WORLD RAINFOREST

In Costa Rica, sustainable tourism is no longer enough for conservation (Oct 21 2024)
- Following bold policies that promoted reforestation and private conservation in the early 1980s and 1990s, Costa Rica succeeded in significantly increasing its forest cover, which also boosted its nature-based tourism industry.
- But the rise of mass tourism, including cruise ships, are starting to bring in environmental damage, warn the early promoters of sustainable tourism, as the industry’s value is estimated to more than triple by 2032.
- The experts recommend shifting from pursuing sustainability to a regenerative approach, integrating local communities in tourism supply chains, and redirecting profits from mass tourism to private conservation.

Deforestation plunges but environmental threats remain as Colombia hosts COP16 (Oct 21 2024)
- As global leaders, experts, activists and Indigenous voices meet this October in the Colombian city of Cali at the U.N. Biodiversity Conference, COP16, missteps and successes within President Gustavo Petro’s environment agenda are watched closely.
- COP16 occurs two years after the country’s first-ever left-wing president was sworn in, pledging to turn Colombia into “a leader in the protection of life,” as his four-year plan centers on energy transition, Indigenous causes and tackling climate change.
- But while praised internationally for his efforts to promote conservation, shift away from fossil fuels and surround himself with green-abiding authorities, Petro remains under pressure, as many of his environmental proposals are still on paper, upholding Colombia’s long-lasting socioenvironmental struggles.
- Experts attribute a lack of sufficient environmental resolutions to various factors, including a Congress resistant to government initiatives, challenges in curbing deforestation and Colombia’s status as the most dangerous country for environmental defenders, as highlighted by recent reports.

New study upends common belief that birds escape winter to save energy (Oct 21 2024)
- Scientists have found Eurasian blackbirds migrating to warmer regions in winter didn’t save more energy compared to members of the same species that stayed behind.
- A recently published study used surgically implanted biologgers to measure the birds’ heart rate and body temperature over the course of the winter.
- The study also found that migrating birds started saving energy for migration by lowering their heart rate and body temperature almost a month before their departure.
- The research raises important questions on why birds migrate if there’s no energy benefit, and where the unaccounted energy is being used instead.

At Mexico’s school for jaguars, big cats learn skills to return to the wild (Oct 21 2024)
- In Oaxaca, southern Mexico, a multidisciplinary team is launching a program to return rescued wildcats to their natural habitat.
- The program is run by the foundation Jaguares en la Selva (Jaguars in the Wild) at the Yaguar Xoo sanctuary, where two wildlife enclosures have been designed for jaguars and pumas to learn to hunt and survive on their own.
- In 2021, the program successfully released two jaguars and is currently working to reintroduce two more jaguars and three pumas back into their natural habitats.

Experts map biodiversity richness on Afro-descendent peoples’ lands (Oct 21 2024)
- A new atlas by Afro-descendent and conservation groups shows that across 15 countries (not including Brazil), Afro-descendant communities have settled on more than 32.7 million hectares (80.8 million acres) of rural lands.
- These communities have developed traditional fishing and farming practices, which allow them to coexist with surrounding biodiversity and contribute to its protection.
- However, very few lands have been titled, and many communities suffer violence and displacement from the expansion of agro-industrial activities and mineral resource extraction on their lands, which will likely intensify with the rising global demand.
- The researchers faced several challenges in their attempt to locate and measure the size of both titled and non-titled Afro-descendant territories due to a lack of technical data.

Cambodian logging syndicate tied to major U.S. wood flooring supply chains (Oct 21 2024)
- Cambodian companies producing engineered hardwood flooring for the U.S. market are getting their timber from a company described as a cartel that’s been repeatedly accused of illegally logging inside protected areas.
- Angkor Plywood is the sole supplier of plywood to flooring manufacturers based in the Sihanoukville Special Economic Zone, and claims the wood comes from its acacia and eucalyptus plantations.
- However, watchdog groups, industry insiders and independent media, including Mongabay, have long documented evidence of Angkor Plywood and its supplier, Think Biotech, felling tropical hardwoods inside Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary.
- AHF Products, which claims to be the biggest U.S. wood flooring manufacturer, runs a factory in the Sihanoukville SEZ, but denies any protected wood entering its supply chain — a claim industry veterans question, given Angkor Plywood’s notoriety.

