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The wetlands of West Bengal in eastern India are one of the country’s best habitats for the fishing cat, a species vulnerable to extinction. But a significant population of these fish-eating, mid-sized wildcats lives outside protected areas, putting them at high risk of road accidents and retaliatory killing, reports contributor Nabarun Guha for Mongabay India.

https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/04/fishing-cats-in-india-struggle-to-survive-outside-protected-areas/

#News #Conservation #Environment #Widlife #India #EndangeredSpecies

Nearly all deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon in the past year was illegal, a new report finds.

Between August 2023 and July 2024, 91% of forest clearing in the Amazon lacked authorization, according to an analysis by the NGO Center of Life Institute (ICV). In the Cerrado, an expanding agricultural frontier and the world’s most biodiverse tropical savanna that covers a quarter of Brazil, the figure for unauthorized clearing was 51%.

By Shanna Hanbury
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/03/91-of-brazilian-amazon-deforestation-last-year-was-illegal-report-finds/

#News #Forests

The 2024 extreme and historical drought that hit the Amazon exposed a chronic problem: access to drinking water and sanitation in Indigenous lands, where only a third of households have proper water supply systems.

In some Amazon rivers in Brazil, cases of diseases related to inadequate basic sanitation, such as malaria and acute diarrhea, have been increasing amid climate change and population growth.

By Kevin Damasio
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/as-the-rainforest-gets-drier-amazon-indigenous-groups-thirst-for-clean-water/

#News #Conservation #Environment #Indigenous

Indonesia is considering withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, arguing it is unfair for developing nations to comply when a major polluter like the U.S. has pulled out, again.

Officials highlight Indonesia’s lower per capita emissions and stress the need for more financial aid to transition away from coal.

By Hans Nicholas Jong
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/indonesia-mulls-paris-agreement-exit-citing-fairness-and-energy-transition-costs/

#News #Conservation #Environment #ParisAgreement #Indonesia #Energy #EnergyTransition

Indigenous women from Krahô communities in Brazil’s Tocantins state have formed a surveillance group to protect their ancestral territory from invaders.

The thirteen Krahô Warriors received training in surveillance and carry out operations for 15 days each month.

By Aimee Gabay
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/kraho-women-lead-surveillance-actions-to-protect-territory-in-brazil/

#News #Conservation #Environment #WomenInConservation #IndigenousPeople

South America recorded the highest number of fire outbreaks in 14 years in 2024, with Brazil at the epicenter of the crisis.

In the Amazon, fire outbreaks grew out of control even amid a sharp reduction in deforestation rates, indicating deforesters are relying on fire as a new technique to clear land.

Experts are urging more investment in fire prevention since the rainforest may face another intense fire season in 2025.

By Fernanda Wenzel
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/after-a-searing-amazon-fire-season-experts-warn-of-more-in-2025/

#News #Conservation

With the effects of environmental degradation becoming more apparent, high-quality environmental journalism is more important than ever.

Mongabay's Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowship Program provides opportunities for 12 journalists (6 with our global English bureau and 6 with Mongabay Latam) to report on critical environmental issues and gain valuable training and experience.

Interested? Learn more: https://mongabay.org/opportunity/the-y-eva-tan-conservation-reporting-fellowship/

APPLY TODAY: https://form.jotform.com/242843950588368.

Mongabay examined four REDD+ projects in Pará state and found that all were developed in partnership with sawmill owners with a long history of environmental fines and were developed by Brazil’s largest carbon credit generator, Carbonext.

According to experts, REDD+ projects may have become a new business opportunity for individuals who have profited from deforestation for decades.

By Fernanda Wenzel
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/loggers-and-carbon-projects-forge-odd-partnerships-in-the-brazilian-amazon/

#news #carbon #deforestation #environment

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum proposed allocating 1% of the military’s annual spending, or around $24 billion, to support six million tree planters in the reforestation of around 15 million hectares (37 million acres).

If carried out successfully, it would be the largest reforestation effort in the country’s history, equivalent to the surface area of all of Guatemala, Belize and El Salvador combined.

By Maxwell Radwin
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/mexico-redirects-military-budget-for-reforestation-as-environmental-agencies-face-cuts/

#News #Conservation #Environment #Forests

Mongabay and Earth Genome detected 67 clandestine airstrips used for transporting drugs in the Peruvian regions of Ucayali, Huánuco and Pasco.

The analysis used artificial intelligence (AI) and satellite imagery cross-referenced with official sources and on-the-ground observation to verify that each airstrip is associated with narco activity.

https://news.mongabay.com/custom-story/2024/11/indigenous-leaders-killed-as-narco-airstrips-cut-into-their-amazon-territories/

#News #Conservation #Environment #Deforestation #Forests #Investigation

A frog smaller than a pencil eraser has hopped into the record books as the one of the smallest vertebrates known to science. Researchers formally described the species in late October 2024 after encountering it in the Atlantic Forest in southeastern Brazil’s São Paulo state.

