Evidence: method/biodiversity

217 articles. Distilled findings; bold = already cited in the docs.

Sustainable glamping architecture design (guide) — The article examines glamping architecture, focusing on how tent, dome, and pod structures can balance luxury with sustainability, local culture, and accessibility. It highlights examples in South…
Artificial reefs for marine ecosystem restoration (guide) — Malaysia and other countries are building artificial reefs, man-made structures placed on the seafloor to mimic natural reefs, encourage coral growth, and attract fish. Projects use materials such as…
Community-led forest restoration in Kerala (guide) — The Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary in Kerala's Wayanad district, a 75-acre site restored from degraded land, now hosts over 2,000 native plant species. Local women employed and trained by the sanctuary…
[cited] Low-cost native tree propagation (guide) — A garden writer describes planting about 250 trees on a clear-cut mountain property in Basque Country, France, at almost no cost. The method relies on gathering native nuts and acorns to scatter, and…
Seagrass carbon capture in Japan (news) — Japan is investing in seagrass research and restoration to use its coastal meadows as a carbon sink in pursuit of its 2050 net-zero target. Government data showed that Japanese forests absorbed 17%…
[cited] Climate-resilient tree species for European reforestation (news) — A study by researchers from the University of Vienna and the Technical University of Munich, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, examined 69 common European tree species and found that only a…
Low-intensity grazing in Europe (news) — Researchers from iDiv, Leipzig University, and UFZ interviewed 74 farmers, landowners, and livestock managers across eight European case studies (2019-2021) about low-intensity grazing, a practice…
Biodiversity mainstreaming policy effectiveness (news) — Research led by Utrecht University and UFZ Helmholtz Centre analyzed 43 studies and found that biodiversity mainstreaming, the integration of biodiversity targets into sectoral policies, has so far…
Biodiversity loss and infectious disease outbreaks (news) — A meta-analysis of nearly 3,000 data points published in Nature found that five human-caused global change drivers (biodiversity change, climate change, habitat loss, chemical pollution, and…
Human role in rewilding (news) — Sophie Yeo's book Nature's Ghosts argues that human activity can be an integral part of rewilded ecosystems rather than something to exclude. She draws on historical landscape records to show that…
Climate change impacts on pollinators (news) — A review in the journal CABI Reviews concludes that climate change is the most prominent threat to pollinators such as bees, wasps, and butterflies, which are vital for biodiversity, crop yields, and…
Biodiversity conservation effectiveness (news) — A study published in the journal Science analyzed data from thousands of species and found that targeted conservation actions have measurably improved the status of many threatened species. Species…
Migratory freshwater fish population decline (news) — Migratory freshwater fish populations have declined by an average of 81% between 1970 and 2020, according to the latest Living Planet Index, the steepest decline of any monitored freshwater group.…
Butterfly Forest biodiversity research greenhouse (news) — Scientists at the Museo delle Scienze (MUSE) in Trento, Italy, have recreated the humid rainforest habitat of Tanzania's Udzungwa Mountains inside a greenhouse to host free-flying butterflies. The…
Fragmented biodiversity governance in British Columbia (news) — British Columbia has exceptional biodiversity, but its conservation efforts are fragmented, with no independent body coordinating the many actions underway. The article argues that this leaves gaps…
Voluntary biodiversity credits scheme (news) — The South Downs National Park has launched Voluntary Biodiversity Credits, which let businesses and individuals fund habitat restoration on land secured for nature for 30 years. The scheme is the…
Agrivoltaic solar park in Spain (news) — BayWa r.e. has commissioned a 54 MW agrivoltaic solar park in Alhendín, Andalusia, where about 10% of the plot is used for agriculture and row spacing allows farm machinery to pass. A biodiversity…
Local habitat restoration for climate and wildlife (news) — Kent Wildlife Trust has bought a 26-acre former arable farm near Sevenoaks, called Polhill, after a fundraising campaign raised over £195,000. The trust plans to restore the land to wildflower…
Ecuador birding tourism and habitat conservation (news) — Ecuador's birding tourism boom is leading some farmers to convert agricultural land into bird reserves, as with the Ajila family's former dairy farm, which now protects the rare long-wattled…
[cited] European bison rewilding in Portugal (news) — Rewilding Portugal has introduced the first European bison herd to Portugal, with animals sourced from reserves in Poland and joining a bull herd relocated to the Greater Côa Valley in 2023. The…
Rewilding species recovery efforts (news) — To mark World Rewilding Day on March 20, Mongabay highlights four species recovering through rewilding: the great-billed seed finch in Brazil's Cerrado, zebra sharks in Indonesia's Raja Ampat, giant…
Superb lyrebird foraging and ecosystem engineering (news) — Superb lyrebirds actively farm invertebrates by raking and turning forest floor litter, which increases the number and size of worms, centipedes, and spiders they later eat. In a controlled…
Land conversion extinction risk metric (news) — An international team has developed LIFE (Land-cover Change Impacts of Future Extinctions), a map-based metric that gives a near-instant extinction-risk score for land considered for conversion to…
Botanic garden plant conservation capacity (news) — Research from the University of Cambridge, analysing a century of records from 50 botanic gardens and arboreta, finds that these institutions are running out of space to conserve the rarest and most…
Species adaptation strategies for climate change (news) — Researchers have catalogued over 400 strategies for helping species survive climate change, spanning habitat restoration, citizen science, and community-driven conservation. Examples include…
Welsh rewilding and ecosystem restoration (news) — Tir Natur, a Welsh rewilding charity backed by Iolo Williams, raised £70,000 from 662 donations in a crowdfunder that ended on 6 January 2025, with Aviva matchfunding, toward securing over 1,000…
Australian ecosystem threats and biodiversity loss (news) — Scientists have catalogued 49 distinct threats driving the destruction of Australia's ecosystems, spanning habitat loss, invasive species, climate change, pollution, and overfishing. These pressures…
