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topic: Restoration
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After controversy, Plant-for-the-Planet focuses on the trees
- Plant-for-the-Planet, a global forest restoration and youth empowerment initiative, oversees reforestation projects in Mexico, Spain and Ghana.
- The organization was founded by Felix Finkbeiner at just 9 years old, when his school tree-planting project happened to make the local news in Germany. Now 27, he continues to help run Plant-for-the-Planet as it juggles rapid growth with the slow, painstaking work of planting trees.
- In recent years, the organization has been plagued by controversy, with news investigations exposing exaggerated planting numbers, poor record-keeping, and plans to invest in controversial real estate development.
- Now Plant-for-the-Planet is focusing on data collection and longer-term restoration strategies, hoping to leave its mistakes in the past.
Bangladesh aims to revive five critically endangered plants
- Bangladesh is attempting to conserve and nurture five critically endangered flora species to ensure their healthy population in nature. Currently, these plants are present only in some specific places in the country.
- The species are the bulborox, small-bulb orchid, dwarf date palm, chaulmoogra and bashpata, which are identified as critically endangered in the latest Plant Red List of Bangladesh.
- The Bangladesh Forest Department has taken the initiative to increase the plants’ numbers by cultivating them in the National Botanical Garden and the National Herbarium before planting them in suitable habitats.
Resilient forests are key to ecological, economic and social resilience, report finds
- Human society depends economically and socially on resilient forests, a new report from the International Union of Forest Research Organizations demonstrates.
- As a result, pushing forests toward collapse threatens human well-being globally, not just in communities in or near forests.
- The report authors recommend approaches for improving forest resilience, including more inclusive governance and remedying power imbalances.
- They also advocate managing for resilience in ways that include social and ecological concerns, not just the extraction of commercial and monetary value from forests.
Indonesian women sustain seaweed traditions in a changing climate
- The women of Indonesia’s Nusa Penida and Nusa Lembongan islands have harvested seaweed for generations.
- Climate change and tourism development now threaten seaweed cultivators’ centuries-old practices.
- In the face of these changes, seaweed cultivators are working with tourism operators and coral-conservation groups to preserve, and adapt, their traditional practices.
The Yurok tribe have reclaimed Blue Creek, 138 years after it was taken from them
Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. The Yurok tribe of northern California has achieved what once seemed impossible: reclaiming the 19,000-hectare (47,000-acre) watershed of Blue Creek, a cold-water artery vital to salmon survival and tribal identity. This marks the largest land-back conservation deal in California […]
In a big win, Yurok Nation reclaims vital creek and watershed to restore major salmon run
- Four dams are now down on the Upper Klamath River in northern California in the largest river restoration project in U.S. history. But a rarely mentioned cold-water creek is essential to restoring health to what was once the third-largest salmon run on the West Coast of North America.
- Blue Creek is located just 25 km (16 mi) from the mouth of the Lower Klamath at the Pacific Ocean. Critically, it’s the first cold-water refuge for migrating salmon that enables the fish to cool down, survive, and move farther upriver to spawn. The dams and logging have damaged this important watershed for decades.
- The Yurok, California’s largest Indigenous tribe, lost ownership of Blue Creek to westward U.S. expansion in the late 1800s. In 2002, a timber company, negotiating with the Yurok, agreed to sell back the 19,000-hectare (47,100-acre) watershed to the tribe.
- It took Western Rivers Conservancy, an Oregon-based NGO, nearly two decades to raise the $60 million needed to buy the watershed. In a historic transition, Blue Creek returns this spring to the Yurok for conservation in its entirety. The tribe considers the watershed a sacred place.
From local planting to national plan, Belize bets on mangrove recovery
- Mangroves in Belize protect coastlines, are nursery grounds for fish, and store vast amounts of carbon.
- In 2021, the government of Belize committed to restoring 4,000 hectares (nearly 10,000 acres) of mangroves, and protecting an additional 12,000 hectares (nearly 30,000 acres) within a decade, as part of its emissions reduction target under the Paris climate agreement.
- To support this restoration target, WWF Mesoamerica is developing a national mangrove restoration action plan.
- Restoration initiatives are already underway in areas like Gales Point, Placencia Caye and elsewhere.
Guinea-Bissau’s grassroots efforts offer a blueprint for global mangrove restoration (commentary)
- Guinea-Bissau’s mangroves have declined by nearly a third over the past 80 years, but the country still has the largest mangrove area as a proportion of its total area in the world.
- A grassroots revolution is underway, spearheaded by national organizations, international partners and local communities to restore the country’s mangrove landscapes.
- Called Ecological Mangrove Restoration, this method focuses on optimizing conditions for the mangroves to restore naturally, as well as collaborating with communities to ensure sustainability and resilience by fostering ownership of the project while leveraging local knowledge and resources.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
To collect native seeds, Ugandan botanists are climbing forest giants
- To access the best seeds for the propagation of native species, botanists often need to safely and sustainably collect from a variety of mother trees.
- In Uganda, Sebastian Walaita at the Tooro Botanic Gardens has been honing his skills and training botanists in high tree climbing for more than 25 years.
- These skills allow the botanists to collect seeds from even the tallest trees, in a way that captures genetic diversity.
- In October 2024, Walaita and a fellow Ugandan held a training in high tree climbing and seed collection in Côte d’Ivoire.
Deforestation and fires persist in Indonesia’s pulpwood and biomass plantations
- NGOs in Indonesia have documented widespread environmental and social violations across 33 industrial tree plantations since 2023, including deforestation, peatland destruction, fires, and land conflicts with Indigenous communities.
- Major corporations APP and APRIL, despite sustainability pledges, were linked to illegal deforestation, peatland drainage, and failure to follow proper consent procedures, potentially violating both Indonesian laws and international standards.
- Key case studies include endangered rainforest clearance in West Sumatra’s Mentawai Islands, unauthorized forest clearance in Riau, peatland burning in South Sumatra, and land disputes in West Kalimantan.
- The NGOs are urging stronger law enforcement and reforms, warning that current violations undermine Indonesia’s climate goals and could threaten market access under the EU Deforestation Regulation.
In Panama, an Indigenous-led project rewrites the rules of reforestation
- Scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute are collaborating with local communities in the Ngäbe-Buglé Comarca, a protected Indigenous territory, to foster a ground-up reforestation strategy using native trees and carbon payments.
- The project involves about 30 plots totaling 100 hectares (247 acres) of land, giving participants full ownership of their trees.
- The approach is based on carbon-sequestration data and other scientific metrics collected from Smithsonian’s Agua Salud research site in Colón.
- The work also leans on economic analyses to ensure that reforestation projects can become reliable and sustainable livelihood strategies for Panama’s rural communities.
Why biological diversity should be at the heart of conservation
For the last several decades, global biodiversity has been in crisis. Yet, as we celebrate International Day for Biodiversity on May 22, which commemorates the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity, a global treaty, we offer some recent Mongabay stories highlighting lessons from undoing past harms and conserving biodiversity for our planet’s future. What […]
Protection is only the beginning: Creating connection through Belize’s Maya Forest Corridor
- In central Belize, the Maya Forest Corridor, a narrow section of forested land, is key for wildlife movements across Belize, conservationists say.
- A land acquisition by the Maya Forest Corridor Trust in 2021 was a major step forward in protecting the corridor.
- Members of the Trust are now working on ways to secure and bolster the ecological integrity of the land, but face threats like roads, fire and even a national sporting event.
Borneo project hopes to prove that forests and oil palms can coexist
- Monoculture palm oil production has come at the cost of rainforest habitat, particularly in Malaysia and Indonesia.
- Researchers are conducting experimental trials in Malaysian Borneo to see if native trees can be planted in oil palm plantations without significantly reducing palm oil yields.
- While still in the initial stages, the experiment is so far showing there are no detrimental effects to oil palm growth.
- In fact, interplanting with native forest trees may benefit oil palm, with the researchers finding oil palm trees had more leaf growth in agroforestry plots than in monoculture ones.
Seeds rescued from India’s coffee farms could help forest restoration
Coffee agroforests in India’s Western Ghats mountains, where coffee shrubs are grown under the shade of trees, could be a good source of seeds for forest restoration efforts, according to a recent study, reports Mongabay India’s Simrin Sirur. Much of India’s coffee is grown in the rain-rich Western Ghats, a global biodiversity hotspot. Coffee farms […]
Scientists warn coral restoration can’t keep pace with global reef collapse
- Coral restoration is vastly outpaced by degradation, while intensifying climate stress, prohibitive costs, poor site selection and lack of coordination make large-scale restoration currently unviable, a new study has found.
- The scale-cost mismatch is staggering: Restoring just 1.4% of degraded coral could cost up to US$16.7 trillion, while current global funding is only US$258 million.
- The study found most projects assessed prioritize convenience over ecological value, restoring easily accessed reefs instead of climate-resilient or biologically strategic ones, undermining long-term outcomes.
- Researchers say standardized data and smarter planning are urgently needed to ensure that global coral restoration is scientifically informed and strategically targeted, and not merely symbolic.
England’s flooded farmlands offer habitat, carbon storage & storm protection
When aging infrastructure failed to protect coastal farmland in southwest England from sea level rise, conservationists chose to embrace the flooding and created a new wetland reserve. Mongabay’s Leo Plunkett and Sandy Watt report in a recent Mongabay video that the newly created marsh has brought a host of benefits to the region. The Steart […]
‘It has been worth it’: The local women saving Yucatán’s mangroves
- Mangrove forests provide important ecosystem services, from acting as nurseries for fish to buffering coasts from storms.
- Mangroves along the northern coast of the Mexican state of Yucatán have been impacted by deforestation and highway and port development.
- A group of women called Las Chelemeras has for the past 15 years worked to restore the region’s mangrove forests and ecosystem function.
- Their restoration tasks involve opening and maintaining channels so that water can infiltrate and drain with the tides, and planting mangrove tree seedlings.
Where war once raged in Iraq, Yezidi women plant hope
- Yezidi women, many of whom survived a genocidal campaign by the terror group ISIS, are breaking social barriers by leading environmental renewal efforts in northern Iraq through tree planting, recycling and education.
- The region’s environmental crisis — marked by drought, desertification and water scarcity — has devastated agricultural livelihoods, making sustainable land restoration crucial for displaced families’ futures.
- Despite initial resistance, the Clean Green initiative has enabled Yezidi women to take on leadership roles, challenging traditional norms and helping to rebuild their community’s identity through environmental stewardship.
Coexistence with Europe’s carnivores is possible (commentary)
- The return of bears, wolverines, lynx and wolves to European landscapes from where they have been absent for decades, or even centuries, is a conservation success.
- But while this has also led to a resurgence of age-old conflicts, such as livestock depredation and fears for personal safety, the author of a new op-ed who leads a research project aimed at coexistence is optimistic.
- “The Co-creating Coexistence Project [will] provide valuable knowledge to guide policy as the focus shifts from ‘how do we prevent large carnivores from going extinct?’ to ‘how to live with a conservation success?’” he writes.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
As Acapulco’s mangroves disappear, Mexico takes strides to protect its coastal forests
- One of Acapulco’s lagoons has experienced the near-complete loss of its mangroves due to urbanization and hurricanes.
- Another Acapulco lagoon has also lost portions of its mangroves, affecting the local fishing industry.
- Overall, the Mexican state of Guerrero has lost more than half of its mangroves since 1979.
- Mexico’s government is working with international organizations, scientists and local communities to restore the country’s lost mangroves.
Funding freeze threatens global reforestation and restoration efforts
- The sudden halt in U.S. foreign aid has left reforestation and forest restoration projects around the world scrambling for alternative resources, jeopardizing years of progress.
- Without consistent funding, ongoing projects face the threat of scaling back or shutting down entirely, potentially impacting, in the long-term, both the environment and the communities that rely on these initiatives for their livelihoods.
- According to Mongabay’s research, the funding freeze has affected the operations of many nature-based projects worldwide, particularly in biodiversity hotspots and some of the world’s poorest regions.
- Despite the challenges, affected organizations are working tirelessly to diversify their funding sources and fill the gaps left by the U.S. government, including launching online campaigns to request donations and calling the international community to step up.
Indonesia’s peatlands face growing flood risks amid widespread degradation
- Nearly half of Indonesia’s peatlands are vulnerable to flooding due to degradation from exploitation, with 6 million hectares (15 million acres) — twice the size of Belgium — highly at risk.
- Peatland drainage, subsidence and fires have significantly reduced the water retention capacity of these carbon-rich ecosystems, leading to inland and coastal flooding, particularly in Sumatra and Borneo.
- Despite efforts to curb exploitation, industrial activities continue to degrade peatlands, with 33% of peat hydrological units overlapping with concessions for oil palms and pulpwood plantations.
- National and international policies, like the EU Deforestation Regulation, fail to fully address peatland degradation as a form of deforestation, prompting calls for stricter regulations and corporate accountability.
Critically endangered parakeets get a new home on New Zealand island
Conservation authorities and groups, along with Māori people, recently established a new population of the critically endangered kākāriki karaka, or orange-fronted parakeet, on a New Zealand island. Thirty-four kākāriki karaka (Cyanoramphus malherbi), raised in captivity, were released on the predator-free Pukenui, or Anchor Island, in the Fiordland National Park. The parakeet was once common across […]
How one woman’s wolf ‘moon shot’ changed Yellowstone forever: Interview with director Tom Winston
- A new documentary film, “Mollie’s Pack,” tells the story of the then-head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Mollie Beattie, and the controversial, but ultimately triumphant, restoration of wolves to Yellowstone National Park in 1995.
- The filmmakers were able to find and access lost footage to make a compelling and emotional film about success and loss.
- The restoration of wolves into Yellowstone was a “moon shot” moment, according to director Tom Winston.
- Winston says the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone will be “a motivating factor” for future rewilding initiatives around the world.
Collaboration, data and tracking move Africa’s Great Green Wall toward its goal
- After years of delays due to insufficient funding and prevailing conflicts, the Great Green Wall in the Sahel, aimed at preventing desertification, gained momentum with an accelerator program announced in 2021.
- As part of the accelerator, efforts are underway to address delays, improve monitoring progress of different projects that are part of the GGW initiative, track them by country, and evaluate their effectiveness, including building a new online database.
- GGW partners say they hope the harmonized monitoring and progress tracking can help sustain funding and realize the objectives of the ambitious initiative in the Sahel.
To benefit biodiversity & climate, restoring lost forests works best: Study
- A new study in Science indicates that reforestation projects, which restore degraded or destroyed forests, are the most effective land-based method for carbon removal and biodiversity protection.
- Meanwhile, the authors found that afforestation, in which trees are added where they didn’t exist before, and bioenergy cropping, in which carbon-removing crops are planted to make biofuels, can have negative effects on wildlife, outweighing the benefits of carbon removal.
- The research highlights the importance of identifying the best places for reforestation projects, but the authors emphasize that reforestation is not a replacement for fossil-fuel reduction.
Mangrove deforestation for commodities limits conservation funding in SE Asia
- Southeast Asia’s mangrove forests are still at risk of conversion for oil palm, rice and aquaculture, despite their immense potential for mitigating global biodiversity and climate goals.
- Commodity-driven deforestation and a range of climate change-related risks threaten the long-term survival of 85% of the region’s mangrove forests that could feasibly host carbon credit projects, a new study finds.
- The long-term risks undermine the integrity of blue carbon credits as a potential source of much-needed conservation funding, the study says, ultimately jeopardizing the capacity of mangroves to sequester carbon and provide ecosystem benefits.
- The authors recommend a diverse suite of conservation funding mechanisms rather than relying solely on blue carbon credits, and also urge greater investments in community-led mangrove initiatives.
An Ecuadorian hotspot shows how forests can claw back from destruction
- The Ecuadorian Chocó Forest is a little-known biodiversity hotspot, under immense pressure from deforestation.
- A joint German-Ecuadorian team is studying how this tropical forest ecosystem rebounds after clearing.
- The project, called the Reassembly Research Unit, is based out of a lab in the Jocotoco Foundation’s Canandé Reserve.
- The findings so far indicate that tropical forests have a remarkable capacity to heal, given suitable conditions. The findings can inform vital regeneration strategies.
Getting rewilding right with the reintroduction of small wildcats
- Four lynx were illegally released in Scotland earlier this year by an unknown party, sparking condemnation. One of the cats died shortly after capture. That release comes amid long-running discussions of a possible reintroduction of this wildcat to the United Kingdom.
- Conservationists are working to reintroduce small cats across the globe. There are about 40 recognized species of wildcats, including a handful of charismatic big cats and at least 33 small wildcat species — with some of the most threatened felid species numbering among them.
- Mongabay spoke to experts working on small cat recovery projects in various stages of progress to understand what can make small cat reintroductions successful.
- Small wildcat reintroductions are presently underway or under consideration on the Iberian Peninsula, in Scotland, Argentina, Taiwan, Brazil, South Africa, Thailand and elsewhere.
Protecting peatlands and mangroves could halve Southeast Asia’s land-use emissions
- Protecting and restoring peatlands and mangroves across Southeast Asia could cut regional land-use emissions by half, equivalent to 16% of global land-use emissions, according to a new study.
- It found that rewetting 5.34 million hectares (13.4 million acres) of drained peatlands, along with restoring degraded peat swamp forests and mangroves, could significantly enhance carbon sequestration, with Indonesia having the highest mitigation potential.
- Southeast Asia lost 41% of its peat swamp forests and 7.4% of its mangroves from 2001 to 2022, largely due to plantations and aquaculture, contributing 691.8 million metric tons of CO2 annually, with peatland burning alone accounting for up to 20% of emissions.
- The study underscores conservation and restoration as cost-effective climate solutions capable of drastically reducing national emissions, and calls on governments to integrate these efforts into their climate strategies to meet and enhance their Paris Agreement commitments.
In the high Andes, a dream to restore a special forest takes root
- In 2024, the United Nations recognized seven landmark projects worldwide as outstanding examples of success under its ongoing Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030).
- One of them was Acción Andina (Andean Action), an initiative that has launched 25 restoration and conservation projects focused on the high-altitude Polylepis forests of Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, Ecuador and Colombia.
- More than 25,000 people from 200 communities have restored nearly 5,000 hectares (12,400 acres) of these forest and protected more than 11,250 hectares (27,800 acres) of existing woodland.
- The initiative next aims to expand into Colombia and Venezuela.
Darfur’s women refugees lead reforestation of war-blighted Sudan–Chad borderland
- The Darfur conflict has caused a massive increase in tree cutting for charcoal and firewood, as lack of cooking gas forces families to rely on these resources.
- To mitigate this, in the Adré refugee camp in neighboring Chad, a small organization plants neem trees to restore vegetation, provide shade, and reduce tensions over access to firewood.
- The influx of displaced populations into camps like Adré strains fragile ecosystems: Overcrowding increases pressure on water resources and vegetation, leading to further desertification, soil erosion, and conflict over shared natural resources between refugees and host communities.
- Grassroots and U.N. initiatives, such as reforestation and the promotion of energy-efficient stoves, aim to mitigate the damage, but more funding is needed to scale up these efforts.
Study says land restoration worldwide can be funded with tiny fraction of global GDP
- A new study reveals that implementing global land restoration pledges across 115 nations would cost between $311 billion and $2.1 trillion, representing only 0.04-0.27% of annual global GDP over 10 years.
- The research analyzed 243 restoration projects worldwide, finding that costs vary significantly by method: from $185 per hectare ($75 per acre) for forest management, to more than $3,000 per hectare ($1,200 per acre) for silvopasture systems.
