At first glance, the device resembles an egg-shaped game. But the birth-alert-tag is anything but a toy. Inside, it holds technology that collects data aimed at informing conservation strategies for sharks, among the most vulnerable vertebrates on Earth. The birth-alert-tag (BAT) is a first-of-its-kind device designed to be implanted in the uterus of pregnant sharks. The mother shark ejects the device along with her babies when she gives birth; satellite technology enables it to alert researchers about the location and time of the births. A study published in March 2023 in the journal Science Advances showed the BAT works after the researchers who developed it deployed it successfully in two female sharks. Discovering where sharks give birth is our holy grail, James Sulikowski, a co-author of the study and associate director of the School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences at Arizona State University, told Mongabay in a video interview. Its crucial information that has eluded us for so long. Sulikowski developed the BAT along with Neil Hammerschlag, director of the Shark Research and Conservation Program at the University of Miami. The birth-alert-tag (BAT) is an egg-shaped device that can help document the location and timing of shark births. Image courtesy of James Sulikowski. Pregnancy and infancy are animals most vulnerable life stages, so accurately identifying where pregnant mothers and newborns spend their time, and when, is imperative to protecting them from harmful human activities. Scientists have long used tags that implant in either the uterus or the vagina to documentThis article was originally published on Mongabay

JAKARTA A new study has shown that farmers who arent traditionally perceived as having the most social and cultural power in their community can be more effective at convincing their peers to adopt new practices. The findings could have significant implications for conservation organizations trying to implement sustainable agriculture programs within communities. The study, published in February, looked at the role of women and younger cacao farmers in a district of Indonesias Sulawesi Island. It found that, compared to older males in the community who were perceived to be opinion leaders, women and younger farmers were able to convince nearly twice as many of their fellow farmers to try out new techniques. Study author Petr Matous, an associate professor at the University of Sydneys Faculty of Engineering, noted that farming is highly gendered in Indonesia; few women occupy prominent roles in local groups, many of which are community-based organizations aimed at improving the livelihoods of locals. These groups are also often responsible for channeling support from the government and international organizations, he added. But what our result has demonstrated is something often remarked on anecdotally in many other settings, Matous said in a statement. From farming and construction to banking and politics, older men are often perceived as the most influential in their networks, but in our study they didnt have the greatest impact. A member of the Sulawesi farming community speaks to a contact about using a new pair of scissors to prune cacao crops. Image courtesy ofThis article was originally published on Mongabay

KATHMANDU On an early spring afternoon on the fringes of Nepals Chitwan National Park, smoke fills the air and the smell of burning grass is overpowering. As flames rage across the landscape, devouring everything in their path, soot descends on the tourist town of Sauraha like snowflakes. This is a common scene in tiger-dense protected areas across Nepal, where officials carry out large scale burning of the grassland habitats between February and May as a management tool. Both officials and local people say they believe that fires are a cost-effective tool to prevent grasslands, which provide habitat for tigers and their prey, from turning into forests, and to promote the growth of fresh and nutritious grass sprouts. But conservationists say management practices like this, already being criticized for being too tiger-centric, could prove costly for another species: the endangered and elusive hispid hare (Caprolagus hispidus). Officials carry out large scale burning of the Chitwan grassland habitats between February and May as a management tool. Image by Grant Eaton via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). We have found that the grassland burning season may be coinciding with the breeding period of hispid hares, said Bijaya Singh Dhami, lead author of a recent study on the animal. The newborns may not be able to run fast and save themselves from the fire. The nocturnal and solitary mammal, billed as one of the worlds rarest, once roamed the grasslands at the foothills of the Himalayas. We dont know for sure about the matingThis article was originally published on Mongabay

At the beginning of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, an unassuming shrub-like tree native to Central America, was planted across the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its promise as a sustainable source of biofuel that could be grown on degraded, unfertile lands so as not to displace food crops. But inflated claims of high yields fell flat. Now, after years of research and development, the sole remaining large plantation focused on growing jatropha is in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, claims the jatropha comeback is on. All those companies that failed, adopted a plug-and-play model of scouting for the wild varieties of jatropha. But to commercialize it, you need to domesticate it. This is a part of the process that was missed [during the boom], jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview. Having learned from the mistakes of jatrophas past failures, he says the oily plant could yet play a key role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, reducing transportation carbon emissions at the global level. A new boom could bring additional benefits, with jatropha also a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics. But some researchers are skeptical, noting that jatropha has already gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They caution that if the plant is to reach full potential, then it is essential to learn from past mistakes. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were hampered not only by poor yields, but by land grabbing, deforestation, and social problems in countries whereThis article was originally published on Mongabay

