On May 12, a judge in Uganda’s specialized court for wildlife crimes sentenced Bob Mbaya Kabongo to a seven year jail term for smuggling 122 African grey parrots into the country from the Democratic Republic of Congo. His arrest and swift prosecution and sentencing has been welcomed by conservation organizations as well as the Uganda […]
Tag: Mongabay.com
Pasture replaces large tract of intact primary forest in Brazilian protected area
Satellites have detected forest clearing within Triunfo do Xingu this year, an area that’s supposed to be a legally protected swath of Amazon rainforest in Brazil’s northern state of Pará. Home to jaguars, howler monkeys, rare margays, and a wellspring of other diversity, the protected area was created in 2006 as a sustainable use reserve, […]
Conservation win for Bangladesh as efforts to halt vulture decline pay off
Vultures were a common sight across the Indian subcontinent until the late 1980s. But the excessive use of some veterinary drugs for cattle, which are toxic to the scavengers, and loss of habitat, led to a drastic fall in vulture numbers in the wild. By 2017, some species’ populations had fallen by 95%. However, in […]
As tiger numbers in Nepal and India grow, their freedom to roam shrinks
KATHMANDU/NEW DELHI — Media outlets in Nepal were abuzz recently with reports that the country’s iconic Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris), on whose protection the government and various NGOs lavish huge sums of money every year, were moving to India in search of better habitats. The story resonated with the public, in a country where […]
In oil palm-dominated Malaysia, agroforestry orchards are oases of bird life: Study
Malaysia is the second-largest palm oil producer in the world, behind only Indonesia. In 2020 alone, Malaysia was responsible for more than a quarter of global palm oil production. But for the country’s forests and wildlife, plantation agriculture is an industry that comes at a cost. Across Peninsular Malaysia, where nearly half of the country’s […]
Deforestation-neutral mining? Madagascar study shows it can be done, but it’s complicated
The Ambatovy nickel mine located in a biodiversity-rich Madagascar rainforest made up for the forest lost due to its operation, a recent study in Nature Sustainability concluded. The mine operators did so by reducing deforestation rates in nearby areas designated as “biodiversity offsets.” There are at least 6,000 large mining projects that impinge on forests […]
Himalayan musk deer talk to each other through poop, but poachers are also listening
KATHMANDU — On April 25, 2020, barely a month after the country went into COVID-19 lockdown, authorities at Nepal’s Sagarmatha National Park reported “one of the worst cases of poaching in recent years”: Six Himalayan musk deer (Moschus leucogaster) had been found killed by poachers. Officials from the park, situated in the Everest foothills, said […]
Human disturbance is pitting wolverines against an unlikely competitor: Coyotes
In March this year, headlines across the United States announced the rare sighting of an elusive creature in Yellowstone National Park: the wolverine. In the accompanying photographs, a lumbering, blackish-brown animal stands in profile on a snowy road. The individual, thought to be one of only around 10 wolverines that call Yellowstone home, continued on […]