Colombia’s ‘tree of life’ births a new culinary and conservation movement
BECERRIL, Colombia — “This makes me very happy, this is why we came down from the Sierra, to see the people celebrating the guáimaro tree,” says Orfelina Perez Restrepo, an…
Mongabay series: 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.
‘One of our greatest climate solutions’: Q&A with the U.S. National Agroforestry Center’s new director
The new director of the U.S. National Agroforestry Center (NAC) received her doctorate in plant physiological ecology/ecosystem ecology and a Master's in forest science from Yale University, and joined the…
How agroforestry can restore degraded lands and provide income in the Amazon
NOVA CALIFÓRNIA, Brazil — Hamilton Condack smiles and points to a towering ipê tree rooted in the plot of land where he lives and produces food. “When I first got…
Can a luxury chocolate company help a Congolese forest?
African cocoa plantations have seen massive growth in recent years on its path to help feed the world’s veracious appetite for a popular delicacy – chocolate. The Ivory Coast, the…
American agroforestry accelerates with new funding announcements
Recent months have delivered a harvest of agroforestry funding news in the U.S., just as the season’s remaining crops ripened. The announcement of over $60 million in support from the…
Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
GORONTALO, Indonesia — In a Chanel-print dress and wielding a machete, Ermi Mauke means business as she hikes past cashew and coffee seedlings she planted on the approach to Indonesia’s…
Regenerative agriculture in Mexico boosts yields while restoring nature
NUEVO MEXICO, Mexico — Standing in her cornfield in Chiapas state, surrounded by mountains and dry tropical forests, Maria Luisa Gordillo Mendoza looks concerned. “They said we were pigs for…
Return to agroforestry empowers women in Nepal
KAVRE, Nepal – Srijana Karki still remembers her childhood when she visited her grandfather's farm. "The green fields were dotted with various fruit trees and we would get to eat…
Indigenous agroforestry dying of thirst amid a sea of avocados in Mexico
ANGAHUAN, Mexico — "Cuchita is the fourth-generation herb collector of our family," says Juana Bravo, 45, pointing to a photo of her niece. "Look here: she was picking medicinal plants…
In oil palm-dominated Malaysia, agroforestry orchards are oases of bird life: Study
Malaysia is the second-largest palm oil producer in the world, behind only Indonesia. In 2020 alone, Malaysia was responsible for more than a quarter of global palm oil production. But…
Podcast: Community empowerment and forest conservation grow from the galip nut in Papua New Guinea
The seventh and final episode of the Mongabay Explores podcast series about New Guinea examines the growing galip nut industry and the many social, economic and environmental benefits this agricultural…
Brazil’s agroforestry farmers report many benefits, but challenges remain
Smallholder farmers say agroforestry offers biodiversity and crop benefits, but lack of support from the Bolsonaro government is a key barrier to adopting restorative agricultural practices.
In China, agroforestry serves up tea with a spoonful of sustainability
SINGAPORE — On a vast plateau atop Jingmai Mountain in Yunnan, China, nearly a mile above sea level, grows a forest of ancient tea trees. During summer, silvery cobwebs line…
Inga tree points to way out of slash-and-burn for Central American farmers
Like many rural families in Central America, Martín García and his sons devoted part of every growing season to slashing and burning a new strip of their land, knowing that…
For Costa Rica’s Indigenous Bribri women, agroforestry is an act of resistance and resilience
TALAMANCA, Costa Rica — “How do I say lemon in Bribri language?” ask Andy, 9, and his cousin Sergio, 11, of their grandmother, Marina López. They’re playing among cocoa trees…
Oil palms alone can be damaging; with other crops, the benefits abound
JAKARTA — Intercropping, the practice of growing two or more crops in close proximity, could be one of the keys to mitigating the impact of oil palm plantations on forests…
Farmers regreen Kenya’s drylands with agroforestry and an app
MAKUENI, Kenya — A quarter of the world's 4.4 billion hectares (10.9 million acres) of cropland is degraded, often due to drying, according to the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization…
Mexico devises revolutionary method to reverse semiarid land degradation
About a quarter of the world’s land is degraded. A new farming system intercrops agave and mesquite, then ferments it into cheap fodder, promising restored semiarid croplands and a peasant farming revival.
New report provides road map for expanding chestnut agroforestry in the U.S.
