A new report published by U.S.-based think tank the Oakland Institute warns that the rush for critical minerals comes with massive implications for the world, especially African countries.

The report, “RUSH: Global Scramble for Minerals Wages War on People and Planet,” challenges the popular narrative that an expansion of mining operations is necessary for the global green energy transition.

“The intensification of mineral extraction has already had devastating consequences around the world, destroying land, livelihoods, and waters,” Oakland Institute policy director Frederic Mousseau told Mongabay in an email. He added the projected expansion of mining to meet global mineral demands will only perpetuate this devastation.

Global demand for critical minerals is projected to increase drastically over the next two to three decades. Between 2000 and 2024, nickel production rose by 187%, rare earth extraction by 329%, and lithium production by 1,602%. According to projections by the International Energy Agency, demand for six key minerals — copper, graphite, lithium, cobalt, rare earth elements, and nickel — will further skyrocket in the coming decades.

The IEA forecasts that total mineral demand from clean energy technologies will at least double by 2040.

However, the Oakland Institute report found that currently, most of the critical minerals produced end up in industries unrelated to the green energy transition. Solar, wind, battery storage, and power networks for renewables together make up around a fifth of the demand, while defense and aerospace, conventional transport, AI data centers, and construction account for the rest.

In Africa, home to 30% of the world’s known mineral reserves, the stakes are particularly high. Currently, the continent’s mineral-producing countries process less than 15% of their mineral output domestically. Most of the value-added processing takes place outside the country, though some governments are pursuing more local processing and industrialization.

However, one of the questions the report raises is whether the increase in control over mining and processing will actually lead to more value generation for local communities and create jobs on the ground.

“Where will equity be if extraction takes place against the will of the people living on the land that is destroyed, drinking water that is contaminated, and breathing toxic air,” Mousseau asked.

He pointed to Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo as two countries that illustrate the risks of intensifying extraction on the continent.

In Zambia, copper mines consume more than half of the country’s electricity, while only 43% of households are connected to the national grid. According to the report, in the DRC, mining operations consume more than 60% of generated electricity, while less than a fifth of the population has access to electricity.

“The plan is to massively expand copper and cobalt mining in countries where decades of extraction have translated into land grabbing, massive pollution of waterways, and destruction of livelihoods,” Mousseau said.

Banner image: The price paid for cobalt is the main determinant of artisanal miners’ incomes and livelihoods. Image by Afrewatch 2020/The International Institute for Environment and Development via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.)

A group of environmental organizations announced their intent to sue the United States National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) for failing to consider protections for Eastern Pacific gray whales under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) are experiencing a potentially catastrophic population decline, a sharp reversal from what had been considered a conservation success.  In 2019, there were roughly 20,500 gray whales; by 2023, the population had declined to just 14,526 individuals, “nearly 30% of the entire population” gone in four years, according to nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

Like many whale species, gray whales are being killed by ship strikes and entanglements, but scientists attribute most of the recent mortality to climate change and disruptions to the Arctic food web on which the gray whales depend. They “seem to be starving” to death, PEER said.

The whale’s population was greatly reduced by a century of whaling, but in 1973, ESA protections helped the species recover and they were delisted in 1994. Given the recent population collapse, environmental groups petitioned NMFS in 2025 to relist the whales, which would afford them additional protections. The agency should have published a 12-month finding by Aug. 24, 2026. They didn’t, so the group has sent a notice of intent to sue for violations of the ESA.

“The Trump administration has once again broken one of the nation’s bedrock environmental laws — the ESA — by failing to respond to our August 2025 petition to list gray whales under the Act,” Rick Steiner, founder of Oasis Earth, said in a news release, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump. “NOAA’s own science shows the gray whale population to be in grave danger due to Arctic climate change and other threats, and the government is now required to afford the whales all additional protections provided by the ESA.”  

Mongabay requested a statement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees NMFS, on the delay. In an email spokesperson Michael Milstein said, “Our policy is not to comment on litigation matters.”

“The sudden collapse of the gray whale population has come as a shock,” said Mark J. Palmer, associate director of the International Marine Mammal Project in the release. “This catastrophic decline may result in the loss of the entire population in as soon as 10 years if current conditions continue. Listing the species is an important step in marshalling support for the grays.”

 Banner image: Of a gray whale. Image courtesy of Robin Gwen Agarwal via iNaturalist (CC BY NC 4.0).

