For the first time in 150 years, kiwi once again live in the hills surrounding Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. More than 250 manu (“birds” in the Māori language) were successfully translocated back to the region, thanks to the efforts of the iwi (nations of Aotearoa), community members, and landowners behind the Capital Kiwi Project. Paul Ward, the project lead and founder, joins the Mongabay Newscast this week to explain the yearslong effort to make this possible. A large part of it was removing stoats, which prey on kiwi before the chicks reach “fighting weight” (1 kilogram, or 2.2 pounds), which is when they can defend themselves. The project did this by deploying more than 5,300 traps to remove stoats from the project area, covering about 24,000 hectares (59,300 acres). But removing predation threats to the kiwi was only the start, as it took years of relationship building with iwi, translocating birds, and educating community members on care — many of whom had never seen a kiwi in person before. “The three legs on which this project are based are those relationships with iwi, with Māori, the relationships with the communities, and the relationships with the landowners. And if you pull one of those legs off, the tripod falls over,” Ward says. “This is a relational project as much as it is what you might traditionally call a conservation project. And I think at a fundamental level that if we lose our relationship with these animals, with these manu … they…This article was originally published on Mongabay

For decades, the global outlook for food and agriculture has brought heightened concerns  as climate patterns create a mix of droughts and floods across the world. Consequently, fears of diminishing crop yields and livestock shortages have dominated the headlines. Amid the ensuing food security crisis, scientists are wondering if communities can turn toward local plant diversity as insurance against subsequent food shocks. A recent study published in People and Nature examines how pastoralist communities in a Ugandan subregion contend with food shortages by adopting previously unused wild edible plants. The study comes on the heels of 2024 research on wild edible plants by local NGOs in Karamoja, a semiarid region in northern Uganda. That earlier study found “that people had developed uses for plants they had not used before,” Emiel De Meyer, a postdoctoral researcher at the State Natural History Museum in Germany, explained by email. Spurred by this discovery, De Meyer led a team of researchers across five agro-pastorialist communities in Karamoja, interviewing members of the local communities on their knowledge of edible wild plants. Through a mix of qualitative and statistical methods, the researchers also probed the reasons behind the adoption of particular plants and how this knowledge was transmitted. In the five villages covered in the study, the authors recorded 27 plant species previously unused as food and now eaten as leafy vegetables. Of these, 20 were reported to be indigenous to Uganda. Although all these plants were mostly harvested during the wet season, at least three…This article was originally published on Mongabay

A case has been brought to the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) over the Kenyan government’s plan to build a 2,000-5,000-megawatt nuclear power plant in Bondo, near the eastern shore of Victoria Lake, Africa’s largest freshwater lake. The project has been the source of numerous protests from residents since it was announced. A Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) report produced in 2023 by Kenya’s nuclear power program noted that nuclear power should be avoided in the Victoria Lake region, citing volcanic hazards that could impair nuclear safety. However, the nuclear plant project is proceeding, despite the SEA finding. “I filed a reference at the East African Court of Justice on two grounds,” Dickens Ochieng, told Mongabay in a phone call. Ochieng is a resident of Siaya County, where the facility is located, and a human rights lawyer with J. Henry and Company Advocates, the law firm that filed the case on Sept. 23. “First, I want the court to determine if we should even have that nuclear power plant in Victoria Lake given the ecological and environmental risk that may be associated with it,” Ochieng said. “Then, I am asking for the project to have a transboundary environmental impact assessment, as Victoria Lake is not only a Kenyan matter.” Victoria Lake is shared by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Roughly 40 million people across the three countries depend on the lake for their livelihoods, food security and drinking water. Millions more depend on the river that drains from Lake Victoria and…This article was originally published on Mongabay

PUERTO SAN CARLOS, Mexico (AP) — Hurricane Polo has made landfall in Baja California, Mexico, with powerful winds and flash flooding. The Category 2 hurricane struck early Tuesday near Las Barrancas, bringing maximum sustained winds of 110 mph. The U.S. National Hurricane Center reports Polo is crossing the Gulf of California and could bring heavy rain to parts of the U.S. Southwest later this week. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Rachel is moving parallel to Mexico’s coast. The Pacific storm activity is above average this season, consistent with El Niño patterns. Hurricane Nolo, still a Category 3, is moving away from Hawaii, where it caused flooding over the weekend. By Martín Silva Rey and Megan Janetsky, Associated Press  Banner image: Workers tow a boat ashore as Hurricane Polo approaches Puerto San Carlos in the Mexican state of Baja California on Monday, September 28, 2026. Image courtesy of Eduardo Verdugo, Associated PressThis article was originally published on Mongabay

