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Mongabay

@mongabay.com

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Award-winning nonprofit media outlet publishing global environmental science & news in 6 languages via bureaus in India, Brazil, Africa, Latin America, Indonesia & US: https://mongabay.com

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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 4m

** Photography that harms or stresses animals or endangers them is prohibited.
*** Mongabay cannot be held responsible in the event that participant(s) share images that are not their legal property. But any such submission will be immediately disqualified.

Mongabay @mongabay.com · 4m

✔️ By entering, participants grant Mongabay non-exclusive rights to post their photo on our social media platforms (with credit).
✔️ Winners will be notified via DMs.
* Photographers using drones require necessary permits and comply with any applicable national or international drone use legislation.

Mongabay @mongabay.com · 4m

✔️ Participants must be the legal owners of the image(s) they share. ***
✔️ No AI-generated images allowed.
✔️ Maximum 3 entries per person. More than 3 may result in disqualification or random selection of 3 photos.

Mongabay @mongabay.com · 4m

Rules:
✔️ Open worldwide, ages 18+.
✔️ All participating profiles must be set to “public” in order to tag Mongabay. Untagged posts will not be considered for the contest.
✔️Only original images taken with any camera (be it phone, DSLR, mirrorless, drones* etc.) by the person submitting are allowed. **

Mongabay @mongabay.com · 4m

⏳ 1 week left to share your Wildlife Wonders!

Post your best wildlife photo on Instagram, tag @mongabay + use #MongabayWildlifeWonders. 🏆

Winners featured Oct. 31! Deadline: Oct. 22. Rules in comments 👇

Mongabay @mongabay.com · 2h

Global deforestation hasn’t slowed in any significant way in the four years since 127 countries pledged to halt and reverse forest loss and degradation by 2030.

The newly published 2025 Forest Declaration Assessment shows that nations are 63% off track from meeting their zero-deforestation target.

Global goal of zero deforestation by 2030 is severely off track

Global deforestation hasn’t slowed in any significant way in the four years since 127 countries pledged to halt and reverse forest loss and degradation by 2030. The newly published 2025 Forest…

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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 2h

From Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea, researchers have described what is officially recognized as the 1,500th bat species known to science, according to a recent study.

The newly described bat is a species of pipistrelle, a group of tiny insect-eating bats.

World’s 1,500th known bat species confirmed from Equatorial Guinea

From Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea, researchers have described what is officially recognized as the 1,500th bat species known to science, according to a recent study. The newly described bat is a…

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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 12h

[FOUNDER'S BRIEF - @rhettayersbutler.bsky.social]

Razan Al Mubarak, president of the IUCN, describes biodiversity as an archive of genetic data refined over billions of years that encodes solutions to survival.

The story of the Gila monster illustrates this vividly.

Protecting Earth’s oldest data system: the case for biodiversity

Long before humans built computers, nature built a better one. Razan Al Mubarak sees biodiversity as the planet’s original information network. In a commentary published on Mongabay, Al Mubarak,…

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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 14h

Several bills working their way through Peru’s Congress would loosen restrictions for oil and gas drilling, and make it harder for Indigenous people to obtain protected status for their land.

Peru considers stripping protections for Indigenous people and their territories

Peru is on the verge of rolling back several longstanding protections for Indigenous people and their territories, critics warn. Several bills working their way through Congress would loosen…

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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 16h

[COMMENTARY]

This October, as delegates gather to discuss CCAMLR priorities, the authors of a new commentary argue, “At stake is more than a fishing rule, but also the commitment to manage fisheries proactively, rather than reactively.”

** Views are authors'.

Abandoning Antarctic krill management measure threatens conservation progress (commentary)

All along the western Antarctic Peninsula, whales, penguins and seals in their millions depend on krill (Euphausia superba) throughout the year. In the most rapidly warming region on the continent,…

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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 17h

Aloyce Mwakisoma, a renowned plant expert from Tanzania’s Udzungwa Mountains, was struck and killed by a bus on Oct. 6 near the village of Sanje.

Mwakisoma, who was born and raised in the Udzungwas, had an encyclopedic knowledge of the plants and animals found in his home in the Eastern Arc.

Tanzanian conservationists mourn death of plant expert Aloyce Mwakisoma

Tanzanian conservationists are mourning the tragic death of renowned plant expert Aloyce Mwakisoma, who played a critical role in forest restoration and recently helped identify and describe a giant…

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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 21h

Scientists have documented the first-ever record of an oarfish in Sri Lanka, a 2.6-meter (8.5-foot) specimen caught off the country’s western coast.

The find expands the known distribution of oarfish into the Indian Ocean, offering a new baseline for studying this rarely seen deep-sea species.

First oarfish sighting in Sri Lanka highlights citizen science in marine protection

COLOMBO — In the shadowy depths of the ocean lives a ribbon-like giant crowned with a fiery red crest — long mistaken for a sea monster. Rarely glimpsed alive, the oarfish holds the record as the…

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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 22h

[FOUNDER'S BRIEF - @rhettayersbutler.bsky.social]

For decades, conservationists have warned that the planet’s attention—and its purse—are skewed toward the charismatic few. A sweeping analysis of some 14,600 conservation projects over 25 years confirms that bias in stark terms.

