Mongabay Newscast

Policies enacted by seven nations and one international agreement have been recognized by the World Future Council for “top policy solutions for [humans], nature and generations to come.” On this edition of Mongabay’s podcast, the council’s CEO, Neshan Gunasekera, shares key highlights of the eight World Future Policy Award laureates. Under the theme of “Living in Harmony with Nature and Future Generations,” the winners for 2025 “bring to light the future orientation of the way we take decisions at [a] time that there are multiple crises facing ourselves as a species, but also the planet,” he says. The winning legal and legislative initiatives span seven nations, from South Africa to Uganda, Panama, Spain, Aotearoa New Zealand, Bhutan and Austria. The Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement (BBNJ), which establishes a binding U.N. treaty on the use of ocean resources beyond national borders, was among the initiatives awarded. The movement that granted legal personhood to the Whanganui River in Aotearoa New Zealand was also recognized. Both of these cases were previously the focus of Mongabay Newscast episodes hosted by Rachel Donald. “Nature doesn't need us, we need nature,” Gunasekera says. “And I think that's the realization we are coming to quite slowly, because any act that we have has a positive impact on the planet. But also, if you're not careful, every act could have a negative impact. Impact on nature has no national boundaries or borders. It has a global impact.” Find the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify. All past episodes are also listed here at the Mongabay website. Image Credit: The Whanganui River in Aotearoa New Zealand. Image by Peter H via Pixabay (Pixabay Content License). ------- Timecodes (00:00) The World Future Policy Awards (10:48) The global impact of ‘Rights of Nature’ laws (14:15) Addressing the criticisms of ‘Rights of Nature’ (27:17) Human rights and global enforcement (36:16) The global impact award

Wildlife biologist and ornithologist Corina Newsome of the U.S. NGO National Wildlife Federation joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss how bird-watching plays a role in environmental justice for underserved communities in urban areas, and provides an accessible way for people to connect with nature and drives impactful change. “Birding is an opportunity [for] people to fill in data gaps where they live [to] help direct investments that come from the world of conservation … from federal to state to local levels that have usually been funneled away from their communities,” she says on this episode. Newsome says that birding changed her own life, and she’s hopeful it can also change the world, because bird health has direct implications for biodiversity health at large. “ What birds require of us will benefit us in ways that are far beyond bird conservation. We can work together to solve problems and think about the ecological emergency and environmental harms are taking place across landscapes, across boundaries,” she says. Find the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify. All past episodes are also listed here at the Mongabay website. Thumbnail image: American Avocet. Image by Michael Barry via Pixabay (Pixabay Content License). ------ Timecodes (00:00) Corina Newsome: Wildlife biologist and ornithologist (04:08) Birding changes your life (14:21) Birding, environmental and social justice (26:48) Birds as symbols of hope and resilience

Alejandro Prescott-Cornejo, a Senior Marketing Associate at Mongabay and talented wildlife photographer, shares his journey of healing through photography. He emphasizes the importance of connecting with your 'local patch' to discover the beauty in nearby wildlife. Alejandro discusses the ethical responsibilities of wildlife photographers and offers insight into what makes a strong photo. He also touches on the Biophilia exhibit, showcasing the work of Mongabay's team, and highlights how storytelling through photography can drive conservation impact.

Aimee Roberson, executive director of Cultural Survival, joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss how her organization helps Indigenous communities maintain their traditions, languages and knowledge while living among increasingly Westernized societies. As a biologist and geologist with Indigenous heritage, Roberson is uniquely suited to lead the organization in bridging these worlds, including via “two-eyed seeing,” which blends traditional ecological knowledge and Western science to increase humanity’s ways of knowing, toward a view of people as active participants in shaping the natural world. Cultural Survival also sees radio as a critical tool for keeping communities together and fostering a relationship with the land. Roberson shares how their robust radio project is specifically designed to train and empower Indigenous media creators to share local news and cultural information of critical importance, in multiple languages across the world. “It's something that's [a] core part of what we do. Some people are like, ‘Ah, radio, you know, this is 2025. Who cares about radio?’ But Indigenous people really care about radio because it keeps our communities together. It's a primary form of communication.” Find the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify. All past episodes are also listed here at the Mongabay website. Image Credit: Lolita Cabrera (Maya K’iche’), an Indigenous rights activist from Guatemala. Photo by Jamie Malcom-Brown/ Cultural Survival. ---- Timecodes (00:00) A bridge between two worlds (09:28) The fallacy of ‘Objectivity’ (17:20) The Indigenous Kinship Circle (22:24) We all have Indigenous roots somewhere (28:19) Indigenous led local radio (37:55) AI cannot substitute the human experience

