For the first time in the modern history of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a Congolese nongovernmental organization will co-manage a protected area in the country. “It is an honor,” Dominique Bikaba, founder of the NGO Strong Roots, told Mongabay by phone. Strong Roots has been entrusted with the management of Itombwe Nature Reserve (RNI), located in South Kivu province in the northeast DRC. Under a public-private partnership Strong Roots will manage the reserve for the next 10 years. The Congolese Wildlife Authority (ICCN), the national authority responsible for natural parks, will retain oversight of the park. “I think the government chose us, because they have observed the work we have done in the biodiversity corridor and the way we have put local communities at the center of conservation,” Bikaba said. Strong Roots has spent about a decade securing land for communities and wildlife to create a 1-million-hectare (2.5-million-acre) corridor through community forestry concessions. This corridor spans the area between Kahuzi-Biega National Park and Itombwe Nature Reserve. To date, Strong Roots has secured 23 community forest concessions in the area, covering nearly 600,000 hectares (1.5 million acres) of land. “Itombwe is made up of seven chiefdoms, and we are already working with four of them in the corridor,” Bikaba said. “So we have a very good knowledge of the reserve; we know its problems and its needs.” Bikaba is a member of an Indigenous community in the area that was evicted to make way for another protected area. So,…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Roughly a decade ago, a marine heatwave in the northeastern Pacific Ocean caused a dramatic decline in populations of forage fish and krill, the base of the marine food chain. A recent study found that the Hawaiian humpback whale population, which feeds on krill and small fish, also declined sharply during the 2013-16 heatwave and has not yet recovered. Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the North Pacific feed in cold Alaskan and Canadian waters during the summer months before traveling roughly 4,800 kilometers (3,000 miles) to Hawaii to breed and give birth over the winter. To understand the impact of the 2013-2016 marine heatwave, researchers analyzed more than 27,000 photos of whale sightings between 2002 and 2023 across the main Hawaiian islands. The photos came from Happywhale, a citizen science platform where anyone can upload images of whale flukes (tail fins) that scientists use to identify individuals. “Their flukes are a bit like a fingerprint for each individual humpback whale,” study co-author Shannon Barber-Meyer, formerly with Pacific Whale Foundation, told Mongabay in a video call. The researchers found the Hawaiian humpback whale population declined by 37% between the 2014-2015 breeding season and the 2021-2022 season. Adult survival rates also fell sharply. Before the heatwave, roughly 99% of adult whales survived year over year, but during the heatwave, adult survival was estimated at just 68%. “It’s a very precipitous drop, and that’s not something you normally see in adult survival of long-lived mammals,” Barber-Meyer said. During the heatwave, researchers documented an unusual mortality event…This article was originally published on Mongabay

A forested tiger reserve in southern India is home to a thriving population of spotted and sambar deer, nilgai antelopes, and wild pigs — all ideal prey for tigers. Yet the reserve has no resident tigers, reports contributor Nivedhika Krishnan for Mongabay India. Kawal Tiger Reserve in the state of Telangana connects key tiger populations in the reserves of Tadoba-Andhari, in Maharashtra state to the west, and Indravati, in Chhattisgarh state to the east. Since 2015, researchers have confirmed that only 15 tigers entered Kawal from Maharashtra. Of these, only two were females. Lead researcher Imran Siddiqui told Mongabay India that tigers traveling from Maharashtra to Kawal face heavy infrastructure throughout their journey. “The corridor is fragmented by open-cast coal mines, the Ada irrigation project, electrified farm fences, and the main Hyderabad-Nagpur railway line,” Siddiqui said. “National Highway 44 acts as the most formidable barrier of all with its heavy traffic and high fencing. It isn’t just one obstacle — it is a cumulative mosaic of risks that forces dispersing tigers to turn back.” He added that while male tigers dispersing from their birthplace are “bolder risk-takers” and can move long distances through human-dominated landscapes, female tigers are more risk-averse and “require quiet, undisturbed habitat to raise cubs.” “Crossing busy highways, railways, and mines poses a massive perceived threat to females,” Siddiqui said. “That is why males occasionally dodge traffic to reach Kawal, but females turn back. Without females, you simply cannot build a breeding population.” Anish Andheria, president and…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. When researchers began cataloging dragonflies in Guainía, a remote region in eastern Colombia, the scientific record contained only about 10 species. By working with Indigenous communities, they’ve found nearly 120. “When we started, very little was known,” Yiselle Cano, biodiversity leader of the Dragones Guainía project, told contributor Manuel Fonseca for Mongabay. “I think we must be close to 120 species by now,” Cano said. “It’s a hugely diverse group, because it includes dragonflies native to the Orinoco, Amazonas, and dragonflies that are