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Game of tiny thrones: Parasitic ants grab power by turning workers against their queen (November 20, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/game-of-tiny-thrones-parasitic-ants-grab-power-by-turning-workers-against-their-queen/ Queens of some ant species have evolved an unusually hostile mode for colony takeover: they infiltrate colonies of other ant species and manipulate the worker ants into killing their own queen — their mother — then accepting the intruding queen as their new leader, according to a recent study. In the world of ants, where […] | |
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Amazon Indigenous groups fight soy waterway as Brazil fast-tracks dredging (November 19, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/amazon-indigenous-groups-fight-soy-waterway-as-brazil-fast-tracks-dredging/ - Brazil is pushing the Tapajós River waterway as one of the main Amazon shipping corridors and preparing it for privatization, which will enable regular dredging and maintenance to improve its capacity. - Traditional communities and environmental groups warn that dredging and heavy vessel traffic threaten fish stocks, turtle nesting areas and other wildlife. - The Tapajós waterway is a central component of the new Amazonian logistics plans to move commodities such as soy and beef, including the contested Ferrogrão railway. | |
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Mongabay founder Rhett Butler wins Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Prize (November 19, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/mongabay-founder-rhett-butler-wins-tallberg-snf-eliasson-prize/ Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett A. Butler has been announced a winner of this year’s Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize. The annual prize is awarded to “outstanding leaders whose work is courageous, innovative, impactful, rooted in universal values, and global in perspective,” the organizers said in a press release. The prize was established by the Sweden-based […] | |
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‘The perfect ingredients’: WRI Africa deputy director shares vision for the continent’s energy transition (November 19, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/the-perfect-ingredients-wri-africa-deputy-director-shares-vision-for-the-continents-energy-transition/ - Rebekah Shirley, the deputy director for Africa at the World Resources Institute (WRI), says that increasing energy access for Africans, 600 million of whom lack basic access to electricity, requires thinking about entire economies. - In a conversation with Mongabay, Shirley notes that technological advances, especially for renewable energy, are no longer the hurdle they once were. - Instead, bringing energy access to households, community services and industry will result from investment in manufacturing, commerce and industry that will support the expansion of universal household energy access, Shirley says. - Mongabay spoke with Shirley in the lead-up to the 2025 U.N. climate conference, COP30, in Belém, Brazil. | |
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Lethal dose of plastic for seabirds and marine animals ‘much smaller than expected’ (November 19, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/lethal-dose-of-plastic-for-seabirds-and-marine-animals-much-smaller-than-expected/ - A new study looking at the impacts of plastic ingestion by seabirds, sea turtles and marine mammals found that relatively small amounts of consumed plastic can be deadly. - The research analyzed the necropsy results for more than 10,000 animals and quantified the amount of plastic that could prove deadly as well as the types of plastic with the biggest impact, which included synthetic rubber, soft plastics (such as plastic bags and wrappers) and discarded plastic fishing gear. - Overall, one in five of the deceased animals had consumed plastic (affecting 50% of all studied sea turtles, 35% of seabirds and 12% of marine mammals); nearly half of the species studied were considered threatened or near threatened on the IUCN Red List. - The researchers didn’t consider other health impacts of plastic, such as chemical exposure and entanglement, which led the lead author to conclude the study likely underestimates the “existential threat that plastic pollution poses to ocean wildlife.” | |
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With military backing and oligarch allies, Indonesia pushes controversial food estate (November 19, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/with-military-backing-and-oligarch-allies-indonesia-pushes-controversial-food-estate/ - The Indonesian government is fast-tracking a massive food estate and biofuel push in South Papua, anchored by new plantations, an $8 billion bioethanol supply chain, and major infrastructure projects including a new highway and expanded airport plans. - The initiative revives decades of state-driven “food estate” ambitions that have repeatedly failed — from Suharto’s peat-wrecking Mega Rice Project to Joko Widodo’s abandoned cassava fields — yet now comes with stronger political will, military backing, and efforts to attract private and international partners, including Brazil. - Funding and execution remain shaky, with the appointed operator, PT Agrinas Pangan Nusantara, still unfunded amid competing fiscal pressures as the government pursues costly programs like nationwide free school meals. - Large-scale land clearing is already underway amid reports of militarized suppression of local resistance, while oligarch allies such as the Jhonlin Group are playing prominent roles, underscoring both the urgency and controversy surrounding Prabowo’s self-sufficiency drive. | |
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Mongabay journalist Malavika Vyawahare honored with SEAL Award (November 19, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/mongabay-journalist-malavika-vyawahare-honored-with-seal-award/ Mongabay contributing editor Malavika Vyawahare has been awarded a 2025 SEAL environmental journalism award, which recognizes reporters covering the complexities of the environment and climate. “This award is a huge encouragement for me, as a journalist and as an exhausted toddler mom,” Vyawahare said. “It is also a recognition of the kind of work Mongabay […] | |
