Death and exile: A war plagues Indigenous Jiw and Nukak in the Colombian Amazon (June 19, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/death-and-exile-a-war-plagues-indigenous-jiw-and-nukak-in-the-colombian-amazon/
- By late May, at least 48 people were killed in rural areas of Colombia following clashes between the FARC guerrilla dissident groups controlled by the aliases “Calarcá” and “Iván Mordisco.”
- Conflicts have displaced 10 Indigenous Jiw families from the municipality of Mapiripán, Meta department. They had to reach the urban area of San José del Guaviare for protection.
- The clashes occurred near the Tomachipán-Cumare road, an illegal trail used by dissident armed cells as a strategic corridor to mobilize and transport drug trafficking supplies in the Guaviare department.
- Experts warn that controlling this disputed area is important for armed groups, as it means dominating strategic zones in the department and also being closer to the Venezuelan border.
What’s at stake for the environment in Colombia’s upcoming election? (June 19, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/whats-at-stake-for-the-environment-in-colombias-upcoming-election/
- Colombia will hold its runoff presidential elections on June 21, with left-wing Iván Cepeda from the current governing Historical Pact party facing Abelardo de la Espriella from the far-right Defenders of the Homeland party.
- The future of the Colombian Amazon, fossil fuel phaseout and the rights of traditional communities are all at stake, with both candidates proposing dramatically different approaches to tackle environmental issues.
- Cepeda’s program, analyzed by Mongabay, promises to halt oil and gas and protect territories and communities; de la Espriella has promised to expand fossil fuel production and mining.
- Both have very different approaches to ending violence, which is linked to deforestation and environmental degradation, with Cepeda focusing on total peace and large-scale land redistribution and de la Espriella on greater force and militarization.
South African authorities thwart smuggling of 150 venomous scorpions, arrest man (June 19, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/south-african-authorities-thwart-smuggling-of-150-venomous-scorpions-arrest-man/
- South African authorities arrested a 28-year-old man with 150 venomous scorpions in his bag at Cape Town airport.
- The intelligence-led operation followed a tip-off on his movements. He allegedly smuggled the scorpions from the wild and faces wildlife trafficking charges. The investigation is ongoing.
- Scorpion venom is highly prized for use in biomedical research and the beauty industry. They are also kept as pets by collectors of rare and venomous arachnids.
- The arrest and seizure highlight the growing trade in scorpions and spiders, as conservationists call for increased protections for these arachnids under an international wildlife trade treaty, CITES.
Demand for vultures in West Africa threatens Central African populations (June 19, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/demand-for-vultures-in-west-africa-threatens-central-african-populations/
Conservationists warn that vulture populations in central African countries like Chad are increasingly at risk due to belief-based use in Nigeria and Benin. Abiola Sylvestre Chaffra, a research fellow at the International Bird Conservation Partnership, told Mongabay he was out in Chad, photographing vultures, when a man offered to help him capture the birds. Vultures […]
Côte d’Ivoire’s tree-climbing crocodile needs to be protected, scientist says (June 19, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/cote-divoires-tree-climbing-crocodile-needs-to-be-protected-scientist-says/
- On a recent visit to Taï National Park, in southwestern Côte d’Ivoire, Mongabay accompanied Ivorian environmental scientist Christine Kouman on a night-time boat trip up the Hana River.
- The river is home to Africa’s rarest crocodile, the critically-endangered West African slender-snouted crocodile.
- For more than a decade Kouman, whose work has been supported by Project Mecistops.
- Now the scientist, who cofounded the conservation NGO EBURCO, is working with others to ensure its rainforest habitat stays well protected.
Conservation efforts by families displaced for national park sees success in DRC (June 19, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/conservation-efforts-by-families-displaced-for-national-park-sees-success-in-drc/
Descendants of families forcibly displaced during the creation of Maiko National Park in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo back in the 1970s are now leading a new wave of community-led conservation. Gangala Yafali Mangusa Jr., from one such displaced family, is the head of the Bamasobha Local Community Forest Concession (CFCL), […]
Museum DNA unmasks new Himalayan pit vipers, study says (June 19, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/museum-dna-unmasks-new-himalayan-pit-vipers-study-says/
For more than 160 years, the Himalayan pit viper was believed to be a single species, found across the Himalayas in Pakistan, India and Nepal. Now, a new study revealed this snake is actually not one, but five distinct species, including three entirely new to science. For their analysis, the researchers conducted fieldwork to different […]
Suriname will not be saved by soybeans (commentary) (June 19, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/suriname-will-not-be-saved-by-soybeans-commentary/
- Suriname should be wary of promises that foreign agribusiness will modernize agriculture, create jobs, and bring broad prosperity, argues Mark Plotkin, ethnobotanist and President of The Amazon Conservation Team.