endemic to the Guiana Shield.” The diversity makes Guainía a hotspot for dragonflies and damselflies. It may also provide insights on what is happening to the region’s water. These insects depend on healthy freshwater ecosystems, and their aquatic habitats are coming under growing pressure from mining, deforestation, poorly managed waste, and rapidly expanding tourism. Cataloging the insects was only part of the work. Once the researchers had begun filling gaps in the scientific record, they held workshops to share their findings with local communities. There they encountered another gap: the language of biology meant little to people whose understanding of the landscape had been formed outside scientific taxonomies. Some participants didn’t speak Spanish at all. Community leaders invited everyone, from young children to elders who retained ancestral knowledge. As researchers displayed the dragonflies found around puddles, streams, and rivers, participants tried to identify them in their own languages. “This is…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Three male African wild dogs in Zambia have travelled more than 4,000 kilometers, about 2,500 miles, in search of new territory and mates, according to a new study. This nine-month odyssey, about half the distance between Cairo and Cape Town, reveals how these endangered animals connect populations and ecosystems that are far apart within Southern Africa and potentially beyond, researchers say. “It’s the longest African mammal movement on record, and the longest [recorded] wild dog dispersal,” study co-author Matt Becker, chief executive of the Zambian Carnivore Programme, told Mongabay. The trio of African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus), litter mates known as the Mayukuyuku males, left their birth pack in Kafue National Park in mid-2025. They travelled east out of the park, then north toward the industrial cities of Kitwe and Ndola, then doubled back before heading east toward the Luangwa River Valley and its 400-or-so-strong wild dog population. By April 2026, the pack had traversed 4,126 km (2,564 mi) to reach a game management area (GMA), a partially protected buffer zone, between the national parks of South Luangwa and Lower Zambezi. “We think they’ve actually established a [territorial] range, but we haven’t quantified who they’re with and how many dogs there are,” Becker said. The Mayukuyuku males were among 19 wild dog groups the team tracked using GPS collars fitted to individuals. Some journeys ended in tragedy. A female wild dog, nicknamed EWD-1355, set off with her two sisters from a pack in South Luangwa in 2021. After travelling more than…This article was originally published on Mongabay

More than 500 people have invaded Brazil’s Ituna/Itatá Indigenous Land in recent weeks, opening illegal roads, setting deliberate fires and threatening federal agents. The area is home to the Igarapé Ipiaçava Indigenous people who live in voluntary isolation with no contact with outsiders. On Aug. 26, a federal court ordered the government to deploy the National Public Security Force within 48 hours to contain the invasion. As of Sept 11, the forces hadn’t yet arrived. The recent invasion followed the creation of the Bacajaí Environmental Protection Area (APA Bacajaí) under a new state law, which allows private landowners to build homes and raise livestock. However, APA Bacajaí completely overlaps the federally protected Indigenous land in Pará state, creating legal confusion that authorities say has been weaponized by land-grabbers to justify occupation for cattle ranching and other agricultural activities. The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) has asked a federal court to fine the government 50,000 Brazilian reais (about $9,000) daily for failing to deploy enough security forces to contain the invasion. The area is currently under a temporary land-use restriction order to protect the isolated people living there. The government has argued it needs authorization from Pará’s government, which hasn’t cooperated. However, federal prosecutors say the federal government can be deployed on federal land without state authorization. Both the federal government and the state of Pará did not reply to Mongabay’s requests for comment by the time of publication. In its press statement, the MPF said the Indigenous Affairs Agency (Funai)…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Nigerian conservationist Rachel Ikemeh has been named the 2026 Rolex Award laureate, for her work with communities in the Niger Delta to protect the region’s ecology and the critically endangered Niger Delta red colobus monkey. The red colobus (Piliocolobus epieni), a monkey known as epieni by the region’s communities, is listed as one of the world’s 25 most endangered primates by the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. It was first described scientifically in 1993. At the time, there were about 10,000 epieni estimated to be living across its limited range in the Niger Delta. However, by 2013, their numbers had plunged to just hundreds rather than thousands of individuals, Ikemeh noted in a study. In 2021, Ikemeh and her colleagues helped establish a 1,010-hectare (2,496-acre) community-protected area for the epieni in Apoi, a town within the monkey’s range. By 2024, the monkey’s population had doubled within the community-protected forest, from 180-200 individuals in 2021, Ikemeh told Mongabay by email. She added the team has since helped create community conservation areas in the neighboring communities of Garnaut and Kokoloama. The award “feels less like a personal honour and more like validation for the community model itself,” Ikemeh said. She added she’s optimistic about the epieni’s future because she’s seen community perception around their conservation model shift over the years. “[T]he same community who once suspected we’d come to ‘collect their forest’ for the government now talk about epieni as a source of pride, something that put their village on the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

