Over the past 50 years, lion numbers have decreased by three-quarters. Only 20,000 to 40,000 of these majestic big cats survive in the wild today. A third of lion deaths are a result of poaching, and even where lions are killed in retaliation over livestock predation, in many cases their body parts are harvested for […]
Tag: mongabay
To protect its iconic condors, an entire Bolivian town declared itself a reserve
In February 2021, a period of national mourning was declared in Bolivia after 34 Andean condors were found dead. The images that circulated on social media showed a desolate scene in an area of the town of Laderas Norte, located about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Tarija, the largest city in the country’s south. Today, […]
The ex-shark fishermen teaching schoolkids how to protect the environment
LOMBOK, Indonesia — Suhardi, 43, glides across a technicolor coral garden. Freediving down to the seafloor, he scoops up a handful of sand that he sprinkles over the reef. The reef becomes a blur of color as reef fish scurry from all four corners to see what delicacies can be found among the falling grains. […]
Bird-watching offers potential for conservation & economy in Colombia’s Guaviare
The meeting took place behind closed doors one September afternoon in San José del Guaviare, the capital of the department of Guaviare, in Colombia’s central-south region. Five men sat around discussing, surrounded by maps of the department, photos of protected areas and dozens of drawings of Japanese anime characters on sticky notes, side-by-side with information […]
COP28 cements goal to halt forest loss in 7 years, but where’s the money?
Despite the COP28 climate summit agreeing on groundbreaking language on forests, countries are still no nearer to closing the “finance gap” necessary to stop the destruction of rainforests, according to Congo Basin nations. For the first time, the global stocktake text at the summit in Dubai stressed the need to halt and reverse forest loss […]
Brazil’s mammals help humanity, but those services are at risk, study says
Brazil has an abundance of wildlife, including many mammal species found nowhere else on Earth. Most of Brazil’s 701 native mammal species provide services that benefit people, such as helping forests grow, fertilizing fisheries, curbing sickness, and supporting pollination. However, according to a new study in Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation, more than half of […]
How a group in Ecuador protects 10% of the world’s bird species
In 1997, ornithologist Robert S. Ridgely discovered a previously undocumented bird species, the Jocotoco Antpitta (Grallaria ridgelyi), in the tropical montane forests on the Amazonian slope of the Andes in southeastern Ecuador. This ground-dwelling bird was immediately recognized as critically endangered due to its very small range and the threats to its habitat, which led […]
Tropical deforestation increases even as a few hotspots see respite, new data shows
Greenhouse gas emissions from tropical forest loss increased by 5% in 2022 from the year before, while temperate forests bolstered their carbon-absorbing capacity, according to latest data from a carbon mapping tool developed by California-based nonprofit CTrees. Researchers at the organization used the Jurisdictional Monitoring Reporting and Verification (JMRV) platform to map forests and non-forest […]