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15 forces that could reshape conservation in the next 10 years (December 28, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/15-forces-that-could-reshape-conservation-in-the-next-10-years/ - A recent horizon scan led by William J. Sutherland shifts conservation thinking away from visible damage toward emerging developments that could shape biodiversity outcomes over the next decade, even if they have not yet hardened into crises. - The fifteen issues identified span technology, climate, biology, and finance, with a particular emphasis on computational advances that could expand monitoring and modeling while also narrowing what can later be revisited or challenged. - Alongside technological change, the scan highlights physical, institutional, and biophysical pressures, from drone-related plastic pollution and new forest finance mechanisms to drying soils, darkening oceans, and abrupt shifts in the Southern Ocean. - The authors also situate these risks against two background constraints already underway—eroding environmental data systems and tightening conservation finance—and, looking back ten years, argue that the value of horizon scanning lies less in prediction than in improving preparedness before change becomes costly. | |
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Brigitte Bardot, who turned fame into a lifelong fight for animals (December 28, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/brigitte-bardot-who-turned-fame-into-a-lifelong-fight-for-animals/ - In a period when animal protection was often dismissed in public debate as sentimental or marginal, Brigitte Bardot used the force of her celebrity to insist that cruelty toward animals, especially wildlife, was a serious moral and political issue. - She redirected her fame toward sustained campaigns against practices such as the commercial seal hunt, whaling, fur trapping, and bullfighting, arguing bluntly that wild animals were among the most defenseless victims of modern economic systems. - By formalizing her activism through the Fondation Brigitte Bardot and maintaining an uncompromising public stance long after leaving cinema, she treated wildlife protection not as a gesture or phase, but as a permanent measure of society’s restraint. - Bardot died on December 28, 2025 in Saint-Tropez, France. She was 91. | |
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A ‘national pride’ highway meets Indigenous resistance in ancient Nepali settlements (December 28, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-national-pride-highway-meets-indigenous-resistance-in-ancient-nepali-town/ - Nepal’s Indigenous Newa communities in Khokana and Bungamati are resisting the Kathmandu–Terai Fast Track expressway, which would cut through their ancestral lands, threatening livelihoods, settlements and cultural identity rooted in centuries-old traditions. - The government promotes the highway as a “national pride” project to boost connectivity and economic growth, but locals say it was pushed forward without meaningful consultation and dismisses Indigenous rights and heritage. - Resistance is fueled not only by the highway but by fears that it will trigger a cascade of additional infrastructure projects, including an outer ring road, Bagmati Corridor road expansion, transmission lines, a railway line, and a planned satellite city. - Community members stress their fight is not about compensation but survival, arguing that money cannot replace their land, culture and civilization, and warning that the expressway would permanently erase their Indigenous way of life. | |
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Clark Lungren and the case for compromise in conservation (December 28, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/clark-lungren-and-the-case-for-compromise-in-conservation/ - Clark Lungren spent most of his life in Burkina Faso, where he worked on conservation not as an external intervention but as a local, becoming a naturalized citizen and embedding himself in village life. His authority came less from formal credentials than from long familiarity with people and place. - He was best known for his role in the recovery of the Nazinga area, where wildlife rebounded after communities were granted controlled hunting rights in exchange for protection. The arrangement, initially dismissed by many experts, proved durable. - Lungren argued consistently that conservation would only last if it aligned with local governance and incentives, a view reflected in community-managed hunting zones and buffer areas around protected lands. He favored workable compromises over strict orthodoxy. - Active well into his seventies, he continued training, research, and advocacy through a demonstration farm near Ouagadougou. The systems he helped build persisted in a region where many conservation efforts were short-lived. | |
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Joann Andrews, a patient force behind Yucatán’s protected landscapes (December 27, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/joann-andrews-a-patient-force-behind-yucatans-protected-landscapes/ - Joann Andrews helped professionalize conservation on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, treating it less as romance than as practical work: building institutions, securing funding, and negotiating the political and social realities of protecting land. She died on December 22, 2025, in Mérida at 96. - After arriving in Yucatán in 1964 and losing her husband to cancer in 1971, she chose to remain in Mexico with six children, a decision that tied her future to the region’s environmental fate. Her background in political science, international economics, and a decade in the U.S. diplomatic service shaped a style that was disciplined and unsentimental. - She began with logistics for archaeological research but became a serious orchid student, contributing to early documentation of Yucatán’s orchid diversity and publishing on the subject; an orchid species, Lophiaris andrewsiae, was named in her honor. Her scientific curiosity later broadened into full-time environmental work. - In 1987 she co-founded Pronatura Península de Yucatán, which became a leading conservation organization in the region, and she helped launch the Toh Bird Festival to broaden support for nature protection. She emphasized youth engagement and warned that conservation would always require persuading people and managing development pressure, not just celebrating nature. | |
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Sri Lanka looks to build disaster-resilient housing after devastating cyclone (December 27, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/sri-lanka-looks-to-build-disaster-resilient-housing-after-devastating-cyclone/ - More than 1,200 landslides were recorded in two provinces in Sri Lanka following Cyclone Ditwah in late November, resulting in crisis evacuations to safeguard vulnerable populations. - Most of the disaster-impacted people continue to live in high-risk regions due to the lack of alternative housing. - The country’s mandated institution for landslide risk management, the National Building and Research Organisation (NBRO), says it’s working on the first national building code to establish minimum standards for the design, construction and maintenance of hazard-resilient housing. - Following the significant loss of lives and homes in the recent disaster, the NBRO is also introducing specific types of housing models suitable for flat and sloped terrains. | |
