Indigenous knowledge helps reveal the ties between reefs and mangroves (September 6, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-knowledge-helps-reveal-the-ties-between-reefs-and-mangroves/
- A scientific collaboration between Australian scientists and First Nations Bardi Jawi rangers and elders has highlighted how fish species rely on the connectivity of reef and mangrove ecosystems.
- The study found that culturally important fish species, which form part of traditional fishery practices in the Kimberley region of northwestern Australia, migrated between the two ecosystems more than other species.
- The collaboration enabled Western scientists to draw on millennia of traditional ecological knowledge in carrying out the study and interpreting its findings.
- While most of the findings were already part of traditional ecological knowledge, rangers say they learned how certain species may not be able to survive if either reefs or mangroves were threatened by climate change and environmental impacts.
Why are they killing this beautiful fish? (September 5, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/09/why-are-they-killing-this-beautiful-fish/
Lionfish are beautiful, venomous and devastating Caribbean reefs. In Honduras, divers are fighting back with homemade spears, hunting competitions and by putting lionfish on restaurant menus. Watch the full film to meet the community fighting back against one of the Caribbean’s most destructive invasive species.
Urban water quality pose challenges to low-income communities in Sri Lanka’s commercial capital (September 5, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/urban-water-quality-pose-challenges-to-low-income-communities-in-sri-lankas-commercial-capital/
- Most urban poor living in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s commercial capital, rely on pipe-borne water for their daily needs.
- Many fresh water sources have become contaminated over a period of 20-25 years due to human interventions and environmental factors.
- As extreme heat impacts the island, water scarcity may force city people to use alternative or less protected water sources, researchers say.
- Studies indicate that other water sources, such as wells and community water schemes, are more likely to show bacteriological non-compliance.
Comparing green space for urban cooling, study (September 4, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/09/comparing-green-space-for-urban-cooling-study/
Cities can become dangerously hot during extreme heat events, making it increasingly important for urban planners to find ways to reduce temperatures and protect people from heat exposure. Woodlands, grasslands, lakes and rivers can create significantly cooler microclimates, offering one potential way to reduce urban heat, a new study finds. The study focused on Guildford, […]
Brazil’s Senate passes rare earth minerals regulation, paving the way for boosted exploration (September 4, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/09/brazils-senate-passes-rare-earth-minerals-regulation-paving-the-way-for-boosted-exploration/
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s Senate has approved a bill to regulate the exploration of critical minerals, including rare earths, marking a step toward exploiting its vast reserves. The bill approved Thursday now awaits President Lula’s signature. It establishes a legal framework and offers tax incentives for domestic processing. Brazil holds the world’s second-largest […]
Marine conservation collides with mining in Indonesia’s biodiversity-rich Moramo Bay (September 4, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/marine-conservation-collides-with-mining-in-indonesias-biodiversity-rich-moramo-bay/
- Pressure on a protected marine area in Indonesia’s Southeast Sulawesi province is growing as conservation efforts intersect with mining activity.
- Moramo Bay is part of the Coral Triangle, one of the world’s richest marine biodiversity regions, and provides habitat for humphead wrasse and other protected species.
- Researchers and officials say the health of its coral reefs and marine life is increasingly under scrutiny as development expands around the conservation area.
As Indonesia’s wildfires rage, haze spreads farther across Southeast Asia (September 4, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/09/as-indonesias-wildfires-rage-haze-spreads-farther-across-southeast-asia/
Haze from wildfires in Indonesia has spread even farther this week, reaching beyond Malaysia and Brunei to Singapore and the Philippines. On Sept. 4, Singaporean residents woke to a smoggy sky as air quality reached unhealthy levels. By late afternoon, the city had the third-worst air quality globally, according to IQAir. Earlier this week, Philippine […]
Illegal gold mining continues in Indonesia’s Aceh despite government crackdown pledge (September 4, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/illegal-gold-mining-continues-in-indonesias-aceh-despite-government-crackdown-pledge/
- Residents in different districts across the Indonesian province of Aceh say gold mining activity in the interior of forest areas continues despite the province’s leaders agreeing a crackdown on illegal mining.
- Fuel shortages have been reported at local gas stations, which some attribute to demand from excavators working to unearth gold ore from inside forest areas.
