
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.


Murders of 2 Pataxó leaders prompt Ministry of Indigenous Peoples to launch crisis office

Worries and whispers in Vietnam’s NGO community after activist’s sentencing

Scientists call for end to violence against Amazon communities, environmental defenders

Indigenous advocates sense a legal landmark as a guardian’s killing heads to trial

In Brazil, an Indigenous land defender’s unsolved killing is the deadly norm
Global forest reporting network

A new 100-page report raises alarm over Chevron’s impact on planet

Science refutes United Cacao’s claim it didn’t deforest Peruvian Amazon

‘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
Indonesian coal

Building Indonesia’s ‘green’ new capital could see coal use surge (analysis)

For residents of Jakarta’s port district, coal is the neighbor no one wants

In Indonesian Borneo, a succession of extractive industries multiplies impacts, social fractures

Saving medicinal plants a village cause in Indonesia

Stranded coal barge spills cargo, disrupts fishery in Indonesian waters

Indonesia’s gasification plans could be costly for budget and environment
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.

Tunnel collapse at dam project in orangutan habitat claims yet another life

Sulawesi nickel plant coats nearby homes in toxic dust

Indonesia’s grand EV plans hinge on a ‘green’ industrial park that likely isn’t

Java communities rally as clock ticks on cleanup of ‘world’s dirtiest river’

‘Cursed’ dam project in orangutan habitat claims 16th life in less than 2 years

In Laos, a ‘very dangerous dam’ threatens an ancient world heritage site
Amazon infrastructure

Road network spreads ‘arteries of destruction’ across 41% of Brazilian Amazon

‘Lost’ Amazonian cities hint at how to build urban landscapes without harming nature

Making room in the Atlantic Forest for the largest primate in the Americas

New transport infrastructure is opening the Amazon to global commerce

As illegal logging route in Peru nears Brazil, Indigenous groups warn of calamity

Planned Brazil-Peru highway threatens one of Earth’s most biodiverse places
Asian rhinos

Stem cells may make ‘impossible possible’ for near-extinct Sumatran rhino

New estimate of less than 50 Sumatran rhinos shows perilous population drop

Indonesia teams up with Germany on Sumatran rhino breeding efforts

It’s a girl: Super rare Sumatran rhino born in captive-breeding center

Loss of Sumatran rhinos leaves several plant species without a seed disperser

Work starts on new sanctuary for captive breeding of Sumatran rhinos
Indonesian fisheries

Indonesia opens its ‘ocean account’ for sustainable marine management

FOIA lawsuit suggests Indonesian nickel miners lack environmental licenses

More than half of reef sharks and rays threatened with extinction, study shows

More marine protected areas planned for Indonesia’s Maluku after 2022 spree

Indonesian ‘island auction’ to go ahead despite concerns over permits

Indonesia’s ‘essential’ mangroves, seagrass and corals remain unprotected
Global environmental impacts of u s policy

President Biden signs order aimed at protecting old-growth forests across U.S.

FOREST Act bill would hold global suppliers accountable for illegal deforestation

As the rest of world tackles plastics disposal, the U.S. resists

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
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.

Eight new-to-science geckos described from biodiversity haven Madagascar

Rio Tinto-owned mine is polluting Malagasy water with uranium and lead, NGOs say

Even as the government bets big on carbon, REDD+ flounders in Madagascar

China joins the foreign fleets quietly exploiting Madagascar’s waters

For Malagasy trapped in poverty, threatened lemurs and fossas are fair game

In Madagascar, cultural taboos can protect or harm the environment
Conservation effectiveness

Biodiversity, human rights safeguards crucial to nature-based solutions: Critics

Protecting canids from planet-wide threats offers ecological opportunities

Mangrove forest loss is slowing toward a halt, new report shows

‘South Asia needs its own tiger plan’: Q&A with Nepal’s Maheshwar Dhakal

Nepal was supposed to double its tiger population since 2010. It tripled it

In prioritizing conservation, animal culture should be a factor, study says
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.

Colombia’s ‘tree of life’ births a new culinary and conservation movement

‘One of our greatest climate solutions’: Q&A with the U.S. National Agroforestry Center’s new director

Can a luxury chocolate company help a Congolese forest?

American agroforestry accelerates with new funding announcements

Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo

Regenerative agriculture in Mexico boosts yields while restoring nature
Global forests

From Japan to Brazil: Reforesting the Amazon with the Miyawaki method

Dollars and chainsaws: Can timber production help fund global reforestation?

Protecting wetlands is key to Indonesia hitting its climate goals, study says

Threatened cloud forests key to billions of dollars worth of hydropower: Report

Scientists plead for protection of peatlands, the world’s carbon capsules

Work on cable car line to Indonesian volcano to begin despite concerns
Almost famous animals

Rumors and misconceptions threaten tokay geckos in Bangladesh

Trafficking and habitat loss spell doom for Bangladesh’s western hoolock gibbons

New standard brings best practices to bear in Nepal’s red panda conservation

To save threatened Amazon primates in Brazil, turn them into the main attraction

It’s no Yeti, but Tibetan brown bear’s presence in Nepal is no longer a myth