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Jay M. Savage, witness to disappearing frogs and builder of tropical science (December 27, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/jay-m-savage-witness-to-disappearing-frogs-and-builder-of-tropical-science/ - In the late 1980s, Jay M. Savage was among the first to recognize that amphibian declines in protected cloud forests were not isolated anomalies but part of a broader, global pattern that defied familiar explanations. - His long career combined meticulous field science with institutional foresight, including foundational work in Central American herpetology and a central role in building the Organization for Tropical Studies as a durable base for tropical research and training. - Savage treated institution-building and mentorship as integral to science itself, quietly supporting generations of students while insisting on continuity, rigor, and collaboration over spectacle or quick results. - He approached extinction not as tragedy alone but as evidence with consequences, attentive to what disappears as much as what remains, and to the slow signals detected by those who return often enough to notice absence. | |
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Year-end ‘good news’ as flat-headed cats reappear in Thailand after 29-year absence (December 26, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/year-end-good-news-as-flat-headed-cats-reappear-in-thailand-after-29-year-absence/ - Camera traps in Thailand’s Princess Sirindhorn Wildlife Sanctuary picked up 13 flat-headed cat records in 2024 and 16 more earlier this year. - The last confirmed sighting of the species in Thailand was in 1995; across its range, which includes Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra, about 2,500 flat-headed cats are thought to survive. - Elusive, nocturnal and semiaquatic, flat-headed cats are notoriously difficult to study, but conservationists say they hope their rediscovery in Thailand will galvanize interest in the species. - Conservationists also call for increased protection of the peat swamp forest where the population has been found, noting the risk of trafficking that might accompany the announcement of the rediscovery. | |
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Kristina Gjerde, defender of the deep ocean, has died (December 26, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/kristina-maria-gjerde/ - Much of the global ocean lies beyond national borders, where governance long lagged behind industrial expansion and responsibility thinned with distance from shore. - Kristina Maria Gjerde helped reframe that problem as one of law and institutions, combining science, legal craft, and persistence to make protection of the high seas politically workable. - Over two decades, she built and sustained coalitions that turned scattered warnings about deep-sea damage into a binding international framework. - That effort culminated in the 2023 High Seas Treaty, an agreement whose force lies less in sudden ambition than in the accumulation of careful, patient work. | |
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The year in rainforests 2025: Deforestation fell; the risks did not (December 26, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-year-in-rainforests-2025-deforestation-fell-the-risks-did-not/ - This analysis explores key storylines, examining the political, environmental, and economic dynamics shaping tropical rainforests in 2025, with attention to how policy, markets, and climate stress increasingly interact rather than operate in isolation. - Across major forest regions, deforestation slowed in some places but degradation, fire, conflict, and legacy damage continued to erode forest health, often in ways that standard metrics fail to capture. - Global responses remained uneven: conservation finance shifted toward fiscal and market-based tools, climate diplomacy deferred hard decisions, and enforcement outcomes depended heavily on institutional capacity and credibility rather than formal commitments alone. - Taken together, the year showed that forest outcomes now hinge less on single interventions than on whether governments and institutions can sustain continuity—of funding, governance, science, and oversight—under mounting environmental and political strain. | |
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Africa mulls gap in climate adaptation finance for agriculture (December 26, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/africa-mulls-gap-in-climate-adaptation-finance-for-agriculture/ - Agricultural adaptation in Africa is underfunded and smallholder farmers remain highly vulnerable to climate shocks despite in international funding pledges, say African stakeholders. - They call for increased adaptation funding for the agricultural sector, but are skeptical that other countries will fill the shortfall. - Climate finance is concentrated in a few countries and largely excludes the most vulnerable nations, leaving farmers with limited access to funds for climate-smart practices. - Stakeholders call for public financing, better early-warning systems, loss-and-damage support, and the implementation of climate-smart agriculture. | |
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Record fossil fuel emissions in 2025 despite renewables buildout, report says (December 26, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/record-fossil-fuel-emissions-in-2025-despite-renewables-buildout-report-says/ Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion are projected to reach a record 38.1 billion metric tons in 2025, an increase of 1.1% from 2024, according to the 2025 Global Carbon Budget. The report, now in its 20th edition, was released Nov. 13 as a preprint. It compiles national energy and emissions data from […] | |
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Declared extinct in 2025: A look back at some of the species we lost (December 26, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/declared-extinct-in-2025-a-look-back-at-some-of-the-species-weve-lost/ Some species officially bid us farewell this year. They may have long been gone, but following more recent assessments, they’re now formally categorized as extinct on the IUCN Red List, considered the global authority on species’ conservation status. We may never see another individual of these species ever again. Or will we? Slender-billed curlew This […] | |
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‘The bargain of the century’: An economist’s vision for expanding clean energy access in Africa (December 26, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-bargain-of-the-century-an-economists-vision-for-expanding-clean-energy-access-in-africa/ - The recent U.N. climate conference (COP30) in Brazil resulted in the Belém Action Mechanism (BAM) to bring about a just energy transition that embraces renewable energy and expands access to power. - But details on how the transition will be accomplished remain elusive. - Economist Fadhel Kaboub contends that the transition should not reinforce existing inequalities in Africa and other parts of the Global South. - Kaboub sees an opportunity in the energy transition to remedy those power imbalances, which he calls “the bargain of the century.” | |
