Mongabay Explores
32 episodes - English - Latest episode: 6 months ago - ★★★★★ - 5 ratingsA podcast about the world's unique places and species – from areas of amazing natural heritage to environmental challenges and conservation solutions – hear inspiring conversations with experts, scientists, authors, and activists on Mongabay Explores.
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Episodes
Congo Basin, Part 6: How the Congo Rainforest is shaped by elephants
November 07, 2023 21:06 - 38 minutes - 52.7 MBThe African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) plays a critical role in shaping the Congo rainforest, experts say. Though they represent incalculable and intrinsic value, there is much scientists still do not know about this critically endangered species of megafauna. On this final episode of the Congo Basin season of Mongabay Explores, Fiona "Boo" Maisels, a conservation scientist at the Wildlife Conservation Society, and Andrew Davies, assistant professor of organismic and evol...
Congo Basin, Part 5: Where's the money for Congo Basin conservation?
August 29, 2023 21:42 - 1 hour - 95.8 MBHow much does it cost to protect the Congo Rainforest? The world's second-largest rainforest provides critical ecological services that millions of people and myriad species rely on. It is also a massive carbon sink, storing tens of billions of tons of carbon in its trees, soils and peatlands. One would think protecting it would be an international priority, and yet funding commitments have historically struggled to adequately finance forest protection in the region. Experts say many commi...
Congo Basin, Part 4: A 'just energy transition' requires justice in the DRC
July 19, 2023 20:52 - 49 minutes - 67.4 MBThe global 'just energy transition' has increased demand for critical minerals – such as cobalt and copper – for products like lithium-ion batteries, solar panels, and other renewable energy sources. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which produces nearly 70% of the global supply of cobalt, has a poorly regulated mining sector that's fueled by demand for these natural resources and which has forced Indigenous communities off their land and otherwise done little to lift millions of Co...
Congo Basin, Part 3: Big challenges and potential for ape conservation
June 28, 2023 21:25 - 1 hour - 101 MBRecent research shows that great apes of the Congo Basin stand to lose up to 94% of their habitat due to climate change. In the world's only habitat of bonobos and mountain gorillas, time (and land) is running out to save them. Hunting, natural resource extraction, disease, and other human impacts threaten their prospects. On this episode of the Mongabay Explores podcast, we speak with Terese Hart, a researcher with the ICCN (the Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature); Gladys...
Congo Basin, Part 2: Can we right the wrongs of fortress conservation?
May 15, 2023 21:18 - 1 hour - 94.4 MBThe debate about how to best protect the Congo Basin's rainforest increasingly finds experts and Indigenous leaders arguing that it's time for a change, one that brings local and Indigenous people into the conversation. Fortress conservation, a model exported to Africa during the colonial era, typically expels local people from land they once relied on for food, fiber and medicine, but experts argue the concept that this model uses – that of a 'pristine wilderness' untouched by humans – ...
Congo Basin, Part 1: Second-largest rainforest in the world at a turning point
April 26, 2023 18:28 - 1 hour - 82.4 MBThe 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. On this first episode of a new season of Mongabay Explores, we take you to the Congo Basin and begin 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...
Sumatra, Bonus: Can young Indonesians help their iconic elephants survive?
September 14, 2022 16:04 - 23 minutes - 18.7 MBLeif Cocks returns to the podcast to discuss the status of the Sumatran elephant, a critically endangered species that we discussed with him in season 2, which is estimated to have less than 10 years to find a conservation solution or face extinction: he says the ranks of passionate, young Indonesian conservationists he's recently met that are working for the iconic animals' future gives him great hope. He also shares an update on the critically endangered Tapanuli orangutan, whose land ...
Sumatra, Bonus Ep: She's here! Rare Sumatran rhino calf born
May 11, 2022 10:36 - 15 minutes - 21.3 MBIndonesia's Ministry of Environment and Forestry recently announced the birth of an incredibly rare Sumatran rhino calf at a captive breeding facility at Way Kambas National Park in Indonesia's Lampung province. For this bonus episode of Mongabay Explores, we speak with Mongabay's 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 speci...
New Guinea, Part 7: Galip nut drives community empowerment and forest conservation
April 27, 2022 10:26 - 48 minutes - 66.3 MBBy 2025 the global, edible nut industry will be worth an estimated $2 billion. In Papua New Guinea (PNG), the traditional and plentiful staple, the galip nut (Canarium indicum), holds promise of tapping into that demand. Its relative ease of access for smallholder (non-commercial) farms means a new source of income for thousands of farmers across PNG. On this episode of Mongabay Explores, we speak with Dorothy Devine Luana, an entrepreneur from the province of East New Britain, whose compan...
New Guinea, Part 6: Who is destroying these rainforests? The Tanah Merah mystery.
