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News and inspiration from nature's frontline, featuring inspiring guests and deeper analysis of the global environmental issues explored every day by the Mongabay.com team, from climate change to biodiversity, tropical ecology, wildlife, and more. The show airs every other week.
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- Yesterday39 min
Kynan Tegar wants 'a future that exists' for Indonesia's Indigenous communities
Indigenous activist and filmmaker Kynan Tegar joins the Mongabay Newscast this week to discuss the impacts of the fires devastating Kalimantan, the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo. Some 48,000 hectares (about 119,000 acres) of land have burned so far this year; Kynan says these fires are intentional on the part of agricultural corporations. "The process that has gotten us to this point right now, where fires are raging through the island, it's a process that started maybe you can draw the line up to the 1970s, which was around the time where the Indonesian New Order period regime of Suharto was leasing out a lot of lands as concessions to companies," she says. "A lot of times it's logging, it's palm oil concessions, it's also gold mines." Corporations have drained more than 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of peatland, she says. But the impact, she says, that isn't receiving as much attention is the decreased access to freshwater for Indigenous and local communities, which both climate change and El Niño are making worse. "It's quite an ironic thing. Like, it's one of the world's biggest rainforest[s], and a lot of the people there are struggling for water. So that, on top of the conditions created by the massive wildfires that has been happening since July … has put a lot of the people there in strain," she says. Kynan released a spoken-word music video in 2024 to dramatize and tell the story of her community, Sungai Utik, and the people who have defended the land for more than 100 years. She explains the filmmaking process behind the video, Earth Defender, and how she created the narrative, which states that every 48 hours, an Earth defender loses their life protecting their land, protecting their forests, protecting their ecosystems, their families Kynan is also a transgender woman. In light of the Indonesian president's decision to designate the "dissemination of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) culture" as a nonmilitary state threat, she explains how this impacts her advocacy. "How free we can really be in this country? It made me second-guess on how much I … can actually speak up on the kinds of issues that I have always spoken up for." She further reflects on what she feels is a lack of solidarity. "Being queer and being Indigenous, it's not that far removed. It's a lot of the same, layers of oppression culturally, economically, socially. And I suppose that's where I really had hoped for there to be more solidarity between these movements because of all of those similarities. But I think that's still something that we collectively need to work on." Kynan also shares her thoughts on the long-delayed Indigenous People's Bill, which promises to grant legal recognition to customary lands, but has hung in parliamentary limbo for 16 years. "I don't see elements within it that will redress the historic inequality that we have faced. I think that's still a massive problem that needs more than just a legal solution." When asked what she hopes to see for the future of Indonesia's Indigenous population, she says, "I don't think I can accurately represent all Indigenous youths of Indonesia. But for me personally, the kind of future that I want to imagine is a future that exists." Please take a minute to let us know what you think of our podcast here. Mike DiGirolamo is the host & producer for the Mongabay Newscast based in Sydney. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky. Basten Gokkon is a Jakarta-based staff writer for Mongabay with interests in wildlife conservation, renewable energy, and Indigenous communities. Follow him on Twitter to see his latest thoughts via @bgokkon. Image: A customary longhouse in Sungai Utik. The community elders make sure everyone complies strictly with the law, as this serves as a model for the young generation to follow in their footsteps and lead the path to community conservation. Image by Indai Apai Darah, Kynan Tegar / Wayfinders Circle. —- Timestamps Opening Fires in Kalimantan Sungai Utik and Imagined Futures
- 1 weeks ago57 min
Iwi and communities bring kiwi back to Wellington after 150 years
