A new treaty comes into force to govern life on the high seas (January 17, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/a-new-treaty-comes-into-force-to-govern-life-on-the-high-seas/
- A new United Nations treaty governing biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction will enter into force on January 17th 2026, creating the first global framework to conserve life on the high seas.
- The agreement covers roughly 60% of the ocean and introduces mechanisms for marine protected areas, environmental impact assessments, benefit-sharing from marine genetic resources, and capacity building for poorer states.
- Long treated as a global commons with weak oversight, international waters have seen mounting pressure from overfishing, prospective seabed mining, and bioprospecting, with less than 1.5% currently protected.
- The treaty’s significance will depend less on its text than on whether governments use it to impose real limits on exploitation and translate shared commitments into enforceable action.
Mosquitoes in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest prefer human blood (January 16, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/mosquitoes-in-brazils-atlantic-forest-prefer-human-blood/
As deforestation and habitat loss drive down wildlife populations, mosquitoes are increasingly turning to another source for their blood meal: humans. That’s the finding of a new study in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, a global biodiversity hotspot with less than a third of its original forest remaining. Mosquitoes in the Atlantic Forest “have a clear preference […]
Colombia poised for another drop in deforestation in 2025, data show (January 16, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/colombia-poised-for-another-drop-in-deforestation-in-2025-data-show/
- Deforestation in Colombia appears to have declined in 2025, with notable reductions in several departments like Meta, Caquetá and Guaviare.
- The main drivers of deforestation include the spread of cattle ranching and agriculture, as well as illicit crops like coca, the primary ingredient in cocaine.
- Officials attributed the declining trend to collaboration with Indigenous communities and environmental zoning in rural areas, as well as ecotourism and a program providing financial incentives for communities involved in forest conservation.
How many insects does California have? We’re getting closer to an answer (January 16, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/how-many-insects-does-california-have-were-getting-closer-to-an-answer/
California’s insects are as outsized as the state itself. Between its redwood forests and desert basins may live 60,000, perhaps even 100,000 species — though no one truly knows. That uncertainty drives the California Insect Barcode Initiative, an audacious attempt to document every insect in the state through DNA sequencing. Leading the effort is Austin […]
Hidden heroes: Australian tree bark microbes consume greenhouse & toxic gases (January 16, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/hidden-heroes-australian-tree-bark-microbes-consume-greenhouse-toxic-gases/
- A new study carried out in Australia finds that the bark of common tree species holds diverse microbial communities, with trillions of microbes living on every tree.
- The research determined that many of these microbial species specialize in metabolizing methane, hydrogen, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
- Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, while hydrogen and carbon monoxide are considered indirect greenhouse gases. Carbon monoxide and VOCs are also both hazardous to human health.
- The study found that tree bark microbes play a significant, previously unknown role in atmospheric gas cycling, potentially boosting estimations of the climate benefits offered by global forests. Learning which tree species boast the best microbes for curbing climate change and pollution could better inform reforestation strategies.
Mike Heusner, steward of Belize’s waters, has died, aged 86 (January 16, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/mike-heusner-steward-of-belizes-waters-has-died-aged-86/
For a small country, Belize has long carried an outsized reputation among people who care about water. Its flats and mangroves, its reef and river systems, have drawn anglers and naturalists who come for beauty but stay, if they are paying attention, for the fragile bargain that keeps such places alive. Tourism can finance protection. […]
Mongabay launches Newswire Desk to deliver bite-sized, accessible news on nature to diverse audiences (January 16, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/mongabay-launches-newswire-desk-to-deliver-bite-sized-accessible-news-on-nature-to-diverse-audiences/
- In response to a growing need for timely, credible, accessible environmental reporting, Mongabay has launched its Newswire Desk, specialized in creating short, written and multimedia content to reach new audiences.
- The Newswire Desk has a mandate to use plain, direct language to break through jargon, spark curiosity and quickly identify how people’s daily lives are connected to the environmental issues Mongabay covers in-depth.
- To reach new audiences, the desk responds quickly to emerging developments, condenses long-form reports into concise updates, and adapts stories for mobile and social media use.
- The desk has already shown strong results by expanding production, increasing readership, and demonstrating real-world impact throughout academic and advocacy circles.
