Sri Lanka looks to build disaster-resilient housing after devastating cyclone (December 27, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/sri-lanka-looks-to-build-disaster-resilient-housing-after-devastating-cyclone/
- More than 1,200 landslides were recorded in two provinces in Sri Lanka following Cyclone Ditwah in late November, resulting in crisis evacuations to safeguard vulnerable populations.
- Most of the disaster-impacted people continue to live in high-risk regions due to the lack of alternative housing.
- The country’s mandated institution for landslide risk management, the National Building and Research Organisation (NBRO), says it’s working on the first national building code to establish minimum standards for the design, construction and maintenance of hazard-resilient housing.
- Following the significant loss of lives and homes in the recent disaster, the NBRO is also introducing specific types of housing models suitable for flat and sloped terrains.
Jay M. Savage, witness to disappearing frogs and builder of tropical science (December 27, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/jay-m-savage-witness-to-disappearing-frogs-and-builder-of-tropical-science/
- In the late 1980s, Jay M. Savage was among the first to recognize that amphibian declines in protected cloud forests were not isolated anomalies but part of a broader, global pattern that defied familiar explanations.
- His long career combined meticulous field science with institutional foresight, including foundational work in Central American herpetology and a central role in building the Organization for Tropical Studies as a durable base for tropical research and training.
- Savage treated institution-building and mentorship as integral to science itself, quietly supporting generations of students while insisting on continuity, rigor, and collaboration over spectacle or quick results.
- He approached extinction not as tragedy alone but as evidence with consequences, attentive to what disappears as much as what remains, and to the slow signals detected by those who return often enough to notice absence.
Year-end ‘good news’ as flat-headed cats reappear in Thailand after 29-year absence (December 26, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/year-end-good-news-as-flat-headed-cats-reappear-in-thailand-after-29-year-absence/
- Camera traps in Thailand’s Princess Sirindhorn Wildlife Sanctuary picked up 13 flat-headed cat records in 2024 and 16 more earlier this year.
- The last confirmed sighting of the species in Thailand was in 1995; across its range, which includes Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra, about 2,500 flat-headed cats are thought to survive.
- Elusive, nocturnal and semiaquatic, flat-headed cats are notoriously difficult to study, but conservationists say they hope their rediscovery in Thailand will galvanize interest in the species.
- Conservationists also call for increased protection of the peat swamp forest where the population has been found, noting the risk of trafficking that might accompany the announcement of the rediscovery.
Kristina Gjerde, defender of the deep ocean, has died (December 26, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/kristina-maria-gjerde/
- Much of the global ocean lies beyond national borders, where governance long lagged behind industrial expansion and responsibility thinned with distance from shore.
- Kristina Maria Gjerde helped reframe that problem as one of law and institutions, combining science, legal craft, and persistence to make protection of the high seas politically workable.
- Over two decades, she built and sustained coalitions that turned scattered warnings about deep-sea damage into a binding international framework.
- That effort culminated in the 2023 High Seas Treaty, an agreement whose force lies less in sudden ambition than in the accumulation of careful, patient work.
The year in rainforests 2025: Deforestation fell; the risks did not (December 26, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-year-in-rainforests-2025-deforestation-fell-the-risks-did-not/
- This analysis explores key storylines, examining the political, environmental, and economic dynamics shaping tropical rainforests in 2025, with attention to how policy, markets, and climate stress increasingly interact rather than operate in isolation.
- Across major forest regions, deforestation slowed in some places but degradation, fire, conflict, and legacy damage continued to erode forest health, often in ways that standard metrics fail to capture.
- Global responses remained uneven: conservation finance shifted toward fiscal and market-based tools, climate diplomacy deferred hard decisions, and enforcement outcomes depended heavily on institutional capacity and credibility rather than formal commitments alone.
- Taken together, the year showed that forest outcomes now hinge less on single interventions than on whether governments and institutions can sustain continuity—of funding, governance, science, and oversight—under mounting environmental and political strain.
Africa mulls gap in climate adaptation finance for agriculture (December 26, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/africa-mulls-gap-in-climate-adaptation-finance-for-agriculture/
- Agricultural adaptation in Africa is underfunded and smallholder farmers remain highly vulnerable to climate shocks despite in international funding pledges, say African stakeholders.
