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![]() Videos capture an unlikely alliance between ocelots and opossums in the Amazon (July 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/videos-capture-an-unlikely-alliance-between-ocelots-and-opossums-in-the-amazon/ Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In the Peruvian Amazon, a series of curious encounters has left biologists scratching their heads. Camera traps have captured an unexpected partnership: solitary, nocturnal ocelots (Leopardus pardalis) strolling alongside common opossums (Didelphis marsupialis). Not once, but four times, […] | |
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![]() Evolution in overdrive as Baltic cod shrink due to fishing pressure, study shows (July 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/evolution-in-overdrive-as-baltic-cod-shrink-due-to-fishing-pressure-study-shows/ - The eastern Baltic cod has shrunk dramatically in size in recent decades due to rapid evolution — changes at the genetic level — caused by decades of intensive fishing, a new study says. - Eastern Baltic cod, which are a distinct subpopulation of Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), lost nearly half of their length and four-fifths of their weight from 1996 until 2019. - It’s one of the first studies to show that a marine species has evolved in response to fishing pressure. - An expert said the shrinking of the cod was “alarming,” and called on fisheries managers to work to protect fish biomass and size, given this new evidence of fisheries-induced evolution. | |
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![]() Billions spent, biodiversity declines — GEF insists it remains fit for purpose (July 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/billions-spent-biodiversity-declines-gef-insists-it-remains-fit-for-purpose/ - Launched in 1990, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) was established to fund climate change, biodiversity, ozone layer protection and international waters projects in developing countries, based on the idea that local actions would deliver global environmental benefits. Now more than 35 years on, the GEF has evolved into a complex multilateral fund, with a sprawling secretariat and a broadened mandate. - As of 2024, the GEF has mobilized and invested more than $24.3 billion in grants and concessional finance for environmental programs globally, according to its 2024 financials. - Africa has received roughly $7.7 billion of that total over three decades. Yet, biodiversity loss across the continent continues at an alarming rate, raising pressing questions about the real-world impact and relevance of GEF funding and the effectiveness of multilateral environmental finance overall. - Fred Boltz, head of programming at the GEF, insists the fund remains fit for purpose, pointing to country ownership, integrated programming and efforts to fix global environmental market failures as foundations for long-term success. | |
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![]() Conservationists raise sharks to restore reefs in waters around Thailand (July 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/conservationists-raise-sharks-to-restore-reefs-in-waters-around-thailand/ - A new rewilding program aims to boost the local population of bamboo sharks in the waters of Khao Lak, Thailand. - The species, classified as near threatened on the IUCN Red List, used to be abundant in the area, but has declined as a result of overfishing and habitat destruction. - Since the project launched in 2018, with the support of luxury resorts in the area, it has released 200 bamboo sharks into the wild. - A separate program that started in May 2025, is breeding leopard sharks, which are listed as endangered. They will be released in the waters off Phuket, and eventually the Gulf of Thailand. | |
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![]() Study finds worrying uptick in proboscis monkey trade in Indonesia (July 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/study-finds-worrying-uptick-in-proboscis-monkey-trade-in-indonesia/ - Proboscis monkeys, endemic to Borneo, are threatened by habitat destruction, forest fires and hunting. But until two decades ago, trade wasn’t a threat to the CITES-listed species, which is challenging to keep in captivity. - A recent study, analyzing 25-year seizure and trade data involving proboscis monkey trade, finds nearly 100 individuals in trade in Indonesia, with an alarming rise in online trade and zoo exchanges in recent years, many of which are likely acquired from the wild. - Conservationists say this uptick in trade poses a threat to the endangered species and urge Indonesian authorities to enforce existing legislation to protect proboscis monkeys from trade. They also say social media platforms must do more to curb wildlife trade on their platforms, which is also a concern for proboscis monkeys. | |
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![]() Bangladesh turns to nature for biodegradable plates to replace plastic ones (July 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/bangladesh-turns-to-nature-for-biodegradable-plants-to-replace-plastic-ones/ In Bangladesh, disposable tableware, including plates made of areca palm leaves, is gaining popularity as a good alternative to single-use plastic during social gatherings and festival celebrations, Mongabay’s Abu Siddique reported in May. A survey from 2018 estimates that Bangladesh used around 250 metric tons of single-use plastic tableware and straws every month. However, since […] | |