- While nearly half of all global restoration commitments are concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, this region would need to spend 3.7% of its annual GDP to fulfill its pledges, highlighting the need for international financial support.
- The study’s cost estimates focus primarily on direct implementation costs and exclude important factors like monitoring and opportunity costs, suggesting actual restoration expenses could be higher than projected.
Lessons from successful mangrove forest restoration in El Salvador (analysis)
- Mangrove forests are important coastal ecosystems worldwide, and many areas that have suffered loss of these trees are the focus of restoration projects, but these suffer from a 70% failure rate.
- Not only are they key habitats for numerous organisms from crabs to fish and birds, they also supply a wealth of seafood for local communities.
- That makes community involvement a key aspect of the Community-Based Ecological Mangrove Restoration (CBEMR) method, which focuses on improving local hydrology and topography while removing or reducing mangrove stressors, and encouraging the trees’ natural regeneration.
- This article is an analysis. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
In Uganda, a women-led reforestation initiative fights flooding, erosion
- Changing rainfall patterns have led to increasingly frequent flooding in western Uganda’s Kasese district, destroying farmers’ homes and fields.
- The damage is exacerbated by the loss of tree cover, as many trees have been cut down by locals for firewood.
- Janet Nyakairu Abwoli from Kasese organizes workshops to teach women how to plant and care for trees, particularly Dracaena and Ficus species.
- These native species can help prevent erosion of slopes and riverbanks, retain soil moisture, and provide fodder for small livestock and ingredients for traditional medicine.
Brazil’s ‘innovative’ reforestation agenda discussed in Davos (commentary)
- At the World Economic Forum 2025 in Davos this week, a coalition of leaders from across Brazilian sectors will discuss the integrated, pre-competitive agenda needed to scale forest restoration.
- Forest restoration is a key part of successful climate action, providing carbon removal, biodiversity protection and sustainable economic growth, but it requires immediate investment and action, the authors of a new op-ed write.
- Brazil’s coordinated approach across business, finance, and conservation sectors has resulted in approximately $528 million in restoration investments in the past 18 months, setting a global example for impactful forest restoration and climate action.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.
Ogoni women restore mangroves and livelihoods in oil-rich Niger Delta
- After decades of crude oil spills and the introduction of invasive plant species, thousands of hectares of mangroves in the Niger Delta are destroyed, impacting aquatic species and women’s livelihoods.
- Ogoni women from coastal villages, supported by the Lokiaka Community Development Centre, have been at the forefront of reforestation efforts.
- The women have planted 2.6 million mangrove trees since 2018, drawing attention from a government agency that hired them to share their knowledge and plant mangroves for its oil spill rehabilitation project.
- Around 300 women from Ogoni communities have been trained in mangrove reforestation.
After trial and error, Mexican fishers find key to reforesting a mangrove haven
- David Borbón and his community are working to restore mangroves in a fishing village within Mexico’s El Vizcaíno Biosphere Reserve, one of the country’s largest protected areas.
- The mangroves act as a natural barrier, protecting the coastal community and ecosystems from hurricanes and other severe weather.
- Borbón, who wasn’t formally educated in any science, conducted a series of experiments to find the best method to reforest the area’s declining mangrove forests and settled on a direct sowing technique that replicates natural patterns.
- With the support of his family and community, he has now planted more than 1.8 million mangroves and largely facilitate the recovery of the mangrove ecosystem.
A Bali farm lights up the night with a one-of-a-kind firefly lab
- Balinese conservationist Wayan Wardika joined with scientists and farmers in Indonesia to launch a firefly breeding program called the Bring Back The Light initiative.
- Fireflies in Southeast Asia are vanishing due to habitat loss, light pollution, pesticide use, and climate change.
- The team is now attempting to identify eight species of firefly it has found locally, and encouraging neighboring farmers to go organic in order to boost firefly numbers.
For ecological restoration, evidence-based standards deliver better outcomes (commentary)
- The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration has triggered a global movement to rally individual action, financial investment, and political backing to prevent, halt and reverse the loss of nature.
- Evidence-based standards can help meet restoration targets and improve general compliance with laws and regulations while delivering social, environmental and economic net gain for people and nature.
- “As we near the halfway point of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration [the] global application of effective restoration through the use of standards provides a path forward that can help slow climate change and recover ecosystem processes and biodiversity for the future of life on Earth,” a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily Mongabay.
How are mangrove restoration projects doing? Interview with Tom Worthington
- A new tool aims to help managers of mangrove restoration projects track their progress and measure final outcomes against initial goals.
- The Mangrove Restoration Tracker Tool was developed by the University of Cambridge, WWF and the Global Mangrove Alliance in a bid to streamline global data on mangrove restoration projects around the world.
- Mangroves are crucial ecosystems that serve as carbon sinks and act as a buffer against coastal erosion; however, they’re threatened by deforestation as well as by the impacts of global warming.
How a holistic approach aims to heal mangroves in Guinea-Bissau
- Though small, Guinea-Bissau has sizable amounts of mangroves, which cover 9% of this West African country.
- Farmers clear patches of mangroves to grow rice, but climate change and socio-economic shifts mean that many hectares of former rice fields lie abandoned, and could be restored.
- Wetlands International is using an approach called Community-based Ecological Mangrove Restoration (CBEMR) to regenerate abandoned rice fields in and around Cacheu and Cantanhez national parks; 2,600 hectares have been restored to date.
- Community involvement is a cornerstone of the approach, and the project also supports income generation and educational activities.
Huge deforested areas in the tropics could regenerate naturally, study finds
- A new study shows that 215 million hectares (531 million acres) of degraded and deforested land in the tropics could regenerate naturally.
- The researchers developed a model based on satellite images of where forest had regrown, using machine learning to filter out places where humans had planted trees.
- The analysis also incorporated a range of biophysical variables, such as rainfall, fire frequency, and the distance from the edge of standing forest.
- While natural regeneration could be cost-effective, scientists also say the permanence of regrown forests is critically important to the benefits it can provide to biodiversity and the climate.
Defending the hidden forest gems of Zambia’s Copperbelt Province
- A local community has taken over protecting and managing patches of small evergreen forests, known as mushitu forests, that have recently been subject to illegal logging.
- Forest officers armed with smartphones are going up against the loggers while also enforcing community-driven prohibitions against overuse by locals.
- During times of severe drought, like this year, the forest is a lifeline to villages within the Ndubeni Chiefdom, whose members depend on it not just for water, but for food and medicine.
- The forest has enormous cultural and historical significance, and protecting it is key to protecting the community’s cultural history.
Brazil’s native seed collector networks drive wider social change, study finds
Brazil’s native seed collector networks supply hundreds of tons of seeds critical to forest restoration across the country’s many ecosystems. From the Amazon’s lush rainforests in the north to the shrinking Atlantic Forest along the coast, the networks are a lifeline not only for degraded landscapes, but also for the people on the frontlines, a […]
Thailand’s budding mangrove restoration plans spark both hope and concern
- Mangrove restoration projects based on mass tree planting have often proved unsuccessful due to a focus on quantity rather than carefully selecting planting sites or prioritizing long-term social and ecological gains.
- Thailand’s state-led and corporate-funded restoration approaches have typically followed this unsustainable model, prompting critics to call for more ecological and community-based approaches that place more emphasis on natural regeneration.
- Several new national initiatives aim to improve mangrove management in Thailand: A collaborative public-private program called the Thailand Mangrove Alliance aims to bring 30% of Thailand’s mangroves under effective management by 2030.
- However, a new carbon credits initiative that aims to link coastal communities with corporate partners has drawn widespread skepticism from environmental groups, who warn the scheme could effectively transform public forests into corporate lands.
Coastal farmers in Bangladesh give up shrimp farming for agriculture to combat salinity
- The decades-long shrimp aquaculture on Bangladesh’s southwest coast, which negatively impacts the environment in many ways, including creating a freshwater crisis, is now losing its importance as the farmers are gradually inclining toward agriculture again.
- Increased salinity, both due to sea-level rise and diversion of the upstream flow of freshwater, and peer pressure had forced the coastal farmers to venture into shrimp cultivation about four decades ago.
- For the last couple of years, excessive salinity and repeated viral outbreaks in shrimp farms have pushed the farmers back to agro-based farming again.
- Crop diversification plays a positive role in addressing the changes; however, water shortage poses a big challenge in restoring agriculture.
In Mexico, Totonac spiritual guides work with scientists to revive ecosystems
- Abuelos de Tajín, spiritual guides from Totonac communities in Mexico, say people are losing their traditional beliefs and ancestral knowledge as their connection with a fast-degrading environment rupture.
- Totonac spirituality is strongly connected to the surrounding ecosystem: Losing biodiversity can precipitate the decline of traditional beliefs, and this loss of traditional spirituality further ruptures values and duties to protect the ecosystem.
- To assess and tackle the state of biodiversity loss and contamination in their environment, the spiritual guides are working with researchers from the National Autonomous University of Mexico City. Preliminary results show the deforestation rate increased by 44.4% from 1986 to 2023 in one region.
- Spiritual guides are trying to restore and “renovate” their rituals, spirituality and community identity as a way to strengthen their connection to their environment, conserve it and live abundant lives.
Lab-grown corals resisted bleaching during Caribbean’s worst marine heat wave
- In 2023, the Caribbean Sea experienced unprecedented heat: Beginning in March, sea surface temperatures throughout the region ranged from 1°-3°C (1.8°-5.4°F) warmer than normal.
- This unprecedented heat brought the worst coral bleaching event in the Caribbean’s recorded history, bleaching 60-100% of some reefs, and killing many patches.
- A new study found that certain species of coral propagated in the lab and then outplanted to restore reefs in five countries showed few signs of bleaching despite the prolonged marine heat wave, faring better than wild corals or corals propagated from fragments.
Why I quit the film industry to work on ecological restoration (commentary)
- John Liu set up a CBS News bureau in China during the 1980s, where he was witness to rising pollution levels caused by rapid industrialization across the country.
- The rapid diminishment of China’s landscape at the time struck him deeply and he decided that restoration was key to reclaiming lands and livelihoods for people, both there and globally, and so he left journalism to promote it worldwide.
- “We should recognize what true wealth is. This isn’t just an environmental imperative; it’s a moral one. We must ensure our planet remains vibrant and life-supporting for generations to come,” he argues in this op-ed for Mongabay.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.
As Malawi government struggles to protect a forest, communities show the way
- In Malawi’s Zomba Forest Reserve, a community that once destroyed the forest has become its custodian, protecting a source of streams, which provide water for them to irrigate crops.
- The Department of Forestry, the lead government agency in forest protection in Malawi, is struggling to stem the tide of deforestation on its side of the reserve due to lack of resources.
- Malawi is suffering massive deforestation, with Global Forest Watch figures estimating that the country has lost quarter of a million hectares (617,000 acres) of forest cover between 2001 and 2023.
- Government officials and experts say engagement with communities offers opportunities for effective forest management.
How coastal communities are adapting to sea level rise with ‘living shorelines’
Along the U.S. East Coast, communities are adapting to sea level rise with a promising approach called “living shorelines.” These projects bolster shorelines against stronger storms and higher tides with native plantings and natural materials like driftwood and even holiday trees. Maine Geological Survey coastal geologist Peter Slovinsky joins the Mongabay Newscast to describe several […]
In the Sundarbans, women are embracing mangrove restoration as an alternative livelihood
- The vast Sundarbans mangrove forests along the southern coast of Bangladesh act as a shield and protect the coastal people and their livelihoods from tropical cyclones and tidal surges.
- In the last couple of years, the number of mangroves in the zone has increased as the government and some NGOs have introduced programs to plant mangrove trees on the coastal embankments as protection measures.
- Women from coastal villages, who know the ecosystem well, have been at the forefront of these reforestation projects and have also become entrepreneurial with mangrove forest resources.
- The involvement of local women and cooperative societies in mangrove restoration and conservation prompts a sense of ownership and agency among mangrove-dependent communities.
Climate change could return a stolen lake to Indigenous people, a century later
- Semá:th Xhotsa, or Sumas Lake, in Canada was the center of First Nations’ food system and culture, before European colonists drained it in 1924 to create farmland.
- Almost 100 years later, catastrophic flooding threatens to refill the lake and displace the farmers.
- First Nations people and university researchers have proposed restoring the lake ecosystem to adapt to climate change-driven flooding, and as a method of reparation, but the local government is pushing back.
Birdsong rings out once again in Togo’s sacred forest of Titiyo
- Logging for firewood, charcoal and timber for construction almost wiped out the sacred forest of Titiyo in northern Togo.
- The degradation of the forest had a major impact on wildlife and the surrounding population.
- But since 2015, Sylvain Tchoou Akati, a native of the area, has led the restoration of this forest, and is today bringing his model of community-led conservation to other areas.
Protecting Nigeria one child & one tree at a time: Interview with Doyinsola Ogunye
- Nigeria’s Doyinsola Ogunye is known across Africa for her work to help children and women build more sustainable futures; the environmental advocate founded the Mental and Environmental Development Initiative for Children (MEDIC) as well as the Recycling Scheme for Women and Youth Empowerment (RESWAYE).
- She says partnerships with corporations and the ability to scale are important in helping the initiatives grow.
- Many of her initiatives center on activities with children and schools — from cleaning up beaches to planting trees — and now, many of the children she initially worked with have entered university and they have carried their experiences into adult life.
- Doyinsola Ogunye recently talked with Mongabay about her work in the face of some of the biggest environmental challenges in Lagos.
Thai tiger numbers swell as prey populations stabilize in western forests
- Camera-trapping data revealed in a new study show a steady recovery of tigers in Thailand’s Western Forest Complex over the past two decades.
- The tiger recovery has been mirrored by a simultaneous increase in the numbers of the tigers’ prey animals, such as sambar deer and types of wild cattle.
- The authors attribute the recovery of the tigers and their prey to long-term efforts to strengthen systematic ranger patrols to control poaching as well as efforts to restore key habitats and water sources.
- Experts say the lessons learnt can be applied to support tiger recovery in other parts of Thailand and underscore the importance of the core WEFCOM population as a vital source of tigers repopulating adjacent landscapes.
Harnessing ‘invisible forests in plain view’ to reforest the world
- Australian agronomist Tony Rinaudo’s reforestation project in Niger was failing, with 80% of his planted saplings dying, until he stumbled upon a simple solution in plain sight: stumps of previously cut trees trying desperately to regrow in the dry, deforested landscape.
- Rinaudo realized that the degraded land contained numerous such stumps with intact root systems capable of regenerating themselves, plus millions of tree seeds hidden in the soil, which farmers could simply encourage to grow and reforest the landscape, something he refers to as “an invisible forest in plain view.”
- Today, the technique of letting trees resprout and protecting their growth from livestock and wildlife is called farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) and is responsible for reforesting 6 million hectares (15 million acres) in Niger alone.
- Rinaudo joins Mongabay’s podcast to speak with Rachel Donald about his journey implementing this technique and its massive potential to help tackle biodiversity loss and food insecurity through resilient agroforestry systems.
New approach to restore coral reefs on mass scale kicks off in Hawai‘i
- ʻĀkoʻakoʻa is a recently launched program aiming to restore a 193-kilometer (120-mile) stretch of coral reef along the west coast of Hawai‘i Island — one of the first to attempt restoration at a large scale.
- The project will identify individual corals with high thermal tolerance and other high-performance traits, then use them to breed genetically resilient coral larvae for release onto the reefs during natural spawning periods.
- ʻĀkoʻakoʻa is working with partners to reduce other stressors to the reefs, which can help corals be more resilient to rising sea temperatures, and drawing on Hawaiian traditional values of environmental stewardship.
- If successful, the project could provide knowledge for how to restore ailing reefs around the world suffering from an onslaught of human-driven thermal stress.
Zambian forest reserve rebounds with a little assistance
- Conservationists and farmers have restored large parts of a forest reserve in Zambia in just four years through natural regeneration.
- The Katanino Forest Reserve had lost more than 58% of its forest cover by 2019, when dozens of families living inside it and cutting trees to make charcoal were finally evicted by state officials.
- A restoration project launched that same year by conservation group WeForest and local partners has used assisted natural regeneration, a light-touch forest restoration method, to grow back more than 500 hectares (1,240 acres) of the reserve’s tree cover.
- The success is tempered by continued tree losses on farms outside the reserve, though WeForest is working to promote alternative livelihoods there that encourage farmers to protect trees on their land.
Beekeeping helps villagers tend coastal forests in Thai mangrove hotspot
- Community-led approaches to mangrove restoration are increasingly recognized as more effective than many state- or market-driven initiatives in terms of both ecological and economic outcomes.
- Nestled within southern Thailand’s mangrove-rich but fast-developing Phang Nga Bay, the village of Ban Nai Nang has developed a mangrove conservation model based on beekeeping.
- By rearing colonies of native honey bees and stingless bees that are important pollinators of local mangrove trees, the villagers earn money from honey sales, which in turn fund their community mangrove conservation efforts.
- Since they began their beekeeping and conservation activities, they’ve observed signs of rejuvenation in their local mangrove forests and are now helping neighboring villages to follow their conservation model through training and mentorship.
Large birds can boost forest carbon storage — if deforestation doesn’t interfere
- A new study shows large fruit-eating birds in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest can contribute to a 38% increase in carbon storage by regenerating tropical forest.
- Species such as the toco toucan, dusky-legged guan and curl-crested jay help transport fruit seeds to degraded areas.
- The larger the bird, the larger the seed and, consequently, the greater the biomass of the tree that grows from it — thus the greater the carbon sequestration potential.
- To ensure effective seed dispersal, however, forest fragments must not be too far apart, which is more difficult in highly fragmented areas, such as the Atlantic Forest and deforested parts of the Amazon.
Ancient farming system and campesino livelihoods at risk in Mexico City
- In the south of Mexico City lies a complex lake and canal system dotted with raised agricultural fields known as chinampas, which have been cultivated by campesino farmers ever since the Aztec Empire.
- Chinampa culture is under threat in part due to environmental problems caused by urbanization, the overexploitation of water resources, irregular settlements and unregulated tourism.
- Over the years, greater numbers of the chinampas’ farmers, known as chinamperos, have left the fields to work in the city, an issue that has led to the abandonment of 16,000 chinampas, according to researchers.
- Those who remain face several challenges, such as water contamination and drought, with little government support.
Water is key as study shows restoration of drained tropical peat is possible
- Rewetting of tropical peatland that was drained for agriculture can lead to the recovery of the native ecosystem, a long-term study of a former pulpwood plantation in Indonesia shows.
- Researchers studying the 4,800-hectare (11,900-acre) plot that was retired in 2015 by Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) found the water table had risen, soil carbon emissions had gone down, and native trees were springing up and replacing the planted acacia pulpwoods.
- They attributed these outcomes to APP’s efforts to rewet the peat by blocking the canals previously dug to drain the waterlogged soil.
- The findings suggest that “several million” hectares of peatlands in similar condition can be restored this way, “should plantation owners aim to restore forest in parts or all of their peatlands.”
A Brazilian city restores its mangroves to protect against climate change
- A broad coalition of organizations is working to conserve and restore mangroves in the Greater Florianópolis area on Brazil’s southern Atlantic coast.
- Mangroves are critical tropical ecosystems that dampen coastal erosion, serve as nurseries for aquatic species, and store more carbon per hectare than terrestrial forests.
- These properties make mangroves a key part of coastal cities’ strategies to mitigate climate change and adapt to its consequences, such as rising sea levels.
