The Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), which was created to fund long-term conservation of tropical forests, recently received a $500-million pledge, over 10 years, from the Netherlands, a significant boost for forest conservation. The Netherlands announced the pledge in an Oct 26 press release and estimated that the TFFF has the potential to protect 800 to 900 million hectares (2.0 to 2.2 billion acres) of tropical forest, an area roughly 200 times the size of the Netherlands. The long-term goal is to create a $125 billion endowment fund for the TFFF. Current pledges add up to roughly $7.8 billion. The TFFF was launched by Brazil at the 30th U.N. Climate Change Conference in November 2025. It’s a partnership between tropical countries that need funding to protect their forests, investors and donor countries that want to address climate change and biodiversity loss through mitigating deforestation. The collaboration includes the private sector, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, the World Bank, scientists, economists, finance experts, and civil society partners. The TFFF is modeled like a sovereign wealth fund in which governments and private investors contribute to an investment fund and those investment gains, or profits, are then distributed to tropical countries to keep their forests standing. The hope is that predictable revenue from the TFFF will incentivize permanent conservation of forests over unsustainable development including logging, mining and ranching. Forest conservation is monitored using satellite imaging and scientific monitoring protocols to provide transparency and ensure forests are being protected. However, the TFFF has…This article was originally published on Mongabay

An ambitious effort to eradicate invasive spotted bass from South Africa’s Breekkrans River has unfolded about two hours north of Cape Town. Removing the bass has helped give the critically endangered doring fiery redfin (Pseudobarbus doring) a fighting chance against extinction. “Spotted bass were introduced into the river system in the late 1930s,” Martine Jordaan, a faunal ecologist at Cape Nature, a provincial conservation authority, told Mongabay in a video call. “The main reason was to have a species that was good for angling. What makes bass a good angling fish makes it a bad invader. It really goes after the small fish, and most of our native fish are 12 centimeters [4.7 inches] and smaller.” Jordaan said that after the bass species had been introduced, it spread as far as the habitat allowed, only stopping when encountering natural barriers such as waterfalls. “Often you find that native fish populations [are restricted to] streams where bass cannot invade,” Jordaan said. That was the case with the doring fiery redfin. “The Breekkrans River has the largest remaining population of doring fiery redfin with probably a few hundred adults,” Jeremy Shelton, a freshwater conservation ecologist working at the Freshwater Research Centre (FRC), told Mongabay by email. “The species also exists in another river, but in very low numbers.” Prior to the spotted bass eradication, the doring fiery redfin were confined to a 2-kilometer (1.2-mile) stretch of the Breekkrans River that remained bass-free. The Breekkrans River Restoration Project is run by the FRC…This article was originally published on Mongabay

In 2004, archaeological anthropologist Renzo Duin joined an expedition into the mountainous tri-border area where Brazil, Suriname and Guyana meet alongside French botanists and ecologists. While the scientific team focused on mapping the biodiversity of what appeared to be untouched vegetation, Duin noticed that the ground told a very different story, rich with traces of pre-Columbian human occupation. “While they investigated what they perceived as pristine rainforest, I found the area dotted with fragments of pottery and other archaeological indications, including a site surrounded by a ditch,” Duin told Mongabay in a video call from The Hague, Netherlands. The evidence uncovered by Duin was one of many showing that the Amazon rainforest of Suriname and the Guianas region has been shaped and inhabited by people for millennia. Over the years, the researcher returned regularly to the region, making him one of the leading Amazon archaeologists, reshaping the knowledge about human occupation in the rainforest. “In the last three decades, archaeological knowledge of the Amazon has made a great stride forward in Brazil, Ecuador and Bolivia,” Duin said. “In Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, the picture of the past has improved along the coast and major rivers. Yet, in the inland-uplands we have barely scratched the surface regarding the long-time histories of the Indigenous peoples.” Renzo Duin in the Tumuc-Humac Mountains. Image by © 2004, Renzo Duin /AMIK. As elsewhere in the Amazon, archaeological research in the region has unveiled a wealth of ancient rock art sites, stone tools, pottery and…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Stoke Park is a natural haven in a busy British town. Centered in Guildford, Surrey, its rolling fields pop with wildflowers in the spring; birds sing and ducks paddle serenely in a pond beside ornamental gardens; and the sun casts dappled shade on the grass from oak, spruce and beech trees, scattered across 52 hectares (130 acres) of green. Yet as residents and visitors stroll, jog and lounge across Stoke Park’s green reaches, it’s doing even more for them than they realize: According to two recently-published studies, its green areas reduce heat, pollution and noise — and have benefits that extend beyond the park’s borders. Parks have a well-documented benefit to urban areas, particularly given the rising heat of climate change: Many previous studies have established that parks are much cooler than the surrounding area, and that they also tend to reduce air pollution and noise. These previous studies also found that air and surface temperatures were lower for tens or even several hundred meters around green spaces, depending on the park. However, “most of the work in this field has been focused around one benefit — so either you see just health benefits, or how they affect air pollution, or overheating,” Prashant Kumar, professor at the University of Surrey, co-director of the university’s Institute for Sustainability and director of its Global Centre for Clean Air Research, said in a Zoom interview with Mongabay. “You hardly see studies which look holistically at the multiple benefits of the plants [or] the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

