Kichwa, Ticuna and Matsés women are leading forest patrols and training other women in the use of technology such as GPS, drones & satellite alerts. They are protecting the forest not only as an ecosystem, but also as a vital source of life, food, medicine & cultural heritage for their communities.

A community-based monitoring project is helping protect the rich diversity of freshwater fish species in the Ramsar-listed wetlands in the Colombian Amazon. Their efforts have helped inform fishing regulations to better protect ecosystems and ensure the sustainability of local livelihoods.

Scientists have proposed using anchored seabed curtains to block warm ocean water from accelerating ice loss at Antarctica’s rapidly melting Thwaites Glacier — a possible climate fix that falls into the realm of geoengineering.

Mongabay journalist Karla Mendes has received the 2025 John B. Oakes Award for her investigation documenting a direct connection between increased violence against Indigenous Arariboia and expansion of illegal cattle ranching in Brazil’s northern Maranhão state.

In Kenya’s Baringo county, Indigenous pastoralists like Salina Chepsat are moving from herding to diversified organic crop farming. They benefit from training by the Indigenous Women and Girls Initiative in permaculture and seed saving, but male control of land still restrains how much they can do.

An international team of biologists has discovered a new species of gecko in small forest fragments in southeastern Madagascar. Due to its extremely limited range, researchers say it should be classified as critically endangered.

Forged signatures. Flawed assessments. Night bulldozing. Mongabay’s investigation in Nepal exposed a hydropower project 90x bigger than reported—threatening red pandas, snow leopards & Indigenous yak herders. Independent journalism matters. 🌍 Support our work: www.mongabay.org/donate.

They’re powerful, intelligent and majestic, yet increasingly imperiled. Yesterday, on World Gorilla Day, we recapped recent Mongabay reporting that highlights both the threats facing gorillas, our great ape cousins, and some signs of hope.

Marking the launch of the 2025 Planetary Health Check, Mongabay speaks with report co-author and renowned Earth system scientist Johan Rockström about how the transgression of planetary boundaries is eroding environmental justice — the right of every human being to life on a stable, healthy planet.

Aimee Roberson, executive director of Cultural Survival, joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss how her organization helps Indigenous communities maintain their traditions, languages and knowledge while living among increasingly Westernized societies.

The European Commission has proposed pushing back the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) for another year, to December 2026, citing concerns that its IT system is not yet ready to handle the demands that the regulation would place on it.

The agreement on marine biodiversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction was reached in 2023 with much fanfare, partly because it sets up a system for establishing marine protected areas (MPAs) in international waters. On Sept. 19, Morocco became the 60th country to ratify the deal.

California has recently relocated beavers from spots where they were causing problems, like flooding, to tribal lands in Northern and Southern California. Experts caution that while beavers can help with fire resilience and improve water quality, they are only part of broader solutions.

[FOUNDER'S BRIEF - @rhettayersbutler.bsky.social] In 2012, Sri Lanka’s National Red List pronounced the towering Doona ovalifolia tree “extinct in the wild.” The species lingered only as a single cultivated specimen in the Royal Botanic Gardens - a melancholy reminder of what had been lost.

An investigation has found that half of the $2 billion that Brazilian meatpacking giant Marfrig raised went to buying cattle raised on deforested land and fattened in feedlots linked to its board chair.

On remote river islands in eastern India’s Assam state, solar power is helping children access education more reliably, reports Mongabay India’s Shailesh Shrivastava.

Gray wolves are making a comeback in the U.S. state of California after a century-long absence. Conservationists say their return is a success, but it’s putting pressure on ranchers and rural communities as wolf attacks on livestock mount, Mongabay wildlife staff writer Spoorthy Raman reported.

Brazil’s top environment council cited a recent Mongabay investigation as it weighed a ban on shark fin exports and the use of wire leaders, a type of industrial fishing gear, within marine protected areas, Mongabay staff writer Karla Mendes reported.

Over the past decade, thousands of African gray parrots have been exported from the Democratic Republic of Congo despite a ban on their international trade. The DRC government has finally taken action to prohibit the capture and sale of this iconic species.

Speaking at the 2025 Forbes Sustainability Leaders Summit during New York Climate Week on Monday, Harrison Ford, the actor turned outspoken environmental advocate, issued a rebuke of his generation for its lack of progress in addressing environmental problems.

To mark World Rhino Day on Sept. 22, we look back at some of Mongabay’s rhino reporting from this year: 🦏

The storage available for safe carbon storage could be far lower than current estimates, according to a new study. However, this new analysis suggests that many locations suitable for carbon storage may also pose risks, such as water contamination or earthquakes.

Scientists have invented a pollen-based sunscreen, which their results suggest is as effective in blocking harmful ultraviolet rays as sunscreens containing chemicals that contribute to coral bleaching and pollution in oceans. The researchers also showed their pollen sunscreen doesn’t harm corals.

[FOUNDER'S BRIEF - @rhettayersbutler.bsky.social] For millennia, the rhinoceros stood as one of Earth’s great survivors, armored and immense, its bulk anchoring the landscapes of Africa and Asia. Today, it’s perilously close to vanishing.

[COMMENTARY] In northern Europe, Indigenous Sámi people continue to compete with neighboring nations for the same resources and lands, says Áslat Holmberg, former president of the Saami Council, arguing that this is part of continued colonial control. ** The views expressed are the author's.

