Delay in land reform fuels new wave of settlers and violence in the Amazon

By Fernanda Wenzel [2025-05-21] Grassroots organizations are settling new areas in the Brazilian Amazon amid disappointment that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been slow to jump-start the stalled land reform agenda.

How Mongabay-India took root: Interview with Sandhya Sekar

By Rhett Ayers Butler [2025-05-21] Sandhya Sekar never intended to lead a newsroom. Trained as an ecologist, with a Ph.D. in the sciences and a later pivot into journalism, she simply followed her curiosity—first as a writer, then as an editor, and eventually, as the founding program director of Mongabay-India. In the process, she helped create one of the country’s […]

Heavy rainfall in Vietnam & China causes flash floods, landslides

By Kristine Sabillo [2025-05-20] Several people have died following landslides in northern Vietnam caused by heavy rainfall and flash floods over the weekend, media reported. A local government official was quoted saying that an explosion-like noise was first heard on May 19 from the top of a mountain in rural Ba Bể district in Bắc Kạn, a province north […]

Study finds fast traffic noise is infuriating Galápagos warblers

By Spoorthy Raman [2025-05-20] When Leon Hohl and Alper Yelimlieş landed in the Galápagos in 2022 to volunteer in a decades-old nest survey project, they expected to look for Darwin finches and their babies. But that year turned out to be too dry for the finches to breed, and the two bird enthusiasts weren’t going to sit idle. Since […]

Deforestation in REDD-protected Congo rainforests is ‘beyond words’

By Mike DiGirolamo [2025-05-20] The Republic of Congo had been protecting about half of its dense rainforests via the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) framework. In exchange, the country is supposed to receive payments from the World Bank. But Mongabay Africa staff writer Elodie Toto’s recent investigation revealed the nation has also granted nearly 80 gold […]

As Indonesia phases out coal, what happens to people & environments left behind?

By Hans Nicholas Jong [2025-05-20] JAKARTA — As Indonesia, one of the world’s biggest polluters, plans to retire its fleet of coal-fired power plants to tackle climate change, one critical question is being overlooked: What happens to the communities and environments they leave behind? An analysis by the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL) found that environmental legacy impacts, such […]

Brazil rewilds urban forest with vaccinated brown howler monkeys

By Mongabay.com [2025-05-20] Following a deadly yellow fever outbreak in 2016, brown howler monkeys are slowly making a recovery through targeted vaccination and reintroduction efforts in one of the world’s largest urban forests. The recovery is detailed in a Mongabay video by Kashfi Halford and a report by Bernardo Araujo. Brown howler monkeys (Alouatta guariba) are endemic to […]

An alternative approach to bridge Indigenous knowledge and Western science for conservation (commentary)

By Chrystal Mantyka-Pringle / Natasha Ayoub / Katie Fraser [2025-05-20] Conservation is our collective responsibility as humans, requiring broad participation from all members of society, rooted in a diverse range of knowledge systems and experiences. Yet modern approaches to conservation, science and land-use planning are influenced by our history of colonialism and power imbalances that continue to affect Indigenous communities across Canada. Despite attempts in […]

Crisis hits community-led conservation group in northern Kenya

By Ashoka Mukpo [2025-05-20] GOTU, Kenya — Under the shade of an acacia tree in northern Kenya’s sweltering dry season, a group of elders have gathered to discuss community business in the town of Gotu. Two hours or so from the regional capital of Isiolo, the small but bustling cattle town of Gotu is typical of Kenya’s northern rangeland. […]

From chickens to cassava, Brazil’s Munduruku seek alternatives to mining

By Fernanda WenzelKarla Mendes [2025-05-20] “We’re going to just keep mopping the ocean,” said Toya Manchineri, referring to Brazil’s administration effort to expel illegal miners from two Munduruku Indigenous territories in Pará state. As long as public bodies aren’t constantly present to inspect and surveil the areas after the operation, “the government will put the miners out and they’ll return,” […]

