| news | india | latam | brasil | indonesia |
|
An inventory of life in California (January 6, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/an-inventory-of-life-in-california/ - California is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, yet much of its life—especially insects and fungi—remains undocumented, even in a state rich in scientific institutions. - The California All-Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (CalATBI) is working to build a verifiable, statewide record of life, combining fieldwork, DNA analysis, and museum collections. - By focusing on evidence that can be revisited and tested over time, the effort provides a baseline for understanding ecological change rather than prescribing solutions. - Mongabay’s reporting follows how this foundational work underpins later decisions about protection, restoration, and management—showing why counting still matters. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Plastic pollution requires urgent action, says author Judith Enck (January 6, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2026/01/plastic-pollution-requires-urgent-action-says-author-judith-enck/ Judith Enck is a former regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, appointed by President Barack Obama, and the founder of Beyond Plastics, an organization dedicated to eradicating plastic pollution worldwide. She joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss how governments can implement policies to turn off the tap on plastic pollution, which harms human health […] | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
An endangered menu (cartoon) (January 6, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/custom-story/2026/01/an-endangered-menu-cartoon/ Amidst the ongoing battle for survival against logging and hunting, Madagascar’s lemurs face a new and unprecedented threat — the demand for lemur meat among the country’s urban elite, falsely believed to have health benefits. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Urban sprawl and illegal mining reshape a fragile Amazon frontier (January 6, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/illegal-mining-and-urban-sprawl-reshape-a-fragile-amazon-frontier/ - Ever since Mitú was first established as a settlement in 1935, it has rapidly transformed into an expanding urban town in one of Colombia’s most isolated departments. - The Amazonian forests, rivers and Indigenous communities who surround Mitú are impacted by urbanization, the overexploitation of natural resources, cattle ranching, illegal mining and timber extraction which have caused deforestation, soil degradation and water pollution. - Researchers say the construction of a highway from Mitú to Monfort has attracted settlers who cleared land around the road to expand the urban center and develop agricultural production and cattle ranching. - Mongabay found 10,000 hectares (24,710 acres) of tree cover loss in Mitú since 2014. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
EUDR antideforestation law officially delayed for second year in a row (January 6, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/eudr-antideforestation-law-officially-delayed-for-second-year-in-a-row/ The European Union’s antideforestation law, known as EUDR, has officially been delayed for a second year. The amendment was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on Dec. 23, 2025. The EUDR bans the import of commodities, including cocoa, coffee, soy, beef, timber, palm oil and rubber, that come from areas deforested after […] | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
After Cyclone Senyar, Indonesia probes whether development amplified scale of disaster (January 6, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/after-cyclone-senyar-indonesia-probes-whether-development-amplified-scale-of-disaster/ - Cyclone Senyar triggered catastrophic floods and landslides in northern Sumatra in late 2025, but scientists and activists say decades of deforestation and landscape alteration in upland watersheds largely determined the scale of the destruction. - The heavily hit Batang Toru landscape, home to the world’s only Tapanuli orangutan population, has become a national test case after the government ordered eight mining, energy and plantation companies to halt operations pending rare watershed-wide environmental audits. - Investigations have raised concerns that forest clearing by a pulpwood producer, a hydropower project and a gold mine on steep terrain may have destabilized slopes and worsened runoff during extreme rainfall. - Experts warn that once forest cover is lost in fragile tropical watersheds, disaster risks can persist for decades, making effective law enforcement — rather than weather alone — decisive for Batang Toru’s future. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
7 hopeful wildlife sightings that researchers celebrated in 2025 (January 6, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/7-hopeful-wildlife-sightings-that-researchers-celebrated-in-2025/ Once in a while, an animal shows up where it’s least expected, including places from where it was thought to have gone extinct. These rare sightings bring hope — but also fresh concerns. These are some of the wildlife sightings Mongabay reported on in 2025. Colossal squid recorded for the first time in its deep-sea […] | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Amazon entrepreneur spreads seeds of growth with recycled paper (January 6, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/amazon-entrepreneur-spreads-seeds-of-growth-with-recycled-paper/ - In the Brazilian city of Altamira, a small business transforms recycled paper into seed-embedded sheets that grow into flowers, herbs and even local plants, merging creativity and sustainability. - Founder Alessandra Moreira turned personal adversity into purpose, building a backyard business that inspires sustainable entrepreneurship. - Experts say initiatives like Ecoplante embody the future of the Amazon’s bioeconomy, where innovation, inclusion and forest conservation can grow hand in hand. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Cultural changes shift an Indigenous community’s relationship with the Amazon forest (January 5, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/cultural-changes-shift-an-indigenous-communitys-relationship-with-the-amazon-forest/ - In the southeastern Colombian department of Vaupés, members of the Indigenous Macaquiño community have maintained a healthy territory through rituals and prayers that govern the use of natural resources and their deep respect for the spirits that guard sacred sites. - A series of cultural transformations that began with the arrival of rubber tappers, missionaries and other non-Indigenous outsiders since the 19th century has led to a decline in many spiritual and cultural traditions, undermining the area’s sacred sites and the communities’ relationship with their territory. - More recent changes, such as government education policies and laws that hand more power to Indigenous peoples to manage their territories, have also impacted the generational transfer of spiritual and cultural knowledge. - Members Mongabay spoke to said they welcome some of the changes that have come with these cultural transformations, such as the opportunity to obtain a formal education and return with knowledge that can complement their Indigenous knowledge. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Massive Amazon conservation program pledges to put communities first (January 5, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/massive-amazon-conservation-program-pledges-to-put-communities-first/ - The Amazon Region Protected Areas (ARPA) is a massive conservation program that has helped reduce deforestation across 120 conservation areas in the Brazilian Amazon and avoided 104 million metric tons of CO2 emissions between 2008 and 2020. - A new phase of the program, called ARPA Comunidades, will now focus on supporting the communities who live in and protect the forest, by helping them increase their revenue through the bioeconomy or sale of sustainable forest products. - Backed by a $120 million donor fund, ARPA Comunidades aims to increase protections across 60 sustainable-use reserves in the Brazilian Amazon spanning an area nearly the size of the U.K., directly impacting 130,000 people and helping raise 100,000 out of poverty. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Azores must respect its exceptional network of marine protected areas (commentary) (January 5, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/azores-must-respect-its-exceptional-network-of-marine-protected-areas-commentary/ - Just over a year ago, the Azores created the largest network of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the North Atlantic, becoming a beacon of hope and a global leader in ocean conservation. - Then, in early 2025, a proposal to allow tuna fishing in “no-take” areas there was submitted to the Regional Assembly; this is currently under discussion and could come to a vote this week or next week. - “Such a retreat from ocean protection would not only be a local tragedy but also a disheartening contribution to the global backpedaling on environmental political will,” a new op-ed argues. - This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Poaching down but threats remain for forest elephants, recent population assessment finds (January 5, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/poaching-down-but-threats-remain-for-forest-elephants-recent-population-assessment-finds/ - The first authoritative population assessment for African forest elephants estimates there are more than 145,000 individuals. - Researchers say new survey techniques relying on sampling DNA from elephant dung provide the most accurate estimate of a species that’s difficult to count in its rainforest habitat. - Central Africa remains the species’ stronghold, home to nearly 96% of forest elephants, with densely forested Gabon hosting 95,000 individuals. - Conservationists say the findings can help inform the design of targeted conservation actions and national plans for forest elephants. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Carving up the Cardamoms (January 5, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/specials/2026/01/carving-up-the-cardamoms/ The Cardamom Mountains sprawl across southwestern Cambodia and are among the best-preserved rainforests in the country. Protected by rugged terrain, heavy rains and a low population density, the Cardamoms remain a biodiversity hotspot, providing habitat for threatened elephants, pangolins and the region’s last viable fishing cat population. This Special Issues documents the myriad threats facing […] | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
The climate fight may not be won in the Amazon, but it can be lost there (January 5, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/the-climate-fight-may-not-be-won-in-the-amazon-but-it-can-be-lost-there/ Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. After five decades studying the plants and peoples of the Amazon, Mark Plotkin, an ethnobotanist and co-founder of the Amazon Conservation Team, is still asked whether the rainforest’s glass is half-full or half-empty. His answer is unchanged. “By […] | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Snowy owl, striped hyena, sharks among migratory species proposed for greater protections (January 5, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/snowy-owl-striped-hyena-sharks-among-migratory-species-proposed-for-greater-protections/ Countries under the international treaty to protect migratory animals have proposed increasing protections for 42 species. These include numerous seabirds, the snowy owl, several sharks, the striped hyena, and some cheetah populations. The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) aims to protect species ranging from butterflies and fish to birds […] | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Biologist kidnapped in Mexico (January 4, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/biologist-kidnapped-in-mexico/ In the mountains of central Veracruz, scientific work is rarely abstract. It means walking narrow paths through cloud forest, speaking patiently with communities, and learning to read landscapes that yield information slowly. It also means accepting risk as a condition of knowledge. Field research unfolds in places where the state is often distant and authority […] | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
What Craig’s long life reveals about elephant conservation (January 3, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/what-craigs-long-life-reveals-about-elephant-conservation/ - The death of Craig, a widely known super tusker from Amboseli, drew attention not just because of his fame, but because he lived long enough to die of natural causes in a period when elephants with tusks like his are rarely spared. - Craig’s life reflected decades of sustained protection in Kenya, where anti-poaching efforts and community stewardship have allowed some elephant populations to stabilize or grow after catastrophic losses in the late 20th century. - His passing is also a reminder of what has been lost: Africa’s elephant population fell from about 1.3 million in 1979 to roughly 400,000 today, with forest elephants in particular still in steep decline. - There are signs of cautious progress, including slowing demand for ivory and stronger legal protections, but continued habitat loss means that survival, even for the most protected elephants, remains uncertain. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
