Global Pulse

分类： environment

  • A mountain of rubbish in Indonesia has been on fire for more than a week

    A mountain of rubbish in Indonesia has been on fire for more than a week

    An eight-day underground fire that has ravaged a massive open-air waste mountain on the outskirts of Jakarta has pushed hundreds of residents from their homes, pushed local hospitals to treat a surge of respiratory illness, and laid bare a systemic national waste management crisis decades in the making. The inferno, which ignited on June 30 at the Jatiwaringin Landfill in Tangerang Regency, has spread across more than 15 hectares of piled waste, blanketing nearby residential neighborhoods in thick, toxic smoke that pushed local air quality into hazardous levels, according to Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment.

    Initial investigations by environmental activists point to a buildup of methane gas released by decomposing organic waste trapped beneath thousands of tons of uncompacted rubbish as the most likely cause. A small initial spark, fanned by strong seasonal winds, spread the fire across multiple hard-to-reach sections of the waste mountain, where deep-seated smoldering continues to plague firefighting efforts eight days on. Unlike conventional surface fires, this blaze burns within the compacted layers of waste, requiring specialized response tactics. Authorities have deployed a large contingent of resources including helicopters, water tankers, bulldozers, and surveillance drones to contain and extinguish the fire, with officials projecting full containment by the end of the week.

    For local residents, the impact has been immediate and devastating. Hundreds have been forced to evacuate their smoke-filled homes to government-run emergency shelters, with many reporting severe respiratory irritation from toxic fumes. “The smoke was so thick you couldn’t see anyone,” 45-year-old local resident Sarmanah told reporters. “It stings the nose, makes you cough and have a runny nose, and makes you unable to breathe… We were forced to leave the house because we couldn’t take it anymore.” As of the latest update, local health authorities have examined at least 234 residents for smoke-related respiratory issues, with 72 confirmed cases of acute respiratory tract infection. While hazardous air quality has eased slightly in recent days, active hotspots and smoldering pockets of fire remain in the western and southern sections of the landfill.

    Environmental campaigners say the Jatiwaringin fire is not an isolated accident, but a predictable “ecological disaster resulting from systemic negligence” that has plagued Indonesia’s waste management sector for years. According to the Indonesian environmental NGO Forum for the Environment (Walhi), the Jatiwaringin facility was only designed to handle 2,700 tons of waste per day, which meets just 59% of Tangerang Regency’s total daily waste output. The excess waste is dumped illegally in unregulated open sites within 100 meters of residential neighborhoods, creating sprawling, unmanaged waste mountains that trap methane and create a persistent public safety risk.

    Long before the current blaze, local residents reported constant issues with foul odors, pest infestations, and fears of catastrophic landslides from the overgrown waste piles. Climate change and more frequent extreme heat waves have exacerbated the risk, turning these unregulated dumping grounds into what activists describe as “time bombs” waiting for a single spark to ignite. This pattern is not unique to Jatiwaringin: major landfill fires swept across multiple Indonesian sites in 2023, including a 40-hectare blaze at Bandung Regency’s Sarimukti Landfill and a fire that destroyed 80% of a 35-hectare Tangerang landfill, both linked to methane buildup from poor waste management.

    In response to the disaster, Indonesian officials announced that a full investigation into the cause of the Jatiwaringin fire will begin once extinguishing operations are complete. The Ministry of Environment and Forestry also plans to conduct a nationwide evaluation of 390 landfills starting in early August 2026, and confirmed that Jatiwaringin already received administrative sanctions for poor management practices in 2025. Authorities have ordered local governments to transition to controlled landfill systems, where waste is compacted and regularly covered with soil to reduce methane buildup and fire risk.

    But activists warn that incremental changes and emergency responses are not enough to address the root of the crisis. Walhi campaigner Wahyu Eka Styawan argues that persistent underfunding for regional waste management, weak enforcement of existing environmental regulations, and a lack of public education on source-separated organic waste have created conditions where disasters like this are inevitable. “This is a time bomb of accumulated waste management problems that have been ignored for years without fundamental improvements,” Wahyu said. Without systemic changes that reduce waste at the source, implement consistent sorting, and process organic waste to prevent methane formation, he added, “It could definitely catch fire again if the pattern isn’t changed. Once the weather gets hot again, be prepared for more fires.”

  • ‘The water just came so fast’: Typhoon triggers floods and rare tornadoes in China

    ‘The water just came so fast’: Typhoon triggers floods and rare tornadoes in China

    The 2026 Pacific typhoon season has opened with a catastrophic blow as Typhoon Maysak tore through southern and central China over the weekend, leaving at least 15 people dead, tens of thousands displaced, and widespread destruction in its wake. Characterized by sudden onset and intense, short-duration gale-force winds, the storm dumped unprecedented volumes of rain across southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, triggering dam breaches, riverbank overflows and flash floods that engulfed communities in mere hours.

    In Renhe Village, located near the regional capital Nanning, the downpour began on a seemingly typical Sunday. What started as routine seasonal rain quickly escalated into an unmanageable disaster: by the early hours of Monday, floodwaters reached knee height across the village, and by dawn, the entire first floors of residential buildings were fully submerged. Local resident Zhou, who is currently staying outside Guangxi, recounted the chaos of the evacuation to the BBC, noting that the flood advanced so rapidly that fleeing villagers had no time to grab essential supplies including food.

    Zhou’s family is among more than 60,000 people displaced across Guangxi, with official figures putting the total number of people affected by the deluge at close to 90,000. Even days after the storm hit, thousands of residents remain trapped on rooftops and in isolated mountain communities, struggling with critical shortages of food and clean water. Zhou told reporters that four-month-old niece of hers, still trapped in the village with other family members, has been without milk for more than 24 hours. Trapped communities gathered on higher ground are also rapidly running out of basic necessities, as a lack of sufficient rescue personnel and equipment slows relief efforts. Another local resident, Huang from Yunbiao Town, told the BBC that floodwaters submerged entire villages in just 10 minutes, leaving rescuers unable to reach every vulnerable resident in time. “The lifeboats they brought were too small to travel far through the swollen floodwaters, and there simply were not enough workers to cover all the affected areas,” Huang explained. Compounding the danger, widespread power and internet outages have cut off communication between trapped residents and their family members outside the disaster zone, leaving many to wait in agonizing uncertainty for news of their loved ones.

    Worsening the already dangerous conditions, floodwaters have swept both wild snakes and commercially farmed snakes from local farms into residential areas. A video shared with the BBC from a local village chat group shows a large black snake slithering across the mud-caked floor of a flooded home, as onlookers react in alarm. Commercially raised snakes are common in parts of China, farmed for use in traditional medicine, meat, and the production of anti-venom, making their escape into flooded communities an added lethal hazard for displaced residents waiting for rescue.