New forest loss data beef up Amazon deforestation case against Casino Group

By Carla Ruas [2025-05-20] A recent report by the nonprofit Instituto Centro de Vida (ICV) found that the operations of French retailer Casino Group in Brazil could be linked to more than half a million hectares of deforestation between 2018 and 2023. According to ICV, 526,459 hectares (approximately 1.3 million acres) of native vegetation — an area about 50 […]

F&B packaging fuels growing plastic waste crisis in Indian Himalayas: Report

By Shreya Dasgupta [2025-05-20] Nonrecyclable food and beverage packaging dominates the trash littering the Indian Himalayas, according to a recent report. Since 2018, regional alliances Zero Waste Himalaya  and Integrated Mountain Initiative have organized an annual campaign during the last week of May called The Himalayan Cleanup. Volunteers from schools and civil society organizations clean up sites across the […]

‘Absolutely ecstatic’: Scientists confirm survival of rare South African gecko

By Ryan Truscott [2025-05-20] Researchers have confirmed the presence of a rare gecko species atop an isolated South African mountain, accessible only by helicopter, more than 30 years after it was last seen. The Blyde rondawels flat gecko (Afroedura rondavelica), with its distinct golden eyes and dark-banded tail with a purplish sheen, was previously known only from two male […]

Soldiers raid village as tensions flare over DRC’s Kamoa mine expansion

By Dider Makal [2025-05-20] LUBUMBASHI, Democratic Republic of Congo — At 4 a.m. on April 27, soldiers shattered the peace of a village in a mining region the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Lualaba province. According to local civil society platform CASMIA, the soldiers fired shots and arrested several residents, including women, in the village of Munjenje, 25 kilometers (15 […]

German supermarket palm oil linked to Indigenous rights abuses in Guatemala

By Maxwell Radwin [2025-05-19] A German supermarket and its supplier are under fire for alleged human right violations against Indigenous communities in Guatemala, where much of their palm oil is sourced. Since 2019, human rights groups have been filing complaints against German supermarket chain Edeka and palm oil supplier NaturAceites, claiming the companies failed to respond to concerns from […]

Protection is only the beginning: Creating connection through Belize’s Maya Forest Corridor

By Ruth Kamnitzer [2025-05-19] “About a week ago we lost a jaguar in a car collision, just over here,” says Celso Poot, director of the nonprofit Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Center. He is standing at the side of the George Price Highway in Central Belize. Every few minutes a truck thunders past. “I came out a couple days […]

Venomous snakes, freshwater fish among legally traded species most likely to become invasive in US

By Spoorthy Raman [2025-05-19] Although a superpower, the U.S. is under constant invasion — we’re not talking humans here but meek-looking plants and animals that have caused ecological havoc. Take, for instance, the tiny, nocturnal coqui frogs (Eleutherodactylus coqui) in Hawai‘i that arrived from Puerto Rico in the 1980s and are now terrorizing the islanders with their deafening “ko-kee” […]

Scat-sampling DNA tool shows potential in African carnivore conservation

By Dann Okoth [2025-05-19] Researchers have developed a noninvasive DNA tool to help monitor hard-to-trace African carnivores, including caracals and leopards, making it potentially useful in the conservation of elusive and increasingly threatened species. “Carnivores are really difficult to study/observe in the wild, and even if a fecal sample is found, it is often difficult to determine which species […]

Concrete sprawl in Buddha’s birthplace in Nepal threatens sarus cranes

By Mukesh Pokhrel [2025-05-19] LUMBINI, Nepal — Legend has it that before he became the Buddha, a young Prince Siddhartha Gautama nursed an injured sarus crane (Antigone antigone)  back to health. Since then, the bird and the faith have been closely intertwined, and nowhere more so than in Lumbini gardens in Nepal, hailed as the birthplace of the Buddha. […]

How extreme droughts could redefine the future of Amazonian fish

By Tiago Mota e Silva [2025-05-19] MANAUS, Brazil — In September 2024, the landscape in the Middle Solimões region of the Brazilian Amazon lay in stark contrast to its usual exuberance of lush greenery. “When we were arriving in Tefé and the plane approached to land, I was shocked to see everything very dry, with sandbanks multiplying in the waters,” says […]

