Do cheetahs scavenge? Yes, research says, but also not really

By Dann Okoth [2025-01-24] NAIROBI — Cheetahs are known to be selective in their feeding habits — “clean eaters” that only go after the prime parts of their kill, such as the liver. But a new study has found that the large, slender, spotted cat found in Africa and parts of Western Asia can also scavenge. Unlike other African […]

Salmon farms under fire on U.S. East Coast after being shuttered on West Coast

By Edward Carver [2025-01-24] This month Washington became the last state on the U.S. West Coast to reject salmon aquaculture over environmental concerns. A new lawsuit now takes aim at operations on the country’s East Coast — the only commercial netpen salmon farms left in the country. On Jan. 14, the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), a Boston-based environmental advocacy […]

World’s tiniest transmitter finds nesting area of rarest migratory shorebird

By Kristine Sabillo [2025-01-24] Using the world’s smallest known satellite transmitter, conservationists were able to track a spoon-billed sandpiper, thought to be the world’s rarest migratory shorebird. The transmitter  revealed new stopovers and nesting areas for an individual known as K9. “K9 led us to a newly discovered breeding location and habitat, which could be a game-changer for Spoon-billed […]

‘We’re getting back on track’: Interview with IBAMA head Rodrigo Agostinho

By Karla Mendes [2025-01-24] Rodrigo Agostinho, head of IBAMA, Brazil's federal environmental agency, for two years now, spoke with Mongabay about the progress of his agency and the challenges it faces in protecting the country's biomes after four years of regression under former president Jair Bolsonaro.

China’s new pangolin quota for TCM sparks conservation concerns

By Keith Anthony Fabro [2025-01-24] As one of the world’s largest consumers of pangolin products, primarily in traditional medicine, China’s domestic market plays a critical role in the survival of these gentle creatures. However, questions persist about the legality and status of the country’s stockpile of pangolin parts, especially with the recent announcement of a new annual quota of 1 […]

Digitizing 6 million plant specimens: Interview with Gunter Fischer & Jordan Teisher

By Abhishyant Kidangoor [2025-01-24] How can dried plant specimens protect a rainforest? In myriad ways. Kept in collections known as herbariums, they store critical data on the physical characteristics, or morphology, of plants, as well as their origins and global distribution. Scale that up to 6 million specimens, and you have a treasure trove of information that could potentially […]

Coming to a retailer near you: Illegal palm oil from an orangutan haven

By Hans Nicholas Jong [2025-01-24] JAKARTA — Illegal deforestation has reportedly surged to record levels in a wildlife reserve at the northern tip of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island that’s known as the “orangutan capital of the world.” A newly published report by U.S.-based NGO Rainforest Action Network (RAN) says 2,577 hectares (6,368 acres) of forests in Rawa Singkil Wildlife Reserve have […]

In Uganda, a women-led reforestation initiative fights flooding, erosion

By Innocent Kiiza [2025-01-23] KASESE DISTRICT, Uganda — In western Uganda’s Kasese district, where the Rwenzori Mountains meet the sprawling plains of Queen Elizabeth National Park, Janet Nyakairu Abwoli is on a mission to rejuvenate her land and empower her community. Farmers here long enjoyed fertile soil and predictable weather, but over the past 20 years, rainfall has become […]

Scientists are tracking global wildlife’s contributions to humanity

By John Cannon [2025-01-23] In October 2020, the hoofbeats of American bison thumped across the prairie of the Rosebud Reservation for the first time in more than a century. Years in the works, the release of 100 bison (Bison bison) in the U.S. state of South Dakota resulted from a collaboration between the Sicangu Lakota Oyate Nation, WWF and […]

Record seizure highlights scale of wild bird egg theft in UK

By Spoorthy Raman [2025-01-23] Police in the U.K. recently announced the seizure of more than 5,000 eggs belonging to several wild bird species, following nationwide raids in November 2024. While no arrests have been made in this case, the investigations are continuing. The seizure, the largest of its kind in U.K. history, was part of an international crackdown on […]

