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U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on April 24 to expedite the process of exploring and mining for valuable minerals found on the deep ocean seafloor, in both U.S. and international waters. It’s a highly controversial move that critics say imperils an important but poorly understood ecosystem and flouts international rules on deep-sea mining. Miners are mainly after potato-size nodules lying at the bottom of the ocean 4,000–5,500 meters (12,000–18,000 feet) deep. They contain minerals, including nickel, cobalt and magnesium, used in batteries and various other industrial applications. Trump’s tariffs will likely raise the costs of mineral imports, particularly from China, a leading exporter. In a post on X, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “Today’s @POTUS executive order makes it clear: the United States – not China – will lead the world in responsibly unlocking seabed mineral resources and securing critical mineral supply chains with our partners and allies.” However, the move is likely to anger many allies. Mining companies have been eager to work in the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ), in the central Pacific Ocean. Nodules there are estimated to contain more nickel, cobalt and magnesium than all terrestrial sources combined. However, miners have been held at bay by the U.N.- affiliated International Seabed Authority (ISA), as its 169 member states (plus the EU) slowly draft rules to govern seabed mining. The U.S. isn’t an ISA member, and the Trump administration says it can use the 1980 Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act to grant mineral…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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The women of Chelem, a fishing community on the northern coast of the Mexican state of Yucatán, hadn’t planned to work in mangrove restoration. At first, it was simply an opportunity to make money to support their families, so they signed up for the project. It was 2010, and the initiative, led by the Center for Research and Advanced Studies (CINVESTA) at the National Polytechnic Institute, aimed to restore a mangrove forest that had been devastated by the construction of a port in the late 1960s. The group has since come to be known as Las Chelemeras (“the women of Chelem”), who have learned to restore and defend mangroves and who, 15 years later, continue to do so. Keila Vázquez, coordinator of Las Chelemeras, remembers this place, known as the Yucalpetén bend, as barren. “It was caused by dredging for a nearby port,” Vázquez says. “All the gravel from the port was dumped there: the topography changed, the salinity increased and the water stopped flowing.” That’s where Las Chelemeras came in. The 14 women in the group, ranging in age from 30 to 85, learned about the different mangrove tree species of the area and what they needed to survive and grow, Vázquez says. “Despite being from the coast, we didn’t know why the mangroves were important,” Vázquez says. “For example, they protect against cyclones and act as nurseries for commercial marine species such as prawns. Now we understand how much they benefit us.” She adds, “We know that each…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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At the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues — the world’s largest convening of Indigenous peoples — Indigenous leaders from South America are taking the chance to spotlight threats facing isolated peoples (also known as uncontacted people). Deforestation is closing in on some communities in the Amazon and many lack official recognition of records of their existence, say representatives at the 10-day gathering in the U.N. headquarters in New York City. They are holding multiple events in the city, including launching a book with strategies to recognize their presence and sharing solutions to protect the lands they depend on. “There needs to be greater respect, protection and land demarcation for these peoples,” said Bushe Matis, general coordinator of the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Vale do Javari (UNIVAJA). “It’s important for us Indigenous peoples who came to New York to raise our voices for them.” The rights of isolated Indigenous peoples are guaranteed in international legislation and some national laws, such as the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO Convention 169). However, these are at times violated by states, companies, and invaders searching for land. In some cases, they are unprotected because states, including Venezuela and Paraguay, don’t recognize them. Indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and initial contact, also known as PIACI, are threatened by the exploitation of natural resources, drug trafficking, illegal logging, and mining in their lands, say researchers. Contact with outsiders can be…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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KIGALI, Rwanda ― Following the recent rediscovery of the critically endangered Hill’s horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hilli) at Nyungwe National Park in southwestern Rwanda, researchers are calling for actions and policies aimed at their conservation. Scientists say that this is the first sighting and documentation of the horseshoe bat Rhinolophus webalaiin the park and Rwanda’s first observation of the Damara woolly bat (Kerivoula argentata) since it was last observed in 1981. According to Paul Webala, a senior lecturer in wildlife biology at the department of forestry and wildlife management at Kenya’s Maasai Mara University, scientists consider bats the second-most diverse group of mammals after rodents. In countries like