UN scientists propose ‘minerals trust’ to power green energy, protect communities (June 7, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/un-scientists-propose-minerals-trust-to-power-green-energy-protect-communities/
Rapidly scaling up renewable energy to limit future warming requires a sharp increase in the supply of critical minerals like cobalt, nickel and lithium for technologies including solar panels, battery storage and electric vehicles. Yet sourcing these minerals often comes at a steep cost for both the environment and local communities. Now, a coalition of […] 
In Nepal, northernmost sighting of Eurasian otter raises hope, concerns (June 7, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/in-nepal-northernmost-sighting-of-eurasian-otter-raises-hope-concerns/
- The northernmost Eurasian otter sighting in Nepal was recorded in the Karnali River, raising hopes for the species’ range expansion. But as the animal was found dead in a fishing net, conservationists highlight challenges to the species’ conservation.
- Researchers emphasize the rarity of such sightings in high-altitude, remote areas like Humla, where otters had been considered cryptic or absent for decades.
- The discovery builds on a series of recent sightings across Nepal, including in urbanized Kathmandu Valley, suggesting a wider distribution than previously known.
- Threats to otters include overfishing, poaching, hydropower projects, sand mining and net entanglement, all of which imperil not just the Eurasian otter but also Nepal’s two other otter species.
Revived hydropower project to bring forced displacement, Peru communities warn (June 6, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/revived-hydropower-project-to-bring-forced-displacement-peru-communities-warn/
- The construction of the Pakitzapango hydroelectric dam in Peru’s Junín region should be a matter of national interest, according to a bill proposed in February that claims the project would boost national energy security.
- The dam would be constructed on a sacred gorge on the Ene River that is central to the mythology of the local Indigenous Asháninka population. The reservoir would flood homes and ancestral territories of more than 13 communities, as well as cemeteries where many Asháninka people who were killed during a recent internal war are buried.
- The proposal is a revival of a project that was canceled more than a decade ago due to environmental irregularities and local rejection.
- Community members speaking to Mongabay are worried they will be forced to move, while environmental experts challenged the project’s energy security rationale.
Environmental crimes are often hidden by ‘flying money’ laundering schemes (commentary) (June 6, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/environmental-crimes-are-often-hidden-by-flying-money-laundering-schemes-commentary/
- An ancient credit system developed in China that relied on trust to help traders sidestep authorities and taxes is now being used to conceal illegal trafficking and increasingly environmental crimes, too.
- These “flying money” schemes are on the radar of law enforcement agencies, but coordination and implementation of plans to combat them are slow to develop.
- “Law enforcement, nations, conservation groups need more data sharing, more staff embeds, more eyes on the ground — even in China,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
How trafficking & misconceptions threaten Nigeria’s wildlife: Q&A with Dr. Mark Ofua (June 6, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/how-trafficking-misconceptions-threaten-nigerias-wildlife-qa-with-dr-mark-ofua/
- Veterinarian and wildlife conservationist Dr. Mark Ofua discusses his journey in Nigeria, highlighting efforts to protect species and combat wildlife trafficking.
- He notes societal misconceptions and lack of education as some of the major challenges in addressing wildlife conservation issues among the general public in Nigeria.
- The conservationist shares his experiences on rescue missions, including a particularly challenging encounter with sea turtle traffickers who had him fearing for his life.
- Ofua, who hosts a popular children’s TV show about animals, emphasizes the importance of educating children about wildlife conservation and the role of media in promoting awareness about local wildlife.
Bumble Bee asks court to dismiss lawsuit alleging forced labor in tuna supply chain (June 6, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/bumble-bee-asks-court-to-dismiss-lawsuit-alleging-forced-labor-in-tuna-supply-chain/
- In March, four Indonesian men filed a landmark lawsuit in the U.S. against canned tuna giant Bumble Bee Foods, accusing the company of profiting from abuse and exploitation aboard Chinese-owned vessels supplying its tuna.
- The plaintiffs described brutal conditions while working on vessels that allegedly supplied albacore tuna directly to Bumble Bee, including physical violence, inadequate food, lack of medical care and withheld wages.
- Despite claims of traceability and sustainability, Bumble Bee and its parent company, Taiwan-based FCF, have been linked to a network of vessels implicated in labor abuses. Critics argue the company failed to act on repeated warnings from rights groups and resisted regulatory changes.
