New Future

PLACENCIA, Belize — After Hurricane Iris decimated the coral reef at Laughing Bird Caye National Park in 2001, many wrote off the UNESCO World Heritage site as a coral graveyard. But a small group from the coastal village of Placencia, Belize, about 18 kilometers from the island, saw hope.

MALUKU, Indonesia — Just four months after Mongabay reported on a dramatic surge in diagnoses of respiratory illness near Indonesia’s second-largest nickel industrial estate, new data indicate that up to half the local population may have been exposed to unsafe levels of mercury — and one in three to harmful arsenic.

Few conservationists have shaped the public conversation around wildlife protection quite like Peter Knights. Best known for co-founding WildAid and helping to redefine conservation as a communications challenge as much as an ecological one, Knights built a career not by tracking poachers in the field but by shifting minds on a mass scale.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was silent while the “bill of devastation” moved through the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Congress, and passed by a vote of 290 to 115 on May 13.

Climate change has already caused significant declines in coral reef coverage globally and is expected to do much further damage in the coming decades. Some scientists have held out hope that tropical corals could improve their viability by expanding their range — by finding refuge in more temperate seas.

Rubber tapping in the forest was once the main Amazonian economic activity, and now an Indigenous group is bringing it back.

From pollinating plants to dispersing seeds, birds play a variety of crucial roles that help to keep ecosystems in balance. But when we degrade and fragment their habitats, some species disappear much quicker than others — taking their specific ecosystem functions with them.

A Canada-based website’s listing of Indonesian islands for sale has reignited fears of privatization, long linked to conflicts between companies and coastal communities. On June 18, 2025, listings appeared for several islands in Indonesia’s Anambas archipelago, in Riau Islands province, on the site Privateislandsonline. com.

Camera trap footage and scent analysis confirm a unique symbiosis between an ant-eater and a subterranean fruit. Looks like the ant-eating aardvarks of the African savanna do not need to be taught the benefits of a balanced diet! Study confirms that ant-eating aardvarks have a craving for buried melons

Deforestation figures can be frustrating to look at, but there are a number of success stories when it comes to protecting tropical forests that we can learn from, Crystal Davis, global program director at the World Resources Institute, says in a recent Mongabay video. “We know what works.

Bangladesh has initiated efforts to revive five species of plants currently listed as critically endangered on the country’s red list, as well as bring back two species declared locally extinct, reports Mongabay’s Abu Siddique.

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. As governments and corporations scramble to meet climate pledges, the search for reliable and scalable carbon removal strategies has turned increasingly toward forests.

KATHMANDU — A decade ago, people from Salija village in western Nepal traveled several hours into the uphill forests to gather firewood and feed for their livestock, Shakhamani Khorja recalls. “[Now], we have a forest growing on about 13 hectares [32 acres] of land less than a kilometer [0.

On June 25, the United States Department of the Interior , a department within the federal government that manages the nation’s natural resources, announced plans to accelerate the initiation of deep-sea mining in U. S. waters, effectively enacting President Trump’s executive order that calls for fast-tracking the industry.