Some of the most important good news stories about conservation this year.
EU Restoration Law: When countries pass environmental legislation, it’s big news; when an entire continent mandates the protection of nature, it signals a profound shift.
Under the new law, which passed in June, all 27 member states are legally required to restore at least 20 percent of land and sea by 2030, and degraded ecosystems by 2050. This is one of the world’s most ambitious pieces of legislation and it didn’t come easy; but the payoff will be huge - from tackling biodiversity loss and climate change to enhancing food security.
In an historic moment in March this year, the European Union made serious incidents of environmental degradation a crime punishable by imprisonment, setting a global precedent.
Indigenous Victories: In one of the largest Indigenous-led conservation efforts in the world, 22 First Nations governments in Canada signed a ten year, $375 million funding agreement to establish new protected and conservation areas. The African Union ordered the Democratic Republic of the Congo to hand back parts of the giant Kahuzi-Biéga National Park to the Batwa people, and in the United States 31,000 acres was returned to the Penobscot tribe in Maine, the largest land transfer without restrictions in the country's history.
This year, the Gitdisdzu Lugyeks marine protected area off the west coast of Canada became the world’s first Indigenous-led ‘blue park;' the massive Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary in California became the first tribally nominated marine conservation area in the United States; the Inuvialuit signed an agreement to safeguard almost 3,300 square miles of the Yukon’s northeast coast, and a new Inuit marine conservation area off the east coast of Canada will protect a vital transition zone between Arctic and Atlantic ecosystems.
New Biospheres: Eleven new biospheres were added to a global list, Mongolia safeguarded 55,600 square miles of land and waters including the planet’s last intact temperate grassland, in Alaska 43,630 sq. miles of public land were protected from mining, and a new 6,250 sq. miles conservation area was established in the Florida Everglades. Spain saved one of Europe’s most important wetlands (the Doñana in western Andalucía), Mexico announced 20 new protected areas covering 8,880 sq. miles, Canada protected nearly 772 sq. miles of endangered caribou habitat, a group of environmentalists in Chile saved 508 sq. miles of the most ecologically significant territory in South America, Bhutan expanded its network of protected areas with a new biological corridor, and in the Republic of the Congo the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park became the world’s first Key Biodiversity Area.
River Restoration: The story of the Klamath River renaissance is fabulous. After decades of activism by the Karuk and Yurok tribes, the river was finally freed of four huge dams, ahead of schedule and on budget. More than 400 miles of water reopened, and within one month of completion hundreds of salmon had returned to the river to spawn. It was the largest dam removal in history. Meanwhile, the Maple River in Michigan became the first in the country to return to a free-flowing state, and recovery efforts on three of America’s most polluted waterways, the Willamette (Oregon), Anacostia (Maryland / D.C.) and Cuyahoga (Ohio) rivers, started to see results.
In England, Liverpool's Mersey River was dubbed the 'greatest river recovery in Europe' with 45 different kinds of fish recorded, triple the amount from 2002; fish stocks in the Yangtze River increased by 25 percent thanks to a ten-year fishing ban; the Dominican Republic has regreened 20 percent of the country thanks to its Yaque River restoration project, and the restoration of Seoul's Han River saw wildlife return and millions of trees planted.
Fish Recovery: Efforts to crack down on illegal and unregulated fishing paid off with the number of fish on the US overfishing list hitting an all-time low, and fishing mortality rates in the Mediterranean and Black Seas also hitting their lowest levels on record. In the ocean waters off Southern California nearly all species have achieved full recovery, thanks to a 20 year fishing moratorium, Canada and Alaska agreed to a seven-year moratorium on fishing in the Yukon River, and thanks to global coordination, Pacific bluefin tuna rebounded a decade ahead of schedule, Southern bluefin tuna was delisted as a threatened species, and the Atlantic hake, which was on the brink of collapse twenty years ago, saw a remarkable recovery.
Down Under: This year, Australia established eight new national parks, including the conversion of two former cattle stations; 'Vergemont' in Queensland, which contains more than 34 ecosystems and 'Comeroo' in New South Wales that is home to 14 threatened species. The Mirarr traditional owners won their decades-long fight to end mining on the controversial Jabiluka site, which will now be absorbed into Kakadu National Park, and an eradication program on Lord Howe Island saw the recoveries of more than 30 species of threatened flora and fauna.
Ukraine: In the wake of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant dam disaster last year - it once held an estimated 4.3 cubic miles of water - experts predicted the bottom of the reservoir would turn into a desert. The opposite happened. The Dnieper River resumed its original flow patterns, sturgeons returned to old spawning grounds, and about 40 percent of the land is now covered with four metre high forests of willow that were native to the area before the reservoir was created.
China: For decades China has been planting its own Great Green Wall round the shifting sands of the Taklamakan, a desert in its north-western region. The desert’s edge is 1,865 miles long and, in November this year, the final section of trees was planted 'locking the desert shut.' It's the completion of the first phase of the largest ecological restoration project on the planet, 46 years in the making.
Rights of Nature: Colombia declared the constitutionality of the Escazú Agreement to protect environmental defenders in 'the most dangerous place in the world for environmental advocacy,’ Papua New Guinea and Islamabad passed new legislation to protect biodiversity, the EU cracked down on greenwashing and environmental crime and the ‘Rights of Nature’ movement continued to redefine the relationship between people and planet, with personhood granted to waves in Linhares, and the Marañón River in Peru.
Seed Vault: Svalbard Global Seed Vault is humanity's most important backup site for seeds and this year it banked more than 30,000 new samples from 23 depositors across 21 countries, including seven international gene banks. The deposit includes vegetables, legumes, and herbs from Palestine; pearl millet, sorghum, and groundnuts from India; a huge rice sample from the Philippines; and the first-ever seeds from Bolivia and Chad.
Tree Planting: The Democratic Republic of the Congo achieved 90 percent of its target of one billion trees, with almost 895 million trees planted across 22 provinces; in Kenya a tree planting app mobilised locals to plant 241 million trees; Sri Lanka approved a plan to increase forest cover to 32 percent by 2032, the Philippines passed laws requiring parents to plant two trees for every child and students to plant two trees when they graduate.
Whales Saved: Thanks to its groundbreaking moratorium on commercial whaling in 1985, it looks like the International Whaling Commission's success story is complete and recommended that it be shutdown. With whale populations rebounding and continuing to grow steadily, the group concluded that wrapping things up now would “send a powerful message about the importance of knowing when to stop.” They added: “By exiting with dignity, the IWC would set a powerful example for the international environmental community.”
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