The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is planning to export 500,000 metric tons of copper to the United States, a fivefold increase in the export commitment made in January by state-owned miner Gécamines SA.
“The Congolese government’s intention, through Gécamines, to start exporting its own copper is becoming a reality,” said Jean-Claude Mputu, spokesperson for civil society network Le Congo n’est pas à vendre (CNPAV) and deputy director of the NGO Resource Matters. “The U.S. push to gain access to Congolese copper, in an effort to rebalance China’s dominance, is also materializing,” Mputu added.
However, the DRC doesn’t appear to be moving away from China as a trade partner. In March, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding centered on mineral resources.
For now, there’s little public scrutiny of contracts that will allow the DRC to ramp up U.S. exports, nor is it clear what the social and environmental impacts of increased extraction would be.
“All of this is happening without any transparency, without any call for tenders. The risk is repeating past patterns of corruption, even if China is replaced by the United States,” Mputu said.
“There is a feeling that extraction is being carried out at the expense of the environment and local communities,” he added. “There are numerous cases of pollution around mining sites that go unpunished. The key question is whether this will improve the lives of Congolese people, particularly in terms of environmental standards.”
Some reports suggest the copper will be sourced from mines in southeastern DRC, including the Tenke Fungurume mine, operated by a local subsidiary of Chinese company CMOC Group Ltd. in partnership with Gécamines. Over the years, the mine has faced serious allegations of human rights violations and environmental pollution.
Since February 2025, parts of eastern DRC along the border with Rwanda have been under the control of M23, an armed group allegedly backed by Rwanda. In response, DRC President Félix Tshisekedi sought mediation from U.S. President Donald Trump, who brokered a peace agreement between the DRC and Rwanda that was signed in Washington, D.C., last December. The deal includes a minerals agreement that gives U.S. companies easier access the DRC’s mineral assets.
This April, U.S.-based Virtus Minerals signed a major deal securing access to copper and cobalt deposits in southeastern DRC. U.S. companies are also eyeing copper deposits in eastern DRC, parts of which are currently under M23 control.
Military forces and armed militias are already present at many mining sites in eastern DRC.
On April 27, the DRC announced the creation of a dedicated “mining guard,” a paramilitary unit tasked with securing mining sites and mineral supply chains. In a letter about the initiative, the country’s mining regulator cited relations with the U.S. and United Arab Emirates, without specifying their role the creation of this force.
Banner Image: A copper mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Image by Fairphone via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).
Environmental reporting often begins with a simple proposition: that facts still matter. At a time when climate change and biodiversity loss have become fixtures of public debate, the work of journalism can appear both urgent and increasingly difficult. Scientific evidence accumulates, while political responses lag. Between the two sits a kind of reporting that tries to translate research, policy and lived experience into something readers can grasp.
Much of that work is incremental. A story may start with a field biologist’s findings, a community confronting a development project, or a government decision that reshapes the fate of a forest or fishery. The reporting rarely resolves the underlying problem. Its purpose is more modest: to document what is happening and explain why it matters.
For John Cannon, a staff features writer at Mongabay, that principle guides nearly every assignment. “Evidence-based reporting [is] at the heart of what we do at Mongabay,” he says. “I believe it’s perhaps the most profound way we can contribute to making things better.”
Cannon’s route into journalism began with an academic interest in the natural world. He studied biology at Ohio State University and later earned a graduate degree in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Along the way, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger, an experience that introduced him to the economic and social pressures shaping conservation in parts of the Sahel.
He began contributing to Mongabay in 2014 and joined the organization full-time two years later. Since then, his reporting has taken him across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Much of his work lies at the intersection of science and daily life. Conservation research, he notes, only becomes meaningful when it connects to the lives of people dealing with environmental change.
One investigation he recalls with particular satisfaction examined a controversial carbon credit agreement in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. His reporting for Mongabay revealed details of a deal that had been negotiated largely out of public view. The coverage prompted scrutiny from Indigenous leaders, state officials and international organizations.
Cannon describes his work more simply. His time, he says, is spent “connecting conservation science with the daily lives of people affected by the problems that face us today” and “finding ways to illustrate how interconnected we all are.”
Journalism, he adds, remains worth the effort. “There is a hunger for great stories, and many people are doing compelling work. Don’t be afraid to be one of them.”
Banner image: Cannon hiking through Dogon country in Mali, 2011. Image courtesy of Anne-Claire Benoit.
