How one woman’s farm is a model for small-scale farmers in Malawi (June 17, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/how-one-womans-farm-is-a-model-for-small-scale-farmers-in-malawi/
In Malawi’s Chiradzulu district, located in the southern region of the country, Diana Sitima’s farm shows how a combination of agroecology and secure land ownership can create a thriving commercial enterprise. Many neighboring farmers rely primarily on growing and selling maize. But, on her 3.5-hectare (8.6-acre) farm, Sitima combines diverse crops of fruits and vegetables […]
How a tiny blue gecko became a conservation comeback story (June 17, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/how-a-tiny-blue-gecko-became-a-conservation-comeback-story/
Williams electric blue day gecko is a small Tanzanian reptile whose recovery shows what focused conservation can do, reports Mongabay contributor, Manuel Fonseca. Once heavily collected for Europe’s pet trade, the species is now rebounding because pressure from trade has eased, captive breeding has reduced demand for wild animals, and local people are helping restore […]
The Bougainville community in Panguna wants justice for mining’s ‘toxic legacy’ (June 16, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2026/06/the-bougainville-community-in-panguna-wants-justice-for-minings-toxic-legacy/
Theonila Roka Matbob grew up next to what was — at the time — the world’s largest open-pit mine in Bougainville, an autonomous region in Papua New Guinea, operated by a subsidiary of Rio Tinto. This mine wrought environmental and social devastation on the community of Panguna for decades. And many of these impacts carry […]
Rain along the Gulf Coast could become the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season (June 16, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/rain-along-the-gulf-coast-could-become-the-first-named-storm-of-the-atlantic-hurricane-season/
MIAMI (AP) — A cluster of storms along the Gulf Coast could become the first named tropical storm of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, the National Hurricane Center said. The storms threatened to bring heavy downpours that could lead to dangerous floods across southern states including Texas and Louisiana. The system was centered Tuesday afternoon about […]
Lawsuit demands accountability for Cerro de Pasco mining pollution in Peru (June 16, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/lawsuit-demands-accountability-for-cerro-de-pasco-mining-pollution-in-peru/
- The Cerro de Pasco mine in Peru’s central highlands has caused years of environmental and public health issues due to heavy metal pollution, a new lawsuit says. The mine contains silver, copper, zinc and lead, among other metals.
- The mayor and public prosecutor for the municipality of Cerro de Pasco want operators to admit responsibility for the pollution and revise their mining practices. They also want the companies to conduct health studies and pay for medical treatment for residents.
- Although Cerro de Pasco has been repeatedly recognized as an extremely contaminated zone that gravely affects vulnerable populations, measures so far have not improved outcomes for local communities and the environment.
‘Thinking how traffickers think’: Study uses AI to detect marine wildlife smuggling (June 16, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/thinking-how-traffickers-think-study-uses-ai-to-detect-marine-wildlife-smuggling/
- Researchers have developed what they say is the first AI algorithm dedicated to detecting trafficked dead marine wildlife from 3D X-ray images.
- The system was most effective at finding species with idiosyncratic shapes, like shark fins and seahorses, but also detected sea cucumbers with 86% accuracy.
- Interpol seized more marine specimens than reptiles, birds and primates combined in 2025, but experts say the illicit trade remains underrecognized compared to tracking of terrestrial animals and their parts.
- The effectiveness of the new approach may be limited by access to 3D X-ray machines in airports and mail pathways, and when officials try to distinguish between species in the same genus.
How a popular spaghetti dish is threatening Italy’s marine ecosystem (June 16, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/how-a-popular-spaghetti-dish-is-threatening-italys-marine-ecosystem/
- In the waters off Naples, Italy, a single 75-minute raid by poachers can net nearly 1,000 sea urchins, an in-demand ingredient in a dish popular with tourists. A haul like that can deal a significant blow to the local urchin population.
- In a healthy marine ecosystem, fish like sea bream feed on urchins, keeping populations in check. When poachers decimate sea urchin colonies, commercial fish move elsewhere to find food, threatening legal fishers’ livelihoods.
- Experts say Italy’s marine protected areas are particularly vulnerable. Although they have criminal penalties to deter poachers, the surrounding waters have been completely stripped bare of urchins, making them attractive targets.