‘I’m proud to be the first published Asháninka researcher’: Richar Antonio Demetrio on bees (January 2, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/im-proud-to-be-the-first-published-ashaninka-researcher-richar-antonio-demetrio-on-bees/ - Richar Antonio Demetrio is the first Indigenous Asháninka scientist to publish in a high-impact journal, combining traditional ecological knowledge with scientific methodology to study meliponiculture, the farming of stingless bees. - His first paper, published in March 2025, reveals that Asháninka communities can identify more than 14 plant species used by stingless bees to build their nests, and apply sustainable practices in honey production. - His second warns that more than 50% of the habitat of stingless bees in the Avireri-Vraem Biosphere Reserve overlaps with areas at high risk of deforestation. - In an interview with Mongabay, Demetrio talks about the challenges he faced from both the scientific and Indigenous communities during his studies, and about the importance of balancing Western scientific methods with age-old traditional knowledge. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Camera traps in China capture first-ever footage of Amur tigress with five cubs (January 2, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/camera-traps-in-china-capture-first-ever-footage-of-amur-tigress-with-five-cubs/ Camera traps installed in the world’s largest tiger reserve, in China, have captured footage of an Amur tigress and her five cubs for the first time. Recorded in November 2025, the footage from Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park shows an adult tigress ambling along a dirt road, and four young cubs tootling behind […] | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
5 unexpected animal behaviors we learned about in 2025 (January 2, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/5-unexpected-animal-behaviors-we-learned-about-in-2025/ Every year, researchers and people out in nature capture some aspect of animal behavior that’s unusual or unexpected in some way, changing how we understand the natural world. Here are five such examples that Mongabay reported on in 2025: Massive fish aggregation seen climbing waterfalls in Brazil For the first time, scientists observed a “massive […] | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
From Chipko to Nyeri: The enduring logic of the tree hug (January 2, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/01/from-chipko-to-nyeri-the-enduring-logic-of-the-tree-hug/ Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. When Truphena Muthoni stepped up to a royal palm in Nyeri and wrapped her arms around its trunk, few expected her to stay there for three days. Even fewer thought the gesture would spark a national conversation. Muthoni […] | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Guatemala’s eco defenders reel from surge in killings and persecution (January 2, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/guatemalas-eco-defenders-reel-from-surge-in-killings-and-persecution/ - In 2023, there were four recorded killings of environmental defenders in connection to their work; in 2024, this figure shot up to at least 20, according to advocacy group Global Witness. - An ongoing political crisis, persistent criminalization, and the spread of organized crime have all fed the rise in violence against Indigenous and campesino communities and defenders. - This is happening despite a change of government, led by President Bernardo Arévalo, whose movement was backed by Indigenous communities. - Land grabbing, mass arrest warrants and judicial persecution are increasingly common, together with the use of force, say human rights defenders and activists. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Brickmaking keeps eating farmland as Bangladesh misses clean-build goal (January 2, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/brickmaking-keeps-eating-farmland-as-bangladesh-misses-clean-build-goal/ - Despite a 2019 mandate to switch to concrete blocks and other alternatives by June 2025, most government projects continued using clay-fired bricks, with only the Ministry of Housing and Public Works fully complying. - About 7,000 brickfields strip an estimated 9.5 million cubic meters (3.35 billion cubic feet) of topsoil each year, rendering farmland uncultivable for years, while the sector accounts for roughly 3% of Bangladesh’s greenhouse gas emissions due to coal- and wood-fired kilns. - Concrete alternatives are available, along with government-developed lower-cost options such as compressed stabilized earth blocks made from dredged river sediment, which can cut costs and conserve topsoil, yet their adoption remains limited. - A 15% VAT on alternative building materials has made them less competitive than traditional bricks, discouraging investment and demand, even as officials plan a new deadline and stricter enforcement to revive the stalled transition. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
The conservation ledger: What we lost and what we gained in 2025 (January 1, 2026) https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/the-ledger-what-we-lost-and-what-we-gained-in-2025/ - 2025 was a year shaped by both loss and persistence, marked by species formally declared extinct, hundreds of organisms newly described, and uneven conservation outcomes across forests, reefs, and the open ocean. - The year showed that extinction and discovery are rarely moments, but slow processes driven by delay, uncertainty, and institutional choices—often recognizing loss long after it occurs and naming life only as threats close in. - 2025 also revealed the human cost of environmental protection, through the lives of scientists, rangers, Indigenous leaders, and advocates whose endurance, rather than visibility, sustained ecosystems under pressure. - Rhett Ayers Butler, founder and CEO of Mongabay, concludes that what was lost was not only species but time—and that what remains is proof the future is still shaped by policy, financing, enforcement, and whether protection is built to last. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Emma Johnston, a marine ecologist with institutional reach, has died at 52 (December 31, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/emma-johnston-a-marine-ecologist-with-institutional-reach-has-died-at-52/ - Emma Johnston, who died at 52 in December 2025, moved between marine science and university leadership, arguing that evidence matters only if it can be understood and acted upon beyond the laboratory. - Trained as a marine ecologist, she built influential research programs on human impacts in coastal ecosystems and became a prominent public advocate for science in an era of misinformation and political noise. - Her career expanded into national leadership roles, including president of Science & Technology Australia and senior research posts at UNSW and the University of Sydney, before she became vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne in 2025. - Though her tenure as vice-chancellor was brief, she pressed a strategy centered on resilience and education, leaving Australian science without a leader who could connect data, institutions, and public life with unusual clarity. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Deforestation climbs in Central America’s largest biosphere reserve (December 31, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/deforestation-climbs-in-central-americas-largest-biosphere-reserve/ - Nicaragua’s Bosawás Biosphere Reserve has lost more than a third of its primary forest cover since the turn of the century. - 2024 marked the biggest year of deforestation, with 10% of Bosawás cleared in just one year. - Cattle ranching is among the top causes of forest loss, with outsiders encroaching into Bosawás to clear forest for pasture. - Indigenous advocates and residents say the loss of forest is threatening their way of life, and that they have faced violence due to encroachment. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Deep-sea ‘hotels’ reveal 20 new species hiding in Pacific Ocean twilight zone near Guam (December 31, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/deep-sea-hotels-reveal-20-new-species-hiding-in-oceans-twilight-zone/ - Scientists from the California Academy of Sciences retrieved 13 underwater monitoring structures from the deep reefs off the Pacific island of Guam, which have been gathering data there at depths up to 100 meters (330 feet). - The devices, called ARMS (Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures), yielded 2,000 specimens, including 100 species never before recorded in the region and at least 20 species new to science. - Temperature sensors on the ARMS revealed that ocean warming is occurring even in the twilight zone. - The Guam expedition marks the start of a two-year effort to retrieve 76 ARMS from deep Pacific reefs to help protect these ecosystems from fishing, pollution and climate change. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Up close with Mexico’s fish-eating bats: Interview with researcher José Juan Flores Martínez (December 31, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/up-close-with-mexicos-fish-eating-bats-interview-with-researcher-jose-juan-flores-martinez/ - The fish-eating bat (Myotis vivesi) catches fish and crustaceans thanks to its long legs, hook-shaped claws and waterproof fur. - The species is found only on islands in Mexico’s Gulf of California; it’s considered endangered under Mexican law. - Invasive species such as cats and rats threaten the bats. - Researcher José Juan Flores Martínez has been studying fish-eating bats for more than 25 years, and discusses his fascination with the species and the threats it faces. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Mercury, dredges and crime: Illegal mining ravages Peru’s Nanay River (December 31, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/mercury-dredges-and-crime-illegal-mining-ravages-perus-nanay-river/ - Mongabay Latam flew over the basins of the Nanay and Napo rivers, in Peru’s Loreto region, and confirmed mining activity in this part of the Peruvian Amazon. - Environmental prosecutors say that there may be even more boats and mining machinery hidden in the ravines of both rivers. - During the flyover, authorities confirmed the use of not only dredges, but also of mining explosives, which they say destroy the riverbanks. - Almost 15,140 liters (4,000 gallons) of fuel have been confiscated from illegal mining networks around the Nanay River in the last two years, but authorities’ efforts seem insufficient. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Mongabay’s most popular stories of 2025 (December 31, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/mongabays-most-popular-stories-of-2025/ - In 2025, Mongabay published more than 7,300 stories across eight languages and expects to reach over 110 million unique readers, reflecting both the scale of its newsroom and the continued appetite for evidence-based environmental reporting. - Large audiences, however, are not a proxy for impact: stories traveled widely for many reasons, including timing, platform dynamics, and curiosity, with popularity often uneven and only loosely connected to depth or consequence. - Because Mongabay measures success by real-world outcomes rather than virality, the most-read articles should be seen as a snapshot of attention, not a ranking of importance, in an information environment shaped as much by chance as by substance. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
How are California’s birds faring amid ever more frequent wildfires? (December 31, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/how-are-californias-birds-faring-amid-ever-more-frequent-wildfires/ - Long-term research in California shows that many bird populations increase after wildfires and can remain more abundant in burned areas for decades, especially following moderate fires. - Although some bird species are adapted to fire and benefit from low to moderately severe blazes, megafires in California are becoming more frequent. - Megafires, scientists say, are unlikely to benefit most bird species and harm those that depend on old-growth forests. - Wildfire smoke poses a serious threat to birds’ health, with evidence linking heavy exposure to particulate matter in smoke to reduced activity, weight loss and, possibly, increased mortality. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Investor Dick Bradshaw took a long view of conservation (December 31, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/investor-richard-frederick-bradshaw-took-a-long-view-of-conservation/ - Conservation philanthropy often rewards urgency. - Dick Bradshaw took a longer view, funding research, fellowships, and land protection with an emphasis on permanence rather than campaigns. - His support helped steady conservation science in Canada by investing in people and institutions built to last. - Bradshaw died in December 2025. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Latin America in 2025: Conservation promises collide with crime and extraction (December 31, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/latin-america-in-2025-conservation-promises-collide-with-crime-and-extraction/ - Organized crime, the expansion of extractive industries and climate extremes intensified environmental pressures across Latin America in 2025, driving deforestation, biodiversity loss and growing risks to local communities. - Even as Latin America championed environmental protection internationally, wide gaps persisted in domestic enforcement of environmental regulations and prevention of environmental crimes. - Country trajectories diverged sharply, with Colombia showing relative international policy leadership, while Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador saw marked environmental deterioration amid political instability and extractivist pushback. - Looking toward 2026, experts warn that elections, fiscal constraints and security priorities could further erode environmental governance in Latin America. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Fish deformities expose ‘collapse’ of Xingu River’s pulse after construction of Belo Monte Dam (December 31, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/fish-deformities-expose-collapse-of-xingu-rivers-pulse-after-construction-of-belo-monte-dam/ - Independent monitoring has found a high prevalence of deformities in fish in the Volta Grande do Xingu area of the Brazilian Amazon, following the construction of the massive Belo Monte dam. - Potential factors could include changes in the river’s flood pulse, water pollution, higher water temperatures, and food scarcity, all linked to the reduced flow in this section of the Xingu since the dam began operating in 2016. - Federal prosecutors are scrutinizing the dam’s impact, alongside independent researchers, and at the recent COP30 climate summit warned of “ecosystem collapse.” - Both scientists and affected communities say the prescribed rate at which the dam operator is releasing water into the river is far too low to simulate its natural cycle, leaving the region’s flooded forests dry and exacerbating the effects of drought. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Road to recovery: Five stories of species staging a comeback (December 31, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/road-to-recovery-five-stories-of-species-staging-a-comeback/ Amid accelerating biodiversity loss and shrinking ecological spaces, it’s easy to lose hope. But every year, there are stories of optimism: of species that are making a comeback after being nearly wiped out. Here are five such species whose recovery Mongabay reported on in 2025: Cape vulture The Cape vulture (Gyps coprotheres), southern Africa’s largest vulture […] | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Mongabay’s investigative reporting won top environmental journalism awards in 2025 (December 31, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/mongabays-investigative-reporting-won-top-environmental-journalism-awards-in-2025/ In 2025, Mongabay’s investigative journalism earned international honors for stories exposing environmental crime, corruption, and abuse of both people and the environment. Mongabay journalists uncovered hidden public health risks, schemes to take advantage of Indigenous groups, and took personal risk traveling to underreported regions on nature’s frontlines. Mongabay’s Karla Mendes won first place in the […] | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Cyclone-ravaged Sri Lanka set to apply for ‘loss and damage’ funding (December 31, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/cyclone-ravaged-sri-lanka-set-to-apply-for-loss-and-damage-funding/ - In the aftermath of Cyclone Ditwah’s devastating impact, Sri Lanka plans to apply for payment from the U.N.’s newly implemented loss and damage fund, designed specifically to help climate-vulnerable developing countries cope with severe, unavoidable climate change impacts. - Ditwah, a tropical cyclone that caused direct damage estimated at $4.1 billion, equivalent to about 4% of Sri Lanka’s GDP, hit infrastructure and livelihoods, while intangible losses such as impacts on social systems and ecosystem services remain harder to quantify. - Accessing the Fund for responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) will require rigorous climate attribution and institutional capacity, experts say, noting that Sri Lanka must scientifically demonstrate the extent of losses directly attributable to climate change and strengthen governance, legal frameworks and coordination to secure the funding. - The FRLD remains under-resourced, with an initial allocation of $250 million, far below the tens to hundreds of billions needed annually, prompting calls for quicker, direct funding mechanisms to support urgent rebuilding and climate resilience. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
A new frog species emerges from Peru’s cloud forests — and it’s already at risk (December 30, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-new-frog-species-emerges-from-perus-cloud-forests-and-its-already-at-risk/ - Local communities and scientists have discovered a new-to-science frog species, Oreobates shunkusacha, in the cloud forests of the Bosques de Vaquero Biocorridor, in the San Martín region of Peru. - Its name, Shunku Sacha, which in Kichwa-Lamista means “heart of the forest,” honors the local communities leading conservation work in the area. - In a study describing O. shunkusacha, researchers write that the species is likely endangered. - Over the past 40 years, the Lake Sauce sub-basin, where the frog lives, has lost nearly 60% of its forest cover, placing both the survival of the newly discovered species and the stability of this ecosystem at risk. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Indonesia closes 2025 with rising disasters and stalled environmental reform (December 30, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/indonesia-closes-2025-with-rising-disasters-and-stalled-environmental-reform/ - Deadly floods and landslides in Sumatra in late 2025 underscored how deforestation, weak spatial planning and extractive development have increased Indonesia’s vulnerability to extreme weather — problems scientists and activists say the government has largely failed to confront. - Forest loss surged nationwide in 2025, with Sumatra overtaking Borneo as the main deforestation hotspot, while large areas of forest in Papua were redesignated for food estates, agriculture and biofuel projects, raising concerns over carbon emissions and biodiversity loss. - Despite international pledges to phase out coal, national energy plans continued to lock in coal, gas and biomass co-firing for decades, while palm oil expansion and mining — including in sensitive areas like Raja Ampat — remained central to development strategy, often prompting action only after public pressure. - Civil society groups increasingly turned to lawsuits amid shrinking space for dissent, rising criminalization of Indigenous communities and activists, and growing militarization of land-use projects — trends campaigners warn are weakening democratic safeguards and environmental protections alike. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Tatiana Schlossberg, environmental journalist, has died, aged 35 (December 30, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/tatiana-schlossberg-environmental-journalist-has-died-aged-35/ - Tatiana Schlossberg was an environmental journalist who focused on how climate damage accumulates through systems most people rarely see, favoring explanation over exhortation in her reporting and writing. - Her work, including the book Inconspicuous Consumption, traced the environmental costs embedded in ordinary life, arguing that responsibility is shaped less by individual choices than by infrastructure and incentives. - In November 2025 she published an essay describing her terminal leukemia, diagnosed shortly after the birth of her second child, writing about illness with the same precision she brought to reporting. - Her final writing centered on interruption, care, and memory, including the knowledge that her children would grow up with only fragments of her presence. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Satellite data show forest loss persists in Brazilian Amazon’s most deforested reserve (December 30, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/satellite-data-show-forest-loss-persists-in-brazilian-amazons-most-deforested-reserve/ - Brazil’s Triunfo do Xingu Environmental Protection Area was established to protect a swath of the Amazon Rainforest from the cattle industry. - However, satellite data show the reserve has lost around 50% of its primary forest cover since it was created in 2006. - The data show forest loss peaked in 2024, and continued into 2025. - Research indicates rates of deforestation are higher in Triunfo do Xingu than in the unprotected areas around it. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
A small preserve leads a big effort to save native plants in the Bahamas (December 30, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-small-preserve-leads-a-big-effort-to-save-native-plants-in-the-bahamas/ - The Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve is a 12-hectare (30-acre) estate on Eleuthera, an island in the Bahamas, dedicated to conserving and educating people about the island-nation’s native plants. - Since 2009, resident botanist Ethan Freid has led a local restoration effort prioritizing native plants of the Bahamas’ subtropical dry forest ecosystem. - The Levy preserve also offers a summer internship for university students interested in environmental science and biology, which teaches them about native plant taxonomy — filling a generational knowledge gap. - Though small in scale, the project provides a haven for the Bahamas’ native plants; has a herbarium of plant specimens for research; and manages an online digital database of Caribbean plant species. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Rare bats at risk as iron ore mine advances in Guinea’s Nimba Mountains (December 30, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/rare-bats-at-risk-as-iron-ore-mine-advances-in-guineas-nimba-mountains/ - Guinea’s government is assessing the potential impacts of a mining project in the Nimba Mountains, in a biodiversity hotspot that has been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site while being threatened by mining. - U.S. mining company Ivanhoe Atlantic recently submitted an environmental impact assessment for an iron ore mine at a site that is the only known home of two unique bat species, as well as critically endangered chimpanzees and threatened toads and frogs. - Conservationists say open-pit mining in this ecologically sensitive region could spell extinction for Lamotte’s roundleaf bat and the orange-furred Nimba Mountain bat if their forest habitat is disturbed for mine infrastructure. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Ditches on peatland oil palm plantations are an overlooked source of methane: Study (December 30, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/ditches-on-peatland-oil-palm-plantations-are-an-overlooked-source-of-methane-study/ - Ditches that drain peatlands for agriculture are significant but often-overlooked sources of greenhouse gases, including methane, according to a recent study. - Methane doesn’t last as long as CO2 in the atmosphere, but it is many times more potent in warming the climate. - The researchers analyzed emissions from ditches on two oil palm plantations in Malaysian Borneo and found that the ditches play an outsize role in the overall carbon emissions from converted peatlands. - Their findings underscore the need to account for emissions from these ditches to better understand the implications of draining peatlands. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Andy Mahler, advocate for public forests in America (December 30, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/andy-mahler-advocate-for-public-forests-in-america/ - Forest conservation in the eastern United States often depended on persistence rather than decisive victories, shaped by slow regulatory processes and fragmented governance that rewarded those willing to keep showing up after attention faded. - Out of this context grew a form of grassroots activism grounded in local knowledge and personal trust, skeptical of hierarchy and resistant to the idea that extractive outcomes were inevitable or natural. - Andy Mahler embodied that approach through decades of work protecting public forests, most notably as a central figure in Heartwood, a decentralized network built on sustained relationships rather than efficiency or scale. - He favored patient, place-based engagement over professionalized advocacy, believing that lasting protection came from continued involvement and shared responsibility rather than fixed outcomes or abstract measures. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
