A killing with precedent: Kaiowá man’s murder fits a pattern in Brazil (November 21, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-killing-with-precedent-kaiowa-mans-murder-fits-a-pattern-in-brazil/
- Gunmen killed Vicente Kaiowá e Guarani on November 16th during a land-reclamation effort, in an attack his community says was carried out by organized militias rather than internal rivals.
- The Kaiowá of Pyelito Kue and Mbarakay face a long pattern of violence as they try to return to their tekoha, despite their territory being officially recognized but still undemarcated.
- Recent assaults—including multiple attacks in early November and clashes linked to pesticide drift—reflect a recurring cycle in which reoccupations are met with armed reprisals.
- Rights advocates say Vicente’s death underscores a broader failure of the state to enforce constitutional land rights, leaving the Kaiowá exposed to continued killings on territory that legally belongs to them.
Bearing witness to Indonesia’s environmental challenges: Sapariah Saturi (November 21, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/bearing-witness-to-indonesias-environmental-challenges-sapariah-saturi/
- Sapariah “Arie” Saturi grew up in West Kalimantan amid recurring forest and peatland fires, experiences that shaped her understanding of Indonesia’s environmental crises.
- After beginning her journalism career in Pontianak in the late 1990s, she joined Mongabay Indonesia at its inception and helped build it into a national environmental newsroom.
- As managing editor, she oversees a dispersed team of more than 50 reporters, beginning her days before dawn to edit stories, coordinate coverage, and guide investigations across the archipelago.
- Her commitment is grounded in independence, empathy, and the belief that environmental journalism can help communities, influence policy, and deepen public understanding of Indonesia’s overlapping crises.
‘Forever chemical’ contamination could undermine sea otters’ fragile recovery in Canada (November 21, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/forever-chemical-contamination-could-undermine-sea-otters-fragile-recovery-in-canada/
- Sea otters living along the coastline of Canada’s British Columbia province are exposed — and absorb — forever chemicals, a new study shows.
- Each of the 11 sea otters tested carried residues PFAS chemicals, with concentrations higher for those living near dense human populations or shipping lanes.
- The Canadian government released an assessment earlier this year recommending that PFAS be classed as toxic and is moving toward adopting tighter rules for these chemicals. Environmentalists support the initiative.
Lesotho communities allege greenwashing by project transferring water to South Africa (November 21, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/lesotho-communities-allege-greenwashing-by-project-transferring-water-to-south-africa/
- The Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), a scheme to transfer water from Lesotho’s river systems to neighboring South Africa, also aims to provide hydropower to Lesotho’s people.
- However, complainants from communities impacted and displaced by the complex of dams, water channels, feeder roads, and bridges accuse the developers of promoting the LHWP as a climate mitigation project and ignoring its impacts on their livelihoods and the environment, and call it “greenwashing.”
- The project is degrading the environment, polluting water streams used by residents, destroying cultivable land used to grow food crops, eating into forests, and reducing access to pastures, according to the complaint filed with the African Development Bank (AfDB), which is partly financing the LHWP.
- “We are not just being denied benefits from the project, we are suffering harm from it,” the complaint says.
In Thailand, a cheap bottle crate hack gives tree saplings a fighting chance (November 21, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/in-thailand-a-cheap-bottle-crate-hack-gives-tree-saplings-a-fighting-chance/
- A recent study in Thailand finds that raising native tree seedlings inside repurposed bottle crates improves performance compared to standard methods in community-run nurseries.
- Saplings grown in bottle crates had better root formation and superior growth when planted out in a deforested site, thanks to better air circulation for the roots.
- Crating the saplings also saved on labor costs, which more than offset the cost of purchasing the crates.
- Adoption of the new method could improve the quality of saplings grown in community nurseries, a benefit for reforestation projects where sapling survival is key to success.
Experts say wealthy nations owe Africa double its climate adaptation needs (November 21, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/experts-say-wealthy-nations-owe-africa-double-its-climate-adaptation-needs/
- The U.N.’s recent “Adaptation Gap Report” reveals a massive shortfall between the funds needed for climate adaptation and the financing available as of 2023.
- Africa, among the most climate-vulnerable regions, faces worsening impacts amid limited support and a mounting debt burden, with a $51 billion annual shortfall in adaptation finance.
- Some experts argue that given the role that Africa and, in particular, its forests play in stashing away carbon, it is owed double the amount that it needs in additional adaptation funds.