Cambodian environmental journalist Ouk Mao arrested

By Gerald FlynnNehru Pry [2025-05-16] BANGKOK — Cambodian journalist Ouk Mao, whose reporting on illegal logging has seen him attacked both physically and legally, was arrested May 16. Ek Socheat, Mao’s wife, spotted an unmarked white Lexus pull up outside their home in Stung Treng province sometime around midday. Three plainclothes officers entered Mao’s home, handcuffed him and told him […]

Bolivia expels members of fake nation Kailasa over Indigenous land lease scandal

By Iván Paredes Tamayo [2025-05-16] The United States of Kailasa maintains that it is a real nation. With this title, over the last three years, they have traveled to different countries in South America to look for productive lands where they can settle. They did so in Paraguay and Ecuador, and they recently arrived in Bolivia. There, 20 emissaries from […]

In Nepal, centuries-old Buddhist incense tradition faces overharvesting, climate threats

By Durga Rana Magar [2025-05-16] MANANG, Nepal — In Bhraka village of western Nepal’s Manang district, 72-year-old Buddhist nun Tashi Lama sits in silence, chanting as she turns her prayer wheel. Ever since she took her vows at 25, her mornings begin with prayers and the lighting of sang, a sacred incense made from dried branches and leaves of black […]

Scientists underestimate frequency of South Atlantic heating events: Study

By Bobby Bascomb [2025-05-16] A new study finds that scientists have likely underestimated heat stress on coral reefs in the South Atlantic Ocean, further raising concerns for coral bleaching amid climate change. The study notes that while the Caribbean and Indo-Pacific have well-established long-term ocean temperature and coral monitoring programs, the South Atlantic Ocean has lagged behind, causing gaps […]

Countries failing to stop illegal bird killings despite 2030 commitment: Report

By Kristine Sabillo [2025-05-16] Most countries that pledged to reduce the number of birds being illegally killed along an important migratory route in Europe and the Mediterranean region are failing to do so, a new report shows. For the report, conservation organizations BirdLife International and EuroNatur tracked the progress of 46 countries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, […]

Study unveils mystery of monkey yodeling — and why humans can’t compete

By Liz Kimbrough [2025-05-16] Deep in the rainforest, the monkeys are yodeling. Their wild calls echo across the foliage, sending signals of sex and survival. For decades, scientists have studied why they make these sounds, but are just beginning to understand how. A new study asks how monkeys make calls with abrupt frequency jumps, which sound like human yodeling. […]

Republic of Congo’s gold mining boom undermines conservation efforts

By Mongabay.com [2025-05-16] The Republic of Congo has one of the lowest deforestation rates in the world, but “uncontrolled gold mining” in recent years could harm the country’s biodiversity, especially in the Sangha region, Mongabay’s Elodie Toto reported in a video published in February. Sangha, located in the country’s north, on the border with Cameroon and the Central […]

Vortex predator: Study reveals the fluid dynamics of flamingo feeding

By Shreya Dasgupta [2025-05-16] Flamingos, often pictured standing still with their heads submerged in water, make for a pretty picture. But peep underwater, and you’ll find the tall, elegant pink birds bobbing their heads, chattering their beaks, and creating mini tornados to efficiently guide microscopic prey into their mouths, according to a new study. “Think of spiders, which produce […]

China drops pangolin formulas from approved TCM list, but concerns remain

By Keith Anthony Fabro [2025-05-16] Wildlife conservation activists have welcomed an update to China’s list of officially sanctioned medicines, which drops 13 traditional formulas containing pangolin parts. The move offers the world’s most trafficked mammal a better shot at survival and has raised cautious optimism among conservationists. China’s pharmacopeia, the country’s official compendium of approved traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and […]

Radio tags help reveal the secret lives of tiger salamanders

By Abhishyant Kidangoor [2025-05-16] Where are the salamanders hanging out? Answering that question has been Jake Kushner’s mission — especially in the face of a proposed project by an energy company that will lay a transmission line right through areas where these amphibians are thought to move. “The salamanders are only documented using a small area around vernal pools […]