New species of jewel-babbler from Papua New Guinea may be endangered (December 30, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/new-species-of-jewel-babbler-from-papua-new-guinea-may-be-endangered/ Within a forested limestone landscape of Papua New Guinea lives a shy, striking bird that’s new to science. This bird is also incredibly rare and may already be endangered, according to a recent study. Researchers have photographed fewer than 10 individuals of the newly described hooded jewel-babbler (Ptilorrhoa urrissia) in about 10 years of monitoring […] | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Mongabay’s multimedia reporting wins international journalism prizes in 2025 (December 30, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/mongabays-multimedia-reporting-wins-international-journalism-prizes-in-2025/ In 2025, Mongabay’s team of multimedia journalists won international journalism prizes for audio, visual and digital storytelling. The content they produced range from an immersive audio series exploring bioacoustics, to a visually rich investigation into organized crime, and a video on reviving Indigenous culture. Mongabay strives to meet people where they are and make high-quality […] | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Most Watched Video Stories of 2025 (December 30, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/most-watched-video-stories-of-2025/ - This year, we told stories that show how people and communities are taking action for wildlife, ecosystems and climate. - We experimented with new formats and series, from Wild Targets to Conservation Entangled, making both long and short videos more engaging than ever. - Through global collaborations, including with the Associated Press and our first grant with One World Media, we expanded the reach and impact of our storytelling. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Elizabeth Erasito, custodian of Fiji’s parks and places (December 30, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/elizabeth-erasito-custodian-of-fijis-parks-and-places/ - Conservation in small island states is portrayed as a political and administrative challenge shaped by limited land, scarce resources, and external pressures, where development choices often carry irreversible consequences. - In Fiji, protected areas were expected to deliver conservation, public access, cultural continuity, and economic value at once, while facing storms, fires, invasive species, and illegal extraction with limited capacity. - Elizabeth Erasito’s career at the National Trust of Fiji centered on making protection work in practice, managing a modest but significant network of parks and heritage sites with an emphasis on monitoring and enforcement rather than expansion. - She argued that parks should remain accessible and grounded in everyday life, and that short-term development gains rarely justified long-term damage, valuing steady institutional endurance over visible triumphs. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Fishing ‘modernization’ leaves Tanzania’s small-scale crews struggling to stay afloat (December 30, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/fishing-modernization-leaves-tanzanias-small-scale-crews-struggling-to-stay-afloat/ - Tanzania’s boat modernization program aims to empower small-scale fishers with affordable, government-distributed vessels, but has instead left many struggling with unreliable vessels and unsustainable loans. - In Kilwa district, fishers say the boats they received were poorly equipped, costly to operate and prone to mechanical failure, forcing them to rent missing gear and spend more on fuel. - Mounting repayment pressure is driving some fishers toward illegal or risky fishing practices, undermining the project’s goal of promoting sustainability. - Experts warn that poor consultation, mismatched designs and a lack of community input threaten to turn Tanzania’s fisheries modernization plan into a long-term burden rather than a solution. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Southeast Asia’s 2025 marked by fatal floods, fossil fuel expansion and renewed mining boom (December 29, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/southeast-asias-2025-marked-by-fatal-floods-fossil-fuel-expansion-and-renewed-mining-boom/ - 2025 has been a year of global upheaval, and Southeast Asia was no exception, with massive disruption caused by changes in U.S. policy and the intensifying effects of climate change. - The region is poised at a crossroads, with plans to transition away from fossil fuels progressing unevenly, while at the same time a mining boom feeding the global energy transition threatens ecosystems and human health. - On the positive side, deforestation appears to be slowing in much of the region, new species continue to be described by science, and grassroots efforts yield conservation wins. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
A nuclear power plan exposes Kenya’s deeper land rights issues (December 29, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-nuclear-power-plan-exposes-kenyas-deeper-land-rights-issues/ - Across Kenya, millions of people living on community land remain legally vulnerable, as complex, costly and often obstructive processes prevent them from securing collective land titles under the Community Land Act. - Because untitled community land is treated as state property, county governments can lease or allocate it for large infrastructure and commercial projects, creating power imbalances and exposing communities to displacement with little say or legal protection. - In Uyombo, on Kenya’s southern coast, this systemic problem has resurfaced amid plans for the country’s first nuclear power plant, which residents say threaten their land, livelihoods and access to coastal ecosystems, and has proceeded without meaningful consultation. - The lack of formal land ownership also leaves communities uncertain about compensation, reinforcing fears that development projects can override local land rights — a pattern researchers say is rooted in colonial land policies and persists nationwide. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Top 10 Indigenous news stories that marked 2025 (December 29, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/top-10-indigenous-news-stories-that-marked-2025/ - Lack of progress on direct funding for Indigenous land rights, poor representation at climate talks, and intensifying mining pressure were central issues that affected Indigenous peoples in 2025 covered by Mongabay. - Our investigations revealed how communities were persuaded to sign over land rights for shady carbon deals, and how a high-profile operation to clear out illegal miners from Amazonian territories has barely made a dent. - We also covered more hopeful stories, highlighting the communities putting forward their own solutions, including women forest guardians in the Amazon, and micro-hydro development in mountainous Philippine villages unreached by the grid. - To end the year, here are Mongabay’s top 10 stories on Indigenous communities that marked 2025. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Photos: Top new species from 2025 (December 29, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/photos-top-new-species-from-2025/ - Scientists described several new species this past year, including a tiny marsupial, a Himalayan bat, an ancient tree, a giant manta ray, a bright blue butterfly and a fairy lantern, to name a few. - Experts estimate that fewer than 20% of Earth’s species have been documented by Western science, with potentially millions more unknown and unnamed. - Although such species may be new to science, many are already known to — and used by — local and Indigenous peoples, who often have given them traditional names. - Many new species are assessed as threatened with extinction as soon as they are found, highlighting the urgent need for conservation efforts. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
In California’s redwoods, scientists rebuild lost ecosystems high up in the canopy (December 29, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/in-californias-redwoods-scientists-rebuild-lost-ecosystems-high-up-in-the-canopy/ - Roughly 95% of California’s old-growth redwood forests have been logged at least once, leaving mostly young trees and making the overall ecosystem less diverse. - Fern mats — spongy masses of leather-leaf ferns and decomposed plant matter that build up high in the canopy — are an important part of that system, providing critical habitat for plants and animals in California’s redwood forests. - Now, a pilot project is trying to restore fern mats to the canopies of particularly robust redwood trees. - Scientists are finding that manually planting fern mats is also an effective buffer in a warming climate: they mitigate forest temperatures for salmon, birds and a host of other animals. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Amazon fishers help scientists map dam harms to Madeira River stocks (December 29, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/amazon-fishers-help-scientists-map-dam-harms-to-madeira-river-stocks/ - Having fishers as protagonists, a recent study disclosed unanswered details about the Amazon communities and fish species most affected by two Madeira River dams. - The dams limited the natural flow of the Madeira, disrupting the currents that fish need and causing up to a 90% reduction in stocks in some locations; species like pirarucu and tambaqui have largely disappeared from traditional fishing communities. - The research serves as evidence to support the decade-long legal battle by fishers in Humaitá who are seeking compensation for losses caused by power plants. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
George Teariki-Mataki Mateariki, the Birdman of Atiu, has died, aged 67 (December 29, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/george-teariki-mataki-mateariki-the-birdman-of-atiu-has-died-aged-67/ - In small island states, conservation often hinges on daily vigilance rather than formal institutions, where routine tasks like watching harbors and checking traps determine whether endemic species survive invasive threats. Such work is repetitive, underfunded, and easily overlooked, yet decisive. - In the Cook Islands, late-20th-century bird recoveries paired outside science with local enforcement, showing that plans mattered only insofar as they were sustained on the ground at airstrips, wharves, and forest edges. - George Teariki-Mataki Mateariki, known as Birdman George, embodied this approach by monitoring birds, trapping predators, and responding quickly to changes, helping establish Atiu as a refuge for the critically endangered kakerori and later the Rimatara lorikeet. - Through guiding visitors, sharing practical knowledge, and maintaining constant vigilance, he treated conservation as prevention rather than rescue, asking not for admiration but for attention, and making extinction less likely through persistence rather than spectacle. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
SE Asia’s smallholders struggling to meet EUDR: Interview with RECOFTC’s Martin Greijmans (December 29, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/se-asias-smallholders-struggling-to-meet-eudr-interview-with-recoftcs-martin-greijmans/ - The European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is set to take effect at the end of 2026, after EU lawmakers voted to postpone its implementation for a second year. - The legislation aims to reduce commodity-driven deforestation and illegal trade in forest products by enabling companies importing into the EU to trace entire supply chains. - Experts say the increased oversight is a vital step to reduce the footprint of EU consumption on forests, but caution that many smallholders across Southeast Asia need more support to prepare for compliance, especially on land documentation and geolocation data. - Without appropriate technical, financial and governance support, observers warn, the new rules could sideline smallholders or push them into less regulated markets, deepening already existing inequities. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
Fights against development projects marks 2025 for Nepal’s Indigenous people (December 29, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/fights-against-development-projects-marks-2025-for-nepals-indigenous-people/ - From protests to court rulings, for Nepal’s Indigenous peoples and local communities, 2025 was marked by activism and struggles to secure their forests, land and territories from infrastructure projects. - As threats from hydropower, cable cars and mining projects increased, communities lost touch with their forest, lands and sacred connection with nature, which impacted biodiversity conservation. - However, communities pushed legal action against these projects that operated without FPIC, community consultation, environmental regulation and safeguards. | |
| Check Twitter | |
|
From ‘extinct’ to growing, a rare snail returns to the wild in Australia (December 29, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/from-extinct-to-growing-a-rare-snail-returns-to-the-wild-in-australia/ Rarely do species presumed extinct reappear with renewed hope for a better future. But researchers in Australia not only discovered a wild population of Campbell’s keeled glass-snail on Australia’s Norfolk Island in 2020 — they’ve now bred the snail in captivity and recently released more than 300 individuals back into the wild, where they’re multiplying. […] | |
| Check Twitter | |