MEXICO CITY The sudden, unexpected construction of a hotel in the middle of a protected reserve in southern Mexico has surprised residents and left many conservationists scrambling to figure out whats going to happen to one of the largest contiguous rainforests in Mesoamerica. Developers broke ground on the project in Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, in the state of Campeche, in January, setting off a wave of concern among residents worried about deforestation and the preservation of ancient ruins. The hotel is part of the Tren Maya, a controversial railway line that will move tourists and cargo throughout the Yucatn Peninsula and southern Mexico. There were rumors that a hotel was going to be built and that there were people already doing measurements at a work site. But they were just that: just rumors, said Carlos Mauricio Delgado Martnez, a member of the Ocelot Working Group, an NGO. No one really knew what was going to happen. Delgado said he was carrying out fieldwork when he encountered construction workers clearing trees in the middle of the reserve, dangerously close to the Maya ruins of Calakmul and an important watering hole that sustains local wildlife. The hotel will reportedly sit on a 3-hectare (7.4-acre) plot and have around 150 rooms. While the building is technically within the reserves buffer zone, where some development is permitted, it also falls within the area that was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002. Heavy machinery was moved onto the site overnight, residents told Mongabay.This article was originally published on Mongabay

A Mongabay investigation into land-grabbing in the Brazilian Amazon has led to the suspension of the sustainability certificate of the countrys second top palm oil exporter, as shown in email correspondence seen by this reporter, in addition to key sources of the case. Agropalma, the only Brazilian company with the sustainability certificate issued by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) a members organization including palm oil growers, traders, manufacturers, retailers, banks, investors and others has had its certificate temporarily suspended since February, the RSPO secretariat confirmed to Mongabay in an emailed statement. In mid-December 2022, Mongabay published a yearlong investigation revealing that more than half of the 107,000 hectares (264,000 acres) registered by Agropalma in northern Par state derived from fraudulent land titles and even the creation of a fake land registration bureau, which is at the center of a seven-year legal battle led by state prosecutors and public defenders. Part of the area overlaps ancestral land claimed by Indigenous peoples and Quilombolas descendants of Afro-Brazilian runaway slaves including two cemeteries visited by Mongabay. In the Livramento Cemetery, residents claim that just one-quarter of it remains and that the company planted palm trees on top of the graves. Quilombolas also accuse Agropalma of polluting the water of the river they depend on to live. The company denies the accusations. Just a few weeks after the publication of the investigation, representatives from Assurance Services International (ASI) the organization that evaluates the work of certifiers and, consequently, whetherThis article was originally published on Mongabay

Coastal ecosystems are very good at pulling carbon out of the atmosphere. But, as new research in the Baltic Sea shows, we also need to look at what theyre putting back in. Vegetated habitats along the coast sequester huge amounts of carbon. In fact, half of all the carbon stored in ocean sediment is in three coastal blue carbon ecosystems: mangrove forests, seagrass meadows, and salt marshes. Seaweed, or macroalgae, also take in carbon, though its unclear how much of that carbon eventually ends up stored in ocean sediment. But theres a catch. Marine areas can also give off methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. And most of that marine methane is also coming from coastal areas. The problem is theres still uncertainty about how much methane is emitted, and from where. Thats made it difficult for researchers and policymakers to know whats going in and whats going out carbon versus methane in different ecosystems. Scientists are starting to figure out what that balance looks like in different places. In a recent study in Nature Communications, researchers from Stockholm University and the University of Finland found that habitats of bladderwrack seaweed (Fucus vesiculosus) emit methane thats equivalent to 28% of the CO2 that they absorb. In mixed vegetation habitats, they found that methane emission amounted to 35% of the CO2 intake. The study highlights that concurrent measurements of both gases are needed to make an overall statement about whether these systems are sinks orThis article was originally published on Mongabay

Please tell me how I can make companies obey the law, the official said. He was exasperated by the companies whose oil palm plantations saturated the subdistrict he headed in Indonesia, the worlds largest palm oil producer. Their managers refused to give him information, address complaints or even come to his office when called, he told me and my co-researcher Pujo Semedi. His complaint was not unusual. Semedi and I were studying everyday life in what we called the plantation zone part of the vast swath of rural Indonesia that has been subsumed by oil palm plantations. One of our key findings, one reinforced by other academics and journalists, is that the companies that now preside over this zone routinely disregard the law. A recent in-depth investigation by Mongabay, The Gecko Project and BBC News found widespread noncompliance with a 2007 regulatory requirement for companies to give a fifth of any new plantation to communities. Scores of plantation corporations provide less land in plots known as plasma than the law requires, develop it years late or fail to provide any plasma at all. This is no small matter. The government has issued oil palm plantation permits covering 22 million hectares (54 million acres), a third of Indonesias total farmland. Corporations are expected to bring jobs and prosperity to rural areas, but they frequently prefer hiring migrant workers over local residents, claiming they are more disciplined workers. A village in rural Indonesia near an oil palm plantation. PlasmaThis article was originally published on Mongabay