When Americans hear the word chestnuts, they might conjure images of snowy, holiday evenings and roaring fires. But for most of the world, chestnuts are part of the daily diet.…
Spanish farmers fight forest fires with agroforestry (and many sheep)
GALICIA, Spain — The forest fire stopped just before arriving at Nieves Fernández Vidueira's farm, but it burned all day in the area surrounding Quintela do Pando in Galicia, northwestern…
Climate, biodiversity & farmers benefit from rubber agroforestry: report
Agroforestry is the most beneficial agricultural technique from a climate and biodiversity perspective: growing food, fuel, fiber, medicines and more under the cover of, or adjacent to, woody perennials like…
In Pennsylvania, agroforestry holds a key to cleaning up waterways and Chesapeake Bay
From her porch on Village Acres Farm in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania, Angela Brubaker can see the curved rows of trees in the new riparian buffer along Lost Creek. The tree tubes…
To save chocolate’s future, ‘start now and go big’ on agroforestry
In May 2017, the NGO Mighty Earth revealed the destruction of government forest reserves in Côte d’Ivoire by cocoa cultivation: out of 234, only six were still relatively intact. Deforestation…
How settlers, scientists, and a women-led industry saved Brazil’s rarest primate
It all started with the monkeys. What began as a research effort to understand the black lion tamarin, one of the rarest of the New World monkeys, has blossomed into…
Nuts about agroforestry in the U.S. Midwest: Can hazelnuts transform farming?
Drive along the backroads of the U.S. Midwest and you’ll see farm fields stretching for thousands of acres. The rolling hills are sliced into straight rows, filled with the same…
Can palm oil be grown sustainably? Agroforestry research suggests it can, and without chemicals
A recent investigation by Mongabay demonstrated that oil palm plantations in the Amazon do not appear to be ‘green’ as the Brazilian government terms them, but rather are associated with…
Podcast: Agroforestry, an ancient climate solution that boosts food production and biodiversity
Today we’re taking a look at how agroforestry, an ancient indigenous technology that is increasingly being adopted by farmers around the world, can help solve many of the major environmental…
Indigenous agroforestry revives profitable palm trees and the Atlantic Forest
Two or three strokes, and it's gone: in less than five minutes, 10 years collapse. If it's some other palm tree native to the rainforest such as açaí (Euterpe oleracea), soon…
Gorongosa National Park is being reforested via coffee and agroforestry
Gorongosa National Park has quite a history, from its inception 60 years ago to being battleground the subsequent Mozambique civil war, to its recent revitalization and engagement with the human…
Though forests burn, trees retake farmland globally as agroforestry advances
It was late afternoon deep in the dry season in Fatikh, a village in the Sahel region of Senegal. Out on his farm, El Hadj Ndiaye, a distinguished gentleman in…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Bolivian national park hit hard by forest fires in 2022, satellite data show
- Deforestation ‘out of control’ in reserve in Brazil’s cattle capital
- In Brazil’s Amazon, land grabbers scramble to claim disputed Indigenous reserve
- Gold mining invades remote protected area in Ecuador
Oceans
- Critics allege EU’s ‘toxic collusion’ with fishing lobbies is damaging Indian Ocean tuna
- Study: Paying fishers to ease off sharks and rays is cost-effective conservation
- Good fisheries management, if enforced, can help sharks and rays recover
- An El Niño is forecast for 2023. How much coral will bleach this time?
Amazon Conservation
- Forest modeling misses the water for the carbon: Q&A with Antonio Nobre & Anastassia Makarieva
- Electricity day and night: Solar power is changing isolated Amazon communities
- Illegal mines and “floating towns” on the Puré River leave uncontacted Indigenous peoples at risk
- Joenia Wapichana: ‘I want to see the Yanomami and Raposa Serra do Sol territories free of invasions’
Land rights and extractives
- Tense neighbors: Chinese quarry in Cameroon takes a toll on locals
- FOIA lawsuit suggests Indonesian nickel miners lack environmental licenses
- Shadows of oil in Peru: Shipibo people denounce damage, contamination left by company
- In Liberia, a gold boom leads to unregulated mining and ailing rivers
Endangered Environmentalists
- ‘We lost the biggest ally’: Nelly Marubo on her friend Bruno Pereira’s legacy
- 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
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
- After 20 years and thousands of trees planted, Kalimantan’s veteran forester persists
- Aziil Anwar, Indonesian coral-based mangrove grower, dies at 64
- A utopia of clean air and wet peat amid Sumatra’s forest fire ‘hell’
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
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- 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’
