INTAG VALLEY, Ecuador — In Ecuador’s lush tropical Andes, Silvia Vetancourt multitasks, her hands maneuvering crochet needles with swift precision as she navigates the rocky path to the old town of Plaza Gutierrez. “We like this craft because it’s mobile,” she says, holding out a piece of a small coin purse she’s been working on on the trail. “It makes us free.” Vetancourt is the secretary of Mujer y Medio Ambiente (Women and the Environment), or MYMA, the oldest women’s group in Intag Valley, Ecuador. Founded in 1995, the artisan collective developed an innovative way to dye and stitch fibers ..read more

As dawn began to break in the Peruvian Amazon on March 5, an oil slick spread across the Puinahua River in the district of the same name, engulfing clumps of palms and reeds in a thick, black layer as it streamed down the current. The sight of the spill prompted a desperate rush among the riverside Manco Cápac community to prevent the oil from contaminating the river they depend on for their survival. “I woke up to chaos,” Kara Fikrig, a biologist with Cornell University who studies dengue in the region, told Mongabay. “People were out on their canoes, using their bare hands, using buckets to ..read more

We are now in a make-or break-moment for the landmark law to halt imported global deforestation into the European Union. Global forest defenders watch with bated breath as in the next few days, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen will either decide to support the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), or to hollow out this vital law. This is happening while recent developments in Brussels threaten the EU Green Deal at its core. Brussels’ current political climate is taking an unprecedented turn against EU environmental policies, including first to withdraw ..read more

In a quiet village called Charghikamala in Rajbari district, a sad story unfolded one night. Helal, a villager, heard his goat crying out in fear. When he went to check, he found a beautiful creature lying still under the moonlight — a fishing cat, with fur like twilight and eyes shining like emeralds. Helal says he felt sad seeing the cat. This wasn’t just any cat; it was a guardian of the wetlands. Unfortunately, its life ended in the blink of an eye. News of the killed cat spread fast, turning villagers both curious and fearful. Helal told everyone what had happened. He had heard his goat c ..read more

IKEA is under scrutiny over its wood sourcing practices after two reports linked the furniture giant to destructive logging in some of Europe’s last ancient forests. The recent investigations, conducted separately by Greenpeace and fellow environmental groups Agent Green and the Bruno Manser Fonds (BMF), focus on IKEA’s procurement of wood from ecologically sensitive areas in Romania’s Carpathian Mountains. Both reports argue that IKEA’s actions contradict its public commitments to sustainability. As the largest private forest owner in the Eastern European country, IKEA, through its franchisee ..read more

All three legacy-oil pipelines in the Andean Amazon system are old. The Oleoducto Transandino Colombiano (OTC) has been operating for 53 years, followed by the Sistema de Oleoducto Transecuatoriano (SOTE) at 50 years and the Oleoducto Norperuano (ONP) at 45 years. Pipeline technology has changed dramatically since their construction, with improvements in steel alloys, welding technology and surface coverings. These systems’ greatest flaw, however, was the decision to build them above ground, a practice that had been abandoned by the industry in its US-based systems long before these pipelines ..read more

The World Bank has suspended funding for a $150 million tourism project in southern Tanzania in response to allegations of forced evictions, killings and other violations of people’s rights in Ruaha National Park. “We have recently received information that suggests breaches of our policies in the implementation of the Regrow project,” a World Bank spokesperson told Mongabay via email, adding that the World Bank is “deeply concerned about the allegations of abuse and injustice related to the Resilient Natural Resources Management for Tourism and Growth (REGROW) project in Tanzania.” A high-lev ..read more

Liberia’s new president, Joseph Boakai, has appointed a timber trader linked to illegal logging to head the agency responsible for the country’s forests. Rudolph Merab, a longtime ally of Boakai’s, was tapped to lead the Forestry Development Authority in February, prompting alarm from environmental advocates in Liberia, who say Merab lacks the required qualifications for the job and is likely to prioritize timber extraction over conservation or community forestry. “He has been very critical of community participation in forest management,” said Jonathan Yiah, forest governance expert at Liberi ..read more

BELITUNG ISLAND, Indonesia — Nasidi paddled gently past a row of the eponymous rasau trees that line the riverbanks here in Tebet Rasau village, where a decade ago people would wade into the Lenggang River to catch silverfish. But life along the river here in the hills of Belitung Island, he said, is not as it once was. “In the past, if it rained upstream, after three days the water would get to our village,” Nasidi told Mongabay Indonesia as he continued along the Lenggang. “Now, as soon as it rains, the water rushes down quickly and causes flooding.” Tebet Rasau is named for the rasau, or pa ..read more

BLUE HILL, Maine — January brought a pair of rough storms to the northeastern U.S. They hit when the tides were high and pushed higher than normal by rising sea levels, setting numerous high-water records and prompting Maine Governor Janet Mills to request a federal disaster declaration. These events, just three days apart, built on damage suffered during another storm during the December 2023 holidays and another during the previous December. “Extensive” is the word that Peter Slovinsky, a marine geologist for the Maine Geological Survey, chose to describe the most recent damage during an int ..read more