Women patrol Tanzania’s Pemba waters in a community-led push to protect the sea (June 27, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/women-patrol-tanzanias-pemba-waters-in-a-community-led-push-to-protect-the-sea/
- More than 1.8 million people live in Zanzibar, the semi-autonomous archipelago that united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form present-day Tanzania.
- Of Zanzibar’s population, roughly 550,000 people live on Pemba Island, one of its two main islands, where many households depend directly on the surrounding marine ecosystem for food, income, and livelihoods.
- Across the island, a community-led approach to marine resource management is taking root. Local communities are organized through Shehia Fisheries Committees and Collaborative Management Groups, which develop and implement rules governing the use of marine resources, including fisheries and locally managed conservation areas.
- Enforcing those rules, however, is not always straightforward. Community patrol teams often lack the legal authority needed to take action against offenders. In a largely Muslim society where marine patrols have traditionally been dominated by men, women are increasingly joining these teams to help monitor fishing activities and encourage compliance.
Honduras taps armed forces to eliminate deforestation by 2029. Is it working? (June 27, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/video/2026/06/honduras-taps-armed-forces-to-eliminate-deforestation-by-2029-is-it-working/
RÍO PLÁTANO BIOSPHERE RESERVE, Honduras — Deep inside Honduras’ protected forests, a battle is taking place between environmental defenders and deforestation. Deforestation rates in the country are among the highest in the Americas, threatening one of the world’s most biodiverse ecosystems. In 2024, its government launched a plan to eliminate deforestation by 2029, with a […]
Extreme heat wave in France kills hundreds of thousands of poultry (June 26, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/extreme-heat-wave-in-france-kills-hundreds-of-thousands-of-poultry/
Record temperatures have been causing mass poultry deaths in western France since June 22, Reuters reported. The heat wave, with temperatures exceeding 40° Celsius (104° Fahrenheit), is also behind the drowning of 40 people. Météo-France, the French national weather service, wrote in a statement that June 24 and 25 were the hottest days recorded in […]
French court orders TotalEnergies to disclose climate impacts in vigilance plan (June 26, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/french-court-orders-totalenergies-to-disclose-climate-impacts-in-vigilance-plan/
A French court has delivered a landmark judgment against oil and gas giant TotalEnergies SE, holding it accountable for the carbon footprint associated with its global operations. On June 25, the Paris Judicial Court ordered the multinational business to revise its vigilance plan in relation to its climate risk assessment. The order requires the company […]
How snow leopards, wolves and leopards share the same Himalayan valley, study (June 26, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/how-snow-leopards-wolves-and-leopards-share-the-same-himalayan-valley-study/
- Three apex predators (snow leopards, common leopards, and Himalayan wolves) coexist in a remote valley in Nepal’s central Himalayas by relying on different food sources.
- Researchers analyzed six years of camera-trap footage and fecal DNA from the Lapchi Valley to discover that snow leopards eat mainly wild ungulates, leopards feed on livestock and animals near human settlements, and wolves eat a mix of both.
- All three predators are mostly nocturnal and use overlapping terrain, but their specialized diets prevent direct conflict among these similarly sized apex predators.
- Protecting abundant wild prey is the most effective way to keep all three predators away from livestock and reduce retaliatory killings that threaten their survival.
India’s fishers confront homegrown ‘ghost gear’ problem (June 26, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/indias-fishers-confront-homegrown-ghost-gear-problem/
- Across India’s west coast, fishers often abandon or discard their damaged gear at sea after seabed snags, mounting economic pressures, and increasingly crowded near-shore waters make recovery difficult, creating a constant stream of “ghost gear” into the Arabian Sea.
- Once lost, fishing gear continues to function, whether it drifts through the water column or settles on the seabed, trapping marine life or entangling marine habitat.
- Incentive schemes, retrieval efforts, recycling initiatives and other efforts to reduce harm show promise in some places in India. But experts say they tend to remain piecemeal and face common challenges such as a lack of recycling infrastructure and dependence on short-term funding.
- Many experts say the key to addressing India’s ghost gear problem lies in moving from ad hoc initiatives to institutionalized systems that intervene across the gear’s lifecycle, from design and use to end-of-life disposal.
Laser scanning forests may boost carbon estimates, but credibility questions linger (June 26, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/laser-scanning-forests-may-boost-carbon-estimates-but-credibility-questions-linger/
- Ground-based laser scanning, called LiDAR, can be used to make detailed maps of forest structure.
- Such detail can allow for more accurate estimates of the amount of carbon stored in aboveground vegetation, which is helpful for assessing the outcomes of reforestation projects and assigning an accurate number of carbon credits.