COP16 biodiversity summit progress (news) — Environmentalists and scientists are alarmed by the slow progress revealed at the COP16 biodiversity summit in Cali, Colombia. Only about a quarter of countries submitted updated national…
Public awareness of biodiversity (news) — A survey of 6,000 people in Brazil, China, the US, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, conducted by UEBT with a research firm, found public awareness of biodiversity at a historic high, with…
Global tree species extinction risk (news) — A first global assessment of tree species, published in Science, evaluated nearly 60,000 species and found about 17,500 are threatened with extinction. The study identifies tropical regions such as…
[cited] Nature-positive biodiversity policy in Australia (news) (needs verification) — Australia's planned nature-positive reforms would require only a relative net gain in biodiversity, which still allows species populations to decline. The authors argue for absolute net gains,…
Global Ecosystems Atlas for ecosystem monitoring (news) — The Global Ecosystems Atlas, developed by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), was launched at COP16 to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity on October 22, 2024. It is the first global tool…
Climate and nature crisis interconnection (news) — Governments and experts at a recent global summit argued that climate change and nature collapse are interconnected and must be addressed together, since each worsens the other. They called for…
Biodiversity finance at COP16 (news) — COP16 in Cali, Colombia, was meant to advance the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework's targets, including protecting 30% of land and oceans by 2030. The article argues that wealthy…
Global wildlife population decline (news) — The WWF's 2024 Living Planet report, using an index of 35,000 vertebrate populations of 5,495 species, finds average wildlife population sizes fell 73% between 1970 and 2020. Freshwater populations…
Hope amid ecological decline (news) — The article acknowledges that species extinction and climate instability can produce despair, but argues that examples of ecological recovery justify hope. It points to community-led rewilding, urban…
Tropical forest biodiversity temperature shifts (news) — A study in Conservation Letters found that up to 66 per cent of key biodiversity areas (KBAs) in tropical forests have recently entered a phase of novel mean annual temperature regimes. Because…
Biodiversity credits and their flaws (news) — Byron Swift, a conservationist with over 40 years of experience in Latin America, argues that biodiversity credits are fundamentally flawed and cannot effectively conserve biodiversity. He presents a…
Global tree species extinction risk (news) — A 2021 global assessment, State of the World's Trees, found that about one-third of all tree species, roughly 17,500, are threatened with extinction. A 2022 follow-up by Botanic Gardens Conservation…
Living within planetary boundaries (news) — The article argues that humanity faces interconnected crises, including climate change, biodiversity loss, inequality, and food insecurity, which stem largely from exploitative, growth-focused…
Global wildlife population decline (news) — The WWF and ZSL Living Planet Report 2024 finds that monitored wildlife populations have declined by an average of 73% since 1970, up from 69% in the previous report. The steepest declines occur in…
Measuring business impacts on nature (news) (needs verification) — Businesses can measure their impacts and dependencies on nature despite its complexity, using a three-step process: understanding broad intersections, evaluating specific pressures, and measuring…
Biodiversity-based pest control in crops (news) — A University of Zurich field study found that planting different genotypes of the same plant species together (associative resistance) reduced herbivore damage. Using a new method called Neighbor…
Pollinator-friendly solar farm habitats (news) — Some U.S. solar farms are being planted with native wildflowers and grasses to create pollinator habitats while generating clean energy. The article cites a study finding that insect abundance…
Unknown plant species biodiversity darkspots (news) — Scientists at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, identified 33 global plant diversity darkspots, regions rich in biodiversity where many species remain unnamed, undescribed, and unmapped. Using data on over…
UK butterfly decline and biodiversity loss (news) — Tony Juniper, chair of Natural England, warned that the UK faces potential ecosystem collapse after UK butterfly populations dropped by nearly 50% in 2024, mainly due to habitat loss and pesticide…
Odour-based wildlife monitoring (news) — Deakin University researchers led by Professor Euan Ritchie won the 2024 Celestino Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Science for using animal odours to monitor and conserve threatened…
Skiddaw Forest rewilding and peatland restoration (news) — Cumbria Wildlife Trust has launched a 100-year rewilding project to buy and restore Skiddaw Forest in the Lake District, including its summit, a 3,000-acre site that has long been grazed and largely…
Economic valuation of biodiversity (news) — Yale researchers, publishing in PNAS, propose measuring biodiversity's economic value hierarchically, starting with individual species and aggregating upward to ecosystems. They argue that no single…
[cited] Integrated forest restoration planning (news) — A PNAS study published August 12, 2024 argues that forest restoration should integrate climate mitigation, biodiversity, and community needs, since focusing on one aspect is counterproductive. The…
Southern Ocean biodiversity conservation sites (news) — Researchers led by the University of Colorado Boulder identified 30 new Key Biodiversity Areas in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica that species depend on to persist. The study, published in…
Record-breaking global temperature streak (news) — Global average air and ocean temperatures have been the highest on record for 13 consecutive months, driven by long-term warming from greenhouse gas emissions and amplified by El Niño. The article…
Britain's insect population decline (news) — Surveys drawing on the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme and other long-term insect data show a sharp fall in Britain's insect populations in 2024, with some species nearly gone from parts of their…
Biodiversity-friendly solar farm design (news) — The article argues that solar farms, often seen as a threat to nature, can be designed to benefit biodiversity and local communities by moving away from land-clearing industrial models toward…
