• Animals

Yellowstone’s Wolves: 25 Years After Successful Reintroduction They Are a Star Attraction

• #30x30
• endangered species
• wolves
• Yellowstone National Plark

In January 1995, the National Park Service undertook a project to re-introduce wolves into Yellowstone National Park — wolves had been driven out early in the 20th century — and from the 14 animals who were relocated from Canada into the Park, there are now 14 packs (more than 100) make the Park their home. 

Why This Matters:  It was hugely controversial at the time, but looking back now, the successful re-introduction shows, once again, the power of the natural world to regenerate if given the chance

• Water

Some Dams Survive Through Inertia — Time to Take Them Down?

• #30x30
• dam
• dam removal
• fish
• restoration
• river
• wildlife

The removal of legacy dams, which were first constructed dozens to more than a hundred years ago, is proving to be increasingly popular to restore river flows now that they are no longer serving any purpose for generating power or driving industrial uses. 

Why This Matters:  There is no doubt that a free-flowing river is a healthy river.  As has been much discussed recently, the need to do everything we can to restore and conserve the natural world to stave off the next wave of extinctions and to combat climate change.

• People

The Business Case For Nature Is Being Made At World Economic Forum

• #30x30
• nature
• nature-dependent
• World Economic Forum

A new report entitled “Nature Risk Rising: Why the Crisis Engulfing Nature Matters for Business and the Economy” that was just released to coincide with the start of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum makes it clear that businesses are more dependent on nature than previously thought, with approximately $44 trillion of economic value generation moderately or highly dependent on nature.

Why This Matters:  As if we needed more reasons why we should save nature, now the World Economic Forum’s experts make it clear that it is in the world’s financial interest to do so.

• Animals

One Cool Thing: Pangolins Protected From Poaching In South Africa

• #30x30
• endangered species
• pangolins
• United Nations
• wildlife trafficking

The pangolin is the most highly trafficked mammal on Earth — they are poached at a higher rate than elephants, rhinos and tigers combined. Their scales are what the poachers want — they are ground up and used for medicine in China and Southeast Asia. Pangolins are on the brink of extinction — 120,000 were […]

• Animals

One Cool Thing: Costa Rican Wildlife

• #30x30
• Blue Zone

Recently Costa Rica made news because it hosts one of the world’s five “Blue Zones,” the places where people live the longest.  I (Monica) got to visit that region of the country last week, but what was more striking to me was all the ways that Costa Rica is a “Green Zone.”  Everywhere you look […]

• Politics

Embracing Biodiversity as the Critical Element of Change in 2020

• #30x30
• biodiversity
• Convention on Biodiversity
• protect nature
• wildlife conservation

By Polen Cisneros, Wildlife Crime Program Officer, International Fund for Animal Welfare  As a conservationist and a millennial, it is easy to say that 2019 was rather a disheartening year for nature.  Not only did the current administration weaken certain protections for animals at the risk of extinction, but the 2019 IPBES Report also painted […]