Palm oil company uses armed forces, tear gas against protesting villagers in Cameroon (April 4, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/palm-oil-company-uses-armed-forces-tear-gas-against-protesting-villagers-in-cameroon/
- Cameroonian villagers protesting on March 25 against plantation company Socapalm’s replanting of oil palm trees on disputed land were dispersed with tear gas by local law enforcement.
- Villagers say the land is part of 3,712 hectares (9,173 acres) that Socapalm was supposed to return under a 2000 lease, but the company denies this.
- Armed security escorted Socapalm workers despite a local official’s previous statement that replanting required an agreement with villagers.
- Socfin, Socapalm’s parent company, has been accused of land grabbing and human rights abuses, with a 2023 report confirming community grievances at its Cameroon plantations.
Lithium Triangle mining may strain water sources more than expected, study says (April 4, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/lithium-triangle-mining-may-strain-water-sources-more-than-expected-study-says/
- Measuring water availability for lithium extraction can still be unpredictable, especially in the high-altitude Lithium Triangle in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia.
- Current models can overestimate how much water is available, potentially exacerbating scarcity for local communities, according to a new study in Communications Earth and Environment.
- The study suggests using a more accurate model as well as improving transparency and resources for gathering observational data where lithium is being extracted.
Colombian farmers switch from coffee to cacao as temperature and prices soar (April 4, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/colombian-coffee-farmers-make-switch-to-cacao-as-climate-warms-and-prices-soar/
- Due to rising temperatures and climate change, small-scale coffee farmers in Colombia are increasingly planting cacao.
- Cacao faces fewer immediate challenges compared to coffee, which is prone to pests and diseases, and can integrate well into agroforestry systems. However, agronomists warn that the switch to cacao can lead to clearing forests and increasing chemical inputs in order to expand existing plantations.
- Higher profits, the high prices of cacao in the market, and the increasing expenses needed to manage coffee crops are also factors pushing small-scale farmers towards the switch.
- Although coffee remains Colombia’s most important agricultural product, cacao is emerging not just as an alternative, but as a defining crop in Colombia’s evolving agricultural future, say agronomists.
Study delves into increase in humpback whale sightings in UK and Ireland (April 4, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/04/study-delves-into-increase-in-humpback-whale-sightings-in-uk-and-ireland/
Earlier this year, U.K. media reported an increase in humpback whale sightings in British and Irish waters. Between December 2024 and January, The Guardian reported some 17 sightings of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) from the Isles of Scilly in southwest England. Meanwhile, the nonprofit Sussex Dolphin Project reported more than 50 sightings from Sussex in […] 
Fishing cats in India struggle to survive outside protected areas (April 4, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/04/fishing-cats-in-india-struggle-to-survive-outside-protected-areas/
The wetlands of West Bengal in eastern India are one of the country’s best habitats for the fishing cat, a species vulnerable to extinction. But a significant population of these fish-eating, mid-sized wildcats lives outside protected areas, putting them at high risk of road accidents and retaliatory killing, reports contributor Nabarun Guha for Mongabay India. […] 
Kanzi the bonobo redefined what it means to be human (April 4, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/04/kanzi-the-bonobo-shattered-boundaries-between-humans-and-apes/
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives, and story summaries. Few apes have done more to unsettle human certainties than Kanzi the bonobo. He wasn’t the first nonhuman primate to use symbols to communicate, but he was the first to do so with such fluency, subtlety and apparent […] 
Farmers turn to living ‘yam sticks’ to grow their crop and spare the forest (April 3, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/farmers-turn-to-living-yam-sticks-to-grow-their-crop-and-spare-the-forest/
- In major yam-producing areas such as West Africa and the Caribbean, the tuber is traditionally grown using sticks as scaffolds for vine growth, which are traditionally cut from the forest, causing deforestation.
- Scientists and yam breeders are trialing ways to replace these sticks through agroforestry, introducing living supports that can also improve the soil and provide other benefits to farmers.
- Trials using plants such as pigeon pea and bitter damsel as living yam sticks have shown potential.
