In Indonesia’s Flores, a lifelong bamboo flautist looks to the next generation
NGADA, Indonesia — Marselus Selu wanted to be a musician from an early age, but he didn’t have the money back then to buy a flute. Today, he’s a master…
Environmental headlines
Reader-supported news and inspiration from nature's frontline. Mongabay is a non-profit.
Of Yetis and extinct turtles: Top wildlife discoveries in Nepal in 2022
KATHMANDU — Throughout 2022, Mongabay reported on important biodiversity-related scientific discoveries in Nepal. The stories, some of them republished by different media outlets in Nepal and abroad, brought the country’s…
Shadows of oil in Peru: Shipibo people denounce damage, contamination left by company
On an iron grill, six catfish are almost ready to eat. Hilda Rodríguez crouches to move the firewood and stoke the fire. She flips over the inguiris — green bananas…
Fighting wildlife trafficking in Peru: Q&A with prosecutor Alberto Caraza
Earlier this month, faced with a third impeachment attempt, former Peru President Pedro Castillo announced that he would be suspending congress, writing a new constitution and ruling by decree. But…
The Netherlands to stop paying subsidies to ‘untruthful’ biomass firms
A Mongabay story featuring a whistleblower who debunked the green claims of Enviva — the world’s largest wood pellet maker — has prompted the Dutch to ban subsidies to biomass firms who make false sustainability claims.
Mongabay Explains: What’s all the brouhaha over bottom trawling?
When it comes to news about fishing, bottom trawling sparks some of the most dramatic stories. In September, for instance, Greenpeace activists took it upon themselves to drop 18 boulders…
‘We are digital guerrilla fighters’: Q&A with young Indigenous activist Samela Sateré Mawé
“Nothing for us without us.” On a video published on Instagram by the Fundação Amazônia Sustentável (FAS – Sustainable Amazon Foundation), Samela Sateré Mawé, a young activist, appears in a…
10 notable books on conservation and the environment published in 2022
It’s too easy nowadays to look at the state of the world and feel a sense of hopelessness. Scientists tell us we face not one but two potentially existential menaces…
Guatemala landfill feeds ‘trash islands’ hundreds of miles away in Honduras
GUATEMALA CITY — After heavy rains, hotel workers and other residents in Honduras walk up and down beaches picking up everything from plastic bottles to toys to medical waste. They’ve…
Tobacco: Vaping and smoking drive environmental harm from farm to fingertip
The tobacco supply chain has harmful consequences for forests, oceans and the climate, and also for farmers and their families who produce the crop — all to an extent that is not yet fully known.
Unsustainable fishing to be banned in Irrawaddy dolphin’s Bornean sanctuary
JAKARTA — One of the most threatened population of Irrawaddy dolphins in Asia is set to get a much-needed reprieve as officials in Indonesia roll out a ban on unsustainable…
Mongabay’s ‘must listen’ podcast list for 2022
Exploring New Guinea’s extraordinary natural and cultural richness Kicking off our third season of Mongabay Explores was an episode detailing the complexities of one of the world’s most biodiverse regions,…
California’s network of marine protected areas must be strengthened and expanded (commentary)
California’s iconic coastline has long captivated the world’s imagination. Beyond its shores, hidden beneath the waves, stretches a vast, mysterious wilderness containing some of the most diverse ecosystems on the…
Mexican restoration dominated by non-environmental interests
With its towering natural walls, Sumidero Canyon National Park is one of the main tourist attractions in Chiapas state in southern Mexico. Protecting mostly dry tropical forest — one of…
In Liberia, a gold boom leads to unregulated mining and ailing rivers
The waterways that frame the town of Sam Beach in Liberia's Rivercess County once served as a lifeline for local people, providing them with fish as well as clean water…
Strong marine protected areas credited with manta ray surge in Indonesia
Ocean-dwelling sharks and rays, including the majestic reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi), have declined globally by an estimated 71% since 1970 due to fishing. But a new study of reef…
Landmark bill will ban the shark fin trade in the US
The United States Senate recently passed legislation that will ban the shark fin trade, a largely unregulated industry impacting millions of sharks, within the U.S. On Dec. 15, policymakers approved…
Gold mining invades remote protected area in Ecuador
The city of Lago Agrio, which lies in the province of Sucumbíos in northern Ecuador’s Amazonian region, is considered the country’s oil capital. It also sits in the midst of…
Australia rejects forest biomass in first blow to wood pellet industry
An existing regulation designating the burning of forests to make energy as being renewable has been reversed in Australia. That decision seems unlikely to alter the EU’s heavy commitment to biomass burning.
Crafting Nepal’s conservation success: Q&A with Sharad Chandra Adhikary
KATHMANDU — The National Trust for Nature Conservation was set up in 1982 as a semi-governmental body to spearhead conservation activities in Nepal. Today, it manages some of the most…
From bombs to seasonal closure, Indonesian fishers move toward sustainability
KAHU-KAHU, Indonesia — Fishers in this village on the northwestern tip of Selayar Island, in eastern Indonesia’s South Sulawesi province, are a fortnight into a community experiment. For three months,…
Wildlife at risk in Bangladesh as roads run rampant through protected forests
READER ADVISORY: This story contains images of dead wildlife that some viewers may find disturbing. Two Asian elephants trundle along the rail tracks. From the window of the train, Phileas…
Plastic pellet pollution can end through coordinated efforts, report shows
The building blocks of almost all plastic items on the planet are little lentil-sized petrochemical-derived pellets, called nurdles, that are melted together and shaped to create larger plastic products. These…
Up to half of tropical forestland cleared for agriculture isn’t put to use, research shows
Agriculture is gradually killing forests, and yet up to half of tropical forestland in Africa, Latin America and Asia cleared for agriculture remains idle, according to research published in the…
Ebola-like African primate viruses ‘poised for spillover’ to humans, study finds
A family of viruses that can cause fatal Ebola-like symptoms that is also a critical threat to macaque populations is now “poised for spillover” to humans, a new report reveals.…
Podcast: Into the Wasteland, part 3: Buried in Europe’s recycling
We all send our recycling somewhere for proper handling, but the operation of one such handling center in Poland makes one ask, is it being done right, or at all?…
Extinct sea cow’s underwater engineering legacy lives on today, study finds
On a Russian-led expedition in the northern Pacific Ocean in the 1740s, German botanist Georg Wilhelm Steller laid eyes on a species that captured his imagination. It looked like a…
Coffee capsules: Brewing up an (in)convenient storm of waste
In 2015, an anonymous user posted a video on YouTube titled “Kill the K-cup.” In shaky footage, the video shows a city overrun by a monster composed of coffee capsules,…
Brazil’s Pantanal is at risk of collapse, scientists say
Record fires, climate change, large-scale agriculture, deforestation and a proposed industrial waterway collectively threaten the world’s largest tropical wetland — a biodiversity hotspot and home to jaguars.
Better livestock health reduces carbon emissions (commentary)
Among the ambitious commitments made at COP27 were plans for a methane monitoring satellite system that would improve tracking in the energy sector where the majority of global greenhouse gas…
