A group of U.S. lawmakers is urging Secretary of State Marco Rubio not to support Colombia’s plans to restart aerial spraying of coca crops in the Amazon, warning of risks to human health and the environment. The Colombian government says spraying is needed to combat cocaine production and weaken armed groups, but critics argue the decades-old strategy has failed and could accelerate deforestation. The lawmakers are questioning Washington’s potential involvement and calling for alternatives that protect rural communities and the rainforest. Despite decades of U.S.-backed counternarcotics efforts, Colombia remains the world’s largest cocaine producer.  By Steven Grattan, Associated Press  Banner image: A small coca crop is visible on the outskirts of Puerto Asis, Colombia, Nov. 26, 2025. Image courtesy of Ivan Valencia, Associated Press This article was originally published on Mongabay

In 2017, Omar Trujillo Santos was sitting in a small wooden boat holding a crocodile, its skin soft like a snake. He helped untie the reptile, a juvenile Morelet’s crocodile, and carefully guided it into the dark water. It swam off to find a new home in the Alvarado Lagoons System in Veracruz, southeastern Mexico, completing the final phase of a mangrove restoration project. Studies suggest Mexico, a country rich in mangroves, has experienced the highest degree of mangrove loss in the Americas. Conservation and reforestation efforts seek to reverse this loss, yet many projects fail to restore a mature forest. Seedlings and young trees too often die due to improper planting techniques or unsuitable sites. Led by REVIVE, a nonprofit that works to boost biodiversity in the region, the Veracruz project aims to restore not just trees, but the mangrove ecosystem as a whole by employing Aztec-inspired planting methods to rebuild forests and using crocodiles to help maintain them. According to REVIVE, this technique has resulted in a fully restored forest. Conservationists involved in the project say they hope this success encourages others to consider how crocodiles could be used to benefit future mangrove restoration projects. Omar Trujillo Santos stands in front of a chinampa planted with mangrove seedings grown in a nursery. Image from Soto et al., 2026 (preprint) (CC BY 4.0). An ancient technique In 2006 when biologist Aníbal Ramírez Soto began working with mangroves in the wetlands around the Alvarado lagoons, he planted mangrove seedlings in…This article was originally published on Mongabay

PUNE, India — On a quiet Saturday morning, away from the usual urban rush of Pune, citizens gather at the Madhavrao Scindia Garden along the banks of the Mula River. Out on the water, two fishers quietly navigate their boat surrounding a dense forested area on the other side of the river; the cooling shade and chirping birds feel like a natural alarm that you would want to listen to every day. Such a setting is increasingly rare in a bustling metropolis like Pune, where the population is estimated at 7.9 million, yet these volunteers arrive every weekend equipped with measuring tapes, smartphones and a keen curiosity to explore and document the trees in the city’s riparian zones. On this particular Saturday, a group of seven visits a city park along a riverbank, where trees stand tall against the sky. The volunteers belong to Pune River Revival, a grassroots movement formed in response to the Pune Riverfront Development Project, a large urban redevelopment plan along the Mula-Mutha rivers aimed at creating promenades, recreational spaces and infrastructure along the riverbanks. The total estimated cost of the project is around 4,727 crore rupees (about $500 million). “We started organizing the tree mapping exercise systematically in 2024,” explains Raghunandan Patil, a volunteer with the group. “While our volunteers used to do tree mapping earlier manually, at that time, the group was not well-versed in the technical details of how to map a tree properly and create thorough documentation.” Patil adds that now they…This article was originally published on Mongabay

After months of scrutiny, the Philippines has closed its doors to electronic waste from the United States, ending, for now, a stream of shipments that environmental groups have tracked since March 2025. This move marks the clearest government response yet to controversy over suspected U.S. e-waste shipments entering the Philippines via the Subic Bay freeport, with environmental groups questioning whether cargoes were being properly screened and regulated. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) told Mongabay on Oct. 12 the restriction is not a new U.S.-specific ban. Instead, it said, the policy, which was publicly announced on Sept. 22, will see customs officials enforcing existing rules under the Basel Convention. The convention, an international treaty governing cross-border waste shipments, prohibits e-waste imports from the five countries that are not parties to the treaty — including the United States. Michael Drake Matias, who heads the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau, said customs has stopped allowing waste shipments from all nonparty countries to be unloaded at Philippine ports. Aerial photo obtained by the Basel Action Network on April 27, 2026 of the discarded electronics piling up outside of Jack Electronics, one of the recovery facilities northeast of Subic Bay. Photo credit: Basel Action Network, 2026. Customs-free zones? It remains unclear whether the reinforced restriction resolves a broader enforcement problem created by a 2025 Manila court ruling that disrupted normal pre-shipment controls in the Subic Bay freeport. The case began in 2024, when the customs bureau held shipments belonging to three recycling companies…This article was originally published on Mongabay

