Famed ethnobotanist and conservation advocate, Mark Plotkin, joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss traditional ecological knowledge about the increasingly popular psychedelic and medicinal plants and fungi of the Amazon. He shares his thoughts on the value of this knowledge and how this cultural moment can be used to leverage conservation action. Plotkin is no stranger to conservation, having co-founded the Amazon Conservation team in the 1990s. Their Indigenous-led and managed conservation mod...
Jun 20, 2023•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast " Drilled " is a true-crime podcast series from Critical Frequency and journalist, Amy Westervelt, examining the back-door dealings and environmental impacts of major fossil fuel projects. The latest season looks into what's happening between the South American nation of Guyana and oil giant Exxon Mobil. For this episode of the Mongabay Newscast we give you a look at the first episode of the 8th season of this critically acclaimed podcast series. You can listen to it here. Follow and subscribe t...
Jun 13, 2023•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast "The planetary boundaries" is a concept that measures the point at which human impact on our Earth's natural systems goes beyond "safe operating grounds." Trespass that boundary, and we risk destabilizing other natural systems in a cascading effect. A recent study getting a lot of press nowadays indicates that we've passed 7 out of 8 of these thresholds already — of particular interest beside climate change is that experts announced we crossed the land use change planetary boundary last year, in...
Jun 06, 2023•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Since the colonization of the Congo Basin by Europeans, many Indigenous communities have been denied land they once relied on in the name of conservation under a contentious conservation model. The central concept of “fortress conservation” remains popular with some Central African governments, however experts say it is based on a false premise of a "pristine wilderness" devoid of humans. However, Indigenous leaders and conservation experts say it's time for a change. One that includes Indigenou...
May 30, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Australia suffered catastrophic bushfires in 2019 - 2020, followed by intense rain and flooding from an ensuing La Niña which experts say may be linked to those bushfires. Despite the pleas of scientists to halt development, some governments, such as in the Northern Territories, continue to greenlight massive fossil fuel infrastructure projects. All of this is 'demoralizing' says award-winning podcast host of ' A Rational Fear, ' Dan Ilic . He joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss climate chang...
May 23, 2023•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Scientists have discovered a series of hydrothermal vents in the Mid-Atlantic ridge spanning hundreds of miles and teeming with life adapted to scorching plumes of hot water like shrimp, crabs, mussels, anemones, fish, gastropods, and more. This discovery, 40 years in the making, adds another layer of consideration to where deep sea mining can occur, which experts argue should not happen in these diverse underwater ecosystems, in part because they store vast amounts of marine genetic resources, ...
May 17, 2023•6 min•Ep 168•Transcript available on Metacast This week we're sharing the first episode of a new season of Mongabay Explores, a deep dive into the Congo Basin which begins with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which contains 60% of central Africa's forest, but which also aims to open up protected areas and forested peatlands to oil and gas development. This is big because the Congo Basin contains the world’s second-largest rainforest, a staggering 178 million hectares, containing myriad wildlife and giant trees plus numerous huma...
May 02, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep 168•Transcript available on Metacast The South American nation of Guyana, whose economy has traditionally relied on tourism, agriculture, and fishing, has begun doing business with oil giant ExxonMobil to build a massive offshore oil drilling project along its coast. The president has argued that the profits could pay for the nation's clean energy transition, while others argue that the nation's traditional economic models, biodiversity, and coastal population are at risk of severe environmental impacts from the project. Award-winn...
Apr 18, 2023•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Recent breeding success at a nature reserve in South Africa has given conservationists hope for the survival of Africa's only resident penguin species, whose population has dropped by nearly 65% since 1989. Researchers are having success boosting breeding colonies near abundant food sources with the help of simple interventions like building nest boxes that mimic their guano burrows which keep the birds cool and safe in a world whose climate is becoming hotter and less predictable. Listen to the...
Apr 11, 2023•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Conservation technology is a rapidly growing field with exciting potential. From eDNA to bioacoustics and AI, there's a lot to keep track of in an ever-changing environment. Here to discuss it on the Newscast this week is new Mongabay staff writer Abhishyant "Abhi" Kidangoor who's joined our newsroom to focus on this quickly growing field: he shares details of his current conservation tech reporting projects and ones our readers can look forward to in the future. Related reading: Bioacoustics in...
Apr 03, 2023•23 min•Ep 166•Transcript available on Metacast 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? Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever th...
Mar 27, 2023•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Mar 21, 2023•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 h...
Mar 13, 2023•8 min•Ep 164•Transcript available on Metacast 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 ...
Mar 06, 2023•40 min•Ep 164•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Feb 27, 2023•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 la...
Feb 21, 2023•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Feb 14, 2023•9 min•Ep 162•Transcript available on Metacast 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'...
Feb 08, 2023•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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 sol...
