If we don’t start counting insect populations, we won’t know what we’re losing (commentary) (October 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/if-we-dont-start-counting-insect-populations-we-wont-know-what-were-losing-commentary/
- Insects are in steep decline from habitat loss, pesticides, invasive species, and a destabilizing climate, but it’s also hard to quantify what happens after disturbances like the floods we’ve seen lately — unless we begin counting them, a new op-ed argues.
- The scant research done on this has shown steep declines of up to 93% after flooding events, and this has a huge effect on everything that depends on insects, from plants to grazing animals.
- “To measure what a flood takes from an insect community, you need to know what was there first,” the author writes. “This is a solvable problem.”
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
China’s record-breaking exports of clean tech are making a big dent in emissions, report says (October 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/10/chinas-record-breaking-exports-of-clean-tech-are-making-a-big-dent-in-emissions-report-says/
BANGKOK (AP) — China is exporting a record amount of clean energy technology and that is making a dent in global emissions. Interest in renewables has surged due to the energy crisis from the Iran war. A report released Thursday shows that China’s exports of clean energy equipment such as solar panels, wind turbines, batteries […]
‘Already feeling it’: Northern Amazon waterfall season ends early, hurting livelihoods (October 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/already-feeling-it-northern-amazon-waterfall-season-ends-early-hurting-livelihoods/
- Driven by a “super El Niño,” reduced rainfall in Roraima has lowered water levels in the state’s main rivers, cutting off the flow of seasonal waterfalls that form in the mountains, including the cascade known as Véu de Noiva.
- By drying up the waterfall earlier than usual, climate change is directly hurting regional tourism, which local residents and surrounding communities rely on for their livelihoods.
- Guides and tourism specialists say the drop in tour bookings has forced the sector to reinvent itself, while the state government operates under a state of emergency to prepare for environmental fallout from El Niño.
Investigations into Singapore palm oil firm find family ties to Borneo deforesters (October 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/investigations-into-singapore-palm-oil-firm-find-family-ties-to-borneo-deforesters/
- Investigations find links between Singapore-listed Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) member First Resources and some of Borneo’s biggest deforesters.
- Shipping records at a shared terminal raise concerns that deforestation-linked oil is entering global supply chains marketed as sustainable.
- Rainforest Action Network claims First Resources misled Singapore’s stock exchange with an earlier denial of common ownership. First Resources has repeated its denial and points to the dismissal of a complaint lodged against through the RSPO.
- Scrutiny comes as the firm faces investigation by Singapore’s environment agency for links to transboundary haze.
Ghana targets end to raw mineral exports by 2030 to boost local industry (October 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/10/ghana-targets-end-to-raw-mineral-exports-by-2030-to-boost-local-industry/
Ghana has set itself an ambitious target to end the export of unprocessed mineral ores by 2030 as it moves to strengthen in-country processing and manufacturing, transforming its mineral wealth into domestic industries and jobs. President John Dramani Mahama announced the goal during the African Minerals Policy Forum in the capital, Accra, on the theme […]
Early tech warning hopes to give Sumatra’s peat community a head start on fires (October 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/early-tech-warning-hopes-to-give-sumatras-peat-community-a-head-start-on-fires/
- Indonesia is experiencing its worse wildfires in years as a strong El Niño delays the onset of the archipelago’s main rainy seasons after months of drought across much of Borneo and Sumatra.
- In the Sumatran district of Muaro Jambi, a fire in a community-managed forest spotlights an in-tervention backed by Canada’s overseas office and the University of Waterloo.
- The early-warning system detects increases in temperature and declining water levels, among other readings.
- Designed to be simple to both install and maintain, it can publish data collected in the public domain, and could give communities and civil servants working on fire prevention more infor-mation in real time.
‘Design conservation with those who will live with it’: 30 by 30 in Africa (October 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/design-conservation-with-those-who-will-live-with-it-30-by-30-in-africa/
- The Global Biodiversity Framework commits African governments to protecting 30% of land and sea by 2030.
- This target is in jeopardy in Africa and elsewhere: as of October 2026, about 20% of terrestrial and 17% of the continent’s marine environments enjoyed protection.
- As parties to the Convention on Biodiversity meet in Yerevan, Armenia, the challenges of translating 30 by 30 into reality Africa are to the fore.
