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Carlos Zorrilla has been living in an Ecuadorian cloud forest since the 1970s, and his last 30 years there have been spent fighting mining companies seeking to extract its large copper deposits. He and his community have successfully fought proposals by multiple firms in one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet, but sometimes

- Water tests from the Kok and Sai rivers near Thailand’s border with Myanmar have revealed elevated arsenic levels, leading Thai officials to warn citizens to avoid contact with river water.- The pollution is widely believed to be linked to unregulated mining in Myanmar’s Shan state.- Extraction of gold in Shan State has surged in the years since the 2021 military coup in Myanmar; more recently, mounting evidence suggests rare earth mining is also expanding across the state.- Elevated arsenic levels have also been found at testing points in the Mekong, which is fed by both the Kok and Sai rivers.

- The Banggai archipelago is a remote landscape of around 97% limestone karst east of Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island.- Extractive concessions on 39 locations on Peleng island, the largest island in the Banggai Islands district, may soon cut into the karst bedrock to mine the ancient limestone for cement, glass and other industrial applications.- Indigenous villagers on Peleng Island say they worry the development could catalyze unprecedented local environmental damage, impairing the cultivation of unique yam varieties grown only here.

- Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) is a novel coral disease that first emerged in Florida in 2014, and has now spread to 33 countries and territories in the Caribbean, including along the Mesoamerican Reef.- SCTLD affects an unprecedented number of species (more than 30 species of reef-building corals), spreads quickly, and has a very high mortality rate.- Researchers are still trying to figure out exactly what causes the disease.- Researchers are also trying to understand how the coral microbiome is involved in or responds to SCTLD infection, and developing probiotics that they hope will offer an alternative treatment to antibiotics, with fieldwork in Belize, Colombia and elsewhere.

Roughly five years since Kim Stanley Robinson’s groundbreaking climate fiction novel, The Ministry for the Future, hit shelves and The New York Times bestseller list, there’s little he says he’d change about the book, were it to be published again, he tells Mongabay’s podcast. The utopian novel set in a not-so-distant future depicts how humans

- Local conservationists across Africa face threats, isolation and underfunding, as illustrated by Nigerian conservationist Itakwu Innocent, who survived an assassination attempt and has endured years of violence and ostracism for protecting wildlife and opposing poaching in his community.- Women and young scientists in particular face systemic barriers in conservation, including gender bias and limited access to funding and recognition, despite taking leadership roles and driving grassroots initiatives in places like Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria.- Funding disparities and broken promises by international NGOs have undermined trust in conservation efforts, making it harder for local scientists like Owan Kenneth to gain community support without financial incentives.- Despite these challenges, recognition and success stories are emerging, with initiatives like fellowships and community-led reforms helping figures such as Adekambi Cole, Bashiru Koroma and Asuquo Nsa Ani make tangible conservation gains and inspire others.

- S. Gopikrishna Warrier, editorial director of Mongabay-India, has spent the past seven years shaping a newsroom known for clarity, credibility, and a calm approach to environmental reporting.- With nearly four decades of experience, Warrier helped bring biodiversity and climate issues into India’s mainstream discourse through rigorous journalism—not advocacy.- Under his leadership, Mongabay-India has published thousands of impactful stories in English and Hindi, influencing public debate and policy on issues ranging from forestry to environmental politics.- In May 2025, Warrier reflected on his journey, editorial philosophy, and vision for the future in a conversation with Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler in Kerala, India.

- Mongabay India, a news service covering issues at the intersection of people and nature in India, was launched after an individual pledged startup funding following a conversation with Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler in 2017.- Trained as an ecologist, Sandhya Sekar transitioned into journalism to explore the full breadth of environmental science, eventually becoming the founding program director of Mongabay India.- Since the bureau’s 2018 launch, Sekar has played a central role in shaping its strategy, operations, and collaborations, building a lean, impactful newsroom producing thousands of stories across India. Known for her behind-the-scenes leadership and systems thinking, Sekar championed the launch of Mongabay-Hindi to expand access and has helped make the organization more inclusive and approachable.- Sekar talked about her journey and more during a May 2025 conversation with Mongabay Founder and CEO Rhett Ayers Butler in Kerala, India.

The Republic of Congo had been protecting about half of its dense rainforests via the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) framework. In exchange, the country is supposed to receive payments from the World Bank. But Mongabay Africa staff writer Elodie Toto’s recent investigation revealed the nation has also granted nearly 80 gold

Carlos Mallo Molina has been awarded the 2025 Goldman Environmental Prize for protecting the marine biodiversity of Tenerife, the most populated of the Canary Islands. On this episode of Mongabay’s podcast, Molina explains what led him to quit his job as a civil engineer on a road project impacting the Teno-Rasca marine protected area (MPA)