A marine protected area can ban fishing boats. It cannot stop drifting gear (July 13, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-marine-protected-area-can-ban-fishing-boats-it-cannot-stop-drifting-gear/
- Drifting fish aggregating devices, or dFADs, are widely used by tuna fleets to gather and catch fish, but they can drift into marine protected areas without vessels crossing the boundary.
- A new Science Advances study found that dFADs have likely interacted with 53% of the global MPA network by area and stranded in 174 protected areas, including sites that harbor at least 490 at-risk species.
- The problem exposes a weakness in ocean protection: MPAs can regulate fishing boats inside their boundaries, but they are less equipped to manage mobile industrial gear that crosses those boundaries, sinks, breaks apart, or washes ashore.
- The costs often fall on MPA managers, island communities, and conservation groups, making dFADs a test of whether fishing governance can assign responsibility before protected areas become cleanup sites for other people’s gear.
Pangolin habitat at risk in Pakistan (July 13, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/07/pangolin-habitat-at-risk-in-pakistan/
The endangered Indian pangolin, already devastated by the illegal wildlife trade, is facing another crisis in Pakistan, one of the four countries where it’s found: rapid habitat loss. Key habitats of the Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) have particularly disappeared in Pakistan’s rural, mountainous northern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to new research, reports contributor Emma […]
Southeast Asian mangroves shift from historic decline to net growth (July 13, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/07/southeast-asian-mangroves-shift-from-historic-decline-to-net-growth/
For decades, Southeast Asia was the global epicenter of mangrove deforestation, but a recent study reveals a dramatic reversal: Since 2010, the region has transitioned from a net loss to a net gain in mangroves, making it a primary contributor to a global mangrove rebound. The study, which analyzed 40 years of satellite data, found […]
What will Africa’s story on ocean governance be? Interview with David Willima (July 13, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/what-will-africas-story-on-ocean-governance-be-interview-with-david-willima/
- With the High Seas Treaty in force, African proposals to designate marine protected areas in international waters are taking shape.
- Maritime security expert David Willima talks about why the West African marine protected area proposal is advanced and why others still require careful coordination.
- Willima says that with the current transformation marine governance is going through, African countries need to be actively engaged in order to have a voice in global decision-making.
Official tied to commercial breeding to represent US at global wildlife trade meeting (July 11, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/official-tied-to-commercial-breeding-to-represent-us-at-global-wildlife-trade-meeting/
- Jennifer Chatfield, a top regulator at the U.S. Interior Department, will reportedly head the country’s delegation at the upcoming meeting of CITES, the global wildlife trade treaty, sources told Mongabay.
- The Animals Committee, a scientific body that influences regulations on wildlife trade, is meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, on July 13-17. Delegations from 184 signatory nations and the EU will attend, along with NGOs and pro-trade organizations.
- Chatfield, a political appointee, has deep links to the commercial wildlife breeding industry: Her family owns and operates 4J Conservation Center in Florida, a facility that breeds two critically endangered species of lemurs, and she is listed as the facility’s veterinarian in documents obtained by Mongabay.
- The Interior Department’s ethics committee has been asked to investigate Chatfield for potential ethics violations and favoring family business related to permitting and proposed rulemaking that weakens the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
Can a photo save orangutans? (July 11, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/07/can-a-photo-save-orangutans/
In Indonesian Borneo, conservation organization KehatiKu is testing a new approach: paying local people to photograph wildlife and upload the sightings through an app. In just one year, the project has collected around 175,000 records. Participants can earn about $6 for a photo of an orangutan, while smaller payments are offered for more common species. […]
Lydia Möcklinghoff, champion of the giant anteater, has died in a plane crash. She was 45 (July 11, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/lydia-mocklinghoff-champion-of-the-giant-anteater-has-died-in-a-plane-crash-in-brazil-she-was-45/
- Lydia Möcklinghoff, a German biologist and science communicator, died on July 3, 2026, aged 45, in a plane crash near Campo Grande, Brazil, during a flight connected to Pantanal fieldwork.
- She became one of Germany’s leading experts on giant anteaters, turning a little-understood animal into the focus of serious field research, public writing, radio reporting, and children’s science communication.
- Her work combined patience, humor, and precision, linking the behavior of anteaters to larger questions about habitat, fire, drought, land use, and the future of the Pantanal.