It is a peculiar irony: as technology reaches ever deeper into Earth’s living systems, the primal sonic expressions of the natural world—wind, water, leaf, and creature—have never been more imperiled. Soundscape ecology rests on a simple conviction: the collective voices of the nonhuman world are not only eloquent, but essential. Recorded and preserved over time, these biophonies become enduring ledgers of planetary health, as valuable as genetic databases or satellite images. Over more than half a century, I have gathered more than 5,000 hours of marine and terrestrial recordings. Across those decades, I have heard both the vivid symphony of life and its alarming decline. When science came under siege In recent years, the value of these scientific records—and the ethics of preserving them—has been thrown into sharp relief by forces not of nature, but of governance. In 2017, only weeks after a new U.S. administration took office, a chill settled over the scientific community. Colleagues described research suddenly treated as suspect, funding cut, and datasets removed from public view. It became alarmingly clear that science itself was under siege. Archiving natural soundscapes was no longer solely an act of devotion and curiosity. It had become an urgent responsibility. The danger was not only the destruction of habitat or the extinction of a particular songbird; it was also the erasure of a coherent body of knowledge. Beyond political reach I felt compelled to act. With a sense of defiance and duty, I copied my entire field collection—thousands of hours documenting…This article was originally published on Mongabay

In his second term as the U.S. president, Donald Trump has taken actions to remove protections from at least 34.8 million hectares (86 million acres) of public lands, according to the advocacy group Center for American Progress. The nonprofit Conservation Lands Foundation (CLF) recently catalogued 12 such policy actions in its newly released Public Lands Attack Tracker. The tracker examines the myriad ways public lands have been reduced and weakened, from encouraging extractive industries to sidelining public participation, over the last nearly two years. These actions by the Trump administration include expanding oil and gas drilling “to encourage energy exploration and production on Federal lands and waters” and repealing the public lands rule, which requires that conservation be considered equally important as extractive industries. The administration has also moved to rescind the roadless rule that currently bans road construction across millions of acres of national forest land and weakened provisions of the Endangered Species Act, which grants protection to species in decline. On its Public Lands Attack Tracker website, the CLF argues that the combined effects of such actions could be greater than the sum of their individual impacts. “This Attack Tracker connects the dots,” the website notes. It lays out eight impacts of the “attacks on public land” including stripping “protections to allow destructive uses” and eliminating “tribal engagement” which “results in lasting damage.” One of the most high-profile reductions in public land protection can be found in Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. In July 2026,…This article was originally published on Mongabay

KAKINADA, India (AP) — A powerful cyclone battered India ’s Andhra Pradesh state on Wednesday, killing at least three people and damaging homes and farmland after authorities evacuated tens of thousands of people, officials said. Cyclone Arnab made landfall early Wednesday as a very severe cyclonic storm before weakening to a severe cyclonic storm as it moved inland, the India Meteorological Department said. Two women were electrocuted in separate incidents in the port city of Visakhapatnam, while another person was killed when a tree fell in East Godavari district, officials said. State disaster management officials said late Wednesday morning that wind speeds reached 135 kph (84 mph). Officials said the cyclone was expected to weaken further as it moved inland, with wind speeds likely to ease later in the day. The state’s chief minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, said that 14 coastal districts of the state were badly affected. He said winds and heavy rains caused widespread damage to houses, road networks, electrical poles and power supply infrastructure. He requested urgent assistance from the central government. The cyclone damaged 79,000 acres of crops and dozens of homes. The worst hit area was the state’s fertile Konaseema district. Banana and coconut plantations suffered extensively and a large number of trees and electricity poles were uprooted, disrupting electricity across the district, officials said. The meteorological service said the landfall process was complete and heavy rainfall as well as strong winds would continue under the cyclone’s influence in coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh and…This article was originally published on Mongabay