- Across tropical America, this model has too often proved a costly folly: forests are cleared, rivers are polluted, and local communities are left with fewer resources while wealth flows elsewhere.
- Rather than expanding export-oriented soy and cattle production, Suriname should strengthen food security, support local producers, protect rivers and forests, and seek the input of the communities most affected.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Saudi parrotfish festival stretches scientific & traditional ecological knowledge (commentary) (June 18, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/saudi-parrotfish-festival-stretches-scientific-traditional-ecological-knowledge-commentary/
- During the annual “hareed” festival in the Farasan Islands — an archipelago in the Red Sea off the coast of Saudi Arabia — hundreds of people run into the water to catch parrotfish, which aggregate there annually since time immemorial.
- Science cannot yet explain this annual phenomenon, but there are clues in traditional ecological knowledge and cultural history, a new op-ed explains.
- “Only by weaving [traditional] knowledge together with science can we begin to understand what we are trying to protect,” the author writes.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
With plastic treaty in limbo, Mongabay speaks to top negotiator Julio Cordano (June 18, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/with-plastic-treaty-in-limbo-mongabay-speaks-to-top-negotiator-julio-cordano/
- At the start of 2026, the world’s efforts to negotiate a global plastics pollution treaty remained deadlocked. Then in February, Julio Cordano was appointed the new chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee (INC) with the hope he can help move the treaty process forward decisively.
- Cordano rarely gives media interviews, but he responded to some of Mongabay’s written questions on how he plans to forge ahead toward an international plastics pollution agreement.
- Cordano continues to fully back the UN treaty negotiations process, which requires any final accord be achieved by consensus between all the national parties. He declined to comment on other possible routes to an agreement that break from the traditional negotiating protocol.
- Observers of the treaty process also weighed in for this story, offering a range of views from hope to skepticism that consensus can get producing nations to mutually agree to major plastic production limits.
In search of the ‘rare and beautiful’ in an Ivorian rainforest (June 18, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-search-of-the-rare-and-beautiful-in-an-ivorian-rainforest/
- In late May, Mongabay visited the Taï National Park in southwestern Cote d’Ivoire.
- The park protects the largest remnant of Upper Guinean forests in West Africa, which is itself home to unique animals.
- One of these is the white-necked picathartes, a bird that builds its mud-cup nests on rock walls deep inside the rainforest.
- A Mongabay correspondent accompanied a member of the Ivorian Office of Parks and Reserves to visit a rare nesting site in the hope of spotting its elusive occupants.
Monika Silva Koniuszek, 41, defended the everyday things corruption corrodes (June 18, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/monika-silva-koniuszek-41-defended-the-everyday-things-corruption-corrodes/
- Monika Silva Koniuszek, a Polish-born activist and mother of two, was found dead on June 8th at her home in Montañita, Ecuador. She was 41.
- She had made Ecuador’s Santa Elena coast her home, running a small hostel and becoming a local defender of communities, beaches, mangroves, turtles, and basic public services.
- Her activism linked everyday problems, including sewage, land disputes, public works, and coastal development, to alleged corruption and weak accountability.
- She had reported threats before her death. Ecuadorian, Polish, European, and human-rights bodies have called for a thorough and independent investigation.
Pulp and paper giant APRIL adds major deforesters as suppliers after revising sustainability policy (June 18, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/pulp-and-paper-giant-april-adds-major-deforesters-as-suppliers-after-revising-sustainability-policy/
- The changes include lowering its deforestation cutoff date to the end of 2020, which allows APRIL to source wood from two companies responsible for some of Indonesia’s largest recent forest losses.
- APRIL says the move aligns with global standards and helps address fibre shortages caused by permit revocations affecting 15% of its wood supply.
- But critics say the changes weaken a longstanding no-deforestation safeguard and have questioned why APRIL selected these two suppliers among Indonesia’s many fibre producers.
