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Forest sanctuaries and spiritual balance in the Karen...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/22

HUAY EE KHANG, Thailand — “Do you hear the birds calling?” asks Noraeri Thungmueangthong, as the vibrant trill of a blue-throated barbet rings through the pine trees looming up ahead. “That’s a sign we’re entering the sacred forest.” Noraeri is a leader in Huay Ee Khang village, an Indigenous Pgaz K’Nyau Karen community of 125 […]

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Forest Declaration Assessment reveals a forest paradox

Conservation news ·

2025/10/22

The world’s forests tell two stories at once. Even as chainsaws advance, new trees are rising in their wake. More than 11 million hectares of tropical moist forest—an area roughly the size of Cuba—were in some stage of natural regrowth between 2015 and 2021, according to the Forest Declaration Assessment 2025. Latin America shows the most dramatic […]

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Indigenous guardians successfully keep extractives...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/22

PAKAYAKU TERRITORY, Ecuador — Deep in the heart of Ecuador’s Amazon, where the Bobonaza River winds through ancient forests in Pastaza province, Sacha Gayas spreads out a hand-drawn map across her wooden kitchen table. Her fingers, stained with the rich earth of her homeland, trace the boundaries of 71,000 hectares (175,000 acres) of lands that her […]

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EU proposes soft delay of anti-deforestation law &...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/22

The European Union has dropped plans for another one-year delay to its anti-deforestation law, instead proposing a six-month grace period before enforcement begins. The proposal also introduces simplification measures and exemptions that favor EU nation states, the U.S., Canada, Australia and China. The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), approved in 2023, sets out to ensure commodities […]

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Zanzibar must act to conserve its natural & cultural...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/22

Zanzibar has a reputation as an island paradise in the Indian Ocean. Lying 20 kilometers (12 miles) off the East African mainland, it is governed as a semiautonomous zone of the United Republic of Tanzania and consists of two large islands — Unguja (1,666 square kilometers, or 643 square miles) to the south, and Pemba […]

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Study reveals overlooked cultural threat to wildcats...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/22

LILONGWE ― Habitat loss and direct persecution of large carnivores are well-documented threats, but the role that cultural demand plays in the fortunes of many species of wildcats is poorly understood. In a study published in March 2025, researchers found that alongside servals and cheetahs, leopards and lions — both classed as vulnerable on the […]

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Why is protecting this Honduran lagoon so dangerous?

Conservation news ·

2025/10/22

LAGUNA DE LOS MICOS, Honduras — Tension swirls around the Laguna de los Micos in northern Honduras, is a critical marine ecosystem surrounded by mangroves and serving as a home and nursery for many species of coral reef fish. The communities living around the lagoon have voluntarily agreed to suspend fishing for two months of […]

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Chris Allnutt, negotiator who helped protect the...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/22

He never raised his voice in anger. When talks grew tense—whether across a union bargaining table or a forest-policy summit—Chris Allnutt would grow quieter. The softer he spoke, colleagues recalled, the more certain everyone became that something important was about to happen. He did not trade in bluster or slogans. His power lay in patience, […]

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Plastic’s triumph was no accident. It built an...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/22

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. When Saabira Chaudhuri began covering consumer goods companies for The Wall Street Journal, she expected stories about marketing and product launches. Instead, she uncovered a deeper pattern: industrial ingenuity turned liability. Her new book, Consumed: How Big Brands […]

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In the heart of Bolivia, the mountain that financed...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/22

At about 4,800 meters, or nearly 15,800 feet, above sea level, Cerro Rico towers over the city of Potosí, in Bolivia’s southern highlands. Famous for its vast silver reserves, Cerro Rico — whose name means “rich mountain” in Spanish — almost single-handedly financed the Spanish Empire. In 1656, author Antonio de León Pinelo claimed that […]

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New book unearths environmental crime’s psychological...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/21

Psychologist and true crime presenter Julia Shaw joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss her latest read, examining some of the highest-profile environmental crimes and why they occur, in Green Crime: Inside the Minds of the People Destroying the Planet and How to Stop Them. She details the commonalities behind six major cases, and what can be […]

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Radar study shows when offshore turbines pose...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/21

When songbirds migrate through the Americas, they often cut through sections of the North Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico to save energy. A new study looks at their flying patterns in an attempt to assess how much risk offshore wind turbines and other marine infrastructure might pose to them. The authors used radar data from […]

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Scientists describe new-to-science mouse opossum from...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/17

Scientists have described a new species of mouse opossum discovered in 2018 in the cloud forests of the Peruvian Andes, 2,664 meters (8,740 feet) above sea level. The find was reported by Mongabay Latam staff writer Yvette Sierra Praeli. The new marsupial is named Marmosa chachapoya after the ancient Chachapoya people who once lived in […]

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Nations delay vote on shipping decarbonization rules...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/17

This is Part 4 of a short series on efforts to decarbonize the global shipping industry, covering a key meeting from London. Part 1 addressed international policy and politics leading up to this meeting. Part 2 looked at efficiency measures; Part 3, alternative fuels. The shipping sector was widely expected to become the first industry to […]

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Banking alliance aimed at limiting fossil fuel...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/17

A coalition formed to align the international banking sector’s investments with global climate goals has disbanded nearly four years after it was launched. Set up in 2021, the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) was a U.N.-sponsored initiative to shift bank financing away from fossil fuels — the biggest source of climate changing greenhouse gases — and […]

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US blocks a global fee on shipping emissions as...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/17

The U.S. has blocked a global fee on shipping emissions as an international maritime meeting ended Friday without adopting new regulations. The world’s largest maritime nations had been discussing ways to move the shipping industry away from fossil fuels. On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump urged countries to vote against the regulations. The International Maritime […]

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A closer look at Peru’s Amazon reveals new mining...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/17

For years, gold mining has been one of Peru’s most pressing environmental challenges, with illegal operations clearing the Amazon Rainforest and polluting rivers with chemicals. The industry continues to grow, as miners spread into new parts of the country and adopt different ways of working. One recent project that maps mining operations and their expansion […]

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Deforestation for soy continues in Brazilian Cerrado...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/17

Agricultural producers in Brazil’s Cerrado savanna continue to clear land for soy, which puts them in breach of the European Union’s upcoming antideforestation law, or EUDR, a new investigation shows. In September 2024, investigative nonprofit Earthsight published its “Secret Ingredient” report, which established links between chicken sold by McDonald’s and at supermarkets in Europe, and […]

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West Africa’s leopards now officially endangered...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/17

There are only about 350 mature leopards left in West Africa, according to the latest regional assessment by the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. Leopards (Panthera pardus) in West Africa are thought to be genetically isolated from those in Central Africa, with little or no interbreeding between populations. They’re found in 11 countries: Benin, […]

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In Nepal’s hills, a fight brews over the country’s...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/17

KATHMANDU — When the monsoon arrives in Jhumlabang village in Nepal’s far west, 35-year-old Til Kumari B.K. spends hours in the community forest harvesting mushrooms. The rest of the year, she goes there to collect bark from the allo plant (Girardinia diversifolia), or Himalayan nettle, which is processed into a fiber for weaving fabric. During […]

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