WORLD RAINFOREST
By Rhett A. Butler Last updated Aug 14, 2020
The Tropical Rainforest - information on tropical forests, deforestation, and biodiversity
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Women in Ghana plant ‘diversion’ trees to protect shea trees and their livelihoods (Mar 8 2025)
- For International Women’s Day, Mongabay puts a spotlight on a community forest restoration effort to protect Ghana’s shea trees, which are economically and ecologically important species for the country.
- The majority of participants are women, as they traditionally play a central role in every part of the value chain, from harvesting shea nuts to producing shea butter.
- The people from Yazori and Mognoni have so far planted over 53,000 seedlings over about 158 hectares of land to divert attention away from indigenous shea trees, which locals increasingly cut down for charcoal and firewood.
- The other trees have many benefits over shea species, like growing faster and being more resistant to fires, but shea trees still produce more efficient charcoal and women depend on the project to pay for new seedlings.
Initiative sets sights on rewilding three New Zealand islands (Mar 7 2025)
Three New Zealand islands will join an international initiative to remove invasive species and restore native wildlife. With the addition of Maukahuka (Auckland) Island, Rakiura (Stewart) Island and Chatham Island, the Island-Ocean Connection Challenge (IOCC) will now have 20 ongoing projects aimed at restoring and rewilding 40 globally significant island-ocean ecosystems by 2030. “New Zealand’s […]
Brazil communities accuse companies of ‘green grabbing’ for wind energy (Mar 7 2025)
- In Brazil, community residents say the Italian energy company Enel and the Brazilian Maestro Holding de Energia have stripped them of their territory in order to pursue renewable energy projects.
- Experts call this trend “green grabbing,” a process by which energy companies obtain access to large swaths of common land to produce clean renewable energy.
- A months long investigation uncovered multiple potential cases involving land-grabbing by companies that acquire public land used by residents, exploiting the fact that many people in these areas don’t have documents to prove they own a piece of land and don’t officially register the geographical boundaries of the territories they occupy or own.
- While no source interviewed by this investigation contested the importance of renewable energies, experts, Indigenous and traditional communities, policymakers and government officials all agreed that doing so must account for the social and political realities of local residents.
Farmers in Nepal and India see red as blue bulls raid their crops (Mar 7 2025)
- The uncontrolled proliferation of nilgai antelopes (also known as blue bulls) in Nepal’s southern plains has forced many farmers to abandon agriculture due to severe crop damage.
- Nilgai numbers have risen rapidly due to reduced hunting and lack of predators, yet no scientific consensus exists on the exact cause for the population boom.
- Farmers are demanding classification of nilgais as an agricultural pest to allow control measures, but authorities are slow to act, citing the need for further studies.
- Potential solutions being touted include relocating nilgais to tiger habitats, clearing away invasive weeds so the animals don’t venture into farms to feed, and allowing controlled hunting — though experts say killing nilgais isn’t a sustainable solution.
Collaboration, data and tracking move Africa’s Great Green Wall toward its goal (Mar 7 2025)
- After years of delays due to insufficient funding and prevailing conflicts, the Great Green Wall in the Sahel, aimed at preventing desertification, gained momentum with an accelerator program announced in 2021.
- As part of the accelerator, efforts are underway to address delays, improve monitoring progress of different projects that are part of the GGW initiative, track them by country, and evaluate their effectiveness, including building a new online database.
- GGW partners say they hope the harmonized monitoring and progress tracking can help sustain funding and realize the objectives of the ambitious initiative in the Sahel.
DRC conflict so far ‘devastating’ to Indigenous lands & people: Interview with Samuel Ade Ndasi (Mar 7 2025)
- Many Indigenous groups have been forced to flee from armed groups that have invaded their territories and are carrying out extractive activities in eastern DR Congo.
- Human rights organizations, including Minority Rights Group (MRG), have documented reports of killings and violence orchestrated against the Batwa and Bambuti, whom armed groups suspect by are aiding the government forces.
- Most of these Indigenous communities do not receive benefits or money from the mining activities occurring on their traditional lands, Samuel Ade Ndasi of Minority Rights Group says. Some community members are being used as forced labor in some of the mining activities.
- Mongabay interviews Ndasi, who says armed groups like the M23 must respect of all the norms of international law and ensure that Indigenous peoples are not forcefully displaced from their ancestral territories.
The environmental toll of the M23 conflict in eastern DRC (Analysis) (Mar 7 2025)
- The escalating armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has had significant — and overlooked — environmental impacts. The rate of tree cover loss in Kahuzi-Biega and Virunga National Parks has sharply increased since the conflict reignited in late 2021.
- Armed groups, both state and non-state, have profited by taxing the illegal charcoal and timber trade coming from inside these protected areas.
- Yet the impacts are complex: the broader geopolitical context also provides incentives for the M23 group to support conservation efforts in order to project themselves as providers of good governance in the region.
- This article is an analysis. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.
