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Conservation news

Environmental science and conservation news

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Community patrolling reduces crime numbers in the...

Conservation news ·

2025/07/10

A study conducted in the Brazilian Amazon has found that community-based volunteer patrolling efforts in two protected areas were associated with an 80% reduction in recorded environmental crimes from 2003-13. During the same period, there was no clear decline in environmental violations detected by government-led operations outside those protected areas, suggesting that community-based patrols were […]

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Oil and plastic pollution from shipwreck raises...

Conservation news ·

2025/07/09

As shiny, pearl-like white plastic pellets rode wave after wave and piled up on the beaches of Thiruvananthapuram in India’s southern state of Kerala, local residents were first bemused, then baffled. Some, more enterprising than others, began collecting them in sacks with help from the local police — a first step in heading off what […]

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Antarctic coalition wins €1m prize for safeguarding a...

Conservation news ·

2025/07/09

The Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition (ASOC), an advocacy group focused on the world’s coldest and most remote region, has received the 2025 Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity. The 1 million euro ($1.17 million) award, presented by the Portugal-based Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, recognizes the coalition’s decades-long efforts to preserve Antarctica’s ecological integrity and protect the Southern […]

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Culture and spirit belong at the center of wildlife...

Conservation news ·

2025/07/09

Conservation is often framed as a scientific or technical challenge — a matter of policies, protected areas and enforcement. But that lens has led conservation astray. Around the world, biodiversity continues to decline. Communities are too often displaced in the name of conservation. And conservation efforts sometimes fail because they ignore what matters most to […]

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Indigenous Amazonians win landmark ruling against...

Conservation news ·

2025/07/09

Colombia’s Constitutional Court has issued a historic ruling, finding in favor of Indigenous leaders who say their communities in the country’s Amazonian region are at risk of losing their identity and disappearing due to mercury contamination from gold mining. The court ordered the protection of these communities due to the high risk they peoples face […]

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Nearly half of tree species in Mexico and Central...

Conservation news ·

2025/07/09

Lions have been dubbed the king of the jungle, but one could argue the real royalty are the trees, the massive woody beasts that hold down the land and root the web of life that teems around them. In Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America), which hosts 10% of all plant life on Earth despite covering […]

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What it’s like to live with tigers

Conservation news ·

2025/07/09

MAHARASHTRA, India — In Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district, human-tiger conflict is escalating, with attacks becoming increasingly common. A mix of factors—including the effects of climate change—is driving tigers out of their natural habitats and into closer contact with people. For those living on the frontlines, the toll goes beyond physical danger: fear, anxiety, and unprocessed grief […]

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A new data hub helps small-scale fishers adapt to...

Conservation news ·

2025/07/09

Roughly 40% of the global fish catch comes from small-scale fisheries. It’s one of the food production systems most vulnerable to climate change, and governments are lacking data to help fishers adapt. To help address that gap, the global research partnership CGIAR recently launched its Asia Digital Hub at WorldFish’s headquarters in Penang, Malaysia. The Hub […]

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Youth and women find success in taking climate cases...

Conservation news ·

2025/07/09

Citizens from around the world are increasingly holding governments and businesses accountable for their greenhouse gas emissions by filing lawsuits that frame climate change impacts as human rights violations, according to a recent episode of Mongabay’s Against All Odds video series. César Rodríguez-Garavito, chair of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New […]

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Rescuers search for 19 missing and recover 9 bodies...

Conservation news ·

2025/07/09

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Dozens of rescuers searched the banks of a mountain river Wednesday looking for people missing after monsoon floods swept away Nepal’s main bridge connecting the country to China and caused at least nine deaths. Police said dozens of rescuers were already at the area and more are expected to join the rescue efforts. […]

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Out-of-range albatross makes a highlight in the...

Conservation news ·

2025/07/09

COLOMBO — Young birder Lahiru Walpita begins most of his days at dawn by scanning the skies for seabirds along the coastline in northern Sri Lanka. In July 2024, during one of his routine beach surveys, Walpita noticed a large bird trailing a fishing vessel. It circled gracefully with wings outstretched, before vanishing into the […]

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Restoration, protection aim to save Belize’s coral...

Conservation news ·

2025/07/09

PLACENCIA, Belize — After Hurricane Iris decimated the coral reef at Laughing Bird Caye National Park in 2001, many wrote off the UNESCO World Heritage site as a coral graveyard. But a small group from the coastal village of Placencia, Belize, about 18 kilometers (11 miles) from the island, saw hope. In 2006, the park […]

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Mongabay India podcast ‘Wild Frequencies’ wins audio...

Conservation news ·

2025/07/04

Mongabay India won an excellence in audio reporting award recently from the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA). The award was for the limited series podcast Wild Frequencies. SOPA, which promotes best practices and excellence in journalism, announced the winners of its 2025 Awards of Editorial Excellence during a ceremony in Hong Kong on June […]

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In Latin America, energy transition stirs a rise in...

Conservation news ·

2025/07/04

A new report by the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) finds that more than half of the 95 legal cases initiated around the world since 2009 by those impacted by the energy transition were documented in Latin America and the Caribbean (53%). Indigenous peoples filed almost half of all cases recorded worldwide (47%). […]

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Meat giant profits from carbon market without halting...

Conservation news ·

2025/07/04

Since the first scientific critiques of fossil fuels, oil companies have gone from being the “wealth of nations” to “destroyers of the planet.” In financial market terms, they have become environmental liabilities. It cannot be said, however, that they have also become economic liabilities. The global carbon credit market is heating up — quite like […]

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The forest guardians along Nepal-India border leading...

Conservation news ·

2025/07/04

TAPLEJUNG, Nepal — In the misty hills of eastern Nepal near the border with India, 48-year-old farmer Surya Bhattarai patrols the steep slopes of Sudap Community Forest in Taplejung district. Braving remoteness, treacherous terrain and wild animals, he is tracking red pandas, an elusive and endangered species native to the eastern Himalayas. Trained in field […]

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Seismic noise from oil companies threatens Amazon...

Conservation news ·

2025/07/04

As oil companies push for drilling on the Amazon coast, an underwater war silences the ocean’s most vocal creatures.

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Traditional hunting shifts with access to cheap guns...

Conservation news ·

2025/07/04

Among Indigenous Naga tribes in India’s northeastern state of Nagaland, hunting traditions are transforming as cheap homemade guns make targeting commercially valuable large mammals easier, a recent study finds. “Indigenous hunting preferences are rooted in cultural traditions but have evolved under the influence of economic pressures and environmental changes,” Satem Longchar, conservation ecologist and the […]

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Agencies race to prevent new food crisis as locusts...

Conservation news ·

2025/07/03

NAIROBI — Swarms of desert locusts are moving across parts of North Africa. With unusually heavy rains in late 2024 supporting growth of vegetation, and rising temperatures since February 2025 speeding their reproductive cycle, ideal breeding conditions for locusts are in place. Significant outbreaks have already been reported in Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, while smaller […]

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Peru’s Indigenous aguaje harvesters turn to...

Conservation news ·

2025/07/03

Indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon are working to revive populations of the aguaje palm tree, commercially valued for its fruits, by shifting to more sustainable harvesting practices, Mongabay’s Aimee Gabay reported in April. The reptilian-looking fruits of the aguaje palm tree (Mauritia flexuosa) are consumed raw or used as an ingredient in beverages, soap, […]

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