‘Time stamps’ in shrubs show when beavers began invading Canadian Arctic (May 14, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/time-stamps-in-shrubs-show-when-beavers-began-invading-canadian-arctic/
Beavers are expanding their range into Canada’s western Arctic, and a recent study has reconstructed when these ecosystem engineers first became active in the area — sometime around 2008. Historically, North American beavers (Castor canadensis) have been associated with boreal and temperate waterways. However, they’re increasingly being observed moving northward in the Arctic tundra. This […]
China and Norway push to increase krill harvests around Antarctica (May 14, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/china-and-norway-push-to-increase-krill-harvests-around-antarctica/
- In Antarctic waters, an international fishery targets krill, shrimp-like crustaceans that form massive schools and support the continent’s iconic wildlife. Krill meal and oil is used primarily in the production of aquaculture feed, followed by pet food and human dietary supplements.
- China and Norway are working to expand the Southern Ocean krill fishery, promoting a new management system for the fishery that would increase harvests while also establishing a long-sought marine protected area.
- The two countries are also continuing to support their krill fleets politically and financially, while adding vessels to increase harvest capacity.
- Meanwhile, several NGOs have recently stepped up their campaigns against krill fishing, arguing that the krill fleet competes for food with Antarctic wildlife species already struggling with climate change and reduced food availability such as emperor penguins and Antarctic fur seals that have both recently been declared endangered.
From caws to code: AI helps decrypt animal communication (May 14, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/from-caws-to-code-ai-helps-decrypt-animal-communication/
- Scientists are increasingly using artificial intelligence models to decode the communications of other species.
- The Earth Species Project has built a generalizable model that could be used across species; the team also works with scientists around the world to develop custom models for specific species.
- In northern Spain, ESP’s AI tools are helping scientists understand how a population of cooperative-breeding crows communicate with one another.
- The technology is also being deployed to understand how orcas communicate with each other, and how underwater noise affects their communication.
Whose map counts in conservation? (May 14, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/whose-map-counts-in-conservation/
- Participatory mapping is increasingly used in conservation to bring local knowledge, land use, cultural values and community priorities into spatial planning.
- A new review of 398 studies finds that the field has grown quickly, especially over the past decade, but still lacks consistent standards for methods, ethics, data ownership and evaluation.
- Cases such as Massaha in Gabon show how community maps can challenge global or official datasets that make lived-in forests appear empty or unclaimed.
- The approach is most useful when maps are tied to real decisions, clear governance processes and safeguards for the people and places being mapped.
Popular Miyawaki reforestation method lacks evidence, study finds (May 13, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/popular-miyawaki-reforestation-method-lacks-evidence-study-finds/
- Devised in the 1970s, the Miyawaki method has been a popular reforestation approach in urban areas worldwide.
- The method involves densely planting seedlings, which proponents say makes them grow more quickly as they compete for light.
- Proponents of the method claim that it enhances biodiversity, boosts carbon storage and results in rapid tree growth, among other benefits.
- However, a recently published review of scientific literature indicates the Miyawaki method may not be as effective as claimed.
Liberia’s carbon market policy nears completion amid pushback (May 13, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/liberias-carbon-market-policy-nears-completion-amid-pushback/
Liberian policymakers have almost completed a framework for selling carbon credits to international buyers. But local environmental groups say they’re being shut out of a fast-tracked final review of the policy. According to Jeanine Cooper, chief executive officer of Liberia’s Carbon Market Authority, the “penultimate” draft of the policy was nearing completion last week. In […]
Scientists race to study the Amazon’s frogs before they disappear (May 13, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/scientists-race-to-study-the-amazons-frogs-before-they-disappear/
- The Amazon is home to the world’s greatest amphibian diversity, with an estimated 1,525 species, of which only 810 have been formally described by science.
- This megadiversity is under pressure from climate change and human activity, threatening the risk of species going extinct before scientists even get a chance to describe them.
- Recent research indicates that the combination of increased temperature and exposure to pesticides can alter tadpoles’ growth and development in the Amazon.
- Amphibians play a central role in controlling insects, including disease-transmitting mosquitoes, while also contributing to natural control of agricultural pests — a service valued in Brazil at more than a billion dollars annually.