In the Pan Amazon, inequality and informality fuel informal economies

By Timothy J. Killeen [2025-01-23] One of the main social and economic challenges facing Amazonian countries is inequality.  Although the standard of living of the lower economic strata is better now than at any time in history, tens of millions of people in Amazonian countries are either poor or live on the margin of poverty. Worse still, they face real […]

In Panama, major port construction begins at key mangrove site

By Maxwell Radwin [2025-01-23] Conservation groups in Panama are trying to halt the construction of a new port in the Pacific province of Chiriquí that they say could destroy breeding grounds and nurseries for marine species. The Puerto Barú project, located outside the town of David, would create a new port on Panama’s northwest coast, increasing trade and tourism […]

US set to lose out as Trump retreats from climate agreement, NGOs warn

By Kristine Sabillo [2025-01-23] U.S. President Donald Trump kicked off his second term in office by issuing an executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the 2015 Paris climate accords, a historic agreement to limit global warming to below 2° Celsius (3.6° Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. The order states that it’s the policy of the new administration to put U.S. […]

Mexico misses one-year deadline to submit new protected areas’ management plans

By Aimee Gabay [2025-01-23] It’s been one year after Mexico’s government announced the creation of 20 new protected areas, covering roughly 2.3 million hectares (5.7 million acres). But the country’s environment ministry, Secretariat of the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), has failed to publish a single protected area management plan, despite being required to do so by law. Scientists, […]

Birdwatchers rally behind endemic hummingbird, spurring conservation movement in Mexico

By Tamara Blazquez Haik [2025-01-23] Nestled in the thorny shrubs of the dry forests of Veracruz in the Gulf of Mexico, a small bird lights a spark for a promising future. After flying under scientists’ radar for many years, the Mexican sheartail (Doricha eliza) is now fighting for its survival with the help of an improbable ally: the expanding birdwatching […]

Floods devastate tortoise sanctuary in southern Madagascar

By Shanna Hanbury [2025-01-23] Hundreds of tortoises have died following severe floods at a sanctuary in southwestern Madagascar that houses and protects more than 12,000 of the critically endangered animals. On Jan. 16, Tropical Cyclone Dikeledi swept through the Atsimo-Andrefana region, where the Lavavola Tortoise Center is located, dumping torrential rains that caused water levels to rise as high […]

World Bank cancels $150m tourism project in Tanzania after abuse claims

By Ashoka Mukpo [2025-01-23] The World Bank has cancelled a $150 million project to boost tourism to Tanzania’s Ruaha National Park, following allegations of human rights abuses by park authorities. Under the Tanzanian government’s plans to expand Ruaha, 21,000 local people could be displaced. The Oakland Institute, a U.S.-based advocacy group, called the decision to cancel the project a […]

Rising deforestation threatens rare species in Indonesia’s ancient Lake Poso

By Liz Kimbrough [2025-01-22] Over the course of just eight years, the forests surrounding Indonesia’s Lake Poso, an ecological and evolutionary “gem” on the island of Sulawesi, have been whittled away, satellite data and imagery show, while flooding has intensified, and traditional livelihoods suffer. Lake Poso is Indonesia’s third-largest lake, 32 kilometers long by 16 wide (20 by 10 […]

Survey uncovers ‘wildlife treasure’ in Cambodian park — but also signs of threats

By Mongabay.com [2025-01-22] The first biodiversity survey ever conducted in one of northwestern Cambodia’s last forest frontiers has found potentially new-to-science species and recorded direct threats to what conservationists call a “small but precious” ecosystem. Spanning roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) of the Cambodian-Thai border, the 60,000-hectare (148,300-acre) Samlout Multiple Use Area is part of the greater Cardamom […]

Five-month-old male gorilla, victim of illegal wildlife trade, seized in Istanbul

By Spoorthy Raman [2025-01-22] On Dec. 22, 2024, Turkish customs officers conducting a random search of a plane’s cargo hold found a surprise stowaway inside a small wooden crate with holes: a malnourished baby gorilla dressed in a soiled T-shirt. The Turkish Airlines flight was headed from Nigeria to Thailand and was transiting via Istanbul, authorities told local media. […]

