North Atlantic right whale birth rate is up but extinction still looms (January 7, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/north-atlantic-right-whale-birth-rate-is-up-but-extinction-still-looms/
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — One of the world’s rarest whale species is having more babies this year than in some recent seasons, but experts say many more young are needed to help stave off the possibility of extinction. The North Atlantic right whale’s population numbers an estimated 384 animals and is slowly rising after several years of […]
Indonesia’s illegal gold boom leaves a toxic legacy of mercury pollution (January 7, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesias-illegal-gold-boom-leaves-a-toxic-legacy-of-mercury-pollution/
- A nearly 70% rise in global gold prices has accelerated illegal gold mining across Indonesia, including in Bukit Gajah Berani, a forest buffer next to Kerinci Seblat National Park, threatening critical tiger habitat and protected forests nationwide.
- Despite decades of evidence and Indonesia’s commitments under the Minamata Convention, illegal gold mining remains the country’s largest source of mercury emissions, contaminating rivers, fish, crops and communities, with documented health impacts ranging from toxic exposure to malaria spikes.
- While Indonesia has strong regulations on paper, including a pledge to eliminate mercury use in illegal mining by 2025, enforcement is weak, agencies operate in silos, illegal cinnabar mining continues, and attempts to formalize “community mining” have largely failed in practice.
- Illegal mining has destroyed forests, farmland and waterways, reducing rice production, worsening floods, and eroding traditional forest-based livelihoods, leaving communities with polluted landscapes and long-term ecological and economic costs as criminal networks adapt faster than regulators.
Indonesia launches sweeping environmental audits after Sumatra flood disaster (January 7, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-launches-sweeping-environmental-audits-after-sumatra-flood-disaster/
- After Cyclone Senyar killed more than 1,100 people across Sumatra, the Indonesian government has acknowledged that deforestation and land-use changes — not extreme weather alone — amplified the scale of floods and landslides.
- In a significant shift, authorities are now explicitly linking disaster impacts to development decisions and corporate activity, signaling that permits will not shield companies from accountability.
- The government has launched a three-track response: rapid disaster impact assessments, reviews of provincial zoning plans, and environmental audits of more than 100 companies across extractive and infrastructure sectors.
- Civil society groups have cautiously welcomed the move, but note that meaningful reform will depend on whether Jakarta is willing to revise permissive zoning plans that legally enable large-scale forest conversion.
An inventory of life in California (January 6, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/an-inventory-of-life-in-california/
- California is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, yet much of its life—especially insects and fungi—remains undocumented, even in a state rich in scientific institutions.
- The California All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (CalATBI) is working to build a verifiable, statewide record of life, combining fieldwork, DNA analysis, and museum collections.
- By focusing on evidence that can be revisited and tested over time, the effort provides a baseline for understanding ecological change rather than prescribing solutions.
- Mongabay’s reporting follows how this foundational work underpins later decisions about protection, restoration, and management—showing why counting still matters.
Plastic pollution requires urgent action, says author Judith Enck (January 6, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2026/01/plastic-pollution-requires-urgent-action-says-author-judith-enck/
Judith Enck is a former regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, appointed by President Barack Obama, and the founder of Beyond Plastics, an organization dedicated to eradicating plastic pollution worldwide. She joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss how governments can implement policies to turn off the tap on plastic pollution, which harms human health […]
An endangered menu (cartoon) (January 6, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/custom-story/2026/01/an-endangered-menu-cartoon/
Amidst the ongoing battle for survival against logging and hunting, Madagascar’s lemurs face a new and unprecedented threat — the demand for lemur meat among the country’s urban elite, falsely believed to have health benefits.
Urban sprawl and illegal mining reshape a fragile Amazon frontier (January 6, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/illegal-mining-and-urban-sprawl-reshape-a-fragile-amazon-frontier/
- Ever since Mitú was first established as a settlement in 1935, it has rapidly transformed into an expanding urban town in one of Colombia’s most isolated departments.
- The Amazonian forests, rivers and Indigenous communities who surround Mitú are impacted by urbanization, the overexploitation of natural resources, cattle ranching, illegal mining and timber extraction which have caused deforestation, soil degradation and water pollution.