Scientists and farmers restore Aztec-era floating farms that house axolotls
- In 1987, UNESCO declared the Xochimilco wetland area in southern Mexico City a World Heritage Site, recognizing in particular its chinampas, an ancient agricultural system in use since the time of the Aztecs.
- In the past few decades, Xochimilco’s levels of production and of biodiversity have shifted: people have changed the purpose of many chinampas, and the population of axolotl salamanders, an iconic species endemic to the area, has decreased drastically.
- Scientists from the Ecological Restoration Laboratory at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and farmers from the area are promoting a comprehensive restoration program to conserve this group of chinampas and all the living things that depend on it.
Indigenous people and NGO grow a wildlife corridor in the world’s oldest rainforest
- Environmental charity Climate Force is collaborating with the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people and rangers to create a wildlife corridor that runs between two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Australia: the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef.
- Wildlife habitats in this region have become fragmented due to industrial agriculture, and a forested corridor is expected to help protect biodiversity by allowing animals to forage for food and connect different populations for mating and migration.
- The project aims to plant 360,000 trees over an area of 213 hectares (526 acres); so far, it has planted 25,000 trees of 180 species on the land and in the nursery, which can also feed a range of native wildlife.
- The project is ambitious and organizers say they’re hopeful about it, but challenges remain, including soil regeneration and ensuring the planted trees aren’t killed off by feral pigs or flooding.
Floods set to worsen on Sumatra peat as landscape gives way
- A major flood at the turn of the year in Indonesia’s Riau province caused long-term traffic gridlock affecting thousands, with attendant knock-on effects for economic activity in the region.
- One of Riau’s leading experts on peat hydrology told Mongabay that deterioration of the province’s carbon-rich peatland increases risks of disastrous flooding owing to reduced drainage, among other factors.
- Indonesia’s peatland restoration agency said it had worked to rehabilitate 223,258 hectares (551,683 acres) of peat in Riau by end-2023, although large areas requiring urgent restoration work can’t be accessed because they’re located in private plantation concessions.
U.S. East Coast adopts ‘living shorelines’ approach to keep rising seas at bay
- Along the U.S. East Coast, communities are grappling with the dual destructive forces of rising sea levels and stronger storms pushed by climate change, resulting in effects ranging from ‘ghost forests’ of saltwater-killed coastal trees in the Carolinas, to inundations of New York City’s subway system.
- While the usual response has been to build higher seawalls and other concrete or rock structures, a natural approach that aims to protect coastal areas with natural assets that also create habitat and are generally cheaper and less carbon intensive — ‘living shorelines’ — is increasingly taking hold.
- State agencies and landowners alike are shoring up the shore with innovative combinations of locally sourced logs, rocks and native plants and shrubs to protect homes, dunes and beaches.
- In Maine, where a trio of powerful winter storms recently pummeled the coast, living shorelines designers are in growing demand.
Indonesian capital project finally gets guidelines to avoid harm to biodiversity
- Beset by criticism over its environmental and social impacts, the controversial project of building Indonesia’s new capital city in the Bornean jungle has finally come out with guidelines for biodiversity management.
- The country’s president has hailed the Nusantara project as a “green forest city,” but just 16% of its total area is currently intact rainforest.
- The new biodiversity master plan outlines a four-point mitigation policy of avoiding harm, minimizing any inevitable impacts, restoring damaged landscapes, and compensating for residual impacts.
- The master plan considered input from experts, but several didn’t make it into the final document, including a call for the mitigation policy to extend to a wider area beyond the Nusantara site.
‘Planting water, eating Caatinga & irrigating with the sun’: Interview with agroecologist Tião Alves
- In an interview with Mongabay, Brazilian agroecologist Tião Alves tells how he has been teaching thousands of rural workers to survive in the Caatinga biome, severely afflicted by drought, climate change and desertification.
- At the head of Serta, one of the most important agroecology schools in the Brazilian Northeast, he teaches low-cost technologies that ensure food security with a minimum of resources, both natural and financial.
- Currently, 13% of the Caatinga is already in the process of desertification, the result of a combination of deforestation, inadequate irrigation, extreme droughts and changes in the global climate.
Reforestation and restoration: Two ways to make the Pan Amazon greener
- Mongabay is publishing a new edition of the book, “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon,” in short installments and in three languages: Spanish, English and Portuguese.
- Efforts to save agroforestry zones require long-term patience and heavy investment, but ensure that plantations sequester up to 20% of the carbon stored in a natural forest, and even more carbon can be retained through natural habitat restoration.
- Killeen explains that tropical areas need to retain around 70% of their canopy cover to maintain the atmospheric recycling that sustains historical rainfall levels. In the southern Amazon, this would need to be applied to 15 million hectares with an investment of between $20 and $100 billion.
- For the author, these issues are all the more urgent as the threat of climate change is accelerating the Pan-Amazonian region to an irreversible tipping point. Are carbon markets providing incentives that ‘reward’ conservation in the Pan-Amazonian region?
Culture and conservation thrive as Great Lakes tribes bring back native wild rice
- Wild rice or manoomin is an ecologically important and culturally revered wetland species native to the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, which once covered thousands of acres and was a staple for Indigenous peoples.
- Over the past two centuries, indiscriminate logging, dam building, mining, and industrial pollution have decimated the wild rice beds, and today climate change and irregular weather patterns threaten the species’ future.
- In recent years, native tribes and First Nations, working with federal and state agencies, scientists and funding initiatives, have led wild rice restoration programs that have successfully revived the species in parts of the region and paved the way for education and outreach.
- Experts say more research and investments must be directed towards wild rice, and such initiatives need the support of all stakeholders to bring back the plant.
Rewilding Ireland: Healing from a history of deforestation, one tree at a time
- Eoghan Daltun has spent the past 14 years successfully rewilding 29 hectares (73 acres) of farmland on the Beara Peninsula in southwestern Ireland.
- Ireland is one of the most ecologically denuded countries in the world, only possessing about 11% forest cover but on this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, co-host Rachel Donald speaks with Daltun about how he came to accomplish his rewilding feat simply by letting nature take its course and erecting a good fence, which has rapidly led to the regeneration of native forest, wildflowers and fauna.
- They also discuss the historical drivers of ecological devastation that have led to the classic, tree-less Irish landscape, from ancient times to imperial colonization and the advent of modern farming, and what the potential of rewilding is to change that and boost biodiversity.
Indonesia to offer tax perks to companies investing in reforestation of its new capital city
- The Indonesian government is appealing to the private sector for investors to help transform 82,891 hectares (204,800 acres) of barren lands around the new capital of Nusantara into tropical rainforests.
- Mining companies that are required to rehabilitate their concessions after their permits have expired will be able to count reforestation in the capital region toward their quota.
- In addition, the government is offering significant tax deductions to companies that invest in rehabilitating degraded lands.
- East Kalimantan, once covered in tropical forests and home to charismatic species and vast regions of biodiversity, is the country’s most intensely mined province with 7 million hectares (17.3 million acres) of coal mining concessions.
What principles should define natural climate solutions? A new study has some answers
- The increased popularity of natural climate solutions (NCS), which aim to protect and restore natural ecosystems to address climate change, has resulted in misunderstandings and confusion around what constitutes such a solution.
- Researchers distill five foundational principles of natural climate solutions and 15 operational principles to guide their implementation; among others, the principles include equity, emphasizing the need for practitioners to respect human rights and self-determination of Indigenous peoples.
- Researchers argue that natural climate solutions that adhere to these principles are durable and effective in tackling climate change in the long run, resulting in widespread adoption.
- While experts agree that the outlined principles reduce confusion and spur climate action, they call for tightening the definitions of some principles to strengthen the proposed framework.
UN award for Nepal’s tiger range restoration spurs euphoria amid challenges
- Nepal’s Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) initiative, aimed at restoring ecosystems and creating space for tigers, receives global recognition from the U.N. as one of seven World Restoration Flagships.
- Launched in 2004, the TAL initiative restored 66,800 hectares (165,000 acres) of forest and significantly increased the Bengal tiger population in the region.
- The U.N. recognition opens doors for technical and financial support to restore an additional 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres) in both Nepal and India, but overcoming challenges like infrastructure expansion and human-wildlife conflict remains critical for long-term sustainability.
Mini rainforest project aims to serve as Kalimantan reforestation blueprint
- The government, researchers and companies are combining forces to build a miniature tropical rainforest in Kalimantan, hoping it will serve as a blueprint for the reforestation of barren lands in the region of Indonesia’s planned new capital, Nusantara.
- Tree species of different heights – tall, low and understory – will create layers of vegetation in a reforestation method that hasn’t been used in Indonesia before; the program is the first of its kind to reintroduce tropical rainforest into a degraded ecosystem in Indonesia.
- The project, involving Mulawarman University and three companies — Danone, PT Indo Tambangraya Megah (ITM) and PT Multi Harapan Utama (MHU) — will cover 96 hectares (237 acres) some 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) away from the government’s core area of the new capital.
Reforestation of Indonesia’s new capital city stumped by haphazard planting
- Less than a tenth of the reforestation target for Indonesia’s new capital city, Nusantara, has been achieved to date, planners say.
- The main obstacles that experts have identified include a preference for nonnative tree species, poor planting practices and monitoring, and a general misapplication of reforestation principles.
- Officials have acknowledged that progress is off-target, but note that the government is joined by the private sector and NGOs in carrying out tree-planting efforts.
- They also say a master plan is in the works to better guide these efforts, as Indonesia prepares to inaugurate its “green forest city” later this year.
Study: Indonesia’s new capital city threatens stable proboscis monkey population
- A recent study warns that the ongoing construction of Indonesia’s new capital city on the island of Borneo could destabilize the population of endangered proboscis monkeys currently thriving in the area.
- President Joko Widodo has characterized the development as green and with a minimal environmental impact, but concerns have arisen over the potential threat to the nearby Balikpapan Bay mangrove ecosystem that’s home to proboscis monkeys and other threatened wildlife.
- Scientists have advocated for sustainable development practices and emphasized the importance of respecting local biodiversity while constructing the new city, Nusantara.
- Their recommendations include legal protection for affected areas, habitat restoration, and collaboration with local stakeholders to mitigate the environmental impact.
Pakistan bucks global trend with 30-year mangrove expansion
- Around the world, mangrove forests have undergone a decades-long decline that is just now slowing to a halt.
- In Pakistan, by contrast, mangroves expanded nearly threefold between 1986 and 2020, according to a 2022 analysis of satellite data.
- Experts attribute this success to massive mangrove planting and conservation, as well as concerted community engagement.
- Many in Pakistan are looking to mangroves to bolster precious fish stocks and defend against the mounting effects of climate change — even as threats to mangroves, such as wood harvesting and camel grazing, continue with no end in sight.
In Brazil’s Caatinga, adapted agroforests are producing food from dry lands
- In northeastern Brazil, the model known as Agrocaatinga has proven to be the most productive and effective in increasing food security for families, generating income and preserving native vegetation.
- Previously degraded lands now produce around 50 types of food, thanks to the combination of an agroforestry system with rainwater harvesting techniques.
- Agrocaatingas emerged from the commercial demand for wild passion fruit, a native fruit that today yields up to $600 per harvest for families — four times the local per capita monthly income.
In Brazil’s Caatinga, these families excel in farming productivity
UAUÁ, Bahia, Brazil — In northeastern Brazil, the innovative Agrocaatinga model is revolutionizing food security, income generation, and native vegetation preservation. This sustainable approach combines agroforestry with rainwater harvesting techniques, revitalizing previously degraded lands to produce over 50 different food types. Originating from the growing commercial demand for wild passion fruit, this model enables families […]
Nature-based recovery needed for Ukraine’s damaged protected areas (analysis)
- A group of ecologists has published the first interim analysis of the impacts of Russia’s invasion on Ukraine’s protected areas, which has been an environmental disaster.
- Conservationists and international policy makers must reckon with the damages from this invasion and support Ukraine in a nature-positive post-war recovery.
- This article is an analysis. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Protecting the Brazilian Caatinga from desertification
UAUÁ, Bahia, Brazil — In northern Bahia, 35 communities have united to protect and restore nearly 100,000 acres of the unique Caatinga dry forest in northeastern Brazil. Through the Recaatingamento project, families are learning essential skills to conserve native vegetation, manage goat overpopulation, and explore sustainable income sources, such as foraging for wild fruits. The […]
Wild by nature: Ecological restoration brings humanity and biodiversity together
- Ecological restoration is “an attempt to design nature with non-human collaborators” in response to the biodiversity crisis.
- The very idea that nature is something outside of society often hampers practical solutions, and is an impediment to restoring ecosystems, Laura Martin, associate professor of environmental studies at Williams College, argues in this episode of the Mongabay Newscast.
- In this podcast conversation, co-host Rachel Donald speaks with Martin about the shift in mindset required to tackle biodiversity loss that centers on a restorative approach that’s human-inclusive and mobilizes public participation rather than exclusion.
A community-led strategy to save Brazil’s dry forests from desertification
- In northern Bahia state, 35 communities have come together to conserve and recover close to 100,000 acres of Caatinga dry forest in northeastern Brazil.
- With the Recaatingamento project, families learn to preserve native vegetation, control the overpopulation of goats, and invest in sustainable sources of income, such as gathering wild fruits.
- Affected by recurrent droughts, the Caatinga is one of the regions most susceptible to climate change in the world; it’s also Brazil’s third-most deforested biome, which contributes to accelerating desertification — 13% of the soil there is already sterile.
Japanese butterfly conservation takes flight when integrated with human communities
- A brilliant blue butterfly species has been declining in Japan as the grassland-mimicking agricultural landscapes its host plant relies on fade, due to urban migration, the ageing of the population, and the nation importing food from abroad.
- The key lies in preserving this traditional landscape called satoyama, a mosaic of various ecosystems like grasslands, woodlands and human uses such as farms and rice fields.
- Researchers with the University of Tokyo have teamed up with the town of Iijima in Nagano prefecture and a local agricultural cooperative to maintain this mixed landscape while reintroducing populations of the butterfly, whose population has grown.
- Though it seems counterintuitive, there are many successful global projects connected via the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative, which prevent human-dominated landscapes from reverting naturally to ecosystem types like forests that rare species aren’t adapted to.
A Brazilian NGO restores widely degraded Atlantic Forest amid mining threats
- Iracambi is a Brazilian NGO in the Serra do Brigadeiro mountain range, located in the heart of the Atlantic Forest, a biome largely destroyed by rampant deforestation.
- Leveraging partnerships with local schools and communities, Iracambi hopes to replant 1 million native trees by 2030 and restore the lost Atlantic Forest; 250,000 trees have already been planted.
- The Serra do Brigadeiro region has the second-largest reserve of bauxite in Brazil, attracting mining interests to the region.
- Relentless activism swayed a prospecting mining company to invest in important social development projects in the region, but activists remain concerned about the possible impacts mining will have on the environment and small producers’ livelihoods.
NGO restores the Atlantic Forest amid mining threats in Brazil
MINAS GERAIS, Brazil — Serra do Brigadeiro State Park in Minas Gerais, Brazil, is not only a stunning natural haven but also home to Iracambi, a dedicated NGO focused on conservation and environmental education within the Atlantic Forest biome. This vital area has faced significant destruction due to deforestation, making Iracambi’s work even more crucial. […]
Keeping herbivores at bay helps in early stages of restoration, studies show
- Excluding herbivores from restoration areas may lead to an increase in both vegetation abundance and plant diversity, according to a new analysis.
- The global-scale analysis, which reviewed hundreds of studies, found that herbivores tend to be more common in areas undergoing restoration and can slow down vegetation recovery.
- While native herbivores play a crucial role in healthy ecosystems, researchers argue it may be beneficial to keep them from entering heavily degraded areas in the early stages of restoration.
- The impact of herbivores on restoration varies, and project managers should consider timing and local conditions when deciding whether to exclude, tolerate, or introduce herbivores.
Forest restoration to boost biomass doesn’t have to sacrifice tree diversity
- Restoring degraded forests to boost biodiversity, store carbon and reconnect fragmented habitats is a burgeoning area of tropical forest conservation.
- But uncertainty remains around the long-term impacts of various restoration approaches on forest biodiversity and functioning, with experts suggesting, for instance, that overly focusing on biomass accumulation for climate mitigation can come at the expense of species diversity.
- A new study in Malaysian Borneo has found that actively restoring logged forest plots with a diversity of native timber species, coupled with management of competitive vegetation, actually boosted adult tree diversity after nearly two decades compared to plots left to regenerate naturally.
- While the results add to a growing body of evidence that active restoration can lead to biodiversity gains, the authors caution that restoration approaches must be conducted in ecologically sensitive ways to avoid unintended outcomes.
How scientists and a community are bringing a Bornean river corridor back to life
- Decades of deforestation to make way for oil palm monoculture have transformed the Kinabatangan River floodplain in east Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, dividing wildlife populations and confining many of the region’s most iconic species to small fragments of forest that cling on along the river.
- Local communities and conservation initiatives are working together to restore and reconnect pockets of remaining habitat along the river to preserve the vital wildlife corridor, but restoration in the unpredictable and often-waterlogged floodplain is notoriously difficult.
- One such initiative, Regrow Borneo, is facing the challenge by leveraging the expertise of scientists and local knowledge of community members who have been planting forests along the Kinabatangan for decades.
- They say that by focusing their approach on a model that benefits both people and wildlife, they hope their program inspires others to shift away from simply planting numbers of trees toward restoring forests where they’re most needed, including in areas that present challenging conditions.
Jamaica battles relentless plastic pollution in quest to restore mangroves
- In recent decades, mangroves in Jamaica have declined rapidly, from about 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) in the 1970s to about 9,945 hectares (24,574 acres) now.
- Currently there are several efforts to restore mangroves in the island country, as experts recognize the many ecosystem services they provide, including the protection and stabilization of coastlines as human-induced climate change worsens.
- However, restoration efforts face numerous challenges: Near Kingston, the main one is voluminous tides of plastic waste, which can stunt mangrove growth or kill them.
As U.S. insurers stop covering prescribed burns, states and communities step up
- Prescribed fires are a positive land management method, but when the flames occasionally escape control, the resulting damage to land and private property also hurts this conservation tool’s reputation.
- U.S. insurance companies are thus charging increasingly unaffordable premiums for coverage of this activity or are dropping the service altogether in the wake of some particularly large recent accidents.
- As a result, many small conservation groups and private businesses are getting out of the habit of using fire to improve grassland health, boost wildlife habitat, and decrease likelihood of catastrophic wildfires.
- California is bridging this gap with a new state program that insures the activity, while prescribed fire associations, where residents and firefighters cooperate to carry out burns on private land, are increasingly popping up in communities.
Burn now, pay later: Fines trickle in from Indonesia’s crackdown on forest fires
- Ten years since a landmark lawsuit over forest fires, the palm oil company at the center of the case has finally begun paying its $23 million fine in installments.
- The case against PT Kallista Alam (KA) was supposed to set an example for how the government is cracking down on companies that allow burning in their concessions, but has instead highlighted the difficulty of collecting on the fines.
- KA has paid just $3.6 million of its total fine, and despite a 2021 regulation barring fine payments in installments, the company has been allowed to stagger its payments over time.
- The company is one of 22 sued by the government since 2013 for fires; 14 of these have been found liable and ordered to pay a combined 5.6 trillion rupiah ($353 million), but only one has paid in full.
A mobile solution for Kenyan pastoralists’ livestock is a plus for wildlife, too
- The use of mobile bomas, or corrals, to keep livestock safe from predators has shown a wide range of benefits for both pastoral communities and wildlife in Kenya’s Maasai Mara.