Giraffes living in the South Sudan’s war-torn savannas are genetically healthy and connected to nearby giraffe populations by gene flow, despite decades of conflict, recent research suggests. These findings show that “regions of the world that have been affected by conflict can maintain a lot of biodiversity and should therefore not be overlooked by genetic studies and conservation efforts,” Sam van Giessen, study lead author and a conservation genomics researcher from the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, told Mongabay by email. The IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, currently recognizes four species and seven subspecies of giraffes. South Sudan is home to two subspecies of the critically endangered northern giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis): the Nubian giraffe (G. c. camelopardalis) and the Kordofan giraffe (G. c. antiquorum). Between the conflict years of 1985 and 2025, Nubian giraffes in Ethiopia and South Sudan declined by 95%. By 2025, researchers estimated roughly 235 Nubian giraffe survived across South Sudan in isolated pockets, down from an estimate of 15,000 individuals in 1995. To find out the genetic health of these giraffe populations, researchers from the South Sudan government, the Giraffe Conservation Foundation (GCF), and conservation NGO African Parks analyzed DNA from skin biopsies collected from 30 Nubian giraffes in Boma and Badingilo national parks, run by African Parks. As the giraffe population in the region is small, there was some concern that inbreeding could be a problem for the subspecies’ long-term conservation. However, their analysis showed the South Sudan Nubian giraffe population has relatively high levels…This article was originally published on Mongabay

The World Health Organization has officially recognized Bhutan for eliminating dog-transmitted human rabies as a public health problem  — in time for World Rabies Day on Sept. 28. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Bhutan is the first country in the Southeast Asia region, and the second to be named globally after Mexico, to achieve this validation. Nearly 99% of all human rabies cases globally are caused by the bite or scratch of an infected dog. Once symptoms appear, rabies is almost always fatal. On Sept. 4, the WHO confirmed that Bhutan has recorded zero human deaths from dog-mediated rabies since June 2023 and has demonstrated that it has the resources and systems in place to prevent the disease’s re-emergence. Bhutan’s achievement comes as organizations including the WHO, World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Global Alliance for Rabies Control (GARC) mark World Rabies Day with the theme of “Stronger Together”, advancing a global goal to eliminate human rabies deaths worldwide by 2030 under the “Zero by 30” initiative. To eradicate rabies, Bhutan has persistently invested in a comprehensive “One Health” approach, which recognizes that animal, human and environmental health are interconnected, the WHO said in a press release. A 2021 Royal Decree by the King of Bhutan launched the Nationwide Accelerated Dog Population Mangement and Rabies Control Programme, implemented jointly by the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock. WHO said field health teams and veterinarians supported by…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In 2022, poachers had taken 14 white rhinos from private farms in Namibia in six weeks, so owners started removing their horns. One cow had a horn 86 centimeters (34 inches) long. Jaco Muller said he was nearly in tears when it was removed. “It is such a magnificent animal,” he said. “But for the animal’s sake, it is for the best.” Dehorning gave poachers less reason to kill a rhino. For Muller, the sight of a dehorned rhino was preferable to finding a dead one. The idea for breeding rhinos came from his son, then 15, as a school project. In 2010, Muller converted the family’s antelope-breeding operation into what became the Rhino Momma Project in Namibia’s Kunene region. Muller believed that breeding more white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum), keeping them secure enough to reproduce, and then replenishing populations across Africa could help save the species. So he built a breeding program with a rhino-custodianship farm and the nonprofit Help Our Rhinos Now, or HoRn. The first calf was born in 2013; by 2025, the project had become one of Namibia’s larger privately run rhino-breeding operations. Kifaru Lodge, which Muller opened in 2018, brought in money from tourists to help cover security and rhino care. Muller also supported legalizing the trade in rhino horn. His argument was that prohibition let criminals collect the profits while farm owners and conservation groups paid for security.…This article was originally published on Mongabay

