Around the world, mangrove forests have undergone a decades-long decline that’s just now slowing to a halt. But Pakistan bucks this trend. The country’s mangroves expanded from 48,331 hectares in 1986 to 143,930 hectares in 2020, according to a 2022 analysis of satellite data. Many in Pakistan are looking to mangroves to bolster precious fish stocks and defend against the mounting effects of climate change.
The Wildlife Conservation Society launched the new funding mechanism, in collaboration with Bolivia’s Foundation for the Development of the National System of Protected Areas. The new mechanism will channel conservation funds to Indigenous organizations in the Madidi Landscape, one of the most biodiverse terrestrial protected areas in the world. The new fund has so far attracted $650,000 in initial support from the Bezos Earth Fund.
Unchecked logging and quarrying of rocks from streambeds in Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts led to springs drying up and populations of putitor mahseer fish, an endangered species, disappearing. A project launched in 2016 and backed by USAID and the UNDP is working with Indigenous communities to reverse this decline.
Now, as a result of these efforts, areas where forests have been conserved have seen the flow of springs stabilize and fish populations revive.
New research used 713 population surveys from 103 protected areas from Tanzania southwards to calculate rates of growth or decline from 1995-2020, covering more than 290,000 savannah elephants, 70% of the total in Africa. The scientists found that overall, populations had grown at 0.16% a year for the past quarter of a century.
The IUCN Red List status of this timeless talisman of the Central Asian steppes has been changed from Critically Endangered to Near Threatened. The dramatic downlisting reflects a remarkable rebound in saiga numbers, particularly its Kazakhstan stronghold, where populations have bounced back from a perilously low 48,000 individuals in 2005 to a new high of over 1.9 million.
Thirteen of the works are being returned to Cambodia in concert with an investigation from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York and Homeland Security. Among the works are a large head of Buddha made of stone in the seventh century, and a tenth century sandstone goddess statue from the Koh Ker archaeological site.
The scimitar horned oryx was once widespread across North Africa, but in the 1980’s the population began to plummet – largely due to the antelopes being hunted. In 2000, the species was declared Extinct in the Wild by the IUCN Red List. Now, thanks to a conservation partnership coordinated by the Environment Agency of Abu Dhabi, its fate has been reversed.
Hundreds of Indigenous and local community groups, conservation organizations, governments and policymakers gathered to strategize how communities can play a bigger role in African conservation efforts, which are typically dominated by big international NGOs.
The seed collector networks are the base of the ecological restoration chain and will play an essential role in enabling Brazil to reach its goal of restoring 12.5 million hectares (30.9 million acres) of native vegetation by 2030 — vital in the fight to avoid climate breakdown.
It was a historic “rematriation” for the Indigenous nation of around 600 people in what is now known to many as Canada’s British Columbia. The return of the Ni’isjoohl pole could also set a precedent in a broader repatriation movement gaining steam around the world.