The Environment and Land court at Isiolo has ruled that a class action lawsuit against British oil giant BP can proceed to a full hearing, in a case that alleges toxic waste left behind from oil exploration in the 1980s contaminated groundwater in northern Kenya, killing more than 500 people and thousands of livestock.
The matter shall be taken up on May 6.
The lawsuit, filed in February by 299 petitioners at the Environment and Land Court at Isiolo, was brought by residents of Kargi and Kalacha, two remote settlements in Marsabit county. It alleges that oil exploration activities conducted between 1985 and 1993 in northern and northwestern Kenya by Amoco Corporation, which was acquired by BP in 1998, improperly discharged hazardous and toxic contaminants into the environment, contaminating groundwater that communities depend on for drinking water and to rear livestock.
Court documents allege that drilling waste containing radium isotopes, arsenic, lead and nitrates, was dumped in unlined pits or left exposed on the ground. The petition names British Petroleum PLC as the first respondent, alongside 11 other respondents including the National Oil Corporation of Kenya; the cabinet secretaries for environment, water, health and mining; the Water Resources Authority; the county government of Marsabit; the attorney general; the National Environment Management Authority; the Kenya Nuclear Regulatory Authority; and the Kenya Medical Research Institute.
BP’s press office told Mongabay via email that it had no comment on the case.
The High Court’s April ruling does not establish liability but clears the procedural threshold for the case to be fully heard.
The 299 named petitioners may represent only a fraction of those affected. The case is backed by the Pastoralist Alliance for Resilience and Adaptation Across Nations (PARAAN) a civil society network of 37 organisations drawn from nine Kenyan counties and three East African countries. Liban Golicha, PARAAN’s coordinator, told Mongabay the organization became involved after a member organization in the region brought the community’s evidence to their attention.
“This was a long-standing historical injustice that happened some time back,” Golicha said. “We came to support them, giving them a hand to get the community’s consent, to facilitate the legal team to visit the sites and to help coordinate stakeholders.”
The case, Golicha said, is not isolated. Similar allegations of toxic waste dumping by oil exploration companies have been raised in other counties in northern Kenya including Garissa, Wajir and Isiolo, and PARAAN has begun receiving inquiries from those areas about how to pursue similar legal action or whether they can be enjoined. “There’s an allegation that similar incidents happened in the entire northern Kenya,” he said. “If this goes through, this will be an eye-opener.” For now, PARAAN is treating the Kargi and Kalacha case as a pilot.
Banner Image: Residents of Kalacha settlement during a meeting with civil society representatives and lawyers in February, 2026. Image courtesy of Zeitun.
Police in Indonesia have announced the dismantling of what they say is a major wildlife trafficking network largely targeting the world’s largest lizard species.
Authorities have arrested 11 people in connection with the alleged syndicate, which was involved in trafficking endemic Indonesian species, particularly juvenile Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis), an endangered and protected species, to Thailand, police said in their April 16 announcement.
According to investigators, the suspects concealed baby or juvenile dragons inside short lengths of plastic piping to avoid detection during transit. From January 2025 to February 2026, the group successfully moved at least 17 Komodo dragons from the island of Flores, where the species is found, to the islands of Java and Sumatra, and from there to Thailand, Mongabay Indonesia reported on April 17. The entire chain allegedly used a combination of sea, air, road and rail traffic. Their latest attempt, in February, involved three Komodo dragons, but was successfully foiled by police.
Authorities said the suspects specifically targeted the Pota area, in Flores’s East Manggarai district. While most of Indonesia’s Komodo dragon population is protected within a national park, in Pota an estimated 700 of the reptiles live outside official protected areas. The dragons were reportedly purchased for 5.5 million rupiah each (about $320) in Pota, but by the time they reached markets in Java they were selling for nearly six times as much. In Thailand, they were going for the equivalent of nearly $29,000.
Apart from live Komodo dragons, police said some of those arrested were also members of an “animal lovers” Facebook group that served as a front for trafficking of various other endemic species. From this branch of the investigation, police seized 140 kilograms (308 pounds) of pangolin scales, for which an estimated 980 Sunda pangolins (Manis javanica), a critically endangered species, would have to have been killed. Police put the market value of the scales at roughly 8.4 billion rupiah (about $484,000).