BANGKOK — Over the course of 2025, the Mekong countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam lost a combined 746,168 hectares (1.8 million acres) of tree cover, an area roughly equivalent to the size of the Bangkok Metropolitan Area, according to Mongabay’s analysis*. Data published by the Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) laboratory at the University of Maryland, in partnership with Global Nature Watch (GNW) — formerly Global Forest Watch — shows that of the total 746,168 hectares of tree cover lost, more than 154,000 hectares (380,000 acres)  was primary forest. Mongabay’s analysis found that just shy of 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres) of the total were lost from the region’s protected areas. While these numbers may paint a bleak picture for the Mekong’s forests, the rate of regional deforestation has dropped by almost 25% from that recorded by GNW in 2024, continuing a decline that, according to the data, began in 2023. Fewer wildfires, higher rainfall, stricter law enforcement and lower market rates for commodities could all factor into a drop in the Mekong’s deforestation rate for 2025 when compared to 2024. However, experts warn that short-term drops do not always represent a broader trend in deforestation. Every country in the Mekong saw a fall in deforestation rates from 2024 to 2025, but each still grapples with a range of challenges to protecting the region’s remaining forests. Data from 2025 shows a drop in deforestation recorded across Mekong nations, but much of the tree cover lost last year was lost inside…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Plastic pollution could disrupt the bioluminescent light produced by deep-sea organisms, researchers warn in a letter in the journal Cambridge Prisms: Plastics. When deep-sea organisms ingest plastics, it could disrupt the chemical pathways that create bioluminescence and damage the tissues in their bodies, impairing their ability to find food and a mate, the authors said. In the deep sea, up to 80% of organisms with complex cells are believed to be bioluminescent, the only source of light in the darkest parts of the ocean. The light these organisms create is essential for their survival and reproduction, the letter notes. Disruption of their bioluminescence could negatively impact food webs and ecosystem functions in the deep sea, the largest and least-explored biome on Earth, the letter says. In an email to Mongabay, co-author Renjith VishnuRadhan of Amity University in India offered the example of an anglerfish. “It is widely recognizable from documentaries and films such as Finding Nemo,” he said. “Female deep-sea anglerfish have a modified dorsal spine ending in a luminous lure called the esca. Light produced by symbiotic bacteria helps attract prey and may also assist with recognition or communication in darkness.” It’s well-established that bacterial bioluminescence can be affected by pollutants, VishnuRadhan said, and ingestion of toxic plastic additives by anglerfish could disrupt the bacterial symbiosis in the lure, theoretically affecting its luminous signaling. The authors note there’s some evidence of plastic pollution impacts on deep-sea ecosystems, but scientists lack the high-quality data and observations needed to understand the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Lulingu, a Grauer’s gorilla (Gorilla beringei graueri), was reintroduced to Virunga National Park, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in 2024. In May 2026, Lulingu gave birth to a new baby, bringing hope for the species and excitement for the conservationists working there. “The baby and the mother are doing perfectly well. It really makes us happy. We are proud of her, it is also a bit of our success. Imagine, we knew her as a baby, we watched her grow, be rehabilitated and now she is a mother,” Jackson Kabuyaya Mbeke, country director of the DRC Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center (GRACE), told Mongabay by phone. Lulingu arrived at GRACE, a 16-hectare (40-acre) wildlife sanctuary, in 2016 when she was 18 months old. She was rescued from an illegal wildlife trafficking network by the Congolese Wildlife Authority (ICCN) and the NGO Gorilla Doctors. The sanctuary gave her space to socialize and play in a setting close to her natural habitat, under the watchful eyes of adoptive gorilla mothers. Lulingu was later reintroduced into the wild near Mount Tshiaberimu, a remote part of Virunga National Park. “The purpose of our sanctuary is to take in rescued gorillas, but also to care for them until they can be released into the wild. The fact that Lulingu has had a baby is a sign that she has adapted well to life in the wild,” Kabuyaya Mbeke explained. “By reintroducing them into the wild, we also hope to repopulate forests that have been…This article was originally published on Mongabay

