Carolyn Cowan
Mongabay
Thailand
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Past articles by Carolyn:
The slow, toxic and sleepy life of lorises is coded in their genes
Wide-eyed, slow-moving and roughly the bulk of a small loaf of bread, pygmy lorises seem fairly unassuming at first glance. They spend their slow, nocturnal lives meticulously picking through the forests of Southeast Asia, feeding on a diet of gums and saps, invertebrates and fruit. Yet beneath this benign outward appearance and simple lifestyle, the […] → Read More
New tech aims to track carbon in every tree, boost carbon market integrity
Users of a new digital platform from nonprofit CTrees will be able to track in near-real-time the carbon stored and emitted in the world’s forests. The platform is borne out of two decades of research and development by a team of the world’s leading climate scientists and data engineers. It’s being touted as the first-ever […] → Read More
Southeast Asia’s big cats like their prey rare — as in really elusive
Tigers and clouded leopards are two of Southeast Asia’s most threatened and enigmatic big cat species. With the numbers of both in sharp decline across the region, leaving their remaining populations small and fragmented, it’s unsurprising that scientists know very little about basic things — such as what they eat. But now, a new study […] → Read More
Toxic rare earth mines fuel deforestation, rights abuses in Myanmar, report says
The dramatic expansion of rare earth mining in northern Myanmar in recent years is fueling human rights abuses, destroying forests, and bankrolling groups linked to the military regime that ousted the civilian government in February 2021, according to a new report from the NGO Global Witness. The report, based on a six-month-long investigation of satellite […] → Read More
Turtle DNA database traces illegal shell trade to poaching hotspots
A hawksbill turtle’s protective shell is in some ways its greatest weakness. Exquisitely patterned and thick enough to sculpt, hawksbill shells are the most popular type of tortoiseshell, a material coveted for centuries to make all manner of objects, from jewelry and trinkets, to spectacle frames and an entire genre of Japanese handicrafts called bekko. […] → Read More
Small mammals stranded by hydropower dams die out surprisingly fast: Study
The Chiew Larn reservoir in southern Thailand looks like it’s been part of the landscape for millennia. Ancient limestone karst cliffs rise from its waters, and emerald-hued forested islands dot its surface. But the 165-square-kilometer (64-square-mile) reservoir is entirely man-made, formed in 1987 when the government of Thailand built a hydropower dam and flooded the […] → Read More
Giant stingray caught in Cambodia is world’s largest freshwater fish
The largest freshwater fish ever recorded was captured in the Mekong River last week by a fisher collaborating with researchers to document the river’s biodiversity in northern Cambodia. The 4-meter (13-foot) endangered giant freshwater stingray (Urogymnus polylepis) was hauled from the river on June 13 before being measured and released back into the wild. Tipping […] → Read More
Indigenous knowledge settles question of a Bornean tree species: Study
When plant systematist Elliot Gardner first began collecting samples of a fruit-bearing tree in Malaysian Borneo, he thought he was looking at just one species. Western taxonomists had long considered both the cultivated and wild types of Artocarpus odoratissimus, a close relative of breadfruit and jackfruit, as a single species. But time and again, Indigenous […] → Read More
New near-real-time tool reveals Earth’s land cover in more detail than ever before
Google and the World Resources Institute (WRI) this week announced the launch of a new mapping tool touted as providing an unprecedented level of detail about how land is being used around the world. Called Dynamic World, it’s said to be the first global land cover data set available in near-real-time at high resolution. “It’s […] → Read More
Indigenous community mounts legal challenge to Thai coal mine development
Local opposition to a planned coal mine in northern Thailand escalated in April when plaintiffs representing more than 600 villagers filed a lawsuit requesting the revocation of an environmental impact assessment conducted and approved more than 10 years ago. Members of Kabeudin village, an Indigenous Karen community in Omkoi district, Chiang Mai province, filed the […] → Read More
In the Mekong’s murky depths, giants abound, new expedition finds
An underwater expedition has confirmed the presence of some of the world’s largest and most threatened freshwater fish in a remote and barely studied stretch of the Mekong River in northeastern Cambodia. The findings included a 180-kilogram (400-pound) giant freshwater stingray that was captured and released in collaboration with local fishermen, but also revealed several […] → Read More
For more fish and healthier coral in Bali, focus on communities and connectivity: Study
Bali lies at the heart of the Pacific Coral Triangle, an area of the ocean that supports the greatest diversity of coral species in the world. The reefs around the Indonesian island provide food and shelter to more than 800 species of fish and a cornucopia of other creatures, from anemones, urchins and sea slugs, […] → Read More
Asia’s troubled trees need better conservation to reach restoration goals: Study
An international team of scientists studying the distribution and threats facing some of South and Southeast Asia’s most economically important tree species has confirmed that current environmental protections fail to safeguard tree species and their valuable seed sources. Their findings, published in Conservation Biology, show that roughly three-quarters of the land deemed most important to […] → Read More
Warming could nip Southeast Asian forests’ mass flowering in the bud, study finds
When you look at a tropical rainforest, the landscape is usually dominated by shades of green and brown. But every now and then, the trees erupt into flower all at once, festooning the forest canopy with garlands of red, pink and white. Theories abound over which environmental cues trigger the trees to begin their reproductive […] → Read More
Oceans conference comes up with $16b in pledges to safeguard marine health
International delegates representing governments, businesses, academic and research institutions, civil society, youth leaders and philanthropic organizations announced major commitments worth more than $16 billion to protect ocean health at the seventh Our Ocean Conference in Koror, Palau, on April 13 and 14. A total of 410 commitments were made at the event, hosted jointly by […] → Read More
Death of last river dolphin in Laos rings alarm bells for Mekong population
Known only by his identity code, ID#35 was the last individual of a doomed subpopulation of freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris). He was the sole occupant of a deep pool in the Mekong River that spans the border between Cambodia and Laos, and fought for several weeks against lacerations to his tail from entanglement in […] → Read More
Countries that sanctioned Myanmar’s junta are still buying their timber: Report
Myanmar’s military-led regime exported more than $190 million worth of timber in 2021, including to countries with active sanctions on the country’s state-controlled timber monopoly, according to a recent report from Forest Trends. Following the February 2021 coup and violent crackdowns on citizens, Canada, the European Union, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States […] → Read More
‘A risky business’: Online illegal wildlife trade continues to soar in Myanmar
Amid lockdowns, travel restrictions and wet market closures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, wildlife traders shifted their business online. A trade once dominated by face-to-face interactions now sees sellers and buyers chat via social media, conduct mobile banking transactions, and deliver live animals or their parts by courier — often without fear of legal repercussions. […] → Read More
Rare mammals caught on camera highlight value of Annamite Mountains
The Annamite Mountains are a series of jagged peaks and secluded valleys that run between Laos and Vietnam south to Cambodia’s northern plateau. Over the past three decades, researchers have described numerous new-to-science large mammals from the region, all of which occur nowhere else on the planet. However, biologists still lack basic knowledge about their […] → Read More
Cambodian project aims to revive flagging fish populations in Tonle Sap Lake
At a young age, Mekong giant catfish look the same as striped river catfish, their regular-size, widely consumed relatives. But as they mature, the giant catfish quickly eclipse their smaller kin, reaching a weight of 200 kilograms (440 pounds) in just six years. It was this astonishing growth rate that alerted a fish farmer in […] → Read More