It’s time to end the carbon offset era, COP30 scientists & communities say (commentary) (November 21, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/its-time-to-end-the-carbon-offset-era-cop30-scientists-communities-say-commentary/
- The COP30 Science Council and Indigenous delegates, activists and local communities in Belém this week argued that forests are not offsets and that the world cannot simply trade its way out of the climate crisis.
- Carbon offsetting programs have been under intense scrutiny for years, and a broad coalition of COP30 attendees and advisors say that this is the moment to move forward on climate finance with greater effectiveness and equity.
- “This is the Amazon COP. If it ends with a decision that ignores Indigenous rights and props up offset markets that science says cannot work, it will squander the moral clarity of this moment,” a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
IDB financed meat & poultry company that polluted Indigenous Ecuador lands: Report (November 21, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/idb-financed-meat-poultry-company-that-polluted-indigenous-ecuador-lands-report/
- A report from the Independent Consultation and Investigation Mechanism of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group says that agribusiness Pronaca contaminated for decades the Tsáchila Indigenous Territory in Ecuador.
- IDB Invest financed Pronaca, a major player in meat and poultry products, without adequately evaluating the company’s environmental and social impacts, according to its own conclusions.
- According to the report, for years, the company discharged residual waters from pig farms into the rivers that the Tsáchila depend on, affecting their health, culture, farming and tourism.
- Inés Manzano, Ecuador’s Minister for Environment and Energy, is married to Christian Bakker, who is part of the family who founded Pronaca.
Why don’t forest protectors get paid? asks Suriname’s president (November 21, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/why-dont-forest-protectors-get-paid-asks-surinames-president/
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. At the U.N. Climate Change Conference, COP30, in Brazil, Suriname is taking a large step into the spotlight, reports Mongabay’s Max Radwin. With about 93% forest cover and a status as one of only three nations to boast […]
A forest worth more standing: Virgilio Viana on what it will take to protect the Amazon (November 21, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-forest-worth-more-standing-virgilio-viana-on-what-it-will-take-to-protect-the-amazon/
The first time Virgilio Viana saw the Amazon up close, he was a 16-year-old with a backpack, two school friends and very little sense of what he was walking into. They arrived by land, drifting along dirt roads that had more potholes than surface, then continued by riverboat as the forest thickened around them. Something […]
Congo Basin nations roll out community payments for forest care (November 20, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/congo-basin-nations-roll-out-community-payments-for-forest-care/
Congo Basin countries have announced the launch of a payments for environmental services, or PES, initiative at the COP30 climate summit in Belém, Brazil, intended to encourage practices favorable to forest protection and restoration. The financial mechanism, announced Nov. 18 and supported by the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI), transfers direct payments via a mobile […]
Inside California’s race to document its insects: A conversation with Chris Grinter (November 20, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/inside-californias-race-to-document-its-insects-a-conversation-with-chris-grinter/
- Christopher C. Grinter, Senior Collection Manager of Entomology at the California Academy of Sciences, discussed his work documenting California’s insect diversity through the California All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (CalATBI).
- He described how DNA barcoding and voucher specimens together form a lasting record of life, helping scientists track species and environmental change across the state.
- Grinter reflected on both the urgency of discovery amid biodiversity loss and the promise of new technologies and collaborations that make large-scale insect research possible.
- He spoke with Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler in October 2025.
For sharks on the brink of extinction, CITES Appendix II isn’t protective enough (commentary) (November 20, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/for-sharks-on-the-brink-of-extinction-cites-appendix-ii-isnt-protective-enough-commentary/
- Listing shark species under CITES Appendix II, which allows for well-monitored sustainable trade, has helped to save some sharks from extinction. But some species are so threatened that they need to be listed on Appendix I, which bans all trade.
- New research has revealed that many fins belonging to sharks protected by Appendix II are still being sold in large numbers in Hong Kong, one of the biggest markets, supporting the need for action on Appendix I listings for some species at the CITES COP20 meeting that commences next week in the Uzbek city of Samarkand.
- “Governments meeting at COP20 in Uzbekistan should follow the science, support these proposals, and help save these sharks and rays from the brink of extinction. It’s the only way to give these species a fighting chance at survival,” a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Study finds important Nassau grouper spawning site in Belize near collapse (November 20, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/study-finds-important-nassau-grouper-spawning-site-in-belize-near-collapse/
- The Nassau grouper (Epinephelus striatus), a large-bodied top predator, was once the most abundant and commercially important fish in the Caribbean.