Wolf-shepherd coexistence in Portugal (news) — In Montesinho, a protected mountainous region in northeastern Portugal, shepherds have coexisted with Iberian wolves for centuries, and local shepherds report little trouble from the predators. The…
Nature-friendly farming and wildlife recovery (news) — New research from Natural England, the government's advisory body, finds that England's nature-friendly farming schemes boost wildlife, with an average of 25% more breeding birds in areas with more…
Active management of logged forests (news) — New research argues that logged or disturbed forests do not recover simply by being set aside as wilderness, because passive protection halts further damage but leaves existing degradation in place.…
Human land use and past biodiversity (news) — Analysis of fossil pollen records from the Neotoma Paleoecological Database shows that plant diversity generally rose across much of the Northern Hemisphere over the Holocene, often alongside growing…
Coral reef restoration effectiveness (news) — The article argues that coral restoration is largely a feel-good response that does not address the root cause of reef decline, which is climate change driven by human emissions. It cites research…
UK meadow habitat restoration for bumblebees (news) — A national meadow restoration project called Stepping Stones reseeded old hay fields in the UK's Shropshire Hills with native wildflowers and hedgerows. Volunteers have since reported a robust…
Former dairy farm habitat restoration (news) — A former dairy farm in Herefordshire has been restored into a nature reserve with diverse habitats for plants, insects, birds, and mammals. Conservationists reintroduced native species and restored…
UK farm rewilding project (news) — Work has begun to rewild a former UK cattle farm covering several hundred hectares, which had been used for intensive farming for decades. The project involves removing fences, planting native trees…
High Conservation Value area identification (news) — Scientists have developed a toolkit for identifying High Conservation Value (HCV) areas, landscapes and ecosystems with significant environmental, social, and cultural values that need protection.…
Habitat fragmentation in India's hotspots (news) — Roads, dams, plantations, mines, and urban expansion are fragmenting India's biodiversity hotspots, reducing habitat area and increasing isolation between populations. Species that need large,…
UK coastal conservation actions (news) — The Guardian guide outlines practical ways individuals can help protect the UK's coastline, including planting seagrass, recording wildlife sightings, joining beach clean-ups, and respecting habitats…
Invasive plant removal and bird foraging (news) — A study in Biological Invasions found that four invasive woody plants in a Connecticut forest supported arthropod biomass, arthropod protein content, and bird foraging intensity comparable to six…
Apex predator ecosystem restoration (news) — A 20-plus-year Colorado State University experiment in Yellowstone found that removing apex predators caused lasting ecosystem changes that did not reverse after cougars, grizzlies, and wolves…
Carolina azolla as food crop (news) — Penn State researchers report that Carolina azolla, a fast-growing native aquatic fern, has much lower polyphenol content than azolla species grown in Asia and Africa, making it more digestible and…
Biodiversity Impact Credits (news) — Researchers led by Axel Rossberg of Queen Mary University of London propose a simple formula that quantifies business impacts on species extinction risk as tradable Biodiversity Impact Credits,…
Migratory freshwater fish population decline (news) — A 2024 update to the Living Planet Index for Migratory Freshwater Fishes finds an average 81% decline in populations of species such as salmon, trout, eel, and sturgeon between 1970 and 2020. The…
Agroforestry trial at Hope Farm (news) — The RSPB is running an agroforestry trial at its Hope Farm in Cambridgeshire, where rows of trees are planted alongside wheat and barley. The trial will measure effects on crop yields, farm income,…
Shropshire hay meadow restoration (news) — Rare bumblebee numbers have risen in Shropshire after a project restored old hay meadows through traditional management, such as cutting and removing hay at set times to encourage wildflowers.…
Beaver reintroduction and wetland restoration (news) — Fifteen years after beavers were reintroduced to Knapdale Forest in Argyll, Scotland, their dams and lodges have created new wetlands that support endangered water voles, dragonflies, otters, and…
UNESCO biosphere reserve designations (news) — UNESCO approved 11 new biosphere reserves across 11 countries, including first-time designations for Belgium and Gambia, bringing the World Network of Biosphere Reserves to 759 sites in 136…
Bioenergy crop siting and biodiversity (news) — Researchers from the University of Surrey found that where energy crops are planted has a major effect on biodiversity loss. Planting bioenergy crops on existing agricultural land in places such as…
Agrivoltaics and land restoration in New Zealand (news) — Lodestone Energy will partner with the owners of Haldon Station in New Zealand to build and operate a 220 MW solar farm across a 340 ha site that has suffered wind erosion and pest infiltration. The…
Australian biodiversity offset system audit (news) — A recent audit of Australia's biodiversity offset system found that one-third of the land set aside for restoration is in a worse ecological state than before. The review of 20 offset sites indicates…
Protected areas and economic growth (news) — A study of roughly 10,000 protected areas worldwide found a synergistic relationship between protected areas and economic growth in about half of them, with five African countries among the top ten…
Global soil degradation and land loss (news) — UNESCO warns that up to 90% of Earth's land surface could be degraded by 2050, up from roughly 75% of soils already degraded and affecting 3.2 billion people, according to the World Atlas of…
Large-scale coral reef restoration in Hawai‘i (news) — Following the 2015 mass bleaching event that killed many corals along Hawai‘i Island's west coast, ecologist Greg Asner launched ʻĀkoʻakoʻa, a large-scale reef restoration program. The project plans…
Protected areas for threatened species (news) — A study published in Frontiers in Science finds that targeted expansion of protected land covering about 1.2% of Earth's surface could prevent the extinction of thousands of the world's most…
Garden wildlife habitat conservation (news) — The article offers 33 practical measures for making gardens more hospitable to wildlife, centered on the hedgehog highway, a 13cm x 13cm gap in fencing that lets hedgehogs move between gardens. Other…
