News and inspiration from nature’s frontline, featuring inspiring guests and deeper analysis of the global environmental issues explored every day by the Mongabay.com team, from climate change to biodiversity, tropical ecology, wildlife, and more. The show airs every other week.
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Cash for community conservation is tight, but this nonprofit unlocks it
Jean-Gaël "JG" Collomb says community-based conservation organizations know best how to tackle the complex conservation challenges unique to their ecosystems. However, they’re also among the most underserved in terms of funding of all stripes. On this week's episode of Mongabay's podcast, Collomb explains how his nonprofit, Wildlife Conservation Network (WCN), is working to change that.
When it comes to funding conservation," it's really difficult to know who to give your money to besides a handful of organizations that a lot of people are familiar with," Collomb says.
WCN facilitates partnerships between community-based conservation groups, primarily in Global South nations with funders, in what has previously been described as “‘venture capital for conservation,” or as Collomb says, “people invest in people.”
They are “the first actors,” he says. “We're huge fans of being able to encourage people to give unrestricted [funding] … those organizations who are based on the ground in the field know best how to use that money.”
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.
Please send questions, feedback or comments to podcast[at]mongabay[dot]com.
Banner image: Beach on Mioskon Island in Raja Ampat. Photo by Rhett Bulter/Mongabay.
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Timecodes
(00:00) Why community-based conservation?
(09:54) How WCN works
(14:10) The importance of unrestricted funding
(16:48) Transparency & ethics in philanthropy
(19:59) 30x30 and Indigenous sovereignty
(27:08) Scientific advancements
(31:16) Either/or
(35:33) USAID funding cuts
(40:29) Connecting with WCN
Are Rivers Alive? Author Robert Macfarlane argues they are.
This week on Mongabay's podcast, celebrated author and repeat Nobel Prize in Literature candidate Robert Macfarlane discusses his fascinating new book, Is a River Alive?, which both asks and provides answers to this compelling question, in his signature flowing prose.
Its absorbing narrative takes the reader to the frontlines of some of Earth's most embattled waterways, from northern Ecuador to southern India and northeastern Quebec, where he explores what makes a river more than just a body of water, but rather a living organism upon which many humans and myriad species are irrevocably dependent — a fact that is often forgotten.
Regardless of whether humans see rivers as useful resources or living beings, Macfarlane says their great ability to rebound from degradation is demonstrable and is something to strive for.
" When I think of how we have to imagine rivers otherwise, away from the pure resource model, I recognize that we can reverse the direction of 'shifting baseline’ syndrome. We can make it ‘lifting baseline’ syndrome. We can make our rivers touchable, then swimmable, then drinkable again. Drinkable rivers. Imagine that!"
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.
Please send questions, feedback or comments to podcast[at]mongabay[dot]com.
Banner image: The author Robert Macfarlane. Photo by Bryan Appleyard. Courtesy of Robert Macfarlane.
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Timecodes
(00:00) The liquid asset story
(05:42) The beginning of the ‘hydrocene’
(12:49) Is a river alive?
(20:01) ‘Rights of nature’
(30:02) Landmarks of hope & looming threats
(35:41) ‘Slow violence’
(39:43) ‘A gathering that seeks the sea’
(45:13) Public waterways under private ownership
(48:59) How the Cuyahoga River caught fire
(53:58) Collective health over private wealth
Coffee drives tropical deforestation, but it doesn’t have to
Roughly a billion people enjoy coffee daily, and more than 100 million people rely on it for income. However, the coffee industry is the sixth-largest driver of deforestation and is also rife with human rights abuses, including the labor of enslaved persons and children. But it doesn't have to be this way, says this guest on the Mongabay Newscast.
Etelle Higonnet is the founder of the NGO Coffee Watch, having formerly served as a senior adviser at the U.S. National Wildlife Federation. The main commodity on her radar now is coffee. On this podcast episode, she explains how the industry can — and should — reform its practices.
"It's so simple … pay a living [a] living income wage," she says, " and a lot of human rights violations will just dry up."
To target deforestation, Higonnet says the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is "a beautiful law" that "simply put, would bar imports of coffee into the European Union if that coffee is tainted by deforestation or illegality. So, two things that are illegal off the top of my head are slavery and child labor."
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.
Please send questions, feedback or comments to podcast[at]mongabay[dot]com.
Image Credit: A cup of coffee with beans and a teaspoon on a stump tabletop. Image by Anja (cocoparisiene) from Pixabay (Pixabay Content License).
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Timecodes
(00:00) Coffee tied to slavery and deforestation
(07:03) How we can stop it
(12:36) Why are prices soaring?
(19:25) How the EUDR can help
(25:56) When will the EUDR come into effect?
(29:40) Why the coffee supply chain is simple
(33:54) What about certification schemes?
(37:46) What coffee drinkers can do to act
Lessons from 30 years of successfully fending off mines in an Ecuadorian cloud forest
Carlos Zorrilla has been living in an Ecuadorian cloud forest since the 1970s, and his last 30 years there have been spent fighting mining companies seeking to extract its large copper deposits. He and his community have successfully fought such proposals by multiple firms in one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet, but sometimes at great personal risk, he tells Mongabay's podcast.
While his organization, Defensa y Conservación Ecológica de Intag (DECOIN), and allies in the local community notched a major victory against mining there in a 2023 court case, he explains they're still not out of the proverbial woods.
"Every day, I have to think about mining [and] I'm not exaggerating, my life now revolves around mining. Even though we won a case, I know they're going to come back because the copper's there, and there's a lot of demand for copper."
His advice to anyone who wants to protect their community from mining is to go on the offensive, early and aggressively, comparing the strategy to how one might view treating cancer.
"You have to think of it like a cancer, that you need to treat it immediately and you need to look for signs that your body, in this case, your community, is sick,” Zorrilla says.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.
Please send questions, feedback or comments to podcast[at]mongabay[dot]com.
Banner image: Carlos Zorrilla in the DECOIN office in Apuela, Ecuador. Photo by Romi Castagnino.
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Timecodes
(00:00) A victory for Intag Valley
(07:19) The influence of ‘rights of nature’ laws
(09:57) The return of vulnerable fauna
(15:56) Reprieve is only temporary
(22:02) Mining companies omit important information
(25:07) ‘How to stop’ mining before it starts
(30:52) “Every day, I have to think about mining”
Kim Stanley Robinson's 'Ministry for the Future' has lessons for the present
Five years since Kim Stanley Robinson's groundbreaking climate fiction novel, The Ministry for the Future, hit The New York Times bestseller list, the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning writer shares reflections on themes explored in the book and how they apply directly to the world today.
The utopian novel set in a not-so-distant future depicts how humans address climate change and the biodiversity crisis, toppling oligarchic control of governments and addressing chronic inequality. Robinson explains how the novel works as ”a kind of cognitive map of the way the world is going now, the way things work and the way things might be bettered. And also a sort of sense of hope or resiliency in the face of the reversals that will inevitably come along the way.“
In this conversation, he also explains how storytelling can help humans fight a “war of ideas” and speaks about challenging economic inequities with what he calls “postcapitalism.”
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.
For general questions or comments, email us at podcasts[at]mongabay[dot]com.
Image Credit: Screenshot of the book cover for ‘The Ministry for the Future’ by Kim Stanley Robinson, published by Orbit. Cover art by Trevillion Images. Cover design by Lauren Panepinto.
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Timecodes
(00:00) What Stan would change about the book today
(07:56) We’re all ‘in a sci-fi novel we’re co-authoring together’
(13:37) Challenging capitalism with ‘post-capitalism’
(19:43) Is ‘Degrowth’ part of the Ministry for the Future?
(23:45) About Frank
(27:24) The inspiration for Mary Murphy
(30:34) The threat of ‘wet bulb’ 35C temps
(36:37) How to fight a ‘war of ideas’
(42:21) You cannot kill the future
(46:26) Before you read the book…
(49:27) Looking to Antarctica
Why protected Congo rainforests look 'like a war zone'
Nearly half of the Republic of Congo’s dense rainforests are protected under the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) framework to receive climate finance payments, but Mongabay Africa staff writer Elodie Toto’s recent investigation revealed the nation has also granted nearly 80 gold mining and exploration permits in areas covered by the project, driving deforestation and negatively impacting local people and wildlife. As the world scrambles for new sources of gold during these uncertain economic times, she joins the podcast to explain what her Pulitzer Center-supported reporting uncovered:
"It was beyond words, if I may say. I could see people using excavators to uproot trees. I could see them washing the earth and it basically looked [like] a war zone," Toto says on this episode of the podcast.
Toto is also part of Mongabay Africa's team producing a new French-language podcast, Planète Mongabay, and discusses how the program makes environmental news more accessible to audiences who often prefer to get their news via audio or video. Subscribe to or follow theMongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. Cover image: An excavator digs for gold at the Alangong-Bamegod-Inès mining site in the Sangha. According to environmentalist Justin Chekoua, “nothing seems to be done” to preserve biodiversity at the site. Image by Elodie Toto for Mongabay.
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(00:00) Rainforest given over to gold mining
(10:17) Curious connections & justifications
(17:34) The law of the land
(22:03) In plain sight
(25:33) Planète Mongabay
Inspiring action for the ocean wins top environmental prize for ex-engineer
Carlos Mallo Molina has been awarded the 2025 Goldman Environmental Prize for protecting the marine biodiversity of Tenerife, the most populated of the Canary Islands. On this episode of Mongabay's podcast, Molina explains what led him to quit his job as a civil engineer on a road project impacting the Teno-Rasca marine protected area (MPA) and his subsequent campaign to stop the port project it was planned to connect to, which would have impacted the biodiversity of the area.
His successful campaign contributed to the decision of the Canary Islands government to abandon the port plan. Now, Molina and his nonprofit Innoceana are helping set up an environmental education center in its place.
"I was going diving every weekend in my free time, and it was full of sea turtles, it was full of whales, it was full of marine life. And so, I think understanding how my impact was going to destroy [a] marine protected area … I think that was where I had my biggest click in my brain … I need to do something to change what I'm doing, in [a] way that I can protect this ocean," he says.
Image Credit: Pinnacles of Fonsalía, Tenerife, Canary Islands. Photo by Innoceana. B-roll Credit: Goldman Environmental Prize
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.
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Timecodes
(00:00) From engineer to activist
(05:31) The biodiversity of Teno-Rasca
(06:58) Fighting for protection
(12:13) Shutting the port down
(16:29) A future of sustainable tourism?
(21:02) Future projects
(22:19) Carlos’ connection to the ocean
‘De-extinction’ is misleading and dangerous, ecologist says
A biotech company in the United States made headlines last month by revealing photos of genetically modified gray wolves, calling them “dire wolves,” a species that hasn’t existed for more than 10,000 years. Colossal Biosciences edited 14 genes among millions of base pairs in gray wolf DNA to arrive at the pups that were shown, leaving millions of genetic differences between these wolves and real dire wolves.
This hasn’t stopped some observers from asserting to the public that “de-extinction” is real. But it’s not, says podcast guest Dieter Hochuli, a professor at the Integrative Ecology Lab at the University of Sydney.
Hochuli explains why ecologists like him say de-extinction isn’t just a misleading term, but a dangerous one that promotes false hope and perverse incentives at the expense of existing conservation efforts that are proven to work.
"The problem with the word de-extinction for many ecologists is that we see extinction [as] being an irreversible event that has finality about it, a bit like death. The idea that you can reverse those sorts of things is anathema, I think, biologically, but also philosophically and ethically," Hochuli says.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.
Image Credit: Thylacines, female and male in the National Zoo Washington D.C.
Mike DiGirolamo is a host & associate producer for Mongabay based in Sydney. He co-hosts and edits the Mongabay Newscast. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky.
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Time codes
(00:00) They aren’t dire wolves
(03:57) Why extinction is final
(04:50) Ecological barriers to ‘de-extinction’
(12:25) Problems with species reintroduction
(20:25) How ‘de-extinction’ can mislead
(25:32) Is conservation a zero-sum game?
(31:58) Can this technology truly aid conservation?
(39:24) Is the marketing hype justified?
How the sounds of whales guide conservation efforts
Biological oceanographer John Ryan joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss his team’s multiyear study that examined vocalizations of baleen whales, including blue (Balaenoptera musculus), humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae) and fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus), and how this science is critical for understanding their feeding habits, and thus informing their conservation.
The study found that these whales’ songs rise and fall with their food supply, which provides valuable insights into how changing ocean conditions can affect their health and guide management measures.
“Some of the research we did tracking the movement and ecology of blue whales helped our sanctuary [to] act on this long-term concern about ship strikes, and to join a program that is called Protecting Blue Whales and Blue Skies,” the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) researcher says.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.
This episode is dedicated to the memory of Mongabay’s East Africa editor, Ochieng’ Ogodo. Read here about his life, legacy and achievements.
Audio credit: Blue and humpback whale calls featured in this episode are courtesy of MBARI and John Ryan.
Image credit: A humpback whale dips back beneath the surface of the ocean. Image courtesy of Cristina Mittermeier/SeaLegacy.
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Timecodes
(00:00) Marine heatwaves and their impact
(06:33) Analyzing whale songs
(12:30) A change in tune
(20:13) Interspecies communication?
(25:16) The reason behind the heat
(27:36) Informing conservation
(36:52) Credits
How a prize-winning project brought saiga antelope back from the brink
Two decades ago a group of NGOs came together with the government of Kazakhstan to save the dwindling population of saiga antelope living in the enormous Golden Steppe. Since then, the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative has successfully rehabilitated the saiga (Saiga tatarica) from a population of roughly 30,000 to nearly 4 million. For this effort, it was awarded the 2024 Earthshot Prize in the “protect & restore nature” category.
Joining the podcast to discuss this achievement is Vera Voronova, executive director of the Association for the Conservation Biodiversity of Kazakhstan, an NGO involved in the initiative.
Voronova details the cultural and technological methods used to bring the saiga back from the brink and to help restore this massive grassland ecosystem.
“When [the] initiative [was] started, the saiga would be always like the flagship and the priority species because we did have this emergency case to recover saiga,” she says. “But the whole … picture of restoring the [steppe] was always behind this, and will be now a long term strategy.”
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.
Image credit: Saiga calf. Photo by Kibatov Arman/ACBK.
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Timecodes
(00:00) Saving the saiga antelope
(07:13) The Golden Steppe is massive
(13:00) Using conservation technology
(17:07) Incorporating local knowledge
(20:56) Wild horses and agriculture
(26:40) Community connection
(29:37) Credits
The impact-driven success of Mongabay’s nonprofit news model
Media outlets are downsizing newsrooms and the audience for traditional news is in decline, but Mongabay continues to grow thanks to its impact-driven, nonprofit model. Mongabay's director of philanthropy, Dave Martin, joins the podcast this week to explain the philosophy behind Mongabay's fundraising efforts, why the nonprofit model is essential for impact-driven reporting, and how the organization ensures editorial independence.
" Those who fund us and read us, they're really expecting real-world impact and high-quality journalism. So, people are coming back to Mongabay because they're interested in what we're reporting on. There's a really high level of quality that is informing their decisions," he says.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.
Dave can be reached at dave@mongabay.com or on LinkedIn.
Image Credit: Galapagos tortoise, Ecuador. Photo by Rhett Butler/Mongabay.
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Timecodes
(00:00) Dave’s story
(08:50) Why nonprofit news creates impact
(15:08) Funding and ethical considerations
(23:27) Explaining trust-based philanthropy
(29:10) Reflections on the Los Angeles wildfires
(32:19) Dave’s favorite animals
The climate movement should emphasize humans, not just carbon, Paul Hawken says
Renowned author, activist and entrepreneur Paul Hawken joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss his new book, Carbon: The Book of Life, and argues that the jargon and fear-based terms broadly used by the climate movement alienate the broader public and fail to communicate the nuance and complexity of the larger ecological crises that humans are causing.
Instead, Hawken argues that real change begins in, and is propelled by, communities: "Community is the source of change, and what we have [are] obviously systems that are destroying community everywhere."
The title of Hawken's book, carbon, is also the fourth most abundant element in the universe, and a fundamental building block of life. He argues it is being maligned in a way that distracts from the root causes of ecological destruction in favor of technological solutions that are not viable at scale, or international agreements that prioritize carbon accounting.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.
Image credit: A photograph of Paul Hawken, environmental activist and author. Image courtesy of Paul Hawken.
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Timestamps
(00:00) Language in the climate movement
(18:10) What is a ‘nounism’?
(23:45) Leadership is ‘listening to all voices’
(33:49) Community drives change
(40:24) Why does carbon get a bad rap?
(50:01) Normalizing the conversation around climate
(54:22) ‘Decentering’ the Global North
(59:19) Humans are not ‘alpha’
Why has Australia paused key environment commitments?
The Australian government recently shelved key environmental protection commitments indefinitely, including the establishment of an environmental protection agency, and a robust accounting of the nation’s ecological health via an environmental information authority. The latest suspension was announced by the Prime Minister just ahead of a federal election. Australia initially proposed these “nature positive” reforms in 2022 and hosted the first Global Nature Positive Summit in 2024 to great fanfare, but has not implemented any substantial domestic legislation to overhaul its old environmental laws.
Joining the podcast to explain this situation is Adam Morton, the environment editor at The Guardian Australia. In this podcast conversation, Morton details what the Australian government promised, what it reneged on, the potential global influence of its backtracking, and why the nation’s environment will continue to degrade without intervention.
"I think that the message internationally from this term in parliament has been that the resources sector is winning, and environmental protection is losing out. Now, that's a very simple dichotomy, and it doesn't have to be one or the other, but on every front at the moment, that's how it feels in Australia. That applies to fossil fuel extraction. It applies to native forestry [and] logging, which still continues in a significant amount," Morton says.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.
Image Credit: A koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) in Queensland, Australia. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.
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Timecodes
(00:00) Australia breaks a key promise
(07:30) What does 'Nature Positive' mean?
(16:39) Koala protection sidelined
(20:53) How to 'right' the 'wrongs’
(28:30) Credits
What environmental history says about our current ‘planetary risk’
Recent and major shifts in international environmental policies and programs have historical precedent, but the context of global environmental degradation and climate change presents a planetary risk that’s new, say Sunil Amrith. A professor of history at Yale University, he joins this week’s Mongabay Newscast to discuss the current political moment and what history can teach us about it.
" When we look at examples from the past, [societies’ ecological impacts] have tended to be confined to a particular region, to those states, and perhaps to their neighbors. Because of where we are in terms of anthropogenic warming [and] planetary boundaries, I think the scale of any risk, the scale of any potential crossing over into irreversible thresholds, is going to have impact on a scale that I'm not sure historical precedents would give us much insight into," he says.
Amrith is the author of The Burning Earth: A History, which examines the past 500 years of human history, colonization and empire, and the impact of these on ecological systems. In this conversation, he details some historical parallels, what lessons can be learned, and what periods of history resulted in the most peace and prosperity.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.
Image credit: Deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo by Rhett Butler/Mongabay.
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Timecodes
(00:00) Historical parallels to the current moment
(09:43) The context of ‘planetary risk’
(20:36) Lessons from history
(26:10) Credits
How ‘ecological empathy’ can shape a better world
A new framework for considering the needs of the “more-than-human world” when designing human-made systems is “ecological empathy,” the focus of Lauren Lambert, founder of Future Now, a sustainability consulting firm.
Her research, Ecological empathy: Relational theory and practice, was published in the journal Ecosystems and People in late 2024, when she was at Arizona State University. She joins the podcast to detail the concept and its potential for reconnecting humans with nature for mutual benefit.
"Ecological empathy as I define it [is] essentially a framework of practice for how to use empathy as a guide to connect to the more-than-human world, and integrate our interdependence and relationships with the more-than-human world in everyday thinking, everyday practice, and specifically in the places where we work," she says.
Previous newscast guests like Carl Safina, argued for overhauling how humans raise and farm seafood. Ben Goldfarb discussed how road crossings can help humans move toward a less environmentally damaging road infrastructure network in his award-winning book Crossings, which documents what he calls “road ecology.”
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.
Image Credit: A Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) in Indonesian New Guinea. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.
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Timecodes
(00:00) What is ‘ecological empathy’?
(10:50) The limits of feelings
(15:38) The theory of change
(21:22) How do you apply it?
(33:29) Real-world examples
(44:29) What empathy is and isn’t
(52:30) Credits
Degrowth’s benefits in Barcelona are getting noticed across the globe
Middle and working-class citizens in nations across the globe are feeling their purchasing power diminish while billionaires hoard historically high levels of wealth. People are looking for economic solutions out of the inequity that are in line with their ecological values and planetary boundaries.
"People are really hungry for solutions [and] really hungry to find alternatives," says Alvaro Alvarez, the documentary filmmaker of the new BBC documentary Less Is More: Can Degrowth Save the World?
Alvarez joins Mongabay's podcast to detail real-life solutions using the concepts behind “degrowth” in the city of Barcelona, which he highlights in the film and which have garnered widespread interest.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.
Listen to a previous conversation on degrowth on the Mongabay Newscast here.
Image Credit: La Brugera de Púbol, a sustainable living and educational eco-estate roughly 2 hours from the city of Barcelona operated by Mike Duff. Image courtesy of Alvaro Alvarez.
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Timecodes
(00:00) Degrowth momentum in Barcelona
(06:26) Degrowth and housing cooperatives
(09:01) Growing international support
(13:06) Challenges and criticisms of degrowth
(24:51) Degrowth and global inequality
(32:42) Green gentrification
(39:03) Challenging the ‘wealth=success’ narrative
(42:24) Keeping inside the planetary boundaries
How corporations meet their climate targets, on paper
A paper in the journal Nature Climate Change concludes there is limited accountability for corporations that fail to achieve their climate change mitigation targets. The analysis shows 9% of company decarbonization plans missed their goals, while 31% “disappeared.”
However, 60% of companies met their targets. While this might initially seem like good news, it may not be leading to genuine climate action.
This week's podcast guest, Ketan Joshi, a consultant and researcher for nonprofit organizations in the climate sector, explains that many corporations are not actually decarbonizing their supply chains, but rather relying on buying renewable energy certificates and carbon credits to "offset" additional carbon emissions from their business.
While carbon offsets are often touted as a way to directly fund climate action on the ground, Joshi stresses there is no verifiable way to track how much is funding these projects. Typically, credits are purchased from a broker, and 90% of these intermediaries arranging such deals on the voluntary carbon market don't share their data.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.
Image Credit: The 2015 Paris Agreement stipulates that countries must reduce carbon emissions in order to limit warming to 1.5°C, or at least well below 2°C. Image by jwvein via Pixabay (Public domain).
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Timestamps
(00:00) Are companies actually decarbonizing?
(16:06) The rise of climate litigation
(31:00) Carbon removal tech as an offset
(42:00) What is GreenSky?
(50:38) Credits
Bobcats provide health benefits for ecosystems and humans, but are largely misunderstood
The bobcat population has rebounded over the past century, making it North America’s most common wildcat: as of 2011, there were an estimated 3.5 million bobcats in the United States alone, a significant increase from the late 1990s.
These intelligent felids, Lynx rufus, have benefited from conservation efforts that have increased their natural habitat. The species also thrives at the edges of towns and cities, where their presence can even reduce the spread of pathogens like Lyme disease that affect people, says podcast guest Zara McDonald, founder of the Felidae Conservation Fund.
McDonald shares her thoughts on how the bobcat manages to thrive on the edge of urban areas, the state of wildcat conservation, and what she wishes more people knew about wildcats.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.
Image: A bobcat in Kalispell, Montana. Image by Outward_bound via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
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Timecodes
(00:00) Intro
(02:58) The resilience of bobcats
(08:13) The benefits of bobcats
(16:19) The Felidae Conservation Fund
(25:30) The state of wildcat conservation
(30:47) Wildfires and their impact on wildcats
(33:47) Thoughts on coexistence with wildlife
How law enforcement in Africa's protected areas is part of a larger culture in conservation
Nations across the world are working to expand their protected areas to include 30% of Earth's land and water by 2030. In Africa, this would encompass an additional 1 million square miles.
Mongabay's Ashoka Mukpo recently traveled to three nations to assess the current state of conservation practices in key protected areas, to get a better picture of what an expansion might look like, and how the crucial role of rangers in enforcing their protection is evolving. While there, he traveled with passionate and dedicated rangers, but also documented allegations of ranger involvement in violent incidents in Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda.
He joins the podcast to describe the situation, which he says is commonplace in national parks across the continent.
"The amount [of] violence and aggressive enforcement that is, I think, generally associated with wildlife rangers has led to a lot of mistrust, a lot of alienation, and a real sense that 'the purpose of these people is to kind of harass and impose a system that doesn't include us, on us,'" Mukpo says.
Read more here:
‘Killed while poaching’: When wildlife enforcement blurs into violence
‘Like you, I fear the demise of the elephants’
Image Credit: Lion inside Queen Elizabeth National Park. Photo by Ashoka Mukpo for Mongabay.
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Timestamps
(00:00) Introduction
(01:27) National parks, human rights and 30x30
(04:15) Allegations of violence in Queen Elizabeth Park\
(09:48) How did we get here?
(13:26) Tension between communities and rangers
(18:05) Signs of collaboration
(21:27) The economics of Queen Elizabeth Park
(24:16) Local people cut out from revenue
(26:31) The bigger picture
(30:28) Credits
Justice for people, animals and environment are closely linked
Bryan Simmons, the vice president of communications for the Arcus Foundation, joins the Mongabay Newscast this week to share the philosophy behind the 25-year-old foundation, which funds grantees that work on LGBTQ rights and great apes and gibbons conservation.
In this conversation with co-host Mike DiGirolamo, Simmons explains the link between economic development and justice for people and how this is correlated with conservation outcomes.
“When people are not able to have their economic needs met, conservation begins to pay the price right away,” says Simmons.
He encourages listeners to review recent reports regarding ape conservation and how this relates to human health, disease, and the ‘one health’ approach to planetary stewardship. Find more at stateoftheapes.com.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.
Arcus is a funder of Mongabay, but it did not initiate this interview nor does it have editorial influence on Mongabay’s coverage.
Image Credit: Young lowland gorilla, Gabon. Photo by Rhett Butler for Mongabay.
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Timestamps
(00:00) Bryan’s journey to the Arcus Foundation
(13:25) How social justice enables conservation
(25:47) Threats to human rights and conservation
(30:09) Concerns in the Congo Basin
(33:26) Hope during a dark period
(37:54) Empathy in apes
Turning problems into solutions for culture and agriculture, with Anthony James
This week, Anthony James, host of The RegenNarration Podcast, joins Mongabay’s podcast to share stories of community resilience and land regeneration in the Americas and Australia. James explains how donkeys (seen as invasive pests) are now being managed to benefit the land in Kachana Station in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
In this episode, James emphasizes the importance of harnessing what’s in front of us, rather than fighting it. Across the many interviews he’s conducted, it’s become clear that this concept is something Aboriginal Traditional Owners are keenly aware of.
“If you’re there, you’re kin. There’s no sense of ‘being greater than,” James says.
Related reading:
Huge deforested areas in the tropics could regenerate naturally, study finds
Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend. You can also subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify. Listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.
Image Credit: Jim Jim Falls, Kakadu National Park. Image by Parks Australia. Courtesy of the Director of National Parks, Australian Government, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
Timecodes
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(00:00) Why Anthony James started The RegenNarration
(05:32) The story of Kachana Station
(12:24) Turning problems into solutions
(25:26) Community resilience amidst political strife
(36:45) Where's the potential?
(41:29) Credits
Christiana Figueres helped deliver the Paris Agreement and remains optimistic on climate action
General frustration with the result of the most recent UN climate conference (UNFCCC COP29) spurred the former UN climate chief, Christiana Figueres – under whose leadership the Paris Agreement was struck – to co-author a letter to the UN urging an overhaul to the COP process, and calling it “no longer fit for purpose.”
Figueres joins this episode to speak about why the world’s governments seemingly cannot agree to move decisively on climate action, and what can be done about it.
She shares why – despite these frustrations and disappointments – she remains optimistic about the global effort to decarbonize economies and transport systems, citing recent advancements in the deployment of renewable energy and the power of everyday actions:
“I used to think that it was our collective responsibility to guarantee to future generations that they would have a perfect world. And now that I am a recent grandmother, I really look back at that and I go, ‘my God, we cannot guarantee to future generations that they're going to have a perfect world.’ We cannot. So, what can we do? We can do our darndest and we can wake up every morning and make a choice and say ‘where am I going to put my energy today?’” she says.
Figueres is also the co-host of the popular podcast, Outrage + Optimism, which features conversations and analysis about the climate crisis.
Related reading at Mongabay.com:
· COP29 ends in $300 billion deal, widespread dismay — and eyes toward COP30
· Top Mongabay podcast picks for 2024
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website.
Timecodes
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(00:00) A disappointing COP process
(03:33) Has the Paris Agreement failed?
(08:01) The renewable energy adoption s-curve
(13:34) Electricity generation vs. consumption
(18:55) Decarbonizing without mandates
(23:29) Are we standing still?
(31:16) Courage in choosing optimism
(41:25) Reflections from a Colombian forest
(48:12) Rachel changes her mind
Secretive regional fisheries management organizations need media coverage
Seventeen regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) regulate commercially valuable fish species across the world's oceans. The members of these organizations do not publicize their meetings and bar journalists from attending, presenting a barrier for public awareness.
On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, Africa staff writer Malavika Vyawahare is joined by a fisheries expert, Grantly Galland, and an RFMO secretary, Darius Campbell, to explain how decisions are made in regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs), the consequences their decisions have on global fish populations, human rights and labor rights on the high seas, and how journalists can better cover these secretive organizations.
“Decisions are being made by RFMOs that impact billion-dollar fisheries and take effect next year [so] these stories deserve to be told,” says Grantly Galland, a project director at the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Also joining the conversation is Darius Campbell, secretary of the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission, an RFMO.
“The sea is [vast and it’s] very difficult to understand what's going on. Most of the [fish] stocks are very difficult to analyze and predict. And it's difficult to enforce [rules],” Campbell says.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones.
Like our podcast? Please leave a review and share this episode with a friend.
Image credit: Schools of fish at Cayman Islands, Caribbean. Image by Jason Washington / Ocean Image Bank.
Timecodes
(00:00:00) What is an RFMO?
(00:07:37) Who are the key players?
(00:13:18) Who holds the power?
(00:20:32) Strategies for journalists covering RFMOs
(00:29:47) Transparency and secrecy
(00:38:59) Conservation and RFMO decision-making
(00:48:10) Forced labor and human rights
(00:53:29) What happens when an RFMO breaks the rules?
(01:01:13) Common heritage vs high seas
(01:07:13) BBNJ agreement
(01:15:24) Citizen participation
(01:19:09) Resources
(01:21:39) Credits
A new tropical forest conservation fund with great potential
A new forest finance fund known as the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) will work like an investment portfolio (unlike the familiar – and often ineffective – forest conservation loan or grant funds), and if enacted as intended, it will reward 70 tropical nations billions in annual funding for keeping their forests standing.
Co-host Mike DiGirolamo speaks with three people who have analyzed the fund: Mongabay freelance reporter Justin Catanoso, Charlotte Streck – co-founder of Climate Focus – and Frédéric Hache, a lecturer in sustainable finance at the Paris Institute of Political Studies. They tackle the critical questions regarding what the proposed fund could – and would not – do.
“I think that TFFF is an initiative that has great potential because it is put forward and supported by tropical rainforest countries. It is not [a] mechanism that has been defined by donors or by any experts. It is now pushed and promoted by the countries that harbor all this tropical forest,” says Streck.
For additional background, find Catanoso’s report on the TFFF for Mongabay here.
View and hear our podcast team's picks of top 2024 episodes here.
Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend, and leave a review.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones.
Image caption: Cecropia tree in Peru. Image by Rhett Butler for Mongabay.
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Time stamps
(00:00) A brief primer of the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF)
(03:10) Details from Justin Catanoso
(10:24) Digging deeper with Charlotte Streck
(25:17) Critiques and concerns from Frederic Hache
(35:50) Credits
Do we need a 'moral reckoning' on aquaculture's environmental impacts?
Animal aquaculture, the farming of fish, has outpaced the amount of wild-caught fish by tens of millions of metric tons each year, bringing with it negative environmental impacts and enabling abuse, says Carl Safina, an ecologist and author.
On this episode of Mongabay’s podcast, Safina speaks with co-host Rachel Donald about his recent Science Advances essay describing the “moral reckoning” that’s required for the industry, pointing to environmental laws in the United States, which put hard limits on pollution, as examples to follow.
“In the 1970s in the U.S., we had this enormous burst of environmental legislation. We got the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act … all of these things were not because somebody invented something new. It's because we felt differently about what was important,” he says.
The global fishing industry also contributes to forced labor and other worker abuses, as revealed by whistleblowers and media outlets, including Mongabay. Read our award-winning 2022 investigation, which revealed systemic abuse of foreign workers by China’s offshore tuna fleet.
Like this podcast? Share it with a friend, and please leave a review.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones.
Image caption: An Atlantic salmon. In the U.S., the Washington state legislature banned farming of Atlantic salmon in 2018. A state official banned all commercial finfish aquaculture. Alaska and California have similar bans. Image by Hans-Petter Fjeld via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5).
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Timecodes
(00:00) Aquaculture and its impacts
(15:32) How values shape environmental policy
(32:56) The tragedy of the commons
(35:52) Ecological empathy
(45:07) Credits
Conservation is key for planetary health & preventing pandemics
Neil Vora MD is a former epidemic intelligence service officer with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with experience combating outbreaks of the deadly Ebola virus and running the New York City contact tracing program for COVID-19. He advocates supporting public health infrastructure to respond to diseases.
He much prefers preventing outbreaks before they occur instead of rushing to respond to them, though, and the best way to do this, he says, is by investing in nature.
On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, Vora shares his knowledge of why the “spillover” of zoonotic diseases — when a pathogen jumps from wildlife to humans — is increasingly occurring due to deforestation and land-use change.
He also says that despite science's importance in studying and combating viruses, art and philosophy are necessary tools to drive the global change needed to prevent further outbreaks.
“If we want to see societal transformation, we're going to need people feeling inspired, and that's where art and philosophy come in,” Vora says.
Listen to Mongabay’s previous Newscast episode covering the recent outbreak of avian influenza here.
Like this podcast? Share it with a friend, and please leave a review.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones.
Image Credit: Rainbow over Jambi, Indonesia. Photo credit: Rhett Ayers Butler / Mongabay
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Timecodes
(00:00) Introduction
(01:06) Medical doctor and conservationist: Neil Vora
(04:27) The link between deforestation and disease
(07:33) The 'One Health' movement
(09:41) How disease 'spillover' happens
(13:06) What's happening with marburg and 'bird flu'?
(23:10) Why we need art & philosophy to protect nature
(26:31) Apocalyptic horror films as scenario explorations
(30:04) Solutions and 'radical listening'
(35:09) A rejection of nihilism
Grounded: This pilot quit flying to help the aviation industry change, for the better
Todd Smith wanted to be a pilot since the age of 5, but an epiphany spurred by seeing a retreating ice cap in Peru revealed that his love of flying conflicted with the planetary harm his industry was causing.
“That was the first seed that was planted, and I was witnessing in that moment climate change and mass tourism firsthand,” he says.
Today, Smith is co-founder of Safe Landing, an organization dedicated to advocating for sustainable aviation reform to adapt to the realities of climate change and ensure the future employment of airline workers. On the latest Mongabay Newscast, he details his journey to leave the industry, and shares what he thinks the airline industry needs to change to in order to adapt to our new climate-changed reality.
Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend and help spread the word about the Mongabay Newscast.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones.
Image: Private jet flights account for a small fraction of aviation’s overall emissions — around 4% — though the burden is up to 10 times more per passenger compared to a commercial flight, according to a recent report. Image by lillolillolillo via Pixabay (Public domain).
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Timecodes
(00:00) Introduction: Todd Smith
(02:10) From airline pilot to climate activist
(12:10) The origins of Safe Landing
(24:04) The future of aviation on a limited carbon budget
(37:10) The inequities of flying
(45:53) Credits
Don't call it the ‘high seas treaty’: New oceans agreement should center biodiversity, expert says
The new BBNJ (biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction) marine conservation agreement is impressive in scope but has since been rebranded by some as the “high seas treaty,” which risks biasing its interpretation by emphasizing the historical, but outdated, freedoms enjoyed by seafaring (and largely Western) nations.
Elizabeth Mendenhall of the University of Rhode Island joins this episode to discuss the treaty with co-host Rachel Donald, detailing the fascinating and complicated nature of ocean governance beyond the jurisdiction of states. The BBNJ agreement was designed to resolve some of these governance issues, but the text contains ample gray area in how the principles of “common heritage,” the concept that something belongs to all of humanity, will apply to the protection and extraction of resources from the water column and seafloor.
“The treaty design that we ended up with [from] my perspective is not really suited to achieve what it is we say we want to do, which is to create a big network of marine protected areas that's effective in terms of protecting biodiversity,” Mendenhall says.
To learn more and find links to the treaty documents, see the commentary Mendenhall co-authored for Mongabay about the topic earlier this year, here.
Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend and help spread the word about the Mongabay Newscast.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones.
Image Credit: Baleen whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). Image by ArtTower via Pixabay (Public domain).
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Timecodes
(00:00) Introduction
(02:51) How biodiverse are oceans?
(05:20) What's at stake?
(07:47) How are the oceans governed?
(10:47) How international ocean management organizations work
(17:13) What is the treaty for?
(21:21) Is it a marine protected area if you can still exploit it?
(27:55) BBNJ vs. 'High Seas'
(29:09) Principles of High Seas and Common Heritage
(35:35) Post-show
(40:13) Credits
Global Nature Positive Summit features Indigenous & conservation leaders but gets negative marks on government action
Just prior to the latest world biodiversity summit (COP 16 in Colombia), a similarly-themed event was hosted by the Australian Government in Sydney: the Global ‘Nature Positive’ Summit featured Indigenous leaders, scientists and conservationists, but political leaders in attendance provided little insight into when key reforms to the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act would take place, which experts, lawyers, and activists have been calling for.
For this episode, Mongabay speaks with delegates to the summit including Barry Hunter, a descendent of the Djabugay people and the CEO of The North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA), Éliane Ubalijoro, the CEO of CIFOR-ICRAF, and also Ben Pitcher, a behavioral biologist with the Taronga Conservation Society.
These guests share their expertise on the state of biodiversity, what kind of action they want to see from leaders, and what can be done to safeguard species while ensuring First Nations rights.
Image Credit: Barry Hunter on his Country (Djabugay Country) at Mona Mona. Image by Seth Seden.
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Timecodes
(00:00) Introduction
(02:05) A lack of government action
(04:04) Interview with Barry Hunter
(15:31) Interview with Eliane Ubalijoro
(20:24) Interview with Ben Pitcher
(28:16) Credits
Jane Goodall and Rhett Butler celebrate Mongabay’s 25th anniversary
The Mongabay Newscast recently traveled to San Francisco to join an event hosted by the popular radio show and podcast, Climate One, reflecting on both Mongabay’s 25th anniversary and Jane Goodall’s 90th birthday, for a live audience of 1,700.
First, Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler discusses the news outlet’s biggest successes and impact over a quarter of a century, and then Climate One founder and host Greg Dalton engages Butler and Goodall in conversation about the state of environmental news, the biggest issues they’re working on, their inspirations, and what Goodall wants more people to think about during what she calls a crucial election year.