    The impact of Typhoon Maysak extended hundreds of kilometers north to central China’s Hubei Province, where the storm’s warm southern air collided with cold northern air masses to spawn rare tornadoes – the first to hit the region since 2021. The twisters swept through the cities of Ezhou and Huanggang, leaving 11 dead, thousands of homes damaged, and widespread panic. Videos circulating on Chinese social media capture the chaos: outdoor dining furniture is tossed through the air by powerful winds, electrical sparks fly across storm-battered streets, and diners scream as they scramble for safety. In one devastating incident in Huanggang, a man was sucked out of his 12th-floor apartment after the tornado shattered his windows, blowing him and his furniture out onto the street. He remains in intensive care as of the latest updates. A Huanggang student told the BBC he initially expected an ordinary summer thunderstorm, until he saw debris flying through the air outside his dormitory window. “Many students were cut by flying broken glass,” he said. “It wasn’t until the wind stopped that I realized I had just survived a major disaster.”

    Tragedy from this season’s early extreme weather has also struck other parts of northern China. Over the weekend, flash floods in Tongliao, Inner Mongolia, killed two cattle farmers, while record-breaking rainfall in Fushun, Liaoning Province, left three people dead. Average rainfall in parts of Fushun between 1 a.m. and 7 a.m. local time shattered all historical records for the region, according to state media.

    In response to the widespread devastation, Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered all-out rescue and relief operations across affected regions, emphasizing the critical importance of treating injured residents, resettling displaced communities, and executing disaster prevention work effectively. State media has broadcast regular footage of rescue crews in life vests and helmets navigating swollen floodwaters on inflatable boats to reach trapped residents. However, local authorities in Nanning have warned that continuing extremely heavy rainfall is hampering ongoing search and rescue efforts, slowing access to isolated communities.

    As emergency crews work to reach those trapped, a new threat is already approaching on the horizon: meteorological forecasts show Super Typhoon Bavi is currently churning across the western Pacific, on track to make landfall on China’s eastern coast later this week, bringing the risk of a second wave of extreme weather and flooding for already strained disaster response teams.

  • Hyundai’s new steel mill sparks hopes and fears in Louisiana

    Hyundai’s new steel mill sparks hopes and fears in Louisiana

    On a drizzly March morning in 2025, South Korean industrial giant Hyundai staged a high-profile announcement at the White House, flanked by then-President Donald Trump, top Republican leaders, and Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry. The company revealed it would pour nearly $6 billion into a cutting-edge new steel mill in Louisiana, built to supply domestic metal for its existing vehicle factories in Alabama and Georgia. Trump framed the investment as a direct win for his administration’s trade tariff policies, while Hyundai executives touted the thousands of new jobs the facility would bring to the Bayou State. What the event omitted, however, was a far more transformative detail: this mill could become the lowest-carbon iron and steel production facility the United States has ever constructed.

    Steelmaking is one of the global economy’s most carbon-intensive sectors, responsible for roughly 9 percent of total worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Unlike the coal-fueled blast furnaces that built America’s 19th-century steel industry—many of which still operate across the Midwest today—Hyundai’s planned Ascension Parish facility is not designed to run on coal. Last summer, company leaders told Louisiana officials the plant will eventually run on hydrogen, a carbon-free fuel that can be produced entirely from renewable electricity and water. Executives described the project as a potential “catalyst for the hydrogen ecosystem” across the Gulf South, while helping Hyundai meet rising global demand for sustainably manufactured steel.

    This development marks a rare bright spot for U.S. steel decarbonization, a movement that has stalled in recent years amid economic headwinds and federal policy rollbacks. Under the previous Biden administration, two major U.S. steel firms, SSAB and Cleveland-Cliffs, were set to receive $500 million each in federal funding to develop hydrogen-powered steel production. Both projects were ultimately scrapped.

    Kelvin Wells Jr., an industrial organizer with the Sierra Club’s Delta Chapter based in Baton Rouge, called the project an opportunity to redefine Louisiana’s industrial identity and accelerate the state’s clean energy transition. But despite that promise, critical questions remain unanswered: whether Hyundai will actually deliver on its hydrogen decarbonization pledges remains far from certain.

    According to the company’s permit filings, Hyundai will launch operations in 2029 running primarily on natural gas, a plan Hyundai confirmed publicly to Canary Media. The company says it will capture and store all carbon dioxide produced during initial operations, a process that cuts coal-based steel emissions by roughly two-thirds—but still generates far more pollution than steel produced with green hydrogen from renewables, and faces intense pushback from carbon capture critics. When asked to set a timeline for a full transition to green hydrogen, a Hyundai representative noted, “It is difficult to pinpoint when hydrogen will become economically viable.”

    For local residents of Ascension Parish, where the mill is being built on the grounds of a former sugarcane plantation, uncertainty around the project extends far beyond hydrogen plans. The region sits along Louisiana’s infamous “Cancer Alley,” a stretch of the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans already saturated with petrochemical facilities and oil refineries that have driven disproportionately high rates of chronic illness and pollution in low-income and Black communities. Locals hope the new steel mill will deliver tangible benefits instead of repeating the harms of past industrial development, but say Hyundai has yet to respond to their repeated requests for community engagement.

    The project’s closest major population center is Donaldsonville, a town of 7,000 that boasts a historic place in U.S. political history as the site of the nation’s first Black mayor, elected in 1868. Today, the parish has one of the highest poverty rates in Louisiana, despite decades of industrial development in the region. Glenn Price, who leads a local neighborhood organization and is a member of grassroots coalition Good Neighbors Louisiana, says he is skeptical the project will deliver quality local jobs. Past industrial facilities in the area have prioritized hiring out-of-state workers, he notes, and Hyundai has a documented record of labor and safety violations at its U.S. auto plants. Price also worries the mill will add to the region’s already unbearable pollution burden, bringing no meaningful improvement to public health.

    Good Neighbors Louisiana is pushing Hyundai to codify its pledges on pollution reduction, green hydrogen transition, and worker protections into a legally binding community benefits agreement, and is calling on the state to conduct a full environmental justice analysis before approving final permits. Recently, the group won a small early victory: Hyundai agreed to convert nine gas-fired process heaters to cleaner electric equipment, a change the company says will reduce harmful pollutant emissions.

    “We can’t stop industrial development from coming here—we don’t have that power,” Price explained during an interview at Donaldsonville’s public library. “If they’re coming in, we just want them to make solid commitments to our community. We’re fighting to get the best outcome we can.”

    The 1,700-acre Hyundai site sits at the core of a proposed 17,000-acre industrial mega-hub called RiverPlex MegaPark, developed jointly by Hyundai, CF Industries, and other major energy firms. The project would expand industrial development into rural farmland currently owned by descendants of formerly enslaved people and sharecroppers, sparking fears of displacement among long-time local residents.

