JAKARTA — Nearly half of Indonesia’s peatlands are vulnerable to flooding due to degradation caused by unchecked exploitation, with 6 million hectares (15 million acres) — an area twice the…
In March 1995, a few wolves cautiously exited their pens into the melting snow of Yellowstone National Park, returning there 70 years after guns, traps and poison had wiped them…
The Great Green Wall in the Sahel, a mosaic of forests, farmlands and grasslands dotting the arid fringes of Sahara, was launched by the African Union in 2007 to fight…
Tree-planting has become a go-to tool for taking carbon out of the atmosphere and repairing deforested habitats. And indeed, reforestation — planting trees or fostering tree regrowth in historically forested…
Home to one-third of all mangroves globally, Southeast Asia has outsize potential to lock away greenhouse gases in these carbon-dense ecosystems. But deforestation for a range of commodities, cyclone damage,…
Can a tropical forest mend itself? After trees are cut down and wildlife flees, do microbes on the dank, leafy floor and woody giants with epiphyte-laden crowns come back; do…
For the briefest moment earlier this year, the Eurasian lynx — extinct in the U.K. for thousands of years — returned to the wild in Scotland. But this release wasn’t…
JAKARTA — Southeast Asia’s peatlands and mangroves store immense amounts of carbon, yet they’re rapidly disappearing. A new study finds that conserving and restoring these ecosystems could cut the region’s…
Three years ago, while exploring the Mojanda mountain range in Ecuador, a team of researchers from a local NGO and a government research institute stumbled upon a small, unusual mouse.…
ADRÉ, Chad — In the dry and windswept plains of the Adré refugee camp in eastern Chad, a grove of young neem trees stands as a testament to resilience and…
Restoring degraded land around the world would cost a fraction of a percent of global GDP to fund, a new study shows, but the inequitable distribution of restoration needs means…
The intrinsic value of mangroves and their related coastal ecosystems is getting more recognition than ever before, while actions to conserve and restore our planet’s coastal wetlands are gaining in…
KASESE DISTRICT, Uganda — In western Uganda’s Kasese district, where the Rwenzori Mountains meet the sprawling plains of Queen Elizabeth National Park, Janet Nyakairu Abwoli is on a mission to…
In the quiet Swiss town of Davos, Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain unfolds as young Hans Castorp’s brief visit to a sanatorium turns into a seven-year exploration of ideas, intrigue,…
A women-led reforestation effort has planted millions of mangrove trees with a high survival rate across swamps in Nigeria’s oil-rich and severely degraded Niger Delta. For decades, the Ogoni people…
When David Borbón first arrived in the village of El Delgadito in 1980, it was a paradise with seemingly unlimited natural resources. He continued to return seasonally to fish for…
BALI, Indonesia — “We didn’t have electricity in our village of Taro, near Ubud, until I was 12 years old,” says conservationist Wayan Wardika. To find their way through the…
Recognition of the need to restore degraded landscapes is accelerating at pace. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (the UN Decade) has triggered a global movement to rally individual action,…
Where are mangrove restoration projects taking place? How many of them are successful? If they’ve failed, what happened? Finding answers to these questions isn’t easy. But those answers are critical…
Mangrove forests still line most of Guinea-Bissau’s fringing shoreline along West Africa’s Atlantic coast, a protective green halo along the many bays and estuaries. Uniquely evolved for the interface between…
Cleared or degraded tropical forests around the world covering a combined area larger than Saudi Arabia could regrow on its own, according to new research published Oct. 30 in the…
MPONGWE, Zambia – The Chimfuneme swamp forest in central Zambia’s Copperbelt province got its name — which means “hiding place” in the local language, Lamba — long ago when strife…
BANGKOK, Thailand — Standing on a coastal boardwalk overlooking the upper Gulf of Thailand, Wisut Leksomboon points to two mature mangrove trees whose branches intertwine like lovers’ limbs. “We found…
Sheikh Sirajul Islam, a smallholder farmer in Bangladesh’s southwestern Satkhira district, sowed the wet-season aman rice in his four acres of land this August. He is hopeful for a good…
PAPANTLA, Veracruz, México — Juan Gerónimo Simbrón, a traditional healer, walks through the tropical forest surrounding his house until he reaches a 100-year-old fig tree. Among the roots, he sets…
In mid-2023, the Caribbean Sea simmered as air temperatures soared, marking the hottest days ever recorded in Puerto Rico and Barbados. Beginning in March, sea surface temperatures throughout the region…
I've spent a significant part of my career exploring and documenting how ecosystems function, and the profound impact humanity has on nature. Over time, I've come to recognize that not…
ZOMBA PLATEAU, Malawi — The Zomba Forest Reserve is a tale of two faces. A large part of the northern section of the plateau is stripped to its last undergrowth…
Dwelling near the erosion-prone riverbank of the mighty Pasur River, 43-year-old Shumi Mondol understands the importance of a mangrove barrier. Next to her cottage in Loudob in Khulna’s Dacope subdistrict,…
The Fraser Valley is home to some of Canada’s most important agricultural land, but 100 years ago this region was a huge glacial lake and the center of the Semá:th…
KARÈ, Togo — Under the hot sun of an April afternoon in northern Togo, we made our way by motorcycle across the impoverished prefecture of Kozah. It wasn’t a long…
Driven to protect the planet one child, one tree and one recycled piece of plastic at a time, environmental advocate Doyinsola Ogunye is helping children, youth and women in Nigeria…
