In Brazil’s general election on Oct. 4, incumbent leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva finished second to far-right Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator and son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who was barred from public office after being convicted of planning a coup d’état. The two candidates will face each other in a second-round vote on Oct. 25 as neither candidate won more than 50% of the vote needed for a first-round victory. Flávio Bolsonaro won the majority of votes in eight of the 10 Amazon municipalities that cleared the most rainforest over the last decade, according to an analysis by Sumaúma, an Amazon-based publication. Sumaúma compared official results from the first-round votes with satellite deforestation data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research. Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency coincided with a historic spike in deforestation. Lula took office in 2023. Starting in August 2025, Amazon deforestation fell to the lowest level in more than a decade. Novo Progresso in Pará state was the site of the 2019 “Day of Fire” when local residents, many Jair Bolsonaro supporters, purposely set hundreds of forest fires. Flávio Bolsonaro won 84% of the vote in Novo Progresso. In the municipality of Altamira, where the Lula administration blacklisted more than 500 farms for illegal deforestation last year, Flávio Bolsonaro won 63% of the vote. Nestled between Altamira and Novo Progresso is the site of the largest land grab in Brazilian Amazon history. Lula won the vote in two of the 10 most deforested municipalities. He won…This article was originally published on Mongabay

The government in Suriname this year said it planned to evict illegal settlers in the Amazon Rainforest, and possibly send many of them back to their home countries. But eviction has proven much more complicated than it first appeared, with settlers allegedly ignoring court orders and officials expressing confusion about which people are breaking what laws. Suriname President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons created a task force to investigate illegal settlements destroying the rainforest, many of them Mennonites moving from other countries. Officials delivered eviction notices to some of the settlers as recently as July, yet some deny receiving the notices and continue to develop the area. Lawmakers said they’re confused about the location of the new Mennonite communities, the legal process for removing them, and how they entered the country in the first place. “We got bits and pieces of information that more and more families were coming,” Rabindre Parmessar, leader of the National Democratic Party in the National Assembly, told Mongabay over the phone. “We don’t know whether immigration rules were taken into consideration, and the other rules and procedures we have here in Suriname.” Since at least 2022, agribusiness investors in the country have been trying to relocate Mennonite farming families from Bolivia, Belize and other parts of the Americas. The conservative Christian group has a track record of rapid farming growth, and would have helped develop hundreds of thousands of hectares of mostly primary rainforest. Geerlings-Simons during the press briefing Aug 4. Image courtesy of Key tv 8.2 In…This article was originally published on Mongabay

BANGKOK (AP) — Thai authorities on Monday warned of more rain and flash flooding as the death toll from floods across the country since mid-September rose to 31. Thunderstorms, strong winds and heavy rain are expected across much of upper Thailand from Monday through Wednesday, increasing the risk of flash flooding, particularly in low-lying areas, the Thailand Meteorological Department said. Very heavy to heavy rains are also forecast in some areas in the central, eastern and southern regions, including the capital, Bangkok, over the weekend. Many areas in Bangkok were inundated last week after days of torrential rain, forcing thousands to evacuate and causing severe disruptions. The city’s conditions have largely improved, although floodwaters remain in some lower-lying areas. Bangkok authorities said they were taking measures to reduce the risk of further flooding, including draining more water from the city’s main canals to increase their capacity to absorb rain and deploying more water pumps in high-risk areas. More than 3.5 million people remained affected by flooding nationwide as of Monday, according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation. The 31 deaths were reported across eight provinces, including four in Bangkok. The extensive damage from flooding prompted the Thai government to approve emergency funds of more than 4.1 billion baht (about $122 million) last week for flood recovery. By Associated Press Banner image: People wade through a flooded street after heavy rain in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. Image courtesy of Sakchai Lalit, Associated PressThis article was originally published on Mongabay

JAKARTA — Fires burning within rainforests that contain more than half of the world’s critically endangered Bornean orangutan population have prompted scientists and experts to call for urgent action in response to the escalating fires across Indonesia. The warning comes as Indonesia faces a severe fire season fueled by strong El Niño conditions, with conservationists scrambling to rescue wildlife trapped in burning landscapes. Fires are burning in rainforests that contain 13 of the 20 largest remaining populations of Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus). Shaded and outlined areas show current IUCN Extant (resident) orangutan range in Kalimantan. Image courtesy of the Orangutan Conservation Initiative. Red circles show individual satellite detections overlapping current IUCN Extant (resident) orangutan range. As of Sept. 22, the Ministry of Forestry reported that 100 wildlife, including 53 Bornean orangutans, had been rescued. Rescuers have found some orangutans suffering severe physical injuries after escaping the fires. In Central Kalimantan, an approximately 4-year-old orangutan named Novita was found trapped in a burning area near Sebangau National Park in Central Kalimantan province with serious burns on all four hands and feet, according to local news Betahita. She was later taken to a rehabilitation center for treatment. In locations where orangutans are surrounded by fire and have nowhere to go, they can “literally burn alive,” said Borneo Nature Foundation (BNF) CEO Anton Nurcahyo. The risk may be particularly high for females with young, Anton told Mongabay. Their tendency to remain in established home ranges can be a disadvantage during fires, while females…This article was originally published on Mongabay