Rwanda, he says, where most of the natural forests and savannah habitats have been lost, altered or degraded, bats may comprise “at least 40% of the overall mammal diversity.” According to a 2022 study that Webala co-authored, insectivorous bats in Rwanda provide critical ecosystem services and also act as pest controllers in agricultural areas. Health concerns, and habitat loss “In Rwanda, one of the [bat] species of concern, although not threatened according to the IUCN Red List, is the Egyptian fruit bat [Rousettus aegyptiacus] because it has been identified by health officials as a natural reservoir host for the Marburg virus disease,” Webala says. In February this year, Rwandan health officials decided to construct a wall in a mining site located in Nyamirambo a suburb of the capital city Kigali separating a working area from the bats’ habitat. “This barrier is intended to reduce…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Lorayne Meltzer has lived along the Gulf of California for 30 years. As an ecologist and director of a binational field station, she’s supported many scientists in their research into this biodiverse region of northwestern Mexico. Over time, she’s observed changes in the region’s ecosystems and species firsthand. Most of these changes, she said, haven’t been positive. “I’ve noticed concerning changes,” Meltzer told Mongabay Latam. “Even on recreational trips to the islands, these changes were visible. So, we had the idea of getting in touch with researchers with long-term databases on various taxa, from the smallest animal in the world to the largest whale, to see if this decline is general or only among certain species.” The result was a new collaborative report produced by Meltzer’s field station, the Kino Bay Center at Prescott College, and the binational organization Next Generation Sonoran Desert Researchers (N-Gen). The report brings together decades of scientific research showing an alarming decline in populations of species at the top of the food chain throughout this Mexican sea. Among the groups in decline, according to the report’s findings, are seabirds, whales, flying squid, crabs, starfish and fish. “Unfortunately, their health is declining on average,” Meltzer said. “Some groups, such as sea turtles, seem to be recovering, and at the plankton level, the ecosystem is quite healthy. However, it’s very normal for megafauna to be the most impacted within ecosystems, which are animals that take longer to reproduce.” A fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) off the coast of…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Starbucks has defended its little-known Swiss subsidiary handling its ethical coffee sourcing after a critical report accused it of “major global tax avoidance.” The report, released by the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research (CICTAR), accuses the Lausanne-based Starbucks Coffee Trading Company, or SCTC, of helping the café giant move about $1.3 billion in profits over the last decade away from jurisdictions with higher tax rates. It prompted local nonprofits to stage a protest outside the subsidiary’s headquarters, denouncing the legal mechanism as unethical and particularly unfair to the Global South. “Switzerland is a global commodity trading center and one of the world’s most abused tax havens,” CICTAR said. “Multinational corporate profits artificially shifted to Switzerland significantly reduce government funds needed to pay for essential public services around the world. With Starbucks, this includes the US, by far its largest market.” In a statement issued to Mongabay on April 17, Starbucks said the report failed to accurately reflect its business model. “Starbucks is in full compliance with tax laws around the world, with an effective global tax rate of over 24% in 2024,” a spokesperson said. “Starbucks Coffee Trading Company (SCTC) plays an essential role in ensuring we have access to high-quality coffee to meet our global demand, sourcing coffee from over 30 countries, and operating 10 farmer support centers in coffee farming communities around the world. “Switzerland has been a global hub for coffee trading for decades and SCTC is based there to help us access the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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The “fortress conservation” model is under pressure in East Africa, as protected areas become battlegrounds over history, human rights, and global efforts to halt biodiversity loss. Mongabay’s Special Issue goes beyond the region’s world-renowned safaris to examine how rural communities and governments are reckoning with conservation’s colonial origins, and trying to forge a path forward for the 21st century.This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Major changes in outlook and societal structures are needed to address the global crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, a recent United Nations report says. Its 2025 “Interconnected Disaster Risks” report identifies five “deep changes” that need to happen. These are premised on the “Theory of Deep Change” (ToDC), a problem-solving approach that digs deeper to reveal the problem’s underlying root causes, the structures facilitating it, and the assumptions giving rise to and sustaining such systems. The authors liken human society to a tree: the fruits are only as good as the tree’s branches, trunk and roots. One example the authors cite is of solar geoengineering, or ways to physically reduce sunlight from reaching Earth in order to slow global warming. “Solar geoengineering is an example of a unilateral decision being made in one part of the world that would have far-reaching consequences for others. Worse still, solar geoengineering is a superficial fix to a known problem, climate