The reporting and photography for this story was fully supported by a 2025-2026 grant from the Sitka Foundation and the Science Media Centre of Canada. Four of the five worst years recorded for global forest fires occurred since 2021. And 2026 is no exception, with hundreds of thousands in North America, Europe and Africa forced to flee life threatening blazes. Now, as the Northern Hemisphere’s wildfire season subsides and forest recovery begins, tropical countries including Indonesia, Brazil and Tanzania are grappling with widespread fires. Wildfires — now intensified by climate change — can be devastating, life-altering, even deadly. But for many ecosystems and organisms, fire is an essential primeval force of nature that supports ecosystem health and biodiversity. “All terrestrial animals evolved in landscapes that had fire,” Canadian conservation biologist Karen Hodges said. “It goes all the way back to the beginning.” But we still have much to learn about post-fire recovery: Canadian researchers are studying charcoal-munching fungi, heat-sensing beetles, birds and at-risk carnivores in British Columbia’s fire-affected Interior to find out who thrives after the flames die, and why those responses matter for biodiversity and for us. Lieutenant Dan, Canada’s largest known living ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), stands tall in British Columbia’s Montane Cordillera, the nation’s most biodiverse region. Many organisms like this one have evolved alongside fire for millennia. The surrounding forest is slated for logging. Image by Jakob Dulisse for Mongabay. A landscape shaped by fire Tell someone you’re from British Columbia (B.C.) and they’ll likely think…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Dogs are generally not treated well in Bangladesh, where the majority Muslim population holds a conservative approach to domesticating dogs. Here, kicking a resting or passing stray dog is often seen as amusing. This hostile attitude, for decades, justified the authorities culling stray dogs. In 2019, the passing of the Animal Welfare Act finally put a stop to such institutional killing of dogs. Nevertheless, a deeply entrenched negative prejudice against dogs still persists. For instance, last year, a woman in the northwestern town of Ishwardi, who was disturbed by the neighborhood stray dogs, made the news by allegedly packing puppies in a sack and drowning them in a pond. The resulting public outcry forced authorities to file a criminal lawsuit against her. Bangladesh is home to nearly 1.7 million dogs — 83% of them strays, which suffer from hunger, malnutrition, injury, or cruelty by humans. Consequently, a group of animal lovers has emerged to put a stop to inhumane treatment of stray animals, advocating for their protection. Unlike other parts of the country, the people in the small town of Sarail, located about 95 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of the capital, Dhaka, have strived for generations to save a native dog breed named after the town: the Sarail hound. Proud of this heritage, some people in and around Sarail are trying to save this rare breed from extinction. Pet lovers, some from abroad, travel to Sarail in search of a puppy, ready to pay up to 60,000 takas ($500), according…This article was originally published on Mongabay

YEREVAN, Armenia — Two years ago at the 2024 U.N. biodiversity conference (COP 16) in Cali, Colombia, a meeting room packed with people representing some of the world’s thousands of Indigenous Peoples, erupted into cheering and applause. After three decades of hard work and negotiations, a seemingly obscure group within the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Subsidiary Body on Article 8j, had finally been adopted — forming a body that would significantly boost the voice and decision-making of Indigenous peoples and local communities at future biodiversity COPs. Now, at October’s U.N. biodiversity conference (COP 17) in Armenia, Indigenous representatives are deep in discussions to finalize how it will operate, its governance and the modus operandi of this body — how the permanent body will function day-to-day. This includes establishing co-chairs, advancing 12 tasks under a programme of work and addressing funding mechanisms. “It gives us a proper seat at the table … [but] it’s taken too long,” said Lucy Mulenke, co-chair of the International Indigenous Forum on Biodiversity. Mulenkei was among those who had worked to get the new body over the line. A Masai leader from Kenya, Mulenkei is also executive director of the Indigenous Information Network. A former broadcast journalist, she spent 17 years reporting on environmental issues in East Africa. She eventually switched roles to become an activist focusing on the traditional skills and knowledge of Indigenous nomadic pastoralists and hunter-gathers. Negotiations are going in force, she told Mongabay, though barriers exist. Cristiane Pankararu, an Indigenous…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Meet the Rhizanthes lowii, a rare parasitic flowering plant that has evolved its stink to attracting flies that help pollinate the flower. It blooms for only a few days, and is found in the jungles of Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo—which are home to some of the strangest plants on Earth. Join Conservation Entangled host Izzy on her quest to find this endangered plant in Borneo’s remote—and threatened—forests.This article was originally published on Mongabay