Flores’ geothermal ambitions collide with justice, culture & local resistance (January 16, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/flores-geothermal-ambitions-collide-with-justice-culture-local-resistance/
- Indonesia’s decision to turn Flores into a “geothermal island” was meant to anchor its renewable energy ambitions on a single, high-profile stage.
- Now a decade on, the plan has collided with local realities on a rugged, underdeveloped island where energy access remains uneven and development pressures are intensifying.
- A new study traces how this tension has made Flores an unexpected flashpoint in the national debate over how the energy transition should be carried out.
Hopes and fears as Guinea exports iron ore from Simandou mines (January 16, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/hopes-and-fears-as-guinea-exports-iron-ore-from-simandou-mines/
- After decades of planning, the first shipment of iron ore from Guinea’s Simandou mines is on its way to China.
- The shipment marks the beginning of an era in which Guinea is expected to become one of the world’s leading producers of iron ore.
- Environmental advocates say that damage from the mines so far has gone largely unaddressed.
In the race for DRC’s critical minerals, community forests stand on the frontline (January 16, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/in-the-race-for-drcs-critical-minerals-community-forests-stand-on-the-frontline/
- In the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s copper-cobalt belt, a region rich in critical minerals, villagers are turning to local community forest concessions (CFCLs) to prevent their eviction and conserve the remaining savanna forests in the face of mining expansion.
- This is an area where miners from the DRC, China, the U.S. and elsewhere are searching for the minerals powering the high-tech, weapons and clean energy industries.
- Community forest concessions offer communities land titles in perpetuity and have environmental management plans led by Indigenous and local communities with the support of environmental NGOs and donors.
- But these concessions are not a perfect solution against deforestation or the eviction of communities by mining, and also suffer from a lack of funding to support all their environmental efforts.
Ocean set ‘alarming’ new temperature record in 2025 (January 16, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/ocean-set-alarming-new-temperature-record-in-2025/
- Ocean temperatures set a record high in 2025, according to a new study.
- The authors found that the heat content of the ocean increased by about 23 zettajoules between 2024 and 2025. That’s roughly the equivalent of 210 times humanity’s annual electricity generation.
- The ocean has warmed significantly in recent decades largely because it absorbs roughly 90% of the excess heat trapped in the atmosphere by human-caused greenhouse gases. That makes the ocean a key indicator of global warming.
- Warming ocean temperatures contribute to sea-level rise and to extreme weather events, which were frequent in 2025.
Nitrogen may turbocharge regrowth in young tropical forest trees (January 15, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/nitrogen-may-turbocharge-regrowth-in-young-tropical-forest-trees/
New research finds that tropical forests can grow significantly faster and sequester more climate-warming carbon dioxide when additional nitrogen is available in the soil. “With this information we can prioritise management and conservation practices to maximise forest regrowth,” Kelly Anderson, a research scientist at Missouri Botanical Garden in the U.S., told Mongabay by email. Anderson […]
Involuntary parks: Human conflict is creating unintended refuges for wildlife (January 15, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/involuntary-parks-human-conflict-is-creating-unintended-refuges-for-wildlife/
- Involuntary parks — areas made largely untenable for human habitation due to environmental contamination, war, border disputes or other forms of conflict and violence — have often unintentionally benefited nature, with flora and fauna sometimes thriving in the absence of people.
- In some cases, these unanticipated refugia have been formalized as wildlife preserves. Hanford Reach National Monument in the U.S. state of Washington is one example. Though the land of this conserved area surrounds a Cold War site contaminated by chemical and radioactive waste, hundreds of species thrive there.
- The southern Kuril Islands — territory disputed by Russia and Japan — offer another example. Russia has set up preserves within the long-contested area, while Japan has declared a national park just outside it. But attempts at creating a permanent border peace park or resolving tensions have failed, and future conservation is uncertain.
- With the world now rocked by geopolitical conflict and by worsening environmental disasters (due to pollution, climate change and land-use change), nations need to assess how places that become unhealthy to humanity — turning them into involuntary parks — can be healed, and what role conservation can play in recovery.