The bias in saving nature: How conservation funding favors the familiar

With the World Conservation Congress meeting this week, I thought it was useful to revisit a study published earlier this year on conservation funding. For decades, conservationists have warned that…

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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 1d

The Hangzhou Strategic Action Plan 2026-35, adopted at UNESCO’s 5th World Congress of Biosphere Reserves, in China, sets the global blueprint for conservation, development and research in the 759 reserves.

Seven of the plan’s 34 targets directly address Indigenous peoples and local communities.

Indigenous voices shape UNESCO’s new 10-year plan for biosphere reserves

UNESCO has adopted a new 10-year strategy for its 759 biosphere reserves, set to kick in next year. The Hangzhou Strategic Action Plan 2026-35, launched at the 5th World Congress of Biosphere…

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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 1d

On Sept. 23 India's West Bengal capital received more than 12% of the city’s average annual rainfall in just 24 hours.

Scientists say climate change has made such extreme weather events in Kolkata more frequent, but the city’s stressed and aging drainage system exacerbated the impact.

Climate change and aging drains wreak havoc on Kolkata, India

On Sept. 23, the city of Kolkata in eastern India came to a standstill: The capital of West Bengal state received more than 12% of the city’s average annual rainfall in just 24 hours, some 247.5…

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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 1d

[COMMENTARY]

Philanthropy is purportedly rooted in a ‘love of humanity’, yet its operating systems are often transactional.

For many frontline conservation and climate justice groups, traditional approaches to giving can feel misaligned with present needs.

** The views expressed are author's.

Supporting frontline leadership in a time of crisis (commentary)

A few weeks ago, I wrote about navigating conservation’s crisis. During Climate Week in New York, I joined discussions with grassroots leaders from the Global South that offered a sharper view of how…

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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 1d

Fame, for Diane Keaton, was never an excuse to look away.

PETA called her “a true friend to animals,” a phrase that may have suited her better than some honors. It was friendship, after all, that defined her approach—not ownership or pity, but solidarity.

Diane Keaton, actress and animal advocate, has died, aged 79

Fame, for Diane Keaton, was never an excuse to look away. In a profession built on performance, she turned her gaze outward—to the voiceless and the overlooked. While audiences remember her for Annie…

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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 2d

The world’s appetite for transcendence is endangering the very organisms that once mediated it.

As psychedelic therapies move from ritual to clinic, their biological sources are succumbing to overharvesting, habitat loss, and the cultural extraction that accompanies demand.

The hidden environmental cost of psychedelics

The world’s appetite for transcendence is endangering the very organisms that once mediated it. From the Sonoran Desert to the Amazon Basin, plants and animals that produce psychedelic…

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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 2d

Conservation organizations released 350 mountain yellow-legged frogs earlier this year, marking another step in an intensive, long-running reintroduction project for this highly endangered species in Southern California.

Uphill battle to save California’s endangered mountain yellow-legged frog

Earlier this year, 350 endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs hopped into their new home in Bluff Lake in Southern California’s San Bernardino Mountains. It’s the latest step in a long-running…

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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 2d

A landmark global treaty to curb billions of dollars in government subsidies for overfishing took effect on Sept. 15, Mongabay contributor Elizabeth Fitt reported.

This is the first time the World Trade Organization has approved an environmental sustainability agreement in its 30-year history.

Global treaty to end subsidies for destructive fishing takes effect

A landmark global treaty to curb billions of dollars in government subsidies for overfishing took effect on Sept. 15, Mongabay contributor Elizabeth Fitt reported. The agreement marks the first time…

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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 2d

Pakistan contributes less than 1% to global carbon emissions, yet it is among the countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

In recent years, Pakistan has withstood multiple catastrophes, including floods and heat waves that have killed thousands and affected millions of people.

One after another, Pakistan endures successive climate disasters

On the morning of Aug. 15, a cloudburst that poured more than 150 millimeters (6 inches) of rain in one hour triggered a flash flood in the city of Buner, located in Pakistan’s northwestern province…

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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 2d

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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 2d

Malaysia’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security is expected to propose a crop seed quality bill in 2026, which is said to protect farmers’ interests, preventing losses incurred from low-quality or fake seeds.

But critics say they think it could criminalize farmers’ seed-sharing practices.

Malaysian farmers demand transparency over proposed seed quality bill

This is Part 2 of a two-part series on proposed changes to Malaysia’s seed laws. Part 1 published Sept. 29 here. In a farmland surrounded by oil palm and rubber plantations in Perak, in northwestern…

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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 3d

The guiña, a small wildcat, has been moved to least concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Found only in Chile and Argentina, this small cat was previously listed as vulnerable.

But the threat downgrade isn’t a sign of conservation success, researchers say.

IUCN downgrades guiña threat status, prompting conservation warning

The guiña, a small cat species found only in Chile and northern Argentina, has just been reclassified as of least concern by the IUCN. Until recently it was listed as vulnerable to extinction.…

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Mongabay @mongabay.com · 3d

The inauguration of Cameroon’s Nachtigal dam has boosted the country’s electricity supply.

The dam’s construction has also led to loss of livelihoods for fishers and sand miners on the Sanaga River around the dam site.

Cameroon inaugurates controversial dam despite local dissent

YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon — In the village of Ndji, old electrical cables are draped over rickety wooden poles, hanging so low in places, they touch the ground. These makeshift installations provide…

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