PORTO VELHO, Brazil Cruising north in a speedboat along the Madeira River, the signs of Brazils illegal gold mining boom are everywhere: mounds of sand extracted from the riverbed sit along the banks, and dozens of smoking dredging rafts operate at full steam. Mongabay reported from the region in November 2022, a few weeks after a police operation that destroyed dozens of rafts, known locally as dragas or balsas. But with gold prices hovering at near-record highs, for many illegal mining groups the potential profits outweigh the risks. In January, Brazilian security forces launched a long-awaited crackdown to rid the Yanomami Indigenous Territory of thousands of illegal miners, destroying dragas and other mining equipment, as well as a plane and a helicopter, and restricting air traffic to cut off a key supply route for food and fuel for the mining camps. But at more than 500 million hectares (about 1.2 billion acres), an area 10 times larger than the state of California, the Brazilian Amazon is far too big to police using manpower. Advanced forensics techniques are therefore essential for complex, time-consuming investigations: to identify the origins of illegal gold, take down well-funded mining gangs, and block the illegal trade that destroys forests, ruins Indigenous communities and poisons rivers and natural habitats. Dredging rafts in the Madeira River, in the municipality of Porto Velho, Rondnia state. Much of Brazils illegal gold is mined from rivers, using dredging rafts as floating mining platforms. Image by Ignacio Amigo. Judges or prosecutorsThis article was originally published on Mongabay

Standing beside the Andean condor on Chiles coat of arms is the huemul deer. The species, whose habitat stretches from central Chile all the way south to the tip of Patagonia, has declined dramatically over the last two centuries. But in Chile, a recently launched public-private project, the National Huemul Corridor, aims to boost the iconic deers population and push for large-scale ecosystem restoration. The corridor project is a collaboration between Rewilding Chile Foundation, Chiles Ministry of Agriculture, the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF) and the National Agricultural and Livestock Service. The aim is  to connect huemul habitats within the countrys Route of the Parks. Spanning more than 2,700 kilometers (1,700 miles) across Patagonia, the route crosses 17 national parks and protects more than 11 million hectares (27 million acres) of land. Rewilding Chiles long-term vision is to restore as much of the huemuls original distribution as possible, according to Cristin Sucedo, director of Rewilding Chile. Sucedo thinks it is a monumental challenge that will require public-private partnerships, scientific research and active management of populations. Image courtesy of Marcelo Mascareo/Rewilding Chile. The ultimate goal, says Cristin Sucedo, wildlife director of Rewilding Chile, is to restore the species (Hippocamelus bisulcus) to its original population, or as close to it is as possible. Its a long-term mission and the only way to get there is with this collaborative approach, he told Mongabay in a video call. There are still plenty of steps before connecting different huemul populations, Sucedo explains. These include a betterThis article was originally published on Mongabay

In 2021, Gabons space research agency, AGEOS, concluded that the countrys capital, Libreville, had lost nearly 70 hectares (170 acres) of mangroves in three years. Thats an area about a fifth the size of New York Citys Central Park, which is not much, says Alfred Ngomanda, commissioner of the National Centre for Scientific and Technological Research of Gabon (CENAREST). The surface area of mangroves in Gabon is much larger than that, he tells Mongabay. We have a deforestation rate that is not even 1%. But while this may be a negligible amount at the national level, on the scale of Libreville, which has 1,883 hectares (4,653 acres) of mangroves, this represents 3.55% which is worrying, says Magloire Dsir Mounganga, a former scientific coordinator at the ANPN, Gabons national parks agency. There are several things that threaten it, he says. First of all, there is erosion, i.e. the rise of the sea, but when I go out into the field I also see urban pressure. It is such that the mangrove ecosystem which is in the urban periphery, unfortunately, is destined to be regularly damaged, if not completely destroyed. Librevilles skyline. Image by Elodie Toto / Mongabay Mangrove forests form a unique ecosystem at the boundary between land and sea in tropical and subtropical areas. Mangrove trees have intertwined stilt roots that can grow in soil with a high concentration of salt. Hectare for hectare, mangrove forests store more carbon than tropical rainforests, according to French NGO Energy Observer, whichThis article was originally published on Mongabay