A novel sanctuary in Antarctica is preserving ice samples from rapidly melting glaciers (January 15, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/a-novel-sanctuary-in-antarctica-is-preserving-ice-samples-from-rapidly-melting-glaciers/
ROME (AP) — Scientists in Antarctica on Wednesday inaugurated the first global repository of mountain ice cores, preserving the history of the Earth’s atmosphere in a frozen vault for future generations to study as global warming melts glaciers around the world. An ice core is something of an atmospheric time capsule, containing information about the Earth’s past […]
Indonesia backs away from coal exit test case amid financial and political pushback (January 15, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/indonesia-backs-away-from-coal-exit-test-case-amid-financial-and-political-pushback/
- Indonesia has abandoned plans to retire the Cirebon-1 coal plant early, citing technical and financial concerns, dealing a blow to what was meant to be a flagship test case for coal phaseout backed by international climate finance.
- Analysts say the decision reflects deeper structural resistance to moving away from coal, driven by long-term power contracts, coal subsidies, and policies that make early retirement costly while keeping coal artificially cheap.
- The reversal risks undermining Indonesia’s credibility with global partners and investors, particularly under initiatives like the JETP, and exposes inconsistencies between political pledges on renewables and binding policy action.
- Critics argue early coal retirement would benefit Indonesia overall if full costs were counted, including health and environmental impacts, but political ties between coal interests and policymakers, along with uncertainty in global climate finance, continue to stall progress.
Doug McConnell, interpreter of Northern California, has died, aged 80 (January 15, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/doug-mcconnell-interpreter-of-northern-california-has-died-aged-80/
- Doug McConnell, who died on January 13, 2026, spent decades using local television to help Northern Californians see their landscapes as shared civic assets rather than scenery, making conservation legible, practical, and personal.
- Best known for Bay Area Backroads and OpenRoad with Doug McConnell, he treated parks, trails, and open space as the result of human choices and public effort, consistently foregrounding the people and institutions that protected them.
- A storyteller shaped by a lifelong love of California’s diversity, he combined curiosity about place with a clear-eyed understanding of governance, showing how history, policy, and persistence shape the land people inherit.
- At a time of mounting environmental strain, McConnell resisted despair by staying close to the work itself, drawing energy from those quietly maintaining and restoring the natural world, and inviting viewers to join them by paying attention.
Democratizing AI for conservation: Interview with Ai2’s Ted Schmitt and Patrick Beukema (January 15, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/democratizing-ai-for-conservation-interview-with-ai2s-ted-schmitt-and-patrick-beukema/
- OlmoEarth is a platform that integrates multiple AI models to extract meaningful insights from environmental data.
- The platform, developed by nonprofit organization Allen Institute for AI, is trained on 10 terabytes’ worth of Earth observation data.
- The platform enables researchers as well as conservation organizations to analyze massive data sets by customizing AI models on the platform.
Greenland sharks retain functional vision despite extreme longevity (January 14, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/greenland-sharks-retain-functional-vision-despite-extreme-longevity/
Greenland sharks are the longest-living vertebrate known to science, topping out at more than 400 years old, and scientists have largely believed they were nearly blind. But new research suggests they actually can see, and, remarkably, maintain their vision for more than a century. Greenland sharks (Somniosus microcephalus) mostly live in the cold waters of […]
What can—and cannot—be done to save the world’s glaciers (January 14, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/what-can-and-cannot-be-done-to-save-the-worlds-glaciers/
- Glaciers function as critical infrastructure, supplying water, food, and energy for nearly half the world’s population, even though they cover only a small share of the Earth’s surface. That support system is now contracting rapidly.
- Global measurements show sustained and accelerating glacier loss since the 1970s, driven primarily by human-caused warming. In many regions, what was once seasonal melt has become irreversible decline.
- The impacts extend well beyond the mountains, affecting agriculture, hydropower, ecosystems, and disaster risk in downstream communities across Asia, South America, and beyond.
- While scientists and policymakers are testing ways to manage shrinking ice and rising hazards, adaptation has limits. Without deep cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions, many glacier-fed regions will soon face long-term water decline.
Small hippo, big dreams: Can Moo Deng, the viral pygmy hippo, save her species? (January 14, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/video/2026/01/small-hippo-big-dreams-can-moo-deng-the-viral-pygmy-hippo-save-her-species/
Social media loves a charismatic, cute, relatable animal. Personalities like Neil the elephant seal and Pesto the giant baby penguin have captivated millions online. And let’s not forget Moo Deng – the pugnacious baby pygmy hippo who exploded onto the scene in late 2024. Viral clips of her wreaking tiny havoc in Thailand’s Khao Kheow […]