Revealed: Biomass firm poised to clear Bornean rainforest for dubious ‘green’ energy (Oct 21 2024)
- Indonesia’s strategy for increasing renewable energy production could see Indigenous communities lose huge swathes of their forests to biomass plantations.
- Mongabay visited the planned site of one such project on the island of Borneo, where three villages have signed over at least 5,000 hectares of their land to a biomass company. Much of this area, locals say, is covered in rainforest that would presumably be cleared for the project.
- Despite its billing as sustainable, research has shown that burning woody biomass emits more climate change-causing CO2 than coal per unit of electricity produced. The company in Borneo, moreover, has said it plans to export the wood pellets to be produced on its plantation.
- Villagers we spoke to complained of unfair dealing by the company, from inadequate compensation to outright land grabbing with no payment or consent.

Indigenous territories & peoples are key to achieving COP16’s 30×30 target (commentary) (Oct 18 2024)
- It is just a few days until the beginning of COP16 when countries worldwide will meet to discuss biodiversity protection in Cali, Colombia.
- These discussions cannot happen without considering the role of Indigenous communities in protecting biodiversity and thriving ecosystems, argues a new op-ed by the Solomon Islands Minister for Environment and Colombia’s Technical Secretary at the National Commission of Indigenous Territories.
- “We Indigenous peoples are the best protectors of the environment, and against all odds, we are resisting colonial processes and threats…The negotiators at COP16 must ensure full, effective, and equitable inclusion of Indigenous peoples,” they argue.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Extreme drought wrecks rivers and daily life in Amazon’s most burnt Indigenous land (Oct 18 2024)
- Almost 20% of the Kayapó Indigenous Territory has burned in this year’s Amazon drought, the worst ever recorded in Brazil.
- The land has for years been subjected to illegal mining, cattle ranching and burning of forests, degrading both the soil and rivers and significantly disrupting the way of life for the Mebêngôkre-Kayapó people.
- The Indigenous inhabitants now confront a growing crisis as wildfires and drought threaten their lands, particularly along the Riozinho River.
- According to ecologist Rodolfo Salm, who has worked with the Kayapó since 1996, fire has now surpassed illegal logging as the greatest danger to the region.

Rural-urban migration across the Amazon Basin (Oct 18 2024)
- After 2000, migration from rural to urban areas across the Pan Amazon intensified, as people started moving to either main urban centers or cities in the highlands or on coastlines.
- In Brazil, already by 2000, about 70% of the population was in urban centers. Most of the small and medium-size cities developed alongside extractive or agricultural activities doubled their population between 2000-2010.
- From the early 1990s to early 2000s, in the Colombian Amazon, civil violence boosted the movement of millions of people into cities, while the country’s peace agreement slowed down migration. But land grabbing and incoming rural investors could kickstart another urban population boom.

Fishers & scientists unite to restore seaweed populations on Chilean coast (Oct 18 2024)
- Scientists and fishers in Chile are repopulating a coastal area exposed to high levels of pollution with two species of seaweed that were once abundant in the area.
- The disappearance of the seaweed has formed ocean deserts. Its absence has not only reduced biodiversity but also deprived the area of the ecosystem services that these plants provide.
- Despite considerable challenges, the project already shows signs of hope.

At COP16, conservationists will be neighbors with the legacy of fortress conservation (commentary) (Oct 18 2024)
- This month, the U.N. biodiversity conference, COP16, will be held in Cali, Colombia, at the foothills of Los Farallones de Cali — a national park with a history of “fortress conservation” methods that have displaced local people.
- These methods have generated lasting tensions between state-sponsored conservation groups and the people who reside in and depend on their local environment.
- Illegal gold mining presents complex challenges for conservationists and officials, with even some of the most essential stakeholders in preserving the local environment of Los Farallones becoming involved in its destruction due to economic necessity.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.

Largest dam removal ever, driven by Tribes, kicks off Klamath River recovery (Oct 17 2024)
- The largest dam-removal project in history was completed in October, freeing 676 kilometers (420 miles) of the Klamath River and its tributaries in California and Oregon.
- The project involved removing four dams, built between 1918 and 1964 to provide electricity. They had devastating effects on salmon populations and tribal communities, leading to a decades-long, tribe-led movement for their removal.
- The $450 million project involved complex engineering to remove the dams and, now, to restore the river ecosystem, including replanting native vegetation and reshaping the river channel, incorporating tribal knowledge to improve habitats for salmon and other species.
- The first chinook salmon in more than 60 years are already spawning above the former Iron Gate dam and a fall-run Chinook salmon was identified in Oregon for the first time in more than 100 years. Experts expect coho salmon populations to recover in six to 12 years and Chinook salmon in 15 to 20 years in what was once the third-largest salmon producing river in the contiguous U.S.