Endangered Species Day: Three animals on the path to recovery

By Shanna Hanbury [2025-05-16] Every third Friday of May is Endangered Species Day. More than 900 known species are already extinct to date, while at least 28,500 others are listed as endangered or critically endangered by the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. As the world’s natural biomes get chipped away by aggressive resource extraction, mammals, fungi, corals and […]

Indigenous conservationists lead the fight to save Mentawai’s endangered primates

By Ana Norman Bermúdez [2025-05-15] SOUTH SIBERUT, Indonesia — As night falls over the Siberut jungle, a fire crackles inside the Tateburuk clan’s wooden home, or uma. The walls are covered in traditional Mentawai carvings of forest creatures — birds, lizards, monkeys and gibbons — a reminder that the boundary between the outside world and the home is thin. Damianus […]

New study maps the fishmeal factories that supply the world’s fish farms

By Edward Carver [2025-05-15] Fish farms boomed globally in recent decades — more than half the world’s seafood now comes from aquaculture — but it’s not a boom all environmentalists support. One argument that critics of industrial aquaculture make is that the fishmeal and fish oil used to make the feed for popular carnivorous species like salmon is not sustainably […]

World’s oldest ant fossil found in Brazil, dating back 113 million years

By Shanna Hanbury [2025-05-15] A “remarkably well-preserved” fossil discovered in Brazil, dating back 113 million years, is now the oldest ant to have ever been found by scientists, a new study has revealed. The ancient fossil was found preserved in a limestone and “represents the earliest undisputed ant known to science,” the authors write in the study. The limestone, […]

In India, folklore is a tool that helps women save the greater adjutant stork

By Angana Chakrabarti [2025-05-15] Come hear the hargila’s speech With a cry of the heart’s eyes Hear o hear me out Please do not chop down our trees Do not erase our forests How are we going to keep living How are we going to keep living The voice of 43-year-old Daibaki Saikia, a resident of Dadara village in […]

Profit imbalance in palm oil industry risks environmental compliance, report says

By Carolyn Cowan [2025-05-15] Multinational palm oil-buying companies could be doing more to address financial inequities in their global supply chains that perpetuate challenges for smallholder farmers, according to a new report from sustainable development watchdog Solidaridad. The report highlights how smallholder farmers, who produce nearly one-third of raw palm oil globally, receive a disproportionately small share of industry […]

Brazil’s offshore wind farms could sacrifice small-scale fishing in Ceará

By Lobato Felizola [2025-05-15] A symbol of Brazil’s Ceará state and present on its official coat of arms since 1897, sail rafts known as jangadas are 80% of the fishing vessels in the state, but they could lose ground to wind turbines installed at sea. The matter is relevant because small-scale fishers who use unmotorized sail rafts such as […]

The world needs a new UN protocol to fight environmental crime (commentary)

By Robert Muggah [2025-05-15] In Brazil’s Yanomami Indigenous Territory and across other parts of the Amazon Basin, illegal gold mining has metastasized into a transnational criminal enterprise. What starts with illegal deforestation and mercury poisoning ends with laundered gold flowing into global supply chains. The trade finances organized crime, corrupt officials, and crosses borders via shell companies into Suriname, Guyana and Venezuela, before […]

Kenyan soil carbon project suspended for a second time

By Ashoka Mukpo [2025-05-15] The carbon credit certifier Verra has placed the Northern Kenya Rangelands Carbon Project under review for a second time, it confirmed to Mongabay in an emailed statement. Until the review is completed, the project will not be permitted to sell any credits it generates through its model of managing livestock grazing routes. The decision is […]

Brazil antideforestation operation blacklists more than 500 farms in the Amazon

By Shanna Hanbury [2025-05-15] The Brazilian government blocked 545 rural properties in the Amazonian state of Pará from selling crops and livestock both domestically and internationally, citing illegal deforestation, according to a May 6 announcement by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. The announcement marks one of Brazil’s largest uses of remote sensing to sanction agriculture activity associated […]