    To speed up negotiations for the project, at least 10 local elected officials in Ascension Parish have signed non-disclosure agreements with Louisiana Economic Development, the state’s economic development agency, enabling officials to privately negotiate a $2.6 billion incentive package for Hyundai. This level of secrecy has become standard under Governor Landry’s administration, but local environmental groups have filed a lawsuit to block the practice. A spokesperson for Louisiana Economic Development defended NDAs as a “standard part of economic development projects” across the country, arguing that “by engaging local elected officials early while protecting sensitive business information during negotiations, Louisiana is able to compete for transformational projects that create opportunity, grow wages and strengthen communities across the state.”

    Local resident Ashley Gaignard, president of Rural Roots Louisiana, questions why details that are supposed to serve the public good must be kept hidden. “I want to see my community thrive,” she said. “I just don’t want to do it at the cost of risking our water, our air, our lives.”

    Not all local residents are opposed, however. Deletrick Dickerson, a safety representative for the United Steelworkers union who lives in Ascension Parish and works at a nearby alumina refinery, says the project could deliver transformative benefits if it prioritizes hiring local workers from the region’s majority-Black, economically disadvantaged river communities. “We just want everything to be open and honest,” he said.

    In a written statement to Canary Media, Hyundai-Posco Louisiana Steel, the U.S.-based subsidiary leading the project, addressed community concerns directly. The company says it is using “advanced technologies to minimize emissions of harmful and toxic substances,” that the project “is designed to comply with all applicable environmental regulations and permit requirements,” that it will “prioritize hiring local residents to the greatest extent possible,” and that “safety will be our top priority.”

    Unlike traditional coal-fired U.S. steel mills, Hyundai’s Louisiana facility will combine two lower-carbon production technologies into one operation: a direct reduction furnace to process raw iron ore, which can run on natural gas, hydrogen, or a mix of the two, and two electric arc furnaces to produce finished steel. Only three direct reduction facilities currently operate in the U.S., all running on natural gas, including a large Nucor operation just across the Mississippi River from Hyundai’s site. Electric arc furnaces are already common across the U.S., but most rely on recycled scrap metal to produce steel; Hyundai will use its own domestically produced direct reduced iron to manufacture high-grade steel suitable for vehicle production.

    The project is a direct response to trade policy shifts: Trump administration steel tariffs raised costs for imported steel, pushing Hyundai to bring more of its supply chain to the U.S. Building a new coal-fired blast furnace makes no economic or environmental sense today, so the company opted for a flexible new design that can adapt to future decarbonization. Hyundai also plans to sell its low-carbon Louisiana steel to other automakers, as growing global policy pressure—including the European Union’s carbon border adjustment tax—and consumer demand increase the market for sustainably produced steel, while Hyundai itself must meet South Korea’s national carbon neutrality targets.

    “This project is not just about producing steel — it’s about producing a better future,” Hyeongjin Kim of Hyundai Steel told Louisiana leaders last year.

    In May 2026, Hyundai signed a $650 million contract with Italian industrial equipment manufacturer Danieli to supply the electric arc furnaces and direct reduction system for the plant. Andrea Diasparro, Danieli’s group sales director and executive board member, says the equipment is purpose-built to enable a seamless transition from natural gas to hydrogen. “No additional equipment has to be implemented for the plant to be hydrogen-ready, in the case that hydrogen is available at a reasonable price,” he explained. The system also includes built-in carbon capture technology, which Hyundai will use during its initial natural gas phase.

    For climate advocates like Angelle Bradford Rosenberg, a medical scientist and leader of the Sierra Club’s Delta Chapter, the lack of a binding timeline for transition is a major red flag. “There’s no mechanism in Louisiana for watchdogging that sort of thing,” she said. “We need those commitments from corporations in the beginning, because we cannot trust that it will come later.” Good Neighbors Louisiana has repeatedly invited Hyundai representatives to attend public community events, she says, and has yet to receive a response.

    Louisiana already produces millions of tons of conventional hydrogen annually for the chemical sector, made from natural gas in a carbon-intensive process. Industry plans to transition to lower-carbon hydrogen: so-called “blue hydrogen” is produced from natural gas with carbon capture and storage, while “green hydrogen” is made by splitting water with renewable-powered electrolyzers, producing no carbon emissions. Hyundai has indicated it plans to transition first to blue hydrogen, with a ready supply next door from CF Industries’ planned $4 billion blue ammonia facility, which will produce hydrogen and store emissions underground.

    Opinions on blue hydrogen are deeply divided. Local environmental groups and even some Republican state policymakers oppose carbon capture and storage, citing concerns about underground injection risks, potential leakage, and the continued reliance on fossil fuels. But the nonprofit Clean Air Task Force, a leading climate advocacy organization, frames CCS-enabled blue hydrogen as a critical intermediate step to build out hydrogen infrastructure and drive down costs for future green hydrogen adoption. “We really see CCS-enabled hydrogen as a way to jump-start the economy and lead us into electrolytic [green] hydrogen in the future,” said Lindsay Cooper Phillips, senior Gulf Coast policy manager for the Clean Air Task Force. “It’s challenging for someone like Hyundai to just start off there.”

    Green hydrogen, widely seen as the end goal for zero-carbon steelmaking, still faces major structural barriers in Louisiana and across the U.S. Global supplies remain limited, and production costs are still prohibitively high for large-scale industrial use. Political shifts have made the challenge even greater: the Trump administration has cut and paralyzed federal funding for new clean hydrogen projects, Governor Landry has stalled the low-carbon hydrogen policy initiatives launched by his Democratic predecessor, and Louisiana has barely begun to build out renewable energy generation capacity.

    That makes Hyundai’s 2029 launch plan to start with natural gas unsurprising, if disappointing for decarbonization advocates. “The production of green hydrogen has not yet reached the scale, nor cost, necessary for feasible implementation to replace natural gas,” Hyundai wrote in its December 2025 permit application to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. The company says it will transition to green hydrogen once sufficient supply is available, but has not disclosed a public timeline.

    Even as the hydrogen future remains uncertain, the region is already preparing for the mill’s arrival. Earlier this year, River Parishes Community College broke ground on a dedicated Hyundai Training Center in Donaldsonville, which will offer a two-year training program to prepare local workers for jobs at the mill. Korean investors have purchased hotels and residential property in downtown Donaldsonville to house new workers, and the first Korean-owned businesses have opened. Industrial gas supplier Air Liquide is investing $350 million to build a new air separation unit in nearby St. James Parish, which will supply purified oxygen to Hyundai’s electric arc furnaces by pipeline, and the facility is on track to launch in 2028. Air Liquide, one of the world’s largest hydrogen producers, says it stands ready to partner with Hyundai if the company moves forward with hydrogen adoption. “That could be another project for us tomorrow,” said Matthieu Giard, a group vice president for Air Liquide.

