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Conservation news

Environmental science and conservation news

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Legal actions to protect the Amazon produce mixed...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/16

Some legal systems have a civil procedure that empowers a group of people to join forces to create a temporary entity (class), which they use to seek judicial redress from another entity, typically a corporation, for harm caused by an incident, product or service. Known as a ‘class action suit’, this type of litigation was […]

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Drone surveys offer early warnings on whale health...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/16

How are whale populations faring? Traditionally, getting an answer to that question involved counting whales by taking their photos and identifying them from their natural markings. However, a caveat persisted. Whales live a long time and reproduce very slowly. That means it often takes “a long time to learn about changes in the population as […]

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Benin puts solar power at the heart of its energy policy

Conservation news ·

2025/10/16

The government of Benin is focusing on building solar power plants as part of a policy to make renewable energy the main source of the country’s energy supply by 2030. When it met in July, the Council of Ministers approved an updated National Renewable Energy Development Policy (PONADER) for 2020-2030. The policy renews the government’s […]

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20 animal species on the road to recovery: IUCN Red...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/16

From three species of Arctic seals to more than half of all birds globally, several animals have slipped closer to extinction, according to the latest update of the IUCN Red List. However, 20 species have seen a positive change in their status: they’ve moved farther away from the threat of extinction, thanks to effective conservation […]

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Bangladesh plans to rehabilitate captive elephants in...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/16

As part of the conservation process for Asian elephants, Bangladesh has taken a new step to retrieve captive elephants from their current owners and rehabilitate them in the wild. According to the Status of Asian Elephants in Bangladesh report, the country has a mean of only 268 resident elephants, with the status of critically endangered, […]

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Nickel mining threatens Raja Ampat ecosystems,...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/16

JAKARTA — In a new report, marine activists are demanding restoration efforts from nickel miners and the Indonesian government for affected areas of Raja Ampat while also urging authorities to enforce the ban on mineral extraction in coastal and small island regions. The recently published paper combines geospatial analysis with field evidence to reveal mounting […]

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Mamai Lucille Williams, a quiet symbol of dignity...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/16

When the miners came, Mamai Lucille Williams was well into her eighties. Her house in Karisparu, a Patamona village high in Guyana’s North Pakaraimas, stood on the same patch of ground where she had lived since childhood. Around it grew cassava, bananas, and fruit trees she had planted herself, each one a small act of […]

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Warmer climate could slash threatened whitebark pine...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/15

Hotter and drier conditions could whittle away 80% of land where whitebark pine grows by the middle of this century, according to a recent study. Scattered across the highest parts of the Rocky Mountains, the Cascades and the Sierra Nevada in the western U.S. and southwestern Canada, the species is a linchpin of alpine ecosystems. […]

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Feel the heat: New app maps heat stress anywhere on...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/15

Wondering how this summer’s blistering heat or last winter’s bone-chilling cold snap compared with previous years? Or want to know how much heat stress climate change is bringing to your area — or in an area you’re planning to move to? There’s an app for that. The new Thermal Trace app allows users to explore […]

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Putumayo’s women guardians defend land and culture...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/15

The Sibundoy Valley in Putumayo, southwestern Colombia, is an ancestral territory inhabited by two sister ethnic groups: the Kamëntšá and the Inga, descendants of the Peruvian Incas. It is also the place where at least four rivers originate, including the Putumayo, which later joins the Caquetá before flowing into the Amazon. The valley is situated […]

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Scientists hope underwater fiber-optic cables can...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/15

SAN JUAN ISLAND, Wash. (AP) — Scientists from the University of Washington recently deployed a little over 1 mile of fiber-optic cable in the Salish Sea to test whether internet cables can monitor endangered orcas. The technology is called Distributed Acoustic Sensing. It transforms cables into continuous underwater microphones that can pinpoint whale locations and […]

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Aloyce Mwakisoma, keeper of forest knowledge in...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/15

He was born in the forests that would later define his life. In Tanzania’s Kilombero Valley, where mist drifts down from the Udzungwa Mountains, young Aloyce Mwakisoma learned the names of plants before he could read their Latin equivalents. His father, once a hunter, became a research assistant after hunting was outlawed in the 1990s, […]

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Diane Keaton, actress and animal advocate, has died,...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/12

Fame, for Diane Keaton, was never an excuse to look away. In a profession built on performance, she turned her gaze outward—to the voiceless and the overlooked. While audiences remember her for Annie Hall’s nervous charm and The Godfather’s quiet strength, animal advocates will remember her for something else: an unflinching compassion that extended well […]

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The hidden environmental cost of psychedelics

Conservation news ·

2025/10/11

The world’s appetite for transcendence is endangering the very organisms that once mediated it. From the Sonoran Desert to the Amazon Basin, plants and animals that produce psychedelic compounds—peyote, ayahuasca vine, iboga, and even a toxin-oozing toad—are under pressure. As psychedelic therapies move from ritual to clinic, their biological sources are succumbing to overharvesting, habitat […]

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In Kenya, a search for links between a changing...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/10

KILIFI, Kenya (AP) — Finding enough food to feed families can be stressful. A changing climate can bring more stress. One project in rural Kenya has been studying the possible effects of climate change on mental health. A survey of nearly 15,000 women produced some concerning signs. They say it appears that droughts and heat […]

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Uphill battle to save California’s endangered...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/10

Earlier this year, 350 endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs hopped into their new home in Bluff Lake in Southern California’s San Bernardino Mountains. It’s the latest step in a long-running battle fought by authorities, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and conservationists to stave […]

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Global treaty to end subsidies for destructive...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/10

A landmark global treaty to curb billions of dollars in government subsidies for overfishing took effect on Sept. 15, Mongabay contributor Elizabeth Fitt reported. The agreement marks the first time the World Trade Organization (WTO) has approved an environmental sustainability agreement in its 30-year history. The deal came into effect after Brazil, Kenya, Tonga and […]

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One after another, Pakistan endures successive...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/10

On the morning of Aug. 15, a cloudburst that poured more than 150 millimeters (6 inches) of rain in one hour triggered a flash flood in the city of Buner, located in Pakistan’s northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. More than 300 people died after the torrents of boulders and mud washed away homes, hotels, restaurants and […]

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Malaysian farmers demand transparency over proposed...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/10

This is Part 2 of a two-part series on proposed changes to Malaysia’s seed laws. Part 1 published Sept. 29 here. In a farmland surrounded by oil palm and rubber plantations in Perak, in northwestern Malaysia, a coconut sapling lies on the ground. Its young leaves stand upright and are still fused. Farmer Mohd Naim […]

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IUCN downgrades guiña threat status, prompting...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/10

The guiña, a small cat species found only in Chile and northern Argentina, has just been reclassified as of least concern by the IUCN. Until recently it was listed as vulnerable to extinction. Normally such a downgrading in threat status would be cause for celebration, but in this case some conservationists are hesitant. “It’s not […]

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