On a Wednesday in July, deep in a coastal restinga area of Brazil’s Paraná state, muffled footsteps broke through the chirping of manakins. Three field researchers from the conservation NGO Society for Wildlife Research and Environmental Education (SPVS) moved carefully along a trail, each carrying a small cage covered in a dark cloth. Each cage held a black-faced lion tamarin, known locally as the caissara lion tamarin (Leontopithecus caissara). Captured safely from the canopy, the three small primates — two males and one female — were carried to a makeshift tent in a forest clearing, where they would make history. Within hours, they would become the first of their species to be vaccinated against yellow fever. A team of researchers and veterinarians was waiting, quickly transferring each tamarin into a cotton bag to be weighed, starting a race against the clock to protect one of Brazil’s most threatened mammals. L. caissara is one of four lion tamarin species endemic to the Atlantic Forest; it ranks among the world’s rarest primates. First found and described by science in 1990, its wild population was estimated at just 392 individuals in a 2011 study. Most tamarins are confined to coastal restinga areas along the São Paulo-Paraná state border. A Society for Wildlife Research and Environmental Education veterinarian examines a sedated black-faced lion tamarin. Image by Gabriel Marchi. The species’ already restricted range has also been fragmented for decades. Part of the problems started with the Varadouro Canal, a 6-kilometer (3.7-mile)-long, 50-meter (164-feet)-wide artificial…This article was originally published on Mongabay

A new initiative between the U.S. and Argentina is meant to bolster investment opportunities and strengthen supply chains for critical minerals that could be used in the clean energy transition, such as copper and lithium. The Andes-Atlantic Corridor, announced Sept. 23, will make it easier to funnel U.S. investment into Argentina’s mining sector and to export critical minerals. At the same time, the initiative will help continue to develop the Vaca Muerta region, home to Argentina’s largest oil and gas reserves. “Working together, the United States and Argentina seek to continue to build on our robust relationship through increased U.S. investment, close security cooperation, and aligned values,” the two countries said in a joint statement. Argentina has about 117.91 million metric tons of copper reserves and 216.32 million metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent, the chemical used in lithium-ion batteries. Many of the country’s minerals are needed for building the cables and transformers in power grids, wind turbines and solar panels, among other things. The country is also part of the “Lithium Triangle,” alongside Chile and Bolivia, an approximately 400,000-square-kilometer (154,400-square-mile) stretch of salt flats where 40-60% of the world’s lithium is located. Historically, exporting minerals has been a challenge for Argentina. The closure of a major copper mine and a lack of foreign investment, among other economic troubles in the country, saw copper exports drop between 2012 and 2019, according to an analysis by the Payne Institute for Public Policy, a U.S.-based think tank studying energy, natural resources, and…This article was originally published on Mongabay

LIBREVILLE — In the traditional-medicine corner of La Peyrie Market in Libreville, iboga comes in a repurposed clear rum bottle packed to the neck with pale bark powder, set among tinctures in old plastic bottles. Two men appeared within a minute on this day in July, and once they heard they were talking to a journalist, went half-giddy. They were happy to say where the root goes: overseas, to clinics, some of it ground into capsules. “Do the buyers pay well?” “They pay well,” one said. And all of it, he insisted, was legal. Iboga, Tabernanthe iboga, is a plant native to the wet forests of West-Central Africa. And here in Gabon, its root bark plays a central role in several Bwiti (or Bwété) traditions. It is also the original source of ibogaine, an alkaloid extracted from the root, now drawing intense interest as an experimental treatment for addiction and other mental-health conditions. The sellers at the market called the money good. But, further down the value chain, ibogaine treatment can cost thousands of dollars per patient. That gap, Gabonese practitioners and officials say, is at the heart of the dispute: the plant and the knowledge are theirs — and are threatened with overexploitation — while a lot of the money is made abroad. A 2023 Interpol analysis also found much of the trade was illicit, identifying that online resellers nearly quadrupled between 2021 and 2023. And the market for the plant may only get bigger, officials speculate. An unidentified…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Dolphins, it turns out, don’t like to mix business and pleasure. Scientists have found that the marine mammals keep their feeding and hunting areas separate from the places where they socialize with one another. A study published in the journal PeerJ details how a team of researchers listened in on dolphins living along the Atlantic coast of Florida to “provide evidence of acoustic habitat differentiation.” “They have distinct habitats that correspond to different behaviors,” Laurent Chérubin, a marine scientist at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University, who led the study, told Mongabay in a video interview. Scientists gathered the audio data with the help of an acoustic wave glider, a 12-foot (3.7-meter) solar-powered autonomous marine vehicle. The glider was deployed for two months along the East Florida Shelf, between Fort Pierce and Jacksonville. In addition to recording 62 hours of underwater audio, the glider also carried sensors gathering environmental data such as water temperature, salinity, turbidity, and the concentration of chlorophyll-a, a pigment that plays a critical role in photosynthesis. “The glider has a bunch of sensors and can host a lot of payload,” Chérubin said. “It can be at sea on its own for as long as needed because it uses solar power and wave action to move around.” On analyzing the data, the scientists detected dolphins in more than 1,600 recordings. They then classified their calls into whistles, which dolphins use to communicate with each other, and rapid clicking sounds, which the animals use as…This article was originally published on Mongabay