- The bomas reduce the risk of disease and predation among livestock, while allowing for the regeneration of degraded grazing land, which in turn draws in more wild herbivores to the area.
- The increased wildlife presence has led to a rise in wildlife tourism, valued at $7.5 million annually in the 2,400-hectare (6,000-acre) Enonkishu Conservancy.
- Observers warn of potential downsides, however, including food insecurity as community members abandon farming in favor of more lucrative tourism work, and a rise in human-wildlife conflict as the area’s wildlife population grows.
Community forest association helps hold the line to protect Mount Kenya forest
- The volunteer members of the Chehe Community Forest Association are playing an active role in protecting forests on the southwestern slopes of Mount Kenya.
- Despite this, 20% of the Afromontane forests in this region have been lost to fire, illegal logging and invasive species over the past 20 years.
- The forest association’s chair says some local residents continue to encroach on forest reserves in the area — and that enforcement could be stronger.
Report alleges APP continues deforestation 10 years after pledge to stop
- A new Greenpeace report alleges that pulp and paper giant APP continues to clear forests and develop peatlands 10 years after adopting its landmark 2013 pledge to stop destroying natural forests for its plantations.
- The report identifies 75,000 hectares (185,300 acres) of deforestation in APP supplier concessions or companies connected to APP between February 2013 and 2022 — an area the size of New York City.
- APP has also changed the start date of its no-deforestation policy from 2013 to 2020, which would allow the company at some point in the future to accept new suppliers that deforested between 2013 and 2020.
- APP denies allegations of continued deforestation and says its suppliers have ceased forest conversions since 2013; the company also says it has committed to peatland restoration.
O.K. Coral: Outlaw fisher turns reef marshal in Indonesia’s Sumbawa
- Former dynamite fisher Amiruddin has ceased using destructive fishing practices and become a marine conservationist in his native Sumbawa.
- In 2010, Amiruddin was arrested and almost died while using poison to kill fish off Sumbawa’s west coast.
- Today he has installed lattices to support coral growth in the islands where he fished with explosives and poison in his youth.
Indigenous seed collectors grow a network of restoration across Brazil
- Nearly 150 Indigenous seed collectors from the Amazonian Bioeconomic Seed Network, the first of its kind in the state of Rondônia, traveled to neighboring Mato Grosso state to meet with Brazil’s oldest network of seed collectors, the Xingu Seed Network.
- In the absence of a government-led program, exchanges like these between existing grassroots groups have been the best way to help newer networks gain expertise and consolidate themselves as organizations, with technical training and management strategies.
- 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.
- Brazil’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change says it hopes to implement a national plan of action this year aimed at filling the gaps in the restoration chain, by expanding forest cover, incentivizing certain sectors of the economy, and developing financial mechanisms.
Brazil’s Indigenous communities turn to native beekeeping to recover nature
- Indigenous territories located in different Brazilian biomes — the Amazon, the Cerrado and the Atlantic Forest — are hosting beekeeping projects aimed at both generating an income and restoring local ecosystems.
- The community projects show how these efforts, associated with agroecological food production, can improve quality of life, especially in the face of climate change impacts.
- The movement began four years ago with a crowdfunding campaign to establish beekeeping in the Amazon, and today includes 53 traditional communities involved in native beekeeping across the country.
Restoring degraded forests may be key for climate, study says
- Scientists have found that focusing on restoring degraded forests, which cover more than 1.5 billion hectares (3.7 billion acres) globally, can enhance forest carbon stocks more efficiently than replanting in deforested areas, with natural regrowth being a cost-effective method.
- In Central America’s “Five Great Forests,” there’s a goal to restore 500,000 hectares (1.2 million acres) by 2030. The study identified 9.8 million hectares (24.2 billion acres) as top restoration priorities, with 91% being degraded forests.
- Restoring just 5% of these priority zones was calculated to potentially sequester 113 million tons of CO2, equivalent to taking more than 20 million cars off the road for a year.
- The research emphasizes the importance of involving local communities in restoration planning and suggests that current forest management practices, like those in the timber industry, need to adapt for more sustainable outcomes.
99% of Caatinga biome could lose plant species due to climate change: Study
- An unprecedented study analyzed 420,000 occurrence records for 3,060 Caatinga plant species and concluded that 99% of the plant communities there are expected to lose species by 2060.
- Even though the species in the biome are theoretically adapted to extreme climates, researchers found that the Caatinga is much more vulnerable to climate changes than previously believed.
- Protecting the more sensitive areas and restoring landscape vegetation connectivity is crucial for the resilience of Caatinga ecosystems; the biome is one of Brazil’s least protected, as less than 9% of its area lies within Conservation Units.
Cut down once again: Uncontrolled logging puts new Sahel reforestation projects at risk
- Reforestation projects to restore degraded lands in Chad and Cameroon, like the “Great Green Wall” and the “Reforestation 1400” projects, are facing increasing pressure from logging activity.
- Facing poverty, war and corrupt local authorities, locals and refugees are cutting trees in new protected areas for firewood or to sell charcoal.
- Local environmental defence organizations, officials and administrations who lead these reforestation projects are raising the alarm about the extent of deforestation which is contributing to desertification in these areas.
- Despite alternative solutions to excessive logging being proposed and implemented, locals are still harvesting from reforested areas.
Ken Burns discusses heartbreak & hope of ‘The American Buffalo,’ his new documentary
- Mongabay’s Liz Kimbrough spoke with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns about his upcoming documentary, “The American Buffalo,” which premieres in mid-October.
- The buffalo was nearly driven to extinction in the late 1800s, with the population declining from more than 30 million to less than 1,000, devastating Native American tribes who depended on the buffalo as their main source of food, shelter, clothing and more.
- The film explores both the tragic near-extinction of the buffalo as well as the story of how conservation efforts brought the species back from the brink.
- Burns sees lessons in the buffalo’s story for current conservation efforts, as we face climate change and a new era of mass extinction.
Forest restoration can fare better with human helping hand, study shows
- A two-decade-old experiment in the tropical rainforest of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, is beginning to reveal that human-assisted restoration of logged forests can increase the speed of an ecosystem’s recovery.
- The researchers also found that planting a diverse suite of seedlings, instead of only one species, led in just one decade to greater biomass and forest complexity.
- The study provides more weight to the argument that greater forest species diversity in general — and specifically for restorations — delivers more ecosystem services, possibly including carbon sequestration.
- However, there is the possibility that the particular life cycle of the type of trees used in this study — hardwood tropical species from the Dipterocarpaceae family, chiefly found in Southeast Asia — could have especially enhanced diversity in this case.
A Philippines NGO project aimed to protect villages from typhoons: What went wrong?
- Concepcion is a low-income fishing town in the central Philippines’ Iloilo province where Super Typhoon Haiyan, locally known as Yolanda, made its fifth landfall nearly a decade ago, destroying houses and fishing boats.
- In 2015, the U.S.-based nonprofit Conservation International (CI) introduced so-called green-gray infrastructure to enhance the climate resilience of five Concepcion villages, employing a combination of nature-based and engineering solutions.
- A little more than a year after the project ended, a Mongabay visit to Concepcion found most project components degraded or destroyed, leaving residents with little more protection than they had when Yolanda devastated their communities in 2013.
- A CI official acknowledged the project’s challenges, expressing an organizational commitment to learn from the experience and attempt to secure new funding to sustain the initiative.
NASA satellites reveal restoration power of beavers
- A new partnership between NASA and researchers is measuring the impact of beavers reintroduced to landscapes in Idaho.
- Beavers are one of the world’s most powerful ecosystem engineers, building new habitats by slowing water flow and reducing flooding, while also boosting biodiversity.
- Beavers are all the more important in an age of rapid climate change, as they produce wetter and more resilient habitats, even in the face of wildfires.
- “NASA is interested in how satellite Earth observations can be used for natural resource management,” a member of the space agency’s Ecological Conservation Program tells Mongabay.
Study finds old pear trees make for surprisingly rich reef habitats
- In a new study, researchers used old pear trees to create artificial reefs and settled them in the Wadden Sea in the Netherlands to see what kinds of marine biodiversity aggregated on or around them.
- They found that the tree reefs attracted a surprising amount of biodiversity over a short period of time, including sessile organisms like barnacles and mobile species like fish and crabs.
- The authors say tree reefs can be replicated in other parts of the world, mainly temperate regions.
Mongabay Explains: How high-tech tools are used for successful reforestation
- This Mongabay Explains’ episode is part of a four-part Mongabay mini-series that examines the latest technological solutions to help tree-planting projects achieve scale and long-term efficiency.
- Using these innovative approaches could be vital for meeting international targets to repair degraded ecosystems, sequester carbon, and restore biodiversity.
- Advanced computer modeling, machine learning, drones, niche models using data, robotics and other technologies are helping to restore hundreds of millions of hectares of lost and degraded forest worldwide.
Conservationists work to restore last remnant of a once-great Ugandan forest
- Earlier this year, conservation group Nature Uganda launched a forest restoration project aimed at restoring degraded areas and reducing illegal harvesting of forest products in Mabira Central Forest Reserve.
- A remnant of a much larger forest ecosystem, Mabira is home to 300 bird species, 23 reptile species, and 360 different species of plants.
- A community forest management scheme has successfully engaged nearby communities in self-regulating use of forest resources, but delays in renewing the scheme threaten that progress.
- “When we enter these agreements,” says one community leader, “we promote the sense of ownership so that we can share the roles of making the forest available and managing it sustainably.”
Communities not the true threat to Mabira Forest: Q&A with Ugandan conservationist Achilles Byaruhanga
- Mabira is a surviving fragment of lowland forest that’s now an important refuge for a diverse range of animals and plants in central Uganda.
- The NGO Nature Uganda, led by Achilles Byaruhanga, is working with communities and government agencies to preserve and restore degraded sections of the forest reserve.
- Having seen off a government plan to clear a third of the forest to grow sugarcane, Byaruhanga says community use of Mabira is not necessarily a threat.
- By supporting alternative income activities that replace commercial harvesting of firewood and other forest products for sale in nearby Kampala, and helping local communities reduce their own demand for wood, Byaruhanga says the forest can be preserved.
From debt to diversity: A journey of rewilding, carbon capture and hope
- Rewilding has transformed an English estate from a debt-ridden, conventional farm to a profitable haven of biodiversity.
- A study also shows that the rewilded farmland at Knepp absorbs more carbon dioxide than conventional farms, providing hope for climate change mitigation and soil restoration.
- The U.K. is transitioning to a new environmental land management framework offering incentives for practices that restore soil health and biodiversity, but private investment is still needed to bridge the funding gap.
- Nature restoration investment mechanisms to attract private investment are being developed using Knepp data and government funding.
Study shows how to maximize mangroves as climate and community solution
- Mangroves’ high carbon storage capacity can help countries meet their carbon emission reduction targets under the Paris Agreement, while also producing benefits for local communities.
- Recent research using data from Belize has quantified mangrove carbon storage and sequestration potential and identified where the country should prioritize conservation and restoration to maximize ecosystem services that would benefit multiple sectors.
- The research has been used by Belizean authorities to update national climate targets, committing to protect an extra 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres) of mangroves and restore another 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) by 2030, which could provide an example for other national blue carbon strategies.
- The study also took into account the point where mangrove protection and restoration begin to offer diminishing returns, which would allow authorities to adjust the ambition of climate mitigation and adaptation via mangroves.
Progress is slow on Africa’s Great Green Wall, but some bright spots bloom
- Africa’s ambitious Great Green Wall, a mosaic of reforestation efforts to stop desertification, has been plagued by delays and challenges.
- Some reforestation efforts, however, have tasted success, becoming a model for many to follow.
- Experts suggest moving away from viewing the initiative as merely a tree-planting exercise and instead seeing it as a holistic, participatory approach that involves local communities and helps them build their livelihoods and incomes.
- Challenges still abound, however, including a volatile security situation, lack of water, coordination challenges, and scattered long-term monitoring of reforested patches.
Nursing oil palm plantations back to nature in Malaysian Borneo
- The Rhino and Forest Fund (RFF), a conservation NGO, is working to create wildlife corridors in eastern Sabah, in Malaysian Borneo, by reforesting land converted for oil palm plantations — a strategy that includes purchasing land legally being farmed.
- RFF works closely with the Sabah government, and reports that rare species are already making use of the developing corridor, including Bornean elephants, orangutans, sun bears and clouded leopards.
- However, raising funds to buy oil palm plantations has proven challenging, with many funders more focused on preserving intact forests or shying away from any involvement with the oil palm industry.
- Unable to rely on piecemeal donations, RFF is looking for other sources of revenue, including a plan to harvest and sell oil palm fruit while restoration gets underway.
Green gains: Localized efforts leave a mark, notably in drier areas, study shows
- Spurts of green spread across the African continent taken together accounted for over 400,000 square kilometers (154,000 square miles) of greening, an area the size of Zimbabwe.
- According to researchers, it’s important to distinguish how much of this greening is due to human efforts and how results much from broader climatic shifts.
- The team compared greening trends in target plots with neighboring plots; the latter, they hypothesized, would reflect changes in vegetation driven by broader climatic trends.
- Despite these advances, satellite imagery-based monitoring of vegetation growth can be a blunt instrument, especially where the data don’t capture differences in the greening, like those arising from agricultural expansion or reforestation.
New Tree Tech: Real-time, long-term, high-tech reforestation monitoring
- This four-part Mongabay mini-series examines the latest technological solutions to help tree-planting projects achieve scale and long-term efficiency. Using these innovative approaches could be vital for meeting international targets to repair degraded ecosystems, sequester carbon, and restore biodiversity.
- Many people see reforestation as a quick fix to the climate emergency, but tree-planting projects often fail to put in place the monitoring programs needed to track newly planted forests. Traditionally, forest monitoring has been done by hand, one tree at a time, which is extremely expensive and time-consuming.
- Satellites are mapping and remapping the entire planet daily, providing real-time data that can be used to monitor forests remotely. Drones can fly over or through forests to collect data on tree growth, bridging the gap between on-site measurements and distant satellites.
- Sensors can be installed to monitor individual trees directly, while people can collect and analyze the data electronically from a safer and easier-to-access location. Multiple sensors can form a distributed network that returns detailed information on the growth of each tree within huge reforestation plots.
New Tree Tech: Cutting-edge drones give reforestation a helping hand
- This four-part Mongabay mini-series examines the latest technological solutions to help tree-planting projects achieve scale and long-term efficiency. Using these innovative approaches could be vital for meeting international targets to repair degraded ecosystems, sequester carbon, and restore biodiversity.
- Restoring hundreds of millions of hectares of lost and degraded forest worldwide will require a gigantic effort, a challenge made doubly hard by the fact that many sites are inaccessible by road, stopping manual replanting projects in their tracks.
- Manual planting is labor-intensive and slow. Drone seeding uses the latest in robotic technology to deliver seeds directly to where they’re needed. Drones can drop seeds along a predefined route, working together in a “swarm” to complete the task with a single human supervisor overseeing the process.
- Drone-dropped seed success rates are lower than for manually planted seedlings, but biotech solutions are helping. Specially designed pods encase the seeds in a tailored mix of nutrients to help them thrive. Drones are tech-intensive, and still available mostly in industrialized countries, but could one day help reseed forests worldwide.
New Tree Tech: Data-driven reforestation methods match trees to habitats
- This four-part Mongabay mini-series examines the latest technological solutions to help tree-planting projects achieve scale and long-term efficiency. Using these innovative approaches could be vital for meeting international targets to repair degraded ecosystems, sequester carbon, and restore biodiversity.
- To create healthy, diverse ecosystems, native tree species need to be identified that will thrive at each unique site within a habitat. But with more than 70,000 tree species worldwide, gathering and analyzing the data needed to understand species’ needs, habitat preferences and limitations is no small feat.
- Environmental niche models use data on climate, soil conditions and other characteristics within a species’ range to calculate a tree’s requirements. Artificial intelligence helps sort through vast data sets to make informed predictions about the species suited to an ecosystem, now and in a warmer future.
- Biotechnology company Spades uses laboratory testing of tissue samples from plant species to quantify what growing conditions a species can tolerate and to identify its optimum growing conditions.
New Tree Tech: AI, drones, satellites and sensors give reforestation a boost
- This four-part Mongabay mini-series examines the latest technological solutions to help tree-planting projects achieve scale and long-term efficiency. Using these innovative approaches could be vital for meeting international targets to repair degraded ecosystems, sequester carbon, and restore biodiversity.
- Current forest restoration efforts fall far short of international goals, and behind the hype lies a string of failed projects and unintended environmental consequences that have left a bad taste in the mouths of many investors, politicians and conservationists. Projects are often expensive and labor-intensive.
- Applying cutting-edge technology to the problem is helping: Advanced computer modeling and machine learning can aid tree-planting initiatives in identifying a diverse set of native species best able to thrive in unique local conditions, today and in a warming future.
- Drones are revolutionizing large-scale tree planting, especially in remote and inaccessible locations. Once trees are planted, satellite-based and on-site sensors can help monitor young forests — offering long-term scrutiny and protection often missing from traditional reforestation initiatives, and at a lower cost.
Nearly 85% of Indonesian peatlands aren’t protected, study shows
- This article has been withdrawn from publication by Mongabay.
Fire imperils Madagascar’s baobabs: Q&A with park director Diamondra Andriambololona
- Kirindy Mite forest is a unique ecosystem that is home to three of Madagascar’s six endemic species of baobab trees.
- The forest is facing increasing anthropogenic pressure, especially from bushfires.
- Mongabay spoke with Diamondra Andriambololona, the director of Kirindy Mite National Park in southwestern Madagascar and the nearby Andranomena Special Reserve, about how the increase in fires is affecting the region’s unique forest and what is being done to reduce them.
- “The pressures on the forest will continue to increase as long as the people remain poor,” says Andriambololona.
Sounds of the soil: A new tool for conservation?
- Researchers are discovering that listening to the soil can be a way to understand biodiversity belowground without having to overturn every bit of the land.
- Studies have shown that soils of restored forest areas have both more complex sounds and more critters than soils of degraded sites.
- Soils of intensively managed agricultural lands, also appear to be quieter, indicating that soil sounds could be a proxy for soil health.
- Some researchers are also using sounds to identify distinct species in the soil, which could open up lots of possibilities for both pest management and wildlife conservation.
What’s in store for Colombia’s forests? New modeling tries to predict.
- In an attempt to chart some outcomes for the future of Colombia’s forests, the Food, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Land-Use, and Energy (FABLE) consortium looked at three different directions the country could take with its current policies.
- One was more passive, while the others were more hands-on and creative. All of them relied on evolving agriculture, forestry and bioenergy trends, represented by a model known as GLOBIOM-Colombia.
- Overall, FABLE found that the country will need a more consistent and innovative approach to deforestation to meet many of its conservation goals.
Indonesia to expand ‘smart fisheries’ program aimed at empowering communities
- Indonesia will expand its smart fisheries village program, aiming to empower fishing communities to boost their productivity, achieve sustainability standards, and improve their overall economic welfare.
- Twenty-two fishing communities are enrolled in the initial batch of the program, which will focus primarily on fisheries, but also look to improve community welfare through tourism, public health interventions, financial literacy, and other initiatives.
- The participating communities are involved in catching or farming a wide range of seafood and other products, from octopus and tilapia to shrimp and organic salt.
- The fisheries sector employs about 12 million Indonesians, with most of the fleet today, about 650,000 vessels, operated by small-scale and traditional fishers.
