Brazil protects huge coastal area with endangered dolphins and megafauna fossils (March 18, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/brazil-protects-huge-coastal-area-with-endangered-dolphins-and-megafauna-fossils/
Brazil’s federal government created a huge conservation area on March 6 to protect a critical biodiversity hotspot in the Atlantic Ocean. The newly created Albardão marine park and coastal environmental protected area are home to at least 25 endangered species and Pleistocene epoch megafauna fossils. The new national park is off the coast of Brazil’s […]
Rwanda advances nuclear ambitions after positive IAEA assessment (March 18, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/rwanda-advances-nuclear-ambitions-after-positive-iaea-assessment/
In early March, while attending the Nuclear Energy Summit, Rwandan President Paul Kagame reaffirmed his ambition to develop civilian nuclear reactors in Rwanda. “Nuclear energy is not too complex or risky for developing countries,” he said during the meeting. “It will diversify our energy mix while providing the stability required for industrial growth and long-term […]
Paul Ehrlich, ‘Population Bomb’ ecologist, dies at 93 (March 18, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/paul-ehrlich-population-bomb-ecologist-dies-at-93/
- Paul Ehrlich, a Stanford ecologist whose research on butterflies and population dynamics helped shape modern ecology, became one of the most prominent scientific voices in the early environmental movement. He died March 13 at age 93.
- His 1968 book, The Population Bomb, argued that rapid human population growth threatened to outstrip the planet’s capacity to provide food and resources, influencing public debate while also drawing sustained criticism.
- Ehrlich’s forecasts of widespread famine proved too stark as agricultural productivity rose, and a widely publicized wager with economist Julian Simon over commodity prices ended in Ehrlich’s loss.
- Despite the controversies, his scientific work on extinction risk, habitat fragmentation and biodiversity decline helped frame how ecologists think about the pressures human societies place on the living world.
A bonobo named Kanzi could play pretend, challenging ideas about animal imaginations (March 18, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-bonobo-named-kanzi-could-play-pretend-challenging-ideas-about-animal-imaginations/
- Kanzi, a language-trained bonobo, identified and tracked pretend objects across tea party-like experiments, marking the first controlled demonstration of imagination in a nonhuman animal
- In three experiments, Kanzi repeatedly pointed to the correct location of imaginary juice and grapes, and chose real juice over pretend juice, showing that he understood the difference between real and imaginary objects.
- This study suggests that the cognitive capacity for imagination may date back 6 to 9 million years to the common ancestor of humans and great apes, though some researchers question whether simpler explanations could account for Kanzi’s responses.
- Kanzi died in March 2025 at age 44, but researchers hope to explore whether other apes, including those without extensive human language training, share this capacity.
Nepal’s rural women at increasing risk of human-wildlife conflict (March 18, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/nepals-rural-women-at-increasing-risk-of-human-wildlife-conflict/
- Women in forest-edge communities around Bardiya National Park are increasingly exposed to human-wildlife conflict, as daily subsistence work brings them into forests where encounters with tigers and other wildlife occur.
- Labor migration has shifted agricultural and household responsibilities onto women, pushing many to collect fodder, firewood and other forest resources in high-risk areas.
- Most fatal wildlife encounters occur during routine livelihood activities, such as cutting grass or grazing livestock in forests and buffer zones where people and wildlife share space.
- Nepal’s widely celebrated tiger conservation success is unfolding alongside growing risks for rural communities, particularly women who depend on forests for daily survival; meanwhile, women remain largely absent from the institutions that shape conservation policy.
Dams, drains and other artificial habitats could buy time for threatened mussels: Study (March 18, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/dams-drains-and-other-artificial-habitats-could-buy-time-for-threatened-mussels-study/
Described as the “liver of rivers” for their water filtering capabilities, freshwater mussels are facing an extinction crisis. These slow-growing, long-lived bivalves are one of the most threatened groups of animals on the planet. Now researchers in Australia have found that artificial water bodies could provide a lifeline for some species. Freshwater mussels live in […]
By protecting tigers ‘we save so much more,’ says Debbie Banks (March 17, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2026/03/by-protecting-tigers-we-save-so-much-more-says-debbie-banks/
Tiger populations have risen in some countries, such as Bhutan, Nepal and India, but the global population of the big cat species remains critically endangered, says Debbie Banks, campaign lead for tigers and wildlife crime at the Environmental Investigation Agency. The global tiger population was recorded at roughly 5,574 in 2022, with the species having […]
Two marsupials thought extinct for 6,000 years found alive in Indonesian Papua (March 17, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/two-marsupials-thought-extinct-for-6000-years-found-alive-in-indonesian-papua/
Two species of marsupials thought to have been extinct for the past 6,000 years have been found very much alive on the island of New Guinea. The two Lazarus species, named after a biblical figure who was said to have risen from the dead, were recently described from rainforests in the Bird’s Head Peninsula on […]
Flagship conservation platforms SMART and EarthRanger join forces in new tech partnership (March 17, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/flagship-conservation-platforms-smart-and-earthranger-join-forces-in-new-tech-partnership/
- The two largest conservation technology platforms, SMART and EarthRanger, are merging into a single product known as SERCA.
