Good Environmental News Stories

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Good Environmental News

There are plenty of awful things happening on the planet these days, like marine plastic pollution, greenhouse gases increasing, rainforest degradation, sea levels rising, extreme weather... the list unfortunately goes on and on. But at the same time, there are a lot of good people doing a lot of good things to help save the planet. Like news in general, good environmental news often goes unreported, or at least under-reported.

What follows is a compilation of some of the positive environmental stories you may have not heard about. There's hope!

A Second Chance for the Ocean

How Plants Communicate

Africa plants millions of new trees

Indonesia's Deforestation Drops by 60%

$10B Pledged to Protect the World’s Oceans

Paris Agreement for the Ocean

Canada Protects World's Largest Coniferous Forest

Ocean Refuge the Size of Great Britain Announced

New Caledonia To Protect Coral Reefs

Ecuador Frees Up Amazon Rainforest from Gold Mining

Nepal Doubles its Tiger Population

UN Says the Ozone Hole to be Fully Healed

Chile Creates Law to Protect its Ocean Habitat

Endangered Island Foxes Break Record for Fast Recovery

Spain Creates Mediterranean Sea Reserve for Whale Migration

Mexico's Jaguar Population Grows 20% in 8 Years

Endangered Mountain Gorilla Population Recovers to Over 1,000

Colombia Creates World’s Largest Tropical Rainforest National Park

Laughing alpaca

A Second Chance for the Ocean - U.N. High Seas Treaty

Fisherman

Overfishing and poaching have been detrimental to marine wildlife, including the Shkodra's lake, a body of water that straddles Albania and Montenegro

Gent Shkullaku/AFP via Getty Images

NPR - After nearly two decades of planning and negotiations, members of the United Nations have agreed on an international treaty to protect biodiversity in international waters, which cover nearly two-thirds of the ocean.

Botanist Stefano Mancuso: ‘You Can Anaesthetise All Plants."

Botanist Stefano Mancuso

Botanist Stefano Mancuso

The Guardian - As an advocate of plant intelligence, In a fascinating interview the Italian author discusses the complex ways in which plants communicate, whether they are conscious, and what his findings mean for vegans.

The Great African Regreening: Millions of New Trees Bring Renewal

Photograph: Ruth Maclean/Ruth Maclean for the Guardian

Souley Cheibou with an old gao tree he remembers from when he was a child.
Photograph: Ruth Maclean/Ruth Maclean for the Guardian

The Guardian reports that over the past three decades, the landscape of southern Niger has been transformed by more than 200m new trees, many of them gaos. They have not been planted but have grown naturally on over 5m hectares of farmland, nurtured by thousands of farmers. Farmers in Niger are nurturing gao trees to drive Africa’s biggest environmental change

Indonesia's Deforestation Dropped 60 Percent in 2017

Sunrise near Mt. Sumeru, Indonesia. Aditi / Flickr

Sunrise near Mt. Sumeru, Indonesia. Aditi / Flickr

The World Resources Institute reports that Indonesia saw a 60 percent drop in tree cover loss in primary forests compared with 2016. That's the difference in carbon dioxide emissions from primary forest loss equivalent to 0.2 gigatons of carbon dioxide, or about the same emissions released from burning over 199 billion pounds of coal.

$10 Billion Pledged in New Commitments to Protect the World’s Oceans

Living coral

According to Mongabay, global participants in the fifth Our Ocean Conference have pledged the highest amount of funding yet for new initiatives and commitments on the protection of a combined expanse of ocean eight times the size of Alaska. The event, hosted by the Indonesian government on the island of Bali, generated 287 pledges in bilateral and multilateral agreements between governments, the private sector, civil society organizations and philanthropic foundations. The pledges were valued at more than $10 billion.

"Paris Agreement for the Ocean" - the First International Treaty to Stop Overfishing and Protect Life in Oceans

Photograph by Brian J. Skerry, Nat Geo Image Collection

Photograph by Brian J. Skerry, Nat Geo Image Collection

National Geographic has reported a new international effort that hopes to stem the tide of illegal and under-regulated fishing and otherwise protect the ocean from a range of threats.

“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to get ocean governance that puts conservation and sustainable use first,” says Liz Karan, senior manager for the high seas program at the Pew Charitable Trusts. “It’s said we should thank the ocean for every second breath of oxygen we take.”

Canada Protects the Largest Coniferous Forest in the World

Great Horned Owl

Canada has a conservation deal with its First Nations people, creating the largest protected boreal forest (an area twice the size of Belgium) on the planet.

The BBC says some 1.6 million hectares of remote land in the province of Alberta are being made into new or extended provincial parks.

A 6.7 million hectare conservation zone will now be protected and free from logging or oil and gas exploration.

Ocean Refuge the Size of Great Britain Announced

Photograph by Manu San Félix, National Geographic Pristine Seas

National Geographic reports the government of the Seychelles has created two new marine protected areas in the country's remote Indian Ocean archipelago. The sanctioned areas will cover more than 81,000 square miles - a swath of space about the size of Great Britain.