Payments for ecosystem services in Florida (news) — The article argues that payments for ecosystem services (PES), in which landowners are paid for defined services like wildlife habitat, water storage, and forest conservation, could help conserve the…
Invasive species management in agriculture (news) — Rutgers entomologist Anne Nielsen describes her work on invasive insects such as the brown marmorated stink bug, which has caused major crop losses in New Jersey, including a reported 60 percent loss…
Protected areas and local economic trade-offs (news) — A study of nearly 10,000 protected areas found that conservation zones can preserve natural land without harming local economic growth. Lead author Binbin Li reported that 91% of the areas lost no…
Soil fauna and soil carbon storage (news) — A review of more than 180 scientific articles, led by researchers from the Czech Academy of Sciences, iDiv, Leipzig University, and the Senckenberg Society, finds that soil fauna strongly shape the…
[cited] Indigenous-led wildlife corridor restoration (news) — The Eastern Kuku Yalanji Indigenous people and the NGO Climate Force are establishing a wildlife corridor in Australia's Daintree Rainforest, which is known as the world's oldest tropical rainforest.…
European rewilding and ecosystem restoration (news) — The article presents rewilding, a conservation approach that restores natural processes so ecosystems can recover with minimal human intervention. It illustrates this through four European case…
Edgbaston Reserve endemic species conservation (news) — Edgbaston Reserve, a former cattle and sheep station in outback Queensland that Bush Heritage Australia bought in 2008, is home to more than three dozen species found nowhere else. The reserve has…
Northern Drakensberg protected area creation (news) — South Africa has established the 6,500-hectare Northern Drakensberg Nature Reserve, developed with local communities to protect ancient rock art, grasslands, water sources, and wildlife. The reserve…
Rewilding at the Knepp estate (news) — The film Wilding, directed by David Allen and based on Isabella Tree's book, chronicles how the 3,500-acre Knepp estate in West Sussex was transformed from a debt-laden conventional farm into a…
Farm landscape diversity and biodiversity (news) — A global study led by NTU Singapore analyzed nearly 6,400 farmlands from 122 previous studies across 24 countries and found that diverse crop and non-crop features support more native plant and…
Impact of plant biodiversity loss on carbon emissions and climate… (news) — A recent study reveals that the loss of plant diversity driven by climate change and human activities could release up to 146 billion metric tons of carbon stored in vegetation, equivalent to over 12…
England's wildlife decline and legal targets (news) — A coalition of more than 80 UK nature groups is launching a legal challenge to force the next government to strengthen England's wildlife targets, arguing the current Environmental Improvement Plan…
Ocean heat, oxygen loss, acidification (news) — Oceans are facing a combined 'triple threat' of extreme heat, oxygen loss, and acidification, which the article attributes primarily to human activities such as pollution and fossil fuel emissions.…
eDNA monitoring of freshwater biodiversity (news) — The article explains how environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis identifies species from DNA shed into water, without capturing or disturbing the organisms. It presents eDNA as a non-invasive,…
Native seed availability for restoration (news) — Only about 10% of native plant species are commercially available as seed, which limits restoration projects to a narrow set of species, even though diverse native plantings support wildlife,…
Deep change theory for sustainability (news) — A new U.N. University report argues that sustainability efforts such as recycling and conservation donations are superficial because they tweak systems without changing the underlying structures and…
[cited] Indigenous knowledge in climate biodiversity research (news) — A study by researchers at the Autonomous University of Barcelona reviewed 203 documents with 291 case studies and found that observations of climate change impacts on biodiversity collected by…
AI-driven nature conservation startups (news) — Google announced the first cohort of 15 startups selected for its 10-week Google for Startups Accelerator: AI for Nature, chosen from a competitive applicant pool. The startups use AI and advanced…
[cited] Herbivores shaping European forest plant diversity (news) — A study from Aarhus University, published in Nature Plants, analyzed 917 native forest plant species in Central and Western Europe and found that more than 80% prefer high-light conditions. The…
Plant functional diversity and ecosystem resilience (news) — A study in Nature Ecology & Evolution, led by researchers from the University of Zurich and the University of Konstanz, analyzed data from over 1,000 plant species across 120 ecosystems worldwide. It…
Knepp Estate rewilding project (news) — Charlie Burrell and Isabella Tree stopped conventional farming at Knepp Estate in southern England after it proved unworkable on heavy clay soil and left them millions in debt. They instead let the…
Insect decline in nature reserves (news) — Insect populations are declining sharply, including in protected nature reserves that were previously considered refuges from pesticides and habitat destruction. The article attributes the decline…
Tree species extinction risk (news) — Researchers behind the State of the World's Trees warn that losing Earth's trees threatens human survival, not just the environment. A comprehensive assessment found that nearly one-third of tree…
Conservation paradox of invasive species (news) — A study led by researchers from the University of Vienna and La Sapienza University found that 36 of 230 established non-native mammal species are threatened in their native homelands, creating a…
Hybrid micro-macro complex systems theory (news) — John Harte and colleagues published a hybrid theory in PNAS that links bottom-up individual behaviors and top-down system-level properties within a single framework. Their earlier top-down approach…
UK species recovery success stories (news) — The Guardian profiles five UK species that have recovered from near-extinction or local extinction, including the bittern, white-tailed eagle, large blue butterfly, red kite, and beaver. The…
Quiet 2024 climate and nature advances (news) — This BBC Future article highlights seven under-reported advances in climate and nature protection in 2024, spanning legal rights for nature, carbon capture, energy storage, ecosystem restoration,…