    For a full transition to green hydrogen, however, Louisiana will need to build roughly three gigawatts of new renewable energy capacity, according to Clean Air Task Force estimates—more than the total amount of solar energy currently installed across the entire state. Today, natural gas power plants generate the vast majority of Louisiana’s electricity, with only a small contribution from nuclear power. Entergy Louisiana, Hyundai’s electricity provider, plans to add up to three gigawatts of solar capacity in coming years, and private developers are advancing plans for the state’s first three onshore wind farms. However, large-scale offshore wind development in the Gulf of Mexico has been effectively halted following policy rollbacks by the Trump administration.

    If Hyundai delivers on its decarbonization pledges, the project could mark a turning point for the entire U.S. steel industry, paving the way for a full clean transition of one of the nation’s oldest and most polluting industrial sectors. For local advocates, that potential is what makes the fight for accountability so important. They remain torn between cautious hope for a cleaner, more prosperous future and deep skepticism that the project will deliver on its promises.

    “The Hyundai plant is huge for the United States and for us,” Bradford Rosenberg said. “We want to make sure we get it right.”

  • Warming climate, pollution and unplanned growth push Kashmir’s lakes toward disappearance

    Warming climate, pollution and unplanned growth push Kashmir’s lakes toward disappearance

    Against the snow-capped backdrop of the Himalayan mountains, the iconic shikara wooden boats glide gracefully across Srinagar’s Dal Lake each morning, a postcard-perfect image that has drawn tourists to Indian-controlled Kashmir for generations. But behind this picturesque facade, one of South Asia’s most celebrated natural landmarks is quietly dying — and it is far from alone. A toxic combination of unregulated pollution, unplanned residential and agricultural encroachment, invasive vegetation, and climate-driven warming is pushing Dal Lake and hundreds of Kashmir’s other natural lakes toward irreversible collapse, with devastating consequences for local ecosystems, livelihoods, and the region’s core tourism economy.

    Official government data underscores the scale of the crisis. A 2025 Indian government analysis found that since 1967, 315 of Kashmir’s 697 recorded natural lakes have vanished entirely, while another 203 have shrunk dramatically in surface area. Dozens of water bodies once mapped as full-year lakes have been reduced to shallow seasonal marshes, and many have been completely paved over or converted to farmland to accommodate the region’s growing population.

    Dal Lake, which anchors Srinagar’s tourism sector and has long been the cultural heart of Kashmir, is among the fortunate few: it receives consistent, funded restoration attention from local authorities, a luxury most other Kashmir lakes do not get. Even so, the work of keeping the lake clear of choking invasive weeds and accumulated waste is a grueling, seemingly futile battle for the frontline workers tasked with its protection.

    “We are afraid to touch the water with bare hands,” explained Ghulam Rasool, a weed cleaner employed by the local Lake Conservation and Management Authority (LCMA), during an on-site interview in May 2026. “Whenever we need to clean something by hand, we wear gloves, because without them our hands quickly develop painful allergies. Sometimes it feels impossible to keep up. Sewage drains flow directly into the lake, and water streams coming down from the mountains bring all kinds of waste — diapers, plastic bottles, every sort of garbage you can imagine.”

    Every day, dozens of cleaners like Rasool work alongside heavy excavators to pull tons of weeds and solid waste from Dal Lake’s waters, with mounds of cleared debris visible along the lake’s shoreline. The root of the invasive weed problem, LCMA officials explain, lies in the untreated human waste that still flows into the lake. While more than 75% of Srinagar’s population is connected to a municipal sewage treatment system, thousands of unregulated homes built along the lake’s banks remain unconnected, flushing nitrogen- and phosphorus-rich waste directly into the water that fuels explosive invasive weed growth.

    Encroachment by residential construction and agricultural land has also chipped away at Dal Lake’s boundaries for decades. Where open water once stretched, small farm plots and illegal structures connected by rickety wooden footbridges are now commonplace, with cattle grazing openly on reclaimed land that was once part of the lake. The same pattern plays out across nearly every major lake in the region, including Wular Lake, Kashmir’s largest freshwater body located 40 miles northwest of Srinagar.

    Climate change has supercharged this slow decline, scientists warn. The Himalayan region is warming at a rate faster than the global average, amplified by the region’s high elevation. This rapid warming has triggered earlier spring snowmelt, reduced overall winter snowfall, and brought more frequent extreme rainfall events, all of which disrupt the steady flow of water that feeds Kashmir’s lakes. Glacial melt has also increased the volume of sediment carried downstream into lakes, filling them in faster and reducing their overall depth over time.

    “While glacial melt can deliver a short-term increase in water flow, over the long term it erodes the natural water storage system that sustains rivers and lakes through dry summer months,” noted Sher Muhammad, a glaciologist with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, based in Kathmandu. Irrfan Rashid, an environmental scientist at the University of Kashmir, added that climate change has upended nearly every core sector of Kashmir’s economy. “It has impacted hydropower generation, tourism, and even our high-value apple and saffron farms, all hit by erratic extreme weather in recent years,” he said.

    For fishing communities that have relied on Kashmir’s lakes for centuries, the damage is already catastrophic. At Wular Lake, which historically acted as a natural flood buffer for the Jhelum River, 45-year-old fisherman Abdul Rasheed says his daily income has plummeted from roughly 1,000 rupees ($11) per day just a decade ago to just 100 to 200 rupees ($1 to $2) per full night of fishing. The lake has grown so shallow that navigating fishing boats through dense patches of invasive vegetation is nearly impossible, and decades of encroachment have reduced its total surface area by 45% since 1907, according to a 2007 analysis by conservation group Wetlands International. The same report warned that Wular’s degradation increases flood risk across the entire Kashmir Valley, because the lake can no longer absorb excess overflow from the Jhelum during monsoon season.

    “Now even a skilled fisherman comes home with no more than 1 kilogram of fish, when a novice could catch 4 kilograms when I was young,” said 55-year-old veteran Wular fisher Bashir Ahmed. Most local fishers, he added, doubt future generations will be able to make a living from the lake at all.

    Local authorities acknowledge that the crisis demands far more funding and coordinated action than what is currently allocated, but say they are working with existing resources to slow degradation. The LCMA, established in 1997, brings together civil engineers, ecologists, forest officials, and law enforcement to address encroachment and pollution, but systemic change requires broader policy action and public buy-in to save Kashmir’s iconic lakes.

    This reporting was supported by private foundation funding for AP’s climate and environmental coverage, with the AP retaining full editorial control over all content.

