A new report by Earth Insight finds more than 61.5 million hectares (151.9 million acres) of protected and conserved areas — an area roughly 2.5 times the size of the United Kingdom — overlap with ongoing and planned oil and gas blocks across the tropical countries. Another 42.7 million hectares (105.5 million acres) of protected lands overlap with mining blocks or concessions. “[The] analysis reveals a major gap between conservation commitments and the industrial pressures facing areas already counted as protected and conserved,” Florencia Librizzi, deputy director at Earth Insight and author of the report, told Mongabay over email. Released on Oct. 8, the report arrived less than two weeks before delegates from around the world gather in Yerevan, Armenia, for the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP17) from Oct. 19 – 30. The findings show that expanding protected areas is not enough, according to the report. At COP15 in 2022, 196 nations pledged to conserve at least 30% of the world’s land, inland waters and coastal and marine areas by 2030 (known as “30×30”) under Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. This year, delegates will assess global progress toward the 30×30 goal. But instead, the report says governments should evaluate which ecosystems are being preserved, ensure enforcement is effective and prevent industrial activities from undermining conservation efforts. A coalition of NGOs, including Earth Insight, the World Commission on Protected Areas, the KBA Secretariat, the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity (IIFB) and others analyzed extractive pressures from a host…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Delegates from most of the world’s governments are assembling this week in Yerevan, Armenia for the latest summit of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP17), whose aim is to prevent the extinction of our fellow creatures, and promote sustainable and just land use. There could be no more fitting location: in the Bible, Mount Ararat is where Noah’s Ark found dry land after the great flood – and where the animals he had rescued, two by two – finally disembarked: “But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. Then God said to Noah, ‘Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you — the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground — so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.’” (Genesis 8). Thousands of years later, our fellow creatures need another rescue in the shadow of Mount Ararat, via this summit. That is fitting, because, as a lifelong environmentalist, I have personally never seen a time where politicians around the world seem to care less about nature than they do right now. A wreathed hornbill, found across South and Southeast Asia. Image by Nick Volpe via iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0). A leading edge of this political assault on nature is the U.S. Government, even though America was in many ways the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

LUCERNE, Switzerland (AP) — A bow once used to fire arrows in an ancient hunt. A crunched tube of mayonnaise and a discarded wine bottle. An alpinist’s cracked helmet. A statuette dating back to Roman times. The Glacier Garden in Lucerne is showcasing artifacts like these in a new exhibit of relics that have emerged from Switzerland’s vaunted glaciers over the years, with more expected to come as global warming accelerates the thaw. The exhibit, whose title translates as “Treasury of Ice” from German, comes as Swiss glaciologists recently reported that Switzerland lost 5.5% of its total glacier volume this year, the second-biggest decline on record. “The glaciers are disappearing very, very fast now and before that completely happens, we want to show to the people that this is a very important and interesting archive of what we will lose, unfortunately,” said Andreas Burri, director of the Glacier Garden, an open-air museum. The exhibit features an array of relics — a cow skull, boots, a primitive sort of Swiss army knife, ski gear — as well as videos from Swiss glaciers, charts showing the level of thaw over the years, and a mockup of a glacier flow. Some, Burri says, was just rubbish. “It’s trash. People either lost it or threw it away. We don’t really know for sure,” he said. “But it does give an idea of the variety of things that are now being found as the glaciers melt away.” The remnants from the ice are stacked on…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Low-lying tropical atoll islands appear remarkably vulnerable to climate change. But when shrouded with native forests and with abundant seabird populations, these islands may keep up with rising sea levels, a new study finds. Seabirds act as biological pumps, moving nutrients from feeding areas in the open ocean to roosting and nesting areas on land and, eventually, back into the ocean. The recent Science Advances study traces how energy from nutrient-dense seabird guano trickles through terrestrial and marine ecosystems on atoll islands. The findings show that these nutrients, along with native vegetation, boost processes that build and maintain the island’s reef and underlying structure, even in the face of rising seas. Rewilding atoll islands — many of which no longer support seabirds and have seen native forests replaced by coconut palms — builds climate resilience, as well as benefiting biodiversity, Nicholas Graham, distinguished professor at Lancaster University, England, and the study’s first author, told Mongabay in a video call. “It’s really telling us something about the islands themselves,” Graham said. “Seabirds and native vegetation actually support the resilience of the islands themselves to sea level rise, which I think is fascinating and really quite positive.” Atoll islands of Tetiaroa Atoll, French Polynesia. Seabirds and native vegetation make low-lying atoll islands more resilient to sea level rise due to climate change, according to a recent study. Image by Yadvinder Malhi. Graham and colleagues first began looking into the connection between seabirds, islands and reefs nearly a decade ago. At the time,…This article was originally published on Mongabay

One afternoon earlier this year, Mridula collapsed on the floor of the Dhaka garment factory where she works, overcome by dizziness in the heat. The 20-year-old sewing operator, who works at a factory in Mirpur, northwest Dhaka, said summer heat often leaves her restless and “physically uncomfortable.” “The heat can be very difficult to tolerate,” said Mridula, a pseudonym. Co-workers with high blood pressure seem to struggle even more during the hotter months, she has noticed. After she collapsed, she was taken to the factory’s medical room. She said the doctor told her to rest, then sent her home. “He gave me leave from work,” she said. Mridula was eventually diagnosed with jaundice, which can be exacerbated by dehydration and physical exertion. As temperatures climb, heat is becoming a serious concern for Bangladesh’s garment industry. Dhaka’s summers are setting new records. On April 15, 2023, the city reached 40.6°Celsius (105° Fahrenheit), then its highest temperature in decades, according to World Weather Attribution. Then, the following year, the country sweltered through a heat wave that lasted 30 days without a break. A 2025 report by the World Bank shows that Bangladesh’s maximum temperature has risen about 1.1°C (about 2°F) since 1980. Meanwhile, researchers are increasingly concerned about the health and economic consequences of rising temperatures, particularly for workers exposed to prolonged heat. For Bangladesh’s 4.2 million garment workers, approximately 60% of whom are women, who work indoors, rising temperatures raise urgent questions about occupational health and workplace safety. Factory workers operate…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Anna Fatuma is a 31-year-old woman who runs a kibandaski in Tumboni village, Kitui county in eastern Kenya. Kibandaski is Kenyan urban slang for an affordable, open-air urban eatery, often a small shack made of iron sheets, 3-ply wood or canvas. They are popular with low-income customers. Inside, smoke from firewood beneath simmering pots hangs in the air, while dark stains from settled soot mark the walls around cooking areas. The heat from the food, the smoke and the cramped space make the kibandaski humid and uncomfortable. Fatuma’s kibandaski is one of these small roadside eateries. She opens every day at 6 a.m., cooking and serving meals until about 8:30 p.m. The most expensive meal on her menu costs 250 Kenyan shillings, about $2. She started the business in 2024, hoping it would improve her financial situation and that of her husband, Sam. “Cooking gas is expensive. I can’t afford to buy and use it here,” she says. “Kuni, firewood is easier to find and cheaper to use. Charcoal is my preferred option, though it is expensive.” Fatuma often collects the firewood herself. The work leaves her with a persistent backache. On some days, she pays someone to collect it so she can arrive early enough to open the “hotel,” as she calls it. “Kamgongo kanauma. My back aches,” she says. “Paying someone to collect firewood isn’t ideal, but sometimes I am forced to. It’s also to make sure I open the hotel early.” Her routine might seem far removed…This article was originally published on Mongabay

A park ranger in the Democratic Republic of Congo survived an ambush that killed colleagues. In Cambodia, mines and dams are pressing against land set aside for wildlife. In the Amazon, illegal miners are changing tactics as authorities try to remove them from Indigenous territories. These are different places, with different problems documented by Mongabay, but they point to a question now confronting governments: How much protection does a protected area actually provide? That question will follow delegates to Yerevan, Armenia, for the U.N. Biodiversity Conference, COP17, from Oct. 19-30. In 2022, countries agreed to conserve at least 30% of land and inland waters and 30% of coastal and marine areas by 2030. The commitment, known as Target 3 or “30 by 30,” is not simply about drawing new boundaries on maps. It also requires conservation to work, ecosystems to remain connected and the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities to be respected. COP17 will conduct the first collective review of progress under the agreement. Also read: As global 30×30 goal lags, Colombia shows how progress can be made A new Earth Insight analysis maps oil, gas and mining concessions overlapping protected and conserved areas across the tropics, highlighting threats to global biodiversity goals. Image courtesy of Earth Insight. The evidence arriving ahead of the meeting is sobering. A new study by Earth Insight, the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas and other partners found that nearly 62 million hectares (153 million acres) of terrestrial protected and conserved areas…This article was originally published on Mongabay

