Discovery of dazzling blue butterfly underscores peril facing Angola’s forests (September 3, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/discovery-of-dazzling-blue-butterfly-underscores-peril-facing-angolas-forests/
- Scientists have described a new butterfly species, Francis’s gorgeous sapphire (Iolaus francisi), from Angola’s Namba Mountains, where its survival depends on mistletoe plants.
- High-altitude evergreen forests, known as Afromontane and covering about 590 hectares (1,460 acres) in the Namba Mountains, are the largest of their kind in Angola but remain without legal protection.
- Researchers warn that fires, timber harvesting, and especially unregulated farming could devastate the forests, as has happened at Kumbira, another Angolan Afromontane forest.
- Conservationists say community-led initiatives are key to protecting Namba, as Angola’s parliament moves to consider protected status for nearby Mount Moco, another Afromontane oasis.
To save humanity and nature we must tackle wealth inequality, says Cambridge researcher (September 3, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2025/09/to-save-humanity-and-nature-we-must-tackle-wealth-inequality-says-cambridge-researcher/
Wealth inequality is a primary culprit behind the ecological and environmental collapse of societies over the past 12,000 years, which have come to be dominated by a small circle of elites hoarding resources like land, research shows. Today, instead of an isolated collapse, we face a global one, says Luke Kemp, a researcher at the […]
Why is rainfall declining in the Amazon? New research says deforestation is the leading driver (September 2, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/why-is-rainfall-declining-in-the-amazon-new-research-says-deforestation-is-the-leading-driver/
- Deforestation in the Amazon has been identified as the main driver of declining rainfall, responsible for nearly three-quarters of the drop in dry-season precipitation since the mid-1980s.
- Between 1985 and 2020, dry-season rainfall fell by about 21mm annually, with 15.8mm linked to forest loss, while maximum daily temperatures rose by 2°C, about one-sixth of which was caused by deforestation.
- Amazonian trees generate more than 40% of the region’s rainfall through transpiration, and their removal disrupts local and regional weather, influencing monsoons and increasing drought risk far beyond the basin.
- If current deforestation trends persist, by 2035 the region could lose another 7mm of rainfall in the dry season and heat up by 0.6°C, pushing the Amazon toward a drier climate like the Cerrado or Caatinga.
Glowing plants could become living energy-free light sources (September 2, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/09/glowing-plants-could-become-living-energy-free-light-sources/
In nature, many organisms glow in the dark, including lightning bugs, some squid and jellyfish, using light to attract a mate or lure prey. Now, researchers have engineered glowing succulents, plants that recharge in sunlight and shine bright at night, an early step toward living, energy-free light sources. The study team, led by Shuting Liu, […]
Vatican puts Pope Francis’ ecological preaching into practice with vocational farm center (September 2, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/09/vatican-puts-pope-francis-ecological-preaching-into-practice-with-vocational-farm-center/
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (AP) — The Vatican is inaugurating an ambitious educational center inspired by Pope Francis’ ecological legacy. It’s opening a 55-acre utopian experiment in sustainable farming, vocational training and environmental schooling for kids and CEOs alike on the grounds of the papal estate on Lake Albano. Pope Leo XIV will formally open the […]
Leopards and wild dogs are thriving in Zambia’s Kafue National Park (September 2, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/09/leopards-and-wild-dogs-are-thriving-in-zambias-kafue-national-park/
Camera-trap images from a section of Kafue National Park in Zambia show conservation efforts are paying off: Populations of leopards, wild dogs and lions are all growing, Mongabay contributor Ryan Truscott reported in July. Truscott interviewed Chisomo M’hango, trainee field ecologist at Musekese Conservation (MC), a nonprofit monitoring wildlife in the Musekese-Lumbeya section of the park. […]
Sparrow Top Gun (cartoon) (September 2, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/custom-story/2025/09/sparrow-top-gun-cartoon/
Considered one of the most endangered birds in all of North America, the Florida grasshopper sparrow has found a rather unlikely ally in its uphill battle for existence—the US Air Force. Prairies maintained by the force in its Avon Park range have proven to be a critical breeding habitat for the bird, with the air […]
New model reveals hidden dynamics of Indonesia’s booming songbird trade (September 2, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indonesia-songbird-trade-wildlife-trafficking-market-demand-supply/
- Researchers have built the first model mapping supply and demand in Indonesia’s vast songbird trade, finding that species traits like mimicry and rarity drive demand more than species identity.
