Nigerian conservationist Rachel Ikemeh has been named the 2026 Rolex Award laureate, for her work with communities in the Niger Delta to protect the region’s ecology and the critically endangered Niger Delta red colobus monkey. The red colobus (Piliocolobus epieni), a monkey known as epieni by the region’s communities, is listed as one of the world’s 25 most endangered primates by the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority. It was first described scientifically in 1993. At the time, there were about 10,000 epieni estimated to be living across its limited range in the Niger Delta. However, by 2013, their numbers had plunged to just hundreds rather than thousands of individuals, Ikemeh noted in a study. In 2021, Ikemeh and her colleagues helped establish a 1,010-hectare (2,496-acre) community-protected area for the epieni in Apoi, a town within the monkey’s range. By 2024, the monkey’s population had doubled within the community-protected forest, from 180-200 individuals in 2021, Ikemeh told Mongabay by email. She added the team has since helped create community conservation areas in the neighboring communities of Garnaut and Kokoloama. The award “feels less like a personal honour and more like validation for the community model itself,” Ikemeh said. She added she’s optimistic about the epieni’s future because she’s seen community perception around their conservation model shift over the years. “[T]he same community who once suspected we’d come to ‘collect their forest’ for the government now talk about epieni as a source of pride, something that put their village on the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

A U.S. federal court recently ruled that residents of Jackson, Mississippi, don’t have a constitutional right to truthful information from public officials, nor the right to municipal drinking water that is free of lead, a neurotoxin. “The Constitution does not provide redress for every governmental wrongdoing,” Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, who was appointed by U.S. President Donald Trump, wrote in the majority opinion. The case was brought by a group of Jackson residents in 2022 who alleged that the city allowed lead to enter the municipal water system and then lied to residents saying the water was safe, though they knew it was not. “Knowing what is in our water is fundamental to protecting public health,” Caroline Leary, general counsel at the U.S.-based nonprofit Environmental Working Group, told Mongabay by email. Jackson is home to roughly 150,000 people. Nearly a quarter of them are children under 18 who are particularly vulnerable to the potentially life-long toxic impacts of lead exposure including seizures, lowered IQ, impaired brain development and even death. The plaintiffs alleged that several of their children have been diagnosed with lead poisoning and now require special educational, medical, sociological, occupational and disability services. The plaintiffs also argued that exposure to contaminated water and the failure to be informed about the risks violated their 14th amendment due process right to bodily integrity. A November 2025 ruling by a three-judge panel of the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. On the final day of a two-week expedition, where researchers were searching for a “lost” species along Papua New Guinea’s Sepik River, Helen Asu arrived with two small, greenish-brown fish. She had caught them while fishing for prawns with an umben, a traditional hand net, near Imbando village in East Sepik province. They were spinach pipefish (Microphis spinachioides), a species known only from the Sepik and not recorded by scientists since 1985, reports Mongabay’s Spoorthy Raman. “It was honestly an incredible moment,” said Jerrica Agebigo, a researcher at the Papua New Guinea University of Technology and the New Guinea Binatang Research Centre, who led the expedition. “When Helen showed the fish to us, I immediately realized that we had found something very special.” The spinach pipefish is a freshwater relative of seahorses and seadragons. It grows to about 15 centimeters (6 inches) and uses its elongated snout to catch small prey. Its coloring helps conceal it among water lilies and other plants along the banks of the Sepik, Papua New Guinea’s longest river. Almost everything else about it remains uncertain. The specimen used to describe the species was held at Hamburg’s natural history museum, but was destroyed during the second world war. When the fish was last assessed for the IUCN Red List in 2016, it was classified as data deficient. It later became one of the 10 most sought-after species on the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Two species of trees helped Japan build millions of homes after World War II. However, pollen from those same trees has also fueled a nationwide hay fever allergy. More than 40% of Japan’s population now suffers from hay fever, locally called kafunsho. That’s nearly double the rate in the U.S., reports contributor Jonathan Vit for Mongabay. “Right after the New Year in January, my nose starts to get a little itchy,” Mariko Aoki, who works as a secretary at the National Diet, Japan’s legislature, told Mongabay. “It peaks in March, and the sneezing, runny nose, itchy throat and itchy eyes are really bad. It lasts all the way until just before Golden Week,” which runs from April 29 to May 5. Two tree species are largely to blame: sugi (Cryptomeria japonica) and hinoki (Chamaecyparis obtusa). Both are fast-growing trees that were widely planted for timber after bombing