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Colombia slams international trade rules that punish states for climate action (November 19, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/colombia-slams-international-trade-rules-that-punish-states-for-climate-action/ Colombian Environment Minister Irene Vélez Torres has called for reform of international arbitration tribunals, saying they’re “one of the greatest obstacles” to the energy transition and favor corporate interests over sovereignty. The investor–state dispute settlement system (ISDS), also called a “corporate court,” is an international trade mechanism that allows foreign investors, usually corporations, to sue […] | |
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Indigenous Dayak resist new southern Borneo national park amid global protection deficit (November 19, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/indigenous-dayak-resist-new-southern-borneo-national-park-amid-global-protection-deficit/ - Indigenous peoples and student protesters staged several demonstrations in Indonesian Borneo in August in a bid to pressure local authorities to cancel plans for a 119,779-hectare (295,980-acre) national park in the Meratus mountain range. - Meratus Mountains National Park would be the first national park in South Kalimantan province, and the 58th in Indonesia. - The draft plans will absorb almost two dozen villages impacting several thousand families, many of whom fear displacement given the lack of formal state recognition of Indigenous communities. - Local civil society organizations say the public protests reflect a lack of consultation with affected communities, a pattern established by many governments as countries rush to protect 30% of the world’s land and marine areas by 2030. | |
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How Indonesian communities rescued the Bali starling from the brink of extinction (November 19, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/how-indonesian-communities-rescued-the-bali-starling-from-the-brink-of-extinction/ One of the world’s rarest birds has rebounded from near extinction after Indigenous communities on the Indonesian island of Bali committed to protect it under traditional laws, Mongabay contributor Heather Physioc reported. The Bali starling (Leucopsar rothschildi) is a songbird with striking white plumage and a cobalt-blue face. In 2001, just six birds were known […] | |
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As Zambia eyes green minerals, Kabwe’s poisoned past looms large (November 19, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/as-zambia-eyes-green-minerals-kabwes-poisoned-past-looms-large/ - Zambia is seeking to capitalize on the green energy boom through copper and other critical minerals, but campaigners warn that without real accountability and community participation, the next mining wave could create new “sacrifice zones,” repeating a painful history. - The town of Kabwe remains severely polluted after decades of lead and copper mining, with more than 95% of children showing dangerous blood lead levels. - The “Zambia’s Sacrifice Zone” campaign, launched by young activists, journalists and NGOs, uses storytelling and radio to demand accountability, raise awareness and amplify community voices in the fight for environmental justice and cleanup. - Authorities have rolled out remediation projects with World Bank support, testing tens of thousands of residents and improving water and infrastructure, but activists say compensation is lacking and enforcement of environmental laws remains weak. | |
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Offshore fossil fuel exploration jeopardizes Brazil’s climate leadership, study says (November 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/offshore-fossil-fuel-exploration-jeopardizes-brazils-climate-leadership-study-says/ - Ahead of the UN Climate Summit (COP30) in Brazil, a report by environment-monitoring organization SkyTruth mapped the environmental impact of the advance of offshore exploration for fossil fuels in Brazil, criticizing the country’s unfulfilled energy transition promises. - The study detected 179 probable oil slicks on the Brazilian coast since 2017, as the oil and gas sectors boomed. Analyses showed that traffic from fossil-industry vessels grew 81% between 2012 and 2023, while methane burning skyrocketed — releasing into the atmosphere the equivalent of carbon dioxide emitted by 6.9 million vehicles annually. - According to the investigation, Brazil still embraces environmentally controversial initiatives, such as oil exploration at the mouth of the Amazon River. This agenda brings risks to rich marine ecosystems and Indigenous and traditional communities, moving the country further away from its climate and conservation goals. | |
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Brazil releases draft text and letter to accelerate COP30 climate negotiations (November 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/brazil-releases-draft-text-and-letter-to-accelerate-cop30-climate-negotiations/ BELEM, Brazil (AP) — Brazil is ramping up efforts at the U.N. climate conference with a direct letter to nations and a draft text released Tuesday. The letter, sent late Monday, comes during the final week of the first climate summit in the Amazon rainforest. COP30 President André Corrêa do Lago released a proposal with […] | |
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Pioneering primatologist in Madagascar shares decades of conservation wisdom (November 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2025/11/pioneering-primatologist-in-madagascar-shares-decades-of-conservation-wisdom/ Patricia Wright, a pioneering primatologist who established the Centre ValBio research station in Madagascar, began her work there in 1986. As the person who first described the golden bamboo lemur (Hapalemur aureus) to Western science, her contributions led to the creation of Ranomafana National Park, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. She joins the Mongabay […] | |
