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

He has spent much of his life in the shadow of the Dauphiné Alps in southeastern France, where limestone cliffs catch the morning light and the silhouettes of horned ibex move across the ridgelines. To Fabien Quétier, who helps steer Rewilding Europe’s newest and largest French project, these animals and their battered landscape are reminders of what had slipped away — and what might return, if given a chance, reports contributor Marlowe Starling for Mongabay.

Rewilding was a young idea when Quétier began working on it, more theory than practice. In the 1990s, it sounded utopian: let nature repair itself by restoring the species that once shaped it. But in the past decade, the notion took on urgency. Forests were collapsing under heat, rivers ran dry in late summer, and even here, in this quiet corner of the western Alps, droughts and fires arrived with unsettling regularity.

A “fixed approach to nature doesn’t really work anymore,” Quétier tells Starling. Rewilding, he believes, offers something sturdier than nostalgia.

Quétier admires the region’s stubbornness. Roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and marmots (Marmota marmota) crept back in the mid-20th century, drawing in wolves (Canis lupus) and Eurasian beavers (Castor fiber) that crossed from Italy. Friends who share Quétier’s faith nominated the area as France’s first rewilding site in 2019.

It wasn’t starting from nothing, says Olivier Raynaud, director of the subgroup Rewilding France and Quétier’s colleague. The land had been quietly healing itself for decades, he adds.

Still, Quétier and Raynaud know the work requires more than biology. It means earning the trust of landowners, persuading farmers wary of wolves, explaining to skeptical villagers why vultures matter. It means accepting that some species like Eurasian brown bears (Ursus arctos arctos) cannot yet return.

Quétier understands the fragility of the enterprise. Climate projections point to hotter, harsher decades ahead. Forests might falter. Rivers might shrink. Yet he insists the only real gamble is doing nothing.

“People are looking for new ideas,” he says. Rewilding, in his mind, is not a cure. It is simply a way of giving life a fighting chance.

Read the full story by Marlowe Starling here.

Banner image: Two male ibex in front of Mont Aiguille in the Dauphiné Alps, France. Image © Luca Melcarne.

A Kenyan environmentalist hugged a palm tree for 72 straight hours in Nyeri county to draw attention to the rapid loss of the country’s native forests, many of which face extinction.

Truphena Muthoni’s feat, reported by Mongabay contributing editor Lynet Otieno, is in the process of being considered for a new Guinness World Record. It surpassed the previous longest tree hug, also held by Muthoni, by more than 24 hours. She didn’t eat or sleep for the duration of the hug.

Muthoni began her embrace of a royal palm (Roystonea regia) tree on Dec. 8 and ended the 72-hour feat around midday on Dec. 11, cheered on by crowds that included the Nyeri county governor, Mutahi Kahiga, as well as an online audience of hundreds of thousands.

“I want to inspire people to fall in love with nature and treat it with care,” Muthoni told Kenyan newspaper Daily Nation. “Conservation begins with love. Nowadays, there are many tree-planting initiatives, but people often replace Indigenous forests with saplings, believing it is mitigation, yet it is not. We must first protect what we already have.”

According to the latest State of the World’s Trees assessment, Kenya is home to 1,131 tree species, but more than 13% are threatened with extinction due to deforestation, climate change and urbanization. The royal palm that Muthoni hugged isn’t native to Kenya; it comes from the American tropics.

Of Kenya’s 49 endemic tree species on record, most are under some level of threat. Nineteen are endangered and another eight are listed as critically endangered.

The endemic and endangered Meru oak (Vitex keniensis), for example,  is one of the nation’s largest trees, growing to a height of 35 meters (115 feet). It’s found in a handful of locations, including on Mount Kenya, close to where the tree hug took place.

Pandanus kajui, another endemic tree, is important for stabilizing riverbanks in wetland ecosystems. It has also been classified as endangered and is found in only five locations in Kenya.

On Dec. 15, Kenyan President William Ruto appointed Muthoni as the ambassador for the nation’s campaign to plant 15 billion trees, increasing Kenya’s total area of tree cover from 12% to 30% by 2032.

“This is profound,” Ruto said during a conversation with Muthoni. “I am sure this will have a big impact, that people will think about trees much more positively.”

On Dec. 17, Muthoni was also awarded a full scholarship to Mount Kenya University.

Read the story by Lynet Otieno here. 

Banner image: Truphena Muthoni hugging a tree for 72 consecutive hours. Image by Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga via X.

Researchers have described a new-to-science species of carnivorous plant that’s known from only three locations on the Philippines’ Palawan Island. The newly described pitcher plant, which grows on very difficult-to-access vertical limestone walls, may already be critically endangered given its extremely restricted range and tiny population, the researchers say in a recent study.