The point where land meets sea at Ayetoro, in southwestern Nigeria, is marked by the skeletons of now-submerged landmarks. Birdcalls, crashing waves, and the sounds of local fishing boats’ outboard engines wash over the crumbling remains of old buildings as well as a wetland that’s a vital stopover and wintering site for migratory waterbirds like Eurasian curlews, whimbrels, and common sandpipers. These birds are just some of the billions that travel vast distances each year in their annual migration between breeding sites far to the north and warmer climates during the Northern Hemisphere winter. They arrive at Ayetoro at varying times between October and January, where their stay in the wetland is observed by members of volunteer bird groups from the local community, who take part in an annual count at the start of each year. These volunteers are part of a wetlands monitoring project of the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, and are paid a stipend to help NCF personnel identify and count birds in the area, record their population data, and collect behavioral and photographic evidence of their activities. The work, which the NCF is also carrying out at two other sites across Nigeria, is part of the Climate-Resilient East Atlantic Flyway (CREAF) project, funded by Germany’s International Climate Initiative, to strengthen monitoring and management of migratory waterbird habitat in 11 countries on Africa’s Atlantic coastline. Coastal erosion advanced, on average, more than 10 meters per year at Ayetoro between 2010 and 2020. Image courtesy of Nigerian Conservation Foundation. The…This article was originally published on Mongabay

When customs officials at Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok Port opened a shipping container flagged for inspection in February 2026, they expected to find sea cucumbers and instant noodles as indicated on the consignment paperwork. Instead, they found 3,053 kilograms (6,730 pounds) of dried pangolin scales destined for Cambodia. It was among Indonesia’s largest seizures of the illegal commodity in recent years, sparking an unusual lawsuit against the alleged offenders that experts say could be an innovative way to hold wildlife traffickers accountable for the damage they inflict upon ecosystems and biodiversity. As in many other countries, Indonesia primarily uses criminal laws to prosecute wildlife crimes, an approach that has historically resulted in relatively short prison sentences and fines that rarely approach maximum statutory penalties. However, Indonesian conservation NGO Science for Endangered and Trafficked Species (SCENTS) Foundation is taking a different approach. In parallel to the state-led criminal prosecution, the NGO has raised a civil lawsuit demanding the alleged traffickers pay to repair the ecological harm caused by removing thousands of pangolins from their wild habitats. “What was lost in this case was not merely three tonnes of scales,” Ma’ruf Erawan, director of SCENTS Foundation, said. “Behind those scales were thousands of pangolins removed from the wild, together with ecological functions and the values we all hold for Indonesian nature. The offenders must be held accountable for all the harm they caused.” The organization, represented legally by Jakarta-based law firm NET Attorney, filed the civil lawsuit on Sept. 2 at the East…This article was originally published on Mongabay

In the urban landscape of Hong Kong, artificial nest boxes are providing shelter and research opportunities for one of the world’s most threatened parrot species. The yellow-crested cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea) is critically endangered, with fewer than 2,000 individuals remaining across its native range in eastern Indonesia and Timor-Leste. However, Hong Kong hosts roughly 200 wild cockatoos, a tenth of that number, believed to be descendants of escaped or released pets, reports Mongabay’s Yenni Kwok. Although the city’s cockatoo population remains stable due to strict legal protection and a lack of natural predators, severe storm damage and tree pruning have eliminated more than 60% of natural tree hollows where the footlong birds make their nests. “In the city, they do not have that luxurious choice available,” said Astrid Andersson, a biologist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hong Kong, who described the tree hollow shortage as “a housing crisis for these birds.” To tackle the issue, Andersson teamed up with arborist and conservationist Harry Wong to launch HK Cockatoo Watch. Adapting Australian prototypes for Hong Kong’s humid climate, the pair build artificial nest boxes fitted with internal cameras to monitor breeding behavior remotely. “What I am doing is to find a way: How can we coexist with them?” said Wong, who previously spent six to seven years in bee conservation. Since March 2025, the team has installed 15 nest boxes across public parks and school campuses, including St. Louis School and ISF Academy. The project has actively engaged local students…This article was originally published on Mongabay