BENGALURU, India (AP) — Scientists say a deadly flash flood in Nepal on Wednesday was likely caused by a glacier chunk breaking off and temporarily damming a river. This may have led to a surge of water downstream, killing at least 353 people and leaving over 1,300 missing. The U.S. Geological Survey reported a magnitude 5.2 glacier collapse, causing catastrophic debris flow. Researchers are still analyzing satellite and ground-level data to understand the event. Experts say it’s too early to directly link the disaster to global warming, but note that rising temperatures increase such risks, especially in the rapidly warming Himalayan region.

By Sibi Arasu, Associated Press 

Banner image: Earthmovers clear the debris of flash flooding in Nepal’s Nuwakot district, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

In a coastal village on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, an oil palm and pineapple grower named Harisyah is fighting rapid coastal erosion.

The region’s northern coastline, which sits on carbon-rich tropical peat soils, is losing ground to the sea at a rate of more than 6 meters (20 feet) annually. Researchers attribute the retreat to a combination of subsiding drained peatland and the loss of mangrove forests cleared for charcoal production, aquaculture, and oil palms.

Harisyah’s hands-on activism began in 2011 after he attended an aquaculture training course in the Meranti Islands, off the eastern coast of Sumatra, reports contributor Suryadi for Mongabay Indonesia. He spent the next few years learning how to restore mangrove forests, from raising seedlings to organizing community volunteers.

In 2018, when he became the head of Tanjung Kuras village, on the Sumatran mainland, he used local funds to kick-start mangrove restoration efforts around his village. In 2024, after leaving office, he partnered with local and international nonprofits to scale up restoration in Tanjung Kuras, aiming to revive 25 hectares (62 acres) of degraded mangrove forest.

A key part of Harisyah’s current strategy is involving local youths to ensure long-term stewardship. One of the restoration sites is near an elementary school, and  local schoolchildren and residents joined him to plant seedlings along the riverbanks.

“This new generation will grow up close to mangroves, and they can learn more about them through playing and activities,” Harisyah said.

The replanting efforts highlight a shift from unmet national targets toward locally led action. The Indonesian government in 2020 pledged to rehabilitate and protect 600,000 hectares (1.5 million acres) of mangroves by 2024, but missed that goal, the Peat and Mangrove Restoration Agency acknowledged.

“This isn’t only about planting,” said Mulyadi, director of the nonprofit Yayasan Gambut, with which Harisyah collaborates. “There’s also a series of capacity-building and economic alternatives, such as nipah palm sugar production.

“If these kids already in their phase of growing up learn about mangroves, hopefully they’ll start caring for the natural environment in their village in the future,” Mulyadi added.

Local leaders are seeking to compound these community actions through new regulations that tackle river pollution and mangrove conservation, according to the current Tanjung Kuras village head, Badaruddin.

“This mangrove planting is for the future — for our children and grandchildren,” said Hendri Yadi, an official with the Sungai Apit subdistrict, where Tanjung Kuras village is located.

Though the fragile seedlings planted along rivers face ongoing threats from local oil spills, logging, and erratic weather, Harisyah remains undeterred. “We keep going,” he told Mongabay Indonesia. “Even if you’re by yourself, keep going.”

Read the full story by Suryadi here.

Banner image: Students from Tanjung Kuras participate in a mangrove-planting effort. Image by Suryadi for Mongabay Indonesia.

Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian traditions have long guided the protection of plants and wildlife in a nature reserve on Tianmu Mountain in eastern China.

Local temples enforced strict rules and punishments against forest destruction, but, following the reserve’s recent expansion, state regulations now provide the formal legal framework for the area. Local officials say religious traditions from the past continue to shape public attitudes, reports contributor Keith Anthony Fabro for Mongabay. 

The Qingliangfeng National Nature Reserve, located on the eastern coast of China,  expanded from 4,300 hectares (10,630 acres)  to become the 54,700-hectare (135,170-acre) Tianmushan-Qingliangfeng UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve in 2025. It represents a landmark expansion, the first of its kind in China.

Long known as the “kingdom of big trees” and home to the ancient, endangered Ginkgo biloba, the biosphere reserve is a crucial biodiversity haven for thousands of species  including the Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla), black muntjac (Muntiacus crinifrons), Chinese golden larch (Pseudolarix amabilis) and Tianmu ironwood (Ostrya rehderiana).