- On June 2, Bumble Bee filed papers requesting the federal court handling the case dismiss it on legal grounds. The next step will be for a judge to decide whether to dismiss it or let it proceed.
Australia to see more intense rains as climate change worsens, analysis shows (June 6, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/australia-to-see-more-intense-rains-as-climate-change-worsens-analysis-shows/
Scientists have warned that extreme rains could become more common in eastern Australia, following heavy downpours from May 19-23 that caused widespread flooding, claimed five lives and left some 50,000 people stranded. The warning is based on a recent rapid analysis by World Weather Attribution (WWA), a global research network that examines the role of […] 
Heavy rains inundate northeast India (June 6, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/heavy-rains-inundate-northeast-india/
Dozens of people are reported dead amid torrential rains over the past week in India’s northeastern region, local media reported. The most heavily affected states are Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. In Assam, more than 640,000 people have been affected as the Brahmaputra River and its tributaries overflowed beyond danger levels, flooding many areas. Around 40,000 […] 
Climate change and shrinking Arctic sea ice threaten bowhead whales (June 6, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/climate-change-and-shrinking-arctic-sea-ice-threaten-bowhead-whales/
Bowhead whales are endemic to the icy waters of the Arctic and prefer living in shallow waters near sea ice, filtering krill and tiny crustaceans called copepods for food. However, the Arctic is warming faster than any other region on Earth, and a recent study estimates that if this continues, then by 2100 the whales […] 
Eucalyptus boom in Brazil’s Cerrado dries up springs, forces out smallholders (June 6, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/eucalyptus-boom-in-brazils-cerrado-dries-up-springs-forces-out-smallholders/
A eucalyptus boom in Brazil’s biodiverse Cerrado savanna is drying up land and water springs, making subsistence farming more difficult, local authorities and farmers tell Mongabay. Adilso Cruz, a 46-year-old rancher from the Alecrim settlement in Mato Grosso do Sul state, said the water shortages began around 2013, coinciding with the growth of eucalyptus plantations […] 
World Oceans Day: Scientists find new clues about frontiers of ocean life (June 6, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/world-oceans-day-scientists-find-new-clues-about-frontiers-of-ocean-life/
In 2008, the United Nations recognized June 8 as World Oceans Day to spotlight the rising vulnerabilities facing the oceans that cover more than 70% of Earth’s surface. Seventeen years later, average ocean temperatures have never been higher. Heat stress has hit 84% of the world’s coral reefs. In places as far as Antarctica, whales […] 
Unnoticed oil & gas threat looms for Indigenous people near Amazon blocks (June 6, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/unnoticed-oil-gas-threat-looms-for-indigenous-people-near-amazon-blocks/
- While oil prospects in the Amazon north shore attract international attention, the offer of exploration blocks around Indigenous territories goes unnoticed in Mato Grosso state.
- Brazil will auction 21 blocks in the Parecis Basin, an area with dense Indigenous activity, yet none of these communities have been consulted, as leaders struggle to handle existing threats such as ranchers and miners.
- Impacts on Indigenous territories include the influx of workers and machinery during research and the risk of toxic gas emissions and water pollution if projects move forward.
- The rainforest is the most promising frontier for the oil industry, with one-fifth of the world’s newly discovered reserves from 2022-24.
The reaches, limits and (alleged) biases of feasibility studies and environmental licenses (June 6, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/the-reaches-limits-and-alleged-biases-of-feasibility-studies-and-environmental-licenses/
- In the last 20 years, EIA has become a factor already incorporated into the strategic planning of countries, where the potential trade-offs arising from environmental and social impacts are of great importance.
- This is how public consultations arise, allowing civil society to have a voice in the appearance of private or public investment. In all the systems of Panamazonia, the principle is the same: the possibility of canceling a project if its negative impacts are unacceptable.
- For Killeen, one of the most obvious conflicts of interest occurs when the construction contract gives the mining company itself responsibility for conducting both the feasibility study and the environmental assessment.
- Likewise, multilateral financial organizations require high-quality environmental studies, but their credit advisors are evaluated by the number of projects managed, not by their ability to reject high-risk projects.
Researchers race to understand new disease killing Caribbean corals at unprecedented rates (June 6, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/researchers-race-to-understand-new-disease-killing-caribbean-corals-at-unprecedented-rates/
- Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) is a novel coral disease that first emerged in Florida in 2014, and has now spread to 33 countries and territories in the Caribbean, including along the Mesoamerican Reef.