Here's additional discussion of Mongabay’s 25th anniversary,
Mongabay at 25: A reflection on the journey and future
This is our previous episode where Goodall shares additional thinking on these issues:
Jane Goodall at 90: On fame, hope, and empathy
Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend and help spread the word about the Mongabay Newscast.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones.
Image Credit: Rhett Ayers Butler and Jane Goodall in conversation in San Francisco. Image by Alejandro Prescott-Cornejo/Mongabay.
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Time Codes
(00:00:00) Introduction
(00:00:59) Rhett’s reflections on 25 years of Mongabay
(00:02:27) What makes for a successful newsroom?
(00:07:50) Looking to the future
(00:17:47) Jane Goodall and Rhett Butler in conversation with Climate One
(01:17:30) Credits
Community conservation, Indigenous rights, and phasing out fossil fuels at Climate Week NYC
An array of top voices are interviewed or heard on this episode straight from Climate Week in New York, a global gathering of leaders and experts working in the climate and environmental sectors on proactive policies and practical initiatives.
The podcast speaks with several individuals on topics ranging from a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty that’s gaining steam currently to ways of improving the financing of Indigenous communities and conservation organizations working in Africa, and many others. Here’s who appears on the show:
Allison Begalman, co-founder of the Hollywood Climate Summit
Amitabh Behar, executive director of Oxfam International
Tzeporah Berman, chair of the fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty
Luisa Castaneda, deputy director of Land Is Life
Paul Chet Greene, member of the House of Representatives of Antigua and Barbuda
Susana Muhamad, minister of environment and sustainable development of Colombia
Mohamed Nasheed, former president of the Maldives
Maria Neira, director of the Department of Public Health and Environment at the World Health Organization
Sam Shaba, CEO of Honeyguide
Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend and help spread the word about the Mongabay Newscast.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones.
Image Credit: Indigenous activists during an End of the Fossil Fuels event during Climate Week 2023. Image courtesy of the Confederation of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA).
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Time Codes
(00:00) Mongabay at Climate Week NYC
(01:34) Mohamed Nasheed
(04:35) Paul Chet Greene
(05:52) Amitabh Behar
(07:23) PLANETWALKER with Allison Begalman
(12:15) Funding justice with Luisa Castaneda
(18:19) Community-led conservation with Sam Shaba
(24:44) The fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty
(29:19) Juan Bay and the Waorani Nation endorsement
(36:49) Maria Neira from the World Health Organization
(38:39) Susana Muhamad on Colombia’s endorsement
(44:07) Tzeporah Berman talks treaty
(53:32) Rainforest reception and a song
High CO2 levels are greening the world’s drylands, is that good news?
Drylands are vast and home to a wide array of biodiversity, while also hosting a large portion of the world’s farmland, but they face continued desertification, despite many of them recently experiencing increased vegetation levels.
Five million hectares (12 million acres) of drylands, an area half the size of South Korea, have been desertified due to climate change since 1980, but elevated CO2 levels are also driving a regreening of some areas, which some argue is a positive effect of pumping CO2 into the atmosphere.
However, our guest on this episode says this isn’t necessarily good news: remote-sensing researcher Arden Burrell describes how the CO2 fertilization effect is greening some dryland ecosystems, and why this worries scientists who say it may mask land overuse and decreased water resources.
Read the study here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-024-01463-y
Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend and help spread the word about the Mongabay Newscast.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones.
Image Credit: Green areas saw a growth in foliage from 2000 to 2017, while brown areas represent a reduction. Image courtesy of Joshua Stevens/NASA Earth Observatory.
Time Codes
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(00:00) Introduction
(02:50) Drylands and desertification
(04:19) Impacts of climate change on drylands
(09:33) The CO2 fertilization effect
(23:34) Digging into the models
(30:16) Implications for land overuse
(35:54) Post-show
(41:42) Credits
“What If We Get It Right?” marine biologist & climate action author Ayana Elizabeth Johnson asks
Marine biologist and climate policy advocate Ayana Elizabeth Johnson joins this episode to discuss her latest book, What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures, a compilation of essays and interviews with experts and authors in the climate and environmental fields.
Her book sensitively probes the problems human society faces and potential pathways to address environmental injustice, from the unsustainable industrialization of our food systems to the inequity (or lack) of climate policy in many places.
Co-host Mike DiGirolamo speaks with Johnson about key insights from her book’s array of interviews, plus lessons learned from fighting for climate policy herself in the form of a “Blue New Deal.”
Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend and help spread the word about the Mongabay Newscast.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones.
Image Credit: Ayana Elizabeth Johnson holding a copy of her book “What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures.” Image courtesy of Ayana Elizabeth Johnson.
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Timecodes
(00:00) Introduction
(01:06) What If We Get It Right? A brief review
(05:10) The barriers to change
(09:20) What is 'biophilia'?
(10:42) Agriculture doesn't have to be this way
(12:52) Unsung advice
(16:12) It's all about heat pumps
(18:36) The role of media in covering protests
(21:50) An ocean policy odyssey
(25:43) Credits
Private profit from public lands: How a Cambodian elite with military ties claimed a community forest
The Phnom Chum Rok Sat community forest used to support local and Indigenous groups in Cambodia’s Stung Treng province, as well as a thriving local ecotourism venture, but that all changed this year when mining company Lin Vatey privately acquired roughly two-thirds of the land and began clearing the forest.
Mongabay features writer Gerry Flynn investigated how this happened with freelance reporter Nehru Pry, and speaks with co-host Mike DiGirolamo about how the 10 individuals behind the land grab, many of whom have connections to powerful Cambodian military officials and their families, managed this land grab. Local community members who have resisted currently face legal intimidation and arrests.
While community forests, such as Phnon Chum Rok Sat, are supposed to belong to the public, this kind of corporate acquisition of land is commonplace in the nation, Flynn says.
“As we see a lot in Cambodia, it’s public forests being turned into private fortunes.”
Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend and help spread the word about the Mongabay Newscast.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones.
Image Credit: Lin Vatey's original mining site inside Phnom Chum Rok Sat threatens to consume the entire forest according to documents seen by Mongabay. Image by Gerald Flynn/Mongabay.
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Timecodes
(00:00) Introduction
(02:56) A once vibrant community forest
(06:04) Cordoned off from the land
(08:48) Liv Vatey moves in
(17:03) Letter number 1456
(26:24) Arrests and intimidation
(30:06) Ecotourism efforts shut down
(34:14) The 'mental gymnastics' of a government spokesperson
(37:12) Credits
The rights of nature, legal personhood & other new ways laws can protect the planet
“Legal personhood” and laws regarding the “rights of nature” are being trialed in nations worldwide, but whether they lead to measurable conservation outcomes is yet to be seen, says environmental economist Viktoria Kahui. Still, she says on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast that she’s very hopeful about them.
There’s a global debate surrounding these laws’ efficacy as a tool for conservation, and growing uneasiness about how they may impose a Western viewpoint upon something as inherently complex and extralegal as nature. Some critics argue that such a concept not only transcends the legal system but also cannot be subjected to it without harming the people and places these laws are intended to empower.
Yet Kahui argues that there’s potential for rights-of-nature laws to develop in context-dependent scenarios, where humans can advocate on behalf of nature in places like Ecuador, which she says is a particularly powerful example.
Read more about legal personhood and the rights of nature here:
Is ‘legal personhood’ a tool or a distraction for Māori relationships with nature?
New guidebook supports U.S. tribal nations in adopting rights-of-nature laws
Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend and help spread the word about the Mongabay Newscast.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones.
Image Credit: Blue water of the Quinault river, Olympic Rainforest. Image by Rhett Butler.
Time Codes
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(00:00) Introduction
(00:58) The global debate on rights of nature
(03:52) Can these laws protect biodiversity?
(07:58) Challenges for legal personhood
(14:10) The advantage of using rights of nature
(24:21) Philosophical qualms with anthropocentric laws
(28:55) How laws can shape our relationships with nature
(33:00) The 'big possibility'
(40:56) There's no silver bullet
(44:01) Credits
How coastal communities are adapting to rising seas naturally with Living Shorelines
Homeowners and towns along the U.S. East Coast are increasingly building “living shorelines” to adapt to sea level rise and boost wildlife habitat in a more economical and less carbon-intensive way than concrete seawalls. These projects protect shorelines using a clever mix of native plants, driftwood, holiday trees, and other organic materials.
Peter Slovinsky, a coastal geologist with the Maine Geological Survey, joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss the benefits of living shorelines, how they are implemented in his state, and what other techniques coastal communities should consider in a world with a warming climate and rising seas.
Read Erik Hoffner’s original reporting on living shorelines here.
Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend and help spread the word about the Mongabay Newscast.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones.
Image Credit: Salt tolerant plants are part of a ‘living shorelines’ project on the Blue Hill Peninsula in Maine. Image by Erik Hoffner for Mongabay.
Time Codes
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(00:00) Introduction
(02:19) What is a “living shoreline?”
(04:55) Green over gray
(13:06) How to make a “living shoreline”
(18:59) Case studies and urban applications
(24:50) Adaptation methods that deserve more consideration
(31:13) Reconsidering retreat
(32:48) The geologist’s greatest fears and biggest hopes
(39:35) Credits
Experts warn bird flu poses ‘an existential threat’ to biodiversity, and a possible threat to humans
The current clade of H5N1 or bird flu is an "existential threat" to the world’s biodiversity, experts say. While it has infected more than 500 bird and mammal species on every continent except Australia, the number of human infections from the current clade (grouping) 2.3.4.4b is still comparatively small. U.S. dairy workers have recently become infected, and the virus could easily mutate to become more virulent, our guest says.
Joining the Mongabay Newscast to talk about it is Apoorva Mandavilli, a global health reporter for The New York Times. Mandavilli details what virologists and experts know about the human health risks associated with this latest clade, what nations are doing (or not doing) to help contain its spread, and why. She also details how environmental degradation and industrial agriculture help create the conditions for outbreaks like this to occur.
Read Sharon Guynup’s reporting on it here.
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Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones.
Image Credit: Highly pathogenic avian influenza killed thousands of black-browed albatross (Thalassarche melanophris) chicks in the Falkland Islands and Islas Malvinas, where two-thirds of the entire population lives. Image © Julia Emerit and Augustin Clessin.
Time Codes
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(00:00) Introduction
(02:44) The evolution of H5N1
(05:47) Clade 2.3.4.4b
(08:21) Challenges in monitoring the spread
(11:10) What are the human health risks?
(16:34) A spotlight on industrialized animal agriculture
(18:26) A vaccination strategy?
(20:05) What lessons are we learning from other pandemics?
(23:08) The degradation of nature and the frequency of disease outbreaks
(25:57) Credits
Indigenous communities' traditional ecological knowledge is key to conservation: National Geographic photographer Kiliii Yüyan
Top National Geographic photographer Kiliii Yüyan joined the show to discuss traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and why Indigenous communities are the world’s most effective conservationists.
Yüyan spoke about this with us in March 2023 and we're sharing the episode again after it recently won a 'Best coverage of Indigenous communities' prize from the Indigenous Media Awards.
While the National Geographic version of "Guardians of Life" is now published, the collaboration between Gleb Raygorodetsky and Yüyan will be published in book form in 2025. Sign up at Raygorodetsky's website here to be notified when it’s out.
Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend and help spread the word about the Mongabay Newscast.
*Come celebrate Jane Goodall's 90th birthday, and Mongabay's 25th anniversary, during an event hosted by the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco (or virtually) by purchasing tickets atthis link. To get $10 off, use the promo code C1PARTNER. *
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones.
Image Credit: With a dip net, Karuk fisherman Ryan Reed searches for Chinook salmon under the watchful eye of his father, Ron, on California's Klamath River at Ishi Pishi Falls in October 2020. The Reeds caught no fish in stark contrast to earlier times. Before California became a state, the river saw about 500,000 salmon each fall, but last year just 53,954 mature Chinook swam up, a 90 percent decline. The nation now restricts salmon fishing to Ishi Pishi Falls, but with the slated removal of four dams, the Karuk hope the salmon will return. Image (c) Kiliii Yuyan.
Time Codes
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(00:00) Indigenous peoples: the world's best conservationists
(02:31) Who are the Guardians of Life?
(07:30) Some of Kiliii's favorite memories
(10:39) 'People are not separate from nature'
(18:04) 'Two-eyed seeing': combining Western and Indigenous science
(23:30) Advice from an Indigenous storyteller
(27:26) The Impact of storytelling
(30:52) A kayak is not a ship
(34:02) The Guardians of Life book
(39:50) Credits
The ‘Wild Frequencies’ of Indian wildlife revealed by bioacoustics
Mongabay newswire editor Shreya Dasgupta joins the Mongabay Newscast to detail her new three-part miniseries, Wild Frequencies, produced in collaboration with the Mongabay India bureau.
Dasgupta details her journey with Mongabay-India senior digital editor Kartik Chandramouli. They travel the country speaking with researchers, listening and studying to the sounds produced by bats, Asian elephants, sarus cranes, wolves and many other animals. The emerging field for which this study is named, bioacoustics, is helping researchers lay foundational knowledge crucial for conservation measures.
Listen to the miniseries on the ‘Everything Environment’ podcast or by clicking the links below:
Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend and help spread the word about the Mongabay Newscast.
*Come celebrate Jane Goodall’s 90th birthday, and Mongabay’s 25th anniversary, during an event hosted by the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco (or virtually) by purchasing tickets at this link. To get $10 off, use promo code C1PARTNER. *
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones.
Image Credit: An Indian flying fox (Pteropus giganteus). Image by sunnyjosef via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Time Codes
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(00:00) Enter: Bioacoustics
(02:51) What Is the New 'Newswire' Service at Mongabay?
(05:50) What is Wild Frequencies?
(08:45) Going a Little Batty
(17:59) The Complicated Lives of Sarus Cranes
(21:44) Animal 'Societies' We Don't Normally Hear In Cities
(30:07) Credits
How a multi-nation effort has protected North American amphibians from a deadly disease outbreak
Scientists described Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) over 10 years ago, a pathogen that causes the deadly disease chytridiomycosis which is currently devastating salamanders and frogs around the world, contributing to a global amphibian decline.
But thanks to a successful cross border (U.S., Mexico & Canada) effort to keep it out, it has yet to arrive in North America: the Bsal Task Force is made up of scientists from each nation using education, outreach, science and policy to keep the disease from reaching the continent.
Founding task force co-chair Deanna Olson of the U.S. Forest Service joins the podcast to discuss its successes, lessons learned that can help managers prevent other wildlife disease outbreaks, and the challenges that lie ahead.
To learn more about Bsal and the task force, please see Mongabay's six-part podcast series, published in 2020 on Mongabay Explores:
Podcast: International task force unites North America to protect salamander diversity
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website under "Podcasts" or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones. Search "Mongabay Newscast."
Image: A fire salamander in Normandy, France. Image by William Warby viaCreative Commons license.
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Timecodes
(00:00) Introduction
(03:05) What is Bsal?
(05:57) The Bsal Task Force Assembles
(08:02) On the Hunt for a Silent Killer
(17:49) The Team Behind the Scene
(21:36) Lessons Learned and Broader Implications
(25:30) Community Involvement and Cultural Significance
(29:08) Policy Gaps and Biosecurity Challenges
(40:56) Scientific Innovations and Experimental Approaches
(48:14) Not "If" But "When"
(50:58) Credits
Sacrificing U.S. forests for solar energy "misses the plot" on climate action
U.S. states such as Vermont and Massachusetts are cutting thousands of acres of forest for solar power projects, despite the fact that this harms biodiversity and degrades ecosystems' carbon sequestration capacity.
Journalist and author Judith Schwartz joins the Mongabay Newscast to speak with co-host Mike DiGirolamo about the seeming irony of cutting forests for renewable energy, and why she says states like hers are 'missing the plot' on climate action: she lives near a forest in southwestern Vermont where a company has proposed an 85-acre project that would export its electricity 100 miles south, to customers in Connecticut.
A recent report found that such deforestation in nearby Massachusetts is unnecessary to meet that state's clean energy commitments, and would be better achieved by using already developed land like rooftops and parking lots, instead of farms or forests.
Yet the acreage lost to solar energy projects in Massachusetts since 2010 has already released the equivalent of the annual emissions of more than 100,000 cars.
Read Judith Schwartz's commentary for Mongabay about this situation here.
*Come celebrate Jane Goodall’s 90th birthday and Mongabay’s 25th anniversary during an event hosted by the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco (or virtually) by purchasing tickets at this link. To get $10 off, use promo code C1PARTNER. *
Listen to the entire conversation on the Mongabay Newscast wherever you get your podcasts from.
If you want to support the podcast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing. Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet, and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates.
Please send your ideas and feedback to submissions@mongabay.com.
Image: An array of ground mounted solar panels. Image by Derek Sutton via Unsplash
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Timecodes
(00:00) Introduction
(03:09) The Irony of Clearing Forests for Renewable Energy
(10:19) AI and Data Centers Increasingly Demand More Energy
(16:24) Forests and Heat Mitigation
(25:46) Community Awareness and Action
(35:10) Credits
Natural forest regeneration is ‘a restoration of hope’ for farmers & forests worldwide
Australian agronomist Tony Rinaudo's reforestation project in Niger was failing – with 80% of his planted saplings dying – until he stumbled upon a simple solution in plain sight: stumps of previously cut trees trying to regrow in the dry, deforested landscape.
The degraded land contained numerous such stumps with intact root systems, plus millions of tree seeds hidden in the soil, which farmers could encourage to grow and reforest the landscape, something he refers to as 'an invisible forest in plain view.'
Today, the technique known as Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) is responsible for reforesting six million hectares in Niger alone.
Rinaudo speaks with Rachel Donald on Mongabay's podcast about his journey implementing this technique and its massive potential to help tackle biodiversity loss and food insecurity through resilient agroforestry systems.
Read more about FMNR at Mongabay, here.
*Come celebrate Jane Goodall's 90th birthday, and Mongabay's 25th anniversary, during an event hosted by the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco (or virtually) by purchasing tickets at this link. To get $10 off, use promo code C1PARTNER. *
Love our podcasts? Please share them with a friend!
If you want to support the podcast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing. Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet, and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates.
Please send your ideas and feedback to submissions@mongabay.com.
Image: Results of Farmer Natural Regeneration in Luhundwa, Tanzania, from 2019 – 2022. Photo courtesy of LEAD Foundation.
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Timecodes
(00:00) Introduction
(02:43) The Concept of FMNR
(04:42) Underground Forests & Hidden Potential
(07:33) Roadblocks and Revelations in Niger
(14:00) The Social and Environmental Benefits of FMNR
(20:28) Regenerating Earth's Degraded Land
(25:11) "We don't have centuries to make a change."
(30:59) The Power of a Social Movement
(42:41) Undeployed Solutions
(47:55) Credits
Indigenous communities left in the dark on Borneo hydropower plan advocate for their river
The premier of the Malaysian state of Sarawak recently announced new dam projects on three rivers in Borneo without the informed consent of local people.
The managing director of the Sarawak-based NGO SAVE Rivers, Celine Lim, joins the podcast to discuss with co-host Rachel Donald how these potential dam projects could impact rivers and human communities in Borneo. She also reflects on lessons learned from a recent visit with Indigenous communities in California, who successfully argued for the removal of dams on the Klamath River and are now restoring its floodplain.
She says her community relies on the Tutoh River for food and transport, so the announcement “definitely threw the community into a frenzy because no one knew of this plan before the announcement.”
Read the full story from Danielle Keeton-Olsen and view footage of the guest's trip to California with the Borneo Project here at Instagram.
Love this conversation? Please share it with a friend!
If you enjoy the Mongabay Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing. Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet, and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates.
Please send your ideas and feedback to submissions@mongabay.com.
Image Credit: A man steers his motorboat near Long Moh village on August 26, 2023. The village is located along the Baram River. Image by Danielle Keeton-Olsen for Mongabay.
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Timecodes
(00:00) Introduction
(02:36) A lack of consultation
(10:05) Legal rights and UNDRIP
(13:42) Impact of hydropower projects on Sarawak
(20:39) A relationship with the river
(27:58) Solidarity and solace on the Klamath River
(33:10) Breaking down the cognitive dissonance
(43:16) Credits
'Seeking solutions,' Mongabay's new Africa bureau reports the big issues and conservation wins
Last year, Mongabay launched a brand-new bureau dedicated to covering the African continent daily in French and English. The team is led by veteran Cameroonian journalist David Akana, who chats with co-host Mike DiGirolamo about the importance of covering the African continent and why news that happens there is of keen interest to audiences worldwide.
Akana details his team's coverage priorities, including solutions-oriented stories, which he says are vital to delivering a fair picture of the continent.
"The bottom line here is that whatever happens – whether it's in the business of forests [or] biodiversity or climate change in the Congo Basin [it] has linkages to anywhere else in the world," he says.
View all of Mongabay Africa’s coverage at its website, here.
Read a related Q&A with David Akana here.
Love this conversation? Please share it with a friend!
If you enjoy the Mongabay Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing. Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet, and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates.
Please send your ideas and feedback to submissions@mongabay.com.
Image: David Akana giving an interview at COP 28 in Dubai, UAE. Image courtesy of David Akana.
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Timecodes
(00:00:00) Introduction
(00:02:18) David's Journey to Mongabay
(00:06:28) Focus Areas of Mongabay Africa
(00:10:46) Challenges in African Media Coverage
(00:12:09) A Multilingual Reporting Strategy
(00:15:27) Engaging With African Audiences
(00:18:46) Making An Impact in the Congo Basin
(00:22:40) Importance of Congo Basin Coverage
(00:26:16) Future Vision for Mongabay Africa
(00:29:40) Why Everyone Should Be Reading African News
(00:33:23) David's Favorite Spot In Nature
'Biotic pump’ theory could explain how forests affect weather, wind and climate
The biotic pump theory has been controversial in the climate science community ever since Anastassia Makarieva and Victor Gorshkov published their paper about it to the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics in 2010.
If true, the theory sheds light on how the interior forests of vast continents influence wind and the water cycles that supply whole nations, flipping traditional hydrological and atmospheric science on its head.
Anastassia Makarieva joins this episode to discuss the theory and its implications for future climate modeling with co-host Rachel Donald.
Want more? Read a related Amazon-specific interview with Makarieva and Antonio Nobre here.
Love this conversation? Please share it with a friend!
And if you really enjoy the Mongabay Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing. Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet, and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates.
Please send your ideas and feedback to submissions@mongabay.com.
Image: Physicist Anastassia Makarieva co-developed the biotic pump theory of how forests direct the movement of moisture. Image ZED/Grifa Filmes.
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Timecodes
(00:00:00) Introduction
(00:02:41) Understanding the Biotic Pump Theory
(00:09:38) Tipping Points
(00:15:31) The Climate Regulating Function of Ecosystems
(00:25:51) Lagging Behind the Data
(00:33:20) Building a Different Climate Model
(00:41:04) Addressing the Controversy
(00:45:41) Territory, Boundaries and Water
(00:52:13) Credits
Unmasking the illusion of renewable biomass energy with Justin Catanoso
Burning wood to generate electricity – ‘biomass energy’ – is increasingly used as a renewable replacement for burning coal in nations like the UK, Japan, and South Korea, even though its emissions are not carbon neutral.
On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, reporter Justin Catanoso details how years of investigation helped him uncover a complicated web of public relations messaging used by industry giants that obscures the fact that replanting trees after cutting them down and burning them is not carbon neutral or renewable and severely harms global biodiversity, and forests.
Catanoso lives near biomass industry giant Enviva in North Carolina and has reported on their practices extensively, including the claim that they only use sustainable wood waste in their product, which his investigation disproved. Though it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this year, it remains the single largest producer of wood pellets globally.
“When those trees get ripped out, that carbon gets released. And that comes before we process this wood and ship it…then we burn it and don't count those emissions. This is just [an] imponderable policy,” he says in this episode.
Read Justin's coverage of the UK biomass firm Drax and their attempt to open two large wood pellet plants in California to ship 1 million tons annually to Japan and South Korea, where they will be burned in converted coal plants.
If you enjoy the Mongabay Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing. Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet, and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates.
Please send your ideas and feedback to submissions@mongabay.com.
Image: Wood pellets for biomass energy. Image courtesy of Dogwood Alliance.
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Timecodes
(00:00:00) Introduction to Biomass and Carbon Emissions
(00:03:08) Understanding the problems with biomass fuel
(00:08:18) Clear-Cutting in North Carolina and British Columbia
(00:12:48) Physics Doesn't Fall for Accounting Tricks
(00:19:55) Understanding the Arguments from the Industry
(00:25:30) Picking Apart the Logic
(00:28:26) Why We Don't Have Long-term Solutions
(00:34:27) Overcoming an Impossible Situation
(00:39:55) Post-chat
(00:49:28) Credits
Indigenous economics offers alternative to Wall Street's financialization of nature
Putting a dollar amount on a single species, or entire ecosystems, is a contentious idea, but in 2023, the New York Stock Exchange proposed a new nature-based asset class which put a price tag on global nature of 5,000 trillion U.S. dollars.
This financialization of nature comes with perverse incentives and fails to recognize the intrinsic value contained in biodiversity and all the benefits it provides for humans, argues Indigenous economist Rebecca Adamson, on this episode.
Instead, she suggests basing economies on principles contained in Indigenous economics.
"The most simple thing would be to fit your economy into a living, breathing, natural physics law framework. And if you look at Indigenous economies, they really talk about balance and harmony, and those aren't quaint customs. Those are design principles," she says.
Hear a related Mongabay podcast interview on the connection between nature and financial systems with author Brett Scott, here. We also recently spoke with National Geographic photographer Kiliii Yuyan about what Indigenous knowledge has to offer conservation, here.
If you enjoy the Mongabay Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing. Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet, and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates.
Please send your ideas and feedback to submissions@mongabay.com.
Image: The doll orchid. Image courtesy of Bhathiya Gopallawa.
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(00:00:00) Introduction
(00:01:30) The Financialization of Nature
(00:07:35) Indigenous Economic Principles
(00:14:04) Can Putting a Price on Nature Save it?
(00:27:15) Redistribution and Reciprocity
(00:33:15) The Ubiquity of Violence
(00:38:37) The Wealth Gap and Its Implications
(00:41:31) The Power of Shareholder Activism
(00:44:36) Indigenous Economic Systems and Modern Applications
(00:51:57) A Critical Analysis of the Financialization of Nature
(01:00:27) Religious Perspectives on Environmental Awareness
(01:04:24) Credits
Koala conservation delayed while government pursues faulty offset schemes
Two experts join the Mongabay Newscast to discuss the decline in koala populations in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), even as city councils and the government green light development projects on koala habitats that aren't being replaced by biodiversity offset schemes, ecologist Yung En Chee of the University of Melbourne, explains.
Meanwhile, the promised Great Koala National Park has been delayed by NSW Premier Chris Minns, even as his state allows logging of koala habitat within the park borders while he tries to set up a carbon credit scheme to monetize the protected area, says journalist Stephen Long with Australia Institute.
“I'm not sure how long this failure has to persist before we decide that we really ought to change course,” says Chee of the biodiversity credit schemes, which seem to be based on outdated data, and don’t come close to satisfying their ‘no net loss’ of biodiversity goals.
See related coverage: How a conservation NGO uses drones and artificial intelligence to detect koalas that survive bushfires, here. If you want to read more on biodiversity offsetting and 'no net loss,' please read this resource from the IUCN.
If you enjoy the Mongabay Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing. Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet, and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates.
Please send your ideas and feedback to submissions@mongabay.com.
Image: Gumbaynggirr Country is home to the dunggiirr, the koala (Phascolarctos cinereus), one of the totem animals for the Gumbaynggirr people. Koalas numbers are estimated to be in the tens of thousands in the state of New South Wales. Image by Steve Franklin via Unsplash (Public domain).
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Timecodes
(00:00) Introduction
(01:34) The Koala Crisis in New South Wales
(04:33) Where is the Great Koala National Park?
(06:39) Logging Activities and Government Delays
(09:53) The Problem with Carbon Credits
(16:46) Interview with Yung En Chee
(18:38) Biodiversity Offsets: Concept and Criticism
(20:15) Failures in Biodiversity Offset Implementation
(31:23) Double Dipping and Offset Market Issues
(35:22) Conclusion
Can the 'Right to Roam' boost nature connection and restoration?
On this episode of Mongabay’s podcast, Rachel Donald speaks with campaigner and activist Jon Moses about the ‘right to roam’ movement in England which seeks to reclaim common rights to use private and public land to reconnect with nature and repair the damage done from centuries of exclusionary land ownership.
In this discussion and the new book Wild Service: Why Nature Needs You he's co-edited with Nick Hayes, Moses recounts the history of land ownership change in England ('enclosure') and why re-establishing a common ‘freedom to roam’—a right observed in other nations such as the Czech Republic or Norway—is needed. English citizens currently only have access to 8% of their land, for example.
“There needs to be a kind of rethinking really of [what] people's place is in the landscape and how that intersects with a kind of [new] relationship between people and nature as well,” he says on this episode.
If you enjoy the Mongabay Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing. Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet, and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates.
Image credit: Participants of the 'Love Your River' event on the River Derwent. Image courtesy of Jon Moses.
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Timecodes
(00:00) Introduction
(02:19) The 'Right to Roam'
(06:06) The historical context of 'enclosure'
(13:42) The modern struggle to reclaim access to nature
(27:49) Cross cultural perspectives, and breaking the barriers
(38:32) Post-chat
(50:19) Credits
What's unique about Canada's environment? 'The Narwhal' brings top news and views
On this episode of Mongabay’s podcast, we speak with a co-founder of the award-winning Canadian nonprofit news outlet ‘The Narwhal,’ Emma Gilchrist.
She reflects on Canada’s unique natural legacy, her organization's successes, the state of environmental reporting in the nature-rich nation, how she sees ‘The Narwhal’ filling the gaps in historically neglected stories and viewpoints, and why something as universally appreciated as nature can still be a polarizing topic.
She also details a legal battle her organization is involved in that could have significant implications for press freedom in Canada.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates.
Image credit: Bow Lake in Banff, Canada. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler.
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Timecodes
(00:00) Introduction
(02:30) The mission and impact of 'The Narwhal'
(05:16) The Canadian environmental paradox
(24:40) Fighting for press freedom
(29:31) An uncertain political landscape
(34:50) Post-chat: independent outlets make waves
(45:58) Credits
How a grassroots legal effort defeated a giant Australian coal mine
In recognition of her leadership and advocacy, Indigenous Wirdi woman Murrawah Maroochy Johnson has been awarded the 2024 Goldman Environmental Prize.
She joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss a landmark victory for First Nations rights in Australia, led by her organization Youth Verdict against Waratah Coal, which resulted in the Land Court of Queensland recommending a rejection of a mining lease in the Galilee Basin that would have added 1.58 billion tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere over its lifespan.
The court case set multiple precedents in Australia, including being the first successful case to link the impacts of climate change with human rights, and the first to include on-Country evidence from First Nations witnesses.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates.
Image credit: 2024 Goldman Prize winner Murrawah Maroochy Johnson. Photo courtesy of Goldman Environmental Prize.
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Timecodes
(00:00) Introduction
(02:51) An unprecedented victory
(05:33) Including on-Country evidence
(16:17) Future legal implications
(20:34) Challenges of navigating the legal system
(26:14) Looking to the future
(28:16) Credits
Energy transition minerals: questions, consent and costs are key
Indigenous rights advocate and executive director of SIRGE Coalition, Galina Angarova, and environmental journalist/author of the Substack newsletter Green Rocks, Ian Morse, join us to detail the key social and environmental concerns, impacts, and questions we should be asking about the mining of elements used in everything from the global renewable energy transition to the device in your hand.
Research indicates that 54% of all transition minerals occur on or near Indigenous land. Despite this fact, no nation anywhere has properly enforced Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) protocols in line with standards in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Further, local communities too seldom benefit from their extraction, while suffering their consequences in the form of reduced air and/or water quality.
This conversation was originally broadcast on Mongabay's YouTube channel to a live audience of journalists but the conversation contains detailed insight and analysis on a vital topic listeners of the Newscast will appreciate. Those interested in participating in Mongabay's webinar series are encouraged to subscribe to the YouTube Channel or sign up for Mongagabay's Webinar Newsletter here.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates.
Image credit: A symbol for a renewable charging station. (Photo courtesy of Nicola Sznajder/Flickr)
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Timecodes
(00:00) Introduction
(02:57) Why are they called 'transition minerals?'
(07:04) Geopolitical tensions and complications
(16:04) Realities of mining windfalls
(26:30) Cartelization concerns
(32:50) Environmental and human rights impacts
(39:46) Reporting on Free Prior and Informed Consent
(46:49) Recycling
(54:45) Additional Indigenous rights concerns
(57:04) Certification schemes and community-led mining initiatives
(01:03:22) Deep-sea mining
(01:09:21) Credits
The high costs of resource-based conflicts for people & planet
On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, journalist Dahr Jamail joins co-host Rachel Donald to discuss the ways many international conflicts are based on resource scarcity.
Notable as an unembedded reporter during the US-led Iraq invasion, Jamail expands on the human and ecological costs to these conflicts, the purported reasons behind them, how those justifications are covered in the media, and the continued stress these conflicts put on society.
"There was a saying a ways back by Lester Brown [who] said 'land is the new gold and water is the new oil.' And I think that that perspective is really kind of driving what we're seeing," Jamail says.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates.
Image credit: A U.S. Army soldier watching a burning oil well at the Rumaila oil field in Iraq in April 2003. Image by Arlo K. Abrahamson/DoD via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).
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Timecodes
(00:00) Introduction
(01:57) From Alaska to Iraq
(10:59) Resource scarcity and the geopolitics of war
(29:31) New horizons and new tensions
(35:09) Post-show discussion
(50:05) Credits
How young activists navigate a hostile climate with honest conversations
On today's episode, climate activist and founder of the non-profit Force of Nature, Clover Hogan, details list of challenges activists face both from outside and within their movements.
Not only do environmental activists face growing legal and physical threats across the globe, they are also vulnerable to burnout, exhaustion, and ridicule as they navigate a host of other social challenges while doing this work that is poorly compensated.
Hogan speaks with co-host Mike DiGirolamo about these challenges and the way forward for more inclusive movements while navigating the noise:
“It's no accident that we spend so much of our time thinking about our individual lifestyles and not thinking about how [to] actually hold these systems accountable,” she says.
Attention, Google Podcasts users—although that podcast provider is being closed by Alphabet, which is moving all podcasts to its YouTube Music service—you can find our show via any of the podcast apps, so please find and follow the Mongabay Newscast via any of those to not miss an episode!
If you enjoy the show, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates.
Image credit: Clover Hogan speaking in Paris, France. Photo courtesy of Clover Hogan.
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Timecodes
(00:00) Introduction
(02:10) Force of Nature
(05:36) The challenges activists face
(08:52) The myth of 'perfection'
(16:50) Hostile environments
(25:59) The most surprising 'confessions' of a climate activist
(32:51) Throwing soup on paintings: helpful or harmful?
(39:49) 'Hope' is a verb
(43:53) Climate activism is an intersectional movement
Jane Goodall on turning 90 and building empathy for nature
On today's episode of the Newscast, world-renowned primatologist and conservation advocate Dr. Jane Goodall sits down with Mongabay founder and editor-in-chief, Rhett Butler. Goodall is celebrating her 90th birthday this week and reflects upon her long (and continuing) career, sharing reflections, lessons, stories and inspirations that guide her philosophy toward protecting the natural world.
Widely recognized for her pioneering work on animal behavior, she explains the importance of having empathy for animals and why it is crucial for meeting conservation goals now and into the future. The iconic conservationist also shares why she thinks that, despite 'doom & gloom' news, humanity can overcome the adversity of its many environmental challenges.
"I've come to think of humanity as being at the mouth of a very long very dark tunnel and right at the end there’s a little star shining. And that's hope. But it's no good sitting, wondering when that star will come to us...We must gird our loins, roll up our sleeves, and navigate around all obstacles that lie between us and the star."
View a print version of this interview at the Mongabay website: https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/jane-goodall-at-90-on-fame-hope-and-empathy/
Editor's Note: Jane Goodall is a member of Mongabay's advisory council.
Subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever you get podcasts, and if you enjoy the show, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, mongabay.com, or follow Mongabay on any of the social media platforms for updates.
Feedback? Send a message to submissions@mongabay.com.
Image credit: Photo of Jane Goodall by Rhett Butler/Mongabay.
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Timecodes
(00:00) Introduction
(04:09) Reflections on conservation and changes
(05:04) How do you keep hopeful?
(06:40) How can individuals make a positive impact?
(08:36) How can people make their voices heard?
(09:34) Ways to rally around nature
(11:53) Why do you think people connect with your work?
(20:08) Overlooked conservation solutions
(22:29) The importance of empathy
(27:44) Collaboration and hope in conservation
(32:22) Choosing the impact we make
Forest elephants, the endangered "gardeners" of the Congo Rainforest
African forest elephants play a crucial role in shaping the Congo rainforest ecosystem, two experts explain on this episode. As seed dispersers and maintainers of forest corridors and clearings, they are sometimes referred to as "gardeners of the forest."
Their small and highly threatened population needs additional study and conservation prioritization, since the loss of this species would fundamentally change the shape and structure of the world's second-largest rainforest.
Guest Fiona "Boo" Maisels is a conservation scientist at the Wildlife Conservation Society, while Andrew Davies is assistant professor of organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard University, and they speak with host Mike DiGirolamo about these charismatic mammals.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
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Image credit: A calf attempts to sneak its trunk into a mineral pit that mom is drinking from. Protest calls are often heard from calves in this behavioral context, as mom sometimes pushes them away and they in turn express their displeasure with a little yell. Photo Ana Verahrami, Elephant Listening Project.
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Timecodes
(00:00) Introduction
(02:00) There are two African elephant species?
(06:06) Can the "value" of an elephant be quantified?
(19:30) The value of forest bais
(27:25) Impacts of climate change
(30:30) The future of forest elephants in the Congo Basin
(38:44) Credits
Show us the money: Are giant pledges by major conservation funders effective?
Billionaires, foundations, and philanthropists often make massive, headline-grabbing pledges for biodiversity conservation or climate change mitigation, but how effective are these donations? How do these huge sums get used, and how do we know? These questions are among the considerations that conservationists and environmental reporters should keep in mind, two guest experts on this episode say.
On this edition of the Mongabay Newscast, Holly Jonas, global coordinator of the ICCA Consortium, and Michael Kavate, staff writer at Inside Philanthropy, break down some of the more overlooked issues these giant gifts raise, and story angles that reporters should consider when covering philanthropy for the environment.
"I think what the public really needs is more critical and in-depth coverage of the ideologies and the approaches behind their kinds of philanthropy, the billionaire pledges and so on, how they're being rolled out in practice, where the funding's actually going," says Jonas.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
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Image credit: Great Green Macaw in Las Balsas reserve. Photo credit: José León.
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Timecodes
(00:00) Introduction
(01:55) Biggest trends in environmental philanthropy
(07:23) Follow the money, follow the power
(20:23) Tools and techniques for reporters
(24:09) Localization & accountability
(37:37) Funding transparency
(53:25) Project finance for permanence
(01:06:14) Western influence in philanthropy
(01:13:37) Credits
Cultural survival through reclaiming language and land, with author Jay Griffiths
Today’s guest is Jay Griffiths, award-winning author of several books, including the acclaimed Wild: An Elemental Journey. She speaks with co-host Rachel Donald about the importance of language for preserving communities and their cultures, the impact of colonization and globalization on Indigenous communities, and the innate human connection with the natural world in the land of one's birth.
Roughly 4,000 of the world’s 6,700 languages are spoken by Indigenous communities, but multiple factors (such as the decimation of human rights) continue to threaten their existence along with their speakers’ cultures.
The guest also explores parallels between humans, nature and culture: “There’s great research that suggests that we learned ethics from wolves [by taking] an attitude to the world of both me the individual, and of me the pack member,” in caring for all members of the group, she says.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
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Image credit: Kali Biru (Blue River) on Waigeo Island in Raja Ampat, West Papua, Indonesia. Photo credit: Rhett Ayers Butler
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Timecodes
(00:00) Introduction
(01:45) The power of language
(09:03) Colonialism and globalization
(17:40) The trickster in myth to modern governance
(23:24) Reclaiming belonging
(20:27) Championing Indigenous voices
(34:45) Against mechanic modernity
(40:35) West Papua, a brief explainer
(46:22) Land and identity
(51:50) A world of climate refugees
Rewilding Ireland: Healing from a history of deforestation, one tree at a time
Eoghan Daltun has spent the past 14 years restoring 75 acres of farmland in southwest Ireland to native forest, a wildly successful and inspirational effort that has welcomed back long-absent flora and fauna, which he details in his book, An Irish Atlantic Rainforest: A Personal Journey Into the Magic of Rewilding.
On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, host Rachel Donald speaks with Daltun about how easily he achieved this feat, its seemingly miraculous results, and the historical context behind the near-total ecological annihilation of Ireland, a country that today has only 11% forest cover. Daltun provides an honest but hopeful perspective on how humans can shift their relationship with nature and rekindle a powerful partnership with it.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
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Image credit: Part of the guest's Irish Atlantic rainforest on the Beara Peninsula. Photo courtesy of Eoghan Daltun.
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Timecodes:
(00:00) Introduction
(01:14) Eoghan’s journey
(05:55) Getting out of the way
(10:42) Removing invasive species
(13:50) What lies underneath
(17:26) A connection with the land
(22:48) A brutal history
(29:22) Hope for the future
(35:48) Reflections on forests
(40:45) What is a temperate rainforest?
(54:25) Credits
In the biodiversity hotspot of Raja Ampat, ecotourism underpins conservation
On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, host Mike DiGirolamo takes you on a journey through the most biodiverse marine region in the world, Raja Ampat.
He speaks with three guests about how ecotourism has provided stable incomes through conservation, including documentary filmmaker Wahyu Mul, veteran birding guide Benny Mambrasar and resort owner Max Ammer, whose biological research center trains and employs local people in a variety of skills.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
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Image credit: Cape Kri, Sorido Bay Resort, Raja Ampat Regency, by Rhett Butler for Mongabay.
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Timecodes
(00:00) Introduction
(02:20) The Role of Ecotourism in Raja Ampat
(03:01) Wahyu Mul
(10:03) The Raja Ampat Research and Conservation Centre
(15:00) Max Ammer
(39:36) Into the Forest - Benny Mambrasar
(47:00) Threats of Development
(52:47) Credits
Is media objectivity possible during our environmental crisis?
Objectivity is a pillar of journalism, but its definition and application are loosely defined and humanly impossible to achieve, experts say. Podcast guest Emily Atkin argues that an uncritical adherence to objectivity (over trust) has led to gaslighting readers about the real-world causes and urgency of the climate crisis.
She quit her day job to launch the acclaimed newsletter “HEATED,” which was spurred by a desire to report on the human causes of climate change and ecological destruction more directly. She discusses why with host Rachel Donald on this episode.
Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you get podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all our previous ones.
Image: An abstract AI-generated photo of a wildfire in the forest. Image from CharlVera via Pixabay.
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Timecodes:
(00:00) Introduction
(02:48) The Birth of Heated: A Climate Journalism Venture
(05:19) The Challenges of Mainstream Media
(14:17) The Role of Objectivity in Journalism
(32:34) The Role of a Journalist and Power Dynamics
(35:49) The Relationship Between Press and Government
(38:48) The Role of Independent Journalism
(47:33) Journalism Ethics
(50:41) The Roots of Objectivity
(01:00:35) Conclusion
The many social and ecological benefits of a 'degrowth' world
Can 'degrowth' solve our economic, social, and ecological problems? Economist Timothée Parrique thinks so. On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, he joins co-host Rachel Donald to interrogate this 20+ year-old concept that critiques the notion of limitless growth in a finite world, and which offers tangible gains for people and planet.
The current economic model stretches the ecological limits of the planet – the Planetary Boundaries. Parrique says degrowth is a pathway for rich countries to scale back production and consumption – much of which contributes nothing to human well-being, research indicates – making room for low and middle-income nations to raise their standards of living, while allowing natural systems to continue supporting the ecosystem services humanity needs, like clean air and water.
Related reading:
‘It’s Not the End of the World’ book assumptions & omissions spark debate
The nine boundaries humanity must respect to keep the planet habitable
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
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Image Caption: A bicycle lane in Fürth, Germany. Image by Markus Spiske via Unsplash.
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Timecodes:
(00:00:00) Introduction
(00:02:35) What is degrowth exactly?
(00:07:46) Is 'decoupling' the answer?
(00:12:52) Will 'limitless growth' improve quality of life?
(00:18:23) Wasted GDP in the USA
(00:25:28) Pushing the 'GDP button'
(00:35:20) Implementing degrowth
(00:47:57) A degrowth future
(00:56:44) Rachel & Mike post-chat
(01:12:45) Rachel asks Mike to imagine a day in a post-growth world
(01:16:42) Credits
Is "Not the End of the World" author's 'techno-realism' enough to solve our ecological problems?
Data scientist and head of research at Our World in Data, Hannah Ritchie, says her 'radically hopeful' new book that's getting a lot of press, "Not the End of the World: How We Can be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet," offers a pathway to solving the multiple environmental crises our world faces.
However, co-host Rachel Donald finds that key geopolitical challenges are left unaddressed by the book, leaving out important frameworks such as the planetary boundaries, and attempts to ride an "apolitical" line on solutions that inherently need policy shifts in order to be effectively implemented.
In this podcast interview, Donald challenges Ritchie on these questions and more. To hear specific topics discussed, refer to the chapter marks noted below.
Related reading at Mongabay:
The nine boundaries humanity must respect to keep the planet habitable
Mongabay Series: Planetary Boundaries
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, or download our free app in the Apple Store or Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
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Episode artwork by Pawel Czerwinski via Unsplash.
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Timecodes:
(00:00:00) - Introduction
(00:03:57) - Renewable Energy and Political Will
(00:07:06) - Realism of Tech Solutions
(00:09:03) - Degrowth & Decoupling
(00:17:33) - Doomerism, Inequality & Politics
(00:28:45) - How does a transition happen?
(00:36:51) - Hannah defends terminology used in the book
(00:44:58) - Deforestation
(00:53:11) - Our World In Data & Bias
(01:06:19) - Mike & Rachel post-chat
(01:26:19) - Credits
When independent journalism exposes crimes against people and planet
In 2015, independent journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown and Sarawak Report uncovered the beginnings of what is now considered the world’s biggest money-laundering scandal. The crime resulted in billions stolen from the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) fund.
While former prime minister Najib Razak is now facing a 12-year prison sentence for his role in the crime, Rewcastle Brown herself has also faced legal actions against her, including an arrest warrant and an attempt to place her on Interpol’s Red Notice list of wanted fugitives.
Mongabay podcast co-host Rachel Donald speaks with Rewcastle Brown, the founder of the Sarawak Report, about what led her to investigate this scandal, as well as environmental destruction in Borneo. Related reading:
Amid corruption scandal, Malaysia switches track on future of rail network
INTERPOL rejects Malaysia’s request to place journalist on Red Notice list
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips. If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps! See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find and follow Mongabay on all the social media platforms. Image Caption: Kelumpang Sarawak (Sterculia megistophylla) in Malaysian Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.Wildlife trafficking should be covered as a crime story
Wild by nature: Ecological restoration brings humanity and biodiversity together
The idea that nature is something outside of society hampers practical solutions to restoring it, says Laura Martin, associate professor of environmental studies at Williams College.
On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, co-host Rachel Donald speaks with Martin about the restoration vs. preservation debate, and why Martin says a focus on the former is the way to address the biodiversity crisis. Martin defines restoration as “an attempt to design nature with non-human collaborators,” which she details in her book Wild by Design: The Rise of Ecological Restoration.
See related content:
Podcast: Is ecosystem restoration our last/best hope for a sustainable future?
Japanese butterfly conservation takes flight when integrated with human communities
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
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Image Caption: Project participants planting native species seedlings in the Itapu Restoration Trail, as part of Brazil’s effort to help meet the world’s ambitious restoration commitments made under the Bonn Challenge. The ongoing management of such projects requires long-term financing. Image by Raquel Maia Arvelos/CIFOR via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
How the Junglekeepers protect 55,000 acres of the Peruvian Amazon
Conservationist Paul Rosolie co-leads a non-profit deep in the Madre de Dios region of the Peruvian Amazon. Conserving forests beyond where law enforcement is willing to travel can be dangerous work, but his team successfully recruits former loggers to use their forest knowledge to become conservation rangers: this provides alternative income streams for communities and has attracted millions of dollars in funding.
Today, this Indigenous-co-led nonprofit is responsible for protecting 55,000 acres of rainforest.
In this episode, Rosolie shares his recipe for conservation success and what he thinks other conservation organizations can focus on to boost their effectiveness.
Related reading:
Mother of God: meet the 26 year old Indiana Jones of the Amazon, Paul Rosolie
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
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Image Caption: Image of Paul Rosolie. Courtesy of Paul Rosolie.
Will the UN climate Loss & Damage Fund deliver on its promise?
The text of the climate loss and damage fund is heading to the COP 28 climate summit in Dubai this December without a mandate that wealthy, industrialized nations pay into it, says Brandon Wu, director of policy and campaigns at ActionAid USA.
Frequent Mongabay contributor and journalist Rachel Donald joins the Mongabay Newscast as co-host to speak with Wu about why he says this global climate fund “requires almost nothing of developed countries."
Related reading:
COP27: Climate Loss & Damage talks now on agenda, but U.S. resistance feared
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
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Image Caption: The most recent negotiations from the UN Transitional Committee on the climate loss & damage fund completed the fifth and final round in Abu Dhabi. Image by Daniel Moqvist via Unsplash (Public domain).
Deforestation decline in the Amazon and other positive news
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has declined by 22% for the year ending July 31, 2023, according to data from Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE). On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, CEO and editor-in-chief Rhett Butler tells us what the data show and what Mongabay will be looking for in the future.
Butler also details more exciting news, such as the 2023 Biophilia Award for Environmental Communication, given to Mongabay for its “outstanding track record” in communicating issues related to nature and biodiversity, and the launch of an all-new bilingual bureau in Africa.
Related Reading:
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon falls 22% in 2023
Mongabay wins prestigious 2023 Biophilia Award for Environmental Communication
Mongabay launches Africa news bureau
Meet the tech projects competing for a $10m prize to save rainforests
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
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Image Caption: Scarlet macaw in Brazil. Photo by Rhett Butler.
Corals, kelp and creative conservation in Australia
Scientists strive to restore world’s embattled kelp forests
Hope, but no free pass, as Pacific corals show tolerance to warming oceans
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Image Caption: Healthy coral in the Great Barrier Reef. Image by Jonas Gratzer for Mongabay.
Please share your thoughts and feedback! submissions@mongabay.com.
Debunking the UN's climate neutrality claims
In a yearlong investigation from The New Humanitarian and Mongabay, spanning multiple countries, investigative reporters found the United Nations is not climate neutral as it claims to be.
The UN bases much of its claims on the use of carbon credits--which are already increasingly criticized by experts as having little impact on actually offsetting emissions.
Reporters found that many projects that issue carbon credits to the U.N. were linked to environmental damage or displacement, and 2.7 million out of 6.6 million credits were linked to wind or hydropower — which experts say don’t represent true emissions reductions.
Joining the podcast to explain these findings is investigative reporter Jacob Goldberg from The New Humanitarian.
Related reading:
Revealed: Why the UN is not climate neutral
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Episode artwork: More than half of the UN carbon offsets come from high-risk projects. Image by JuergenPM via Pixabay (Public domain).
Please share your thoughts and feedback! submissions@mongabay.com.
Ken Burns on 'The American Buffalo,' his latest documentary focusing on the iconic species
The American bison ('buffalo') was once decimated to a tiny fraction of its original population of 30 million, reaching a low point of just 77 individuals. Today, they number around 350,000 thanks to the visionary preservation efforts of Indigenous communities, individual conservationists, and others.
Joining the Mongabay Newscast to discuss this hopeful conservation effort that enabled this comeback is acclaimed, award-winning filmmaker and American documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. His latest project examines the tragic history of the American buffalo and the devastation that their population collapse wrought upon Indigenous Americans. Mongabay staff-writer Liz Kimbrough speaks with him about his process, the role of native peoples in making the film, and what the team discovered by making it.
THE AMERICAN BUFFALO is set to premiere on U.S. public television, PBS, on Oct. 16 and 17.
Read Liz's feature and see the interview transcript here:
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Episode artwork: The American bison, once on the very edge of extinction, is making a major comeback, including in protected areas and on tribal lands. Photo courtesy of Kelly Stoner/WCS
Please share your thoughts and feedback! submissions@mongabay.com.
Why some bears thrive and others barely survive
Human beings have a storied and complicated history with bears. The iconic mammals have long been an important symbol for thousands of years in cultures across the globe. Yet, almost all of the eight bear species left in the wild remain threatened.
Some iconic bear species, such as the giant panda, have benefitted from conservation gains, but other species continue to face urgent and increasing threats to their survival.
Award-winning environmental journalist Gloria Dickie joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss the state of the world’s eight remaining bear species which she documents in a compelling new book, “Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future.”
Related reading:
‘We will decide their future’: Q&A with “pro-bear” environmental journalist Gloria Dickie
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Episode artwork: A portrait of a wild grizzly bear, a subspecies of brown bear (Ursus arctos). Photo by Jean Beaufort via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain (CC0).
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Can 'road ecology' save millions of animals?
Nearly a million animals are killed on roads every day. That's just in the U.S., and this sobering statistic is very likely an underestimate.
“If anything, the number is probably quite a bit higher,” says Ben Goldfarb, environmental journalist and author of the new book "Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of our Planet."
The world is projected to build 25 million more miles of roads by 2050, so wildlife ecologists and engineers are searching for ways to integrate the needs of wildlife into their design. Goldfarb’s book offers a deep examination of some of the most fascinating, inspiring, but also tragic ways human societies develop infrastructure alongside nature.
He joins the Mongabay Newscast to explain the concept of ‘road ecology’ and how wildlife-friendly designs are becoming part of landscapes globally.
Related reading:
- Wildlife crossings built with tribal knowledge drastically reduce collisions
- For wildlife on Brazil’s highways, roadkill is just the tip of the iceberg
Hear Goldfarb's previous visit with this podcast, where he discussed his award-winning book "Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter," by looking up episode #49 via your favorite podcast player or click play here:
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Episode artwork: A bison crosses a road in British Columbia, Canada. Image courtesy of Ben Goldfarb.
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Profitability and sustainability go together, Patagonia's advocacy director says
Traditional capitalism is not working for the planet or the public, and needs an overhaul, says Beth Thoren, environmental action and initiatives director at Patagonia. Where governments are failing to regulate, Thoren argues, corporations should be making the change anyway. “If we continue to live in a world where shareholder value is the only thing that is valued, we will burn up and die,” she says.
She joins the Mongabay Newscast to detail Patagonia's business model—which gives its profit to environmental organizations—and shares how the company is making a push for other corporations to follow, while taking stands against boondoggles like the space race via their #NotMars campaign.
In founder and CEO Yvon Chouinard's words, Patagonia exists to "force government and corporations to take action in solving our environmental problems." These are words the company backs up with its environmental marketing campaigns, its business model, its films and books.
The company details its philosophy and the lessons learned from 50 years in business in the book, The Future of the Responsible Company, published this month.
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Image caption: Beth Thoren, Environment Director, Patagonia. London, U.K.Friday, Nov. 13, 2020. Photographer: Jason Alden for Patagonia
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Ecuadorian environmentalists win historic vote for Yasuní National Park
Ecuadorians have just approved a referendum to halt oil drilling in Yasuní National Park, one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet, which will prohibit further oil extraction. The "yes" vote effectively keeps its oil in the ground, so for the details we check in with staff writer Max Radwin who covered the news for Mongabay.
Related to that is a recent legal victory in Ecuador's Andean region, another massively biodiverse area – not only in that country but for the entire planet – so we're re-sharing a discussion with associate digital editor Romi Castagnino that aired after the winning decision for Indigenous and local communities, whose rights to prior consultation and the 'rights of nature' were both upheld.
You can read more about both stories and watch the video report mentioned by Romi at these links:
Ecuador referendum halts oil extraction in Yasuní National Park
Ecuador court upholds ‘rights of nature,’ blocks Intag Valley copper mine
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Image caption: Indigenous activist Nemonte Nenquimo stands alongside an oil spill near Shushufindi in the province of Sucumbíos, Ecuadorian Amazon, June 26th 2023. Image by Sophie Pinchetti / Amazon Frontlines.
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Protecting the Amazon requires fresh thinking
Tim Killeen is a top conservation biologist and author whose book is a straight-shooting, non-naive dive into "everything you need to know about the Amazon if you want to save it," he says on this episode.
With 30 years of experience living in the Amazon, his wealth of knowledge springs from having guided the first environmental impact study there, pioneering satellite mapping of deforestation with NASA, and traveling extensively throughout the region, so Killeen has unique insight into the drivers of – and solutions for – Amazon deforestation.
On this episode he shares key insights from the second edition of his book "A Perfect Storm in the Amazon Wilderness," plus what gives him hope, and his advice for up-and-coming conservationists.
Mongabay is releasing the book's new edition in short installments in English, Portuguese, and Spanish, find the first two chapters published so far, here:
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Image caption: Rainstorm in the Amazon. Pillcopata, Villa Carmen, Peru. Image by Rhett Butler.
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XPRIZE-Rainforest finalists for $10m conservation tech award announced
Conservation technology such as drones, remote sensing, and machine learning plays a critical role in supporting conservation scientists and aiding policymakers in making well-informed decisions for biodiversity protection. Recognizing this, the XPRIZE Foundation initiated a five-year competition with the goal of developing automated and accelerated methods for assessing rainforest biodiversity.
In this episode of the Newscast, Mongabay staff writer Abhishyant Kidangoor interviews Peter Houlihan, the executive vice president of biodiversity and conservation at the XPRIZE Foundation during the semi-finals in Singapore. The foundation recently revealed the six finalists that will compete next year. Houlihan discusses the importance of the collaborative nature of the competition, and why he believes it has become a movement.
Related reading:
Competing for rainforest conservation: Q&A with XPRIZE’s Kevin Marriott
Meet the tech projects competing for a $10m prize to save rainforests
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Image caption: An extendable arm attached to a drone was used to deploy the platform on top of the canopy. Team Waponi. Photo by Abhishyant Kidangoor.
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Biological field stations are key to conservation but often 'invisible'
Field research stations are vital to rewilding and conservation efforts yet they’re often absent from global environmental policy, a Nature paper argues.
Despite this lack of visibility and funding challenges, their impact is immensely beneficial in regions of the world such as Costa Rica: a nation that had one of the highest rates of deforestation in the 1980s and became the first nation to reverse tropical deforestation.
Joining the Mongabay Newscast to discuss the importance of field research stations --is wildlife ecologist and director of Osa Conservation, Andrew Whitworth.
Related reading:
Harpy eagle’s return to Costa Rica means rewilding’s time has come (commentary)
Reforestation projects should include tree diversity targets, too (commentary)
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Image Caption: A field biologist with Osa Conservation releasing a king vulture that the team has just tagged with a solar-powered GSM unit. These are some of the first tagged king vultures in the world – a part of the conservation science focus of the research that will help to understand the health of the ecosystem of the Osa Peninsula and ultimately how healthy this system is for key apex species like king vultures. Photo by Luca Eberle for Osa Conservation
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Big problems and potential for great ape conservation
Great apes are facing a concerning future. If humans neglect to address climate change, they could lose up to 94% of their range by 2050.
In the Congo Basin, a stronghold for great ape species, several challenges pose significant threats to their survival; national interests in exploiting natural resources, security issues in areas like the Albertine Rift, hunting activities, and the illegal wildlife trade all contribute to the severe predicament faced by these charismatic mammals.
In this episode of Mongabay Explores, Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, Kirsty Graham, Terese Hart, and Sally Coxe shed light on threats to bonobos and mountain gorillas, provide insight from their years of experience working with them, and discuss the pivotal role played by great apes in safeguarding the Congo Basin rainforest.
Listen to the other episodes in this Congo Basin season of Mongabay Explores:
Mongabay Explores the Congo Basin: The ‘heart of the world’ is at a turning point
Congo Basin communities left out by ‘fortress conservation’ fight for a way back in
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Image Caption: Bonobos live in more peaceful societies than their two close relatives, chimpanzees and humans. Photo courtesy of Jutta Hof.
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Can the boom in psychedelics boost Amazon conservation?
Famed ethnobotanist and conservation advocate, Mark Plotkin, joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss traditional ecological knowledge about the increasingly popular psychedelic and medicinal plants and fungi of the Amazon. He shares his thoughts on the value of this knowledge and how this cultural moment can be used to leverage conservation action.
Plotkin is no stranger to conservation, having co-founded the Amazon Conservation team in the 1990s. Their Indigenous-led and managed conservation model, while considered pioneering at the time, is becoming more recognized as the ideal today.
His own podcast discusses these issues and the great importance of Indigenous knowledge in great detail, listen to 'Plants of the Gods' here via the podcast provider of your choosing: https://markplotkin.com/podcast/
Read more about Mark Plotkin's work on Mongabay here:
Everything you need to know about the Amazon rainforest: an interview with Mark Plotkin
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Image Caption: Amanita muscaria is a mushroom that is both hallucinogenic and poisonous. Image posted by creator 942784 to the Creative Commons via Pixabay.
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The Boom: Amy Westervelt examines Guyana's massive oil project on 'Drilled'
"Drilled" is a true-crime podcast series from Critical Frequency and journalist, Amy Westervelt, examining the back-door dealings and environmental impacts of major fossil fuel projects.
The latest season looks into what's happening between the South American nation of Guyana and oil giant Exxon Mobil. For this episode of the Mongabay Newscast we give you a look at the first episode of the 8th season of this critically acclaimed podcast series. You can listen to it here. Follow and subscribe to Drilled on the podcast provider of your choice.
We also encourage you to listen to our previous Newscast interview with Amy Westervelt here.
Related reading on Guyana from Mongabay:
Oil production or carbon neutrality? Why not both, Guyana says
Questions over accounting and inclusion mar Guyana’s unprecedented carbon scheme
Guyana gets ‘Drilled’: Weighing South America’s latest oil boom with Amy Westervelt
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Image Caption: Spangled cotinga in Guyana. Image by Mathias Appel via Flickr (CC0 1.0).
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Mongabay Reports: Solutions abound for staying within this planetary boundary
"The planetary boundaries" is a concept that measures the point at which human impact on our Earth's natural systems goes beyond "safe operating grounds." Trespass that boundary, and we risk destabilizing other natural systems in a cascading effect.
A recent study getting a lot of press nowadays indicates that we've passed 7 out of 8 of these thresholds already — of particular interest beside climate change is that experts announced we crossed the land use change planetary boundary last year, in large part due to forest loss. Globally we've lost 50% of our forest cover since the dawn of agriculture 12,000 years ago.
However, experts have outlined 5 solutions that societies can implement toward staying within this important planetary boundary. Listen to the popular article from Liz Kimbrough: We’ve crossed the land use change planetary boundary, but solutions await
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Image caption: A fire in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, just one region where fires are burned throughout Russia in 2020. Image by Greenpeace International.
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Can we right the wrongs of 'fortress conservation?'
Since the colonization of the Congo Basin by Europeans, many Indigenous communities have been denied land they once relied on in the name of conservation under a contentious conservation model.
The central concept of “fortress conservation” remains popular with some Central African governments, however experts say it is based on a false premise of a "pristine wilderness" devoid of humans. However, Indigenous leaders and conservation experts say it's time for a change. One that includes Indigenous communities and puts them in the drives seat of conservation initiatives.
On this episode of Mongabay Explores the Congo Basin, Cameroonian lawyer and Goldman Prize winner Samuel Nguiffo, Congolese academic Vedaste Cituli, and Mongabay features writer Ashoka Mukpo detail the troubling history of fortress conservation in Central Africa, its impact, and ways to address the problems it has created.
For more Congo exploration coming soon, find & follow/subscribe to Mongabay Explores via the podcast provider of your choice, or locate all episodes of the Mongabay Explores podcast on our podcast homepage here.
Please also enjoy the first three seasons of Explores, where we dove into the huge biodiversity and conservation challenges in Sumatra, New Guinea, and more.
Episode Artwork: Kahuzi-Biega National Park rangers standing in formation in the park in October 2016, by Thomas Nicolon for Mongabay.
Sounds heard during the intro and outro: The call of a putty-nosed monkey (Cercopithecus nictitans). This soundscape was recorded in Ivindo National Park in Gabon by Zuzana Burivalova, Walter Mbamy, Tatiana Satchivi, and Serge Ekazama.
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See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok by searching for Mongabay.
Climate change is no joke for Australians
Australia suffered catastrophic bushfires in 2019 - 2020, followed by intense rain and flooding from an ensuing La Niña which experts say may be linked to those bushfires. Despite the pleas of scientists to halt development, some governments, such as in the Northern Territories, continue to greenlight massive fossil fuel infrastructure projects.
All of this is 'demoralizing' says award-winning podcast host of 'A Rational Fear,' Dan Ilic. He joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss climate change policy in Australia, recent victories from Indigenous communities, and how comedy provides coverage and catharsis for citizens concerned about the climate crisis. Ilic, who previously made headlines for comedic billboards satirizing Australia's lack of action on climate policy, speaks with host Mike DiGirolamo in person in Sydney.
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Related Reading:
- Australia bushfires may have caused global climate phenomenon La Niña: Study
- Indigenous leader’s court win halts one of Australia’s ‘dirtiest gas projects’
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Image Caption: A mother koala and her joey who survived the forest fires in Mallacoota. Australia, 2020. Photo by Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals
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Mongabay Reports: Deep sea discovery shocks and delights scientists
Scientists have discovered a series of hydrothermal vents in the Mid-Atlantic ridge spanning hundreds of miles and teeming with life adapted to scorching plumes of hot water like shrimp, crabs, mussels, anemones, fish, gastropods, and more.
This discovery, 40 years in the making, adds another layer of consideration to where deep sea mining can occur, which experts argue should not happen in these diverse underwater ecosystems, in part because they store vast amounts of marine genetic resources, besides their biodiversity.
Listen to the new report from Elizabeth Claire Alberts: Seafloor life abounds around hydrothermal vents hot enough to melt lead.
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Image caption: A squat lobster perches atop a bubblegum coral in the deep sea. Image by Schmidt Ocean Institute (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
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The world's second-largest rainforest is at a turning point
This week we're sharing the first episode of a new season of Mongabay Explores, a deep dive into the Congo Basin which begins with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which contains 60% of central Africa's forest, but which also aims to open up protected areas and forested peatlands to oil and gas development.
This is big because the Congo Basin contains the world’s second-largest rainforest, a staggering 178 million hectares, containing myriad wildlife and giant trees plus numerous human communities: it is also one of the world's biggest carbon sinks.
We speak with Adams Cassinga, a DRC resident and founder of Conserv Congo, and Joe Eisen, executive director of Rainforest Foundation UK, about the environmental and conservation challenges and opportunities faced by the DRC & the Congo Basin in general.
For more Congo exploration coming on episode 2, find & follow/subscribe to Mongabay Explores via the podcast provider of your choice, or locate all episodes of the Mongabay Explores podcast on our podcast homepage here.
Until episode 2 airs, please also enjoy the first three seasons of Explores, where we dove into the huge biodiversity and conservation challenges in Sumatra, New Guinea, and more.
Episode Artwork: A female putty-nosed monkey. Image by C. Kolopp / WCS.
Sounds heard during the intro and outro: The call of a putty-nosed monkey (Cercopithecus nictitans). This soundscape was recorded in Ivindo National Park in Gabon by Zuzana Burivalova, Walter Mbamy, Tatiana Satchivi, and Serge Ekazama.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to Mongabay Explores wherever they get podcasts. If you enjoy our podcast content, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok by searching for Mongabay.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Guyana gets Drilled: Journalist Amy Westervelt on the latest oil boom
The South American nation of Guyana, whose economy has traditionally relied on tourism, agriculture, and fishing, has begun doing business with oil giant ExxonMobil to build a massive offshore oil drilling project along its coast.
The president has argued that the profits could pay for the nation's clean energy transition, while others argue that the nation's traditional economic models, biodiversity, and coastal population are at risk of severe environmental impacts from the project.
Award-winning journalist and podcast producer Amy Westervelt joins the Mongabay Newscast to share details of the situation, which is the focus of the 8th season of her acclaimed podcast series Drilled, and she opines about the power of podcasting and the current state of the global effort to tackle climate change:
- “What a total failure of international climate negotiations that Global South countries [are] in this position of having to use oil money to pay for climate adaptation. That’s ridiculous,” Westervelt says.
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Related Reading:
- Oil production or carbon neutrality? Why not both, Guyana says
- Guyana’s future and challenges in oil: Q&A with filmmaker Shane Thomas McMillan
- Guyana seeks offshore oil wealth in a green economy
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find and follow Mongabay on all the social media platforms.
Please share your thoughts and feedback! submissions@mongabay.com.
Image: Series artwork for "Drilled" Season 8 by Matt Fleming.
Mongabay Reports: Breeding new hope for African penguins at De Hoop Nature Reserve
Recent breeding success at a nature reserve in South Africa has given conservationists hope for the survival of Africa's only resident penguin species, whose population has dropped by nearly 65% since 1989.
Researchers are having success boosting breeding colonies near abundant food sources with the help of simple interventions like building nest boxes that mimic their guano burrows which keep the birds cool and safe in a world whose climate is becoming hotter and less predictable.
Listen to the popular article from Ryan Truscott here:
Breeding success raises hopes for future of endangered African penguin
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Image caption: African penguin. Image by Alberto Ziveri via Flickr (BY-SA 2.0)
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Conservation technology just keeps on growing
Conservation technology is a rapidly growing field with exciting potential. From eDNA to bioacoustics and AI, there's a lot to keep track of in an ever-changing environment.
Here to discuss it on the Newscast this week is new Mongabay staff writer Abhishyant "Abhi" Kidangoor who's joined our newsroom to focus on this quickly growing field: he shares details of his current conservation tech reporting projects and ones our readers can look forward to in the future.
Related reading:
- Bioacoustics in your backyard: Q&A with conservation technologist Topher White
- On the roof of the world, water is life. Or a sign of it, thanks to eDNA
- Beyond bored apes: Blockchain polarizes wildlife conservation community
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Image caption: Conservation technology and wildlife manager, Eleanor Flatt, installs a GSM camera trap in the Costa Rican forests protected and managed by Osa Conservation. Image by Marco Molina.
Mongabay Reports: What's in the new U.N. High Seas treaty?
More than 15 years in the making, the United Nations has finally reached an agreement on a landmark, legally binding treaty to protect international waters, where a myriad of wildlife big and small live.
Why did it take so long, and what happens next?
Hear all about it by listening to this audio reading of the popular article by Elizabeth Fitt:
As U.N. members clinch historic high seas biodiversity treaty, what’s in it?
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Image caption: A humpback whale in Antarctica. Image by Christopher Michel via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
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Journalist Tom Philpott on how agriculture impacts the environment & agroecology alternatives
The American approach to food production is negatively impacting the environment and depleting natural resources like topsoil and groundwater at an alarming rate. Top agriculture author, journalist, and Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future research associate Tom Philpott highlights these problems on this episode first by discussing two regions where such impacts are acutely felt, the Central Valley of California and the Great Plains, and then explains how these problems are spreading to the rest of the globe.
But the author of Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It, Philpott also says there's hope via sustainable practices like agroecology and agroforestry, new land tenure models, and more.
A former food reporter and editor for Mother Jones and Grist, he discusses steps that can be taken to reform our food systems for a healthier and more sustainable future at this moment as a new growing season is about to begin in the Northern Hemisphere.
“We don’t have to have an agriculture that consumes the very ecologies that make it possible, and leads to this catastrophic loss of species that we’re in the middle of right now,” our guest says.
Related reading:
- From traditional practice to top climate solution, agroecology gets growing attention
- · ‘During droughts, pivot to agroecology’: Q&A with soil expert at the World Agroforestry Centre
- · American agroforestry accelerates with new funding announcements
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Image caption: Corn is a common food and fodder crop of the Great Plains, and has also long been used to make ethanol. But its most common cultivation methods lead to massive soil erosion, pollution of waterways, and heavy use of chemical herbicides and pesticides. Image courtesy of Tyler Lark.
Mongabay Reports: Monarchs make a comeback
In 2022, the population of western monarch butterflies reached its highest number in decades, 335,000, according to the annual Western Monarch Count in California and Arizona, marking the second year in a row for a positive tally of the species numbers.
While that count is celebrated by conservationists, they also point to the need to protect monarchs' overwintering sites in North America, which continue to suffer degradation and destruction each year.
Read the popular article by Liz Kimbrough here: Western monarch populations reach highest number in decades
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Image caption: A monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus). Image by John Banks via Pexels (Public domain).
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Indigenous ecological knowledge: National Geographic photographer Kiliii Yuyan talks TEK
This podcast episode won a 2024 Indigenous Media Award.
National Geographic photographer Kiliii Yuyan joins the show to discuss his visits to five Indigenous communities and the value of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) for protecting the world’s biodiversity, which is the subject of his new project, "The Guardians of Life: Indigenous Stewards of Living Earth."
An effort in collaboration with previous guest Gleb Raygorodetsky and with support from the National Geographic Society and the Amazon Climate Pledge, the project takes Yuyan to five different Indigenous communities across the world.
Yuyan shares insights on the TEK of the Indigenous communities he’s visited and his own reflections as a person with Indigenous ancestry doing this work, plus what he wishes more journalists would do when sharing the stories and unique knowledge of Indigenous communities.
Related reading:
- Indigenous lands hold the world’s healthiest forests – but only when their rights are protected
- Will the world join Indigenous peoples in relationship with nature at COP-15? (commentary)
- Podcast: How marine conservation benefits from combining Indigenous knowledge and Western science
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Image Caption: Larry Lucas Kaleak listens to the sounds of passing whales and bearded seals through a skinboat paddle in the water. Image (c) Kiliii Yuyan.
Mongabay Reports: Can you fund reforestation by cutting trees down?
As the world pursues reforestation on an expanding scale, a recurring question is: how do we pay for it? One emerging solution is to grow and harvest timber on the same land where reforestation is happening, as exemplified in Brazil's Atlantic Forest. Another approach is to grow timber trees and natural forests on separate plots of land, with a portion of the profits from timber harvests supporting the reforestation.
However, some experts worry that relying too much on timber revenues could harm ecosystems and existing forests, resulting in additional harvesting. Can we balance the need for funding with the need to preserve native ecosystems?
On this episode, listen to the popular Mongabay article by Gianluca Cerullo that discusses all this: Dollars and chainsaws: Can timber production help fund global reforestation?
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Image caption: Native regeneration under 50% dead standing eucalyptus trees in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. Image courtesy of Paulo Guilherme Molin/Federal University of São Carlos.
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Geoengineering and other 'solution problems': Discussion with author Elizabeth Kolbert
Modern society is constantly crafting mega solutions to problems it has created, many of which come with even more problems, and no guarantee of solving the issue, long term.
Whether it's injecting reflective aerosols into the atmosphere to combat climate change (literally turning the sky white), or gene-editing invasive species, “we seem incapable of stopping ourselves,” argues journalist and Pulitzer-prize winning author Elizabeth Kolbert.
She joins the Mongabay Newscast to talk about her latest book, “Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future,” which explores many of these machinations in detail and why she urges readers to be skeptical of them.
Related reading:
- Geoengineering Earth’s climate future: Straight talk with Wake Smith
- Efforts to dim Sun and cool Earth must be blocked, say scientists
- Is invasive species management doing more harm than good? (commentary)
- Release the cats: Training native species to fear invasive predators
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Image: The cane toad (Rhinella marina). Native to South and Central America, the toxic species was deliberately introduced in Queensland, Australia, in 1935 and today it is considered an invasive pest, poisoning native fauna. Image by Paul Williams/Iron Ammonite Photography. Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 2.0).
Mongabay Reports: Cheetahs bring vultures back from the brink in Malawi
In a national park in southern Malawi, the reintroduction of cheetahs (and lions) is bringing four critically endangered vulture species back to the skies, after a 20-year absence: the big cats' kill sites have increased the food supply, encouraging the birds to return in a conservation 'win-win.'
A project of African Parks and the Endangered Wildlife Trust begun in 2017, the team has since observed tagged vultures in parks outside Malawi, too.
Read or share this popular article by Ryan Truscott here:
Cheetah reintroduction in Malawi brings vultures back to the skies
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Photo Credit: A cheetah. Image by Rhett Butler for Mongabay.
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Epic struggle for Ecuador's biodiversity is having success
The Intag Valley in Ecuador is one of the world's most biodiverse places, its dense cloud forests bursting with plant and animal species.
But the world's largest copper company wants to build a mine amidst its riches, so local leaders are organizing a conservation campaign: Mongabay's associate digital editor Romi Castagnino recently visited the area and joins this episode to discuss what she and staff writer Liz Kimbrough reported, and how that article sparked key support from one of Hollywood's top environmentalists, Leonardo DiCaprio.
Click 'play' to hear what she saw, and read Mongabay's full report from the valley here:
This is the first feature in Mongabay's new series, Conservation Potential:
Here's an update on the effort:
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Image: A silk eyed moth photographed on the arm of Liz Kimbrough. Image by Romi Castagnino for Mongabay.
Mongabay Reports: Protecting forests on a budget? Here's how.
It's tough to fund conservation, and deciding exactly how (and where) funding gets used is even trickier. However, researchers recently identified where and when to “get the most bang for our buck,” in a newly published study.
Many of the highest-conservation-priority areas identified fall within lower-income tropical countries. While substantial international funding is likely needed to conserve and restore forests, securing Indigenous peoples' land rights could be a low-cost, and equitable solution, since 80% of the planet's biodiversity lies within Indigenous peoples' territories.
Listen to the popular article from Liz Kimbrough: Protecting global forests with a limited budget? New study shows where and when to start
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Photo Credit: Tiger Leg Monkey Tree Frog (Phyllomedusa hypochondrialis). Image by Rhett Butler.
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Are botanists disappearing just when we need them the most?
A decline in botany degree programs, paired with a growing lack of general plant awareness, has scientists concerned about society's ability to tackle existential threats like biodiversity loss and climate change, so Leeds University Ph.D. researcher Sebastian Stroud is our guest on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast.