Conserving species under climate change (news) — The article argues that conserving species in a warmer world, possibly 3-5°C above preindustrial levels by 2075, depends on building large, connected, well-managed ecosystems that can absorb climate…
Farmer-scientist collaboration in biodiversity conservation (news) — The article argues that collaboration between farmers and scientists can help address the biodiversity crisis, citing a UN assessment that one million species are at risk of extinction. It presents…
Biodiversity impacts of land-based climate mitigation (news) — A study published in Science by NYBG and Princeton researchers modeled reforestation, afforestation, and bioenergy cropping across more than 14,000 animal species and found reforestation to be the…
Transformative change for biodiversity loss (news) — A new global report from IPBES, produced over three years by more than 100 experts from 42 countries, examines the underlying causes of the biodiversity crisis and how transformative change can…
Citizen advocacy for nature conservation (news) — Ecosystems and species are in serious decline, and Australians broadly want more government action on nature, but federal commitments such as the Nature Positive plan and environmental law reform…
Species conservation and extinction risk (news) — A study published in PLOS Biology on March 18, 2025 reviewed data for over 67,000 animal species and found that targeted conservation measures reduced extinction risk and prevented some extinctions.…
Remaining carbon budget for 1.5°C (news) — A new study in Nature Climate Change, led by the University of Leeds, finds that the remaining global carbon budget for limiting warming to 1.5°C would be exhausted in about three years at current…
Environmental costs of green tech mining (news) — The global push for green technologies such as electric vehicles, wind turbines, and batteries has sharply increased demand for minerals like lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements. Extracting and…
Mangrove restoration cost modeling (news) — New research presents the first global, site-specific model of mangrove restoration costs, drawing on nearly 250 projects. It finds a median cost of $8,143 per hectare, but costs range from $9 to…
[cited] Yellowstone wolves trophic cascade recovery (news) — A study using 20 years of previously published data from 25 riparian sites in northern Yellowstone found a 1,500% increase in willow crown volume from 2001 to 2020. The researchers attribute this…
Global wetland conservation and restoration (news) — At the 2025 international conference on wetlands (COP15) in Zimbabwe, parties adopted the Victoria Falls Declaration, 25 resolutions, and three consolidated resolutions aimed at protecting and…
Finnish peatland rewilding at Linnunsuo (news) — According to the article, a Finnish community led by Tero Mustonen and Snowchange Cooperative restored Linnunsuo, a former peat mining site in North Karelia, by flooding the acidic soil with…
Habitat fragmentation restoration in Australia (news) — The article profiles three long-running volunteer habitat restoration groups in Australia (Big Scrub, TREAT, and LUCI) that have sustained efforts to reverse habitat fragmentation. Big Scrub has…
Small animals as grassland ecosystem engineers (news) — Small grassland animals such as prairie dogs, grasshoppers, and burrowing mammals play outsized roles in maintaining grassland health and productivity. Prairie dog colonies can increase plant species…
Global forest fragmentation trends (news) — A new study published in Science finds that forest fragmentation increased in over half of the world's forests between 2000 and 2020, particularly in tropical forests. The authors attribute an…
Dam removal river ecosystem recovery (news) — A new study tracked a small upstate New York river before and through three years after a 12-foot dam was removed. The channel reformed from slow, sandy water into a rocky, flowing stream, and the…
Kelp forest blue carbon storage (news) — A new study in Scientific Reports quantified the carbon stored by kelp forests on northern Portugal's coast, dominated by Laminaria hyperborea and Saccorhiza polyschides, using field…
Tadnoll wetland habitat restoration (news) — Plans are underway to restore wetlands at Tadnoll nature reserve in Dorset by re-wetting peat soils, creating ponds and streams, and reversing past drainage and farming damage. The project is…
[cited] Dew pond restoration in South Downs (news) — The Pounds for Ponds project aims to create and restore 100 ponds across Hampshire and Sussex over the next decade, including historic dew ponds in the South Downs National Park. Restored dew ponds…
Oostvaardersplassen rewilding project failures (news) — The Oostvaardersplassen, a 5,500-hectare reserve on reclaimed land near Amsterdam, began in the early 1980s as a hands-off rewilding experiment using large herbivores. Fencing, the absence of…
Yellowstone wolf trophic cascade debate (news) — Researchers from Utah State University and Colorado State University published a comment in Global Ecology and Conservation arguing that a 2025 study by Ripple et al. overstated the effects of wolf…
[cited] Kent rewilding and habitat restoration (news) — Kent Wildlife Trust has bought the 400-acre Hoathly Farm in Lamberhurst, funded by £1.6 million in donations, to create a wilding corridor between Kent and Sussex. The project will restore wood…
Indigenous guardianship against Amazon extraction (news) — The Pakayaku community in Ecuador's Amazon has kept mining, logging, and oil extraction out of its roughly 40,000 hectares through a women-led guardian program that patrols the forest for incursions.…
Limits of protected area conservation (news) — The article argues that national parks and nature reserves, often considered the best tool for protecting ecosystems, do not always safeguard nature as effectively as expected. Protected areas can…
Amazon rainforest tipping point (news) — Scientists warn that deforestation and climate change could push the Amazon rainforest past a "point of no return," where large areas could turn from rainforest into dry savanna. The issue is being…
Dauphiné Alps rewilding project (news) — Rewilding Europe has launched its eleventh 'rewilding landscape' across roughly 480,000 hectares of the Dauphiné Alps in south-eastern France, described as the largest such project in the country.…
Dian Fossey's mountain gorilla research (news) — Dian Fossey, an occupational therapist turned primatologist, founded the Karisoke Research Centre in Rwanda in 1967 and helped overturn the view of gorillas as violent by habituating them to human…
Biodiversity leakage from habitat conservation (news) (needs verification) — Researchers led by the University of Cambridge argue that protecting or rewilding farmland in wealthy nations can shift food and timber production to biodiverse regions in Africa and South America, a…