In the first half of the 20th century, Mennonite communities fled Europe for South America and, over the intervening decades, established large colonies in Latin American countries such as Mexico, Argentina, Paraguay, Peru and Bolivia. In 2015, three colonies arrived in Colombia, attracting controversy due to deforestation for large-scale agriculture in protected areas and Indigenous territories. Leaders of the Barrulia, Tsabilonia, and Itwitsulibo Indigenous communities, located in Colombias Meta department, told the Mongabay Latam/Rutas del Conflicto reporting team that Mennonite colony members and other individuals have threated and intimidated them in an attempt to force Indigenous communities off their land and stop them from reclaiming land already lost. Several of these leaders requested anonymity due to safety concerns. Satellite data and imagery visualized on Global Forest Watch show tree cover loss associated with large-scale agriculture and road-building occurring since 2015 in the area of the Liviney Mennonite Colony, located in Metas Puerto Gaitn municipality. Clearance appears to be ongoing, with agricultural expansion cutting into forest in as recently as the third week of March. Satellite imagery from Planet Labs captured February 2023 shows large agricultural field associated with the Liveny Mennonite Colony. They have bought new land and they cut wood where our ancestors were, said an Indigenous resident who requested their name be withheld. Alba Rubiela, the leader of the Indigenous Sikuani community of Barrulia, told reporters she requested protection of her communitys territory in 2017 from the Colombian National Land Agency (known by its Spanish acronym, ANT). AccordingThis article was originally published on Mongabay

David Suzuki was one of the first voices to call for action to curb climate change, but he is probably best known as a broadcaster and prolific author of 52 books. In an interview conducted in late 2022, Canadas highest profile scientist and environmental activist reflected back on his long career, the rapid decline of the natural world, and why he thinks the environmental movement has so far failed to persuade the world to effectively put a brake on carbon emissions. At the time of this interview, the 86-year-old had just finalized his retirement from The Nature of Things, the critically acclaimed Canadian Broadcasting Corporation television series seen in over 40 countries which he first started hosting in 1979 and a revised edition of his bestselling book, The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature, was released. In this interview, Suzuki said that elevating the economy above the atmosphere that gives us air to breathe, weather, climate and the seasons is, in his words, the creed of cancer, a doctrine of endless economic growth that condemns Earths life support systems to rapid destruction. He instead calls for a shift from societys anthropocentric orientation to an eco-centric view of life, one that acknowledges the radical interdependence between humans and all of nature. What gives him hope is the growing activism of the young, who are partnering with Indigenous people and scientists to demand fundamental change, and told Mongabay that he is looking forward to his own new role asThis article was originally published on Mongabay

Illegal deforestation, wildcat mining, drug trafficking, and lethal violence: Name your scourge and the Amazon Basin seldom disappoints. But as an unusual compact between police officers, prosecutors, environmental protectors, and money-laundering experts convened last week in Manaus shows, ruin can also give way to reflection and even prospects for rapid response and building local resilience. While there is growing recognition that drug and environmental crimes are growing in scale and intensity across the region, there is also an expanding resolve to do something about the issue. Even while the world may be falling apart, Colombia is falling together, the anthropologist Wade Davis famously wrote in 2016. Davis was commenting on the Colombian peace accord that ended one of the modern worlds longest shooting wars. But its not a stretch to believe that it was a lifetime immersed in the millennial cultures of the Amazon that shaped his outlook on one of the hemispheres darkest chapters. While its too soon to say the Amazon Basin is falling together, a recent event organized by our organization, the Igarape Institute, plus Interpol and the Iberian-American Association of Public Prosecutors in the historic Brazilian river port of Manaus was a meaningful step in the right direction. The event gathered experts from across Brazil, Colombia and Peru to reflect on the dire straits facing the iconic tropical biome, its people and the global climate should todays leaders miss their cue. The Karipuna Indigenous territory in the Brazilian state of Rondnia has been rapidly destroyedThis article was originally published on Mongabay

It started in a very Hawaiian way: with the ukulele. Husband and wife Joe and Kristen Souza, spent decades building a successful ukulele-crafting business, known as Kanilea Ukulele, on the island of Oahu. Many of their instruments were carved using the native koa tree (Acacia koa), found nowhere else in the world. As Kristen told me, Its the most beautiful wood and it has great tonal properties. For many years, the couples relationship with the koa was purely instrumental. Then, on a trip to the island of Kauai, the Souzas noted the drastic contrast between an overgrazed cattle pasture and adjacent native tropical forest. We said, Wouldnt it be cool to plant a koa tree for every ukulele we built? Were like, Yes, thatd be really nice. And that was the end of that conversation, recalls Kristen. But those words stuck with them, unacted on until 2014. One of the ukuleles made by Kanilea Ukulele as seen against a tropical rainforest backdrop. Image courtesy of Saving Hawaiis Forests. Thats when Kristen visited a degraded 39-hectare (96-acre) property on the island of Hawaii, situated at an elevation of 1,200 meters (4,000 feet) on the slopes of Mauna Loa, one of the Big Islands active volcanos. Shortly after, the couple decided to buy it. Their plan: to grow koa trees and make a forest from scratch. Their land, once cloaked in biodiverse tropical forest, had long since been denuded by grazing livestock. The forest was trying to come back. But theThis article was originally published on Mongabay

