Mongabay News

A feed from Mongabay, which seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of nature and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development.


 

18 March 2024. UN probes controversial forest carbon agreement in Malaysian Borneo A Borneo elephant (Elephas maximus borneensis) in the Kinabatangan RiverThe state government of Sabah in Malaysian Borneo has reaffirmed its plans to proceed with an opaque nature conservation agreement despite concerns raised by the United Nations. Representatives of Sabah’s government and a representative of a Singaporean company called Hoch Standard Pte. Ltd. signed the agreement, which included the rights to carbon and other marketable […]

18 March 2024. Fanned by El Niño, megafires in Brazil threaten Amazon’s preserved areas Researchers and protection agencies expected a dry season with more fires in Brazil’s Roraima state at the start of 2024, but the effects of an intense and prolonged El Niño have aggravated the situation.

18 March 2024. Rising temperatures threaten the tiny animals responsible for groundwater quality Underground ecosystems are everywhere. From gargantuan lightless mazes to pore-sized bedrock gaps inhabited by microfauna — super tiny animals — these ecosystems are believed to be the most widespread nonmarine environments on the planet, according to a 2019 paper in BioScience. Just like the underwater depths, science still knows precious little about this vast kingdom […]

18 March 2024. Chocó land deal shows flaws in Ecuador’s forestry incentive program By now, dozens of countries have some version of a forestry incentive program, with the government paying local property owners to keep their trees in the ground. But a lot of the programs have come under scrutiny because they’re easy to manipulate and hard to monitor. The one in Ecuador, Socio Bosque, one of the […]

18 March 2024. Oman’s mountain oases offer ancient farming lessons for a warming future The olive harvest festival at the luxury Anantara Al Jabal Al Akhdar Resort in 2023 highlights the growing interest in local foods and agri-tourism opportunities.In some ways, village life on Oman’s Jabal Akhdar Mountain is the same as it has always been. Water still runs through the ancient aflaj channels. People still cultivate pomegranates, walnuts and grapes. Goats still go out to pasture, and the day begins and ends with the call to prayer. In other ways, life — […]

18 March 2024. Fenced in by Sulawesi national park, Indigenous women make forestry breakout A woman from the Moa community drying cocoa.SOUTH KULAWI, Indonesia — In a forested valley in the interior of Sulawesi Island, Elisabet Heta gathers up a clutch of farming tools used by the Moa Indigenous people and leaves home. “I want to go to the pampa,” Elisabet told Mongabay Indonesia, before the mother of four set out for the fields here in […]

18 March 2024. Fertilizer management could reduce ammonia pollution from 3 staple crops: Study A farmer shows an unpeeled corn.A machine learning model of ammonia emissions from the world’s rice, wheat and corn crops shows that optimal fertilizer management could slash ammonia air pollution from these crops by 38%.

18 March 2024. In Peru, conservationists and authorities struggle to get turtle eggs off the menu turtles PeruIQUITOS, Peru — “Oh, they’re so delicious,” said Soledad Coronil, an elderly local woman, as she enjoyed a boiled tortoise egg earlier this year. “You have to open the shell and dig out the insides, either with your hand or with a spoon. I like to add a bit of salt, too.” Coronil’s meal, which […]

18 March 2024. Spying on wildlife with biorobots: Interview with engineer Kamilo Melo Kamilo Melo was building a robot shaped like a salamander for his Ph.D. in 2015 when an unexpected assignment came knocking on his door. Two producers at the BBC were keen to rope him in for a nature documentary. The brief was simple and complicated at the same time: build robots shaped like a crocodile […]

17 March 2024. Fires surge in the Amazon, but deforestation continues to fall Planet satellite image of the Macucuaú River, Roraima in February 2023 (left) and February 2024 (right). Courtesy of Planet.Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has continued on a downward trajectory despite a sharp increase in fires associated with the severe drought in the region, reveals data released by Brazil’s National Space Research Institute (INPE). According to figures published by INPE earlier this month, forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon amounted to 5,010 square kilometers […]

15 March 2024. Toilet paper: Environmentally impactful, but alternatives are rolling out Industrial logging reportedly clears more than a million acres of boreal forest in Canada annually.Most used in China, North America, Europe and Australia, TP causes deforestation, needs lots of energy and water to make, and is hard to dispose of. Solutions abound, from the bidet, to recycled paper, bamboo and other alternatives.