during the war left Japan in need of millions of homes. Today, forests cover roughly 70% of Japan, and 41% of those forests are planted. Sugi trees account for roughly 40% of planted forests, while hinoki accounts for another 25%. That means two-thirds of the nation’s cultivated forests are planted with trees that can make people sick. Climate change has made things worse: warming has driven sugi trees to release pollen earlier than they used to, making country’s annual pollen season longer and more severe. To solve its hay fever crisis, the Japanese government announced a plan in 2023 to cut down 20% of sugi trees…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Ocean ecosystems are under extreme stress on several fronts including overfishing, ocean acidification, climate change and marine warming. While ocean conservation efforts often tend to focus on creating marine protected areas, researchers recently stressed the need to move beyond protection toward active recovery using a different approach: Marine rewilding. In a new perspective paper, the researchers laid out eight key principles that can guide such rewilding. The concept of “rewilding” is usually applied to terrestrial ecosystems, where the goal is to restore ecological processes and create resilient, self-sustaining ecosystems with minimal human interventions. Gavin Stark, a post-doctoral researcher with the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, and his colleagues, write that one important principle of marine rewilding is that people can’t simply be fenced out of the process. “You cannot really separate people from the rewilding process inside the marine ecosystems,” Stark told Mongabay in a video call. Another key principle of marine rewilding is restoring food webs, which may include reintroducing top predators such as sharks. In 2024, for example, Mongabay reported on a project where eggs of the endangered Indo-Pacific leopard shark (Stegostoma tigrinum) raised in an aquarium in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., were shipped to nurseries in Raja Ampat, Indonesia. So far, the project has released more than 60 young sharks into the protected waters of Raja Ampat with the goal of restoring balance to the region’s coral reef ecosystem.  The authors note that along with restoring food webs, strengthening connectivity between ecosystems is also a pillar…This article was originally published on Mongabay

In the Indian Himalayas, numerous species of colorful pheasants roam the understory, pecking at seeds, roots, leaves, berries, and insects. These large, ornate birds are vital to the Himalayan ecosystem. But some species now face increasing pressures from habitat degradation and hunting, reports contributor Hirra Azmat for Mongabay India. Among them is the white-crested kalij pheasant (Lophura leucomelanos hamiltoni). It’s a highly adaptable bird capable of living in habitats ranging from coniferous forests to scrublands and forest edges near human settlements. “Like other pheasant species, it plays an essential role in Himalayan ecosystems by forming a major prey base for carnivores and raptors,” said Arif Nabi Lone, a researcher at the University of Kashmir’s Department of Zoology. “Besides, it also acts as a seed disperser and soil aerator.” The white-crested kalij pheasant isn’t considered threatened on the IUCN Red List. However, in a 2025 study, Lone and his colleagues interviewed communities around two protected areas in the Indian-administered region of Jammu and Kashmir, and identified several threats to the bird, including habitat degradation, hunting, livestock grazing, and mushroom collection. “Timber and firewood collection, resource extraction and deforestation are degrading its habitat,” Lone said. “Hunting and overgrazing are other serious threats. Mushroom collection is particularly concerning because it coincides with the breeding season, and people searching for mushrooms often disturb nesting females, reducing their breeding success.” Human activities may also be threatening a rarer pheasant species: the western tragopan (Tragopan melanocephalus). Listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, the bird…This article was originally published on Mongabay

A new study has found that in Ecuador’s Amazon, Indigenous territories without formal conservation contracts maintained forest conditions just as well as formal protected areas. Ecuador has three different approaches to forest governance: Forests protected by government institutions, forests managed by local communities under formal conservation agreements and Indigenous territories without formal conservation agreements. To find out the state of forests under these different policies, researchers used satellite data to examine three metrics: Long-term changes in vegetation greenness as an indication of degradation or improvement in forest cover; abrupt changes in forest condition due to more acute disturbances like human settlements, roads and agricultural fields; and how forest productivity responded to the 2015-2016 El Niño drought — a climate phenomenon that causes extreme changes in rainfall and temperature patterns. They found that community-protected forests performed best overall in some measures, particularly resilience after drought. These forests were under formal contracts such as a Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) program, which provides communities with financial incentives to refrain from any commercial activity that disturbs the natural forest. However, Indigenous territories without similar