Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Madagascar’s rainforests often steal the spotlight, with their flamboyant biodiversity and familiar lemur mascots. Less noticed are the country’s dry forests in the west and southwest, which shelter equally remarkable life yet have been steadily eroded by agriculture, fire and logging. Now, conservationists are betting that one of their most charismatic residents, Verreaux’s sifaka, a white “dancing” lemur famed for its sideways bounds across the ground, could rally support to save what remains, reports contributor Mino Rakotovao for Mongabay. Verreaux’s sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi) has just been added to the World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates list, a move driven by a new Madagascar conservation alliance, the Ankoatsifaka Initiative for Dry Forests (AID Forests), a coalition of NGOs, scientists and government officials. Its advocates say they hope the listing will draw attention not only to the sifaka’s plight but also to the fragile forests it depends on. “In the west and southwest [of Madagascar], the situation is just as serious, with widespread food insecurity, increased bushmeat hunting, and similar threats like deforestation,” said Rebecca Lewis, a primatologist and founder of AID Forests. Dry forests provide food, medicine, timber and grazing land for some of Madagascar’s poorest communities. They also face some of the world’s fastest rates of loss. Yet unlike the better-known humid forests, they lack coordinated international backing. The alliance aims to change that by pooling knowledge, strengthening patrols and amplifying the voices of…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. Madagascar’s rainforests often steal the spotlight, with their flamboyant biodiversity and familiar lemur mascots. Less noticed are the country’s dry forests in the west and southwest, which shelter equally remarkable life yet have been steadily eroded by agriculture, fire and logging. Now, conservationists are betting that one of their most charismatic residents, Verreaux’s sifaka, a white “dancing” lemur famed for its sideways bounds across the ground, could rally support to save what remains, reports contributor Mino Rakotovao for Mongabay. Verreaux’s sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi) has just been added to the World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates list, a move driven by a new Madagascar conservation alliance, the Ankoatsifaka Initiative for Dry Forests (AID Forests), a coalition of NGOs, scientists and government officials. Its advocates say they hope the listing will draw attention not only to the sifaka’s plight but also to the fragile forests it depends on. “In the west and southwest [of Madagascar], the situation is just as serious, with widespread food insecurity, increased bushmeat hunting, and similar threats like deforestation,” said Rebecca Lewis, a primatologist and founder of AID Forests. Dry forests provide food, medicine, timber and grazing land for some of Madagascar’s poorest communities. They also face some of the world’s fastest rates of loss. Yet unlike the better-known humid forests, they lack coordinated international backing. The alliance aims to change that by pooling knowledge, strengthening patrols and amplifying the voices of…This article was originally published on Mongabay

JAKARTA — Indonesia’s two biggest Islamic organizations usually seize the country’s attention twice a year, when they gather to determine when the religious holidays of Idul Fitri and Idul Adha will be celebrated. But for the past year, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah have caught the spotlight for a different reason: their decision to operate large-scale mines in the Southeast Asian nation. Indonesia, home to 270 million people, is a top producer of coal and nickel. In 2024, then-President Joko Widodo’s administration issued a regulation enabling religious organizations to manage mines, saying it would foster economic equality. Jokowi, as he is popularly known, said at the time that “many [religious organizations] have complained to me, why is mining only delegated to big companies? We, too, would be ready to accept a concession if it were given.” Observers in civil society criticized the policy, saying it looked like payback to the organizations for supporting Jokowi’s chosen successor, Prabowo Subianto, in the February 2024 election, and that it made no sense to put management of complex industrial enterprises in the hands of faith groups. The controversy has continued with the recent uproar over a plan to mine nickel in Raja Ampat, Indonesia’s premier diving destination and coral reef hub. In a televised debate over the issue, Ulil Abshar Abdalla, the chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama’s central governing body, derisively labeled environmental groups like Greenpeace as “environmental wahhabists,” a reference to the Wahhabi sect of Islam seen as puritanical for its literal interpretation of scripture.…This article was originally published on Mongabay