- SCTLD affects an unprecedented number of species (more than 30 species of reef-building corals), spreads quickly, and has a very high mortality rate.
- Researchers are still trying to figure out exactly what causes the disease.
- Researchers are also trying to understand how the coral microbiome is involved in or responds to SCTLD infection, and developing probiotics that they hope will offer an alternative treatment to antibiotics, with fieldwork in Belize, Colombia and elsewhere.
Four new snake species discovered in Papua New Guinea (June 5, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/four-new-snake-species-discovered-in-papua-new-guinea/
Herpetology has long navigated through tangled terrain in Papua New Guinea, where species mislabeling and sparse sampling have clouded scientific understanding. But a recent revision has brought rare clarity—and four unexpected discoveries, reports Akhyari Hananto for Mongabay-Indonesia. In April 2025, Fred Kraus of the University of Michigan published a study in Zootaxa identifying four new […] 
Why Brazil should abandon its plans for oil and gas in Amazonia (commentary) (June 5, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/why-brazil-should-abandon-its-plans-for-oil-and-gas-in-amazonia-commentary/
- The Brazilian government has major plans for oil and gas extraction both in the Amazon Rainforest and offshore — including at the mouth of the Amazon River — with a drilling rights auction scheduled for June 17 for fields both in the forest and offshore.
- Under intense pressure, the head of the federal environmental agency has now overridden his technical staff to allow the proposed mouth-of-the-Amazon project to move forward for approval.
- In addition to the risk of an uncontrollable oil spill, the economics of opening this and other new oilfields implies continued extraction long past the time when burning fossil fuels must cease if a global climate catastrophe is to be avoided.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Latin American banks still slow to protect the environment, report finds (June 5, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/latin-american-banks-still-slow-to-protect-the-environment-report-finds/
- Across Latin America, banks have failed to integrate sustainability regulations into lending, bond issuance and financial advisory services, according to a WWF sustainable finance assessment.
- WWF examined the policies of 22 banks across Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, and found that the countries’ financial sectors had largely failed to implement protections against nature-related risks, such as deforestation and biodiversity loss.
- Only six of the 22 banks have policies that acknowledge the “societal and economic risks” associated with environmental degradation, and just two of them have made net-zero carbon emission commitments for their lending portfolios.
New method can detect nearly every coral genus in Japan from water samples (June 5, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/new-method-can-detect-nearly-every-coral-genus-in-japan-from-water-samples/
- Environmental DNA (eDNA) coral research involves analyzing water samples to identify corals based on the DNA that they secrete into the water, largely via their mucus.
- eDNA research on corals can help scientists understand the changes wrought by global warming and marine pollution by providing coral identification data faster and in some cases more accurately than visual surveys by scientists.
- A team of marine scientists based in Japan, an archipelagic nation with a high level of coral biodiversity, has used an eDNA method to develop a system that can detect nearly all of the country’s 85 reef-building coral genera; no other research group in the world has achieved the same level of detection accuracy and coverage for corals using eDNA.
- They released their findings in a study published on May 22.
Methods to recognize the Amazon’s isolated peoples: Interview with Antenor Vaz (June 5, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/methods-to-recognize-the-amazons-isolated-peoples-interview-with-antenor-vaz/
- Mongabay interviewed Antenor Vaz, an international expert on recognition methodologies and protection policies for Indigenous peoples in isolation and initial contact (PIACI), about the importance of confirming and recognizing the existence of isolated peoples.
- Vaz is a regional adviser for GTI-PIACI, an international working group committed to the protection, defense and promotion of the rights of PIACI, which recently launched a report to help governments, Indigenous organizations and NGOs prove the existence of Indigenous peoples living in isolation.
- In this interview, Vaz highlights strategies states can use to confirm and recognize the existence of isolated peoples while maintaining the no-contact principle.
Climate strikes the Amazon, undermining protection efforts (June 5, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/06/climate-strikes-the-amazon-undermining-protection-efforts/
Fires raged across the Amazon rainforest in 2024, annihilating more than 4.6 million hectares of primary tropical forest—the most biodiverse and carbon-dense type of forest on Earth. That loss, which is larger than the size of Denmark, was more than twice the annual average between 2014 and 2023, according to data released last month by […]