  This is an abridged version of a piece I wrote shortly after her death a year today. I find it hard to believe Jane Goodall is gone. She was more than an icon to me. She was a friend, a mentor, and someone whose presence felt like both a gift and a lesson. Our friendship began in the most Jane way possible: an email that opened, “Yes, this is the real Jane Goodall,” followed by a request that I not share her “secret email address.” She said she admired Mongabay and wanted to meet. That message was the start of thirteen years of laughs, tears, and conversations that often stretched late into the night over vegan Indian food and a glass of whisky in her hotel room—even though I rarely drink or stay out late. Jane had a way of making every encounter feel personal. When she first met my children, she lit up as if she had been waiting her whole life for them to enter the room. She crouched to their level, told stories, and pulled up YouTube videos of rats performing clever tricks. “Aren’t they marvelous?” she said, with the same awe she once expressed for the chimpanzees of Gombe. She told my son he was an inspiration for starting a trash cleanup at his school.  She believed hope was not simply a feeling but a tool. Hope, she would tell me, creates agency. The larger the crisis, the more powerless people feel. But small, local…This article was originally published on Mongabay

NEW YORK — Long before Dickson Kaelo became one of the leading voices for community conservancies in Kenya, conservation was something much more personal. He grew up with livestock. His father was a veterinarian. And he knew firsthand the uneasy relationship between pastoralist communities and wildlife: Lions killing cattle, elephants destroying crops, hyenas taking goats — sometimes dozens of sheep in a single night. “That’s their (communities’) food. That’s what they sell to get fees to take their children (to school),” Kaelo, a member of Kenya’s semi-nomadic pastoralist Maasai community, told Mongabay. Fresh from college nearly three decades ago, Kaelo began wondering whether there was another way, something between conflict with wildlife and a conservation model that excluded communities from protected areas. Working with elders near the northern Maasai Mara, he helped organize a community trust (an organization created by community members to collectively manage land, resources or revenues for their shared benefit) in 1998. It built dams and dispensaries, supported hundreds of students through scholarships and experimented with generating tourism income while keeping livestock on the landscape. Then it fell apart. While Kaelo was away studying wildlife, the land under the care of the trust was subdivided into individual holdings. He considered abandoning conservation altogether. “One part of me was saying, it’s time to give up and go out to the city and do something,” he recalled. Instead, Kaelo returned to the same landscape with a belief that land could be privately owned but still managed collectively. Between 2004…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Vantara, the billionaire-run Indian private zoo that houses more than 150,000 animals, discussed a “strategic conservation partnership” with authorities in Brazil, the world’s most biodiverse country, according to documents obtained by Mongabay under Brazil’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Correspondence between Vantara representatives and Brazilian officials reveal that negotiations, initiated by Vantara, began in August 2025, and involved some of Brazil’s threatened species. The zoo, which is located in Gujarat state in western India, was founded in 2025 by Anant Ambani. He’s the youngest son of India’s richest person, Mukesh Ambani, who heads Reliance Industries, a conglomerate valued at $167 billion as of press time. On Aug. 30, 2025, a Vantara representative sent a letter by email to three officials at the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), the governmental agency responsible for protecting Brazil’s biodiversity. The sender’s identity was redacted in the FOIA response. The subject line reads, “Proposal for Strategic Conservation Partnership with the Government of Brazil.” The letterhead uses Vantara’s official name, the Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre (GZRRC). The letters are addressed to Mauro Pires, president of ICMBio; Marcelo Marcelino de Oliveira, the agency’s director; and Raul Fontoura, its head of international affairs. The letter sent by Vantara to ICMBio proposing a “strategic conservation partnership.” Obtained by Mongabay through FOIA. The letter states that Vantara was “well-positioned to assist with other Brazilian species requiring urgent ex-situ intervention,” referring to the conservation strategy of keeping a population surplus in zoos and breeding centers, rather than…This article was originally published on Mongabay