- Through books, columns, podcasts, films, and WDR’s MausRadio, she helped readers and listeners see that overlooked species are worth studying, explaining, and protecting.
Restoring Kashmir’s lakes one community at a time: Interview with Manzoor Ahmad Wangnoo (July 10, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/restoring-kashmirs-lakes-one-community-at-a-time-interview-with-manzoor-ahmad-wangnoo/
- Conservationist Manzoor Ahmad Wangnoo says restoring Kashmir’s lakes and wetlands depends on partnerships between communities, government agencies and local stakeholders.
- Nearly half of the lakes recorded across Jammu and Kashmir in the 1960s have disappeared or shrunk, reflecting decades of pollution, encroachment and unplanned urbanization.
- Through Mission Ehsaas, Wangnoo and the Nigeen Lake Conservation Organisation have helped revive degraded water bodies, showing how community-led conservation can drive ecological restoration.
- Wangnoo discussed the ecological significance of Kashmir’s wetlands, the region’s beauty — and his optimism for the future.
Conserving Sierra Leone’s western chimpanzees: Interview with Tacugama’s Willie Tucker (July 10, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/conserving-sierra-leones-western-chimpanzees-interview-with-tacugamas-willie-tucker/
- Habitat destruction, illegal wildlife trade and climate change remain the leading threats to the western chimpanzee population in Sierra Leone.
- Through community livelihood programs including livestock and seed support, conservationists are trying to help reduce dependence on forests and hunting.
- In 2019, Sierra Leone designated the western chimpanzee as the country’s national animal, strengthening public awareness and support for conservation.
- Willie Tucker, camp supervisor of the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, spoke with Mongabay about the sanctuary’s work at the forefront of western chimpanzee conservation, as the facility currently cares for more than 100 western chimpanzees, many of which were rescued from private homes.
Meme-face Pallas’s cat traverses a complex conservation landscape (July 10, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/meme-face-pallass-cat-traverses-a-complex-conservation-landscape/
- Pallas’s cats are long-time social media sensations, notorious for their thick, fluffy appearance and grumpy-looking face.
- They roam 16 countries covering Central Asia’s steppe regions, mountains and semi-arid deserts.
- Relatively little is known of this elusive small cat. Glaring knowledge gaps exist about populations in large parts of its expansive range. Like many other small cats, researchers often rely on “bycatch” data — images captured during studies of snow leopards.
- This cat’s conservation status is considered “least concern,” but populations are fragmented and numbers are declining in some countries. Conservationists are working to preserve Pallas’s cats, also known as manul, in core habitats, but say that more work is needed rangewide.
Beavers brought a volcanic wasteland back to life. Now it’s under threat (July 10, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/beavers-brought-a-volcanic-wasteland-back-to-life-now-its-under-threat/
- Mark Smith and his family run a campsite that backs up to the North Fork Toutle River in the U.S. state of Washington, which was swamped with sediment and runoff from the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.
- The fine-grained volcanic sediment smothered the waterway, making it difficult for native wildlife and vegetation to become reestablished even decades after the eruption.
- But over the past five years, the Smith family, together with natural resource experts from the Cascade Tribe, the Cascade Forest Conservancy, the Columbia Fish Recovery Group, and the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, have reintroduced beavers to the property.
- By building dams and canals, the beavers have established deeper pools and wetlands along the North Fork Toutle River, allowing native trees and fish to repopulate the area.
Scientists use AI to produce first high-resolution map of global seagrass extent (July 10, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/scientists-use-ai-to-produce-first-high-resolution-map-of-global-seagrass-extent/
- Scientists have produced the first high-resolution map of seagrass ecosystems around the world.
- Data from the map reveal that 70% of global seagrass cover is concentrated off the coasts of just five countries.
- The map also found that nearly 80% of seagrass loss happened outside marine protected areas, emphasizing the importance of targeted conservation action.
- Seagrass ecosystems play an important role in protecting coastlines and carbon sequestration; however, they face threats from hurricanes, coastal development, and marine heat waves.