- In August, Mongabay reported that gold miners had encroached in to a crucial reintroduction forest in Aceh for critically endangered Sumatran orangutans rescued from the illegal wildlife trade.
- Environmental advocacy group Walhi says there are more than 1,000 units of heavy equipment working at more than 450 illegal mining operations in Aceh, while a former provincial official said the government is aware of mining in around half of Aceh’s districts.
South Korea’s ‘sea women’ seek justice after marine habitat devastated by harbor work (September 4, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/south-koreas-sea-women-seek-justice-after-marine-habitat-devastated-by-harbor-work/
- A community of hanyeo, South Korea’s free-diving women fishers, accuse a harbor project in their village of devastating the local marine habitat they’ve depended on for decades for their livelihoods.
- The women are demanding compensation from construction giant Ssangyong, taking their fight to Seoul after the loss of their traditional fishing grounds.
- They are considering a lawsuit against either the company or the government, but face a costly, years-long legal battle requiring scientific evidence linking the construction activity to the habitat’s destruction.
- With many of the haenyeo now in their 70s and 80s, time is not on their side — and some say the settlement on offer would barely cover the cost of their fight.
Study analyzes danger of parasites to Bengal tigers in South Asia (September 4, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/study-analyzes-danger-of-parasites-to-bengal-tigers-in-south-asia/
- Researchers analyzing parasite infections of Bengal tigers and their prey population in the Sundarbans in Bangladesh have raised concerns about the critically endangered species’ conservation.
- Researchers in South Asia warn that parasitic infections can act as silent killers to stressed tigers and cubs.
- Human settlements near habitat elevate the risk of parasite transmission between wild and domestic animals, the research suggests.
- Experts recommend reducing human-wildlife contact and adopting integrated and long-term wildlife disease prevention.
Genetic road map offers hope for threatened Visayan spotted deer (September 4, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/09/genetic-road-map-offers-hope-for-threatened-visayan-spotted-deer/
Scientists have sequenced the first-ever draft genome of the Philippines’ highly threatened Visayan spotted deer. The genome could guide efforts to save it from extinction, reports contributor Pippo Carmona for Mongabay. The Visayan spotted deer (Rusa alfredi) was once found across six islands in the central Philippines. But deforestation and hunting decimated its population, prompting […]
Ebola outbreak underscores food insecurity crisis in DRC (September 3, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/09/ebola-outbreak-underscores-food-insecurity-crisis-in-drc/
The recent Ebola outbreak caused by the Bundibugyo strain of the virus has reportedly claimed more than 3,000 lives, and more than twice as many reported cases, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the same time, analysts warn that roughly 26 million people across […]
Key tree species boost Amazon forest restoration, new study shows (September 3, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/key-tree-species-boost-amazon-forest-restoration-new-study-shows/
- A study in Global Change Biology shows that just 15 to 25 tree species make up nearly half of the trees and carbon stocks in regrowing Amazon forests.
- While pioneer species grow quickly, experts warn that forests need a robust succession of stronger trees to avoid ecological decline over time.
- Understanding these forest dynamics may help Brazil meet its international pledge to restore 12 million hectares (30 million acres) of forest by 2030.
Cherokee youth win legal rights for waterway in first all-female U.S. effort (September 3, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/cherokee-girls-win-legal-rights-for-waterway-in-first-all-female-u-s-effort/
- On Jan. 8, 2026, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Tribal Council unanimously passed a resolution recognizing the inherent legal rights of the Longperson (Ganvhidv Asgaya), an interconnected waterway system whose headwaters rise in the Great Smoky Mountains and end in the sea.
- The resolution was brought forward by the NAIWA Daughters, a group of Indigenous girls aged 10 to 17, making it the first all-female-led rights-of-nature effort in the U.S., and only the second such youth-led resolution passed by a Tribal nation.
- The effort followed 18 months of grassroots organizing and built on the foundations of the rights-of-nature movement, which holds that ecosystems and natural entities should have legal standing to exist and flourish.
- The Longperson resolution grants the waterway five inherent rights and has already spurred related action, including a separate tribal resolution to raise funds for removing the Ela Dam.