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Stuart Brooks, peat protector, has died (December 26, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/stuart-brooks-conservationist-of-unfashionable-landscapes/ - Stuart Brooks was part of a small group of conservationists who helped shift peatlands from the margins of environmental policy to a recognized priority for climate, biodiversity, and land management. His influence came through persistence rather than spectacle. - Trained as a geographer, he built practical expertise in peatland ecology early in his career and helped consolidate it into guidance that became standard for restoration work in the UK and beyond. - In senior roles at the Scottish Wildlife Trust, the John Muir Trust, and the National Trust for Scotland, he worked to align conservation practice with public policy, often arguing for approaches that respected natural processes over intervention. - As a founder and chair of the IUCN UK Peatland Program, he translated specialist knowledge into institutions, strategies, and protections that continue to shape peatland restoration at national and international levels. | |
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Conservation wins in 2025 that pushed us closer to the 30×30 goal (December 26, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/conservation-wins-in-2025-that-pushed-us-closer-to-the-30x30-goal/ The “30 by 30” biodiversity target to protect 30% of the Earth’s land and ocean by 2030 is fast approaching — and the world is far off the pace needed for success: Less than 10% of oceans and just 17.6% of land and inland waters enjoy some sort of protection. Still, 2025 saw some […] | |
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10 notable books on conservation and the environment published in 2025 (December 25, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/10-notable-books-on-conservation-and-the-environment-published-in-2025/ - As challenging as 2025 has been for conservation and environmental issues, the dogged struggle to address the crises we face remains a central focus for scientists, activists and communities around the globe. - Their stories hold the promise of a brighter future in the years to come. - The list below features a sample of important literature on conservation and the environment published this year. - Inclusion in this list does not imply Mongabay’s endorsement of a book’s content; the views in the books are those of the authors and not necessarily of Mongabay. | |
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Tell Hicks, reptile artist (December 25, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/tell-hicks-reptile-artist/ - Tell Hicks helped bring reptiles and amphibians into serious artistic view, treating snakes, lizards, and turtles as subjects worthy of close, unsentimental attention rather than symbols or curiosities. His paintings emphasized accuracy, individuality, and restraint. - Largely self-taught, he traveled widely and worked directly from field observation, developing meticulous techniques in egg tempera and later fast-drying oils to support highly detailed work, often produced in public settings. - He became a central figure in herpetological communities in Britain and the United States, helping found the International Herpetological Society, serving as its president, and contributing artwork that circulated through museums, shows, and educational spaces. - After a life-altering accident left him paralyzed, he adapted his practice and returned to painting, continuing to attend reptile shows and engage with the community that had long formed around his work. | |
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France’s largest rewilding project (December 25, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/frances-largest-rewilding-project/ Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. He has spent much of his life in the shadow of the Dauphiné Alps in southeastern France, where limestone cliffs catch the morning light and the silhouettes of horned ibex move across the ridgelines. To Fabien Quétier, who […] | |
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Environmentalist hugs tree for 72 hours for Kenya’s native forests (December 25, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/environmentalist-hugs-tree-for-72-hours-for-kenyas-native-forests/ A Kenyan environmentalist hugged a palm tree for 72 straight hours in Nyeri county to draw attention to the rapid loss of the country’s native forests, many of which face extinction. Truphena Muthoni’s feat, reported by Mongabay contributing editor Lynet Otieno, is in the process of being considered for a new Guinness World Record. It […] | |
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Top ocean news stories of 2025 (commentary) (December 24, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/top-ocean-news-stories-of-2025-commentary/ - Marking the midway point in the U.N. Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, 2025 was a key year for the ocean. - The past 12 months brought landslide multilateral wins for ocean policy, unprecedented ocean financial commitments, and increasing momentum to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030. - Here, marine scientists, policy experts and a communications expert lay out the key ocean stories from the past year. - This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay. | |
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Cyclone Ditwah exposes climate risks to nature-based tourism in Sri Lanka (December 24, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/cyclone-ditwah-exposes-climate-risks-to-nature-based-tourism-in-sri-lanka/ - In late November, Cyclone Ditwah triggered landslides and flooding across Sri Lanka’s biodiversity-rich hill country, disrupting nature-based tourism during the peak travel season. - UNESCO World Heritage sites, including the Knuckles Conservation Forest, Horton Plains and Peak Wilderness, faced trail closures, access restrictions and infrastructure damage. - Popular destinations faced cancellations and closures, hitting local families who depend on tourism for their livelihoods, though they remain hopeful of a swift recovery. - Experts warn that reopening of these sites should not be unnecessarily rushed, emphasizing safety, environmental protection and long-term sustainability to preserve both livelihoods and biodiversity. | |
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New pitcher plant found in the Philippines may already be critically endangered (December 24, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/new-pitcher-plant-found-in-the-philippines-may-already-be-critically-endangered/ Researchers have described a new-to-science species of carnivorous plant that’s known from only three locations on the Philippines’ Palawan Island. The newly described pitcher plant, which grows on very difficult-to-access vertical limestone walls, may already be critically endangered given its extremely restricted range and tiny population, the researchers say in a recent study. Nepenthes is […] | |