While humans depend upon plants for many critical everyday needs, our ability to identify them seems to be decreasing as fewer educational programs continue to study them. Stroud joins us to discuss a recent study he co-authored about this and how we can combat the lack of plant awareness.
Related reading:
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Image: Orange orchid with magenta spots. Torajaland, Sulawesi, Indonesia. Photo by Rhett Butler.
Mongabay Reports: Amazon's tallest tree threatened by deforestation
The Paru State Forest is the world's 3rd-largest sustainable-use tropical forest reserve, and is home to a tree standing 30 stories tall.
But in October of last year, its home state of Pará was the 5th-most deforested in Brazil, alarming experts and environmentalists that its giant trees (including the massive red angelim) are at risk.
Listen to the popular article from Sarah Brown, Amazon’s tallest tree at risk as deforestation nears, by clicking the play button.
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Photo Credit: The Amazon’s tallest tree grows in the Paru State Forest and is one of several giant trees in the region. Each one can sequester up to 40 tons of carbon, nearly as much as a hectare (2.4 acres) of typical forest. Image © Havita Rigamonti/Imazon/Ideflor.
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UN Biodiversity Conference an 'important step' toward conserving nature
In December, Mongabay's Montreal-based editor Latoya Abulu attended the 15th meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity, where the historic Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework was signed by nearly 200 countries.
While the agreement was lauded by scientists, advocates, and Indigenous leaders, others say that there are some concerning omissions from the text, and worrying inclusions of "biodiversity credits" sought by corporations. Click play to hear Latoya share details from her time in the conference halls, what was included in the final text of the agreement, and what was left out.
Related reading on the event:
Nations adopt Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
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Mongabay Reports: Anteaters lead the way for species reintroductions
Reintroducing rescued anteaters from hunters in northern Argentina into the country's Iberá reserve is no small task. However, In 2007, the first pair was reintroduced by the Conservation Land Trust (now known as the Rewilding Foundation).
14 years on, the program has taken this success and used it as a framework for subsequent reintroduction of other native species.
Click the play button to hear the popular Mongabay article by Oscar Bermeo Ocaña aloud:
Giant anteaters lead biodiversity resurgence in Argentina’s Iberá
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Photo Credit: The giant anteater paved the way for many other reintroduction programs in Iberá. Image courtesy of the Rewilding Foundation.
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A bittersweet bioacoustics bonanza
After 6 years and nearly 160 episodes, podcast host Mike Gaworecki is putting his microphone down. The show will go on, but we will miss his expertise and command of conservation science's myriad facets!
One of his favorite topics to cover on the show has been bioacoustics, the use of remote acoustic recording technology to study the behavior, distribution, and abundance of wildlife.
For his final time hosting the Mongabay Newscast, Mike shares an array of his favorite bioacoustics interviews that illustrate the breadth and potential of this powerful conservation technology.
Listen to his bittersweet farewell thoughts, and a range of recordings—from forest elephants to the Big Apple’s dolphins—that he shares, and hit play on these episodes for more goodness:
• How listening to individual gibbons can benefit conservation
• What underwater sounds can tell us about Indian Ocean humpback dolphins
• The superb mimicry skills of an Australian songbird
• The sounds of tropical katydids and how they can benefit conservation
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Into the Wasteland, 3: Buried in Europe's Recycling
We all send our recycling somewhere for proper handling, but the operations of one such handling center in Poland makes one ask, is it being done right, or at all?
The European Commission estimates that the illegal handling of such waste represents around 15-30% of the total EU waste trade, generating EUR 9.5 billion in annual revenues.
So in part 3 of our investigative podcast series, the team dispatches Outriders journalist Eva Dunal to visit one such recycling facility in the pretty town of Zielona Góra close to the Polish-German border, and finds out just how unpopular it is with the neighbors, and especially the city council. They also speak with Jim Puckett, the 'James Bond of waste trafficking' at Basel Action Network, who reveals that much recycling is being 'laundered' via the Netherlands and shipped on to countries where such resources are often dumped, not recycled.
In a three-part, “true eco-crime” series for Mongabay’s podcast, our hosts trace England’s – and Europe's – towering illegal waste problem: investigative environmental journalists Lucy Taylor and Dan Ashby follow this illegal 'waste trail' from their quiet English town to the nearby countryside and as far away as Poland and Malaysia.
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This episode is "The Wastelands" and is part three of the investigative podcast series, "Into the Wasteland," developed with the support of Journalismfund.eu.
Banner image: The shuttered Eurokey plant in the town of Zielona Góra. Image by Eva Dunal/Outriders.
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Into the Wasteland, 2: The New Narcotics
The U.K.’s Environment Agency calls waste crime — where instead of delivering recycling or rubbish for proper disposal, companies simply dump it in the countryside — “the new narcotics” because it’s so easy to make money illegally. It’s estimated that one in every five U.K. waste companies operates in this manner ('fly-tipping'), and the government seems powerless to stop it: it’s so easy to be registered as one of the government’s recommended waste haulers that even a dog can do it — and at least one has, as this episode shares.
In part 2 of our new investigative podcast series, the team also speaks with a lawyer who describes her year-long campaign to get the government to deal with a single illegal dump site, but they fail to act before it catches fire, in an emblematic 'trash fire' for this whole issue. They also speak with a former official at Interpol who shares that his agency also lacks the resources to tackle the problem.
In a three-part, “true eco-crime” series for Mongabay’s podcast, our hosts trace England’s towering illegal waste problem: investigative environmental journalists Lucy Taylor and Dan Ashby follow this illegal 'waste trail' from their quiet English town to the nearby countryside and as far away as Poland.
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This episode is "The Jungle" and is part two of the podcast series, "Into the Wasteland," developed with the support of Journalismfund.eu.
Banner image: The U.K.’s recyclables, plastic packaging and waste soils the countryside across the country and as far away as Turkey (pictured). Image courtesy of Caner Ozkan via Greenpeace Media Library.
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Into the Wasteland: The true crime of the UK's waste mountain
The British countryside is increasingly under siege from a scourge of illegal waste dumping – polluting both water and air – but one man is bravely taking the criminals on, staking out their sites with night vision goggles, drones and more.
In a three-part, 'true eco-crime' podcast series for the Mongabay Newscast, investigative environmental journalists Lucy Taylor and Dan Ashby trace this illegal 'waste trail' from their quiet English town to the nearby countryside, and as far away as Poland.
Threatened, chased, but undeterred, waste investigator Martin Montague has also established a website, Clearwaste, to document incidents of 'fly-tipping' as the practice is known, and people use it daily to report tens of thousands of incidents all over the country, where illegal landfills are also on the rise.
Episodes two and three will air in the coming weeks and take the issue to a wider European scope, discussing it with Interpol and visiting a destination for U.K. waste in Poland.
Banner image: A mountain of UK plastic waste near Wespack Recycling Factory in Malaysia, via Greenpeace Media Library.
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This episode is "The Waste Mountain" and is part one of the podcast series, "Into the Wasteland," developed with the support of Journalismfund.eu.
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Finned: A tale of illegal fishing and the fate of Pacific sharks
Host Mike G. speaks with Mongabay reporters whose new investigations reveal a major and illegal shark finning operation by one of China’s largest fishing fleets, and the role of a giant Japanese company, Mitsubishi, in buying that fleet’s products.
Through an exhaustive interview process with deckhands who worked throughout the company’s fleet, Mongabay's Phil Jacobson and Basten Gokkon revealed that Dalian Ocean Fishing's massive operation deliberately used banned gear to target sharks across a huge swath of the western Pacific Ocean.
The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission is currently meeting to discuss policies that would crack down even further on use of this gear, and we speak with Jacobson who is there covering the event.
We also speak with Japan-based reporter Annelise Giseburt who was able to verify that the illegal operation benefited greatly from selling a massive share of its tuna catch to the Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi.
The investigations:
- Exclusive: Shark finning rampant across Chinese tuna firm’s fleet
- How Mitsubishi vacuumed up tuna from a rogue Chinese fishing fleet
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Mongabay Reports: Lebanon's inspiring restoration success
In a nation gripped by currency depreciation, harsh economic fallout and civil unrest, the Shouf Biosphere Reserve endures as a rare conservation success story in Lebanon.
Previously protected by landmines and armed guards, the region (a UNESCO biosphere reserve) forges ahead with community engagement in tree-planting projects while providing the community with food, fuel, and jobs.
Click the play button to hear this popular article by Elizabeth Fitt aloud:
From land mines to lifelines, Lebanon’s Shouf is a rare restoration success story
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Photo Credit: Farid Tarabay, forest guide, under the Lamartine Cedar, one of the oldest in the reserve. Image by Elizabeth Fitt for Mongabay.
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An escape into soundscapes
Healthy ecosystems are often noisy: from reefs to grasslands and forests, these are sonically rich places, thanks to all the species defending territories, finding mates, locating prey, socializing or perhaps just enjoying their ability to add to life's rich chorus.
Recording soundscapes in such places is one way to ensure we don't forget what a full array of birds, bats, bugs, and more sounds like, and it couldn't be more important, as the world witnesses a decline in many such kinds of creatures, due to the biodiversity crisis. Soundscape recordings provide a kind of sonic baseline which researchers can also pull data from.
On this episode of the podcast, host Mike G. plays a diverse selection of forest soundscapes from South America and Africa and discusses them with their creator, sound recordist George Vlad, who travels the world and shares the acoustic alchemy of nature via his impressive Youtube channel.
Join us to explore these sonic landscapes with Vlad and get inspired to find the richness of natural sounds near you.
Episode artwork: A writhed hornbill, a Philippines endemic species, singing. Image via Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0).
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Mongabay Reports: Sky Bridges for Sloth Safety
On Costa Rica's Carribbean coast, sloths are losing their habitat to houses and roads, forcing them to cross between forest patches on the ground, making them vulnerable to traffic incidents and dog attacks.
However, the Sloth Conservation Foundation, created by British zoologist Rebecca Cliffe, is trying to change that by building rope bridges to allow these famously slow-moving animals to safely cross cleared patches of forest.
Read the popular article written by Monica Pelliccia and translated by Maria Angeles Salazar here:
Bridges in the sky carry sloths to safety in Costa Rica
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Photo Credit: Baby three-toed sloth hugging a stuffed panda in a Trio Indigenous community. Suriname, 2012. Image by Rhett Butler.
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How the Indigenous Shuar regained their ancestral forest
“Ecuador had not declared community protected area management by Indigenous peoples until Tiwi Nunka Forest. This area is the first of its kind in Ecuador, and one of the few in the entire Amazon,” says Felipe Serrano on this episode.
His organization Nature and Culture International recently helped the Shuar Indigenous community in Ecuador win a historic victory to protect its ancestral territory from cattle ranchers, loggers and miners, and he discusses how the community succeeded on this episode.
We also speak with Paul Koberstein, editor of the Cascadia Times, an environmental journal based in Portland, Oregon, who with Jessica Applegate recently published "Deep Cut," an article at Earth Island Journal that details the flawed basis for the U.S. State of Washington’s new and flawed climate solution: cutting down forests.
Episode artwork: Members of the El Kiim community. Photo courtesy of Nature and Culture International.
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Mongabay Reports: Spectacular fish is the first named by a Maldivian scientist
Cirrhilabrus finifenmaa is a spectacular new-to-science fish species and the first that has been named by a Maldivian scientist. Ahmed Najeeb, a biologist from the Maldives Marine Research Institute, named the fish, which means "rose" in the local Dhivehi language.
Fairy wrasses such as this are known for their elegant and colorful appearance with new species often being described. Read the popular article written by Liz Kimbrough, here: Spectacular new fish species is first to be named by Maldivian scientist.
This species, while new-to-science is already being traded. Many aquarium-traded fish are caught unethically. Read Robert Wood's 2019 commentary on buying aquarium fish ethically.
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Photo Credit: A male rose-veiled fairy wrasse (Cirrhilabrus finifenmaa) from the Maldives. The species name ‘finifenmaa’ means ‘rose’ in the local Dhivehi language, a nod to both its pink hues and the Maldives’ national flower. Photo by Yi-Kai Tea © California Academy of Sciences
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Science that saves the biodiversity of free-flowing rivers
"It might be the highest density of trout species on Earth," our guest Ulrich Eichelmann says of a suite of European rivers slated for damming to generate electricity – rivers which also host a vast wealth of birds, bats, bugs and beauty – plus a deep cultural heritage.
Rapid biological surveys are a well known way to establish the richness of an ecosystem and advocate for their conservation, and a corps of scientists have used this conservation solution to repeatedly prove that the rush to build hundreds of new hydroelectric dams threatens to drown this heritage, with impressive results:
A proposal to dam the last free-flowing river in Europe (the Vjosa) was halted in part on the basis of one such survey conducted by Scientists for Balkan Rivers which Eichelmann coordinates, after the team identified species new to science, in addition to great overall biodiversity.
The group has since turned its focus to other threatened rivers in the region, and he describes their activities, plus which rivers' ecologies they are investigating now.
Episode Artwork: The biodiversity of Balkan rivers is now becoming more widely known, and also their beauty, such as Kravice Waterfalls on the Trebižat river in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Photo by Goran Safarek for Riverwatch/EuroNatur.
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Mongabay Reports: A "game changing" ecological restoration playbook
Nine leading forest and climate experts defined 10 principles for equitable and transformative landscapes in a "playbook" for ecosystem restoration.
The playbook authors say these steps could be game changing if followed. The plan outlines climate change and forest loss as political, economic and social problems, not just biophysical or environmental.
Hear more about the playbook by listening to this reading of the original popular article by Liz Kimbrough, New restoration “Playbook” calls for political, economic, and social change.
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Photo Credit: A toco toucan (Ramphastos toco) by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay
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Bottom trawling strips the sea of life, but activism is slowing the damage
In a historic move, The European Commission recently announced the protection of an area half the size of Belgium in the North Atlantic from bottom trawling, a fishing practice widely known as being the most destructive, particularly for deep-sea biodiversity and delicate marine ecosystems, such as cold water corals upon which other marine life (and humans) depend.
Activist and Goldman Environmental Prize winner, Claire Nouvian, joins the Mongabay Newscast to talk about this and her organization’s 7-year journey that led to a French ban on bottom trawling, and a later EU-wide ban.
She discusses not just the importance of deep-sea marine life but the effectiveness of grassroots activism and how consumers can avoid bottom trawling and support legislation to ban the fishing gear.
Related reading:
- Europe moves to protect deep-sea sites in Atlantic from bottom fishing
- Scientists map the impact of trawling using satellite vessel tracking
Episode Artwork: A deep-sea coral, Paragorgia johnsoni, with a large, brisingid sea star on its base, pictured in the New England Seamount chain. Image © The Mountains-in the Sea Research Team, IFE, URI-IAO, and NOAA.
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Mongabay Reports: Agroforestry is climate-positive and profitable, investors say
What's a climate-friendly and profitable way to farm? Some investors (and many farmers) say it's agroforestry, which combines trees & shrubs with annual crops for mutual benefits: shade-grown coffee or bird-friendly chocolate, for instance.
So why have the agriculture sectors of the U.S. and E.U. largely ignored it? That's a question Ethan Steinberg and his partners at Propagate Ventures sought to answer, and then raised $1.5 million in seed funding to help farmers in eight U.S. states transition from conventional agriculture to agroforestry.
Hear more about this growing trend in sustainable agriculture by listening to this audio reading of the popular article Investors say agroforestry isn’t just climate friendly — it’s also profitable by Stephanie Hanes on this latest episode of Mongabay Reports.
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Photo Credit: A model rubber agroforestry forest garden, incorporating animal husbandry (silvopasture). Illustration courtesy of Kittitornkool, J. et al (2019).
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Could Brazil's election decide the fate of the Amazon?
Tropical forest news is coming fast lately, and we've got a top expert to discuss it with, beginning with the deforestation rate of the Brazilian Amazon in 2022 which is on pace to match the dismal heights of 2021; however, the upcoming Brazilian presidential election between incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and former president Luis Inacío Lula da Silva (Lula) could change forest conservation prospects.
Mongabay's CEO and sought after tropical forest news commentator, Rhett Butler, joins the Mongabay Newscast to share his analysis of how former president Lula could (once again) significantly decrease deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, like he's done in the past.
Rhett also shares his insight into a historic legislative move by the European Parliament to block 14 commodities linked to deforestation from entering the EU. The bill places the onus on the buyer to prove any 'dirty commodities' entering the EU are not linked to deforestation, whether legal or illegal. Rhett also discusses the renewed REDD+ agreement between Indonesia and Norway, which was canceled in 2021 when Norway failed to issue payment.
Related reading from Mongabay:
- Amazon deforestation on pace to roughly match last year’s rate of loss
- Amazon deforestation in Brazil booms in August
To hear our early 2022 conversation with Rhett, listen to Mongabay Newscast episode 136 here:
Podcast: The 411 on forests and reforestation for 2022
Episode artwork: Amazon rainforest canopy in Brazil. Image by Rhett Butler.
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Mongabay Reports: Spies in the sky, albatrosses alert authorities to illegal fishing
Can an albatross detect illegal fishing vessels? Findings from published research say yes: over the course of six-months, 169 albatrosses fitted with radar-detecting trackers covered 47 million square kilometers of the southern Indian Ocean found radar signals from 353 ships.
Many of these vessels had no AIS signal, which is an indicator that a ship has switched it off in an attempt to remain hidden, but little did they know that the albatrosses revealed them.
Science journalist Shreya Dasgupta reported on the study for Mongabay in 2020, here:
Any illegal fishing going on around here? Ask an albatross
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Episode Artwork: A wandering albatross chick on its nest on Possession Island in the Crozet archipelago of the southern Indian Ocean. The species is listed as vulnerable by the IUCN. Image by Alain Ricci via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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Sumatran elephants' future may hinge on their 'personhood'
There's less than 10 years remaining to save Sumatran elephants, says guest Leif Cocks, founder of the International Elephant Project, so we followed up with him to learn what is being done to save the critically endangered species' shrinking habitats, and to discuss the growing movement to recognize their 'personhood' and thereby ensure their interests are considered in development decisions.
Leif also shares his thoughts on a planned hydropower dam in North Sumatra, sited in the only habitat where the last, critically endangered Tapanuli orangutans live. This project has also, tragically, claimed the lives of 16 workers in less than 2 years.
Related Reading via Mongabay:
- ‘Chased from every side’: Sumatran elephants pinned down by forest loss
- Photos: Meet the Indonesians on the front lines of human-elephant conflict in Sumatra
- ‘Cursed’ dam project in orangutan habitat claims 16th life in less than 2 years
To hear our previous conversation with Leif on Sumatran elephants, see season 2, episode 6 of the Mongabay Explores podcast, here:
Podcast: With just 10 years left to save Sumatran elephants, what can be done now?
Episode artwork: Sumatran elephants play in water. Image by vincentraal via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).
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Mongabay Reports: Chocolate frog, anyone?
Just kidding, you really shouldn't eat this.
Last February, researchers described a new-to-science species of frog literally unearthed in the Peruvian Amazon during a rapid inventory of the lower Putamayo Basin. The image of the frog circulated on Twitter where it was likened to the chocolate frogs as seen in the Harry Potter film franchise. One user described the frog as a 'smooth lil fella.'
The full scientific description of the tootsie-roll resembling amphibian is available here in the journal Evolutionary Systematics.
This episode of Mongabay Reports, features the popular article Chocolate frog? New burrowing frog species unearthed in Amazon’s rare peatlands.
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Photo Credit: Synapturanus danta by Germán Chávez.
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Top wildlife photography requires patience, ethics, and kindness
Since 2020, the "Prints for WIldlife" campaign has raised over 1.75 million for conservaiton funding for NGO, African Parks through a collaborative photography based initiative selling over 15,000 unique wildlife prints.
Normally in competition with each other, 100+ wildlife photographers have come together to participate in this campaign. Joining the Monagabay newscast is one such photographer, Marcus Westberg, to discuss the unique collaborative nature of this campaign, and ethical wildlife photogrpahy practices.
Related Reading:
African Parks secures $100M for conservation in Africa
Episode artwork: Two Grauer’s gorillas in Kahuzi-Biega National Park, DR Congo. Grauer’s gorillas are the world’s largest primates, and highly threatened, their population having declined close to 80% in just a few decades. Image by Marcus Westberg
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Mongabay Reports: Can bugs take a bite out of climate change?
Cricket One is one of the world's largest cricket farms, and it's serving up an impressive palette of insect protein. Vietnam-based reporter Mike Tatarski reports on companies cashing in on the insect protein wave: coupled with the fact that insects (like crickets) use far less feed than cattle, and produce no methane, there is potential for the industry to replace animal-based protein sources.
Could delicacies such as the scorpion skewers served at Bugs Cafe in Cambodia make their way to the West?
This episode of Mongabay Reports features the popular 2020 story as read by Mike DiGirolamo. Find the full article here:
From scorpion skewers to cricket flour, bug protein is becoming big business
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Photo Credit: Bugs Cafe in Siem Reap aims to turn insects into artfully presented cuisine, like this scorpion skewer. Image by Rishabh Malik for Atmos/Mongabay.
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Bitcoin, blockchain, and burgeoning energy use
Blockchain is an increasingly popular technology with quite a few applications and iterations, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), but can they aid conservation? The answer is complicated. Some conservation groups are trying to use them for fundraising. Other conservationists are exploring the technology for the ability to track and trace payments for ecosystem services. However, downsides abound and depending on which form of the technology you use, they can be impractical, environmentally damaging, or both.
Author, Brett Scott, joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss these complicating factors, some of which he writes about in his new book Cloudmoney: Cash, Cards, Crypto and the War for our Wallets. Also joining the Newscast is journalist Judith Lewis Mernit, who reported on the Bitcoin mining surge in the US state of Texas and the rising energy prices pushed on to consumers.
Related Reading:
Beyond bored apes: Blockchain polarizes wildlife conservation community
Episode artwork: Flowering rainforest tree in the Colombian Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay.
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Mongabay Reports: Chimpanzee tool innovation reveals cultural evolution
Sonso Chimpanzees in Uganda began using a new method to drink water pooled in logs, 'moss-sponging.' Previously known to use balled-up leaves, the chimps began using this new technique with moss, researchers believe, because it is more effective at getting water into their mouths.
But then, the technique spread to a neighboring community of chimps, leading researchers to believe that this is evidence of cultural evolution in chimpanzees, a behavior previously only thought to exist in humans. Researchers published their findings in a study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences back in 2018.
This edition of Mongabay Reports is based on the popular article, Tool innovation shows cultural evolution at work among chimpanzees, by Nina Finley.
To also read & share the story, go here: https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/tool-innovation-shows-cultural-evolution-at-work-among-chimpanzees/
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Photo Credit: Karibu, a member of the Sonso chimpanzee community in Uganda, uses a moss-sponge she made to sip water from a small rainwater pool. Scientists say the recent emergence and spread of this socially learned behavior is evidence of cultural evolution in chimpanzees. Image by Cat Hobaiter
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Mexico's Maya Train chugs forward, but at what cost?
A multi-billion dollar, 958 mile-long, railway project known as the 'Maya Train' threatens to displace locals and degrade or destroy habitats across five states in the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico. Despite the many legal roadblocks the project has run into, the Mexican government is pushing it through, citing its eventual benefits for tourism and cargo transportation.
This week we speak with Mongabay's Mexico City-based staff writer Max Radwin about the project and the impacts it could have on habitats and the lives of locals. We also speak about the legacy of large infrastructure projects that President Andrés López Manuel Obrador is leaving in Mexico.
Related Reading:
Full steam ahead for Tren Maya project as lawsuits hit judicial hurdles
‘What’s lacking is respect for Mayan culture’: Q&A with Pedro Uc Be on Mexico’s Tren Maya
Episode artwork: Forest clearing in the municipality of Solidaridad in Quintana Roo for construction of the Maya Train. Image by Fernando Martínez Belmar.
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Mongabay Reports: New Guinea has the most plant species of any island
A report published in the journal Nature concludes that New Guinea is the most floristically diverse and speciose island on the planet. In addition to being the second largest island in the world, New Guinea is the world's largest tropical island. More than two-thirds of its 13,634 plant sepecies are endemic, occurring nowhere else in the world.
New Guinea is not without its conservation challenges. If you are a regular listener of the Mongabay Explores Podcast you'll recall our third season, which explains the historical context, challenges, and drivers of deforestation on the island over seven episodes. Despite these challenges, New Guinea still retains 80% of its original forest cover, making it the final frontier of tropical species discovery and also the third largest rainforest on the planet, just after the Amazon and Congo basin.
To also read & share the story, go here: https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/new-guinea-has-the-most-plant-species-of-any-island/
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Photo Credit: Image by Rhett Butler.
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'Water always wins' but 'slow' solutions to water scarcity are growing in popularity
Human-made 'gray' infrastructure is crumbling, causing some urban areas to lose up to 40% of this precious resource: several major cities across the globe now regularly run out of water or have shortages. Yet our pervasive attempts to control water have actually made accessing it harder, especially as humanity faces the silmultaneously occurring biodiversity, climate and water crises.
Author and journalist Erica Gies joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss her new book 'Water Always Wins: Thriving in an Age of Drought and Deluge.' She covers non-invasive solutions ('slow water') that could help humanity not just mitigate our water problems, but also restore biodiversity that's been degraded by 'gray' infrastructure.
Cities such as Chennai, India, are already embracing these slow water practices, many of which are rooted in traditional hydrological knowledge, while other areas like coastal Louisiana contemplate managed retreat from rising water. Solving water access and water infrastructure design isn't a simple one-size-fits-all solution, but there are many measures socieities could take today, and on a local level, to make things easier for us in the future.
Related Reading:
'The volume of water is beyond control’: Q&A with flood expert M. Monirul Qader Mirza
Beyond boundaries: Earth’s water cycle is being bent to breaking point
Episode artwork: A person in an inflatable boat paddles down flooded Highway 610 in the Houston area as rains associated with Hurricane Harvey continue to fall in the area. Image by Mannie Garcia/Greenpeace.
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Mongabay Reports: Will the vaquita vanish?
This week the world marks Save the Vaquita Day.
Our featured article examines a threat to this critically endangered marine mammal (Phocoena sinus), a small porpoise that lives only in the Upper Gulf of California, and of which only 8 remain in the wild.
Mongabay reports that a recent CITES decision lifting a prohibition on the export of captive-bred totaoba fish from Mexico could paradoxically spell disaster for vaquitas--which drown in nets that are set to capture the fish illegally, to feed a black market which will likely continue to thrive if a legal trade in farmed totoaba is established.
To also read & share the story, go here: https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/experts-fear-end-of-vaquitas-after-green-light-for-export-of-captive-bred-totoaba-fish/
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Photo Credit: An illustration of a vaquita. Image courtesy of Greenpeace.
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How marine conservation benefits by blending Indigenous knowledge and western science
We discuss the effectiveness of combining traditional Indigenous ecological knowledge and Western science for conservation and restoration initiatives on this episode.
Our first guest is Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan, an ethnobotanist at the University of Arizona, who discusses an ancestral food of the Comcaac people in the state of Sonora in Mexico: eelgrass.
Nabhan explains how eelgrass is making a big comeback thanks to the people's restoration work, and is retaking its place at the table as a sustainable source of food for the Comcaac community while gaining international culinary attention in the process.
Host Mike G. also speaks with Dr. Sara Iverson, a professor of biology at Canada’s Dalhousie University, about a research project called Apoqnmatulti’k that aims to better understand the movements of lobster, eel, and tomcod in two important ecosystems on Canada’s Atlantic coast.
Iverson explains why those study species were chosen by the Mi’kmaq people and why it’s so important that the project combines different ways of knowing, including Western science and traditional Indigenous knowledge, which a Mi’kmaq elder dubbed 'two-eyed seeing.'
Further reading about Apoqnmatulti’k here:
• “In Canada, Indigenous communities and scientists collaborate on marine research”
Listen to episode #145 (June 1, 2022) of this podcast to hear about related Indigenous aquaculture traditions via your favorite podcast provider, or here:
• “Podcast: Indigenous, ingenious and sustainable aquaculture from the distant past to today”
Episode artwork: A conservationist working on a seagrass restoration project. Image courtesy of Seawilding.
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Mongabay Reports: 'Lost' Amazonian cities reveal sustainability secrets
Our featured article this week examines archaeological research revealing details of a massive, Pre-Columbian urban settlement in the Amazon, 4,500 square kilometers in size, that provides valuable insights into how humanity could develop sustainable cities without degrading their environments.
To also read & share the story, go here: https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/lost-amazonian-cities-hint-at-how-to-build-urban-landscapes-without-harming-nature/
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Photo Credit: Incachaca archaeological site in Bolivia. Image courtesy of Greg Keelen on Unspash.
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New whale calls and dolphin behaviors discovered with bioacoustics
Host Mike G. dives into new discoveries from the exciting field of marine bioacoustics research that are helping us better understand the lives of whales and dophins, and we feature fascinating recordings from that research.
His first guest is Erin Ross-Marsh, the lead researcher on a study of humpback whales at the Vema Seamount in the South Atlantic off the coast of South Africa. Ross-Marsh tells us about the study’s finding that these humpbacks were making gunshot calls, a type of non-song call that was previously unknown in these particular whales, and plays some humpback songs, non-song calls, and gunshot calls for us to listen to.
He also speaks with Sarah Trabue, a research assistant with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) who is the lead author of a recently published paper detailing the findings of a bioacoustic study of bottlenose dolphins in and around New York Harbor.
Trabue discusses what the study reveals about dolphin behavior in the highly trafficked waters around New York City and plays for us some of the dolphin vocalizations recorded as part of the study.
Further reading:
• Mongabay: “What’s popping? Humpbacks off South Africa, new acoustic study finds”
Episode artwork: humpback whales off the coast of Hawaii. Photo Credit: Ed Lyman/NOAA.
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Mongabay Reports: Palm oil investigation with BBC and Gecko Project exposes corporate theft from communities
Our featured article this week summarizes a joint investigation Mongabay recently conducted with BBC News and The Gecko Project, uncovering how companies have cut local & Indigenous communities out of the profits from Indonesia's palm oil boom, despite being legally required to share those profits.
Major brands including Kellogg's, Johnson & Johnson, Pepsi, and numerous others have sourced palm oil from these plantations.
To also read & share the story, go here: 'A hidden crisis in Indonesia's palm oil sector: 6 takeaways from our investigation.' https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/a-hidden-crisis-in-indonesias-palm-oil-sector-6-takeaways-from-our-investigation/
Read the responses from consumer goods firms to our plasma investigation: https://thegeckoproject.org/articles/responses-from-consumer-goods-firms-to-our-plasma-investigation/
Read the full investigation here: 'The promise was a lie': How Indonesian villagers lost their cut of the palm oil boom. https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/the-promise-was-a-lie-how-indonesian-villagers-lost-their-cut-of-the-palm-oil-boom/
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Photo Credit: A bag of oil palm fruitlets gathered by the Suku Anak Dalam. Image by Nopri Ismi.
Please send feedback to submissions@mongabay.com, and thank you for listening.
How Indigenous aquaculture leverages traditional ecological knowledge
Coastal cultures have often enjoyed abundant lifestyles thanks to the wide array of food, fiber, and other useful resources provided by the world's seas, sounds, estuaries and oceans. Indigenous peoples have also developed strong marine conservation traditions and ingenious methods of ensuring sustainable long-term harvests through practices commonly called 'aquaculture' today.
On this episode we hear from Nicola MacDonald about Kōhanga Kūtai, a project in New Zealand that aims to replace the plastic ropes used by mussel farmers with more sustainable alternatives. MacDonald tells us about the project's basis in blending traditional Maori knowledge with Western science.
We also speak with Dana Lepofsky, a professor in the archaeology department at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. Lepofsky tells us about her research into clam gardens on the Pacific coast of North America, some of which have been found to be as much as 3500 years old.
These clam gardens are such a reliable and sustainable source of food that there’s a movement afoot today to rebuild them.
Resources & reading:
• ‘We have a full pharmacopoeia of plants’: Q&A with Māori researcher Nicola Macdonald
• The Clam Garden Network website
Hear our conversation with Dune Lankard of the Native Conservancy about their kelp aquaculture project in Alaska on episode #137 or here:
• "Podcast: Kelp, condors and Indigenous conservation"
Episode artwork: Green-lipped mussels are endemic to New Zealand and are commonly grown in aquaculture operations. Image courtesy of Adrian Midgley via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
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Mongabay Reports: Can celebrities ‘rewrite extinction’?
'Rewriting Extinction' is a new conservation funding group trying to reach fresh audiences that has so far raised $180,000 for projects in Europe, Asia and Latin America.
Critics of the organization say 'Rewriting Exctinction' has made exaggerated claims about what it can, or has, achieved. Some experts say the effort should still be applauded.
This episode features the popular article "Can celebrities and social media influencers really 'rewrite extinction'?" by James Fair: https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/can-celebrities-and-social-media-influencers-really-rewrite-extinction/
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy this series, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
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Photo Credit: Art for Rewriting Extinction created by mxvisoor.
Please send feedback to submissions@mongabay.com, and thank you for listening.
Vandana Shiva on the agroecology solution for climate change, the biodiversity crisis, and hunger
Joining us first to discuss agroecology as a science, a practice, and a movement is Dr. Maywa Montenegro, an assistant professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Then host Mike G. speaks with iconic Indian scientist, activist and Right Livelihood Award winner Dr. Vandana Shiva, whose brand new book, Agroecology and Regenerative Agriculture: Sustainable Solutions for Hunger, Poverty, and Climate Change, synthesizes decades of agroecology research and implementation. She's also the founder of Navdanya, which is both an agroecology center and a global food sovereignty movement.
Dr. Shiva shares how agroecology is an effective solution not just to climate change but also for a host of other ecological crises we’re facing, such as water scarcity, land degradation, nutrition and biodiversity loss.
Further reading:
• ”From traditional practice to top climate solution, agroecology gets growing attention” by Anna Lappé
• "Transitioning to sustainable agriculture requires growing and sustaining an ecologically skilled workforce," Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 96. doi:10.3389/fsufs.2019.00096
Episode artwork: Dr. Vandana Shiva, photo by Kartikey Shiva.
If you enjoy the Mongabay Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.
Mongabay Explores: She's here! A Sumatran rhino is born
On March 24th, Indonesia's Ministry of Environment and Forestry announced the birth of a new female Sumatran rhino calf at the SRS captive breeding facility at Way Kambas National Park in Indonesia's Lampung province.
For this bonus episode of Mongabay Explores, we speak with senior staff writer for Indonesia, Basten Gokkon. He explains the significance of this event, the difficulty in breeding Sumatran rhinos, and what this birth means for the future of this critically endangered species.
If you missed the ten part series of Mongabay Explores Sumatra, you can find them via the podcast provider of your choice, or locate all episodes of the Mongabay Explores podcast on our podcast homepage here.
Related Reading:
Episode Artwork: Rosa and her child. Image courtesy of Indonesia's Environment and Forestry Ministry.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to Mongabay Explores wherever they get podcasts. If you enjoy our podcast content, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok by searching for @mongabay.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Wonder on wings: the fierce nature and enduring beauty of birds
It's a really busy time of year for birds all over the world as they migrate and prepare for a new breeding season, so on this episode we discuss the amazing fierceness and beauty of birds, why they deserve your interest and attention, plus some recent research and avian conservation trends in Nepal.
We welcome back the incomparable and award-winning author Sy Montgomery, whose most recent books are all about our avian friends: The Hawk’s Way: Encounters With Fierce Beauty, which is now in stores, and also 2021's The Hummingbird’s Gift: Wonder, Beauty, and Renewal On Wings.
In her signature & wonder-rich way, Montgomery shares some of the truly amazing things learned from personal experiences with falconry and hummingbird rehabilitation, and discusses why we find birds so fascinating.
Host Mike G. also speaks with Mongabay staff writer Abhaya Joshi about the birdlife in his country of Nepal, a new bird-counting app that’s sparking newfound interest there, and some of the most recent conservation actions being taken in the country to protect birds.
Hear Sy Montgomery's previous appearance on this show here (or search for episode #37 in your podcast app):
Further reading about Nepal's birdlife by Abhaya Joshi:
- “Bird-counting app kindles interest in Nepal’s rich avian life”
- “Nepal’s first bird sanctuary takes flight, raising hope for conservation”
- “Study: Farmland birds in Nepal, India in dire need of conservation action”
Episode artwork: Fiery-throated hummingbird at Paraiso del Quetzal, Costa Rica, by Joseph C Boone via Wikimedia Commons.
If you enjoy the Mongabay Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.
Mongabay Explores New Guinea: Community empowerment and forest conservation grow from the galip nut
By 2025, the edible nut industry will be worth an estimated $2 billion globally. In Papua New Guinea (PNG), a traditional and plentiful staple, the galip nut (Canarium indicum), holds the promise of tapping into that demand.
Its familiarity and the ease with which it can be grown together with coffee and cocoa is adding up to a new source of income for thousands of small scale farmers across PNG while preserving forest cover.
On this episode of Mongabay Explores, we speak with Dorothy Devine Luana, an entrepreneur from the province of East New Britain, whose company grows galip nuts using agroforestry, a farming technique rooted in traditional knowledge that grows multiple cash crops alongside woody perennials.
We also speak with Nora Devoe, research program manager for a special project focused on the galip nut at the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). This project has been funding more than a decade of research seeking to understand the viability and potential of the galip nut to drive the canarium industry in PNG and foster new markets for entrepreneurs and locals like Dorothy to sell the crop.
If you missed the first six episodes of Mongabay Explores New Guinea, you can find them via the podcast provider of your choice, or locate all episodes of the Mongabay Explores podcast on our podcast homepage here.
Episode Artwork: Tinganagalip Women Cooperative Group Chairwoman Caroline Misiel holds a handful of galip nuts. Image by Conor Ashleigh.
Sounds heard during the intro and outro include the following: rusty mouse-warbler, growling riflebird, raggiana/lesser bird-of-paradise, superb fruit-dove, long-billed honeyeater, little shrike-thrush, brown cuckoo-dove, black-capped lory. Special thanks to Tim Boucher and Bruce Beehler for identifying them.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to Mongabay Explores wherever they get podcasts. If you enjoy our podcast content, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok by searching for @mongabay.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Convention on Biological Diversity: progress, hope and hard work ahead
Because the roles and rights of Indigenous communities are widely agreed to be key to its success, we also speak with Jennifer Tauli Corpuz, a member of the Indigenous Caucus at the Convention on Biological Diversity and senior global policy and advocacy lead for Nia Tero.
Jennifer provides the Indigenous perspective on what’s currently in the draft biodiversity framework, what changes are needed to better support Indigenous land rights, and the overall importance of Indigenous leadership toward preserving Earth’s biodiversity.
Related reading:
- Reaching the Paris Agreement without protecting Indigenous lands is ‘impossible’, says report
- Indigenous land rights take center stage in a new global framework for biodiversity conservation
- Climate efforts won’t succeed without secure community rights, says Nonette Royo
- Momentum is building for a ‘robust’ biodiversity framework: Q&A with Elizabeth Mrema
If you enjoy the Mongabay Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage, news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Episode artwork: Red-eyed tree frog. Photo Credit: Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.
Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.
Mongabay Explores New Guinea: Who is destroying these rainforests? The Tanah Merah mystery.
Mongabay Explores is an episodic podcast series that highlights unique places and species from around the globe.
The Tanah Merah project sits in the heart of New Guinea covering 2,800 square kilometers (1,100 square miles). Roughly twice the size of Greater London, it threatens not only dense, primary, tropical rainforest and Indigenous land, but also could release as much carbon as the U.S. state of Virginia emits by burning fossil fuels for an entire year.
