MADI, Nepal — Surya Prasad Paudel, a lean 42-year-old with an aquiline nose, sunken eyes and gray facial hair, stands waveringly in front of his mud house with the sunlight bathing the straw thatched roof a golden hue. On his phone, he scrolls through images of his recently slaughtered goats, prey to a leopard (Panthera pardus) that struck in the dark of the night. “We hear tigers growl right next to our house almost every night,” Paudel says, still scrolling through the stark photos. He says he wants to claim compensation, but the process for doing so is a jumble of red tape, leaving him and ..read more

Dozens of once-pristine rivers and streams in Alaska’s Brooks Range are turning an alarming shade of orange. The discoloration, according to a new study published in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, is likely caused by the thawing of permafrost, which is exposing previously frozen minerals that are now leaching into the waterways. The research team, led by ecologist Jon O’Donnell from the U.S. National Park Service, documented 75 locations across a vast area of northern Alaska where the crystal-clear waters now appear heavily stained. Using satellite imagery and field observat ..read more

In the middle of Colombia, where the country’s Eastern Plains and Andean ecoregions meet the Amazon Basin, a vast complex of parks, reserves and other protected areas safeguards ancient habitat and the biodiversity contained within. Or at least it’s supposed to. However, human activity has been chipping away at the region’s forests for years ­— and not even its protected areas are immune. Satellite data collated by the University of Maryland and visualized on the Global Forest Watch (GFW) monitoring platform shows a surge of deforestation in protected areas in central Colombia so far in 2024 ..read more

A staggering 26 Javan rhinos may have been killed in Indonesia’s Ujung Kulon National Park since 2019, according to local law enforcement. Once roaming much of Southeast Asia, Javan rhinos (Rhinoceros sondaicus) today survive in a single park in Java and are one of the most endangered large mammals on Earth. If the death toll is accurate, it would amount to poachers killing at least one-third of all the Javan rhinos left on the planet in the span of just a few years. The mass slaughter raises questions of how this could happen in what was supposed to be a heavily guarded park. Abdul Karim, the ..read more

This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network where Karla Mendes is a fellow. SANTIAGO — The screening of a Mongabay video at Chile’s Supreme Court this month is expected to help prosecutors in a landmark case against impunity against the killings of Indigenous people in Brazil. The video centers on the killing of 26-year-old Indigenous leader Paulo Paulino Guajajara in an alleged ambush by illegal loggers in the Brazilian Amazon. Four and a half years since the incident, the case still hasn’t gone to trial in Brazil, even as clamors for justice continue t ..read more

In April, after 10 years of negotiations, Peru’s Council of Ministers approved the creation of the Grau Tropical Sea National Reserve. To Peruvians, it is a much-awaited marine protected area, as it’s one of the most biodiverse stretches along the country’s coastline. The reserve covers just over 115,675 hectares (285,840 acres) of sea off the departments of Piura and Tumbes in northern Peru. Although small, it is significant due to the rich biodiversity found there, according to experts. The IUCN ranked the area among the 70 most important places in the world for marine biodiversity conservat ..read more

BANGKOK — For six years, Prasert Sriwaurai was trapped at sea aboard a Thai trawler. He and his crewmates rarely sighted land, let alone spent time ashore. Denied medical care after an on-deck facial injury , he lost sight in one eye, according to a report in U.K.-based news outlet The Telegraph. Exposed to violence, forced labor and pitiful working conditions up until his escape from the ship in 2014, Prasert was one of many victims of the modern slavery rife at the time in Thailand’s fishing industry and revealed through a series of investigations roughly one decade ago. In response to the i ..read more

In 2023, commercial fishing vessels equipped with dredges and bottom-trawling gear spent more than 33,000 hours operating in the U.K.’s offshore marine protected areas, according to ocean advocacy group Oceana U.K. The organization used satellite data to monitor commercial fishing activity across 63 offshore benthic MPAs in U.K. waters, which are intended to protect marine biodiversity. This fishing activity took place over the course of the year. The analysis revealed that despite their protected status, MPAs in the U.K. are hotbeds of fishing activity, raising concerns about the fishing indu ..read more

A report from the environmental groups RFUK, FERN and FPP calls for a shift away from market-based climate policies like carbon trading. If funders want to protect the planet’s forests, they should stop focusing on market-based solutions like carbon trading, according to a report released May 29 by the Rainforest Foundation UK, FERN and the Forest Peoples Programme. The report, titled “Beyond Offsets,” said policies that are less transactional and designed with Indigenous communities in mind will have a greater impact on the world’s forests. “The protection of forests requires both significant ..read more

AL-LANI, Syria and KAFR-EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — On the banks of Syria’s Orontes River, a beautiful flower has become a nightmare. Each spring, it creeps out of the soft mud that sheltered its seeds in winter, quickly overtaking the banks. In a matter of days, the plants sprawl across the shallowest parts of the river. Their intertwined stems form tightly woven mats of waxy green leaves topped by mauve flowers that float on the river’s surface, so fishermen can’t reach the water to cast their nets. “It grows incredibly fast, spreading by more than a meter [3 feet] every day,” says Abbas Abbas, a fis ..read more