110,000+ signatures: Petition inspired by Mongabay story on a pristine but threatened PNG island keeps growing
A petition inspired by a Mongabay story has topped its goal of 110,000 signatures, and keeps growing. “Logging, mining companies lock eyes on a biodiverse island like no other” was published on July 31st by Mongabay and the online petition appeared about 10 days later after the story garnered much attention on social media platforms. In the story, writer Gianluca Cerullo explains that Woodlark Island sits far off the coast of Papua New Guinea and is swathed in old growth forests home to animals found nowhere else on the planet. However, the island and its inhabitants face an uncertain future: lured by high-value timber, a logging company is planning to clear 40% of Woodlark’s forests, and researchers say this could drive many species to extinction. The author reports that the company proposes to then plant large tree plantations, and he writes that a gold mine is being proposed for the island as well. The petition is aimed at the Papua New Guinea Forestry Authority and can be viewed here. Banner image via...
Indonesia for Sale series honored with Society for Environmental Journalists award
The Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) has given the second feature in the Indonesia for Sale series, “Ghosts in the Machine,” recognition under the Kevin Carmody Award for Outstanding In-depth Reporting as part of its annual awards for environmental journalism. Produced in partnership with The Gecko Project, the series has 3 main features so far plus a number of other assets including video and interviews. The SEJ judges wrote this about the story: “A remarkable example of brave, tenacious journalism, methodically unravelling systemic corruption in Indonesia extending to the highest levels of the judiciary. Few consumers in North America can fully appreciate the human and environmental toll exacted by the palm oil industry. In that sense, this story should make us all think more critically about the true cost of our actions, at home and around the world.” Read the winning story here, and here is a quick video description of it: Find part 1 of Indonesia for Sale, about a politician who turned his district into a sea of oil palm for personal benefit here, and part 3, which dived into the secret dealings that stand to destroy another massive tract of rainforest, here. Banner image of an orangutan in Indonesian rainforest by Rhett A. Butler for...
Mongabay in the news, June 2019
Our reporting often appears beyond the bounds of the main Mongabay website, and its multiple language subdomains, when other outlets republish or otherwise use our articles. In the past month many outlets relied on our work including our report from Sri Lanka about elephant calves being killed by exploding traps meant for wild boars, which was written up in Newsweek and then that news was re-relayed in a story that Agence France Presse sent out on its newswire about elephant conservation issues to all its subscribing media outlets, from France 24 to South China Morning Post, Al Arabiya and even The Daily Mail. Mongabay reports are regularly re-reported or republished like this under our Creative Commons license, and we encourage other media outlets to use our features in their own publications (review our republishing policy and guidelines here). Here’s a selection of outlets where our reporting was republished, cited, or re-reported during June 2019: Al Arabiya, Asia Pacific Report, Asia Sentinel, Asia Times, Blesk, CNBC-TV, Cambodia Daily, Channel News Asia, El Colombiano, Daily Mail, Digital Journal, El Disconcierto, Earth.com, Earther, Eco-Business,Economic and Political Weekly, Ecowatch,Environmental Health News, Eurasia Review, FT.lk, FirstPost, France 24, GMA News, Gizmodo-Brasil,Gizmodo-UK, The Guardian, Hans News Service, Huffpost India, India Climate Dialogue, India Times, Indigenous News, Inhabitat, Journal de Cameroun, Kashmir Observer, Lanka Web, Leaders News, The Logical Indian, Manila Bulletin, MSN,The National, News.lk,News 24, The News Minute, Newstage,((o))eco,Odisha Bytes, PTV News, Pacific Standard, Papua New Guinea Today, Pulitzer Center, Pulse Ghana, Pulse Live Kenya, The Quint, RFI News, RTL News, Revelator News, Scroll, Siliconeer, South China Morning Post, Sunday Times/Sri Lanka, VOA News, The Wire,The World News, Yahoo News, Yahoo News Australia, and Yale Environment 360. Banner image: Kirk’s dik-dik (Madoqua kirkii) in Tanzania, image by Rhett A. Butler for...
Mongabay in the news, May 2019
Mongabay’s reporting often appears beyond the bounds of our main website and its multiple language subdomains when other outlets republish or otherwise use our articles. In the past month many outlets used our work including Asia Times, which republished our feature on how shrimp farms threaten Myanmar’s remaining mangroves, and Pacific Standard, which posted a Mongabay feature about companies getting fined for Amazon deforestation. Some other top impressions for Mongabay in the media last month appeared in the journal Science and also on Hawaii Public Radio, which used our reporting in a piece about the death of a rare rhino, which Smithsonian also did. Elsewhere, our reporter Karla Mendes was the subject of a radio interview on WORT in Madison, WI about her reporting from Brazil about the struggle for indigenous land rights under the new president. Mongabay reports are regularly republished like this under our Creative Commons license, and we encourage other media outlets to use our features in their own publications (review our reuse policy and guidelines here). Here’s a selection of outlets where our reporting was republished, cited, or re-reported during May 2019: Animal Politico, Asia Times, Business Insider, CNBC, Cambodia Daily, El Comercio, Common Dreams, El Deber, Diario Metro, El Disconcierto, Earth.com, Eco-Business, Ecowatch, Ethiopia Observer, FirstPost, The Guardian, Hawaii Public Radio, HuffPost India, India Times, Inhabitat, Lado B, Live Science, The Logical Indian, La Mula, The News International, Pacific Standard, El Pais, The Print, Publimetro, Pulitzer Center, Quartz, The Quint, Reader’s Digest, La Red 21, La Republica, SSPX News, Science, Scroll, La Semana, Smithsonian, Undercurrent News, WORT-Madison, The Week, and The Wire. Banner image of an okapi by Rhett Butler for...
Mongabay seeking Conservation Solutions for new Special Reporting Project
Much of the narrative around conservation dwells on doom and gloom – habitats being destroyed, species being pushed closer to extinction, and destructive projects – despite the presence of noteworthy successes and promising practices. A new Mongabay reporting project aims to identify solutions to environmental challenges, so that they can be celebrated and adopted more widely. We’re searching for real-world examples from both land and sea, which can help conservation groups, agencies, and communities address the problems caused by habitat loss, overharvesting, climate change, pollution, and other threats. Through this reporting effort, we aim to help groups who may lack access to information on available tools and strategies, by highlighting where and why conservation efforts have been successful. Highlighting success stories can lead to transformative change by providing practitioners with blueprints and case studies for effective models. For a detailed description of the project and instructions on how to submit your pitch, please click...
New Investigative Special Reporting Project: Cross-Border Commodities
Examining the origins of commodities and products is a rich field for investigative inquiry, with probes of supply chains revealing major cases of environmental criminality, human rights abuses and corruption, prompting action by policymakers. Yet accurately conveying the importance of local environmental trends often requires a collaborative approach to gain a deeper understanding of global and transboundary forces, as well as how these processes intersect with a vast number of communities and ecosystems in ways that defy conventional news narratives. In response, Mongabay is seeking pitches for cross-border investigative reporting projects that go beyond the daily news headlines to uncover wrongdoing at the intersection of global trade and environmental degradation. For a detailed description of the project and instructions on how to submit your pitch, please...
