Shows / Conservation news
Episodes
- Conservation news
Indigenous fishers rethink shark hunting & protect species on Colombia’s coast
LA GUAJIRA, Colombia — Feet from the ocean, four sharks and a ray lie dead on the wind-battered sand. Above them stands Wilfrido Arends, 46. The blade of a…
- Conservation news
Nepal pushes for hydropower in protected areas through legal grey area
KATHMANDU – Nepal’s government has allowed several private hydropower producers to develop projects inside protected areas and the buffer zones surrounding…
- Conservation news
Sloth bears help shape India’s dry forests as unlikely seed dispersers
Sloth bears play a critical role in structuring India’s dry deciduous forests by dispersing viable seeds and influencing plant regeneration, reports…
- Conservation news
Why every endangered species needs a champion: a conversation with conservationist Bill Konstant
Russell Mittermeier has a running joke about Bill Konstant. The two have worked together, off and on, for more than four decades, and Mittermeier writes in the…
- Conservation news
Dolphin mother and calf observed using shells to catch fish in Australia
A small population of dolphins in Shark Bay in Western Australia have a documented history of using an unusual tool to help them catch fish: Large, empty snail…
- Conservation news
Orangutan Day: Here’s where the three critically endangered species stand
Aug. 19 is World Orangutan Day, a day to honor the three species of Southeast Asian great apes, all of which are classified as critically endangered by the…
- Conservation news
Egypt’s deserts show why ecological knowledge matters in conservation (commentary)
Egypt’s deserts are often introduced to the world as empty: Wide horizons, silence, heat, sand and stone. In tourism brochures they become dramatic…
- Conservation news
New Zealand opens marine reserves with groundbreaking Māori co-management model
DUNEDIN, Aotearoa New Zealand — At a U.N. meeting in 2015, Aotearoa New Zealand’s then Prime Minister John Key made a major announcement that drew praise from…
- Conservation news
Philippine Supreme Court rules monitoring commercial fishing vessels is unconstitutional
The Philippine Supreme Court has struck down a regulation requiring commercial fishing vessels to continuously transmit their locations and submit electronic…
- Conservation news
Cougars cut deadly vehicle-deer collisions in the US by up to 76%, study shows
If you’re a black-tailed deer on the Olympic Peninsula in the U.S. state of Washington, you’re always surrounded by friends and family. You are free-range…
- Conservation news
Brazil marks borders for isolated Indigenous group in the Amazon after decades
Agents of Brazil’s Indigenous agency, FUNAI, spent 60 days in June and July 2026 physically marking the borders of the Rio Pardo Kawahiva Indigenous Territory…
- Conservation news
New leadership initiative carries on legacy of late Indonesian environmental activist
JAKARTA — It had been 648 days since Nur Hidayati, an Indonesian environmental activist fondly known as Yaya or Mbak Yaya, died of cancer. Rukka Sombolinggi…
- Conservation news
Spotted by AI: seahorses and shark fins
While elephant ivory, rhino horns and pangolin scales get a lot of attention when it comes to illegal wildlife trade, marine wildlife are widely targeted as…
- Conservation news
Why carbon markets alone won’t save Southeast Asia’s concessions forests
New research suggests a “massive and untapped” opportunity for conservation within commercial concessions in Southeast Asia, reports Mongabay’s Carolyn Cowan…
- Conservation news
Tapirs, bats and nests: How plastic infiltrates Amazonian wildlife
At the mouth of the Amazon River, birds are already building blue nests out of discarded plastic.
- Conservation news
‘Remembering Wildlife’ shines a spotlight on the species we risk losing forever
British wildlife photographer Margot Raggett says she created the book Remembering Elephants after she heard David Attenborough say, “The question is, are we…
- Conservation news
Global marine protected areas fail to safeguard most sharks and rays: Study
In 2022, 196 countries agreed to the ambitious conservation goal of “30×30”: setting aside 30% of the planet’s coastal and marine areas for conservation…
- Conservation news
Among the sacred hills of Colombia’s Guainía
I had been struck by photographs of the Cerros de Mavicure rising above the forest and the Inírida River in eastern Colombia. The dark rock, exposed against an…
- Conservation news
Caught on camera: Sand cats may have a ‘sizable population’ in Qatar
Muhammad Ali Nawaz didn’t expect to see so many cats. Nawaz, a wildlife ecologist at Qatar University, had set out to survey Qatar for the sand cat, a tiny…
- Conservation news
New studies portray Amazon as surprisingly resilient, but tipping point looms
Three 2026 studies reveal that the Amazon can regrow quickly, but deforestation and warming could trigger a system-wide tipping point in the next 15 years.