Miyawaki forests are a global sensation, but not everyone’s sold on them
- The Miyawaki method is an afforestation technique for cultivating fast-growing groves of native plants, with the dense, mixed planting intended to simulate the layers of a natural forest.
- Originally developed by Japanese ecologist Akira Miyawaki in the early 1970s for Nippon Steel, the method has been adopted by various Japanese corporations, which planted Miyawaki forests both domestically and overseas.
- Although the popularity of Miyawaki forests has skyrocketed in India, some ecological restoration practitioners question the method’s applicability to the country’s diverse ecological environments.
Volunteers, First Nations work to bring back a disappearing oak prairie
- The rain-shadow regions of North America’s Pacific Northwest, stretching from British Columbia to Oregon, are home to a unique carbon-rich oak-prairie ecosystem dominated by Garry oaks and several species of grasses and shrubs, including endemic plants.
- The ecosystem also holds a special significance in the way of life for the Indigenous peoples in the region, who have stewarded it for millennia and depended on it for food.
- In the past few centuries, however, rapid urbanization, agricultural expansion, development along the coast and proliferation of invasive plants have destroyed more than 95% of the ecosystem, pushing it toward near-extinction.
- Communities, partnering with different national and regional agencies, First Nations and nonprofits, are working to restore and preserve the remnants using various strategies, many of which have borne fruit.
Science and culture join forces to restore 120 miles of Hawaiian reefs
- A new program in Hawai‘i, known as Ākoʻakoʻa, will focus on restoring 193 kilometers (120 miles) of coral reefs off the west of the Big Island, which have been in
decline for the past 50 years.
- A key aspect of the program will be the building of a new research and coral propagation facility in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island.
- While the program will be largely science-driven, it will also rely on the traditional knowledge of community leaders and cultural practitioners.
Africa’s land and forest restoration initiative gathers pace in Malawi
- In 2015, African countries launched the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100), committing to restore 100 million hectares (250 million acres) of degraded forests and landscapes by 2030.
- A June 2022 progress report on the initiative showed that nations had put 917,014 hectares (2.27 million acres) under restoration between 2016 and 2021, 63% of that as agroforestry.
- Malawi, which has committed to restoring 4.5 million hectares (11.1 million acres) by 2030, is seen to be making progress with a raft of frameworks formulated to support the initiative and more partners joining the cause, building on some previous interventions.
- Experts insist there needs to be decisive action to tackle deforestation, which they say is a significant threat to the restoration initiatives in Malawi.
Award-winning community group in Sumatra cleans up lake
- A group of locals have since 2013 tried to clean up the trash pooling in Lake Sipin in the Sumatran province of Jambi.
- Their efforts have received national attention, with their leader, Leni Haini, awarded the country’s highest environmental award in 2022 by the government.
- Indonesia has announced a plan to restore 15 lakes (Sipin isn’t included) across the country by 2024, citing their high degree of degradation, chiefly sedimentation, which has resulted in their rapid shrinking and a decline in the biodiversity they host.
- These lakes are crucial in supporting the livelihoods of millions of Indonesians, serving as a source of freshwater, a form of flood control, and a site for fish-farming and tourism.
Extreme reforestation: Baobab planters confront fires, loggers, cattle and more
- In Madagascar, the August-to-December bushfire season wreaks havoc on the southwest and west of the island.
- Dry Forest, a young Malagasy NGO, is attempting an extreme form of reforestation to save the forest in Kirindy Mite National Park.
- In addition to the bushfires, the NGO faces many other challenges linked to local poverty.
Peatlands, Indonesia’s carbon trove, are mostly unprotected, study finds
- A new study finds that less than 16% of Indonesia’s peatlands in need of conservation measures are currently protected.
- The remainder, covering a combined area nearly twice the size of Belgium, are located outside of protected areas.
- This indicates that current conservation and restoration efforts aren’t sufficient and need to be increased, researchers say.
- They offer their study as a tool for policymakers to precisely identify peat areas where different types of interventions should be prioritized.
Nearly 30% of all tree cover in Africa may be outside of forests, study says
- A team at the University of Copenhagen has generated a map of tree cover in 45 African countries down to individual tree crowns by feeding high-resolution satellite imagery into a machine-learning model.
- The analysis showed that nearly 30% of the continent’s tree cover lies outside what are traditionally considered forest areas in land-cover maps.
- For nine countries, trees outside forests account for around half their tree cover: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Libya, Mali, Namibia, Niger, Mauritania and Sudan.
- Such high-resolution tree-cover data could lead to more precise carbon stock assessments and better monitoring of land-use changes.
Don’t destroy Earth on the way to Mars (commentary)
- SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s drive for humanity to become a “multi-planetary species” comes with great irony if this very activity accelerates degradation of the Earth.
- Last month’s “rapid unscheduled disassembly” of a SpaceX rocket rained debris and possibly other toxics on a rich estuary adjacent to the launch pad on the Gulf of Mexico.
- “We cannot destroy our most special places on Earth in our heady rush to Mars,” a new op-ed argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Studies show oyster reef restoration can work out well — given enough time
- Researchers have found that the restoration of eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) reefs in the U.S. have been largely successful, improving oyster production, enhancing habitat, and increasing nitrogen cycling.
- They also found that oyster restoration was more successful in deeper, saltier parts of coastal waters and that it generally took at least eight years for restored reefs to yield long-term benefits.
- But since the 1800s, more than 85% of global reefs have disappeared due to overfishing, disease and other anthropogenic pressures.
- Researchers say their findings can help restoration managers identify which ecosystem services can benefit from their work, how long those benefits might take to accrue, where to construct oyster reefs.
New research finds slow forest recovery in the Andes — and ways to improve
- New research led by the University of Oxford could help governments better prioritize restoration and conservation interventions across the tropical Andes.
- The study evaluated how mountain forests in the region recovered over a 15-year period, identifying four possible recovery trajectories, ranging from natural to arrested.
- Andean tropical mountain forests are some of the world’s most biodiverse forests, but so far studies on how these ecosystems bounce back after disruption have been limited; researchers estimate that restoration is stalling in 73% of the area studied.
- Between 2001 and 2014, about 5 million hectares (about 12.3 million acres) of woody vegetation has been cleared in the tropical and subtropical Andes, altering mountain forests and their ecosystem services.
Seabird conservation mostly works, comprehensive new data set shows
- Researchers compiled a data set of seabird restoration projects, including those that used translocation and social attraction, from around the world.
- Ornithologist Stephen Kress pioneered translocation and social attraction, but these methods have been used more than 850 times in the last 70 years — mostly to great success.
- Experts say seabirds are one of the most threatened bird groups in the world, and translocation and social attraction can help protect them against threats like invasive species and the impacts of climate change.
World’s ‘largest’ tropical reforestation project slowed by Covid, Bolsonaro, fires
- In 2017, Conservation International launched what was dubbed the “largest tropical forest restoration in the world” and slated for the Brazilian Amazon. Despite a goal of completing the project by the end of this year, CI is less than 20% of the way there.
- According to project managers, the initiative has been slowed by two main factors: the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2019-2022 presidency of Jair Bolsonaro.
- But fire, once a rarity in the Amazon, has also played a role, destroying 2,700 hectares (nearly 6,700 acres) of restoration areas in 2021 alone.
- Still, the initiative is moving ahead across the “arc of deforestation,” with organizers hoping to prove it’s possible to restore the rapidly receding southern edge of the Brazilian Amazon before a large part of the rainforest biome hits a tipping point and changes over to savanna — releasing huge amounts of carbon to the atmosphere.
Madagascar bush fires prompt exasperated NGO to curtail tree planting
- Graine de Vie, a Belgian NGO present in Madagascar since 2009, claims to be the leading reforestation organization in the country.
- Weary of repeated bush fires and an alleged lack of government action, the NGO announced in January that it would reduce its activities by a third.
- The announcement followed the catastrophic loss of thousands of freshly planted saplings to a bush fire.
Saving forests to protect coastal ecosystems: Japan sets historic example
- For hundreds of years, the island nation of Japan has seen various examples of efforts to conserve its coastal ecosystems, vital to its fisheries.
- An 1897 law created protection forests to conserve a variety of ecosystem services. “Fish forests,” one type of protection forest, conserve watershed woodlands and offer benefits to coastal fisheries, including shade, soil erosion reduction, and the provision of nutrients.
- Beginning in the late 1980s, fishers across Japan started planting trees in coastal watersheds that feed into their fishing grounds, helping launch the nation’s environmental movement. Although the fishers felt from experience that healthy forests contribute to healthy seas, science for many years offered little evidence.
- New research using environmental DNA metabarcoding analysis confirms that greater forest cover in Japan’s watersheds contributes to a greater number of vulnerable coastal fish species. Lessons learned via Japan’s protection and fish forests could benefit nations the world over as the environmental crisis deepens.
Counterintuitive conservation: Fire boosts aquatic crustaceans in U.S. savannas
- In an interesting twist, two kinds of rare American freshwater crustaceans have been found to thrive after prescribed burns in their habitats.
- Populations of vernal pool fairy shrimp in Oregon and several species of threatened crayfish on the Gulf Coast increased after the removal of invasive plants, woody shrubs and trees from their habitats using fire or mechanical means.
- Fairy shrimp populations were shown to increase more than fivefold following habitat treatments that featured fire, while speckled burrowing crayfish also responded positively following fires set to favor nesting of sandhill cranes (whose own population has soared since).
- Both areas are savanna ecosystems that have relied on frequent fires over millennia — whether naturally occurring or intentionally set by Indigenous peoples — to maintain the open habitats to which myriad organisms have adapted.
From scarcity to abundance: The secret of the ‘peace farmers’ of Colombia
- During the 1990s, in Colombia’s Meta region, paramilitaries and guerrilla groups fought a bloody civil war. A main driver of conflict was the struggle for land. Wealthy elites, resisting popular demands for land reform, took violent control of large areas to breed cattle and grow cash crops for export.
- Meanwhile, a peasant university in Meta, established against the backdrop of the civil war, taught the rural population a different way of farming: offering up skills for living in peace with each other and in harmony with nature. Farmer and agronomist Roberto Rodríguez led the way.
- More than 7,000 students from all over Colombia have taken classes at La Cosmopolitana Foundation and spread its philosophy of sustainable, diversified agriculture, even influencing Amazon Indigenous groups. Nearly 200,000 people globally have witnessed La Cosmopolitana’s work in person.
- Several foundation graduates now live in the town of Lejanías, in a rural community they’ve transformed into Colombia’s “capital of abundance.” Here, farmers grow sustainably, sell locally made goods at a weekly organic market, and offer popular ecotours and accommodations at their farms.
Could biodiversity be a key to better forest carbon storage in Europe?
- A new project is reintroducing key species into Europe’s forests to help restore natural balance and boost the ability of woodlands to store carbon. But there are concerns that unless such reintroductions are made on a much wider, landscape scale, they will have little positive impact in a region so dominated by humans.
- Others argue that the best way to improve Europe’s carbon storage potential is via heavy forest management, even going so far as to clear-cut some older stands and replace them with fast-growing new forests to encourage rapid carbon uptake, and using thinnings from timber operations to burn as biomass to make energy.
- This heavy management approach has raised deep concerns within the scientific community. Many researchers say this method ignores the growing body of evidence that plantation forest monocultures are not only bad for biodiversity and store less carbon, but also increase the risk of spreading devastating diseases.
- A middle ground could see more natural management of some forests where timber is harvested, while other woodland areas are left undisturbed, with a mixture of tree species, deadwood allowed to rot where it falls, and native animals reintroduced to help restore a natural balance and healthy ecosystems.
In Brazil, scientists fight an uphill battle to restore the disappearing Cerrado savanna
- Countries around the world have made ambitious targets to restore native ecosystems as an important nature-based solution, with Brazil committing to restoring 12 million hectares (30 million acres) of native vegetation by 2030.
- While restoration in places like the Amazon has attracted significant funding and resources, non-forested biomes like Brazil’s Cerrado savanna are struggling to attract the same resources, even as it faces some of the highest deforestation rates in years.
- Researchers working on Cerrado restoration are trying to change this, fighting an uphill battle to generate knowledge, strengthen expertise, and scale up restoration.
- But without more resources and focus on national and international policies, they warn that restoration efforts in the Cerrado won’t come close to reaching their targets.
Reconnecting ‘island habitat’ with wild corridors in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest
- This three-part Mongabay mini-series examines grassroots forest restoration projects carried out within isolated island ecosystems — whether those islands are surrounded by ocean as on the Big Island of Hawai‘i, or cloud forest mountaintop habitat encircled by lowlands in Costa Rica, or forest patches hemmed in by human development in Brazil.
- Reforestation of degraded island habitat is a first step toward restoring biodiversity made rare by isolation, and to mitigating climate threats. Though limited in size, island habitats can be prime candidates for reforestation because extinctions are typically much higher on isolated habitat islands than in more extensive ecosystems.
- Scientists mostly agree that the larger the forest island habitat, the greater its biodiversity, and the more resilient that forest system will be against climate change. Forests also store more carbon than degraded lands, and add moisture to soil and the atmosphere as a hedge against warming-intensified drought.
- The projects featured in this series are small in size, but if scaled up could become big forest nature-based climate solutions. In this third story, the NGO Saving Nature works to create wild corridors to reconnect fragmented patches of Brazil’s Atlantic Forest.
Mountain islands: Restoring a transitional cloud forest in Costa Rica
- This three-part Mongabay mini-series examines grassroots forest restoration projects carried out within isolated island ecosystems — whether those islands are surrounded by ocean as on the Big Island of Hawai‘i, or cloud forest mountaintop habitat encircled by lowlands in Costa Rica, or forest patches hemmed in by human development in Brazil.
- Reforestation of degraded island habitat is a first step toward restoring biodiversity made rare by isolation, and to mitigating climate threats. Though limited in size, island habitats can be prime candidates for reforestation because extinctions are typically much higher on isolated habitat islands than in more extensive ecosystems.
- Scientists mostly agree that the larger the forest island habitat, and greater its biodiversity, and the more resilient that forest system will be against climate change. Forests also store more carbon than degraded agricultural lands, and add moisture to soil and the atmosphere as a hedge against global warming-intensified drought.
- The projects featured in this series are small in size, but if scaled up could become big forest nature-based climate solutions. In this second story, two tourists vacationing in Costa Rica and stunned by the deforestation they see, buy degraded land next to Chirripó National Park and restore a transitional cloud forest.
From ukuleles to reforestation: Regrowing a tropical forest in Hawai‘i
- This three-part Mongabay mini-series examines grassroots forest restoration projects carried out within isolated island ecosystems — whether those islands are surrounded by water as on the Big Island of Hawai‘i, or cloud forest mountaintop habitat encircled by lowlands in Costa Rica, or forest patches hemmed in by human development in Brazil.
- Reforestation of degraded island habitat is a first step toward restoring biodiversity made rare by isolation, and to mitigating climate threats. Though limited in size, island habitats can be prime candidates for reforestation because extinctions are typically much higher on isolated habitat islands than in more extensive ecosystems.
- Scientists mostly agree that the larger the forest island habitat, the greater its biodiversity, and the more resilient that forest system will be against climate change. Forests also store more carbon than degraded agricultural lands, and add moisture to soils and the atmosphere as a hedge against global warming-intensified drought.
- The projects featured in this series are small in size, but if scaled up could become big forest nature-based climate solutions. In this first story, two ukulele makers strive to save Hawai‘i’s koa tree, found nowhere else in the world. In the process they restore a biodiverse tropical forest on the slopes of the Big Island’s Mauna Loa volcano.
Loss of wetlands threatens South Sumatra’s rich fish-preserving tradition
- Rural communities in South Sumatra, an Indonesian province that’s two-fifths wetlands, have long relied on catching freshwater fish as a source of livelihood.
- The region is renowned for its variety of preserved fish products, which are sold throughout Indonesia.
- However, the wetlands are disappearing at a rapid rate, filled in to make way for oil palm plantations and highways, and threatening the region’s long-running fish-preserving tradition.
- Today, most of the freshwater fish processed here comes from fish farms, and include exotic species not native to the region, which some say doesn’t taste as good as the traditional species.
Restoration turns pastures into wildlife haven in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest
- After centuries of intensive deforestation, experts say fragmentation and degradation are worse in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest than in the Amazon.
- Experts say restoration can complement primary forest conservation by helping to reconnect fragments of original forest and to bring back lost biodiversity.
- The nonprofit Guapiaçu Ecological Reserve conserves 12,000 hectares (29,652 acres) of Atlantic Forest in the Guapiaçu River Basin, protecting both the environment and the water supply of 2.5 million people.
- In two decades, the nonprofit has planted 750,000 trees, seen a return of hundreds of birds, and reintroduced the lowland tapir (Tapirus terrestris) to Rio de Janeiro for the first time in 100 years.
Treacherous pits and lakes left in the wake of Cameroon’s abandoned mining sites
- Inactive mining sites in Cameroon are continuously abandoned without restoration by foreign companies, leaving behind huge pits in the ground that later form into artificial lakes which endanger local populations and damage ecosystems.
- In January, a 13-year-old boy drowned in one of these lakes near Yaoundé, left behind by the quarry company Transatlantique Cameroon Ltd, a subsidiary of the Chinese consortium Cameroon Meilan Construction Conglomerate (CMCC).
- In 2021 and 2022, the Cameroonian NGO Forests and Rural Development (FODER) identified more than 700 mining pits in Cameroon, including 139 which had become artificial lakes, claiming the lives of more than 200 people.
- Cameroonian legislation obligates mining companies to refill mining pits after their operations. Despite this, the law is not being adhered to or enforced.
Peatland restoration in temperate nations could be carbon storage bonanza
- Much maligned and undervalued over the centuries, temperate peatlands have seen a lot damage in that time — drained for agriculture, planted with trees, mined for horticulture and fuel. But in an age of escalating climate change, people are now turning to restoration.
- As potent carbon sequesters, peatlands have only recently been given new attention, with active restoration taking place in many nations around the world. This story focuses on groundbreaking temperate peatland restoration efforts in the U.S. Southeast, Scotland and Canada.
- Every temperate peatland is different, making each restoration project unique, but the goal is almost always the same: restore the natural hydrology of the peatland so it can maximize carbon storage and native biodiversity, and improve its resilience in the face of climate change and increasingly common fires in a warming world.
Saving Masungi, a last green corridor of the Philippines: Q&A with Ann Dumaliang
- The Masungi Georeserve is an important geological region about 30 miles from Manila, within a watershed and conservation area that is home to more than 400 species of flora and fauna, several of which are rare and threatened.
- Ann Dumaliang is a co-founder of the foundation that manages conservation and geotourism in the reserve, which is threatened by illegal quarrying, logging and development.
- Masungi’s rangers have faced violent attacks in recent months, but Dumaliang, her family and colleagues are working with numerous organizations and individuals to reforest and preserve the area.
Restore linked habitat to protect tropical amphibians from disease: Study
- Amphibians across the tropics are facing a global decline, with disease caused by the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) playing an especially significant role in losses.
- According to recent research, “habitat split” — when different types of habitat, such as terrestrial and freshwater areas, become separated — could play a role in exacerbating disease, potentially altering species’ microbiomes and weakening amphibian resistance.
- According to the study, an amphibian’s journey through altered habitat to complete its life cycle can change the composition of its microbiome (the bacterial makeup of the skin); induce chronic stress; and reduce immune gene diversity — all of which can impact disease resistance.