A ‘lost’ Philippine pigeon reappears after 20 years — but its forest is disappearing (September 3, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/a-lost-philippine-pigeon-reappears-after-20-years-but-its-forest-is-disappearing/
- Philippine conservation nonprofit CCIPH and Indigenous Iraya Mangyan forest patrollers documented a Mindoro bleeding-heart pigeon, providing the first confirmed image of the critically endangered species in two decades.
- Two independent ornithologists confirmed the identification based on the bird’s orange-red breast marking, iridescent green plumage, and other distinctive features.
- The image was recorded at an elevation above 900 meters (about 3,000 feet), higher than the species’ typical lowland range of 400-88 m (1,300-2,600 ft).
- Experts called for expanded camera-trap surveys, a comprehensive population. assessment, stronger habitat protection, and measures to address logging, poaching and accidental trapping.
Trading food for medicine and crossing the river by zip line are part of life in Nepal flood zone (September 3, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/09/trading-food-for-medicine-and-crossing-the-river-by-zip-line-are-part-of-life-in-nepal-flood-zone/
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Some survivors sheltering in relief camps after deadly floods in Nepal struggled Thursday to obtain essential medicines and cash, even as authorities provided food and other basic supplies to thousands of displaced people. The shortages are adding to the hardships of those living in temporary shelters after having lost homes and belongings. Suresh […]
South Africa’s new gold rush: Big promises, closed books in new carbon frontier (September 3, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/south-africas-new-gold-rush-big-promises-closed-books-in-new-carbon-frontier/
- The drought-adapted succulent spekboom (Portulacaria afra) has long been trumpeted as the crown prince of South Africa’s nature-based carbon sink solutions.
- The World Bank ensured its coronation with a $120 million outcome-based bond, structured and named in its honor.
- According to Amazon, the tech giant’s commitment to buy carbon credits from the first developer to draw on the bond gave other financiers the confidence to back the industrial-scale project. Does this make the tech giant the power behind the throne of an emerging nature-based carbon credit sector?
- Mongabay’s investigation uncovers a sector dominated by international corporations whose investment promises are hard to scrutinize, in a cautionary tale of what happens when projects fail.
On renewable energy, it’s time to debunk the ‘transition minerals’ narrative (commentary) (September 3, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/on-renewable-energy-its-time-to-debunk-the-transition-minerals-narrative-commentary/
- The world needs to move from fossil fuels to renewable ones, but the narrative pushed by powerful financial, political, and environmental institutions — that it’s necessary to massively scale up mining of “transition” or “critical” minerals to achieve this — is false, a new op-ed argues.
- Not only do these minerals’ extraction cause countless environmental and community harms, the numbers cited about how they are used — and the number of new mines needed — don’t add up, a recent report has shown.
- “The vast majority [of critical minerals] are used in industries that are either unrelated — or in direct opposition — to the clean energy transition,” the author writes.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Planned Bolivia-Brazil highway threatens Chiquitania dry forest (September 3, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/planned-bolivia-brazil-highway-threatens-chiquitania-dry-forest/
- Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz signed an agreement to begin technical studies for a highway connecting the municipality of San Ignacio de Velasco in the Chiquitania region with the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.
- Brazilian businesspeople looking to buy land in the Chiquitano forest for cattle ranching and soy farming are driving the project.
- Brazilian businessman Eraí Maggi, known as the “soy king,” is a central figure behind this agricultural expansion into Bolivia.
- Experts warn the road will accelerate deforestation in the Chiquitania, the largest tropical dry forest in the Americas, in a country that already ranks second globally in tropical forest loss.
Repeal of U.S. Roadless Rule could threaten drinking water for 25 million people (September 3, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/repeal-of-u-s-roadless-rule-could-threaten-drinking-water-for-25-million-people/
- On Aug. 18, the Trump administration proposed fully rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule, which bars new road construction and commercial logging on about 45 million acres of national forest, opening a public comment period that closes Sept. 21.
- A study published in July in PLOS Water found that about 25 million Americans draw drinking water from watersheds fed by roadless areas, where roads and logging raise erosion and turbidity and drive up treatment costs.
- USDA says the repeal will reduce wildfire risk, but research shows most U.S. wildfires are started by people and ignition density is roughly four times higher near roads than in roadless country.
- Roadless areas cover just 2% of the land in the lower 48 states yet provide habitat for 57% of the country’s vulnerable terrestrial species, and USDA’s own summary acknowledges that most Tribes it consulted oppose the repeal.