- Researchers say the construction of a highway from Mitú to Monfort has attracted settlers who cleared land around the road to expand the urban center and develop agricultural production and cattle ranching.
- Mongabay found 10,000 hectares (24,710 acres) of tree cover loss in Mitú since 2014.
EUDR antideforestation law officially delayed for second year in a row (January 6, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/eudr-antideforestation-law-officially-delayed-for-second-year-in-a-row/
The European Union’s antideforestation law, known as EUDR, has officially been delayed for a second year. The amendment was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on Dec. 23, 2025. The EUDR bans the import of commodities, including cocoa, coffee, soy, beef, timber, palm oil and rubber, that come from areas deforested after […]
After Cyclone Senyar, Indonesia probes whether development amplified scale of disaster (January 6, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/after-cyclone-senyar-indonesia-probes-whether-development-amplified-scale-of-disaster/
- Cyclone Senyar triggered catastrophic floods and landslides in northern Sumatra in late 2025, but scientists and activists say decades of deforestation and landscape alteration in upland watersheds largely determined the scale of the destruction.
- The heavily hit Batang Toru landscape, home to the world’s only Tapanuli orangutan population, has become a national test case after the government ordered eight mining, energy and plantation companies to halt operations pending rare watershed-wide environmental audits.
- Investigations have raised concerns that forest clearing by a pulpwood producer, a hydropower project and a gold mine on steep terrain may have destabilized slopes and worsened runoff during extreme rainfall.
- Experts warn that once forest cover is lost in fragile tropical watersheds, disaster risks can persist for decades, making effective law enforcement — rather than weather alone — decisive for Batang Toru’s future.
7 hopeful wildlife sightings that researchers celebrated in 2025 (January 6, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/7-hopeful-wildlife-sightings-that-researchers-celebrated-in-2025/
Once in a while, an animal shows up where it’s least expected, including places from where it was thought to have gone extinct. These rare sightings bring hope — but also fresh concerns. These are some of the wildlife sightings Mongabay reported on in 2025. Colossal squid recorded for the first time in its deep-sea […]
Amazon entrepreneur spreads seeds of growth with recycled paper (January 6, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/amazon-entrepreneur-spreads-seeds-of-growth-with-recycled-paper/
- In the Brazilian city of Altamira, a small business transforms recycled paper into seed-embedded sheets that grow into flowers, herbs and even local plants, merging creativity and sustainability.
- Founder Alessandra Moreira turned personal adversity into purpose, building a backyard business that inspires sustainable entrepreneurship.
- Experts say initiatives like Ecoplante embody the future of the Amazon’s bioeconomy, where innovation, inclusion and forest conservation can grow hand in hand.
Cultural changes shift an Indigenous community’s relationship with the Amazon forest (January 5, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/cultural-changes-shift-an-indigenous-communitys-relationship-with-the-amazon-forest/
- In the southeastern Colombian department of Vaupés, members of the Indigenous Macaquiño community have maintained a healthy territory through rituals and prayers that govern the use of natural resources and their deep respect for the spirits that guard sacred sites.
- A series of cultural transformations that began with the arrival of rubber tappers, missionaries and other non-Indigenous outsiders since the 19th century has led to a decline in many spiritual and cultural traditions, undermining the area’s sacred sites and the communities’ relationship with their territory.
- More recent changes, such as government education policies and laws that hand more power to Indigenous peoples to manage their territories, have also impacted the generational transfer of spiritual and cultural knowledge.
- Members Mongabay spoke to said they welcome some of the changes that have come with these cultural transformations, such as the opportunity to obtain a formal education and return with knowledge that can complement their Indigenous knowledge.
Massive Amazon conservation program pledges to put communities first (January 5, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/massive-amazon-conservation-program-pledges-to-put-communities-first/
- The Amazon Region Protected Areas (ARPA) is a massive conservation program that has helped reduce deforestation across 120 conservation areas in the Brazilian Amazon and avoided 104 million metric tons of CO2 emissions between 2008 and 2020.