As Sri Lanka’s rail tracks continue to claim elephant lives, experts suggest solutions (Mar 7 2025)
- In Sri Lanka, wild elephants are often killed in train collision accidents along certain railway stretches. A recent accident killed seven elephants, highlighting the enormity of this issue.
- While train-related elephant deaths account for only about 5% of total fatalities, these deaths are mostly preventable and evoke both public attention and anger.
- Various solutions — like reducing the speed of trains in identified collision hotspots, considered the most effective response — have been proposed over the years, but haven’t been successfully implemented.
- Researchers suggest construction of underpasses at collision hotspots, but these plans haven’t gone through due to financial constraints.
Indonesia seeks alternative funding as USAID freeze delays marine conservation efforts (Mar 7 2025)
- The Trump administration’s freeze on foreign aid, including USAID funding, has delayed several marine conservation programs in Indonesia, impacting projects like the Coral Triangle Initiative.
- Officials from Indonesia’s fisheries ministry acknowledge the impact, noting that long-term plans must now be adjusted while alternative funding sources are sought to sustain conservation efforts.
- While the suspension has left many projects in limbo, experts stress that it should not lead to program failure; instead, it presents an opportunity to explore more creative and sustainable financing mechanisms, such as impact investments and non-cash financing models.
Rich nations fuel global biodiversity loss at ‘disproportionate’ scale, study finds (Mar 7 2025)
High-income nations are wiping out wildlife far beyond their own borders by outsourcing their production of food and timber, according to a new study that shows their demand for these commodities fuels 15 times more habitat destruction overseas than at home. Researchers found that wealthy nations account for 13% of global forest habitat loss outside […]
Indonesia families evicted for Jakarta PIK2 project flooded at relocation site (Mar 7 2025)
- The peak of the rainy season in Indonesia has caused damage across much of the archipelago, with major landslides in forested uplands.
- On the north coast of Jakarta’s greater metropolitan area, families displaced by an upscale property development were relocated to a site that later flooded.
- A landslide in January killed 26 people in one village in Central Java province, while a married couple were swept away last week in a flash flood in a nearby community.
- Research predicts annual rainfall could increase 10% in volume by 2050 in Indonesia, while incidents of extreme rain could become more frequent.
What have we learned from 15 years of REDD+ policy research? (analysis) (Mar 7 2025)
- The Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation program (REDD+) is supposed to provide participating countries, jurisdictions and communities in the Global South with incentives to protect their forests.
- This analysis draws on more than a decade of comparative research and identifies a broad array of actors involved in REDD+, with large power differences between them. The authors argue that the power imbalances among these groups are obstructing progress toward shifting away from “business-as-usual” deforestation in the tropics.
- The ambition for sustainable forest “transformation” is at risk of being co-opted by those who stand to benefit from maintaining the status quo, and the authors say it is therefore important for the research community to keep asking what proposed reforms and changes may represent, and whom they serve.
- This article is an analysis. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.
New species of parrot snake described in Brazil’s threatened Cerrado (Mar 6 2025)
A new species of parrot snake lay undetected for nearly nine years in a scientific collection in Brazil. It closely resembled related species with bright green and yellow tones. But one detail set it apart: a bold black stripe running across its snout, like a mustache. When scientists took a closer look, they suspected it […]
Mangroves at risk as El Salvador begins work on new airport (Mar 6 2025)
- Officials broke ground last week on the Airport of the Pacific near the coastal town of La Unión, in eastern El Salvador, where mangrove ecosystems support wildlife and prevent coastal erosion.
- While the project could bring thousands of jobs to an undeveloped part of the country, it could also lead to massive development where coastal habitats currently protect drinking water for local communities.
- The airport is part of President Nayib Bukele’s plan to invest over a billion dollars into the eastern side of the country.
Forest biomass growth to soar through 2030, impacting tropical forests (Mar 6 2025)
- The forest biomass industry — cutting forests to make wood pellets to be burned in power plants — will continue booming through 2030, says a new report. By then, pellets made in the U.S., Canada, EU and Russia could top 31 million metric tons annually, with those made in tropical nations surging to over 11 million tons yearly.
- The U.K. and EU are forecast to go on burning huge amounts of pellets (more than 18 million metric tons each year by 2030). But Asia will burn even more (27 million tons), with Japan and South Korea expanding use, as Taiwan enters the market.
- Scientists warn that forest biomass burning is unsustainable and produces more CO2 emissions than coal per unit of energy generated. Pellet-making is contributing to deforestation and biodiversity loss in North America, and will increasingly do so in tropical nations, including Vietnam, Brazil, Indonesia and Malaysia.
- Forest advocates continue campaigning against biomass for energy, achieving some hard-won victories. Enviva, the world’s largest biomass producer, went bankrupt in 2024, while South Korea and Japan have taken first steps to reduce subsidies for wood pellets. But the U.K. continues offering millions in subsidies to biomass power plants.