- However, conservationists say that entrenched traditional farming methods and a lack of funding to promote more sustainable approaches are preventing living vine sticks from widespread application.
After outcry, Brazil Supreme Court nixes proposal for mining on Indigenous lands (April 3, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/after-outcry-brazil-supreme-court-nixes-proposal-for-mining-on-indigenous-lands/
- Brazil’s Supreme Court backed down and withdrew its proposal to open up Indigenous territories to mining and economic activities from a controversial bill that critics say violates the Constitution.
- On the same day, the Federal Attorney General’s Office presented a draft presidential decree also excluding mining activities on Indigenous territories but allowing tourism and other activities led by Indigenous communities.
- Both drafts would keep contentious articles regarding compensation for non-Indigenous settlers, which could make the land demarcation process unfeasible, critics say.
- The proposals are the outcome of a yearslong legal battle centered in the highly controversial time frame thesis, aiming to nullify any Indigenous land demarcation claims to areas that weren’t physically occupied before the 1988 Constitution.
Uttarakhand’s extreme weather wreaks havoc on crops, livelihoods & futures (April 3, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/uttarakhands-extreme-weather-wreaks-havoc-on-crops-livelihoods-futures/
- In Uttarakhand, extreme weather events like droughts, erratic rainfall and hailstorms have severely affected farming, leading to lower crop yields, increased pests and financial distress for farmers.
- Festivals and agricultural practices linked to seasonal changes are losing their significance due to shifting flowering and harvesting periods, affecting both cultural traditions and livelihoods.
- Reduced snowfall and irregular rainfall have led to water shortages, depleting natural aquifers and springs that local communities rely on for drinking water and irrigation, while forest fires, intensified by extreme heat, have caused loss of human life and biodiversity.
- Climate change is also impacting tourism and small businesses, with rising temperatures and unpredictable weather affecting visitor numbers and local economies.
Betting on future forest carbon storage endangers Paris Agreement targets (April 3, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/betting-on-future-forest-carbon-storage-endangers-paris-agreement-targets/
- The carbon storage capacity of forests is widely recognized as a crucial factor in curbing global warming and preventing climate catastrophe.
- But a new study finds that the future potential for forest CO2 storage is being overestimated, with global forest health (along with the ability of forests to go on storing carbon) vulnerable to increasing disturbances including wildfires, disease, pests and deforestation.
- Scientists argue that the very real threat of declining forest carbon storage capacity necessitates far faster decarbonization efforts, along with urgent action to monitor and conserve forests, and prevent widespread deforestation.
- Delaying action by as little as five years could incur huge economic costs and jeopardize climate goals, researchers found.
Nepali farmers switch crops to reduce human-elephant conflict (April 3, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/04/nepali-farmers-switch-crops-to-reduce-human-elephant-conflict/
A village on Nepal’s border with India has found a way to reduce conflicts with wild Asian elephants in recent years: By switching their crops from rice and maize, which elephants love to eat, to tea and lemon, the farmers of Bahundangi are now seeing fewer elephants devouring their harvest, Mongabay contributor Deepak Adhikari reported […] 
‘Plastic People’ documentary exposes the human health threats from plastic (April 3, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/04/plastic-people-documentary-exposes-the-human-health-threats-from-plastic/
Microplastics are a growing ecological and human health crisis: Scientist have found the tiny plastic particles everywhere they’ve looked for them, including human placentas and brains. In a new documentary, Plastic People, filmmakers Rick Smith and Peter Raymont delve into the plastic pollution that contaminates people from before birth and can bring about early death. […] 
Amid fuzzy data, scientists urge monitoring of Hong Kong’s tokay gecko trade (April 3, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/amid-fuzzy-data-scientists-urge-monitoring-of-hong-kongs-tokay-gecko-trade/
- Thousands of tokay geckos (Gekko gecko), native to South and Southeast Asia, are sold each year in Hong Kong’s traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) pharmacies.
- Recent studies have raised questions on the sustainability of this trade and the origins of the geckos, as vendors’ claims don’t agree with data in the CITES database, exposing data discrepancies in legal trade.
