Mongabay · Page 38

The distribution of public land has, at one time or another, been official government policy in almost every Amazonian jurisdiction. Some epochs and jurisdictions favoured small holdings over large estates and vice versa, but the entire process, and the system…

The Kimberley, the northernmost region of Australia’s largest jurisdiction, Western Australia, is remote and difficult to access due to its rugged terrain. With a permanent population of just 40,000 in an area roughly the size as California, it has become…

Aotearoa New Zealand spent years spearheading the introduction of a new set of rules governing bottom trawling in the South Pacific Ocean, which more than a dozen countries adopted by consensus in 2023. But under a new government, the country has now blocked…

Officials in Suriname are considering legislation that would finally establish territorial rights for Indigenous and Tribal communities. But not everyone is happy with the language of the bill, and some are even hoping it will fail to pass. Recent changes to a…

On the fifth day after the burial of their chief, Seru Moce, 66, and other clan members gathered for a meeting to decide what portion of the sea to protect in memory of their deceased leader. For generations, Indigenous iTaukei people in Fiji have not only…

NAIROBI ― Temperature can increase bee colony loss in dry, hot and wet seasons, but a study has found that beekeepers practicing water provision to the bees experience up to 10% less decrease. The yearlong research conducted among bee farmers in Kenya…

Women make up nearly half of India’s marine fisheries workforce, yet policies to strengthen the country’s blue economy are leaving women behind, reports contributor Priyamvada Kowshik for Mongabay India. India’s draft blue economy policy framework aims…

When illegal miners started invading their land seven years ago, many Yanomami felt helpless. How can you surveil a territory the size of Portugal in a remote area of the northern Amazon with no police, planes or technology? Around 20,000 illegal garimpeiros,…

In March 2023, Tropical Cyclone Freddy hit Malawi, unleashing six months of rain in six days. Freddy was the largest and longest-lasting tropical cyclone ever recorded, and the impacts were catastrophic. In Malawi, more than 600 people died, and more than…

The first time 52-year-old Juliana Balweg-Baawa switched on the light in her home, she jumped for joy. “My children can study at night!” Balweg-Baawa, a native of Mataragan village in the rugged Cordillera mountains in the northern Philippines, relied on…

Mountain bongos, one of the largest and rarest species of antelope in the world, are endemic to Kenya. However, so few of the animals remain in their native habitat that the Kenyan government has launched an ambitious effort to gather the animals from zoos and…

Between 600 and 1,500 years ago, Indigenous people of the seasonally flooded savannas in the Bolivian Amazon created an advanced farming system that allowed them to grow corn throughout the year, according to a study published in Nature. These findings…

The global chocolate industry is worth roughly $100 billion per year and provides income for upwards of 6 million smallholder farmers in the tropics. It’s a vital industry for much of the world, but a new study finds cacao production is limited by two…

Tree-planting has become a go-to tool for taking carbon out of the atmosphere and repairing deforested habitats. And indeed, reforestation — planting trees or fostering tree regrowth in historically forested areas — is the most beneficial option, according…

On Feb. 13, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to suspend a cooperation agreement with Rwanda on a trio of minerals critical to the clean energy transition, citing their links to the ongoing violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The so-called…

DENPASAR, Indonesia — Conservation foundations on the Indonesian island of Bali raised concerns in February over the volume of live sea turtles seized from traffickers so far this year. “The number of turtles smuggled shows that the main purpose isn’t…

Four NGOs recently appealed to the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) to have their concerns about a contentious oil pipeline heard on merit. The landmark case, filed four years ago, had previously been dismissed on technical grounds. The four East African…

On a night in 1997, Benjamin Dauda killed a gorilla for the first time. Shrouding his lanky frame in dark fog, he stalked a foraging troop, finally dispatching his bullet on his mark. It was a giant male, he says, struck in the chest. “When I came close to…

The koala was officially declared endangered in the Australian state of New South Wales in February 2022. A year later, the Labor Party promised to create a 315,000-hectare (778,000-acre) Great Koala National Park to protect the iconic species in the state…

In his first week in office back in 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden signed a historic commitment to conserve 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030. Two years later, the world agreed to a similar commitment with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity…