Decades after religions shaped China’s Tianmushan, authorities tackle protecting reserve (August 12, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/decades-after-religions-shaped-chinas-tianmushan-authorities-tackle-protecting-reserve/
- For more than a millennium, Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian traditions in China have shaped conservation practices at Tianmu mountain, with beliefs in the sacred connection between humans and nature influencing how communities protect its forests, wildlife and ecosystems.
- Today, state regulations provide the legal framework for the protection of the expanded Tianmushan–Qingliangfeng UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and establish a management plan developed with local communities to tackle challenges the rich ecosystem faces and negotiate sustainable development following past land conflicts. Authorities and a study show efforts have increased plant productivity.
- Authorities say religious values continue to influence conservation efforts, as monks, residents and officials work on education, ecotourism and monitoring programs to preserve the mountain’s biodiversity.
- Despite progress, the reserve faces ongoing challenges including climate change and tree disease.
Delays, biosecurity failures worsened flu outbreak at Nepal zoo, probe finds (August 12, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/delays-biosecurity-failures-worsened-flu-outbreak-at-nepal-zoo-probe-finds/
- The bird flu outbreak at Nepal’s only zoo killed or led to the culling of at least 63 animals, including birds, wild cats, civets, two leopards, a jackal and a bear, an inquiry has found.
- The inquiry’s report says contaminated feed and water in open bird enclosures, along with failures in animal-food handling, likely helped the virus spread.
- The zoo remained open for five days after a rapid test indicated bird flu, despite receiving an earlier warning about infections among crows in Kathmandu.
- Less than two weeks after reopening following the bird flu outbreak, the zoo recorded another disease outbreak that killed three wild boars from African swine fever.
On fragile Sumatran peatland, a farmer fights to bring back lost mangroves (August 12, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/on-fragile-sumatran-peatland-a-farmer-fights-to-bring-back-lost-mangroves/
- A palm oil grower in an Indonesian village on Sumatra island, around 100 miles west of Singapore, has spent 15 years studying the role of mangroves in coastal ecosystems and pushing local action to restore coastal forests.
- Research shows this area of Sumatra’s northern coastline, which is separated from the Strait of Malacca by a narrow channel and the island of Bengkalis, is experiencing coastal abrasion of more than 6 meters per year, due primarily to mangrove loss.
- Indonesia pledged to restore around 600,000 hectares in five years by 2024, which researchers say was likely the world’s most ambitious reforestation initiative on record. However, only a small share of the planned planted area was successfully seeded.
A plastic eater in Bangkok’s canals (August 12, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/a-plastic-eater-in-bangkoks-canals/
This solar-powered barge collects plastic from Bangkok’s canals before it can wash into the ocean. It’s an innovative solution to a growing problem, but cleaning up plastic is only part of the answer. Reducing plastic use and improving waste management remain the biggest challenges
As DRC confronts largest Ebola outbreak, health agencies revise strategy (August 12, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/as-drc-confronts-largest-ebola-outbreak-health-agencies-revise-strategy/
- The Central African country is facing its largest and also the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak on record.
- Health agencies are seeking to revise their strategy to tackle the public health crisis but focusing on response at the village level in the affected provinces of the DRC.
- Dr. Jean Kaseya, director-general of Africa CDC underscored the need to bring the outbreak response to the village level, saying that a community-centered approach helps build trust between local populations and health teams while strengthening participatory surveillance.
- One of the reasons this outbreak has turned out to be more difficult to contain is because a rare strain of the Ebola virus, Bundibugyo ebolavirus, is driving the cases.
Bolsonaro’s easing of gun control fueled illegal hunting, study indicates (August 12, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/bolsonaros-easing-of-gun-control-fueled-illegal-hunting-study-indicates/
- A new study points to the easing of gun restrictions during the administration of former President Jair Bolsonaro as a primary driver of illegal wildlife hunting in Brazil.
- By mapping social media posts, researchers documented more than 4,000 animals killed from 157 native species across the country, coinciding with a surge in gun purchases by sport hunters.
- The primary hotspots are concentrated in the Amazon’s Arc of Deforestation, where forest loss, environmental degradation, gun availability and agricultural expansion compound pressure on wildlife.
- Researchers are calling for stricter firearm controls, stronger law enforcement and coordinated conservation policies to curb an environmental impact they describe as silent and widespread.
Illegal mining threatens Ghana’s first marine protected area (August 12, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/illegal-mining-threatens-ghanas-first-marine-protected-area/
- Illegal gold mining in Ghana’s Greater Cape Three Points Forest Reserve threatens vulnerable and endangered species in the protected forest, say conservationists.
- Sediment and toxic chemicals from the mining also threaten the adjacent waters of a newly declared marine protected area just offshore.
- Conservation NGOs want the government to act against illegal miners, including establishing permanent camps in the forest to protect a wider area.
Nickel expansion puts Indonesia’s biodiversity goals under pressure, study finds (August 12, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/nickel-expansion-puts-indonesias-biodiversity-goals-under-pressure-study-finds/
- Indonesia holds the world’s largest nickel reserves and has rapidly expanded production, which a new study says has grown roughly tenfold over the past decade.
- Nickel mining can fragment wildlife habitat as mines, roads and associated infrastructure expand, threatening biodiversity in areas of global conservation importance.
- Researchers say protecting the most important biodiversity and carbon areas could substantially reduce environmental risks, but doing so could also constrain nickel supply.
- Even with greater adoption of low- or no-nickel battery chemistries, total nickel demand could continue to grow because the metal is also used extensively in stainless steel, renewable-energy infrastructure and other applications, the study notes.
Cacao plantations in Liberia encroach into proposed Kwa national park (August 12, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/cacao-plantations-in-liberia-encroach-into-proposed-kwa-national-park/
A cocoa boom in southeast Liberia is wiping out native forests and encroaching into a proposed national park. The would-be Kwa National Park, a dense tropical rainforest, is home to chimpanzees, forest elephants, pygmy hippos and pangolins. Kwa is partly located in Grand Gedeh county, one of the most densely forested regions in southeast Liberia. […]
World Elephant Day: How these giants are adapting to a changing world (August 12, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/world-elephant-day-how-these-giants-are-adapting-to-a-changing-world/
August 12 is World Elephant Day. To celebrate, Mongabay looks back at recent stories about how the future success of these mammals depends on healthy, connected habitats. Asian elephants adjust what they eat A recent study from Malaysia showed that Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) are adapting to rapidly changing landscapes by diversifying their diets — a […]
In India, sacred groves serve as vital nurseries for future forests (August 12, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/in-india-sacred-groves-serve-as-vital-nurseries-for-future-forests/
In India’s Western Ghats, sacred groves – small, community-protected forest patches dedicated to local deities – are far more effective at regenerating native tree species than surrounding village lands, according to a recent study, reports Mongabay’s Liz Kimbrough. For the study, a research team from the Applied Environmental Research Foundation (AERF) mapped and measured 82 […]
On ivory, follow the trafficking networks and not the headlines (commentary) (August 11, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/on-ivory-follow-the-trafficking-networks-and-not-the-headlines-commentary/
- An emerging narrative is that elephant poaching has declined, yet evidence shows that the illegal trade in ivory persists, and that the involvement of organized crime in it keeps growing.
- Despite big and news-making seizures of illegal ivory recently, criminal networks continue operating, and southern Africa appears to be back at the illegal global trade’s center.
- “The current narrative that the situation is under control should not be accepted without question,” a new op-ed for World Elephant Day 2026 argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Cambodia’s banned sand trade with Singapore appears to be back (August 11, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/cambodias-banned-sand-trade-with-singapore-appears-to-be-back/
- Cambodia appears to have resumed exporting sand to Singapore, despite a 2017 national ban, with Koh Kong provincial authorities saying a new dredging operation has been licensed.
- Mongabay traced at least four bulk carriers from Koh Kong to Singapore’s Tuas Port, where the site of a massive land reclamation project.
- The dredging is taking place within protected area boundaries and could affect riverbanks, fisheries and wildlife, as well as a major downstream mangrove forest.
- Environmental activists say they hope to draw attention to the renewed sand trade, but Cambodia’s shrinking civic space and restrictions on civil society groups have made standing up to environmental violations increasingly difficult.
Forest fires likely to continue to burn twice as much without ‘serious action’ on climate change (August 11, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2026/08/forest-fires-likely-to-continue-to-burn-twice-as-much-without-serious-action-on-climate-change/
Elizabeth Goldman is a co-director of Global Nature Watch, previously known as Global Forest Watch, a database measuring forest loss that’s frequently cited in Mongabay reporting. She joins this week’s podcast to detail GNW’s updated 25-year analysis of global forest fire trends. The picture is stark: Forest fires burn twice as much forest today as […]
Key Amazon cases reach Brazil’s Supreme Court following Lula’s defeats in Congress (August 11, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/08/key-amazon-cases-reach-brazils-supreme-court-following-lulas-defeats-in-congress/
SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s Supreme Court is set to decide cases that could reshape protections for the Amazon rainforest and Indigenous communities. These cases involve Indigenous land rights, environmental safeguards, and infrastructure projects. Congress approved measures that environmentalists say violate constitutional rights, but President Lula vetoed some. Lawmakers overrode these objections, sending disputes to […]
Meet the Indigenous women restoring Kenya’s Mau Forest — and reshaping gender roles (August 11, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/meet-the-indigenous-women-restoring-kenyas-mau-forest-and-reshaping-gender-roles/
- In Kenya, a network of Indigenous women’s groups is restoring degraded areas of the Mau Forest while also providing the women with incomes and decision-making power.
- The Paran Women Group includes Maasai, Ogiek and other Indigenous community members learning to manage enterprises such as tree nurseries, kitchen gardens, savings groups, beekeeping and landscape restoration.
- Research shows that restoration programs designed to transform unequal gender roles give women more prominence in the household and improve conservation outcomes.
- Paran members say they previously relied on their husbands for everything, but they now have income of their own as well as a larger say in family decisions.
Iceland to deport antiwhaling protest ship’s crew after they interfered with whale hunt (August 11, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/iceland-to-deport-antiwhaling-protest-ships-crew-after-they-interfered-with-whale-hunt/
- Authorities in Iceland have detained an antiwhaling protest vessel and its crew after it interfered with a hunt by Hvalur hf., the country’s last whaling company.
- The M/V Bandero, operated by the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, and its 21 crew members were being held in Reykjavík; authorities have ordered the crew’s deportation, with five Americans deported on August 6.
- Iceland is one of the few countries in the world that still commercially hunts whales, with a quota this year of 150 fin whales; in 2023, Hvalur hf. killed 24 fin whales, and the year before, 148. As of Aug 7, at least 35 fin whales have been killed, according to the foundation.
- The fin whale is one of the world’s largest animals and is classified as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, with about 100,000 mature individuals remaining worldwide.
As Singapore culls ‘nuisance’ birds, rapid urbanization continues to fuel an avian boom (August 11, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/as-singapore-culls-nuisance-birds-rapid-urbanization-continues-to-fuel-an-avian-boom/
- A campaign to shoot crows has resumed in Singapore in response to a surge in public complaints about attacks, with authorities saying “pest” birds pose a public health risk and outcompete native species.
- Ecologists argue Singapore’s crow problem is human-made, with poor waste management and illegal feeding fueling a population boom.
- They criticize culling as ineffective over the long term and say it risks normalizing lethal wildlife control while undermining Singapore’s “City in Nature” vision.
- Nature groups say ongoing and planned forest clearance for public housing could lead to further increases in urban bird populations, as more favorable habitats are created, leading to “endless culling” to control bird populations.
Forest Restoration Solutions (August 11, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/specials/2026/08/forest-restoration-solutions/
Tree growing has become one of the most widely promoted responses to climate change and ecosystem degradation, with governments, companies and nonprofits pledging to restore hundreds of millions of hectares of forests worldwide. But restoring ecosystems is far more complex than putting seedlings in the ground. This Special examines what it takes to rebuild forest […]
Brazil’s wildcats face multiple diseases due to habitat fragmentation (August 11, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/brazils-wild-cats-face-multiple-diseases-due-to-habitat-fragmentation/
- Throughout Brazil, the contact between domestic cats and wild felines has been exposing threatened, biologically vulnerable feral species to diseases, which can reduce their populations.
- According to experts, habitat fragmentation is a common denominator of this crisis, from the Amazon to the Pampa, where felines are forced to leave the boundaries of their native areas and approach sites modified by human action.
- From the imposing jaguar to one of the smallest and rarest, the pampas cat, no Brazilian feline escapes the risks of contracting fungi, bacteria, parasites, and known viral diseases, such as feline leukemia and others.
- Studies and veterinarians warn that mass vaccination of domestic animals and the preservation of natural areas are key pieces to address this problem.