A social enterprise initiative to equip traditional fishing boats in east Bali with battery-powered engines has shown some encouraging responses among the trial cohort. The manufacturing company hopes new charging infrastructure will help overcome commonly cited challenges.

When Saabira Chaudhuri began covering consumer-goods companies for The Wall Street Journal, she found a tale of industrial ingenuity turned liability. Her new book traces how plastic became indispensable to modern capitalism and why efforts to rein it in have so often failed.

[COMMENTARY] Conservation faces a storm of crises: ecological decline, weak institutions, disinformation & threats to defenders. The path forward? Resilient finance, coalitions linking nature & livelihoods, and optimism as a method, says a new op-ed. 🌍💪 The views expressed are author's.

[COMMENTARY] Misconceptions about jurisdictional REDD+ programs have been amplified in recent press coverage. This analysis aims to clarify key aspects of JREDD+ to contribute to a more accurate and informed public debate. ** The views expressed are those of the authors.

Axolotls may enjoy celebrity status among pet owners, but their wild populations have been dealt huge blows by habitat loss, water pollution, invasive species and the pet trade. Now, the success of reintroduction programs in their native ranges in Mexico brings new hope for their comeback.

Rhett Ayers Butler, Mongabay founder and CEO, has been named in the 2025 Forbes Sustainability Leaders List, which honors 50 global leaders working to combat the climate crisis. This is a milestone in a journey that goes back 25 years to when Butler was a teenager visiting a rainforest in Borneo.

[COMMENTARY] Brazil’s BR-319 highway project is moving inexorably forward toward approval and construction, despite the overall consequence being potentially disastrous for Brazil and for global climate, says a new oped. ** The views expressed are those of the author.

A landmark opinion from the United Nations International Court of Justice has ruled that rising sea levels caused by climate change do not require countries to redraw their maritime borders. Small island nations, among the most vulnerable to sea level rise, are hailing the decision as a victory.

Siona Indigenous guards in southern Colombia are raising alarm that landmines and armed groups are cutting off their families from natural resources and trapping them in small portions of their territory. It’s been an ongoing problem for decades, Mongabay contributor Jose Guarnizo reported.

[COMMENTARY] Since 2014, Samoa’s “little dodo” has been listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List. But an underfunded conservation effort could still snatch this fascinating species from the extinction list, a new commentary argues. ** The views expressed are those of the author.

Every year in the Gulf of Panama, between December and April, trade winds from the north push warm surface water away from the coast, allowing cool, nutrient-rich water from the depths to rise, in a process called upwelling. For the first time in 40 years, this upwelling failed in 2025.

California’s native jewelflowers, a group of plants that belong to the mustard family, grow in widely diverse landscapes and microclimates across the state. But until now, scientists didn’t understand what allowed their wide distribution.

Researchers found that Indigenous territories can effectively reduce the risk of vector-borne or zoonotic diseases if they’re located in municipalities with at least 40% forest cover.

Five people were rescued after a pod of critically endangered Iberian orcas rammed into a sailboat several times, causing it to sink off Portugal’s Costa do Caparica, near the nation’s capital, Lisbon, on Sept. 13.

New research analyzing more than 3,000 tropical forest sites reveals that areas with fewer seed-dispersing animals store up to four times less carbon than forests with healthy wildlife populations. The study found that 81% of tropical trees rely on animals to disperse their seeds.

More than 100,000 people marched through Cuenca, a city in southern Ecuador, on Sept. 16, demanding that federal authorities revoke an environmental license for a gold mining project that may impact an important freshwater source.

São Tomé and Príncipe will establish eight marine protected areas covering 93 square kilometers (36 sq miles) of coastal habitats in the Gulf of Guinea. The island nation aims to protect its marine environment while improving the lives of fishing communities, who rely heavily on fish for protein.

Most coral reefs in the Caribbean could stop growing, and even start eroding away, by 2040 if global warming continues unchecked, a new study finds.

A South African court heard arguments Tuesday from coastal communities, NGOs and British oil and gas giant Shell on whether the multinational should be allowed to proceed with offshore exploration on the country’s Wild Coast.

Owning a shark and keeping it in a home aquarium has become cool — and it’s no longer just the province of tech bros and celebrities. But experts note that most home aquariums are inadequate and can lead to stunted growth, deformities and early death. Yet sharks are often easy to buy.

A cluster of mass vulture poisonings in May and June 2025 has drawn attention to an ongoing problem in the transfrontier conservation area that straddles South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

Peru’s government has established the Medio Putumayo Algodón Regional Conservation Area in the Loreto region of the Amazon Rainforest. This new protected area holds 53% of Peru’s carbon stock, which will be conserved by preventing deforestation in the region.

The Indigenous community of San José Poaquil is using technology to monitor the health and integrity of their ancestral forest. Locals have created online maps for their forest, which have allowed them to keep track of wildfires, deforestation and other illicit activities that threaten the area.

A new study estimates Niassa Special Reserve in Mozambique hosts 68–76 breeding pairs of Taita falcons. Woodland clearance, charcoal production, agriculture & domestic fowl could shift the balance in favor of peregrines & lanners. Conservation measures & resilience of miombo woodlands offer hope.

The first part of the WTO’s treaty banning harmful fisheries subsidies, known as Fish One, entered into force Sept. 15 after more than two decades of negotiation. The treaty will lapse in four years if no follow-up “Fish Two” deal can be reached, but negotiations remain stalled.