KATHMANDU — In March 2025, a tiger followed a forest trail through Nepal’s Khata Corridor until it reached a small iron stake next to the path. Attached to it was a dispenser releasing a laboratory-made version of a chemical found in the scent markings big cats use to mark their territory and communicate with other cats. A camera trap recorded the Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) approaching the station. The curious cat investigated the smell and then stopped, one of multiple instances of tigers and leopards coming up to these scent stations and then turning back the way they came. These encounters offer an early glimpse into an international experiment seeking to harness big cats’ territorial instinct in order to keep them away from livestock, farms and human settlements. But researchers caution that a tiger turning away from an experimental station is not yet solid evidence that the method can prevent livestock attacks. “It’s a long way from proving that — and we don’t claim otherwise,” said Martin Gilbert, a wildlife veterinarian, epidemiologist and associate professor at Cornell University in the U.S. who helped bring the research to Nepal. “At this stage, we’re asking a more fundamental question: Can these compounds reliably alter a predator’s behavior?” A woman with her goats in the buffer area in Bardiya. Image by Tulsi Rauniyar for Mongabay. Across Nepal’s buffer-zone settlements, encounters with tigers, leopards and snow leopards have led communities to use electric fences, flashing lights and other deterrents to protect livestock and…This article was originally published on Mongabay