Antibiotic pollution widespread in world’s rivers, study finds

By Shreya Dasgupta [2025-05-15] Nearly a third of all antibiotics that people consume end up in the world’s rivers, a new study finds. This could potentially harm aquatic life and impact human health by promoting drug resistance, researchers say. Antibiotics, critical for treating various bacterial infections, are widely consumed by people, livestock and aquaculture fish, but the drugs are […]

Malagasy wildlife champion wins top global conservation award

By Kristine Sabillo [2025-05-15] Malagasy scientist Lily-Arison René de Roland has been announced as the winner of this year’s Indianapolis Prize, which recognizes “extraordinary contributions to conservation efforts.” In its announcement, Indianapolis Zoo, which presents the award, highlighted René de Roland’s scientific and conservation work that has led to the discovery of several species and the establishment of four […]

Invasive whiteflies pose a new threat to Bangladesh’s cash crops

By Abu Siddique [2025-05-15] The mass invasion of a new insect, the whitefly, in Bangladesh’s agricultural farms — especially in coconut, banana and guava farms — has put farmers at risk due to its devastating effects on crops. How the insects are entering the country is yet to be confirmed, but researchers suggest the pest may have spread in […]

Sumatran tiger protection needs more patrols, tougher penalties, study finds

By Basten Gokkon [2025-05-15] Authorities managing one of the last protected areas on Earth that still hosts Sumatran tigers must do more to deter poaching and promote alternative livelihoods for local communities, a new study suggests. Poaching remains the top threat to the survival of the Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) population in Indonesia’s Gunung Leuser National Park, a […]

Borneo project hopes to prove that forests and oil palms can coexist

By Louise Hunt [2025-05-15] The Kinabatangan River is the last major area in Malaysian Borneo’s Sabah state with a semblance of forest corridor linking the interior rainforest with mangroves on the east coast, according to Marc Ancrenaz, scientific director of Sabah-based NGO Hutan. It’s a hub for biodiversity, with orangutans, proboscis monkeys and pygmy elephants among the threatened species […]

Malaysian timber company accused of abuse & rights violations: Report

By Kristine Sabillo [2025-05-14] A new Human Rights Watch report alleges abuse and human rights violations in an Indigenous community in Malaysia’s Sarawak state. The report finds Malaysian timber company Zedtee Sdn Bhd (Zedtee) destroyed culturally valuable forests without the consent of Indigenous people, who are facing an eviction notice from their land. The HRW report says the Sarawak […]

How manatees won over an entire village

By Julia Lima [2025-05-14] BARRA DO MAMANGUAPE — Brazil. It’s hard to imagine today, but manatees were once hunted and eaten. These gentle sea mammals were considered a delicacy in Brazil, with their meat consumed by local fishermen and their skin and oil exported to Europe during colonial times. This exploitation pushed the species to the brink of extinction. […]

13 years after deadly attack, an okapi returns to Epulu in DRC reserve

By Saïbe Kabila [2025-05-14] In February 2025, rangers at Okapi Wildlife Reserve in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in partnership with the Okapi Conservation Project, successfully brought an okapi to Epulu, site of the reserve’s headquarters. It’s the first okapi (Okapia johnstoni) there in more than 10 years, after an armed attack killed killed seven people and the Epulu […]

Community-led system boosts fisheries in a corner of fast-depleting Lake Malawi

By Mongabay.com [2025-05-14] Lake Malawi’s fish stocks are declining, but one community stands apart: around Mbenje Island, a traditional fisheries management plan has ensured thriving fish populations for generations, Mongabay contributor Charles Mpaka reports. Landlocked Malawi is highly dependent on the lake, which supplies 90% of the country’s fish catch; more than 1.6 million people rely directly or […]

New research sheds light on Canada lynx-snowshoe hare cycle, human impacts

By Ruth Kamnitzer [2025-05-14] Open any ecology textbook and you’ll find the Canada lynx, the snowshoe hare, and their wildly oscillating population cycles offered as a classic example of the intimate relationship between predator and prey. The Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis) is a handsome, medium-sized felid, with a thick coat, tufted ears and large paws — an adaptation to […]