Nepenthes is a group of tropical carnivorous plants found in South and Southeast Asia, Madagascar, and parts of Australia. Their leaves are modified into specialized pitchers that function as slippery, passive traps: small prey like insects fall into a fluid at the base of the trap, where enzymes liquidize them for the plant to consume.

Researchers have named the newly described species Nepenthes megastoma, its species name meaning “large mouth,” referring to the pitcher’s large opening.

Ecologists first spotted a few individuals of the plant with binoculars in 2013. The plants were hanging off the vertical face of a limestone cliff within the Mount Saint Paul karst formation of Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park (PPSRNP) on Palawan island. At the time, they thought these were specimens of N. campanulata, a pitcher plant native to Borneo.

However, thanks to a local nature guide, researchers were made aware of another, more-accessible location where the same pitcher plant seemed to be growing. A few expeditions and drone surveys later, the researchers were able to study the plant’s morphology and ecology, eventually confirming that the species was new to science.

So far,  N. megastoma is only known from three locations within PPSRNP, where it grows on steep cliff walls. The scientists could access only two of these locations, they write. In those locations, they estimated there were about 25 individual plants.

While the researchers say they can’t rule out the presence of additional populations of N. megastoma, they suggest categorizing the species as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List, given its limited distribution and small population.

The species’ small area of occurrence also puts it at risk from sudden events like fire or typhoons, the authors write. The clearing of forest for agriculture and development around PPSRNP poses another risk.

“It’s amazing that these plants have evolved to survive in such difficult and inaccessible conditions,” John Charles Altomonte, study co-author from the nonprofit Philippine Taxonomic Initiative, said in a statement. “And yet, despite their hardiness, their existence is threatened by human activity — directly by way of encroachment and poaching, and indirectly through the effects of anthropogenic climate change.”

Banner image: Photos of Nepenthes megastoma, a newly described critically endangered species endemic to Palawan in the Philippines, showing its lower pitcher (a) and two distinct variant forms of its upper pitcher (b-c). Image courtesy of Altomonte et al., 2025 (CC BY-NC-ND)

Authorities in Cape Town, South Africa, have released an updated baboon action plan aimed at reducing conflict between people and baboons, which regularly enter urban areas in search of food. The plan, which includes euthanasia of some baboons, has drawn criticism from animal welfare groups.

The plan says the population of chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) in the Cape Peninsula has increased from 360 in 2000 to more than 600 in 2024, leading to increased conflict with humans.

To address these, the plan calls for nonlethal measures such as erecting baboon-proof fences that trained rangers will monitor and maintain. Baboons that breach the northern fence will be humanely euthanized, the plan says.

The plan also notes that certain troops will be captured and relocated to the mountain side of the northern fence. However, it adds “the likelihood of success is very low” due to limited suitable habitat. If baboons return to the urban side of the fence, they may be euthanized.

Another troop will be relocated to a 1.5-hectare (3.7-acre) baboon sanctuary where males will undergo a vasectomy. If the first enclosure proves successful, two more will be built; if it fails due to animal welfare concerns or lack of funding, the animals will be euthanized, the plan says.

The plan also sets upper limits for baboon populations: 250 for the northern subpopulation and 175 for the southern one. If the limits are exceeded for more than six months, “animals will be humanely euthanized” starting with the old, sick and injured.

Local NGOs, including Green Group Simonstown (GGST), say the plan prioritizes lethal control over addressing the root of the conflict. GGST advocates for more baboon-proof garbage bins to remove the food attracting baboons to residential areas to begin with. “The solution is not magic: deploy bins immediately … stop substituting lethal control for basic municipal service delivery,” GGST representatives told Mongabay by email.

A previous study found that baboon-proofing bins and homes successfully reduces conflict. Baboons still visited the study area, but instead of raiding garbage bins, “they spend the majority of their time peacefully foraging in the abundant fynbos vegetation on resident properties.”

Mongabay contacted eight authorities seeking clarification on the delayed rollout of bins. The only response we received was from a representative with the Cape Peninsula Baboon Management Joint Task Team (CPBMJTT), which created the action plan. The statement says a “rollout of residential baboon-proof bins in high-impact areas” will be done by May 2026. CPBMJTT consists of representatives from SANParks, the government agency that manages South Africa’s national parks; CapeNature, the government entity responsible for managing natural areas in South Africa’s Western Cape Province; and the City of Cape Town.

Part of the baboon’s range in the Cape peninsula overlaps with a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A UNESCO spokesperson confirmed to Mongabay that they received the updated plan on Dec. 18 and are reviewing it with the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority.