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Scientists slam Canada-US proposal to lower trade protections for peregrine falcons (November 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/scientists-slam-canada-us-proposal-to-lower-trade-protections-for-peregrine-falcons/ - Peregrine falcons, the world’s fastest and most widespread raptors, recovered spectacularly after pesticides that nearly drove them to extinction were banned and captive-bred birds were rewilded, making the effort a remarkable conservation success story. - Although the species is no longer endangered, international commercial trade in this bird, coveted by falconers, is banned for wild-caught specimens and highly regulated for captive-bred ones. Canada and the U.S. propose loosening those restrictions, a proposal that will be voted on at the upcoming meeting of CITES, the global wildlife trade treaty. - Some raptor scientists have concerns. The Canada-U.S. downlisting proposal includes population estimates of just a few subspecies; many others are understudied. Some populations have declined in recent years and illegal trade continues. - Until there are safeguards against unsustainable trade and accurate assessments for all subspecies, conservationists say lowering protections could undo the efforts that have brought this bird back from the brink. | |
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Trade in marine fish for aquariums includes threatened species, lacks oversight: Study (November 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/trade-in-marine-fish-for-aquariums-includes-threatened-species-lacks-oversight-study/ - A new study of major U.S.-based online retailers of marine fish bound for aquariums found that nearly 90% of traded species are sourced exclusively from the wild, including a number of threatened species, and that the trade is poorly tracked. - The study raises concerns about the ecological impact of the trade on marine ecosystems, including around coral reefs, in countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines, where the fish are caught. - Experts called for more work to develop sustainable fisheries and aquaculture in coastal communities in the Global South, and for building consumer awareness and establishing eco-certification schemes. | |
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From waffle gardens to terraces, Indigenous groups revive farming heritage in America’s deserts (November 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/from-waffle-gardens-to-terraces-indigenous-groups-revive-farming-heritage-in-americas-deserts/ - Native American farmers in the southwestern United States have long deployed weather-adaptive techniques to grow crops such as corn and beans in high-desert environments only occasionally visited by rain. - In recent years, a variety of tribal groups have arisen to train the next generation of Native American farmers as a means of promoting cultural identity and improving self-sufficiency, health and well-being while using farming strategies that have worked for centuries on arid lands. - The techniques range from hillside terracing and “waffle” gardening, to water conservation and leveraging microclimates on a piece of land. - During Native American Heritage Month in November, Mongabay spoke with the leaders of these groups about their traditional farming techniques and how they can be replicated in increasingly dry regions around the world. | |
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Construction of TotalEnergies pipeline cuts through coral reefs in Mozambique (November 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/construction-of-totalenergies-pipeline-cuts-through-coral-reefs-in-mozambique/ - A Dutch company dredged through a highly sensitive coral area for TotalEnergies’ liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique, satellite imagery and vessel traffic data confirm. - The French oil and gas company declared force majeure after insurgents attacked the facility in 2021, but some work on the project continued. - Environmental groups warn that the environmental impact assessments for TotalEnergies’ project and three others in the same waters are inadequate. | |
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Study maps whale shark stranding hotspots in Indonesia, highlights conservation needs (November 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/whale-shark-stranding-indonesia-marine-endangered-species/ - A new study has identified whale shark stranding hotspots in Indonesia and linked them to seasonal ocean conditions, offering scientists a clearer picture of when and where risks are highest. - The researchers found that most strandings involved juveniles and often occurred during upwelling seasons; they highlighted that human pressures such as fishing gear, ship traffic and pollution may further increase the danger. - The study calls for stronger rescue networks, better community training, and international cooperation to improve survival rates and protect these migratory animals across the region. | |
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Indonesia labeled ‘Fossil of the Day’ for echoing industry talking points at COP30 (November 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/indonesia-labeled-fossil-of-the-day-for-echoing-industry-talking-points-at-cop30/ - Indonesia has been publicly rebuked at COP30 with a “Fossil of the Day” award after civil society groups accused its delegation of echoing fossil fuel and carbon industry lobbyists during negotiations on Article 6.4, the U.N.’s new carbon market mechanism. - Observers say Indonesia’s position closely mirrors the talking points in an industry-backed letter calling for weaker safeguards under Article 6.4 — a move critics warn could undermine the integrity of global carbon markets and benefit groups with financial stakes in nature-based carbon projects. - Indonesia denies being influenced by lobbyists, even though at least 46 representatives from fossil fuel and heavy-industry companies are accredited under its delegation — raising broader concerns about corporate access to negotiations amid a COP already flooded with a record proportion of fossil fuel lobbyists. - Experts warn Indonesia’s push to loosen Article 6.4 rules risks weakening international oversight, aligning the mechanism with the far less transparent Article 6.2, and potentially undermining both Indonesia’s climate credibility and the robustness of the Paris Agreement’s carbon market safeguards. | |
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Scientists & nuns unite to save Mexico’s rare achoque salamanders (November 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/scientists-nuns-unite-to-save-mexicos-rare-achoque-salamanders/ For the last 20 years, Dominican nuns in a Mexican monastery have cared for the largest known captive population of the critically endangered achoque salamander. Now scientists from Chester Zoo in the U.K. are collaborating with the sisters and Mexican conservationists to test a microchipping method that they hope will help them monitor the species’ […] | |