The last large tracts of forest in Serra do Pingano, in northern Angola, are disappearing rapidly, leaving the landscape increasingly bare. Over the past two decades, central Serra do Pingano lost 43% of its original forest cover, while the wider Serra do Pingano Forest Ecosystem (SPFE) lost 21%, equivalent to 536 square kilometers (207 square miles) of forest. The findings appeared in Nature Ecology & Evolution earlier this year. Two of the paper’s authors are Angolan. Signed by 11 researchers from multiple institutions, the study serves both as an urgent warning and as a call to action to protect what remains of the vanishing forest. After years of appeals, the Angolan government established the Serra do Pingano Conservation Area in April. Located in Uíge province, the SPFE encompasses several densely forested mountain ranges of high biological value. Pingano forms an ecological transition zone between tropical rainforest and miombo savanna, bringing together elements of western Central African forests and species and evolutionary lineages associated with southern and eastern Africa. It also shelters some of Angola’s last remaining tropical forest south of the Congo River. The Nature Ecology & Evolution study brings together evidence from years of research into the SPFE. One of its co-authors spoke with Mongabay. Thea Lautenschläger, a German ethnobotanist specializing in northern Angola and scientific director of the Botanical Garden of Hamburg, described the threats facing the forest and the species that depend on it. “It is difficult to say to what extent our work directly influenced the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Nearly two decades after winning a landmark court case against their forced removal from ancestral lands in Botswana’s Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Indigenous San communities may finally be closer to securing broader, legally protected rights to the land they have called home for generations. The Central Kalahari Game Reserve was established in 1961 both to protect wildlife and to provide a sanctuary where San communities could continue their traditional way of life. But beginning in the 1990s, the government relocated residents to settlements outside the reserve. The United Nations documented how the authorities justified these policies on conservation grounds and the costs of providing public services. Some residents moved under government resettlement programs, while others resisted. Following the withdrawal of basic services in 2002, further forced relocations led to a prolonged legal battle. In December 2006, Botswana’s High Court ruled in favor of Roy Sesana and other San applicants, finding that they had been unlawfully deprived of possession of their land. But the ruling did not resolve the wider question of Indigenous land rights in that area. A change of government in November 2024 opened the possibility of a different approach. Botswana’s new president, Duma Boko, a former human rights lawyer involved in the San people’s legal struggle, had firsthand knowledge of their grievances. In March 2025, his administration announced an interministerial committee to examine the situation of San communities, including their relocation, land claims, cultural rights and possible return to the reserve. The committee subsequently began consultations with affected…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Rising disposable incomes, social media algorithms, and pop culture influences have led to a surge in demand for exotic pets in India, reports Mongabay India’s Arathi Menon. A recent report by the Humane World for Animals (HWA) valued India’s exotic pet market at $42.6 million in 2024, and projected it will nearly double by 2030. Despite laws in the country to prevent illegal wildlife trade, trafficking persists due to gaps in enforcement and unmonitored online sales. Online platforms and closed messaging groups provide discreet environments for transactions, bypassing health screenings and documentation requirements. Sumanth Bindumadhav, India director for HWA, said social media platforms normalize exotic pet ownership. “The algorithms amplify it: Videos that receive a lot of engagement and views are shown to more people, which can lead to more people wanting these animals. The interactions facilitated at petting zoos can also create demand.” In 2020, India’s environment ministry introduced a Voluntary Disclosure Scheme allowing owners of nonnative pets to declare their animals to the government without facing prosecution. More than 40,000 people across 30 states and union territories declared their exotic pets, according to the HWA report. India also updated its wildlife law to mandate the registration of possession, transfer, birth, and death of species listed under CITES, the global wildlife trade treaty. Jose Louies, CEO of the nonprofit Wildlife Trust of India, said the amendment gave forest departments a crucial legal mechanism to act against illicit nonnative animal possession within Indian borders. However, Shubhra Sotie, an environmental lawyer…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Bat Week, from Oct. 24-31, 2026, is a worldwide celebration of bats — a group that makes up 20% of all mammals. Bats live on all continents except for Antarctica, and provide major ecosystem services such as mosquito control, pollination and seed dispersal. Despite their ecological importance and ubiquity, bats still remain poorly understood. Here we highlight some stories on bats that Mongabay has reported in the last year: India has a wealth of bats, but our knowledge of them is poor India is home to 135 known bat species but, according to the first nationwide assessment of the country’s bats, much about the mammals remains poorly understood, reports Mongabay’s Shreya Dasgupta. Of these 135 species, seven are listed as threatened on the IUCN Red List, while 35 species are data deficient or not listed at all, meaning their conservation status isn’t known. “Bats are the most diverse order of mammals in [India],” Rohit Chakravarty, report co-author and India program manager of the nonprofit organization Bat Conservation International (BCI), told Mongabay by email. “[Yet] there are less than 50 dedicated bat researchers in the country so there’s an urgent need for prioritizing research topics, species, geographical areas.” Community project targets New Zealand’s bats The only known native land mammals still in New Zealand today are two species of bats: the New Zealand long-tailed bat (Chalinolobus tuberculatus) and the New Zealand lesser short-tailed bat (Mystacina tuberculata). A third species, the New Zealand greater short-tailed bat, Mystacina robusta, not recorded since 1967 is likely extinct. A…This article was originally published on Mongabay

PAMARAWAN, Philippines — For years, residents of Pamarawan barangay, or village, in the City of Malolos, had to live with floodwater inundating their streets as the southwest monsoon, known locally as hagabat, brought strong waves into the fishing village. It got even worse during typhoons. “When there was a typhoon, the waves would go over the breakwater by almost a meter, a direct hit on the houses beside the dike,” said Roldan Dayao, secretary of Pamarawan, a low-lying fishing village at North Manila Bay that is only accessible by boat. The village already has a concrete breakwater that stands 3 to 4 meters (9-13 feet) high, Dayao said. But it does little to prevent the recurring flood. The situation changed after the construction of a nature-based coastal defense and flood control project. It used locally available materials, such as bamboo poles, oyster shells and coconut husks, to protect Pamarawan from tidal waves and storm surges. Interlocking, interconnected bamboo cribs now cover 14 hectares (35 acres) off the coast. The bamboo structures, alongside discarded oyster shells placed inside cocomesh, or coconut husk nets, serve as breakwaters that reduce incoming wave energy. Small boats inside a bamboo enclosure, part of a nature-based coastal defense and flood control project, in Pamarawan barangay, in Malolos City, Bulacan province, the Philippines, on Sept. 28, 2026. Image by Oliver Samson for Mongabay. The cribs also trap drifting mud and sand. Over time, the accumulated sediment is expected to gradually raise the seabed to a height sufficient…This article was originally published on Mongabay