Articles by John Cannon
John is a staff features writer with Mongabay. Follow him on Twitter: @johnccannon. John became a correspondent for Mongabay in 2014 and joined the site's team full time in October 2016. John's journalistic work has also appeared in New Scientist, Slate.com, Yale Environment 360, Pacific Standard, Science (online), Business Insider and Bicycle Times. John has been a guest on the BBC as well as NPR's All Things Considered and Living on Earth, and he has also had several short stories published in literary magazines. He studied biology as an undergraduate at the Ohio State University and has a graduate degree in science writing from UC Santa Cruz. Always eager to find local perspectives on globally relevant stories, John has reported from Brunei, Cameroon, Central Africa Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malaysia, Peru and Rwanda. He currently lives in Afghanistan with his wife.
Court rules deforestation of Peruvian rainforest for chocolate was legal
Indigenous leaders present plan to gov’t for Suriname’s largest official protected area
Local land rights may be in danger from push for palm oil in Liberia
Scientists sound the alarm on African palm oil investment
Illegal logging still a big issue in Cameroon
‘Sustainable’ cacao company allegedly defies government’s call to halt plantation development
Half of Borneo’s mammals could lose a third of their habitat by 2080
Endangered chimp habitat under threat from climate change
Company chops down rainforest to produce ‘sustainable’ chocolate
Amazon gold rush destroying huge swaths of rainforest
Indigenous communities ‘among the very few best protectors’ of Peruvian Amazon
Chinese logging company takes over Guyana’s forests
Palm oil interest surges in Papua New Guinea
‘Militarized occupation’: local communities pay the price for palm oil
Forest restoration commitments: driven by science or politics?
Climate change to boost farmland, diminish harvests, says new study
WCS-led raids lead to six arrests near Mozambique’s largest reserve
Illegal tropical deforestation driven globally by “agro-conversion”
Looming mining ‘tsunami’ set to take Africa by storm
Invasion of the oil palm: western Africa’s native son returns, threatening great apes
DRC deforestation escalates despite resource shortages, protests, rape, homicide
Is Cameroon becoming the new Indonesia? Palm oil plantations accelerating deforestation
Dried-up Colorado takes toll on giant Mexican fish
Special series
Forest Trackers
- ‘We just want to be left in peace’: In Brazil’s Amazon, soy ambitions loom over Indigenous land
- Deforestation continues in Kenya’s largest water capturing forest, satellites show
- Drug trafficking imperils national park and Indigenous reserves in the Peruvian Amazon
- Indonesia’s besieged Tesso Nilo National Park hit hard by yet more deforestation, satellites show
Oceans
- Lethal or not? Australia’s beaches are a crucible for shark control methods
- Is ocean iron fertilization back from the dead as a CO₂ removal tool?
- Dominica set to open world’s first reserve centered around sperm whales
- ‘Very good progress’ but nothing firm as deep-sea mining rules are hashed out
Amazon Conservation
- Study links pesticides to child cancer deaths in Brazilian Amazon & Cerrado
- Amazon drought: Much damage still to come (commentary)
- Amazon recovery offers hope of big rewards but poses equally big challenges
- The Amazon’s archaeology of hope: Q&A with anthropologist Michael Heckenberger
Land rights and extractives
- Australia crackdown on climate protesters grows amid fight against gas project
- Study: Despite armed conflicts, Indigenous lands have better environment quality
- Indigenous community fighting a mine in Palawan wins a milestone legal verdict
- Son of slain Quilombola leader will still strive for community’s rights
Endangered Environmentalists
- Vietnamese environmentalist sentenced to 3 years in prison for tax evasion
- Son of slain Quilombola leader will still strive for community’s rights
- Video: Five Tembé Indigenous activists shot in Amazonian ‘palm oil war’
- Indigenous activists demand justice after 5 shot in Amazonian ‘palm oil war’
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- In Borneo, the ‘Power of Mama’ fight Indonesia’s wildfires with all-woman crew
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
- After 20 years and thousands of trees planted, Kalimantan’s veteran forester persists
- Aziil Anwar, Indonesian coral-based mangrove grower, dies at 64
Conservation Effectiveness
- Forest restoration can fare better with human helping hand, study shows
- From rat-ridden to reserve, Redonda is an island restoration role model
- Video: Rice as a peace offering in India’s human-elephant conflict capital
- Group certification helps Malaysia’s Sabah aim for palm oil sustainability
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Indonesia’s new capital ‘won’t sacrifice the environment’: Q&A with Nusantara’s Myrna Asnawati Safitri
- Small farmers in limbo as Cambodia wavers on Tonle Sap conservation rules
- To build its ‘green’ capital city, Indonesia runs a road through a biodiverse forest
- Robust river governance key to restoring Mekong River vitality in face of dams