Mongabay Newscast
292 episodes - English - Latest episode: 10 days ago - ★★★★★ - 40 ratingsNews 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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Episodes
The high costs of resource-based conflicts for people & planet
April 16, 2024 20:13 - 51 minutes - 71 MBOn 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 way...
How young activists navigate a hostile climate with honest conversations
April 09, 2024 20:39 - 51 minutes - 70 MBOn 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 DiGi...
Jane Goodall on turning 90 and building empathy for nature
April 02, 2024 21:05 - 35 minutes - 48.6 MBOn 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 o...
Forest elephants, the endangered "gardeners" of the Congo Rainforest
March 26, 2024 21:18 - 38 minutes - 53.2 MBAfrican 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. ...
Show us the money: Are giant pledges by major conservation funders effective?
March 19, 2024 19:45 - 1 hour - 104 MBBillionaires, 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 C...
Cultural survival through reclaiming language and land, with author Jay Griffiths
March 12, 2024 21:11 - 55 minutes - 75.8 MBToday’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 mul...
Restoring an Irish rainforest by simply leaving nature alone
February 27, 2024 20:52 - 56 minutes - 77.1 MBEoghan 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 historic...
Exploring a jewel of the Coral Triangle
February 20, 2024 20:09 - 54 minutes - 75 MBOn 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 ...
Is media objectivity possible during our environmental crisis?
February 13, 2024 20:10 - 1 hour - 86.2 MBObjectivity 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...
The many social and ecological benefits of a 'degrowth' world
January 30, 2024 18:40 - 1 hour - 107 MBCan '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 ...
Is "Not the End of the World" author's 'techno-realism' enough to solve our ecological problems?
January 16, 2024 20:37 - 1 hour - 121 MBData 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, ...
When independent journalism exposes crimes against people and planet
January 09, 2024 21:17 - 49 minutes - 67.5 MBIn 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 Int...
Wildlife trafficking should be covered as a crime story
December 19, 2023 20:54 - 1 hour - 98.6 MBWildlife trafficking is a high-profile but complex topic that reporters struggle to tackle effectively. Three experts recently spoke with Mongabay about some of the thornier questions the media should consider when covering international wildlife crime. Wildlife trafficking should be covered as a crime story, first and foremost, because that's what it is, as one podcast guest argues. Simone Haysome, Dwi N. Adhiasto, and Bryan Christy joined host Mike DiGirolamo in a live di...
Reversing biodiversity loss requires ecological restoration
December 12, 2023 20:13 - 1 hour - 108 MBThe 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,” wh...
How the Junglekeepers protect 55,000 acres of the Peruvian Amazon
December 05, 2023 21:25 - 43 minutes - 59.7 MBConservationist 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 55,00...
How the UN climate Loss & Damage Fund got lost & damaged
November 28, 2023 19:29 - 1 hour - 82.5 MBThe 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 &...
Deforestation decline in the Amazon and other positive news
November 21, 2023 19:53 - 32 minutes - 44.2 MBDeforestation 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 c...
Corals, kelp and creative conservation in Australia
October 24, 2023 21:04 - 40 minutes - 56 MBIf current conditions line up just right, much of the Great Barrier Reef could soon suffer another catastrophic bleaching event, so how are conservationists reacting to threats like this in Australia? “We could lose a huge part of the reef by February,” says Newscast guest Dean Miller of the Forever Reef Project, so his team is racing to add the final coral specimens to its huge “biobank” of coral species before then, for use by researchers and conservationists. Work like th...
Debunking the UN's climate neutrality claims
October 10, 2023 20:59 - 43 minutes - 59.3 MBIn 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...
Ken Burns on 'The American Buffalo,' his latest documentary focusing on the iconic species
October 03, 2023 13:08 - 34 minutes - 47.5 MBThe 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 la...
Why some bears thrive and others barely survive
September 27, 2023 21:40 - 44 minutes - 60.9 MBHuman 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 Mong...
Can 'road ecology' save millions of animals?
September 19, 2023 20:20 - 47 minutes - 65.1 MBNearly 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 need...
Profitability and sustainability go together, Patagonia's advocacy director says
September 05, 2023 21:45 - 31 minutes - 43.3 MBTraditional 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 prof...