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William Bond, grasslands researcher who reminded conservation that context matters, has died (December 24, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/william-bond-grasslands-researcher-who-reminded-conservation-that-context-matters-has-died/ - William Bond spent his career challenging the assumption that forests are nature’s default state, arguing that grasslands and savannas are ancient ecosystems shaped by fire, grazing, and long evolutionary history. - As enthusiasm for mass tree planting grew, he became a leading critic of blanket afforestation, warning that well-intentioned climate policies could damage biodiversity, water systems, and carbon stores when applied without context. - His research emphasized scale and evidence, showing that trees do not universally increase rainfall, replenish rivers, or solve climate change, and that soils and open landscapes often matter more than slogans suggest. - By insisting that conservation begin with understanding how landscapes actually function, he forced policymakers and scientists alike to slow down, look closer, and accept that complexity is not an obstacle but a necessity. | |
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Cape Town’s new plan for baboons: Fence, capture and possibly euthanize (December 24, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/cape-towns-new-plan-for-baboons-fence-capture-and-possibly-euthanize/ Authorities in Cape Town, South Africa, have released an updated baboon action plan aimed at reducing conflict between people and baboons, which regularly enter urban areas in search of food. The plan, which includes euthanasia of some baboons, has drawn criticism from animal welfare groups. The plan says the population of chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) […] | |
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2025: A year of consequence for Mongabay’s journalism (December 24, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/2025-a-year-of-consequence-for-mongabays-journalism/ - In a year marked by public fatigue, political polarization, and pressure on democratic institutions and press freedom, Mongabay operated in an information environment where attention was scarce but decisions with lasting consequences were still being made, often quietly and locally. - 2025 also brought significant loss, including the deaths of East Africa editor Ochieng Ogodo and Advisory Council member Jane Goodall, alongside many other environmental defenders; Mongabay honored these lives through dozens of tributes aimed at making their work visible and carrying it forward through solutions-focused reporting. - Mongabay published more than 7,300 stories across eight languages, expanded into Swahili and Bengali, reached an expected 110 million unique visitors, grew its team to 130 people, and earned international recognition that reinforced the credibility and practical value of its journalism. - Across regions, Mongabay’s reporting directly shaped policy, enforcement, markets, and science—from hunting bans and mining reforms to financial blacklisting and new conservation priorities—and the organization enters 2026 focused on deepening impact through fellowships, expanded coverage, multilingual short news, and the launch of its Story Transformer tool. | |
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The top 10 most listened-to podcasts of 2025 from Mongabay (December 23, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-top-10-most-listened-to-podcasts-of-2025-from-mongabay/ - Another year has come and gone on Mongabay’s flagship podcast with over 40 episodes added to the catalogue. - The following are the top 10 interviews people listened to the most. - This chronological list includes professors, authors, Mongabay staffers, conservationists, and advocates detailing investigations, research, advocacy philosophy, examining the existential and environmental threats humanity faces. - The editorial team agrees with the audience: if you want to hear some of the best conversations from 2025, start here. | |
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How ‘Adventure Scientists’ provide pioneering data for conservation (December 23, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2025/12/how-adventure-scientists-provide-pioneering-data-for-conservation/ Gregg Treinish didn’t start out as an outdoor enthusiast, but found solace and purpose in nature during his youth. After years of enjoying the outdoors, he was left feeling a need to give something back to the world. He found fulfillment by using his passion for outdoor adventures to gather critical data that researchers need […] | |
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Huge ‘blue carbon’ offsetting project takes root in the mangroves of Sierra Leone (December 23, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/huge-blue-carbon-offsetting-project-takes-root-in-the-mangroves-of-sierra-leone/ - In October, a wholly owned subsidiary of West Africa Blue, a Mauritius-based company, signed a “blue carbon” offsetting deal with the 124 communities on the island of Sherbro in Sierre Leone. - The agreement will reward the communities financially for conserving and restoring their mangroves, which act as a carbon sink. - The funds will be generated by selling offsets on the voluntary carbon credit market, with revenues shared between West Africa Blue, the communities and the government of Sierra Leone. - Though carbon offsetting projects have been subject to criticism in the past, community members on Sherbro say they’re optimistic about the improvements to their livelihoods that the project could bring. | |
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Joanna Macy, author and teacher who turned despair into connection and agency (December 23, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/joanna-macy-author-and-teacher-who-turned-despair-into-connection-and-agency/ - Joanna Macy — who died on July 19, 2025 at the age of 96 — argued that despair in the face of ecological and nuclear threat was not a weakness but a sign of care, and that refusing to feel it led to paralysis rather than protection. She encouraged people to stay present to what was being lost instead of numbing themselves. - Drawing on Buddhism, systems theory, and deep ecology, Joanna Macy helped people see themselves not as observers of crisis but as participants within a larger living system. This shift in perspective was central to how she understood responsibility and action. - Through what became known as the Work That Reconnects, Joanna Macy developed group practices that allowed grief, fear, and anger to be named collectively and transformed into resolve. The emphasis was less on solutions than on restoring a sense of connection and agency. - As climate change replaced nuclear war as the dominant existential threat, Joanna Macy’s work remained focused on attention rather than reassurance. She insisted that hope was a practice grounded in relationship, not optimism about outcomes. | |