However, the true owners of the project have been hidden by a web of corporate secrecy for more than a decade. We speak with Philip Jacobson, senior editor at Mongabay, and Bonnie Sumner, investigative reporter at the Aotearoa New Zealand news outlet Newsroom, to discuss the project from inception to present day, the involvement of a New Zealand businessman, and where the project could go next.
Related Reading:
- The Secret Deal to Destroy Paradise
- New Zealand developer denies key role in giant palm oil project in Indonesia
If you missed the first five episodes of Mongabay Explores New Guinea, you can find them via the podcast provider of your choice, or locate all episodes of the Mongabay Explores podcast on our podcast homepage here.
Episode Artwork: Rainforest in Boven Digoel. Image by Ulet Ifansasti for Greenpeace.
Sounds heard during the intro and outro include the following: rusty mouse-warbler, growling riflebird, raggiana/lesser bird-of-paradise, superb fruit-dove, long-billed honeyeater, little shrike-thrush, brown cuckoo-dove, black-capped lory. Special thanks to Tim Boucher and Bruce Beehler for identifying them.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to Mongabay Explores wherever they get podcasts. If you enjoy our podcast content, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok by searching for @mongabay.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Outstanding in the field: researchers head out for a new season
It's the start of field research season in many regions--and some scientists haven't gotten afield since the pandemic started--so we're checking in with a couple researchers to hear what they’re planning to work on, out there in the bush.
Our first guest is Meredith Palmer, a post-doctoral researcher at Princeton University whose field work this season is testing new conservation technologies like the BoomBox, an open‐source device that attaches to commercially available camera traps and turns them into an automated behavioral response systems.
Also on the show is Ummat Somjee, a researcher based out of the Smithsonian Tropical Institute in Panama. He uses insects as models to understand the evolution of extreme structures in animals, like the tusks of elephants or the horns of antelopes.
Here are their studies mentioned in this episode:
• Palmer, M. S., Wang, C., Plucinski, J., & Pringle, R. M. (2022). BoomBox: An Automated Behavioural Response (ABR) camera trap module for wildlife playback experiments. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 13(3), 611-618. doi:10.1111/2041-210X.13789
• Somjee, U., Powell, E. C., Hickey, A. J., Harrison, J. F., & Painting, C. J. (2021). Exaggerated sexually selected weapons maintained with disproportionately low metabolic costs in a single species with extreme size variation. Functional Ecology, 35(10), 2282-2293. doi:10.1111/1365-2435.13888
If you enjoy the Mongabay Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
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Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.
Mongabay Reports: Degraded forests still provide immense value
A recent study conducted in Malaysian Borneo shows that degraded forests can still provide immense value. The study details five key ecological services provided by degraded forests to Indigenous communities.
Yet a government effort aims to convert degraded forests in Malaysian Borneo into timber plantations, despite the fact that researchers say these ecological services cannot be replaced with plantations.
This episode features the popular article, "Even degraded forests are more ecologically valuable than none, study shows," by Sheryl Lee Tian Tong:
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast via Apple Podcasts or wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy this series, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
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Photo Credit: Rainforest rainbow in Sabah. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay
Indigenous peoples: the world's top conservationists
"Underfunded but passionate, Native American conservationists call for more support"
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts like Apple Podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
Episode artwork: Endangered black-footed ferrets have benefited hugely from the conservation work of multiple Native American communities. Image courtesy of Kimberly Fraser/USFWS.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
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Mongabay Explores New Guinea: 'Ghosts of the rainforest'
New Guinea's dense tropical montane forests are home to 12 of 14 tree kangaroo species. Over the past couple of decades, conservationists have leveraged these charismatic, intelligent marsupials to spearhead community development, conservation efforts, and the establishment of protected areas.
In Papua New Guinea, the Torricelli mountain range is home to three species of tree kangaroo, including the critically endangered tenkile. This mountain range sits in the crosshairs of a road project threatening to encroach upon the region; however, the government is in the process of reviewing a draft proposal to have it officially declared a protected area.
For this episode of the podcast, we speak with Jim Thomas of the Tenkile Conservation Alliance and Lisa Dabek and Modi Pontio of the Tree Kangaroo Conservation Program. They detail the successes and challenges of working for nearly two decades in PNG to conserve these intelligent marsupials and the lands they inhabit.
If you missed the first four episodes of Mongabay Explores New Guinea you can find them via the podcast provider of your choice or find all the episodes of the Mongabay Explores podcast on our podcast homepage here.
Episode Artwork: A tree kangaroo, photo courtesy of Tom Jefferson/Greenpeace.
Sounds heard during the intro and outro include the following: rusty mouse-warbler, growling riflebird, raggiana/lesser bird-of-paradise, superb fruit-dove, long-billed honeyeater, little shrike-thrush, brown cuckoo-dove, black-capped lory. Special thanks to Tim Boucher and Bruce Beehler for identifying them.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to Mongabay Explores via Apple Podcasts or wherever they get podcasts. If you enjoy our podcast content, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok by searching for @mongabay.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Are 'nature based solutions' the best fix for climate change?
On this episode we discuss mangrove restoration and other "nature based solutions" (NBS) to climate change.
Now promoted as the best strategy to slow climate change--and encompassing an array of solutions from reforestation to ecosystem restoration--critics point out that they also have numerous pitfalls that must be guarded against.
Mangrove restoration and other 'blue carbon' projects are a common NBS program one hears about, so host Mike G. speaks with Alfredo Quarto, co-founder of the Mangrove Action Project, who shares why mangrove forests are so globally important & what successful restoration projects look like.
Norah Berk also joins the show: she's a policy advisor on climate change and forests at the Rainforest Foundation UK, who explains that NBS have, in many cases, been co-opted by corporations that are using them as carbon offset schemes, and discusses why she thinks land titling for Indigenous and local communities is a better solution to climate change which the world should be focusing on.
Further reading:
• “At a plantation in Central Africa, Big Oil tries to go net-zero”
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts like Apple Podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
Episode artwork: Mangrove trees growing on a beach. Photo via Pixabay.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
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Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.
Mongabay Explores New Guinea: A long and winding road
Mongabay Explores is an episodic podcast series that highlights unique places and species from around the globe. Subscribe to the show wherever you get podcasts and stay tuned for subsequent episodes in this season.
Spanning over 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) and being built over the course of decades, the Trans-Papua Highway cuts across the entire length of Indonesian New Guinea’s two provinces, including 7 key protected areas.
While the project is nearly complete, experts warn it will cost billions annually to maintain, and threaten to open up untouched rainforest to palm oil expansion contributing an additional 4.5 million hectares of deforestation by 2036.
For this episode, we interviewed David Gaveau, founder of The TreeMap and Bill Laurance, distinguished professor, and director of the Center for Tropical, Environmental, and Sustainability Science at James Cook University in Australia.
Both experts explained the environmental, financial, and social costs of the project, which runs through Indonesia’s Lorentz National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
If you missed the first three episodes of Mongabay Explores New Guinea you can find it via the podcast provider of your choice or find all the episodes of the Mongabay Explores podcast on our podcast homepage here.
Episode Artwork: Tearing up trees to expand the road for the Trans West Papua highway. Daniel Beltrá/Greenpeace
Editor's Note: Bill Laurance, is a Distinguished Research Professor at James Cook University in Cairns, Australia as well as the founder and director of ALERT (Alliance of Leading Environmental Researchers & Thinkers) and a member of Mongabay’s advisory board.
Sounds heard during the intro and outro include the following: rusty mouse-warbler, growling riflebird, raggiana/lesser bird-of-paradise, superb fruit-dove, long-billed honeyeater, little shrike-thrush, brown cuckoo-dove, black-capped lory. Special thanks to Tim Boucher and Bruce Beehler for identifying them.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to Mongabay Explores wherever they get podcasts. If you enjoy our podcast content, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok by searching for @mongabay.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
How the sounds of African wildlife aid their conservation
On this episode we discuss this gap by highlighting two new bioacoustics studies of hippos and African manatees - and we of course play recordings of their squeals, squeaks and 'wheeze honks' which can now aid their conservation.
Dr. Nicolas Mathevon joins the show to share the results of a study which showed that vocal recognition is used by hippos, and we welcome Clinton Factheu, a PhD student in Cameroon who recently co-authored a study revealing the first recorded African manatee vocalizations.
Episode artwork: A hippo in the Chobe River, Botswana, by Joachim Huber via Wikimedia Commons.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.
Mongabay Explores New Guinea: Protecting paradise
For this third episode of the New Guinea season, Mongabay interviews Bustar Maitar, CEO of EcoNusa, and biologist Edwin Scholes from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology about the diverse and charismatic birds-of-paradise and the potential for New Guinea to harness ecotourism to power a sustainable economy.
If you missed the first two episodes of Mongabay Explores New Guinea you can find it via the podcast provider of your choice or find all the episodes of the Mongabay Explores podcast on our podcast homepage here.
Episode Artwork: A Cendrawasih (bird of paradise) on a tree in Malagufuk village, located in the rainforest in Kalasou valley, Sorong, West Papua. Copyright: Jurnasyanto Sukarno/Greenpeace
Sounds heard during the intro and outro include the following: rusty mouse-warbler, growling riflebird, raggiana/lesser bird-of-paradise, superb fruit-dove, long-billed honeyeater, little shrike-thrush, brown cuckoo-dove, black-capped lory. Special thanks to Tim Boucher and Bruce Beehler for identifying them.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to Mongabay Explores wherever they get podcasts. If you enjoy our podcast content, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok by searching for @mongabay.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Kelp, condors and Indigenous conservation
Join us for a dive into two ambitious Indigenous-led conservation initiatives on the U.S. West Coast on this episode.
Host Mike G. speaks with Dune Lankard, founder and president of The Native Conservancy, who discusses their work to create a regenerative economy for Alaska’s Prince William Sound--based on conservation and restoration-- via projects like kelp farming.
We also speak with Tiana Williams-Claussen, she's the director of the Yurok Tribe’s Wildlife Department and shares their efforts to bring condors back to the tribe’s territory in Northern California, which is set to culminate in the first four birds being released into the wild in April 2022.
Articles mentioned:
- “Thanks to the Yurok Tribe, condors will return to the Pacific Northwest”
- “By cultivating seaweed, Indigenous communities restore connection to the ocean”
- Mongabay Series: Indigenous Peoples and Conservation
Episode artwork: A condor in southern California by B W via Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Creative Commons license.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.
Mongabay Explores New Guinea: 'Carbon cowboys' and illegal logging
If you missed episode one of Mongabay Explores New Guinea you can find it via the podcast provider of your choice or find all the episodes of the Mongabay Explores podcast on our podcast homepage here.
Episode artwork: Loggers from Turama Forest Industries cut down a tree with a chainsaw in the 'Turama extension' logging concession, Gulf Province. These forests are being felled by Turama Forest Industries - a group company of Malaysian logging giant Rimbunan Hijau. Photo by Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert for Greenpeace.
Sounds heard during the intro and outro include the following: rusty mouse-warbler, growling riflebird, raggiana/lesser bird-of-paradise, superb fruit-dove, long-billed honeyeater, little shrike-thrush, brown cuckoo-dove, black-capped lory. Special thanks to Tim Boucher and Bruce Beehler for identifying them.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to Mongabay Explores wherever they get podcasts. If you enjoy our podcast content, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok by searching for @mongabay.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
The 411 on forests and reforestation for 2022
He also speaks with Swati Hingorani, a senior program officer at the IUCN and Global Coordinator for the Bonn Challenge, one of the world's most important reforestation programs.
Hingorani discusses reforestation trends and the Bonn Challenge’s newly revamped and relaunched Restoration Barometer that tracks ecosystem restoration progress being made by countries around the world.
Related reading:
- “Rainforests in 2022: A look at the year ahead” by Rhett Butler
- “The year in rainforests 2021” by Rhett Butler
- “Global ecosystem restoration progress: How and who’s tracking it?”
- “Beyond tree planting: When to let forests restore themselves”
Two related podcast episodes mentioned in this episode include episode #133 (December 9, 2021), "What do two giant land deals mean for the future of Southeast Asia's forests?" and "Natural forest regeneration’s critical role in reforestation goals" from November 10, 2021 (episode #131).
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
Episode artwork: Evergreen forest in California via drone, image by Rhett Butler for Mongabay.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.
Mongabay Reports: Mt. Pinatubo's 'eruption-proof' mouse
20 years after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 that leveled natural old-growth forests, scientists have discovered one endemic mouse has become the dominant rodent species. First discovered in 1956, it wasn't seen again until 2011 when scientists returned to Pinatubo to survey the area.
While endemic tropical island species are typically seen as the most vulnerable, Apomys sacobianus bucks the trend. A study published in the Philippine Journal of Science calls the species a "disturbance specialist," noting its resilience to the cataclysmic event.
Experts speculate that as the forests around Pinatubo continue to develop and recover, other species requiring more forest cover may move in, dethroning the mouse. However, it's still very possible for ap. sacobianus to continue living in conditions with low leveles of disturbance.
This episode features the popular article, "On a Philippine volcano, an eruption proof mouse rules the roost," by Leilani Chavez
https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/on-a-philippine-volcano-an-eruption-proof-mouse-rules-the-roost/
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy this series, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Photo Credit: Mount Pinatubo erupting via Wikipedia.
Who will lead the conservation movement now?
Both E.O. Wilson and Tom Lovejoy were major figures in the conservation field and passed away in late 2021 -- both also appeared on this show, so we play some clips of those conversations and talk with two guests about their legacies, but also where to look for new conservation leadership. Do we need new figures like them, or is this conservation's post-icon era? What about the great diversity of new scientists coming up via programs like STEM, and whole communities like Indigenous ones who have their own scientists, plus rich traditional ecological knowledge (TEK)? We discuss this with two guests: Rebecca McCaffery, who is Society of Conservation Biology's president for North America, and Mongabay staff writer Liz Kimbrough, who interviewed E.O. Wilson just 2 months before his passing.
Both of these women hold conservation science PhDs and share expansive views on what's next for leadership in the field.
Update 2/2022: In late January, correspondence found among the late E.O. Wilson’s papers connected him with J. Phillipe Rushton, whose research in the 1980s and 1990s has been linked with white supremacy. The E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation has now issued a statement.
Related listening from the Newscast:
- Tom Lovejoy on episode #51: The ‘Godfather of Biodiversity’ on why it’s time to manage Earth as a system
- Wilson on episode #56: E.O. Wilson discusses Half-Earth and conservation solutions
And here's Liz Kimbrough's late 2021 print interview of E.O. Wilson & friends for Mongabay.com:
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
Episode artwork: A moray eel in the Daymaniyat Islands, Oman. Image by Warren Baverstock / Ocean Image Bank.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.
Mongabay Explores New Guinea: Protecting unparalleled biodiversity
New Guinea is one of the most most biodiverse regions on the planet and also the world's largest tropical island. It makes up less than 0.5% of the world’s landmass, but is estimated to contain as much as 10% of global biodiversity.
To unpack the vast biodiversity of New Guinea, conservation policy, and NGO efforts to protect land, culture and Indigenous rights, we spoke with Rodrigo Cámara-Leret, of the Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies at the University of Zurich, Charlie Danny Heatubun, head of the research and development agency of the provincial government of West Papua, and Miriam Supuma of Synchronicity Earth.
In this third season of the podcast, we take a look at what makes New Guinea unlike any other place in this world, the contributing environmental impacts that threaten its culture and biodiversity, and what is being done to protect it.
Listen to the previous 2 seasons of Mongabay Explores via the podcast provider of your choice or find them at our podcast homepage here.
Episode artwork: (Casuarius unappendiculatus) is one of the majestic birds that New Guinea is famous for. Image by Rhett Butler for Mongabay.
Sounds heard during the intro and outro include the following: rusty mouse-warbler, growling riflebird, raggiana/lesser bird-of-paradise, superb fruit-dove, long-billed honeyeater, little shrike-thrush, brown cuckoo-dove, black-capped lory. Special thanks to Tim Boucher and Bruce Beehler for identifying them.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to Mongabay Explores wherever they get podcasts. If you enjoy our podcast content, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok by searching for @mongabay.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
In search of wild spectacles and river journeys with Janisse Ray and Jordan Salama
It’s a perfect time to pick up a great book, and this episode's got recommendations for you!
We welcome to the show Janisse Ray, award-winning author of "Wild Spectacle: Seeking Wonders in a World Beyond Humans," detailing her search for “heart-pounding flashes of wild spectacle.” Ray shares stories of the places she's traveled and explains why she did all that travel without getting on a plane.
We also welcome Jordan Salama, whose new book is called "Every Day the River Changes: Four Weeks Down the Magdalena." He discusses 4 weeks spent traveling down Colombia's Magdalena River, which Colombians speak of with “an almost religious fervor,” and what he hopes people can take away from his book.
These two share some great adventures but also counsel seeking such enlightening journeys close to home, as well!
Further reading from the episode:
- “Rewilding news” on Mongabay
- FARC peace deal in Colombia sparked war on forests, report says
- In Colombia, end of war meant start of runaway deforestation, study finds
Salama wrote a fascinating 2019 story for Mongabay about community activism for rivers in southern Europe,
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.
What do two giant land deals mean for the future of Southeast Asia's forests?
We discuss two big stories from Southeast Asia that Mongabay's been covering which highlight the importance of land rights and also Free, Prior, and Informed Consent for Indigenous and local communities.
Cynthia Ong is our first guest, she's founder of LEAP, an NGO based in the state of Sabah in Malaysian Borneo, who shares the fallout from a story broken by Mongabay about a giant carbon deal signed by government officials in Sabah -- covering more than 2 million hectares of the state’s forests for at least the next 100 years -- without consulting local communities.
Our second guest is Gerry Flynn, a Mongabay contributor based in Cambodia who has been covering a recent government decree that made 127,000 hectares of protected areas available for sale or rent.
Flynn discusses why there are fears that it will amount to a land grab by powerful interests.
Further reading about the Sabah deal:
- Is colonial history repeating itself with Sabah forest carbon deal? (Ong's commentary)
- Details emerge about Sabah carbon deal
Articles about Cambodia by Flynn:
- The great Koh Kong land rush
- Carving up the Cardamoms: Conservationists fear massive land grab in Cambodia
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
Episode artwork: Stung Proat, Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia. Photo via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.
Mongabay Reports: Why chimp GIFs aren't funny
GIFs (animated images) can be a simple and fun way to communicate via text and are increasingly popular. Yet, while a GIF of an ape wearing overalls may seem cute, the animal pictured is often subjected to abuse in the process.
All species and subspecies of great apes are endangered or critically endangered. Experts say that GIFs depicting these apes in unnatural situations can also perpetuate the myth that they make good pets which fuels international wildlife trade of these endangered animals.
While campaigners have been successful in coercing some stock photo agencies to stop providing images of apes in unnatural situations, many popular GIF sites still don't have policies against these images.
This episode features the popular article, "Think that GIF of the smoking chimp was funny? The chimp wasn't laughing," by Tina Deines:
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy this series, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Photo Credit: Adult female and infant wild chimpanzee feeding on figs in Kibale National Park, Uganda. Image by Alain Houle via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).
Bill McKibben on climate action, grief and 'radical joy' after COP26 climate summit
Still there was some progress so we discuss those here plus proactive ways we can all stay engaged with this debate over the planet's future atmosphere, with two guests.
Bill McKibben is a noted activist, author, and founder of 350.org as well as the newly created Third Act initiative, and shares his response to the failures of COP26, why he was inspired by the activism he saw at the COP, and how he sees climate activism evolving to counter the outsized influence of the industries that rely on burning fossil fuels and clearing the world’s forests for profit.
And Trebbe Johnson, author of Radical Joy for Hard Times: Finding Meaning and Making Beauty In Earth’s Broken Places and founder of an organization with the same name, Radical Joy for Hard Times, tells us about ecological grief, how it can affect people concerned about the future of our planet, and how to deal with that grief and stay committed to working towards a better future for all life on Earth.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
Further reading:
• ”Hope old and new: COP26 focused on two largely unsung climate solutions”
• “‘Standing with your feet in the water’: COP26 struggles to succeed”
• ”Do forest declarations work? How do the Glasgow and New York declarations compare?”
• ”COP26 Glasgow Declaration: Salvation or threat to Earth’s forests?”
• ”$1.7 billion pledged in support of Indigenous and local communities’ land tenure”
Episode artwork via Twitter.
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.
Mongabay Reports: Earth Defenders Toolkit strengthens Indigenous voices
The Earth Defenders Toolkit is a collection of apps that support local autonomy of Indigenous lands, giving communities ownership of critical data and reducing the need for outside support.
The toolkit, which includes mapping apps like 'Mapeo,' keep the needs of Indigenous communities at the forefront, overcoming barriers inherent to technology, like participation and security.
This episode features the popular article, "Sharing solutions: How a digital toolkit is strengthening Indigenous voices," by Caitlin Looby:
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy this series, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Photo Credit: Members of the land patrol from the Kofan community of Sinangoé, Ecuador, test Mapeo Mobile as part of the design process. Image courtesy of Digital Democracy.
Caitlin Looby is the 2021 Sue Palminteri WildTech Reporting Fellow, which honors the memory of Mongabay Wildtech editor Sue Palminteri by providing opportunities for students to gain experience in conservation technology and writing. You can support this program here.
Editor’s note: This story was supported by XPRIZE Rainforest as part of their five-year competition to enhance understanding of the rainforest ecosystem. In respect to Mongabay’s policy on editorial independence, XPRIZE Rainforest does not have any right to assign, review, or edit any content published with their support.
Let it grow: Natural forest regeneration's amazing reforestation power
Initiatives to plant billions and even trillions of trees have been popping up like seedlings after a rainstorm.
These are important in tackling climate change and biodiversity loss, but what about using natural regeneration, where one allows a forest to regrow using its native seedstock, in such efforts?
On this episode we discuss the amazing power of letting forests regrow, and when tree-planting is necessary, plus what we know about the differences between planted and naturally regenerated forests with two guests:
University of California professor Karen Holl describes the conditions that are conducive to natural regeneration of forests and shares inspiring examples ranging from current experiments to historical events like in Costa Rica and the Northeast United States.
And researcher/restoration consultant Robin Chazdon discusses the decision-making process that goes into successful reforestation projects, and whether today’s tree-planting campaigns are likely to be beneficial in the long run.
Related resources:
- ”Is planting trees as good for the Earth as everyone says?”
- ”Beyond tree planting: When to let forests restore themselves”
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.
Mongabay Reports: Lost chameleon reappears
The rare Champman's pygmy chameleon has been missing in the wild for over two decades. First described in 1992, it was finally seen in a dwindling patch of rainforest in the Malawi Hills in 2016. Researchers say there are likely more. However, they are unable to travel the long distances between the shrinking patches of their forest home. Scientists' findings of the rare chameleon call for conservation of the chameleon's habitat, which has seen an 80% deforestation rate over the past 40 years.
This episode features the popular article, "Rare pygmy chameleon, lost to science, found in dwindling Malawi forest," by Liz Kimbrough:
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy this series, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Photo Credit: Chapman’s pygmy chameleon by Krystal Tolley
Liz Kimbrough is a staff writer for Mongabay. Find her on Twitter: @lizkimbrough_
Indigenous bioacoustics: listening to the land for conservation and tradition
We speak with two Indigenous leaders and scientists on this episode -- Stephanie Thorassie of the Seal River Watershed Alliance in Manitoba, and Angela Waupochick, a researcher of forested wetlands for Menominee Tribal Enterprises in Wisconsin -- about their projects and how bioacoustics techniques are aiding them.
We hear sound clips of bears and birds shared by Waupochick and also Jeff Wells of the National Audubon Society, which partners with the Seal River Watershed Alliance to study the region’s importance to wildlife toward establishing a new, 12-million-acre Indigenous Protected Area.
Further reading:
• ”Indigenous-managed lands found to harbor more biodiversity than protected areas”
• Canada working towards new future for Indigenous-led conservation (Indigenous Protected Areas)
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Episode artwork: Polar bears at the mouth of the Seal River. Photo by Jordan Melograna of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative. Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.Mongabay Reports: New species of North America's rare spotted skunks discovered
Researchers analyzed spotted skunk DNA and found that rather than the four skunk species previously recognized by science, there are actually seven.
Referred to as the “acrobats of the skunk world” these small carnivores use impressive handstands to warn predators that a noxious spray is coming their way.
The plains spotted skunk (included among them) is in significant decline, but figuring out the different species lineages may inform and aid conservation efforts.
This episode features the popular article, "In search of the 'forest ghost,' South America's cryptic giant armadillo," by Liz Kimbrough:
https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/pepe-le-new-meet-the-acrobatic-spotted-skunks-of-north-america/
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy this series, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
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Photo Credit: Western spotted skunk (Spilogale gracilis). Image by Robby Heischman courtesy of the Field Museum.
Liz Kimbrough is a staff writer for Mongabay. Find her on Twitter: @lizkimbrough_
Extracted, exported and forgotten: the global race for resources and the DRC
The world economy demands clean energy and cheap commodities and these are being extracted at a furious rate in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
So the DRC is benefiting from all this activity, right?
Though extremely rich in natural resources, thanks to political instability plus a centuries-long legacy of commercial and colonial resource extraction, the value mainly accrues to the country's east and west, where corporations and governments benefit the most.
Joining the show to discuss are Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute, who describes how Western investors like university pension funds and corporations profit from oil palm plantations where human rights violations and environmental abuses are common.
Then Christian-Geraud Neema Byamungu, a Congolese researcher who focuses on natural resource governance, tells us about how the growing demand for cobalt to make electric-car batteries has led to increased mining, the Chinese companies that dominate the DRC's mines, and why the contracts between those companies and the DRC are being called into question.
Further reading:
• ”As energy needs drive demand for minerals, forests face greater threats” • ”Pension and endowment funds linked to conflict-plagued oil palm in DRC”
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Episode artwork: palm oil production in Yalifombo village © Oskar Epelde via Oakland Institute. Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.Mongabay Reports: In search of the ‘forest ghost,’ South America’s giant armadillo
Since 2010, the Giant Armadillo Project has been researching the world’s largest armadillo, an animal that despite its size and range across almost every country in South America, is one of the world’s least recognized animals.
These researchers have made key findings, like the fact that their burrows, which can be up to 5 meters long, serve as shelter for at least 70 other species, including birds, reptiles and mammals.
The species is categorized as vulnerable to extinction, especially due to the advance of agribusiness.
This episode features the popular article, "In search of the 'forest ghost,' South America's cryptic giant armadillo," by Suzana Camargo:
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy this series, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Photo Credit: Peering inside a giant armadillo burrow, image courtesy of the Giant Armadillo Project.
The key role of Indigenous rights for the future of biodiversity conservation
Two top guests join this episode to discuss the importance of Indigenous rights to the future of biodiversity conservation and efforts to build a more sustainable future for life on Earth.
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz is the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and is the current executive director of the Tebtebba Indigenous Peoples’ International Centre for Policy Research and Education, based in Manila.
Tauli-Corpuz who is a member of the Kankana-ey-Igorot people of the Philippines describes the Global Indigenous Agenda released at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, why it calls for Indigenous rights to be central to conservation efforts, and what she hopes to see achieved at the UN Biodiversity Conference taking place in Kunming, China next year.
We also speak with Zack Romo, program director for the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) who was in Marseilles for the Congress and helped pass the motion to protect 80% of the Amazon by 2025. The rights-based approach that Amazon protection plan calls for, and what the next steps are to making the plan a reality, are discussed.
Here’s further reading and listening:
• ”‘The tipping point is here, it is now,’ top Amazon scientists warn”
• ”As COP15 approaches, ’30 by 30’ becomes a conservation battleground”
• ”‘Join us for the Amazon,’ Indigenous leaders tell IUCN in push for protection”
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Episode artwork: Participants at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in 2021, image via IISD. Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.Mongabay Reports: As Gabon gets paid to conserve its forests, will others follow?
Gabon recently received the first $17 million of a pledged $150 million from Norway for results-based emission reduction payments as part of the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI).
Gabon has 88% forest cover and has limited annual deforestation to less than 0.1% over the last 30 years, in large part possible due to oil revenues supporting the economy.
With oil reserves running low, Gabon is looking to diversify and develop its economy without sacrificing its forests by building a sustainable forest economy supported by schemes such as CAFI.
Will other countries follow suit?
This episode features the popular article, "Gabon becomes first African country to get paid for protecting its forests."
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy this series, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Photo Credit Elephants in Longue Bai, Gabon, by Jefe Le Gran via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jefelegran/857116478
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
Are tuna recovering well, like reports say? It's complicated.
We look at some of the biggest news from the recent IUCN World Conservation Congress, like the upgraded conservation status of 4 tuna species, including Atlantic bluefin.
Is it really OK to eat such tuna now, as some media outlets reported? Are bluefin no longer endangered, but a species of 'least concern?' Well, it's complicated.
Mongabay staff writer Elizabeth Claire Alberts was at the event and discusses important news and motions that passed, like Indigenous peoples' role in conservation and a resounding rebuke of deep sea mining, for instance.
Then, Pew Charitable Trusts’ senior officer for international fisheries Grantly Galland discusses the reassessments of tuna extinction risks released by the IUCN during the event, and he shares why species-level assessments don’t tell us the whole story about tuna populations.
Articles and podcast eps mentioned during the show:
• ”‘Global Indigenous Agenda’ for land rights, conservation launched at IUCN congress” by Ashoka Mukpo
• ”Podcast: Two tunas and a tale of managed extinction” (episode 118 of the Mongabay Newscast)
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Episode artwork: Atlantic bluefin tuna. Photo by Richard Herrmann/Pew. Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.Mongabay Reports: Can climate-friendly agroforestry transform farming in the U.S. Midwest?
Monocultures of corn and soybeans carpet 75% of the U.S. Midwest, leading to soil erosion, water pollution, and massive greenhouse gas emissions.
However, a new wave of farmers is breaking the monocrop monotony by growing these annuals between long rows of perennial shrubs like American hazelnuts, which keep soils intact while harboring beneficial bugs and sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere.
Hazelnuts are a huge market internationally and have big potential in the U.S. either as a snack or an oilseed, since the fatty acid profile is very similar to olive oil.
Listen to an April 2021 report published at Mongabay.com about this news via this episode of Mongabay Reports, which shares evergreen articles from Mongabay.com, read by host Mike DiGirolamo.
This episode features the popular article, "Nuts about agroforestry in the U.S. Midwest: Can hazelnuts transform farming?"
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
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Episode artwork: Hazelnuts. Photo by George Hodan, CC0 Public Domain
Please share your thoughts! submissions@mongabay.com
What makes conservation projects succeed, or not?
The scientific evidence for what kinds of nature conservation programs actually work is always changing, and the use of such evidence should be standard practice when creating new programs, our two guests on this episode argue.
Hiromi Yamashita & Andrew Bladon with the Conservation Evidence Group join us to discuss their massive new “What Works In Conservation 2021” report, which evaluates scientific evidence for the success of conservation initiatives.
Yamashita shares her work on how traditional and local knowledge benefit conservation initiatives--especially around coastal conservation projects--while Bladon provides a broad overview and details about the newest sections added to their latest report, like the evidence for mammal conservation project successes or failures:
Also discussed is Mongabay’s Conservation Effectiveness series, which looks at the scientific evidence for a number of strategies, from forest certification to marine protected areas and payments for ecosystem services:
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Episode artwork: NGO staffers are deeply involved in programs aimed at species conservation. Photo by Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay. Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.Mongabay Reports: ‘Extinction denial’ is the latest anti-science conspiracy theory
There’s a growing refusal by some to acknowledge the ongoing global extinction crisis being driven by human actions, conservation scientists say.
These views are pushed by many of the same people who also downplay the impacts of climate change, and go against the actual evidence of widespread species population declines and recent extinctions.
Listen to a September 2020 report published at Mongabay.com about this news via this episode of Mongabay Reports, which shares evergreen articles from Mongabay.com, read by host Mike DiGirolamo.
This episode features the popular article, "Biologists warn 'exctinction denial' is the latest anti-science conspiracy theory."
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Episode artwork: The golden lion tamarin is an endangered species native to Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. Photo via Toronto Zoo. Please share your thoughts! submissions@mongabay.comWhat can seashells tell us about the oceans' health?
Environmental journalist Cynthia Barnett joins this episode to discuss her fascinating new book, "The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans," about the many ways humans have prized seashells for millennia, using them as money, jewelry, and art, plus how seashells help us examine the challenges marine environments are facing today.
We’re also joined by Mongabay's Philippines-based staff writer Leilani Chavez, who describes the incredible marine biodiversity found in the Philippines' waters (among the best in the world) and why there’s a movement to expand conservation efforts beyond the extensive coral reef systems.
View Leilani's recent report about Philippines’ MPAs and links to related coverage, here:
• With growing pressures, can the Philippines sustain its marine reserves?”
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
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Episode artwork: A selection of gastropods via Wikimedia Commons. Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.Optimism for elephants fuels effective Indigenous conservation effort
Top conservation photographer Ami Vitale rejoins the show to discuss the work of an Indigenous-owned elephant sanctuary in Kenya, where she has shot a wonderful, new, heart-melting film called Shaba. We discuss the Samburu people's inspiring and 'stubborn optimism' for the species, what they are acheiving at Reteti Sanctuary, and new things they're learning about this intriguing, super intelligent, and endangered species.
Then, for this World Elephant Day special, we speak with Duke University researcher John Poulsen about forest elephants of Central/West Africa: why this species is special, how they're key to the health of its rainforest home, and what his research team is learning about their conservation.
Want more? Listen to episode 85 (January 2020) to hear Ami discuss how meeting and photographing the last northern white rhino changed her life, and episode 95 (May 2020) features amazing recordings of forest elephant communication, shared by Elephant Listening Project researcher Ana Verahrami. This episode is our most popular one to date, download-wise.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
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Episode artwork: Orphaned savanna elephant calves recuperate at Reteti Sanctuary before their eventual release, photo courtesy of Ami Vitale. Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.Mongabay Reports: Two new Javan rhino calves spotted in the species’ last holdout
Indonesia recently announced exciting news, the sighting of two Javan rhino calves in Ujung Kulon National Park, the last place on Earth where the critically endangered species is found.
The new additions bring the estimated population of the species to 73; conservationists have recorded at least one new calf a year joining the population since 2012.
Listen to a June 2021 report published at Mongabay.com about this news via this episode of Mongabay Reports, which shares evergreen articles from Mongabay.com, read by host Mike DiGirolamo.
This episode features the popular article, "Two new Javan rhino calves spotted in the species’ last holdout."
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
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Episode artwork: A Javan rhino calf spotted on camera trap in Ujung Kulon National Park on March 27, 2021. Image courtesy of the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry. Please share your thoughts! submissions@mongabay.comReforestation done right, from Haiti to Honduras and Ho Chi Minh City
Often called a panacea, 'tree planting' is a hot topic but it can fail when too little thought goes into it, so the guests on this episode reframe the practice, saying that 'tree growing' ought to be the focus of reforestation programs.
'Right tree, right place, right community” is the approach taken by Trees for Climate Health that guest Erin Axelrod directs, whose approach ensures that the dozens of projects it is implementing currently (and its overall goal to grow over 10 million trees by 2025) are appropriate to the areas, likely to succeed and survive, and benefit local communities.
We also speak with freelance environmental journalist Mike Tatarski who recently filed a story about Vietnam’s plan to plant a billion trees by 2025. Tatarski tells us about the impetus and goals of this nationwide effort, Vietnam’s long history of supporting tree planting, and more.
Articles discussed:
• ”How to pick a tree-planting project? Mongabay launches transparency tool to help supporters decide”
• ”‘Drastic forest development’: Vietnam to plant 1 billion trees — but how?”
Look for episode 119 of the Mongabay Newscast to hear our discussion of reforestation trends and issues with Mongabay staff writer Dr. Liz Kimbrough, who helped develop the new Reforestation Directory and app that rates such projects: Reforestation.app.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
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Episode artwork: Girls from Pine Ridge Indian Reservation planting ponderosa pines in South Dakota, image courtesy of Trees, Water, and People. Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.Reconnecting kids and ourselves to the planet with author Richard Louv
During the past year's pandemic and lockdowns, spending time outdoors has been soothing for many--whether found outside our homes, in parks, or via nature documentaries--and in some ways it was a meaningful reset.
Both human health and conservation benefit when we spend time in nature, so today we're discussing reconnection for kids and adults: what we know about its beneficial effects, how a movement to connect with nature is growing globally, and what this means for conservation.
Our first guest is author Richard Louv, who coined the phrase ‘nature deficit disorder’ and wrote the 2005 book that introduced the concept, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder, in order to facilitate discussion of the human cost of alienation from the natural world. Louv discusses the international movement kicked off by the book, what the latest research says about the connection between nature deficit disorder and a variety of physical and mental ailments, and how the pandemic shifted the public's views on nature.
We also welcome to the show educator Megan Strauss, co-editor of Mongabay Kids, which provides kids, families, and educators with content that helps raise awareness of environmental issues and fosters an appreciation of plants, wildlife, and wild places. She shares the philosophy behind the site and the great variety of activities available there, plus her point of view on nature connection from her home region of Australia.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Episode artwork: Boy and butterfly by Ryan Hagerty via the Creative Commons. Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.Mongabay Reports: Camera traps in trees reveal a richness of species in Rwandan park
Wildlife researchers often use motion-sensing cameras, also known as camera traps, to study animals in the wild. However, these are usually positioned at ground level, leaving a diverse world of animals unexamined: those that dwell in the trees above.
Camera traps set in trees in Rwanda’s Nyungwe National Park captured 35 different mammal species over a 30-day period, including a rare Central African oyan, a small catlike mammal that had not previously been documented there.
Mongabay Reports is a new series that shares evergreen articles like this from Mongabay.com, read by host Mike DiGirolamo. This episode features the popular article, "Camera traps in trees reveal a richness of species in Rwandan park."
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
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Episode artwork: A L’hoest’s monkey photographed in the park, which is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Photo courtesy of WCS Rwanda. Please share your thoughts! submissions@mongabay.comWith billion dollar boost, bioacoustics is set to soar
“This is an incredibly exciting time to be part of the field of bioacoustics,” our guest on this episode says, and she's right: if you care about wildlife conservation, or really like technology and interesting solutions to big challenges, this episode is for you.
Laurel Symes is assistant director of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's bioacoustics lab, which was founded in the 1980s to study whale songs and elephant rumbles, and it just received a massive $24 million gift and changed its name to the K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics.
The Cornell program is therefore about to expand this field in many ways, from technology development to implementation, so we discuss their plans and the implications with this repeat guest, who previously joined the show to discuss her own fascinating work on the soundscapes of rainforests (episode 86).
Many bioacoustics researchers like her have been featured by this show, so after discussing Laurel's exciting news, we feature some of our most popular acoustic ecology segments: get ready for an absorbing crash course on what people are learning about animal behavior and ecosystem health with these increasingly affordable and ubiquitous listening devices!
If you want to hear any of the episodes featured in full, look up the episode numbers listed here in your podcast app of choice, or click its link to hear it via the Mongabay website:
- Elephant Listening Project, episode 95
- Indri lemur choruses, episode 107
- Gibbon songs, episode 82
- Humpback whales sharing songs, episode 77
- Right whales discovered singing for the 1st time, episode 72
- Rainforest frogs, episode 54
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Episode artwork: Topher White of Rainforest Connection installing a bioacoustics device in the forest canopy. Image by Ben Von Wong. Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.Can Biden's 30x30 plan put the U.S. back on a positive conservation track?
