Mongabay · Page 70

Spanning nearly a tenth of the vast Congo Basin’s rainforest, the transboundary Dja-Odzala-Minkébé (TRIDOM) landscape is a nearly unbroken green canopy, stretching across Cameroon, the Republic of Congo and Gabon. Human population density and deforestation…

EL VENADO, Colombia – Until recently, the rolling green hills surrounding the tiny Colombian community of El Venado were covered with illegal coca plantations. Deep in the southern state of Putumayo and away from state control, Graciela Castillo– like many…

As climate change wreaks increasingly devastating droughts, hurricanes and storms, preserving the world’s remaining large blocks of standing forest has become a matter of survival. However, 47 million hectares (116 million acres) of forest in the Brazilian…

Rosalba Gomez says she remembers many fires throughout her childhood: bright orange flames feeding on the natural grasslands surrounding her community, engulfing homes, trees and animals. Her parents spent hours in their food garden, known as kokúe, where…

In the Orinoco River Basin spanning Venezuela and Colombia, biodiversity and agriculture are at odds. Cattle ranching is one of the leading causes of deforestation in Colombia’s Orinoquía and the wider Amazon, degrading habitat for wildlife in the region.…

In a landmark ruling in May 2017, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights affirmed the Indigenous Ogiek’s status as ancestral owners of the Mau Forest in Kenya and ordered the government to compensate the group for both material and moral losses,…

Scientists agree that the biodiversity crisis we face today may be one of the most disruptive events in Earth’s history. The response so far has been for hundreds of billions in government and philanthropic donor funds – along with trillions in private…

There have been three major sources of Brazilian immigrants in the twentieth century: the Northeast, where emigration offers one of the few realistic opportunities to escape poverty; the South, where middle-class families embraced an opportunity to continue a…

Residents of the Carteret Islands in Papua New Guinea are on a “green migration,” contributor Thibault Le Pivain reports for Mongabay.  The islanders are leaving their homes due to food shortages resulting from environmental degradation and rising sea…

India is bracing for intense rainfall over the next few days as a deep depression over the Bay of Bengal is set to intensify into what will be called Cyclone Fengal by Nov. 29, according to local media reports.  The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said…

KATHMANDU — Authorities in Nepal say they’ll continue a translocation program to even out the distribution of rhinos in the popular Chitwan National Park, despite protests from tourism operators and concerns from conservationists. The greater one-horned…

Encompassing some 2,700 square kilometers, Mau Forest is considered the most important water catchment in western Kenya, providing water to millions of people. But recent satellite data reveal that Mau is continuing to lose its water-giving forest cover. Most…

Mangrove forests still line most of Guinea-Bissau’s fringing shoreline along West Africa’s Atlantic coast, a protective green halo along the many bays and estuaries. Uniquely evolved for the interface between land and sea, mangroves are a nursery for…

A mass fish die-off in Brazil’s Amazon River region has killed an estimated 20-30 metric tons of fish and other aquatic animals, following one of the worst droughts in Amazonian history. On the night of Nov. 12, fishers from the riverine community of…

MEXICO CITY — Officials in Mexico said they’re considering allocating 1% of the military budget for a countrywide tree planting program, with the aim of restoring forests and combatting climate change. President Claudia Sheinbaum proposed dedicating $24…

    Banner image of recycling workers, © Marahalim Siagian via Flickr.                  This article was originally published on Mongabay

HUMAITÁ, Brazil — When we arrive at the first site in the Madeira River, researchers from Amazonas State University (UEA) and Harvard position themselves at the stern and bow of the voadeira, an aluminum speedboat, to collect samples. The vessel floats 15…

December 2009, Copenhagen, three in the morning. Tired of waiting for any official announcement from the COP15 presidency, a journalist friend and I decided to sleep right there in the convention center. Me on the chair, him on the table! Like us, others were…

What’s new:  One of the world’s rarest carnivores, the Ethiopian wolf, enjoys snacking on flower nectar, a new study has found. This wolf is, in fact, the first large carnivore documented feeding on nectar and leaving with a pollen-laden nose and mouth,…

Technologies like camera traps and drones have made monitoring wildlife in forests easier than ever. However, a new study has found that in a protected area in northern India, these devices also end up watching and harassing women who use those forest spaces.…