An international tribunal of environmental rights activists recently found extensive evidence that the Canadian mining sector is “guilty for the violation of Rights of Nature across South America and Serbia.” The guest on this episode of Mongabay’s podcast corroborates these accusations, and describes human rights abuses in South American nations that she has seen in her reporting, too. Brandi Morin, a Cree-Iroquois-French environmental journalist and freelancer for Mongabay, discusses how Canadian mining projects impact ecological health and the rights of Indigenous communities in places such as Ecuador and Bolivia. “Canada is the mining giant of the world, and around the world, they're getting away with atrocities. They aren't regulated very well to hold them to account. It's a free-for-all out there,” she says. Find the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify. All past episodes are also listed here at the Mongabay website. Image Credit: Intag community members block security guards hired by the mining company Copper Mesa Corporation (at the time a Canadian firm) from entering Junin Reserve in Ecuador in 2006. Image courtesy of Elisabeth Weydt. ----- Time codes (00:00) Canadian mining in South America (15:39) A ‘green transition’? (23:50) A mining state in Ecuador (28:19) The International Rights of Nature Tribunal (35:00) You can’t protect the Earth by destroying the Earth

The recent advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on states' obligations regarding climate change was celebrated globally for providing clarity on countries’ legal obligation to prevent climate harm, but was also appreciated by island nations for its additional certainty on their maritime boundaries remaining intact regardless of sea level rise. This week on Mongabay’s podcast, environmental lawyer Angelique Pouponneau, a Seychelles native and lead negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), explains these victories, their legal implications, and how they matter for small island nations. She says Small Island Developing States (SIDS) face a multitude of, “one of which [was] this idea of the shrinking exclusive economic zones.” Exclusive economic zones are the waters that lie within the jurisdiction of a nation, usually 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from its shore. With the ICJ advisory opinion, there’s now legal certainty that this zone will remain within the jurisdiction of a state, even if its shoreline shrinks as a result of rising seas due to climate change. “What island nations were trying to guard against through state practice was essentially if there were ever to be loss of territory, it would not mean loss of exclusive economic zone,” Pouponneau says. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. Mike DiGirolamo is a host & associate producer for Mongabay based in Sydney. He co-hosts and edits the Mongabay Newscast. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky. Image Credit: Island in the South Pacific, Fiji. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. ---- Timecodes (00:00) The importance of the SIDS alliance (10:09) ’Wins’ in the ICJ advisory opinion (17:38) What about enforcement? (21:29) Maritime boundaries will remain (27:38) What are sustainable ‘blue economies?’ (32:32) Concerns about development & ‘debt for nature’ (42:12) Frustrations with Global Plastic Treaty negotiations (45:50) Looking to the BBNJ treaty