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In Mexico, world’s smallest turtle faces big threats from trafficking, habitat loss (November 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/in-mexico-worlds-smallest-turtle-faces-big-threats-from-trafficking-habitat-loss/ - The Vallarta mud turtle, the world’s smallest turtle, lives only in temporary lagoons in the Mexican city of Puerto Vallarta, which poses a huge challenge for its conservation. - By the time scientists had determined they were a distinct species, just 1,000 turtles remained; since then, their number has dropped to 300. - A key driver of this decline is the illegal pet trade, with an estimated 200 turtles smuggled to China this year alone, according to experts. - Even though the turtle is listed as critically endangered, Mexican authorities have been slow to implement measures to protect it or its habitat, which is being lost to tourism developments. | |
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Colombia bans all new oil and mining projects in its Amazon (November 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/colombia-bans-all-new-oil-and-mining-projects-in-its-amazon/ Colombia will no longer approve new oil or large-scale mining projects in its Amazon biome, which covers 42% of the nation’s territory, according to a Nov. 13 statement by its environment ministry. Acting Environment Minister Irene Vélez Torres said the entire Colombian Amazon will be made a reserve for renewable natural resources. She made the […] | |
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Plans to dispose of mining waste in Norway’s Arctic Ocean worries Sámi fishers, herders (November 18, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/plans-to-dispose-of-mining-waste-in-norways-arctic-ocean-worries-sami-fishers-herders/ - Mining company Blue Moon Metals plans to dispose of its mining waste in Repparfjord, a nationally protected salmon fjord in the Norwegian Arctic that Indigenous Sámi fishers rely on. - When operational, the Nussir ASA copper mine will deposit between 1 million and 2 million metric tons of tailings at the bottom of the fjord annually, according to the company’s permit. - The Norwegian Environment Agency told Mongabay that the company plans to place its mining waste into the fjord in a controlled manner to limit the dispersal of harmful residues. - Some Sámi residents, whose livelihoods depend on fishing and reindeer herding, told Mongabay they fear the tailings and mine will destroy vital marine habitats for salmon and disrupt traditional reindeer breeding and migration areas. | |
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Top ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin’s COP30 reflections on Amazon conservation (analysis) (November 17, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/top-ethnobotanist-mark-plotkins-cop30-reflections-on-amazon-conservation-analysis/ - The global battle to mitigate climate change cannot be won in the Amazon, but it can certainly be lost there, writes top ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin in a new analysis for Mongabay. Though he’s well-known for investigating traditional uses of plants in the region, he’s also a keen observer of and advocate for Indigenous communities and conservation there. - Compared to the 1970s, he writes, the Amazon enjoys far greater formal protection, understanding and attention, while advances in technology and ethnobotany have revealed new insights into tropical biodiversity, and Indigenous communities — long the guardians and stewards of this ecosystem — are increasingly recognized as central partners in conservation, and their shamans employ hallucinogens like biological scalpels to diagnose, treat and sometimes cure ailments, a technology that is increasingly and ever more widely appreciated. - “The challenge now is to ensure that the forces of protection outpace the forces of destruction, which, of course, is one of the ultimate goals of the COP30 meeting in Belém,” he writes. - This article is an analysis. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. | |
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A slowdown, not salvation: what new extinction data reveal about the state of life on Earth (November 17, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-slowdown-not-salvation-what-new-extinction-data-reveal-about-the-state-of-life-on-earth/ - Extinction rates appear to have slowed since their peak in the early 1900s, suggesting not a reprieve for nature but a shift in how and where losses occur. Much of the damage was concentrated on islands, where invasive species drove many native plants and animals to extinction. - The study challenges the assumption that past extinction patterns predict future ones, highlighting major data gaps—especially for invertebrates—and warning that today’s threats stem mainly from habitat loss and climate change on continents. - Conservation efforts have shown that targeted actions, such as invasive species removal and habitat restoration, can be highly effective, though success remains uneven and far smaller than the scale of global biodiversity loss. - Even as outright extinctions slow, ecosystems continue to unravel through declining abundance, lost ecological knowledge, and homogenization of species—signs that life’s diversity is eroding in subtler but equally serious ways. | |
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Ethiopia set to be named host of 2027 UN climate talks (November 17, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/ethiopia-set-to-be-named-host-of-2027-un-climate-talks/ Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, is expected to be officially announced on Nov. 18 as the host city of the 2027 U.N. climate conference, or COP32. Backed by the African Group of Negotiators on Climate Change, the expected decision would mark the international climate summit’s return to the African continent after COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, […] | |