formal conservation agreements and who can use natural resources for subsistence and cultural preservation also had forest condition patterns comparable to the other governance regimes. In fact, they had the greatest proportion of areas showing positive long-term trends in vegetation greenness. “From a practical perspective, our results suggest that conservation is not only about drawing lines on a map,” lead author Fernando Troya, currently based in Ecuador, who conducted…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Scientists have identified a new-to-science, reddish-brown snake from specimens found in the forests of Papua New Guinea  and named it after Slash, the lead guitarist of the rock band Guns N’ Roses. Slash’s groundsnake (Lielaphis slashi) is the twentieth species to be confirmed within the genus Lielaphis, a group of groundsnakes found primarily on the island of New Guinea – which is split between Papua New Guinea in the east and Indonesia in the west, the researchers reported in a recent study. The snake’s name honors the musician Saul Hudson, professionally known as “Slash”, of Guns N’ Roses, for his lifelong promotion and advocacy of snakes, zoos, and museums, the authors write. “As a long-time herpephile, I am extremely honored and humbled to have Lielaphis slashi from New Guinea named after me,” Slash said in a press release. “It is really exciting, I never would have imagined this moment would arrive.” Slash’s groundsnake has a reddish-brown, unpatterned back and an unmarked white or cream underside. Study co-author Christopher Austin, professor of natural science and curator of amphibians and reptiles at Louisiana State University in the U.S., first found the snake in July 2006 in a largely undisturbed secondary forest in Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea. “Snakes in general are pretty hard to find, and these nocturnal snakes are especially challenging to find,” Austin told Mongabay by email. “Given that there are several venomous snake species in New Guinea, one needs to be especially careful finding these snakes at night.” Austin…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Cities can become dangerously hot during extreme heat events, making it increasingly important for urban planners to find ways to reduce temperatures and protect people from heat exposure. Woodlands, grasslands, lakes and rivers can create significantly cooler microclimates, offering one potential way to reduce urban heat, a new study finds. The study focused on Guildford, a town in southeast England with a variety of green-blue infrastructure (GBI) types. GBI are land and water-based features integrated with each other and the built environment to provide mutually beneficial services, including wildlife corridors, flood mitigation and cooling. In Guildford, researchers collected data from six sites — a woodland, grassland, lakeside, vegetated green wall, small pocket park and riverside — and compared how effective they are in cooling the areas around them. They compared each site with a built-up location. The team established sensors at each site and recorded temperatures at one-minute intervals, from June 2023 till the end of August 2025. These sensors recorded temperatures through both normal climatic conditions and several extreme heat events. The researchers also used satellite data over the same timeline to get a more robust picture of the conditions in each location. The team found that all six GBI sites were cooler by 1.81-2.49° Celsius (3.26-4.48° Fahrenheit) than their built-up comparison site. The cooling was more pronounced during extreme heat events. The woodland site was upward of 6°C (almost 11°F) cooler than the built environment on the hottest days. The riverside and pocket park were cooler by 3.5°C…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. For more than three decades, Willie Tucker has helped care for Sierra Leone’s western chimpanzees and watched the pressures on them change, reports contributor Patricia Sia Ngevao for Mongabay. Tucker, widely known as “Pa Willie,” helped establish Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in 1995. Since then, the sanctuary has rescued and cared for hundreds of chimpanzees, many confiscated from the illegal pet trade. It now houses more than 120 critically endangered western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus), indicating that trafficking remains a serious problem. Tacugama’s work also shows why wildlife protection cannot be separated from local livelihoods. The sanctuary supports nearby communities through livestock, seed, and other livelihood programs intended to reduce dependence on hunting and forest resources. Families with more dependable sources of food and income may have less need to exploit wildlife habitat. Such programs can also give communities a direct stake in conservation and make restrictions on forest use more workable. Public recognition has helped as well. In 2019, Sierra Leone designated the western chimpanzee as its national animal. Tucker says the decision increased awareness of the species and encouraged greater respect for it. National symbols do not protect habitat by themselves, but they can support education, enforcement, and political attention. Tacugama’s experience offers several practical lessons for conservation organizations. Rescue centers can do more than rehabilitate individual animals. They can train local staff, document wildlife crime, assist law enforcement, educate visitors, and…This article was originally published on Mongabay

