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Conservation news

Environmental science and conservation news

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Countries shorten tuna fishing closure at Pacific...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/12

2024 was a record year for tropical tuna catch in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, thanks to a big increase in skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis) catch, and stocks are considered healthy. So when the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC), a multilateral body that manages tuna and other fish stocks in this region, held its annual meeting Sept. […]

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Indonesia reopens Raja Ampat nickel mine despite reef...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/12

JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has allowed a controversial nickel mine to resume operating in the marine haven of Raja Ampat, despite a company-commissioned study finding the project has harmed the environment and community health in one of the world’s most biodiverse marine ecosystems. State-owned miner PT Gag Nikel resumed working on Sept. 3 on […]

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Conservationists split over greener ranching versus...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/12

Beef production is a major driver of climate change. It fuels deforestation in crucial biomes, a significant source of carbon emissions, and cows themselves produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Regenerative ranching practices aim to reduce the environmental and climate impacts of rearing cattle, but some conservation groups say a pivot away from beef is […]

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On World Dolphin Day, spotlight falls on threats to...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/12

September 12 is World Dolphin Day. Marine conservation and advocacy nonprofit Sea Shephard created the day in 2022 to remember that dolphins, among the most intelligent animals on Earth, are under threat and need protection. That date, Sept. 12, was chosen to memorialize the massacre of 1,428 Atlantic white-sided dolphins (Leucopleurus acutus) on the Faroe […]

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Indonesia flooding traced to corporate canals that...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/12

JAKARTA — Flooding disasters in Indonesia are increasingly traced not to natural causes, but to corporate destruction of peatlands, NGO Pantau Gambut warns in its newest report. The report reveals how the construction of industrial-scale canals, not just haze, poses a growing threat. Pantau Gambut says its new report builds on earlier findings that peat […]

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Ebony’s uncertain future without elephants

Conservation news ·

2025/09/11

In 2017, when Vincent Deblauwe joined the Congo Basin Institute in Cameroon to study African ebony, he soon realized the fate of the tree lay with another species. Around campfires and during treks, the Indigenous Baka people told him that the forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) was key to the survival of African ebony (Diospyros crassiflora). […]

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Photos: Indigenous elders push for comeback of the...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/11

DUNOY, Philippines — In the dense, tropical rainforests of the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park, an ancient predator drifts silently beneath the surface of still rivers. For Indigenous Agta elders, this reptile is not a menace, but a guardian. “We have always coexisted peacefully with crocodiles, and today I am passing on to my grandchildren […]

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Park guardians or destroyers? Study dissects 2...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/11

Long celebrated by some NGOs and Indigenous rights activists as the guardians of the forest, the Batwa of South Kivu had lived inside what is now Kahuzi-Biega National Park (KBNP) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) until the 20th century, when they were expelled by the Congolese government, at that time MPR (Popular Movement […]

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More than half the world’s forests fragmented in 20...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/11

“If you can imagine walking into a huge, 1,000-kilometer square [386-square-mile] tropical forest … it’s moist and damp [with] rich soil and an overstory. You imagine walking into a 10-meter [33-foot] patch of forest and it’s just a totally different thing. It’s drier, it’s more open, it’s more harsh, and there’ll be far fewer species,” […]

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Largest turtle nest in the world revealed in drone study

Conservation news ·

2025/09/11

Scientists studying the world’s largest river turtles, a South American species that grows to a length of nearly a meter, or 3 feet, have found the largest nesting aggregation ever recorded. Using drones to conduct a population survey in the western Brazilian Amazon, researchers recorded a nesting area of the endangered giant South American river […]

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Experimental ocean climate fixes move ahead without...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/11

Experimental climate interventions in the world’s oceans are moving ahead in a regulatory vacuum, raising concerns among scientists about potential risks, Mongabay staff writer Edward Carver reported. The projects, known as marine-climate interventions, aim to tackle global warming or help people and ocean life adapt to climate change. But a group of 24 researchers warned […]

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An indestructible invasive anemone threatens Chilean...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/11

Diver and artisanal fisherman Daniel Caniullán recalls with frustration the day he went to collect shellfish from a natural bank in northern Chile, only to find hundreds of the plumose anemones covering the seabed. “I found an anemone plague where there used to be locos [edible sea snails]. It is upsetting, because these are places […]

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The need for success stories in conservation...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/11

The gorilla should have vanished. In the late 1980s, the mountain gorilla clung to survival in the misted borderlands of Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Poaching, snares, and civil conflict made extinction feel like a timetable. What changed was not a miracle but a grind: rangers risking their lives to keep snares […]

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An elusive deer species clings to survival in Sri...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/11

GALLE, Sri Lanka — The hog deer is Sri Lanka’s rarest and most elusive deer, and was thought to be extinct a few decades ago. Classified as critically endangered within the nation, it now survives only in fragmented patches along the island’s southwestern coastal belt, making it a species of urgent conservation concern. Unlike the […]

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Researchers describe three new-to-science snailfish...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/11

In 2019, researchers surveying the seafloor off the coast of California came upon three unusual species of small fishes with large heads: one with bumpy pink skin, and the other two both black in color. The team collected the fish using underwater research vehicles and later analyzed their DNA and bodies. Their analysis showed that […]

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Indonesia’s giant Java seawall plan sparks criticism...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/11

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has set up a new authority to build a massive seawall along the north coast of Java, a project aimed at shielding millions of residents from flooding and sinking land, but observers reject it as a true solution while highlighting risks, elite bias and lack of consultation. The president on Aug. […]

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Scientists are breeding rare and endangered animals...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/11

WUHAN, China (AP) — A dozen sleek grey Yangtze finless porpoises glide inside a vast pool at the Institute of Hydrobiology in Wuhan as scientists find ways to protect and breed the rare mammals in China’s longest river. The Yangtze River is one of the busiest inland waterways in the world with 16 major ports. […]

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Vian Ruma, Indonesian activist, found dead. Aged 30.

Conservation news ·

2025/09/10

He taught mathematics in a small state school on Flores and organized the parish youth group on weekends. Numbers ordered his days; community gave them purpose. In recent years, he also helped mobilize opposition to plans to tap the island’s restless geology for power. On Sept. 5, 2025, Vian Ruma was found dead, hanging from […]

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Controlling wildlife crime saves more than species...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/10

Despite concerted efforts to control illegal wildlife trafficking globally, more than 13 million items of wildlife parts were seized and reported in 162 countries in just the last seven years, according to the World Wildlife Crime Report 2024 by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). These wildlife parts came from more than […]

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In southeast Nigeria, pangolins hunted for meat, not...

Conservation news ·

2025/09/10

When headline after headline highlights tons of pangolin scale seizures in Nigeria, it’s easy to presume that most pangolin poaching in the country is driven by the international demand for the scales. A recently published research, however, finds that in Nigeria’s Cross River state, pangolins are hunted for their meat — much-prized locally — rather […]

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1,253 results