  • People aren’t the only ones hit by heat. What to do if you see wildlife affected by hot temperatures

    People aren’t the only ones hit by heat. What to do if you see wildlife affected by hot temperatures

    As record-breaking extreme heat and suffocating humidity blanket much of Europe this summer, the harm of soaring temperatures extends far beyond human communities. Native birds and wild animals across the continent are facing unrelenting heat stress, with little opportunity to cool down and recover. Among at-risk wildlife, birds hold an outsize role in global ecosystem health: they facilitate plant pollination, naturally control invasive pest populations, spread native plant seeds across landscapes, and even act as early bioindicators of broader ecological disruption. Wildlife experts have outlined clear guidance for how members of the public can identify birds in heat distress, offer safe assistance, and interact responsibly with other heat-impacted wildlife during the ongoing heat event.

    To understand the risk birds face, it is first important to contextualize their natural heat adaptations. David Bird, emeritus professor of wildlife biology at McGill University, explains that birds are an extraordinarily diverse group, and many species have evolved specialized traits to cope with extended periods of warm weather. Unlike mammals, birds naturally maintain higher core body temperatures, typically resting around 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) or slightly higher. To regulate their internal heat, birds can adjust the positioning of their feathers to reflect sunlight and increase airflow through their complex network of respiratory air sacs, alongside making targeted behavioral changes to avoid overheating.

    Even with these adaptations, every bird species has an upper limit to the heat it can withstand, warns Aimee Van Tatenhove, a postdoctoral fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. “This level differs by species, and as you can imagine, species that live closer to the poles are often much more susceptible to heat than species that live closer to the equator,” Van Tatenhove noted. “Prolonged intense heat like Europe is experiencing right now is likely pushing many species toward their maximum heat tolerances, putting them at risk of heat illness or death.”

    Unlike humans and many other mammal species, birds do not have sweat glands to cool their bodies through evaporative cooling. Instead, they rely on a set of alternative natural cooling mechanisms. Common backyard bird species often use gape: opening their beaks and panting to expel excess heat, a behavior nearly identical to how domestic dogs cool down on hot days. Other species use a strategy called gular fluttering, rapidly vibrating the thin pouch skin on their necks to increase heat exchange. Birds will also actively seek out shaded areas to avoid direct midday sun, and dip into shallow water sources like birdbaths, fountains and small ponds to bring down their core temperature.

    When it comes to helping birds survive extreme heat, experts say there are several simple, low-effort measures members of the public can take to support local populations, though full protection during a record heat wave remains difficult. In the short term, households can place shallow containers of clean water in shaded, predator-safe areas around yards and public green spaces. Experts emphasize the importance of regularly cleaning these water sources to prevent the spread of avian disease. Maintaining stocked bird feeders is another simple step: this provides easy access to food for birds that avoid expending energy foraging in sweltering heat, and helps offset losses of natural insect populations— a core food source for many bird species that have declined sharply due to long-term climate change and pollution. For longer-term support, households that have outdoor space can plant layered native vegetation, including low-growing shrubs and taller canopy trees, to create permanent shaded habitats for local bird communities.

    For heat-stressed birds that do not appear to be accessing the cooling and food resources people provide, experts advise against unnecessary intervention. “These birds know better than what we do about what is comfortable for them,” explained Jack Kottwitz, assistant professor at Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Most birds will actively seek out cooler temperatures on their own, moving to lower shaded perches or even areas near moving air from fans or natural breezes.

    Guidance for other wild animals follows a similar core rule: avoid unnecessary intervention. Experts warn that offering unfamiliar food or water to non-avian wildlife, or attempting to bring wild animals into indoor spaces, can do more harm than good. Signs of extreme heat stress often overlap with symptoms of contagious diseases that wild animals can carry, so the only safe course of action when encountering a sick or injured heat-stressed animal is to contact a local licensed wildlife rehabilitator, who has the training and resources to provide appropriate care. “The best thing for wildlife is to let them be wild,” said Lisa Duke, sanctuary grounds manager at the W.K. Kellogg Bird Sanctuary, which is affiliated with Michigan State University. “They know what to do with their bodies.”

    This reporting was produced by Alexa St. John, an Associated Press climate reporter. AP’s climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations, with the AP retaining full editorial control over all content.

  • Greece is paying fishermen to catch toxic toadfish invading the warming Mediterranean

    Greece is paying fishermen to catch toxic toadfish invading the warming Mediterranean

    Climate change has triggered an unprecedented biological shift in the Mediterranean Sea, pushing a toxic, invasive species northward into Greek waters—and prompting Athens to roll out an unusual solution to contain the disruption: a cash-for-catch bounty program targeting the dangerous invader.

    The species in question is the silver-cheeked toadfish, a member of the pufferfish family native to tropical marine ecosystems. Identified by its streamlined torpedo frame and distinct human-like teeth, the creature carries an extremely potent neurotoxin in its skin and internal organs that can trigger fatal heart failure if ingested by humans.

    While Greek authorities have confirmed no sightings of the toadfish in popular resort bathing zones around Greek islands, the invasive species has already caused severe economic damage to fishing communities operating off the coast of Crete and other nearby island groups. Local fishermen report that the toadfish routinely tear through commercial fishing nets to feed on already caught target species, leaving gear destroyed and catches depleted.

    Giorgos Kyriakakis, a representative of a Cretan fishermen’s association, explained the scope of the problem in an interview with Greek public broadcaster ERT on Friday. “It’s got to the point where we might go out fishing one day and then spend the next three days fixing our nets,” Kyriakakis said. “They eat our catch and damage our nets — that’s very costly.”

    Ecologists trace the toadfish’s arrival in the Mediterranean to two interconnected factors: the species originally entered the sea via the Suez Canal from the Red Sea, and rapidly expanding northward as ocean temperatures rise due to human-caused climate change. The invasion of this toxic species is not unique to Greece; neighboring Cyprus launched an identical cash bounty program earlier this year to address its own toadfish infestation.

    Greece’s formal program launched Friday, with the government offering a payout of 5.33 euros per kilogram (equivalent to roughly $2.75 per pound) for every toadfish turned in by fishermen. According to Agriculture Minister Margaritis Schinas, a former vice president of the European Commission, this is the first time Greece has implemented a targeted eradication measure of this kind.

    All collected toadfish will be frozen at local government facilities before being incinerated to prevent the neurotoxin from entering the food supply, Schinas confirmed. He also noted that the program, which initially covers only the currently affected island regions, will likely be expanded to all Greek territorial waters in the coming months to stop the species from spreading further.

    Public anxiety around the toadfish has grown in recent weeks after Greek fishing crews shared viral videos online showing the species biting through solid objects including soda cans and wooden planks, highlighting the strength of its jaws. In response to rising public concern, the Greek Red Cross issued an official public health advisory, outlining first aid procedures for bite-related bleeding and warning the public of the lethal risk posed by the neurotoxin stored in the fish’s organs.

    Despite the valid concerns of fishing communities, medical and tourism stakeholders on Crete have urged the public to avoid overreaction. In a joint statement released Friday by 16 local medical and tourism associations, leaders emphasized that the presence of the toadfish in Mediterranean waters has been documented by scientists for years, and there is no immediate or hidden threat to recreational swimmers.