A massive wildfire within a national park in Indonesia has forced a total closure of one of the country’s best-known tourist destinations. Some 899 hectares (2,222 acres) of savanna and forest within Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park (TNBTS) in East Java province have been destroyed by fire as of the morning of Aug. 11, the provincial disaster management agency told Mongabay. The fire, which broke out on Aug. 3 in the park’s eastern entrance, is suspected to be human-caused, TNBTS chief Rudijanta Tjahja Nugraha told local media. TNBTS spokesperson Endrip Wahyutama confirmed the blaze originated along a path used as a shortcut by local residents that bypasses the park’s official tourist roads. “The source is … not a tourist location, and not a public road either,” Endrip said as quoted by Detik.com. The Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park Agency, which manages the protected area, has ordered it closed until further notice. Daryono Perwira Sakti, a disaster mitigation educator who previously oversaw the earthquake and tsunami directorate at the BMKG, Indonesia’s weather agency, posted on social media that it’s crucial the park be closed because vegetation on loose volcanic soil there is highly vulnerable to severe fires, which could trigger more disaster. “The extreme heat from this fire not only destroys vegetation cover and natural seed reserves (seed bank), but also triggers the formation of a water-repellent soil layer,” Daryono wrote. He said this water-repellent soil layer eliminates water absorption into the soil, elevating risks of massive gully erosion and landslides…This article was originally published on Mongabay

There’s no conservation motive or benefit behind the Uzbekistan government’s recent releases of more than 2,000 captive-bred Asian houbara bustards across its desert regions, according to an expert on the threatened species. The government has touted the releases over the past three months as a wildlife restoration effort, but Nigel Collar, a conservation biologist at BirdLife International, suggested the birds are meant to serve as quarry for hunting parties. “In reality both areas [where they were released] are hunting concessions for Gulf State falconers and these are birds being put out in the wild simply to provide ‘sport,’” Collar, who also co-chairs the Bustard Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, told Mongabay by email. “[T]here is no conservation strategy related to these releases, because they are not intended for conservation except in the sense that they can absorb some of the hunting pressure on wild populations,” he added. Neither Falcon Hunting Solutions LLC nor Uzbekistan’s National Committee on Ecology and Climate Change, both involved in the releases, had responded to Mongabay’s requests for comment by the time this story was published. The Asian houbara (Chlamydotis macqueenii) is listed as vulnerable to extinction on the IUCN’s Red List. It migrates between Central and South Asia and the Middle East, and is hunted intensively across this range. Uzbekistan released nearly 900 of the birds in the Aral Sea region of Karakalpakstan in May this year, followed by some 670 birds in June, according to statements from the National…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Gabon has ended its 19-year fisheries partnership with the European Union, which allowed EU industrial vessels to target tuna in Gabonese waters in exchange for payment, arguing the agreement no longer serves the country’s economic interests. The decision follows a June 2025 Council of Ministers meeting at which the government announced it would seek to renegotiate the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement (SFPA), before formally ending it on June 29, 2026. In a statement last year, the Gabonese government said the massive exploitation of fishery resources wasn’t commensurate with the returns Gabon should receive in exchange. In a speech in January, government spokesperson Charles Edgard Mombo, said the move to cancel the agreement “reflects Gabon’s firm commitment to strengthening its sovereignty over its fishery resources and promoting a renewed, balanced, sustainable, and mutually beneficial cooperation framework.” The SPFA between the EU and Gabon was established in 2007 and implemented through three protocols lasting between three and six years. The latest protocol covering 2021–2026 allowed up to 27 EU purse seiners, commercial fishing boats that use large, vertical nets; six pole-and-line tuna vessels and four exploratory crustacean trawlers to fish in Gabonese waters. An independent evaluation commissioned by the European Commission found the EU paid Gabon an average of €2.6 million ($3 million) annually between 2021 and 2024 in exchange for access to 32,000 tons of tuna. However, it also found that Gabon captured just 23% of the total economic value generated; nearly half accrued to other countries because EU vessels made…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Kazakhstan has released its first tiger into the wild more than seven decades since the last confirmed sighting of the big cat in the country. On July 31, 2026, an adult female Amur tiger called Umit, which means “hope” in Kazakh, leapt from her cage on the back of a pickup truck, as she was released into the wilderness of the 450,000-hectare (1.1 million-acre) Ile-Balkhash State Nature Reserve in southeastern Kazakhstan. According to a statement issued by the Kazakhstan government on Aug. 3, Umit is fitted with a satellite tracking collar to monitor her movements