WORLD RAINFOREST

Brazil’s BR-319 highway disaster: Yet another maneuver (commentary) (Sep 20 2024)
On September 14, Brazil’s National Department of Transportation Infrastructure (DNIT) submitted to the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region (TRF1) a consultancy report that DNIT had contracted from Engespro (the company that had previously done the project’s environmental impact assessment), stating that reconstruction of BR-319 is “environmentally viable.” The new submission is to reinforce […]

Permits granted for Colombia’s Alacrán mine amid pollution, deforestation concerns (Sep 20 2024)
Permits granted for the construction of an industrial mining project in northern Colombia are raising concerns among residents and conservationists, who say they might lose their food and drinking water to unregulated pollution, causing them to relocate to other parts of the country. Canadian mining company Cordoba Minerals won a construction permit last month for […]

485 million years of data: Study tracks global temperature and CO2 link (Sep 20 2024)
From the first birds and fish to pine trees, dinosaurs, woolly mammoths and humans, most life on Earth has evolved and flourished over the last roughly 500 million years. A new study documents how the Earth’s temperature changed in that time frame — carbon dioxide has been a driving cause of historic temperature increases. Using […]

Heavy rains in Lake Chad Basin leave hundreds dead across countries (Sep 20 2024)
At least 621 people have been killed and thousands more displaced by floods around Lake Chad, which sits at the border region of several countries in Central and West Africa. Since early September, parts of Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria have experienced some of their heaviest rains in decades. Heavy rains have overwhelmed local systems, Justin […]

Indigenous peoples won in court — but in practice, they face a different reality (Sep 20 2024)
After years of delays, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) will soon meet for the first time to discuss Kenya’s failure to implement rulings recognizing the Ogiek peoples’ claim to land in the Mau Forest. It has been seven years since the community won its first landmark victory, and little has progressed […]

Rare frog rediscovered in Ecuador’s Andes after 100 years (Sep 20 2024)
A frog species last seen in 1922 was found again in Ecuador’s southern Andes during a 2022 research expedition to the Quitahuaycu Conservation Reserve. The team of biologists confirmed the rediscovery with genetic analysis. The Molleturo robber frog (Pristimantis ruidus) classified as “possibly extinct” for several decades, remained elusive due to its small size, under […]

Mining activities threaten honey production in the Caatinga biome (Sep 20 2024)
CAATINGA — They are not offering jobs, they are underestimating our intelligence. They want to deceive us with jobs that are not real, and that will not exist. This will end the life of the Quilombola community”, says Cláudio Tenório, a Quilombola leader from Lagoas, the largest quilombo in the Caatinga Biome, in Brazil. He is […]

In Sri Lanka, election day is time for firecrackers — to ward off elephants (Sep 20 2024)
COLOMBO — Over the past two years, Daham Piyasena has lived through momentous times: the worst economic crisis in Sri Lanka’s history, which led to unprecedented public protests that forced the resignation of the island nation’s president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa. On Sept. 21 this year, Piyasena, a 61-year-old farmer, will be among more than 17 million […]

Lab-grown corals resisted bleaching during Caribbean’s worst marine heat wave (Sep 19 2024)
In mid-2023, the Caribbean Sea simmered as air temperatures soared, marking the hottest days ever recorded in Puerto Rico and Barbados. Beginning in March, sea surface temperatures throughout the region ranged between 1° and 3° Celsius warmer than normal (1.8°-5.4° Fahrenheit). This unprecedented heat brought on the worst coral bleaching event in the Caribbean’s history: […]

World’s biggest deforestation project gets underway in Papua for sugarcane (Sep 19 2024)
JAKARTA — Excavators have begun clearing land in the Indonesian region of Papua in what’s been described as the largest deforestation undertaking in the world. A total of 2 million hectares (5 million acres) of forests, wetlands and grasslands in Merauke district will be razed to make way for a cluster of giant sugarcane plantations, […]

What will the Brazilian food industry do about plastic packaging? (Sep 19 2024)
Plastic waste is a global problem, and the food sector is one of its main drivers. It only takes a quick visit to a supermarket to realize this: With the exception of some paper or aluminum packaging, our food is almost always packaged in plastics that then go to waste. This is a recent story: […]