change, to avoid committing to the real solution: phasing out fossil fuels,” the authors write. The report suggests five broad changes for a sustainable world: 1. Rethinking waste and shifting to a circular economy that prioritizes durability, repair and reuse. The authors cite the example of the town of Kamikatsu in Japan, where the recycling rate is 80% compared to the national rate of 20%. “Community members separate waste into 45 categories, some for composting, recycling, reuse or repair,” the report says. The town also hosts zero-waste services such as…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Orangutans, with their expressive eyes and human-like behaviors, have long fascinated us. Few people, however, have delved as deeply into their world as Gary L. Shapiro. His five-decade career began with a groundbreaking study in primate communication, where he taught a juvenile orangutan an artificial symbolic language — an early step in exploring the cognitive abilities of these great apes. In the late 1970s, Shapiro took his research to Indonesian Borneo, where he lived among ex-captive orangutans and conducted the first study of sign language with apes in their natural habitat. His work, especially with a female orangutan named Princess, revealed the emotional depth and communication skills of these creatures. Princess learned more than 30 signs, using them to express her desires and observations — demonstrating not only intelligence but a profound emotional bond between humans and orangutans. But Shapiro’s work extended beyond communication. His time in Borneo opened his eyes to the plight of orangutans, whose rainforest homes were being destroyed by logging and palm oil plantations. This realization transformed him into a committed advocate for their conservation, co-founding organizations to protect orangutans and their habitats. Central to Shapiro’s advocacy is the concept of “orangutan personhood.” He argues that these highly intelligent and emotionally complex beings deserve recognition of their basic rights, such as life and liberty. Although legal recognition remains limited, he views progress on this front, like a 2015 Argentine…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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KAPILVASTU, Nepal — At his fish pond near his home in Krishnanagar Municipality in western Nepal’s Kapilvastu, Imtehaj Khan closely watches a large TV screen mounted on a wall. For outsiders, it would seem that the 58-year-old enjoys watching sports such as football or cricket on the big screen. But for the resident of Krishnanagar, located around 415 kilometers (258 miles) west of the capital Kathmandu, near the border with India, that is hardly so. “The TV screen shows live footage from different sections of my pond,” about 0.7 hectares (1.7 acres), Khan told Mongabay recently. “I am always on the lookout for animals such as fishing cats (Prionailurus viverrinus) that prey on fish,” Khan said. With its habitat now confined to small pockets in and around protected areas in the southern plains, such as Koshi Tappu, Chitwan, and Bardiya, the cat often comes into conflict with fishery owners, as these areas overlap with major aquaculture zones. This, researchers say, stokes suspicion, spawns myths and triggers surveillance imperiling an already vulnerable species. In Nepal’s Kapilvastu, farmers set up private surveillance systems to monitor their commercial fish farms. Image by Mukesh Pokhrel for Mongabay. “Some time back, I saw some dead fish in my pond,” Khan said, adding that he suspected a common leopard may have attacked and killed the fish. That prompted him to take up the drastic measure of placing the whole pond under surveillance. According to IUCN, the global conservation authority, fishing cats survive in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India,…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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In northeastern California, the Upper Pit River undulates through evergreen forests, wet meadows and rugged mountains. It’s part of the snow-fed headwaters of the Sacramento River, the largest river in the state. The Sacramento flows some 611 kilometers (380 miles) to the San Francisco Bay, supporting diverse and unique ecosystems and carrying water to cities and agricultural communities along the way. According to Brandy McDaniels, citizen of the Ajumawi–Atsugewi Nation (Pit River Nation) and an elected cultural representative of the Madesi Band, the river’s headwaters are so clean that people drink them untreated, an important aspect of the Indigenous nation’s cultural practices for millennia. “It’s a pure water source where we drink the water without filtration. We do this in a ceremonial way. We do it in a subsistence way,” McDaniels said. The region is the center of her nation’s creation story. “It’s a really special, unique, interesting, beautiful area that we’ve been using and utilizing since the beginning time, since time immemorial,” she said. “We are the land, and one cannot exist without the other.” Medicine Lake, cradled by the still-active Medicine Lake Volcano in Sáttítla Highlands National Monument, is culturally significant to many Indigenous nations. Image courtesy of Protect Sáttítla. In January, after decades of activism, the Pit River Nation finally saw part of the watershed protected from extractive uses as the newly designated Sáttítla Highlands National Monument. It’s one of the few, but growing, examples of protected areas created in the U.S. in collaboration with Indigenous nations.