and behavior in real time. “Today we are truly witnessing a historic event,” said Kazakh Ecology and Natural Resources Minister Yerlan Nyssanbayev in the statement. “For the first time in over 70 years since tigers were wiped out in Kazakhstan, a tiger has been reintroduced to its historic range.” The area of the Ile-Balkhash Reserve where Umit was released was once inhabited by the extinct Caspian (Turian) tiger. Its last confirmed sighting in Kazakhstan was recorded in 1948. Umit is an Amur tiger, a population of the mainland Asian tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) native to the Russian Far East and northeastern China. The Amur and Caspian tigers were once recognized as two distinct tiger subspecies, but the IUCN recognized both as Panthera tigris tigris in 2017. Preparations for returning tigers to Kazakhstan have taken more than a decade, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources said. The reserve was established in 2018 to create the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. The best-known wildlife recoveries in the U.S. are often associated with the West. Yet some important gains have occurred east of the Mississippi, among cities, roads, farms, and landscapes altered over several centuries. Andrew Moore’s new book, Beasts of the East: The Fall and Rise of America’s Eastern Wilderness, examines the decline and partial return of animals that once occupied the region in abundance. Before European settlement and large-scale land conversion, eastern habitats supported bison, elk, moose, woodland caribou, cranes, black bears, passenger pigeons, and Carolina parakeets. Many disappeared as forests were cleared, wetlands drained, and wildlife hunted. Some losses were permanent. Other species have returned through reintroductions, habitat restoration, hunting restrictions, and long-term management, reports Mongabay’s Erik Hoffner. The state of Kentucky now has roughly 10,000 elk (Cervus canadensis) across a 16-county restoration zone, the largest herd east of the Mississippi. At Nachusa Grasslands in the state of Illinois, conservationists have restored tallgrass prairie on former farmland and reintroduced bison (Bison bison). Forest regrowth across parts of New England has helped moose, bears, fishers, and otters expand their ranges. These recoveries have also brought some problems. An animal may find enough food and cover while still struggling to coexist with people. Elk damage crops, browse vegetation, and get hit by vehicles. Pumas (Puma concolor) could survive in much of the East, where forests and deer are plentiful, although proposals to restore them…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Human-induced climate change has more than doubled the likelihood of the extreme weather conditions that fueled Canada’s destructive 2026 wildfire season, finds a rapid analysis. As of early August, thousands of wildfires torched more than 3.8 million hectares (9.4 million acres) across the country — an area already significantly in excess of Canada’s 30-year annual average of 2.7 million hectares (6.7 million acres). The 2026 wildfire season has escalated with astonishing speed, with approximately 94% of the total burned area accumulating in a brief five-week window between late June and late July. In its analysis of Canada’s wildfires, the team at World Weather Attribution (WWA), a global network of scientists who examine the influence of climate change on extreme weather events, focused on a metric called daily severity rating (DSR). It integrates temperature, wind, humidity and dryness to measure how difficult a fire is to suppress once ignited. By combining observational data with climate models, the researchers found that the kind of fires that burned in July 2026 can now be expected in today’s climate influenced by greenhouse gas emissions every two to six years in the Northwest Territories and every six to 15 years in Ontario. In a pre-industrial, cooler climate, such fires would occur every 50 years or so.   “Our research is yet another piece of evidence for this shift being due to climate change,” Theodore Keeping, research associate in extreme weather and climate change at Imperial College London, said in a press release. “The geographic spread…This article was originally published on Mongabay

As biodiversity on Earth faces rapid decline, scientists are advocating for a new conservation approach: Save habitat for primates and protect countless other species along with them. For long, conservation efforts and funding have prioritized umbrella species such as tigers and giant pandas on the basis that protecting the vast areas they depend on can help protect other wildlife that live in the same ecosystems. A 2025 study found that monkeys, apes and other charismatic primates are potential “umbrella species” as well. They, too, often require large tracts of healthy habitat to survive. And by safeguarding the vast territories these animals need, countless other wildlife that share their ecosystem would also be protected, researchers say. The researchers analyzed the habitats of 16 primate species across China’s biodiverse Yunnan province. They also examined the ranges of 601 species of threatened and endemic mammals, amphibians, birds and reptiles, as well as 4,010 species of seed plants found in Yunnan. Their analysis showed that if just 30% of Yunnan were designated a primate conservation priority area, 86% of the animals and 72% of the seed plants would have about a third of their habitats protected. Protecting that area would also protect for