It had to be a snake: New species from Peru named after Harrison Ford
Remember Indiana Jones’ famous line "Snakes! Why’d it have to be snakes?" in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark? That iconic moment has taken on a new twist…
Environmental headlines
Reader-supported news and inspiration from nature's frontline. Mongabay is a non-profit.
Captive coal-fired power plants hinder Indonesia energy transition deal
JAKARTA — Indonesia’s deal with industrialized countries for the latter to channel $20 billion in funding to help speed up the former’s energy transition is hitting a snag due to…
Big promises to Indigenous groups from new global nature fund — but will it deliver?
VANCOUVER — The devastating wildfires in the interior of British Columbia, Canada, in mid-August, forced the province into a state of emergency and gloom. But just a few days later,…
A thriving online market for wild birds emerges in Bangladesh
“As cheap as water” is a common saying in Bangladesh. Despite the fact that water is actually not cheap, salespeople nonetheless love to use the expression to draw the attention…
Hydropower in the Pan Amazon: Río Trombetas and Calha Norte
In 2010, Electronorte initiated the construction of a high-tension (500 kW) transmission line to connect the power plants at Tucuruí and Belo Monte; this line was extended north to the…
Skepticism as Cambodia expands protected areas by more than a million hectares
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A flurry of subdecrees released through the end of July and early August show that the Cambodian government has approved he addition of more than a…
Will Brazil’s Supreme Court rule against Indigenous land rights? (commentary)
A ruling by Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court will determine the future of Brazil's Indigenous peoples and, by extension, the world's forests, biodiversity, and our ability to mitigate the climate crisis.…
South Africa community members decry traditional leaders’ power amid mine plans
MAKHASANENI, South Africa — In a village in the rolling hills of grassland, woodlands and scattered homesteads in South Africa’s picturesque KwaZulu-Natal province, a broil between traditional leaders and community…
Agroecology alliance calls for more food at less cost to nature in Congo Basin
A pan-African coalition of farmers, fishers and others meeting this week in the Democratic Republic of Congo will make the case for reorienting food production systems and agricultural policy across…
Bangladesh to produce lithium batteries, electric vehicles to cut emissions
In order to fulfill its promise of cutting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as part of the country’s nationally determined contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement, Bangladesh is on the way…
New global biodiversity fund to restore nature worldwide by 2030 officially launches
Yesterday, representatives of 185 countries officially agreed to launch a new fund to ramp up investment in meeting major global biodiversity goals. The new Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) was…
‘Catastrophic breeding failure’ for penguins as Antarctic sea ice vanishes
Emperor penguins in the Antarctic are suffering a “catastrophic” breeding failure as the region’s sea ice vanishes, pointing to a grim future for a species highly susceptible to the impacts…
Conservationists work to restore last remnant of a once-great Ugandan forest
Conservationists are working to restore Uganda’s threatened Mabira Central Forest Reserve, a refuge for hundreds of species of birds, mammals and plants in the center of the country. In April,…
Communities not the true threat to Mabira Forest: Q&A with Ugandan conservationist Achilles Byaruhanga
Conservation groups in Uganda are working to protect Mabira Central Forest Reserve, a 30,000-hectare (74,000-acre) forest in the center of the country, close to Lake Victoria. Mabira is a surviving…
REDD+ projects falling far short of claimed carbon cuts, study finds
A study has found that the vast majority of the carbon credits from a set of forest conservation projects on three continents aren’t “offsetting” the emissions of the companies and…
Hydropower in the Pan Amazon: The Tapajós Basin and the prevalence of Indigenous rights
The Tapajós is a clear-water river and the fifth largest tributary of the Amazon; it drops in elevation from about 800 meters above sea level in the highlands of central…
What drives and halts tropical deforestation? Analyzing 24 years of data
With the climate crisis in full swing, world leaders have made pledges to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030. In a new meta-analysis, researchers synthesized the findings of 320…
Oil and gas exploration threatens Bolivian Chaco water supply
Aguaragüe National Park, located in southern Bolivia, is suffering from hydrocarbon exploitation, which has been carried out in this region for more than 100 years. The park’s soils and water…
Hydropower in the Pan Amazon: Belo Monte and the Río Xingu
The most controversial hydropower project in the Pan Amazon is the complex on the Rio Xingu near the city of Altamira (Pará). The proposal to build a dam on the…
‘More research leads to more awareness’: Q&A with fishing cat expert Rama Mishra
KATHMANDU — Fishing cats are among the most elusive and understudied small cats in the world. They’re also among the most threatened, faced with habitat loss, conflict with humans, and…
Journalism’s role in the Nature Crime Alliance (commentary)
Today, more than 20 partners came together to establish the Nature Crime Alliance. This initiative seeks diverse approaches to help address illegal activities that leave our natural world a poorer…
Do virus-detecting ants hold the key to preventing zoonotic diseases?
An international team of researchers is analysing army ants collected in forests in northeastern Gabon, to better understand zoonotic diseases. According to the World Health Organization, Africa experienced a 63%…
Indonesia, Singapore to work more closely against lobster larvae smugglers
BATAM, Indonesia — Indonesian authorities have called on their counterparts in neighboring Singapore to crack down on the illegal lobster larvae trade, given that the city-state is a key hub…
A tale of two biomes as deforestation surges in Cerrado but wanes in Amazon
Brazil has managed to bring down spiraling rates of deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest in the first half of this year, but the neighboring Cerrado savanna has seen a wave of environmental destruction during the same period.
Activists slam coal pollution from Indonesia’s production of ‘clean’ batteries
JAKARTA — As Indonesia positions itself to become a key global hub for electric vehicle batteries, it’s also putting people and the environment at harm through the coal-fired plants powering…
New concession in Botum Sakor National Park handed to Cambodia’s Royal Group
PHNOM PENH — The Cambodian government has awarded another large swath of Botum Sakor National Park to local conglomerate Royal Group, carving out yet more land from this ostensibly protected…
Getting the bread: What’s the environmental impact of wheat?
The story of wheat as a cultivated crop is nearly as old as that of human civilization itself. Few plants have played a bigger role in our history than the…
In the chain of species extinctions, AI can predict the next link to break
About 100 years ago, a predator control program at Yellowstone National Park drove the wolves native to the region extinct. That kicked off the gradual deterioration of the entire ecosystem.…
For Caatinga’s last jaguars and pumas, wind farms are the newest threat
Between March 2017 and January 2018, researchers tracked the movements of a female puma as it prowled around the Boqueirão da Onça protected area complex in the north of Brazil’s…
Indonesia permit payoff raises alarm about palm oil industry corruption
JAKARTA — A million-dollar bribery case in Indonesia’s Riau province, the country’s palm oil heartland, has prompted calls for a wider investigation into corruption between business players and the local…
