Indonesia’s grassroots farmers face increased unpredictability, experts say (June 10, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/indonesias-grassroots-farmers-face-increased-unpredictability-experts-say/
The intersection of environmental breakdown, climate change and economic instability has emerged as a primary threat to the resilience of smallholder farmers in Indonesia, according to researchers and local entrepreneurs who spoke at a recent convention. During the 2026 Asia Grassroots Forum, held in Jakarta on June 3 and 4, Alex Arnall, an associate professor […]
U.S. defense spending on critical minerals surges in the last decade (June 10, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/us-defense-spending-on-critical-minerals-surges-in-the-last-decade/
- U.S. Department of Defense grants for critical minerals between 2021 and 2025 was nearly $550 million, up from just $31.3 million in the previous five-year period, an investigation has found.
- Lithium projects received the largest share of U.S. defense grants, followed by neodymium and boron combined projects, graphite and aluminum.
- Members of communities affected by some of these projects told Mongabay that U.S. state backing has meant projects are being fast-tracked without the necessary social and environmental checks or meaningful consultation.
- Experts say that increasing geopolitical pressure is transforming mineral supply chains, as well as trade patterns and relationships between countries, and could decrease the availability of minerals needed for the green energy transition.
Indonesia’s native hornbills are being hammered by online and offline trade (June 9, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/indonesias-native-hornbills-are-being-hammered-by-online-and-offline-trade/
- Hundreds of live hornbills and their parts, including casques, heads and feathers, are illegally traded in Indonesia, some online, according to a new study.
- Researchers reported that nearly 500 hornbills, most of them alive, were confiscated by Indonesian authorities from 2015 to 2024. The illegal commerce spanned seven countries. China was a prominent destination.
- More than 500 of the birds, including chicks, were sold online for the pet trade. Facebook was the main marketplace.
- As long-living, slow-reproducing birds, hornbills don’t bounce back easily from declines. Conservationists called on Indonesian authorities to enforce laws and prosecute those involved in the illegal trade. They also urged accountability for online platforms permitting this illicit activity.
‘Climate Wayfinding’ can help you unpack the overwhelm of our ecological problems (June 9, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2026/06/climate-wayfinding-can-help-you-unpack-the-overwhelm-of-our-ecological-problems/
Katharine Wilkinson has a Ph.D. in geography and the environment, is well known for being a co-author of the book Drawdown and co-founder of The All We Can Save Project. She joins the Newscast this week to discuss her latest book Climate Wayfinding: Healing Ourselves and the Planet We Call Home. As a journalist, it’s […]
Experts say ‘bare bones’ US laws are unfit to regulate nascent deep-sea mining industry (June 9, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/experts-say-bare-bones-us-laws-are-unfit-to-regulate-nascent-deep-sea-mining-industry/
- As the U.S. government prepares to auction off slices of the seabed in federal waters, experts, including the former director of the federal agency overseeing deep-sea mining, say the regulations that would govern this activity are outdated and lack important oversight provisions.
- The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management recently proposed revisions to its rules to streamline leasing and permitting, but critics argue these revisions would weaken oversight by reducing environmental review requirements and limiting opportunities for public input.
- One expert also warned that the U.S. government’s classification of seabed resources as a source of critical minerals may increase the likelihood of exemptions from environmental protections.
Colombia passes landmark cattle traceability law to combat illegal deforestation (June 9, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/colombia-passes-landmark-cattle-traceability-law-to-combat-illegal-deforestation/
Colombia passed a landmark law June 4 aimed at improving traceability of its cattle supply chain to ensure beef isn’t sourced from deforested land. The law hopes to enhance existing traceability systems and make it easier to identify when cattle have grazed in protected areas and forests that were illegally cleared for pasture. “This is […]
Kenya’s former Chief Justice David Maraga arrested at protest of national park construction (June 9, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/kenyas-former-chief-justice-david-maraga-arrested-at-protest-of-national-park-construction/
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Kenya’s former Chief Justice David Maraga said he was arrested Monday alongside other activists protesting planned construction inside Nairobi National Park. Police fired tear gas canisters at the protesters who were marching outside the park while carrying banners with messages denouncing land grabs. Maraga was detained and later released while staging […]
Urban wildlife is changing from the inside out (commentary) (June 9, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/urban-wildlife-is-changing-from-the-inside-out-commentary/
- Cities are now home to wildlife like foxes, parrots, monkeys, raccoons, boars, and countless bird species, which are not temporary visitors, but permanent urban residents.