Yaku Raymi: The Quechua Ritual to Save a Glacier (Mar 6 2025)
SANTA FE, Peru — What happens when a glacier dies? In the community of Santa Fe, in Peru, water is disappearing, animals are dying due to a lack of pasture and rainfall has become sporadic. The community members know that climate change is affecting the apu, or mountain god, but they say that transforming a […]
Ugandan researcher wins ‘Emerging Conservationist’ award for work on golden cats (Mar 6 2025)
- Ugandan conservationist Mwezi Badru Mugerwa has been awarded the Indianapolis Prize’s Emerging Conservationist Award for 2025.
- Mugerwa has dedicated the past 15 years working with local communities to stop the poaching of the African golden cat (Caracal aurata), a species endemic to West and Central Africa.
- He and his team at conservation organization Embaka are also using camera traps and artificial intelligence tools to monitor and survey the population of the species, and to gauge the impact of their work.
New setbacks for Peruvian Amazon reserve put uncontacted tribes at risk (Mar 6 2025)
- Since 2003, Indigenous organizations have been calling for the establishment of Yavarí Mirim, an extensive reserve for hundreds of isolated Indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon.
- The reserve is heavily disputed by extractive industries for its logging and oil and gas drilling potential.
- Experts are concerned that a recent delay will endanger Indigenous groups, as their territory is increasingly encroached on by loggers and illegal drug traffickers.
In the drylands of northern Kenya, a ‘summer school’ for young researchers (Mar 6 2025)
- In northern Kenya’s Isiolo county, young researchers who study pastoralism gathered for a week of training and lectures.
- Most of the researchers were from East Africa; many were themselves raised in pastoralist communities.
- Isiolo county, a semiarid rangeland where most people make their living herding livestock, has been hit hard by drought in recent years.
- The researchers said they wanted to change the “old narrative” about pastoralist communities and their relationship to the environment.
Facing possible eviction, North Sumatra farmers contest palm oil giant (Mar 6 2025)
JAKARTA, Indonesia — An Indonesian palm oil company suspended evictions of several hundred farmers from the northern Sumatra subdistrict of Aek Kuo following an eleventh-hour court reprieve. On Feb. 20, a local court issued an eviction order authorizing PT Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology (SMART) to establish an oil palm plantation on 83.5 […]
Indonesian court blocks palm oil expansion, but leaves Indigenous land rights in limbo (Mar 6 2025)
- Indonesia’s Supreme Court has upheld the government’s decision to block further expansion of the Tanah Merah oil palm project in Papua, preserving a Jakarta-sized swath of primary rainforest.
- The ruling strengthens the forestry ministry’s authority to halt deforestation and was influenced by testimonies from the Indigenous Awyu tribe, who rely on the forest for survival.
- While the decision prevents further clearing, it doesn’t grant Indigenous land rights to the Awyu, leaving the tribe vulnerable to future displacement.
- Other companies are vying for control over concessions within the Tanah Merah project, fueling further conflicts and prompting Indigenous groups to seek formal land rights recognition.
‘Without us, no scrutiny’: Indonesia’s independent media count cost of US funding cuts (Mar 6 2025)
- U.S. funding cuts abruptly ended reporting initiatives on environmental issues in Indonesia, affecting independent journalism outlets like Remotivi, New Naratif and Project Multatuli.
- The loss of nearly $270 million in global journalism support leaves independent media scrambling to cover environmental and human rights issues.
- Shrinking newsroom budgets and government restrictions have already weakened investigative journalism in Indonesia, now worsened by the U.S. aid cuts.
- Facing uncertainty, media groups are pushing to diversify revenue streams and reduce reliance on foreign grants to sustain independent reporting.
Liberia to start industrial shrimp fishing, worrying artisanal fishers (Mar 5 2025)
- Liberia plans to expand industrial bottom trawling in the country by authorizing a new fishery for high-value shrimp.
- However, the government has released few details about the plan, including how much shrimp it will allow the new fishery to exploit, when the trawling would begin, or how it would be regulated.
- The country’s umbrella organization for artisanal fishers casts the move as a threat to the livelihoods, safety and food security of Liberia’s more than 57,000 artisanal fishers, as well as to the country’s marine life.
‘Misguided & lazy’ staff cuts at NOAA will hurt global science, experts warn (Mar 5 2025)
The Trump administration recently fired roughly 800 probationary employees from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Former NOAA workers warn that these cuts will have global repercussions, affecting nations and industries that rely on NOAA’s freely available data. NOAA collects and shares data, from the depths of the ocean to outer space and […]
Researchers track Florida’s crocodiles to increase acceptance amid urbanization (Mar 5 2025)
Researchers in Florida, U.S., have attached satellite transmitter tags on 15 crocodiles to learn more about their movement patterns in urbanized areas. Through the multi-year study, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), aims to better understand the behavior of American crocodiles (Crocodylus acutus) to help minimize human-wildlife conflict. Native to south Florida and […]