Mongabay Newscast

Elizabeth Goldman is a co-director of Global Nature Watch, previously known as Global Forest Watch, a database measuring forest loss that's frequently cited in Mongabay reporting. She joins this week's podcast to detail GNW's updated 25-year analysis of global forest fire trends. The picture is stark: Forest fires burn twice as much forest today as they did 20 years ago, and historic fire seasons are the "new normal," she says.
"Catastrophic, large-scale fires are becoming more of a normal. The last three years are the worst three years in the record-keeping in our data set," Goldman says. "Fires now burn twice as much forest as they did earlier in the time series from our data."
2025, considered a drop from 2024, still saw 11 million hectares (27 million acres) of forest, an area roughly the size of Guatemala, burn. Rhett Butler, founder and CEO of Mongabay, published an analysis of the dip in 2025, cautioning readers against reading too much into what appeared to be a reprieve. He noted that large-scale commodity agriculture and climate change, the causes of this forest loss, remain. Goldman agrees.
In the absence of "serious action" internationally to combat it, and commodity-driven agriculture that continues contributing to these fires, Goldman says there are things governments can do to mitigate their risk locally.
"There are ways to sustainably manage a forest, like through thinning and prescribed burns, fire breaks, those sorts of things that don't involve clear-cutting an entire forest, but leave the tree standing, leave the healthy ecosystem there, but are still kind of managing the fuel load," she says.
Sustainable management and strengthening Indigenous rights and resources is another cited need, Goldman says, a point raised in a previous Newscast conversation with Erica Gies, who reported on the work of forestry scientist Suzanne Simard.
"Results show that 60% coverage really does maintain a lot of the complexity of the forest and those forest relationships and a healthy hydrology, keeping the land from drying … in some ecosystems it seems like 30% might be enough, but definitely clear-cutting seems to not be sustainable," Gies said in that conversation.
Please take a minute to let us know what you think of our podcast here.
Mike DiGirolamo is the host & producer for the Mongabay Newscast based in Sydney. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky.
Banner image: Pine forest and granite in the Sierra Nevada. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.
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Time codes
(00:00) We are 'not on track' to solve this problem
(08:31) Boreal regions bear the brunt
(12:34) Tropical fires are almost entirely human made
(15:44) What can be done right now?
(24:51) Urban wildfires 'potentially' likely to continue

In her upcoming book, My Wild City: Finding Nature, Meaning, and Hope in India's Capital, conservation biologist Neha Sinha takes readers to the hidden and not-so-hidden ecosystems of India's largest city. And while the book expertly details the biodiversity, I believe its greatest strength lies in connecting with the reader emotionally through powerful stories from her personal life. On this week's episode of the Mongabay Newscast, Sinha explains why nature in cities isn't just important from an ecosystem health perspective, but necessary for the emotional life of all people.
Sinha describes the difficulty of caring for her ailing father, and how this was the moment she found her favorite tree. While waiting in the hospital, she spotted a semal tree (Bombax ceiba). She tells me this was a turning point for her.
"In these kind of difficult situations which are physically and mentally challenging … you look at a tree, and it restores you. It kind of makes you feel that you might have strength that you didn't know about. And it's also unique to see a tree in a very urban environment because the tree itself is a survivor," she says.
Readers already enamored with nature will find much about My Wild City that will resonate with them. And people in positions of authority tasked with protecting these ecosystems may find insight here that could alter their perspective. Sinha tells me in our conversation that the urgency to care for nature has not yet taken hold in the politics of India, but that it has in the everyday person, pointing to the rise in popularity of urban hiking and bird-watching in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I can tell you for sure, there hasn't been a better time for citizens to be engaged and involved in nature. And in many ways, it's actually urban wildlife that has done that," she says, "and I think that's what has started this quiet revolution of documenting the natural world."
My Wild City is already released in India under the title Wild Capital: Discovering Nature in Delhi. For readers outside India, you can preorder a copy here.
Please take a minute to let us know what you think of our podcast here.
Mike DiGirolamo is the host & producer for the Mongabay Newscast based in Sydney. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky.
Cover image: A parakeet in the Delhi ridge. Photo by Neha Sinha. 
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Time codes
(00:00) Trees are more than a name
(11:13) Protected spaces and restorative attention
(18:29) Meaning in hard times
(22:37) Loss of the fireflies
(27:56) Where dolphins once swam
(34:12) The quiet revolution
(37:42) When a tree tunnels into your life
(42:25) Decolonization is also recognizing native biodiversity
(47:52) 'The justice we give ourselves'

