• Animals

Angelina Jolie Takes One for the Bees and Women in Beekeeping

• #30x30
• #endangeredspecies
• Bees
• Campaign for Nature
• National Geographic
• UNESCO
• Women for Bees
• World Bee Day

Angelina Jolie appeared in a portrait for National Geographic on World Bee Day (May 20) to raise awareness for the need to protect bees and for a UNESCO-Guerlain program that trains women as beekeeper-entrepreneurs, Women for Bees.  

Why this Matters:  Jolie’s right. Three out of every four leading food crops for human consumption depend on pollinators — from fruit, nuts, and vegetables to alfalfa for cattle feed— all in all, honeybees created $20 billion in crop production for the United States

• Animals

Endangered Florida Panther Is Beginning to Roar Back

• #30x30
• development
• endangered species
• Florida
• hunting
• National Geographic
• panther

Exciting news: The feature I’ve been working on intermittently for 1.5 years is finally out. It’s the story of the Florida panther— its miraculous comeback and hopeful but uncertain future. (A thread.)https://t.co/MLt3agPfIt — Doug Main (@Douglas_Main) March 9, 2021 By Amy Lupica, ODP Staff Writer The endangered Florida panther is finally getting the spotlight it deserves […]

• Energy

Natural Gas Drilling Begins Upriver from Biodiverse Okavango Delta

• elephants
• endangered species
• National Geographic
• Okavanga Delta
• wildlife

A massive natural gas drill rig has broken ground on an exploratory well just miles upstream of Namibia’s Okavango Delta, one of the world’s largest protected wetlands and a crucial migratory route for the largest remaining elephant population, National Geographic reported.

Why This Matters: ReconAfrica, an oil and gas exploration company with German, Canadian, and American stakeholders, has licensed 13,200 square miles of land in Namibia and Botswana.

• Ocean

Best of 2020: The Creation of Tristan da Cunha MPA

• #30x30
• Blue Belt Programme
• marine protected areas
• National Geographic
• Pristine Seas

On Friday, the government of Tristan da Cunha, a four-island archipelago in the South Atlantic, announced that it is creating the fourth-largest marine “no-take” reserve in the world. 

Why This Matters:  As National Geographic states, while 8% of the world’s ocean territory is protected at some level, commercial fishing is banned in only 2.6%.

• Ocean

Another Notch on the U.K.’s Blue Belt- Tristan da Cunha’s Marine Protection

• #30x30
• Blue Belt Programme
• marine protected areas
• National Geographic
• Pristine Seas

On Friday, the government of Tristan da Cunha, a four-island archipelago in the South Atlantic, announced that it is creating the fourth-largest marine “no-take” reserve in the world. 

Why This Matters:  As National Geographic states, while 8% of the world’s ocean territory is protected at some level, commercial fishing is banned in only 2.6%.

• Animals

Citizen Scientists Pitch In On Research For Bird Die-Off In the Southwest

• #30x30
• Bird
• die off
• iNaturalist
• migratory bird
• National Geographic
• wildfires

Over the last few months, thousands of migratory birds have dropped dead, inexplicably falling out of the sky across the southern United States. Scientists speculate that smoke from wildfires has poisoned birds and forced them to migrate through new territory with fewer food sources.

Why this Matters:  It’s difficult for scientists to research long-term data trends since they often work in small teams, in small geographic areas.