For the first time in 150 years, kiwi once again live in the hills surrounding Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. More than 250 manu ("birds" in the Māori language) were successfully translocated back to the region, thanks to the efforts of the iwi (nations of Aotearoa), community members, and landowners behind the Capital Kiwi Project. Paul Ward, the project lead and founder, joins the Mongabay Newscast this week to explain the yearslong effort to make this possible. "This is a relational project as much as it is what you might traditionally call a conservation project. And I think at a fundamental level that if we lose our relationship with these animals, with these manu … they risk becoming a museum species," he says. Rāwiri Walsh (Taranaki Whānui ki Te Upoko o Te Ika, Ngā Rauru Kītahi, Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi) is the project's Kaimanaaki Kiwi (kiwi guardian) and iwi liaison. He also joins the podcast to explain the process from the perspective of Te ao Māori (the Māori world). For the Capital Kiwi project to receive kiwi, they must be gifted the birds by iwi through a tono, a gifting process. The project then bestows the bird on a community through a pōwhiri, a traditional Māori welcoming ceremony. And then the tono, as Walsh explains, is a request to the iwi for the birds. "From a Māori perspective, we just had to agree with the iwi that we were receiving from, and they had to agree with us that they wanted to give us kiwi," Walsh says. "What we were able to do when moving kiwi is … welcome the people, both the sanctuary workers as well as the iwi, onto the lands that they were bringing the birds. And then … the responsibility and the onus to the birds would switch … we would do the pōwhiri or the ceremony, and then there would be a process where they would be handed over," Walsh says. The project is far from over, Ward says, as communities now share responsibility for caring for the birds. He adds that this model is a proof of concept for reintroducing other species. In total, including newly hatched chicks that made it to fighting weight (more than 90% of them), Ward estimates there are over 300 kiwi in the hills surrounding Wellington. "Ten years ago, [the] challenge probably would've [been] 'Are we being too ambitious?'" he says. "I think now that challenge is one of complacency. "We're leaning into those relationships with our partners, with our iwi, our landowners, and our communities to explore what other taonga [property] species might be returned to these environments." Please take a minute to let us know what you think of our podcast here. Mike DiGirolamo is the host & producer for the Mongabay Newscast based in Sydney. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky. Cover image: Walsh performing a health check on a kiwi chick. This photo was one of National Geographic's 2023 images of the year. Image courtesy of Robin Hammond/Capital Kiwi Project. —— Timecodes Kiwi return to Wellington The Cultural Significance of Kiwi Threats & Conservation History Building the Capital Kiwi Project Relationship with iwi and the tono Remarkable Results What Comes Next
- 2 weeks ago51 min
Home Planet Fund succeeds in conservation by investing in local knowledge
This week on the Newscast, we're joined by Dilafruz Khonikboyeva, the founder of the Home Planet Fund, an independent, Indigenous-led nonprofit that provides funding for local and Indigenous communities and conservation projects around the world. Khonikboyeva, who is also the organization's executive director, speaks about the ethos of the Home Planet Fund and how it works. But I must emphasize that in my conversation with Khonikboyeva, what stands out most to me isn't just the fund's focus on Indigenous-led conversation and investing in local knowledge. It's the well of experience Khonikboyeva brings to it that, growing up in Tajikistan under Soviet occupation and having firsthand experience of a community making do under extremely difficult circumstances, I believe, is rare among philanthropic efforts. In a sector that runs on reports, restrictions, and guarantees, Khonikboyeva encourages funders to work differently, which often might come in an answer they don't want to hear. "If you're getting a satisfying answer in this space, something isn't right," she says. She explains: "I think sometimes people wanna hear, 'Yes, we'll take your money. Yes, we'll do what you want in the timeline that you want. Yes, everything is possible." And it's just not true, right? That is actually not how life works, and anybody who tells you otherwise is certainly selling you something." The Home Planet Fund chooses to focus on four distinct ecologies that "researchers have pinpointed around the world [as] critical from a climate and biodiversity angle," Khonikboyeva says. These are the Tongass Rainforest of Alaska; the glaciers around Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India — sometimes referred to as "the third pole"; the grasslands of East Africa; and the South Pacific. Through trusted networks, Khoniboyeva and her team identify and build relationships with local communities in these areas who are already engaged in conservation efforts and provide them with funding. "Making sure we have elders, making sure we have whole communities, making sure we have women's groups, making sure we have youth groups involved and co-building with them is really, really important," she says. Please take a minute to let us know what you think of our podcast here. Mike DiGirolamo is the host & producer for the Mongabay Newscast based in Sydney. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky. Banner image: Faye Saemala, whose family has lived in the village of Lilisiana, in the Solomon Islands, for generations. Image courtesy of Jason Gagame. —- Timecodes "The Hardest of Humanity That I've Seen" Dilafruz Khonikboyeva Explains the Home Planet Fund Growing Up in Tajikistan Community Works Over Monetary Incentive How the Fund Built Relationships Identifying the Four Ecologies Support Mongabay on Patreon 'We Don't Accept Grant Proposals' Women's Collectives in the South Pacific The Case for Unrestricted Funding Towards a Collaborative Fund "If You're Getting a Satisfying Answer, Something Isn't Right" Working in Conflict Zones Mindset Shifts for Philanthropists 'Investing in Healing Ourselves' Closing
- 3 weeks ago47 min
'Big Cats' highlights the remarkable power of photojournalism
Jeff Sikich, the biologist for the National Park Service in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, thought that Steve Winter "was crazy" for wanting to capture a photograph of a mountain lion in front of the Hollywood sign. "He looked at me like I was crazy because he said, 'There are no mountain lions in Griffith Park.' But I knew in the past that there had been," Winter says. It took him 15 months, but Winter managed to do it. He captured the famous mountain lion, named P-22 by scientists, sauntering down a hill at night wearing his tracking collar, with the Hollywood sign shimmering in the background. This helped spark a conservation movement in L.A. and eventually inspired funding for the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing over U.S. Route 101, which will be the world's largest wildlife crossing when it opens on Dec. 2. Winter and Mongabay contributing editor Sharon Guynup join the Mongabay Newscast this week to detail this story and others that are featured in her and Winter's upcoming book of impactful photojournalism, Big Cats from Nat Geo Books. Each of the nine stories in this book was selected specifically for the conservation outcomes these stories helped inspire. "We really wanted to emphasize that storytelling and photography can change the world. And beyond that, we all can have impact, so we all need to contribute our skills, whatever they are," Guynup says. After reading all 25,000 words, this book stands out to me as more than a collection of top-tier wildlife photography. These are stories of honest hope for big cats on the brink. The impacts tell a larger story to me. People do care, and will take action to protect charismatic species and the ecosystems that depend on them when they're given the right information. The book releases worldwide on Oct. 6. You can find it here. Please take a minute to let us know what you think of our podcast here. Mike DiGirolamo is the host & producer for the Mongabay Newscast based in Sydney. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky. Cover image: This photo of P-22 the mountain lion took Steve Winter 15 months to shoot. After its publication, the cat became a worldwide icon. Image courtesy of Steve Winter. —— Timecodes Stories with impact A mountain lion in Hollywood On top of the world with snow leopards Shutting down the Thai Tiger Temple Asiatic lions back from the brink Towards a future of co-existence
- 4 weeks ago38 min
A health crisis for Peru's recently contacted people brings planetary health to the fore
Mongabay staff writer Aimee Gabay joins the Newscast this week to discuss her reporting trip to the Peruvian Amazon, where she spoke with the Indigenous Matsés community. She made the trip initially to examine environmental threats to Matsés territory. Instead, she found them suffering from an epidemic of malaria and hepatitis B, which they have been asking the Peruvian government to help address. "The story itself was a surprise … every question directed to them about environmental changes would immediately become an issue about health," Gabay says. The current epidemic of malaria and hepatitis B they face is being exacerbated by climate change, drought, and state neglect. Prolonged dry weather allows for favorable conditions for malaria-bearing mosquitoes to breed, and at the same time cuts off the river transit that the Matsés depend on for access to health care. Community members have travelled to the nearest major city to plead with the Peruvian government, but they say they're still not receiving the proper health care that they need — sometimes dying after they reach the city, according to Matsés chief Leo Chuma Teca Beso. The Peruvian government has had guidelines for addressing health risks for Indigenous communities for nearly two decades. Still, authorities say they struggle to implement the measures outlined in them, Gabay says. "On paper, they do have the protocols. They have got plans, but it's the implementation that we're not seeing." Please take a minute to let us know what you think of our podcast here. Mike DiGirolamo is the host & producer for the Mongabay Newscast based in Sydney. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky. Cover image: San Mateo village, one of 29 Matsés communities in Peru, on the banks of the Gálvez River. Image by Aimee Gabay/Mongabay. Read the full story from Aimee Gabay here. ——- Time codes Why the Matsés chose to make contact A health crisis "Where is the government's support?" Risks to the Yavarí-Tapiche Corridor Getting help to the communities An indicator of Planetary Health