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Agroforestry grows in popularity among central Colombia’s coffee farmers (analysis) (December 23, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/agroforestry-grows-in-popularity-among-central-colombias-coffee-farmers-analysis/ - As the world’s third-largest coffee producer and a nation that has been growing the popular Arabica variety since 1870, there’s not much that Colombia doesn’t know about growing the crop. - In some areas of the country, though, growing coffee via diverse agroforestry systems is now gaining popularity, thanks to its sustainability and benefits for local biodiversity. - However, a new analysis also shares that in some areas, there still exists a low level of technical understanding among small-scale growers as to how to grow coffee well while reducing pests and diseases with agroecological methods. - This post is an analysis. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. | |
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As Cyclone Ditwah battered land, Sri Lanka’s oceans absorbed a silent shock (December 23, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/as-cyclone-ditwah-battered-land-sri-lankas-oceans-absorbed-a-silent-shock/ - Following the tropical Cyclone Ditwah, unusual sea-foam appeared along parts of Sri Lanka’s northern coast, a natural phenomenon caused by storm-driven turbulence and organic compounds released by plankton, not marine pollution, scientists say. - Extreme rainfall from Ditwah released an extraordinary volume of freshwater into the ocean, and researchers estimate that nearly 10% of Sri Lanka’s average annual rainfall was received in a single day and rapidly drained to sea through the island’s river network. - Flood-driven sediments and sudden changes in salinity may stress coral reefs and coastal ecosystems, but Sri Lanka lacks systematic sediment monitoring at river mouths, leaving scientists with limited data on downstream impacts. - The floods also swept plastics, debris and nutrients into coastal waters, potentially intensifying plankton blooms and fish aggregations while increasing the risk of algal blooms, oxygen depletion and long-term marine pollution. | |
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Tropical forests in Australia are emitting more carbon than they capture: Study (December 23, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/tropical-forests-in-australia-are-emitting-more-carbon-than-they-capture-study/ - A newly published study reveals that moist tropical forests in Australia are now a net carbon emitter, making this the first documented case of tropical forest woody biomass making the flip from sink to source. - Researchers analyzed nearly five decades of data and found that around the year 2000, these forests stopped absorbing more carbon than they emitted and went into a reversal. - They identified tree deaths as the core problem, showing that these doubled compared to earlier decades, with new growth unable to keep pace. - Climate change and cyclones are to blame, as rainforest species evolved for warm, wet conditions, but are now facing temperature extremes and extended droughts that damage their tissues and stunt growth. | |
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Photos: Tourism ambitions clash with local livelihoods on Indonesia’s Lombok Island (December 23, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/photos-tourism-ambitions-clash-with-local-livelihoods-on-indonesias-lombok-island/ - Residents of Tanjung Aan Beach on the Indonesian island of Lombok say they were evicted with little notice or compensation as the Mandalika tourism project advances, leaving many without livelihoods or alternatives. - The government-controlled developer has defended its process, citing compensation paid in a different land zone, but locals say support didn’t reach the coastal community now being cleared. - Perspectives diverge sharply: locals describe loss, fear and declining income, while some foreigners and investors argue the development is legal, overdue and ultimately beneficial. - Younger Lombok residents highlight deeper systemic issues — weak regulation, rising costs and limited opportunities — saying tourism growth increasingly serves visitors, not locals. | |
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Mongabay shark meat investigation wins national journalism award in Brazil (December 23, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/mongabay-shark-meat-investigation-wins-national-journalism-award-in-brazil/ - A Mongabay investigation that revealed Brazilian state-run institutions bulk-buying shark meat for public schools, hospitals and prisons won second place in the ARI/Banrisul Journalism Award, one of Brazil’s most prestigious journalism prizes. - In collaboration with the Pulitzer Center, Mongabay revealed how authorities had issued 1,012 public tenders since 2004 for the procurement of more than 5,400 metric tons of shark meat, raising environmental and public health concerns. - In a statement, the Rio Grande do Sul Press Association (ARI) said the award “recognized the talents” in professional and university categories amid a record number of entries, up 40% from the 2024 edition. - Following the revelations, the investigation sparked several impacts, from a call for a public hearing in Brazil’s lower house of Congress, a citation in a lawsuit to ban shark meat from federal procurements, to an industry debate questioning the harms of shark meat consumption. | |
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Mekong sand mining risks collapse of SE Asia’s largest freshwater lake, study finds (December 23, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/mekong-sand-mining-risks-collapse-of-se-asias-largest-freshwater-lake-study-finds/ - Surging demand for sand used in construction projects poses an existential threat to Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake, new research indicates. - The seasonal expansion and contraction of Cambodia’s Tonle Sap Lake is often referred to as the Mekong River’s “heartbeat” due to its fundamental role in sustaining ecosystems and human lives across the region. - Sand mining in the Mekong River, particularly in Cambodia and Vietnam, has deepened the river channel, effectively halving wet season flows into Tonle Sap Lake between 1998 and 2018, the study found. - The stark findings underscore the severity of sand mining impacts, adding urgency to calls for improved and coordinated river governance throughout the Mekong Basin. | |
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New miniature bright-orange toadlet found in southern Brazil and named after Lula (December 23, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/new-miniature-bright-orange-toadlet-found-in-southern-brazil-and-named-after-lula/ In a small stretch of the Atlantic Forest in southern Brazil lives a bright-orange species of frog that’s new to science, researchers report in a recent study. The miniature amphibian measures just over a centimeter long, less than half an inch, or the length of an average fingernail. The team has named the toadlet Brachycephalus […] | |