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Pakistan declares its third marine protected area, but has a long way to go (November 17, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/pakistan-declares-its-third-marine-protected-area-but-has-a-long-way-to-go/ - In September, Pakistan declared its third marine protected area, around Miani Hor Lagoon on the country’s central coast. - The biodiversity-rich lagoon hosts a lush mangrove forest, numerous bird species and threatened marine mammals. - Conservationists welcomed the new marine protected area as a baby step toward meeting the country’s so-called 30×30 commitment to protect 30% of its land and sea by 2030. However, the new addition puts Pakistan’s total protected marine area at just 0.23% of its marine and coastal jurisdiction. - The scope of protections for the new protected area remains to be determined. Local people expressed concern that restrictions could upend the livelihoods of the local community, which depends on the lagoon and mangroves and already lacks basic necessities. | |
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France’s largest rewilding project takes root in the Dauphiné Alps (November 17, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/frances-largest-rewilding-project-takes-root-in-the-dauphine-alps/ - The nonprofit Rewilding Europe announced its 11th project this summer in the Dauphiné Alps, a forested mountain range in southeastern France where wild horses, bison and lynx thrived more than 200 years ago. - Rewilding is a restoration concept that works toward wildlife comeback to a landscape with minimal other human intervention. - The project is focused on fostering an environment where wild horses, alpine ibex, roe deer, vultures, Eurasian lynx and wolves can build healthy populations. - The biggest challenges include working with private landowners and convincing locals that predators, such as wolves, can be beneficial. | |
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Are Belize’s fisheries policies delivering? (November 17, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/belizes-blue-bond-a-reef-reality-check/ Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Belize has built an enviable brand as a small country taking on a big problem: how to keep the sea alive while sustaining the people who depend on it. The story sells well. A 2021 debt-for-nature “blue bond” […] | |
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South Africa to lift fracking moratorium in Karoo Basin, despite concerns (November 17, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/south-africa-to-lift-fracking-moratorium-in-karoo-basin-despite-concerns/ South Africa plans to lift a 13-year moratorium on shale gas exploration in the ecologically sensitive Karoo Basin, despite serious environmental and climate concerns raised by advocacy groups. In 2011, the government imposed a ban on hydraulic fracturing in the Karoo, a semidesert region spanning more than 400,000 square kilometers (154,000 square miles) across northern […] | |
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As fires flare in Brazil’s Cerrado, heat-resistant seeds offer restoration lifeline (November 17, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/as-fires-flare-in-brazils-cerrado-heat-resistant-seeds-offer-restoration-lifeline/ - Research from Brazil shows that tree species adapted to extreme heat may be key to reforesting areas affected by fires. - The ongoing research focuses on plants native to the Cerrado savanna, a biome where fire is a natural mechanism for vegetation regeneration and seeds can germinate after the land is burned. - The findings have practical implications for the Cerrado, which is the most burning-prone biome in Brazil, with the risk of fire exacerbated by agriculture. - Proponents say restoration strategies that include heat-resistant species can minimize the impacts and prepare the restoration site for other species to take root. | |
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Gayatri Reksodihardjo-Lilley, who helped Indonesian communities restore their reefs, has died (November 16, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/gayatri-reksodihardjo-lilley-who-helped-indonesian-communities-restore-their-reefs-has-died/ Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In the shallows off northern Bali, where the reefs flicker with life and the sea carries the rhythm of work and prayer, a quiet revolution took root. Women who once had few choices began tending tanks of clownfish […] | |
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Saalumarada Thimmakka, mother of trees, has died, aged 114 (November 15, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/saalumarada-thimmakka-mother-of-trees-has-died-aged-114/ Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Along a dusty road between Hulikal and Kudur in southern India, banyan trees rise like sentinels. Their thick roots grasp the earth, their canopies stretch wide, casting deep shade over the red soil. Travelers who pass beneath them […] | |
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UK court finds mining giant liable for decade-old dam disaster in Brazil (November 15, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/uk-court-finds-mining-giant-liable-for-decade-old-dam-disaster-in-brazil/ A U.K. judge has found that the Australian multinational mining company BHP is liable for a 2015 dam collapse in southeastern Brazil. The incident killed 19 people and unleashed at least 40 million cubic meters (1.4 billion cubic feet) of toxic mine tailings onto downstream towns and waterways for 675 kilometers (419 miles). In […] | |
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Mongabay Fellows share their ‘Letters to the Future’ (November 14, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/mongabay-fellows-share-their-letters-to-the-future/ Uncertainty and hope — these sentiments prevail in a series of commentaries published by the latest cohort of Mongabay’s Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellows as they conclude their program and forge new paths into environmental journalism. Uncertainty centers on the future of our planet, the journalists who cover it and the people who defend it. […] | |