As Gálapagos ecotourism booms, top naturalist guide urges sustainability

By Erik Hoffner [2025-01-22] GALÁPAGOS ISLANDS — Marco Andres Vizcaino Garcia is probably the most qualified naturalist guide a person could hire during their visit to Galápagos National Park and its adjacent marine reserve. Born into a fishing family that’s lived here for generations, he discovered a passion for the unique and fragile ecosystem of the islands at age […]

This rescue center saves Rio’s wildlife from poachers | Wild Targets

By Julia Lima [2025-01-22] RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – In September 2024, Vida Livre Institute, a wildlife rescue center, received an unusual call from the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden staff. They were sending over two monkeys who were behaving strangely and had to be assessed by the Institute’s veterinarian. After running a few tests, the vet confirmed that […]

‘James Bond’ lizard among 35 new species described from Caribbean islands

By Kristine Sabillo [2025-01-22] Shaken, not stirred: That’s how fictional secret service agent James Bond prefers his martini. And now there’s a lizard in the Caribbean that shares his name: the James Bond forest lizard, found close to where author Ian Fleming wrote his iconic Bond novels. Researchers recently described the new species alongside 34 others in a 306-page […]

Historic Arctic freeze for US South and record rain in Western Australia

By Kristine Sabillo [2025-01-22] The southern states of the U.S. are facing a winter storm this week that will bring heavy snow and ice to a region that rarely experiences such conditions. More than 220 million people are expected to be affected from Texas to South Carolina. Several states, including Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, Florida and Mississippi, have each already […]

Indigenous communities rise up against prison projects in Ecuador

By Kimberley Brown [2025-01-22] Intense protests flared up last December in communities opposed to Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa’s plans to build two maximum-security prisons in sensitive ecosystems and Indigenous territories without consulting local populations. In the canton of Archidona, in the Amazonian province of Napo, Indigenous communities blocked major roads and held almost daily marches for more than two […]

Study shows degradation changes a forest’s tree profile and its carbon storage

By Peter Speetjens [2025-01-22] As forests continue to be cleared and forested landscapes degraded by human activity, their loss can significantly affect the trees left standing, potentially changing the structure of forests, a recent study has found. In this case, faster-growing trees, with softer wood, tend to prevail over denser species with a higher carbon-storage capacity. In 2023, about […]

Coal gasification, an old technology, is quietly expanding across Asia

By Nithin Coca [2025-01-21] In Nagasaki prefecture, on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, J-Power, the operator of the aging Matsushima coal-fired power plant, has an idea to keep the unit operating despite the country’s no-coal pledge: gasification. “Japan considers coal gasification a form of abatement, and thus in line with their commitments to phase out unabated coal power,” […]

Traditional ecological knowledge isn’t dying — it’s adapting and transforming (Commentary)

By Anna Juliet Stephens [2025-01-21] Several years ago, I took a solo trip to the Huánuco region of the central Peruvian Amazon. After traveling five hours from the nearest town by car, boat and tuk-tuk, I reached the Comunidad de la Naranjal on the banks of the Yamiria River, a tributary of the Ucayali. The Naranjal are an Indigenous community […]

Brazil’s ‘innovative’ reforestation agenda discussed in Davos (commentary)

By Guilherme Leal / Paulo Hartung / Roberto Waack [2025-01-21] In the quiet Swiss town of Davos, Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain unfolds as young Hans Castorp’s brief visit to a sanatorium turns into a seven-year exploration of ideas, intrigue, and debates. The story ultimately becomes a metaphor for Europe’s isolation and decline before World War I. Since the novel’s publication in the early 20th […]

New study assesses threat to wildlife from cacao expansion in Congo Basin

By Malavika Vyawahare [2025-01-21] Cacao cultivation is a major threat to the Congo Basin rainforest, with new research showing just where expanding cultivation could imperil the region’s rich wildlife. “We found areas within the central parts of the Congo Basin to be at high risk of biodiversity loss due to cocoa expansion,” said study lead author Vignesh Kamath, from […]