When Teresa Chang first saw the plot of land that now makes up the Amotape Dry Forest Private Conservation Area in the Tumbes municipality of northern Peru, she was horrified. It was 1997 and she was looking for a place near the sea to retire with her husband. But the barren 123-hectare (300-acre) lot that theyd purchased couldnt have been further from what shed envisioned. All the trees had long been felled. An intense fishy smell from larvae and prawn fishing on the coast filled the air. The only birds in sight were vultures, and the soil was upturned from informal quarrying for construction. After a decade of sowing and tending to the land, they noticed a flock of pheasant-looking birds theyd never seen before and understood their project was no longer just a retirement home. We started to see all these different birds and realized we had created an ecosystem, Chang, now 75, told Mongabay in a phone interview. In 2009, the family registered the land as a privately protected area, a category that was only defined in Peruvian law a few years prior. Today, the conservation area partners with the Cornell Laboratory for Ornithology to monitor the bird life there. Its home to 79 species of birds, of which 16 are found only in this region, including the Peruvian booby (Sula variegata) and the Peruvian pelican (Pelecanus thagus). Susana Chang, Teresa Changs daughter, holds a photo showing the before and after transformation of the Amotape Dry Forest PrivateThis article was originally published on Mongabay

Technology entrepreneur and conservation philanthropist Gordon Moore has died, as reported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation on Friday. He was 94. While most widely known for his career in technology, including predicting the pace of semiconductor chip development which became known as Moores Law and co-founding Intel, Moore and his wife Betty have been major backers of conservation efforts from the Arctic to the tropics. For example, the Moore Foundation has been the largest private donor toward efforts to protect the Amazon, committing more than $800 million since 2000 to a range of initiatives across the Earths largest rainforest. Dusk in the Amazon. Photo credit: Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay Beyond conservation, the Moores have supported many causes in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, including advancing science, improving healthcare, and bolstering education programs. Gordon Moore has received numerous honors for both his business achievements and his philanthropy. A memoriam for Gordon Moore is available on the Moore Foundation website. Mongabay interviewed Aileen Lee, chief program officer at the Moore Foundation, in 2021.This article was originally published on Mongabay

KATHMANDU The B.P. Koirala Memorial Cancer Hospital in Nepals central Bharatpur city, Chitwan District, bustles as patients, most of them from the countrys northern hilly areas, line up for their turn. Doctors in white coats dart from one room to another, while nurses in scrubs attend to patients. The facility is one of the more than a dozen specialized hospitals, both private and public, that have sprung up in Chitwan, better known to the outside world for Chitwan National Park a UNESCO World Heritage Site, important biodiversity hotspot, and home to the one-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) and the Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris). Chitwan, which continues to lure Nepalis from across the country to its fertile plains, is fast becoming a top destination for those seeking better access to health services. The district now has one of the highest population growth rates in the country thanks to rapid urbanization, according to recently released census figures. This has left conservationists concerned about the prospect of increased human pressure on the forests and wildlife of the region. Tourists on an elephant safari view rhinos in Chitwan National Park. Tourism has become a crucial source of revenue for the surrounding communities. Public domain image. That rising population in Chitwan definitely adds to challenges in conserving forests and biodiversity, said Jhamak Bahadur Karki, former chief warden of the national park and a faculty member at Kathmandu Forestry College. According to the 2021 census, Chitwans population that year grew by 2.07%, higher than theThis article was originally published on Mongabay

For half a century, industrial tuna fishing vessels have borne scrutiny for catching animals they havent meant to: bycatch, in fisheries lingo. Purse seiner vessels, which provide most of the worlds canned tuna, have drawn conservationists particular ire for their indiscriminate ways. They operate by dropping a massive cylindrical net and cinching it together at the bottom, like a drawstring purse, so that everything above is caught. Yet in well-regulated regions, purse seining has become less damaging to marine life over time. First, conservationists and regulators focused on ways to avoid killing dolphins, then sea turtles, then sharks. More recently, manta and devil rays (genus Mobula), most species of which the IUCN lists as Endangered, have become part of the bycatch mitigation agenda. A bentfin devil ray (M. thurstoni) sits on a stretcher made to transport mobulids from ship decks back to sea. Successful release doesnt guarantee post-capture survival, however. Bentfin devil rays survive capture by tuna purse seiner vessels less than 10% of the time, according to preliminary findings from tagging research in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The IUCN lists bentfin devil rays as Endangered. Image by TUNACONS/Cronin et al. 2022, ICES Journal of Marine Science. Mobulids, as these rays are collectively called, glide through the upper layers of tropical and subtropical waters, collecting plankton to eat. Mantas, which tend to be larger than devil rays, have a majestic calmness thats made them popular among divers. They can grow as wide as a giraffe is tall which makesThis article was originally published on Mongabay