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AI data center revolution sucks up world’s energy, water, materials (November 14, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/ai-data-center-revolution-sucks-up-worlds-energy-water-materials/ - Data centers are springing up across tropical Latin America, Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Africa. But these facilities are often unlike those of the recent past. Today’s advanced data centers are built to provide artificial intelligence (AI) computing capacity by Big Tech companies such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon. - As large AI data centers proliferate, they are competing for water, energy and materials with already stressed tropical communities. National governments frequently welcome Big Tech and AI, offering tax breaks and other incentives to build AI complexes, while often not taking community needs into consideration. - Aware that fossil fuels and renewables by themselves likely can’t handle the astronomical energy demands posed by AI mega-data centers, Internet companies are reactivating the once moribund nuclear industry, despite intractable problems with radioactive waste disposal. - Voices in the Global South say that AI computing (whose producers remain principally in the Global North) is evolving as a new form of extractive colonialism. Some Indigenous people say it is time to question limitless technological innovation with its heavy environmental and social costs. | |
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Researchers find evidence of elephant poaching in remote Bangladesh forest (November 14, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/researchers-find-evidence-of-elephant-poaching-in-remote-bangladesh-forest/ Communities living around a remote, mountainous forest in southeastern Bangladesh, close to Myanmar, have reported cross-border incidents of elephant poaching for years but there was no confirmed evidence. A new study has now documented the first known physical signs of elephant poaching in the forest. The Sangu-Matamuhuri Reserve Forest in southeastern Bangladesh, bordering Myanmar’s Rakhine […] | |
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Climate leaders warn of ‘overshoot’ into warming danger zone (November 14, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/climate-leaders-warn-of-overshoot-into-warming-danger-zone/ BELEM, Brazil (AP) — After years of pushing the world to limit Earth’s warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, climate leaders are starting to acknowledge that the target set by the 2015 Paris Agreement will almost surely be breached. But they’re not conceding defeat. They are hopeful that temperatures can eventually be brought back below that […] | |
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Massive turtle bust in Mexico reveals ‘Wild West’ of wildlife trafficking (November 14, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/massive-turtle-bust-in-mexico-reveals-wild-west-of-wildlife-trafficking/ - A sting by Mexican authorities in September uncovered more than 2,300 live, wild-caught freshwater turtles and other valuable wildlife products. Three men were arrested and charged with wildlife crimes. - Vallarta mud turtles, the world’s smallest and the most imperiled in the Western Hemisphere, were among the eight species seized by authorities. All are in high demand as pets, and were headed for the U.S. and Asia. - Smuggled under horrific conditions, nearly half of the turtles seized in this raid died; the rest are being cared for at Guadalajara Zoo. - This operation highlights rampant turtle smuggling in Mexico, home to the second-most turtle species on the planet. Conservationists urge officials to tighten law enforcement and intelligence gathering to combat trafficking that threatens the survival of the country’s wildlife. | |
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Reindeer numbers may fall by more than half by 2100 as Arctic warms: Study (November 14, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/reindeer-numbers-may-fall-by-more-than-half-by-2100-as-arctic-warms-study/ Global reindeer populations could fall by more than half by 2100 due to the impacts of climate change, including the shrinking of their habitats, according to a recent study, Mongabay’s Sonam Lama Hyolmo reports. Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus), known in North America as caribou, live only in frozen tundra and boreal forests near the Arctic, and […] | |
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As Indonesia turns COP30 into carbon market showcase, critics warn of ‘hot air’ (November 14, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/as-indonesia-turns-cop30-into-carbon-market-showcase-critics-warn-of-hot-air/ - Indonesia is using the COP30 climate summit to aggressively market its carbon credits, launching daily “Sellers Meet Buyers” sessions and seeking international commitments 6 despite unresolved integrity issues in its carbon market. - Experts warn Indonesia’s credits risk being “hot air,” since its climate targets are rated “critically insufficient,” meaning many claimed reductions may not be real, additional or permanent — especially in forest-based projects. - Forest and land-use credits, Indonesia’s biggest selling point, are among the riskiest, with high risks of overcrediting, leakage and nonpermanence; ongoing fires and deforestation further undermine credibility. - Environmental groups say the carbon push distracts Indonesia from securing real climate finance, enabling wealthy nations to offset rather than cut emissions, while leaving Indonesia vulnerable to climate impacts and dependent on a fragile market. | |
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Sloth selfies are feeding a booming wildlife trafficking trade (November 14, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/sloth-selfies-are-feeding-a-booming-wildlife-trafficking-trade/ - The apparent docility and friendliness of “smiling” sloths have made them tourist darlings, but have also put a target on their backs. - The rise in trafficking of these animals led the governments of Brazil, Costa Rica and Panama to propose stricter rules for the international trade of two sloth species; the goal is to prevent them from becoming threatened with extinction. - Cruel practices used by traders condemn most animals to death, with sloth babies separated from their mothers and subjected to unbearable levels of stress. - In the Brazilian Amazon, tourism companies encourage customers to take photos with sloths, and the government fears the smuggling of animals to neighboring countries. | |
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Newly described ‘lucifer’ bee found visiting critically endangered plant in Australia (November 14, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/newly-described-lucifer-bee-found-visiting-critically-endangered-plant-in-australia/ In 2019, researcher Kit Prendergast was surveying the insects visiting an incredibly rare plant in the Bremer Ranges of Western Australia when a bee grabbed her attention. Prendergast and her colleague dug deeper and found that the native bee, now named Megachile lucifer, is a new-to-science species, according to a recent study. The species name […] | |