Fishing boats spotted competing with whales in Antarctica for krill

By Bobby Bascomb [2025-01-21] Nearly all of Antarctica’s iconic wildlife, from penguins to seals and whales, depend on krill, tiny crustaceans that make up the base of the food chain. Krill are also sought after by humans, who scoop them up using massive fishing boats, potentially putting whales in danger, scientists warn. The fishing boats and whales are “going […]

Helicopters slash the trek to Earth’s highest peak, but leave Sherpas grounded

By Shashwat Pant [2025-01-21] KATHMANDU — When Pasang Nuru Sherpa recalls his childhood in the quiet village of Pangboche, in the foothills of Sagarmatha, the Nepali name for Everest, his memories take him back to the gentle hum of daily life: the swishing of prayer flags, the calls of mountain birds, and the soft clink of yak bells as […]

In Uganda, local communities bear the brunt of militarized conservation

By Mongabay.com [2025-01-21] At Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park, violent enforcement of wildlife laws leaves broken families behind and damages the relationship between conservation authorities and local communities, reports Mongabay’s Ashoka Mukpo. In October 2023, Mukpo visited the massive park, home to various wildlife including elephants, lions, hippos and leopards, to investigate human-wildlife conflicts and heard of accounts […]

‘An oval with legs’: In search of Tanzania’s tiny island antelope

By Ryan Truscott [2025-01-20] PEMBA ISLAND, Tanzania — Pemba Island’s Ngezi Forest Reserve, a complex of moist evergreen and coastal forests, mangroves and heathland in the Zanzibar archipelago, is the last refuge of the Pemba blue duiker . But are there any of these tiny antelopes still alive? Philantomba monticola pembae, or paa wa pemba as it’s known locally, […]

Growing conservation and community: Interview with Ngezi reserve chief

By Ryan Truscott [2025-01-20] The people living around the Ngezi Forest Reserve on Pemba Island, off the coast of Tanzania, depend on its resources for many things: timber for building materials, a place to gather firewood and hunt animals for food, and sometimes pasture for cows or goats. Khamis Ali Khamis is the acting chief-in-charge of the 2,900-hectare (7,200-acre) […]

Probe details the playbook of one of Amazon’s top land grabbers

By Fernanda Wenzel [2025-01-20] According to the Brazilian Federal Police, Bruno Heller is one of Amazon's largest deforesters and relied on legal and technical advice, including a fake contract, bribing police officers, and near-real-time monitoring of deforestation work through satellite imagery, investigators said.

The force is strong with new giant ‘Darth Vader’ sea bug found off Vietnam

By Kristine Sabillo [2025-01-20] What’s new: From the seafood markets of Vietnam, researchers have identified a species of giant crustacean or “sea bug” that’s new to science. They’ve named it Bathynomus vaderi, for its distinctly shaped head reminiscent of the helmet of Star Wars villain Darth Vader, according to a recently published study. What the study says: Bọ biển […]

‘Unusual’ and weak La Niña confirmed, offers cooling respite after record El Niño

By Shanna Hanbury [2025-01-20] It’s official: a weak La Niña came into fruition in late December and is expected, with significant uncertainty, to last until sometime between February and April, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced. La Niña often brings wetter conditions to Southeast Asia and the Brazilian Amazon, while cooling global temperatures overall, potentially easing recent […]

Philippine Indigenous communities restore a mountain forest to prevent urban flooding

By Keith Anthony Fabro [2025-01-20] On the slopes of Mount Kalatungan, a protected area on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines, rows of robusta coffee shrubs thrive alongside tropical hardwoods like lauan. The verdant mountain is enveloped in mid-afternoon fog, with a cold breeze sweeping through. Reynante Polenda, a 40-year-old Manobo tribesman, carefully weeds around the trees he […]

River culture is the rhythmic pulse of the Bengal Delta (commentary)

By Umme Sayeda [2025-01-17] Rivers, as Bengal’s nurturing mother, shaped the soul of this land and cultural landscape. The ever-flowing water and fertile sediments formed the entire Bengal region, nourishing the Indus Valley civilization to today’s Bengali civilization. Over centuries, from sediments to sentiments to culture, rivers sketched this delta’s people’s values and belief system, art and literature, and […]

