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Conservation news

Environmental science and conservation news

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Microbiomes may be corals’ secret weapon against...

Conservation news ·

2025/08/14

As ocean temperatures set new heat records, coral reef scientists are on a mission to identify which species and reefs can tolerate heat stress the best. But how and why do some corals cope with heat extremes better than others? A research team led by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama investigated this question […]

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Seed-dispersing animals are in decline, impacting...

Conservation news ·

2025/08/14

A lot of attention has been paid to the decrease in bee populations and other pollinators, but a recent review article makes the case that we should be equally alarmed by the declining numbers of seed-dispersing animals, which are crucial for growing healthy forests. “Both are important and should be taken into account in restoration […]

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Brazil’s Forestry Code seeks to strengthen forest...

Conservation news ·

2025/08/14

The most consequential of strategies regarding forests has been Brazil’s longstanding policy to obligate landholders to conserve forest and other natural habitats on their properties. There have been three major iterations of the Brazilian Forest Code: 1936, 1965 and 2012. The first version declared the ‘forest’ to be a public good and recognized its essential […]

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New charges added in Argentina’s largest-ever...

Conservation news ·

2025/08/14

New charges have been filed in what may be Argentina’s largest-ever illegal hunting and wildlife trafficking case. Key defendant Carlos Pablo Escontrela attempted to flee the country, and as a flight risk may be forced to remain behind bars in pretrial detention. Prosecutors presented new evidence in the case earlier this year that strengthened the […]

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Third manta ray species confirmed in western Atlantic

Conservation news ·

2025/08/14

There’s a third species of manta ray gracefully gliding through the seas, a recent study has confirmed. Researchers have named the newly described species, found in the western Atlantic, Mobula yarae after Yara, a water spirit from Indigenous Brazilian mythology. For a long time, manta rays were considered a single species, Manta birostris. In 1868, […]

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Patrick Kilonzo Mwalua, water bearer to Tsavo’s wild,...

Conservation news ·

2025/08/14

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. It began with a buffalo. The animal lay slumped beside a dry waterhole in Kenya’s Tsavo West National Park, its great ribs rising and falling slowly in the dust. No rain had come. No relief was in sight. […]

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Fixing forests or fueling fires? Scientists split...

Conservation news ·

2025/08/13

This is the first installment of Mongabay’s coverage of active management tools for forest fires. On Sept. 8, 2020, a brush field in southern Oregon, in the northwestern U.S., caught fire. Over the next week, “walls” of flame tore through the towns of Talent and Phoenix in the Rogue River Valley. Here, hot, dry summers […]

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One of the world’s most polluted cities has banned...

Conservation news ·

2025/08/13

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria’s economic capital of Lagos is one of the world’s most plastic-polluted cities. Lagos state authorities last month imposed a ban on single-use plastics, but residents say weak enforcement and the absence of alternatives weaken its effectiveness. Plastic pollution has been a major source of concern in the city of more […]

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How will fisheries change in a hotter world? Experts...

Conservation news ·

2025/08/13

Lake Chad is nearly 1,130 kilometers (700 miles) from the ocean, but Nwamaka Okeke-Ogbuafor fears it is a preview of what’s ahead for African and other tropical fisheries. Straddling four countries on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, Lake Chad began drying up dramatically during a series of droughts in the 1970s and ‘80s. […]

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Goldman Prize winner’s shift from engineer to...

Conservation news ·

2025/08/13

Carlos Mallo Molina grew up inspired by his engineer father who led port construction projects across Spain. But while working on a highway project in Tenerife, one of Spain’s Canary Islands, Molina realized that a related plan to build a port in a marine protected area threatened the marine ecosystem that he had come to […]

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In India, humans & leopards meet near major cities;...

Conservation news ·

2025/08/13

Suresh Raj, a 73-year-old gunsmith who lives inside a biological park, bordering a national park on the edge of the South Indian metropolis Bengaluru, has lost three dogs since last October, killed by free-moving leopards in the region. “It’s very normal for leopards to take our dogs — not something I’d resent, living in the […]

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Javan rhino numbers plunge; Sumatran rhinos remain...

Conservation news ·

2025/08/13

A new report by the IUCN finds that two of the world’s most endangered species are still perilously close to extinction. Javan rhino (Rhinoceros sondaicus) numbers have dropped by a third, from 76 animals to just 50 after local poaching groups allegedly wiped out 26 animals, mostly males. Meanwhile, Sumatran rhinos (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) remain at […]

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A critical stopover for shorebirds awaits protection...

Conservation news ·

2025/08/13

TELUK AIR TAWAR, Malaysia — The tide is rising. On the Teluk Air Tawar-Kuala Muda coast (TAT-KM) of Penang state in Peninsular Malaysia, fishers are boating out to the sea for their morning catch. From afar, small brownish birds walk on the mudflat outside the mangrove-lined coast. When a boat gets closer, a flock of […]

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Conservationists warn of targeted poaching behind Sri...

Conservation news ·

2025/08/13

POLONNARUWA, Sri Lanka — Wildlife conservationists have sounded the alarm that leopard poaching in Sri Lanka is being carried out more systematically than previously thought, following the arrest in early August of a group of suspected hunters carrying a freshly skinned carcass in Maduru Oya National Park. Conservation activist Sethil Muhandiram says there’s specific demand […]

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NASA satellites show surge in Indonesia hotspots as...

Conservation news ·

2025/08/13

JAKARTA — Indonesia’s 2025 fire season is spiraling into one of the worst in recent memory, with a sharp spike in hotspots and toxic haze already choking parts of Malaysia. Forest and peat fires, mostly caused by deliberate land clearing for agriculture, are an annual problem in Indonesia that strain relations with neighboring countries. July […]

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Cockatoos have at least 30 impressive dance moves: Study

Conservation news ·

2025/08/13

Scroll through social media, and you’re sure to find videos of cockatoos swaying rhythmically to music. Scientists studying these impressive dance moves report in a recent study that at least 10 cockatoo species dance, sharing at least 30 distinct dance moves between them. Cockatoos are a family of parrots, which are highly intelligent birds. Many […]

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Civil society challenges Indonesian deregulation law...

Conservation news ·

2025/07/28

JAKARTA — Indonesian civil society groups are challenging a controversial law they say enables forced evictions, weakens environmental protections, and encourages elite-driven megaprojects at the expense of ordinary citizens. Two major coalitions of NGOs and affected individuals have filed separate lawsuits with the Constitutional Court. Both suits, known as judicial reviews, tale aim at Indonesia’s […]

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A forest garden project attempts to expand into the...

Conservation news ·

2025/07/28

Drought, irregular rainfall, deforestation, and the legacy of unsustainable human activities have left vast areas across the arid and semiarid regions of sub-Saharan Africa degraded, causing major challenges for the human population. According to environmentalists, one solution to this problem might be forest gardens. These “gardens” use regenerative agroforestry to revive patches of degraded agricultural […]

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World Nature Conservation Day: How a large,...

Conservation news ·

2025/07/28

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In the mid-1990s, the kākāpō seemed destined for extinction. Only 51 individuals of the flightless, nocturnal parrot remained, all of them descended from a shrinking gene pool and spread across remote corners of New Zealand. A victim of […]

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Photos: Mangrove photography awards showcase a...

Conservation news ·

2025/07/26

The winners of the 11th annual Mangrove Photography Awards (MPA) have been announced. The contest, hosted by the U.S.-based Mangrove Action Project, showcases powerful photographic narratives highlighting the importance of one of the planet’s most vital ecosystems. This year, a record-breaking 3,300 entries from 78 countries entered to win in one of six categories: wildlife, […]

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