Why the EU must stand firm on its plan to help protect the world’s forests (commentary) (Sep 19 2024)
A pioneering law under attack The world’s governments have long acknowledged the need to halt and reverse the loss of the planet’s precious forests, not least because of the contribution that loss is having on the global climate. There is also consensus that by far the largest driver of deforestation – and associated negative impacts […]

Environmentalists empowering women and citizen science win 2024 Heinz Awards (Sep 19 2024)
Two pairs of environmentalists are being awarded the prestigious Heinz Award for the Environment this year. Each duo will receive an unrestricted, shared cash award of $250,000 and the Heinz Awards medallion. Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler received the award in 2022. Among the 2024 winners are Amira Diamond and Melinda Kramer, co-founders of […]

Just 0.7% of land hosts one-third of unique, endangered species, study (Sep 18 2024)
Just 0.7% of the world’s land surface is home to one-third of the world’s most threatened and unique four-legged animals, a recent study has found. In the vast evolutionary tree of life, some animals, like rats, have many closely related species that are at no immediate risk of extinction. But others, like the red panda […]

Brazil judge fines slaughterhouses for Amazon deforestation (Sep 18 2024)
A judge in Brazil has imposed fines totaling 4.2 million reais, or $762,000, against two beef producers and three ranchers for deforestation in a protected part of the Amazon Rainforest. The Sept. 4 ruling was in response to illegal cattle ranching in the Jaci Paraná Extractive Reserve in Rondônia state. The companies fined were Frigon […]

We know how many okapi live in zoos. In the wild? It’s complicated (Sep 18 2024)
Revered by the Indigenous Mbuti and Efe tribes as a spiritual symbol and uplifted by the Democratic Republic of Congo as a national one, the okapi is deserving of a nickname as mystical as “forest unicorn.” The dark-colored ungulates are docile, elusive, and characterized by the zebra-like stripes on their legs and rump, though they’re […]

From prison psychologist to wildlife whisperer: Interview with Susan Eirich (Sep 18 2024)
Ramble Bear, a 23-year-old rescued Hokkaido brown bear, acts more like a poodle than a predator. He blinks and licks my hand through the protective fence, very demure. His tongue is surprisingly soft. “He’s a big show off,” Susan B. Eirich, licensed psychologist, biologist, and founder of Earthfire Institute Wildlife Sanctuary & Retreat Center, tells […]

Aluminum and steel vital to energy transition, but need circular solutions (Sep 18 2024)
This is the second of a two-part story. Part one deals with aluminum and steel impacts; Part two explores circular solutions. Aluminum and steel have long been hailed for their relatively high recycling rates compared to other materials such as petrochemical-based plastics. But experts point to numerous supply chain faults for these metals — extending […]

Ahead of COP16, groups warn of rights abuses linked to ‘30×30’ goal (Sep 18 2024)
Two years since global policymakers agreed on the concept of protecting 30% of the world’s land and waters by 2030, there’s still little clarity on how achieving this goal will impact Indigenous communities who safeguard some of the most biodiverse areas on Earth. In October this year, government representatives are set to meet at the […]

Sierra Leone group helps farmers adapt to changing climate, protect forest (Sep 18 2024)
For two years, a volunteer organization in eastern Sierra Leone worked to encourage residents of Kenema district to plant trees and switch to more climate-resilient crops. Sierra Leone Environment Matter’s 50 members aimed to protect both residents’ farming livelihoods, faltering in the face of changing weather, and the Kambui Hills Forest Reserve which has been […]

Philippines hydro boom rips Indigenous communities (Sep 18 2024)
KALINGA, Philippines — On the mountainsides flanking the mighty Chico River in the northern Philippines’ Kalinga province, residents of once tight-knit villages have drifted apart in recent years. Hearty greetings between neighbors tending to farmlands have been replaced with avoidant looks or glowering stares. “We don’t talk much like before,” says Gohn Dangoy, a 59-year-old […]