- Now, scientists are collecting data from law enforcement operations to raise awareness and drive regulatory changes.
Teeming with turtles: Cabo Verde island sees 80-fold increase in nesting loggerheads (June 16, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/teeming-with-turtles-cabo-verde-island-sees-80-fold-increase-in-nesting-loggerheads/
- A new study finds an 80-fold increase in the population of loggerhead turtles nesting at three beaches in Boa Vista, Cabo Verde’s third-largest island, over 27 years.
- Globally, the loggerhead population has decreased by 47% over the past three generations, a decline largely attributed to anthropogenic pressures such as habitat loss, marine pollution, fishing bycatch, poaching and multiple climate change-driven impacts.
- The authors of this first-of-its-kind study of Cabo Verde’s nesting loggerheads attribute the remarkable local recovery to decades-long conservation efforts.
In Rio Indio, farmers fight Panama Canal reservoir project — and displacement (June 16, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-rio-indio-farmers-fight-panama-canal-reservoir-project-and-displacement/
- The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) plans to create a reservoir in the Rio Indio Basin, a 98-kilometer river in central Panama where 231 farming communities live. The project would cover about 11,370 acres and displace 38 farming communities, totaling about 2,000 residents.
- Opposition to the Rio Indio Project among farmer communities is growing strong through street protests, legal action and the enlistment of experts to analyze its social and legal impacts.
- Communities support the expansion of an existing reservoir fed by the Bayano River that would not require relocating people, but ACP tells Mongabay that the Bayano option has been long studied and that Río Indio provides more technical and energy advantages.
- The Rio Indio Project would not only relocate residents but would disrupt ecosystems and endemic species and could increase the spread of vector-transmitted diseases, experts warn.
Beyond wildlife trade: Endangered pangolins are losing habitat in Pakistan (June 16, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/beyond-wildlife-trade-endangered-pangolins-are-losing-habitat-in-pakistan/
- The endangered Indian pangolin, long targeted by poachers for illegal trade of its scales and meat, has declined by 80% in Pakistan.
- Now poaching is compounded by disappearing habitat, rising human population and encroaching infrastructure in six districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a mountainous region in northwestern Pakistan that has been important habitat, according to new research.
- To mitigate this, the region’s wildlife department created four protected pangolin protection zones in Pakistan.
Climate-fueled landslides killed an estimated 58 Tapanuli orangutans, study finds (June 16, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/climate-fueled-landslides-killed-an-estimated-58-tapanuli-orangutans-study-finds/
- The study found that landslides triggered by extreme rainfall in November 2025 likely killed about 7% of the estimated global population of Tapanuli orangutans.
- Researchers warned that without swift intervention, the species could face increasingly frequent climate-driven disasters in the future.
- The study only quantified direct mortality from landslides and did not account for deaths caused by canopy collapse outside mapped landslide areas, starvation, injuries or longer-term ecological consequences.
- In a statement to Mongabay, the forest ministry said it “appreciates and is taking into consideration” scientific studies on the Tapanuli orangutan, including research estimating the impacts of floods and landslides on the species.
‘Lost’ parrot rediscovered on remote Indonesian peak (June 16, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/lost-parrot-rediscovered-on-remote-indonesian-peak/
Following a grueling 14-day trek, a team of mountaineers and conservationists has photographed the elusive blue-fronted lorikeet in the highlands of eastern Indonesia’s Buru Island. This is only the second photographed record of the parrot in more than 100 years, according to bird conservation groups. The blue-fronted lorikeet (Charmosynopsis toxopei) is a small species found […]
Himalayan rivers shifting course as climate warming thaws the ‘Water Tower of Asia’ (June 16, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/himalayan-rivers-shifting-course-as-climate-warming-thaws-the-water-tower-of-asia/
Rivers are known to naturally meander, change courses, braid and branch. But as rising temperatures melt glaciers and thaw frozen ground, the courses of Himalayan rivers are shifting and changing shape much more rapidly than before, according to a new study published in the journal Science. The rising instability of the rivers could pose a […]
In Bangladesh, scientists learn what happens after rescued pangolins return to the wild (June 16, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-bangladesh-scientists-learn-what-happens-after-rescued-pangolins-return-to-the-wild/
- Chinese pangolins are one of the most trafficked mammals on Earth.