A U.S. federal court recently ruled that residents of Jackson, Mississippi, don’t have a constitutional right to truthful information from public officials, nor the right to municipal drinking water that is free of lead, a neurotoxin. “The Constitution does not provide redress for every governmental wrongdoing,” Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, who was appointed by U.S. President Donald Trump, wrote in the majority opinion. The case was brought by a group of Jackson residents in 2022 who alleged that the city allowed lead to enter the municipal water system and then lied to residents saying the water was safe, though they knew it was not. “Knowing what is in our water is fundamental to protecting public health,” Caroline Leary, general counsel at the U.S.-based nonprofit Environmental Working Group, told Mongabay by email. Jackson is home to roughly 150,000 people. Nearly a quarter of them are children under 18 who are particularly vulnerable to the potentially life-long toxic impacts of lead exposure including seizures, lowered IQ, impaired brain development and even death. The plaintiffs alleged that several of their children have been diagnosed with lead poisoning and now require special educational, medical, sociological, occupational and disability services. The plaintiffs also argued that exposure to contaminated water and the failure to be informed about the risks violated their 14th amendment due process right to bodily integrity. A November 2025 ruling by a three-judge panel of the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. On the final day of a two-week expedition, where researchers were searching for a “lost” species along Papua New Guinea’s Sepik River, Helen Asu arrived with two small, greenish-brown fish. She had caught them while fishing for prawns with an umben, a traditional hand net, near Imbando village in East Sepik province. They were spinach pipefish (Microphis spinachioides), a species known only from the Sepik and not recorded by scientists since 1985, reports Mongabay’s Spoorthy Raman. “It was honestly an incredible moment,” said Jerrica Agebigo, a researcher at the Papua New Guinea University of Technology and the New Guinea Binatang Research Centre, who led the expedition. “When Helen showed the fish to us, I immediately realized that we had found something very special.” The spinach pipefish is a freshwater relative of seahorses and seadragons. It grows to about 15 centimeters (6 inches) and uses its elongated snout to catch small prey. Its coloring helps conceal it among water lilies and other plants along the banks of the Sepik, Papua New Guinea’s longest river. Almost everything else about it remains uncertain. The specimen used to describe the species was held at Hamburg’s natural history museum, but was destroyed during the second world war. When the fish was last assessed for the IUCN Red List in 2016, it was classified as data deficient. It later became one of the 10 most sought-after species on the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Two species of trees helped Japan build millions of homes after World War II. However, pollen from those same trees has also fueled a nationwide hay fever allergy. More than 40% of Japan’s population now suffers from hay fever, locally called kafunsho. That’s nearly double the rate in the U.S., reports contributor Jonathan Vit for Mongabay. “Right after the New Year in January, my nose starts to get a little itchy,” Mariko Aoki, who works as a secretary at the National Diet, Japan’s legislature, told Mongabay. “It peaks in March, and the sneezing, runny nose, itchy throat and itchy eyes are really bad. It lasts all the way until just before Golden Week,” which runs from April 29 to May 5. Two tree species are largely to blame: sugi (Cryptomeria japonica) and hinoki (Chamaecyparis obtusa). Both are fast-growing trees that were widely planted for timber after bombing during the war left Japan in need of millions of homes. Today, forests cover roughly 70% of Japan, and 41% of those forests are planted. Sugi trees account for roughly 40% of planted forests, while hinoki accounts for another 25%. That means two-thirds of the nation’s cultivated forests are planted with trees that can make people sick. Climate change has made things worse: warming has driven sugi trees to release pollen earlier than they used to, making country’s annual pollen season longer and more severe. To solve its hay fever crisis, the Japanese government announced a plan in 2023 to cut down 20% of sugi trees…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Ocean ecosystems are under extreme stress on several fronts including overfishing, ocean acidification, climate change and marine warming. While ocean conservation efforts often tend to focus on creating marine protected areas, researchers recently stressed the need to move beyond protection toward active recovery using a different approach: Marine rewilding. In a new perspective paper, the researchers laid out eight key principles