On repurposing cell phones in Brazil, Ecuador, and Peru

A surveillance system made from repurposed cellphones is helping deter illegal logging in the Amazon. From 2001 to 2018, Brazil lost more than 100 million acres of tree cover. Instead of relying on park rangers to wander the forest and pick out sounds of logging...

Reforestation project

Researchers say the world’s largest reforestation project – the 2011 Bonn Challenge – has beaten its 2020 target. Launched nearly a decade ago by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Germany, the challenge aimed to have 371 million acres of degraded...

A positive vision for 2021

In a world immersed in urgency, with alarm bells ringing left and right and dire predictions for our future, how dare I come up with a banner marked, “Yes, so many good things are happening”? Simply because how we look upon the world is a purely subjective vision...

Fighting stigma with ice cream at Sikia Cafe

Jinja, Uganda By Caleb Okereke Contributor to the CS Monitor Shadia and Imran Nakueira rented the space for a restaurant in the dreamy, lakeside town of Jinja, Uganda, before they knew exactly what they were going to do with it.  They knew one thing though: They...

Indian State Bans All Pesticides. Wildlife, Crop Yields and Tourism Flourish.

Governments around the world are looking to the Indian state of Sikkim to see if going organic is viable. So far, all signs are pointing to yes. The state banned the import of all pesticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers and GMOs in 2003, becoming the world’s...