- Carbon credits, bought and sold on the carbon market, are used by companies and other entities to offset their own greenhouse gas emissions.
- But experts caution that transparency, not estimation accuracy, remains the carbon market’s biggest challenge.
A trailblazing Ugandan championing women in African fisheries: Q&A with Lovin Kobusingye (June 26, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-trailblazing-ugandan-championing-women-in-african-fisheries-qa-with-lovin-kobusingye/
- In fishing communities along Africa’s coast, women are often the backbone of household economies. They process and sell fish, support households and pay school fees, often while facing significant economic and social challenges.
- Hotels, ports and other developments are reshaping many African coastlines. While they can bring jobs and investment, some women working in fisheries say they are also being pushed away from traditional landing sites and areas they have depended on for generations.
- At a recent gathering of marine organizations in Kenya, one woman stood before the audience to share the realities faced by women fishers, fish traders and others working across the fisheries value chain.
- Uganda’s Lovin Kobusingye knows those realities well. Having overcome numerous obstacles of her own to become a successful entrepreneur, she now advocates on behalf of millions of women working across Africa’s fisheries value chain, many of them women whose contributions to fisheries remain largely unseen and undervalued.
Vietnamese environmental lawyer Dang Dinh Bach released after 5 years in prison (June 26, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/vietnamese-environmental-lawyer-dang-dinh-bach-released-after-5-years-in-prison/
Vietnamese environmental lawyer Dang Dinh Bach was released from prison on June 24 after serving a full five-year sentence for tax evasion, charges advocates say were a pretext to silence his activism against coal mining. Bach, the founder and former director of the Law and Policy of Sustainable Development Research Center, was arrested in 2021 […]
France confirms its first Ebola case as DRC outbreak continues to grow (June 26, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/france-confirms-its-first-ebola-case-as-drc-outbreak-continues-to-grow/
A positive case of Ebola disease has been identified in France, a first for the Western European country. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the patient is a healthcare worker from the NGO Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA) who contracted the disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) before returning to France. […]
Three years after Cyclone Freddy, farms remain under water in Malawi’s Elephant Marsh (June 26, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/three-years-after-cyclone-freddy-farms-remain-under-water-in-malawis-elephant-marsh/
- Hundreds of thousands of people depend on Malawi’s Elephant Marsh for their livelihoods.
- Despite the name, there are no longer elephants in these wetlands, whose boundaries expand and contract with seasonal rains, but they provide habitat for hippos, crocodiles, fish and more than 100 waterbird species as well as thousands of farming and fishing households.
- The water from floods caused by 2023’s Cyclone Freddy never receded from large parts of the marsh, and this has displaced more than 1,000 farming households.
- Ongoing changes to the landscape upstream and in the marsh itself have destabilized the wetlands’ ability to absorb seasonal flooding. Increasingly frequent storms like Freddy are a further challenge to the ecosystem’s functioning.
Our Ocean Conference in Kenya ends with $6.4 billion in pledges, review of past promises (June 26, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/our-ocean-conference-in-kenya-ends-with-6-4-billion-in-pledges-review-of-past-promises/
- Governments, nonprofits, institutions and the private sector made more than 300 voluntary commitments and mobilized $6.4 billion for ocean conservation at the Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa, which closed June 18. It was the first time the annual gathering took place in Africa.
- The conference host, Kenya, laid out more than 40 commitments backed by more than $1 billion in finance for the expansion of marine protected areas, fisheries monitoring, climate finance and blue economy.
- With less than five years remaining to meet the goal of protecting 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030, a lot of attention was on governments to accelerate the process, but experts continued to call for strengthening of existing protections alongside expansions.
- Between 2014 and now, more than 3,200 commitments totaling $176 billion have been made at these conferences, and about 85% of those commitments have been fulfilled or are in the process.
Bangladesh tests a return to the wild for extinct peafowl populations (June 26, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/bangladesh-tests-a-return-to-the-wild-for-extinct-peafowl-populations/
- In 2025, Bangladesh released 20 peafowls from captivity into a forest-based enclosure as part of plans to fully reintroduce the species into the country’s wild.
- The sole chick to hatch from this group is now 6 months old and being considered for full release.
- The Bangladesh Forest Department says it expects more chicks from this year’s breeding and plans to gradually release these into the wild too, specifically into Madhupur National Park, north of Dhaka.
- Conservationists warn that releasing captive peafowl stock into the wild has a high chance of failure and could spread diseases to other wild species.