- Conservation news
How women farmers are helping elephants and forests in a Sumatran national park
LUBUK KEMBANG BUNGA, Indonesia — Tesso Nilo National Park, located on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, often makes headlines due to human-wildlife conflict —…
- Conservation news
Sand mining plans spark opposition from fishers in Indonesia’s Riau Islands
NUMBING ISLAND, Indonesia — The waters off Numbing Island, part of the Riau archipelago between Sumatra and Singapore, are among Indonesia’s richest fishing…
- Conservation news
How AI helps gather remote biodiversity data: Interview with Microsoft’s Juan Lavista Ferres
At a meeting with conservationists a couple of years back, Juan Lavista Ferres had a eureka moment. As the director of Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab, Lavista…
- Conservation news
‘To speak of agroecology is to speak of farmers’ autonomy’: Interview with Olga Muthambe
In Mozambique, southeast Africa, more than 1,600 women participate in agroecological practice programs across the provinces of Maputo and Gaza (both in the…
- Conservation news
Infrastructure and land use behind devastating India monsoon floods
Widespread flooding in northeastern India that affected more than 500,000 people and claimed at least 99 lives between June and August 2026 was primarily…
- Conservation news
100 species on the brink get a $200m conservation lifeline
Recovery projects for 100 critically endangered and extinct-in-the-wild species across the world are set to receive new funding under a conservation initiative…
- Conservation news
Rescued from traffickers, reintroduced orangutan becomes mother in the wild
Seven years after being returned to the forests of northern Sumatra from a rehabilitation facility, a female orangutan rescued from traffickers has been found…
- Conservation news
South Africa school uses cattle dung to generate biogas for cooking meals
Women preparing meals for more than 1,000 students at Tiyani Secondary School in South Africa’s Limpopo province no longer rely only on firewood. Instead, much…
- Conservation news
More people, farms, and drought could mean more elephant conflict in Southern Africa
A growing human population, expanding croplands, and drier conditions driven by climate change within protected areas could significantly intensify…
- Conservation news
From one deer’s DNA, a road map emerges to save an endangered Philippine species
The net fell with a dull thud. Abraham thrashed once, twice, then went still. A metal notcher clicked against the soft cartilage of his ear, snipping a tiny…
- Conservation news
UK firefighters out in force to tackle fires on hottest day of the year
LONDON (AP) — Firefighters are tackling multiple fires in central England on a day that the U.K. recorded its hottest day of the year as an intense stretch of…
- Conservation news
Big Bear Valley’s beloved bald eagle Jackie is dead
Jackie, a beloved bald eagle who called California’s Big Bear Valley in the U.S. home for all her life, has died. She was 14 years old. She was found on the…
- Conservation news
Timor green pigeon nears extinction after decades of inaction, study warns
On April 20, Jafet Potenzo Lopes was surveying the south coast of Manatuto municipality, in Timor-Leste, when he recorded something he had not seen in years…
- Conservation news
A mine polluted a Zambian river in 2025: Residents continue to live with the impacts
One and a half years after the collapse of a large tailings dam in Zambia’s Copperbelt Province, the environmental and human impacts of the toxic spill…
- Conservation news
Land rights and mangroves entwine in a Brazilian quilombo’s resistance
BREJÃO DOS NEGROS, Brazil — It’s hard to tell where one ends and the other starts. Here on Brazil’s Atlantic coast, where the São Francisco River meets the…
- Conservation news
Indonesia’s wildfire season surges as haze spreads into Malaysia
JAKARTA — Haze from fires in Indonesian Borneo has drifted across the border into the Malaysian portion of the island, pushing air pollution there to “very…
- Conservation news
Carbon accounting differences can halve a company’s reported footprint, study finds
Companies can, in theory, appear to cut the carbon footprint of their supply chains in half simply by changing how they calculate emissions, according to a new…
- Conservation news
Bat virus fragments turn up in fertilizer sold in Thai markets, study finds
Researchers have found the first genetic evidence of bat-borne viruses within commercially sold bat guano fertilizer in Thailand. However, the viral strains…
- Conservation news
Siraya gain recognition as Taiwan’s 17th official Indigenous group
In a significant milestone, the Siraya people of Taiwan have won legal recognition from the government as the island’s 17th officially designated Indigenous…
- Conservation news
How the first published Indigenous ethnobotanist & elders recorded their people’s medicinal knowledge
CARAMURU/PARAGUASSU INDIGENOUS TERRITORY, Brazil — Looking at the landscape of dry and cleared mountains around her house, Marta Xavier de Oliveira remembered…
