Residents of Phra Samut Chedi, one of Thailand’s most erosion-prone districts, have long struggled against coastal erosion. It’s located in the muddy heart of the Chao Phraya River Delta, where Bangkok’s major watercourse empties into the Gulf of Thailand. Here, roughly 20-60 meters (about 66-200 feet) of land is claimed by the sea annually, eating into farmland and forcing families to relocate their homes. However, a new study suggests a new coastal defense system based on artificial mangrove roots could offer struggling communities some respite. Trialed at 11 sites in Phra Samut Chedi and other parts of Samut Prakan province over 15 months, the nature-inspired system encouraged a varying amount of sediment deposition at 10 of the sites, according to the study published in Ocean & Coastal Management. Success varied by site, ranging from 16-88 centimeters (6-35 inches) of sediment retention, depending on localized conditions. By helping stabilize the shoreline, the researchers say the system could potentially function as an effective hybrid nature-based solution — a mechanism whereby engineered or “bioinspired” structures work in consort with natural ecological processes, such as mangrove restoration. Butsawan Bidorn, senior author of the study and an assistant professor of coastal engineering at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, said the dynamic nature of the Chao Phraya Delta means rapid and accessible solutions are key. “Aquaculture farmers sent us a video of the waves hitting their dikes,” Butsawan told Mongabay in an interview. “By the next day, the dike had collapsed and they’d lost everything. They need…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Funders of the $1.7 billion pledge to support Indigenous peoples and local communities’ land rights, announced at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, say they have exceeded the target by 35%, delivering $2.35 billion between 2021 and 2025. According to the final report of the Forest Tenure Funders Group (FTFG), in 2025 alone, donors provided about $486 million. Sources say the five-year pledge was a major accomplishment, but problems around direct access, regional inequality, funding for women and youth and aid sustainability persist. In 2025, only 7.2% went directly to Indigenous and local community organizations, the latest report found, while the vast majority still flowed through intermediaries, such as NGOs, consultancies and development banks. According to recently updated data in the report, the share of direct funding has increased over the five-year period, from 2.9% of the $351 million provided by donors in 2021, decreasing to 2.1% of the $514 million in 2022. By 2023, this number had risen to 10.6% of the $533 million provided that year, and in 2024, 7.6% of the $467 million provided went directly to these groups. “The pledge was good news, but the figure of the result doesn’t tell us how much actually reached the territories,” Myrna Cunningham Kain, of the Indigenous Miskito community of Waspam and chair of the Guiding Committee at the Pawanka Fund, told Mongabay over email. The Pawanka Fund is a global organization led by Indigenous people that channels financial and technical resources directly to Indigenous peoples and other…This article was originally published on Mongabay