It’s a perfect time to pick up a great book, and this episode's got recommendations for you!

We welcome to the show Janisse Ray, award-winning author of "Wild Spectacle: Seeking Wonders in a World Beyond Humans," detailing her search for “heart-pounding flashes of wild spectacle.” Ray shares stories of the places she's traveled and explains why she did all that travel without getting on a plane.

We also welcome Jordan Salama, whose new book is called "Every Day the River Changes: Four Weeks Down the Magdalena." He discusses 4 weeks spent traveling down Colombia's Magdalena River, which Colombians speak of with “an almost religious fervor,” and what he hopes people can take away from his book.

These two share some great adventures but also counsel seeking such enlightening journeys close to home, as well!

Further reading from the episode:

• “Rewilding news” on Mongabay
• FARC peace deal in Colombia sparked war on forests, report says
• In Colombia, end of war meant start of runaway deforestation, study finds

Salama wrote a fascinating 2019 story for Mongabay about community activism for rivers in southern Europe, 

• In Bosnia-Herzegovina, grassroots opposition stalls a hydropower project

Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.

If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!

See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.

Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.

We discuss two big stories from Southeast Asia that Mongabay's been covering which highlight the importance of land rights and also Free, Prior, and Informed Consent for Indigenous and local communities.

Cynthia Ong is our first guest, she's founder of LEAP, an NGO based in the state of Sabah in Malaysian Borneo, who shares the fallout from a story broken by Mongabay about a giant carbon deal signed by government officials in Sabah -- covering more than 2 million hectares of the state’s forests for at least the next 100 years -- without consulting local communities.

Our second guest is Gerry Flynn, a Mongabay contributor based in Cambodia who has been covering a recent government decree that made 127,000 hectares of protected areas available for sale or rent.

Flynn discusses why there are fears that it will amount to a land grab by powerful interests.

Further reading about the Sabah deal:

• Is colonial history repeating itself with Sabah forest carbon deal? (Ong's commentary)
• Details emerge about Sabah carbon deal

Articles about Cambodia by Flynn:

• The great Koh Kong land rush
• Carving up the Cardamoms: Conservationists fear massive land grab in Cambodia

Please invite your friends to subscribe to the Mongabay Newscast wherever they get podcasts, or download our free app in the Apple App Store or in the Google Store to get access to our latest episodes at your fingertips.

If you enjoy the Newscast, please visit www.patreon.com/mongabay to pledge a dollar or more to keep the show growing, Mongabay is a nonprofit media outlet and all support helps!

Episode artwork: Stung Proat, Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia. Photo via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

See all our latest news from nature's frontline at Mongabay's homepage: news.mongabay.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by searching for @mongabay.

Please share your thoughts and ideas! submissions@mongabay.com.