Once endangered, Australia’s numbat is making a hopeful recovery (July 10, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/07/once-endangered-australias-numbat-is-making-a-hopeful-recovery/
The animal emblem of Western Australia, the numbat, is recovering after decades of conservation efforts, according to the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. For decades, the numbat or banded anteater (Myrmecobius fasciatus) was listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List. It has now been moved to the lower threat category of near threatened. […]
Desert rain frogs threatened with extinction in southern Africa (July 10, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/07/desert-rain-frogs-threatened-with-extinction-in-southern-africa/
The survival of a unique frog species that lives in the coastal sand dunes of South Africa and Namibia is under threat from diamond mining, the proposed Boegoebaai Green Hydrogen Project and climate change. The desert rain frog (Breviceps macrops) has been moved to a higher threat category, from near threatened to vulnerable, on the […]
Suspect charged and manhunt continues over Jakarta 3-ton pangolin scales case (July 10, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/suspect-charged-and-manhunt-continues-over-jakarta-3-ton-pangolin-scales-case/
- Indonesian authorities have charged one person and are pursuing at least two others, including a Vietnamese national, after customs officials seized 3 metric tons of pangolin scales worth an estimated $10 million at Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok Port in February.
- The goods — one of Indonesia’s largest known wildlife trafficking seizures — were concealed in a shipping container bound for Cambodia and likely comprised around 15,000 dead pangolins, all eight species of which are threatened with extinction.
- Indonesia’s forestry ministry said investigators are continuing to look into the involvement of two companies involved in arranging the customs clearance and export.
- Wildlife conservation nonprofit Geopix said the case should remain open until investigators have established the actors behind the shipment, widely suspected to be the work of a transnational organized trafficking ring.
Bangladesh gets ready for its first release of tiger rescued from poachers’ trap (July 10, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/bangladesh-gets-ready-for-its-first-release-of-tiger-rescued-from-poachers-trap/
- In early 2026, the Bangladesh Forest Department rescued an adult female Bengal tiger from the Sundarbans from a poachers’ trap set for deer.
- The critically injured tiger was taken to the Khulna Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center. After receiving the treatment, she is now ready to be released back into the mangrove forest.
- Since this is the first release of its kind in the country, the authority is struggling to decide on the best process, including whether the tiger should be fitted with a satellite collar or monitored with camera traps after release.
- Since last year, the Forest Department has taken strict action against deer poachers by conducting raids and seizing large amounts of netting and other traps. The tiger’s rescue from a snare and the increased deer population are results of these efforts.
Nepal’s Rhino translocation success in numbers masks habitat struggles (July 10, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/07/nepals-rhino-translocation-success-in-numbers-masks-habitat-struggles/
While Nepal’s efforts to revive its rhinoceros population is hailed as a conservation success, habitat degradation is forcing translocated rhinos to wander far beyond their designated release zones, according to a new study, reports contributor Bibek Bhandari for Mongabay. The population of the vulnerable greater one-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) in Nepal grew by 16.6% between […]
How effective are canopy bridges really? (July 9, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/07/how-effective-are-canopy-bridges-really/
When roads cut through forests, they can become a death trap for wildlife. Canopy bridges, structures that connect trees on either side of roads, are considered a crucial lifeline for tree-dwelling animals, but few researchers have examined their long-term effectiveness. A recently published study did just that, by analyzing three years of videos from camera […]
In Honduras, solar power has done more harm than good, communities say (July 9, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/in-honduras-solar-power-has-done-more-harm-than-good-communities-say/
- A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies reveals how solar projects throughout southern Honduras have negatively impacted the local economy and health of surrounding communities.
- It says the state awarded contracts that avoided rigorous environmental oversight, leading to tree cover loss and pollution.
- At the same time, solar power development has done little to transition Honduras away from fossil fuels, which continue to be the largest contributor to the country’s electricity generation.
Can conservation change how the world sees the Strait of Hormuz? (commentary) (July 9, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/can-conservation-change-how-the-world-sees-the-strait-of-hormuz-commentary/
- If seen only as an oil corridor, the main question becomes how to keep energy moving, but this overlooks a much more important reality, that the Strait of Hormuz is biologically rich yet fragile.
- Featuring mangroves, seabird colonies, coral reefs, turtle nesting beaches and islands, it is a narrow ecological corridor through which the Persian Gulf exchanges water between the Gulf of Oman and Indian Ocean, connecting nature across borders.
- “If it is also seen as an ecological corridor, another question enters the room: how much ecological capital is the region willing to risk while trying to protect its political and economic capital?” a new op-ed asks.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.