Bangladesh sees first ever rewilding of captive-bred elongated tortoises

By Kristine Sabillo [2025-01-17] Two species of critically endangered tortoises were reintroduced to Bangladesh’s forests last December. Six captive-bred elongated tortoises (Indotestudo elongata) were first released in Lawachara National Park in northeastern Bangladesh on Dec. 18. This was followed by the release of 10 Asian giant tortoises (Manouria emys phayrei) in Matamuhuri Reserve Forest in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of […]

Firefighters in LA blaze face same toxic exposure as 9/11 responders

By Bobby Bascomb [2025-01-17] Smoke from wildfire poses a host of health concerns, but when fires burn through urban areas, like the ongoing inferno in Los Angeles, U.S., the health risks increase dramatically. “This is an entirely different situation because the wildfire smoke is bad enough, but when synthetic materials burn, they’re going to give off more toxics, not only in […]

In Bangladesh, a botanist brings quick, fun lessons to social media

By Mohammad Al-Masum Molla [2025-01-17] In the bustling city of Dhaka, Azharul Islam Khan is developing a growing community of plant enthusiasts, one video at a time. With a degree in botany from Dhaka University and a 27-year-long career in the pharmaceutical industry, 54-year-old Azharul has always had a passion for plants. But it wasn’t just his formal education that […]

A venomous Australian spider turns out to be 3 species, not 1

By Shreya Dasgupta [2025-01-17] The Sydney funnel-web spider, a highly venomous arachnid found crawling in and around Australia’s most populous city, was long thought to be a single species. But it’s actually three different species, a new study has found. One of these, called “Big Boy” for its unusually large size, is new to science. “You would think we […]

Sustaining a 400-year-old Ethiopian farming tradition: Interview with elder Gehano Guchoir

By Solomon Yimer [2025-01-17] KONSO, Ethiopia — Across rugged highlands, terraces crafted from stone and earth stretch over steep hillsides like giant ripples of water. They’re part of a 400-year-old agricultural system in southern Ethiopia that’s recognized as a U.N. World Heritage Site and enabled the region’s Konso farmers to thrive in a place that’s otherwise dry, arid and […]

Plans for bauxite mine in Suriname reignite Indigenous land rights debate

By Maxwell Radwin [2025-01-16] Plans for a major mining project in western Suriname have sounded alarms in nearby Indigenous communities, who say that the project will destroy local ecosystems, violate their land rights and encroach on their traditional ways of life. A bauxite mine run by Chinese corporation Chinalco could begin operating in 2026, with first construction work planned […]

Safeguarding the shea nut legacy for Ugandan women

By Pat Robert LarubiStephen Okello [2025-01-16] KAL AWINYA, Uganda – In rural Uganda, 34-year-old Adong Betty from Kal Awinya village shares how shea nuts sustain her family and community. Her own childhood was marked by active participation in collecting and processing shea nuts with her mother, instilling in her a deep respect for this tradition. Shea nuts are a critical part […]

Should mining companies consider no-go zones where isolated Indigenous peoples live? (Commentary)

By Danielle Martin [2025-01-16] As the demand for critical minerals intensifies with the energy transition, the need for a rights-based approach to mining, focused on respect, is more relevant than ever. This approach relies on meaningful and inclusive engagement and participation of affected Indigenous peoples’ in decisions about if and how mining should occur on their lands and how […]

Ogoni women restore mangroves and livelihoods in oil-rich Niger Delta

By Aimee Gabay [2025-01-16] A women-led reforestation effort has planted millions of mangrove trees with a high survival rate across swamps in Nigeria’s oil-rich and severely degraded Niger Delta. For decades, the Ogoni people of the delta’s Ogoniland region have faced the impacts of numerous oil spills, logging, and the spread of invasive nipa palms that destroyed thousands of […]

Elephants, gorillas and chimps hold out in Cameroon’s largest protected landscape

By Leocadia Bongben [2025-01-16] A survey has found populations of elephant, gorillas and chimpanzees in and around two national parks in southeastern Cameroon has remained relatively stable since 2016. Conservation officials have welcomed this “positive” trend but warn that various threats persist in the region. The survey was conducted by WWF in collaboration with Cameroon’s Ministry of Forestry and […]