Religion has been one of Tianmu’s most steadfast guardians, like many mountainous regions in China, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“This place is special not only because of its nature,” Lu Senhong, head of the publicity and education division at the Tianmu National Nature Reserve Administration Bureau, told Mongabay in an interview. “It is also because people here have long believed that every tree, flower, and bird carries a spirit. That respect has kept the mountain alive.”

Today, the administration formally manages the now expanded reserve, but its 10-year management plan (2023–2032) was developed alongside local communities, according to UNESCO. The reserve is split into core, buffer and transition zones, with the latter home to 47,340 residents across 41 villages. The co-management approach seeks to resolve historical land-use and compensation disputes, such as a 2001 lawsuit filed by 243 households from Bao Family Village over restrictions in protected areas.

Local residents hold decision-making power over ecotourism and sustainable industries development in the area, aligning economic incentives with ecological health.

Park authorities and religious institutions are also trying to get younger generations to run homestays or work in tourism rather than farming.

“They [young people ] know ecotourism needs a healthy environment,” Senhong told Mongabay. “So, protection and livelihood are aligned.”

But the reserve is battling pine wilt , a disease that kills pine trees. Additionally, scientists are analyzing how climate warming has shifted forest composition, increasing the abundance of evergreen trees that normally grow at lower and warmer altitudes.

Ultimately, by looking to the past, authorities say traditions offer lessons about how to relate to and protect remaining key biodiversity sites. “For Taoists and Buddhists, harmony between humans and nature is fundamental,” Senhong said. “You must respect them and take care of them.”

Read the full story by Keith Anthony Fabro here.

Banner image: For more than a millennium, a mix of Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian traditions guided protection of plants and wildlife in this lush reserve. Image courtesy of UNESCO.

Brazilian authorities have temporarily relaxed an environmental rule for the Belo Monte hydropower plant on the Xingu River in the northeastern Amazon. The change comes in anticipation of another potentially severe, El-Niño-fueled dry season.

Under the temporary measure, Belo Monte’s operator Norte Energia can cut the flow of the dam’s 119 square-kilometer (46 square-mile) intermediate reservoir from the current minimum of 300 cubic meters per second (10,600 cubic feet per second) to 100 m³/s (3,530 ft³/s). It has already begun the gradual cuts to reduce flow. They will remain until Nov. 30.

Regulators told Mongabay the change will allow the plant to both preserve electricity generation and water flows through the Volta Grande do Xingu, a large bend in the Xingu River where Indigenous and riverine communities depend on the river for fishing, transport and daily life.

Reduced water flow in the reservoir increases the risk of poorer water quality, with potential consequences for both aquatic life and people as the river flows downstream.

“Between a worse option and a bad one, they chose the bad one,” André Oliveira Sawakuchi, a geoscientist at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, told Mongabay by phone.

Norte Energia said the measure will ensure that the required flow through the Volta Grande will remain unchanged. They also said that they will monitor water quality and fish movements and report back to regulatory agencies.

“Significant social and environmental impacts are not expected.” IBAMA, Brazil’s federal environment agency, told Mongabay by email. “If the measure were not adopted, it would probably be necessary to significantly draw down Belo Monte’s reservoirs to maintain the flow regime established for the Volta Grande do Xingu.”

Norte Energia has sought permission to reduce the flow during every dry season for the past three years. In 2024, regulators approved the request for the first time as a drought emergency measure. In 2025, the company submitted the same request again, but federal regulators rejected it, citing environmental risks.

Now, with another El Niño projected to cause extreme drought conditions, the measure was approved once again. Such stop gaps underscore a larger problem: A recent government report warned that hydropower plants in the region could lose up to 40% of their generation capacity over the coming decades.

Sawakuchi said that the Belo Monte project, the largest hydropower plant in the Amazon, was designed using historical river flows dating back to the 1950s, rather than projected river flows that accounted for climate change and deforestation. 

“There are two factors that reduce water availability in the Xingu. One is deforestation in the basin over the past few decades. The other is longer-lasting and more intense droughts, which may be associated with climate change,” Sawakuchi said. “The project wasn’t designed with this in mind, so the likelihood is that this situation will get worse.”

Banner image: Belo Monte hydropower dam on the Xingu. Image courtesy of TV Brasil.