- If we want to support their long-term survival, we need to understand how urban environments shape them at every level, from behavior to bacteria, and this includes their gut microbiome, which shapes behavior and other factors.
- “The microbiome is not a niche scientific curiosity, it is a biological system that influences how animals eat, think, move, and cope with stress. And in a rapidly urbanizing world, it may be one of the most important and overlooked tools we have for understanding how wildlife adapts to human-dominated landscapes,” a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Ancient Maya knowledge helps Guatemalan farmers cut agrochemical use (June 9, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/ancient-maya-knowledge-helps-guatemalan-farmers-cut-agrochemical-use/
- Guatemalan farmers are turning to organic pesticides, rooted in traditional practices and sustainable ideas, to replace expensive synthetic alternatives.
- Using a mixture of locally available plants, and ideas about farming passed down by ancestors, they are creating natural pesticides to protect their plots.
- Cheaper than agrochemicals, these biopesticides are safer to use and don’t cause the ecological damage associated with chemical use.
- Although international interest in biopesticides is growing, agrochemicals still dominate the market.
Movement gives African rural women farmers a voice, but still battles landownership (June 9, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/movement-gives-african-rural-women-farmers-a-voice-but-still-battles-landownership/
- The Rural Women’s Assembly, which claims a membership of 170,000 women across Southern Africa, promotes agroecology as a strategy for its members’ autonomy and resilience.
- One obstacle to the association’s members choosing this agricultural pathway is that relatively few women own the land they cultivate, limiting their decision-making power.
- Rural development specialist Richard Mkandawire says enabling women who work the land to control it is key to resolving food security issues.
In Sumatra, social forestry links conservation with livelihoods (June 9, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-sumatra-social-forestry-links-conservation-with-livelihoods/
- Sri Atmiatun, a farmer in Indonesia’s Batutegi forest landscape, is among hundreds of community members participating in the country’s social forestry program, which grants legal access to state forest land while requiring sustainable management.
- The program has expanded farmers’ access to training, support and diversified agroforestry systems, contributing to reduced forest clearing and greater conservation awareness, although challenges related to markets, institutions and farming practices remain.
- Batutegi’s experience reflects both the opportunities and limitations of social forestry, as communities, government agencies and conservation groups work to improve livelihoods while preventing further forest loss.
- The changes are also creating new roles for rural women, whose growing involvement in farming enterprises and community organizations is reshaping local economies and decision-making.
Illegal e-waste trade turns Bangladesh into net importer (June 9, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/illegal-e-waste-trade-turns-bangladesh-into-net-importer/
- Bangladesh has become a net importer of e-waste despite being a signatory to the Basel Convention and having its own national e-waste rules in place.
- Forty companies imported e-waste between 2022 and 2025, according to the National Board of Revenue, amid weak enforcement and poor oversight.
- Limited recycling capacity and weak monitoring continue to fuel illegal imports and informal e-waste recycling in Bangladesh.
Why conservation urgently needs acoustic baselines (June 9, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/how-sound-can-reveal-what-satellite-images-miss/
- A forest can appear intact from above while losing part of its animal community below the canopy. Satellite images and carbon accounting can miss these changes, making bioacoustics a useful way to detect whether a forest’s living rhythms remain intact.
- The Soundscape Baselines Project, described by Zuzana Buřivalová and colleagues, is building acoustic reference points for intact forests before those baselines disappear. Its pilot sites span Brunei, Ecuador, Gabon, Germany, Peru, and the United States, using continuous recordings managed with local teams.
- Acoustic monitoring can reveal changes that averages and visual measures obscure. In Gabon, logged forests could appear similar to baseline forests in coarse daily measures, but the timing and shape of dawn and dusk choruses showed important differences.
- Bioacoustics has both promise and limits. Tools such as acoustic indices and BirdNET can expand conservation monitoring, but they require careful calibration, local knowledge, and transparent treatment of uncertainty if they are to support credible claims about biodiversity protection or recovery.