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From rock music to rainforests: Akhyari Hananto’s unlikely path to impact (November 14, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/from-rock-music-to-rainforests-akhyari-hanantos-unlikely-path-to-impact/ Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Before dawn breaks over Surabaya, Indonesia’s “City of Heroes,” Akhyari Hananto is already at work. After morning prayers, he opens Google Analytics to watch the night’s reading patterns unfold — what stories drew attention, which headlines resonated, and […] | |
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Small grants are key to a successful next generation of conservationists (commentary) (November 14, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/small-grants-are-key-to-a-successful-next-generation-of-conservationists-commentary/ - Large numbers of early-career conservationists and fledgling organizations are poised to implement solutions to the biodiversity crisis, but the prevailing funding logic isn’t adapting fast enough to support them. - Small grants can make a huge difference in this moment, as they are fast, flexible and comprehensible to people on the ground doing local conservation work, especially when unhinged from onerous restrictions and reporting requirements. - “We must support the next generation of conservation leaders to ensure they have viable career paths that do not come at the expense of burnout,” a new op-ed argues. “Small grants must step forward, not as charity, but as infrastructure for resilience.” - This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. | |
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‘Green’ energy transition leaves a dirty trail in the Philippines’ nickel belt (November 14, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/green-energy-transition-leaves-a-dirty-trail-in-the-philippines-nickel-belt/ - Nickel mining in the southern Philippines is damaging the environment and health and livelihoods of local communities, according to a recent report from U.S.-based NGO Climate Rights International. - The report looked at the Caraga region on the island of Mindanao, where 23 active nickel mines currently operate. - Residents interviewed for the report cited siltation of rivers, farms and coastal areas as damage caused by nickel mines, as well as dust pollution during the dry season. They also listed human rights violations against people opposed to the mines. - The vast majority of nickel mined in the region is exported to China. | |
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Cacao rush fuels conflict and deforestation in southeastern Liberia (November 13, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/cacao-rush-fuels-conflict-and-deforestation-in-southeastern-liberia/ Soaring cacao prices over the last three years are fueling deforestation and conflict in Grand Gedeh county of Liberia, in West Africa, Mongabay staff writer Ashoka Mukpo reported. Satellite imagery by Global Forest Watch indicates that forest loss in and around Grand Gedeh, which borders the neighboring nation of Côte d’Ivoire in southeastern Liberia, has […] | |
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Rare parrots return to Atlantic Forest fragment after decades of silence (November 13, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/rare-parrots-return-to-atlantic-forest-fragment-after-decades-of-silence/ - Twenty red-browed amazons were released in January 2025 in a forest reserve in Alagoas, Brazil, where only four wild individuals remained after the species was driven to near-extinction by illegal trade and deforestation. - The ARCA project aims to restore ecological processes in the Atlantic Rainforest, which today covers just 3% of its historical range in Alagoas — the result, in part, of the loss of seed-dispersing animals. - The Public Prosecutor’s Office of Alagoas shifted from reactive to preventive environmental protection in 2017, facilitating partnerships between scientists and private land owners to create a network of private reserves covering more than 5,000 hectares (12,400 acres). - Between 2010 and 2020, Brazil’s Atlantic Forest lost an area the size of Washington, D.C., in mature trees each year, despite federal protection laws. | |
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Strategic ignorance, climate change and Amazonia (commentary) (November 13, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/strategic-ignorance-climate-change-and-amazonia-commentary/ - With the support of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, essentially all of Brazil’s government outside of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change is promoting actions that push us toward tipping points, both for the Amazon Rainforest and the global climate. - Crossing any of these tipping points would result in global warming escaping from human control, with devastating consequences for Brazil that include mass mortalities. - The question of whether Brazil’s leaders understand the consequences of their actions is relevant to how they will be judged by history, but the climatic consequences follow automatically, regardless of how these actions may be judged, a new op-ed argues. - This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. | |
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Ecuador freezes bank accounts of Indigenous leaders, land defenders (November 13, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/ecuador-freezes-bank-accounts-of-indigenous-leaders-land-defenders/ - Dozens of bank accounts that belong to Indigenous leaders and organizations, land rights activists and nonprofits in Ecuador have been reportedly frozen for weeks, by order of the state. - Sources told Mongabay their accounts froze suddenly without warning or explanation. Some have gone over six weeks, unable to access their funds, saying it has drastically affected their mobility. - The freezes come at a time of social protests and rising tensions in the country, and ahead of a controversial referendum in November that will ask citizens if they want to re-write the country’s constitution. - The freeze on some bank accounts have been lifted with help from lawyers. However, dozens remain in place. | |