that can guide such rewilding. The concept of “rewilding” is usually applied to terrestrial ecosystems, where the goal is to restore ecological processes and create resilient, self-sustaining ecosystems with minimal human interventions. Gavin Stark, a post-doctoral researcher with the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, and his colleagues, write that one important principle of marine rewilding is that people can’t simply be fenced out of the process. “You cannot really separate people from the rewilding process inside the marine ecosystems,” Stark told Mongabay in a video call. Another key principle of marine rewilding is restoring food webs, which may include reintroducing top predators such as sharks. In 2024, for example, Mongabay reported on a project where eggs of the endangered Indo-Pacific leopard shark (Stegostoma tigrinum) raised in an aquarium in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., were shipped to nurseries in Raja Ampat, Indonesia. So far, the project has released more than 60 young sharks into the protected waters of Raja Ampat with the goal of restoring balance to the region’s coral reef ecosystem.  The authors note that along with restoring food webs, strengthening connectivity between ecosystems is also a pillar…This article was originally published on Mongabay

In the Indian Himalayas, numerous species of colorful pheasants roam the understory, pecking at seeds, roots, leaves, berries, and insects. These large, ornate birds are vital to the Himalayan ecosystem. But some species now face increasing pressures from habitat degradation and hunting, reports contributor Hirra Azmat for Mongabay India. Among them is the white-crested kalij pheasant (Lophura leucomelanos hamiltoni). It’s a highly adaptable bird capable of living in habitats ranging from coniferous forests to scrublands and forest edges near human settlements. “Like other pheasant species, it plays an essential role in Himalayan ecosystems by forming a major prey base for carnivores and raptors,” said Arif Nabi Lone, a researcher at the University of Kashmir’s Department of Zoology. “Besides, it also acts as a seed disperser and soil aerator.” The white-crested kalij pheasant isn’t considered threatened on the IUCN Red List. However, in a 2025 study, Lone and his colleagues interviewed communities around two protected areas in the Indian-administered region of Jammu and Kashmir, and identified several threats to the bird, including habitat degradation, hunting, livestock grazing, and mushroom collection. “Timber and firewood collection, resource extraction and deforestation are degrading its habitat,” Lone said. “Hunting and overgrazing are other serious threats. Mushroom collection is particularly concerning because it coincides with the breeding season, and people searching for mushrooms often disturb nesting females, reducing their breeding success.” Human activities may also be threatening a rarer pheasant species: the western tragopan (Tragopan melanocephalus). Listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, the bird…This article was originally published on Mongabay

A new study has found that in Ecuador’s Amazon, Indigenous territories without formal conservation contracts maintained forest conditions just as well as formal protected areas. Ecuador has three different approaches to forest governance: Forests protected by government institutions, forests managed by local communities under formal conservation agreements and Indigenous territories without formal conservation agreements. To find out the state of forests under these different policies, researchers used satellite data to examine three metrics: Long-term changes in vegetation greenness as an indication of degradation or improvement in forest cover; abrupt changes in forest condition due to more acute disturbances like human settlements, roads and agricultural fields; and how forest productivity responded to the 2015-2016 El Niño drought — a climate phenomenon that causes extreme changes in rainfall and temperature patterns. They found that community-protected forests performed best overall in some measures, particularly resilience after drought. These forests were under formal contracts such as a Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) program, which provides communities with financial incentives to refrain from any commercial activity that disturbs the natural forest. However, Indigenous territories without similar formal conservation agreements and who can use natural resources for subsistence and cultural preservation also had forest condition patterns comparable to the other governance regimes. In fact, they had the greatest proportion of areas showing positive long-term trends in vegetation greenness. “From a practical perspective, our results suggest that conservation is not only about drawing lines on a map,” lead author Fernando Troya, currently based in Ecuador, who conducted…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Scientists have identified a new-to-science, reddish-brown snake from specimens found in the forests of Papua New Guinea  and named it after Slash, the lead guitarist of the rock band Guns N’ Roses. Slash’s groundsnake (Lielaphis slashi) is the twentieth species to be confirmed within the genus Lielaphis, a group of groundsnakes found primarily on the island of New Guinea – which is split between Papua New Guinea in the east and Indonesia in the west, the researchers reported in a recent study. The snake’s name honors the musician Saul Hudson, professionally