JAKARTA — In 2016, following the most devastating land and forest fires in its recorded history the previous year, the Indonesian government set up an agency to restore peatlands, among the worst-hit biomes during the disaster. A decade later, following the most devastating land and forest fires since the 2015 season, the current government has once again set up an agency to restore peatlands — prompting questions over what impact, if any, this new body will have. The National Peatland and Mangrove Management Agency, or BPGMN, was announced by Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni following a meeting at the State Palace in Jakarta on Sept. 24 between President Prabowo Subianto and a group of 22 experts. Like the earlier Peatland and Mangrove Restoration Agency (BRGM) established by Prabowo’s predecessor, Joko Widodo, which was shuttered in December 2024, the new agency will report directly to the president and be staffed by scientists and professionals, according to Raja Juli. For some observers, that begs the question of why Prabowo didn’t renew the BRGM’s mandate and instead let it expire, and what the BPGMN will do differently. “The BPGMN must not stop at changing the institution’s name,” said Uli Arta Siagian, national campaign coordinator for Walhi, Indonesia’s biggest environmental advocacy group. “The experience of the BRGM, which was disbanded at the end of 2024 after operating for nearly a decade, shows that changing the institutional structure does not automatically guarantee better governance. “The BPGMN must have a mandate, authority, success indicators, and working…This article was originally published on Mongabay

UMPHANG, Thailand — At 8 a.m. on June 26, at least 13 double-trailer trucks were lined up at the Pheung Khleung border crossing in northern Thailand — one of the few places where minerals can be legally transported overland from Myanmar into Thailand. Tensions were running high under the sun. The border gate had not yet opened and irate mineral merchants were yelling at reporters, demanding that no photos be taken. The previous day, the Thai military personnel that oversee the cross-border mineral trade had granted Mongabay permission to document the hundreds of tons of antimony expected to be delivered from Myanmar’s Karen state to Thailand’s Tak province, some 200 kilometers (124 miles) south of the city of Mae Sot. Reporters were forbidden from photographing soldiers’ involvement in the trade or the minerals themselves. It wasn’t until 10 a.m. that the border gates opened and the first truck from Karen state bearing antimony, a silvery mineral used in bullets, bombs, armor, semi-conductors and other defense, aerospace and tech industries, crossed into Thai territory. Bars of processed antimony were hoisted from Myanmar trucks into Thai trucks at the Pheung Khleung border crossing in June 2026. Image by Gerald Flynn / Mongabay. A crane, followed by a parade of battered trucks, rolled over from Myanmar and instantly workers from both sides frantically began attaching hoisting cables to 1-ton bags of what reporters were told was antimony ore and stacked bars of antimony ingot. Drivers sheltered from the heat as bags and bars…This article was originally published on Mongabay

It’s easy to forget that the western media – the so-called “free press” – likes to distinguish itself from media in authoritarian regimes on the basis that, unlike them, it asks critical questions of the powerful, reports facts objectively, and formulates its analyses dispassionately. They do propaganda, we do news – or so the western […]

In his fiery speech to the UN General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against accusations of genocide levelled against Israel, as many delegates walked out and hundreds of protesters rallied against him across Manhattan. After Netanyahu had downplayed Israeli settler violence, rejected Gaza genocide and presented a number of misrepresentations, his speech […]

On Sunday morning, without notice, a private plane carried Benjamin Netanyahu out of Israel and into Abu Dhabi. Channel 12 broke the story while he was still on the ground. A day later both governments confirmed the meeting with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, calling it a conversation about bilateral relations. The Israeli account gave the […]