New Caledonia Is Taking New Steps To Protect Their Coral Reefs

Coral reef - Bastien PREUSS

Coral reef slope with damselfish and shark in background at Chesterfield Bastien PREUSS

Forbes Magazine - On August 14, 2018, the government of New Caledonia voted to protect 100% of their reefs by establishing four Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that cover 28,000 square kilometers and extend to remote areas that serve as havens for seabirds, sea turtles, and humpback whales.

New Caledonia joins the Philippines and Thailand in taking protective measures to conserve coral reefs threatened by commercial fishing, tourism, and global climate change..

Ecuador Frees Up a Huge Swath of Amazon Rainforest from Gold Mining

According to Amazon Frontlines, on October 22, 2018, the Kofan people of Sinangoe in the Ecuadorian Amazon won a landmark legal battle to protect the headwaters of the Aguarico River, one of Ecuador’s largest and most important rivers.

The ruling nullified 52 mining concessions that had been granted by the government in violation of the Kofan’s right to consent, freeing up more than 32, 000 hectares of primary rainforest from the devastating environmental and cultural impact of gold mining.

Nepal Doubles its Tiger Population, Raising Hope for a Global Recovery

Nepalese tiger

The Independent reports that Nepal has taken great strides towards saving tigers from extinction by nearly doubling its population of the big cats in the space of nine years.

Officials announced that the tiny Asian nation now has an estimated 235 wild tigers, up from 121 in 2009.

United Nations Says the Ozone Hole to be Fully Healed

ASA Marshall Space Flight Center (Flickr)

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (Flickr)

Gizmodo - The ozone hole could be healed up by the 2060s, according to a new report from the United Nations. The report says a decades-old international treaty to ban ozone-depleting chemicals has led to their decline and “much more severe ozone depletion in the polar regions has been avoided.”

There’s still work to be done, but this definitely falls into the Good News category.

Chile Creates New Law to Protect its Ocean Habitat

Chilean sea lions photographed in Patagonia - Getty Images

Chilean sea lions photographed in Patagonia - Getty Images

BBC: Chile passed a new law protecting the waters along its coastline, creating nine marine reserves and increasing the area of ocean under state protection to include 4000 miles of coastline.

The outgoing president, Michele Bachelet, signed the decree, which creates nine marine reserves. President Bachelet, who is ended her term of office in March, 2018, said that Chile needed to establish the basis on which it would conserve its marine territory for the future.

Endangered Island Foxes Break Record for Fast Recovery

Santa Cruz Island Fox

Santa Cruz Island Fox © Ian Shive

Nature Conservancy - Thanks to scientific strategy, the world’s smallest fox has rebounded from sure extinction in just a decade.In a win for Santa Cruz Island foxes.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the fox, plus two additional subspecies of island fox, have recovered so well that they can be removed from the Endangered Species List, marking the fastest recovery of any mammal under the Endangered Species Act.

Spain Creates Mediterranean Sea Reserve for Whale Migration

Whale mother with calf

(AP Photo/Guam Variety News, Chris Bangs, File)

AP: Spain said it would create a new marine wildlife reserve for the migrations of whales and dolphins in the Mediterranean and will prohibit all future fossil fuels exploration in the area.

The Spanish government announced In June, 2018, that the protected reserve will cover 46,385 square kilometers (17,909 square miles) between the Balearic Islands and the mainland. It says the area “is of great ecological value and represents a migration path of vital importance for cetaceans in the Western Mediterranean.”

Mexico's Jaguar Population Grows 20% in Eight Years

Jaguar cubs

Two jaguar cubs at the "Reino Animal" zoo in Teotihuacan, Mexico

Phys.org reports that Mexico's population of wild jaguars has grown 20 percent in the past eight years, according to a study released In June, 2018, a bit of good news for an iconic species whose numbers have been declining.

The study, carried out by a consortium of institutions and academics, found a 20 percent increase from the first edition of the study, carried out in 2010.

There are currently an estimated 4,800 jaguars in Mexico.

Endangered Mountain Gorilla Population Recovers to Over 1,000

Mountain gorilla

Reuters TV

Reuters: The population of mountain gorillas, one of the world’s most endangered species, which survives on the forest-cloaked volcanoes of central Africa, has increased by a quarter to over 1,000 individuals since 2010.

That is despite the threat posed by poachers and armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Rwanda, where most of them reside.

The latest census put them at 1,004 individuals. The last survey, in 2010, found just 786 of this critically endangered eastern gorilla sub-species.

Colombia’s Serranía de Chiribiquete is Now the World’s Largest Tropical Rainforest National Park

Jaguar cubs

© Cesar David Martinez

According to the World Wildlife Fund, in a momentous win for conservation, Colombia’s Serranía de Chiribiquete was officially expanded to 10.6 million acres, making it the world’s largest protected tropical rain forest national park. It was also declared as a UNESCO World Heritage site in recognition of its “outstanding universal value” for nature and people..

Located in the heart of the Colombian Amazon, Serranía de Chiribiquete park is a vibrant, biodiverse hotspot that has one of the highest rates of plant diversity in the northern Amazon and is home to thousands of species - many of which are threatened - including lowland tapirs, giant otters, giant anteaters, woolly monkeys, jaguars, and the Chiribiquete emerald hummingbird, the only endemic species in the Colombian Amazon.

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