- But marine protected areas around Pemba, Tanzania, illustrate some of the guidelines that can help Africa reach 30 by 30 in a meaningful way, experts say.
Fires and weak monitoring hinder reforestation efforts in Mozambique (October 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/fires-and-weak-monitoring-hinder-reforestation-efforts-in-mozambique/
- In central Mozambique’s Tónduè Forest, uncontrolled fires destroyed 70% of replanted trees, leaving surviving saplings stunted and fire-damaged.
- Post-planting monitoring remains one of the greatest obstacles to forest maintenance in Zambézia province, where sites receive an average of just one visit a year — a frequency officials consider negligible and ineffective for plant growth.
- Local communities are calling for tangible benefits to encourage forest conservation, at a time when a portion of the carbon credit funds allocated to them remains unpaid because beneficiaries lack official documentation.
Pemba’s new marine protected areas show the power of collaboration to meet 30×30 goal (October 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/pembas-new-marine-protected-areas-show-the-power-of-collaboration-to-meet-30x30-goal/
- The east coast of Pemba Island was facing severe overfishing and illegal activity leading to declining fish populations and degrading ecosystems.
- In an extensive collaboration between more than 20 local communities, the Tanzanian government, and environmental NGOs, two new marine protected areas have been introduced in order to protect the ecosystem and those who rely on it.
- Pemba’s MPAs are providing a lesson on how we can use co-management, true collaboration and locally led solutions to achieve the 30×30 goal in a meaningful way.
India’s forgotten vegetables offer a glimpse into what global diets are missing (October 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/10/indias-forgotten-vegetables-offer-a-glimpse-into-what-global-diets-are-missing/
The world is eating a smaller variety of vegetables as diets become increasingly uniform, reports contributor Sharmila Vaidyanathan for Mongabay India. In India, Indigenous crops such as the clove bean and the Yerengere white long eggplant have largely vanished from commercial markets as hybrid varieties dominate supply chains. Prabhakar Rao, a natural farmer and founder […]
Fishing cat rescue-and-release offers potential model for conservation in Bangladesh (October 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/10/fishing-cat-rescue-and-release-offers-potential-model-for-conservation-in-bangladesh/
A fishing cat found badly injured and malnourished in northern Bangladesh has been returned to the wild following months of intensive rehabilitation. The feline was recently released into a tea estate bordering a large freshwater wetland, after being fitted with a satellite-tracking collar. Fishing cats (Prionailurus viverrinus), one of the larger species of small wildcats, […]
Fishers in eastern Indonesia struggle as rough seas keep them ashore (October 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/fishers-in-eastern-indonesia-struggle-as-rough-seas-keep-them-ashore/
- Fishers in Indonesia’s Maluku Islands say increasingly rough seas are keeping them ashore and reducing their catches as the current El Niño intensifies, threatening livelihoods in communities dependent on fishing.
- Early monitoring shows declining catches at some sites around the Maluku islands of Ambon and Seram.
- Meanwhile, a recently published global study found that extreme ocean heat and low marine productivity are associated with a greater risk of exceptionally poor catches, particularly in tropical regions.
- With Indonesia bracing for prolonged dry conditions under the El Niño, researchers are investigating whether changing ocean temperatures and coastal habitats are adding to the challenges facing local fishing communities.
‘Action on the ground’ in Laos is needed to recover large mammals, protect more species (October 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/action-on-the-ground-in-laos-is-needed-to-recover-large-mammals-protect-more-species/
- A new study that examines the status and recovery prospects of large mammals in Laos concludes many losses could have been mitigated with earlier recognition of population declines, better protection of habitats and tighter control of hunting and the illegal wildlife trade.
- Sumatran rhinos and Javan rhinos disappeared from Laos by the 1990s, and the last verified record of tigers was in 2013. Wild water buffalo and the kouprey, both species of wild cattle, have also disappeared.
- The study notes Laos still supports 24 separate populations of Asian elephant and recommends conservation authorities and researchers focus recovery efforts on reconnecting movement corridors, transboundary landscapes and implementing coexistence measures to minimize conflicts and killings.
- Experts say the future of large mammals in Laos depends on the political will to implement existing conservation plans and enforce protections. It also hinges on long-term financial support in a region often overlooked by conservation funders.
