SCHIPKAU, Germany (AP) — A wind turbine described by its developer as the world’s tallest now rises 365 meters (1,197 feet) above the sparsely populated landscape of eastern Germany, surpassing the height of the Eiffel Tower. The colossal turbine has been built at an existing wind farm in Lusatia, southeast of Berlin. Once a major center of lignite mining, the region has increasingly turned to renewable energy in recent years. The prototype reached its full height this week and is due to be inaugurated in mid-November. Jochen Grossmann, chief executive of Gicon, the Dresden-based engineering company that built the tower, said the structure would harness the stronger, more reliable winds found at greater heights. Conventional wind turbines typically have a hub height — the distance from the ground to the center of the rotor — of well below 200 meters (656 feet). “At 300 meters, we have such constant and strong wind that we can produce more than twice as much electrical energy as with the same facility at today’s heights,” Grossmann said on Thursday. He added that it would also be possible to produce electricity for much more of the year than with existing turbines. The turbine has a hub height of 300 meters (984 feet), and its rotor blades bring its total height to 365 meters. That makes it taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris, at 330 meters (1,083 feet), and leaves it just short of Berlin’s television tower, Germany ‘s tallest building at 368 meters (1,207…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

With illegal logging and agricultural expansion closing in on their lands, four Indigenous Wounaan and Emberá-Wounaan villages in Panama’s Darién forest started a biodiversity monitoring project to document their forests’ conservation status, reports Mongabay contributor María Paula Rubiano A. Their biodiversity monitoring project recorded more than 200 species across 18,000 hectares (44,500 acres) of threatened forest, including three “umbrella” species: Jaguars (Panthera onca), Baird’s tapirs (Tapirus bairdii) and crested eagles (Morphnus guianensis). At least 15 of the species they documented are classified as threatened. The communities are now using the data as a baseline for joining the biodiversity credit market, which they hope can generate revenue in an area where there are few opportunities to earn money. The communities are using bioacoustic monitoring and camera-trapping with the support of the Panama-based NGO FSC Indigenous Foundation and Health In Harmony, an international nonprofit. They are employing a methodology developed by Savimbo, a biodiversity credit company co-founded by Indigenous community members, that uses 15 indicator species as a proxy for forest health. Samuel Cheucarama, who lives in an Indigenous Wounaan village, told Rubiano the efforts have already changed behavior in the communities. “People don’t go hunting anymore. They’re saying, ‘We’re going to put up a ‘No Hunting’ sign.” Read the full article here. Banner image:Baird’s tapirs (Tapirus bairdii) are the largest native land mammals in Central and South America. Image by user Rhododendrites via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).  This article was originally published on Mongabay