- Sep 1, 202651 min
Christiana Figueres and Garik Israelian on Jane Goodall's legacy and the search for truth
A new award has been created in honor of late conservation icon Jane Goodall by the board of the Starmus Festival, an international gathering of scientists and artists to be held from Oct. 17-22 in Tenerife, Spain. Christiana Figueres has been selected as the recipient of this inaugural Jane Goodall Earth Medal. Figueres is the former executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and is known for her work in securing the negotiations leading to the Paris climate agreement. She joins the podcast this week to discuss the significance of this medal and her thoughts on the future of science communication and truth — both of which are focal points of the upcoming festival. "What an absolute giant [Goodall] was to her very last day," says Figueres. "The fact that a medal has been made in her honor, and that I will debut that is just an unbelievable honor." Astrophysicist and co-founder of the Starmus Festival, Garik Israelian, also joins the podcast to discuss the festival theme, "The Search for Truth." He credits the idea for the medal to his advisory board, which includes Starmus co-founder Brian May, also an astrophysicist but better known as the guitarist for the rock band Queen, and fellow musician Peter Gabriel. "Brian was very active in protecting animals, and he had a foundation called Save Me. And another member of our advisory board, Peter Gabriel, was also very active in human rights, and also he knew Jane Goodall very well," Israelian says. Both Figueres and Israelian agree that this year's theme, "The search for truth," runs into challenges in the age of social media, which previous newscast guest Bram Büscher described as ushering in a "post-truth era," where factual information is increasingly hard to discern. The solution, this week's guests agree, may lie in regulating tech companies and their algorithms, which prioritize engagement over truth, with platforms often pushing content that may contain false information. "We are swimming in both disinformation and misinformation all the time without even knowing it," Figueres says. "It is time for us to make a conscious decision," she adds. "We need to surround ourselves with different kind[s] of information. We cannot continue to search for the tiger that is going to eat us up." Please take a minute to let us know what you think of our podcast here. Mike DiGirolamo is the host & producer for the Mongabay Newscast based in Sydney. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky. Cover image: Sunrise over the Amazon Rainforest. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. Listen to our previous conversation with Christiana Figueres here. Listen to our conversation with Bram Büscher about social media platforms here. —- Timecodes A legacy of hope The search for truth Legal frameworks to hold countries accountable for climate impacts An awakening to the importance of nature AI and environmental concerns Looking to the Starmus Festival
- Aug 25, 202633 min
In Bhutan, the pursuit of happiness extends to the food system
Bhutan is a Himalayan kingdom sandwiched between China and India. Forty percent of its 800,000 citizens work in the agriculture sector. The mountainous country is famous for its breathtaking landscapes and its unique policy of "Gross National Happiness," instituted in 1972 by Jigme Singye Wangchuck, the fourth king of Bhutan. My guests on the Newscast this week say this philosophy is the backbone of the nation's food system, and its plan for full food self-sufficiency by 2029. "Our food system isn't just about producing food. It's about sustaining our landscapes, our communities, and our culture," says renowned chef and restaurateur Bleu Tshering Dorji. She owns two restaurants in the nation's capital, Thimpu. She explains the unique challenges farmers she works with face due to climate change and steep mountain terrain. "We are a mountainous landlocked country, and only a small percentage of our land is, I think, actually suitable for agriculture. We don't have the luxury of just expanding farmland. We have to make better use of the land that we sort of already have," she says. "Labor is becoming extremely scarce as young people sort of move away from agriculture, and farmers still have to deal with issues like wildlife conflict, unpredictable weather, and also getting their produce to the market," Bleu says. Sonam Wangchuk is an executive specialist at the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock for the government of Bhutan. He also joins the conversation to explain how the government plans to address these challenges through the 13th five-year plan, "Transforming the Agrifood Sector for Economic Growth and