At a government wildlife rescue center in Thailand, dozens of lost and injured baby leopard cats are receiving a second chance at life in the wild. Annual admission of leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis) at the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation rescue center in Khon Kaen, in northeastern Thailand, have surged from an average of about 10 cats per year before to 2023 to as many as 65 now. The cats are being displaced by worsening habitat fragmentation, agricultural burning in sugarcane fields, and increased public use of a government wildlife hotline, reports contributor Ana Norman Bermudez for Mongabay. Between January and August this year, the facility admitted more than 60 kittens, more than half of them recovered from charred fields with burn injuries. Staff focus on stabilizing new arrivals by treating burns, infections, and nutritional deficiencies before moving them into specialized 24-square-meter (258-square-foot) rehabilitation enclosures. Mortality rates at the facility dropped to around 33% in 2026, from 60% in previous years, according to center officials. “Many of the cubs that didn’t survive were brought by people who tried to take care of them at home,” said Warisara Thomas, a researcher and veterinarian at the center, adding that keeping the wild cats at home is illegal. Being in homes also deprives the cubs of specialized care while exposing them to domestic animals that can transmit diseases. Before putting the cubs into behavioral rehabilitation, veterinarians conduct comprehensive health checks, testing the cats for feline immunodeficiency virus, parvovirus, and canine…This article was originally published on Mongabay

From the air, the vivid lithium fields of Chile’s Atacama Desert look like an intricate computer circuit board, hinting at the technological destination of this increasingly crucial mineral. Photographer Tom Hegen has spent the past six years documenting some of the world’s most significant mining regions that supply the critical minerals needed for modern technologies and the green energy transition. Shooting primarily aerial images using small aircraft, drones, and high-resolution cameras, Hegen captures heavily impacted landscapes in meticulous detail. His images depict vast, immersive scenes of the wider consequences of mineral extraction that might otherwise remain hidden from view at ground level: snaking watercourses discolored by mercury, settlements disappearing under piles of mining waste, and coastal sediment plumes smothering artisanal fishing grounds. “An elevated perspective offers a powerful way to observe, understand, and reflect on how we have transformed the Earth’s landscapes,” Hegen told Mongabay. By creating visually striking images, Hegen said he hopes to encourage people to look more closely. Lithium mining in the Atacama Desert, Chile, 2021. Lithium is one of the key elements in electric batteries, with global demand for the metal expected to surge to 25 times the amount being mined today. Image courtesy of Tom Hegen. A prior photographic project documenting the effects of climate change in the Arctic sparked Hegen’s interest in the energy transition and the critical minerals on which it depends. Although research suggests expanded mining to meet the demands of the energy transition would require less mining overall than the current…This article was originally published on Mongabay