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Neddy Mulimo treated ranger welfare as conservation (December 23, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/neddy-mulimo-treated-ranger-welfare-as-conservation/ - Neddy Mulimo argued that ranger welfare was not charity but strategy, insisting that effective conservation depends on whether rangers have water, shelter, training, and institutional backing to make sound decisions under pressure. - His own path into conservation began far from the bush, shaped by education, mentorship, and early encounters with risk, including a near-fatal buffalo attack that nearly drove him out of the profession. - Over four decades, he rose from driver and educator to anti-poaching leader and mentor, helping build specialist units while remaining focused on the people doing the work, until his death in April 2025 after a battle with cancer. | |
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Grassroots forest protection succeeds where planting drives fail in Nepal (December 23, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/grassroots-forest-protection-succeeds-where-planting-drives-fail-in-nepal/ - Cases from Nepal suggest that degraded land can regenerate naturally when locals enforce rules such as banning open livestock grazing, restricting access, fining illegal logging and organizing patrols, without the need for costly tree-planting drives. - Native species return within a few years after the land is protected, showing that fertile soil, existing seed banks and wildlife presence can restore forests naturally. - Researchers and community leaders say Nepal should prioritize long-term, community-led forest protection and natural regeneration, which are more effective, sustainable and lower-cost than coordinated tree planting. | |
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Will Australia’s main environment law continue marginalizing Indigenous authority, despite overhaul? (commentary) (December 22, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/will-australias-main-environment-law-continue-marginalizing-indigenous-authority-despite-overhaul-commentary/ - Australia’s main environmental law, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), was recently updated. - The EPBC overhaul is a major shift in environmental standards, which also appoints a new independent environment watchdog and other changes, but one of the most urgent failures of the old policy remains unresolved: the marginalization of Indigenous input and authority. - The real test in the updated EPBC lies in how it’s implemented, a new op-ed argues: “If governments continue treating First Nations as consultees rather than partners, the new laws will inherit the same weaknesses that allowed deforestation, cultural loss and biodiversity decline under the old regime.” - This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay. | |
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Taboo against harming strangler fig spirits protects forests in Indonesian Borneo (December 22, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/taboo-against-harming-strangler-fig-spirits-protects-forests-in-indonesian-borneo/ - The Iban community in West Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo, says it believes large strangler fig trees are inhabited by dangerous spirits, leading community members to protect these trees from harm wherever they occur. - When clearing land for farming, the community protects the fig tree as well as islands of vegetation around the tree, which together account for 1-2% of their farmland dedicated to protecting the strangler figs. - Research published in Biotropica found that strangler figs are equally or more abundant in the community’s farmland compared with old-growth, with 25 species identified across the landscape. - These protected fig trees and surrounding vegetation serve as crucial refuges and stepping stones for wildlife, demonstrating how traditional spiritual beliefs can have measurable biodiversity benefits that could be replicated elsewhere. | |
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The rise of CC35 and the business behind its climate deals (December 22, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/carbon-and-charisma-how-climate-network-cc35-tricked-its-way-to-the-limelight/ - The executive secretary of CC35, a climate network of capital cities in the Americas, used annual climate summits and other events to advance private interests in carbon credit businesses, a Mongabay investigation has found. - His plan included persuading a provincial government in Argentina to sign a multimillion-dollar carbon contract with an associate facing fraud allegations in a parallel carbon business. According to a recent Mongabay investigation, the associate had pressured Indigenous communities in Brazil and Bolivia to sign abusive carbon deals, conceding rights for an area larger than Ireland. - The head of CC35, Argentinian Sebastián Navarro, also failed to fulfill CC35’s commitment to cover all costs associated with Ecuador’s pavilion at COP28, after making false claims to the government and creating debts for the country. | |
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Daniel Ole Sambu, who helped lions and people coexist, died at age 51 (December 22, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/daniel-ole-sambu-who-helped-lions-and-people-coexist-died-at-age-51/ In the rangelands beneath Kilimanjaro, coexistence between people and wildlife has never been a simple matter. Livestock wander into the paths of lions. Farmers lose cattle they can scarcely afford to lose. Retaliation follows, and with it the slow unraveling of ecosystems that depend on predators to stay whole. Local conservation groups have long understood […] | |
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BRICS+ offers Indigenous & local communities ways to advance environmental and social goals (analysis) (December 22, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/brics-offers-indigenous-local-communities-ways-to-advance-environmental-and-social-goals-analysis/ - As the world grapples with climate change, biodiversity loss and resource scarcity, Indigenous and local communities remain at the forefront of conservation, yet are often sidelined in terms of global environmental governance. - However, as the geopolitical landscape shifts, new opportunities are emerging for these communities to assert their influence: one alternative is the BRICS+ alliance, a coalition of 10 nations that has increasingly positioned itself as a counterbalance to Western-dominated global governance structures. - BRICS+ “offers unique opportunities for reimagining Indigenous inclusion through their emphasis on multipolarity, South-South cooperation, and alternative development paradigms that could, if strategically leveraged, provide space for Indigenous voices to shape governance from within,” and therefore bring environmental and social goals forward, a new analysis argues. - This article is an analysis. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay. | |
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Can anyone save the Sumatran rhino? (December 22, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/specials/2025/12/can-anyone-save-the-sumatran-rhino/ Long considered elusive and endangered, the Sumatran rhino is now estimated to have fewer than 50 individuals left in Indonesia’s fragmented forests. In 1984, conservationists captured 40 animals for a global captive-breeding program to stall an extinction that seemed imminent. Decades later, the effort stands as a case study on hope, loss and scientific persistence. […] | |
