Mongabay Newscast

Middle and working-class citizens in nations across the globe are feeling their purchasing power diminish while billionaires hoard historically high levels of wealth. People are looking for economic solutions out of the inequity that are in line with their ecological values and planetary boundaries. "People are really hungry for solutions [and] really hungry to find alternatives," says Alvaro Alvarez, the documentary  filmmaker of the new BBC documentary Less Is More: Can Degrowth Save the World? Alvarez joins Mongabay's podcast to detail real-life solutions using the concepts behind “degrowth” in the city of Barcelona, which he highlights in the film and which have garnered widespread interest. 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. Listen to a previous conversation on degrowth on the Mongabay Newscast here. Image Credit: La Brugera de Púbol, a sustainable living and educational eco-estate roughly 2 hours from the city of Barcelona operated by Mike Duff. Image courtesy of Alvaro Alvarez. ----- Timecodes (00:00) Degrowth momentum in Barcelona (06:26) Degrowth and housing cooperatives (09:01) Growing international support (13:06) Challenges and criticisms of degrowth (24:51) Degrowth and global inequality (32:42) Green gentrification (39:03) Challenging the ‘wealth=success’ narrative (42:24) Keeping inside the planetary boundaries

Ketan Joshi, a researcher and communications consultant specializing in climate accountability, dives into the murky waters of corporate climate targets. He discusses a study revealing that while 60% of companies meet their decarbonization goals, many do so through questionable means like carbon offsets rather than genuine action. Joshi highlights the lack of transparency in the voluntary carbon market and criticizes reliance on these offsets, calling out the profit-driven intermediaries who sidestep real environmental impact.

The bobcat population has rebounded over the past century, making it North America’s most common wildcat: as of 2011, there were an estimated 3.5 million bobcats in the United States alone, a significant increase from the late 1990s. These intelligent felids, Lynx rufus, have benefited from conservation efforts that have increased their natural habitat. The species also thrives at the edges of towns and cities, where their presence can even reduce the spread of pathogens like Lyme disease that affect people, says podcast guest Zara McDonald, founder of the Felidae Conservation Fund. McDonald shares her thoughts on how the bobcat manages to thrive on the edge of urban areas, the state of wildcat conservation, and what she wishes more people knew about wildcats. 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: A bobcat in Kalispell, Montana. Image by Outward_bound via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). ----- Timecodes  (00:00) Intro (02:58) The resilience of bobcats (08:13) The benefits of bobcats (16:19) The Felidae Conservation Fund (25:30) The state of wildcat conservation (30:47) Wildfires and their impact on wildcats (33:47) Thoughts on coexistence with wildlife

Nations across the world are working to expand their protected areas to include 30% of Earth's land and water by 2030. In Africa, this would encompass an additional 1 million square miles. Mongabay's Ashoka Mukpo recently traveled to three nations to assess the current state of conservation practices in key protected areas, to get a better picture of what an expansion might look like, and how the crucial role of rangers in enforcing their protection is evolving. While there, he traveled with passionate and dedicated rangers, but also documented allegations of ranger involvement in violent incidents in Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda.  He joins the podcast to describe the situation, which he says is commonplace in national parks across the continent. "The amount [of] violence and aggressive enforcement that is, I think, generally associated with wildlife rangers has led to a lot of mistrust, a lot of alienation, and a real sense that 'the purpose of these people is to kind of harass and impose a system that doesn't include us, on us,'" Mukpo says. Read more here: ‘Killed while poaching’: When wildlife enforcement blurs into violence ‘Like you, I fear the demise of the elephants’ Image Credit: Lion inside Queen Elizabeth National Park. Photo by Ashoka Mukpo for Mongabay. ---- Timestamps (00:00) Introduction (01:27) National parks, human rights and 30x30 (04:15) Allegations of violence in Queen Elizabeth Park\ (09:48) How did we get here? (13:26) Tension between communities and rangers (18:05) Signs of collaboration (21:27) The economics of Queen Elizabeth Park (24:16) Local people cut out from revenue (26:31) The bigger picture (30:28) Credits

Bryan Simmons, the vice president of communications for the Arcus Foundation, joins the Mongabay Newscast this week to share the philosophy behind the 25-year-old foundation, which funds grantees that work on LGBTQ rights and great apes and gibbons conservation. In this conversation with co-host Mike DiGirolamo, Simmons explains the link between economic development and justice for people and how this is correlated with conservation outcomes. “When people are not able to have their economic needs met, conservation begins to pay the price right away,” says Simmons. He encourages listeners to review recent reports regarding ape conservation and how this relates to human health, disease, and the ‘one health’ approach to planetary stewardship. Find more at stateoftheapes.com. 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. Arcus is a funder of Mongabay, but it did not initiate this interview nor does it have editorial influence on Mongabay’s coverage. Image Credit: Young lowland gorilla, Gabon. Photo by Rhett Butler for Mongabay. --- Timestamps (00:00) Bryan’s journey to the Arcus Foundation (13:25) How social justice enables conservation (25:47) Threats to human rights and conservation (30:09) Concerns in the Congo Basin (33:26) Hope during a dark period (37:54) Empathy in apes

