Philip Jacobson

Philip Jacobson

@philjaco.bsky.social

Journalist @mongabay.com covering SE Asia from Chiang Mai, previously Indonesia. Recent @pulitzercenter.org fellow investigating the global shark trade. Follow dulu nanti saya follbak

428 followers109 following101 posts

Philip Jacobson
@philjaco.bsky.social

Enjoyed editing this story by @yennikwok.bsky.social. Wild that Hong Kong has a bunch of Indonesian cockatoos flying around that are all escaped pets and their descendants.

Mongabay@mongabay.com

Hong Kong hosts, 200 yellow-crested cockatoos, roughly 10% of the critically endangered species' global population. To overcome a shortage of natural nesting spaces, researchers are installing camera-equipped artificial nest boxes to protect and study the birds. @yennikwok.bsky.social reports.

mongabay.ccArtificial nests give Hong Kong’s cockatoos a home – and a chance to study their behaviorHONG KONG — “Spiderman … Tom Holland,” two secondary school boys repeated to each other as they watched conservationist Harry Wong nimbly climb a tall tree at their school, St. Louis School, in…
Philip Jacobson
@philjaco.bsky.social

Angelshark is still on the menu in Brazil, even after the closure of a loophole allowing its import. My colleague @nandawenzel.bsky.social found four recent calls for bid by Rio Grande do Sul state agencies trying to procure it for hospital meals etc. news.mongabay.com/2026/10/enda... @mongabay.com

news.mongabay.comEndangered angelshark is still traded in Brazil despite import banPORTO ALEGRE, Brazil — “Good choice!” said the clerk at one of the fish stalls in the Porto Alegre Public Market when Mongabay asked about the peixe anjo, which means “angel fish” in Portuguese, in mi...
Philip Jacobson
@philjaco.bsky.social

A rather ominous terms and conditions pop-up notice has started appearing on the forestry ministry's SIGAP platform, used by researchers to access government data on deforestation, fire hotspots, zoning designations and more... news.mongabay.com/2026/10/indo... @mongabay.com

news.mongabay.comIndonesia threatens prison time for unauthorized downloads of forest dataIndonesia’s government is imposing new restrictions on access to geospatial data, raising concerns among researchers and activists that it will suppress environmental science and advocacy work in one ...
Philip Jacobson
@philjaco.bsky.social

New 166-page report is first comprehensive review of impact of USAID’s closure on its nature-related initiatives (biodiversity conservation, climate adaptation, clean energy, ocean plastics etc) news.mongabay.com/2026/09/new-... by @shokes.bsky.social @mongabay.com

news.mongabay.comNew report reveals the environmental cost of USAID’s destructionNearly two years after U.S. President Trump’s decision to dismantle international development agency USAID removed nearly $1 billion from global conservation and environment funding, the agency’s abse...
Philip Jacobson
@philjaco.bsky.social

Each year in Japan, ominous clouds of tree pollen emanate from the country's sugi and hinoki forests, afflicting tens of millions of people with hay fever. To stop it, the govt is clearing huge areas of trees and replacing them with new low and no-pollen varieties. news.mongabay.com/2026/08/as-h...

news.mongabay.comAs hay fever sufferers grow in Japan, the country is looking to plant no-pollen treesTOKYO — For Mariko Aoki, the new year began with an itch. “Right after the New Year in January, my nose starts to get a little itchy,” Aoki said. “It peaks in March, and the sneezing, runny nose, itch...
Philip Jacobson
@philjaco.bsky.social

For those interested, here are the population tables from the new 2026-2036 elephant conservation strategy and action plan (a type of document known as a 'SRAK' in Indonesia) and the previous unreleased 2019-2029 plan. You can see that in Aceh especially, the population figures went up by a lot.

Philip Jacobson
@philjaco.bsky.social

Either way, Indonesia's elephant populations have declined precipitously. That's mostly due to the destruction of their forest homes for plantations and farms. If you want to know more about why that's happening, read this: news.mongabay.com/2017/10/the-...

news.mongabay.comThe Palm Oil Fiefdom(Baca dalam Bahasa Indonesia.) Prologue: Jakarta, 2007 On Nov. 29, 2007, on the tenth floor of a marble-clad office block in Jakarta, the scion of one of Indonesia’s wealthiest families met with a vis...
Philip Jacobson
@philjaco.bsky.social

The new article gets into it a bit, but ultimately it's not entirely clear to me how the government got from 928-1379 elephants a decade ago to 1325-1648 now. Maybe they've incorporated new data or improved their methodologies. Or maybe s.t. else is going on. Something for journalists to dig into.

Philip Jacobson
@philjaco.bsky.social

I wrote about how a canopy bridge made of old fire hoses in Malaysia's Penang is helping reduce human-wildlife conflict with dusky langurs in a housing development home mostly to retirees. Article for @mongabay.com in partnership with @afp.com news.mongabay.com/custom-story...

news.mongabay.comIn Malaysia, a bridge helps endangered langurs and humans coexistIn Malaysia’s Penang state, conservationists and residents are collaborating to reduce conflict between humans and endangered dusky langurs displaced by urban development and habitat loss. The Langur ...
Philip Jacobson
@philjaco.bsky.social

Sharks aren't doing so hot, but there's lots of cool stuff going on in the world of shark science and conservation. I wrote about it for @mongabay.com after attending the world's largest shark conference in Sri Lanka.