The U.S. has been M.I.A. on many environmental issues for the last few years, but the new Biden Administration has been announcing positive policies regularly.
Among the most important is the “America The Beautiful” plan, laying out a vision for conserving 30% of its lands and waters by 2030, making it the latest country to release what’s called a 30×30 plan.
But is it enough? Despite a lack of specifics, many are celebrating renewed American leadership on this front, which can encourage other countries to get aboard the 30x30 bandwagon, in addition to other green policy objectives.
Joining us to discuss is Joe Walston, executive vice president of global conservation for the Wildlife Conservation Society--we talk about how the plan has been received, the most important details of the plan needing to be fleshed out, the important role of Indigenous people and farmers it advocates for, and why the U.S. joining the 30×30 movement could have sweeping global impacts.
Other conservation initiatives are also afoot that aim to make profound changes in the way Americans live on the planet. One is through agricultural solutions to the climate crisis, so we're also joined by science writer Sarah Derouin, who recently covered agroforestry programs in the U.S Midwest and Pennsylvania for Mongabay.
Derouin shares the goals and accomplishments of these programs, the vision of trees becoming integral to farming even in areas dominated by monocultures, and how agroforestry can factor into the U.S. meeting the 30×30 targets.
Articles discussed during this episode:
- Biden lays out vision for protecting 30% of US land, waters by 2030
- Nuts about agroforestry in the U.S. Midwest: Can hazelnuts transform farming?
- In Pennsylvania, agroforestry holds a key to cleaning up waterways and Chesapeake Bay
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Episode artwork: The Grand Tetons in Wyoming. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay. Please share your thoughts! submissions@mongabay.comMongabay Reports: How many trees are on the Earth?
When it comes to the world’s forests, two commonly asked questions are “How many trees are on Earth?” and “How many are cut down each year?” A study in the journal Nature proposed answers: 3 trillion and 15.3 billion.
Mongabay Reports is a new series that shares evergreen articles like this from Mongabay.com, read by host Mike DiGirolamo. This episode features one of our most read stories of the last several years: "How many trees are cut down every year?" Though it was published in late 2015, the information is quite relevant today.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!
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Episode artwork: Redwood trees in California, photo by Rhett A. Butler. Please share your thoughts! submissions@mongabay.comReforestation vs deforestation: Forest losses and gains this past year
On this episode we discuss how newly released data shows deforestation rose in 2020, even while tree planting initiatives took root all around the planet.
Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Butler joins us to discuss the 2020 deforestation data, how that fits into broader trends affecting the world’s forests, and what good news there is to take from last year’s deforestation numbers.
We also welcome Mongabay staff writer Dr. Liz Kimbrough to the program to discuss our new database of hundreds of reforestation projects from around the world she helped assemble that aims to help donors find the most effective tree-planting initiatives to support.
Find this new Reforestation Directory and app to learn about tree planting projects you might want to study or support at Reforestation.app.
Articles discussed in this episode:
• “Global forest loss increased in 2020” (31 March 2021) • “A Madagascar-sized area of forest has regrown since 2000” (12 May 2021) • “Is planting trees as good for the Earth as everyone says?” (13 May 2021) • “How settlers, scientists, and a women-led industry saved Brazil’s rarest primate” (14 May 2021) • “How to pick a tree-planting project? Mongabay launches transparency tool to help supporters decide” (17 May 2021)
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Episode artwork: A man carries trees during a reforestation project in Tanzania. Image courtesy of One Tree Planted. Please share your thoughts! submissions@mongabay.comTwo tunas and a tale of managed extinction
Are international groups that manage declining tuna populations doing too good a job? Two guests on our show this week illustrate how these managers aren't aiming for sustainability, but rather enable maximum extraction of the 'tuna resource' that graces peoples' dinner plates.
Author Jennifer Telesca calls the Atlantic bluefin tuna program one of 'managed extinction' while Mongabay staff writer Malavika Vayawahare discusses how the European Union controls the Indian Ocean yellowfin tuna fishery to such a degree that developing nations like the Seychelles that actually border those waters enjoy too little benefit from the fish's formerly extensive population.
Telesca's book "Red Gold: The Managed Extinction of the Giant Bluefin Tuna" was published in 2020 and Vayawahare's two April articles for Mongabay elicited strong support from the nation of The Seychelles and a stern riposte from the EU:
- Red flag: Predatory European ships help push Indian Ocean tuna to the brink
- European tuna boats dump fishing debris in Seychelles waters ‘with impunity’
Are the allegations of a “neo-colonial” plunder of developing nations' resources accurate? Should a small number of highly profitable industrial fishing companies be allowed to hunt iconic wildlife like bluefin tuna to extinction?
Listen and let us know your thoughts, submissions@mongabay.com
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps!
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Episode artwork: Atlantic bluefin tuna, courtesy of NOAAAs humanity exceeds key 'planetary boundaries' many solutions are on the horizon, too
Climate change & loss of biological diversity are just two of the 9 planetary boundaries scientists say humanity is currently pushing the limits of.
How long can we sustain society if we keep pushing these limits?
We explore this question -- and some leading solutions -- with two guests: Dr. Claire Asher is a freelance science communicator and author who joins us to discuss a recent article she wrote for Mongabay that describes the boundaries, the 4 we are already exceeding, and the opportunities we’ll have in 2021 to transform the way we live on this planet and restore equilibrium to Earth’s vital ecological systems, from sustainable design and agriculture to key international meetings.
"We don't have to give up the nice things to have a planet that is habitable, but we have to start to invest now," Asher says.
Then Andrew Willner discusses his recent Mongabay article “New Age of Sail” that would transform the global shipping industry, a major source of CO2 emissions that are shifting the climate. Willner shares how cutting edge technologies are deployed on ships right now to decrease their fuel consumption, including a number of modern types of sails that are once again harnessing the wind to power the ships moving our goods around the world.
Related reading:
- Claire Asher: The nine boundaries humanity must respect to keep the planet habitable
- Andrew Willner: New age of sail looks to slash massive maritime carbon emissions
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps!
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
New investigation in the Amazon documents impact of palm oil plantations on Indigenous communities
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, please visit the link above for details.
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Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Mongabay Explores Sumatra: Solutions and optimism that drive conservation
'I'm amazed how resilient, adaptable and optimistic the people of Sumatra are,' conservationist and HAkA Sumatra founder Farwiza Farhan says in the first moments of this episode about the women and communities she works with during the final episode of Mongabay's special series on Sumatra.
The giant Indonesian island of course faces many environmental challenges, but there is also tremendous hope and good progress thanks to the work of people like her and educator Pungky Nanda Pratama, who also joins the show to describe how his Jungle Library Project & Sumatra Camera Trap Project are opening the eyes of the next generation to the need for protecting their fabulous natural heritage.
Host Mike DiGirolamo shares the effectiveness of their efforts, what they are hopeful for, their biggest challenges, and the role of grassroots organizing in protecting and revitalizing the land, wildlife, and people of Sumatra.
More about these guests' work:
- Farwiza Farhan: Women's Earth Alliance mentor & board member
- How one conservationist is sparking a ‘young revolution’ in Indonesia
- Saving Sumatran orchids from deforestation, one plant at a time
Listen to the previous 9 episodes of Mongabay Explores Sumatra via the podcast provider of your choice or find them at our podcast homepage here.
Episode artwork: Pungky with the biggest flower on Earth, Rafflesia arnoldii. Photo by Alek Sander.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store and in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, please visit the link above for details.
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Can agroecology feed the world?
Agroecology is a style of sustainable farming spreading quickly around the globe, transforming the way food is grown.
Industrial agriculture requires chemicals like fertilizers and pesticides that harm natural systems and people alike, but by working with (and even enhancing) ecosystems, agroecology provides an alternative that encompasses many familiar practices--from composting to organic gardening and seed saving--and many less widely implemented ones, like agroforestry, while bringing modern technology like mobile apps and SMS to bear.
And studies show that it can indeed feed the world's people: food systems expert and author Anna Lappé joins the show to discuss why the idea that it's a “low yield” practice is a myth and how the adoption of agroecological practices around the globe is key to a sustainable future.
And behavioral scientist Philippe Bujold of Rare Conservation’s Center for Behavior & the Environment discusses his organization’s program that employs behavioral science to encourage farmers in Colombia to adopt agroecology in the face of changing climate conditions, like drought and heat, which are causing traditional growing methods to fail.
Episode artwork: Vegetable farmer watering plants at an organic farm in Boung Phao Village, Lao PDR, via Flickr.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, please visit the link above for details.
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Mongabay Explores Sumatra: Restoration for peat's sake
Once drained for palm oil or other agricultural uses, Indonesia's peatlands become very fire prone, putting people and rich flora and fauna--from orchids to orangutans--at risk.
Over a million hectares of carbon-rich peatlands burned in Indonesia in 2019, creating a public health crisis not seen since 2015 when the nation's peatland restoration agency was formed to address the issue.
To understand what is being done to restore peatlands, we speak with the Deputy Head of the National Peatland Restoration Agency, Budi Wardhana, and with Dyah Puspitaloka, a researcher on the value chain, finance and investment team at CIFOR, the Center for International Forestry Research.
Restoration through agroforestry that benefits both people and planet is one positive avenue forward, which Dyah discusses in her remarks.
For more on this topic, see the recent report at Mongabay, "Indonesia renews peat restoration bid to include mangroves, but hurdles abound."
Episode artwork: Haze from fires in a peatland logging concession pollutes the air in Jambi Province, Indonesia. Image courtesy of Greenpeace Media Library.
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Rewilding, restoration, and real hope for the future
Landscape rewilding and ecosystem restoration are likely our last/best chances to maintain life on Earth as we know it, the guests on this week's show argue.
The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration just began, so we invited author Judith Schwartz to discuss her new book The Reindeer Chronicles and Other Inspiring Stories of Working with Nature to Heal the Earth, which documents numerous restoration projects around the globe and highlights how the global ecological restoration movement is challenging us to reconsider the way we live on the planet.
We’re also joined by Tero Mustonen, president of the Finnish NGO Snowchange Cooperative, who tells us about the group’s Landscape Rewilding Programme which is restoring & rewilding Arctic and Boreal habitats using Indigenous knowledge and science.
He previously joined us to discuss the 'dialogue' between Indigenous knowledge and western science for a popular episode in 2018, a theme we also explored with David Suzuki for another popular show about how Indigenous knowledge is critical for human survival.
Episode artwork: Reindeer calf at Lake Inari in northern Finland © Markus Mauthe / Greenpeace.
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Mongabay Explores Sumatra: where are the rhinos?
The Sumatran rhino is a ridiculously cute but cryptic species that teeters on the brink: with an estimated 80 individuals left in the wilds of its super dense rainforest home, experts are also divided on *where* they are. With conflicting and sometimes misleading data on their whereabouts, it is exceedingly difficult to track them down, and to therefore protect them.
To discuss this 'rhino search and rescue' as she calls it, host Mike DiGirolamo contacted repeat guest Wulan Pusparini, who studied them as a species conservation specialist with the Wildlife Conservation Society before pursuing her Ph.D. in Environmental Conservation at Oxford University.
Articles discussed in this episode:
- Rarely seen Sumatran rhinos are now even more elusive as threats close in
- Signs, but no sightings: The phantom rhinos of Sumatra’s Bukit Barisan Selatan
Episode artwork: Rosa is the wild-born female Sumatran rhino noted by Wulan during the interview who now lives at the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary in Way Kambas National Park. Image courtesy of Terri Roth/Cincinnati Zoo.
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Biomass and hydropower: climate solutions or delusions?
Two technologies being promoted as climate solutions, biomass and hydropower, actually have big environmental consequences and might not be sustainable at all. Can we burn and dam our way out of the climate crisis?
We speak with Justin Catonoso, a Wake Forest University journalism professor and Mongabay reporter, who describes the loopholes in renewable energy policies that have allowed the biomass industry to flourish under the guise of carbon neutrality, even though the burning of trees for energy has been shown to release more carbon emissions than burning coal.
We also talk to Ana Colovic Lesoska, a biologist who was instrumental in shutting down two large hydropower projects in her Balkan country’s Mavrovo National Park. This recent Goldman Environmental Prize winner says there is a tidal wave of 3,000+ other hydropower projects still proposed for the region, and discusses whether hydropower can be a climate solution at all, at any scale.
Articles mentioned in this episode:
- Will new US EPA head continue his opposition to burning forests for energy?
- EU renewable energy policy subsidizes surge in logging of Estonia’s protected areas
- In the Balkans, grassroots opposition stalls another hydropower project
Read all of Mongabay's coverage of biomass here and hydropower here.
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Mongabay Explores Sumatra: Omens and optimism for orangutans
The Sumatran orangutan is a lowland species that has adapted to life among this Indonesian island’s highlands, as it has lost favored habitat to an array of forces like deforestation, road projects, plus the trafficking of young ones to be sold as pets, so this great ape is increasingly in trouble.
On this episode, Mongabay speaks with the founding director of Orangutan Information Centre in North Sumatra, Panut Hadisiswoyo, about these challenges plus some hopeful signs.
His center is successfully involving local communities in this work: over 2,400 hectares of rainforest have been replanted by local women since 2008, creating key habitat for the orangutans, which also provides the villagers with useful agroforestry crops, for instance.
Related reading from this episode:
- Deforestation spurred by road project creeps closer to Sumatra wildlife haven
- Call for prosecution of Indonesian politician who kept baby orangutan as pet
- ‘We are losing’: Q&A with The Orangutan Project’s Leif Cocks on saving the great ape
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Agroforestry: the most climate-friendly and biodiversity-positive agriculture technique is growing
Ever drink 'shade grown' coffee or eat 'bird friendly' chocolate? Then you've enjoyed the fruits of agroforestry, an ancient agricultural technique practiced on a huge scale across the world which also sequesters a staggering amount of carbon from the atmosphere.
Agroforestry is poised for growth as the world searches for solutions to the climate crisis, and this one is special because it also produces grains/fruits/vegetables/livestock, builds soil and water tables, and is highly biodiversity-positive.
Today we discuss its power and promise with three guests: Mongabay's agroforestry series editor Erik Hoffner; the director the Center for Agroforestry at the University of Missouri, Sarah Lovell, who discusses agroforestry’s history and extent in the United States, plus what the Biden Administration might do with it; and a true icon in the field, Roger Leakey, an author, researcher, and vice president of the International Tree Foundation. Leakey explains how helps build food security, boosts biodiversity, and reduces conditions that lead to deforestation and migration.
Mongabay’s entire series on agroforestry can be viewed here, but here are some features discussed on the show:
- “Investors say agroforestry isn’t just climate friendly — it’s also profitable”
- “An ancient ‘indigenous technology’ with wide modern appeal”
- “Trees are much more than the lungs of the world”
- “Agroforestry: An increasingly popular solution for a hot, hungry world”
Episode artwork: chocolate thrives under a mix of fruit and timber trees, image via World Agroforestry.
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Mongabay Explores Sumatra: Elephants and eternity
The Sumatran elephant is a small species of Asian elephant whose numbers are dwindling as their lowland forest habitats are converted to crops like oil palms. Experts say that Indonesia has 10 years to turn this trend around and save them from the eternity of extinction--and that doing so will have many additional benefits for human communities and wildlife.
To explore the issues surrounding the species' conservation, we spoke with 3 guests: Leif Cocks, the founder of the International Elephant Project, Sapariah “Arie” Saturi, Mongabay-Indonesia's Senior Writer who's reported regularly on the issue; and Dr. Wishnu Sukmantoro an elephant expert at Indonesia's Bogor Agricultural University.
Two recent articles Arie reported for Mongabay on the topic:
- As a forest in Sumatra disappears for farms and roads, so do its elephants
- On plantations and in ‘protected’ areas, Sumatran elephants keep turning up dead
Episode artwork courtesy of World Wildlife Fund's Sumatran elephant program.
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What's in store for the world's forests in 2021?
From fires to COVID, 2020 was a *bit* of a rough year for forest conservation efforts. But what’s in store, and hopeful, for 2021?
On this episode, we catch up with Mongabay's founder and CEO Rhett Butler to hear what's on his radar for the year--from the Amazon to Africa and Indonesia--plus for a forest focus on Africa, we ask Joe Eisen, the executive director of the NGO Rainforest Foundation UK, for his take on the past year and the major issues and events likely to impact Africa’s tropical forests over the course of 2021.
Here's Rhett's latest article: Rainforests: 11 things to watch in 2021
Related episodes mentioned during the show:
• “New Latin American treaty could help protect women conservation leaders — and all environment defenders” (28 October 2020)
• “What can we expect from tropical fire season 2020?” (13 May 2020)
• “Reporter Katie Baker details Buzzfeed’s explosive investigation of WWF” (29 October 2019)
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New conservation tech to clean up mining sector
Valuable minerals are regularly dug out of sensitive ecological areas like rainforests, and a growing slice of this mining is of the small, "artisanal," and unregulated kind.
The result is often a moonscape devoid of trees that is difficult to restore. But a new tech interface called Project Inambari, which was recently named a winner of the Artisanal Mining Challenge, aims to change that with technology, so that communities and authorities can better protect their resources. Bjorn Bergman is an analyst for SkyTruth and is one of the project's developers, and he joins the podcast to describe their vision.
Also joining us to discuss the impacts of mining and its mitigation is Dr. Manuela Callari, a Mongabay contributing writer who recently wrote about the tens of thousands of abandoned and shuttered mine sites in Australia and what communities are doing about them.
Episode artwork: satellite view of artisanal mining in rainforests of Madre de Dios, Peru, courtesy of SkyTruth.
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Mongabay Explores Sumatra: Tiger on the highway
The wildlife rich island of Sumatra is experiencing a road building boom, causing some of its iconic creatures to be seen by construction workers: a photo of a Sumatran tiger crossing a highway work-site went viral this summer, for example.
This smallest of all tiger subspecies still needs its space despite its stature: up to 250 square kilometers for each one's territory. A single road cut into their forest habitat encroaches on these key areas, where less than 400 of these critically endangered animals persist.
Road building creates access to impenetrable forests that are home to all kinds of creatures, though, enabling illegal hunting and fragmenting habitats.
To discuss the impact of - and alternatives to - such infrastructure projects as the billion dollar Trans-Sumatran Highway, we reached Hariyo “Beebach” Wibisono, a research fellow at the San Diego Zoo Global & director of SINTAS Indonesia, plus Bill Laurance, a distinguished professor at James Cook University, who is also head of ALERT, the Alliance of Leading Environmental Researchers and Thinkers.
Related reading:
- Tiger on the highway: Sighting in Sumatra causes a stir, but is no surprise
- China’s Belt and Road poised to transform the Earth, but at what cost?
- Batang Toru: Worker feared dead as landslide hits quake-prone dam in orangutan habitat
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Episode artwork: a critically endangered Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sondaica). Image courtesy of the Zoological Society of London.
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Cerrado solutions: Creative conservation for Brazil's massive savanna
On this episode we look at how the largest and most biodiverse tropical savanna on Earth, Brazil's Cerrado, may finally be getting the conservation attention it needs.
We’re joined by Mariana Siqueira, a landscape architect who’s helping to find and propagate the Cerrado’s natural plant life, and who is collaborating with ecologists researching the best way to restore the savanna habitat.
Arnaud Desbiez also joins the show: he's founder and president of a Brazilian wildlife research NGO who describes the Cerrado as an important part of the range for the giant armadillo, an ecosystem engineer which creates habitat for many other species. So conserving their population will have positive effects for the savanna's overall biodiversity, he argues.
Read more about the Giant Armadillo Conservation Project here & view all of our recent coverage of the Cerrado here.
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Episode artwork: A giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus), photo courtesy of Giant Armadillo Conservation Program.
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Mongabay Explores Sumatra: Will the world's newest great ape species face a dammed future?
North Sumatra is home to 1 of only 8 known great ape species in the world, the newly described Tapanuli orangutan, first classified in 2017 after its habits and DNA proved them to be unique. As with many animals in Sumatra, they are amazing creatures that are critically threatened, with a maximum of 800 individuals estimated to be living in an increasingly fragmented habitat.
Now a hydroelectric dam proposed for the center of the animals' tiny territory further challenges this special species' chances of survival, as well as that of 23 other threatened species which also live in the area.
To understand what's interesting about this animal and how the proposed Batang Toru dam would impact it, we speak with a biologist who helped discover its uniqueness, Dr. Puji Rianti of IPB University in Bogor, and Mongabay staff writer Hans Nicholas Jong in Jakarta, who has been covering the controversy over the project, as it's been called into question by activists and funders alike and faces numerous delays.
The saga is definitely not over, and this episode explains why.
- Dam that threatens orangutan habitat faces three-year delay
- Fighting to save an endangered ape, Indonesian activists fear for their lives
- Allegation of forged signature casts shadow over China-backed dam in Sumatra
- Eight species, including Tapanuli orangutan, make first appearance on list of most endangered primates
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Land rights, and wrongs: How Indigenous and local communities are fighting to gain title to their territories
We're taking a look at the importance of securing Indigenous & local communities’ land rights -- and the global push for privatization that can deprive such people access to their territories -- with two guests on this episode.
A 2018 study found that Indigenous Peoples steward about 38 million km2 of land in 87 countries, that's more than a quarter of the world’s land surface, making them the most important conservationists on the planet, you might say. But governments and corporations increasingly want access to these lands, too, so the issue of land rights and titles is heating up.
To discuss the issue and learn how people are gaining title to their lands, we welcome Daisee Francour, a member of the Oneida nation of Wisconsin (U.S.) who is also director of strategic partnerships and communications for the NGO Cultural Survival, plus Anuradha Mittal who's executive director of the Oakland Institute, a think tank that recently released a report titled Driving Dispossession: The Global Push To Unlock The Economic Potential Of Land.
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Episode artwork: In Zambia, a resident displays a map of her village's land. Villagers confirm that individual plots of land are accurately depicted and will be given a certificate conferring rights to farm and use the land. Photo courtesy of Sandra Coburn/Oakland Institute.
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Mongabay Explores Sumatra: Deforestation demystified
Sumatra contains some of the largest tracts of intact rainforest left in the world, but it's at the center of a complicated web of deforestation drivers, many of which began during the Dutch colonial era and are now spurred further by corruption and the global demand for cheap palm oil used in a wide range of consumer products.
To understand the rapid expansion of industrial-scale agribusinesses that market both palm oil and pulp & paper to the global market from this, the largest island in the Indonesian Archipelago, podcast host Mike DiGirolamo speaks with Nur “Yaya” Hidayati and Philip Jacobson.
Hidayati is the national executive director of Walhi, the largest and oldest environmental advocacy NGO in Indonesia, while Jacobson is a contributing editor at Mongabay who has been covering Indonesia for six years.
They discuss what causes the massive deforestation in Sumatra in particular and Indonesia in general, why it’s so difficult to control, what exacerbates efforts to stop it, and what can be done globally and locally to slow or stop the expansion of continued land exploitation.
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In Madagascar, award-winning plant passion & lemur love
We have amazing recordings of indri lemur songs (click for the choruses, stay for the roars) and the award-winning architect of protected areas that house Madagascar’s rich plant life on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast.
Mongabay has a special tie to this biologically-rich East African country--our name comes from an island just off its shores--so we're thrilled to return for this episode.
Jeannie Raharimampionana is a Malagasy botanist who identified 80 priority areas for conservation of plant life there, 11 of which have now been protected: this achievement recently won her the National Geographic Buffett Award for Leadership in Conservation in Africa and the title of National Geographic Explorer.
We also speak with Valeria Torti from University of Turin who researches critically endangered indri lemurs in the protected forests of the Maromizaha region. Torti tells us about the threats indris are facing and plays for us a number of wild recordings of their calls.
Episode artwork is of an indri lemur in the Analamazaotra Special Reserve, photo by Charles J Sharp.
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Mongabay Explores Sumatra: Saving the singing rhino
Sumatran rhinos are unlike anything else in this world: small in stature and docile by nature, they sport a coat of fur and sing songs reminiscent of a dolphin. In other words, this ancient species surprises and enchants anyone lucky enough to encounter it.
But Sumatran rhinos are also one of the most endangered large mammals on the planet. While its population is difficult to pinpoint, experts estimate there could be as many as 80 – or as few as 30 – still in the wild, leaving their future in doubt.
To understand the wonder and worry associated with this species, Mongabay Explores podcast host Mike DiGirolamo speaks with two guests, Wulan Pusparini and Jeremy Hance, about the unique challenges of conserving them, what is being done for them currently, and what needs to happen in order to save them from extinction.
Pusparini studied them as a species conservation specialist with the Wildlife Conservation Society before pursuing her Ph.D. in Environmental Conservation at Oxford University, while Hance is Mongabay’s senior correspondent who’s traveled Sumatra extensively to cover the species (and is the author of a new book about such travels, “Baggage“).
To learn more, see Mongabay's twin series authored by Hance on the conservation efforts and the scientific advances made in their captive breeding, here:
Music heard during this episode is by Sorbatua Siallagan, chief of the Dolok Parmonangan Indigenous community. The song is called "Gondang tu Mulajadi," where Gondang means ‘music’ and also ‘prayer,’ and Mulajadi means God. This kind of music is typically performed when Indigenous communities in Batak areas of Sumatra conduct rituals. Series theme music heard at the beginning and end is called “Putri Tangguk” and was licensed via Pond5.
Sounds of Sumatran rhinos heard during the show courtesy of Save the Rhino International.
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Amazon defenders, especially women, are set to get new protections
Women are key leaders in Amazon conservation, and we're taking another look at this issue with a discussion of an international agreement that could help protect environmental defenders — of all genders — in Latin America, one of the most dangerous places in the world to be an environmental activist, especially as a woman. Joining us to discuss is Osprey Orielle Lake, founder and executive director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), who talks about the Escazu Agreement and some of the inspiring indigenous female conservationists whose work and safety would be supported by it.
We also speak with journalist Nicolas Bustamente Hernandez about a young Colombian conservationist whose work he recently chronicled for Mongabay, Yehimi Fajardo, who is founder of the Alas Association, which is helping people in her rainforest region of Putumayo in Colombia become bird watchers and forest stewards.
Read more about these women leaders at Mongabay.com:
- Patricia Gualinga (regarding her pursuit of environmental justice in the face of threats on her life)
- Sonia Guajajara (about her run for Vice President of Brazil)
- Nemonte Nenquimo (who was just named to Time Magazine's 100 most influential people list)
- Yehimi Fajardo (founder of Alas Association in Colombia)
Mongabay covered the Escazu Agreement here in 2018 & an update can be viewed at its official UN website here.
Episode art: Photo of Nemonte Nenquimo, Waorani leader of the Ecuadorian Amazon by Mitch Anderson/Amazon Frontlines.
We now offer a free app in the Apple App Store and in the Google Store for this show, so you can have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips, please download it and let us know what you think via the contact info below.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast on the Google Podcasts app, Apple Podcasts, Android, Stitcher, via Pandora or Spotify, or wherever they get podcasts.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, please visit the link above for details.
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Mongabay Explores Sumatra, Episode 1: A land like no other
"Sumatra is like a fossil relic of rare species...a giant, rhino horn-shaped island blanketed in the richest rainforest you can imagine...there's nothing like it," one of our guests declares.
The 6th largest island in the world and the 2nd largest economy in Indonesia, Sumatra is the only place in the world where you can you find tigers, elephants, rhinos and orangutans all living together in an incredibly rich landscape of rainforests that, until recently, were largely untouched by human activities.
But that's changing rapidly, and this new biweekly series from Mongabay Explores dives into what's special about Sumatra, its amazing biodiversity heritage, and what's at stake as forests fall for uses like oil palm plantations, mines, and hydropower dams. We'll also discuss positive trends for conservation and solutions that meet human and nonhuman needs.
Host Mike DiGirolamo speaks with two guests: Rudi Putra, a biologist who won the Goldman Environmental Prize for his inspiring conservation work in Sumatra and who now serves as chairman of the Leuser Conservation Forum, plus Greg McCann, a biologist and Assistant Professor at Taiwan's Chang Gung University, whose People Resources and Conservation Foundation team is exploring and documenting the incredible richness of Sumatra so that it can be better conserved.
View all of Mongabay's news coverage from Sumatra here, visit Rudi Putra's organization Leuser Conservation Forum's website to learn more about their work, and Greg McCann's organization PRCF has multiple projects in Indonesia described here (and details on the project in Dolok Simalalaksa/ Hadabuan Hills he discusses are here).
We now offer a free app in the Apple App Store and in the Google Store for this show, so you can have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips, please download it and let us know what you think via the contact info below.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, please visit the link above for details.
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast on the Google Podcasts app, Apple Podcasts, Android, Stitcher, via Pandora or Spotify, or wherever they get podcasts.
Series theme song "Putri Tangguk" is inspired by traditional Indonesian gamelan music and licensed via POND5.
Episode artwork: Sunset over Sumatran rainforest by Rhett Butler/Mongabay.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Gorilla Radio: innovation in conservation of super rare great apes
The Cross River gorilla is one of the world’s rarest great ape subspecies, with only 300 individuals estimated to be living in Nigeria's Cross River State, but creative efforts to conserve their population and habitat there are changing their fortunes and reduce human-gorilla conflict.
Joining the show is Hillary Chukwuemeka, host of the radio program “My Gorilla My Community” that is heard by nearly 4 million listeners in communities on the frontlines of gorilla conservation there. Chukwuemeka talks about why it's an effective means of community engagement, and the impacts he’s seen among local communities.
We also speak with Inaoyom Imong, program director for the Cross River landscape with Wildlife Conservation Society-Nigeria and a member of the IUCN Primate Specialist Group. Inaoyom discusses the major threats to Cross River gorillas, barriers to their conservation, and why community-based conservation measures are so important in this context.
Here are some recent Mongabay articles referenced in this episode:
• Gorilla radio: Sending a conservation message in Nigeria
• For the world’s rarest gorillas, a troubled sanctuary
• Camera snaps first ever glimpse of a troop of the world’s rarest gorilla
We now offer a free app in the Apple App Store and in the Google Store for this show, so you can have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips, please download it and let us know what you think via the contact info below!
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, please visit the link above for details.
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast on the Google Podcasts app, Apple Podcasts, Android, Stitcher, via Pandora or Spotify, or wherever they get podcasts.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Can the oceans support a renewable energy transition?
Slowing climate change will require a massive increase of renewable energy assets while reducing use of fossil fuels. And who wouldn't like to have a quiet, clean, electric car?
But renewable energy technologies from wind turbines to solar panels and rechargeable batteries to power your Tesla Roadster require large amounts of mined metals and minerals.
That's a problem because mining creates significant environmental impacts on land, and now, there’s a concerted effort to open up vast areas of the ocean floor to mining for this purpose.
On this episode speak with journalist Ian Morse and MiningWatch Canada's research coordinator Catherine Coumans about the overarching implications of mining things like metallic nodules and vents on the sea floor to huge areas of Indonesia for nickel used in rechargeable batteries. Our guests also explain how recent improvements to recycling of existing mined metals could supplant the need for risky projects like deep sea mining.
We now offer a free app in the Apple App Store and in the Google Store for this show, so you can have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips, please download it and let us know what you think via the contact info below!
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast on the Google Podcasts app, Apple Podcasts, Android, Stitcher, via Pandora or Spotify, or wherever they get podcasts.
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, please visit the link above for details.
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Episode artwork: an electric car charging station in South Korea by hssbb79, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Great ape forest gardeners of Africa benefit from big conservation victory
Conservation of great apes in Africa relies on forest protection, and vice versa: on this episode we discuss a campaign in Cameroon to protect the second-largest rainforest in the world and its incredibly diverse (and mysterious) ape inhabitants, and share an intriguing tale of forest gardening by chimps.
Ekwoge Abwe is head of the Ebo Forest Research Project in Cameroon, and shares how he became the first scientist to discover chimpanzees there use tools to crack open nuts. He also discusses ongoing efforts to safeguard Ebo Forest against the threats of oil palm expansion and logging, against which it just won a surprise reprieve.
We also speak with Alex Chepstow-Lusty, an associate researcher at Cambridge University who shares the incredible story of how chimpanzees helped Africa’s rainforests regenerate after they collapsed some 2,500 years ago, by spreading the forests seeds (a phenomenon known as 'zoochory') and why that makes chimps important to the health of forests like Ebo Forest both today and into the future, as well.
We now offer a free app in the Apple App Store and in the Google Store for this show, so you can have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips, please download it and let us know what you think via the contact info below!
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, please visit the link above for details.
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast on the Google Podcasts app, Apple Podcasts, Android, Stitcher, via Pandora or Spotify, or wherever they get podcasts.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
In the Amazon, women are key to forest conservation
Women everywhere are key voices for conservation, and an increasing body of research now recognizes the direct link between gender equality and environmental protection.
Mongabay has published a number of stories lately focused on successful Amazonian conservation initiatives led by women activists and scientists, and we wanted to highlight the issue on this episode of the podcast.
Sarah Sax recently wrote about the Women Warriors of the Forest, an all-female indigenous group that is employing new tactics and building new alliances to protect the forests they call home. Sax joins us to discuss the Women Warriors and some of her other recent reporting that has centered on women conservation leaders in the Amazon.
We’re also joined by Dr. Dolors Armenteras, who was the subject of a recent profile published by Mongabay. Armenteras is known as a pioneer in the use of remote sensing to monitor Amazon forests and biodiversity, and has been named one of the most influential scientists studying forest fires.
Despite her prominence, Armenteras has faced discrimination as a woman scientist, and shares with us how she has navigated that and how she supports the next generation of women scientists to overcome such biases.
Episode artwork of Maisa Guajajara at the march of Indigenous women in Brasilia, 2019, courtesy Marquinho Mota/FAOR.
We now offer a free app in the Apple App Store and in the Google Store for this show, so you can have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips, please download it and let us know what you think via the contact info below!
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, please visit the link above for details.
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast on the Google Podcasts app, Apple Podcasts, Android, Stitcher, via Pandora or Spotify, or wherever they get podcasts.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Singing cetaceans: New whale & dolphin recordings intrigue researchers
Bioacoustics studies help scientists discover things never before known about all kinds of animals, but especially marine life -- on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast we go under the waves to share new recordings of cetaceans (whales and dolphins) from southern Africa and hear from researchers what they think the sounds & songs may mean.
Dr. Tess Gridley's team recently discovered that humpback whales sing in South Africa’s False Bay, and she plays some brand new recordings they just captured.
Sasha Dines also joins the show to share her PhD studies of Indian Ocean humpback dolphins, which focuses on these animals' signature whistle calls.
*Turn up the volume to fully appreciate these songs, roars, growls and whistles!
Host Mike G. also discusses the upcoming African Bioacoustics Community conference with his guests, this is a virtual event aimed at bringing more researchers into the acoustic sphere to better understand the continent's incredible natural heritage.
We now offer a free app in the Apple App Store and in the Google Store for this show, so you can have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips, please download it and let us know what you think via the contact info below!
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, please visit the link above for details.
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast on the Google Podcasts app, Apple Podcasts, Android, Stitcher, via Pandora or Spotify, or wherever they get podcasts.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
From parks to payments, which conservation methods work best?
For the 100th episode of the Newscast, we revisit Mongabay's groundbreaking Conservation Effectiveness series which asked a simple question:
How can we know if conservation methods are working if we don't test their effectiveness? From marine protected areas to parks and certification schemes like 'green' labels on lumber, our team reviewed published studies and evaluated the evidence for each method. On this episode we speak with Mongabay's founder and editor-in-chief Rhett Butler about the Conservation Effectiveness series & the ongoing need to test conservation outcomes, and with Sven Wunder, a principal scientist at the European Forest Institute in Barcelona, who is also a senior associate at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), about the effectiveness of several of these conservation methods, like "payments for ecosystem services." Review all the features from the series here, https://news.mongabay.com/series/conservation-effectiveness/We now offer a free app in the Apple App Store and in the Google Store for this show, so you can have access to our latest episodes at your fingertips, please download it and let us know what you think via the contact info below!
If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, please visit the link above for details.
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast on the Google Podcasts app, Apple Podcasts, Android, Stitcher, via Pandora or Spotify, or wherever they get podcasts.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Mongabay Explores the Great Salamander Pandemic, Part 6: Hellbenders and super spreaders
Hellbenders are North America’s largest salamanders, living in rivers and growing to an incredible length of over two feet. Eastern newts are tiny and terrestrial, but both are susceptible to a fungal pathogen called Bsal. While Bsal has yet to make an appearance in the global hotspot of salamander diversity that is North America, it has wreaked havoc on populations in Europe, so biologists worry its impact could be even worse if it does.
Eastern newts' susceptibility to Bsal coupled with their notable mobility mean they could act as “super-spreaders” of Bsal if the fungus ever gets to North America. For hellbenders, which are already listed as endangered and suffer from habitat degradation, a new pathogen is hardly good news.
On this episode we speak with Dr. Becky Hardman from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and Dr. Anna Longo of the University of Florida about these fascinating and unique species, and discuss what is being done to prepare for a Bsal invasion that experts say is inevitable.
- Super-spreaders: How the curious life of a newt could ignite a pandemic
- Hellbenders threatened by disease & stress
- Mongabay's article series on Bsal is here
- United States Bsal Task Force website
To hear Part 1 of this special salamander series, see bonus episode #94, "Mongabay Explores the Great Salamander Pandemic, Part 1: Are we ready?" -- Part 2 (bonus episode #95) discussed the amazing diversity of salamanders, "Why are salamanders so diverse in North America?" Parts 3, 4, & 5 are also helpful in understanding the conservation community's response to the threat (and some opportunities) presented by Bsal.
Based on a multi-year article series that Mongabay.com published about Bsal, episodes of this special podcast series delve further to learn what's known about this issue, now.
If you enjoy this show, please invite your friends to listen and subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts.
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, visit the link above for details.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Finding nature in the city
But living in a city doesn’t mean that you can’t get out and enjoy some nature.
On this episode we explore cities with author Kelly Brenner and urban forester & educator Georgia Silvera Seamans.
Kelly Brenner is a naturalist and writer whose most recent book is called Nature Obscura: A City’s Hidden Natural World. Brenner, who lives in Seattle, Washington, joins us to discuss some of the wildlife encounters she writes about in the book and to provide some tips on how anyone can go about exploring nature in their city.
We also welcome to the program Georgia Silvera Seamans, an urban forester who has spearheaded a number of “hyper local urban ecology” projects in New York City. Silvera Seamans tells us about the Washington Square Park Eco Projects, which include monitoring, education, and advocacy efforts in the iconic NYC park, and shares how urban ecosystems benefit all city-dwellers.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, please visit the link above for details.
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
And please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast on the Google Podcasts app, Apple Podcasts, Android, Stitcher, via Pandora or Spotify, or wherever they get podcasts.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Mongabay Explores the Great Salamander Pandemic, Part 5: Policy possibilities?
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service imposed a trade ban on 201 salamander species in 2016 in order to prevent the import of the the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans ('Bsal') which could be a major threat to the world's salamander hotspot of North America (and the U.S. in particular).
However, the recent discovery that frogs can also carry Bsal has led scientists to urge the American government to ban the import of all salamander and frog species to the country.
But what other policies or regulations could be enacted to prevent Bsal from wiping out this rich amphibian heritage?