- They call for increased adaptation funding for the agricultural sector, but are skeptical that other countries will fill the shortfall.
- Climate finance is concentrated in a few countries and largely excludes the most vulnerable nations, leaving farmers with limited access to funds for climate-smart practices.
- Stakeholders call for public financing, better early-warning systems, loss-and-damage support, and the implementation of climate-smart agriculture.
Record fossil fuel emissions in 2025 despite renewables buildout, report says (December 26, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/record-fossil-fuel-emissions-in-2025-despite-renewables-buildout-report-says/
Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion are projected to reach a record 38.1 billion metric tons in 2025, an increase of 1.1% from 2024, according to the 2025 Global Carbon Budget. The report, now in its 20th edition, was released Nov. 13 as a preprint. It compiles national energy and emissions data from […]
Declared extinct in 2025: A look back at some of the species we lost (December 26, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/declared-extinct-in-2025-a-look-back-at-some-of-the-species-weve-lost/
Some species officially bid us farewell this year. They may have long been gone, but following more recent assessments, they’re now formally categorized as extinct on the IUCN Red List, considered the global authority on species’ conservation status. We may never see another individual of these species ever again. Or will we? Slender-billed curlew This […]
‘The bargain of the century’: An economist’s vision for expanding clean energy access in Africa (December 26, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-bargain-of-the-century-an-economists-vision-for-expanding-clean-energy-access-in-africa/
- The recent U.N. climate conference (COP30) in Brazil resulted in the Belém Action Mechanism (BAM) to bring about a just energy transition that embraces renewable energy and expands access to power.
- But details on how the transition will be accomplished remain elusive.
- Economist Fadhel Kaboub contends that the transition should not reinforce existing inequalities in Africa and other parts of the Global South.
- Kaboub sees an opportunity in the energy transition to remedy those power imbalances, which he calls “the bargain of the century.”
Stuart Brooks, peat protector, has died (December 26, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/stuart-brooks-conservationist-of-unfashionable-landscapes/
- Stuart Brooks was part of a small group of conservationists who helped shift peatlands from the margins of environmental policy to a recognized priority for climate, biodiversity, and land management. His influence came through persistence rather than spectacle.
- Trained as a geographer, he built practical expertise in peatland ecology early in his career and helped consolidate it into guidance that became standard for restoration work in the UK and beyond.
- In senior roles at the Scottish Wildlife Trust, the John Muir Trust, and the National Trust for Scotland, he worked to align conservation practice with public policy, often arguing for approaches that respected natural processes over intervention.
- As a founder and chair of the IUCN UK Peatland Program, he translated specialist knowledge into institutions, strategies, and protections that continue to shape peatland restoration at national and international levels.
Conservation wins in 2025 that pushed us closer to the 30×30 goal (December 26, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/conservation-wins-in-2025-that-pushed-us-closer-to-the-30x30-goal/
The “30 by 30” biodiversity target to protect 30% of the Earth’s land and ocean by 2030 is fast approaching — and the world is far off the pace needed for success: Less than 10% of oceans and just 17.6% of land and inland waters enjoy some sort of protection. Still, 2025 saw some […]
10 notable books on conservation and the environment published in 2025 (December 25, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/10-notable-books-on-conservation-and-the-environment-published-in-2025/
- As challenging as 2025 has been for conservation and environmental issues, the dogged struggle to address the crises we face remains a central focus for scientists, activists and communities around the globe.
- Their stories hold the promise of a brighter future in the years to come.
- The list below features a sample of important literature on conservation and the environment published this year.
- Inclusion in this list does not imply Mongabay’s endorsement of a book’s content; the views in the books are those of the authors and not necessarily of Mongabay.
Tell Hicks, reptile artist (December 25, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/tell-hicks-reptile-artist/
- Tell Hicks helped bring reptiles and amphibians into serious artistic view, treating snakes, lizards, and turtles as subjects worthy of close, unsentimental attention rather than symbols or curiosities. His paintings emphasized accuracy, individuality, and restraint.
- Largely self-taught, he traveled widely and worked directly from field observation, developing meticulous techniques in egg tempera and later fast-drying oils to support highly detailed work, often produced in public settings.
