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Conservation news

Environmental science and conservation news

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As Sri Lanka struggles with ghost nets, volunteer...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/25

COLOMBO —Galle Face Beach in Sri Lanka’s commercial capital, Colombo, is a popular spot among city dwellers, watched over by lifeguards assigned by the coast guard unit of the Sri Lanka Navy. But one Sunday morning, lifeguard Chamara Vipulasena’s rescue wasn’t a human swimmer, but a sea turtle entangled in a drifting fishing net. Vipulasena […]

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Indigenous groups criticize Ecuador’s $47 billion oil...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/25

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Ecuador’s plans to offer dozens of blocks of land for oil exploration for more than $47 billion has prompted opposition from seven Indigenous peoples in the Amazon. Those groups say 18 of the proposed blocks overlap their ancestral territories and that they were not consulted. Government officials say their plan is […]

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Burkina Faso’s women farmers reviving the land with...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/25

CASSOU, Burkina Faso — With her daba in hand, her back bent from decades in the fields, Maan — meaning “grandmother” in the local Nuni language of Burkina Faso’s Centre-Ouest region — isn’t ready to put down her hoe just yet. On this July afternoon, as the sun blazes overhead, the septuagenarian works cheerfully alongside […]

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From Chile to Greece, ‘ghost gear’ from fish farms...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/25

Each year since 2021, Pia Reveco and her husband have set sail from Puerto Montt to spend the Chilean summers navigating Patagonia aboard their sailboat. Last year, they traveled along the fjords and mountains of the Golfo de Penas; three years ago, they reached Laguna San Rafael National Park, where a glacier resembling an ice […]

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Rights of nature concept creates room for life, but...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/25

Cases granting nature and ecosystems legal rights are increasing worldwide, but perceptions of the rights of nature movement as a revolutionary ecocentric movement are too simplistic, according to the authors of a recent study published in Environmental Research Communications. The study conducted an in-depth analysis of 78 peer-reviewed articles that focused on rights of nature […]

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Alaskan rivers turn orange as permafrost thaws,...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/25

The writer John McPhee once described Alaska’s Salmon River as having “the clearest, purest water” he’d ever seen. Today, that same river runs orange with toxic metals unleashed by thawing permafrost. “During the summer of 2019, the clear waters of the Salmon turned distinctly orange and have remained discolored and turbid since,” according to a […]

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Turning camera traps into real-time sentinels:...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/25

Camera traps are ubiquitous in conservation. They’re deployed to monitor biodiversity, study animal behavior, observe habitats over long periods of time, and enforce effective conservation action on the ground. However, they have an inherent shortcoming that’s especially prominent in remote locations like dense forests and cut-off islands. “They’re largely passive. People put them out and […]

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A dancing lemur could help save one of Madagascar’s...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/25

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Madagascar’s rainforests often steal the spotlight, with their flamboyant biodiversity and familiar lemur mascots. Less noticed are the country’s dry forests in the west and southwest, which shelter equally remarkable life yet have been steadily eroded by agriculture, […]

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Religion at a crossroads in Indonesia as Islamic...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/25

JAKARTA — Indonesia’s two biggest Islamic organizations usually seize the country’s attention twice a year, when they gather to determine when the religious holidays of Idul Fitri and Idul Adha will be celebrated. But for the past year, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah have caught the spotlight for a different reason: their decision to operate large-scale […]

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China, world’s largest carbon polluting nation,...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/24

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — China, the world’s largest carbon polluting nation, has announced a new climate fighting goal to cut emissions by 7% to 10% by 2035. It came as more than 100 world leaders lined up Wednesday to talk of increased urgency and the need for stronger efforts to curb the spewing of heat-trapping […]

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Indigenous women in Peru use technology to protect...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/24

In 2017, when Betty Rubio began patrolling the forests of her ancestral land, she began to question why she was doing it. It wasn’t easy. She knew that tackling environmental crimes such as illegal logging and mining came with risks, and that as a woman, those risks were even greater. “My children would say to […]

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Ocean acidification threatens planetary health:...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/24

Initiated in 2024, the Planetary Health Check is a comprehensive, science-based global initiative dedicated to measuring and maintaining Earth systems critical to life as we know it. These annual reports were created to provide a regular, comprehensive assessment of the state of our world, utilizing the most current planetary boundaries science — monitoring changes, gauging […]

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Indigenous fishers lead science-backed conservation...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/24

When Fredy Yavinape was a young child, he didn’t know the biological concept of an “umbrella species.” These are species that require large areas of undisturbed habitat to survive, which is why they serve as an indicator of the conservation status of the entire ecosystem. Now, at 48 years old, Yavinape knows what they are. […]

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Scientists weigh giant sea curtain to shield...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/24

Thwaites Glacier rises above the Amundsen Sea in the Antarctic, a towering white cliff abutting cerulean waters. Roughly the size of Great Britain and spanning 120 kilometers (80 miles) across, Thwaites — part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet — may seem all but invincible. But among scientists, it’s known as the “Doomsday Glacier” for […]

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Oakes Award delivers top prize to Mongabay journalist...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/24

Mongabay journalist Karla Mendes has received the 2025 John B. Oakes Award from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Mendes was presented with the prestigious prize at an event in New York on Sept. 18 for her investigation documenting a direct connection between increased violence against Indigenous Arariboia leaders and the expansion of illegal cattle […]

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Typhoon Ragasa batters Hong Kong and south China...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/24

SHENZHEN, China (AP) — Typhoon Ragasa, one of the strongest in years, has caused massive destruction in Taiwan and the Philippines before slamming ashore in southern China. The typhoon whipped waves taller than lampposts onto Hong Kong promenades and turned seas rough on Wednesday. In Taiwan, 17 people died in a flooded township and 10 […]

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Mongabay founder Rhett Butler named to Forbes...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/19

Rhett Ayers Butler, Mongabay founder and CEO, has been named to the 2025 Forbes Sustainability Leaders List, which honors 50 global leaders working to combat the climate crisis. “Mongabay has tended to fly under the radar. We’ve focused on the journalism rather than promoting ourselves, so this recognition is especially meaningful — and it reflects […]

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Panama upwelling fails in 2025, threatening marine...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/19

Every year in the Gulf of Panama, between December and April, trade winds from the north push warm surface water away from the coast, allowing cool, nutrient-rich water from the depths to rise, in a process called upwelling. This is critical for the region’s marine life and fisheries. However, for the first time in at […]

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The mire of Brazil’s BR-319 highway: Deforestation,...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/19

The continued failure to halt the BR-319 highway cutting through the Brazilian Amazon is an example of the systemic problem identified by Hannah Arendt in her study of the minister of transportation of Nazi Germany, who had administered the movement of trains throughout Germany and its occupied territories, including the trains that carried millions of […]

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Timing, not traits, helps California’s jewelflowers...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/19

The small, bell-shaped flowers that dangle like gems in dazzling hues of yellow, maroon, purple, brown and white give jewelflowers their name. Yet these plants, from the genera Streptanthus and Caulanthus, belong to the humble mustard family. Native to California, more than 60 species dot the state’s myriad landscapes, splashing the hillsides of the Sierras, […]

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