The brown clockfig, an extremely rare succulent growing in the hot, arid border region of Namibia and South Africa, was recently assessed as critically endangered by the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. The western Gariep Valley is a vast landscape spanning the southern part of Tsau ǁKhaeb National Park in Namibia and the Richtersveld region of Northern Cape province in South Africa. It’s in this harsh environment, shaped by extreme heat and dryness, that the brown clockfig (Cheiridopsis brownii) grows on quartz ridges, shale, gravel, and sandy soils, and in cracks and fissures in desert mountains. The IUCN estimates the species, with thick leaves and daisy-like yellow flowers, has a total range of 424 square kilometers (164 square miles) in the valley, but occupies only around 60 km2 (23 mi2) of this area. Habitat loss due to overgrazing is among its major threats. Another is the demand for mineral resources such as diamonds, with mining permits being issued across the region. That’s placed more of the species’ already limited habitat under pressure in both South Africa and Namibia. “The vast desertification of the Aniesvlakte [plain in South Africa’s Richtersveld region] as a direct result of severe overgrazing, as well as the mass desertification caused by sand moving from the coast due to unrehabilitated mines, are threatening to swallow most of the remaining population in South Africa,” Pieter van Wyk, a botanist with South African National Parks (SANParks), who carried out the most recent assessment, told Mongabay via email. Another…This article was originally published on Mongabay

More Amazonian species, in larger numbers, are appearing for sale on the other side of the planet in Southeast Asia’s exotic pet trade, reports contributor Gloria Dickie for Mongabay. Over the past two years, Scott Roberton, who leads the countertrafficking program for U.S.-based nonprofit Wildlife Conservation Society, has observed a rise in Latin American species, including marmosets, capuchin monkeys, tamarins, capybaras, matamata turtles, and rare Amazonian fish, crammed into small enclosures alongside domestic pets in Thai markets. “It’s changed a lot in the past two years. The volume is greater. The diversity of species is great,” said Roberton. “Every time we come, there is a new species here.” The supply chain can originate deep in the rainforest, often centered around hubs like Iquitos in Peru, Dickie reports. Animals poached from Colombia, Brazil, and neighboring nations are ferried along Amazonian rivers into Peru, where corruption and illegal trafficking, including fraudulent documentation, allow wild-caught specimens to be laundered as captive-bred stock that can be legally traded. “Iquitos is a city where a lot of illegal commodities move freely within the Amazon,” said Renata Cao, Latin America project lead with the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC. “A lot of products from different countries get to Iquitos, and then in Peru it’s easier to launder.” From South America, the animals endure stressful multi-leg flights lasting more than 25 hours to reach Asian markets. The trade is further fueled by social media platforms that connect buyers and sellers globally, according to Neil D’Cruze, a wildlife…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Fewer than half of tiger poaching and trafficking arrests in Southeast Asia result in convictions or legal penalties, providing little deterrent to an illegal black market that is driving wild tigers towards extinction, reports contributor Sean Mowbray for Mongabay. Researchers analyzed 259 tiger seizure cases recorded between 2019 and 2024 across seven range countries: Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. Of those 259 cases, only 110 resulted in prison sentences or fines, according to the report published by Canadian conservation think tank the GuArdean Centre for Conservation Research, wildlife trade watchdog TRAFFIC, and WWF International. Another 35 cases ended in suspended sentences, while 63 arrests lacked a clear outcome and 48 had no available public data. The report reveals that law enforcement efforts overwhelmingly target low and mid-level poachers, couriers and local traders, rather than the high-level organizers financing transnational syndicates. “We’re talking about serious organized crime,” Heather Sohl, tiger trade lead at WWF and report co-author, told Mongabay. “These are criminal networks that are involved in other organized crime, such as human trafficking and money laundering.” Sohl added that arrests alone are insufficient, “Investigation and case-building is needed to build support for strong prosecutions, and only by looking across the whole criminal justice response can we look to really disrupt these wildlife trafficking networks.” Vietnam and Indonesia logged the highest conviction numbers, with 51 cases in each country carrying jail time or fines. However, Vietnam also accounted for 33 of the region’s 35 suspended sentences. Thailand recorded…This article was originally published on Mongabay

A multi-day thunderstorm over the Mediterranean Sea struck Malta, stranding hundreds of passing migratory birds on Sept. 14, 2026. Hunters in the country then shot hundreds of those birds, including protected species, shows evidence gathered by the conservation NGO Birdlife Malta. Malta sits on the Central European-Mediterranean flyway that millions of migratory birds use annually as they fly from their breeding grounds in Europe to overwinter in Africa. Strong weather systems can interrupt these journeys, causing a “bird fall” — a phenomenon where hundreds of birds seek shelter on land. “This can result in unusually large concentrations of exhausted migratory birds in particular locations,” Antonia Micallef, public engagement executive at BirdLife Malta, told Mongabay by email. “This concentration makes birds much easier to detect and target [by hunters].” Malta has the highest density of hunters in all of Europe. “Over 10,000 hunters [are] active at any one time,” Micallef said. According to BirdLife Malta, hunters shot more than 500 European turtle doves (Streptopelia turtur), a threatened species whose numbers have plummeted, after the storm. Malta allows a quota of 500 European turtle doves to be hunted in autumn, which runs through the end of September, but Micallef said that number was reached soon after the storm, and the season was closed on Sept. 14. “Despite the official closure, BirdLife Malta documented ongoing hunting of Turtle-doves in the hours and days that followed,” Micallef said. Volunteers also reported hunters shooting at a flock of more than 150 little egrets (Egretta garzetta)…This article was originally published on Mongabay