Amazon voters elect environmental offenders and climate denialists in Brazil (Oct 17 2024)
- The Amazonian population elected climate change deniers and politicians with a history of environmental fines to govern some of the region’s major cities.
- Pará’s state capital, Belém, which will host COP30 in 2025, may elect a mayor unconcerned about climate change.
- According to experts, opposing illegal activities is political suicide in municipalities whose economies rely on deforestation, illegal mining and illegal logging.

Delay of EU Deforestation Regulation may ‘be excuse to gut law,’ activists fear (Oct 17 2024)
- In a surprise move, the European Commission has proposed a 12-month delay in implementation of the EU’s groundbreaking deforestation law, which was slated to go into effect in January 2025.
- The European Parliament still needs to approve the delay, but is expected to do so. The law is meant to regulate global deforestation caused by a range of commodities from soy to coffee, cattle, cocoa, palm oil, rubber and wood products, including industrial-scale wood pellets burned to make energy.
- Commodity companies, including those in the pellet industry, say the law’s certification requirements are onerous and the 2025 start date is too soon for compliance. The industries are supported by commodities-producing nations such as Brazil, Indonesia and the United States (a primary source of wood pellets).
- Forest campaigners, including those opposing tree harvests for wood pellets, fear that delay of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) will offer commodity companies and exporting nations time to water down the law meant to protect native forests, carbon storage and biodiversity, and delay the worst climate change impacts.

Tiger population census in Bangladesh shows a hopeful upward trend in the Sundarbans (Oct 17 2024)
- The latest tiger population census in Bangladesh, which was done by evaluating camera-trapping data, shows that the country is home to at least 125 adult Bengal tigers.
- The report shows almost a 10% increase since the last census in 2018 in the Sundarbans mangrove forests, which is considered to be Bangladesh’s only remaining habitat for tigers.
- Conservationists attribute this success to the efforts made in the region in recent years, including installing fences and increased patrolling against poaching.

What Indigenous leaders want from the COP16 U.N. biodiversity conference (Oct 17 2024)
- From Oct. 21 to Nov. 1, about 770 Indigenous leaders from around the world are registered to gather at the U.N. biodiversity conference, or COP16, to advocate for the recognition of Indigenous rights as part of the solution to the Earth’s biodiversity crisis.
- Mongabay spoke with several Indigenous delegates attending the conference to gauge what they’re looking for going into the conference.
- The main topics on their agenda include the development of reporting and monitoring mechanisms to ensure Indigenous and traditional peoples’ rights are not neglected in the race to achieve the goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).
- Leaders from Guatemala, Colombia, Peru and other countries also plan to push for the creation of a program of work on Article 8(f) and its provisions, direct access to funding and the recognition and titling of Indigenous and local community lands.

Indonesia investigates suspected corruption in palm oil amnesty program (Oct 17 2024)
- Indonesian prosecutors are investigating suspected corruption in the environment and forestry ministry’s management of oil palm plantations.
- Experts suspect the investigation targets a government program aimed at legalizing illegal oil palm plantations within forest areas and the potential underpayment of fines by companies that operate illegal plantations.
- A combined 3.37 million hectares (8.33 million acres) of oil palm plantations are considered illegal under Indonesian law because they were established on land zoned as forest areas.
- In 2020, the government introduced an amnesty scheme through a hugely controversial law that did away with criminal punishment for illegal plantations and their operators, and instead gave them a grace period of three years to obtain proper permits and official rezoning of their operational areas to non-forest areas; operators were also required to pay fines before they could resume operations, but the calculation used to determine those fines is under scrutiny.

Climate change and agrochemicals pose lethal combo for Amazonian fish (Oct 17 2024)
- A recent study evaluates the impacts on the Amazonian tambaqui fish from simultaneous exposure to a mix of pesticides and an extreme climate change scenario.
- Researchers subjected the fish to higher temperatures and higher atmospheric CO2 levels, as well as a cocktail of two pesticides, a herbicide and a fungicide, all of which are commonly used in farms throughout the Brazilian Amazon.
- The tambaqui’s capacity to metabolize the agrochemicals was found to be compromised in warmer water, and they suffered damage to their liver, nervous system and DNA.
- The study also points to the risks to food safety in the region, where fish are the main protein source: some 400 metric tons of tambaqui are eaten every year in the city of Manaus alone.