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What’s at stake for the environment in Chile’s upcoming election? (November 13, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-chiles-upcoming-election/ - Chileans will go to the polls on Nov. 16 to vote for a new president, 23 Senate seats and all 155 seats in the lower Chamber of Deputies. - The elections could be a deciding factor in how the country addresses a number of ongoing environmental issues. - Candidates range from the left-wing Jeannette Jara to conservatives José Antonio Kast, Johannes Kaiser and Evelyn Matthei. - Whoever wins will have to address the clean energy transition, ongoing land disputes with Indigenous groups, and a controversial mining sector that has clashed with local communities. | |
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Sea anemones and hermit crabs form a mutualistic relationship in Japan (November 13, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/sea-anemones-and-hermit-crabs-form-a-mutualistic-relationship-in-japan/ Japanese researchers have described a new species of sea anemone that appears to share a mutually beneficial relationship with hermit crabs. The pale pink sea anemones, now named Paracalliactis tsukisome, were found attached to the shells of hermit crabs (Oncopagurus monstrosus). The researchers described the anemone based on 36 specimens that fishing trawlers collected between […] | |
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Global Energy Outlook sees promise in Africa’s power transition — funds permitting (November 13, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/global-energy-outlook-sees-promise-in-africas-power-transition-funds-permitting/ The World Energy Outlook 2025, released Nov. 12 by the International Energy Agency (IEA), portrays an African continent where energy demand is surging, but access and investment continue to lag. According to the IEA, Africa’s population is expanding at twice the rate of the global average — and with it, energy demand is expected to […] | |
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Zanzibar’s ‘solar mamas’ are trained as technicians to help light up communities (November 13, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/zanzibars-solar-mamas-are-trained-as-technicians-to-help-light-up-communities/ ZANZIBAR, Tanzania (AP) — Around half of Zanzibar’s population of 2 million people live unconnected from the electricity grid. But one program is training local women as solar power technicians to help light up Tanzania’s semi-autonomous archipelago. The Barefoot College International program is helping communities move on from smoky kerosene lamps. The lamps can cause […] | |
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On the frontline of the Amazon land war (November 13, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/video/2025/11/on-the-frontline-of-the-amazon-land-conflict/ TERRA NOSSA, Brazil — In 2024, Mongabay investigative reporter Fernanda Wenzel traveled to one of the most dangerous spots in the Brazilian Amazon — a region where a silent land war is destroying the forest and costing lives. Her goal: to understand why three groups are locked in conflict here — land grabbers, settlers, and […] | |
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Letters to the Future (November 13, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/specials/2025/11/letters-to-the-future/ In this series, Letters to the Future, the 2025 cohort of Mongabay’s Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellows share their views on environmental journalism, conservation and the future for their generation, amid multiple planetary crises. Each commentary is a personal reflection, based on individual fellows’ experiences in their home communities and the insights gained through […] | |
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The secret to building a global newsroom? Lead with impact, says Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler (November 13, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/the-secret-to-building-a-global-newsroom-lead-with-impact-says-mongabay-founder-rhett-ayers-butler/ - Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler launched Mongabay in 1999 with the idea to “to make knowledge accessible and free, and to show that credible reporting could be a form of conservation in itself.” - In this interview with Butler, he shares how he sees receiving notable awards in 2025, including being named a Forbes Sustainability Leader and receiving the Henry Shaw Medal, as reflections of team rather than individual merit. - For Butler, impact is Mongabay’s true metric of success, as it can make a difference in “how people think, decide, and act.” - Butler says the next 25 years of Mongabay will focus on strengthening impact and empowering the next generations of leaders in environmental journalism. | |
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TotalEnergies moves to restart Mozambique LNG project despite security, eco concerns (November 13, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/11/totalenergies-moves-to-restart-mozambique-lng-project-despite-security-eco-concerns/ Four years after suspending operations at a liquefied natural gas project in Mozambique’s Afungi Peninsula following insurgent attacks in the nearby village of Palma, French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies and its partners have decided to lift their force majeure, local media reported. The company communicated the decision to the Mozambican government on Oct. 24. […] | |
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Photos: Drones help First Nations track down cold-water havens for salmon amid warming (November 13, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/photos-with-drones-first-nations-track-down-cold-water-havens-for-salmon-amid-warming/ - Indigenous fisheries association and river guardians, representing several Mi’kmaq nations in eastern Canada, have launched a drone-based thermal-mapping campaign to locate and protect cold-water refuges vital for threatened Atlantic salmon. - Warming temperatures are pushing the Atlantic salmon beyond their ideal thermal tolerance, compounding existing pressures on the species, such as overfishing. - Warming waters and declining river flows during droughts are impacting both the fisheries and the cultural lifeblood of Mi’kmaq society. - Indigenous river guardians hope the project will pre-emptively shield cool-water habitats before key spawning and migration corridors become unviable. | |
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