A giant octopus devouring a jellyfish. An ultra-fast gossamer worm. These are just a couple of the 31 new species scientists discovered on a recent expedition off the coast of Brazil. They explored the ocean’s midwater zone — the vast space between the sunlit surface and the seafloor — which is the Earth’s largest and least explored habitable ecosystem. While it can take researchers decades to identify and describe new species, state-of-the-art technology like 3D lasers and advanced microscopes helped the team confirm these new species within a matter of days.This article was originally published on Mongabay

COLOMBO – For generations, the sight was familiar in towns and villages across Sri Lanka of a man playing a flute sitting on his haunches next to a woven basket, from which a cobra raised its gently swaying hood, drawing a curious crowd of onlookers. The performance appeared almost magical, as the cobra would seem to have been charmed by the flute’s notes, moving its hood rhythmically like performing a dance. But behind the spectacle was a community with its own traditions, knowledge and relationship with snakes — one that is quickly fading away. Known locally as the Ahikuntika, this small nomadic tribe is also referred to as Sri Lanka’s gypsies or Sri Lankan Telugus. They’ve traditionally traveled from place to place, and men have performed as snake charmers and monkey performers, with the women primarily associated with fortune-telling or soothsaying. Historical accounts describe temporary settlements and an itinerant lifestyle in which families moved between communities to earn a living through performances and traditional livelihoods. Today, however, snake charming has become rare. A group of snake charmers perform with their cobras. Image courtesy of Anslem de Silva. “During our childhood, we could regularly see snake charmers. They were often seen near markets, while groups of itinerant performers would also travel from village to village, announcing their arrival by beating a small hand drum,” recalled 75-year-old retired schoolteacher Chandrasena Liyanarachchi. Sri Lankans have a long-inherited fear of the venomous cobras (Naja naja), yet also accord them cultural significance, and often watch…This article was originally published on Mongabay

OTAGO PENINSULA, Aotearoa New Zealand — Sandfly Bay was long a key nesting area for yellow-eyed penguins (Megadyptes antipodes), noisy, pink-footed birds that spend long days foraging at sea. But this wild beach on the Otago Peninsula, like others nearby, has gone quiet. In 2024, the last breeding-age female at Sandfly Bay, who’d been consistently producing chicks for a dozen years, drowned in a fishing net. Fishing has been one of many factors driving the species, which is only found in Aotearoa New Zealand, toward extinction. In the 2008-2009 breeding season, there were 739 breeding pairs in the “mainland” New Zealand population, which includes pairs on nearby islands. But the population has dropped since then to 117 pairs — a decline of more than 80%. These figures don’t account for yellow-eyed penguins on New Zealand’s remote southern islands, which are poorly surveyed. The IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, listed the species as endangered in its last assessment, in 2020, when the mainland population was still twice what it is now. Several experts told Mongabay that the species’ chances of survival are slim, though most said they still had faith. “I think I’d always like to say that there’s hope because otherwise why do you do what you do, but things are pretty dire,” Trudi Webster, a marine scientist who’s worked on research and conservation of the species for the past decade, told Mongabay. A number of organizations are working to save the yellow-eyed penguin, and much of the conservation…This article was originally published on Mongabay

