This nonprofit connects frontline conservationists with funders, catalyzing impact (July 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2025/07/this-nonprofit-connects-frontline-conservationists-with-funders-catalyzing-impact/
Jean-Gaël “JG” Collomb says community-based conservation organizations know best how to tackle the complex conservation challenges unique to their ecosystems. However, they’re also among the most underserved in terms of funding of all stripes. On this week’s episode of Mongabay’s podcast, Collomb explains how his nonprofit, Wildlife Conservation Network (WCN), is working to change that. […] 
Blue cranes now listed as vulnerable in South Africa (July 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/blue-cranes-now-listed-as-vulnerable-in-south-africa/
The blue crane, South Africa’s national bird, is now at greater risk of extinction, as a new regional assessment lists the species as “vulnerable.” “A Near-Threatened listing is no longer appropriate, now that the population is declining,” states the recently published Red Data Book of Birds, which follows the International Union for Conservation of Nature […] 
A Kenya marine biodiversity credit program restores mangroves — and livelihoods (July 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/a-kenya-marine-biodiversity-credit-program-restores-mangroves-and-livelihoods/
- The decline of mangroves significantly weakens Kenya’s coastal protection, leaving shorelines susceptible to erosion, storm surges and rising sea levels, disrupting marine ecosystems, depleting fish stocks, leading to reduced biodiversity — and lost livelihoods for locals.
- A U.S.-based organization called Seatrees is working with the local Community Based Environmental Conservation (COBEC) and residents of Marereni to restore and protect coastal and marine ecosystems as a natural solution to climate change.
- Since 2024, Seatrees has offered donors the option of buying $3 “biodiversity blocks,” each of which represents a single tangible conservation action: planting one mangrove tree on site in Marereni.
- The work goes beyond just planting trees, as community members turn mangrove restoration into a livelihood by establishing and maintaining nurseries — and, in some cases, starting side businesses with the income.
With coral-rich Churna Island now an MPA, Pakistan takes baby steps on ocean protection (July 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/with-coral-rich-churna-island-now-an-mpa-pakistan-takes-baby-steps-on-ocean-protection/
- In September 2024, Churna Island and the sea surrounding it became Pakistan’s second designated marine protected area, home to a variety of corals and serving as a nursery for fish.
- It followed the 2017 designation of the country’s very first MPA around Astola Island, a haven for coral, birds and sea turtles to the east.
- While Pakistan’s first two MPAs are small and have yet to be fully implemented, they represent baby steps in the country’s nascent effort to protect its marine environment.
- The country still has a long way to go to protect 30% of its ocean by 2030, as mandated by the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.
Major reports about how climate change affects the US are removed from websites (July 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/major-reports-about-how-climate-change-affects-the-us-are-removed-from-websites/
WASHINGTON (AP) — Legally mandated U.S. national climate assessments seem to have disappeared from the federal websites built to display them. The reports tell state and local governments and everyday people what to expect in a warming world and how to prepare for it. Scientists say the peer-reviewed authoritative reports save money and lives. Websites […] 
Countries seek urgent CITES protection of more than 70 sharks and rays (July 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/countries-seek-urgent-cites-protection-of-more-than-70-sharks-and-rays/
Several proposals seeking greater protection of more than 70 shark and ray species from commercial trade were raised this week for deliberation at the 20th meeting of CITES, the global convention on the wildlife trade, to be held in November. “The world is at a tipping point for sharks and rays,” Luke Warwick, director of […] 
Bogong moths use stars and the Milky Way to make epic migration (July 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/bogong-moths-use-stars-and-the-milky-way-to-make-epic-migration/
In Australia, millions of newly hatched Bogong moths embark on an impressive journey twice a year. Each spring, they hatch from eggs in their breeding grounds in Australia’s southeast and fly up to 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) further southward to spend a few months in the cool caves of the Australian Alps — a place […] 
Endangered primates use new canopy bridges in a Brazilian Amazon city (July 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/endangered-primates-use-new-canopy-bridges-in-a-brazilian-amazon-city/
Hundreds of monkeys can now safely cross roads in Alta Floresta, a city in the southern Brazilian Amazon. Seven canopy bridges have reconnected rainforest fragments that were separated by urban roads. Camera traps have recorded more than 3,000 crossings by canopy-dwelling wildlife, an average of more than 12 a day, since October 2024, when the […] 
Indigenous communities left in the dark on carbon scheme on their land (July 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/indigenous-communities-left-in-the-dark-on-chevron-carbon-scheme-on-their-land/
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In the Colombian Amazon, an environmental initiative touted as a climate-saving project has turned into a tale of exploitation, lack of transparency, and broken promises, according to an investigation by the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP) and […] 
Private financing for Argentina’s lithium is anything but green, critics say (July 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/private-financing-for-argentinas-lithium-is-anything-but-green-critics-say/
- Argentina is trying to position itself as a global hub for clean energy, attracting private investment in lithium mining while marketing new battery factories in the region.