…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, was as much a tireless advocate for nature as he was the poor and marginalized the world over. While his death leaves a vacuum of moral environmental leadership within the globe’s largest religion, the words of Francis still echo through tropical rainforests and grasslands, across rivers and oceans. The pope, who died April 21 in Rome at age 88, never attended a United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. But in this astute observation in Laudato Si’, the pioneering Catholic teaching document released in the summer of 2015 in defense of the natural world, Francis eloquently voices the biennial meeting’s defining spirit: “It is not enough … to think of different species merely as potential ‘resources’ to be exploited, while overlooking the fact that they have value in themselves. Each year sees the disappearance of thousands of plant and animal species which we will never know, which our children will never see, because they have been lost forever,” Francis wrote with both biological accuracy and spiritual authority. “The great majority become extinct for reasons related to human activity. Because of us, thousands of species will no longer give glory to God by their very existence, nor convey their message to us. We have no such right.” When it was released, the uncompromising message of Laudato Si’ reverberated round the world and it is reflected throughout the preamble of the historic Paris Agreement on climate change of 2015. Its essence also reverberates in the 2022…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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During my 2023-24 IIE Rodman C. Rockefeller Centennial Fellowship research in eastern Panama, I walked through my neighbor Johnson’s land (not his real name), discussing the 18 hectares (44 acres) of steeply inclined secondary forest he has left on his property. As we wandered along the forest’s edge, he turned to me and asked, “How much will you pay me not to cut this forest down?” His words stopped me in my tracks. Over the past five years of living and working in eastern Panama, I have met dozens of individuals and groups of landholders who value biodiversity and recognize the importance of preserving intact rainforest. At the same time, my overriding observation is that most of my neighbors, pressured by economic demands and following local tradition, place a higher value on land clearing for farming and cattle ranching. Cutting down trees is called “limpieza” or “cleaning up.” The use of fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides is referred to as “medicina,” or medicine. Fear of the forest, with its snakes and jaguars, and a preference for open, manicured landscapes further reinforce this tendency. The prevailing perception is, ‘There is enough forest here.’ Indeed, our communities abut the Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena bioregion, a vast chain of forests stretching from eastern Panama to Peru, that is among the most biodiverse regions in the world. On a clear day, you can see the forest of our Indigenous Guna neighbors as far as the eye can see, down to the shores of the Caribbean. Forest in the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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For a small village near the Sinharaja Forest Reserve in Sri Lanka, “snow-white monkeys” have become a major tourist attraction, reports contributor Malaka Rodrigo for Mongabay. These white monkeys are a color variant of the endangered purple-faced langur (Semnopithecus vetulus), also known as the purple-faced leaf monkey, found only in Sri Lanka. Purple-faced langurs typically have black coats and purplish-black faces with white sideburns, but some individuals around the village of Lankagama near the Sinharaja forest have completely or partially white coats. The white color is a case of leucism rather than albinism, Rodrigo reports. In albino animals, a mutation in a gene prevents the individual from producing melanin, a pigment that mainly produces brown and black colors. Albinism doesn’t affect other pigments like carotenoids (or red-orange pigments). Leucism, on the other hand, involves a partial loss of all pigments. There are four subspecies of purple-faced langur in Sri Lanka: southern (S. v. vetulus) northern (S. v. philbricki), western (S. v. nestor) and mountain (S. v. monticola). White langurs have mostly been reported from populations of the southern subspecies, Madura de Silva, president of the NGO Wildlife Conservation Society of Galle (WCSG), told Rodrigo. The presence of white monkeys in the Sinharaja forest isn’t new knowledge. Reports about them go back centuries: local folklore talks about ghostly white monkeys in the forest, considered omens of both good and ill fortune, and community elders recount sightings of pale-colored langurs, Rodrigo writes. In a 2011 survey, WCSG formally documented 30 such “snow-white…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Every year, the U.S. National Civilian Community Corps, better known as AmeriCorps NCCC, organizes teams of volunteers to help communities across the U.S. with environmental work, including habitat restoration, emergency response and wildfire mitigation. It’s also the latest federal agency on the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) chopping block. Most of the staff have been placed on leave and volunteers abruptly sent home. AmeriCorps was created in 1993 to engage Americans in community service. A diverse group of nearly 200,000 members and volunteers are placed across all 50 states annually. More than 2,000 volunteers are young people, aged 18-26. In exchange for 10 months of service, participants receive housing and a stipend of roughly $4,000, and become eligible for an education award of up to $7,400. Former volunteer Maria Wilkinson said in a commentary for the New Hampshire Bulletin that the cuts to AmeriCorps remove “a path of purpose, growth, and opportunity for thousands of young Americans. Cutting AmeriCorps NCCC isn’t a budgetary win. It’s a national loss.” The 2025 budget for AmeriCorps was $1.3 billion. A 2022 study found that for every federal dollar spent, AmeriCorps volunteers generate as much as $34 in value. Their work can include helping the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in a subgroup called FEMA Corps. They’re trained to support disaster recovery following increasingly common extreme weather events, such as Hurricane Helene that devastated the U.S. Southeast. DOGE has already fired more than 200 FEMA employees. Volunteers also commonly work in the national parks.