VERSHIRE, Vermont – When Sabra Ewing and Sebastian Lousada bought a tired dairy farm with pastures featuring old apple trees alongside sprouting maples, it was obvious that the grass below these trees’ crowns was a lot lusher than in the open. Then they noticed their sheep began to prefer those shady spots, and their manure added to the richness of the grass and of the other annual plants growing underneath. “You do a lot of observation when you’re a farmer, and when we put the heritage sheep in the orchard, we quickly noticed,” Ewing said in a phone interview after Mongabay’s recent visit. Then the couple discovered a grant program offered by the American Farmland Trust that would help them incorporate more kinds of trees into the 30 acres (just over 12 hectares) of pasture on their overall 250 acres (nearly 102 hectares). “I pounced on it, because I was already excited about this,” Ewing said. Flag Hill Farm co-owner Sebastian Lousada provides water to heritage breeds of sheep grazing under 80 varieties of apple and other sorts of useful trees, Vershire, VT. Image by Erik Hoffner for Mongabay. That grant and other financial supports like one from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) helped turn their Flag Hill Farm – which now grazes heritage breeds of sheep under 80 varieties of apples plus other useful trees, to produce high quality wool, hard cider and brandy created in an on-farm distillery – into an idyllic,…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Heavy rainfall during the cacao flowering season is a major driver of Ghana’s recent harvest fluctuations, new research finds. A study published in September by researchers at the Harvard University Center for the Environment in the U.S. found that heavy rainfall during cacao’s flowering and early pod development is linked to significant yield decreases. The researchers described how short, untypical rains during the flowering season, together with dry-season drought, is a major reason for recent fluctuations in Ghana’s cacao production. Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire together account for about 60% of global cocoa production, making West Africa central to the world’s chocolate supply. Cacao seeds are the primary ingredient in chocolate. The authors raised concerns about how these changing rainfall patterns could affect Ghana’s cacao industry, which is one of the West African country’s most important agricultural sectors. “Along with dry-season drought, [heavy rainfall during flowering and early pod development], those two factors alone explain about two-thirds of the year-to-year variability in Ghana’s production,” lead researcher Anna Lea Albright from Harvard told Mongabay via email. A flowering cacao tree in Ecuador’s Los Bancos Canton. Image courtesy of Pablo Leautaud via iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0). Albright and her colleagues began looking into the issue in 2024, when global cacao prices surged after several poor harvests in West Africa. They considered several possible explanations for the trend, including aging trees, pests and diseases, gold mining, smuggling and weather. Analyzing daily rainfall and temperature records, the researchers noticed a pattern. Losses or gains during…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Six members of a pod of 30 belugas, a fifth of the whales that were transferred from a marine park in Canada to facilities in the U.S. and Spain as part of a massive rescue operation, have died in the last two months. They were transported to the facilities in July and August after languishing for more than a year at the Marineland theme park in Niagara Falls, Ontario, which closed to the public in 2025. These cetaceans were among the last to be held captive in Canada, after the country passed the Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act in 2019. The law banned the keeping, breeding, and trading of cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) for entertainment, affecting Marineland’s business model. After months of uncertainty over the animals’ future — including threats of euthanasia and an attempt to send them to an entertainment park in China — a consortium of aquariums under the U.S. Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) devised the plan to transfer the 30 Marineland belugas. Sixteen went to SeaWorld facilities in California and Texas, 10 to Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, two to Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, and two to Oceanogràfic València in Spain, which also took in four bottlenose dolphins. A captive beluga at SeaWorld San Diego. Image by Steven Snodgrass via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). On Aug. 26, Shedd Aquarium announced that Peekachu, a 23-year-old female beluga (Delphinapterus leucas) who had arrived at the facility on Aug. 13 and was blind in one…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Have you ever seen a wildlife photograph so spectacular that you’ve wondered if it was even real? Enter “photography game farms”: captive facilities where photographers can create photographs of wild animals, which they can then sell to stock sites, magazines and enter into awards. Photographers like @MelissaGroo are trying to put an end to this industry. As well as concerns about the conditions animals are kept in, many argue that photographs created in these facilities can give viewers a false impression of wild animal behaviour, as audiences are unaware images are staged.This article was originally published on Mongabay