known as “Slash”, of Guns N’ Roses, for his lifelong promotion and advocacy of snakes, zoos, and museums, the authors write. “As a long-time herpephile, I am extremely honored and humbled to have Lielaphis slashi from New Guinea named after me,” Slash said in a press release. “It is really exciting, I never would have imagined this moment would arrive.” Slash’s groundsnake has a reddish-brown, unpatterned back and an unmarked white or cream underside. Study co-author Christopher Austin, professor of natural science and curator of amphibians and reptiles at Louisiana State University in the U.S., first found the snake in July 2006 in a largely undisturbed secondary forest in Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea. “Snakes in general are pretty hard to find, and these nocturnal snakes are especially challenging to find,” Austin told Mongabay by email. “Given that there are several venomous snake species in New Guinea, one needs to be especially careful finding these snakes at night.” Austin…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Cities can become dangerously hot during extreme heat events, making it increasingly important for urban planners to find ways to reduce temperatures and protect people from heat exposure. Woodlands, grasslands, lakes and rivers can create significantly cooler microclimates, offering one potential way to reduce urban heat, a new study finds. The study focused on Guildford, a town in southeast England with a variety of green-blue infrastructure (GBI) types. GBI are land and water-based features integrated with each other and the built environment to provide mutually beneficial services, including wildlife corridors, flood mitigation and cooling. In Guildford, researchers collected data from six sites — a woodland, grassland, lakeside, vegetated green wall, small pocket park and riverside — and compared how effective they are in cooling the areas around them. They compared each site with a built-up location. The team established sensors at each site and recorded temperatures at one-minute intervals, from June 2023 till the end of August 2025. These sensors recorded temperatures through both normal climatic conditions and several extreme heat events. The researchers also used satellite data over the same timeline to get a more robust picture of the conditions in each location. The team found that all six GBI sites were cooler by 1.81-2.49° Celsius (3.26-4.48° Fahrenheit) than their built-up comparison site. The cooling was more pronounced during extreme heat events. The woodland site was upward of 6°C (almost 11°F) cooler than the built environment on the hottest days. The riverside and pocket park were cooler by 3.5°C…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. For more than three decades, Willie Tucker has helped care for Sierra Leone’s western chimpanzees and watched the pressures on them change, reports contributor Patricia Sia Ngevao for Mongabay. Tucker, widely known as “Pa Willie,” helped establish Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in 1995. Since then, the sanctuary has rescued and cared for hundreds of chimpanzees, many confiscated from the illegal pet trade. It now houses more than 120 critically endangered western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus), indicating that trafficking remains a serious problem. Tacugama’s work also shows why wildlife protection cannot be separated from local livelihoods. The sanctuary supports nearby communities through livestock, seed, and other livelihood programs intended to reduce dependence on hunting and forest resources. Families with more dependable sources of food and income may have less need to exploit wildlife habitat. Such programs can also give communities a direct stake in conservation and make restrictions on forest use more workable. Public recognition has helped as well. In 2019, Sierra Leone designated the western chimpanzee as its national animal. Tucker says the decision increased awareness of the species and encouraged greater respect for it. National symbols do not protect habitat by themselves, but they can support education, enforcement, and political attention. Tacugama’s experience offers several practical lessons for conservation organizations. Rescue centers can do more than rehabilitate individual animals. They can train local staff, document wildlife crime, assist law enforcement, educate visitors, and…This article was originally published on Mongabay

A massive wildfire within a national park in Indonesia has forced a total closure of one of the country’s best-known tourist destinations. Some 899 hectares (2,222 acres) of savanna and forest within Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park (TNBTS) in East Java province have been destroyed by fire as of the morning of Aug. 11, the provincial disaster management agency told Mongabay. The fire, which broke out on Aug. 3 in the park’s eastern entrance, is suspected to be human-caused, TNBTS chief Rudijanta Tjahja Nugraha told local media. TNBTS spokesperson Endrip Wahyutama confirmed the blaze originated along a path used as a shortcut by local residents that bypasses the park’s official tourist roads. “The source is … not a tourist location, and not a public road either,” Endrip said as quoted by Detik.com. The Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park Agency, which manages the protected area, has ordered it closed until further notice. Daryono Perwira Sakti, a disaster mitigation educator who previously oversaw the earthquake and tsunami directorate at the BMKG, Indonesia’s weather agency, posted on social media that it’s crucial the park be closed because vegetation on loose volcanic soil there is highly vulnerable to severe fires, which could trigger more disaster. “The extreme heat from this fire not only destroys vegetation cover and natural seed reserves (seed bank), but also triggers the formation of a water-repellent soil layer,” Daryono wrote. He said this water-repellent soil layer eliminates water absorption into the soil, elevating risks of massive gully erosion and landslides…This article was originally published on Mongabay

