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Conservation news

Environmental science and conservation news

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Reimagining meat: The Good Food Institute’s bid to...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/24

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. After decades spent protecting forests, fighting for human rights and shaping climate policy, Nigel Sizer has turned his attention to what’s on our plates. As the new CEO of the Good Food Institute (GFI), he argues that how […]

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Researchers fear Chile copper project may threaten...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/23

Researchers are raising concerns about the creation of a large-scale open-pit copper-molybdenum mine in Chile’s Valparaíso region, which they say will destroy the habitat of the recently recorded population of Andean cat, an endangered species and one of the rarest felines in the Americas. To protect its habitat, members of the affected Putaendo community and […]

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Nickel mining damage near UNESCO site stirs outrage...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/23

MINDANAO, Philippines — A nickel mining project in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao is facing renewed calls for closure after a recent government inspection revealed that strip mining there has stripped bare about 200 hectares (494 acres) of forest land in an ecologically sensitive area. The Pujada Nickel Project, in the province of Davao […]

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Arctic seals edge closer to extinction as sea ice...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/23

Three Arctic seal species have moved closer to extinction, as rapid sea ice loss continues to erode their breeding and feeding grounds, according to the latest update of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The update, released Oct. 10 during the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, “uplists” the hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) […]

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AI system eavesdrops on elephants to prevent deadly...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/23

When elephant biologist Seema Lokhandwala, with the Elephants Acoustic Project, visited a village near Balipara in India’s Assam state, as part of her fieldwork in December 2015, she witnessed firsthand what it takes to live alongside elephants. After night fell, a herd of 150 elephants — “I counted them,” she says — devoured all of […]

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After a hiatus, an endemic plant bursts into life in...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/23

COLOMBO — Every dozen years or so, Sri Lanka’s mist-shrouded highlands burst into color. Violet, pink and white carpets of tiny blooms spread across the grasslands of the Horton Plains and other hill country trails, drawing thousands of visitors eager to witness one of nature’s rarest spectacles: the mass flowering of nelu, a group of […]

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‘We are just waiting to die’: Mining activists...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/23

Environmental justice activists have spoken out against coal and iron mining in South Africa, telling a recent human rights hearing that the industry violently undermines the country’s promised energy transition. They also pointed to the continued threats, displacement and killings faced by community organizers resisting land grabs by mining companies. The fifth Human Rights Defenders […]

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Global conservation body takes first step to protect...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/23

The mesopelagic zone is the chilly, dimly lit layer of ocean found 200-1,000 meters (660-3,300 feet) below the surface, which scientists say plays key roles in the marine food web and carbon cycle. On Oct. 15, delegates to the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi adopted a motion to protect it. The motion calls […]

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An Indigenous women-led revolution fights fires in...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/23

When they closed their eyes, the Bakairi people of the Santana Indigenous Territory in Brazil heard a sound similar to rain in the forest. It was reminiscent of a summer storm, the kind that arrives suddenly and drenches the vast Cerrado savanna. But instead of water, it was fire. The flames spread across the 73,000-hectare […]

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International Snow Leopard Day: Conservation and...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/23

They’re known as the “ghost of the mountains,” so it makes sense that snow leopards can be extremely difficult to spot. Yet, these majestic, thick-furred cats, living in the high mountains of Asia, are also disappearing from much of their range due to declines in prey, retaliatory killing for livestock predation, the illegal wildlife trade, […]

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Christmas Island shrew officially declared extinct: IUCN

Conservation news ·

2025/10/23

The Christmas Island shrew, a tiny mammal once found only on the Australian island of the same name, has been declared officially extinct. It’s at least the fourth small mammal species to be wiped out from the island since the introduction of invasive species there a century ago. The Christmas Island shrew (Crocidura trichura) was […]

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Indonesia’s most vulnerable push for nation’s first...

Conservation news ·

2025/10/23

JAKARTA — “Going to Dubai was an act of desperation,” says Muninggar, a 48-year-old former fish farmer from northern Java. “There were no jobs left in the village. If I wasn’t forced to, I wouldn’t have gone — my kids were still small.” Like many Indonesians on the frontlines of climate change, Muninggar has seen […]

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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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