Native-led bison restoration on Great Plains (news) (needs verification) — The Tanka Fund, a tribal-led nonprofit, coordinates donors and partners to help Native bison ranchers secure grazing land, fencing, herd growth, and meat markets across the Great Plains. The article…
RSPB Otmoor habitat bank expansion (news) — RSPB Otmoor, a wetland nature reserve in Oxfordshire, will expand with a new 21-hectare site on former agricultural land. The site is being converted into a floodplain grazing marsh and will become…
Climate change refugia conservation (news) — Researchers working in the Sierra Nevada found that the effects of warming are uneven, identifying cooler, less vulnerable meadows and streams that act as 'climate change refugia' where wildlife can…
Kenya 2025 wildlife census trends (news) — Kenya's 2025 National Wildlife Census, compiled by the Wildlife Research and Training Institute, found mixed population trends: elephants, rhinos, and giraffes increased, while lions, cheetahs,…
Community-led island conservation in Mexico (news) — Espíritu Santo, a Unesco-protected island in the Sea of Cortez, was saved in the 1990s and early 2000s when grassroots activists and philanthropists, led by Manuel Arango and Tim Means, bought its…
Biodiversity-focused venture capital investing (news) — Superorganism, a venture capital firm launched in 2023 and billed as the first VC firm focused on biodiversity, has closed its first fund with $25.9 million in commitments from investors including…
Conservation leakage and biodiversity loss (news) — A 2025 study by University of Cambridge scientists finds that conservation in wealthy nations, such as rewilding European farmland, can worsen global biodiversity loss when farming and resource…
Biodiversity conservation funding bias (news) — A 25-year study of 14,566 conservation projects (1992–2016) found that 82.9% of the $1.963bn allocated went to vertebrates, while plants and invertebrates each received 6.6% and fungi and algae less…
Seagrass decline and conservation (news) — A February 2025 review in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, led by Carlos M. Duarte, reports that seagrass is declining worldwide at 1-2% per year due to human activities, with nearly 5% of species…
[cited] Biodiversity micro-funding for landowners (news) — Irish landowner Kate Meleady restored a neglected four-acre plot in west Clare with expert advice and micro-funding from the Burrenbeo Trust's 'The Hare's Corner' project. The scheme, which has…
[cited] Grassland restoration and pollinator recovery (news) — A Kobe University study of grasslands in Nagano Prefecture, published in the Journal of Applied Ecology, found that restored grasslands need about 75 years of continuous management to match the plant…
Global climate tipping points (news) — A new Global Tipping Points report says warm-water coral reefs have reached the first catastrophic climate tipping point linked to greenhouse gas emissions, with long-term decline threatening the…
Single-species conservation in Canada (news) — The authors argue that Canada's single-species conservation laws, including the Species at Risk Act, remain essential despite weak implementation, and that deregulation to fast-track resource…
Community-led biodiversity corridor in Congo (news) — Strong Roots Congo is securing customary lands for communities through community forestry concessions to build a 1-million-hectare corridor linking Kahuzi-Biega National Park and Itombwe Nature…
Native evergreen forest restoration (news) — Milind Patil, a 32-year-old forester in Sindhudurg, is restoring native evergreen forest in the Western Ghats using thousands of native saplings. His flagship 2.5-hectare site has planted 3,316…
UK biodiversity indicators trends (news) (needs verification) — The 2025 UK biodiversity indicators show that ecosystems are continuing to deteriorate or showing no improvement. The annual report, produced since 2007, tracks progress toward national and…
Pine marten reintroduction in Somerset (news) (needs verification) — The Two Moors Pine Marten Project released nine female and 10 male pine martens at secret locations on Exmoor in September. Somerset Wildlife Trust says the reintroduction will help restore balance…
AI-assisted pollinator habitat restoration (news) (needs verification) — Space4Nature, a three-year collaboration between Buglife, Surrey Wildlife Trust, the University of Surrey and Painshill Park, has ended. The project combined satellite imagery, citizen science and…
Emerging threats to biodiversity conservation (news) — A horizon scan led by William J. Sutherland identifies 15 emerging issues across technology, climate, biology, and finance that could shape biodiversity outcomes over the next decade, even though…
Biodiversity Heritage Library digitisation (news) — The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) has made more than 64 million pages of natural history material freely available over 20 years, with contributions from over 680 institutions worldwide. The…
[cited] Tropical field stations in conservation (news) — A new BioScience paper argues that tropical field stations can turn global conservation commitments into local action by providing long-term monitoring, training, local employment, and the…
[cited] Pollinator habitat on unproductive farmland (news) (needs verification) — Indiana farmer Brian Scott took nine low-yielding sandy acres out of production and enrolled them in the Conservation Reserve Program, establishing a native pollinator planting with NRCS cost-share.…
[cited] Floating solar farm biodiversity impacts (news) (needs verification) — Dutch researchers installed 20 underwater 'Biohuts' beneath the Bomhofsplas floating solar farm in the Netherlands and studied them from 2020 to 2023. The structures attracted a growing number of…
Bio-receptive 3D printed terracotta architecture (news) — Designer Rameshwari Jonnalagedda created Minimal Matter, a system of 3D printed terracotta modules based on minimal-surface geometry, which can serve as a thermal surface, a habitat, or a structural…
Climate-intensified European heatwave attribution (news) — A new ClimaMeter analysis finds human-driven climate change made the conditions behind the June 2026 western European heatwave up to 2.5°C warmer than in 1950–1987, exposing about 327 million people…
[cited] Natural recovery of wildflower meadows (news) — A UCL study tracked a 2-hectare Norfolk field abandoned in 2005 from 2011 to 2022 and found that, with only annual traditional hay cutting and no seeding, plant species richness rose steadily, with…