- A new phase of the program, called ARPA Comunidades, will now focus on supporting the communities who live in and protect the forest, by helping them increase their revenue through the bioeconomy or sale of sustainable forest products.
- Backed by a $120 million donor fund, ARPA Comunidades aims to increase protections across 60 sustainable-use reserves in the Brazilian Amazon spanning an area nearly the size of the U.K., directly impacting 130,000 people and helping raise 100,000 out of poverty.
Azores must respect its exceptional network of marine protected areas (commentary) (January 5, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/azores-must-respect-its-exceptional-network-of-marine-protected-areas-commentary/
- Just over a year ago, the Azores created the largest network of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the North Atlantic, becoming a beacon of hope and a global leader in ocean conservation.
- Then, in early 2025, a proposal to allow tuna fishing in “no-take” areas there was submitted to the Regional Assembly; this is currently under discussion and could come to a vote this week or next week.
- “Such a retreat from ocean protection would not only be a local tragedy but also a disheartening contribution to the global backpedaling on environmental political will,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Poaching down but threats remain for forest elephants, recent population assessment finds (January 5, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/poaching-down-but-threats-remain-for-forest-elephants-recent-population-assessment-finds/
- The first authoritative population assessment for African forest elephants estimates there are more than 145,000 individuals.
- Researchers say new survey techniques relying on sampling DNA from elephant dung provide the most accurate estimate of a species that’s difficult to count in its rainforest habitat.
- Central Africa remains the species’ stronghold, home to nearly 96% of forest elephants, with densely forested Gabon hosting 95,000 individuals.
- Conservationists say the findings can help inform the design of targeted conservation actions and national plans for forest elephants.
Carving up the Cardamoms (January 5, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/specials/2026/01/carving-up-the-cardamoms/
The Cardamom Mountains sprawl across southwestern Cambodia and are among the best-preserved rainforests in the country. Protected by rugged terrain, heavy rains and a low population density, the Cardamoms remain a biodiversity hotspot, providing habitat for threatened elephants, pangolins and the region’s last viable fishing cat population. This Special Issues documents the myriad threats facing […]
The climate fight may not be won in the Amazon, but it can be lost there (January 5, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/the-climate-fight-may-not-be-won-in-the-amazon-but-it-can-be-lost-there/
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. After five decades studying the plants and peoples of the Amazon, Mark Plotkin, an ethnobotanist and co-founder of the Amazon Conservation Team, is still asked whether the rainforest’s glass is half-full or half-empty. His answer is unchanged. “By […]
Snowy owl, striped hyena, sharks among migratory species proposed for greater protections (January 5, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/snowy-owl-striped-hyena-sharks-among-migratory-species-proposed-for-greater-protections/
Countries under the international treaty to protect migratory animals have proposed increasing protections for 42 species. These include numerous seabirds, the snowy owl, several sharks, the striped hyena, and some cheetah populations. The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) aims to protect species ranging from butterflies and fish to birds […]
Biologist kidnapped in Mexico (January 4, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/biologist-kidnapped-in-mexico/
In the mountains of central Veracruz, scientific work is rarely abstract. It means walking narrow paths through cloud forest, speaking patiently with communities, and learning to read landscapes that yield information slowly. It also means accepting risk as a condition of knowledge. Field research unfolds in places where the state is often distant and authority […]
What Craig’s long life reveals about elephant conservation (January 3, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/what-craigs-long-life-reveals-about-elephant-conservation/
- The death of Craig, a widely known super tusker from Amboseli, drew attention not just because of his fame, but because he lived long enough to die of natural causes in a period when elephants with tusks like his are rarely spared.
- Craig’s life reflected decades of sustained protection in Kenya, where anti-poaching efforts and community stewardship have allowed some elephant populations to stabilize or grow after catastrophic losses in the late 20th century.
- His passing is also a reminder of what has been lost: Africa’s elephant population fell from about 1.3 million in 1979 to roughly 400,000 today, with forest elephants in particular still in steep decline.
- There are signs of cautious progress, including slowing demand for ivory and stronger legal protections, but continued habitat loss means that survival, even for the most protected elephants, remains uncertain.