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Conservation news

Environmental science and conservation news

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Authorities in Vietnam bust wildlife smugglers with...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/09

Vietnam’s border guard command has seized more than 7 metric tons of rare wildlife body parts from two wooden fishing boats moving goods from Indonesia to the southern Vietnamese province of Vinh Long. The boats were found on Oct. 3 and contained 4.2 metric tons of suspected pangolin scales, nearly 1.6 metric tons of fish […]

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Research aims to link Hansen’s disease & illegal...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/09

Hansen’s disease (also known as leprosy) has afflicted humans for thousands of years — it has been cited throughout history, even in passages of the Bible. Yet science has still not determined whether it originated in Asia or in Africa. But Hansen’s disease’s modern name has a very traceable history. In 1873, Norwegian physician Gerhard […]

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As Singapore heats up, pests are seeking refuge indoors

Conservation news ·

2025/10/09

SINGAPORE — Singapore’s reputation as one of the world’s cleanest cities is being put to the test by a surge in rodent and insect infestations that experts say is being fueled by climate change and heat stress. At Changi Airport, famous for its indoor gardens that embody the “City in Nature” image Singapore markets to […]

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In Panama, poison dart frog move brings hope amid...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/08

Measuring a bit more than 20 millimeters (0.8 inches), Pratt’s poison frog (Colostethus pratti) is not the kind of frog that would get attention. Although part of the Dendrobatidae family, known for its bright colors and high toxicity that keep predators away, it can only boast a brown, stripy skin and low poison levels. It’s not […]

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Wildfire smoke could kill 71,000 people per year in...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/08

When wildfire smoke from Canada turned New York City’s sky an eerie orange in June 2023, millions of Americans who’d never experienced such pollution got a glimpse of what has become routine for communities across the U.S. West. The smoke blanketed the Eastern Seaboard, closing schools and forcing residents indoors, a warning of what scientists […]

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A protected mangrove forest stands strong as Metro...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/08

MANILA — Spanning the coasts of two cities in Metro Manila, and referred to as the capital region’s “last coastal frontier,” Las Piñas-Parañaque Wetland Park (LPPWP) is a critical site of both ecological and economic importance. Primarily made up of two interconnected artificial islands, Freedom Island and Long Island, this thriving wetland ecosystem along Manila […]

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Octopus farming is a dangerous detour for marine...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/08

Octopus populations across the globe are facing mounting pressures from overfishing, habitat loss and environmental change. In response, an unsubstantiated and misguided proposal has been introduced: farming octopuses in captivity to alleviate wild harvests. In fact, some recently proposed controversial plans claim that closed-cycle octopus farming initiatives aim to reduce fishing pressure on wild octopus […]

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What fuel will ships burn as they move toward net zero?

Conservation news ·

2025/10/08

This is Part 3 of a short series on efforts to decarbonize the global shipping industry. Part 1 addressed international policy and politics, Part 2 efficiency measures. This part looks at alternative fuels. In mid-October, more than 100 nations will gather at a London meeting to decide whether to enshrine a set of carbon reduction […]

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Amazon Rainforest hits record carbon emissions from...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/08

In 2024, the Amazon Rainforest underwent its most devastating forest fire season in more than two decades. According to a new study by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, the fire-driven forest degradation released an estimated 791 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2024, a sevenfold increase compared with the previous two years. The […]

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Saving Mexico City’s ancient floating farms

Conservation news ·

2025/10/08

This story is a collaboration between The Associated Press and Mongabay. MEXICO CITY, Mexico — After years of working abroad in marine conservation, Cassandra Garduño returned home to find the chinampas of her childhood, Mexico City’s ancient floating farms, choked with pollution and abandoned. Instead of walking away, she bought a piece of land and […]

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New road in Peruvian Amazon sparks fear of invasion...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/08

Shawi Nation leaders ask if the road is a mere gateway for mining companies set to enter their territory.

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Women in Mexico step up to protect the island farms...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/08

This story is a collaboration between The Associated Press and Mongabay. MEXICO CITY, Mexico — Jasmín Ordóñez looks out at the water as the wooden boat she is in crosses a narrow channel that connects a labyrinth of chinampas, island farms that were built by the Aztecs thousands of years ago. “Let’s close our eyes […]

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Hope for the iconic Yangtze sturgeon (cartoon)

Conservation news ·

2025/09/29

After losing two of the Yangtze River’s native wildlife icons — the baiji (a river dolphin) and the Chinese paddlefish — to dams and overfishing, and almost losing the Yangtze sturgeon, China seems to be taking measures to correct the course. The demolition of dams along the Chishui He, a major tributary of the Yangtze River, […]

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Rare photos capture fishing cat preying on monitor...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/29

In July, naturalist Soumyadip Santra was on a trip to the Indian Sundarbans, part of the world’s largest mangrove forest, when he witnessed an unusual scene: a fishing cat jumped on an adult monitor lizard and dragged it away toward some bushes. Santra’s photographs of the fishing cat in action captured a rare bit of […]

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Counting kings: How annual lion surveys reveal the...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/29

On a dawn drive through a savannah reserve in Zambia, a ranger slows the truck and points to a faint trail in the dust. It is not the spoor of an antelope or a stray cow. It is the print of a lioness moving with her cubs toward a waterhole. In another era, such sightings […]

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Study spotlights West Papua habitat as whale sharks...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/28

A new study reports that the Bird’s Head Seascape off Indonesia’s West Papua serves as a vital habitat for juvenile male whale sharks, but lift-net fisheries, tourism boats and emerging mining activities in the region underscore the urgent need for stronger protection and management. The population demographics of the whale shark (Rhincodon typus) within the […]

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Arturo Gómez-Pompa, biologist who revealed the human...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/26

In the steaming lowlands of Veracruz and the Yucatán, where strangler figs knot the canopy and howler monkeys bellow at dawn, a man with a field notebook kept noticing what others overlooked. Arturo Gómez-Pompa believed tropical forests were not untouched wilderness but “landscapes of memory,” shaped for millennia by Indigenous hands. Long before “biodiversity” became […]

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Peru court upholds 28 years in prison for loggers in...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/26

After 11 years, the Alto Tamaya Saweto community has finally received confirmation of convictions in the 2014 murders of Indigenous Ashéninka leaders Edwin Chota, Jorge Ríos, Leoncio Quintanísima and Francisco Pinedo. The killings occurred along the Peru-Brazil border, where the leaders had been actively campaigning against illegal logging in their territory since 2008. On Aug. […]

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Every stage of fossil fuel life cycle harms people &...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/26

A new report traces the life cycle of fossil fuels — from exploration and extraction to combustion and decommissioning — and found stark consequences at each stage for the health of people and the planet alike. “By examining fossil fuels’ health hazards across their entire life cycle, this report makes an important addition to our current understanding […]

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Hema Sane, botanist who lived without electricity,...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/26

In a crumbling four-story wada in Pune’s old quarter, where temple bells compete with motorbike horns and hawkers press against the walls, an upstairs room stayed stubbornly off the grid. There, surrounded by sparrows and squirrels, a small woman in a plain cotton sari wrote longhand by daylight or by the glow of a kerosene […]

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