Articles by Sean Mowbray

As Colombia seeks peace with FARC rebels, Trump wants to cut funds for urgently needed social and rural development programs, with a return to aerial spraying and militaristic War on Drugs.

Even as Donald Trump calls climate change a hoax, the U.S. military is recognizing it as a national security threat, and revving up to protect its bases and operations in a climate destabilized world.

While Pres. Trump’s 2018 budget remains in limbo, international environmental organizations and the UN stand to lose big if Congress okays his cuts. Still, global momentum is building for conservation and climate action, say policymakers.

When tropical forests are felled and converted into land for oil palm or rubber plantations, it’s easy to think of the orangutans or the tigers that may lose their lives…

Some of the fishing boats around Phu Quoc Island off southwestern Vietnam use trawl nets that drag along the seafloor, catching everything in their sweep. Others send divers into the…

When Pres. Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Agreement last June, France and Germany offered U.S. climate researchers the opportunity to emigrate. Some are responding to the call.

Seagrass, the “ugly duckling” of the conservation world, is a vital lifeline for thousands of communities around the globe and an efficient absorber of “blue carbon.” It is also quickly…

When Donald Trump pulled the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP), it dashed plans to increase beef exports to Japan. But trade deals like TTP, which don’t address climate change, remain a looming environmental threat, as does rising global beef consumption.

On the islands of Wallacea, one of the world’s hottest biodiversity hotspots, a quiet yet deadly invasion is underway. The poisonous Asian common toad’s (Duttaphrynus melanostictus) journey from island to…

The “jaguar corridor” is a historic link that runs from Mexico all the way down the spine of Central America, crossing the inhospitable wilderness of the Darian Gap, through Colombia…

Tigers and orangutans are the well-known faces of the palm oil crisis. But the enigmatic clouded leopard is equally threatened and almost unknown in comparison. Conservationists are looking at ways…

Ekwoge Abwe’s fight drags on. As the manager of the Ebo Forest Research Centre (EFRP), he’s been part of a long running battle to set-up a national park conserving Cameroon’s…

Switzerland is home to CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. But that doesn’t mean it is immune from wildlife trafficking, or that…

Ghaa’s life changed with the sound of a gunshot. The bullet likely killed his mother and shrapnel from the exploding shell struck Ghaa on the side of the head; a…

ack in 2010, scientists discovered a new primate species with a distinct and unusual aversion to rain. Tipped off by hunters’ stories, they found the Myanmar snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus strykeri)…

ay the word “cat” and it’s unlikely the words “water” or “swimming” spring quickly to mind. But both are essential to the lifestyle of Asia’s Fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus). Short,…

In 2013 the Tanzanian government granted a Dubai-based company permission to set up a wildlife corridor that would serve as a hunting safari destination on 1,500 square kilometers of savannah.…

here the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park ends, crops and gardens begin — as do wildlife conflicts with local communities. Crop raiding mountain gorillas who venture beyond the confines of the…

new shipment of illegally trafficked parrots arrives at the Los Pozos market in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. The sellers and middlemen are approached and questioned. The species, age…

he Maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) is by all accounts a bizarre creature. Nicknamed a “fox on stilts,” it is perhaps best known for its once-heard-never-forgotten “roar-bark.” A single look at…

Pesticides are ubiquitous and important; but how safe are they, and who answers this crucial question? According to a paper published in the journal Bioscience, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s…

Nature isn’t quite so natural anymore. Our interaction with the world around us has changed it drastically, and nowhere more so than in cities, vast artificial landscapes lacking in biodiversity.…

n July 19, 2011, officers from the Galapagos National Park Service and the Ecuadorian Navy stopped the Fer Mary I, a long line fishing vessel out of the bustling Ecuadorian…

cuador’s troubled relationship with oil began in 1964, when Texaco first discovered ‘black gold’ in the Eastern Amazon. That discovery led to some times violent cultural clashes between modern society…

Eight Peruvian amphibian species listed as Data Deficient by the IUCN should be re-assessed as Threatened. That’s one conclusion of a new study published in Mongabay’s journal Tropical Conservation Science.…

round one third of amphibian species are considered globally threatened by the IUCN, due primarily to habitat loss, overexploitation for the wildlife and pet trades, climate change, and disease. Adding…

North Africa may not spring to mind as the home of an ape population, but the Barbary Macaque (Macaca sylvanus) still dwells there. The only remaining primate north of the…

hen you count off the cat species that roam Africa – leopards, lions, cheetahs – you could be forgiven for not listing the African golden cat (Caracal aurata). This small,…

a small number of corporations resemble tiger sharks in the fishing industry. These corporations could potentially have a seismic effect on the entire fishing industry and hold the power to conserve or collapse fisheries worldwide.

Countless lives have been saved by antibiotics since the middle of the 20th century. But their life giving potency is fading fast as bacterial resistance surges. Last year the United…