- The study identified 332 species from trade data from 2015-2022, and grouped them into three demand clusters: competition birds, vulnerable species at risk from poaching, and household pets kept for status or rarity.
- Findings show substitution fuels the trade, with sellers offering similar species at different price points, quickly expanding pressure to new species and compounding conservation risks.
- The model offers a blueprint for conservation strategies, highlighting the need for market monitoring and community engagement to address cultural drivers behind the trade without triggering backlash.
Scientists reconfirm rare shark sightings after 50 years in PNG (September 2, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/09/scientists-reconfirm-rare-shark-sightings-after-50-years-in-png/
In 1973, researchers scientifically described a species of shark based on a single specimen: a pregnant female caught a few years earlier by a fisherman near the mouth of the Gogol River in Astrolabe Bay, Papua New Guinea. They named this new-to-science species the sailback houndshark (Gogolia filewoodi). And then, for the next half-century, they […]
Restoring the Páramo: How Ecuador healed its degraded high-Andean ecosystem (September 2, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/09/restoring-the-paramo-how-ecuador-healed-its-degraded-high-andean-ecosystem/
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Ecuador’s Antisana páramo, southeast of Quito, offers a striking example of ecological restoration, turning back the clock on centuries of degradation caused by livestock grazing, reports contributor Ana Cristina Alvarado for Mongabay. Once dominated by sprawling cattle ranches, […]
Dying for Arariboia (September 2, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/specials/2025/09/dying-for-arariboia/
In Brazil’s Arariboia Indigenous Territory, the Guajajara people and uncontacted Awá have been subjected to violence and land grabbing. This Mongabay series reveals a pattern of targeted killings amid a surge of illegal cattle ranching and logging in and around Arariboia, fueling conflict and exposing failures in enforcement and land protection policy. Symbolizing these issues […]
A Chinese mining company is accused of covering up the extent of a major toxic spill in Zambia (September 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/09/a-chinese-mining-company-is-accused-of-covering-up-the-extent-of-a-major-toxic-spill-in-zambia/
LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) — A Chinese-owned mining company has been accused of covering up the extent of a disastrous toxic spill in Zambia that polluted a major river that millions rely on with cyanide and arsenic. The spill happened in February when part of a dam that held waste from the Sino-Metals Leach Zambia copper […]
Censured Sumatra coal plant blamed for sickening children in Indonesia’s Bengkulu (September 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/censured-sumatra-coal-plant-blamed-for-sickening-children-in-indonesias-bengkulu/
- A 2×100 megawatt coal power plant established by Chinese state-owned enterprise, Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina), incurred environmental penalties in 2023 from Indonesia’s environment ministry for dumping fly ash into a protected marine area off the city of Bengkulu in Sumatra.
- Residents of Teluk Sepang in 2019 formed a grassroots organization to advocate for clean air while holding to account PowerChina’s Indonesian affiliate, PT Tenaga Listrik Bengkulu.
- Data from a local clinic in Teluk Sepang showed a large share of young people living in the shadow of the coal plant suffer from respiratory diseases.
‘Let’s understand the value of the forest’ says Liberia’s Silas Siakor (September 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/lets-understand-the-value-of-the-forest-says-liberias-silas-siakor/
- Twenty-eight communities in southeastern Liberia are set to begin receiving “area-based payments” in exchange for preventing unsustainable logging and mining, curbing shifting agriculture and limiting the establishment of new settlements in forests they manage.
- A pilot project, designed by a Liberian NGO and backed by funding from the Irish government, will pay villagers to protect the forest over the next two years.