BANGKOK (AP) — Rain eased in Thailand ’s capital on Sunday, but flooding persisted in several low-lying areas, with thousands forced to move into temporary shelters. At least eight people were reported killed in the past 10 days nationwide. Days of continuous downpours have caused widespread flooding and severe disruptions in Bangkok, impacting traffic and businesses, with accumulated rainfall exceeding 30 centimeters (11.8 inches) in many areas. Thailand’s Meteorological Department said moderate to heavy rain was still expected Sunday in several parts of the country, but conditions were expected to improve by Monday. The city set up more than 200 temporary shelters, and about 3,000 people remained in them as of Sunday. Officials said 31 roads were still impacted by floodwaters. Bangkok Gov. Chadchart Sittipunt said rainfall in the capital has decreased and city officials were working to drain water as quickly as possible. He cautioned that water levels in the city’s main canals remained high, with some still rising as water continued to flow in from nearby areas. Several low-lying areas, particularly in the suburbs, were still submerged and many communities had to evacuate, Chadchart said. More than 545,000 people in 25 other provinces have been impacted by flooding as of Sunday, especially in the central and eastern regions, according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation. Incessant rainfall caused flooding that overwhelmed drainage capacity in many areas, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said. He ordered relevant authorities to take immediate measures to relieve the situation and assist those…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. A mountain lion in front of the Hollywood sign sounds almost too convenient. When photographer Steve Winter proposed the picture, National Park Service biologist Jeff Sikich thought he was crazy. There were, as far as Sikich knew, no mountain lions in Griffith Park. Then P-22 turned up. Winter spent more than a year trying to get the photograph. Remote cameras were stolen, and equipment failed. Eventually, he captured P-22 walking beneath the Hollywood sign at night, his tracking collar visible around his neck. The photograph made P-22 famous and gave Los Angeles a symbol of the problems faced by wildlife boxed in by roads and development. P-22 became closely associated with the campaign for the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing over U.S. Route 101, which is intended to reconnect habitat divided by one of the region’s busiest freeways. The story is one of nine in Big Cats, a new book by Winter and journalist Sharon Guynup, who is also Mongabay’s wildlife editor. The pair revisit some of their most consequential reporting projects in the book in their recent conversation with Mike DiGirolamo, the host and producer of the Mongabay Newscast. One of those projects took them to Thailand’s Tiger Temple, a lucrative tourist attraction where visitors could pose with captive tigers. Guynup and Winter spent a year investigating the operation and documented its links to illegal wildlife trafficking. Thai authorities eventually raided and closed…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Kurt, a Przewalski’s horse, was born at in Texas in August 2020. Less than three years later, Ollie followed. Out in the wild, their species had gone extinct in the 1960s. Both individuals, born of a surrogate mother — a domestic horse — were the first Przewalski’s horses (Equus ferus przewalskii) to be successfully cloned from another of their species whose DNA had been preserved at the San Diego Zoo for 40 years. At the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s Frozen Zoo, the largest initiative of its kind in the world, genetic materials from animals and plants are stored — cryopreserved using liquid nitrogen at temperatures as low as -196° Celsius (-320° Fahrenheit) — for posterity. But the Frozen Zoo is only part of the alliance’s broader biodiversity banking initiative, which also includes a native plant gene bank and a tissue and DNA bank. “I think of it as saving DNA for the future,” Katie Heineman, conservation program leader for biodiversity banking at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (SDZWA), told Mongabay in a video interview. “It really is an optimistic act to conserve biodiversity for a time where we’ve solved the threats facing nature.” Applications are aplenty. Biodiversity banking can help not just in the recovery of threatened species, but also in preserving genetic diversity. It’s also crucial for scientific research. However, given the pace of habitat degradation and biodiversity loss, Heineman said there’s an urgency to build capacity around the world to ensure more samples are collected and…This article was originally published on Mongabay

JAKARTA — Indonesia’s parliament has passed a law intended to resolve long-running land conflicts and curb land concentration, but civil society groups say provisions in the final draft could limit redistribution, leave state-controlled land difficult to challenge and expose some land occupants to criminal charges. The House of Representatives, known as the DPR, approved the Agrarian Reform Regulation Law on Sept. 22, after lawmakers and the government agreed on the bill the previous day. The law establishes a framework for resolving structural conflicts over agrarian land ownership, restoring land rights and redistributing land, among other aims. The final enacted text has not yet been made publicly available, leaving some details of how the law will operate unclear. The debate over the efficacy and the implementation of the law comes amid a long-standing pattern of land disputes in Indonesia. The Agrarian Reform Consortium (KPA), an advocacy group, reportedly recorded 3,234 agrarian conflicts affecting 7.4 million hectares (18.3 million acres) and 1.8 million households between 2015 and 2024. KPA and other advocates have argued that many conflicts arise from overlapping government authority, land allocations and competing claims involving communities, companies and state institutions. Indigenous communities, farmers and fisherfolk can be affected when their customary or livelihood areas overlap with concessions, state-designated land or infrastructure projects. The new law is intended to address what lawmakers describe as fragmented authority and regulations that have complicated conflict resolution. The parliament said the bill’s provisions include land-use planning and controls, mechanisms for resolving conflicts and restoring…This article was originally published on Mongabay