- Each winter, the groupers gather en masse at special places to breed, but many of these so-called fish spawning aggregation sites have been dwindling or succumbing entirely to overfishing.
- A new study looked at an important spawning site at Northeast Point on Glover’s Reef Atoll in Belize and found that the number of Nassau groupers attending the annual gathering declined by 85% over the past two decades and is now “on a trajectory towards local extirpation.”
- It attributes the decline to the government’s limited capacity to enforce regulations aimed at protecting the groupers from fishing at the remote site.
Fighting for food sovereignty at COP30: Interview with GRAIN’s Ange-David Baïmey (November 20, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/fighting-for-food-sovereignty-at-cop30-interview-with-grains-ange-david-baimey/
- The NGO GRAIN defines climate justice as ensuring frontline African communities can control their land, seeds and food systems rather than being pushed toward export-oriented, corporate agriculture.
- Ange-David Baïmey, the group’s program coordinator for Africa, tells Mongabay that climate change is worsening farmers’ access to land, water and resilient seeds, while multinational seed and input companies deepen dependency and erode traditional seed systems.
- He says formal U.N. climate negotiations are ineffective, with GRAIN instead using the COP30 conference to engage with civil society at the People’s COP to advance food sovereignty and agroecology.
- For Baïmey, a COP30 “victory” would mean rejecting carbon markets, which he argues facilitate land grabbing and undermine food security across Africa.
Wolf hauls up crab trap to eat bait, hinting at possible tool use (November 20, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/wolf-hauls-up-crab-trap-to-eat-bait-hinting-at-possible-tool-use/
Researchers in Canada have documented a wild gray wolf hauling a crab trap out of the water to eat the bait inside, according to a recent study. Researchers suggest it may be the first recorded example of possible tool use by a wolf (Canis lupus). The finding emerged from a program maintained by Indigenous Haíɫzaqv […]
Gold mining exposes Indigenous women in Nicaragua to high mercury levels (November 20, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/gold-mining-exposes-indigenous-women-in-nicaragua-to-high-mercury-levels/
Indigenous women of childbearing age from Nicaragua’s Waspam municipality have been exposed to toxic levels of mercury, according to a new report by the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN). The researchers took hair samples from 50 women between 18 and 44 years old. The women live in the Indigenous communities of Li Auhbra and Li […]
The land deal threatening a vital piece of Bolivia’s Chiquitano dry forest (November 20, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/the-land-deal-threatening-a-vital-piece-of-bolivias-chiquitano-dry-forest/
- A 30,019-hectare (74,178-acre) forest in Santa Cruz, Bolivia is on the verge of being sold to Bom Futuro, a Brazilian agriculture company with plans to clear the land, documents reviewed by Mongabay suggest.
- The forest is being sold by a local affiliate of Dutch wood flooring producer INPA, which has helped sustainably manage the area since the mid-2000s.
- Conservationists say the plot is an important part of Bolivia’s Chiquitano dry forest, which acts as a transition between the Amazon Rainforest and the Gran Chaco and Cerrado savannas.
EU touts climate leadership while undermining antideforestation rules, critics say (November 20, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/eu-touts-climate-leadership-while-undermining-antideforestation-rules-critics-say/
- European governments are pushing to delay and weaken the EU Deforestation Regulation, backing a one-year postponement to 2026 and major reductions in due-diligence requirements.
- The political shift is driven largely by Germany and supported by France, despite earlier European Commission rollbacks and opposition from only a few member states.
- Civil society groups warn that further delays would gut the law, punish early-compliant companies, and undermine the EU’s regulatory credibility.
- At COP30, the EU’s silence on deforestation has fueled accusations of hypocrisy as advocates say weakening the EUDR would have severe consequences for tropical forests.
Makassar women press for water as taps and wells run dry in sweltering Indonesian city (November 20, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/makassar-women-press-for-water-as-taps-and-wells-run-dry-in-sweltering-indonesian-city/
- Located on the coast of Sulawesi Island’s largest city, Makassar, Tallo ward endures high water stress and contamination of local sources with heavy metals and other pollutants.
- Water stress is a well-documented driver of gender-based violence around the world, with extensive correlation established by numerous research studies, and causation in many circumstances.
- In Makassar, women are commonly responsible for ensuring local households are supplied with water, which typically involves hauling more than two dozen plastic containers of water across town.
- In response to these challenges, a grassroots women-led organization has entered direct talks with local political leaders and the municipal water company in a bid to improve access to water for consumption and sanitation.