- The World Bank has framed some of the lithium projects it backs as “climate action” that will help advance the clean energy transition.
- But critics say lithium mining is hurting local and Indigenous communities and depleting freshwater resources.
- The race to buy up private land for lithium mining has also allowed an influx of international corporations that may contribute to increased carbon emissions rather than help lower them, critics point out.
Ancient Himalayan village relocates as climate shifts reshape daily life (July 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/ancient-himalayan-village-relocates-as-climate-shifts-reshape-daily-life/
SAMJUNG, Nepal (AP) — A Himalayan village in Nepal has vanished — emptied by climate change. Samjung, perched in the high-altitude Upper Mustang region, was once home to a few dozen yak herders and barley farmers. But its streams dried up and snowfall disappeared. Then, a sudden flood destroyed many homes. That was the last […] 
Ancient eco-friendly pilgrimage brings modern threats to Sri Lanka wildnerness (July 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/ancient-eco-friendly-pilgrimage-brings-modern-threats-to-sri-lanka-wildnerness/
- The centuries-old Pada Yatra is a spiritual pilgrimage on foot that takes devotees through two major national parks in Sri Lanka, originally undertaken by Hindu devotees.
- Over time, it started to attract followers of other faiths, but many now join it as an adventure hike, raising concerns about the erosion of its spiritual essence and environment consciousness.
- Participation in the Pada Yatra has surged, with more than 31,000 pilgrims making the 20-day journey in 2024, and this year, this number was reached within the first seven days, raising serious concerns about increasing numbers and increasing environmental issues.
- Despite waste management efforts, the growing numbers of attendees are contributing to pollution and environmental degradation, like the impacts seen at Adam’s Peak in Sri Lanka’s Peak Wilderness, where people leave a trail of environmental destruction.
NOAA delays the cutoff of key satellite data for hurricane forecasting (June 30, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/noaa-delays-the-cutoff-of-key-satellite-data-for-hurricane-forecasting/
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday it is delaying by one month the planned cutoff of satellite data that helps forecasters track hurricanes. Meteorologists and scientists warned of severe consequences last week when NOAA said, in the midst of this year’s hurricane season, that it would almost immediately discontinue key data collected by three weather satellites […] 
Two coasts, one struggle for octopus fishers battling overfishing and warming waters (June 30, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/two-coasts-one-struggle-for-octopus-fishers-battling-overfishing-and-warming-waters/
- In Spain and Mexico, demand for octopus is up, but octopus populations are down.
- In both countries, artisanal octopus fishers are sticking to traditional fishing techniques while joining eco-certification schemes with tighter regulations, hoping to protect not just the cephalopod population, but their own livelihoods.
- But while this may offer a lifeline to the fishers’ economies, it may only work well for the octopus populations when all fishers in an area join in, experts say — and that’s not the case in Mexico, where illegal octopus fishing is rampant.
- Moreover, factors beyond fishers’ control, like warming waters, may affect the fishers and the octopuses alike.