- SMART and EarthRanger have overlapping functions yet are different enough that many organizations need to adopt both. Managing data across two platforms has created logistical challenges that ultimately led to the idea of merging the software.
- SERCA will combine EarthRanger’s user-friendly interface and real-time visualization with SMART’s data collection and analysis capabilities.
- The project is a collaboration between WCS, WWF, Re:wild, Panthera, North Carolina Zoo, Wildlife Protection Solutions, the Frankfurt Zoological Society and the Zoological Society of London and EarthRanger, developed by the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence.
Beyond the screen: DCEFF (March 17, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/specials/2026/03/beyond-the-screen-dceff/
Documentary films have the power to shape how we understand nature. They offer a deeper look into the planet’s challenges, bringing people together through shared experiences and inspiring action. As a media partner for the 2025 Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital (DCEFF), Mongabay is featuring exclusive interviews with the makers of this year’s […]
In Brazil, regenerative farming advances, but deforestation still pressures ecosystems (March 17, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-brazil-regenerative-farming-advances-but-deforestation-still-pressures-ecosystems/
- Agribusiness accounts for roughly a fifth of Brazil’s economy and about 40% of exports. While it is a major economic engine, it is also responsible for over 90% of deforestation and about a quarter of national emissions, with cattle ranching and soy production the main drivers of deforestation.
- Agricultural innovation transformed states like Mato Grosso from non-arable land into global farming hubs. Now, agribusinesses and researchers in Brazil are exploring whether similar innovation can boost regenerative farming to restore degraded pasturelands and reduce further deforestation caused by agriculture.
- REVERTE, one of Brazil’s largest agricultural regeneration projects, led by Swiss pesticide producer Syngenta, aims to restore 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of degraded pastureland by 2030. Over the next decade, Brazil aims to restore 40 million hectares (100 million acres) of degraded land.
- Restoring degraded pasturelands will not be enough to halt deforestation for agriculture in the Cerrado and Amazon, experts warn. They say that without robust land-use governance, enforcement of forest protections and binding private-sector commitments, productivity gains risk fueling further expansion rather than reducing pressure on Brazil’s ecosystems.
War exacerbates long-standing irrigation crisis for Sudan farmers (March 17, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/war-exacerbates-long-standing-irrigation-crisis-for-sudan-farmers/
- Sudan’s Gezira irrigation scheme spans nearly 890,000 hectares (2.2 million acres), pumping water from the Nile to farmers through a network of canals fed by the Sennar Dam.
- Twenty years ago, the government moved to privatize and decentralize operation and maintenance of this and other irrigation infrastructure.
- The loss of resources and experienced state employees has seen the system of pumps and canals deteriorate, leaving tens of thousands of farmers to improvize solutions.
- Wealthier farmers have installed pumps — increasingly turning to solar-powered ones — but with civil war making fuel and spare parts unaffordable, many small-scale farmers have been unable to grow food.
Amazon waterway noise threatens unique social life of giant river turtles (March 17, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/amazon-waterway-noise-threatens-unique-social-life-of-giant-river-turtles/
- A planned shipping waterway on the Tapajós River, a major tributary of the Amazon, may disrupt the sophisticated social communication systems used by the Amazon river turtle (Podocnemis expansa), a species likely to be endangered.
- Underwater noise from barges risks drowning out the vocalizations used by adult females to guide their young during collective migration in the species’ second-most important nesting area, scientists say.
- The waterway is a central piece of Brazil’s new push to ease the transport of soybean and corn for export.
