Conservation
Nature relies on a rich diversity of organisms to keep it in balance. Conservation plays a key role in ensuring that environmental equilibrium is preserved. Learn about the solutions spearheading our efforts to promote biodiversity, safeguard vital ecosystems, and protect endangered species.
Study unveils effective way to address marine dead zones
Marine dead zones refer to areas of the ocean which are too low in oxygen to support life. In the Gulf of Mexico, runoff from agricultural operations, mostly nitrogen and phosphorus, travels down the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers, contributing to an overgrowth of algae and a widening dead zone Read More...
Conservationists rescue Australian bandicoot from brink of extinction
For more than 30 years, Australia’s endangered Eastern Barred Bandicoot has been considered extinct in the wild. Now, following years of painstaking conservation efforts, the marsupial has become the first Australian species to have its conservation status changed. The nocturnal, rabbit-sized Read More...
Tall, bark, and handsomeーHow marriage can save a tree
We at The Optimist Daily often write about how essential trees are to our mental and physical health, as well as how they provide an important balance to planetary conditions which are too numerous to name. Trees become even more useful on all these counts as they age. The older the tree, the Read More...
Rwandan bird sanctuary nearly doubles grey crowned crane population
Four years ago, the population of grey-crowned cranes was just 487, but thanks to conservation efforts in Rwanda, that number has nearly doubled to 881. A majority of this conservation credit goes to the Umusambi Village, a Kigali-based bird sanctuary run by rescue organization Nsengimana. In Read More...
EPA moves to permanently protect Bristol Bay from mining operations
Alaska’s Bristol Bay is a rich fishing area home to 46 percent of the average global abundance of wild sockeye salmon. Following two decades of back and forth between the Pebble Limited Partnership, conservation groups, Tribes, and state and federal governments, the Environmental Protection Read More...
Good news for our oceans: tuna species no longer on brink of extinction
In 2011, most tuna species were considered at serious risk of extinction, following decades of relentless commercial fishing. Thankfully, some of these species are on the way to recovery, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) which recently released an update of its Read More...
Indigenous resistance has prevented a shocking amount of emissions
Indigenous communities have been at the forefront of many climate action and conservation initiatives. While some, like protesting and blocking the Dakota Access Pipeline, are well known, others, like stopping the Mountain Valley Gas Pipeline and installing renewable energy grids on Tribal lands, Read More...
Seals reveal that the River Thames is healthier than people think
Despite the brown color of London's River Thames, marine biologists are happy to report that the river is actually healthier than people think. In the 1950s, researchers had proclaimed the river “biologically dead,” but these days, the stable seal population suggests that the river is Read More...
Watch and listen to millions of monarch butterflies take flight together
Every winter, monarch butterflies fly thousands of miles from the US and Canada where they breed, all the way down to the forests of central Mexico where they wait out the cold before heading back home in the spring. While this phenomenon by itself is one of the most impressive things in the Read More...
Collaborative project yields first high-resolution map of the world's coral reefs
Climate change is a huge threat to the world’s coral reefs, but targeted conservation efforts can help buy us time in saving these critical marine ecosystems. To help citizens, scientists, and policymakers better understand the world’s reefs, the Allen Coral Atlas has recently finished the Read More...