New mapping by Amazon Underworld finds that criminal networks or armed groups operate in nearly three-fifths of Amazon municipalities across the six countries surveyed, which include Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. Of the 1,310 municipalities examined, researchers found illicit actors in 768 of them, or 59%. Colombia had the highest proportion of affected municipalities (98%), followed by Venezuela (82%), Brazil and Ecuador (59% each), Peru (34%) and Bolivia (31%). The report also identifies increasingly interconnected criminal operations crossing international boundaries, such as Brazil’s Comando Vermelho, which is now present in almost 500 municipalities, including in Bolivia and Peru. Eight armed groups are present in 99 municipalities in the Colombian Amazon. About 78% of the country’s rural population, nearly 10 million people, “live under the influence of at least” one non-state armed group, according to Humanitarian Action. “One of our main concerns is how organized crime instrumentalizes local communities,” report author Bram Ebus, founder of Amazon Underworld and International Crisis Group consultant, told Mongabay over WhatsApp messages. “Groups extort them. They also use them, often under coercion, as human shields to protect illicit economies and obstruct state interventions. This leaves communities exposed to violent repression by state forces as well.” According to the report, gold has overtaken cocaine as the Amazon’s most lucrative criminal industry. “This shift has accelerated environmental destruction through deforestation and mercury contamination,” Ebus said. As rival groups battle for territorial control, local populations, especially Indigenous communities, bear the brunt of escalating violence. Ebus said such…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Shafeeqa, a 40-year-old resident of Cherwan village in Ganderbal district, north of Srinagar in Kashmir Valley, remembers a spring that once flowed with enough force to make diverting its water toward agricultural fields a difficult task. During her teenage years, she recalls, the water rushed so powerfully that her brother was once carried along by the current. Over the past 5-6 years, however, Shafeeqa said the spring’s flow has diminished step by step. What was once a dependable source of water has become a reminder of how much the village may be losing. “Nature has blessed us with a great source, but it is we who have destroyed it with our own hands,” she said. Shafeeqa says she believes climate change has contributed to the spring’s decline. Research in the Sindh Basin lends support to her concern, although the reasons springs lose their flow can vary from one location to another. The answer may lie some distance uphill, beyond the spring’s visible outlet and in the landscapes where rainwater and melting snow seep into the ground. Springs are an essential water source for communities in the Kashmir Himalaya, particularly in mountain settlements where rivers run through deep valleys and are difficult to access. Their water supports households, livestock and agriculture. But changes in spring flow can threaten all three. A Kashmiri Muslim man prays beside a stream on the outskirts of Srinagar, 2020. Image by AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan. A 2023 study in Environment, Development and Sustainability by researchers at the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

There have been few sightings of the endangered Persian leopard in the Caucasus region over the past 20 years: just three in Georgia and 10 in Armenia. But scientists and conservationists are alert to one Persian leopard in particular, whom they’ve named Aren and who is presumed to have journeyed 240 kilometers (150 miles) through cold, mountainous terrain with only three legs. This region of the world — made up of southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan — still contains decades-old minefields from prior conflicts, and it’s believed this is how Aren was injured. Joining the Newscast this week to discuss her story for Mongabay is journalist Kayleigh Long, who explains how this leopard subspecies, Panthera pardus tulliana, persists in the region. She also describes how NGOs like NACRES, operating on extremely thin budgets, continue to monitor the big cats and provide what protection they can. “WWF is also monitoring the leopards. They put some cameras out in the same area as NACRES. So it’s really difficult,” she says. “I mean, these guys … are doing things on an absolute skeleton crew. And that’s partly because of a lack of funding more generally. There’s been a kind of tightening of purse strings around the world.” NACRES, founded in Georgia in 1991 as the Noah’s Ark Centre for the Recovery of Endangered Species and later renamed the Centre for Biodiversity Conservation & Research, has a staff of just three people, led by a zoologist named Bejan Lortkipanidze, who accompanied Long in…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Negotiations are set to begin on the world’s first international protocol to fight environmental crime, including wildlife trafficking, illegal deforestation, and illicit waste smuggling. The protocol, to be drafted over the next two years, aims to make it easier to investigate, prosecute, and adjudicate these crimes. The negotiations will take place under the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC), a global treaty established in 2003 to combat international criminal networks, money laundering, and corruption. The resolution to begin drafting the protocol was approved Oct. 23 at the treaty’s 13th biennial gathering. “This is a landmark moment in the global fight against environmental crime,” Alice Pasqualato, global policy specialist for environmental crime at U.S.-based NGO Wildlife Conservation Society, said in a press release. The proposal was put forward by 12 countries — eight from Latin America and four from Africa — led by Brazil. It secured more than the required two-thirds majority: Of the 112 parties physically or electronically present and cast a vote, 83 voted in favor and 12 against. The latter included the U.S. and Japan. Another 27 countries abstained. The decision “sends a powerful message that governments recognize the scale, seriousness and interconnected nature of environmental crime,” Mark Jones, head of policy at U.K-based NGO Born Free, said in a press release. “We commend the States that developed, tabled and supported this resolution and look forward to engaging constructively in the negotiations ahead.” The draft protocol will be discussed at the next UNTOC gathering in two…This article was originally published on Mongabay