Africa secures major clean energy deals as France deepens investment push (May 13, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/africa-secures-major-clean-energy-deals-as-france-deepens-investment-push/
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — French and African leaders have announced more than $11 billion in renewable energy investments across Africa, underscoring the continent’s growing importance in the global push for cleaner energy and industrial development. The commitments were unveiled Tuesday during a closed-door CEO forum held alongside the France-Africa Summit in Nairobi, attended by French President Emmanuel Macron, […]
Kenya’s Ruto rejects “raw mineral export” future for Africa (May 13, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/kenyas-ruto-rejects-raw-mineral-export-future-for-africa/
- As the world transitions from fossil fuels to green energy, increasing numbers of investors are seeking opportunities in Africa in a bid to secure access to the critical minerals needed for that transition.
- Kenyan President William Ruto has called for a new economic model that builds industrial value chains within Africa and avoids repeating the exploitative patterns that defined mineral extraction in the past.
- As several African countries tighten mining laws and negotiate new deals with foreign investors, civil society groups and researchers warn that the global rush for Africa’s critical minerals risks reproducing extractive models that have historically fueled environmental destruction, displacement and inequality and provided little by way of economic benefits for Africans.
- Countries with contested histories of natural resource extraction in Africa, including France, are increasingly acknowledging that critical minerals and rare earth elements should be processed locally on the continent. French President Emmanuel Macron has argued that Europeans are not the “predators of this century.”
The Southern Ocean is key to our planet’s future & we have a chance to protect it this year (commentary) (May 13, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/the-southern-ocean-is-key-to-our-planets-future-we-have-a-chance-to-protect-it-this-year-commentary/
- The wildlife-rich Southern Ocean is not simply another stretch of water in need of protection: just one part of it — the Antarctic Peninsula — is home to roughly a third of the global krill population, which sustains large populations of whales, penguins, seals, seabirds, fish and more.
- The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) is responsible for governing these waters, and the U.K. is set to chair its pivotal 45th annual meeting this year.
- This is an opportunity to act on Southern Ocean conservation, a new op-ed by former U.K. environment minister Zac Goldsmith argues, but that’s not all: “It would also send a powerful signal, at a time when multilateralism is under strain, that countries can still come together around shared values and act for the global good,” he writes.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
As elephants return in eastern Zambia, communities adapt to coexistence (May 13, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/as-elephants-return-in-eastern-zambia-communities-adapt-to-coexistence/
- Four years ago, more than 200 elephants were relocated to Malawi’s Kasungu National Park, which shares an open border with three farming districts in eastern Zambia.
- The elephants regularly move into farms, sometimes raiding granaries and destroying crops and posing a risk to people.
- Amid deep skepticism, conservationists and wildlife officials are working with locals to change attitudes, turning conflict into coexistence.
Ecuador failing to end Yasuní oil drilling: Interview with Waorani leader Juan Bay (May 13, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/ecuador-failing-to-end-yasuni-oil-drilling-interview-with-waorani-leader-juan-bay/
- Mongabay recently interviewed Juan Bay, the president of the Waorani Nation (NAWE) in Ecuador, on the stalled efforts to shut down oil drilling in Yasuní National Park that overlaps with Indigenous territories.
- A voter referendum in 2023 required the Ecuadorian government to shut down the 43-ITT oil block by August 2024, and the decision was backed up in a 2025 ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR).
- Since then, however, there’s been virtually no progress, Bay said, with the government having shuttered just 10 out of 247 oil wells in the block.
- Bay said communities continue to suffer from the environmental and cultural destruction caused by oil exploitation, as well as the internal divisions that formed between some Waorani communities.
In eastern Indonesia, communities revive customary systems to protect the seas (May 13, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/in-eastern-indonesia-communities-revive-customary-systems-to-protect-the-seas/
- A new documentary, “Jejak Wallacea,” highlights how coastal communities across eastern Indonesia are reviving customary marine management systems to protect ecosystems threatened by destructive fishing, turtle hunting and habitat loss.
- Communities featured in the film use locally rooted approaches including seasonal fishing closures, turtle hatcheries, mangrove restoration, customary sanctions and community patrols to manage reefs, fisheries and coastal forests.
- Conservation groups behind the project say community-led systems rooted in Indigenous and local knowledge can succeed where top-down conservation models and formal protected areas alone often fall short.
- The initiatives have helped protect species including sea turtles, dugongs and thresher sharks, but organizers say long-term success depends on stronger government recognition and support for community-based conservation.