Sustainable Development." The plan calls for spending the equivalent of about $180 million through 2029. Much of these funds appear to be directly supporting smallholder farmers, the majority of whom in Bhutan are women. "We have been working to strengthen the capacity of the smallholder farmers, especially through training on climate-smart agriculture, improve production technologies, farm mechanization, post-harvest management, value addition and agribusiness and business development for women and youth," Wangchuk says. "The skills are imparted to improve access to finance, technology and markets and creating an environment of entrepreneurship and to support the farmer groups and cooperatives." Some government measures have received criticism, such as the implementation of a 3,400-kilometer (2,100-mile) fence to deter human-wildlife conflict. A previous study from 2023 on agricultural practices in the nation suggested that, "Bhutan should emphasise women-centred initiatives by enhancing access to assets, raising awareness of climate change mitigation strategies, and developing training programs to promote CSA," or climate-smart agriculture. This appears to be what the plan aims to do. However, not all challenges are easily solved with funding. Previous Mongabay fellow Choki Wangmo highlighted some of these challenges through the story of Pen Zam, a medicinal mushroom gatherer who struggles with a shrinking habitat at extremely high altitudes to attain a fraction of what her family used to gather decades ago, before the current climate impacts of today. Later this month, the inaugural Global Conscious Food Systems Summit will take place in Bhutan. Please take a minute to let us know what you think of our podcast here. Mike DiGirolamo is the host & producer for the Mongabay Newscast based in Sydney. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky. Cover Image: A chorten, or Buddhist stupa, at a rice field in Bhutan. Image by thaths via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0). —- Time codes Bhutan is transforming its food system A challenge ahead How 'Gross National Happiness' guides the way Supporting fa
- Aug 18, 202646 min
'Remembering Wildlife' before it goes extinct
British wildlife photographer Margot Raggett says she created the book Remembering Elephants after she heard David Attenborough say, "The question is, are we happy to suppose that our grandchildren may never be able to see an elephant except in a picture book?" Her effort was to provoke this question in others and to give the proceeds from its sale to conservation organizations. In a sense, the book went viral and generated a following, prompting Raggett to continue the book series and her nonprofit, Remembering Wildlife. "Sometimes people get upset with me and say 'They're still around,' but I want people to stop and think," Raggett says. In this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, she discusses her journey into photography, the intention behind memorializing still-living species, and details of her 11th book, Remembering Giraffes, which will be published Oct. 12. Raggett has gathered work from some of the world's most renowned wildlife photographers. To date, Remembering Wildlife has raised more than $1.6 million for 85 conservation organizations in 35 countries. Raggett remarks on why she chose to go with giraffes for this volume, explaining how the gentle nature of these giants and their relative calm compared with apex predators are often overlooked or taken for granted, even as their numbers have declined by 30-40% since the 1980s. "Like everything in conservation, the story is not even. So there are some areas where giraffes are doing well, and there are others where they're down to, you know, hundreds. And I just felt they deserved a story to be told. They are silent, and they deserve a voice like all of the other species we've covered," she says. You can preorder or purchase a copy of Remembering Giraffes here. Disclosure: Margot Raggett is a grassroots supporter of the Mongabay Newscast. Mongabay maintains full editorial independence from its financial supporters, who have no role in determining our coverage or editorial decisions. Please take a minute to let us know what you think of our podcast here. Mike DiGirolamo is the host & producer for the Mongabay Newscast based in Sydney. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky. Cover image: As the sun sinks behind the Nguruman escarpment in the west, a solitary Masai Giraffe lingers on at a waterhole after drinking, in the late afternoon heat, as a flock of Wattled Starlings take off. Mt Shompole is in the background and the clouds are slowly building up. It's the end of the dry season and the rains are not too far away. Photo by Federico Veronesi. Courtesy of Remembering Wildlife. —- Time codes What if we only remember elephants in picture books? A cancer diagnosis, and finishing the book Momentum for the mammals Why giraffes? Finding the right images The giraffe in the red sneakers Most surprising things a wildlife photographer sees
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