‘Historic win’: Australian state approves national koala park despite controversial funding (October 29, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/historic-win-australian-state-approves-national-koala-park-despite-controversial-funding/
- The parliament of Australia’s New South Wales state has passed legislation to create the Great Koala National Park.
- The park, slated to open before the end of 2026, will incorporate 178,000 hectares (440,000 acres) of state forests and other government land into the existing national park estate, creating a protected area spanning 475,000 hectares (1.2 million acres).
- A carbon credit scheme will be used to fund the park in the long term, an approach that has been widely criticized.
- Multiple attempts to amend the carbon credit scheme were voted down in parliament.
Netherlands pledges $500 million to help conserve tropical forests (October 28, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/10/netherlands-pledges-500-million-to-help-conserve-tropical-forests/
The Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), which was created to fund long-term conservation of tropical forests, recently received a $500-million pledge, over 10 years, from the Netherlands, a significant boost for forest conservation. The Netherlands announced the pledge in an Oct 26 press release and estimated that the TFFF has the potential to protect 800 […]
Eradicating invasive bass gives endangered South African fish room to recover (October 28, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/10/eradicating-invasive-bass-gives-endangered-south-african-fish-room-to-recover/
An ambitious effort to eradicate invasive spotted bass from South Africa’s Breekkrans River has unfolded about two hours north of Cape Town. Removing the bass has helped give the critically endangered doring fiery redfin (Pseudobarbus doring) a fighting chance against extinction. “Spotted bass were introduced into the river system in the late 1930s,” Martine Jordaan, […]
Suriname’s rich archaeological history may hold keys to conservation (October 28, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/surinames-rich-archaeological-history-may-hold-keys-to-conservation/
- For more than two decades, field research by archaeological anthropologist Renzo Duin has documented densely saturated archaeological landscapes beneath forest canopies, usually classified as “untouched.”
- While illegal gold mining pollutes rivers with mercury and cyanide, mapping historical ecological sites in Suriname could leverage Indigenous guardianship to protect the forest’s rich biodiversity.
- Despite the nation’s high-profile pledge to permanently protect 90% of its forests, experts warn that neglecting the historical role of Indigenous stewardship leaves the ecosystem vulnerable to ongoing illegal deforestation.
A town-wide ‘living laboratory’ shows how green spaces can combat climate extremes (October 28, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/a-town-wide-living-laboratory-shows-how-green-spaces-can-combat-climate-extremes/
- Two recent studies out of the U.K. town of Guildford, which has been equipped with a suite of sensors to become a “living lab,” show that green spaces provide significant benefits to urban centers — and do so with more detail than many previous studies.
- The first study, focused on a large park, showed that the park made the surrounding area cooler and less noisy, and reduced air pollution, with the park’s effects decreasing with every 100 meters from its border; it also showed that different types of green spaces offer different cooling effects for people within them.
- The second study showed that the type of green space within Guildford mattered when it came to temperature reductions during extreme heat, with large green spaces like woodlands showing the lowest increase in temperature.
- Experts say that these fine-scale details could be helpful for researchers, planners and engineers who want to design urban green spaces to provide cities and towns with greater protections from the impacts of climate change.
Why I sent my archive of nature’s sounds to France (commentary) (October 28, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/10/why-i-sent-my-archive-of-natures-sounds-to-france-commentary/
- Drawing on more than half a century of recording natural soundscapes, soundscape ecologist Bernie Krause reflects on how disappearing wildlife voices reveal ecological decline.
- Concerned about political threats to science, Krause transferred a copy of his extensive recording archive to a foundation in Paris to safeguard it for future generations.
- In this commentary, he argues that nature’s interdependence offers lessons for human societies about diversity, equity and inclusion, and calls for protecting both living ecosystems and the scientific records documenting their loss.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
US public lands tracker highlights the collective impact of Trump policies (October 28, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/10/us-public-lands-tracker-highlights-the-collective-impact-of-trump-policies/
In his second term as the U.S. president, Donald Trump has taken actions to remove protections from at least 34.8 million hectares (86 million acres) of public lands, according to the advocacy group Center for American Progress. The nonprofit Conservation Lands Foundation (CLF) recently catalogued 12 such policy actions in its newly released Public Lands […]