more than half of the provinces’ annual carbon storage, the study found. Conservation groups elsewhere, too, have advocated for protecting the habitats of charismatic primate species as a way to extend protection to several other species. For example, the nonprofit Rainforest Trust has sought to protect habitats of the critically endangered…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Over the past two decades, Belize lost around 20% of its forest cover — more than 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres). Much of it is the result of agricultural expansion by Mennonites, the conservative Christian denomination that arrived in the country more than six decades ago. To understand the corporate machinery that’s allowed the Mennonites to expand so quickly, often outbidding private landowners and environmental groups trying to protect the rainforest, a Mongabay investigation conducted extensive interviews and reviewed dozens of land records. The investigation found a unique system of strategic land titling and pooled financial resources, with communities consolidating numerous properties under a single corporation or church entity. “[Mennonite communities] pride themselves on being more autonomous,” Elma Kay, chair of the board of directors of the nonprofit Maya Forest Corridor Trust, told Mongabay during the investigation. “They’re very efficient at managing their finances, harnessing those to acquire more land as a community, as a collective.” Many Mennonite communities live without modern technology, rejecting electricity and other conveniences. At the same time, some have adopted heavy machinery for agriculture, helping them become one of the leading national producers of crops and poultry. In the process, they’ve consolidated hundreds of thousands of hectares of land under single corporations and church entities. Individual Mennonites and their families are issued certificates to occupy the land by community leadership, rather than a traditional title. With the certificate, the land can be transferred within the community without being legally bought or sold, leaving development largely off…This article was originally published on Mongabay

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. A harpy eagle needs large trees for nesting and enough surrounding forest for its young to learn to fly. The Amazon also depends on the eagle. By controlling populations of monkeys, sloths, and other animals, the predator helps limit damage to the forest canopy. Its decline can therefore indicate broader changes in the ecosystem. Governments often assess biodiversity by counting species. These figures are useful, although they don’t show whether an ecosystem is still functioning. A recent paper in Frontiers in Science argues that conservation policy should also track ecological processes, including predation, migration, pollination, and the movement of water and nutrients, reports Mongabay’s John Cannon. The authors propose using the Three Global Conditions Framework, developed in 2019, to decide what different landscapes require. It divides the planet according to the degree of human influence. Large, relatively intact areas need protection from new development. Landscapes where farming and settlements coexist with nature require management that maintains ecological functions. Heavily altered areas need restoration. The approach could help countries meet the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, which calls for the loss of nature to be halted and reversed by 2030. Progress varies widely among countries. The agreement is not legally binding, and national governments determine how its targets are applied. The paper uses the term “nature positive” to describe an outcome in which ecosystems are healthier at the end of the decade than they were…This article was originally published on Mongabay

A mountainous reserve near Manila, the Philippine capital, is a critical ecological refuge, harboring high levels of plant diversity despite its proximity to the highly urbanized city, according to a recent study. The findings come from surveys done 10 years earlier, however, and mounting pressures on the area’s forests since then may have had an impact, the authors say. As the last remaining natural lowland forest in Cavite province, on the southern shores of Manila Bay, Mounts Palay-palay-Mataas-na-Gulod Protected Landscape serves as a vital stronghold for Philippine biodiversity, researchers say. In July 2016, they surveyed plants within the landscape, known as MPPMGPL. At the time, they documented 294 species of plants across the landscape’s varied habitats, from grasslands and secondary forests to old-growth stands. They found that 42 species, or 16%, are found only in the Philippines, while 31 species are classified as threatened on national or international red lists. “The most remarkable finding is that this landscape … harbors an incredibly high concentration of biodiversity despite being so close to highly urbanized zones,” study lead author Enrico Replan, an assistant professor at the Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology (IESM) at the University of the Philippines Diliman, told Mongabay by email. The study also identified 43 species that likely represent new records for Cavite province, “filling major geographic knowledge gaps,” Replan said. Among the most significant findings was the dominance of guijo (Shorea guiso), a critically endangered tree species, in the forest’s interior core. This highlights the role of…This article was originally published on Mongabay