- In Bangladesh, scientists are tracking rescued and released individuals to learn about their ecology, behavior and habitat requirements.
- Using radio trackers, camera traps and burrow surveys, researchers found these elusive animals stay surprisingly close to home, and readily integrate with wild populations, even sharing burrows with other species.
- With very little known about the species, every new insight could help conservation teams better protect them across their range in Asia.
Peter Klopfer, the scientist whose civil-rights case helped bring lemurs to Duke (June 16, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/peter-klopfer-the-scientist-whose-civil-rights-case-helped-bring-lemurs-to-duke/
- Peter Klopfer, a Duke zoologist and co-founder of the Duke Lemur Center, died on June 5th at 95.
- A Quaker pacifist and civil-rights activist, he refused the Korean War draft, supported student protesters in North Carolina, and was arrested during a 1963 integration protest.
- His Supreme Court case, Klopfer v. North Carolina, extended the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial to state courts.
- The legal-defense fund created after his arrest helped connect him with John Buettner-Janusch, leading to the arrival of lemurs at Duke and the creation of what became the Duke Lemur Center.
Global map of Earth’s mycorrhizal fungal networks could help protect them (June 15, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/global-map-of-earths-mycorrhizal-fungal-networks-could-help-protect-them/
Fungi are living below your feet. Roughly 110 quadrillion kilometers of living fungal threads are woven through the world’s soils. Stretched end-to-end they would cover a distance nearly a billion times that from Earth to the sun. Now, scientists have mapped where those networks are, how dense they are, and what threatens them. Last year, […]
Australian authorities seize 100,000 live cockroaches in crackdown on exotic insect trade (June 15, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/australian-authorities-seize-100000-live-cockroaches-in-crackdown-on-exotic-insect-trade/
- Australian authorities seized more than 100,000 exotic cockroaches from a breeder in New South Wales.
- The confiscated insects include Madagascar hissing cockroaches, endemic to the island country of Madagascar, and dubia roaches, which are popular both as reptile food and collected as pets.
- Importing exotic insects is illegal in Australia, as they can become invasive or carry disease, and they cannot be legally kept, bred or sold.
- The seizure highlights the unregulated but growing trade in invertebrates across the world, especially as food for increasingly popular reptile pets.
Lawmakers fight to stop the Trump administration’s dismantling of a $386M ocean observatory project (June 15, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/lawmakers-fight-to-stop-the-trump-administrations-dismantling-of-a-386m-ocean-observatory-project/
SEATTLE (AP) — Lawmakers are demanding the National Science Foundation stop dismantling the Ocean Observatories Initiative, a $386 million ocean monitoring network being wound down under President Donald Trump’s administration. House Democrats on two committees call the action illegal. Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley says he’s drafting legislation to freeze the removal of instruments until a […]
We must prevent the next pandemic, not build perfect conditions for it (commentary) (June 15, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/we-must-prevent-the-next-pandemic-not-build-perfect-conditions-for-it-commentary/
- How the world reacted to the recent disease outbreaks tells us more about inequity than about epidemiology, a new op-ed argues.
- Beside the lopsided coverage of affected populations, both outbreaks point to the fact that these events are not isolated biological accidents, but predictable consequences of the ecological, economic, and political systems we have built.
- “The first signal of the next outbreak will not come from a high-tech laboratory or a global summit. It will most likely come from a ranger deep in a protected forest, a community health worker in a remote village, or a hunter reporting a dead chimpanzee along a forest trail. The question is whether the world is willing to invest in listening before the crisis reaches everyone else,” the author writes.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Growing appetite for açaí is damaging bird diversity in the Amazon (June 15, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/growing-appetite-for-acai-is-damaging-bird-diversity-in-the-amazon/
- A newly published study has found a 28% decline in bird species richness in Amazonian areas with high densities of açaí palms.
- Farmers are clearing away native trees and understory vegetation to plant more açaí palms as demand soars, in the process destroying vital habitats for both fruit- and insect-eating birds.
- While açaí is marketed as a sustainable “superfood,” exports from Brazil’s Pará state have surged by 885% in a decade, raising concerns about predatory monoculture.