On this week's episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we speak with features writer Ashoka Mukpo, who traveled to southeastern Liberia to investigate what satellite images indicated was a spike in deforestation over a relatively concentrated period. Along with video production coordinator Juan Maza, Mukpo documented illegal cacao plantations in the rainforests in the county of Grand Gedeh. In this interview, he explains how and why these plantations are appearing now in Liberia.
"What we saw … probably the best metaphor for it is that there's a kind of gold rush happening in this part of Liberia, except it's not gold that people are after, it's cocoa," Mukpo says.
"And this makes sense, given the context that in the last few years there was a huge price spike for cocoa, and this had to do with a lot of factors, including climate change and a poor harvest in Côte d'Ivoire. And so that's pushing this huge number of migrant workers from Côte d'Ivoire into Grand Gedeh."
At the end of the year, the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) is set to take effect. The EU legislation would ban the importation of certain commodities produced via deforestation, and one of those commodities is cocoa. And much of the cocoa being grown in Liberia right now would potentially fall under this ban, Mukpo says. Furthermore, setting up the tracking infrastructure to ensure commodities meet EUDR standards is expensive. While nations like Côte d'Ivoire have already invested in this, Liberia has not. That leaves a lot of farmers who are betting on this commodity vulnerable.
"A lot of farmers are gonna suffer just from lack of clarity. And I could see a scenario where suppliers choose to just not buy from Liberia because if there's no way for them to know where these beans are coming from, they could get in a lot of trouble if they do buy, and I think that's the real concern," Mukpo says.
Please take a minute to let us know what you think of our podcast here.
Mike DiGirolamo is the host & producer for the Mongabay Newscast based in Sydney. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky.
Cover image: A young cacao tree in Grand Gedeh, Liberia. Image by Ashoka Mukpo/Mongabay.
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Timecodes
(00:00) Why are forests disappearing in Liberia?
(10:56) Communities struggling to make a living
(21:18) Perspectives from conservationists
(25:38) The EUDR may impact these farms
(32:07) 'No clear villain'

On this week's episode of the Mongabay Newscast, I speak with travel writer Noo Saro-Wiwa. She has documented the violence and natural destruction that the presence of oil companies have brought to the people of the Niger Delta in her latest book, The Burning Ground: Oil and Militancy in Nigeria.
Saro-Wiwa is also the daughter of the late activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed by the Nigerian government in 1995. Her father led a peaceful resistance against the oil companies' presence in the Niger Delta by mobilizing 300,000 people from Ogoniland in 1993. It is fair to say his activism started the movement against the destruction and exploitation led by oil companies in the nation. While peaceful at first, Noo Saro-Wiwa says many people gave up hope on peaceful resistance when the government failed to hold the companies accountable, and men turned to forming violent militant groups.
 "Oil has been literally the worst thing that's happened to the Niger Delta. If I could go back in time and I had the power, I would never have allowed oil to have been discovered," she says.
While her latest book chronicles the harm of oil and the resulting violence, I put it to her that it's also a story about how the absence of women's rights is destroying societies. Saro-Wiwa explains how Nigeria isn't unique in this regard, but rather a stark example of how this dynamic plays out.
" Going around the Niger Delta and talking to activists like Emem Okon … I could see very clearly how women's rights directly affects the environment … and society, and how the absence of those rights feeds into this militancy which ultimately hurts men."
Please take a minute to let us know what you think of our podcast here.
Mike DiGirolamo is the host & producer for the Mongabay Newscast based in Sydney. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky.
Banner image: A man fishes in the Niger Delta near the village of Diebu, Nigeria, Saturday, May 18, 2013. Image by Jon Gambrell / AP Photo.
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Timecodes
(00:00) A heavy price to pay for oil
(06:09) The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People
(16:17) Militancy
(21:54) Governments are 'not interested in sustainable peace'
(26:11) Women as a stabilizing force
(29:44) Women's rights directly affects the environment
(36:54) Oil has been 'the worst thing to happen to the Niger Delta'

The Mediterranean Sea accounts for less than 1% of the world's ocean surface water, but it contains roughly 18% of global marine biodiversity. It is home to 150 million people along its coastline (roughly equivalent to Russia's population). And it sequesters 17.2 million metric tons of CO2 each year. Joining the Newscast this week to talk about the unique biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea and its threats is journalist Manuela Callari.
Callari has written for Mongabay, highlighting the threats to purple sea urchins (Paracentrotus lividus) along the Italian coast. These marine invertebrates are crucial to the health of marine ecosystems, such as those in the Mediterranean, by helping regulate algal abundance and serving as food for predators. However, they are being overfished and even poached in marine protected areas due to demand for them as the primary ingredient in a popular tourist dish: spaghetti ai ricci di mare.
While the situation with urchins persists, Italy has been investing in an unprecedented effort to map its entire underwater coastline using deployed sensors to better understand the marine environment and manage conservation efforts. This is allowing them to identify where meadows of the seagrass Posidonia oceanica, which are "absolutely vital" to the Mediterranean ecosystem, persist, Callari says.
Overall, Callari says she wishes the rest of the world and tourists visiting the Mediterranean were more informed about the pressures the marine ecosystem faces.
"I grew up here, and now that I go back to certain places where I was as a child, and they are just completely different places to me. Places that were just nature and were difficult to access. Now they have very easy access on cars, buses. You can go on boat tours very easily. And I think we don't appreciate enough the impact that has on the environment. On the sea."
Please take a minute to let us know what you think of our podcast here.
Mike DiGirolamo is the host & producer for the Mongabay Newscast based in Sydney. Find him on LinkedIn and Bluesky.
Cover image: Satellite data from a study shows that the Mediterranean's average surface temperature has risen by 1.2°C (2.2°F) since the mid-1980s. Image by Katerina Katopis/Ocean Image Bank.
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Timecodes
(00:00) The Mediterranean is taken for granted
(07:09) Why is a tourist dish destroying marine ecosystems?
(18:49) Mapping the entire Italian coast
(28:19) Learning to appreciate the Mediterranean