large but holds high biodiversity value.

Samoa protects 30% of its ocean

In May, the Pacific island nation of Samoa created nine new marine protected areas covering 30% of its ocean. The area, spanning 35,936 km2 (13,875 mi2) of biodiversity-rich deep trenches and seamounts, is home to critically endangered hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) and an endemic fish, Taei’s dwarfgoby (Eviota taeiae), found only on Samoan reefs. 

Marshall Islands protects ‘pristine’ Pacific corals

In January, another Pacific nation, the Marshall Islands, announced it would protect one of Earth’s most pristine coral reefs with a 48,000-km2 (18,500-mi2) marine sanctuary. The sanctuary surrounds two uninhabited atolls, Bikar and Bokak, located in the remote northernmost part of the island nation. The region has the highest reef fish biomass in the Pacific Ocean. 

Banner image: A Samoan coral reef from the air. Image courtesy of Andy Estep.

When a 2018 fire burned across 73,000 hectares (180,000 acres) of the Santana Indigenous Territory, located in Brazil’s Cerrado savanna, the local Bakairi people waited helplessly for authorities who came far too late.

That devastating experience was a turning point. The community mobilized to create a volunteer fire brigade, largely composed of Indigenous women, Mariana Rosetti and Paola Churchill reported for Mongabay in October.

“It’s not just young girls,” Edna Rodrigues Bakairi, a local educator and member of the brigade, told Mongabay. “There are women aged 40, 45, 50 who can fight the fires. They come from all age groups, and they all act with courage.”

Of the 45 trained volunteers, 25 are women ranging from teenagers to grandmothers. They were trained by Paulo Selva, a retired colonel from the Mato Grosso state fire department who recognized the urgent need to empower Indigenous communities to defend their territories from the growing threat of wildfire.

“The fire department only addresses issues related to fires that occur within its areas of operation, but more than 45% of forest fires occur outside of that legal condition,” Selva said.

To help fill that gap, Selva created the nonprofit Environmental Operations Group Institute.  With the organization, he travels to Indigenous communities across the region to offer trainings on firefighting and prevention, first aid and survival skills.

During a visit to the Santana Indigenous village in 2021, Selva found that women were an obvious choice for the role. They tend to spend more time in the community, caring for children and homes, while men migrate to work on nearby farms. During the 2018 fire, it was largely women who remained behind and watched their community burn, unable to respond. That experience left an impression and a determination to be better prepared next time.

Fire risk across Brazil is growing. In 2024, nearly 10 million hectares (24.7 million acres) of Cerrado land burned; roughly 85% of it was covered with native vegetation. Indigenous territories in the Cerrado are particularly vulnerable; over much of 2024, the total area of burned Indigenous land increased by 105%. Local experts note that most of those fires start outside indigenous territory from deforestation and burning for farm expansion. When native vegetation burns, Indigenous communities lose their food, medicine and habitat for the animals they hunt.

Since the women-led brigade formed roughly six years ago, there haven’t been any significant fires in their territory, even as other parts of the Cerrado have burned. The firefighters are all volunteers, not even reimbursed for personal expenses. They do the dangerous work of fighting wildfires, often in sneakers, with just eight donated uniforms among them.

“The Bakairi are stubborn, the Bakairi are insistent, the Bakairi persevere,” Edna Rodrigues Bakairi said.

Read the full story by Mariana Rosetti and Paola Churchill here.

Banner image: Bakairi women firefighters from the Environmental Operations Group, in the Santana Indigenous Territory, Mato Grosso. Image courtesy of Colonel Paulo Selva.