- Though further studies are needed, this research may offer another persuasive reason to actively restore and reconnect habitats, helping to “prime” amphibian immune systems against disease. There is also a possibility that habitat split findings among amphibians could extend to other families of animals.
‘The Mangrove Guy’: Q&A with Kelly Roberts Banda, Kenya’s lawyer-conservationist
- Kelly Roberts Banda is a Kenyan property and family lawyer best known for his work as a conservationist, planting mangroves and advocating for climate justice.
- According to government data, Kenya lost 20% of its mangroves between 1985 and 2009 due to overharvesting, clearing for salt mining and shrimp harvesting, pollution and sedimentation.
- In addition to planting trees, Banda and his colleagues help local communities earn money through beehives in the mangroves.
- Banda’s passion for the environment stems from a childhood incident in which his home was flooded and he witnessed the damage from heavy rainfall throughout his neighborhood.
Ukrainian ecologists say nature will suffer no matter war’s result (commentary)
- “As Ukrainian ecologists, we are constantly reminded of the extent to which war itself is at war with nature.”
- In a new commentary, two scientists linked to the Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Work Group share their views on the current and future ecological restoration work that will be needed in their country.
- Scientists and communicators linked to the group also hail from Russia and Belarus, countries which are engaged in the conflict against Ukraine: this is unusual and touching, the authors say. “The project has a huge democratic weight: when we’re trying to do the right thing for people and for nature, nationality doesn’t matter.”
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.
From Japan to Brazil: Reforesting the Amazon with the Miyawaki method
- Reforestation using the Miyawaki method seeks to restore nature to its original state with results that can be seen in around six years.
- Miyawaki works around three concepts: trees should be native, several species should be randomly planted, and the materials for the seedlings and the soil should be organic.
- The method is suitable for urban areas, which gives it a significant capacity to connect human beings with nature, with benefits for the health and well-being of the population.
- Different from other reforestation methods that may seek a financial return, like agroforestry, the motivation of the Miyawaki method is purely ecological.
Birds in Bangladesh find a new lease of life in community-run sanctuaries
- There are around 100 community-based bird sanctuaries across Bangladesh, built through the initiative of local bird lovers, and backed by local authorities and NGOs.
- The Bangladesh Forest Department has so far demarcated 24 wildlife sanctuaries catering to different types of wildlife species, from mammals and reptiles, to amphibians and birds.
- Bangladesh is the home to 714 bird species, more than half of them native and the rest migratory.
- Native bird populations have declined significantly in the past 30 years, from an estimated 800,000 birds in 1994, to 233,000 in 2017, and 163,000 in 2018.
From deforestation to restoration: Policy plots path to Amazon recovery
- Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s new president, took office and promised to halt deforestation and to restore degraded land but plans to regenerate deforested areas remain unclear.
- The Science Panel for the Amazon at the COP27 climate summit provided the scientific basis to guide debates and decisions around the large-scale recovery of deforested and degraded areas.
- The most significant opportunity for large-scale and low-cost restoration is concentrated in public forests, protected areas and Indigenous lands that have suffered recent degradation.
- For areas with high levels of degradation, especially on private lands, productive restoration models capable of providing sustainable economic development are the main bet.
Island conservation should focus on land-sea links for most impact, paper says
- A new perspective piece in PNAS explores the idea that people, wildlife and the environment of islands thrive when conservation efforts focus on restoring both the land and sea together.
- One way to restore land-sea connections on islands is to eradicate invasive species, such as rats, which can harm native island species like seabirds and crabs.
- Research has shown that terrestrial and marine ecosystems reap benefits when invasive species are eliminated from islands.
For restoration, microbes below ground are just as crucial as the plants above
- Planting soil microbiome like fungi together with trees as a part of ecosystem restoration could lead to an average 64% increase in plant growth, a new study has found.
- The research suggests that managed landscapes like farmland and forestry plantations have the greatest potential for restoration using soil organisms as they cover half of Earth’s habitable land area.
- Southeast Asia, in particular, presents an interesting case study for incorporating microbial communities in forest restoration, as it has vast swaths of degraded land that could be restored.
Restoring Hong Kong’s oyster reefs, one abandoned oyster farm at a time
- Conservationists and researchers are teaming up to restore oyster reefs across Hong Kong.
- At one site, they are repurposing concrete posts from an abandoned oyster farm that made use of traditional oyster cultivation methods dating back hundreds of years.
- Hong Kong’s oysters, and its oyster farmers, are threatened by development, warming and acidifying marine waters brought on by climate change, and toxic algae blooms due to pollution.
- By restoring the reefs, conservationists and scientists hope they can improve water quality, stabilize shorelines, and provide habitat for the city’s surprisingly rich marine wildlife.
As dry season looms, Sumatra villagers hope their peat restoration pays off
- Community-led efforts to restore degraded peatlands in Indonesia’s Riau province could be put to the test in early 2023 as the dry season sets in.
- Riau is the perennial epicenter of the burning season on Sumatra Island, and is expected to have a more intense dry season after three consecutive years of wetter-than-usual conditions due to La Niña.
- A broad coalition of local governments, communities, researchers and NGOs have been working to restore peatlands that had been drained in preparation for planting, with the hope that restoring water levels will prevent burning.
- As part of the restoration programs, communities are also adapting their farming practices, learning to prepare the land without the use of fire, and picking crops that are suited for the wetter soil conditions.
Japan’s example: Can forest planting reduce climate disaster risk?
- In disaster-prone Japan, torrential rains exacerbated by the climate crisis have caused serious flooding and landslides in recent years, including in the country’s many forests.
- While acknowledging the limits of forests’ ability to prevent landslides occurring in the bedrock, Japan’s Forestry Agency is implementing both forest improvement activities and erosion control facility construction to help mitigate future landslide disasters.
- Japan’s monoculture plantation forests, which represent 40% of the nation’s total forest cover, are seen by some experts and civil society members as insufficient to prevent mountain disasters. However, other experts say that a much wider range of geological and environmental factors, not just tree species, determine a forest’s disaster mitigation ability.
- Along Japan’s Pacific coast, others are using trees planted on raised embankments as an as-yet-untested countermeasure against future tsunamis, a type of disaster experts say can also be exacerbated by sea level rise due to climate change.
Nearly half of replanted trees die, but careful site selection can help
- A recent survey of reforestation efforts in South and Southeast Asia found that about half of trees planted as part of such projects died within a decade.
- The study also identified factors that increase the chances of survival; for example, trees planted in sites with existing forest were more likely to survive than trees planted on open land.
- The researchers also noted that few projects carry out long-term monitoring after the initial planting, even though it takes decades for forests to regrow.
If you build it, the amphibians will come: Swiss researchers show new ponds boost species at risk
- Local authorities and nonprofits created hundreds of new ponds on farms and in forests in a Swiss state.
- Two decades of monitoring 12 amphibian species showed that 10 of them expanded into more ponds, likely increasing their population numbers.
- The strategy is promising in similar settings, but may not be applicable everywhere.
Report calls on palm oil firms to make up for nearly 1m hectares of forest loss
- Palm oil companies across Southeast Asia are liable for the recovery of a Puerto Rico-sized area of forest because of their history of environmental harm, a new report shows.
- The Earthqualizer Foundation derived the figure of 877,314 hectares (2.17 million acres) based on the deforestation that the companies continued to carry out after they became aware that an increasing number of buyers had adopted sustainability policies.
- The report also calls on buyers who bought from these suppliers to shoulder some of the liability, which it said could count toward the forest restoration goals pledged by many of the buyers, including Nestlé, Kellogg’s and Unilever.
- The Earthqualizer report highlights some palm oil companies that are already undertaking recovery initiatives, but notes that these are few and far between, and any progress will need to be assessed over the long term.
COP27 long on pledges, short on funds for forests — Congo Basin at risk
- The world’s wealthiest nations have made grand statements and offered big monetary pledges to save the world’s tropical rainforests so they can continue sequestering huge amounts of carbon.
- But as COP27 draws to a close, policy experts and activists agree that funding so far is far too little, and too slow coming, with many pledges still unfulfilled. Without major investments that are dozens, or even hundreds, of times bigger, tropical forests will keep disappearing at an alarming rate.
- The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) offers a case study of just how dire the situation is becoming. While some international forest preservation money is promised and available, it is insufficient to stop companies from leasing forestlands to cut timber and to convert to plantations and mines.
- Some experts say that what is urgently needed is the rapid upscaling of carbon markets that offer heftier carbon credits for keeping primary forests growing. Others point to wealthy nations, who while still cutting their own primary forests, encourage poorer tropical nations to conserve theirs without paying enough for protection.
Amid conflict and chaos, a reforestation project surges ahead in Haiti
- An important reforestation project is forging ahead in Haiti, despite the nation’s economic and political upheavals.
- Reforesting 50 hectares (124 acres) with native plants this year in Grand Bois National Park, the NGO Haiti National Trust (HNT) is working closely with local communities to ensure the restoration project’s long-term survival.
- On an island buffeted by governance woes, severe deforestation and climate change, reforestation can save lives by mitigating the impacts of extreme rain events, droughts and hurricanes, and even reduce the risk of landslides caused by earthquakes.
- If ongoing funding can be secured, the group hopes to continue replanting efforts into the future with larger restoration goals.
Deadly landslides prompt Philippine president to call for tree planting
- Typhoon Nalgae, which made five landfalls on Oct. 29, killed 123 people across the Philippines, including at least 61 who died in floods and landslides on the southern island of Mindanao.
- After inspecting the damage wrought by the storm, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. blamed deforestation and climate change for the scale of the disaster, and called on flood control plans to include tree planting.
- The Philippines already has an ambitious tree-planting program, but an audit found it has so far fallen short of its target.
Meet the Millennium Forest: A unique tropical island reforestation project
- A two-decade reforestation project on the tropical island of St. Helena in the southern Atlantic Ocean has not only restored trees found nowhere else in the world, but has also involved nearly every member of the island community in the effort.
- The Millennium Forest, as it’s called, has struggled with invasive species and irregular funding, but has still managed to thrive, adding new plant species — several of them threatened and two thought to have gone extinct. The growing forest is attracting animal species to its habitat, including St. Helena’s only endemic bird.
- Ocean islands pose special challenges for forest restoration, since many plant species evolved in isolation on remote islands, and saw drastic population crashes to the point of extinction, or near-extinction, when people and invasive species arrived.
- As a result, island reforestations typically can’t match original forest composition, but must mix both native and non-native species. The Millennium Forest project has now become a legacy that the current generation is handing down to upcoming ones, according to project founder Rebecca Cairns-Wicks.
Who decides on ‘priorities’ for ecosystem restoration?
- A set of maps from research published in 2020 in the journal Nature suggested that restoring ecosystems in “priority areas” offered a cheap and effective way to slow climate change and stem the global loss of species.
- Soon after the study’s release, however, researchers from around the world raised concerns about the areas identified by the study, whether the biodiversity- and climate-related gains would be as substantial as the authors claimed, and how decision-makers might use the maps to guide policy.
- The study aimed to point out optimal spots for restoration based on the biggest boost they could provide to avoid the extinction of species and sequester the most carbon at the lowest costs. But, the authors wrote, the study did not consider “socio-economic issues,” and the maps were not intended to directly inform local implementation.
- The study’s critics say that, in spite of the authors’ intentions, investors and policymakers could use the maps in ways that might not consider the impacts on local communities.
Mongabay’s What-To-Watch list for November 2022
- Mongabay’s October videos show how the world’s consumption of products have multiple effects on the environment in various regions and on ecosystems, and what consequences road and railway projects have on forests and communities in Brazil and Mexico.
- Watch Afro-Brazilian communities practising their traditional agriculture that bring together production and conservation around Brazil’s Atlantic forests, and how authorities and communities are dealing with human-wildlife conflicts in India and Indonesia in their own ways.
- Get a peek into the various segments of the environment across the globe. Add these videos to your watchlist for the month and watch them for free on YouTube.
With FSC rule change, deforesters once blocked from certification get a new shot
- The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has adopted a number of significant changes during its recent general assembly in Bali, chief among them moving its cutoff date for eligibility from 1994 to 2020.
- With the change, logging companies that have cleared forests since 1994, but before 2020, will be allowed to obtain certification from the body, something they weren’t allowed to do before.
- To qualify, companies will have to restore forests and provide remedy for social harms done in the 1994-2020 period in their concessions.
- The decision has sparked responses from both critics and supporters, with the former saying the new rule rewards known deforesters, and the latter saying it opens opportunities for forest restoration and remedies for Indigenous and local communities.
Successes and struggles: Brazil’s 20-year Amazon reforestation carbon sink project
- The Peugeot-ONF Forest Carbon Sink project, implemented more than 20 years ago in northwestern Mato Grosso state, within the “arc of deforestation” of the Brazilian Amazon, has achieved significant ecological restoration and carbon sequestration results.
- Reforesting 2,000 hectares of degraded cattle pasture on the São Nicolau Farm in Cotriguaçu municipality, the project has been Verra certified for reducing carbon emissions, with 394,400 metric tons of CO2 sequestered to date, equal to 85,000 cars taken off the road for a year. This CO2 reduction is being traded as carbon credits on Pachama, an online marketplace.
- Today, São Nicolau Farm is a living laboratory documenting the dynamics of forest restoration and carbon capture in the Amazon. The farm also offers ecotourism, training and educational opportunities.
- But Brazil’s volatile sociopolitical context is posing major risks to the project. Threats include a rising wave of forest crime, along with weakened environmental regulations, and controversial development proposals for the rainforest biome.
A ‘super reef’ recovery raises hopes — but also questions about its resilience
- Experts documented the substantial recovery of coral reefs around the southern Line Islands in the central Pacific after the area was hit by a large-scale coral bleaching event in 2015 and 2016.
- Many factors may have contributed to the reef’s recovery, including the fact that the reef is seemingly untouched by human activity, which helped maintain a healthy and resilient ecosystem.
- But other experts question whether this reef would be able to recover after more frequent bleaching events, which are predicted to increase as global temperatures continue to rise.
In Madagascar, a tree-planting business goes long on social, short on eco
- Bôndy, a young Malagasy company, has social-impact tree planting at the heart of its “business model.”
- Bôndy makes money by offering social and environmental responsibility solutions to other companies, by planting trees on farmers’ land on their behalf.
- Although it has only been operating since 2018, the company’s model is proving successful with both the rural people receiving tree-planting services and the companies financing the projects.
- Some conservationists, however, are skeptical about the environmental impacts of Bôndy’s approach, which focuses mainly on planting non-native acacia and eucalyptus trees that can be cut for fuel and timber, as well as fruit trees.
Mangroves and wildlife in Bornean bay at risk from Indonesia’s new capital
- Experts and activists say the construction of Indonesia’s new capital city upstream of Balikpapan Bay on the island of Borneo fails to mitigate against damage to the marine ecosystem.
- The stretch of coast between the bay and the mouth of the Mahakam River is packed with mangroves, which host a rich diversity of marine and terrestrial life, including proboscis monkeys and Irrawaddy dolphins.
- The government has said the construction of the new capital, Nusantara, will include retaining a large swath of mangrove forest, but zoning details show most of it won’t be protected against development.
- The $33 billion planned city will in 2024 take over as the Indonesian capital from Jakarta, and its full construction will be completed by 2045, according to the government’s plans.
Harpy eagle’s return to Costa Rica means rewilding’s time has come (commentary)
- An adult harpy eagle was recently photographed in northern Costa Rica, which made national headlines and waves on social media.
- Most believed these gigantic eagles had been extirpated from the region, but consistent efforts to restore forests and rewild ecosystems in the country mean they may return in greater numbers, if conditions allow.
- A new commentary argues this signals it’s time to ramp up reintroductions of animals like giant anteaters, too, and prey for eagles and also jaguars: “Why not establish herds of white-lipped peccary into Piedras Blancas National Park, where they have been absent for over 40 years?” the writer wonders.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
After 20 years and thousands of trees planted, Kalimantan’s veteran forester persists
- Redansyah first began working in conservation around Indonesia’’s Tanjung Puting National Park in the 1980s alongside renowned conservationist Biruté Galdikas.
- In a 20-year career, he has planted tens of thousands of seedlings in a once-pristine landscape beset by logging and fires since the 1990s.
- The 68-year-old has no plans to retire: “I just want to work on the job of introducing trees to this community.”
An Indonesian rock star shines his light on mangroves, urban farming and more
- Andi Fadly Arifuddin is known to millions of Indonesians as Fadly, the vocalist of alt-rock band Padi, which formed in 1996 and relaunched as Padi Reborn in 2018.
- While many musicians sing of the need to protect the environment, Fadly walks the talk through sustainable agriculture education, urban farming and mangrove conservation.
- In his home district of Sinjai in South Sulawesi province, he’s campaigning to create a mangrove hub in collaboration with local youth and government.
Java communities rally as clock ticks on cleanup of ‘world’s dirtiest river’
- A national program to transform Java’s Citarum River into a source of drinking water expires in 2025.
- A reforestation program in uplands near the source of the river is drawing on community volunteers.
- West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil tells Mongabay that residents will see improved water quality by 2025 and that there is political will to tackle the crisis.
Healthy mangroves build a resilient community in the Philippines’ Palawan
- According to historical accounts, the fisheries of Malampaya Sound in the Philippines’ Palawan province were once so rich it was difficult to wade to shore without stepping on crabs.
- This bounty fueled migration to the area from across the Philippines, and by the turn of the 20th century, much of the areas’ mangroves had been cleared or degraded, leading to a decline in fish catches.
- From 2011-2013, mangrove restoration efforts were initiated as part of the Philippines’ National Greening Program, but, as elsewhere in the country, the initiative performed far below target.
- Today, however, thanks to ongoing outreach initiatives, community partnerships and Indigenous belief systems, the importance of preserving mangroves is widely recognized and the area’s coastal forests and fisheries are seeing a recovery.
Scientists develop AI that can listen to the pulse of a reef being restored
- Scientists have developed a machine-learning algorithm that can distinguish healthy coral reefs from less healthy ones by the soundscape in the ecosystem.
- Previous studies had established that the sounds of life in a successfully recovered reef are similar to those from a healthy reef, but parsing all the acoustic data was slow and labor-intensive.
- The new algorithm has been hailed as “an important milestone” for efficiently processing acoustic data to answer the basic question of how to determine the progress of a reef restoration program.
- Researchers say follow-up work is still needed, including to check whether the algorithm, tested in the Pacific Coral Triangle, also works in reefs in other parts of the world.
Niger Delta mangroves in ‘grave danger’ from oil spills, poverty, invasive species
- Southern Nigeria’s vast Niger Delta boasts Africa’s most extensive mangrove forests — and some of the world’s largest fossil fuel reserves.
- Efforts to extract oil and gas have resulted in numerous oil spills, which have damaged the region’s biodiversity, as well as the livelihoods of coastal communities.
- Niger Delta mangroves are also affected by logging, farming and urban expansion, and are being replaced by invasive nipa palm.
- Research suggests Niger Delta’s mangroves could be gone within 50 years at the current rate of loss.
Let it grow: Q&A with reforestation and land restoration visionary Tony Rinaudo
- Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) is a community-led approach to naturally restoring degraded landscapes and ecosystems, and it’s credited with reforesting many millions of hectares of degraded land, globally.
- Though FMNR has literally sprouted in many places over time, Tony Rinaudo is the best known and most vocal proponent of this technique that’s reforested an estimated six million hectares of Niger alone.
- Encouraging cleared forests to resprout makes resilient, climate-positive agroecology practices like agroforestry possible, as crops grown in the cooling shade of trees also benefit from improved soil health and water levels.
