Turning a stream into a river: Inside India’s Yettinaholé diversion project (October 2, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/turning-a-stream-into-a-river-inside-indias-yettinahole-diversion-project/
- In Karnataka’s Western Ghats, a biodiversity hotspot, a river diversion project is bringing long-term changes to local villages — and the environment.
- The Yettinaholé Integrated Drinking Water Supply Project aims to divert 24 TMC of stormwater from the Yettinahalla and other nearby streams to several dry districts hundreds of kilometers away.
- Village life is also undergoing a series of development changes — as well as an uptick in conflicts with elephants coming from the nearby forests; meanwhile, local fishers wonder how many of the streams they rely on will become part of the diversion project, fearing for the future of their livelihoods.
Indigenous-led protections spark Bali starling’s recovery in the wild (October 2, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-led-protections-spark-bali-starlings-recovery-in-the-wild/
- An Indonesian songbird once nearly extinct in the wild, the Bali starling, is making a comeback through community-led conservation on Nusa Penida and beyond.
- Strict law enforcement and captive breeding failed to reverse the bird’s decline; poaching and habitat loss continued despite decades of formal protections.
- In the early 2000s, conservationists changed tactics, working with communities on Nusa Penida to establish the island as a sanctuary for Bali starlings.
- Villages embraced traditional awig-awig regulations to protect the starling, creating powerful cultural, social and financial deterrents to poaching.
Swiss glaciers shrank 3% this year, the fourth-biggest retreat on record (October 2, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/10/swiss-glaciers-shrank-3-this-year-the-fourth-biggest-retreat-on-record/
GENEVA (AP) — Switzerland’s glaciers have faced “enormous” melting this year with a 3% drop in total volume — the fourth-largest annual drop on record — due to the effects of global warming, top Swiss glaciologists reported Wednesday. The shrinkage this year means that ice mass in Switzerland — home to the most glaciers in […]
There’s far less land available for reforestation than we think, study finds (October 2, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/theres-far-less-land-available-for-reforestation-than-we-think-study-finds/
- In recent years, policymakers have made pledges for huge tree-planting projects a cornerstone for meeting national carbon reduction goals, while doing little to seriously cut fossil fuel emissions. But a new study shows the carbon sequestration estimates made for those forestation projects may be wildly optimistic.
- The new research determined that land found suitable for forestation in past studies — an area about the size of India — shrank by as much as two-thirds when adverse impacts on biodiversity, food security and water resources were taken into account.
- When the new study figured in environmental and social constraints, the potential for existing tree-planting pledges to store a promised 40 gigatons of carbon by 2050, was reduced to just 12.5 gigatons — a significant sum, but far from what’s needed to offset continued fossil fuel use.
- The new study urges policymakers to be more pragmatic in their planting strategies, and prioritize lands best slated for permanent reforestation. Other researchers urge decision-makers to put more effort and money into protecting already existing biodiverse forests, which hold high carbon storage potential.
Amid Venezuela’s illegal gold heist are armed groups, gangs & elites, report says (October 2, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/amid-venezuelas-illegal-gold-heist-are-armed-groups-gangs-elites-report-says/
- A new report by the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition says at least 86% of Venezuela’s gold is produced illegally and is often controlled by military elites, guerrilla groups and transnational gangs.
- Approximately 70% of what is produced, valued at more than $4.4 billion in 2021, is smuggled and laundered internationally through shell companies and opaque supply chains, including to the U.S.
- Illegal gold mining has led to several socioenvironmental impacts in Indigenous communities, such as mercury poisoning, sexual exploitation, forced labor and deforestation.
- The authors of the report propose several policy solutions the U.S. can implement to address the issue, including tightening oversight, closing legal loopholes and restoring enforcement capacity.
Biodiversity is our most sophisticated information network and must be protected (commentary) (October 2, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/biodiversity-is-our-most-sophisticated-information-network-and-must-be-protected-commentary/
- Each species represents a unique library of evolutionary wisdom, encoded in DNA and refined over millions of years.
- In a new commentary prior to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) quadrennial conference this month, IUCN President Razan Al Mubarak argues that biodiversity represents the most ancient and sophisticated information network our planet has ever known.