15 March 2024. Brazilian youngsters discuss how they are tackling the climate emergency The climate emergency has affected development and violated the rights of children and adolescents around the world, and in Brazil. In addition to fires, prolonged, extreme droughts make access to water difficult and disrupt eating patterns. Excessive rainfall and other disasters leave people homeless, force their displacement and cancel school activities. Pollution, heat waves and […]

15 March 2024. To detect illegal roads in remote areas, AI comes into play Illegal road leading to an oil palm plantation in Indonesia.For years, detecting illegal roads in remote areas has remained a challenging and labor-intensive task. More often than not, it requires poring over satellite images to identify thin lines cut through the dense green of forests and fragile ecosystems. Enter artificial intelligence. A new study published in the journal Remote Sensing describes how scientists have […]

14 March 2024. Huge new no-fishing zones give Antarctic marine predators and their prey a break Humpback whales.Thousands of miles off the southeast coast of South America lies a set of remote islands, one broad and comma-shaped, the others a series of small dots that trail off into the South Atlantic Ocean. These are the South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands, located north of the icy mass of Antarctica. The islands, which […]

14 March 2024. Brazil’s Amazonian states push for court reforms in bid for justice Inauguration of minister Flávio Dino as minister of the STF.Amazonian states have gone largely unrepresented at the top of the Brazilian judicial system for decades, a political distortion that has spurred calls for reform.

14 March 2024. E-Sak Ka Ou Declaration underscores Indigenous rights as a conservation solution (commentary) A manta ray.It was a sunny day in Koh Lanta, an island known for tourism in Krabi Province, Thailand. Surrounding us were calming shades of blue and green, a white sandy beach with endless coconut trees and a salty breeze that ruffled the crystal-clear waters. But for the first time, I was here not as a tourist […]

14 March 2024. Mini radio tags help track ‘murder hornets’ and other invasive insects A yellow-legged hornet "hawking," hovering in front of a honeybee hive to pick slower-moving bees out of midair.The yellow-legged hornet is a predator: after it sets up a nest in a new neighborhood, its workers head out in search of smaller wasps, flies and bees to feed the hive’s growing brood. One of its favorite snacks is honey bees. Lingering outside a hive, these hornets, Vespa velutina, capture flying honey bees mid-air, […]

14 March 2024. Climate change brews trouble for tea industry, but circular solutions await Tea pickers in Kenya.It’s estimated that we drink around 5 billion cups of tea every day. Producing this vast quantity of leaves to quench global thirst for black, green and other varieties is an industry that spans more than 60 tropical and subtropical countries and largely depends on smallholder farmers. Globally, agriculture plays a large part in driving […]

14 March 2024. Not just polar bears — climate change could push African rhinos to extinction New research is ringing alarm bells about how climate change may impact one of Africa’s most iconic and vulnerable animals: the rhinoceros. “Climate change has the potential of wiping out all of them in the blink of an eye,” says Hlelolwenkhosi Mamba, an Eswatini native and Fulbright scholar. Mamba and Timothy Randhir, from the University […]

14 March 2024. Palm oil deforestation persists in Indonesia’s Leuser amid new mills, plantations JAKARTA — Deforestation for oil palm plantations continues unabated at the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, likely driven by new processing mills that in turn may ultimately be supplying major consumer goods companies. Plantation-driven forest loss has for decades eaten away at the Leuser Ecosystem, home to critically endangered Sumatran orangutans, tigers, […]