As global leaders convene in Armenia this week for the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) conference of the parties (COP17), it is difficult to ignore how women’s oppression is deeply intertwined with the exploitation of ecosystems. After almost two decades of pledges, biodiversity action remains underfunded, forest loss continues to be a growing threat, socio-ecological transitions are a low priority, and ecosystems are spiraling toward collapse. The impacts of resulting climate disasters and biodiversity destruction are not felt equally, yet gender justice issues also remain unresolved within these international talks. In Yerevan, Armenia, countries will consider the first global review of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), which was the first formal assessment to measure progress since its adoption in 2022. COP17 is also poised to advance efforts on biodiversity finance under the umbrella of common but differentiated responsibilities. But progress cannot be measured only in targets, financial commitments and international mechanisms. We should also ask a more basic question: What can we learn from the people who are already protecting biodiversity in their territories? Women leading agroecology and community conservation initiatives in Zambia. Image courtesy of Kapyanga Women Association & Zamsof. While hundreds of policymakers spend long hours negotiating decisions to promote false solutions and powerful corporate actors lobby to continue profiting from biodiversity destruction and obstruct environmental regulations, women from the Global South continue working without big cameras or fancy social media presences to protect what is left of their territories. They are ensuring the continuation of…This article was originally published on Mongabay

The search for the enigmatic creature often called the Asian unicorn is stumbling forward on a month-to-month basis, according to the Saola Foundation, which organizes the search. The group says it’s now frantically raising funds to keep the search for the saola in Laos going. “The team comes out of the forest each July for the wet season. This year a sharp contraction in our funding meant we could not confirm they would go back in October,” said Lorraine Scotson, CEO of the Saola Foundation for the Conservation of the Annamite Mountains. Funding for October has only just come through, largely thanks to donations from a number of zoos, but fundraising continues for future months. The saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis) may well be the world’s most endangered large animal. The only member of its genus, the species is a tropical bovid that superficially resembles an antelope with its long, curved horns, thin face, and elegant facial markings. It’s believed to have remained this way largely unchanged for 15 million years. Found in the biodiverse Annamite Mountains, which straddle the border region of Laos, Vietnam, and a small portion of Cambodia, the saola was only discovered by scientists in 1992. Captive saola in Laos, 1996. Image by W. Robichaud/WCS. “Fewer than 50 are thought to remain, none are held in captivity, and the last confirmed record anywhere was a camera-trap photograph in 2013. Very few people have ever seen one alive,” Scotson said. Given this, the Saola Foundation launched a search in…This article was originally published on Mongabay

A recent State of the World’s Birds report found nearly half of the migratory birds assessed are declining. The stark finding comes as world governments are gathered in Armenia for the ongoing U.N. Biodiversity Conference to review progress toward global conservation goals. In southern Mozambique, Maputo National Park illustrates the biodiversity importance of conserving key habitats for migratory birds offering food, rest and shelter for species traveling thousands of kilometers between breeding and wintering grounds. The park’s diverse ecosystems include coastal lagoons, wetlands, mangroves, freshwater systems, intertidal mudflats and extensive shorelines — all supporting a wide range of migratory and resident birds. Its location along the southern African coast makes the park an important part of the network of habitats that sustain birds throughout their annual journeys. “The park bridges the gap between Eurasian breeding grounds and southern African over-wintering zones,” Alex Ngari, migratory birds and flyways programme manager with BirdLife International Africa told Mongabay by email. The park lies within the Maputaland Centre of Plant Endemism, a global biodiversity hotspot. ‘’It provides a safe place for exhausted birds to replenish their energy after long-distance flights,” Ngari said. He offered the example of the vulnerable to extinction curlew sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea), a migratory shorebird that breeds in Arctic regions and migrates to southern Africa where it feeds on invertebrates in the park’s mudflats for the winter. The park’s marine and inland waters, coastal lakes and lagoons also provide seasonal habitat for osprey, Madagascar bee-eaters, flamingos and several heron species, he…This article was originally published on Mongabay