Other recovered species included 13 Talaud bear cuscus (Ailurops melanotis), a critically endangered marsupial; three Sulawesi dwarf cuscus (Strigocuscus celebensis), which are near-threatened; six green tree pythons (Morelia viridis); and a mangrove monitor lizard (Varanus indicus).
All 11 suspects are being prosecuted under “the crime of violating the conservation of biological resources and ecosystems,” police said.
The three rescued Komodo dragons are currently being cared for at a government-run wildlife rehabilitation center in East Java province, with plans for their eventual release back into the wild once legal proceedings conclude, according to provincial conservation authorities.
Banner image: One of three juvenile Komodo dragons from Flores Island that was seized by police from alleged traffickers. Image by Petrus Riski/Mongabay Indonesia.
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries.
In a forest reserve on the edge of Singapore, volunteers spend hours scanning the canopy for a primate they may not see. The exercise points to a simple constraint of conservation in a dense city: most habitats are small and separated.
The Raffles’ banded langur (Presbytis femoralis) survives in these pockets, reports Mongabay’s Carolyn Cowan. Its numbers are low, and to move and feed it relies on continuous tree cover — something that has largely been broken up.
Conservation has focused on workable measures. Volunteers record group sizes and behavior, while agencies plant food trees and install rope bridges to span gaps in the canopy.
There are signs of progress. The population has doubled since 2011 to 80 individuals today, according to Andie Ang, a researcher at Mandai Nature, a local conservation organization. What comes next will depend on land-use decisions, in particular whether remaining forest patches are preserved and linked.
The volunteer program has helped fill gaps in knowledge and build public awareness. That may prove as important as the data. In a city where land is scarce, conservation competes with other priorities.
Read the full story by Carolyn Cowan here.
Banner image of a Raffles’ banded langur, courtesy of Andie Ang.
Crime and militarization pose an existential threat to Indigenous territories across the Amazon Basin, a new report warns.
Published ahead of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) taking place this week in New York, the report finds Indigenous groups are being harmed by restricted access to crucial natural resources, and are suffering health consequences from mining pollution. They’re also being impacted by compromised state and community governance systems, according to the report published by Amazon Watch, a U.S.-based Indigenous rights advocacy group.
Criminal organizations such as Comando Vermelho (CV) and Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) in Brazil, and the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Colombia, have replaced or weakened state governance across the region, the report notes. In at least two-thirds of municipalities across the Pan-Amazon, such criminal actors “impose systems of social and economic control over communities,” the report says.
Criminal presence in Indigenous territories has led to displacement, environmental degradation, mercury contamination from mining, food insecurity and other threats.
Such criminal groups are frequently involved with several interconnected illicit crimes at once, such as illegal gold mining and drug trafficking. The report says these activities are directly tied to lucrative global markets and cause generational harm locally.
In Brazil’s Munduruku Indigenous Territory, for instance, mercury contamination linked to illegal gold mining has polluted rivers and fish. Locals say the contamination has led to severe and long-lasting health issues, including diarrhea, childhood paralysis and developmental problems.
“These activities reshape local ways of living completely around the exploitation of resources,” report author Rafael Hoetmer, director of the western Amazon program at Amazon Watch, told Mongabay by text message. Meanwhile, government responses to the criminal activity, such as militarization or other repressive strategies, can exacerbate existing risks and still fail to address the root causes.
With support, Hoetmer said, Indigenous people are best positioned to protect themselves. “Where Indigenous organizing is stronger, it has more resilience and capacity to contain the expansion.”
He said government officials rarely know how to work with Indigenous communities to combat organized crime in Indigenous territories, nor do they know how to incorporate Indigenous knowledge into their systems. While there has been some progress in terms of combined state and Indigenous monitoring strategies, participatory and complementary mechanisms are still lacking, he said.
“Indigenous peoples are crucial for any security solution to safeguard critical ecosystems for the future of the climate and the planet,” Hoetmer said. “Therefore, they should be a central actor whose voice needs to be included in international discussions around this.”
Hoetmer pointed to the upcoming U.N. conference on transnational organized crime as an opportunity for including Indigenous groups in discussions “around the protocol against crimes that affect the environment.”
Banner image: Armed police and military forces called by a Canadian mining company carry out operations in Sigchos, Ecuador. Antimining protesters have been demonstrating against a controversial consultation process led by the Ecuadorian government. Image courtesy of Verónica Potes Guerra.