Ecuadorian environmentalists win historic vote for Yasuní National Park
August 22, 2023 22:02 - 20 minutes - 27.7 MBEcuadorians 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 – ...
Protecting the Amazon requires fresh thinking
August 08, 2023 20:44 - 47 minutes - 64.8 MBTim 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 th...
XPRIZE-Rainforest finalists for $10m conservation tech award announced
July 25, 2023 22:45 - 26 minutes - 35.9 MBConservation 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 Ho...
Biological field stations are key to conservation but often 'invisible'
July 11, 2023 22:04 - 33 minutes - 46.5 MBField 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 ...
Big problems and potential for great ape conservation
July 04, 2023 20:54 - 1 hour - 103 MBGreat 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 th...
Can the boom in psychedelics boost Amazon conservation?
June 20, 2023 23:26 - 34 minutes - 47.4 MBFamed 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 conservati...
The Boom: Amy Westervelt examines Guyana's massive oil project on 'Drilled'
June 13, 2023 20:50 - 30 minutes - 41.5 MB"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 subscr...
Mongabay Reports: Solutions abound for staying within this planetary boundary
June 06, 2023 21:20 - 18 minutes - 24.9 MB"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 ye...
Can we right the wrongs of 'fortress conservation?'
May 30, 2023 21:36 - 1 hour - 95.4 MBSince 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 Ind...
Climate change is no joke for Australians
May 23, 2023 20:56 - 40 minutes - 55.2 MBAustralia 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...
Mongabay Reports: Deep sea discovery shocks and delights scientists
May 17, 2023 20:17 - 6 minutes - 8.91 MBScientists 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 resou...
The world's second-largest rainforest is at a turning point
May 02, 2023 18:35 - 1 hour - 83.8 MBThis 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 numero...
Guyana gets Drilled: Acclaimed podcaster Amy Westervelt on the latest oil boom
April 18, 2023 12:19 - 42 minutes - 58.7 MBThe 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. ...
Guyana gets Drilled: Journalist Amy Westervelt on the latest oil boom
April 18, 2023 12:19 - 42 minutes - 58.7 MBThe 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. ...
Mongabay Reports: Breeding new hope for African penguins at De Hoop Nature Reserve
April 11, 2023 19:00 - 8 minutes - 12.3 MBRecent 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. List...
Conservation technology just keeps on growing
April 03, 2023 22:11 - 22 minutes - 31.5 MBConservation 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: Bioa...
Mongabay Reports: What's in the new U.N. High Seas treaty?
March 27, 2023 17:10 - 11 minutes - 15.3 MBMore 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? Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscas...
Mongabay Reports: What's in the historic new U.N. High Seas treaty?
March 27, 2023 17:10 - 11 minutes - 15.3 MBMore 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? Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscas...
Journalist Tom Philpott on how agriculture impacts the environment & agroecology alternatives
March 21, 2023 16:09 - 58 minutes - 80 MBThe 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...
Mongabay Reports: Monarchs make a comeback
March 13, 2023 18:01 - 7 minutes - 6.03 MBIn 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 Kim...
Indigenous ecological knowledge: National Geographic photographer Kiliii Yuyan talks TEK
March 06, 2023 14:55 - 39 minutes - 31.7 MBThis week, 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 ...
Mongabay Reports: Can you fund reforestation by cutting trees down?
February 27, 2023 20:58 - 18 minutes - 14.5 MBAs 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 coul...
Pulitzer Prize-winner Elizabeth Kolbert on humanity's 'solution problem'
February 21, 2023 12:13 - 31 minutes - 25.4 MBModern 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 abou...
Mongabay Reports: Cheetahs bring vultures back from the brink in Malawi
February 14, 2023 12:49 - 9 minutes - 7.32 MBIn 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 Rya...
Epic struggle for Ecuador's biodiversity is having success
February 08, 2023 20:38 - 16 minutes - 13.4 MBThe 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 Hol...
Mongabay Reports: Protecting forests on a budget? Here's how.
January 31, 2023 14:58 - 7 minutes - 6.17 MBIt'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 equitab...
Are botanists disappearing just when we need them the most?
January 24, 2023 15:51 - 27 minutes - 22.1 MBA 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...