    “Marine predators do not threaten the safety of visitors and residents,” the statement read. “Exaggeration is often a feature of public debate.”

  • A conflict over cattle in Brazil’s Amazon highlights tensions for Indigenous peoples

    A conflict over cattle in Brazil’s Amazon highlights tensions for Indigenous peoples

    Nestled between the Javae and Araguaia rivers in northern Brazil, Bananal Island — the world’s largest river island — has become the epicenter of a contentious national debate that encapsulates the complex tradeoffs between environmental protection, Indigenous sovereignty and the economic power of Brazil’s massive agribusiness sector.

    Last year, federal environmental authorities ordered all commercial cattle herds removed from the island’s legally protected Indigenous territory. The order argued that the land is permanently reserved for Indigenous communities and biodiversity conservation, and that unregulated cattle grazing by non-Indigenous ranchers was not only illegal under Brazilian law, but also a major driver of widespread habitat degradation across the island.

    Wranglers successfully moved more than 100,000 cattle off the island during a period of low river levels to comply with the ruling, but the removal has triggered unforeseen economic upheaval for Indigenous residents who had become dependent on revenue from leasing tribal land to outside ranchers for decades.

    The situation lays bare the persistent challenge of reconciling three competing priorities that define environmental policy in Brazil: curbing Amazon deforestation, upholding Indigenous territorial rights, and accommodating the demands of agribusiness — one of the country’s most politically influential economic sectors. As the world’s top beef exporter, Brazil accounts for roughly 20% of global beef production, with the industry contributing 6% to the nation’s total gross domestic product.

    Conservation researchers widely recognize protected Indigenous territories as one of the most effective tools to reduce deforestation in the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest and a critical global climate regulator. Even as Brazil has made notable progress cutting overall deforestation rates in recent years, cattle ranching remains the single largest driver of forest loss across the country. To create new grazing pastures, ranchers clear large swathes of native forest, replacing carbon-absorbing trees with methane-emitting cattle — a dynamic that accelerates global climate change while threatening native biodiversity. Data from MapBiomas, a non-profit land use tracking organization, shows Tocantins state, where Bananal Island is located, recorded among the highest deforestation rates in Brazil in 2025.

    Brazilian law strictly prohibits large-scale commercial activity on designated Indigenous lands, allowing cattle rearing only for small-scale subsidence use by tribal communities. For decades, however, an informal leasing system operated openly on parts of Bananal Island. Non-Indigenous ranchers paid village leaders roughly 15 reais ($3) per head of cattle monthly — a fraction of the 60 reais ($12) per head typical for grazing leases outside the territory. At its peak, when more than 100,000 cattle grazed on the island, monthly leasing revenue reached 1.5 million reais ($290,000), which was distributed through tribal leadership to local community associations.

    “Cattle, over the years, have covered many of our community’s expenses,” explained Cleiton Javae, chief of the Txuiri village, one of more than 40 Indigenous communities on the island home to roughly 5,000 total residents. Javae noted the revenue funded critical local needs including school supplies, medical care, transportation and traditional cultural festivals. But critics of the informal system point to deep structural inequities: much of the revenue was concentrated among a small group of tribal leaders, leaving many community members in poverty. “The law requires consultation and shared benefits,” said Leandro Milhomem, head of IBAMA, Brazil’s federal environmental agency, in Tocantins. “Instead, some chiefs had significant resources while, in the same community, children died of malnutrition.”

    Indigenous residents also told the Associated Press that ranchers fenced off large sections of the island to contain their herds, blocking communal access to traditional subsistence farming areas. Even leaders who supported the original leasing agreements acknowledge the system spiraled out of control, with ranchers bringing far more cattle onto the island than they initially declared. “The situation became unsustainable, and removing the cattle was the only alternative,” Javae said.

    Beyond economic inequality, unregulated cattle ranching caused severe environmental harm to the island. IBAMA investigations linked grazing activity to soil acidification and increased wildfire risk, as ranchers regularly use controlled burns to clear brush and refresh pasture land. Many of these blazes spread beyond grazing areas, destroying native habitat.

    Bananal Island’s modern conflict has deep historical roots. When European colonizers arrived in the region in the late 18th century, they found the island already inhabited by Indigenous groups and covered in wild banana groves, which gave the island its Portuguese name Ilha do Bananal. The region remained largely undeveloped and overlooked by the Brazilian government until the 1950s, when it was formally designated a protected Indigenous territory. At the same time, federal officials encouraged non-Indigenous ranching through informal leasing arrangements with local communities, setting the stage for the current crisis.

    Three Indigenous groups — the Javae, Karaja and Ava-Canoeiro — currently live on the island. The Javae, in particular, developed long-standing social and economic ties with non-Indigenous ranchers, with many outsiders settling on the island after marrying into local Indigenous communities. These connections allowed ranchers to gain access to develop commercial activity inside the legally protected territory, creating the mixed cultural landscape visible on the island today: modern brick homes stand alongside traditional thatched huts, children play with traditional bows and arrows near Protestant churches, and elderly tribal leaders prepare traditional meals while watching cooking tutorials on YouTube.

    Following the cattle removal, Indigenous leaders on Bananal Island are now rethinking their approach to economic development, working to craft a new model that balances income generation with territorial and environmental protection. The Javae community is partnering with The Nature Conservancy, a global non-profit conservation organization, to develop a comprehensive community-led land management plan that integrates the tribe’s social, economic and environmental priorities.

    In May 2026, Javae leaders traveled to the northern Amazon state of Roraima to study the successful model developed by the Macuxi people, who have become a national example of balancing collective economic development with land rights protection. Starting in the 1980s, the Macuxi developed a community-owned cattle operation to help reclaim their territory from encroachment by farmers, miners and land grabbers, decades before their land was officially demarcated as Indigenous territory in 2005. Today, the Macuxi collectively own more than 45,000 head of cattle, generating sustained shared revenue for the community while protecting their territorial sovereignty.

    The Macuxi and Bananal Island experiences reflect a growing national conversation among Indigenous communities across Brazil about how to balance sustainable economic activity with protection of territorial rights and natural ecosystems, a debate that has also extended to mining. In February 2026, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Flávio Dino ruled that the Cinta Larga people, whose territory spans the Amazonian states of Mato Grosso and Rondonia, have the legal right to conduct mining operations within their own territory.

    Ivo Aureliano Macuxi, an Indigenous rights advocate and member of the Indigenous Council of Roraima, argues that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for Indigenous economic development. “You can’t apply a single model as a template for other Indigenous lands,” he said, emphasizing that frameworks must be tailored to “each region, each territory, each people.” What works for one community, he added, may not work for another, requiring flexible legal frameworks that respect the self-determination of Brazil’s 391 distinct Indigenous peoples.

