New Special Reporting Project: Great Apes
Great apes are balanced on the knife-edge of extinction. Mountain gorillas, Cross River gorillas, western and eastern lowland gorillas, and Sumatran, Bornean and Tapanuli orangutans are all now listed as Critically Endangered; chimpanzees and bonobos are Endangered. These species are in a fight for their lives that will play out over this century. They face bad odds and massive threats including rapid wholesale deforestation due to industrial agriculture — especially oil palm production — logging, mining, energy production, and the pressures of rapid human population growth in Asia and Africa. Projections of human development patterns indicate that ninety percent of great ape habitat will be disturbed by humans by 2030 — making action now imperative. Mongabay is launching a Great Apes SRP (special reporting project) article series, to be published in the last quarter of 2018 through June 2019, bringing public attention to these issues. We’re looking for well written news stories that analyze individual threats; that profile trailblazing great ape scientists and conservationists; or that feature innovative solutions — ranging from community involvement and empowerment, to more effective law enforcement (think drones, camera traps), and more. Articles can highlight case studies, key new findings, and stories of great ape conservation across Asia and Africa. The stories will appear first on Mongabay, but authors will be encouraged to also sell their stories to third party media outlets, both mainstream publications and industry publications. Please click here to read the full detail...
Mongabay hosts September 4 program on how technology is protecting ocean ecosystems
Mongabay readers and friends in the Bay Area of California are invited to join founder & CEO Rhett A. Butler on September 4 in San Francisco as he moderates a roundtable discussion at The Commonwealth Club about new technological applications that boost marine conservation efforts. There is an accelerating effort among ocean scientists, advocates and technologists to harness new technologies for marine conservation. These technologies, which include satellite sensors, drones and artificial intelligence can be used to monitor and manage marine ecosystems—discovering new coral reefs, identifying illegal or unsustainable fishing fleets, and exposing destructive coastal development. Our panel will discuss what’s already working in this space and also what technologies might soon be available to protect and create healthy and safe marine environments in the Bay Area and around the world. The expert panel: Robin Martin, Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford University Joe Mascaro, Director of Academic Programs at Planet, the Bay Area-based satellite company David Kroodsma, Research Director at Global Fishing Watch For tickets and information, visit the Commonwealth Club website: https://www.commonwealthclub.org/index.php/events/2018-09-04/using-new-technologies-create-safe-marine-environments Tuesday, September 4 @ 6:00 PM The Commonwealth Club 110 The Embarcadero Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium San Francisco, 94105 We hope you can join us! If you cannot, please tell a...
Mongabay-Wildtech Accepting Pitches: Conservation Technology
Technology now plays a crucial role in improving our understanding and protection of nature. Scientists and decision-makers need timely and reliable tools and data to assess the status and trends of species and ecosystems. Front-line conservationists want to understand the range of technology options before investing scarce resources. However, the challenges of keeping up with and mastering emerging technologies that might be applicable to a conservation objective are daunting. Mongabay-Wildtech has since become a trusted source of independent coverage of both existing and emerging technologies and has demonstrated a keen eye for recognizing cutting-edge technologies with the potential to transform nature conservation and research. Wildtech has posted over 220 articles on a wide range of innovations, from camera traps in trees and acoustic monitoring of bees, to virtual reality in the classroom and DNA analysis in the rainforest, and drones in the fight against wildlife poaching. The series Mongabay.com is now looking for article pitches that will foster a better understanding of how and where technology is being used to facilitate research and conservation of nature. Please click here for a full detail description on this...
Mongabay in the news, June 2018
Mongabay’s original reporting appears in many places beyond the bounds of Mongabay.com when other outlets republish, quote from, or re-report our findings. One highlight from this past month included a New York Times story picking up on a Mongabay feature about the rare moustached kingfisher (pictured) which was killed by a scientist for study, rather controversially: “‘Ghost bird’ photographed for first time ever, euthanized for science.” The Times piece, “The Ornithologist the Internet Called a Murderer,” talked about what happened to that scientist when the internet found out. Mongabay publishes on a Creative Commons basis and encourages media outlets to republish its features in their own publications. Learn how to do this here. Here’s a selection of outlets our reporting appeared in during June 2018: Asian Correspondent, Business-Human Rights Resource Centre, Cambodia Daily, CanIndia, Daily Mirror, Deccan Chronicle, The Diplomat, Eco-Business, Economic Times, EcoWatch, Epoch Times, Gulf News, IFL Science, Inhabitat, India Times, International News Lens, Metro, New York Times, Noticias Venezuela, Pacific Standard, RPP Noticias, The Revelator, Scroll, La Semana, Tarung News, and The Wire. Banner image: Moustached Kingfisher. Photo courtesy of University of Kansas/Rob...
Exhibition in Munich presents Mongabay founder’s photos
A photo exhibition in Munich, Germany is showcasing nature and wildlife images taken by Mongabay’s founder Rhett A. Butler in the rainforests of southeast Asia. The Exhibition, titled “Der verschwundene Wald” (“The Vanished Forest”), was organized by Susanne Nusser of memonature.org and is being hosted by Stadtteilkulturzentrum Guardini90 (Guardinistr. 90, München). The exhibit — which features 17 images from Sumatra, Sulawesi, Borneo, and beyond — asks viewers to consider what is happening to the world’s tropical rainforests. “Tropical rainforests have been growing for millions of years, ranging from the Amazon to Papua New Guinea. It is no exaggeration to write that today they are all at risk, in different ways and for different reasons,” said Nusser. “But what they all have in common is they are disappearing without much public attention.” “We have to ask a simple question: where have all the trees gone?” Nusser said the exhibition kicked off with an awareness-raising activity among school children, with a group of ten-year-olds exploring what’s happening to timber from the forests of southeast Asia. They found that a lot of trees eventually become paper that makes its way into German books. “The tracks of the vanished forest lead to us,” she said. The exhibition is free and open to the public. It runs through July 26,...
Film about Mongabay advisor Jane Goodall gets seven Emmy nominations
“This film is inspiring thousands of people, and that can only help the chimps,” advisory board member Jane Goodall told Mongabay regarding the new documentary film about her life, Jane. Last week, the film received seven Emmy Award nominations, including one for exceptional merit in documentary filmmaking. It was created by National Geographic and directed by Brett Morgan. Dr. Goodall has been a key advisor to Mongabay since she joined the board in 2014, and speaks frequently with the Mongabay team and most often with Founder & CEO Rhett Butler, including for the organization’s podcast recently, here. The conservation icon recently returned from a speaking tour around South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya: she is always quite busy on these trips but found time to briefly visit three chimp sanctuaries in the region. The Jane Goodall Institute is working here and elsewhere on the continent including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Senegal and Mali to establish chimpanzee research and conservation programs. They have also created sanctuaries to care for orphaned chimpanzees. Read Jane’s reflections on last week’s first World Chimpanzee Day on July 14 at her organization’s blog here. Banner image of Dr. Jane Goodall by Morten...
Recent From MONGABAY.ORG
-
New Special Reporting Project: Great Apes Aug 13, 2018 -
-
-
-