Floodplain meadow habitat restoration (news) (needs verification) — A rare six-hectare floodplain meadow beside the River Nene at Earls Barton, Northamptonshire, has been donated to the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire & Northamptonshire. The site will…
Recycled oyster shell reef restoration (news) (needs verification) — Between 2007 and 2024, Florida returned more than 500,000 tons of recycled oyster and clam shells, collected from seafood restaurants and processing plants, to the Gulf of Mexico to rebuild damaged…
Urban public-space gardening and green spaces (news) — The article profiles four public-space gardeners in Britain whose work improves urban green spaces for both people and wildlife. It highlights Care Not Capital's free training for gardeners, which…
Galápagos snapdragon endangered plant recovery (news) — A 30-year conservation program has raised the wild population of the critically endangered Galápagos snapdragon from six individuals in 2007 to 28 adults today, using nursery propagation and…
Sundarbans delta salinization and collapse (news) — A visit to the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest where the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers meet, found a dried-up fish pond and households turning to self-help groups as saline…
Bear coexistence versus culling in Japan (news) (needs verification) — Japan's Nagano prefecture has pursued a coexistence model for bears since 1995, combining trap-tag-release monitoring, bear dogs, and fencing instead of relying mainly on culling. Officials credit…
Cantabrian brown bear recovery (news) — The article profiles the recovery of the Cantabrian brown bear in Asturias, northern Spain, where the population fell to about 60 across the Cantabrian range in the late 1980s and has since grown to…
Insect roles in vertebrate ecosystems (news) (needs verification) — A study in Nature Reviews Biodiversity documents dozens of ways insects support vertebrates beyond serving as food, including providing protection, shelter, and sanitation. The review warns that…
Biodiversity loss and ecosystem services (news) (needs verification) — A global meta-analysis of 423 studies and over 222,000 data points found that ecosystem benefits generally rise steadily with biodiversity rather than leveling off, indicating that functional…
Biodiversity loss and ecosystem services (news) — A large global meta-analysis of 423 published studies and over 222,000 data points, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, found that most ecosystem benefits keep increasing as biodiversity rises…
Global coral bleaching events (news) (needs verification) — NOAA, with the International Coral Reef Initiative, confirmed on April 15, 2024 that the world is in its 4th global coral bleaching event. From January 2023 to September 2025, bleaching-level heat…
Fourth global coral bleaching event (news) — NOAA scientists and the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) report that the world is experiencing its fourth global coral bleaching event, the second in the last 10 years. Bleaching-level heat…
Coral reef bleaching and recovery (news) — Palmyra Atoll, a remote U.S. national wildlife refuge in the central Pacific, has one of the world's most intact coral reef ecosystems, but it is now showing heat stress from abnormally warm ocean…
Climate change threat to coral reefs (news) (needs verification) — The IUCN's first global assessment of shallow-water coral reefs classified 96 percent of reef systems as critically endangered, its highest risk category, with climate-driven heat stress identified…
Marine heatwave impacts on seabirds (news) (needs verification) — A USGS-linked synthesis, based on a 2021 World Seabird Conference symposium and a special volume in Marine Ecology Progress Series, reviews how marine heatwaves affect seabirds and their ecosystems.…
Ecosystem resilience and natural recovery (opinion) — The article argues that nature has a strong capacity to recover from human damage when natural processes are allowed to operate, citing forest regrowth after fire, reef recovery after water quality…
[cited] Rewilding for damaged forest restoration (opinion) — The article argues that rewilding, which restores entire ecosystems rather than simply planting trees, is a vital strategy for damaged forests facing climate change, deforestation, and biodiversity…
Psychological dimensions of rewilding (opinion) — The article argues that rewilding, the restoration of ecosystems to a more natural state, is a psychological and philosophical movement as well as a conservation strategy. It holds that rewilding…
Planted forests and biodiversity conservation (opinion) — Hlengiwe Ndlovu, a forestry environmental manager, argues that planted forests, which cover 7% of the world's forest area but produce about 50% of its wood, can support biodiversity conservation…
AI in wildlife conservation (opinion) — The article describes how AI tools, including camera systems that identify animals and poachers and bioacoustic platforms such as Google's Perch 2.0 that identify species from sound, are being used…
Rewilding and biodiversity conservation (opinion) — The article defends rewilding as a distinct, science-based approach to the biodiversity crisis, despite criticism that it is vague or merely a relabelled form of restoration. It describes the 2021…
Wolf coexistence and compassionate conservation (opinion) — The article argues that wolves and other wild animals experience emotions such as happiness, sadness, and grief, and that lethal management of wolves in Colorado is not supported by science. It…
Threatened species and Puffin decline (opinion) — The RSPB's Reverse the Red Day (7 February 2025) highlights global and UK efforts to save threatened species, using the IUCN Red List, which includes over 46,300 threatened species, as a key…
Jane Goodall's plural mind concept (opinion) — The article argues that Jane Goodall's work on chimpanzee intelligence offers a useful framework for the AI era. Her concept of the 'plural mind' holds that intelligence is diverse rather than a…
Rewilding funding and financing models (opinion) — The article argues that rewilding, the large-scale restoration of natural processes and habitats, is gaining momentum but faces a major funding gap. It examines funding routes including philanthropy,…
Attenborough's storytelling and conservation impact (opinion) — On Sir David Attenborough's 100th birthday, a Warner Bros. Discovery factual entertainment executive argues that his documentaries, which shifted from depicting abundance to fragility, shaped factual…
Bioregional approach to environmental crises (opinion) — The author argues that climate change, biodiversity loss, food insecurity, water scarcity, and rural decline are not separate problems but expressions of one crisis: the decline of living systems.…