    This coverage of climate and environmental issues from the Associated Press receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP maintains full editorial control over all content.

  • Solar cold storage helps African farmers cut losses and reach global markets

    Solar cold storage helps African farmers cut losses and reach global markets

    On a crisp early morning in Kenya, smallholder farmer Yvonne Anyonyi Mumiah walks between neat rows of aromatic rosemary, fragrant basil and other fresh produce bound for grocery store shelves across Europe. Not long ago, her livelihood hung on a knife edge: a single transport delay or unseasonable heatwave could turn an entire season’s hard work into spoiled, unsellable waste. Today, that uncertainty has been replaced by security, thanks to an accessible solar-powered cold storage service that keeps her harvest fresh until it is ready to ship.

    Mumiah’s new solution comes from SoKo Fresh, a Kenyan cold-chain enterprise that offers a flexible pay-per-use model, billing farmers only for the volume of produce they store. This innovative approach is part of a rapidly growing movement across Africa that leverages renewable energy to solve one of the continent’s most persistent agricultural crises: widespread post-harvest food loss.

    According to estimates from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, as much as 40% of all food grown across Africa goes to waste between the moment it is harvested and the moment it reaches consumers. The root cause of this crisis is not poor farming practice, but gaping holes in infrastructure: insufficient, inadequate storage, transportation and processing systems that leave perishable goods vulnerable to spoilage.

    Unlike traditional cold storage, off-grid solar-powered cold rooms, cooling hubs and warehouses do not require connection to Africa’s often unreliable and expensive main electricity grids. This model is already gaining traction across multiple sub-Saharan nations, including Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Rwanda and South Africa.

    For millions of smallholder farmers like Mumiah, purchasing a personal standalone solar cold storage unit – which costs roughly $30,000 upfront – is entirely out of reach. That makes shared pay-per-use models transformative. “You can do everything right on the farm, but if the produce is not stored properly, you lose both the product and income,” Mumiah explained. “We are no longer forced to sell immediately because we fear the produce will spoil. We can wait for collection and still maintain quality.” This flexibility alone has boosted both the quality of her harvest and her overall income.

    As climate change drives rising global temperatures and disrupts supply chains around the world, reliable cooling infrastructure has become more critical than ever. Across major agricultural nations like the United States, China, Japan and the Netherlands, sophisticated, extensive cold-chain networks keep fresh produce marketable for weeks after harvest. But for most of Africa, this essential infrastructure has long been a missing link in the agricultural value chain.

    Rising temperatures have only worsened the crisis: extreme heat speeds up spoilage for perishable goods from leafy greens and fruits to dairy and fresh fish. Meanwhile, inconsistent grid power makes traditional electric or diesel-powered refrigeration prohibitively expensive and impractical for most rural farming communities.

    “Cold storage remains one of the missing links in Africa’s agricultural value chains,” said Emmanuel Aziebor, regional director for Africa at CLASP, a non-profit organisation that supports the deployment of energy-efficient, productivity-driving technologies. “When farmers can store produce for longer, they gain access to better markets, reduce waste and increase incomes.”

    Early data from on-the-ground projects already confirms this impact. SoKo Fresh reports that it has cut average post-harvest spoilage for participating farmers from as high as 50% to less than 2%, while helping producers boost their per-kilogram earnings by up to 50%.

    The model is being adapted to fit local agricultural needs across the continent. In Nigeria, leading firm ColdHubs has installed solar-powered walk-in cold rooms in major agricultural hubs, allowing farmers and local traders to rent space by the day instead of taking on the cost of buying their own equipment. In Rwanda, solar refrigeration supports dairy cooperatives, streamlining milk collection and cutting waste for small-scale dairy farmers. In Ethiopia, cold-chain investments are expanding rapidly to support the country’s fast-growing horticultural export sector.

    Analysts note that these solar-powered innovations deliver two key public benefits at once: they strengthen African food security at a time of growing climate risk, and they cut greenhouse gas emissions compared to traditional cold storage solutions. Most legacy cold storage systems in off-grid areas rely on diesel generators, but solar alternatives eliminate fuel costs, reduce operating expenses, and cut the carbon footprint of agricultural supply chains.

    Yet experts argue that the most transformative impact of these projects is economic, not just environmental. For decades, international development efforts across Africa have prioritized expanding household electricity access, but far less attention has been paid to how that power can be used to generate income for rural communities. “We have neglected the conversation around how people can turn electricity into opportunity,” Aziebor noted. “We keep extending electricity infrastructure, but unless people can use that power productively, the economic benefits never fully materialize.”

    Cold storage is just one of many solar-powered productivity tools transforming African agriculture. Solar-powered irrigation systems now enable year-round farming instead of relying on erratic seasonal rains, while solar milling and processing equipment allow rural communities to add value to their crops close to the farm, cutting transport costs and increasing earnings.

    Despite the clear success of pilot projects, widespread scaling across the continent faces one major barrier: access to affordable funding. “The challenge today is not demonstrating that these systems work,” said Carol Koech, vice president for Africa at the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet. “It is building enough bankable projects that can attract larger pools of investment and scale across countries.”

    While grants, low-interest loans and donor support can help cover the high upfront capital costs of building new cold storage hubs, industry leaders note that attracting large-scale commercial investment remains challenging. Most African agricultural markets are fragmented, and the sector is dominated by millions of small-scale producers, which many institutional investors see as a high-risk profile. “These investors see emerging technologies as high risk because we lack enough proven business models with reliable returns,” SoKo Fresh CEO Denis Karema said. “That makes funding for our type of projects expensive.”

    This reporting on climate and the environment from The Associated Press is supported by funding from multiple private foundations, and AP maintains full editorial control over all content. Details of AP’s standards for working with philanthropic partners, a full list of supporters, and an overview of funded coverage areas are available at AP.org.

  • Indigenous knowledge holds key to Africa’s food security

    Indigenous knowledge holds key to Africa’s food security

    Across the diverse landscapes of Africa, centuries of accumulated wisdom held by indigenous and local communities could hold a critical solution to growing regional food insecurity and biodiversity conservation, according to leading environmental experts. The findings were presented during a recent virtual webinar hosted by the African Forest Forum, where specialists outlined the dual threats facing both forest ecosystems and the traditional knowledge systems that have sustained them for generations.

    Doris Mutta, senior program officer at the African Forest Forum, explained that forest and tree-based agricultural systems act as a crucial complement to conventional farming, delivering more nutritionally diverse diets for vulnerable populations across the continent. “Conventional agricultural strategies have failed to eliminate global hunger, leaving billions with unbalanced diets that lack nutritional diversity and forcing low-income communities to bear the full brunt of volatile global food prices,” Mutta noted in her address.