Fishing in a fog: Ship noise hampers orcas’ hunting success (Sep 18 2024)
Underwater noise from ships is making it tough for killer whales, or orcas, to find and catch their favorite fish, a recent study has found. Orcas (Orcinus orca) rely heavily on sound to hunt. They emit ultrasonic echolocation clicks that bounce off objects. By listening for the echoes of these clicks, the orcas can identify […]

Climate change could threaten newly described ‘shiny’ North American bees (Sep 18 2024)
COLOMBO — Sri Lanka, an Indian Ocean island, lies far away from the United States and is just one-sixth the size of California. But interestingly, one of the three newly identified wild bee species described in California has been bestowed with a Sinhala name, a language exclusive to Sri Lanka. All three bees look alike […]

Community forest or corporate fortune? How public land became a mine in Cambodia (Sep 17 2024)
Mongabay features writer Gerry Flynn joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss a new investigation he published with freelance journalist Nehru Pry looking at how mining company Lin Vatey acquired thousands of hectares of a public forest, essentially kicking local people, including the Kuy Indigenous community, off public lands that they previously relied on. In this conversation, […]

Report exposes meatpackers’ role in recent chemical deforestation in Brazil (Sep 17 2024)
A new report links Brazil's top meatpackers — JBS, Marfrig and Minerva — to widespread deforestation across the Pantanal, Amazon and Cerrado; of five farms investigated between October 2023 and February 2024, 86% of the destruction occurred in the Pantanal.

Amazon River and tributaries at record low levels (Sep 17 2024)
The Amazon Rainforest’s main rivers are drying out due to an unprecedented drought exacerbated by climate change. Levels have continued to drop since Mongabay’s Sept 9. feature by Fernanda Wenzel. Major rivers such as the Madeira and Negro continue to beat record lows, disrupting life for Indigenous communities and raising concerns about economic and environmental […]

Aluminum and steel take environment and health toll, even as demand grows (Sep 17 2024)
This is the first part of a two-part story. Part one deals with aluminum and steel impacts; Part two explores circular solutions. Aluminum and steel are two metals vital to a thriving global industrial economy. And both will be even more in demand in future, as they supply the global energy transition and infrastructure needs […]

Experts call for urgent action as invasive species threatens Brazil mangroves (Sep 17 2024)
During a field trip in May 2023 to the Cubatão mangroves in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, a cluster of white flowers puzzled biologists Geraldo Eysink and Edmar Hatamura. They bloomed from trees unlike any they had ever seen in the area in 30 years of research. They gathered samples, and with the expertise […]

US govt watchdog: Human rights still at risk in overseas conservation aid (Sep 17 2024)
U.S. government agencies responsible for handing out conservation grants overseas still aren’t doing enough to protect human rights, according to an internal review. The review was commissioned by the U.S. Congress in the wake of an outcry over a 2019 Buzzfeed News report on conservation-related human rights abuses in the Congo Basin. The story led […]

Pacific Island nations propose ecocide be adopted as international crime (Sep 17 2024)
Three Pacific island countries have formally requested the International Criminal Court to recognize “ecocide,” or mass environmental destruction, as an international crime alongside genocide and war crimes. The proposal, submitted by Vanuatu and co-sponsors Fiji and Samoa on Sept. 9, seeks to amend the ICC’s Rome Statute, which currently allows for the prosecution of genocide, […]

Philippine coal mine roars into production amid waves of complaints (Sep 17 2024)
SOUTH COTABATO, Philippines — On a sunny Wednesday in August, police officer Loreto Malon and a subordinate were riding their motorcycles in the mountain mining village of Ned on their way to the lowlands when a speeding haul truck loaded with coal nearly hit and killed them. “We could have been crushed if we did […]

In Cameroon, forest and water source restoration offers sustainable solutions (Sep 16 2024)
In Bamukumbit village in northwestern Cameroon, residents have traditionally depended on natural water sources. However, these springs, streams, and rivers have deteriorated and become polluted over time as a result of intensive human activities, including agriculture, deforestation, pastoralism and livestock herding. Thanks to a project implemented by the nonprofit Support Humanity Cameroon (Suhucam), these water […]