PODCAST

Conservation news

Environmental science and conservation news

All Episodes

New pledge, old problems as Indonesia’s latest...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/07

BELÉM, Brazil — Indonesia has pledged to recognize the rights of Indigenous and customary communities to 1.4 million hectares, about 3.5 million acres, of forests by 2029. It’s a move the government says will help curb deforestation and protect Indigenous rights. Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni made the announcement Nov. 4 at the United for […]

en-US

Brazil launches fund tying forest cash to steep...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/07

Brazil officially launched a new financial market fund, called the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, or TFFF, at a Nov. 6 event ahead of the COP30 climate summit it will host in Belém. Countries with significant amounts of tropical forest cover can receive up to $4 per hectare ($1.62 per acre) of standing forest per year […]

en-US

Europe’s under-pressure bats face ‘astonishing’...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/07

Researchers have captured video of an unexpected predator at two bat hibernation sites in northern Germany: invasive brown rats that lie in wait to intercept the bats mid-flight. Invasive rodents are known predators of native animals on islands, including bats. However, this is likely the first time invasive brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) have been recorded […]

en-US

Across the Amazon, impunity among politicians remains...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/07

Brazil and the Andean Republics all have constitutional provisions establishing special protocols for the prosecution of elected officials. These supposedly were conceived to ensure public servants are held accountable for misdeeds, while protecting them from frivolous or politically motivated prosecution. This special status, however, has created a two-tiered justice system that protects politicians from the […]

en-US

Indigenous delegates prepare for COP30 with focus on...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/07

As the Brazilian city of Belém prepares for this year’s U.N. climate conference, COP30, Indigenous leaders worldwide say they’re getting ready to have their demands addressed. Dubbed the “nature COP” by some delegates, the 2025 conference is set to see the largest participation of Indigenous leaders in the climate conference’s history, with more than 3,000 […]

en-US

UNESCO biosphere listing raises hope, questions for...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/06

Malaysia’s Kinabatangan floodplain, home to orangutans, pygmy elephants and proboscis monkeys, has officially joined UNESCO’s global network of biosphere reserves, protected areas of high biological and cultural diversity. Covering 413,866 hectares (1.02 million acres) of forests, wetlands, and villages in eastern Sabah, the newly declared Kinabatangan Biosphere Reserve (KBR) connects the Heart of Borneo, a […]

en-US

Expedition charts Cook Islands seafloor, amid...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/06

Thousands of meters below the ocean’s surface, a camera attached to a remotely operated vehicle captured a ghostly white creature gliding above a plain of polymetallic nodules — mineral-rich rocks that resemble blackened potatoes. The animal’s orchid-shaped fins undulated as it cruised through the water, while its spindly tentacles trailed behind. This otherworldly creature was […]

en-US

Researchers define the importance of the ‘circular...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/06

In a review article published in Nature, researchers have introduced a new term to describe the importance of seabirds across land and marine ecosystems: the circular seabird economy. Although seabirds spend most of their lives at sea, they return to land to breed, often forming colonies of thousands of individuals. This influx of birds, bringing […]

en-US

Leaders of world’s biggest polluters skip UN climate...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/06

BELEM, Brazil (AP) — World leaders gathering in a coastal city in the Brazilian Amazon for the U.N.‘s annual climate summit hope it’s a rare opportunity to turn previous commitments into practical steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, preserve rainforests and make good on pledges to finance clean energy. But the heads of the world’s […]

en-US

Healthy rivers, healthy people: A Brazil project...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/06

Some 30 years ago, Apolo Heringer, a Brazilian public health doctor, was participating in a night fishing trip with residents of the community Raiz, in southeastern Brazil. That night, the fish were being caught with harpoons, and to ensure visibility, the fishers used a spotlight that illuminated the entire river. When the light first reflected […]

en-US

The uncertain future of DRC’s traditional medicine, a...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/06

Congolese traditional medicine is disappearing. Not due to a lack of usefulness, but due to a lack of space in an increasingly standardized medical world. Faced with the rise of modern medicine, supported by institutions and universities, ancestral knowledge is being forgotten and sometimes even scorned. Yet, in rural areas where hospitals are scarce […]

en-US

No, Bill Gates, we don’t have to choose between...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/06

Bill Gates has long been a leading voice in the global response to human health and climate change. His climate investments and advocacy have helped drive innovation, expand access to clean energy and push climate action higher on the world’s agenda. However, his recent essay, “Three Tough Truths About Climate,” marks a dangerous shift that […]

en-US

Kenya court upholds cancellation of 1,050 MW coal...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/06

Kenya’s Environment and Land Court has upheld a 2019 ruling that revoked the environmental license for the proposed 1,050-megawatt Lamu coal-fired power plant, effectively halting the controversial project. Justice Francis Njoroge dismissed an appeal from the Amu Power Company, finding the project’s environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) was inadequate and public participation deficient. The […]

en-US

Vietnam’s protected areas fall short of safeguarding...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/06

Furry, feisty, and often on the wing, bats are tricky to observe, let alone to protect. Some species hibernate deep in caves or tree cavities for months at a time; many migrate long distances in search of food, shelter and potential mates. Their diversity of lifestyles often makes it difficult to include all bats within […]

en-US

In Honduras, local communities miss out on benefits...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/06

CHOLUTECA, Honduras — Under the slogan “Without human rights, there is no energy sovereignty,” more than 100 community members and activists gathered in mid-July at the Casa Real Hotel in Choluteca, a city in southern Honduras near the Nicaraguan border. At the event, participants — a mix of nonprofit leaders and community members — questioned […]

en-US

Women can help rebuild our relationship with lions:...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/06

This series, Voices from the Land, brings together opinion pieces led and written by Indigenous peoples from around the world. Through these commentaries, we share our lived realities and reflections on urgent issues shaping our time — environmental destruction, our relationship with nature, and systemic injustice. We write from the heart of our communities, where […]

en-US

Karen community fighting corn and coal for clean air...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/06

MAE CHAM/OMKOI, Thailand — Rain lashed down in the northern Thai village of Nong Krating as Sawattiphon Wongkasettakon described the worsening air pollution that sweeps in through the mountains here each year. “It didn’t used to be so bad, but in the last three years it’s become impossible to ignore,” Sawattiphon, a former deputy chief of […]

en-US

Armored worms and death-ball sponges among array of...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/05

In the darkness of the deep ocean, where pressure crushes and light fails, an expedition has found an astonishing array of life, including a carnivorous “death-ball” sponge (from the genus Chondrocladia) covered in tiny prey-catching hooks; “zombie worms” (genus Osedax) lacking mouths but harboring symbiotic bacteria that digest whale bones; armored scale worms of iridescent […]

en-US

Journalism is failing to report on environmental...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/05

Protecting the jungle “justifies all the struggles. … what’s the value of your life if you have nothing to die for?” Ángela Maldonado, Whitley Award winner and director of the NGO Fundación Entropika, said to me once during an interview. Her answer got tattooed in my mind and soul. For years, I have met […]

en-US

Congo Basin communities bear the costs of industrial...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/05

Governments and investors are seeking minerals, timber and oil in the Congo Basin to fuel the global economy and the green transition. However, communities that have lived in the world’s second-largest rainforest for generations are paying the highest price for extraction, according to a new report published ahead of the upcoming United Nations Climate Change […]

en-US

1,253 results