Jan 31, 2023•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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. Strou...
Jan 24, 2023•28 min•Ep 161•Transcript available on Metacast The Paru State Forest is the world's 3rd-largest sustainable-use tropical forest reserve, and is home to a tree standing 30 stories tall. But in October of last year, its home state of Pará was the 5th-most deforested in Brazil, alarming experts and environmentalists that its giant trees (including the massive red angelim) are at risk. Listen to the popular article from Sarah Brown, Amazon’s tallest tree at risk as deforestation nears , by clicking the play button. Please invite your friends to ...
Jan 16, 2023•8 min•Ep 160•Transcript available on Metacast In December, Mongabay's Montreal-based editor Latoya Abulu attended the 15th meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity, where the historic Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework was signed by nearly 200 countries. While the agreement was lauded by scientists, advocates, and Indigenous leaders, others say that there are some concerning omissions from the text, and worrying inclusions of "biodiversity credits" sought by corporations. Click play to hear Latoya share details from her time i...
Jan 11, 2023•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Reintroducing rescued anteaters from hunters in northern Argentina into the country's Iberá reserve is no small task. However, In 2007, the first pair was reintroduced by the Conservation Land Trust (now known as the Rewilding Foundation). 14 years on, the program has taken this success and used it as a framework for subsequent reintroduction of other native species. Click the play button to hear the popular Mongabay article by Oscar Bermeo Ocaña aloud: Giant anteaters lead biodiversity resurgen...
Jan 02, 2023•15 min•Ep 159•Transcript available on Metacast After 6 years and nearly 160 episodes, podcast host Mike Gaworecki is putting his microphone down. The show will go on, but we will miss his expertise and command of conservation science's myriad facets! One of his favorite topics to cover on the show has been bioacoustics, the use of remote acoustic recording technology to study the behavior, distribution, and abundance of wildlife. For his final time hosting the Mongabay Newscast, Mike shares an array of his favorite bioacoustics interviews th...
Dec 27, 2022•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast We all send our recycling somewhere for proper handling, but the operations of one such handling center in Poland makes one ask, is it being done right, or at all? The European Commission estimates that the illegal handling of such waste represents around 15-30% of the total EU waste trade, generating EUR 9.5 billion in annual revenues. So in part 3 of our investigative podcast series, the team dispatches Outriders journalist Eva Dunal to visit one such recycling facility in the pretty town of Z...
Dec 20, 2022•14 min•Ep 158•Transcript available on Metacast The U.K.’s Environment Agency calls waste crime — where instead of delivering recycling or rubbish for proper disposal, companies simply dump it in the countryside — “ the new narcotics ” because it’s so easy to make money illegally. It’s estimated that one in every five U.K. waste companies operates in this manner ('fly-tipping'), and the government seems powerless to stop it: it’s so easy to be registered as one of the government’s recommended waste haulers that even a dog can do it — and at l...
Dec 13, 2022•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast The British countryside is increasingly under siege from a scourge of illegal waste dumping – polluting both water and air – but one man is bravely taking the criminals on, staking out their sites with night vision goggles, drones and more. In a three-part, 'true eco-crime' podcast series for the Mongabay Newscast, investigative environmental journalists Lucy Taylor and Dan Ashby trace this illegal 'waste trail' from their quiet English town to the nearby countryside, and as far away as Poland. ...
Dec 06, 2022•14 min•Ep 158•Transcript available on Metacast Host Mike G. speaks with Mongabay reporters whose new investigations reveal a major and illegal shark finning operation by one of China’s largest fishing fleets, and the role of a giant Japanese company, Mitsubishi, in buying that fleet’s products. Through an exhaustive interview process with deckhands who worked throughout the company’s fleet, Mongabay's Phil Jacobson and Basten Gokkon revealed that Dalian Ocean Fishing's massive operation deliberately used banned gear to target sharks across a...
Dec 01, 2022•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast In a nation gripped by currency depreciation, harsh economic fallout and civil unrest, the Shouf Biosphere Reserve endures as a rare conservation success story in Lebanon. Previously protected by landmines and armed guards, the region (a UNESCO biosphere reserve) forges ahead with community engagement in tree-planting projects while providing the community with food, fuel, and jobs. Click the play button to hear this popular article by Elizabeth Fitt aloud: From land mines to lifelines, Lebanon’...
Nov 22, 2022•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast Healthy ecosystems are often noisy: from reefs to grasslands and forests, these are sonically rich places, thanks to all the species defending territories, finding mates, locating prey, socializing or perhaps just enjoying their ability to add to life's rich chorus. Recording soundscapes in such places is one way to ensure we don't forget what a full array of birds, bats, bugs, and more sounds like, and it couldn't be more important, as the world witnesses a decline in many such kinds of creatur...
Nov 16, 2022•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