…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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In July 2024, a heat wave swept through the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. The surrounding metropolitan area, home to more than 7.5 million people, is known for its mild weather. Only about half of the area’s homes have air-conditioning, according to 2023 census data, compared with more than 90% across the country. So when coastal areas hit 32° Celsius (90° Fahrenheit) and inland communities breach 43°C (110°F), as they did in mid-2024, it tends to catch people off guard, especially those with few options to escape the high temperatures. But according to a new study, identifying the people most likely to be harmed by climate change, as well as the forces that trap them in places of high impact, poses real problems for countries, humanitarian groups and researchers. The research used “a very participatory approach” known as a world café, said Andrew Kruczkiewicz, one of the study’s co-authors and a lecturer at Columbia University. Experts held rotating discussions with groups of their colleagues at a set of tables in a room, discussing vulnerability and mobility in the face of climate change, while keeping notes on what materialized from their conversations. Fourteen of the researchers then assembled the collected ideas into a paper published March 16 in the journal Nature Communications. Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration indicate that surging temperatures in equatorial Africa, where many of the world’s hottest refugee camps are, result from climate change. Image courtesy of Climate Central. In the team’s discussions,…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Reducing transportation’s carbon footprint is not as easy as replacing internal combustion engine (ICE) cars with electric vehicles (EVs). Producing EVs and disposing their components have environmental and human rights impacts, which also need to be carefully considered and mitigated, Mongabay’s Mike DiGirolamo found in an episode of Mongabay Explores podcast in November. In this first episode of a podcast series on the circular economy, DiGirolamo talks to Jessika Richter, an associate senior lecturer at Lund University in Sweden who researches circular economy-related policies and technologies. “With electric vehicles or EVs, we see also particular issues in terms of some of the materials that are used for the batteries or for other parts of the vehicle that are not necessarily used for the ICE vehicles,” Richter tells DiGirolamo. She adds that the impacts of mining materials to make EV batteries, in particular, are becoming clearer as more research emerges on their supply chain. Lithium, for example, is mined in salt marsh ecosystems of places like Chile, while mining cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been shown to pollute the environment and local communities; Mongabay has reported on both issues. DiGirolamo says more than half of all transition minerals, or minerals needed for the development of clean energy technologies like EVs, occur on lands governed by Indigenous communities. “Protecting their rights, which are often ignored, is a key concern,” he says. While in a circular economy it’s ideal to source materials from recycling, there are not a lot…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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In the twilight of their lives, the world’s oldest creatures carry the weight of wisdom, experience, and resilience. Yet, these elders — fish that spawn in abundance, coral that shelters marine life, or elephants that guide their herds — are vanishing. The causes are disturbingly familiar: overfishing, habitat destruction, trophy hunting, and climate change. A new review led by researchers at Charles Darwin University in Australia lays bare the ecological void left behind when these venerable beings are lost, reports Shreya Dasgupta. Older animals, the study finds, stabilize populations, enhance reproduction, and transmit essential survival knowledge across generations. Their loss ripples through ecosystems, destabilizing social structures and threatening biodiversity. Consider the oldest fish mothers, whose eggs thrive in optimal habitats, or the matriarch elephants that lead herds to water during droughts. These contributions are irreplaceable within a human lifetime, making the decline of elder animals a tragedy not just for wildlife but for the planet. It’s not too late; the course of history can still be changed. The study calls for a shift in conservation priorities: Protecting old-growth coral, enacting no-take fishing zones, and embedding the value of age into global assessments like the IUCN Red List. Such measures could safeguard not only these remarkable creatures but the ecosystems that depend on them. Humanity has long exploited age for profit — harvesting the biggest, oldest, and wisest. But perhaps now, with science as our guide, we can begin to value age for its role in sustaining life. Read the full…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Pope Francis was well known for his environmental activism. Time called