PERUBE, Brazil On Oct. 2, 2020, Brazils Supreme Federal Court overruled the marco temporal cutoff criteria for demarcating Indigenous lands, and upheld the 2016 homologation of the Piaaguera Indigenous Territory. The courts verdict came as a relief to the families of the last coastal piece of Tupi-Guarani land in Brazils southeast region, in the middle of the Atlantic Forest. The long-drawn-out demarcation process, ending with the homologation that officially recognizes the land as Indigenous territory, began in 2000. That was the year when the Indigenous families returned to this area in So Paulo state after being evicted by squatters. Since then, theyve had to hold out for two decades against attempts to retake and destroy their territory, which covers 2,795 hectares (6,907 acres) and is today home to 11 villages and 358 residents. For eight of those years, they resisted a campaign of harassment led by controversial businessman Eike Batista, at one point the richest person in Brazil and No. 7 in the world. Batista, who in 2018 was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison for bribing a public official in exchange for state contracts, had tried and failed to convince the Indigenous families to sell part of their land to him to build what would have been the largest port in Brazil. In 2011, the families blocked a concession that had allowed a mining company to extract sand in the region. That operation had left a cratered moonscape after five decades of exploitation, andThis article was originally published on Mongabay

A carbon credit program in a prominent national park in Peru appears to have failed at preventing significant deforestation, raising questions about whether officials in charge of the program inflated its benefits in order to increase profits. A March report from the Associated Press revealed that the carbon credit program in Cordillera Azul National Park, a 13,500-kilometer (8,388-mile) protected area in the Andes, has been financially profitable but ineffective as a means of conservation. Satellite data shows that tree cover loss in the park has more than doubled in the past two years. The Cordillera Azul project was flawed from the beginning, with far too many carbon credits generated and exaggerated benefits that allowed the nonprofit running the park for the Peruvian government to make more money even as the tree canopy shrank, the report said. Launched in 2008, the program was meant to offset the carbon footprint of major emitters. Oil companies like Shell and TotalEnergies purchased blocs of the park (or credits) equivalent to one ton of carbon dioxide, allowing them to emit in other ways. AP found that more than 28 million credits were sold in Cordillera Azul, meaning the program was theoretically offsetting 28 million tons of CO2. The program brought in millions of dollars for the park, covering around 90% of its operating costs and bolstering forest patrols and education about deforestation for local communities, AP said. But at the same time, average tree cover loss increased from 262 hectares (650 acres) per yearThis article was originally published on Mongabay

For most of us, it seems quite obvious that doing harm leads to consequences. Its only fair after all if your actions hurt someone, you get held to account and you change. However, if you happen to be a multi-billion-dollar titan of the global mining industry, the harm-to-consequences link might not seem so clear. Our case in point here is Rio Tinto, the Anglo-Australian mining company, which celebrates its 150th anniversary this year and holds its London Annual General Meeting on 6 April. The history of the company is littered with examples of environmental pollution, dispossessing people of their lands and destroying valuable cultural heritage, but the consequences it has faced have been few and far between. It still trades shares on the London Stock Exchange, still operates in 35 countries and still has an income of over $10 billion a year. Soon, a change in UK law may mean that companies based in the UK can be taken to court for human rights and environmental harms caused in other countries. Rio Tinto would do well to pay close attention to this development, as doing damage to people, the climate and nature is not something thats simply in the past it is still very much a part of the companys operations today. Communities near Rio Tintos QMM mine in Madagascar have recorded uranium and lead levels 52 and 40 times in excess of WHO safe drinking water standards, respectively. Shown here is mineral-rich sand that awaits processing outsideThis article was originally published on Mongabay

