Mongabay Newscast

More than 15 years in the making, the United Nations has finally reached an agreement on a landmark, legally binding treaty to protect international waters, where a myriad of wildlife big and small live.

Why did it take so long, and what happens next?

Hear all about it by listening to this audio reading of the popular article by Elizabeth Fitt:

As U.N. members clinch historic high seas biodiversity treaty, what's in it?

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Image caption: A humpback whale in Antarctica. Image by Christopher Michel via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

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The American approach to food production is negatively impacting the environment and depleting natural resources like topsoil and groundwater at an alarming rate. Top agriculture author, journalist, and Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future research associate Tom Philpott highlights these problems on this episode first by discussing two regions where such impacts are acutely felt, the Central Valley of California and the Great Plains, and then explains how these problems are spreading to the rest of the globe.

But the author of Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It, Philpott also says there's hope via sustainable practices like agroecology and agroforestry, new land tenure models, and more.

A former food reporter and editor for Mother Jones and Grist, he discusses steps that can be taken to reform our food systems for a healthier and more sustainable future at this moment as a new growing season is about to begin in the Northern Hemisphere.

"We don't have to have an agriculture that consumes the very ecologies that make it possible, and leads to this catastrophic loss of species that we're in the middle of right now," our guest says.

Related reading:

• From traditional practice to top climate solution, agroecology gets growing attention
• · 'During droughts, pivot to agroecology': Q&A with soil expert at the World Agroforestry Centre
• · American agroforestry accelerates with new funding announcements

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Image caption: Corn is a common food and fodder crop of the Great Plains, and has also long been used to make ethanol. But its most common cultivation methods lead to massive soil erosion, pollution of waterways, and heavy use of chemical herbicides and pesticides. Image courtesy of Tyler Lark.

In 2022, the population of western monarch butterflies reached its highest number in decades, 335,000, according to the annual Western Monarch Count in California and Arizona, marking the second year in a row for a positive tally of the species numbers.

While that count is celebrated by conservationists, they also point to the need to protect monarchs' overwintering sites in North America, which continue to suffer degradation and destruction each year.

Read the popular article by Liz Kimbrough here: Western monarch populations reach highest number in decades

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Image caption: A monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus). Image by John Banks via Pexels (Public domain).

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This podcast episode won a 2024 Indigenous Media Award.

National Geographic photographer Kiliii Yuyan joins the show to discuss his visits to five Indigenous communities and the value of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) for protecting the world's biodiversity, which is the subject of his new project, "The Guardians of Life: Indigenous Stewards of Living Earth."

An effort in collaboration with previous guest Gleb Raygorodetsky and with support from the National Geographic Society and the Amazon Climate Pledge, the project takes Yuyan to five different Indigenous communities across the world.

Yuyan shares insights on the TEK of the Indigenous communities he's visited and his own reflections as a person with Indigenous ancestry doing this work, plus what he wishes more journalists would do when sharing the stories and unique knowledge of Indigenous communities.

Related reading:

• Indigenous lands hold the world's healthiest forests – but only when their rights are protected
• Will the world join Indigenous peoples in relationship with nature at COP-15? (commentary)
• Podcast: How marine conservation benefits from combining Indigenous knowledge and Western science

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Image Caption: Larry Lucas Kaleak listens to the sounds of passing whales and bearded seals through a skinboat paddle in the water. Image (c) Kiliii Yuyan.

As the world pursues reforestation on an expanding scale, a recurring question is: how do we pay for it? One emerging solution is to grow and harvest timber on the same land where reforestation is happening, as exemplified in Brazil's Atlantic Forest. Another approach is to grow timber trees and natural forests on separate plots of land, with a portion of the profits from timber harvests supporting the reforestation.

However, some experts worry that relying too much on timber revenues could harm ecosystems and existing forests, resulting in additional harvesting. Can we balance the need for funding with the need to preserve native ecosystems?

On this episode, listen to the popular Mongabay article by Gianluca Cerullo that discusses all this: Dollars and chainsaws: Can timber production help fund global reforestation?