In this 5th "Mongabay Explores" bonus episode, host Mike DiGirolamo speaks with Priya Nanjappa, former Program Manager for the Association of Fish and Wildlife agencies, and Tiffany Yap, a Staff Scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, about animal trade policy, differences in the way the United States conducts this policy from other nations, and what the U.S. might do to more effectively combat the threat.
More resources on this topic:
- On the hunt for a silent salamander-killer Scientists are racing to stop a pandemic before it starts – but will they find it in time?
- Mongabay's special series on 'Bsal' is here
- United States Bsal Task Force website
To hear Part 1 of this special salamander series, see bonus episode #94, "Mongabay Explores the Great Salamander Pandemic, Part 1: Are we ready?" -- Part 2 (bonus episode #95) discussed the amazing diversity of salamanders, "Why are salamanders so diverse in North America?" Parts 3 & 4 are also helpful in understanding the threats and opportunities presented by Bsal.
Based on a multi-year project Mongabay.com published about Bsal at the site (link above), episodes of this special podcast series delve further to learn what's known about this issue, now.
If you enjoy this show, please invite your friends to listen and subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts.
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, visit the link above for details.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Does trophy hunting support or hurt conservation? Years after Cecil the Lion was killed, debate continues
On this episode we take a look at the ongoing debate over trophy hunting 5 years after the killing of Cecil the Lion sparked global outrage: he was a famous attraction for tourists and photographers visiting Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, but in July 2015, an American dentist and recreational hunter killed Cecil just outside the park.
To what degree does trophy hunting support conservation and local communities where iconic wildlife live? What happens to animal populations who've lost members to hunters? Does trophy hunting support or harm scientific inquiry or conservation goals?
To discuss questions like this and what's changed (or not) in the debate since 2015, we hear from four experts who share a diversity of information and opinions that may change the way you think about this important issue:
- Iris Ho of Humane Society International
- conservation icon Jane Goodall
- Amy Dickman, founder of the Ruaha Carnivore Project
- Maxi Pia Louis, director of NACSO, a Namibian organization that works with local communities to support conservation efforts.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, please visit the link above for details.
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
And please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast on the Google Podcasts app, Apple Podcasts, Android, Stitcher, via Pandora or Spotify, or wherever they get podcasts.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Mongabay Explores the Great Salamander Pandemic, Part 4: The 'Bsal battalion'
North America (and the US in particular) is the world’s hotspot of salamander diversity, hosting about 1/3 of all species. Researchers think that about half of these may be susceptible to a deadly fungus called Bsal, and believe it's a matter of time before it gets to North America. If and when it does, it could mean devastation and maybe extinction for a massive amount of amphibians.
To head off the threat, scientists created the Bsal Task Force in 2015 and in this fourth "Mongabay Explores" bonus episode, host Mike DiGirolamo interviews the group's Dr. Jake Kerby who is also the associate chair of biology at the University of South Dakota.
Dr. Kerby details the working relationships their 'Bsal battalion' has with federal entities in Canada, the US, and Mexico and how they are working together to manage and mitigate the damage of this potential pandemic.
He also discusses what citizens can do to help protect North America's amazingly diverse salamander species.
More resources on this topic:
- On the hunt for a silent salamander-killer Scientists are racing to stop a pandemic before it starts – but will they find it in time?
- Super-spreaders: How the curious life of a newt could ignite a pandemicTheir susceptibility to Bsal coupled with their mobility mean eastern newts could act as “super-spreaders” of Bsal if the fungus gets to North America.
- Mongabay's special series on 'Bsal' is here
- United States Bsal Task Force website
To hear Part 1 of this special salamander series, see bonus episode #94, "Mongabay Explores the Great Salamander Pandemic, Part 1: Are we ready?" -- Part 2 (bonus episode #95) discussed the amazing diversity of salamanders, "Why are salamanders so diverse in North America?"
Based on a special series Mongabay.com published to its website in 2018-19, the next couple episodes of this special podcast series made possible in part by our Patreon supporters will delve further into this topic to learn what's known about this issue, now.
If you enjoy this show, please invite your friends to listen and subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts.
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, visit the link above for details.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Animals have culture, too, and for some it's crucial to their survival and conservation
Animal societies have culture, too, as science keeps showing us ever since Dr. Jane Goodall first pointed it out, and on this episode we explore the culture and social learning of sperm whales, scarlet macaws, and chimpanzees with author Carl Safina and whale culture researcher Hal Whitehead.
Safina examines how these species are equipped to live in their worlds by learning from other individuals in their social groups — which he argues is just as important as their genetic inheritance — in his new book, Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace.
In the book, he calls Hal Whitehead “the pioneering sperm whale researcher” who has studied social learning in whales and dolphins for decades. A professor at Canada’s Dalhousie University, he was one of the first scientists to examine the complex social lives of sperm whales and their distinctive calls known as codas, and appears on the podcast today to play some recordings of them and tell us about sperm whale culture and social learning.
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, please visit the link above for details.
And please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast on Android, the Google Podcasts app, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, via Pandora or Spotify, or wherever they get podcasts.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Mongabay Explores the Great Salamander Pandemic, Part 3: On the Hunt
Reporter Benji Jones and wildlife disease ecologist with U.S. Geological Survey, Daniel Grear, join this special edition of Mongabay's podcast to discuss the hunt for Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) in North America, which Benji has described as “searching for a needle in a haystack except the needle is invisible and the hay stretches for thousands of miles.”
Host Mike DiGirolamo talks with Jones and Grear about the search, the difficulty in finding it, and what we can expect if the disease ever makes its way to U.S. shores.
This third bonus episode of the podcast tackles these important questions with Senior Editor Morgan Erickson-Davis, who produced Mongabay's series on this topic for the website last year.
For the next several episodes, this special podcast series (made possible by our Patreon supporters) called Mongabay Explores will dive into this topic to learn what's known about this issue, now.
More resources on this topic:
- On the hunt for a silent salamander-killer Scientists are racing to stop a pandemic before it starts – but will they find it in time?
- Super-spreaders: How the curious life of a newt could ignite a pandemicTheir susceptibility to Bsal coupled with their mobility mean eastern newts could act as “super-spreaders” of Bsal if the fungus gets to North America.
- Mongabay's whole series on 'Bsal' is here
- United States Bsal Task Force website
To hear Part 1 of this special salamander series, see bonus episode #94, "Mongabay Explores the Great Salamander Pandemic, Part 1: Are we ready?" -- Part 2 (bonus episode #95) discussed the amazing diversity of salamanders, "Why are salamanders so diverse in North America?" If you enjoy this show, please invite your friends to listen and subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts.
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, visit the link above for details.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Conservation leaders create community & opportunity amid current crises of violence and viruses
On this episode we look at how current environmental crises intersect with two others: the pandemic and the systemic racism and police brutality that have sparked protests around the U.S. and world in recent weeks, with guests Leela Hazzah, founder and executive director of Lion Guardians, and Earyn McGee, a herpetologist and science communicator who just helped organize the first-ever Black Birders Week, a celebration of black birders and nature lovers.
McGee tells host Mike G. how Black Birders Week came together so quickly and why it's necessary to celebrate black nature lovers, and Egyptian conservationist Hazzah discusses what she sees as opportunities for transformative change in conservation due to the pandemic, like for instance that conservation has been named an "essential service" during the health crisis by the Kenyan government, plus the fact that more female and African representatives have been present at important conservation meetings lately, now that they're all virtual.
"I hope that we continue using these virtual tools so we can continue to have more diverse voices at important meetings," Hazzah says, while also reducing our carbon footprints, she adds.
And as McGee says, diversity is important, and people want to be part of the conservation movement as her group's event proved: "The interest is there...we want to do this work, but there are barriers in our way."
Episode artwork photo of Leela Hazzah © Philip J. Briggs.
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, visit the link above for details.
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Mongabay Explores the Great Salamander Pandemic, Part 2: Great diversity and danger
Why are salamanders so incredibly diverse in the United States? Among other things, a fluke of geography contributed to making it the global hotspot of salamander diversity.
But now, another pandemic is on the march toward the U.S., and this time it's got salamanders in its sights. In this second special episode about salamanders, we'll give you the full context.
How big a role do these ubiquitous animals play in the environment, and what would it mean to forest biodiversity, climate change, and forest food chains to lose whole populations of salamanders?
This second bonus episode of the podcast tackles these important questions with Senior Editor Morgan Erickson-Davis, who produced Mongabay's series on this topic for the website last year.
For the next several episodes, this special podcast series (made possible by our Patreon supporters) called Mongabay Explores will dive into this topic to learn what's known about this issue, now.
More resources on this topic:
- On the hunt for a silent salamander-killer Scientists are racing to stop a pandemic before it starts – but will they find it in time?
- Super-spreaders: How the curious life of a newt could ignite a pandemicTheir susceptibility to Bsal coupled with their mobility mean eastern newts could act as “super-spreaders” of Bsal if the fungus gets to North America.
- Mongabay's whole series on 'Bsal' is here
- United States Bsal Task Force website
To hear part 1 of this special salamander series, see bonus episode #94, "Mongabay Explores the Great Salamander Pandemic, Part 1: Are we ready?" If you enjoy this show, please invite your friends to listen and subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts.
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, visit the link above for details.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
How listening to elephants can help conserve rainforests
The Elephant Listening Project is a bioacoustics research effort that aims to preserve rainforests of Central Africa--and the biodiversity found in those forests--by listening to forest elephants, and on this episode we hear those animals' calls, rumbles, and trumpets with ELP researcher Ana Verahrami.
Verahrami has spent two field seasons in the Central African Republic collecting behavioral and acoustic data vital to the project & joins us to explain why forest elephants’ role as keystone species makes their survival crucial to the wellbeing of tropical forests and its other inhabitants, and to play some of the fascinating recordings that inform the project’s work.
Helping frame the discussion is Terna Gyuse, Mongabay's Cape Town-based Africa Editor.
ELP is part of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, whose bioacoustics research team we’ve featured several times in the past, listen to these episodes for more fascinating bioacoustics studies that feature the calls, songs, and sounds of diverse animals what they may mean for them and for conservation:
• How listening to individual gibbons can benefit conservation
• What underwater sounds can tell us about Indian Ocean humpback dolphins
• The superb mimicry skills of an Australian songbird
• The sounds of tropical katydids and how they can benefit conservation
Photo of forest elephants at Dzanga bai in Central African Republic © Ana Verahrami, ELP.
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, visit the link above for details.
And please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast on Android, the Google Podcasts app, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, via Pandora or Spotify, or wherever they get podcasts.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Mongabay Explores the Great Salamander Pandemic, Part 1: Are we ready?
Another pandemic is currently on the march, and it's got salamanders in its sights. You may not have heard about 'Bsal' before, but it nearly wiped out a population of salamanders in Europe, and scientists worry it could invade the United States--the home of the world's greatest diversity of salamanders--next.
Is the U.S. ready for Bsal, and can a pandemic in this global salamander hotspot be prevented, unlike the one that's currently crippling human societies globally? What's being done, and what would it mean to lose salamanders on a landscape-wide level in North America?
This first bonus episode of the Mongabay Newscast tackles these important questions, just as spring and salamanders emerge in the North.
For the next couple months, this special series made possible by our Patreon supporters called Mongabay Explores will dive into a recent project our writers and editors produced on the topic, to learn what's known about this issue now.
More reading from Mongabay on this topic:
- On the hunt for a silent salamander-killer Scientists are racing to stop a pandemic before it starts – but will they find it in time?
- Mongabay's whole series on Bsal is here
- United States Bsal Task Force website
If you enjoy this show, please invite your friends to listen and subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts.
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, visit the link above for details.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Forest fire season 2020: what will it look like and what can we do?
Australia’s fire season may have just ended, but most of the world’s tropical forest regions will soon enter their own.
We look at what’s driving the intense fires in the Amazon, Indonesia, and elsewhere in recent years with three guests, who discuss what we can expect from the 2020 tropical fire season while sharing some solutions to this problem, which has huge effects on biodiversity, indigenous peoples, forests, and climate change.
Joining us are Rhett Butler, Mongabay’s founder and CEO, who provides a global perspective; scientist Dan Nepstad, who worked in the Brazilian Amazon for more than three decades; plus Aida Greenbury, an Indonesian sustainability consultant for projects like the High Carbon Stock Approach to forest protection.
If you enjoy this show, please invite your friends to listen and subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts.
More reading from this episode:
Rhett Butler for Mongabay: "Rainforests in 2020: Ten things to watch," December 2019 "Amazon deforestation increases for 13th straight month in Brazil," May 2020
Dan Nepstad for the New York Times, "How to help Brazilian Farmers Save the Amazon," December 2019
See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, visit the link above for details.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
How to photograph wildlife ethically and why that’s so necessary
At a time when so many people are trying to make photographs of wildlife -- to break the pandemic lockdown blues, or to share on social media -- we speak with two guests about how to do this without harassing, exploiting, or harming them.
Internationally renowned wildlife photographer Suzi Eszterhas shares her experiences and advice, saying that the most important practices are both better for wildlife and capture the most compelling images.
This is “kind of a win-win,” Eszterhas says, because "we’re treating the animals with kindness and respect and we’re not affecting their lives in a very negative way" while delivering superior photos.
Also joining the discussion is environmental journalist Annie Roth, who recently wrote an in-depth article for Hakai Magazine exploring how wildlife pay the price when humans get too close in order to snap a few pics that they hope will score them likes on social media.
If you enjoy this show, please invite your friends to listen and subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, visit the link above for details.
See our latest news from nature's frontlines at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Episode artwork of jackal pups courtesy of Suzi Eszterhas.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Inspiration for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day amid a global pandemic
What does it mean to celebrate the 50th Earth Day amidst a pandemic? Our guests for this episode provide options and inspiration to mark this important anniversary in the face of a global virus outbreak, which ironically has roots in the destruction of nature.
We speak with Trammell Crow, the founder of the largest Earth Day event in the world, EarthX, which has big plans with National Geographic for a virtual celebration, and Ginger Cassady, the executive director of the Rainforest Action Network, an environmental advocacy group that works to end deforestation and respond to the climate crisis.
They share stories of inspiration, challenge, and triumph as we mark 50 years of Earth Day with an eye on what comes next.
If you enjoy this show, please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps! Supporting at the $10/month level now delivers access to Insider Content at Mongabay.com, too, visit the link above for details.
See our latest news from nature's frontlines at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
The link between pandemics and the destruction of nature, with John Vidal
Acclaimed environmental journalist John Vidal joins the show to discuss the current pandemic's links to the wildlife trade and the destruction of nature.
We speak about his recent Guardian/Ensia feature on what we know about the origins of the outbreak, what he’s learned while reporting from similar outbreak epicenters in the past, how the destruction of nature creates the perfect conditions for diseases to emerge, and what we can do to prevent future outbreaks.
See related Mongabay podcast episode: How studying an African bat might help us prevent future Ebola outbreaks
Here’s this episode’s top news:
- National parks in Africa shutter over COVID-19 threat to great apes
- Shell of bioluminescent shrimp not only glows but detects light
- Seychelles extends protection to marine area twice the size of Great Britain
If you enjoy this show, please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps!
See our latest news from nature's frontlines at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Songs and sounds of Bering Sea whales and seals reveal a story of change
The songs, calls, clicks, and bumps of beluga whales, bearded seals, bowhead whales, ribbon seals, and walrus are the stars of this episode, which also features the co-author of a recent study that used bioacoustics to assess how variation in sea surface temperature and sea ice extent affects these animals' populations in the northern Bering Sea.
Dr. Howard Rosenbaum is the director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Ocean Giants Program, and his team is creating an acoustic baseline for how marine noise pollution and climate change are affecting large mammals in this area of the Arctic.
Learn more about Dr. Rosenbaum's team's study here and press play to hear the fascinating sounds they captured.
Here's this episode's top news:
- Conservationists set the record straight on COVID-19’s wildlife links
- Record-high global tree cover loss driven by agriculture
- In Afghanistan, a new national park carries hopes for conservation and peace
If you enjoy this show, please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps!
See our latest news from nature's frontlines at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
New technologies deliver cutting edge conservation, discussion with Shah Selbe
Shah Selbe is a rocket scientist who put his engineering skills into building a lab that uses open-source technologies to empower local communities to solve conservation challenges.
His team has been deploying technologies like drones, sensor networks, smartphone apps, and acoustic buoys to monitor protected areas, wildlife, and biodiversity.
But their big news is the launch of the open-source hardware and online platform FieldKit that anyone can use to deploy a local sensing network and mesh that with remote sensing data for real-time ecosystem monitoring: he joins us to discuss its potential plus the conservation tech he’s currently most excited about.
Here’s this episode’s top news:
- China beefs up wildlife trade ban as COVID-19 outbreak intensifies
- ‘Out of control’: Unprecedented fires ravage Brazil’s Pantanal wetlands
- Camera traps confirm presence of lowland gorillas in central mainland Equatorial Guinea for first time in over a decade
If you enjoy this show, please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps!
See our latest news from nature's frontlines at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Conservation is a growth industry for Africa, Fred Swaniker says
Fred Swaniker is the founder of the African Leadership University, which recently launched a School of Wildlife Conservation to help young Africans develop the skills and knowledge necessary to “own and drive” the conservation agenda on the African continent.
Swaniker sees Africa's natural heritage as a strategic advantage for the continent, and argues on this episode that the immense young workforce can be engaged in its conservation in many ways, from management to filmmaking, science communications and technology. He also shares highlights from ALU’s recent "Business of Conservation Conference" in Kigali, Rwanda.
Here’s this episode’s top news:
- Jeff Bezos establishes $10 billion ‘Earth Fund’ to combat climate change
- Deforestation in Brazil continues torrid pace into 2020
- Rhino poaching in South Africa declines for fifth straight year
Learn more about African Leadership University's School of Wildlife Conservation at its website, www.sowc.alueducation.com.
If you enjoy this show, please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps!
See our latest news from nature's frontlines at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
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Mongabay Newscast trailer
Galina Angarova on the indigenous relationship to land, conservation, and the sacred feminine
‘Without the land, indigenous people cannot exist’ the new leader of Cultural Survival, Galina Angarova, tells host Mike G. in this new episode. Raised in a Buryat community in Siberia, she's had a number of top roles through the years, but her recent appointment to this key indigenous rights organization is perhaps the most important one yet.
She grew up eating wild berries, mushrooms, nuts, wild garlic, deer, and more on the shores of Lake Baikal, and therefore has a strong sense of relationship to the land and how important it is that indigenous peoples like her community are allowed to keep stewarding these places: it's been proven that indigenous communities are the best stewards of land, waters, forests, and animals.
Angarova joins the show to discuss this plus the power of indigenous radio programs, and her idea of the sacred feminine.
Here’s this episode’s top news:
- Catastrophic Amazon tipping point less than 30 years away: study
- Dam that threatens orangutan habitat is ‘wholly unnecessary’: Report
- Indigenous, protected lands in Amazon emit far less carbon than areas outside
- Belize officially declares wildlife corridor in key protected area complex
Learn more about Galina and the work of Cultural Survival at their website, culturalsurvival.org.
If you enjoy this show, please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps!
See our latest news from nature's frontlines at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
How the sweet sounds of tropical katydids can benefit rainforest conservation
Laurel Symes is a biologist who uses bioacoustics to study tropical katydids in Central America, and she joins us to play some of her hypnotic rainforest recordings and say how tracking these insects' interesting sounds can aid rainforest conservation.
Based on the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica, she uses machine learning to detect and identify these creatures, which are grasshopper-like insects that are important to the rainforest food web, because they eat a lot of plants and are in turn eaten by a lot of other species, including birds, bats, monkeys, frogs, and more.
Here’s this episode’s top news:
- 2019 was second-hottest year on record, 2010s hottest decade
- Indigenous lands hold 36% or more of remaining intact forest landscapes
- Update to biodiversity treaty proposes protecting at least 30% of Earth
- One six-week expedition discovered ten new songbird species and subspecies in Indonesia
If you enjoy this show, please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps!
See our latest news from nature's frontlines at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Top conservation photographer Ami Vitale discusses rhinos, pandas, hope and more
Ami Vitale is an award-winning war correspondent turned conservation photographer, and her iconic images of animals like Sudan the Rhino adorn the pages of National Geographic and other top outlets often. But she's so much more than a woman with a camera, rather, she's a force of nature helping create change and grassroots conservation all over the world through her work, words, and advocacy.
She joins the podcast to talk about the most inspiring and heartbreaking moments from her recent projects (don't miss the beautiful story at the end about the behavior of elephant orphans) and she shares where she finds her seemingly boundless energy and optimism.
Here's this episode's top news items:
- Study declares ancient Chinese paddlefish extinct
- ‘Tainted timber’ from Myanmar widely used in yachts seized in the Netherlands
- New monkey discovered on “island” amid deforestation in Brazil
Episode artwork of a panda keeper in China is courtesy of Ami Vitale.
If you enjoy this show, please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps!
See our latest news from nature's frontlines at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
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Best animal calls and songs of 2019
For this last episode of 2019, we take a look back at some favorite bioacoustics recordings featured here on the Mongabay Newscast and play them for you.
As regular listeners will know, bioacoustics is the study of how animals use and perceive sound, and how their acoustical adaptations reflect their behaviors and relationships with their habitats and surroundings. Bioacoustics is a fairly young field of study but it is already being used to study everything from how wildlife populations respond to the impacts of climate change to how entire ecosystems are impacted by human activities.
Here’s this episode’s top news:
- Tropical forests’ lost decade: the 2010s
- Central American countries pledge to protect Mesoamerica’s ‘5 Great Forests’
- Mountain gorilla census reveals further increase in numbers
If you enjoy this show, please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps!
See our latest news from nature's frontlines at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
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Cleared for coca: Chris Fagan on his new investigation from Peru's rainforest
We speak with National Geographic writer Chris Fagan about the investigative report he just filed for Mongabay revealing a massive invasion of national parks in the Peruvian Amazon, in an area relied upon by isolated indigenous communities.
Traveling up the Sepahua River with indigenous guides, Fagan counted more than 250 plots of land illegally cleared for cocaine production in recent months. He met some of these growers and describes for us a very 'Wild West' scene that Peruvian officials know little about, in an area that was thought to be largely protected.
Read Chris's full report and see the stunning video and drone footage here:
Here's this episode's top news:
- Revealed: Government officials say permits for mega-plantation in Papua were falsified
- Hopes dim as COP25 delegates dicker over Article 6 and world burns: critics
- Newly spotted calves boost Javan rhino population to 72
If you enjoy this show, please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps!
See our latest news from nature's frontlines at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Photo of Chris Fagan by Jason Houston/Upper Amazon Conservancy.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
How haunting gibbon songs can aid their conservation
Dena Clink is a primatologist studying individuality and variation in Bornean gibbon calls, which she says could aid these primates' conservation. She joins this episode to play some recordings of these fascinating songs & calls she’s made in the course of her research, and explain how they're used and what they may mean to the species.
We’ve featured a wide variety of bioacoustics studies here on the Mongabay Newscast, from whales to bats and birds, but these are usually recordings of species at the population level. Our guest today focuses on how calls vary between each gibbon, and what that can teach us about the animals, and their conservation needs.
If you enjoy this show, please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts.
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Photo of a Mueller's gibbon (Hylobates muelleri) via People Resources and Conservation Foundation.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
All zoos should put themselves out of business, Damian Aspinall argues
Damian Aspinall is chairman of the Aspinall Foundation, a UK charity that works to conserve endangered animals and return them to the wild. Despite his foundation operating two zoos, he's a vocal critic of how zoos are generally run, and feels their focus should be upon breeding rare animals and reintroducing them to the wild, vs keeping them in captivity for public entertainment, as he says.
"European zoos spend at least 15 million pounds a year, at least, on looking after their elephants and rhinos...imagine what you could do with that money in the wild," toward stopping poaching & rebuilding their habitats, he argues on this episode of the podcast.
Aspinall also talks about numerous other ethical problems he sees with 'the zoo-ocracy,' discusses his own program for breeding and reintroducing gorillas, lemurs, gibbons and more, and he shares his vision for a 'zoo-less future' on Earth.
Here’s this episode’s top news:
- Controversial dam gets green light to flood a Philippine protected area
- Emperor penguins could disappear by 2100 if nations don’t cap emissions
- There’s a new fin whale subspecies in the North Pacific
Listen to our recent conversation with Bronx Zoo director Jim Breheny about zoos' role in conservation on Mongabay's podcast, here.
If you enjoy this show, please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts.
Please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps!
See our latest news from nature's frontlines at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Buzzfeed's Katie Baker details their explosive investigation of WWF
Katie Baker is a reporter for the Buzzfeed News team investigating human rights violations committed against local & indigenous people by park rangers paid by the major environmental NGO WWF to protect creatures like rhinos from poachers.
"No one is saying that [WWF's rangers] don't have really difficult jobs...but just because they have a difficult job doesn't mean they can rape and kill and torture with impunity or arrest people without evidence," she tells host Mike G, and adds that the pushback from the NGO has been rather meek: "I have not received any hate mail from [WWF employees] telling me I got it wrong."
Baker discusses the explosive findings of her team's investigative reports, what it took to chase these stories down, and the impacts she’s seen from her reporting.
Here’s this episode’s top news:
- Violence against indigenous peoples explodes in Brazil
- Study finds massive reorganization of life across Earth’s ecosystems
- $85 million initiative to scale up agroforestry in Africa announced
- Once close to extinction, western South Atlantic humpback population close to full recovery
Mongabay reported on the effects on local communities as revealed by Baker's reporting here, and here's Mongabay's investigation of harassment, bullying, and retaliation against whistleblowers at another major environmental NGO, Conservation International.
If you enjoy this show, please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts.
Visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps!
See our latest news from nature's frontlines at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Deep sea diva: A dive to the ocean floor with biologist Diva Amon
Plans for ocean floor mining are moving forward globally -- especially around thermal vents that create deposits of metals like gold, silver, copper, manganese, cobalt, and zinc -- but humans have explored less than 1% of the deep sea, so it’s fair to say that we really have no idea what’s at risk.
On this episode we speak with deep sea biologist Dr. Diva Amon about what we do -- and don’t -- know about biodiversity at the bottom of the ocean.
Raised on the shores of Trinidad & Tobago, Dr. Amon's fascination with what lies below the surface has taken her on journeys to great depths, and she shares insights and glimpses of amazing creatures gained there.
Here’s more about this episode’s top news:
- Eight ape species, including Tapanuli orangutan, make first appearance on list of most endangered primates
- Madagascar calls for assistance as fires imperil its protected areas
- Rare songbird recovers, moves off endangered species list
And see all of our coverage of deep sea mining issues here.
If you enjoy this show, please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, Pandora, or wherever they get podcasts.
Visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep this show growing, Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet and all support helps!
See our latest news from nature's frontlines at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Feedback is always welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Hitting the highway in Borneo to assess diversity and development
Mongabay's adventurous Middle East-based staff writer John Cannon just traveled the length of the Pan Borneo Highway and shares what he discovered on the journey about biodiversity, development, and the natural future of this, the world's 3rd largest island.
It took him 3 weeks to travel the route proposed to connect the rainforest-rich Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak as well as the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo--to make commerce and travel easier in a region that is notoriously difficult to navigate--and also to encourage tourists to see the states’ cultural treasures and rich wildlife, from elephants to crocodiles, gibbons and clouded leopards.
But scientists warn that the highway is likely to harm the very wildlife it seeks to highlight, by dividing populations and degrading their habitats.
Here's where you can find John's six-part series and his “top 5 revelations from traveling the Pan Borneo Highway" at Mongabay.com.
These are the episode’s top news items if you want to learn more:
- ‘Full-blown crisis’: North America has lost nearly 3 billion birds since 1970
- At the UN, losing the race against time to fight climate change
- 'The Blob’ is back: Pacific heat wave already second-largest in recent history
Episode photo: A female Sunda clouded leopard and one of her cubs crossing a road in Sabah, still image from footage shot by Michael Gordon.
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See our latest news from nature's frontlines at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Feedback is welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
Are humpback whale groups sharing their songs?
For this episode we speak with Jim Darling, a marine biologist whose team found that the songs of different humpback whale groups can be so similar to each other that the conventional wisdom of these being distinct groups might be wrong. These whales may be sharing and singing each others' songs across groups and regions, he thinks.
Darling joins the show to play recordings of these remarkably similar humpback whale songs and discuss the implications.
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See our latest news from nature's frontlines at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Feedback is welcome: submissions@mongabay.com.
"I'm excited!" Climate action star Rev Yearwood on the UN, youth and women's leadership & more
On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we speak with Reverend Lennox Yearwood about the upcoming UN Climate Summit in New York City and what it’s going to take to pass legislation and policies that can effectively tackle the enormity of the climate crisis.
Undaunted by the challenge, Rev Yearwood rather is "very excited," he says, about the new energy and effective leadership he sees coming from youth, women, people of color, and more, who are all urging the world toward meaningful climate action. He is President and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus, a non-profit that advocates for social and environmental justice, and is a sought after speaker who also recently addressed the U.S. Congress on the topic of the environment.
Yearwood talks about participating in the week-long Global Climate Strike during the UN meetings; providing a platform for indigenous leaders, people of color, and young people to speak on climate issues that affect them; and his “suites to the streets” approach to climate activism:
"Climate change is a civil rights issue. People have a right to clean air. People have a right to ensure that this planet is safeguarded for future generations."
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Return of the amazing superb lyrebird
For an encore edition during this show's brief hiatus, we replay one of our most popular Field Notes interviews of all time, featuring Australian researcher Anastasia Dalziell who's doing trailblazing work with superb lyrebirds. Listen to her recordings of these songsters and be amazed by these animals, who are so adept at replays themselves.
Host Mike G. explored with her the incredible ability these creatures have to mimic sounds in their environment, ranging from predators and possums to squeaky trees and other songbirds native to their forested habitat: even the clicks of camera shutters and chainsaws are 'replayed' by these animals.
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Image credit: Superb lyrebird in Marysville State Forest, Australia (© Donovan Wilson/500px).
See our latest news at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Talk to you again in two weeks!
Baltimore, urban rats, and environmental justice
Urban pests like rats have been in the news due to the US President calling Baltimore “rat and rodent infested.” He isn’t the first American politician to use this kind of rhetoric to demean communities that are predominantly made up of people of color (while ignoring the fact that policies deliberately designed to marginalize communities of color are at the root of the pest problems), he's just the latest.
Dawn Biehler actually knows what she’s talking about when it comes to rodent infestations in cities: the University of Maryland professor wrote the indispensable 2013 book Pests in the City: Flies, Bedbugs, Cockroaches, and Rats, and has just penned an op-ed in the Baltimore Sun newspaper looking at how racial segregation and funding inequities for urban housing and infrastructure contribute to rat infestations.
Biehler joins this episode of the Mongabay Newscast to discuss how this is an environmental justice issue, and how the problem can be dealt with in an environmentally sustainable manner, starting with investment in urban communities.
Here’s this episode’s top news:
- July 2019 was the hottest month ever recorded on Earth
- As Amazon deforestation in Brazil rises, Bolsonaro administration attacks the messenger
- In Indonesia, a court victory for Bali’s ban on single-use plastics
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Celebrated author David Quammen on inspiring ecological restoration, evolutionary science, and more
David Quammen is an award-winning science writer, author, and journalist covering the most promising trends in conservation and evolutionary science for the past 30 years. We invited him on the show to discuss his latest feature for National Geographic, where he is a regular contributor, about Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique — once touted by none other than E.O. Wilson in a podcast interview with Mongabay as a place where inspiring restoration efforts are underway and benefitting nature, wildlife, and people. We also discuss Quammen’s most recent book, The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life, which explores the revolution in how scientists understand the history of evolution on Earth sparked by the work of Carl Woese, and his coverage of virology in light of the recent Ebola outbreak. He shares his thoughts on all of this plus what gives him hope that biodiversity loss and destruction of the natural world can be halted.
Here’s this episode’s top news:
- From over 100,000 species assessments in IUCN update, zero improvements
- June 2019 was the hottest on record: NOAA
- U.S. Virgin Islands bans coral-damaging sunscreens
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See our latest news at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Right whales discovered singing for the first time: new recordings
Jessica Crance is a research biologist who recently discovered right whales singing for the first time. While some whales like humpbacks and bowheads are known for their melodious songs, none of the three species of right whale has ever been known to sing. Crance led the research team at NOAA that documented North Pacific right whales breaking into song in the Bering Sea, and on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, she will play recordings of two different right whale song types and discuss what we know about why the critically endangered whales might be singing.
Here’s this episode’s top news:
- Japan resumes commercial whale hunting
- Heart of Ecuador’s Yasuni, home to uncontacted tribes, opens for oil drilling
- Zambia halts plans to dam the Luangwa River
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See our latest news at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
New CITES boss discusses reining in online wildlife trafficking, the next COP, and more
We speak with Ivonne Higuero, new Secretary General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora — better known by its acronym, CITES. The first woman to ever serve as Secretary General, we discuss how her background as an environmental economist informs her approach to the job, how CITES can tackle challenges like the online wildlife trade and lack of enforcement of CITES statutes at the national level, and what she expects to accomplish at the 18th congress of the parties (COP) this August.
Here’s this episode’s top news:
- Arctic sea ice extent just hit a record low for early June and worse may come
- Nearly 600 plant species have gone extinct in last 250 years
- Sumatran rhinos to get a new sanctuary in Leuser Ecosystem
Please invite your friends to subscribe to this show via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify or wherever they get podcasts.
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See our latest news at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.
Zoos are more key to conservation than ever, Bronx Zoo director says
Jim Breheny is the director of the Bronx Zoo in New York City and joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss the contributions zoos make to global biodiversity conservation. While many question the relevance of zoos in the 21st century, he argues that as humanity's influence extends ever farther and wildlife habitat continues to shrink, zoos are more relevant than ever since they could save a diversity of species like hellbender salamanders, which his institution is helping to breed and repopulate in the wild. He also discusses how zoos support field work to protect species in the wild, and shares their experience telling the story of zoos through its popular Animal Planet TV show ‘The Zoo.’
This episode's top news:
- The Great Insect Dying: A global look at a deepening crisis
- Twice as many fishing vessels now, but it’s harder to catch fish
- Brazil’s Congress reverses Bolsonaro, restores Funai’s land demarcation powers
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What can talkative river dolphins teach us about their marine relatives?
Gabriel Melo-Santos studies Araguaian river dolphins in Brazil — his work has revealed that the species is much chattier than we’d previously known, and could potentially help us better understand the evolution of underwater communication in marine mammals. He plays some of the recordings he’s made of the dolphins, explains how he managed to study the elusive creatures thanks to their fondness for a certain riverside fish market, and discusses how the study of their vocalizations could yield insights into how their sea-faring relatives use their own calls to maintain social cohesion.
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We love reviews, so please find the reviews section of the app that delivers your podcasts and say what you like about the Mongabay Newscast, and how we can improve. Thank you!
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How to discover an untouched rainforest
Ecologist Julian Bayliss used satellite imagery, drones, and technical climbing to make a big discovery last year, an untouched rainforest atop a virtually unclimbable mountain in Mozambique (an “inselberg” or “island mountain”) that contains species new to science. Intriguingly, his team also found ancient human artifacts at its top, perhaps linked to people's prayers for the mountain's continued supply of fresh water to the surrounding lowlands. On this episode Bayliss discusses Mt. Lico's novel species like fish, crabs, and butterflies and shares the technical challenges and frustrations inherent in making a discovery of this kind.
If you enjoy this show, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, so all support helps.
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Paying for healthcare with a healthy rainforest
Kinari Webb founded Health in Harmony, providing healthcare to people to save Indonesian rainforests. She realized that most illegal deforestation happens when villagers have to pay for medical care, because they have little to generate cash with, except timber. The program has reduced infant deaths by more than 2/3 and the number of households engaged in illegal logging dropped nearly 90%. Her story was one of the most-read articles at Mongabay.com in 2017, so now with Webb expanding the program to new regions, we asked her for an update.
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Unusual tool-using chimp culture discovered in the Congo
Primatologist Cleve Hicks leads a research team that has discovered a new tool-using chimp culture in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After 12 years of research, their findings include an entirely new chimpanzee tool kit featuring four different kinds of tools. These chimps also build ground nests, which is highly unusual for any group of chimps, but especially for ones living around dangerous predators like lions and leopards. But these chimps’ novel use of tools and ground nesting aren’t even the most interesting behavioral quirks this group displays, Hicks says on this podcast.
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Sloths' amazing survival skills create a challenge for their survival
Dr. Rebecca Cliffe joins us to challenge myths about sloths like the popular perception of them as lazy creatures: moving slowly is a survival strategy that has been so successful in fact that sloths are some of the oldest mammals on our planet. But Dr. Cliffe also warns of a “sloth crisis” driven by deforestation, roadbuilding, and irresponsible tourism including “sloth selfies,” and what you can do to help protect sloths.
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Studying secretive humpback dolphins through sound
How do you study a marine mammal that lives in waters so murky that it can hide from you in plain sight, even in shallow water? On this episode we speak with marine biologist Isha Bopardikar, a researcher using one technique, bioacoustics, to unlock the hidden behaviors of humpback dolphins on the west coast of India.
Mongabay's India bureau recently published a story about her work, “What underwater sounds tell us about marine life”, which noted that although humanity is making the underwater world even noisier through oil and gas exploration, shipping, and other mechanized vessels, today's research tools can still reveal many of the ocean's mysteries.
Bioacoustics combines the study of sound and biology and is increasingly being used to understand marine mammals, so Bopardikar joins us to discuss how, exactly, and play some recordings she's collected of her mysterious cetacean subjects.
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Amazon explorer Scott Wallace: Uncontacted indigenous peoples are a true treasure
“The uncontacted and isolated tribes represent a true treasure,” National Geographic writer and author Scott Wallace says in this episode. “Their knowledge of the rainforest, of the medicinal properties of the plants, of all the animals, their spirit world — all of this is an incredibly rich trove of knowledge.”
Wallace's book The Unconquered tells the story of an expedition into remote Amazon rainforests undertaken by the head of Brazil’s Department of Isolated Indians to gather information about an uncontacted tribe known as “the Arrow People” in order to protect the indigenous group from the ever-advancing arc of Amazonian deforestation.
He joins the podcast to share his experiences and to discuss this particularly perilous time for indigenous peoples in the Amazon.
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Episode artwork courtesy of FUNAI.
How sound can save a rare bird with an AI assist
On this episode we speak with Oliver Metcalf, lead author of a new study using bioacoustics and machine learning (artificial intelligence or "AI") to study a very rare bird in New Zealand. We play some recordings of the beautiful hihi bird that illustrate the success of a last ditch reintroduction effort for this species (and in a place) that are otherwise very difficult to monitor. The findings suggest that bioacoustics can play a key role in assessing the effectiveness of conservation efforts.
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Good news from Mexico monarch reserve despite looming threats
On this episode we hear from Mongabay's Mexico City-based contributor Martha Pskowski who recently traveled to central Mexico during the winter 'high season' when tourists flock to see monarch butterflies covering the trees. Her fascinating report on threats to monarchs in these overwintering grounds was tempered by cheerful news that the number of monarchs wintering in Mexico is up 144% in 2019. Pskowski spoke with locals who rely on monarch tourism for their livelihoods, and she investigated impacts on the monarchs' habitat from agriculture and a proposed mine.
