Mongabay · Page 39

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…

MU KOH SURIN, Thailand — Ngui slips beneath the waves, his movements effortless and precise. He’s done this thousands of times, diving deep to find fish and crustaceans hiding beneath the coral shelves of the Andaman Sea. His catch today is different. A…

NAIROBI ― Grassland restoration, which uses nature-based solutions for climate adaptation, can help farmers adapt to climate change by improving human security through reducing conflicts, which may lessen retaliatory actions against wildlife, according to a…

The government of Guinea has issued an environmental compliance certificate to an Australian company to go ahead with its plan to mine gold within an area that’s home to critically endangered western chimpanzees. In January, Guinea’s Ministry of the…

Protected areas in tropical forests may not be enough on their own to safeguard local mammal species, especially when there are human settlements nearby, a new study finds. “Wherever human pressure is high, mammal populations suffer, even in areas meant to…

In 2023, Will Burrard-Lucas, a U.K.-based photographer who specializes in high-definition camera-trapping, set up cameras at four sites in the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, a 4,000-square-kilometer (1,545-square-mile) expanse of lowland rainforest in the…

The Madras hedgehog, found only in southern India, is considered a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List of threatened species. However, this elusive spiny species is poorly understood, and its population is largely unknown, reports Mongabay India’s…

MEKAR RAYA, Indonesia — Yulius Yogi kneels under the forest canopy here on the island of Borneo, surveying land he plans to reclaim for his Dayak Simpan Indigenous community. “Our ancestors safeguarded [the forest], now it’s our responsibility to look…

As natural pollinators, Cambodia’s native honey bees are key to the survival of the country’s forests and farms. But these species are at a conservation crossroads, warns a recent study that foreshadows the risks of leaving growing threats unaddressed.…

On Feb. 25, the World Agroforestry Center (CIFOR-ICRAF) deposited seeds representing tree species of special value to communities across Africa in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The 19 species represented included 13 native to Africa and six others that have…

Camera traps installed in December 2024 in a community conservation area in the Niger Delta have captured the first videos of elusive and critically endangered red colobus monkeys. The news comes after years of community efforts to protect their habitat…

Not all elephants are the same. A new study has found that male African savannah elephants (Loxodonta africana) develop distinctive personality traits as they age. “We wanted to know whether male elephants have distinct characters and found that not only do…

Lawmakers in Colombia are considering new regulations that would make it easier to track the movement of cattle as they’re bought and sold, with the goal of controlling illegal deforestation connected to grazing pasture. The law would improve a digital…

A new study has used camera-trap footage and scent analysis to confirm the unusual relationship between an African melon and the aardvark, an elusive ant-eating mammal found in sub-Saharan Africa. Cucumbers and similar melon-like plants generally display their…

SARLAHI, Nepal — In 1984, Bharat Kumar Pokhrel was a young forester with a mission to turn theory into practice. Fresh out of forestry school, he joined Nepal’s Sagarnath Forest Development Project. Primarily based in Sarlahi district and extending into…

Ever since the Cobre Panamá mine was forced to shut down in 2023, the copper mine’s infrastructure has been eroding away in a biodiverse jungle on Panama’s Atlantic coast — a situation researchers say is all too common. Without proper maintenance,…

Home to one-third of all mangroves globally, Southeast Asia has outsize potential to lock away greenhouse gases in these carbon-dense ecosystems. But deforestation for a range of commodities, cyclone damage, and rising sea levels severely jeopardize the…

The battle over the fate of the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) was arguably the biggest forest story in 2024. It turns out, coffee played a dark and bitter role in that struggle. Under the EUDR, companies wanting to sell to the EU market…

JAKARTA — The Indonesian government and civil society have signed a joint statement, marking a shared commitment to fast-track agrarian reform in the country. The joint statement was signed by various ministries on Feb. 19 during the first day of the Asia…

The presence of the Balbina hydroelectric dam in the Brazilian Amazon led to the local extinction of several endemic fish species in the Uatumã River, according to research from the National Institute for Amazonian Research (INPA) and its partners.…