- Conservation news
Myanmar junta pushes to restart Myitsone Dam project
Since June, Myanmar’s military government has increased its efforts to restart a massive, controversial hydropower project backed by China that has…
- Conservation news
Six African countries now support precautionary pause on deep-seabed mining
Three more African countries have joined calls for a precautionary pause on deep-sea mining until the environmental, social and economic impacts of such mining…
- Conservation news
Nepal enlists AI to help fight against crop-raiding macaques
In a village in central Nepal, growing conflict between farmers and rhesus macaques has prompted researchers to test artificial intelligence-based systems that…
- Conservation news
Indigenous groups renew legal challenge to Indonesian conservation law
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indigenous groups in Indonesia have made a legal challenge to parts of a new conservation law. The groups say it could allow the…
- Conservation news
Urban heat islands have solutions; many tropical cities can’t afford them
Urban heat islands pose a growing global health threat. But in tropical cities, the peril is surging. Already burdened by hot-humid equatorial weather, global…
- Conservation news
Brazil Supreme Court upholds laws that led to downfall of Amazon soy moratorium
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s Supreme Court has upheld state laws denying tax incentives to farmers who adhered to the country’s soy moratorium. The…
- Conservation news
Decades after religions shaped China’s Tianmushan, authorities tackle protecting reserve
HANGZHOU, China — On a misty morning in Zhejiang province, the peaks of Tianmu Mountain rise like sentinels above the forest canopy, their slopes wrapped in…
- Conservation news
Delays, biosecurity failures worsened flu outbreak at Nepal zoo, probe finds
KATHMANDU — Delayed reporting, poor communication and weak biosecurity allowed bird flu to spread through Nepal’s Central Zoo in June and July killing or…
- Conservation news
Suriname moves to evict Mennonites and illegal Amazon settlers
The government in Suriname has started toughening up on land developers who illegally clear the Amazon Rainforest for agriculture and cattle ranching…
- Conservation news
Decades after bottom trawling, Chilean seamounts remain degraded
The scars of bottom trawling are still visible on seamounts in Chile’s Juan Fernández Archipelago, even 25 years after the fishing practice took place in…
- Conservation news
Sacred places & living lands: How Indigenous Sámi peoples steward biodiversity (analysis)
Modern conservation is often traced to the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in the U.S. in 1872. In Sweden, a similar milestone came with the…
- Conservation news
As Canada’s captive belugas arrive in the US, questions linger about their future
Thirteen beluga whales, part of a pod of about 30 that were left languishing in a shuttered Canadian theme park, arrived in the U.S. The first transfer of six…
- Conservation news
A banana byproduct transforms farm waste into profits in Bangladesh
Bananas make up 20% of all fruit crops grown in Bangladesh, and the country has begun to unlock the hidden potential of the plant’s agricultural byproducts…
- Conservation news
Thermal drones deployed in Kenya’s Amboseli Park to tackle human-elephant conflict
Dominic Mutua, a smallholder farmer from Inkoisuk village some 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Amboseli National Park, has often clashed with two elephants that…
- Conservation news
Flames reach edge of orangutan rehabilitation center, with fire season set to intensify
JAKARTA — A wildfire that reached the edge of an orangutan rehabilitation center in western Borneo is highlighting how Indonesia’s intensifying fire…
- Conservation news
Protecting primates could protect thousands of other species, study finds
As biodiversity on Earth faces rapid decline, scientists are advocating for a new conservation approach: Save habitat for primates and protect countless other…
- Conservation news
How Mennonites in Belize built a land-buying machine taking over forests
Over the past two decades, Belize lost around 20% of its forest cover — more than 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres). Much of it is the result of agricultural…
- Conservation news
Tree cover is not the same as ecological recovery
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. A harpy eagle needs…
- Conservation news
On the front lines of conservation in Sumatra: Rangers safeguard Batutegi forest
TANGGAMUS, Indonesia — For more than a decade and a half, forest ranger Wandi Harmoko has walked the ridges and valleys of Batutegi, a landscape in southern…
- Conservation news
How social media and parrotfish poop are protecting the Maldives
It started six years ago when Shaha Hashim began seeing posts across social media: Vulnerable and protected species were being fished throughout the atoll…