SAO PAULO (AP) — Labor prosecutors in Brazil filed a lawsuit Wednesday against meatpacking giant JBS, accusing the company of buying cattle from farms where workers were held in slavery-like conditions.
The civil action suit before a labor court in the northern Brazilian state of Para seeks nearly 119 million reais (about $24 million) in compensation, an amount prosecutors say reflects the total value of transactions between JBS and the suppliers.
According to the filing, 53 workers were rescued from properties owned by seven ranchers who supplied the meatpacking company between 2014 and 2025. Those employers were listed in Brazil’s official public registry of companies found to have subjected workers to conditions that are similar to slavery, prosecutors said.
JBS showed “a systematic pattern of negligence,” the prosecutors said. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Brazil is the world’s largest beef producer, accounting for about 20% of global production. The South American nation recently surpassed the United States, which now accounts for about 19% of the global beef production, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
A statement from Brazil’s labor prosecutors noted that cattle ranching accounts for the highest number of rescued workers nationwide and has also been a major driver of deforestation in the Amazon. Para state is part of the Amazon region.
In March, the Office of the United States Trade Representative included Brazil on a list of 60 countries under investigation for forced labor.
JBS is the world’s largest meatpacking company, with a market capitalization of about $17 billion. It operates plants in the U.S., including in Colorado, where workers staged a three-week strike earlier this year.
By Gabriela Sá Pessoa, Associated Press
Banner image: The JBS meat processing plant, in Greeley, Colo. Image by David Zalubowski, Associated Press
This year’s Whitley Awards honor six grassroots conservationists from South Asia, South America, and Africa protecting a range of wildlife and habitats, from threatened amphibians to marine and freshwater fish and lions.
Dubbed the “Green Oscars,” the awards are presented annually by U.K. charity the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN), and honor grassroots leaders from the Global South, channeling a total 420,000 pounds (about $566,000) to urgent conservation projects.
The six conservationists each received 50,000 pounds ($67,300). Additionally, the Whitley Gold Award of 100,000 pounds (about $135,000), awarded to a past Whitley Award recipient, was presented to Indonesian conservationist Farwiza Farhan.
The awards ceremony was held April 29 at the Royal Geographical Society in London and included a special tribute to WFN ambassador and presenter David Attenborough, turning 100 on May 8.
“Receiving the Whitley award gives us the chance to strengthen communities, protect more nests, and secure a future for the Indian skimmer,” said Parveen Shaikh, a winner, during her awards speech. “And perhaps, in protecting this river, we are also protecting something far more fragile: our connection to the wild.”
The 2026 Whitley Award winners:
Barkha Subba from India works with communities in Darjeeling, West Bengal state, to protect the rare Himalayan salamander (Tylototriton himalayanus) within a rapidly transforming tea estate landscape.
Parveen Shaikh, also from India, is expanding community-led riverine conservation for the Indian skimmer (Rynchops albicollis) to Prayagraj in the Ganga Basin. Her initiative has led to significant recovery in the endangered waterbird’s population.
Issah Seidu from Ghana is working to save threatened guitarfish along his country’s coastline. He’s mapping critical habitats of four guitarfish species to establish the country’s first locally managed marine area.
Marina Kameni from Cameroon is leading the “Frogs and Farmers” initiative in the southwestern part of the country to protect threatened amphibians. The region is also home to the Goliath frog (Conraua goliath), the world’s largest.
Moreangels Mbiza from Zimbabwe is expanding a coexistence model of conservation that allows lions to move between protected areas and community land. She has led interventions that have helped reduce human-wildlife conflict incidents in some areas by up to 98%.
Paola Sangolquí from Ecuador is safeguarding the nesting sites of the critically endangered Galápagos petrel (Pterodroma phaeopygia) from invasive species on private land. She aims to develop a global model for the conservation of seabird nesting colonies.
“As a woman belonging to an indigenous mountain community, winning a Whitley Award means both recognition of years of work on conservation and opportunity to spread this work across the Himalayan landscape,” said Barkha Subba at the awards ceremony.
The Whitley Gold Award was presented to Farwiza Farhan from Indonesia. She leads the NGO HAkA, working to protect the Leuser Ecosystem in Sumatra, a 2.7-million-hectare (6.6-million-acre) UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s the only place on Earth where orangutans, elephants, rhinos and tigers still coexist.
Banner image courtesy of Whitley Fund for Nature.
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