Toucans reintroduced 50 years ago disperse seeds of endangered trees in Brazil (March 17, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/03/toucans-reintroduced-50-years-ago-disperse-seeds-of-endangered-trees-in-brazil/
More than 50 years ago, the ariel toucan was reintroduced to Tijuca National Park, the world’s largest urban forest, located in Rio de Janeiro in southeastern Brazil. Now, a new study finds that the bird, which became locally extinct in the 1960s, has almost entirely settled back into its original role in the ecosystem, serving […]
At dusk in Kenya’s caves, scientists study the hidden lives of bats (March 17, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/at-dusk-in-kenyas-caves-scientists-race-to-understand-the-hidden-lives-of-bats/
- David Wechuli and other researchers are studying bats living in cave systems in Kenya, to better understand how they interact with their environment and how human activities affect bat habitat.
- Research shows that many bat species are highly sensitive to disturbances, sometimes abandoning their roosts, with damaging consequences.
- Wechuli works for Bat Conservation International, which has helped communities develop guidelines to protect caves hosting bat colonies from disturbance.
A decade after the death of Berta Cáceres, we can no longer tolerate threats to environmental activists (commentary) (March 17, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/a-decade-after-the-death-of-berta-caceres-we-can-no-longer-tolerate-threats-to-environmental-activists-commentary/
- On the 10th anniversary of the murder of environmental activist Berta Cáceres, the director of the Goldman Environmental Prize argues in a new op-ed that the era of impunity for such crimes is over and that the capacity to defend such people is steadily increasing.
- A 2015 winner of the award for her work defending her Indigenous community against a hydroelectric development in Honduras, Cáceres was killed by gunmen hired by executives of the dam-building company.
- Her legacy has since made her a legend, with her likeness now adorning a banknote in her nation, and her story inspiring a wave of philanthropy aimed at protecting nature’s defenders.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Kenya’s renewed oil push faces a tainted legacy (March 17, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/kenyas-renewed-oil-push-faces-a-tainted-legacy/
- Nairobi-based Gulf Energy is reviving a dormant project to extract oil from northwestern Kenya, five years after the previous operator, Tullow Oil, abandoned the field.
- Residents of Turkana county say Tullow’s exploration activities damaged the environment; a 2022 study found heavy contamination in eight of 11 groundwater samples collected near oil well pads in the Lokichar Basin, and people have reported health problems.
- Seventy-three residents have filed a case against Tullow and the county and national government to press for land rehabilitation and prevent further harm.
- Locals say they will hold Gulf Energy and regulatory authorities to account as efforts to develop the oil field resume.
Planters stranded amid degraded forests as Bangladesh agarwood scheme falters (March 17, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/planters-stranded-by-degraded-forests-as-bangladesh-agarwood-scheme-falters/
- Between 1999 to 2011, the Bangladesh Forest Department created 4,822 hectares (11,915 acres) of agarwood plantations across the country with local beneficiaries carrying out the clearing of forest land and planting and maintenance of the plantations.
- Agarwood trees take 6-8 years to mature. However, even the older trees from these plantations have not been auctioned since plantation.
- Agarwood and attar (agar perfume) exports from Bangladesh have seen unsteady profits over the last few years.
- Now, there are too many agar plantations in the country while the size of the local perfume industry remains small, and planters wait for buyers.
Accidental discovery reveals new climate threat to emperor penguins (March 17, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/accidental-discovery-reveals-new-climate-threat-to-emperor-penguins/
- Scientists have discovered new sites in Antarctica where emperor penguins gather for their annual molt, a vulnerable life stage when they shed and replace all their feathers.
- Through satellite data, they also discovered that many of these sea ice sites might have melted from under the penguins.
- The discovery suggests that the threats posed by global warming to emperor penguins might be more dire than previously thought.
The hidden cost of fisheries subsidies (March 17, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-hidden-cost-of-fisheries-subsidies/
- Governments provide roughly $35 billion a year in fisheries subsidies, much of it supporting fleets that can operate beyond what fish stocks alone would sustain.
- Research suggests many high-seas fisheries would be unprofitable without public support, raising questions about whether some “productive” fishing activity exists largely because of subsidies.
- Recent efforts such as the WTO fisheries subsidies agreement aim to curb support tied to illegal fishing and depleted stocks while improving transparency around how governments finance their fleets.
- Treating oceans as assets on the public balance sheet—from reforming subsidies to investing in monitoring and coastal ecosystems—could help governments reduce long-term fiscal risks while supporting healthier fisheries.