him the “Climate Pope” for his prominent role in the global climate movement. He consistently talked about the consequences of human action on the planet and described the destruction of the environment as a “structural sin,” calling on people to act with urgency. As I reflect on the Pope’s passing, I remember being drenched in rain while waiting to see him in Manila, alongside a crowd of more than 6 million people for what would be the largest papal mass ever held. The record-breaking number was not surprising: the Philippines has one of the largest Catholic populations in the world, and at the time, Filipinos had a lot to pray for. When Pope Francis visited in January 2015, Filipinos were still reeling from back-to-back typhoons in 2014 and a slew of tragedies in 2013, including a devastating earthquake, a deadly armed conflict, and Super Typhoon Haiyan, which killed more than 6,000 people and left more than 1,000 missing. In 2013, I covered the impact of Haiyan on the Eastern Visayas region for a local news organization. Along the eastern coast, our news team saw flattened villages and destroyed coconut plantations. When we arrived in Tacloban City, where Haiyan hit the hardest, we were stunned by the overpowering smell of death and a city that appeared to have been bombed and turned into a war zone. Hearing the stories of Haiyan survivors eventually led me to climate reporting. And it…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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KATHMANDU — Following decades of speculation, skepticism and lack of consensus, Nepal’s government has announced the country’s first-ever consolidated national estimate of snow leopards (Panther uncia): 397 individuals. The figure, which translates to 1.56 individuals per 100 square kilometers (38.6 square miles), was reported by an expert committee following months of work which involved aggregating results from multiple studies carried out in different parts of the country adopting different methods across various periods of time. “This national estimate is a historic step in Nepal’s conservation journey,” said Ramchandra Kandel, director-general at the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC). It not only provides us with a clearer picture of snow leopard populations but also informs future conservation strategies,” he added. A snow leopard photographed in Nepal. Image courtesy of WWF. This estimate and its report are the Himalayan country’s contribution to the Population Assessment of the World’s Snow Leopards (PAWS), an initiative launched under the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Program (GSLEP) in 2019 to support the 12 range countries to produce a robust estimate of the cat’s population status. The result, based on data on snow leopard distribution and population density collected between 2015 and 2024, also has global implications. “Although Nepal has the second smallest snow leopard habitat of only around 2% of the global land area considered suitable for snow leopards, it is home to nearly 10%, the fourth largest population,” said Ghana Shyam Gurung, Nepal representative of WWF. Unlike tigers (Panthera tigris), the other…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Critically endangered hooded vultures in Nigeria that once fed on the carcasses of wild animals are now largely dependent on scraps discarded by people. But changes in the way waste is disposed of at slaughterhouses has left them desperately short of food, researchers say. In the 1970s, hooded vultures (Necrosyrtes monachus) were among at least seven different vulture species that soared across Nigerian skies, according to historical records; now only they and palm-nut vultures (Gypohierax angolensis) persist, and numbers of both are dropping drastically. Food scarcity is playing a significant role in driving this decline, says ornithologist Michael Manja Williams, a Ph.D. candidate at Nigeria’s Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University. In the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, vultures could find carcasses in the wild to feed on, he says. But overhunting of wild mammals depleted that vital food source, leaving the birds increasingly reliant on humans. A hooded vulture in The Gambia: Across West Africa, hooded and palm-nut vultures have a long association with human communities’ waste. Changes in abattoir practices are now depriving these species of a vital source of food. Image by Pete Richman via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0) “In the early ’80s and ’90s, abattoirs were the central places that you could find [hooded] vultures,” Williams says, while noting that the birds face fierce competition at these sites from feral dogs and people. “The vultures fear the dogs; they won’t come where there are canines. So, you see the vultures hovering around.” The implications for the vultures are stark.…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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Coral reefs around the world have been subjected to unprecedented heat stress since early 2023. A new report finds heat-related coral bleaching has damaged corals in more than 80 countries, making it the most extensive bleaching event ever recorded, with no clear end in sight. Between January 2023 and April 2025, heat stress impacted 84% of coral reefs worldwide, from the Mesoamerican Reef in the Caribbean to so-called supercorals in the Red Sea, an area previously believed to be resilient to damage caused by extreme temperatures. “The fact that this most recent, global-scale coral bleaching event is still ongoing takes the world’s reefs into unchartered waters,” Britta Schaffelke, coordinator of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, said in a statement. Scientists officially