San Antonio River ecosystem restoration (platform) — The River Road ecosystem restoration project in San Antonio is entering its design phase, aiming to restore native aquatic and riparian habitat along a half-mile stretch of the San Antonio River. Key…
Global Goals for 2030 (reference) — The Global Goals are 17 commitments made by 193 world leaders to end extreme poverty, inequality, and climate change by 2030. The article stresses that the goals are interconnected, so progress in…
Sustainability professional certifications (reference) — This Trellis article lists 64 professional sustainability certifications in 2025, grouped into 10 subcategories such as sustainability and climate, energy and carbon management, green building, and…
Top 10 global risks 2020-2025 (reference) — This report ranks the top 10 global risks for 2020 to 2025 across environmental, technological, geopolitical, societal, and economic domains. It places climate action failure first, followed by…
Biodiversity (reference) (needs verification) — The Encyclopedia of Life provides global access to knowledge about life on Earth, including detailed information on various species and their ecological roles. This resource supports biodiversity…
IUCN Red List species extinction assessment (reference) — More than 48,600 species, or 28% of all assessed species, are currently threatened with extinction according to the IUCN Red List. The list has assessed about 172,620 species so far, against a goal…
Natural climate solutions principles (study) — This review distills five foundational principles of natural climate solutions (nature-based, sustainable, climate-additional, measurable, and equitable) from the scientific literature and best…
[cited] Ecological restoration versus rewilding (study) — This review compares ecological restoration and rewilding, two conservation approaches that share the goal of recovering ecosystems degraded by human activity but differ in their targets and methods.…
Beaver-based climate restoration via satellite data (study) — Scientists from Boise State University and Utah State University are using NASA satellite data to identify streams where beavers can be reintroduced to boost vegetation, water availability, and…
Biodiversity loss and carbon storage (study) — Using a macroecological model of vascular plant richness combined with empirical biodiversity-biomass relationships, the study estimates that biodiversity declines driven by climate and land-use…
Sustainable intensification versus agroecology discourses (study) — The article analyzes highly cited papers in two scientific discourses on agricultural sustainability: sustainable intensification (SI) and agroecology (AE). It finds that both discourses claim to…
Food system biodiversity footprints (study) — Boakes, Dalin, Etard and Newbold use the multi-regional input-output model EXIOBASE to estimate the terrestrial biodiversity impacts embedded in the 2011 global food system, separately for land use…
Climate-driven deoxygenation in northern lakes (study) — Analysis of long-term monitoring data from 14,800 lakes across the northern hemisphere finds that summer hypolimnetic oxygen concentrations have declined by about 1.2% per year since 1980. The…
Documented conservation actions for threatened species (study) — A global analysis of the Conservation Evidence database and IUCN Red List found significant shortfalls in documented conservation actions for threatened species. Many regions, particularly in the…
International Journal of Wilderness archive (study) — This page indexes the International Journal of Wilderness (IJW) archive, which offers free access to issues published since 1995. The excerpt lists issues from 2018 to 2021, covering topics such as…
CyberTracker biodiversity monitoring software (study) — CyberTracker, software co-developed with Indigenous trackers since the 1990s, lets non-specialists record detailed wildlife observations with GPS locations, habitat types, and animal counts by sex…
Development within planetary boundaries (study) — The article examines how global development can proceed while staying within Earth's planetary boundaries, using integrated assessment models and interdisciplinary research to compare possible…
Biodiversity conservation journal profile (study) — This is the journal landing page for Conservation Biology, published by Wiley and the Society for Conservation Biology, which covers the science and practice of conserving biological diversity. It…
Global human impacts on biodiversity (study) — A meta-analysis of 2,133 publications covering 3,667 impacted-versus-reference comparisons finds that human pressures shift community composition and decrease local diversity across terrestrial,…
Prochlorococcus response to ocean warming (study) — A University of Washington study led by François Ribalet tracked Prochlorococcus, the ocean's most abundant photosynthesizing microbe, across roughly 150,000 miles of ocean and found that its cell…
Biodiversity intactness in sub-Saharan Africa (study) — A bottom-up assessment using place-based knowledge from 200 African biodiversity experts estimates that sub-Saharan Africa has lost on average 24% of its pre-colonial and pre-industrial faunal and…
Indonesian marine heatwave trends (study) (needs verification) — This study analyzes daily NOAA OISST v2.1 data from 1982–2022 to assess marine heatwaves (MHWs) in the Indonesian Seas, comparing five Eastern-Pacific and five Central-Pacific El Niño events. Annual…
Coral bleaching recovery via symbiont transfer (study) (needs verification) — Researchers demonstrate that bleached corals can regain symbionts quickly through contact-mediated transfer from adjacent healthy corals, with sufficient symbionts provided by as little as a week of…
Coral bleaching impacts on Honduran reefs (study) — This study quantified changes in benthic communities and reef functionality at Tela Bay and Roatán, Honduras, during the 2023–2025 Fourth Global Coral Bleaching Event, following three years of…
Marine heatwave-driven crab hybrid surge (study) (needs verification) — A 2018–2019 Bering Sea marine heatwave, which left the region nearly ice-free in spring, caused a population collapse of snow crab. Seven years later, the abundance of snow × Tanner crab hybrids had…
Marine heatwave ecosystem impacts (study) (needs verification) — This open-access research article in Global Change Biology examines how marine heatwaves may affect marine ecosystems over the 21st century, with a focus on the resulting long-term ecosystem changes.…
Marine heatwave effects on small corals (study) — A field study of 3,334 small corals (0.3–10 cm) across four eastern Indian Ocean reefs found that survival of small corals increases with colony size under background conditions. During a 2026-era…