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Image caption: Native regeneration under 50% dead standing eucalyptus trees in Brazil's Atlantic Forest. Image courtesy of Paulo Guilherme Molin/Federal University of São Carlos.

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Modern society is constantly crafting mega solutions to problems it has created, many of which come with even more problems, and no guarantee of solving the issue, long term.

Whether it's injecting reflective aerosols into the atmosphere to combat climate change (literally turning the sky white), or gene-editing invasive species, "we seem incapable of stopping ourselves," argues journalist and Pulitzer-prize winning author Elizabeth Kolbert.

She joins the Mongabay Newscast to talk about her latest book, "Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future," which explores many of these machinations in detail and why she urges readers to be skeptical of them.

Related reading:

• Geoengineering Earth's climate future: Straight talk with Wake Smith
• Efforts to dim Sun and cool Earth must be blocked, say scientists
• Is invasive species management doing more harm than good? (commentary)
• Release the cats: Training native species to fear invasive predators

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Image: The cane toad (Rhinella marina). Native to South and Central America, the toxic species was deliberately introduced in Queensland, Australia, in 1935 and today it is considered an invasive pest, poisoning native fauna. Image by Paul Williams/Iron Ammonite Photography. Creative Commons (CC BY-NC 2.0).

In a national park in southern Malawi, the reintroduction of cheetahs (and lions) is bringing four critically endangered vulture species back to the skies, after a 20-year absence: the big cats' kill sites have increased the food supply, encouraging the birds to return in a conservation 'win-win.'

A project of African Parks and the Endangered Wildlife Trust begun in 2017, the team has since observed tagged vultures in parks outside Malawi, too.

Read or share this popular article by Ryan Truscott here:

Cheetah reintroduction in Malawi brings vultures back to the skies

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Photo Credit: A cheetah. Image by Rhett Butler for Mongabay.

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The Intag Valley in Ecuador is one of the world's most biodiverse places, its dense cloud forests bursting with plant and animal species.

But the world's largest copper company wants to build a mine amidst its riches, so local leaders are organizing a conservation campaign: Mongabay's associate digital editor Romi Castagnino recently visited the area and joins this episode to discuss what she and staff writer Liz Kimbrough reported, and how that article sparked key support from one of Hollywood's top environmentalists, Leonardo DiCaprio.

Click 'play' to hear what she saw, and read Mongabay's full report from the valley here:

• In Ecuador, communities protecting a 'terrestrial coral reef' face a mining giant

This is the first feature in Mongabay's new series, Conservation Potential:

• Mongabay's Conservation Potential series asks: Where do we need to protect biodiversity?

Here's an update on the effort:

• Ecuador court upholds 'rights of nature,' blocks Intag Valley copper mine

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Image: A silk eyed moth photographed on the arm of Liz Kimbrough. Image by Romi Castagnino for Mongabay.

It's tough to fund conservation, and deciding exactly how (and where) funding gets used is even trickier. However, researchers recently identified where and when to "get the most bang for our buck," in a newly published study.

Many of the highest-conservation-priority areas identified fall within lower-income tropical countries. While substantial international funding is likely needed to conserve and restore forests, securing Indigenous peoples' land rights could be a low-cost, and equitable solution, since 80% of the planet's biodiversity lies within Indigenous peoples' territories.

Listen to the popular article from Liz Kimbrough: Protecting global forests with a limited budget? New study shows where and when to start

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Photo Credit: Tiger Leg Monkey Tree Frog (Phyllomedusa hypochondrialis). Image by Rhett Butler.

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A decline in botany degree programs, paired with a growing lack of general plant awareness, has scientists concerned about society's ability to tackle existential threats like biodiversity loss and climate change, so Leeds University Ph.D. researcher Sebastian Stroud is our guest on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast.

While humans depend upon plants for many critical everyday needs, our ability to identify them seems to be decreasing as fewer educational programs continue to study them. Stroud joins us to discuss a recent study he co-authored about this and how we can combat the lack of plant awareness.

Related reading:

• Can 'plant blindness' be cured?
• Mongabay's plant conservation coverage

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Image: Orange orchid with magenta spots. Torajaland, Sulawesi, Indonesia. Photo by Rhett Butler.