Search for new territory led Nepal’s ‘low-altitude’ snow leopard to get lost (Oct 17 2024)
- In January 2024, a snow leopard was found far from its usual high-elevation habitat, roaming in Nepal’s eastern plains — a region that’s the turf of the tiger.
- Researchers now conclude that the snow leopard, around 1.5 to 2 years old, likely lost its way during dispersal, a natural process in which young animals leave their birth area to establish their own territory.
- An analysis of the animal’s scat revealed the snow leopard had fed on blue sheep shortly before it was found, suggesting it had come from a higher altitude and ruling out the possibility that it had escaped from captivity.

Thailand’s budding mangrove restoration plans spark both hope and concern (Oct 17 2024)
- Mangrove restoration projects based on mass tree planting have often proved unsuccessful due to a focus on quantity rather than carefully selecting planting sites or prioritizing long-term social and ecological gains.
- Thailand’s state-led and corporate-funded restoration approaches have typically followed this unsustainable model, prompting critics to call for more ecological and community-based approaches that place more emphasis on natural regeneration.
- Several new national initiatives aim to improve mangrove management in Thailand: A collaborative public-private program called the Thailand Mangrove Alliance aims to bring 30% of Thailand’s mangroves under effective management by 2030.
- However, a new carbon credits initiative that aims to link coastal communities with corporate partners has drawn widespread skepticism from environmental groups, who warn the scheme could effectively transform public forests into corporate lands.

Local NGO RAINS brings relief to Ghana’s semiarid north with regenerative farming (Oct 16 2024)
- An NGO in the semiarid north of Ghana is helping farming communities cope with a range of challenges through initiatives that center social and human rights and build on Indigenous knowledge.
- The Regional Advisory Information and Network Systems (RAINS) promotes regenerative agricultural practices to local farmers, including intercropping, the planting of cover crops, and the use of traditional seeds and compost and manure.
- It also engages typically marginalized groups such as women and youth in community land-use planning, and tackles gender inequality by improving women’s access to savings schemes and microcredit.
- Those working with the NGO say its efforts have had a material impact on improving food security and reducing incidents of fires, and express hope for its sustained support.

Brazil elects record-high number of Indigenous mayors, vice mayors & councilors (Oct 16 2024)
- In Brazil, 256 Indigenous people were elected mayors, vice mayors and city councilors, the highest in the country’s history and an 8% increase compared with 236 elected in the 2020 ballot.
- With 1,635,530 votes, Indigenous candidates were the only group that recorded growth in votes this year, compared with candidates who self-declared white, pardo (brown), Black and Asian, which saw a reduction of around 20% altogether, according to a survey from the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), the country’s main Indigenous association, which used data from the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).
- Increasing representation of Indigenous people elected in municipal ballots is a key move to ensure the fulfillment of Indigenous rights and should pave the way to increase the number of Indigenous people elected in the 2026 state and federal ballots, advocates and activists say.
- However, the municipal election results also showed a gender gap: Indigenous women accounted for just one mayor of a total of nine Indigenous mayors elected, four vice mayors of a total of nine, and 36 of a total of 234 councilors.

The disappearing red ghost crabs of Cox’s Bazar, a conservation crisis in Bangladesh (Oct 16 2024)
- Cox’s Bazar Beach in southeast Bangladesh is known for its vibrant red crab population, which creates a stunning spectacle in the early mornings and late afternoons. However, this natural wonder is now threatened by human activities and environmental degradation.
- Red ghost crabs benefit coastal ecosystems by aerating sand and improving water infiltration, and also as prey species. Their decline threatens the ecosystem health.
- Researchers say a beach management plan is crucial for their protection and restoration. Protected areas like in Kuakata have shown effectiveness in conserving ghost crabs. Raising awareness among local communities is also crucial for successful conservation efforts in Bangladesh.

Forests and the Fate of Civilizations: A Conversation with John Perlin (Oct 16 2024)
- John Perlin’s A Forest Journey explores how forests and wood were fundamental to the rise and fall of civilizations, providing materials for construction, energy, and industry, but also contributing to societal collapse when overexploited.
- The book highlights the recurring pattern of deforestation throughout history, drawing comparisons between ancient civilizations’ mismanagement of forest resources and today’s environmental challenges.
- Hope through forest preservation: Perlin emphasizes that protecting old-growth forests is one of the most effective strategies to combat climate change, urging modern society to learn from the mistakes of the past to avoid further ecological and societal decline.
- Perlin spoke with Mongabay’s Rhett Ayers Butler about his book in a recent interview.