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
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
When Abelardo de la Espriella was declared the winner of Colombia’s presidential elections, he announced his plan to sever diplomatic relations with Nicaragua, saying, “In my government there will be no ties whatsoever with tyrannies.” In October, he followed this by reviving a longstanding maritime dispute with Nicaragua relating to the San Andrés archipelago in […]
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
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
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
The most egregious lie underlying the UniParty’s proxy war in Ukraine is the claim that the latter is just another innocent sovereign nation suffering unprovoked invasion and despoilment at the hands of the world latest land-grabbing tyrant. In fact, however, no nation or state by the name of “Ukraine” ever existed on the maps of […]
Reprinted with permission from Trita Parsi‘s Substack: Much of the Middle East was on edge this past weekend, fearing that President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would restart the Iran war. Thankfully, hostilities didn’t resume, but it’s not because of a lack of effort. According to Iranian sources, Israeli fighter jets did […]
“It’s not tariffs… it’s the war, it’s gas prices, it’s diesel.” In leaked audio obtained by Axios, Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for senate in Texas, spoke candidly about what he believes are the biggest issues hurting his campaign. The Iran war, which has dragged on for almost eight months now, has put Texans – […]
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