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Project sees long-term success restoring forests in the high Andes: Study (December 22, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/project-sees-long-term-success-restoring-forests-in-the-high-andes-study/ - The Polylepis forests of Peru are some of the highest high-altitude forests in the world, playing an essential role in the water cycle. - Over the past few decades, various restoration projects have worked to restore Polylepis forests across their former range. - In 2022, researchers revisited a restoration project in Aquia, Peru, to understand what factors contributed to its success. The study concludes that stakeholder participation and formal conservation agreements helped the project succeed. - Over the past four years, initiatives by ECOAN and Accion Andina have built on previous success. | |
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Century-old corals reveal the Pacific Northwest is acidifying faster than expected (December 22, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/century-old-corals-reveal-the-pacific-northwest-is-acidifying-faster-than-expected/ - When compared with historical samples, corals show that the Salish Sea and California Current System are acidifying faster than anticipated because of greenhouse gas emissions. Models indicate that at this rate, carbon dioxide levels in the oceans will continue rising faster than concentrations in the atmosphere. - Increasingly acidic seas pose growing risks to sensitive marine life, from clams and oysters to any organism with a spine, as well as economically important fisheries and the communities that depend on them. - British marine ecologist Stephen Widdicombe calls the threat existential. Our continued failure to cut emissions can only lead to “a world where uncontrolled climate change including ocean acidification leaves us with an ocean that is less productive, less diverse and less able to provide humans with the wealth of services that we currently all benefit from,” he said. | |
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Sámi reindeer herders protest EU-backed graphite mine, fearing lost grazing ground (December 22, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/sami-reindeer-herders-protest-eu-backed-graphite-mine-fearing-lost-grazing-ground/ - Sweden has approved the EU-backed Nunasvaara South graphite mine by Australia-based battery anode and graphite company Talga Group on land Sámi reindeer herders use for winter grazing. - The mining company told Mongabay it has designed the mine area to limit the impact on nature and it plans to shut down operations for six months of the year to allow reindeer to graze on their winter grounds. - But Sámi residents, who depend on herding, told Mongabay they fear their reindeer will be displaced because their winter grazing grounds will be destroyed, and they criticize the company’s environmental safeguards. - They also said the mine’s inclusion as a strategic project under the EU Critical Raw Minerals Act has allowed it to be fast-tracked without essential environmental safeguards and that the company has made little attempt to meaningfully communicate with affected communities. | |
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The Amazon in 2026: A challenging year ahead, now off the center stage (December 22, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-amazon-in-2026-a-challenging-year-ahead-now-off-the-center-stage/ - As Belém’s COP30 ended in compromise, political forces moved swiftly to accelerate destruction far from the global spotlight. - New infrastructure projects, critical minerals, fires and novel threats to the Amazon remain looming for 2026 after a year in the spotlight preparing for COP30. - In 2025, the rainforest saw illegal miners finding new smuggling routes and an increasing backlog of families waiting for settlement in Brazil. - As carbon credit schemes and violence against environmental defenders continue to loom, products made from Amazon raw materials renew hope for the value of a standing forest. | |
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Ethiopian youth groups restore Rift valley lake & livelihoods (December 22, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/ethiopian-youth-groups-restore-rift-valley-lake-livelihoods/ - Youth groups are restoring the ecosystem in and around Ethiopia’s Abijata-Shalla National Park, once covered with acacia woodlands but stripped bare in recent years as water has been lost to irrigation and a soda-ash factory. - Spanning 887 square kilometers, the park is a vital refuge for biodiversity, hosting migratory birds and a range of species, making it one of the region’s most important wildlife strongholds. - Wetlands International staff have trained local youth and community members in sustainable land management, teaching them how to identify and correct unsustainable practices such as overgrazing, deforestation and farming on steep slopes. - The work relies heavily on consultations with local communities, ensuring solutions align with community needs. | |
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Mongabay contributor Glòria Pallarès wins top anti-corruption reporting award (December 22, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/mongabay-contributor-gloria-pallares-wins-top-anti-corruption-reporting-award/ Journalist Glòria Pallarès won the Anti-Corruption Excellence (ACE) Award for her investigation into corrupt forest finance schemes published in collaboration with Mongabay. The award ceremony was held in Doha, Qatar, on Dec. 16. The investigation, published in January 2024, exposed a scheme in which companies registered in Peru, Bolivia and Panama were using false claims […] | |
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The first amphibian to halt a hydroelectric dam now takes on the climate crisis (December 22, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-first-amphibian-to-halt-a-hydroelectric-dam-now-takes-on-the-climate-crisis/ - Known in Brazil as the admirable little red-bellied toad, the rare Melanophryniscus admirabilis is endemic to a stretch of the Forqueta River in Rio Grande do Sul state. It made history in 2014 when it halted the construction of a hydroelectric dam that would have destroyed its only habitat. - After the 2024 floods, researchers returned to the area to assess the impacts of the state’s biggest climate catastrophe on its environment. - With just over a thousand individuals in the wild, the species is listed as “critically endangered”; in addition to climate change, the little toad suffers from the advance of monocultures and the threat of wildlife trafficking. | |
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In the Amazon, law enforcement against environmental crime remains controversial (December 22, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/in-the-amazon-law-enforcement-against-environmental-crime-remains-controversial/ - In general terms, the reputation of police forces throughout Latin America lacks legitimacy and public trust. In the case of environmental conflicts, the issue takes on overtones of violence and corruption in areas where the state’s presence is scarce. - In Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, it is almost tacitly understood that the police are, for the most part, colluding with organized crime. Meanwhile, in Brazil, their role as a shock force is excessive and, in rural areas, they may associate with private security forces to carry out evictions. - The Catholic Church began monitoring these types of conflicts in the early 1990s, and since then, disputes have caused the deaths of 773 people. | |