If you enjoy this show, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge any amount to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, so all support helps.
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We need nature more than nature needs us: IUCN's Inger Andersen
The IUCN is probably best known for its Red List of Threatened Species, a vital resource on the conservation statuses and extinction risks of tens of thousands of species. But the IUCN does much more than just maintain the Red List, as Inger Andersen, the organization’s director general, explains in this episode [producer's note: just after this episode was published, Andersen accepted the role of director at the UN Environment Program].
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature was founded in 1948 and is neither a government body nor an NGO, but is rather a science-based hybrid of these, with the goal of ensuring nature conservation worldwide.
Speaking from their Swiss headquarters, Andersen shares insights about how the Red List is built, the key role of women in conservation ("Women represent 3.5 billion conservation solutions"), and plans for the next World Conservation Congress in 2020, which will dictate how conservation progresses in the wake of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which sunset that year.
If you enjoy this show, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge any amount to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, so all support helps.
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Sound can save forests and major rainforest trends to watch with Mongabay's founder
Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett A. Butler joins the podcast to discuss the biggest rainforest storylines to watch in 2019, and a major new paper he co-authored in Science that looks at how bioacoustics can monitor forests for greater assessment of conservation goals and corporate responsibility commitments.
This year marks the 20th anniversary since Rhett founded Mongabay, and subscribers to our new Insider Content already know the story of how it happened after travels to places like Madagascar, Ecuador, and Borneo.
So overseeing this global environmental news service has provided him with a wealth of insight into the science and trends that are shaping conservation, and he appears on the podcast to discuss his recent articles looking at the top rainforest stories of 2018 and the tropical forest trends to watch in 2019.
If you enjoy this show, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge any amount to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, so all support helps.
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How 96 rare sea turtle hatchlings survived a NY City summer
On this episode, the largely untold [and very heartwarming] story of how 96 critically endangered sea turtle hatchlings survived this past summer in New York City—with help from dedicated scientists and a cozy office closet.
In July, Big Apple beachgoers spotted a Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle laying eggs on West Beach. Two of them called a 24-hour wildlife hotline to report it, which very likely saved 96 tiny, precious lives.
This was by far the farthest north a Kemp's has ever been known to nest. But it soon became clear that unusually high tides would swamp the nest, which would have meant disaster for the developing embryos, so an unusual plan was hatched to save them.
We speak with scientists and conservationists who cared for the nest and answer questions such as whether it's a good sign that a Kemp's Ridley came all the way to NYC to nest.
If you enjoy this show, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge any amount to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, so all support helps.
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Bill McKibben is down on COPs but bullish on climate action
On this episode, we check in about the upcoming international climate summit (COP24, early December 2018) with top American author and climate activist Bill McKibben, to discuss its prospects and the movements that could spur the world to action on global warming: in light of recent developments he says, "I think meaningful action probably isn't going to come now at the UN," adding he does not have high hopes for specific outcomes, but that we need to look to other sources of meaningful climate action, and "happily there are some," which he is happy to share.
As an author, journalist, and activist, Bill McKibben is on the frontlines of this fight, having written the first book about climate change for the masses in the 1980s and being arrested numerous times over inaction on the issue. Listen for his personal take on movements like 350.org (which he co-founded) and new exciting ones like the Sunrise Movement on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast.
If you enjoy this show, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge any amount to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, so all support helps. Thank you!
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E.O. Wilson discusses Half-Earth and conservation solutions
On this episode we share a progress report on the Half-Earth Project (an ambitious effort to set aside half the world for nature) direct from legendary conservation biologist E.O. Wilson.
In this return visit to the podcast, Dr. Wilson discusses their effort to map the world's 6,000 bee species, his enthusiasm for the new science of understanding ecosystems, and interesting ties with the business community. Host Mike Gaworeck met Dr. Wilson at Half-Earth Project's recent event at the American Museum of Natural History which featured the launch of a new educational initiative and live discussion between Wilson, musician Paul Simon (listen to Paul Simon discuss why he supports the Half-Earth Project on a March 2017 episode of the Mongabay Newscast), and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.
If you enjoy this podcast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge any amount to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, so all support helps. Thank you!
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Chasing penguins, a dispatch from Antarctica
In a dispatch from Antarctica’s McMurdo Station, Mongabay friend Dr. Michelle LaRue discusses her sixth deployment to the icy continent to document emperor penguin populations, a species that is an important indicator of the Southern Ocean’s health. Skype was down at the station so we spoke with her by phone about what she is looking for and what it's like to work in Antarctica. LaRue and team fly in helicopters and planes to make high-res photos of penguin colonies which allow them to verify the population size, though a general lack of favorable conditions for flying is a daily obstacle.
If you enjoy this podcast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge any amount to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, so all support helps. Thank you!
And please invite your friends to subscribe via Android, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify or wherever they get podcasts.
Racing to save the world's amazing frogs
On this episode, we discuss the global outbreak of chytrid, which is probably the largest global wildlife disease event in recorded history, with an expert on the front lines fighting its spread. Our guest is National Geographic Explorer Dr. Jonathan Kolby, who founded the Honduras Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Center to study and save sick frogs. He also plays song recordings of the amphibians he studies and shares some positive news of disease resistance in certain populations and age classes of frogs. Plus we round up recent top news.
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Bats and Ebola: studying fruit bats to prevent future outbreaks
Sarah Olson is a researcher for the Wildlife Conservation Society and joins us at a moment when Ebola virus is very much in the news due to a recent outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A primatologist, Olson has lately been studying hammer-headed fruit bats to understand how Ebola is transmitted to apes and also humans — research which could potentially control or prevent future outbreaks of the deadly disease — beside revealing new details on the behavior of this fascinating species. Plus we round up recent top news.
If you enjoy this podcast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge any amount to keep it growing. Mongabay is a nonproft media outlet, so all support helps. Thank you!
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Getting social for science and conservation
We take a look at how the social sciences can boost conservation efforts with guest Diogo Verissimo, one of the top researchers focused on adapting marketing principles for conservation. A Fellow with the University of Oxford and the Institute for Conservation Research at the San Diego Zoo, he designs and evaluates programs that aim to change human behavior to combat issues like the illegal wildlife trade.
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'Godfather of biodiversity' says it's time to manage Earth as a whole system
Dr. Thomas Lovejoy coined the term “biological diversity” in 1980 and his work since has helped establish the preservation of global biodiversity as one of the most important conservation issues of our time. We discuss this and some of the most important environmental issues we currently face and why he believes the next decade will be the last decade of real opportunity to address those issues:
“We really...need to think about managing the entire planet as a combined physical and biological system,” he says.
Dr. Lovejoy is a conservation biologist, a Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation, and director of the Center for Biodiversity and Sustainability at George Mason University. In the late 1970s, he helped launch one of the longest-running landscape experiments in the Brazilian Amazon to examine the consequences of fragmentation on the integrity of tropical forests and the biodiversity they harbor.
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The amazing song skills of the superb lyrebird
Sir David Attenborough says the superb lyrebird has one of “the most elaborate, the most complex, the most beautiful song[s] in the world.” In this episode we explore the incredible ability these creatures have to mimic sounds in their environment, ranging from predators and possums to squeaky trees and songbirds they compete with for forest habitat. Ornithologist Anastasia Dalziell joins us to discuss her trailblazing work with lyrebirds, and she plays amazing recordings of these spellbinding songsters.
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Beavers, our brilliant ecosystem builders
You might not think of beavers as remarkable, but they are actually brilliant ecosystem engineers whose dams mitigate flooding, improve water quality, and boost groundwater levels, and they also provide habitat for species like salmon, moose, and mink. Environmental journalist Ben Goldbarb joins us to discuss his fascinating new book putting a bright shine on beavers, Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter.
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How dark money and shadow companies deforest Indonesia and derail its democracy
On this episode we explore the latest revelations about “shadow companies” and dark money associated with the palm oil sector, and how they factor into Mongabay’s ongoing investigation into the corruption fueling Indonesia’s rainforest destruction and land rights crises (plus how these factors derail democracy in this huge country). Host Mike Gaworecki speaks with guest Phil Jacobson, Mongabay's Indonesia editor.
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How to use drones without stressing wildlife
On this episode of the podcast we discuss the increasing use of drones by wildlife lovers, researchers, and businesses, how these uses might be stressing animals out, and how drone users can make a meaningful contribution to science while avoiding wildlife harassment.
Our guest is Alicia Amerson, a marine biologist, drone user ("pilot"), and science communicator. She tells us why it’s critical to have best practices for drones in place not only to guide hobbyists making videos of whales or birds, but especially before companies like Amazon.com deploy fleets of drones in our skies.
Episode artwork of falcon and drone courtesy of Shane Keena Photography.
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Indigenous knowledge and climate science
Traditional indigenous knowledge and climate change is this episode's topic, with Snowchange Cooperative's Tero Mustonen: “Often in the past, science has been seen as quite [a] colonial tool by indigenous peoples,” he says. “We are trying to say that we are co-researching, and these knowledge-holders in remote communities are scientists of their own kind.” We also hear about Snowchange’s ecological restoration and solar power projects, the latter of which empower women and kids in remote indigenous communities.
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Image courtesy of Nathaniel Wilder, nathanielwilder.com.
What can soundscapes tell us about animals and their home landscapes?
In this episode, professor Anne Axel of Marshall University makes the case for a new field of bioacoustics research: soundscape phenology, the study of cyclical life events of plants and animals via sound recordings. She'll be keynoting the biennial Ecoacoustics Congress in Brisbane, Australia later this month on the topic, and gives us a preview while playing just a few of the recordings that have informed this research from the forests of Madagascar.
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Mexico’s community forests find sustainability by including women and youths
On this episode, a special report on community-based conservation and agroforestry operations known as ejidos in Mexico. Ejidos have proven to be effective at conserving forests while creating economic opportunities for the local rural communities who live and work on the land, but have also faced a threat to their own survival over the past decade as younger generations, seeing no place for themselves in the rigid structure of ejido governance, have left in large numbers. A lack of inclusion of women has also posed a challenge. But some ejidos are changing all that, and host Mike Gaworecki visited several of them and spoke with ejidatarios and youths plus outside experts.
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Renowned marine biologist Sylvia Earle on acting for the oceans
Legendary oceanographer and marine biologist Sylvia Earle, often called "Her Deepness," is a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence and former chief scientist at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). She's a fierce champion for ocean conservation in general and marine protected areas in particular. "The ocean has given us everything, life itself, now it's time to give back," she says in this wide ranging conversation with Mongabay. Despite difficult trends, she also reports being 'seriously optimistic.'
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Seabird secrets revealed by bioacoustics in New Zealand
Megan Friesen is a conservation biologist using bioacoustics technology to examine the breeding behavior of a secretive Pacific seabird called Buller’s shearwater, which breeds on the remote Poor Knights Islands, off of northern New Zealand.
In this Field Notes segment, Friesen explains why bioacoustics techniques are critical to the research she's doing with the Northern New Zealand Seabird Trust, and she plays recordings of the birds from both of the main islands where it breeds.
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Exploring Brazil’s biodiverse Cerrado region and the impacts of agriculture
On this episode we discuss the impacts of agriculture on Brazil’s Cerrado region, an incredibly biodiverse savannah supporting more than 10,000 plant species, 900 kinds of birds, and 300 different mammals. But it has long been overlooked by scientists and environmentalists alike, and as protecting the Amazon Forest became more of a priority, much agricultural production in Brazil has moved from the rainforest to the vast Cerrado. Mongabay sent two reporters there to learn about the effects of agriculture, and they join us to discuss this 'upside down' forest.
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Maroon 5 guitarist James Valentine on stopping illegal rainforest wood from becoming guitars
On this episode we speak with James Valentine, the multiple-Grammy-winning guitarist for Maroon 5 about his work to keep illegal and unsustainable rainforest wood out of musical instruments, and efforts to make concert tours more environmentally friendly. He has been to Peru and Guatemala to see the effects of illegal logging there, and he talks with us about his motivations for stopping this destructive trade.
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Exploring our deep connection to water, plus the sounds of Sandhill crane migration
On this episode, we discuss humanity’s deep connection to water and hear sounds of one of the most ancient animal migrations on Earth, that of the Sandhill crane. Our first guest is marine biologist and sea turtle conservationist Wallace J. Nichols, the author of Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, & Better at What You Do. Then we speak with a team using bioacoustics to document the ecology and phenology of Sandhill cranes on the Platte River in the U.S. state of Nebraska, as the birds make a stopover during their annual northward migration.
We play their spellbinding recordings of this amazing scene, plus we round up the recent top environmental & conservation science news!
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How effective is environmental restoration?
How effective is environmental restoration? On this episode, we seek answers to that question with Claire Wordley of Cambridge University, which has just debuted a much needed new project collecting the evidence, and examples of restoration from around the globe. We also speak with Becky Kessler, editor of Mongabay’s ongoing series that examines how well a range of other conservation efforts work, about what this project has revealed.
Plus we round up the recent top environmental & conservation science news!
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Exploring the minds and inner lives of wild animals
On this episode we discuss the amazing minds and lives of animals — their memories, how even electric eels dream, the fact that some creatures like to get drunk (and why) — and we’ll hear all about Mongabay's newly launched bureau in India.
Author Sy Montgomery teamed up with her friend and fellow animal writer Elizabeth Marshall Thomas to write Tamed and Untamed: Close Encounters of the Animal Kind. Sy is the author of numerous other fascinating animal behavior titles, including "The Soul of an Octopus," which was a National Book Award finalist in the U.S.
We also speak with Sandhya Sekar, she is Programme Manager for Mongabay's newest bureau, Monbabay-India, and she shares some fascinating stories that they're already covering.
Plus we round up the recent top environmental & conservation science news!
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New eyes in the sky monitor Earth systems like never before
On this episode we dive into cutting-edge remote sensing technologies invented by Heinz Award-winner Greg Asner, the Carnegie Airborne Observatory, which his team uses to monitor ecosystems like rainforests and coral reefs. This airborne laser-guided lab can even see underwater to map reefs, find record-breaking individual rainforest trees that have escaped detection, and more.
We also listen to bioacoustic recordings that are used to analyze species richness in tropical forests with a researcher from the University of Puerto Rico, Dr. Mitch Aide.
Plus we round up the recent top environmental & conservation science news!
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David Suzuki on why indigenous knowledge is critical for humanity's survival
On today’s episode we feature a conversation with iconic Canadian scientist, author, television presenter, and activist David Suzuki.
Suzuki is a biologist who’s just as well known for his outspoken views on the need to protect nature. He is the author of more than 50 books and the host of the long-running science program The Nature of Things. He’s also the founder of the David Suzuki Foundation and the Blue Dot Movement, which aims to enshrine the right to a healthy environment in the Canadian Constitution.
Plus we round up the recent top environmental & conservation science news!
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Climate lessons from indigenous peoples, plus the mysterious night parrot
On the first episode of 2018, we speak with the author of a new book about the resilience of indigenous peoples in the face of climate change, and a researcher shares recordings of Australia's elusive night parrot.
Plus we round up the recent top environmental news!
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Massive Amazonian medicine encyclopedia gets an update, and Madagascar conservation efforts examined
We speak with Christopher Herndon, a medical doctor who as co-founder and president of Acaté Amazon Conservation, has been helping indigenous Matsés people document their traditional healing and plant knowledge in a massive 1,000 page encyclopedia, and in creating living pharmacies for the future.
Also on the show is Mongabay contributor Rowan Moore Gerety, the writer behind our recent series on the effectiveness of conservation projects in Madagascar. The island nation has been a global conservation priority for decades, receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in conservation funds from international donors — but rising deforestation, commercial exploitation of wildlife, and degradation of critical habitats suggest that these conservation investments may not be reaching their full potential. Mongabay hired Gerety, a veteran radio and print journalist, to examine the factors that contribute to or hinder success with the aim of informing future conservation efforts.
Plus we round up the recent top environmental news!
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Margaret Atwood talks about birds, ecology, and her graphic novel series
Award-winning iconic writer Margaret Atwood recently tackled a medium she is not as well-known for: comic books. Her superhero series Angel Catbird "was a conservation project from the get-go," she tells us in this edition of the podcast, being an effort to shine a light on the plight of wild birds and the house cats who love to stalk them, plus other ecological themes. We also discuss her smash hit "The Handmaid's Tale" and other 'possible futures,' as she calls them.
Then we speak with Tyler Gage, a co-founder of the beverage company Runa and author of "Fully Alive," a new book detailing the lessons he learned in the Amazon that led to the launch of Runa and its mission to partner with indigenous communities in business via plant medicine and agroforestry.
Plus we round up the recent top environmental news!
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Jane Goodall on being proven right that animals have personalities, and more
Mongabay is lucky to have Jane Goodall on its Advisory Board, and just before founder and CEO Rhett Butler was scheduled to speak with her most recently, research came out that vindicated her contention, which she’s held for nearly 60 years, that animals have personalities, so we recorded her thoughts about that for the Mongabay Newscast. “Quite honestly I think almost everybody recognized that animals have personalities, whether they were in the wild or whether they weren't,” she says. Other topics discussed include trophy hunting, activism, and hope for the future (a full transcript will be available at Mongabay.com on 11/17/17).
Our second guest is reporter Justin Catanoso, who is covering the UN Climate Change conference (COP23) for Mongabay this week, and he joins us from the event in Bonn, Germany.
Plus we round up the top environmental news.
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Gas drilling vs wildlife in Peruvian Amazon and a Goldman Prize winner on mercury contamination
In this episode we discuss new science on the impacts on birds and amphibians of drilling for natural gas in the tropics with a Smithsonian researcher, and a Goldman Prize winner discusses her ongoing campaign to rid mercury contamination from the environment, which is (still) having alarming human health effects.
Plus we round up the top environmental news.
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Bat calls from the Amazon plus how Indonesia's rainforests became palm plantations
Mongabay editor Phil Jacobson joins the Newscast to discuss a new investigative reporting project in collaboration with The Gecko Project called “Indonesia For Sale” about the land deals — and the powerful politicians and businessmen behind them — that have converted vast areas of Indonesian rainforest to industrial palm oil plantations for personal profit.
Then we speak with Adrià López-Baucells, whose acoustic studies of bats in the central Amazon reveal the effects of Amazon forest fragmentation on bat foraging behavior. In this Field Notes segment, López-Baucells plays some of the recordings he captured and also explains how this audio led to some species being found in the central Amazon for the first time.
Plus we round up the past two weeks' top news.
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Javan rhino calls and an analysis of 'green' forest certification
On this week's show we speak with Princeton University's Zuzana Burivalova about whether forest certification schemes like the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) are actually achieving their environmental, social, and economic goals. Whether they do or not has massive implications for forest conservation worldwide, and while the evidence is hard to find, this tropical forest ecologist has interesting findings to share.
Our second guest is Steve Wilson, who has just written a new paper on Javan rhino vocalizations. He plays some recordings of these fascinating sounds and discusses what they mean.
Plus we round up the past two weeks' top news.
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Legendary musician Bruce Cockburn on music, activism, and hope
Bruce Cockburn is well known for his outspoken support of environmental and humanitarian causes, and his multi-decade career has yielded 33 records, including his latest, Bone On Bone. This week, he will be inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame alongside another outspoken icon, Neil Young. We spoke with Cockburn about how he came to his ecological worldview, why he wrote iconic songs like "If a Tree Falls" and "If I Had A Rocket Launcher," as well as similar songs on his new record, and we also discuss where he finds hope for the future.
Our second guest is Amanda Lollar, founder and president of Bat World Sanctuary, a wildlife rehabilitation center in Texas. Lollar discusses the efforts of a number of dedicated wildlife rehabbers who took action in the wake of Hurricane Harvey to rescue wild animals in Houston and other impacted areas.
Plus we round up the past two weeks' top news.
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Photo courtesy of the Office of the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.
From AI to remote sensing, tech and conservation a powerful combo
On this episode we take a look at the role technology plays in conservation efforts. First we speak with Topher White of Rainforest Connection, which deploys used cell phones in tropical forests around the world to provide real-time monitoring of forests and wildlife. Its network alerts local communities when illegal logging activities are taking place and can then be stopped, for example.
Then we speak with Matthew Putman, he's the CEO of Nanotronics and an applied physicist with a keen interest in conservation. We discuss some of the technologies that he sees making the biggest contributions to the way we approach conservation, and why he believes these advances can help turn the tide against environmental degradation.
Plus we round up the past weeks' top news.
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New Madagascar mine worries locals and lemurs; plus, banjo frogs and whistling ducks in Australia
Our first guest for this edition of the Mongabay Newscast is Eddie Carver, a Mongabay contributor based in Madagascar who recently reported about a troubled company that is hoping to mine rare earth elements in Madagascar’s Ampasindava peninsula, to make electronic gadgets. This is a highly biodiverse region that is home to numerous endangered lemur species, some of which live nowhere else on Earth.
Then we speak with Jo Wood, an Environmental Water Project Officer in Victoria, Australia. In this Field Notes segment, Wood plays for us the calls of a number of indicator species like whistling ducks and "pobblebonks" (also called "banjo frogs") which appear when her team floods their dried up wetland home -- this audio evidence helps her assess the overall success of the "rewetting program" and the health of the wetlands ecosystem.
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Speaking from the heart on climate change with Katherine Hayhoe
“It was a complete breakthrough for me to realize that sharing from the heart, which is the opposite of what we’re taught to do as scientists, was the way for me to connect with people,” Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist, tells us in this episode of the Mongabay Newscast. She is an acclaimed climate communicator and a professor at Texas Tech University and last year, she teamed up with her local TV station to write and produce a web series called "Global Weirding," which tackles common questions, misconceptions, and myths around climate science, politics, and religion.
We check in with Hayhoe right as she’s in the midst of shooting Season 2 of "Global Weirding."
We are also joined by Branko Hilje Rodriguez, a PhD student from Costa Rica, where he’s studying the soundscapes of different successional stages of the tropical dry forest in Santa Rosa National Park, the largest remaining remnant of tropical dry forest in Mesoamerica.
In this Field Note segment, Hilje Rodriguez plays for us a number of the recordings he’s made in the park, allowing us to hear the sounds of the dry forest during different stages of regrowth and different seasons, as well as some of the iconic bird species that call the dry forest home.
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Taiwan's natural soundscapes and a critique of the global hydropower building boom
On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast we speak with Sarah Bardeen, the communications director for the NGO International Rivers. Bardeen wrote a commentary for Mongabay recently after attending an international gathering of river defenders, who face harassment, intimidation, and worse for their opposition to massive hydropower projects.
We also speak with Yannick Dauby, who has been making field recordings throughout the small country of Taiwan. In this Field Notes segment, Dauby plays a recording of his favorite singer, a frog named Rhacophorus moltrechtpi, the sounds of the marine life of Penghu, the calls bats, and more.
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A wildlife DJ and a children’s book author inspiring the next generation of conservationists
On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we take a break from our usual science reporting to look at some of the ways nature inspires people to create art — and how they in turn use that art to inspire others to protect the natural world and its inhabitants.
Our first guest is Ben Mirin, aka DJ Ecotone, an explorer, wildlife DJ, educator, and television presenter who creates music from the sounds of nature to help inspire conservation efforts. He'll explain the art and science of his recordings and play several songs he composed. We also speak with Cleve Hicks, author of a new children’s book called A Rhino to the Rescue: A Tale of Conservation and Adventure, not only to express his love of nature but to raise awareness of the poaching crisis decimating Africa’s rhino population.
If you'd like to share your acoustic ecology work with us during a future edition of the show, log on to Twitter and send us a link to a recording you made and any info about the science the clip conveys using the hashtag #Sciencesoundslike.
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Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem under threat, plus tracking bird movement in Puerto Rico
On this episode we welcome Gemma Tillack, agribusiness campaign director of the Rainforest Action Network, which has been very active in the global campaign to protect Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem, one of the richest, most biodiverse tropical forests on the planet that is at risk of being turned into oil palm plantations. Tillack explains just what makes Leuser so unique and valuable and how consumers can help decide the fate of the region.
And in the latest Field Notes segment, research ecologist Marconi Campos Cerqueira discusses a recently completed a study that used bioacoustic monitoring to examine bird ranges in the mountains of Puerto Rico, which appear to be shifting related to climate change, and he’ll share some of his recordings with us.
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Amazon Reef discovery discussed plus environmental journalism hits milestone in Latin America
On this episode, we welcome John Hocevar, a marine biologist and director of Greenpeace USA’s oceans campaigns. John was on the Greenpeace ship Esperanza to document the newly discovered Amazon Reef, and he talks about the uniqueness of the discovery, what it’s like to be one of a few people on Earth who have ever seen it with their own eyes, and what the opposition to drilling for oil near the reef will look like, should BP and Total try to move forward.
Then we welcome two staffers from Mongabay-Latin America which just celebrated its one-year anniversary recently, so we spoke with them about what it’s like covering the environment in Latin America, what some of the site’s biggest successes are to date, and what we can expect from Mongabay-Latam in the future.
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Why forests, why now? How tropical forests can survive and thrive
On this episode we speak with Frances Seymour, lead author of a new book Why Forests? Why Now? The Science, Economics and Politics of Tropical Forests and Climate Change, which she co-authored with Jonah Busch.
Seymour argues that tropical forests are key to climate change mitigation, and that it's up to rich countries to invest in their protection. She shares her thoughts on why now is an important moment for such forests, whether or not the large-scale investment necessary to protect them will materialize any time soon, and which countries are leading the tropical forest conservation charge.
We also welcome Mongabay editor Glenn Scherer back to the program to answer a question from a Newscast listener about which 'good news' stories are worth talking about in these tough times for environmental and conservation news. Mongabay has a long and very inspiring series of stories tagged 'happy upbeat' that you can view here.
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Singing seals and a discussion of the “infrastructure tsunami” sweeping the planet
In this episode we feature Dr. Bill Laurance of James Cook University in Cairns, Australia, talking about his team's work documenting the planetary infrastructure boom and the need for more positive, less 'doom and gloom' science communication, and then we welcome Dr. Michelle LaRue to the program. She is a research ecologist with the University of Minnesota’s Department of Earth Sciences, and her current work is focused on using high-resolution satellite imagery to study the population dynamics of Weddell seals in Antarctica. You have to hear these seals' calls to believe them!
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Deep dive into marine wildlife study with bioacoustics
On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we speak with Leah Barclay, a sound artist, acoustic ecologist, and researcher with Griffith University in South East Queensland, Australia. We discuss the ever broadening field of acoustic ecology, the many ways that marine bioacoustics is growing in importance, and she describes the new spectrogram app she's developing plus the creative ways she uses her interactive soundscape art to get kids excited about engaging with nature via hydrophones connected to cell phones. Plus we round up the week's top news and hear some of her recordings of marine life, ranging from whales to shrimp and even insects.
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Eyes in the skies for forests, plus mangrove finches on the rebound
On this episode we speak with Crystal Davis, the director of Global Forest Watch, a near-real-time forest monitoring system. GFW uses data from satellites and elsewhere to inform forest conservation initiatives and reporting worldwide. Davis shares her thoughts on how GFW's being used and the ways Big Data is changing how we approach conservation.
We also speak with Francesca Cunninghame, Mangrove Finch Project Leader for the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands. In this Field Notes segment, we’ll listen to the call of a mangrove finch, one of the rarest birds in the wild, and hear about how its population seems to be growing, finally.
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Tech solutions for conservation and a chat with Harvard researchers
During this episode we speak with Sue Palminteri, editor of Mongabay’s WildTech site which highlights high- and low-tech solutions to challenges in conservation. She shares with us some of the most interesting technologies and trends that she sees as having the biggest potential to transform the way we go about conserving Earth’s natural resources and wildlife.
Also on the program we feature a live-taped conversation with Jonathan Thompson and Clarisse Hart, two scientists with the Harvard Forest, a long-term ecological research station belonging to Harvard University, which has made a number of important discoveries.
If you enjoy this podcast, please write a review of the Mongabay Newscast in the Apple Podcasts app, iTunes store, Stitcher page, or wherever you get your podcasts! Your feedback will help us improve the show and find new listeners. Thanks.
Musician Paul Simon discusses his new environmental concert tour
On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we’re thrilled to feature a conversation with the one and only Paul Simon, who's just announced a tour in support of the environment. The 12-time Grammy-winning musician recently announced on Mongabay.com that he is embarking on a 17-date US concert tour, with all proceeds benefitting Half-Earth, an initiative of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation.
We play parts of the interview with Paul Simon as he discusses his long-time friendship with E.O. Wilson, the power of optimism, and why Dr. Wilson’s Half-Earth idea inspired him to get involved.
Also on the program, we round up the top conservation news and feature another Field Notes segment, this time with Zuzana Burivalova, a conservation scientist at Princeton University who has recorded the soundscapes of over 100 sites in the Indonesian part of Borneo. We listen to a variety of those recordings, each made in a different type of habitat, from protected rainforest to an oil palm plantation, and Burivalova explains what we’re hearing — and in some cases, what we’re not hearing.
If you enjoy this podcast, please write a review of the Mongabay Newscast in the Apple Podcasts app, iTunes store, Stitcher page, or wherever you get your podcasts! Your feedback will help us improve the show and find new listeners. Thanks.
Almost Famous Animals - plus the songs of galagos
On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we welcome contributing editor Glenn Scherer to the program, who is responsible for Mongabay’s “Almost Famous Animals” series, which just wrapped up its second year with a focus on little-known Asian wildlife.
Many conservationists argue that protecting charismatic species like tigers, rhinos, and orangutans will also lead to the protection of less widely known species such as pangolins and langurs, but that has not always been the case. Many lesser known species often fall through the cracks, so this series aims to raise their profiles.
And in the Field Notes segment, Luca Pozzi discusses a new genus of galagos, or bushbabies, found in southeastern Africa that he helped discover. We'll play some calls made by galagos in the wild, and Luca explains how those recordings aid in our scientific knowledge about this kind of wildlife.
Author and climate historian Naomi Oreskes on why scientists should speak out
With so much uncertainty around the new Trump Administration's environmental priorities, especially its energy and climate policies, this episode is dedicated to trying to answer some of the biggest questions. We welcome three guests: firstly, Harvard professor, climate historian, and noted author Naomi Oreskes talks about what stories she’s worried will get lost in the media’s hyperfocus on the chaos surrounding the new Trump Administration, and she makes an evidence-based case for why scientists should be speaking out about their work in public.
Then Bobby Magill joins us, he's a senior science writer for Climate Central and the president of the Society of Environmental Journalists, which recently released a special report entitled “Turbulent Prospects on Environment-Energy Beat Likely in Trump Era.”
Finally, Jeff Ruch, executive director of the non-profit service organization Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility shares what he’s hearing from employees of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency about their concerns with the Trump Administration’s environmental policies.
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Reporter Sue Branford on journalism from the Amazon that makes a difference
This week we speak with journalist Sue Branford, a regular contributor to Mongabay who has been reporting from Brazil since 1979 for the BBC and others.
Branford is one of the writers behind a hard-hitting new series in English and Portuguese that Mongabay.com is producing with The Intercept-Brasil exploring the many impacts of massive dam development projects in Brazil’s Tapajos Basin. The reports have already resulted in a federal investigation being opened over official misconduct.
Read all the features and watch the powerful videos Sue and her team have produced for the series here.
Branford: "Sometimes your reporting has an impact that you don't actually realize...These reports that we're doing for Mongabay, we may discover such an impact...the Brazilian prosecutor is asking for compensation for this indigenous community, but there may also be other impacts that we only discover years later."We journalists sometimes feel we just go on reporting and don't really change very much, but now and again you come up with cases where you very definitely have changed things, and it makes you feel like, OK, it really was worthwhile."
We begin the show by talking about some of the latest top conservation news, from Hong Kong's amazingly resilient (and endangered) tree frogs to Norway's new financial commitment to stem deforestation around the world.
E.O. Wilson talks about global biodiversity, Trump, Half-Earth, and hope
On this episode, we feature excerpts from a conversation with author and biologist E.O. Wilson, one of the greatest scientists of the last 100 years, who was recently interviewed by Mongabay senior correspondent Jeremy Hance about the Half Earth biodiversity initiative, the Trump Administration, and how he maintains hope for the future.
We also welcome back Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Butler, who answers a listener question about the natural sounds heard in the background at the start of every episode of the Newscast (the image that illustrates this episode is from the spot where that recording was produced, in Indonesia).
Yaks, curassows, and other cool species overlooked by conservation efforts
This week we’re joined by Joel Berger, a professor at Colorado State University and a senior scientist with the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, who recently wrote a commentary for Mongabay arguing that there are too many large mammals like yaks and Saiga antelope living in remote regions (so-called “edge species”) that are wrongfully overlooked by conservation initiatives. Then from Peru, Dr. Andrew Whitworth, a conservation and biodiversity scientist with the University of Glasgow, shares rare recordings he recently made in the field of a critically endangered bird called the Sira Curassow.
Top new species discoveries of 2016, and how fig trees can save rainforests
This being the last Mongabay Newscast of 2016, we’re bringing you the top new species discoveries of the year. Here at Mongabay we report on a lot of environmental science and conservation news. It’s not always the most cheery subject matter, especially when we’re reporting on endangered or extinct species. But it’s important to remember that we’re also discovering new species all the time.
Mongabay staff writer Shreya Dasgupta rounded up all of the top new species discovered in 2016, including 13 new dancing peacock spiders, a crab that was discovered in a pet market, a new species of whale, a tarantula that shoots balls of barbed hair at its enemies, and one bird that is now 13 distinct species.
We also speak with author Mike Shanahan, whose new book Gods, Wasps, and Stranglers: The secret history and redemptive future of fig trees looks at this tropical species’ biology and key ecological role, as well as its deep cultural (and spiritual) place in human history. If listening to this episode of the Newscast leaves you wanting to hear more from Shanahan, Mongabay editor Erik Hoffner interviewed him back in November. “Wild fig trees are magnets to biodiversity. Plant them and other species, both plant and animal, soon follow,” Shanahan said then.
Undiscovered Sumatran rhinos in the wilds of Malaysia? Maybe, or maybe not.
On episode seven of the Newscast we talk with Mongabay contributing editor for Southeast Asia Isabel Esterman, who is based in Cairo, Egypt, about the plight of Asian rhinos. Potential new evidence recently emerged that suggests there might be some undiscovered wild Sumatran rhinos in Malaysia, where they were declared extinct in the wild last year — though not everyone is convinced the new evidence is all that compelling.
We also speak with Richard Bowden, a professor of environmental science at Allegheny College, to answer a question from a Mongabay reader and geography student at the University of Hamburg in Germany, who wrote in to ask: “What are the effects of climate change on phenology, primary production, carbon sequestration, and biotic interactions?”
If you’ve got a question about environmental science and conservation, we’d be happy to answer it for you! Just drop us a line at submissions@mongabay.com and we’ll answer your question in a future episode of the Mongabay Newscast.
We’d also like to thank the first ever sponsor: Lauten Audio, maker of professional studio microphones praised by everyone from Grammy-winning to novice producers, engineers, and musicians around the world. Thanks for your support Lauten Audio!
Carl Safina discusses marine conservation under a Trump administration, and Rhett Butler shares the origins of Mongabay
Noted ecologist and author Carl Safina appears on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast to discuss the current state of marine conservation and its future under the Trump presidency. His latest book is "Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel," which is now out in paperback.
We also welcome to the show Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Butler, who fills us in on the origins of Mongabay and where it’s going in 2017. (There are many more answers to questions you might have about Mongabay here.)
Report from the Climate Talks in Marrakesh and Salamander Conservation in Michoacan, Mexico
On this week's Newscast we hear from writer Justin Catanoso who's at the COP22 climate talks in Marrakech, Morocco filing reports for Mongabay.com. He shares his latest observations from this important UN conference and the mood of the delegates following the shocking U.S. election result favoring Donald Trump. Read his reports from the UN conference here.
We also hear from Mongabay editor and Newscast producer Erik Hoffner who answers a reader question about salamander conservation in Mexico, with the help of an expert from Michoacan University.
Subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast via iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, TuneIn, or wherever you get your audio content.
Andrea Crosta of Elephant Action League on “The Ivory Game” and orangutans under threat in Indonesia
Andrea Crosta of the Elephant Action League (EAL), one of the stars of the new Netflix documentary The Ivory Game, discusses how Chinese demand is driving the multi-billion dollar trade in ivory, as well as EAL’s project WildLeaks and the undercover investigations in mainland China and Hong Kong that have helped expose the illegal ivory being laundered through legal ivory markets. The Ivory Game premieres on Netflix on November 4.
We also speak with Borneo Futures founder Erik Meijaard about his new feature for Mongabay entitled "Company poised to destroy critical orangutan habitat in breach of Indonesia’s moratorium." The article details the plans of an Indonesian company to cut down a forest that is home to between 750 and 1750 orangutans, the third-largest population in the province of West Kalimantan. The forest is slated for conversion to an industrial tree plantation.
And as usual we'll round up some of the top environmental news from around the world.
Crucial conservation votes at CITES and the future of socio-ecological research
Mongabay’s India-based staff writer Shreya Dasgupta appears on this episode of the Newscast to discuss key votes held at the seventeenth congress of the parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, also known as CITES CoP17.
Representatives from more than 180 countries gathered in Johannesburg, South Africa for CITES CoP17, which closed on Oct 5. One of the largest environmental agreements regulating the international trade in wildlife, CITES currently regulates more than 5,600 species of animals and 30,000 species of plants. Decisions were made regarding pangolins, African gray parrots, elephants, and rosewood at the recent meeting.
Also appearing on the show is Steven Alexander of the University of Maryland's National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center and the Stockholm Resilience Center. Alexander answers a question submitted by Mongabay reader Duncan Nicol: “What areas or questions in socio-ecological research need the most attention over the next decade?” But first, he explains what socio-ecological research actually entails, and provides a few examples.
If you’ve got a question, send it to submissions@mongabay.com and we’ll get you an answer on a future episode of the Mongabay Newscast.
The Mekong, Earth’s most climate-sensitive river delta, plus conservation in conflict zones
On this episode of the Newscast, Mongabay’s Indonesia-based editor Phil Jacobson makes an in-studio appearance to talk about a new series launched this week focusing on the Mekong Delta.
No other delta region in the world is more threatened by climate change than the Mekong Delta, which is why the first installment of the series, asks: “Will climate change sink the Mekong Delta?”
Three more articles by Mongabay correspondent David Brown, who traveled extensively in Vietnam to report these stories, will be coming out over the next couple weeks, and Phil shares a preview of those, too.
We also speak with Mongabay’s Israel-based forests editor, Genevieve Belmaker, who answered a question submitted by a PhD Scholar in the Department of Ecology and Environmental Sciences at Pondicherry University in Puducherry, India: “I want to ask you, how can a person living in a conflict zone contribute to environmental conservation?”
Mongabay Newscast #1: Panama's Barro Blanco Dam
For Mongabay Newscast #1, host Mike Gaworecki rounds up the week in top conservation news from around the world and then speaks with Mongabay.com editor Rebecca Kessler about the environmental impacts of the Barro Blanco Dam in Panama on indigenous communities, biodiversity, sacred sites, and the wider watershed. Mongabay has been covering this 28 MW hydro project for three years. The indigenous Ngäbe and Buglé indigenous groups maintain that they were not properly consulted about the project, yet the reservoir is currently filling as the dam undergoes a "test flooding." Read the story here. Reservoir photo by Oscar Sogandares.
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En liten tjänst av I'm With Friends. Finns även på engelska.