- APRIL says its new suppliers will undergo satellite monitoring, compartment-level traceability and annual independent audits, but critics say transparency concerns remain.
To help combat illegal fishing, 15 countries commit to sharing fisheries data (June 18, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/to-help-combat-illegal-fishing-15-countries-commit-to-sharing-fisheries-data/
Fifteen countries from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe adopted the Mombasa Declaration on June 17, 2026. Together, they committed to advance global fisheries transparency and strengthen efforts to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The declaration was adopted during the 11th meeting of the international Our Ocean Conference, held in Mombasa, Kenya. Africa […]
Vanilla, fake eggs and nausea: How Australian scientists are training foxes to avoid turtle nests (June 18, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/vanilla-fake-eggs-and-nausea-how-australian-scientists-australia-are-training-foxes-to-avoid-turtle-nests/
- Freshwater turtles in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin are disappearing. Introduced red foxes — which prey on their eggs — are considered one of the leading threats.
- Researchers from La Trobe University are testing a non-lethal conservation method called “conditioned taste aversion,” using chemically treated poultry eggs to teach foxes to associate turtle nests with nausea.
- Early trials have shown promising but variable results, reducing nest predation by 30-90% depending on the site. Researchers are working to make the aversion longer-lasting.
- The project is being carried out in collaboration with Traditional Owners, community conservation groups and citizen scientists, with the long-term goal of developing a simple, accessible protocol that could help protect turtles, as well as other ground-nesting native species threatened by introduced predators.
Nepal’s rhino translocation looks good in numbers, but not so much in habitat (June 18, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/nepals-rhino-translocation-looks-good-in-numbers-but-not-so-much-in-habitat/
- A new study suggests that habitat degradation has reduced the suitability for rhinos in Babai Valley of Nepal’s Bardiya National Park, forcing them to range widely.
- Researchers note that prolonged dry periods in the area could potentially increase ecological stress by reducing access to water, forage and wallowing sites.
- Locals say that many rhinos are now sighted in community forests in the fringes of the national park, with sporadic incidents of human-wildlife conflict.
- Experts stress that translocation is not simply about releasing animals and that long-term post-release monitoring is needed to assess behavioral patterns and identify necessary interventions.
New walking shark discovered in Papua New Guinea (June 18, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/new-walking-shark-discovered-in-papua-new-guinea/
Researchers have described a new-to-science species of walking shark, which lives in the remote, shallow waters off southeastern Papua New Guinea. The newly named Dudgeon’s walking shark (Hemiscyllium dudgeonae) is a type of epaulette shark, a group of small sharks famous for their ability to use their fins to “walk” when stranded in tidal shallows. […]
French Polynesia expands ocean protections to 30% of its waters (June 18, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/french-polynesia-expands-ocean-protections-to-30-of-its-waters/
The government of French Polynesia announced it is expanding the extent of ocean where extractive industries like seabed mining and industrial fishing will not be allowed. With this move, 30% of French Polynesia’s waters will now be fully protected. Last year on June 8, French Polynesia, a French overseas territory, established the Tainui Atea marine […]
Illegal miners adapt their strategies in Yanomami Amazon territory (June 17, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/illegal-miners-adapt-their-strategies-in-yanomami-amazon-territory/
- Illegal miners are adapting their tactics in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory in Brazil’s Amazonas and Roraima states to evade efforts in the last few years to remove them, found researchers.
- Miners are fragmenting into smaller groups instead of concentrating near airstrips, going deeper into the middle of the Amazon forest, moving to specific border areas with Venezuela and paying high prices to continue their activities.
- Illegal mining is significantly down in the territory due to the government operation, said Indigenous people and authorities, though concerns remain for the health of isolated Indigenous people.
- Brazil’s government says it is in the phase of “scavenging the territory” to remove miners deep in the forest which are unable to be detected by satellite imagery and require long walks into the Amazon.
Trump administration repeals rule that allowed bison to graze on public lands (June 17, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/trump-administration-repeals-rule-that-allowed-bison-to-graze-on-public-lands/
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration recently repealed the 2024 Public Lands Rule, which established that conservation should have equal priority with industry when it comes to accessing leases for U.S. public land. That shift in priorities will apply to 245 million acres (99 million hectares) of public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management […]