    For most rural and indigenous African communities, wild and cultivated forest products are not an alternative food source—they are a core foundation of daily nutrition and a key buffer against the growing impacts of climate change. Native species including baobab, marula, shea, and tamarind do more than fill gaps in household food supplies: they have become valuable commercial products in both local and global markets. Baobab, which is naturally high in vitamin C, is now a popular ingredient in smoothies, energy bars, and commercial dietary supplements, while marula oil is a staple in global cosmetics and pharmaceutical products. Shea butter remains one of the most widely used ingredients in global food and confectionery manufacturing.

    Mutta emphasized that indigenous knowledge offers irreplaceable insights into sustainable natural resource management and ecosystem stewardship that drive human development across multiple sectors. Over thousands of years, traditional African farmers have selectively bred crop varieties with adaptive traits that modern agriculture still relies on, including natural drought tolerance, pest resistance, and enhanced nutritional content—all of which directly strengthen long-term food security. Beyond crop development, this traditional knowledge supports sustainable land management and preserves agrobiodiversity, a critical genetic resource that feeds innovation in modern agricultural research.

    Despite these profound benefits, Mutta warned that this invaluable knowledge is eroding at an alarming rate, driven by shifting lifestyles that pull younger generations away from rural communities and accelerating environmental degradation across the continent.

    Gracias Avakoudjo, a research assistant at the University of Abomey-Calavi’s Laboratory of Applied Ecology in Benin, shared on-the-ground data from the country’s Upper Guinean Forest, a globally recognized biodiversity hotspot that is home to 31 documented tree-based food species. While market demand for these native forest foods continues to grow, Avakoudjo reported that production is declining sharply, driven by deforestation, expanding industrial agriculture, habitat destruction, and poor natural regeneration of native tree populations.

    “The loss of traditional knowledge is one of the most pressing issues we face,” Avakoudjo said. “When elder knowledge holders pass away, a wealth of irreplaceable conservation expertise passes with them.”

    In the Horn of Africa, independent consultant Berhane Kidane Mengesha reported that researchers have documented 25 native forest food species, one edible leafy vegetable, and one resin-producing species that support household food security across the drought-prone region. “Forest-derived food species provide critical sustenance for local households, directly strengthening food security across the Horn of Africa,” he explained. Mengesha added that traditional knowledge has long guided the management and conservation of biodiversity hotspots across Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and Djibouti, where pastoral and agro-pastoral communities depend entirely on forest resources for their livelihoods. Even so, the region’s forest resources face growing threats from prolonged drought, expanding human settlement, rapid population growth, illegal charcoal production, and overharvesting.

    In South Africa’s Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany biodiversity hotspot, Eco-logic Consulting consultant Derek Berliner has documented 115 edible forest species, at least 35 of which are also used as traditional medicinal plants. Berliner warned that illegal logging, poaching, and unsustainable harvesting of medicinal plants are degrading forest ecosystems and undermining decades of conservation work. He highlighted the critical role of indigenous cultural institutions—including sacred forest protection, traditional harvesting taboos, and community leadership structures—in long-term biodiversity conservation across the region.

  • Four days of rain slashed population of world’s rarest orangutans, study says

    Four days of rain slashed population of world’s rarest orangutans, study says

    When the Tapanuli orangutan was first formally identified as a distinct species in 2017, conservationists celebrated a rare new discovery in great ape taxonomy. Today, less than a decade later, this newly recognized primate stands on the brink of being lost forever, after a catastrophic extreme weather event wiped out 7% of its entire global population in just four days, new research confirms.

    In late November 2025, Cyclone Senyar tore across the Indonesian island of Sumatra, unleashing four straight days of record-shattering rainfall that triggered catastrophic mudslides and widespread flooding. The storm would go on to become Southeast Asia’s deadliest natural disaster of the year, claiming more than 1,000 human lives. Beyond the human toll, the cyclone inflicted devastating damage on the island’s remaining old-growth Batang Toru forest – the only place on Earth where wild Tapanuli orangutans live.

    In a new study published Wednesday by an international team of primate conservation experts, researchers calculate that at least 58 of the species’ remaining fewer than 800 individuals were killed directly by the storm’s landslides and flooding. Lead study author Erik Meijaard, managing director of Brunei-based conservation NGO Borneo Futures, notes that this updated death toll is a sharp increase from the 35 deaths he estimated just one month after the storm. Meijaard also emphasized that the 58 figure is a conservative estimate, as it does not account for longer-term threats posed by the storm, such as widespread destruction of forest canopy that the apes depend on for shelter and food, and long-term reductions in available fruit sources that will likely lead to additional starvation and population decline.

    In the weeks after the cyclone, humanitarian workers responding to the disaster in central Tapanuli’s Pulo Pakkat village recovered the semi-buried carcass of a Tapanuli orangutan, trapped under mud and fallen timber. Deckey Chandra, a member of the on-the-ground humanitarian team, told the BBC that the site where the orangutan was found had long been a foraging ground for the apes, who came there to feed on wild fruit. “They used to come to this place to eat fruits. But now it seems to have become their graveyard,” Chandra said. Meijaard, who reviewed photos of the recovered remains, described the violent force of the landslides that killed the apes: “If a few hectares of forest comes down in massive landslides, even powerful orangutans are helpless and just get mangled. It must have been hellish in the forest at the time.”

    While Cyclone Senyar was an unprecedented extreme weather event for the region, study authors confirm that human-caused climate change was a major contributing factor to the storm’s formation and intensity. Climate modeling predicts that extreme rainfall events will only grow more frequent and more severe across western Sumatra in the coming decades, creating a persistent, growing threat to the Tapanuli orangutan’s remaining habitat and population.

    Existing population trend research shows that the species will inevitably slide into complete extinction if it loses more than 1% of its total population annually. The 7% loss from a single storm puts the species far above that extinction threshold, making urgent coordinated action critical to save it.

    In a hopeful development, the Indonesian government has implemented a temporary moratorium on large-scale industrial development projects in the protected Batang Toru forest, including planned mining expansions, oil palm plantations, and new hydropower infrastructure. This moratorium has given conservation researchers a critical window to fully assess the ecological threats facing the species and design targeted protection plans.

    The study’s authors emphasize that the catastrophic loss from Cyclone Senyar makes clear just how biologically vulnerable the Tapanuli orangutan is, and that the crisis facing the species is the result of overlapping threats: accelerating climate instability, ongoing biodiversity loss, and chronic underfunding for conservation action. “The crisis facing the Tapanuli orangutan illustrates the convergence of climate instability, biodiversity loss, and vulnerability, calling for a coordinated response matching the scale of the threat,” the study concludes.

    Conservationists argue that preventing the first extinction of a great ape species in modern history is still achievable, but it will require sustained international collaboration, strengthened domestic forest protection policies, climate-responsive conservation planning, and long-term global financial and technical assistance to protect the Batang Toru ecosystem and its remaining primate population.