KATHMANDU — Raju Acharya, a Nepali conservationist, has been namedof the six winners of this year’s prestigious Whitley Awards, also known as the “Green Oscars,” in recognition of his work protecting and campaigning for owls. Acharya, the third Nepali to win the award in as many years, is the founder and executive director of Friends of Nature, a Kathmandu-based NGO. The resident of Pokhara, a town in western Nepal, has campaigned for the conservation of the birds of prey for more than 15 years, despite facing numerous challenges, such as stereotypes of local people toward the raptors and thei ..read more

The extractive industries are strategic components of the economy of all Amazonian countries, but their importance varies greatly. Mineral extraction creates tangible economic benefits for a sovereign state. Converting a non-renewable natural resource into money can provide an emerging economy or middle-income country with much-needed financial capital for infrastructure development and poverty reduction. The resource exploitation generates foreign earnings essential for providing citizens with the goods and services that are not produced by the domestic economy. Unfortunately, many, or perhap ..read more

ANYAMAM, Ghana — The brother of a Ghanaian fisheries observer who went missing from his assigned vessel last October says the family has received no information from the authorities investigating the case. Yohane Abayateye tells Mongabay the family is now considering legal action to compel the Ghana Police Service to release the findings of its investigation, especially the DNA test results that could confirm the identity of a headless body that washed ashore in December. Samuel Abayateye, a 38-year-old father of two, was assigned to the Marine 707, a Ghana-flagged pole-and-line tuna-fishing v ..read more

MONROVIA — Chainsaw-milled timber is emerging as a damaging new form of illegal logging in Liberia. Chainsaw milling is legally permitted only for small-scale production of boards for the country’s domestic market, but larger operators may be using it as a means to evade regulations governing the sourcing and tracing of wood, and to avoid paying royalties to communities. Liberia has the largest intact forests in West Africa, a reservoir for biodiversity and a vital resource for the people who live in them. During the long civil war that began in the 1990s, armed factions indiscriminately felle ..read more

The intensifying impact of the climate crisis on frontline communities in the Global South, record-breaking CO2 emissions, and global temperatures exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius above average in 2023 are signs that we urgently need a just energy transition that reaches all levels of society. Through our work on the Energy Finance Tracker at the International Accountability Project, we know that between 2022 to 2023, there were 933 known investments in the energy sector, totaling at least $139.8 billion, involving 14 multilateral development banks (MDBs)  and more than 600 companies across ..read more

SITIO DALICNO, Philippines — Domeng Laita, 64, stands on a mountain ledge outside his home, looking down with worry on his face. Below him stands the embankment of the San Roque dam, stretching more than a kilometer (0.6 miles) along the Agno River. In 2012, a spill from a gold mine upstream sent millions of tons of waste into the river system. With a looming increase in mining activity, Laita says he dreads a repeat of the incident. Laita looks back at his home, casting another shrug then grinding his teeth. More mining means the old tunnels under his house will likely deepen. He tries not to ..read more

Mangroves are recognized globally for their impressive carbon storage potential and plethora of social and ecological benefits. Beyond their outsize role in buffering the world against greenhouse gas emissions, their extensive root systems protect and stabilize coastlines and provide habitat for commercially important fish and shellfish. However, these crucial coastal tropical forests also have a long history of exploitation. Mangrove timber has sustained local livelihoods for generations. The need to preserve mangroves and the ecosystem services they sustain, while also providing for the soci ..read more

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Just 60 kilometers (37 miles) outside the city of Rio de Janeiro, dozens of Guiana dolphins swim cautiously past the motorboat, cutting through the water’s surface to breathe. Leonardo Flach stands at the bow taking photos to later identify individuals based on their dorsal fins. With a clear sea and surrounding forest-covered mountains, the landscape of Sepetiba Bay is scenic, yet the water is anything but pristine. The Guiana dolphin is “the most common dolphin species in Brazil, but at the same time, one of the most endangered,” Flach, a biologist and co-founder of ..read more

CHUBUT RIVER, Argentina — “The waters of this territory converge in the Río Chubut,” began the refrain of a caravan traveling across Argentina’s Patagonia region in the budding first weeks of February. “And like the waters, so too will our voices flow together to be heard.” The group, made up of Indigenous Mapuche leaders, activists and anthropologists, journeyed along the 847 kilometers (526 miles) of the Chubut River. At each stop along the way, from the Andes to the Atlantic, they held meetings in Mapuche communities. They gathered voices, notes, exhortations and experiences — compiling the ..read more

In Mato Grosso do Sul state, around 100 Indigenous individuals from the Guyraroká community of the Guarani-Kaiowá people are confined to an area of 50 hectares (123 acres) on the edge of a road, surrounded by soybean and corn plantations. Meanwhile, in Minas Gerais state, the Krenak are fighting to reclaim the area where their cemeteries and sacred sites are located. They still experience the effects of the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964-85, when Indigenous peoples were tortured, enslaved and forced from their territories. “The state will always be indebted to us, Indigenous ..read more