- In a wide-ranging interview, Rinaudo shares his hopes, dreams, and insights about FMNR with Mongabay readers.
Aziil Anwar, Indonesian coral-based mangrove grower, dies at 64
- Aziil Anwar, a civil servant turned award-winning mangrove restorer, has died from diabetes-related complications.
- Aziil gained prominence in the 1990s by pioneering a way to boost the success of mangrove planting in coral damaged by blast fishing on the island of Baluno in Indonesia’s West Sulawesi province.
- With the help of local children, he managed to plant some 100 hectares (nearly 250 acres), fully covering the island and extending the mangrove forest out toward the mainland.
In Sumatra, rising seas and sinking land spell hard times for fishers
- Fishers operating near the port of Belawan on the Indonesian island of Sumatra are reporting declining catches and a hit to their livelihoods from tidal flooding.
- The flooding has grown more frequent and severe, exacerbated by rising seas and the clearing of mangrove forests for oil palm plantations.
- Traders who buy local catches have also been affected by the flooding, which can cut off commercial transport routes.
- This region of northern Sumatra is one of the areas targeted by the Indonesian government for mangrove restoration, but until that yields results, the fishers say they’re essentially helpless.
Bangladesh struggles to protect the last of its last wild elephants
- Habitat loss, forest degradation and encroachment into forest reserves are driving Asian elephants into human habitats in search of food, increasing human-elephant conflicts.
- In 2016, there were only 268 resident Asian elephants in Bangladesh; more than 50 have been killed in the past five years, 34 of them in 2021 alone.
- Bangladesh has 12 identified elephant corridors, although at least one no longer serves that function due to forest degradation, human settlements, grabbing of forest land and unplanned development.
- The Forest Department has designed a new conservation project to protect the endangered species, including through stronger law enforcement and habitat restoration.
‘Spiderwebs’ to the rescue for Indonesia’s coral reefs
- A small-scale project in Indonesia is seeing success in efforts to restore coral reefs damaged by blast fishing.
- Lightweight cast-iron rods form underwater “spiderwebs” that are placed onto existing reefs, with new coral grafted onto the structure.
- Proponents of the project say the benefits are already tangible, but add that to make them last, there needs to be an end to destructive fishing practices.
A utopia of clean air and wet peat amid Sumatra’s forest fire ‘hell’
- Sadikin, a resident of Indonesia’s Riau province, converted his parents’ abandoned vegetable garden into an arboretum of peat-friendly tree species.
- In 2020, he won an award for his dedication to local firefighting efforts, including his innovation to dig shallow “hydrant” wells to speed up firefighting in peatlands.
- Sadikin and his fellow villagers have also adapted their pineapple cultivation system to include firebreaks, and use their crop to weave containers that can replace plastic bags.
In restoring polluted rivers, Indonesia looks at restocking endemic fish
- Two reported mudflows overflowed the Serayu River on the Indonesian island of Java within the space of a week earlier this year, mucking its waters and killing off fish.
- The incidents have raised calls from conservationists and fishers for restoration and fish restocking efforts in the river.
- Fish restocking has been carried out for several decades in Indonesian rivers, mainly as an effort to increase fisheries productivity and fish populations in inland waters such as rivers, reservoirs and lakes.
- But experts say these restocking efforts often emphasize ceremony at the expense of measures to ensure success, such as post-monitoring assessment.
Natural regeneration and women-led initiatives help drive Atlantic Forest Pact
- Having restored 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of forest on Brazil’s coast, the Atlantic Forest Restoration Pact plans to double this by 2025, with the ultimate goal of restoring 15 million hectares (37 million acres) by 2050.
- The Pact focuses on areas with high potential for natural regeneration, in order to reduce restoration costs; reforestation through active tree planting, however, remains an option for creating jobs on large rural properties.
- One of the members of the Pact, the Copaíba Environmental Association, has planted 700,000 seedlings on 600 hectares (1,500 acres) and produced more than 3 million seedlings in its nursery.
- Members of the Pact see gender equity as an aspect to be monitored in restoration projects, with a high degree of women’s participation in their work.
Scientists strive to restore world’s embattled kelp forests
- Kelp forests grow along more than one-quarter of the world’s coastlines, and are among the planet’s most biodiverse ecosystems. But these critical habitats are disappearing due to warming oceans and other human impacts.
- Sudden recent wipeouts of vast kelp forests along the coastlines of Tasmania and California highlighted how little was known about protecting or restoring these vital marine ecosystems.
- Scientists are finding new ways to help restore kelp, but promising small-scale successes need to be ramped up significantly to replace massive kelp losses in some regions.
- Global interest in studying seaweed for food, carbon storage and other uses, may help improve wild kelp restoration methods.
Mongabay’s What-To-Watch list for July 2022
- Mongabay’s videos from June show communities in Mexico and Jordan taking up landscape restoration and reforestation projects to protect native ecosystems, and how a group of Indigenous women in the U.S. have started farming sugar kelp to fix nitrogen pollution.
- Mongabay series Problem Solved explored technology in conservation to protect endangered species from extinction. Another Mongabay series Candid Animal Cam gives us a glimpse into the lives and habits of the black bears in North America.
- Get a peek into the various segments of the environment across the globe. Add these videos to your watchlist for the month and watch them for free on YouTube.
How marine conservation benefits from combining Indigenous knowledge and Western science
- On today's episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we take a look at two stories that show the effectiveness of combining traditional Indigenous ecological knowledge and Western science for conservation and restoration initiatives.
- Our first guest today is Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan, an ethnobotanist at the University of Arizona. He tells us about eelgrass, an ancestral food of the Comcaac people in the state of Sonora in Mexico. Nabhan tells us why eelgrass is making a big comeback as a sustainable source of food for the Comcaac community and gaining international attention in the process.
- We also speak with Dr. Sara Iverson, a professor of biology at Canada’s Dalhousie University, about a research project called Apoqnmatulti’k that aims to better understand the movements of lobster, eel, and tomcod in two important ecosystems on Canada’s Atlantic coast. Iverson tells us why those study species were chosen by the Mi’kmaq people and why it’s so important that the project combines different ways of knowing, including Western science and traditional Indigenous knowledge.
Cameroon’s Nigerian refugees who degraded their camp are now vanguards of reforestation
- Nigerian refugees and Cameroonian villagers are taking part in efforts to reforest the area around the Minawao refugee camp near the border between the two countries.
- The influx of the refugees, driven from their homes by the advance of the Islamist group Boko Haram, led to a surge in logging for fuelwood and timber, and also sparked conflict with the locals.
- A reforestation program supported by the UNHCR, French development NGO ADES and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), and carried out by refugees and locals, has to date planted more than 400,000 trees across 100 hectares (250 acres).
- Initially, government experts chose the trees to be planted based on their ability to grow quickly and survive in arid places, but since 2017, community members have been brought into the decision-making process as the project’s managers realized that a participatory approach could generate better results.
Mongabay’s new-look Reforestation.app makes finding the right tree-planting project easier
- Mongabay has launched an upgrade to Reforestation.app, our global directory of tree-planting projects, aimed at improving transparency in the sector.
- Reforestation.app is a free online tool for people to support reforestation by providing a means to identify projects that align with their interests and motivations.
- The update features an improved project search functionality, a step-by-step guide for filtering projects, and the ability to update and add new projects.
Dig, dump, repeat, then watch the forest grow: Q&A with mangrove restorer Keila Vazquez
- Las Chelemeras is a group of 18 women in the Mexican port town of Chelem who, since 2010, have worked to restore and protect their local mangrove forests on the northern coast of the Yucatán Peninsula.
- To date, they have contributed to the reforestation of approximately 50 hectares (124 acres) of mangroves, accounting for half of Chelem’s forest cover.
- “We have learned that our work is not only a job or a paycheck, but a collaboration with the environment, and that gives us satisfaction,” says Keila Vazquez, a founding member of the group.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Vazquez talks about her work with Las Chelemeras, the challenges ahead for her community, and how the reforestation of their environment has impacted younger generations.
Sea restoration projects quilt a ‘mosaic of habitats’ with striking results
- The concept of restoring more than one type of marine habitat at a time — such as oyster reefs, seagrass meadows and salt marshes — is becoming increasingly popular as scientists and conservationists learn about the advantages of this approach.
- Many studies clearly show the mutual benefits that integrated habitats provide to each other, as well as the larger benefits offered to the ecosystem.
- Yet other studies show mixed results, drawing attention to the complex nature of this approach.
- Numerous seascape restoration projects are taking place around the world, including in the coastal bays of Virginia, U.S., the sea off the coast of South Australia, and the estuaries and lochs in the U.K.
Overexploited and underprotected: Study urges action on Asia’s rosewoods
- Rosewood is one of the world’s most trafficked wildlife products: The value of the trade, driven by demand from luxury furniture markets, exceeds that of ivory.
- Despite increased legal protections and export bans in recent years, illegal logging and cross-border trade continues to decimate rosewood populations across Asia, Africa and Latin America.
- A new study reveals the threats facing isolated and fragmented populations of three rosewood species in the Greater Mekong region and identifies where conservation and restoration action could have the most benefits.
- The study recommends a variety of approaches to protect the viability of remaining natural populations and their genetic diversity, including community forestry, smallholder planting initiatives, agroforestry, and storing seeds in gene banks.
Can wonder plant spekboom really bring smiles back to sad South African towns?
- Botanists are working on an ambitious project to restore 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of degraded land in South Africa that were previously covered by thickets of the indigenous succulent spekboom (Portulacaria afra).
- Farmers have stripped the land of its native thicket over the course of decades of commercial agriculture and livestock keeping, and following extended droughts, it’s now turning to desert.
- Spekboom, much praised for its ability to sequester carbon, is not only a resilient native plant, but its growth naturally promotes the recovery of other species.
- Carbon credits are one promising source of funding for restoration that could prove profitable for landowners and workers, though some critics say planting spekboom as an offset lacks a scientific basis.
Common goals ensure forest restoration success in northern Thailand
- Twenty-five years ago, the Hmong community of Ban Mae Sa Mai village in northern Thailand began a collaboration with researchers and national park authorities to restore agricultural fields to natural forest.
- Between 1997 and 2013, they honed methods of assisted regeneration while restoring 33 hectares (82 acres) of upland evergreen tropical forest in Doi Suthep-Pui National Park.
- Monitoring teams documented the return of biodiversity and ecosystem services to the restored land, and participants founded a tree nursery that continues to supply thousands of native tree seedlings each year to nearby initiatives inspired by the Ban Mae Sa Mai model.
- However, the Hmong community face the prospect of eviction from their ancestral land, which lies within a protected area. Experts warn that disputes between authorities and the community, coupled with an increasing risk of fire due to climate change, could jeopardize the survival of the recovering forest.
How Brazil is working to save the rare lion tamarins of the Atlantic Forest
- Small, lively and threatened, the golden lion tamarin is a primate species found only in the Atlantic Forest and which today is struggling for space and connectivity inside Brazil’s most deforested and fragmented biome.
- There are four species of lion tamarin (Leontopithecus spp.) in Brazil, but the golden lion tamarin (L. rosalia) was the first to be described and has enjoyed the most fame.
- Golden lion tamarin conservation efforts have been successful, growing the population from a one-time low of 200 animals to more than 2,000 today.
- The other three species — the black lion tamarin, golden-headed lion tamarin, and black-faced lion tamarin — live isolated in fragmented patches of the Atlantic Forest and face a growing risk of extinction.
Indigenous oyster fisheries were ‘fundamentally different’: Q&A with researcher Marco Hatch
- About 85% of oyster reefs across the world have been lost since the 19th century due to overharvesting, pollution, introduction of invasive species and habitat loss.
- According to a new study, Indigenous communities in North America and Australia sustainably managed oyster fisheries for more than 5,000 years before Europeans and commercial fisheries arrived.
- The knowledge of these traditional practices can guide sustainable fisheries management today, say the authors of the study.
- Mongabay interviewed Dr. Marco Hatch, one of the authors of the study, about traditional oyster and clam farming practices, existing threats to oysters, and Indigenous-led restoration efforts.
Yellowstone’s wolves defied extinction, but face new threats beyond park’s borders
- Since their reintroduction into Yellowstone National Park in the Mountain West of the United States in the 1990s, the North American gray wolf has recovered, once again taking up the mantle of a keystone species in its environment.
- But the wolf’s resurgence has raised the ire of ranchers and hunters, and new laws allowing expanded wolf hunts have sprung up across the region.
- Biologists contend that wolves play a critical role in maintaining healthy ecosystems, and data suggest that the threat to overall livestock numbers is exaggerated.
- Still, an entrenched fear, perhaps dating to humans’ earliest interactions with wolves, has helped to stir up a desire for vengeance against the species.
Can we save the spiky yellow woodlouse, one of the most endangered isopods? (commentary)
- Saint Helena Island’s spiky yellow woodlouse is a striking, critically endangered isopod that lives on tree ferns and black cabbage trees, high up in the peaks of Saint Helena’s cloud forests.
- The flax industry destroyed and fragmented most of the forests that the woodlouse depends on. Invasive species and climate change continue to affect them.
- The population of spiky yellow woodlouse is estimated to be at 980 individuals, so the Saint Helena National Trust is working to restore the forests on the island by clearing away the flax plants that were left behind and replanting more native flora.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
Poor planning, persistent farming undermine mangrove restoration in Tanzania
- Tanzania’s government has been working since the 1990s to replant mangroves in the Rufiji Delta, one of East Africa’s most significant mangrove sites.
- New research indicates that efforts to restore degraded mangroves have been undermined by rice farming as well as by a lack of systematic planning and analysis of site and species suitability.
- However, the research found that despite these flaws, replanted areas were regenerating faster than areas left to regrow on their own.
Devastated by a typhoon, community foresters in the Philippines find little support
- The Macatumbalen Community-Based Forest and Coastal Management Association, based in the Philippine province of Palawan, has replanted and managed 1,850 hectares of local forests since 2002.
- When Typhoon Rai struck Palawan in December 2021, the community’s forest was devastated, harming not just the ecosystem but also the livelihood of local people, who depend on agroforestry and harvesting of forest products like honey and rattan.
- Four months after the typhoon struck, the community organization has been left largely on its own as it attempts to resume restoration and replanting.
Scientists uncover widespread declines of raptors in Kenya
- New research has found a steep decline in numbers for Kenya’s raptors over the past 40 years.
- Encounters with 19 of 22 species studied using road surveys fell during that period, 14 of these declining by 20-95% when compared to the 1970s.
- The study’s findings underlined the importance of protected areas for Kenya’s raptors as populations declined less severely inside parks and reserves.
Indigenous village harvests seeds to slow deforestation in Brazil’s Cerrado
- Mato Grosso’s Cerrado forest in Brazil is supposed to be protected with set asides when logged for new croplands and pastures. However, farms often get away with protecting less than they’re supposed to.
- In the village of Ripá, Indigenous Xavante people make expeditions for harvesting fruit with seeds for replanting forests, helping to repair some of the damage and supplement their income.
- Ripá and another two dozen Indigenous communities in Mato Grosso sell their harvest to Rede de Sementes do Xingu (RSX), a wholesaler that, since 2007, has sold or given away enough seeds to replant 74 square kilometers (about 29 square miles) of degraded land.
- This story was produced with support from the Pulitzer Center.
Training on pasture recovery is a win-win for Brazil’s cattle ranchers and forests
- A recent study found that providing Brazilian cattle ranchers with customized training in sustainable pasture restoration could bring long-term economic and environmental benefits.
- Trained ranchers saw an increase in cattle productivity and revenue, and a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions over a period of two years.
- Researchers say that recovering degraded pastures could help stop deforestation for agriculture by allowing farmers to increase cattle numbers without needing more land.
- Despite government-led programs that promote sustainable agriculture, experts say pasture recovery is not yet being fully prioritized.
Community-led coral restoration project is rare hit amid slew of misses in Indonesia
- A recent review published in Marine Policy documented 533 new coral reef restoration projects in Indonesia over the past three decades, signaling a large rise in coral reef restoration projects.
- Although Indonesia’s legal policy framework encourages wide participation in restoration activities, scientists say many of these projects have failed because they lack important monitoring or long-term evaluation.
- In Lombok, a successful community-led reef restoration project has proved to be an outlier, demonstrating the importance of community involvement and post-monitoring care for the corals.
Partnering with farmers is key to land restoration success (commentary)
- The UN declared 2021–2030 to be the Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, but global initiatives aiming to tackle land degradation run the risk of failing unless they shift their approach to include farmers.
- Agricultural techniques that restore land such as agroforestry boost crop production and also positively contribute ‘ecosystem services’ such as fuelwood production, habitat creation, carbon sequestration and erosion control.
- We must acknowledge that local people have a wealth of knowledge about where they live, so tapping into this knowledge and gaining their partnership is key to long-term restoration goals, a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.
With protections restored, tribal council charts new path for Bears Ears
- In October 2021, President Joe Biden restored protections to Bears Ears National Monument in southeast Utah after it was drastically reduced in size by his predecessor, Donald Trump.
- The monument is known for its scenic views as well as thousands of sacred, cultural and archaeological sites.
- Now, the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition — made up of leaders from the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni and Ute Indian Tribe — is working on a land management plan that keeps the interests of each tribe in mind as the federal government moves forward with its own plan.
- Co-chair Carleton Bowekaty says he hopes the plan will be a “living document” that will be used even when administrations change and that the efforts will keep the land intact for future generations.
As animal seed dispersers go the way of the dodo, forest plants are at risk
- Many plants rely on animals to reproduce, regenerate and spread. But the current sixth mass extinction is wiping out seed-dispersing wildlife that fill this role, altering entire ecosystems.
- Thousands of species help keep flora alive, from birds and bats to elephants, apes and rodents.
- Animals give plants the ability to “move,” with the need for mobility rising alongside warming temperatures and more frequent extreme weather events. Transported elsewhere, plants may be able to “outrun” a warming climate.
- There are growing efforts to restore these critical ecological relationships and processes: protecting and recovering wild lands, identifying and rewilding key animal seed dispersers, reforesting destroyed habitat, and better regulating destructive logging and agricultural practices.
Asia’s troubled trees need better conservation to reach restoration goals: Study
- South and Southeast Asia’s 19,000 tree species form the foundations of some of the world’s most biodiverse rainforests, as well as provide irreplaceable ecosystem services and underpin the livelihoods and diets of hundreds of millions of people.
- However, roughly three-quarters of the land deemed most important to protect regional tree diversity lies outside of protected areas, according to a new study that evaluates the distribution and threats facing 63 native tree species.
- The findings question whether countries will be able to fulfill their ambitious forest restoration targets; in particular, the researchers are concerned that crucial seed resources that could support reforestation efforts are being lost.
- The researchers recommend a more coordinated approach to conservation planning within the region, including improved cross-border collaboration and a holistic, landscape approach that integrates trees into production systems outside of protected areas.
In Burundi, one-time combatants who razed forests now raise seedlings
- In 2018, Burundi launched a vast national reforestation program to boost the country’s dwindling forest cover, which will run until 2025.
- Burundi has just 6.6% of its original forests remaining, the legacy of a brutal civil war in which forests weren’t spared the violence inflicted by either side.
- Today, the formerly warring factions are working together on the reforestation project that has been hailed as a fantastic initiative, especially as the planted trees are varied.
- However, key civil society stakeholders in nature conservation are calling for these efforts to be followed by awareness-raising campaigns among local populations and communities, to protect seedlings that have already been planted.
