Carole Allen — founder of HEART (Help Endangered Animals Ridley Turtles) and the first director of the Turtle Island Restoration Network’s Gulf of Mexico office — passed away at the age of 90. For decades, she was the voice of the critically endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempii), and one of the central figures […]
The voluntary carbon market and the business of carbon offsetting have faced increasing criticism in recent years, not only for the systematic overestimation of emission reductions, but also because projects have frequently had adverse effects on local livelihoods, particularly in the Global South, where many land-intensive projects are located. From the perspective of the Land […]
The interlinked crises of climate change and biodiversity loss are slipping down political agendas just as geopolitical instability and fiscal pressures rise. Overseas development aid is falling in real terms, and many megadiverse countries are juggling debt stress that pushes conservation to the margins. Meanwhile, the global biodiversity finance gap remains vast, estimated at roughly […]
On Dec. 10, 2025, Ghana’s government revoked one of the worst pieces of environmental legislation in our country’s history. The Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulations passed in 2022 opened up nearly 90% of Ghana’s forest reserves, including globally significant biodiversity areas, to mining. These forests, which cover more than 9 million hectares (22 […]
In the upper reaches of the Mahakam River, inside one of the last intact rainforest corridors of Borneo, the Dayak Bahau community of Long Isun has been fighting a long, layered battle for justice. Their history on the land predates the Indonesian state, yet on official maps their existence is reduced to an administrative code […]
Environmental crime used to be treated as a niche concern, a worry for park rangers, customs officers and a handful of conservation lawyers. Not anymore. From Vienna to Belém, a once technical debate about “crimes that affect the environment” is edging closer to the mainstream of multilateral diplomacy, and, more importantly, beginning to reshape enforcement and action […]
BARCELONA — In December 2022, one of Brazil’s largest Indigenous territories and one of the smallest would each sign a 118-page, 10-year contract they would soon come to regret —as would faraway investors looking to capitalize on the billion-dollar carbon and biodiversity markets. In Brazil’s lush westernmost states of Amazonas and Acre, which border Peru, […]
This series, Voices from the Land, brings together opinion pieces led and written by Indigenous peoples from around the world. Through these commentaries, we share our lived realities and reflections on urgent issues shaping our time — environmental destruction, our relationship with nature, and systemic injustice. We write from the heart of our communities, where […]
This series, Voices from the Land, brings together opinion pieces led and written by Indigenous peoples from around the world. Through these commentaries, we share our lived realities and reflections on urgent issues shaping our time — environmental destruction, our relationship with nature, and systemic injustice. We write from the heart of our communities, where […]
A few weeks ago, I wrote about navigating conservation’s crisis. During Climate Week in New York, I joined discussions with grassroots leaders from the Global South that offered a sharper view of how philanthropy meets—and sometimes misses—the realities of frontline work. Their reflections highlighted dynamics that merit further exploration. Philanthropy is purportedly rooted in […]
The interlinked planetary crises of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss are losing significant ground in the global political agenda. From the ground, it seems as though even environmental discourse and momentum are weakening, as urgent geopolitical and economic priorities push concrete action to the margins. Overseas development aid and conservation finance is shrinking, often […]
This series, Voices from the Land, brings together opinion pieces led and written by Indigenous peoples from around the world. Through these commentaries, we share our lived realities and reflections on urgent issues shaping our time — environmental destruction, our relationship with nature, and systemic injustice. We write from the heart of our communities, where […]
I find it hard to believe Jane Goodall is gone. She was more than an icon to me. She was a friend, a mentor, and someone whose presence—whether with presidents, students, or my own children—felt like both a gift and a lesson. Our friendship began in the most Jane way possible: an email that opened, […]
In 2022, the United Nations Environment Assembly adopted a new resolution laying the first groundwork toward a new legally binding international agreement to end plastic pollution. The treaty will contain ambitious targets covering every stage of the plastic life cycle, including introducing restrictive measures against the production and consumption of single-use plastics, the development of […]
This series, Voices from the Land, brings together opinion pieces led and written by Indigenous peoples from around the world. Through these commentaries, we share our lived realities and reflections on urgent issues shaping our time — environmental destruction, our relationship with nature, and systemic injustice. We write from the heart of our communities, where […]
Call it a crossroads. Ecological decline is accelerating in too many places at once; institutions that once limited the damage are wobbling; the information channels we rely on to coordinate action are clogged. In tropical forests alone, annual primary forest loss has climbed by 50% in the 2020s relative to the 2000s. Fires, drought and fragmentation have […]
A journey into Nepal’s Limi Valley is always profound. We at the Himalayan Wolves Project first visited the area more than a decade ago and were immediately struck by its high-altitude, wind-sculpted landscapes, and the extraordinary diversity of wildlife inhabiting them: Himalayan wolf (Canis lupus chanco), snow leopard (Panthera uncia), wild yak (Bos mutus), kiang […]
The sun is already sharp against the terraced slopes, the scent of thyme and rosemary rising from the rocky ground. Dry wind whistles through esparto grass, and somewhere in the distance is the soft clang of goat bells. A partridge erupts from the scrub. No roads. No fields. No fences. Just the land, as it […]
The forest in northern Gabon didn’t look like a battleground. It was a patchwork of hunting trails and village paths, home to fruit trees and ancestral graves. When a logging concession encroached and the community of Massaha protested, their pleas traveled poorly through official channels. Then the story was reported, documented and read by […]
The gorilla should have vanished. In the late 1980s, the mountain gorilla clung to survival in the misted borderlands of Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Poaching, snares, and civil conflict made extinction feel like a timetable. What changed was not a miracle but a grind: rangers risking their lives to keep […]