At a length of 6.95 millimeters (0.27 inches), Brachycephalus dacnis has given scientists a new appreciation of just how small vertebrates can get.

By Shanna Hanbury
https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2024/11/one-of-the-tiniest-frogs-ever-is-discovered-in-brazil-defying-size-limits/

#News #Conservation #Wildlife

In Indonesian Borneo, a community of Indigenous Dayak Iban have fought for the past four decades to protect vast swaths of rainforest that are home to a diverse number of songbirds.

For the Sungai Utik community members, these birds are regarded as messengers sharing omens and warning from spirits, and must therefore be protected under customary laws that restrict deforestation and the hunting and trading of the birds.

By Soma Lama Hyolmo
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/borneos-omen-birds-find-a-staunch-guardian-in-indigenous-dayak-iban-elders/

#News #Conservation

In the last 125 years, bobcats have recovered significantly from extremely low numbers, with several million individuals found throughout North America today.

Bobcats help reduce the spread of diseases from animals to humans partly because they and other large mammals are poor disease vectors. Bobcats also prey on the small rodents that easily transmit pathogens.

By Christine Woodside
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/bobcats-are-back-and-theyre-helping-protect-people-from-zoonotic-disease/

#News #Conservation #Environment #Wildlife #smallcats #Animals

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon dropped by 30.6% over the past year, reaching its lowest level since 2015, with 6,288 square kilometers cleared by July 31, 2024.

Despite the drop in deforestation, fires surged nearly 18-fold in September due to severe drought, with fire hotspots up 70% from the previous year.

By Rhett A. Butler
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/amazon-deforestation-in-brazil-plunges-31-to-lowest-level-in-9-years/

#News #Conservation #Environment #Forests #Rainforests #Deforestation #Fires #ForestFires

The Colombian government has issued a decree that recognizes Indigenous peoples as environmental authorities in their territories.

The decree gives new powers to Indigenous peoples to protect ecosystems, manage and conserve their territories and resources, plan budgets and make decisions about land use.

By Aimee Gabay
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/colombia-decree-recognizes-indigenous-people-as-environmental-authorities/

#News #Conservation #Environment #IndigenousPeoples

The WAP Complex of protected areas that straddles the border region of Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger is one of West Africa’s most important protected areas and a haven for many iconic endangered species.

Servals, caracals and African wildcats are also found in the WAP Complex, but almost nothing is known about their status, distribution, ecology or threats.

By Ruth Kamnitzer
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/west-africas-forgotten-felines-endangered-by-conflict-and-research-gaps/

#News #Conservation #Environment #Wildlife #Africa

Mongabay is looking for a graphic designer.

The full-time Graphic Designer position is a key part of Mongabay’s growing visual storytelling team. This role is expected to produce and design data visualizations that improve the quality and visual appeal of Mongabay’s journalism. The main responsibility is to produce maps, charts, and graphics depicting environmental changes utilizing data, including earth observation and near-real time remote sensing data.

https://mongabay.org/programs/news/opportunities/graphic-designer/

Coffee accounts for only around 11% of Malawi’s agricultural exports, but the crop is a key source of livelihood for thousands of smallholder farmers in the country.

A coffee agroforestry project by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Slow Food Coffee Coalition implemented in Malawi and Uganda is promising to tackle some of the challenges and make small-scale coffee farming more profitable.

By Charles Mpaka
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/coffee-agroforestry-holds-promise-for-smallholder-growers-in-malawi/

#News #Conservation #Environment #Agroecology

Researchers from the University of California, Santa Cruz, reviewed the websites of 99 international organizations that promote and fund reforestation projects to determine how well they report following best practices.

They found that while these organizations increasingly acknowledge the importance of clear goals, local community involvement, and monitoring, few publicly report in detail the measures used to track progress and results achieved.

By Marina Martinez
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/across-reforestation-organizations-best-practices-claims-abound-but-details-are-scarce/

Self-identified as Tikmũ’ũn, the Maxakali people now live in a small fraction of their original territory, which extended across the northeastern hills of Minas Gerais state.

Confined to four small Indigenous reserves taken over by pasture, the Maxakali suffer from hunger, diseases and high mortality rates; they also lack the Atlantic Forest, essential for maintaining their rich and complex cosmology.

By Xavier Bartaburu
https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/why-the-maxakali-people-are-calling-on-their-spirits-to-recover-the-atlantic-forest/

#News #Conservation #Environment