Sawfish in Sri Lanka may be ‘functionally extinct,’ but refuges remain (May 13, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/sawfish-in-sri-lanka-may-be-functionally-extinct-but-refuges-remain/
The sawfish, recognizable by its distinctive saw-shaped snout or rostrum, is now thought to be “functionally extinct” in Sri Lankan waters. This, researchers say, means that while a few individuals may still exist, their numbers are likely too low to maintain a viable breeding population, reports contributor Malaka Rodrigo for Mongabay. In a 2021 study, […]
Wetland destruction blamed for rise in croc attacks on Indonesia’s Bangka Island (May 13, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/wetland-destruction-blamed-for-rise-in-croc-attacks-on-indonesias-bangka-island/
The destruction of coastal wetlands for illegal tin mining and oil palm plantations is to blame for a surge in crocodile attacks on people on Indonesia’s Bangka Island, residents say. Mongabay Indonesia contributor Taufik Wijaya reported that in February this year, a 40-year-old fisherman was killed by a saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) in the Menduk […]
New study explores how reforestation could help Java’s leopards survive (May 13, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/new-study-explores-how-reforestation-could-help-javas-leopards-survive/
- A new study finds that strategically restoring degraded forests could help reconnect fragmented habitat for the endangered Javan leopard, giving the species more room to move across densely populated Java.
- Researchers created the first islandwide model of habitat connectivity for the species, showing how targeted reforestation could help offset some of the barriers created by roads, railways and urban development.
- Conservationists say isolated leopard populations face increasing risks from habitat loss, human conflict, disease and inbreeding, with only an estimated 320 Javan leopards remaining in the wild.
- Experts caution that the model still needs to be tested with real-world tracking data, but say reconnecting forests will be essential for the long-term survival of Java’s last apex predator.
New data platform aims to reduce conflicts between First Nations and businesses in Canada (May 12, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/new-data-platform-aims-to-reduce-conflicts-between-first-nations-and-businesses-in-canada/
- Mongabay spoke with Robert Jago, founder of a comprehensive Indigenous-led data platform compiling information on every First Nation in Canada.
- The platform organizes and verifies contact information, territory maps, governance background and more, to facilitate collaboration between Indigenous communities, business and government.
- A goal of the platform, Jago said, is to reduce conflicts between extractive industries and Indigenous peoples, given that lack of access to accurate information is at the root of many such conflicts.
- Canada has plans to expand extractive, energy and infrastructure projects across the country, including on Indigenous lands and in the Arctic region.
Long dubbed a ‘climate refuge,’ warming Tasmanian forests need our help (May 12, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/long-dubbed-a-climate-refuge-warming-tasmanian-forests-need-our-help/
- Tasmania has long been considered a global “climate refuge,” where cool, ocean-influenced conditions allow species like the giant freshwater crayfish to persist as mainland Australia warms.
- But new research shows that the world’s climate refuges are not immune to threats: shifting rainfall, warming waters, sediment runoff, land-use change and other impacts are eroding the ecological conditions that sustain numerous species.
- In Tasmania, emerging pressures are impacting the island’s biodiversity, ranging from warming and sedimentation in forest streams affecting sensitive crayfish habitat, to declining oxygen levels putting the endemic Maugean skate at risk.
- Scientists say protecting climate refuges now requires active coordinated management between federal, state and local partners, with multimillion-dollar investments in watershed restoration and ongoing conservation efforts.
Protest works, but is under attack and needs your help, veteran activists say (May 12, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/podcast/2026/05/protest-works-but-is-under-attack-and-needs-your-help-veteran-activists-say/
“We are experiencing what some people call sort of a shutdown of the public square in the United States and around the world,” says veteran environmental activist André Carothers. Along with the former executive director of Greenpeace US, Annie Leonard, the two have co-authored a new book about the history of protest, why it works, […]
Agriculture drives most tropical peatland loss in Indonesia, Peru and DRC: Study (May 12, 2026)
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/agriculture-drives-most-tropical-peatland-loss-in-indonesia-peru-and-drc-study/
Agriculture is the biggest driver of peatland loss in Indonesia, Peru and the Democratic Republic of Congo, home to the largest expanses of tropical peatlands in the world, a recent study has found. Peatlands are crucial in the fight against climate change: They cover less than 3% of the world’s landmass, but sequester more carbon […]