A rare bright spot for whales: Decades of conservation pay off for endangered population in Canada (December 5, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-rare-bright-spot-for-whales-decades-of-conservation-pay-off-for-endangered-population-in-canada/
- Northern bottlenose whale populations have struggled to rebound, even though commercial whaling was outlawed in their habitats more than 50 years ago.
- Long-term monitoring shows that one population of the species has begun to recover since their year-round habitat, a submarine canyon off Canada’s east coast known as the Gully, became a Marine Protected Area in 2004.
- The Gully MPA provides a rare marine conservation success story, but protection for marine mammals that migrate is more complex.
Wildfire burns climate-vulnerable Joshua trees in US national park (December 4, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/wildfire-burns-climate-vulnerable-joshua-trees-in-us-national-park/
A wildfire in California’s Joshua Tree National Park burned through some 29 hectares (72 acres) of land during the recent federal government shutdown in October and November. That’s a small fire by California standards, but firefighters estimate it scorched roughly 1,000 of the park’s iconic Joshua trees, according to The Los Angeles Times. The burned […]
Decades-old palm trees in Rio de Janeiro flower for the first — and only — time (December 4, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/decades-old-palm-trees-in-rio-de-janeiro-flower-for-the-first-and-only-time/
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Towering talipot palms in a Rio de Janeiro park are flowering for the first and only time in their lives, decades after famed Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx introduced them in the 1960s. Towards the end of its life — which can span between 40 and 80 years — the palm tree sends up a […]
Philippine mangroves survived a typhoon, but now confront a human-made challenge (December 4, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/philippine-mangroves-survived-a-typhoon-but-now-confront-a-human-made-challenge/
- A new study shows mangroves in Tacloban, the Philippine city hit hardest hit by Typhoon Haiyan in December 2013, have expanded beyond pre-storm levels.
- This recovery was driven by community-led reforestation efforts from 2015-2018, when residents planted 30,000 Rhizophora mangrove seedlings across 4 hectares (10 acres) of Cancabato Bay.
- Satellite image analysis and modeling reveal how the forest was destroyed by Haiyan and how it later withstood 2019’s Typhoon Phanfone.
- However, experts warn that the recovering mangroves may be threatened by an ongoing project to build a causeway across the bay, which could generate pollution and physical disturbances.
Scientists push for greater climate role for Latin America’s overlooked ecosystems (December 4, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/scientists-push-for-greater-climate-role-for-latin-americas-overlooked-ecosystems/
- Tropical forests are rightly regarded as important carbon sinks and crucial in the fight against climate change, but other tropical ecosystems have largely gone overlooked despite their carbon -sequestration potential.
- Peatlands, mangroves, coastal freshwater wetlands and seagrass meadows are just some of the ecosystems that have a potentially huge capacity to capture and store carbon, but don’t feature prominently enough — or at all — in the national climate plans of Latin American countries.
- Peatland soils can store between three and five times more carbon dioxide than other tropical ecosystems, with similar figures for mangroves and coastal freshwater wetlands.
- Seagrass meadows cover just 0.1% of the ocean floor, but can store up to 18% of global oceanic carbon.
What was — and the uncertainty of what will be: Youth voices from COP30 (December 4, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/what-was-and-the-uncertainty-of-what-will-be-youth-voices-from-cop30/
- COP30 in Brazil drew youths from around the world who are experiencing climate change effects in different ways and working to mitigate the crisis in their communities.
- Mongabay spoke with young representatives from Gabon, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Germany and Brazil during the November conference in Belém.
- The youths found mixed results at COP30, with some progress made on the technical side, especially in transparency, adaptation metrics and certain aspects of loss and damage; while issues like phasing out fossil fuels, securing predictable climate finance and ensuring a just transition faced significant pushback.
- German Felix Finkbeiner, who, at 9 years old, created the organization Plant-for-the-Planet, noted, “When young voices come together at conferences like COP30, they inspire hope, innovation, and accountability, reminding the world that change is not only necessary but possible.”
The Indigenous women changing the course of their communities (December 4, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-indigenous-women-changing-the-course-of-their-communities/
- Indigenous women leaders play a key role as defenders of their territories, biodiversity and ancestral knowledge.
- From their communities, they lead environmental restoration, collective health care, political participation and economic autonomy.
- Three women leaders from Peru, Mexico and Colombia share their stories of resilience and leadership in territories beset by violence as well as social, economic and environmental challenges.