David Shiffman, Ph.D. 🦈@whysharksmatter.bsky.social

At world’s largest shark conference, scientists warn of a grim outlook across the board

news.mongabay.comAt world’s largest shark conference, scientists warn of a grim outlook across the boardCOLOMBO — More than 800 researchers and conservationists gathered in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital, from May 4-8 for Sharks International, the world’s largest shark conference. Presenters shared…
Philip Jacobson
@philjaco.bsky.social

The U of São Paulo Med School Hospital cancelled a plan to buy 17 metric tons of shark meat after Sea Shepherd lobbied them about it. Still plenty of open tenders for shark meat in 2026: 80 tons for a school district in Bahia, 70 tons for one in Rio... Story here: news.mongabay.com/2026/04/lati...

news.mongabay.comLatin America's largest hospital complex cancels plan to buy shark meatThe University of São Paulo Medical School Hospital said it would cancel a plan to buy more than 17 metric tons of shark meat as part of a 2026 procurement, citing concerns over heavy metals. HCFMUSP ...
Philip Jacobson
@philjaco.bsky.social

Brazilian version of This American Life did an hourlong show about our shark meat investigation, featuring my colleague @bykarlamendes.bsky.social

Rádio Novelo@radionovelo.com.br

Em 2024, o site Mongabay Brasil começou uma investigação para entender o consumo de carne de tubarão. Eles descobriram que essa carne é servida em instituições públicas do país todo – mas sempre sob um outro nome: “cação”. E isso é um problema em várias frentes, de saúde pública à risco ambiental.

Philip Jacobson
@philjaco.bsky.social

An injured proboscis monkey was found near a railway track in Thailand. Proboscis monkeys don't live in Thailand. The species is endemic to Borneo, and there's no Thai import permits on record. The animal is likely an escapee from the illegal exotic pet trade. news.mongabay.com/2026/03/prob...

news.mongabay.comProboscis monkey found in Thailand adds to evidence of cross-border illegal tradeRATCHABURI, Thailand — On Jan. 6, residents of Samut Sakhon province, central Thailand, found an injured monkey near a railway track. Pot-bellied with reddish-brown fur and a prominent, upturned nose,...

Philip Jacobson reposted

Erik Hoffner
@erikhoffner.bsky.social

[nonprofit #journalism impact] Investigative reporting by @mongabay.com reporters @philjaco.bsky.social @bykarlamendes.bsky.social @nandawenzel.bsky.social spurred the state of Rio to remove #sharks from the menu Education dept announces a ban on serving shark meat in public schools it manages:

mongabay.orgInvestigation earns Brazil's top education award & ban on shark meat in Rio de Janeiro school cafeterias - Environmental Journalism and EducationIn July and August 2025, Mongabay published two investigative reports that uncovered the scale and opacity of shark meat purchases by Brazilian government institutions. These stories triggered immedia...
Philip Jacobson
@philjaco.bsky.social

"Her career did not produce a single defining theory or moment. Instead, it accumulated into a long record of observation and intervention. The continuity of her presence in the field allowed her to trace changes that were otherwise difficult to capture." news.mongabay.com/2026/03/biru...

news.mongabay.comBirutė Galdikas, primatologist who spent a lifetime studying & defending orangutans, has died at 79In the early 1970s, orangutans occupied an ambiguous place in science. They were known to exist, of course, but remained poorly understood, rarely observed, and difficult to study in the wild. Their f...
Philip Jacobson
@philjaco.bsky.social

“They’ve been tasked with pulling large logs stuck in residents’ homes and opening up roads blocked by floodwater” -Ujang Wisnu Barata, conservation agency head “Their presence brings joy and it lowers the tensions” -Ahmad Faisal Pasaribu, police chief Full story: news.mongabay.com/2025/12/tsun...

news.mongabay.comTsunami veteran rescue elephants mobilized for Indonesia cyclone disaster reliefPIDIE JAYA, Indonesia — A group of specialist Sumatran elephants have joined recovery operations in Aceh following the catastrophic landfall of Cyclone Senyar in late November — two decades after the ...
Philip Jacobson
@philjaco.bsky.social

I interviewed Diego Cardeñosa about a device he invented to detect illegal shark fins that's now being rolled out in countries across the world, after a successful run in Hong Kong news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-... @mongabay.com

news.mongabay.comThe lab-in-a-backpack busting illegal shark fins: Interview with Diego CardeñosaDiego Cardeñosa always knew he wanted to study sharks. But when he started his Ph.D., he had to make a choice: tagging sharks in the field — the “fun,” typically more-sought-after path — or studying t...
Philip Jacobson
@philjaco.bsky.social

“If this plan goes ahead, it would be an ecological disaster and likely another nail in the coffin for the Tapanuli orangutan as a species" -Amanda Hurowitz, forest commodities lead at Mighty Earth

Philip Jacobson
@philjaco.bsky.social

Always fun to go on the @mongabay.com newscast, @mikedigirolamo.bsky.social is a great interviewer and makes it easy

Mike DiGirolamo@mikedigirolamo.bsky.social

This week on the Mongabay Newscast @philjaco.bsky.social explains how he, @bykarlamendes.bsky.social and @pulitzercenter.org's Kuang Keng Kuek Ser uncovered the fact that state governments in Brazil have been serving shark meat to thousands of public institutions. Listen to full story here:

news.mongabay.comBrazilian government serves shark to infants, prisoners and more: How Mongabay broke the storyMongabay senior editor Philip Jacobson joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss a two-part investigation published this year in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center about how state governments in Brazil ...

Philip Jacobson reposted

Mike DiGirolamo
@mikedigirolamo.bsky.social

This week on the Mongabay Newscast @philjaco.bsky.social explains how he, @bykarlamendes.bsky.social and @pulitzercenter.org's Kuang Keng Kuek Ser uncovered the fact that state governments in Brazil have been serving shark meat to thousands of public institutions. Listen to full story here:

news.mongabay.comBrazilian government serves shark to infants, prisoners and more: How Mongabay broke the storyMongabay senior editor Philip Jacobson joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss a two-part investigation published this year in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center about how state governments in Brazil ...