Amid extinctions, forest corridors aim to save rare birds in Brazil’s northeast
- A project in northeastern Brazil is working to connect fragments of the Atlantic Forest in an effort to save endemic bird species from extinction.
- The Atlantic Rainforest of the Northeast Project plans to reforest 70 hectares (173 acres) in the states of Pernambuco and Alagoas by 2023.
- Monitoring in Pernambuco’s Serra do Urubu region has shown an increase in bird diversity, from 105 species recorded in 2005, to 287 in 2021.
- Despite the progress being made, the situation remains fragile, with seven bird species having gone extinct in the Atlantic Forest in recent decades, and a strong tradition of keeping birds in cages still persisting.
‘Nature has priority’: Rewilding map showcases nature-led restoration
- The Global Rewilding Alliance and OpenForests have officially launched a map of rewilding projects around the world.
- Organizations have contributed stories, photos and videos for projects in 70 countries covering 1 million square kilometers (386,000 square miles), and the alliance’s leaders say more will be added.
- Rewilding is a type of ecological restoration that aims to restore natural dynamics and processes to ecosystems.
- Proponents of the approach say it has the potential to address both biodiversity loss and climate change.
Traditional knowledge guides protection of planetary health in Finland
- Undisturbed peatlands act as carbon sinks and support biodiversity. Finland has drained 60% — more than 60,000 km2 (23,000 mi2) — of its peatlands, releasing vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and destroying entire ecosystems.
- But scientists and Finnish traditional and Indigenous knowledge holders are collaborating to rewild and protect peatlands and associated forests and rivers, turning them into carbon sinks again, while bringing back wildlife and supporting fishing, hunting, and even tourism, offering economic benefits to local communities.
- These Finnish collaborations are already serving as both inspiration and guide to those seeking to use rewilding to curb climate change, enhance biodiversity, create sustainable land use systems, and restore forest, freshwater and wetland ecosystems, while supporting traditional communities.
- “Rewilding is very much about giving more freedom to nature to shape our landscapes, and looking at nature as an ally in solving socioeconomic problems,” says Wouter Helmer former rewilding director of Rewilding Europe. “It’s a holistic way of putting nature back on center stage in our modern society.”
Wild bison, taking over Europe and North America, will once again roam England
- This year, a $1.4 million project is about to release a herd of bison in an ancient English woodland, bringing back an animal that hasn’t been in the country for millennia.
- The European bison is expected to help regenerate the forest and boost insect, bird and plant life.
- Bison rewilding projects are springing up across Europe, contributing to the species’ conservation status improving from vulnerable to near threatened.
- North America is also rewilding with its bison species, including on Native America lands, helping to revitalize not only the ecosystem but Indigenous culture and heritage.
From land mines to lifelines, Lebanon’s Shouf is a rare restoration success story
- The Shouf Biosphere Reserve is a living laboratory experimenting with degraded ecosystem recovery in ways that also boost the well-being of the human communities living there.
- Previous conservation efforts in the area involved using land mines and armed guards to stem illegal logging and reduce fire risk.
- Today, the reserve builds local skills and creates jobs in a bid to help the local community through Lebanon’s severe economic crisis.
- Managers are also employing adaptive techniques to build resilience in this climate change-hit landscape.
In Rio de Janeiro, a forest slowly returns to life, one species at a time
- Rio de Janeiro’s Tijuca National Park has become a laboratory for the reintroduction of locally extinct species.
- A study shows that, of the 33 species of large and medium-sized mammals that used to occur in the Tijuca National Park area, only 11 remain today.
- A forest full of large trees but empty of animals is a forest on its deathbed, conservationists say, because animals’ interactions with plants play a crucial role in maintaining the health of the ecosystem.
- In the severely degraded and fragmented Atlantic Forest, where Tijuca is located, forests devoid of large animals such as tapirs, woolly spider monkeys and jaguars are a common phenomenon with serious consequences for the plant life.
In Puerto Rico, a marathon effort builds to restore mangroves and dunes
- Hurricane Maria in 2017 devastated several mangrove ecosystems in Puerto Rico, leading ecologists to start restoration efforts.
- Mangroves provide myriad benefits: storm protection, carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation and pollution filtering, among others.
- In addition to mangroves, organizations are working to restore sand dunes to add an extra buffer against tropical storms and protect turtle nesting sites.
- And while they’ve benefited from recent injections of funding and collaboration with experts from around the world, the restoration groups note that they have more work ahead than they can currently take on.
NGOs alert U.N. to furtive 2-million-hectare carbon deal in Malaysian Borneo
- Civil society organizations have complained to the United Nations about an opaque “natural capital” agreement in the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo.
- The agreement, signed behind closed doors in October 2021, involved representatives from the state government and Hoch Standard Pte. Ltd., a Singaporean firm. But it did not involve substantive input from the state’s numerous Indigenous communities, many of whom live in or near forests.
- The terms ostensibly give Hoch Standard the right to monetize carbon and other natural capital from Sabah’s forests for 100 years.
- Along with the recent letter to the U.N., the state’s attorney general has questioned whether the agreement is enforceable without changes to key provisions. An Indigenous leader is also suing the state over the agreement, and Hoch Standard may be investigated by the Singaporean government after rival political party leaders in Sabah reported the company to Singapore’s ambassador in Malaysia.
From teak farms to agroforestry: Panama tests reforestation strategies
- Panama is racing to restore 50,000 hectares (124,000 acres) of forest by 2025 to meet its carbon emissions reduction targets under the Paris climate agreement. The nation’s public and private sectors have embarked on various forest restoration and reforestation efforts to meet that goal.
- The government is currently financially incentivizing teak plantations, an industry that proponents say is a win-win for the economy and environment, but which critics say pushes out native tree species, reduces biodiversity, and can indirectly even contribute to further deforestation.
- A long-running research project overseen by the Smithsonian Institute is studying agroforestry and other innovative techniques to help determine which ones offer the best ecological, social and economic silviculture outcomes.
- Included in this groundbreaking work is research into restoring tropical forests on land degraded by cattle, efforts to improve forest hydrology, and silviculture techniques that could replace teak with other more eco-friendly high value trees.
Are ‘nature based solutions’ the best fix for climate change?
- On today's episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we discuss mangrove restoration and other nature based solutions to climate change.
- We speak with Alfredo Quarto, co-founder and program and policy director of the Mangrove Action Project, who tells us about the ongoing destruction of mangrove forests around the world, why it’s so important to restore these coastal ecosystems, and what makes for successful mangrove restoration projects.
- We also speak with Norah Berk, a policy advisor on climate change and forests at the Rainforest Foundation UK, who tells us that nature based solutions have, in many cases, been co-opted by corporations that are using them as part of carbon offset schemes, and discusses why she thinks land titling for Indigenous and local communities is the solution to climate change that we should be focusing on.
Greek conservationists collaborate to protect endemic species in face of climate change
- Across Greece, conservation NGOs are working in close collaboration to study and save numerous endemic species found nowhere else.
- Often working in areas famed for Greek mythology like Mount Olympus and Mount Oiti, the plants and animals now need what seems like divine intervention to survive the ravages brought by climate change.
- Why so many endemic species? Greece has “an amazing diversity of climates and also soils. This creates an amazing diversity of life,” one conservationist tells Mongabay.
Brazil’s Atlantic Forest gets a chance at a fresh start through restoration
- Restoration initiatives are slowly making a mark on the Atlantic Forest, a Brazilian biome that has been reduced to about a quarter of its original area.
- Brazil has made global commitments to restore tens of millions of hectares of forest by 2030, but the much smaller programs underway in the Atlantic Forest show the country is still unable to monitor restoration efforts effectively.
- A survey shows that restoration data are not systematized in the public sphere, at either the federal or state levels, and that information is decentralized or not even produced. Lack of governance is another bottleneck to be overcome on the agenda.
- Civil society efforts have emerged to fill this gap in the role of public authorities, such as the Restoration and Reforestation Observatory and the Pact for Restoration of the Atlantic Forest.
From humble roots, a restoration plan in Brazil aims for 1.5m hectares of forest
- A program to restore forest cover in a watershed area that serves São Paulo and other urban centers has restored 5,000 hectares (12,400 acres) since 2016.
- The Conservador da Mantiqueira program includes 425 municipalities in the Mantiqueira Mountains in the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais.
- The program was inspired by the smaller Conservador das Águas project in the municipality of Extrema, Minas Gerais state, which has planted more than 2 million native trees since it started in 2005, and pioneered the use of payment for ecosystem services (PES) in Brazil.
- The Mantiqueira Mountains watershed, part of the Atlantic Forest, is the source of the largest rivers supplying water to southeastern Brazil’s major cities.
Bringing back large mammals boosts restoration of entire ecosystems: Study
- Large mammals play crucial ecological roles by influencing the behavior of other animals in the food chain and shaping the structure and composition of their environments.
- A new study that looks at global opportunities for the restoration, reintroduction and rewilding of large mammals across the world’s terrestrial ecoregions found that just 15% of the world’s land area supports intact large mammal assemblages.
- The study suggests that returning just 20 large mammal species to their historic habitats could restore intact large mammal communities across almost one-quarter of the Earth’s land area.
- The scientists behind the study recommend large mammal rewilding be incorporated into area-based conservation targets being considered under the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework and into restoration efforts under the U.N.’s Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030.
Giant anteaters lead biodiversity resurgence in Argentina’s Iberá
- In 2007, the first pair of giant anteaters was reintroduced into Argentina’s Iberá reserve, a region from which it had gone extinct decades earlier.
- The success of that program created the blueprint for reintroducing other native species, including Pampas deer, giant river otters, and red-and-green macaws.
- The reintroduction program rescued anteaters from hunters and people keeping them as pets in northern Argentina.
- Today, more than 200 anteaters live free in four population centers in the Iberá reserve.
As Australia faces new fire reality, forest restoration tactics reevaluated
- More than 24 million hectares (59 million acres) burned during Australia’s devastating “Black Summer” bushfire season of 2019-2020, which formed part of a confirmed climate change-driven trend of worsening fire weather and larger, more intense forest fires.
- Scientists are still assessing the extent of the damage and are calling for a greater focus on understanding the effects of fires. Bushfires in Australia have been worsening for more than two decades as escalating drought places pressure on forest resilience and recovery.
- Since 2003, alpine ash (Eucalyptus delegatensis) and mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnens), the world’s tallest flowering plant, have been the focus of Victoria state’s largest post-fire reseeding effort ever. But the Black Summer fires caused foresters to reevaluate the effectiveness and future of this initiative.
- With future wildfires expected to see ferocity equal to the 2019-20 fire season, forest managers are questioning traditional tree restoration approaches, with some even wondering if regrowing forests is viable. Researchers are actively testing more interventionist approaches, such as replanting seeds and seedlings with genetically fire-resilient traits.
Malaysian officials dampen prospects for giant, secret carbon deal in Sabah
- The attorney general of the Malaysian state of Sabah has said that a contentious deal for the right to sell credits for carbon and other natural capital will not come into force unless certain provisions are met.
- Mongabay first reported that the 100-year agreement, which involves the protection of some 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) from activities such as logging, was signed in October 2021 between the state and a Singapore-based firm called Hoch Standard.
- Several leaders in the state, including the attorney general, have called for more due diligence on the companies involved in the transaction.
- Civil society representatives say that a technical review of the agreement is necessary to vet claims about its financial value to the state and its feasibility.
Tukupu: The women of the Kariña community, guardians of Venezuela’s forests
- Tukupu is Venezuela’s first Indigenous forest business, sustainably managing and reforesting 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres) of the Imataca Forest Reserve in the south-east of the country.
- The business is led mainly by women who have used their ancestral knowledge to restore over 312 hectares (770 acres) of forest, reforest another 113 (280 acres) and dedicate 189 (468 acres) to agroforestry.
- According to the FAO, the equivalent of more than 23 million tonnes of carbon emissions have been avoided, either directly or indirectly, through the project.
- One of the key points of the project has been to figure out how the resources from the forest can be commercialised in a sustainable way that also benefits members of the community.
Indonesia on track with peatland restoration, but bogged down with mangroves
- Programs to restore areas of degraded tropical peatland and mangroves had mixed fortunes in their first year, with the former racing to 25% of its four-year target, and the latter achieving less than 6%.
- Officials and experts say a key obstacle to the mangrove restoration program is the opposition of the communities clearing the mangrove forests to establish shrimp and fish farms.
- Lack of funding was also an issue, with the mangrove budget slashed and redirected toward Indonesia’s COVID-19 pandemic response.
- Experts say the government needs to find a middle ground with shrimp and fish farmers, including by helping them boost their productivity so they can operate smaller farms and dedicate a greater area to rehabilitation.
Young environmentalists ‘plant the future’ in Colombia’s Amazon
- Young people like Felipe “Pipe” Henao in Guaviare, Colombia, are using tree planting and social media to raise awareness and spread the message of protecting and valuing the environment.
- Colombia’s Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM) recorded a nationwide deforestation rate of 171,685 hectares (424,242 acres) in 2020, with Guaviare department in the Amazon being one of the worst hit.
- Despite the damage being done, civil society efforts are already showing gains with efforts like Henao’s.
- His organization alone has connected with more than 150 companies and organizations in and around the town of Calamar and more than 1,800 families, and mobilized more than 1,000 young people to volunteer to clean rivers, protect wetlands and plant more than 60,000 trees.
Here’s how science is trying to conserve the monarch butterfly’s forests
- A team of Mexican scientists are developing a successful experiment that allows for the recovery and maintenance of endemic trees in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve that provide a habitat for monarch butterflies every winter.
- The team is employing a mix of natural restoration, soil conservation and active reforestation that has so far achieved a survival rate of 83 to 84 percent, at least three times more successful than some government reforestation programs.
- According to Dr. Cuauhtémoc Sáenz-Romero, one of the researchers of the project, forests where monarch butterfly colonies are located are becoming more susceptible to climate events through unusual foliage loss and increased woodland mortality.
- Researchers have started to implement the “assisted migration” of oyamel firs (Abies religiosa) to higher altitudes in the reserve, where they can best resist changing climatic conditions.
By cultivating seaweed, Indigenous communities restore connection to the ocean
- In many places, Indigenous communities are working to restore seaweed species that have been traditional food sources or supported traditional diets.
- From kelp farms in Alaska to seaweed-focused community education in Hawai‘i, the projects take many forms.
- These Indigenous groups are reemphasizing the ability of marine algae and plants to support food sovereignty, climate resilience, and connections to tradition.
Indonesia aims for sustainable fish farming with ‘aquaculture villages’
- Indonesia plans to have a network of 136 villages dedicated to aquaculture by the end of this year.
- The initiative is part of the government’s efforts to boost exports of its world-renowned aquaculture commodities, namely shrimp, lobster, crab and seaweed.
- Experts have welcomed the plan, but say it must be supported by sound environmental planning, particularly avoiding the clearing of mangrove forests and ensuring proper waste management.
- Indonesia is one of the top exporters of farmed seafood, but fish farming in the country has long come at the expense of carbon-rich mangrove forests and other important coastal ecosystems.
Indonesia’s Womangrove collective reclaims the coast from shrimp farms
- A women’s collective in Indonesia’s Tanakeke Islands has restored dozens of hectares of mangroves since its founding six years ago.
- The Womangrove collective focuses on replanting abandoned shrimp and fish farms that were originally established in cleared mangrove areas, and have to date planted more than 110,000 seedlings.
- Indonesia has more mangrove area than any other country in the world, but has lost half of it in the past 30 years, mostly to shrimp and fish farms.
The year in rainforests 2021
- 2021 was a year where tropical forests featured more prominently in global headlines than normal thanks to rising recognition of the role they play in addressing climate change and biodiversity loss.
- Despite speculation in the early months of the pandemic that slowing economic activity might diminish forest clearing, loss of both primary forests and tree cover in the tropics accelerated between 2019 and 2020. We don’t yet know how much forest was cut down in 2021, but early indications like rising deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon suggest that forest loss will be on the high end of the range from the past decade.
- The following is a look at some of the major tropical rainforest storylines from 2021. It is not an exhaustive review.
Australia’s rainforest species gain ground through landscape linkages
- Corridors of planted rainforest trees — landscape linkages — are a straightforward, but costly, on-ground action that can repair past damage and bolster ecosystem resilience in Australia’s Wet Tropics region.
- In the Atherton Tablelands wildlife corridors, now in their third decade, the diversity of naturally regenerating plant species has increased, with trees, vines, rattans, shrubs, palms, ferns and orchids colonizing the planted sites.
- The corridors are providing connectivity and additional habitat for a range of rainforest wildlife, including some threatened by climate change.
- To thoroughly measure the biodiversity outcomes of the linkages, monitoring would need to be more regular, and target a broader range of taxa.
Global ecosystem restoration progress: How and who’s tracking it?
- Nature-based climate solutions currently being widely touted include the restoration of the world’s degraded forests and other ecosystems in order to store more carbon. But while many restoration pledges have been made by many nations via many initiatives, the monitoring and tracking of their success remains murky.
- That’s because, while deforestation can easily be seen from satellites, effective and accurate ecosystem restoration tracking requires systems for long-term ground-truthing, for measuring carbon storage over decades, and for improvements in biodiversity and the boosting of local economies.
- Among the many ecosystem restoration initiatives now underway are the 2021 Glasgow Forest Declaration and the Bonn Challenge, along with the restoration commitments made as part of national emissions reductions plans under the Paris Climate Agreement (nationally determined contributions or NDCs).
- Strides toward better restoration tracking are being made by initiatives like the Bonn Challenge’s Restoration Barometer and the Brazilian Restoration and Reforestation Observatory — though more work is needed to secure globally accurate tracking.
Decline of threatened bird highlights planning importance of bison releases
- In a recent study, a team of biologists found that the release of American bison (Bison bison) on a small section of North American grassland led to declines in a species of bird called the bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus), likely because the density of the bison in the fenced-in study area was too high.
- Bison once numbered in the tens of millions on the Great Plains, but hunting drove the population down to around a thousand by the end of the 1800s.
- Concerted efforts to protect remaining wild populations and reintroduce the animal to parts of the Plains has resulted in a resurgence, and the species is no longer in danger of imminent extinction.
- However, the results of the bobolink study reveals that bison releases and reintroductions must be done carefully to avoid negative impacts on the broader ecosystem.
Indigenous leader sues over Borneo natural capital deal
- An Indigenous leader in Sabah is suing the Malaysian state on the island of Borneo over an agreement signing away the rights to monetize the natural capital coming from the state’s forests to a foreign company.
- Civil society and Indigenous organizations say local communities were not consulted or asked to provide input prior to the agreement’s signing on Oct. 28.
- Further questions have arisen about whether the company, Hoch Standard, that secured the rights under the agreement has the required experience or expertise necessary to implement the terms of the agreement.
Indonesian peat restoration has more benefits than it costs, study finds
- The benefits of effective Indonesian peatland restoration — blocking drainage canals to restore water levels and reestablishing vegetation cover — will outweigh the cost of restoration, according to a new study.
- Following the severe fire season of 2015 that destroyed vast swaths of peatland, the administration of President Joko Widodo has targeted restoring 2.5 million hectares (6.2 million acres) of degraded peatland across the archipelago.
- The authors of the new study used satellite data and models to estimate that, if completed, peatland restoration would have contributed significant reductions for 2004-2015 in fire losses and damages, CO2 emissions, PM2.5 particle emissions, health-related losses, and land-cover losses.
- Indonesia has 21 million hectares of peatland that stores an estimated 57 million metric tons of carbon, roughly 55% of the world’s tropical peatland carbon.
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