From the latest Rising Voices newsletter.

Did you know that the Canadian coal mining company Teck Resources is planning on increasing its production from 1.5 million to 8 million tons every year at he Ovoot Tolgoi mine, an open-pit coal mine in southern Mongolia? The huge increase in production is sure to have a large environmental impact in Mongolia, but until recently residents of southern Mongolia had no way to make their voices heard. The Mongolian environmental citizen news project Nomad Green is trying to change that by organizing workshops to teach environmental activists how to publish news about changes and threats to their environment. Learn more in Rezwan’s latest feature post, and by visiting Nomad Green itself.

There are also plenty of environmental threats in Madagascar. Patrick from Foko Madagascar tells us about the illegal logging of rosewood trees in eastern Madagascar which are exported to make guitars, billiard cues, furniture and luxury flooring. He tells us that the coup and political crisis that took place earlier this year has created an environment where people are able to evade the legal system. His own hometown of North Mananara has suffered as a result. This is something to think about the next time we buy furniture made out of rosewood. See photos from Patrick’s post, and read the latest from more Malagasy bloggers in Joan’s latest wrap-up.

“Every month when I do my roundups of what happened on the Ceasefire blog that month I think to myself, ‘It can’t get much better than this!’ And it always does.” So writes Ruthie Ackerman in her introduction to a recap of blog posts from Liberians living in Staten Island, New York and Monrovia, Liberia who are part of the Ceasefire Liberia project. Sticking to the environmental theme, make sure not to miss Saki G’s coverage of a Liberian youth group which organized an event to fight against climate change as part of the Road to Copenhagen campaign.