CANBERRA — Australia has a problem with the very creature that is its official national symbol: The kangaroo. Endemic to Australia, they live across the country, from north to south, and from east to west. Australia has four main kangaroo species: The red kangaroo (Osphranter rufus), the largest of all species, mainly found in the outback through the Northern Territory; the western grey kangaroo (Macropus fuliginosus), in the southeastern part; the eastern grey kangaroo (Macropus giganteus), in most eastern states, including Tasmania; and antilopine kangaroo (Osphranter antilopinus), in the northern part. Population surveys by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water estimate there are between 30 million and 50 million kangaroos in Australia. Their number fluctuates from year to year depending on drought periods, and it even exceeds the country’s 27.8 million human population. The abundance of the macropods across the country creates a conservation dilemma. They have been blamed for overgrazing and causing environmental damage such as soil degradation and biodiversity decline. Many Australian states have resorted to kangaroo culling. A recent culling in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), which includes the federal capital Canberra, encapsulates the controversy about the policy. The Australian Capital Territory, home to an estimated 122,000 eastern grey kangaroos, has one of the highest recorded densities in Australia. Image by Shane Lin via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0). Record kill At 2,358 square kilometers (910 square miles), the ACT is only slightly smaller than Luxembourg. The territory, home to an estimated 122,000 eastern grey…This article was originally published on Mongabay

The Philippines remains the deadliest country in Asia for land and environmental defenders, according to a new report by the non-profit Global Witness. In its report, Global Witness says it could verify the killings  of 124 land and environmental defenders worldwide in 2025. While the majority, 85% of cases, occurred in Latin America, Asia accounted for 12% of the deaths with 12 defenders killed in the Philippines and one person killed for each of India, Indonesia and Turkey. The Philippines remains the deadliest country in Asia for the thirteenth consecutive year. Its 12 documented cases in 2025 represent the highest total recorded in any single country outside Latin America, the report says. State forces played a central role in the violence against environmental and land defenders in the country, with the Philippine military suspected of participating in five of the 12 killings amid expanded rural counterinsurgency campaigns and resource extraction projects, according to the report. “The report adds an important dimension to what we already know about the situation of land and environmental defenders in the Philippines,” Manila-based environmental advocacy group Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (PNE) told Mongabay in an emailed statement. “Attacks against defenders are entrenched in state policies and structures that facilitate extractive and development projects.” Global Witness’ report adds that killings “are only the most extreme form of reprisal that defenders face.” Beyond lethal violence, environmental defenders  face a rising tide of legal harassment, criminalization, and smear campaigns, it says. In the Philippines, for example, the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

SINGAPORE — “For seven thousand years, Singapore has changed around these reefs,” says Debby Ng, a Singaporean biologist who studies the city-state’s shrinking coastal and marine habitats. “They are still here.” Despite colonization, war, shipping and industrialization, reefs a few kilometers south of Singapore’s gleaming shoreline have endured. “It would be a tragedy if we were to lose them now — in peacetime, at the height of our prosperity, when we possess more knowledge and capacity to protect them than any generation before us,” Ng tells Mongabay. At a National Day rally on Aug. 23, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced plans to merge a cluster of islands sprawled across a few thousand hectares of seascape into a new “western island” for advanced manufacturing, energy and defense. No timeline for the western island project was given. Wong said reclamation would take place “over the coming decades” and that plans were being studied carefully. But the announcement has alarmed Singapore’s marine conservation community, which says the project could affect some of the country’s most biodiverse waters. The islands include Pulau Semakau, which houses Singapore’s offshore landfill, and Pulau Bukom, home to an oil refinery, as well as Pulau Sudong and smaller islands including Pulau Hantu, Pulau Jong and Pulau Sebarok. The area is estimated to contain some 590 hectares (1,460 acres) of coral reefs — about 60% of the total in Singapore — along with 22% of the city-state’s seagrass meadows and 5% of its mangroves. Black sun coral (Tubastraea micranthus), Singapore.…This article was originally published on Mongabay