“This review will form the basis for any recommendations or supportive measures deemed necessary to ensure the long-term conservation of” the UNESCO site, the spokesperson said.

Banner image: Baboons near Cape Town. Image courtesy of Green Group Simonstown.

In a small stretch of the Atlantic Forest in southern Brazil lives a bright-orange species of frog that’s new to science, researchers report in a recent study. The miniature amphibian measures just over a centimeter long, less than half an inch, or the length of an average fingernail.

The team has named the toadlet Brachycephalus lulai, in honor of Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The genus Brachycephalus, also called flea toads or saddleback toads, are all tiny and live among leaf litter in Brazil’s Atlantic rainforest. Of the 42 known species, 35 have been described since 2000.

Individuals of the latest species to be described, B. lulai, were found hidden in the leaf litter of the montane Atlantic Forest at two nearby sites on the southeastern slopes of Serra do Quiriri in the state of Santa Catarina, southern Brazil.

The researchers collected 32 individuals and compared different features of the frogs, including their DNA and vocalizations, with those of other Brachycephalus species. Their analysis showed that it was indeed a new-to-science species.

B. lulai has a bright-orange body dotted with tiny green and brown spots. Males measure just 8.9-11.3 millimeters (0.35-0.44 inches) in length, while females are slightly larger at 11.7-13.4 mm (0.46-0.53 inches). The males produce a very distinct call to attract females that’s unique to the species, the researchers found.

Currently, the sites where B. lulai was found appear to be intact, without any significant threats. As such, the researchers suggest the species be categorized as least concern under the IUCN Red List classification.

“The new species occurs in highly preserved forests that are very difficult to access, which means it is not threatened with extinction,” Marcos R. Bornschein, study co-author from the Institute of Biosciences at São Paulo State University, told Popular Science. “It is one of the few Brachycephalus species that are not threatened, which is very reassuring for us.”

However, “it is essential to continue systematically monitoring this scenario,” the researchers write. This is because the broader Serra do Quiriri range — which includes threatened frog species like B. quiririensis, B. auroguttatus, and Melanophryniscus biancae — faces impacts from regular burning of grasslands, cattle grazing, mining, invasion of pine trees, and development for tourism.

Banner image: The newly described Brachycephalus lulai. Image courtesy of Luiz Fernando Ribeiro.

In the rangelands beneath Kilimanjaro, coexistence between people and wildlife has never been a simple matter. Livestock wander into the paths of lions. Farmers lose cattle they can scarcely afford to lose. Retaliation follows, and with it the slow unraveling of ecosystems that depend on predators to stay whole. Local conservation groups have long understood that progress depends not on fences or warnings, but on trust. And trust depends on people who can speak across the fault lines of culture, history and daily survival.

One such figure held that space with unusual steadiness. Daniel Ole Sambu, who died earlier in December at age 51, spent years trying to keep the peace in a landscape where peace was fragile. As the program coordinator for the Predator Compensation Fund run by the Big Life Foundation, he helped design and manage a bargain that only works when everyone believes in it. If a family lost livestock to a predator, they would be compensated. In return, they would not kill the animal. It sounds simple. In practice, it required patient negotiation, long days in homesteads and constant reminders that the health of the ecosystem and the well-being of pastoralists were inseparable.

His influence came not from authority but from the confidence of someone rooted in the place he served. He grew up in the broad Amboseli ecosystem and never forgot what it meant to live with wildlife close at hand.

His work extended well beyond compensation forms and field visits. He spent years strengthening ranger welfare across Kenya, eventually becoming the interim chair of the  Wildlife Conservancy Rangers Association. That role suited him. Rangers trusted him. He understood the risks they faced and pushed for better conditions without posturing. It mattered to him that rangers felt seen, supported and connected to one another. Conservation, he liked to say, was carried on human shoulders.

He had a way of explaining difficult ideas with clarity and without judgment, his friends said. On school visits abroad, children sometimes asked awkward questions. He answered them with humor and candor. When discussing changes within Maasai culture, he once remarked, “If the Maasai are able to change parts of their culture for a good cause, like protecting lions, then maybe it’s also possible for [others] to change parts of their culture.” That line captured something essential about him: a belief that change was possible, and that moral responsibility belonged to everyone.

His death has been felt deeply by the communities and institutions he served. Yet the approach he championed remains in place. Many of the practices he helped shape continue, as communities meet and work through difficult questions in their own ways. That persistence is its own kind of tribute. It suggests that the fragile balance he spent years tending may hold, not because he is gone, but because he convinced others it was worth protecting.

Banner image: of Daniel Ole Sambu courtesy of Big Life Foundation