PODCAST

Conservation news

Environmental science and conservation news

All Episodes

Gayatri Reksodihardjo-Lilley, who helped Indonesian...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/16

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In the shallows off northern Bali, where the reefs flicker with life and the sea carries the rhythm of work and prayer, a quiet revolution took root. Women who once had few choices began tending tanks of clownfish […]

en-US

Saalumarada Thimmakka, mother of trees, has died,...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/15

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Along a dusty road between Hulikal and Kudur in southern India, banyan trees rise like sentinels. Their thick roots grasp the earth, their canopies stretch wide, casting deep shade over the red soil. Travelers who pass beneath them […]

en-US

UK court finds mining giant liable for decade-old dam...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/15

A U.K. judge has found that the Australian multinational mining company BHP is liable for a 2015 dam collapse in southeastern Brazil. The incident killed 19 people and unleashed at least 40 million cubic meters (1.4 billion cubic feet) of toxic mine tailings onto downstream towns and waterways for 675 kilometers (419 miles). In […]

en-US

Mongabay Fellows share their ‘Letters to the Future’

Conservation news ·

2025/11/14

Uncertainty and hope — these sentiments prevail in a series of commentaries published by the latest cohort of Mongabay’s Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellows as they conclude their program and forge new paths into environmental journalism. Uncertainty centers on the future of our planet, the journalists who cover it and the people who defend it. […]

en-US

AI data center revolution sucks up world’s energy,...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/14

In 2024, the state of Querétaro in north-central Mexico suffered its worst drought in a century, impacting crops and communities. Seventeen of the state’s 18 municipalities were affected, putting drinking water access at risk for thousands of families, according to CONAGUA, Mexico’s National Water Commission. With freshwater already diminished due to worsening climate change, Querétaro […]

en-US

Researchers find evidence of elephant poaching in...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/14

Communities living around a remote, mountainous forest in southeastern Bangladesh, close to Myanmar, have reported cross-border incidents of elephant poaching for years but there was no confirmed evidence. A new study has now documented the first known physical signs of elephant poaching in the forest. The Sangu-Matamuhuri Reserve Forest in southeastern Bangladesh, bordering Myanmar’s Rakhine […]

en-US

Climate leaders warn of ‘overshoot’ into warming...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/14

BELEM, Brazil (AP) — After years of pushing the world to limit Earth’s warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, climate leaders are starting to acknowledge that the target set by the 2015 Paris Agreement will almost surely be breached. But they’re not conceding defeat. They are hopeful that temperatures can eventually be brought back below that […]

en-US

Massive turtle bust in Mexico reveals ‘Wild West’ of...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/14

In undercover raids carried out in late September, Mexican authorities discovered 2,339 wild-caught turtles crammed into bins in five locations in Jalisco and Baja California states. Along with the live reptiles, they found a massive stash of other illegal wildlife products that are coveted as delicacies in East Asia: 1,569 kilograms (3,459 pounds) of sea […]

en-US

Reindeer numbers may fall by more than half by 2100...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/14

Global reindeer populations could fall by more than half by 2100 due to the impacts of climate change, including the shrinking of their habitats, according to a recent study, Mongabay’s Sonam Lama Hyolmo reports. Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), known in North America as caribou, live only in frozen tundra and boreal forests near the Arctic, and […]

en-US

As Indonesia turns COP30 into carbon market showcase,...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/14

BELÉM, Brazil — As governments debate how to mobilize trillions of dollars in climate finance, Indonesia is using the COP30 climate summit in Brazil to aggressively promote its carbon market — a system that experts say remains dogged by weak rules, questionable integrity, and uncertain climate benefits. Inside the packed Indonesian pavilion in Belém, carbon […]

en-US

Sloth selfies are feeding a booming wildlife...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/14

It’s not easy to find a sloth in the middle of the forest. They spend most of their time in the tree canopy and are masters of camouflage, thanks to their slow movements and the algae attached to their fur, which makes them blend in with the color of the leaves. Once identified high up, […]

en-US

Newly described ‘lucifer’ bee found visiting...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/14

In 2019, researcher Kit Prendergast was surveying the insects visiting an incredibly rare plant in the Bremer Ranges of Western Australia when a bee grabbed her attention. Prendergast and her colleague dug deeper and found that the native bee, now named Megachile lucifer, is a new-to-science species, according to a recent study. The species name […]

en-US

From rock music to rainforests: Akhyari Hananto’s...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/14

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Before dawn breaks over Surabaya, Indonesia’s “City of Heroes,” Akhyari Hananto is already at work. After morning prayers, he opens Google Analytics to watch the night’s reading patterns unfold — what stories drew attention, which headlines resonated, and […]

en-US

Small grants are key to a successful next generation...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/14

In a meeting room in a head office in London, a handful of early-career conservationists from around the world sat in a circle on the floor to share their challenges of working in conservation. The conversation was sobering. From affording everyday bills, juggling multiple unsecured jobs and dealing with burnout to harassment in the field, […]

en-US

‘Green’ energy transition leaves a dirty trail in the...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/14

MINDANAO, Philippines — Communities living near mining operations in the southern Philippines’ Caraga region are feeling the toll of the global energy transition, with nickel mining driving deforestation and pollution, according to a recent report. Climate Rights International (CRI), the U.S.-based NGO behind the report, highlighted harms to the environment, local livelihoods and public health […]

en-US

Cacao rush fuels conflict and deforestation in...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/13

Soaring cacao prices over the last three years are fueling deforestation and conflict in Grand Gedeh county of Liberia, in West Africa, Mongabay staff writer Ashoka Mukpo reported. Satellite imagery by Global Forest Watch indicates that forest loss in and around Grand Gedeh, which borders the neighboring nation of Côte d’Ivoire in southeastern Liberia, has […]

en-US

Rare parrots return to Atlantic Forest fragment after...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/13

Twenty brilliantly colored red-browed amazons took flight over a reserve holding one of the few remaining intact swaths of Atlantic Forest in Brazil. The green-and-red parrots had been missing from Alagoas state for generations. In January 2025, the birds returned home. Researchers say releasing the red-browed amazons (Amazona rhodocorytha) will help the species rebound and […]

en-US

Strategic ignorance, climate change and Amazonia...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/13

We all know that “ignorance of the law is no excuse,” but in daily life, ignorance of the consequences of one’s actions is, indeed, an excuse that shields us from our own discomfort or from condemnation by others, even for the most serious of offenses. One is reminded of Jesus Christ on the cross asking […]

en-US

Ecuador freezes bank accounts of Indigenous leaders,...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/13

Since September 2025, dozens of Indigenous leaders and organizations, land rights activists and nonprofits in Ecuador have reportedly been unable to access their funds, after a state institution blocked their bank accounts. Judges have recently ordered the government to lift the freeze on a few accounts, but most remain in place. The bank account freezes […]

en-US

What’s at stake for the environment in Chile’s...

Conservation news ·

2025/11/13

Chileans will go to the polls on Nov. 16 to vote for a new president, 23 Senate seats, and all 155 seats in the lower Chamber of Deputies. The elections could be a deciding factor in how the country addresses a number of ongoing environmental issues, including the renewable energy transition, constitutional rights for Indigenous […]

en-US

1,253 results