New Future

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Human activity is reshaping life on Earth in profound and alarming ways.

KIREHE, Rwanda — Victor Ndwaniye, a smallholder farmer from Nasho, a small lakeside village in Kirehe district in eastern Rwanda, used to irrigate his vegetable farm by collecting water in a bucket and pouring it onto the fields.

Wilpattu, SRI LANKA – After a fruitful safari at Wilpattu National Park, wildlife photographer Rohan Fonseka and his colleagues ventured toward the Maradanmaduwa area, hoping to catch a glimpse of a sloth bear. Their luck held as a full-grown bear emerged from the dry zone forest, offering rare and memorable photo opportunities.

The northern bald ibis (Geronticus eremita) is an extravagant waterbird adapted to forage in dry, open habitats, and is included in the list of the most genetically and evolutionarily unique creatures of the world. Five centuries ago, it was widespread from Southern and Central Europe to Northern Africa and the Middle East.

In a conservation milestone, 10 Siamese crocodiles were released this month into Cambodia’s Virachey National Park for the first time, as part of a decades-long effort to save the critically endangered species. The Siamese crocodile is one of the world’s rarest crocodilians, with less than 1,000 individuals estimated to be surviving in the wild.

A massive iceberg broke off from the George VI Ice Shelf in Antarctica in January, giving researchers a rare opportunity to observe a part of the planet never before seen by humans. Coincidentally, a team of researchers from the Schmidt Ocean Institute in California, U. S.

Canadian deep-sea mining firm The Metals Company (TMC) has announced it “initiated a process” with U. S. regulators to apply for both exploration and exploitation licenses, potentially circumventing the international regulator. TMC’s process with the U. S.

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay’s founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives, and story summaries. Elisabeth Vrba did not set out to overturn the way scientists understood evolution.

On a chilly night in February, Umar Dablo, a resident of Pakistan’s southern coastal city Karachi, spent three nights in his flooded house after seawater gushed out from the ground.

NAIROBI, Kenya — Many African cities are now characterized by deafening traffic noises and suffocating gas emissions, and are becoming limitless concrete jungles as urbanization takes hold and human settlements squeeze out natural forests.

Panamanian authorities seized six longliner vessels on Jan. 20 for fishing illegally in protected waters. They also opened an investigation into an additional 10 vessels that surveillance data showed had apparently been fishing in the area but left by the time authorities arrived.

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. For months on end, he would maroon himself on remote islands — no phone, no company, no fanfare. Just a transistor radio, a hammock, and the possibility of seeing a turtle. It was enough.

In India, superstitions and myths have fueled a rampant illegal trade in the red sand boa, a docile, nonvenomous snake, reports Shatabdi Chakrabarti in a video for Mongabay India. The red sand boa (Eryx johnii), as its name suggests, is a thick reddish snake that burrows in loose mud and sand.

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay’s founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives, and story summaries. The war in the Democratic Republic of Congo isn’t just killing people — it’s tearing down forests, silencing activists, and fueling an illicit trade worth millions of dollars.