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![]() Honey bees in Bangladesh suffer from indiscriminate pesticide use (July 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/honey-bees-in-bangladesh-suffer-from-indiscriminate-pesticide-use/ Experts warn the indiscriminate use of insecticides by farmers in Bangladesh to protect their crops is harming beneficial honey bees, Mongabay contributor Sadiqur Rahman reported in March. Beekeeper Pavel Hossen, who set up an apiary on land next to a black cumin farm, hoped his honey bees (Apis mellifera) would feed on the flowers of the […] | |
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![]() Deadly landslide and flooding in Colombia and Venezuela linked to rapid urbanization (July 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/deadly-landslide-and-flooding-in-colombia-and-venezuela-linked-to-rapid-urbanization/ Heavy rainfall in Colombia and Venezuela caused deadly landslides and widespread flooding in June. A new analysis now points to rapid urbanization, deforestation, mining and overgrazing as having reduced the region’s climate resilience. “The rapid growth of population and informal settlements in areas prone to landslides, particularly in Colombia, puts people and infrastructure at risk,” […] | |
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![]() Louisiana cancels $3 billion coastal restoration project funded by oil spill settlement (July 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/louisiana-cancels-3-billion-coastal-restoration-project-funded-by-oil-spill-settlement/ NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Louisiana is officially canceling a $3 billion coastal restoration project funded by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement. The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion Project aimed to rebuild over 20 square miles of land in southeast Louisiana to combat erosion and sea level rise. Conservation groups supported the project as a science-based solution […] | |
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![]() The price of protecting what’s left in Cambodia (July 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/the-price-of-protecting-whats-left-in-cambodia/ Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In a nation where speaking up can lead to prison, a group of young Cambodians has refused to be silent. One year ago, five members of Mother Nature Cambodia, a conservation NGO, were jailed on charges of plotting […] | |
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![]() Indonesia moves to revise sea sand export policy after court ruling (July 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/indonesia-sea-sand-dredging-exports-marine-fisheries/ - Indonesia’s Supreme Court earlier this year struck down key parts of a 2023 regulation allowing sea sand exports, citing legal contradictions and environmental risks. - The annulled policy had reversed a two-decade ban and faced backlash for potentially harming marine ecosystems and coastal communities. - The government now says it’s revising the regulation, arguing that dredging can benefit ocean health and support domestic infrastructure projects. - Critics warn the practice threatens fisheries, marine carbon stores and long-term sustainability, and call for a shift toward restoration over exploitation. | |
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![]() Small Australian carnivorous marsupial reclassified as 3 species: Study (July 17, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/small-australian-carnivorous-marsupial-reclassified-as-3-species-study/ Researchers describe the kultarr as “Australia’s cutest mammal”: It’s eyes are quite large for its mouse-like head, it’s ears are perky and it has long, thin legs that allow it to run so fast that it looks like it’s hopping. A recent study has now confirmed that the insect-eating marsupial is not one, but three […] | |
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![]() In the Andes, decentralization fails to address environmental harm (July 17, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/in-the-andes-decentralization-fails-to-address-environmental-harm/ - In the Andean countries responsibility for the provision of key public services has been transferred to local institutions. However, national governments still exert control over strategic assets such as natural resources, with national and regional interests sometimes clashing. - In Peru, local politicians have used these powers to obtain forest concessions or collude with individuals operating within the informal economy. - Despite gaining more power, local authorities in Peru continue to experience difficulties in limiting wildcat mining in the state of Madre de Dios. | |
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![]() Brazil’s Congress passes ‘devastation bill’ in major environmental setback (July 17, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/brazils-congress-passes-devastation-bill-in-major-environmental-setback/ - Lawmakers approved a bill that weakens Brazil’s environmental licensing framework, which creates self-approving licensing and hands decisions to local politicians. - The new law eases critical impact studies for large-scale enterprises such as mining dams and threatens hundreds of Indigenous and Quilombola communities. - The bill’s approval occurred amid an ongoing political crisis between President Lula and the right-wing-led Congress. | |