- They do it by caring for bees, water, and the lives of Amazonian peoples, not only for the present but for future generations.
An Empire of Nature: African Parks and Rwanda’s Nyungwe Forest (December 4, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/an-empire-of-nature-african-parks-and-rwandas-nyungwe-forest/
- In 2020, South Africa-based NGO African Parks signed a 20-year deal to manage Rwanda’s Nyungwe National Park, one of the largest montane rainforests in Africa.
- Nyungwe is one of 24 protected areas managed by African Parks in 13 countries.
- Founded by a Dutch industrialist, African Parks is a pioneer of the “public-private” conservation model in Africa.
- Mongabay visited Nyungwe to look at African Parks and its approach to conservation.
Turning adventure into data (December 4, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/turning-adventure-into-data/
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Gregg Treinish’s turning point came somewhere between mountain ranges and moral unease. Years of wandering through wilderness had left him restless. “I was spending years in the wilderness, doing long expeditions, and I began to feel selfish for […]
In wake of Cyclone Ditwah, Sri Lanka faces continuing disaster risks (December 4, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/in-wake-of-cyclone-ditwah-sri-lanka-faces-continuing-disaster-risks/
- The devastating Cyclone Ditwah has left a trail of destruction over 25 districts in Sri Lanka and killed 474 people; among the hardest-hit are those inhabiting low-lying coastal areas and the tea growing Central Highlands.
- Increasing vulnerability to extreme weather events among littoral populations is exacerbated by high population density, experts say.
- More than one-third of the Sri Lankan population, or more than 4.5 million people, live along the coastline and population density is projected to reach 134 people per square kilometer by 2050.
- Nearly 34% of the island population lives in high-risk landslide-prone areas of the country, making the island’s central hills highly susceptible to disaster impacts.
Filipinos wade through floodwaters due to sinking land, rising sea & corruption (December 4, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/filipinos-wade-through-floodwaters-due-to-sinking-land-rising-sea-corruption/
- Rising sea levels and sinking lands are leaving communities in the Philippines with the challenge of adapting to a combination of hazards that are reshaping coastal and island life.
- Globally, around 40% of the population lives in coastal areas, with more than 850 million people in low elevated coastal zones less than 10 meters above sea level, including more than 150 million living less than 5 above sea level.
- Between 2000 and 2019, an estimated 1.6 billion people were affected by different types of flooding, threatening infrastructure and disrupting basic services.
- On July 28, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in his State of the Nation Address ordered an investigation into possible corruption in flood control projects; since then, the scandal has ignited a broader anti-corruption movement among Filipinos.
Brazilian Amazon’s most violent city tied to illegal gold mining on Indigenous land (December 3, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/brazilian-amazons-most-violent-city-tied-to-illegal-gold-mining-on-indigenous-land/
Violence has escalated in the small Brazilian town of Vila Bela da Santíssima Trindade as illegal gold mining on the nearby Sararé Indigenous Territory has exploded over the last two years, according to the 2025 Amazon Violence Atlas. Located in Mato Grosso state near the Bolivian border, Vila Bela da Santíssima Trindade recorded the highest […]
International Cheetah Day: Survival still at stake for the world’s fastest cat (December 3, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/international-cheetah-day-survival-still-at-stake-for-the-worlds-fastest-cat/
Dec. 4 is International Cheetah Day. It was established in 2010 by the Cheetah Conservation Fund to raise awareness about the dwindling populations and shrinking habitats of the fastest land animal on Earth. The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is one of the most endangered big cats in the world, with a severely fragmented population of around […]
More than 1,400 dead across Asia after ‘rare’ cyclone & typhoon converge (December 3, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/more-than-1400-dead-across-asia-after-rare-cyclone-typhoons-converge/
At least 1,400 people have died as a result of flooding and landslides across Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, with many more still missing. The unusual combination of a tropical typhoon and two tropical cyclones is behind the mounting humanitarian disaster. Scientists and meteorologists note that Cyclone Senyar formed just north of the equator, […]
Can two Amazons survive? Invisible e-waste is poisoning the world (December 3, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/can-two-amazons-survive-invisible-e-waste-is-poisoning-the-world/
- E-waste, which refers to discarded electrical or electronic devices, is the fastest growing domestic waste stream in the world, and it is highly toxic, threatening public health. Much of this e-waste, largely produced by rich countries, is dumped in poor countries, with Asia and Africa major destinations.