Mining projects across the world continue to affect the local populations. In Ecuadors Intag Valley, communities are working to conserve, restore and defend the cloud forests in what locals say is the longest continuous resistance movement against mining in Latin America. In Nigeria, the gold rush is profiting a small handful of local elites and their Chinese partners at the expense of local communities and the environment. In Brazil, 20,000 illegal miners and their camps are being removed from the Yanomami Indigenous Territory. In Marchs episode of Mongabay Sessions, host Romi Castagnino spoke with director Kartiki Gonsalves about her Oscar-winning documentary The Elephant Whisperers. With changing climates, growing populations and burgeoning industrialization, food crisis is an increasingly serious concern. The long drought in the arid northern Kenya has forced pastoralists to turn to fishing in an already stressed Turkana lake. In another part of the country, in another lake, massive fish die-offs have affected the fishers significantly. Mongabay-India spoke with conservationist M.K. Ranjitsinh about the introduction of African cheetahs in India, his fight with power companies for the great Indian bustard, and his wish for Indias environment. The team also covered stories about how traditional livelihoods and rural trades are being boosted by local solar power, and how we can employ technology to use agricultural waste to produce clean fuel. In Southeast Asia, where development is rapidly growing with little attention to local communites and the environment, Mongabay covered two issues in Vietnam and the Philippines. The plan for anThis article was originally published on Mongabay

LIMURU, Kenya Kiambu County in Kenya is facing a major water scarcity crisis that is threatening not only peoples livelihoods but also biodiversity. Rivers and wetlands that were once roaring with life are now dry and barren. With prolonged drought worsening the situation, residents are worried about the long-term implications and the drastic decrease in water supply over the last few years. Of particular concern is the Manguo swamp, a wetland that is not only a source of water for the community but also a rich harbor for biodiversity, which has, for the first time since the residents can remember, totally dried up. Kiambu county, located in central Kenya, is the second most populous county in the country. It is located north of the capital, Nairobi, and is known for its lush greenery and rich fertile lands famous for Irish potatoes, cabbages, pears and other horticultural crops, supplying a large extent of Nairobis food needs. Many residents are worried about news of drying rivers and boreholes, drilled by homeowners and the government to locate water, plus a looming local water crisis. The Manguo swamp or what used to be sits near Limuru town, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Nairobi. Along the Nairobi-Nakuru highway, at the junction with Kiambu Road, is a barren depression about seven football fields long and four football fields across. Herders and their flocks of sheep are scattered across the desert-like depression, with only countable patches of green grass remaining. One of theThis article was originally published on Mongabay

The nature of her fathers work, as an aerial fumigation pilot, meant that Daniela Araya lived in many areas of Costa Rica when she was a child. She usually traveled with him in rural areas on roads with slow speed limits. On these journeys, whether at dawn or at night, they admired the numbers of animals that crossed their path and continued naturally on their way. On occasion, they helped the animals to cross. This was exciting for us: to go on rural roads, where no one drove fast, rescuing the animals on the road. With time, it became more frequent to find them not alive, but run over, says Araya, now a biologist. It was frustrating to see so many dead animals on the road and this is how I started to look for ways to make an impact, but now focusing on cats, she says. Daniela Araya Gamboa counting animals run over in national parks; there were 68 animals on a stretch of 45 kilometrs (28 miles) during just one morning. Image courtesy of Panthera. Daniela Araya Gamboa is the coordinator of the Caminos Amigables con los Felinos (Cat-Friendly Roads) project, from Panthera Costa Rica, where she has worked for 10 years. Her daily routine consists of pulling on her rubber boots, putting on a reflective jacket, getting in a car at dawn with sirens and lights and driving along dangerous roads, which are risky not only because of fast-moving vehicles, but also because organized criminals sometimesThis article was originally published on Mongabay

One dead, four injured as Ghana gold miner moves to evict artisanal miners BENSO, Ghana Police killed one person and injured four others while attempting to clear trespassing miners from the Wassa gold mine at Benso in Ghanas Western region. The owner of the mine, Golden Star Resources, says small-scale miners who have encroached on an abandoned part of its concession area have been impeding its operations. Golden Star began operating at Benso in 2009, but suspended mining activity in 2012 as the price of gold declined. The company returned to the site in 2022, but during the decade the mine was inactive, some Benso residents had begun artisanal mining for gold in the abandoned pit. Others planted cocoa trees inside the 500-meter (1,640-foot) buffer zone that surrounds the concession. When it resumed operations last year, the company held a public meeting with the community, warning the small-scale miners to stop trespassing and interfering with Golden Stars operations. But Frank Afful, a member of the Benso town council, said locals still continue to dig for gold at the Wassa mine. The area is a security zone, so people are not supposed to go there, but these illegal miners go there to mine, he told Mongabay, and the company have warned them countless times they wouldnt listen and are still mining. On the morning of March 23, Golden Stars security guards, accompanied by police, attempted to clear illegal miners from the site so that blasting operations could take place. TheThis article was originally published on Mongabay

