Mongabay Explores

Nov 04 2024 33 ep. 44 mins 38

Mongabay Explores Podcast artwork

A podcast about the world's unique places and species – from areas of amazing natural heritage to environmental challenges and conservation solutions – hear inspiring conversations with experts, scientists, authors, and activists on Mongabay Explores.

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Circular Economy, Pt 1: EV issues are about ‘more than just cars’

Nov 04 2024 37 mins

The fifth season of Mongabay Explores dives into the circular economy: the effort to design goods to be less resource intensive, from their manufacture to disposal and recycling. In this episode, we speak with circular economy researcher and policy expert Jessika Richter, associate senior lecturer at Lund University in Sweden, who discusses the environmental and social impacts of e

Congo Basin, Bonus: Pollution & impunity in the DRC

May 13 2024 11 mins

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), pollution from extracting minerals commonly used in the energy transition like cobalt and copper is on the rise, and miners generally ignore their legal obligations to clean it up. Cases of such pollution have killed and displaced people and caused major health problems, say residents and community organizations. The DRC is estimated t

Congo Basin, Part 6: How the Congo Rainforest is shaped by elephants

Nov 07 2023 38 mins

The African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) plays a critical role in shaping the Congo rainforest, experts say. Though they represent incalculable and intrinsic value, there is much scientists still do not know about this critically endangered species of megafauna. On this final episode of the Congo Basin season of Mongabay Explores, Fiona "Boo" Maisels, a conservation sc

Congo Basin, Part 5: Where's the money for Congo Basin conservation?

Aug 29 2023 69 mins

How much does it cost to protect the Congo Rainforest? The world's second-largest rainforest provides critical ecological services that millions of people and myriad species rely on. It is also a massive carbon sink, storing tens of billions of tons of carbon in its trees, soils and peatlands. One would think protecting it would be an international priority, and yet funding commitm

Congo Basin, Part 4: A 'just energy transition' requires justice in the DRC

Jul 19 2023 49 mins

The global 'just energy transition' has increased demand for critical minerals – such as cobalt and copper – for products like lithium-ion batteries, solar panels, and other renewable energy sources. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which produces nearly 70% of the global supply of cobalt, has a poorly regulated mining sector that's fueled by demand for these natural res

Congo Basin, Part 3: Big challenges and potential for ape conservation

Jun 28 2023 73 mins

Recent research shows that great apes of the Congo Basin stand to lose up to 94% of their habitat due to climate change. In the world's only habitat of bonobos and mountain gorillas, time (and land) is running out to save them. Hunting, natural resource extraction, disease, and other human impacts threaten their prospects. On this episode of the Mongabay Explores podcast, we speak

Congo Basin, Part 2: Can we right the wrongs of fortress conservation?

May 15 2023 68 mins

The debate about how to best protect the Congo Basin's rainforest increasingly finds experts and Indigenous leaders arguing that it's time for a change, one that brings local and Indigenous people into the conversation. Fortress conservation, a model exported to Africa during the colonial era, typically expels local people from land they once relied on for food, fiber and medicine,

Congo Basin, Part 1: Second-largest rainforest in the world at a turning point

Apr 26 2023 60 mins

The Congo Basin contains the world’s second-largest rainforest, a staggering 178 million hectares: containing myriad wildlife and giant trees plus numerous human communities, it is also one of the world's biggest carbon sinks. On this first episode of a new season of Mongabay Explores, we take you to the Congo Basin and begin with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), whic

Sumatra, Bonus: Can young Indonesians help their iconic elephants survive?

Sep 14 2022 23 mins

Leif Cocks returns to the podcast to discuss the status of the Sumatran elephant, a critically endangered species that we discussed with him in season 2, which is estimated to have less than 10 years to find a conservation solution or face extinction: he says the ranks of passionate, young Indonesian conservationists he's recently met that are working for the iconic animals' future

Sumatra, Bonus Ep: She's here! Rare Sumatran rhino calf born

May 11 2022 15 mins

Indonesia's Ministry of Environment and Forestry recently announced the birth of an incredibly rare Sumatran rhino calf at a captive breeding facility at Way Kambas National Park in Indonesia's Lampung province. For this bonus episode of Mongabay Explores, we speak with Mongabay's senior staff writer for Indonesia, Basten Gokkon. He explains the significance of this event, the diff