Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. For Ochieng’ Ogodo, science was never a subject to be sequestered in ivory towers. It belonged in the hands of the people—decoded, demystified, and, above all, delivered with clarity and conviction.
New Future
KPL News also highlights the timing of the RDA’s decision: it came just five days before South Korea’s Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy visited the U. S. (March 26–28) to meet with the U. S. Secretary of Commerce. This has fueled speculation that the government is preemptively dismantling non-tariff barriers under U. S. pressure.
Succulents endemic to South Africa and Namibia are drying up and dying across the increasingly hot northern part of their range. Mongabay contributor Leonie Joubert reports that a combination of climate change and overgrazing are causing desertification that the plants can’t survive.
“The Gathering” in Sri Lanka’s Minneriya National Park is said to be among the world’s most spectacular wildlife phenomena. Every year, hundreds of elephants gather on a dry lakebed in the park that becomes fertile grazing land during the months of June through August.
In the waters surrounding Fiji, an ancient tradition endures. Indigenous (iTaukei) communities have long established designated both freshwater and marine ecosystems where fishing and harvesting are temporarily forbidden in honor of their deceased.
James Madison argued that politicians' ambition would lead them to uphold the separation of powers. Today congressmembers’ ambition seems to lead them to do the exact opposite: submitting to Trump and completely bargaining away their own power.
Encouraged by the enthusiastic response from the people of Bengaluru to its initiative of enabling farmers to sell directly to consumers, the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha has decided to organize such markets every fortnight.
What will we eat in the future—and who gets to decide? From lab-grown meat to agroecology, the politics of food in Africa are being shaped by tech dreams, corporate agendas, and grassroots resistance.