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Bethany “Bee” Smith, researcher who documented a megamouth shark alive, died in a diving accident, aged 24 (December 22, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/bethany-bee-smith-researcher-who-documented-a-megamouth-shark-alive-died-in-a-diving-accident-aged-24/ - Bethany “Bee” Smith was part of a generation of scientists who worked in the field while also explaining their work publicly, narrowing the distance between research and spectacle without denying the risks that came with it. - Trained as a marine biologist, she spent years studying sharks, working with fishing communities and researchers, and focusing on conservation problems where trust and policy mattered as much as data. - After years of preparation and failed attempts, she achieved a rare feat: documenting a live megamouth shark, one of the least understood large animals on Earth, in work focused on evidence rather than thrill. - She died at 24 during a freediving accident in Indonesia while working on a shark conservation project, after reaching a goal that had occupied years of careful effort and preparation. | |
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In Nepal, the world’s smallest otter continues to elude researchers (December 22, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/in-nepal-the-worlds-smallest-otter-continues-to-elude-researchers/ - The Asian small-clawed otter was rediscovered in Nepal in 2024 after 185 years. Since then, however, it’s gone dark again, with no more confirmed sightings. - Identifying the animal remains challenging due to its small size, dietary overlap with other carnivores, and resemblance to common species such as the crab-eating mongoose. - Funding and logistical constraints impede targeted surveys, as conservation priorities in Nepal focus mainly on larger, charismatic species such as tigers and rhinos. - Despite this, conservationists are already planning measures to reduce potential threats to the animal by including it into the national otter conservation action plan. | |
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Environmental defenders & conservationists who died in 2025 (December 22, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/environmental-defenders-conservationists-who-died-in-2025/ - Mongabay’s founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler writes short obituaries—over 70 in 2025—for people who devoted their lives to protecting the natural world, returning to this work consistently alongside my his responsibilities. - The individuals he writes about are less defined by titles than by posture—standing between living systems and the forces eroding them, often for decades, largely unseen, and at real personal cost. - These pieces aim neither to lionize nor to despair, but to clarify—showing how protection happens through sustained, imperfect choices made by ordinary people who kept showing up. | |
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Jeff Foott, chronicler of ice, rock, and change, has died, aged 80 (December 21, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/jeff-foott-chronicler-of-ice-rock-and-change-has-died-aged-80/ - Jeff Foott belonged to a generation of outdoorsmen who moved easily between climbing, science, rescue work, and seasonal labor, guided less by career ambition than by close attention to the natural world. His ethic was shaped early, long before environmental concern became institutionalized. - Trained as a marine biologist, he turned to photography and film as a way to show how wildlife lived and what was at risk, producing more than 40 films and widely published images for outlets such as National Geographic, the BBC, and PBS. - His visual work favored clarity and restraint over spectacle, whether documenting sea otters, alpine ice, or red rock landscapes increasingly altered by a warming climate. He remained attentive to environmental change without turning his work into overt argument. - In his own words, what mattered to him was not climbing but whether people would know that some tried to act on concern for climate, democracy, and the things held in common. He let photographs carry the burden of persuasion. | |
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Statewide survey aims to put California’s fungi on the conservation map (December 20, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/statewide-survey-aims-to-put-californias-fungi-on-the-conservation-map/ - A state-funded survey has sampled and collected fungi species from across California, identifying hundreds of new-to-science species. - It’s part of a statewide effort to protect biodiversity, which has yielded thousands of specimens and is the first of its kind in North America. - Fungi are often neglected compared to the attention given to plants and animals, yet they play an important role in maintaining ecological health by supporting plant growth and storing carbon. - Understanding fungi’s role in nature has implications for conservation and for forest restoration as wildfires grow larger and more frequent. Other researchers in California are working on putting fungi to use cleaning up polluted areas. | |
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A flood of logs post-Cyclone Senyar leaves Padang fishers out of work (December 20, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/a-flood-of-logs-post-cyclone-senyar-leaves-padang-fishers-out-of-work/ - Flash floods in late November swept timber and mud from upstream forests into coastal waters around Padang, blocking access to the sea and cutting off the livelihoods of hundreds of fishers. - Fishers say massive floating logs have damaged boats and halted daily incomes, forcing many families to rely on credit to meet basic needs. - Marine scientists warn that suspended sediment and decaying timber threaten coastal ecosystems by blocking sunlight, disrupting food chains and degrading water quality. - Environmental groups link the disaster to illegal logging and weak forest governance upstream, calling for stronger law enforcement, national disaster status and urgent government action. | |
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Kenyan wildlife census reveals conservation wins and losses (December 19, 2025) https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/kenyan-wildlife-census-reveals-conservation-wins-and-losses/ Kenya’s 2025 National Wildlife Census report has revealed a complex trend in wildlife: Populations of some iconic animal species are steadily growing, while other populations are declining or remain stagnant. At the launch of the report, compiled by the Wildlife Research and Training Institute (WRTI), Kenya’s President William Ruto described the findings as “a mosaic […] | |
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