104 companies linked to 20% of global environmental conflicts, study finds (June 30, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/104-companies-linked-to-20-of-global-environmental-conflicts-study-finds/
A recent study has found that just 104 companies, mostly multinational corporations from high-income countries, are involved in a fifth of the more than 3,000 environmental conflicts it analyzed. The study examined 3,388 conflicts, involving 5,589 companies, recorded in the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice (EJAtlas) as of October 2024. The atlas is the world’s […] 
Communities and ecosystems in Venezuela learn to adapt to life after glaciers (June 30, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/communities-and-ecosystems-in-venezuela-learn-to-adapt-to-life-after-glaciers/
- In 2023, La Corona, Venezuela’s last standing glacier in the Sierra Nevada de Mérida National Park, was reclassified as an ice field, having shrunk to the size of barely two football fields.
- The country is now the first tropical nation to lose all of its glaciers, which melted rapidly due to a combination of warming temperatures, reduced rainfall and ineffective policies since early signs of melting appeared in the late 19th century.
- As Venezuela’s symbolic glaciers began melting one after another, a team of researchers started studying not only their disappearance, but the emerging ecosystems that were taking over the formerly icy areas.
- With the ice gone, the city of Mérida, advertised for decades as the “city of eternal snow,” is now having to reinvent its identity and its tourism industry.
Banks bet big on fossil fuels, boosting financing in 2024, report finds (June 30, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/banks-bet-big-on-fossil-fuels-boosting-financing-in-2024-report-finds/
- Bank financing for the fossil fuel sector rose by $162.5 billion in 2024, more than 20% compared to 2023, according to a Rainforest Action Network report.
- Fossil fuel-related financing declined in 2022 and 2023, but in 2024 almost 70% of the 65 banks analyzed increased their funding for companies involved in fossil fuels.
- Experts say the findings demonstrate the limits of voluntary climate-related commitments by the banking industry, with many institutions backsliding on their promises to decarbonize their portfolios.
- They also highlight the importance of government regulation and civic action to address ongoing financial support for fossil fuel infrastructure and expansion.
First-ever assessment highlights threats to Atlantic cold-water corals (June 30, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/first-ever-assessment-highlights-threats-to-atlantic-cold-water-corals/
- A new study published in the journal Marine Biodiversity delivers the first global IUCN Red List assessments for 22 cold-water coral species in the Northeast Atlantic.
- More than 30% of the species are at risk of extinction due to bottom-contact fishing, habitat destruction and climate change, with white coral (Desmophyllum pertusum) listed as globally vulnerable.
- Experts say the findings highlight gaps in conservation, especially for deep-sea species often excluded from monitoring and protection efforts.
- The study’s release comes at a key moment, as international talks continue under the Beyond National Jurisdiction Treaty to improve high seas biodiversity protections.
Scorching temperatures grip Europe, putting regions on high alert (June 30, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/scorching-temperatures-grip-europe-putting-regions-on-high-alert/
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Forest fires fanned by high winds and hot, dry weather damaged some holiday homes in Turkey as a lingering heat wave that has cooked much of southern Europe led authorities to raise warnings and tourists to find ways to beat the heat, A heat dome swept an arc across France, Portugal, […] 
Nepal launches plan to boost science, awareness to save dholes (June 30, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/nepal-launches-plan-to-boost-science-awareness-to-save-dholes/
- Nepal has launched its first-ever species-specific action plan for dholes (Cuon alpinus), allocating 262.9 million rupees ($1.9 million) over five years to address key threats such as habitat loss, prey depletion, disease and competition with larger predators.
- The plan prioritizes both scientific research and public awareness, with the highest budget shares going to understanding dhole distribution (25%) and conservation education (26.4%), highlighting a dual strategy of data-driven conservation and local engagement.
- A key innovation is the financial model, which leverages 36% of the funding from existing conservation plans for tigers and snow leopards — species that often share habitats with dholes but may also displace them.