“Never, ever say anything negative about an elephant or a gorilla. Elephants may attack people’s property, destroy their crops, and even kill them. Always take the side of the elephant. Big cats have public-school accents. Hyenas are fair game and have vaguely Middle Eastern accents. Any short Africans who live in the jungle or desert […]
I write this while waiting for my tablet to die. Tomorrow, I’ll return to air-conditioning, stable WiFi and refrigeration, but here in Long Moh, deep in the remote Upper Baram region of Sarawak, there has been no electricity for two weeks. The fans sit useless and mocking in the corners, and a sudden downpour is […]
Recently, a listener to Mongabay’s podcast sent us an email thanking us for our work and asking, “how can you keep going?” amid all the systems at play that are destroying nature. They wondered how to do even more to save our planet and feel less helpless and depressed. These are good questions. I take […]
Having receded by 350 million hectares (almost 865 million acres) since 1850, trends in Latin American forests are now inflecting away from further losses of tree-covered habitats and toward their recovery. As we explain in our book Reversing Deforestation, published by Stanford University Press in December 2024, this change stems from reduced population growth and […]
Cambodia’s Indigenous peoples have a deep relationship to forests, land and natural resources, which they traditionally manage in their cultural practices and everyday lives. There are 22 distinct Indigenous communities with an estimated 172,980 people, accounting for 1.11% of Cambodia’s total population. Indigenous peoples are well-known for being forest caretakers and passing down forest care […]
For millennia, Indigenous peoples have cultivated diverse, adaptive and evolving food systems, rooted in deep relationships with land, water and ecosystems. Their traditional knowledge embeds agroecological principles, emphasizing balance with nature, circularity and intergenerational equity. Beyond managing and preserving some of the world’s richest ecosystems, Indigenous peoples are custodians of countless landraces and ancient species […]
Despite being the world’s most heavily trafficked mammal — more than elephants, rhinos and tigers combined — pangolins remain virtually unknown to the public. These shy, scaly creatures are primarily hunted for their scales, which are frequently used in traditional Asian medicines. Despite international protections, illegal trafficking of these animals continues, and with it, the […]
LUANG PRABANG, Laos — “No coffee, no coffee,” repeated the security guard. His smile stood in stark contrast to his faded camouflage fatigues and the machine gun slung over his shoulder. Few cafés in the sleepy Laotian tourist town of Luang Prabang boast armed guards, but Kin Liao Coffee is not the average café. While […]
If tropical rainforests are the lungs of the Earth, then 2024 was a year of respiratory failure. Fires, fueled by climate extremes and human recklessness, tore through vast stretches of forest at an unprecedented pace. According to satellite data from the University of Maryland and the World Resources Institute, 6.7 million hectares of tropical primary […]
Tropical forests help regulate the global climate, host irreplaceable biodiversity and provide fresh water resources. Plus forests in general are the source of livelihoods for more than a billion people — so our very existence depends on them. However, because their value is not reflected in markets, these areas are often converted to other uses. Conserving our tropical forests […]
I’m in Nice, France, this week attending the U.N. Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development. If my Tiaki Moana colleagues have any say over it, stars and lighthouses are going to be a main topic of conversation here […]
In 2024, the world lost almost 6.7 million hectares (16.5 million acres) of primary tropical forest, the fastest rate ever recorded. The world’s forests are still falling prey to mining, logging and agriculture, but as the climate crisis intensifies, for the first time on record, the leading cause of tropical primary forest loss is fire. […]
The “blue economy” emerged as a popular vision for sustainable ocean development during the 2010s, as communities across the world grappled with challenges of declining ocean health, economic crises and stalling development outcomes. Today, it is a centerpiece of many global sustainable ocean agendas, including those of the World Bank, U.N. Environment Programme and Asian […]
The search for intelligent life is looking in the wrong direction. There are billions of stars in our galaxy, some of them older than our sun and with Earth-like planets orbiting around them. Hypothetically, these other solar systems could have started their development of intelligent life billions of years before ours. So, why haven’t we […]
Belize is widely regarded as a global leader in conservation, home to vast rainforests, diverse wildlife and the second-largest barrier reef in the world. The country has implemented protected areas, community-led conservation initiatives and sustainable tourism models, yet its national parks remain under increasing pressure from deforestation, expanding agriculture and unregulated development. The draft National […]
For the Akit tribe of Bengkalis and Pelalawan districts in Riau province, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, land is more than just soil beneath their feet: it is their identity, their lifeblood, and their heritage. As one elder has said, “Adat is like a part of the body, an epitome of blood and heart,” […]
The tropics are celebrated as hotspots of biological diversity and renowned as supply houses for food, fiber and pharmacies. They also harbor linguistic diversity, a proxy for cultural diversity, critical to people’s health, well-being and identity. Embedded in linguistic variation is a library of human knowledge, cosmologies and institutions. The correlation between biological and linguistic/cultural […]
In his first week in office back in 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden signed a historic commitment to conserve 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030. Two years later, the world agreed to a similar commitment with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The initiative, commonly known as 30×30, has since become a rallying cry […]
Human rights are not just words on paper. Advocates, social movements and government champions have brought much needed positive changes by pushing for the adoption of international human rights standards and putting rights at the forefront of national laws, policy, and governance decisions. In the world of conservation governance, human rights are the key to […]
This article was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations Network in collaboration with the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP). Read the first part of this two-part series. BAMEGOARD, Republic of Congo — Deep in the heart of a lush green forest, an excavator is hard at work, turning over […]