- Mongabay’s Ashoka Mukpo spoke to Goldman Prize-winner Silas Siakor about how the initiative responds to the immediate needs of this rural population.
New bat species described from Western Himalayas (September 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/09/new-bat-species-described-from-western-himalayas/
Researchers reviewing the diversity of bats in the Western Himalayas in India recently confirmed a new-to-science species from Uttarakhand state. Named the Himalayan long-tailed myotis (Myotis himalaicus) in a new study, the bat boasts a tail nearly as long as its body. Rohit Chakravarty, a bat researcher and conservationist with the nonprofit Nature Conservation Foundation, […]
Liberia has a new plan to protect its rainforests. Can it work? (September 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/liberia-has-a-new-plan-to-protect-its-rainforests-can-it-work/
- Half of West Africa’s remaining rainforests are in Liberia, but in 2024, it lost more than 38,000 hectares (94,000 acres) of humid primary forest, according to Global Forest Watch.
- That was the highest rate of deforestation recorded for Liberia, driven by trees being cleared for agriculture, mining and logging.
- A new pilot project being launched in Liberia’s remote southwest will make “area-based payments” to 28 communities in exchange for commitments to protect some of their customary forests.
- Designed by former Goldman Environmental Prize winner Silas Siakor, the project is an example of “non-market approaches” to carbon sequestration.
How scientists unmask climate change’s role in extreme weather (September 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/09/how-scientists-unmask-climate-changes-role-in-extreme-weather/
How do scientists determine whether climate change is driving extreme weather events like the floods, heat waves and droughts that we’re experiencing today? To find out about the science of attribution, Mongabay’s Kristine Sabillo recently interviewed environmental statistician Clair Barnes of World Weather Attribution (WWA), a global network of researchers that has been analyzing the […]
Nepal looks to Cambodia’s breeding model as Bengal florican numbers plunge (September 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/nepal-looks-to-cambodias-breeding-model-as-bengal-florican-numbers-plunge/
- Nepal is debating a captive-breeding program for the Bengal florican, a critically endangered bird, but experts say it shouldn’t be an alternative to stronger habitat protection.
- Fewer than 1,000 birds remain worldwide, with just a few dozen in Nepal, where farming, invasive plants, pesticides and disturbance are driving the decline.
- Cambodia has hatched floricans in captivity, and Nepal has similar experience with vultures, but experts warn that floricans are elusive, sensitive to stress, and difficult to breed.
- Conservationists stress the need for better grassland management, protection of nonbreeding habitats, and community support programs to prevent grassland conversion for agriculture.
An Indigenous-led solar canoe initiative expands across the Amazon (September 1, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/an-indigenous-led-solar-canoe-initiative-expands-across-the-amazon/
- Eight years since its launch, a solar-powered canoe initiative by the Kara Solar Foundation in Ecuador has expanded to Indigenous coastal communities in Brazil, Peru, Suriname and the Solomon Islands.
- Kara Solar representatives and Indigenous leaders say the project leads to a decrease in gasoline and diesel use that pollute waterways, reduces the need for road expansion and helps communities develop non-extractive income projects.
- By 2030, they hope to expand and support the operation of 10,000 solar-powered boats across the Amazon Basin and build a network of Indigenous-owned and operated recharge stations.
- But access to the required large amount of financing or investment remains a challenge and the project is exploring funding models for communities.
Marc Stalmans, ecologist who helped restore Gorongosa’s wildlife, dies at 66 (August 31, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/marc-stalmans-ecologist-who-helped-restore-gorongosas-wildlife-dies-at-66/
- Marc Stalmans, who died on August 30th at 66, was central to Gorongosa National Park’s transformation from a war-ravaged landscape to a thriving ecosystem.
- As science director from 2012, he guided reintroductions, species balance, and land management with data-driven ecological insight.
- His work combined practical field research with academic rigor, emphasizing that science should directly inform conservation action.
- Under his leadership, Gorongosa documented nearly 8,000 species, trained Mozambican scientists, and saw its large animal population grow tenfold in two decades.