- Without stricter oversight, these discrepancies could result in unsustainable trade and facilitate illegal trafficking of tokay geckos in the region, say conservationists, who urge countries and CITES to better monitor the trade.
Floods devastate normally arid parts of Australia’s Queensland (April 3, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/04/floods-devastate-normally-arid-parts-of-australias-queensland/
Intense flooding submerged usually dry areas of Queensland state in eastern Australia during the last week of March, forcing many people to evacuate and leave their livestock behind. David Crisafulli, the Queensland premier, called the floods “unprecedented” as several places in western Queensland recorded the worst floods in the last 50 years, CNN reported. Some […] 
Groundwater overuse puts Brazil’s river flow at risk, study finds (April 3, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/groundwater-overuse-puts-brazils-river-flow-at-risk-study-finds/
- A recent study reveals the potential risk of river water flowing underground in Brazil due to high groundwater extraction, which could lead to losses in streamflow.
- Researchers found a correlation between groundwater use and river flow reductions, particularly in dryland areas.
- Overexploitation of groundwater could severely affect Brazil’s agriculture, energy production, and ecosystems, with illegal and unregistered wells likely contributing to the problem.
- Experts stress the importance of improving water resource management, with calls for better hydrogeological monitoring and more localized studies to better understand the potential harms facing Brazil’s water sources.
Traffic noise turns Galápagos warblers into angry birds (April 3, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/04/traffic-noise-turns-galapagos-warblers-into-angry-birds/
Traffic noise isn’t just unpleasant; in the Galápagos Islands, it can also make songbirds aggressive, a recent study has found. Once famed for their undisturbed natural ecosystems, the Galápagos Islands have seen a rise in road infrastructure and traffic in recent decades. Researchers wanted to understand how birds react to the increased noise. So they […] 
Maltese Falcon Poachers: European hunters endanger Egypt’s birds (April 2, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/maltese-falcon-poachers-european-hunters-endanger-egypts-birds/
- A 15-month-long investigation has exposed the cracks in international conservation efforts around the hunting of Maltese falcons and other species in Egypt.
- Millions of euros have flowed from EU conservation funds to protect these species, only for them to be gunned down by Europeans in Egypt.
- With exclusive accounts from conservationists and hunting trip organizers, alongside public records of raids and arrests, this investigation highlights the urgent need for international cooperation to uphold global conservation commitments.
Photos: Colombia’s Indigenous Nasa push back against cultural loss to reconnect with nature (April 2, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/photos-inside-the-ritual-to-reconnect-colombias-indigenous-nasa-people-to-nature/
- Ofelia Opocué, a Nasa elder, was forced to leave her community in southwestern Colombia 23 years ago, and is now reviving her culture by creating an Indigenous governing body and bringing back the Saakhelu ritual.
- The ritual celebrates life and Mother Earth, uniting Nasa people displaced by Colombia’s decades-long violent conflict through dance, music and planting seeds.
- Ofelia and her family are among the more than 5 million internally displaced people in the country, many of whom are Indigenous people.
- Indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable to cultural loss following displacement, as their cultural and spiritual practices are intricately tied to their ancestral lands, researchers say.
Nearly one-third of fungi on IUCN Red List are threatened with extinction (April 2, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/04/nearly-one-third-of-fungi-on-iucn-red-list-are-threatened-with-extinction/
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recently updated its Red List of Threatened Species to include an additional 482 fungi, bringing the total to roughly 1,300 species of mushrooms, puffballs and other fungi. More than 400 of the species assessed are at risk of extinction, primarily threatened by agricultural expansion, deforestation and climate […] 
Global seabed regulator concerned by mining company’s unilateral actions (April 2, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/04/global-seabed-regulator-concerned-by-mining-companys-unilateral-actions/
The International Seabed Authority has expressed concern following reports that the U.S. subsidiary of The Metals Company is seeking deep-sea mining permits from the U.S. instead of waiting for the global regulator’s finalization of a mining code. Mongabay recently reported that The Metals Company (TMC), based in Canada, has started a process to apply for […]