- He became a central figure in herpetological communities in Britain and the United States, helping found the International Herpetological Society, serving as its president, and contributing artwork that circulated through museums, shows, and educational spaces.
- After a life-altering accident left him paralyzed, he adapted his practice and returned to painting, continuing to attend reptile shows and engage with the community that had long formed around his work.
France’s largest rewilding project (December 25, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/frances-largest-rewilding-project/
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. He has spent much of his life in the shadow of the Dauphiné Alps in southeastern France, where limestone cliffs catch the morning light and the silhouettes of horned ibex move across the ridgelines. To Fabien Quétier, who […]
Environmentalist hugs tree for 72 hours for Kenya’s native forests (December 25, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/environmentalist-hugs-tree-for-72-hours-for-kenyas-native-forests/
A Kenyan environmentalist hugged a palm tree for 72 straight hours in Nyeri county to draw attention to the rapid loss of the country’s native forests, many of which face extinction. Truphena Muthoni’s feat, reported by Mongabay contributing editor Lynet Otieno, is in the process of being considered for a new Guinness World Record. It […]
Top ocean news stories of 2025 (commentary) (December 24, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/top-ocean-news-stories-of-2025-commentary/
- Marking the midway point in the U.N. Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, 2025 was a key year for the ocean.
- The past 12 months brought landslide multilateral wins for ocean policy, unprecedented ocean financial commitments, and increasing momentum to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030.
- Here, marine scientists, policy experts and a communications expert lay out the key ocean stories from the past year.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.
Cyclone Ditwah exposes climate risks to nature-based tourism in Sri Lanka (December 24, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/cyclone-ditwah-exposes-climate-risks-to-nature-based-tourism-in-sri-lanka/
- In late November, Cyclone Ditwah triggered landslides and flooding across Sri Lanka’s biodiversity-rich hill country, disrupting nature-based tourism during the peak travel season.
- UNESCO World Heritage sites, including the Knuckles Conservation Forest, Horton Plains and Peak Wilderness, faced trail closures, access restrictions and infrastructure damage.
- Popular destinations faced cancellations and closures, hitting local families who depend on tourism for their livelihoods, though they remain hopeful of a swift recovery.
- Experts warn that reopening of these sites should not be unnecessarily rushed, emphasizing safety, environmental protection and long-term sustainability to preserve both livelihoods and biodiversity.
New pitcher plant found in the Philippines may already be critically endangered (December 24, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/new-pitcher-plant-found-in-the-philippines-may-already-be-critically-endangered/
Researchers have described a new-to-science species of carnivorous plant that’s known from only three locations on the Philippines’ Palawan Island. The newly described pitcher plant, which grows on very difficult-to-access vertical limestone walls, may already be critically endangered given its extremely restricted range and tiny population, the researchers say in a recent study. Nepenthes is […]
William Bond, grasslands researcher who reminded conservation that context matters, has died (December 24, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/william-bond-grasslands-researcher-who-reminded-conservation-that-context-matters-has-died/
- William Bond spent his career challenging the assumption that forests are nature’s default state, arguing that grasslands and savannas are ancient ecosystems shaped by fire, grazing, and long evolutionary history.
- As enthusiasm for mass tree planting grew, he became a leading critic of blanket afforestation, warning that well-intentioned climate policies could damage biodiversity, water systems, and carbon stores when applied without context.
- His research emphasized scale and evidence, showing that trees do not universally increase rainfall, replenish rivers, or solve climate change, and that soils and open landscapes often matter more than slogans suggest.
- By insisting that conservation begin with understanding how landscapes actually function, he forced policymakers and scientists alike to slow down, look closer, and accept that complexity is not an obstacle but a necessity.
Cape Town’s new plan for baboons: Fence, capture and possibly euthanize (December 24, 2025)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/12/cape-towns-new-plan-for-baboons-fence-capture-and-possibly-euthanize/
Authorities in Cape Town, South Africa, have released an updated baboon action plan aimed at reducing conflict between people and baboons, which regularly enter urban areas in search of food. The plan, which includes euthanasia of some baboons, has drawn criticism from animal welfare groups. The plan says the population of chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) […]