April 13, 2022 11:19 - 48 minutes - 66.4 MBThe 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, seni...
New Guinea, Part 5: 'Ghosts of the rainforest'
March 16, 2022 10:41 - 58 minutes - 79.7 MBNew 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 t...
New Guinea, Part 4: A long and winding road
March 02, 2022 12:40 - 46 minutes - 36.9 MBSpanning 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 G...
New Guinea, Part 3: Defending paradise
February 16, 2022 11:48 - 51 minutes - 71.2 MBNew Guinea is home to the third-largest tropical rainforest in the world—of which 80% is still intact. The two-nation island also contains 44 species of unique birds-of-paradise and dense biodiverse regions unlike anywhere else on the planet. Because of its one-of-a-kind biodiversity, and relatively undeveloped landscape, New Guinea is in a unique position to conserve its forest cover as part of an economy that serves its local inhabitants, rather than extracting from and deforesting these c...
New Guinea, Part 2: 'Carbon cowboys' and illegal logging
February 01, 2022 11:00 - 54 minutes - 43.3 MBSince 2014, Papua New Guinea has been the world’s largest tropical timber exporter: more than 70% of that is considered illegal. Timber companies continue to possess land originally owned by local Indigenous communities through legal loopholes: while the carbon market has gained popularity as an alternative source of revenue for Indigenous communities, it suffers from some of the same land rights abuses as timber extraction. For this episode of Mongabay Explores we interview Gary Juffa, gove...
New Guinea, Part 1: Protecting unparalleled biodiversity
January 05, 2022 19:29 - 1 hour - 61.4 MBNew 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...
Sumatra, Part 10: Solutions and optimism that drive conservation
November 01, 2021 11:51 - 1 hour - 58.2 MB'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...
Sumatra, Part 9: Restoration for peat's sake
November 01, 2021 11:50 - 48 minutes - 39.2 MBOnce 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 Peat...
Sumatra, Part 8: Where are the rhinos?
November 01, 2021 11:47 - 25 minutes - 20.4 MBThe 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 ...
Sumatra, Part 7: Omens and optimism for orangutans
November 01, 2021 11:39 - 48 minutes - 38.9 MBThe 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 s...
Sumatra, Part 6: Elephants and eternity
November 01, 2021 11:34 - 42 minutes - 34.9 MBThe 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 El...
Sumatra, Part 5: Tiger on the highway
October 27, 2021 19:57 - 43 minutes - 35.1 MBThe 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 en...
Sumatra, Part 4: Will the world's newest great ape species face a dammed future?
October 27, 2021 19:52 - 44 minutes - 35.8 MBNorth 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 spec...
Sumatra, Part 3: Deforestation demystified
October 27, 2021 19:43 - 47 minutes - 39 MBSumatra 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 i...
Sumatra, Part 2: Saving the singing rhino
October 27, 2021 19:38 - 54 minutes - 44.7 MBSumatran 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 futur...
Sumatra, Part 1: A land like no other
October 27, 2021 19:31 - 48 minutes - 39.3 MB"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 ...
The Great Salamander Pandemic, Part 6: Hellbenders and super spreaders
October 07, 2021 10:13 - 51 minutes - 41.6 MBHellbenders 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 ...
The Great Salamander Pandemic, Part 5: Policy possibilities?
October 07, 2021 10:08 - 33 minutes - 27.8 MBThe 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 o...
The Great Salamander Pandemic, Part 4: The 'Bsal battalion'
October 07, 2021 10:01 - 30 minutes - 24.8 MBNorth 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 episode of Mong...
The Great Salamander Pandemic, Part 3: On the Hunt
October 07, 2021 09:49 - 27 minutes - 22.8 MBReporter Benji Jones and wildlife disease ecologist with U.S. Geological Survey, Daniel Grear, join this third episode 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...
The Great Salamander Pandemic, Part 2: Great diversity and danger
October 07, 2021 09:40 - 20 minutes - 17.3 MBHow 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 episode of Mongabay Explores’ first season tackles these important questions with Senior Editor Morgan Erickson-Davis, who produced Mongabay's series on this topic for the website in 2019. For the next several episodes, this season of the podcast (made possible by our Patreon suppor...
The Great Salamander Pandemic, Part 1: Are We Ready?
October 06, 2021 13:08 - 39 minutes - 32.1 MBYou 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 Americ...
Mongabay Explores Trailer
October 06, 2021 12:47 - 30 seconds - 408 KBMongabay Explores is a podcast series diving deep into the world's unique places and species – from areas of amazing natural heritage to environmental challenges and conservation solutions. We’ve explored the science behind the curiously large diversity of North American Salamanders, to the unique beauty, culture, and conservation challenges of Sumatra. If you want to hear more inspiring conversations with experts, scientists, authors, and activists, or you just want to learn more about ...