Morgan Erickson-Davis

TRIUNFO DO XINGU, Brazil — Lenice Divina Ramos weaves through knee-high weeds and scorched shrubs before halting abruptly near the slice of jungle where, not long ago, she found the charred carcass of her pet monkey. “The little fellow had no way to escape,” she says wistfully, waving toward the burnt-orange patch of vegetation that […]

Not quite aquatic but not fully terrestrial, mangrove forests are uniquely adapted to inhabit the interface between land and sea in the warmer parts of the world. Compared to the vast boreal forests of the north and inland rainforests of the tropics, mangroves are tiny, perched mostly in thin strips along intertidal zones. But research […]

APYTEREWA INDIGENOUS TERRITORY, Brazil — Deep in the Apyterewa reserve, Tye Parakanã waves a hand toward the lush rainforest flanking his village. In the distance, a faint cloud of smoke rises above the emerald canopy of the Brazilian Amazon. “You see this forest here? Behind it, it’s all ranches,” the 35-year-old Indigenous leader says as […]

Once covering an expanse of more than 2,140 square kilometers (826 square miles) of the Colombian Amazon Rainforest, Tinigua National Natural Park has lost 29% of its forests over the past 20 years. Much of this loss has occurred only since 2018, when the park lost nearly 6% of its tree cover in a single […]

ROBORÉ, Bolivia — Tucabaca Valley Municipal Wildlife Reserve comprises around 2,644 square kilometers (1,021 square miles) of semi-arid forest and scrubland in the heart of southern Bolivia’s Chiquitania region. But the reserve, like the region around it, was beset by wildfires this year. In September, fires burned across some 130 square kilometers (50 square miles)—or […]

This report is part of a journalistic collaboration between Mongabay Latam, La Región and Red Ambiental de Información. ROBORÉ, Bolivia—The Ñembi Guasu region is referred to as the “great refuge” by the Guaraní people of the Bolivian Chaco. To recognize its ecological and social importance, the Charagua Iyambae Rural Indigenous Autonomous Government (GAIOC) incorporated it […]

Jean Wiener should be elated. The organization he leads, FoProBim, has just won a series of grants to help protect mangroves in Haiti. In the coming months, he and his team will crisscross the country, helping replant mangrove marshes, conducting environmental workshops and training sessions, and starting alternative income projects for those whose livelihoods depend […]

IWUOCHANG, Nigeria — It was morning in mid-March and the wooden canoe skimmed silently across the Ibeno River in the southern Nigerian state of Akwa Ibom. A young boy and an elderly man paddled with measured rhythm towards the shore of Iwuochang, where passengers disembarked beside a group of chatting fishers and a pile of […]

A new analysis of satellite data finds the Western Indian Ocean region lost around 4% its mangrove forests over the past quarter-century. In a report that discusses the state of these mangroves, the authors write that their findings provide decision-makers with the high-quality, reliable data they need to protect these threatened coastal forests. Published July […]

BODO, Nigeria — Christian Kpandei is a man of many memories. Still, the vital incidents of his life, like the death of his childhood hero, environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, grow blurry and remote as time wears on. One series of events, however, with its decade-old vestiges, has remained as clear as the sunrise at dawn. […]

OLENGURUONE, Kenya ­— Mau Forest covers some 2,700 square kilometers (1,042 square miles) in western Kenya, making it the largest native montane forest in East Africa. The forest is also Kenya’s largest water catchment area and feeds several lakes, including Lake Victoria. But Mau Forest is shrinking as its trees fall to human pressures. Even […]

The fires started small, charring a handful of areas scattered across a southern stretch of Brazil’s Pantanal wetlands. Fueled by searing temperatures and months of drought, the flames quickly spread across the parched grasslands of Pantanal do Rio Negro State Park, melting together into a single, roaring wildfire. Data from the University of Maryland and […]

Spanning more than 1,600 square kilometers (620 square miles), the Ulu Muda rainforest is one of the last large, continuous tracts of forest in the Malay Peninsula, and provides vital habitat for countless species as well as water for millions of people in northern Malaysia. But deforestation, due in large part to logging, is threatening […]

PREK TABAEK, Cambodia — The roots of the forests surrounding Cambodia’s Tonle Sap lake spend half the year submerged in water. But in the past five years, they’ve been catching fire in the arid heat of the dry season. The government has rolled out plans to respond to these fires, as the weather in Cambodia’s […]

PREK TABAEK, Cambodia — Bat Savoeun claims he has Prime Minister Hun Sen’s signoff to farm his 2 hectares of land in Prek Tabaek village, on the edge of the swelling Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia’s Pursat province. Sitting at the drink shop next to a disassembled bridge crossing one of the lake’s skinny tributaries […]

In the sprawling Himalayas, amidst snow-peaked mountains, is a vast swathe of evergreen forest home to majestic tigers, elusive clouded leopards, charismatic hornbills, mystical giant squirrels, enchanting butterflies and bizarre orchids. Comprising some 1,900 square kilometers (734 square miles) in the state of Arunachal Pradesh in Northeast India, Namdapha National Park is India’s third-largest national […]

CUARIRENDA, Bolivia — In October 2020, residents of a Mennonite colony began clearing a road through the forest in the Cordillera province of the Bolivian department of Santa Cruz. By November, the road spanned about 5 kilometers (3 miles) and ended at the Parapetí River. Satellite imagery from Planet Labs Inc and data from the […]

News articles and opinion pieces have popped up in the pages of different Costa Rican newspapers over the past several years, warning of the imminent collapse of Corcovado National Park, one of the country’s most treasured protected areas. The park is in “agonizing” condition and “on a downward spiral,” some of the opinion pieces said. […]

PHNOM PENH — At last year’s COP26, the annual U.N. climate summit, Cambodian Environment Minister Say Samal voiced his support for more carbon credit projects in the country as part of his request for greater climate financing. Notably, though, he avoided making Cambodia a signatory to the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forest and Land Use, […]

PHNOM PENH — The early onset of Cambodia’s wet season had seen the rain fall thick over Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary, turning freshly cut paths through the forest into a near-impassible slick of churned-up mud. But the torrential weather had done little to deter local loggers, who rode out of the beleaguered protected area carrying […]