- Because poor countries mostly lack the highly sophisticated equipment and processes needed to dismantle and recycle these complex composite products safely, unskilled scrap workers, including children, plunder them for resalable components, often with a disastrous impact on their health and the environment.
- Increasingly, the torrent of discarded cell phones and obsolete computers is greatly exacerbated by invisible e-waste: a vast, varied plethora of microchip-containing products, ranging from vaping devices to e-readers, toys, smoke detectors, e-tire pressure gauges and chip-containing shoes and apparel.
- Invisible e-waste greatly adds to developing world recycling challenges. The U.N. Environment Programme warns that “the increasing proliferation of technological devices has skyrocketed the amount of electronic waste worldwide” with nations now facing “an environmental challenge of enormous dimensions.”
Respecting uncontacted peoples can protect biodiversity and our humanity (commentary) (December 3, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/respecting-uncontacted-peoples-can-protect-biodiversity-and-our-humanity-commentary/
- Protecting regions inhabited by uncontacted Indigenous peoples is vital from both a human rights and environmental perspective; these territories represent some of the planet’s last intact ecosystems, and are also rich carbon sinks.
- But in recent years, these communities that choose to live in isolation have been seen and contacted more frequently by outsiders like illegal miners and loggers, and the results have at times been violent, with reports about these incidents going viral.
- “Some argue that isolation is no longer possible, that climate change, deforestation and economic pressure will make contact inevitable. I believe that argument is defeatist and ethically indefensible. It assumes that outsiders know what is best for these communities, repeating the same paternalism that has caused centuries of harm,” the writer of a new op-ed states.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
‘Silent epidemic of chemical pollution’ demands radical regulatory redo, say scientists (December 3, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/silent-epidemic-of-chemical-pollution-demands-radical-regulatory-redo-say-scientists/
- An international team of 43 scientists has called for a “paradigm shift” in toxicology and chemical regulation globally after having found severe lapses in current regulatory systems for evaluating the safety of pesticides and plastics derived from petrochemical byproducts.
- The researchers note that the full commercial formulations of common petrochemical-based pesticides and plasticizers have never been subjected to long-term tests on mammals. Only the active ingredients declared by chemical companies have been assessed for human health risks, while other ingredients have not.
- The scientists found that synthesized pesticides and plasticizers contain petroleum-based waste and heavy metals such as arsenic that can make them “at least 1,000 times more toxic” than the active ingredients alone, posing chronic disease and health threats, especially to children — claims that the chemical industry denies.
- Researchers urge lowering the admissible daily intake, or toxicity threshold, for already approved chemical compounds; long-term testing on the full formulations of new pesticides and new plasticizers; and requiring all toxicological data and experimental protocols for approved commercial compounds be made public.
Scientists chart a new source, and length, for Africa’s famous Zambezi River (December 3, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/scientists-chart-a-new-source-and-length-for-africas-famous-zambezi-river/
- Historically, the Zambezi River in Southern Africa was believed to begin its journey at a spring in northwestern Zambia.
- A new study suggests the river actually starts off in a shallow depression in Angola’s southern highlands, at the source of a river called the Lungwebungu, giving the Zambezi a new total length of 3,421 km (2,126 mi), or 342 km (213 mi) longer than previously thought.
- The Lungwebungu and several other Angolan rivers contribute about 70% of the water reaching Victoria Falls, making them critical to the long-term health of the Zambezi and the people and wildlife who depend on it.
- The study highlights the importance of protecting the Upper Zambezi Basin, where another recent study recorded significant forest loss over the past three decades.
African forest hornbills gain new protections from unsustainable trade (December 3, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/african-forest-hornbills-gain-new-protections-from-unsustainable-trade/
Negotiators discussing wildlife trade rules have agreed overwhelmingly to back a proposal that regulates the currently unrestricted trade in all seven species of African forest hornbills. Eight West and Central African countries had tabled the proposal at the ongoing summit of CITES, the global wildlife trade convention, taking place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. It calls for […]
Peregrine falcons retain trade protections, despite downlisting bid by Canada and US (December 3, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/peregrine-falcons-retain-trade-protections-despite-downlisting-bid-by-canada-and-us/
The U.S. and Canada have failed in their bid to loosen restrictions on the international trade in peregrine falcons, with delegates to CITES, the global wildlife trade convention, voting against it at an summit underway in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. The two countries had submitted a joint proposal to move peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) from CITES Appendix […]