Asia’s shark and ray hotspots remain poorly protected, study finds (June 26, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/asias-shark-and-ray-hotspots-remain-poorly-protected-study-finds/
- A new regional assessment has identified 122 important shark and ray areas (ISRAs) across Asia, spanning more than 1 million square kilometers (386,102 square miles) and supporting 121 species, many of them threatened with extinction.
- Despite their ecological importance, only 5.4% of these habitats overlap with existing marine protected areas with only 2.8% falling within fully protected no-take zones, highlighting major conservation gaps.
- Sri Lanka has five identified ISRAs, home to nine species with eight of them threatened with extinction, but only Pigeon Island in the island’s east is formally protected, with most areas still functioning as active fishing grounds.
- The new study underscores an urgent need to move from mapping to management, using ISRAs to guide marine spatial planning, fisheries regulation and habitat protection ahead of global 30×30 ocean targets.
Chewing sounds can help decode an animal’s diet using AI, new study finds (June 26, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/chewing-sounds-can-help-decode-an-animals-diet-using-ai-new-study-finds/
- Scientists have developed an AI model that can listen to the chewing sounds of predators and identify what they are eating.
- The tool was trained with audio of whitespotted eagle rays crushing open shells of the mollusks they are preying on.
- It’s crucial to understand predator-prey interactions to figure out the resources the predator depends on and the pressure it puts on prey.
Seizures reveal macabre grey parrot blood trade in Cameroon (June 25, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/seizures-reveal-macabre-grey-parrot-blood-trade-in-cameroon/
- A grim, illicit trade in the blood of endangered African grey parrots is emerging near Cameroon’s Lobéké National Park, a stronghold for the species, according to TRAFFIC, a wildlife trafficking monitoring NGO.
- This trade first came to light in 2025 when forest authorities apprehended individuals caught illegally trapping grey parrots in the park. During interrogation, the poachers said that blood was extracted from trapped birds and likely used for medicine and religious practices.
- These intelligent birds are in demand as pets worldwide; their skulls and colorful feathers are used in belief-based practices, as a cure for speech problems and as decor. Decades of trade has pushed African grey parrots to the brink of extinction.
- Not a lot is known about this blood trade, but conservationists say it points to a general trend where wildlife traffickers are shifting to hard-to-detect products, making it challenging to combat illegal commerce.
Amazon floodplains cocoa offers a climate-resilient and sustainable chocolate (June 25, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/amazon-floodplains-cocoa-offers-a-climate-resilient-and-sustainable-chocolate/
- Traditional communities in Pará, Brazil’s top cocoa-producing state, are managing native species that naturally resist pests and extreme weather.
- The dense forest canopy of the floodplains provides natural irrigation and protection for cocoa trees against extreme droughts, heavy rain and pests.
- Global demand for organic and ethically sourced chocolate is expected to rise, positioning Amazonian states to fill international supply gaps, despite hurdles.
- Experts compare Pará’s emerging artisanal chocolate sector to Burgundy wine or Ethiopian coffee due to the unique “terroir” flavors of its native beans.
Trump admin persists in quixotic quest against wind power despite legal defeat (June 25, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/trump-admin-persists-in-quixotic-quest-against-wind-power-despite-legal-defeat/
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is continuing its campaign to end wind energy development through a series of executive orders, lawsuits, and lease buybacks. This is despite a recent court defeat and its own Department of Energy estimating the country could be powered by wind alone. Trump has made no secret of his disdain for […]
Nepal’s Central Zoo faces questions over its bird flu response (June 25, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/nepals-central-zoo-faces-questions-over-its-bird-flu-response/
- At least 40 animals have died at Nepal’s Central Zoo since a bird flu outbreak began in mid-June, most of them raptors and carnivores including a common leopard, though the zoo has refused to officially confirm the toll.
- Officials gave conflicting dates for when the first dead birds were found, and the zoo stayed open until June 19 despite a positive rapid test on June 14, a five-day gap that allowed the virus to spread through the facility.
- Investigators suspect feral crows were the likely vector, with a nest found near the barn owl enclosure and droppings possibly contaminating the owl’s water supply; contaminated raw chicken fed to carnivores is also being examined.
- The inquiry into the response is being led by the same spokesperson who has publicly defended the zoo’s handling of the outbreak.
Not all coral reefs are doomed as a result of climate change, study suggests (June 25, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/not-all-coral-reefs-are-doomed-as-a-result-of-climate-change-study-suggests/
One third of the world’s coral reefs may be able to withstand the impacts of climate change by 2050, according to a study conducted by the conservation NGO Wildlife Conservation Society and researchers from Macquarie University in Australia. The findings of the study, yet to be peer-reviewed, were presented on June 16 during the Our […]