There’s no conservation motive or benefit behind the Uzbekistan government’s recent releases of more than 2,000 captive-bred Asian houbara bustards across its desert regions, according to an expert on the threatened species. The government has touted the releases over the past three months as a wildlife restoration effort, but Nigel Collar, a conservation biologist at BirdLife International, suggested the birds are meant to serve as quarry for hunting parties. “In reality both areas [where they were released] are hunting concessions for Gulf State falconers and these are birds being put out in the wild simply to provide ‘sport,’” Collar, who also co-chairs the Bustard Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, told Mongabay by email. “[T]here is no conservation strategy related to these releases, because they are not intended for conservation except in the sense that they can absorb some of the hunting pressure on wild populations,” he added. Neither Falcon Hunting Solutions LLC nor Uzbekistan’s National Committee on Ecology and Climate Change, both involved in the releases, had responded to Mongabay’s requests for comment by the time this story was published. The Asian houbara (Chlamydotis macqueenii) is listed as vulnerable to extinction on the IUCN’s Red List. It migrates between Central and South Asia and the Middle East, and is hunted intensively across this range. Uzbekistan released nearly 900 of the birds in the Aral Sea region of Karakalpakstan in May this year, followed by some 670 birds in June, according to statements from the National…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Gabon has ended its 19-year fisheries partnership with the European Union, which allowed EU industrial vessels to target tuna in Gabonese waters in exchange for payment, arguing the agreement no longer serves the country’s economic interests. The decision follows a June 2025 Council of Ministers meeting at which the government announced it would seek to renegotiate the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (SFPA), before formally ending it on June 29, 2026. In a statement last year, the Gabonese government said the massive exploitation of fishery resources wasn’t commensurate with the returns Gabon should receive in exchange. In a speech in January, government spokesperson Charles Edgard Mombo, said the move to cancel the agreement “reflects Gabon’s firm commitment to strengthening its sovereignty over its fishery resources and promoting a renewed, balanced, sustainable, and mutually beneficial cooperation framework.” The SPFA between the EU and Gabon was established in 2007 and implemented through three protocols lasting between three and six years. The latest protocol covering 2021–2026 allowed up to 27 EU purse seiners, commercial fishing boats that use large, vertical nets; six pole-and-line tuna vessels and four exploratory crustacean trawlers to fish in Gabonese waters. An independent evaluation commissioned by the European Commission found the EU paid Gabon an average of €2.6 million ($3 million) annually between 2021 and 2024 in exchange for access to 32,000 tons of tuna. However, it also found that Gabon captured just 23% of the total economic value generated; nearly half accrued to other countries because EU vessels made…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Kazakhstan has released its first tiger into the wild more than seven decades since the last confirmed sighting of the big cat in the country. On July 31, 2026, an adult female Amur tiger called Umit, which means “hope” in Kazakh, leapt from her cage on the back of a pickup truck, as she was released into the wilderness of the 450,000-hectare (1.1 million-acre) Ile-Balkhash State Nature Reserve in southeastern Kazakhstan. According to a statement issued by the Kazakhstan government on Aug. 3, Umit is fitted with a satellite tracking collar to monitor her movements and behavior in real time. “Today we are truly witnessing a historic event,” said Kazakh Ecology and Natural Resources Minister Yerlan Nyssanbayev in the statement. “For the first time in over 70 years since tigers were wiped out in Kazakhstan, a tiger has been reintroduced to its historic range.” The area of the Ile-Balkhash Reserve where Umit was released was once inhabited by the extinct Caspian (Turian) tiger. Its last confirmed sighting in Kazakhstan was recorded in 1948. Umit is an Amur tiger, a population of the mainland Asian tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) native to the Russian Far East and northeastern China. The Amur and Caspian tigers were once recognized as two distinct tiger subspecies, but the IUCN recognized both as Panthera tigris tigris in 2017. Preparations for returning tigers to Kazakhstan have taken more than a decade, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources said. The reserve was established in 2018 to create the…This article was originally published on Mongabay