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![]() In a warming world, can California save its Joshua trees? (July 17, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/in-a-warming-world-can-california-save-its-joshua-trees/ - Western Joshua trees in California are increasingly threatened by changing climate conditions, including rising heat, increasing drought, more frequent wildfires, and by expanding renewable energy and housing developments. - Despite increasingly harsh conditions, adult Joshua trees are expected to remain common through the end of the century, but young trees will not survive across most of their current range, scientists warn. - Although the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has declined to protect eastern and western Joshua trees under the Endangered Species Act, California passed a state law to protect its western Joshua trees in 2023. - Scientists warn that these trees need climate action to survive the century. | |
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![]() Sri Lanka’s plant messiah spreads optimism for biodiversity & conservation (July 17, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/sri-lankas-plant-messiah-spreads-optimism-for-biodiversity-conservation/ - A young Sri Lankan scientist, Himesh Jayasinghe, has rediscovered more than 100 of 177 possibly extinct species in Sri Lanka as well as three of five extinct species and both species previously considered extinct in the wild. - Jayasinghe up to now has found some 210 species that have never before been reported from Sri Lanka, with about 50 of them already known from India, while a further 20, though named in the historical literature, can now be added to the national floral inventory of Sri Lanka supported by hard evidence. - These discoveries hint that unexpectedly high numbers of new plant species may await discovery even in well-explored tropical countries such as Sri Lanka and emphasizes that the process of inventorying biodiversity should not be retarded by the demands of formal taxonomy and informal names backed by georeferenced voucher specimens and photographs being sufficient for conservation purposes. - Many species thought to be extinct may be rediscovered when targeted searches are conducted using new eyes, experts say. | |
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![]() Open burning of plastic is an escalating public health threat, say experts (July 17, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/open-burning-of-plastic-is-an-escalating-public-health-threat-say-experts/ - Plastic waste is an exploding global problem, with minimal recycling resulting in incineration as a common disposal practice. Shipments of plastic products and plastic waste from the Global North to the Global South are contributing to a flood of plastics that are not recycled and often burned. - In the developing world, plastics are frequently burned in the open in landfills or in communities with no access to waste disposal services. This practice is a growing public health concern, say experts, as are reports of marginalized poor communities resorting to burning plastics in households as a fuel source. - When burned without pollution controls, plastics can release a range of toxic chemicals that are seriously harmful to human health and the environment. Experts warn that addressing the open burning of plastic must be considered at upcoming global plastic treaty negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, Aug. 5–14. - Dozens of nations in the High Ambition Coalition — including many EU countries and the U.K. — now support curbs on virgin plastic production and bans on the worst toxic chemicals in plastics. But the U.S., Russia, Iran, China and other nations have been resisting a strong binding plastics treaty. | |
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![]() Now on Wall Street, JBS eyes growth amid scrutiny on deforestation & graft (July 17, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/now-on-wall-street-jbs-eyes-growth-amid-scrutiny-on-deforestation-graft/ - The world’s largest meatpacker had a long journey to the U.S. stock market, one full of reports of greenwashing and corruption. - After debuting on the NYSE, the company plans to use its new access to Wall Street capital to expand operations in the United States, Brazil and Australia. - Recently, it’s broadening its global footprint, with new plants in Nigeria, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia. - Critics warn of environmental risks with JBS’ expansion and say the new listing could lead to more scrutiny from the U.S. Congress and courts. | |
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![]() How climate change could force FIFA to rethink the World Cup calendar (July 17, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/how-climate-change-could-force-fifa-to-rethink-the-world-cup-calendar/ GENEVA (AP) — Soccer faces growing challenges from extreme heat, as seen during the FIFA Club World Cup in the U.S. this summer. Rising global temperatures are making summer tournaments increasingly dangerous for players and fans. Scientists warn that continuing to hold events in June and July could lead to severe heat-related illnesses. FIFA introduced […] | |
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![]() Sri Lanka grants protection to a rare ecosystem (July 17, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/sri-lanka-grants-protection-to-a-rare-ecosystem/ Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In a move hailed as a long-overdue conservation victory, Sri Lanka has formally declared Nilgala — a sweeping mosaic of grasslands, forests and sacred sites — as a protected forest reserve, reports contributor Malaka Rodrigo for Mongabay. Spanning […] | |
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