- “As the world gathers in Abu Dhabi for the IUCN World Conservation Congress, let us safeguard this living network with vigilance, investment and care — ensuring that nature’s silent information exchange endures as our shared inheritance for generations to come,” she writes.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
What Jane Goodall showed me about hope (October 2, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/how-to-carry-jane-goodalls-light-forward/
- Mongabay’s founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler reflects on his 13-year friendship with Jane Goodall, recalling her warmth, humor, and ability to make every interaction—from late-night talks to moments with his children—feel personal and meaningful.
- He highlights her philosophy that hope is not just an emotion but a tool for creating agency, where small victories in conservation ripple outward to show people their actions matter, whether saving a chimpanzee, protecting a wetland, or inspiring a child.
- Jane wanted to be remembered for Roots & Shoots and for teaching that humans are not the only sentient beings; Butler closes by noting her indomitable spirit and urging that her legacy of compassion and hope now falls to others to carry forward.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Just as Raja Ampat fetches UNESCO Biosphere Reserve title, nickel mining looms (October 2, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/just-as-raja-ampat-fetches-unesco-biosphere-reserve-title-nickel-mining-looms/
- On Sept. 27, UNESCO designated 26 new biosphere reserves, including Indonesia’s Raja Ampat, which is also recognized as a UNESCO Global Geopark; the two designations make it one of few places on Earth honored for both geological heritage and biodiversity.
- Yet nickel mining threatens to carve up the region’s forests and coral reefs; a new report finds that nickel concessions in Raja Ampat cover 22,000 hectares, including zones that overlap with coral reefs and marine habitats.
- This raises questions about whether international recognition alone can safeguard Raja Ampat against the growing pressure of nickel extraction, driven by global demand for batteries in electric vehicles and renewable energy storage.
New conservation panel to focus on microorganisms crucial for human and planet health (October 2, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/10/new-conservation-panel-to-focus-on-microorganisms-crucial-for-human-and-planet-health/
The IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, has established a new expert group that will help shape conservation priorities for a previously overlooked but vital group of organisms: microbes. In a recent commentary, the Microbial Conservation Specialist Group (MCSG), formed in July, announced that it will look at the status and threats to various beneficial […]
Jane Goodall (1934–2025): primatologist, conservationist, and messenger of hope (October 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/jane-goodall-1934-2025-primatologist-conservationist-and-messenger-of-hope/
- Jane Goodall, who began her career in 1960 with little formal training, transformed science’s understanding of chimpanzees and in the process reshaped the boundary between humans and animals. Her discoveries at Gombe forced the recognition of animal minds, emotions, and cultures once thought unique to humanity.
- She built on that science with activism: founding the Jane Goodall Institute in 1977, launching community-centered conservation programs across Africa, and creating sanctuaries for orphaned chimps. In 1991 she established Roots & Shoots, which grew into a vast youth movement spanning more than 100 countries.
- Beyond research and institutions, she became a global messenger, traveling up to 300 days a year to speak with audiences ranging from heads of state to schoolchildren planting trees. She insisted that empathy and objectivity could coexist and called on each person to remember that “every day you live, you make some kind of impact.”
- She described humanity as standing at the mouth of a dark tunnel with a star shining at the end—hope. To reach it, she said, required collective effort. That conviction defined her legacy: a life that reminded the world that hope is not wishful thinking but a discipline, and that every individual makes a difference.
Illegal fishing threatens unique marine ecosystem in Peru (October 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/illegal-fishing-threatens-unique-marine-ecosystem-in-peru/
- Park rangers who patrol Illescas National Reserve often confront fishers who use chinchorros, a type of fishing net that is banned in Peru.
- The reserve is designated solely as a terrestrial protected area, which often limits the park rangers’ ability to act, as the marine area is outside their jurisdiction.
- Conservationists warn of the urgent need to safeguard this important marine area and its rich biodiversity.
Jane Goodall, primatologist who taught the world to hope, has died at 91 (October 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/10/jane-goodall-primatologist-who-taught-the-world-to-hope-has-died-at-91/
Jane Goodall, who revealed the intimate lives of chimpanzees and gave the modern world a language of hope, has died at the age of 91. When she stepped into the forests of Gombe, Tanzania, in 1960, she carried little more than a notebook, binoculars, and an unlikely determination. She was not a scientist by training, […]
Urban appetite for lemur meat piles pressure on iconic primates (October 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/urban-appetite-for-lemur-meat-piles-pressure-on-iconic-primates/
- Thousands of threatened lemurs are killed by specialist hunters every year to feed a lucrative urban market for their meat in cities across Madagascar.
