This week, 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

Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.

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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.

What if a nation built policies for the future, not the election cycle?

Sophie Howe was the world’s first “commissioner for the unborn”, appointed to steer Welsh politics away from short-term electoral goals to long-term policies that protect the population and planet. During her seven year term she achieved incredible successes—including stopping all new road planning projects in the nation.

Sophie joins me to discuss the Future Generations Act, the progressive piece of legislation that led to her appointment and makes it statutory that the Welsh government keep seven long-term goals in mind: prosperity, resilience, health, equality, community, culture and global responsibility. She explains how the Act has transformed education, culture and political thinking in the modest nation in a short time—and why other governments around the world are putting their own Acts through parliament as we speak.

“You wouldn't think it was revolutionary for a country to have a set of long-term goals but it's completely revolutionary. There's no other country in the world that has that. It's all just short-term electoral cycles, so nobody really knows where we are, and therein lies the problem with the ageing population, with addressing issues around automation and AI, with addressing issues around climate.

“These things span way beyond, and so the political system doesn't account for them. So having these seven long-term goals, it means, for Wales, we know where we're going.”

Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis—and what to do about it. Support the project with a paid subscription.

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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?

Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts from, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to gain instant access to our latest episodes and past ones.

If you enjoy this series, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!

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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.

Please send feedback to [email protected], and thank you for listening.

If politics is broken—what's the alternative?

Indra Adnan is an author, political entrepreneur and psychosocial therapist. She's also the founder of The Alternative UK political platform and a global consultant on soft power. For over twenty years, Indra has been writing, consulting, network-building and event-organising on the themes of future politics, conflict transformation, the role of the arts and integral thinking.

She joins me to discuss the problem with narratives peddled by mainstream media, the power of story, and how to reimagine the story of now in order to get people excited about building a new future together. This episode covers so much, exploring conflict, creativity, education, the economy, disconnection, and gives a vision of a new politics centred around relationships.

“Conflict can be the very thing that shows you what's wrong: there's something amiss with our relationships in this society, we need to flush this out. If you're doing it well, it can lead to the transformation of that society.

“But if you're simply buying into the conflict as an opportunity to gain power over the other side, that it's a zero sum game, then it's going to lead to violence.”

Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis—and what to do about it.

© Rachel Donald

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

Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.

If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!

See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.

Please share your thoughts and feedback! [email protected].

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).

Dave Jones is the Head of Data Insights at Ember, a think tank helping shift the world from coal to clean energy—rapidly.

Dave joined me to discuss the energy transition, going into detail about the impact of coal, gas and oil before comparing our renewable options. He reveals the nations around the world leading the renewable race, the supply chain weaknesses that need to be addressed, and, as ever, the necessity of energy demands vs desires.

“We need to get beyond just thinking about coal and gas power, and to be thinking about like the extra electrification of all the other sectors coming on, because that's gonna hit us really hard in the next few years….

“It's not hitting us at the moment, we’re seeing it fall at the moment. But we know that we’re going to get this big increase coming in the next few years, and trying to keep an eye on that, trying to make sure that we’re putting that into our calculations —Christ, we’re going to have to build an awful lot of clean electricity for all of this.”

Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis—and what to do about it.

© Rachel Donald

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

Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts from, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to gain instant access to our latest episodes and past ones.

If you enjoy this series, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!

See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.

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

Please send feedback to [email protected], and thank you for listening.

Benjamin Franta is the founder of the Climate Litigation Lab at the University of Oxford, informing climate litigation around the world. The lab researches how to bring—and win— lawsuits against companies, institutions, and individuals who have aided and abetted public deception, the suppression of information, and put the whole world in danger by driving the climate crisis.

In the episode, Ben reveals the “fossil fuel playbook”, explaining the industry’s long history of suppressing information about its impacts on the climate, and twisting the arms of the powerful in order to stop governmental action. He also discusses the lawsuits happening around the world, the fossil fuel defence, and what we can learn from these cases to reform the intimate relationship between corporate and political interests.

“Those companies also knew, and we know this from their internal documents, that to avoid severe global warming they needed to act then. They needed to start replacing fossil fuels then. When governments tried to act, fossil fuel companies banded together and came up with a playbook to stop that from happening…

“We could see trials in this climate litigation. We could also see the biggest settlement in legal history potentially because the damages are so enormous.”

Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis—and what to do about it.

© Rachel Donald

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

Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.

If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!

See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.

Please share your thoughts and feedback! [email protected].

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

Fadhel Kaboub is a former Associate Professor of Economics at Denison University where he researched political economy, decarbonisation, colonialism, and the financial and agricultural policies necessary to facilitate a global—and just—green transition. Since recording, Fadhel has been appointed Under-Secretary-General for Financing for Development at the international intergovernmental organisation, Organisation of Educational Cooperation.

This episode is thrilling. Fadhel explains the traps of inflation, debt, globalisation, and the financial and agricultural policies weaponised by the global north to exploit the global south. He walks us through the three structural traps which keep wealth pouring out of the global south into the global north, amounting to modern colonialism. And he explains why we can afford a just transition, revealing the exciting mechanisms of Modern Monetary Theory by exploring the solutions global south countries can implement to ensure their sustainable development.

"You can't decarbonise a system that hasn't been decolonized yet, economically speaking. Similarly, you can't democratise a system that hasn't been decolonised yet.

Because you can't meet the aspirations of your people and meet their needs in terms of food or housing or quality of life if your economic paralyses you and prevents you from serving those needs, and requires of you to serve the needs of the global supply chains in manufacturing or energy and so on."

Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis—and what to do about it.

© Rachel Donald