Silky sharks are one of the most widely sold species in the international fin trade. A Mongabay Latam investigation revealed that in 2021 shark fin exports from Ecuador tripled compared to the average of the previous eight years and that the fins of silky sharks (Carcharhinus falciformis) were among the most popular. These results match those of a 2020 scientific study that identified which species the fins in the markets of Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China, came from. After analyzing the DNA of 12,000 fin samples, the scientists concluded that around 90 shark species are traded but five dominate the business: blue sharks (Prionace glauca), followed by silky sharks, then scalloped hammerheads (Sphyrna lewini), smooth hammerheads (S. zygaena) and shortfin mako sharks (Isurus oxyrinchus). The last four are all threatened species on the IUCN Red List. According to a press release from Save Our Seas Foundation, a philanthropic organization that carries out scientific research, [f]ins from up to two million silky sharks contribute to the global fin trade every year. These sharks face pressure from the fishing industry, which has reduced their populations dramatically, to the point of being considered vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. A silky shark. Image Pelayo Salinas/Charles Darwin Foundation. To help determine why silky sharks are so heavily traded, researchers from Save Our Seas Foundations Shark Research Center and the Guy Harvey Research Institute in Florida, U.S., and the Charles Darwin Foundation in the Galpagos Islands, Ecuador, with support from the Galpagos National ParkThis article was originally published on Mongabay

On March 20, officials in Vietnam seized almost 7,000 kilograms (15,400 pounds) of elephant tusks at the port of Haiphong. This confirms the gradual return to normalcy in the illicit wildlife trade industry, which had been slowed down by the pandemics impact on global trade. Its a very alarming trend to observe that such a large quantity of ivory is being trafficked in one shipment, Ellen Tyra, an analyst with the wildlife crimes program at C4ADS, a U.S.-based nonprofit that works to expose illicit trafficking networks, told Mongabay. Illegal trafficking of wildlife parts hasnt fully returned to pre-pandemic levels, but the resumption of trade shows a disturbing pattern of bulk shipments, according to new data. Ivory seizure Nouabale-Ndoki National Park. Photo courtesy of WCS. Elephants are killed to harvest their tusks. Image by Marthijn Brinks via Unsplash (Public domain). The figures from C4ADS show that seizures of elephant ivory, rhino horn and pangolin products in 2022 were still lower than before global trade was hit by COVID-19-related closures. But the data also indicate a return to large bulk shipments and increased trafficking by sea rather than by land or air. Maritime seizures accounted for more than 50% of the cumulative weight of seized elephant ivory, rhino horn and pangolin scales in 2022. Tyras team at C4ADS monitors wildlife trafficking using news media, customs websites, reports, and other publicly available sources across five categories of frequently trafficked wildlife: elephants, leopards, pangolins, rhinos and tigers. The resulting data, updated weekly, areThis article was originally published on Mongabay

This week on the podcast, Mongabays newest staff writer Abhishyant Kidangoor, with experience covering health, climate change, and the environment in South Asia, joins to discuss his new focus on conservation technology. Click here to listen to the full interview: Abhi first cut his teeth on conservation technology for Mongabay as a fellow under the Sue Palminteri Wildtech Fellowship in 2022. There he gained an appreciation and fascination for conservation technology and its many applications. In this episode of the Newscast, he discusses new stories hes working on related to tracking shark births, bioacoustics, and even AI. No stranger to rigorous reporting before joining Mongabay, Abhi produced work for Time while living in Hong Kong, covering the protests that occurred in 2019 and 2020. In retrospect, I can confidently say that was definitely a turning point in Hong Kongs political history, he says. However, it did not come without its challenges. We were teargassedit was difficult to get people to talk. Security was a big concern. Protesters attend a demonstration demanding Hong Kongs leaders to step down in Hong Kong, June 16, 2019. Image by VOA via Wikimedia Commons (PD). Additionally, Abhi spent considerable time documenting the fight against COVID-19 in India. In particular, he covered the story of 1 million women healthcare workers who were drafted and sent to rural villages across the nation to serve on the frontlines, where they also struggled to attain livable wages. In his spare time, Abhi has a passion for hiking and mentionsThis article was originally published on Mongabay