- While rural subsistence hunting is seasonal and opportunistic, the year-round urban luxury trade for lemur meat threatens large-bodied species, including during key reproductive periods.
- Primatologists recently issued a statement calling for strategies aimed at different actors involved in lemur meat hunting, including stricter gun regulations and enforcement directed at the urban trade, and the development of economic alternatives for rural subsistence hunters.
Climate change puts pressure on reindeer populations, both wild & domestic herds (October 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/climate-change-puts-pressure-on-reindeer-populations-both-wild-domestic-herds/
- In Finland’s Arctic, unpredictable weather events pose a threat to reindeer herding, a traditional livelihood for the Indigenous Sámi people.
- Due to climate impacts, the global reindeer population could decline by more than 50% by 2100, with the steepest declines expected in North America, at 84%, and population increases predicted in northern Asia, according to a study.
- The impacts of climate change also affect semidomestic reindeer herds, according to researchers, and additional pressures, such as logging old-growth forests and expanding extractive activities on grazing lands, shrink their access to food sources.
- Sustainable land management, such as protecting ecological corridors and old-growth forests, plays a vital role in maintaining reindeer populations and preserving migration routes, one author says.
When art turns into a sustainable treasure (October 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/video/2025/10/when-art-turns-into-a-sustainable-treasure/
JALAPÃO, Brazil — Capim dourado, or golden grass, grows in Jalapão, a wild part of the Brazilian Cerrado, the most biodiverse savanna in the world. With its unique color, the grass has lifted women through generations, bringing security and beauty into their lives. In Afro Brazilian Quilombola communities, they gather as artisans to craft all […]
Indigenous myths reveal Amazon’s past truths: Interview with Stéphen Rostain (October 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/indigenous-myths-reveal-amazons-past-truths-interview-with-stephen-rostain/
- Recent archaeological findings, bolstered by laser-based lidar mapping and by archaeologist Stéphen Rostain, reveal that the Amazon supported vast and complex ancient urban societies.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Rostain says the ancient Upano Valley culture in Ecuador collapsed due to severe drought, offering a stark warning for the Amazon’s current climate vulnerability.
- Rostain says he’s hopeful that a new archaeological understanding of the Amazon will challenge centuries of prejudice against Indigenous people and offer answers for the future.
Jaguar in Brazil swims 2.3 km in longest recorded distance for the species (October 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/10/jaguar-in-brazil-swims-2-3-km-in-longest-recorded-distance-for-the-species/
Biologists in Brazil have documented a jaguar swimming an estimated 2.3 kilometers, or 1.4 miles, across an artificial reservoir in the Cerrado savanna, the longest confirmed swim by the species to date. The previous scientific record, published in 1932, was of a jaguar swimming 200 m (660 ft). “We knew that jaguars might have this […]
DJs inspired by nature (October 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/10/djs-inspired-by-nature/
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. The music began long before humans arrived. Rivers carried their basslines downstream, insects beat time in the dusk, and birds poured their arias into the dawn. For Dominik Eulberg, who grew up without radio or television, this was […]
Antimining activists cleared of ‘farce’ murder charges in El Salvador (October 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/10/antimining-activists-cleared-of-farce-murder-charges-in-el-salvador/
An El Salvador court has acquitted five community leaders and antimining activists from Santa Marta, a municipality in the southeastern department of Usulután, of charges tied to a 1989 kidnapping and murder during the country’s civil war. Human rights groups have called the prosecution politically motivated, suggesting it was brought against the activists in retaliation […]
Anguish for residents as Thailand’s most polluting coal plant gets new lease of life (October 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/anguish-for-residents-as-thailands-most-polluting-coal-plant-gets-new-lease-of-life/
- Thailand has pushed back retiring several coal-fired units at the 2,400-MW Mae Moh power plant, keeping some units running until at least 2031 and refurbishing others to 2048, despite earlier closure plans.
- Mae Moh is Thailand’s biggest CO2 polluter, and also emits high levels of other air pollutants, which nearby communities have for decades blamed for respiratory and other illnesses.
- Extending the plant’s lifespan undercuts Thailand’s clean-air pledges and Paris Agreement targets as fossil fuels still dominate the power mix, while renewable growth remains slow.
- Residents are skeptical the plant will be shut as planned by 2050, and are demanding stronger mitigation, cleanup and health care as coal jobs remain a major part of the local economy.