confirmed the bleaching event in April 2024, making it the fourth such global event since 1998. It comes on the heels of the third global bleaching event that ended just six years earlier, in 2017, impacting 68% of coral reefs. The short recovery time between events makes it difficult for corals to adequately rebuild. Coral bleaching happens when water temperatures become too warm and corals expel the colorful algae that live inside them, leaving reefs a ghostly white. Thousands of fish and other marine species are left without a safe habitat. These vibrant ecosystems support roughly a quarter of all marine life at some point in their life cycle. “Bleaching is always eerie — as if a silent snowfall has descended on the reef — there is usually…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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In the heart of the Colombian Amazon, the towering mountains of the Serranía del Chiribiquete harbor secrets including South America’s oldest rock art. The remote site was off-limits and poorly known for decades, as Chiribiquete National Park was also a stronghold for the guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Now, in the wake of a shaky peace process that has provided greater security and access to some regions, the park is revealing another secret: In the shadow of the mountains lie some of the densest peat deposits in South America. Peat is the accumulation of partially decayed organic matter in wetlands, compressed by time into dense soils that store more carbon per hectare than any other type of landscape. When left undisturbed, peatlands grow slowly every year, locking away carbon in low-oxygen water that prevents full decomposition. But when people drain and dry peatlands for agriculture, they can become “carbon bombs,” rapidly releasing massive amounts of planet-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The burning of huge peat areas in Indonesia in recent years has covered the country in smoke and made it one of the world’s worst carbon emitters from land use change. A new study, published in Environmental Research Letters, reveals that peatlands in Colombia — poorly known before now — are widespread and carbon-dense, making the country the site of South America’s largest known reserves, after Peru. Carried out with painstaking ground-truthing amid a fluctuating security situation, the study highlights the need to understand and conserve these…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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MANTANGAI, Indonesia — The last time Remie recalled a good harvest season here in Central Kalimantan province was in 2018, when 20-liter bags of rice seed were piled against the walls. “The house was full back then,” Remie told Mongabay Indonesia. “We packed almost 100 bags of seeds in here.” Today it is increasingly difficult for Indigenous Dayak farmers like Remie to procure seeds around Mantangai subdistrict, near the banks of the Kapuas River. The price for a 20-l (5.3-gallon) sack of rice seed has bulged to around 300,000 rupiah ($18). Instead of growing food for his family, Remie now earns a small cash wage from rummaging around the landscape collecting galam, a durable wood from the cajuput tree (Melaleuca cajuputi) used in basic construction. The 46-year-old says the blame lies mainly with an environmental and public health policy introduced a decade ago by then-President Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi. Between May and October in 2015, an unrelenting dry season fueled by the El Niño climate pattern led to fires on 2.6 million hectares (6.4 million acres) of peatlands and mineral soils. One study estimated that the resulting air pollution blanketing Borneo and Sumatra Islands would lead to 100,000 premature deaths. In the embers of that 2015 Southeast Asia wildfire crisis, Jokowi drew up Presidential Instruction No. 11 to harden existing rules against the burning of biomass. The policy ignited a police crackdown against smallholder farmers starting fires to clear forests for planting. However, a large number of farmers were also detained…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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In July 2024, Maung Tu, 40, a manager at a mining company, purchased a betel nut farm of 2.4 hectares, or 6 acres, near the southern tip of Myanmar for nearly seven times the market price, paying approximately 200 million kyat (about $50,000 at the unofficial exchange rate). He has little interest in the cash crop, despite the long-held cultural tradition of chewing betel nuts in the country. Instead, his focus is on extracting lead from the land. “If the price of lead is good, the land price is good. They are directly proportional. If I am confident about the land’s potential, I will pay whatever price they ask,” Maung Tu said. This is because while mining lead is more dangerous, the profit margin is staggeringly high compared to farming. Once mined, the raw materials are transported to Thailand, where the lead is cleaned and processed, and then on to China, which has long imported lead ore from Myanmar. Globally, the vast majority of lead consumption is for use in the production of lead-acid batteries, but local sellers said they don’t know who the eventual Chinese buyers are or what the lead is used for — but said armed groups in Myanmar and Thai traders are involved. In the past, exporters had to contend with both community protests and a complex licensing process. Since the February 2021 coup, though, these obstacles have disappeared. This has led to a mining boom in Tanintharyi, Myanmar’s southernmost region. Since the coup, orchards, farmland…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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