Taiwan’s tallest tree found with help of citizen science (June 8, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/taiwans-tallest-tree-found-with-help-of-citizen-science/
- Researchers have confirmed Taiwan’s tallest known tree: an 84.1-meter (276-foot) Taiwania fir they named “the Heaven Sword of the Da’an River.”
- A team called the “Taiwan tree seekers” found it after a decade-long search using airborne laser scans of the island’s forests.
- A group of 372 citizen scientists helped sort through the data, producing a map of 941 giant trees across Taiwan.
- The giant trees store huge amounts of carbon but face growing threats from drought, lifting clouds, stronger typhoons, and illegal logging.
Sri Lanka bans single-use plastic bottles at government events, charges for plastic bags (June 8, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/sri-lanka-bans-single-use-plastic-bottles-at-government-events-charges-for-plastic-bags/
- In a bid to control the excessive use of plastic bottles, Sri Lanka banned single-use plastic water bottles at government institutions effective May 31 and recently introduced a mandatory fee for polyethylene shopping bags to discourage their use.
- The Indian Ocean island generates an estimated 250,000 metric tons of plastic waste annually, but only a small fraction is recycled, with much of the waste ending up in landfills, waterways and the ocean.
- Environmentalists say Sri Lanka has introduced several plastic bans over the years, but weak enforcement, poor recycling infrastructure, and consumer dependence on disposable products continue to undermine progress.
- Experts warn that lasting solutions will require stronger implementation, better waste management systems, a shift toward reusable alternatives and a circular economy.
A year on, Australia’s biggest harmful algal bloom continues to wreak havoc (June 8, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-year-on-australias-biggest-harmful-algal-bloom-continues-to-wreak-havoc/
- The largest and longest-lasting harmful algal bloom in Australia’s history, which started in early 2025, has potentially affected more than 20,000 square kilometers of ocean waters and about a third of the coasts in the state of South Australia.
- The algal bloom has devastated marine ecosystems and caused significant economic losses in the local fishing, aquaculture and tourism industries.
- As officials, researchers and communities grapple with its ecological, health and social impacts, the bloom has exposed a lack of preparedness at all levels of government for responding to future HABs.
Huge ivory bust raises questions about follow-up investigations in Tanzania (June 8, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/huge-ivory-bust-raises-questions-about-follow-up-investigations-in-tanzania/
- A North Korean man arrested in a hotel in Dar es Salaam in possession of 500 elephant tusks will stand trial this week on charges of unlawful possession of the ivory and intent to trade it.
- Observers note that arrests of traffickers in Tanzania are not consistently followed up with careful investigation and effective prosecution.
- “Follow up investigations, including with international agencies and relevant stakeholders, are the key to unlocking data about the transnational actors, methods and routes involved in ivory trafficking and poaching dynamics,” said Rachel Mackenna, from the Environmental Investigation Agency.
World Oceans Day: Marine protected areas surpass 10% mark in 2026 (June 8, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/world-oceans-day-marine-protected-areas-surpass-10-mark-in-2026/
World Oceans Day is celebrated every June 8 to raise awareness about the conservation of Earth’s oceans. In honor of World Oceans Day 2026, the United Nations is focused on marine protected areas (MPA), and the goal of protecting 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030. The world collectively reached a third of the goal […]
‘Slumping’ afflicted soft corals around a South Korean island in 2024. Will it return this year? (June 8, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/slumping-afflicted-soft-corals-around-a-south-korean-island-in-2024-will-it-return-this-year/
- In 2024, scientists and conservationists documented a soft coral “slumping” event along the southern coast of South Korea’s Jeju Island, which led soft corals to lose their shape, droop, and even die in vast numbers.
- The event coincided with record heat and rainfall, which has led scientists to surmise, in a new paper, that the “slumping” resulted from a combination of thermal stress and changes to salinity and water quality.
- However, further research and testing is needed to determine the actual cause, researchers say.
- Scientists and conservationists say that while widespread slumping did not occur during 2025 or so far in 2026, the “Super El Niño” predicted for later this year could impact Jeju’s soft corals in a similar way.
What the platypus can teach us about smarter conservation (June 8, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/what-the-platypus-can-teach-us-about-smarter-conservation/
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. The platypus offers a useful lesson in conservation: before acting, it helps to know where the animal still lives, and where risks are growing. Australia’s best-known oddity is also difficult to count, reports contributor Paul Harvey for Mongabay. […]