Wealth inequality is a primary culprit behind the ecological and environmental collapse of societies over the past 12,000 years, which have come to be dominated by a small circle of elites hoarding resources like land, research shows. Today, instead of an isolated collapse, we face a global one, says Luke Kemp, a researcher at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk. On this episode of Mongabay’s Newscast, Kemp explains how wealth inequality is not just tied to, but may be the very cause of the ecological destruction we are witnessing today, and how tackling that is key to how we solve all these challenges, as he recently told The Guardian. “Imperial overexpansion, depleting the natural environment, having elite competition and popular immiseration, all [are] just simply the natural effect of inequality. All is driven by growing concentrations of power and wealth inequality,” he says. Humans are not naturally like this, Kemp explains. Rather, for the vast majority of their existence, they have coexisted in nomadic, interconnected societies, functioning in a largely egalitarian fashion. Until the discovery that grain could be harvested — and therefore also stolen and hoarded with violence — humans did not dominate one another, as we do today. As mentioned in the episode, you can read a recent opinion piece on what listeners and readers can do overcome despair in the face of existential threats such as climate change and biodiversity loss.  Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. Image Credit: Statue of Queen Hatshepsut, Egypt. Photo by Rhett Butler/Mongabay. ----- Timecodes (00:00) Why humans are egalitarian (08:06)  Why authoritarianism is so pervasive (14:12) How and why societies fall (20:58) Our global society is at risk (24:22) How we solve it (30:25) Capping wealth at 10m (37:54) Citizen juries and how they work (45:11) Could a ‘ministry for the future’ work? (46:54) Lessons from the Khoisan Peoples (51:00) Democracy isn’t just a ‘left-wing’ idea

On this episode of the Newscast we take a look at Natalie Kyriacou’s widely praised new book, Nature’s Last Dance: Tales of Wonder in an Age of Extinction, whose high-profile fans, like Paris climate agreement architect Christiana Figueres, call it a “lyrical call to awaken our love for the wild before the music stops.” Kyriacou, the founder of the environmental organization My Green World, shares her aim of the book, her thoughts on real solutions to our ecological problems, what she wishes more people understood about nature, and why they need to fall in love with it. “If there’s one simple thing that we can do, it is to just step outside and feel that wonder and look up and appreciate it … if we are going to protect nature, to protect something, you need to fall in love with it.” Always honest and often humorous, this deeply researched volume clearly outlines the economic, political and cultural drivers of our most significant ecological problems, and what the reader can do to effect meaningful change. Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. Image Credit: Natalie Kyriacou. Photo by Chloe Paul. -- Timecodes (00:00) Making nature mainstream (04:28) Challenging bias about nature (12:38) Stories of recovery (16:23) How we all depend on nature (21:55) Porches and peacocks (27:03) Your actions are a vote (35:18) Inspiration from Costa Rica (38:55) Lessons from the Montreal Protocol (45:08) To protect it, you have to love it

Ben Goldsmith, a rewilding advocate and financier, shares his passion for nature restoration in England. He highlights the growing acceptance of beavers, once deemed pests, now celebrated for their flood mitigation abilities. Goldsmith stresses the urgent need for faster rewilding efforts, particularly the reintroduction of larger carnivores like wolves. He discusses the cultural shifts in farming practices and explores the economic benefits of sustainable land use. The conversation underscores the importance of coexistence with wildlife and the link between biodiversity and human well-being.

On this week’s episode of Mongabay’s podcast, best-selling author Alan Weisman details the people and places he visited in reporting his new book, Hope Dies Last, a chronicle of miraculous accomplishments and resilience of the book’s protagonists, many of whom are working to solve humanity’s most intractable ecological problems. The book’s impetus was an accumulation of despair at the state of the world and how humanity treats it. “I started this book because I was really, really, really depressed about how I saw systems breaking down,” Weisman says. But as he uncovered each story, Weisman’s tune changed. He explains the ingenuity and bravery of the people and projects he visited that altered his perspective on what is possible. “By the end of this book, I was so uplifted by all these people — and by the variety of people — that I found, in the most extraordinarily different circumstances, each of them daring to hope and oftentimes succeeding, that I'm there with them. This ain't over.” Subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify, and you can also listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. Please send questions, feedback or comments to podcast[at]mongabay[dot]com. Image Credit: Kicker Rock in the Galápagos, Ecuador. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. Timecodes ------- (00:00) The Mesopotamian Revitalization Project (07:56) Why does Hope struggle against itself? (13:27) Creating food from thin air (24:06) Suing the government to protect species (31:03) The most dangerous country Alan visited, the U.S. (35:54) New forms of energy (45:39) Power is the most addictive drug (51:53) This ain’t over