This week, Anthony James, host of The RegenNarration Podcast, joins Mongabay’s podcast to share stories of community resilience and land regeneration in the Americas and Australia. James explains how donkeys (seen as invasive pests) are now being managed to benefit the land in Kachana Station in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. In this episode, James emphasizes the importance of harnessing what’s in front of us, rather than fighting it. Across the many interviews he’s conducted, it’s become clear that this concept is something Aboriginal Traditional Owners are keenly aware of. “If you’re there, you’re kin. There’s no sense of ‘being greater than,” James says. Related reading: Huge deforested areas in the tropics could regenerate naturally, study finds Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend. You can also subscribe to or follow the Mongabay Newscast wherever you listen to podcasts, from Apple to Spotify. Listen to all episodes here on the Mongabay website. Image Credit: Jim Jim Falls, Kakadu National Park. Image by Parks Australia. Courtesy of the Director of National Parks, Australian Government, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. Timecodes --- (00:00) Why Anthony James started The RegenNarration (05:32) The story of Kachana Station (12:24) Turning problems into solutions (25:26) Community resilience amidst political strife (36:45) Where's the potential? (41:29) Credits

Christiana Figueres, the former UN climate chief pivotal in the Paris Agreement, shares her insights on the urgent need for reform in the COP process. She discusses the growing challenge of fossil fuel dependency and the remarkable rise of renewable energy, now making up 30% of global electricity. Figueres emphasizes the importance of individual choices in fostering change and maintains a hopeful perspective on climate action, encouraging a proactive mindset and celebrating small victories to inspire collective efforts against climate challenges.

Seventeen regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) regulate commercially valuable fish species across the world's oceans. The members of these organizations do not publicize their meetings and bar journalists from attending, presenting a barrier for public awareness. On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, Africa staff writer Malavika Vyawahare is joined by a fisheries expert, Grantly Galland, and an RFMO secretary, Darius Campbell, to explain how decisions are made in regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs), the consequences their decisions have on global fish populations, human rights and labor rights on the high seas, and how journalists can better cover these secretive organizations. “Decisions are being made by RFMOs that impact billion-dollar fisheries and take effect next year [so] these stories deserve to be told,” says Grantly Galland, a project director at the Pew Charitable Trusts. Also joining the conversation is Darius Campbell, secretary of the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission, an RFMO. “The sea is [vast and it’s] very difficult to understand what's going on. Most of the [fish] stocks are very difficult to analyze and predict. And it's difficult to enforce [rules],” Campbell 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, or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones. Like our podcast? Please leave a review and share this episode with a friend. Image credit: Schools of fish at Cayman Islands, Caribbean. Image by Jason Washington / Ocean Image Bank. Timecodes (00:00:00) What is an RFMO? (00:07:37) Who are the key players? (00:13:18) Who holds the power? (00:20:32) Strategies for journalists covering RFMOs (00:29:47) Transparency and secrecy (00:38:59) Conservation and RFMO decision-making (00:48:10) Forced labor and human rights (00:53:29) What happens when an RFMO breaks the rules? (01:01:13) Common heritage vs high seas (01:07:13) BBNJ agreement (01:15:24) Citizen participation (01:19:09) Resources (01:21:39) Credits

A new forest finance fund known as the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) will work like an investment portfolio (unlike the familiar – and often ineffective – forest conservation loan or grant funds), and if enacted as intended, it will reward 70 tropical nations billions in annual funding for keeping their forests standing. Co-host Mike DiGirolamo speaks with three people who have analyzed the fund: Mongabay freelance reporter Justin Catanoso, Charlotte Streck – co-founder of Climate Focus – and Frédéric Hache, a lecturer in sustainable finance at the Paris Institute of Political Studies. They tackle the critical questions regarding what the proposed fund could – and would not – do. “I think that TFFF is an initiative that has great potential because it is put forward and supported by tropical rainforest countries. It is not [a] mechanism that has been defined by donors or by any experts. It is now pushed and promoted by the countries that harbor all this tropical forest,” says Streck. For additional background, find Catanoso’s report on the TFFF for Mongabay here. View and hear our podcast team's picks of top 2024 episodes here. Like this podcast? Please share it with a friend, and leave a review. 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 or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones. Image caption: Cecropia tree in Peru. Image by Rhett Butler for Mongabay. ---- Time stamps (00:00) A brief primer of the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) (03:10) Details from Justin Catanoso (10:24) Digging deeper with Charlotte Streck (25:17) Critiques and concerns from Frederic Hache (35:50) Credits

Animal aquaculture, the farming of fish, has outpaced the amount of wild-caught fish by tens of millions of metric tons each year, bringing with it negative environmental impacts and enabling abuse, says Carl Safina, an ecologist and author. On this episode of Mongabay’s podcast, Safina speaks with co-host Rachel Donald about his recent Science Advances essay describing the “moral reckoning” that’s required for the industry, pointing to environmental laws in the United States, which put hard limits on pollution, as examples to follow. “In the 1970s in the U.S., we had this enormous burst of environmental legislation. We got the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act … all of these things were not because somebody invented something new. It's because we felt differently about what was important,” he says. The global fishing industry also contributes to forced labor and other worker abuses, as revealed by whistleblowers and media outlets, including Mongabay. Read our award-winning 2022 investigation, which revealed systemic abuse of foreign workers by China’s offshore tuna fleet. Like this podcast? Share it with a friend, and please leave a review. 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 or download our free app for Apple and Android devices to gain instant access to our latest episodes and all of our previous ones. Image caption: An Atlantic salmon. In the U.S., the Washington state legislature banned farming of Atlantic salmon in 2018. A state official banned all commercial finfish aquaculture. Alaska and California have similar bans. Image by Hans-Petter Fjeld via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5). --- Timecodes (00:00) Aquaculture and its impacts (15:32) How values shape environmental policy (32:56) The tragedy of the commons (35:52) Ecological empathy (45:07) Credits