
Endangered environmentalists
Green groups under threat from governments and corporate actors: As climate change, pollution, and habitat destruction worsen across the globe, environmental groups are responding by ratcheting up the pressure on governments and corporations to act. Many governments have responded by increasing restrictions on environmental NGOs, including revoking charity status, increasing sentences for protestors, and passing legislation restricting NGO activity.


Thailand’s Indigenous Peoples fight for ‘land of our heart’ (commentary)

Brazilian woman threatened by Amazon loggers wins global human rights award

Indonesian fishers opposed to dredging project hit by ‘criminalization’ bid

Life as an Amazon activist: ‘I don’t want to be the next Dorothy Stang’

In Philippines’ Palawan, top cop linked to assault on environmental officer
Global forest reporting network

‘We are invisible’: Brazilian Cerrado quilombos fight for land and lives

Chimps in Sierra Leone adapt to human-impacted habitats, but threats remain

Cocaine blamed for rising deforestation in Peru’s Bahuaja-Sonene National Park

Devastating Laos dam collapse leads to deforestation of protected forests

Copper mine destroying forests in Panama’s Mesoamerican Biological Corridor

Critically endangered Philippine eagle hangs on despite horde of threats
Indonesian coal

Illegal coal mine tunnels threaten a Sumatran village

South Korea faces a public reckoning for financing coal plants in Indonesia

Indonesia’s net-zero emissions goal not ambitious enough, activists say

Frustration over light penalties for coal mine that polluted Indonesian river

Indonesian campaigners triumph against a coal mine in top court

King Coal: How Indonesia became the fossil fuel’s final frontier
Southeast asian infrastructure
Focusing on the social and environmental impacts of roads, dams, mines, and other infrastructure projects in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea.

Indonesian governor’s arrest in road project points to more tainted contracts

Papua deforestation highlights eastward shift of Indonesia forest clearing

Podcast: Omens and optimism for Sumatran orangutans

Planned coal-trucking road threatens a forest haven for Sumatran frogs

Deforestation spurred by road project creeps closer to Sumatra wildlife haven

Podcast: Tiger on the highway
Amazon infrastructure

Freight train project that railroads Indigenous rights still on track

Brazil’s BR-319: Politicians capitalize on the Manaus oxygen crisis to promote a disastrous highway (Commentary)

Brazil’s Belo Monte Dam: Greenwashing contested (commentary)

Traditional and Indigenous peoples ‘denounce’ planned Amazon railway

Ribeirinhos win right to waterside Amazon homeland lost to Belo Monte dam

Historical analysis: The Amazon’s mineral wealth — curse or blessing?
Asian rhinos

Video: Doomed or viable? Sumatran rhino captive breeding faces a dilemma

Podcast: Where oh where are the Sumatran rhinos?

Rarely seen Sumatran rhinos are now even more elusive as threats close in

Signs, but no sightings: The phantom rhinos of Sumatra’s Bukit Barisan Selatan

Sumatran rhino conservation inspires a thriving creative economy

Indonesia’s five most consequential environmental stories of 2020
Indonesian fisheries

Java’s mangroves pay a high price for stopping plastic flowing out to sea

Study calls for a marine reserve in a $500m fishing hotspot in Indonesia

Only 1 of 52 pilot whales survives mass stranding in Indonesia

When seas turn rough, gleaning keeps the fish on the table for some communities

Calls for accountability after coal-slurry spill in Indonesian river

Whale shark stranding points to silting of Indonesia’s Kendari Bay
Global environmental impacts of u s policy

As climate chaos escalates in Indian Country, feds abandon tribes

COP24: Trumpers tout clean coal; protesters call it ‘climate suicide’

COP24: US, Russia, Saudis downplay IPCC report in display of disunity

US/China trade war could boost Brazil soy export, Amazon deforestation

UN forest accounting loophole allows CO2 underreporting by EU, UK, US

China’s Belt and Road poised to transform the Earth, but at what cost?
Conservation in madagascar
Madagascar has been a global conservation priority for decades, receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in conservation funds from international donors, but rising deforestation, commercial exploitation of wildlife, and degradation of critical habitats suggest that conservation investments may not be reaching their full potential. This series investigates the effectiveness of past conservation spending in Madagascar, examining the factors that contribute to or hinder success, with the aim of informing future investments.

Madagascar: Businesses drive disappearance of a wetland ‘reed forest’

Slash-and-burn farming eats away at a Madagascar haven for endangered lemurs, frogs

Reforested areas rival mature forests in securing water, study finds

Newly described chameleon from Madagascar may be world’s smallest reptile

Mob killing of Malagasy officer spotlights risks faced by forest guardians

Dusty winds exacerbate looming famine in Madagascar’s deep south
Conservation effectiveness

A Malagasy community wins global recognition for saving its lake

Scientists in Costa Rica are growing new corals to save reefs

Technology innovations look to change the cacao landscape in Colombia

In mangrove restoration, custom solutions beat one-size-fits-all approach

World’s protected areas lack connections, recent study finds

Failure in conservation projects: Everyone experiences it, few record it
Global agroforestry
An ancient agricultural system, agroforestry combines trees with shrubs, crops, and livestock in a system that produces food, supports biodiversity, builds soil horizons and water tables, and sequesters carbon from the atmosphere -- this series explores how and where it is being practiced by indigenous communities, traditional agriculturists, and new farmers.

Can palm oil be grown sustainably? Agroforestry research suggests it can, and without chemicals

Podcast: Agroforestry, an ancient climate solution that boosts food production and biodiversity

Indigenous agroforestry revives profitable palm trees and the Atlantic Forest

Gorongosa National Park is being reforested via coffee and agroforestry

Though forests burn, trees retake farmland globally as agroforestry advances

Investors say agroforestry isn’t just climate friendly — it’s also profitable
Global forests

Global forest loss increases in 2020

For International Day of Forests, an update on rainforest developments

Colombia’s national parks at a crossroads as new director installed

Over half of global environmental defender murders in 2020 in Colombia: report

France contributes to protection of Amazon stronghold, Yasuní National Park

Podcast: What are the tropical forest storylines to watch in 2021?
Almost famous animals

One year on: Insects still in peril as world struggles with global pandemic

At-risk Cerrado mammals need fully-protected parks to survive: Researchers

Brazilian frog believed ‘extinct’ for 50+ years, found with eDNA testing

‘Saving sun bears’: Q&A with book author Sarah Pye

Amazon river dolphin risks extinction if Brazil moratorium not renewed
