Global Pulse

分类： environment

  • Climate change-fuelled storm decimated world’s rarest great ape: study

    Climate change-fuelled storm decimated world’s rarest great ape: study

    A single extreme weather event amplified by human-caused climate change has delivered a catastrophic blow to the world’s rarest great ape species, new research has confirmed, leaving fewer than 800 Tapanuli orangutans surviving in the wild. According to a study published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed academic journal Current Biology, last November’s Cyclone Senjaya triggered widespread mudslides and flash flooding across Indonesia’s Sumatra island that killed an estimated 58 Tapanuli orangutans. This toll accounts for roughly 7% of the species’ entire remaining wild population, and 11% of the apes that live in the affected Batang Toru Ecosystem – the only protected habitat the species still occupies. The broader flooding event killed more than 1,000 human residents across the region as well.

    Only formally recognized as a distinct species by the scientific community in 2017, Tapanuli orangutans are already one of the most vulnerable large mammals on Earth. The entire wild population is confined to a small, fragmented stretch of highland forest in northern Sumatra, after decades of human development pushed them out of their preferred lowland habitats. Conservation scientists have warned for years that overlapping threats of industrial encroachment and climate-driven extreme weather could push the species to extinction in just a few decades.

    To reach their population loss estimates, researchers from the University of Indonesia and conservation initiative Borneo Futures cross-referenced satellite imagery of landslide damage in Batang Toru with existing maps that track Tapanuli orangutan population density across the ecosystem. Their analysis found that roughly 8,300 hectares of critical forest habitat – more than 11% of the ecosystem’s total forest area – was destroyed or severely damaged by the cyclone-triggered landslides. In addition to the 58 confirmed or projected orangutan deaths, the storm wiped out critical food sources and shelter that the remaining apes depend on for survival.

    “This level of loss is substantial for a species with such a small total population,” explained Erik Meijaard, chief scientist at Borneo Futures. “For a population already on the brink, losing one out of every 14 individuals to a single weather event is a devastating blow that the species cannot absorb repeatedly.”

    Jatna Supriatna, lead researcher from the University of Indonesia, emphasized that the mass mortality event was directly tied to rising global temperatures that have increased the frequency and intensity of extreme tropical cyclones in the region. “The loss of an estimated 58 Tapanuli orangutans to a single climate-induced landslide event is a devastating demographic shock to the world’s rarest great ape,” he said.

    Conservation groups have campaigned for decades to stop planned industrial development in the Batang Toru Ecosystem, including a large proposed hydroelectric dam and ongoing illegal gold mining operations that have already fragmented the apes’ remaining habitat. Data from conservation advocacy group Mighty Earth, released earlier this year, underscores the growing risk: Sumatra lost more than 4.4 million hectares of forest between 2001 and 2024 – an area larger than the entire country of Switzerland – and widespread deforestation has left the island’s hilly landscapes far more vulnerable to catastrophic climate-driven landslides.

    To avoid what would be the first extinction of a great ape species in modern history, Supriatna said, both Indonesian authorities and global stakeholders must take urgent action. “Indonesia must permanently protect the Batang Toru ecosystem from further industrial encroachment,” he said. “But our international partners must also meet their global commitments by providing immediate biodiversity-recovery financing to support habitat restoration and protection efforts.”

  • Colombia passes law to track cattle and keep deforestation-linked beef out of supply chains

    Colombia passes law to track cattle and keep deforestation-linked beef out of supply chains

    BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA – In a groundbreaking move for global forest conservation, Colombia has signed into law a first-of-its-kind mandatory framework requiring the entire domestic cattle industry to implement full livestock traceability, guaranteeing that national beef supply chains are completely free of deforestation-linked production. Environmental advocates across the globe are hailing the legislation as a historic precedent, marking the first time any tropical forest country has rolled out such a sweeping nationwide rule to curb forest loss driven by cattle ranching.

    Under the new law, government regulatory bodies and private sector actors across the cattle supply chain are mandated to integrate three core systems: individual cattle tracking, official land ownership verification, and real-time deforestation monitoring. This cross-system integration is designed to flag any livestock raised on land cleared of forest, blocking these animals from entering legal commercial supply chains entirely.

    For decades, unregulated expansion of cattle ranching has stood as the single largest driver of deforestation in Colombia’s portion of the Amazon basin, with large swathes of protected forest cleared illegally through land grabbing to create new pasture. Proponents of the legislation argue it will close longstanding regulatory gaps that have allowed cattle reared on illegally deforested land – including grazing areas inside protected national parks and conservation reserves – to launder into legitimate domestic retail and international export markets.

    Susanne Breitkopf, U.S. forest campaigns director for the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), an international watchdog that has spent years documenting deforestation tied to Colombia’s cattle sector, emphasized that the law sets a replicable blueprint for other tropical forest nations grappling with the same issue. “This is a win for forests, for Indigenous and local communities that have acted as the world’s most effective forest stewards, and for consumers around the world who are increasingly demanding that the food they buy does not contribute to forest destruction or illicit land activities,” Breitkopf noted.

    The legislation comes at a moment of mounting global pressure, as both governments and agribusiness face growing requirements from international import markets to prove major commodities including beef are not linked to deforestation. Environmental advocates point out that robust traceability systems are quickly becoming a non-negotiable prerequisite for accessing key overseas markets, while also giving law enforcement clearer tools to identify and crack down on illegal land grabbing and forest clearing.

    Data from organizations backing the law shows Colombia has lost roughly 3.3 million hectares (8.2 million acres) of forest in recent decades – an area nearly identical in size to the entire country of Belgium – with the Amazon region seeing the most severe rates of loss. While Brazil’s Amazonian state of Pará has previously implemented cattle traceability rules for producers, environmental groups stress that Colombia’s new law goes further by codifying a uniform, nationwide legal mandate rather than a subnational policy.

    A 2025 EIA analysis underscored the urgency of the reform, finding that hundreds of thousands of cattle were moved between 2020 and 2024 from production areas overlapping protected national parks into legal supply chains. The new law is the culmination of more than five years of coordinated advocacy from environmental organizations, policy researchers, and progressive lawmakers, who have long warned that fragmented oversight and weak regulation allowed illegally deforestation-linked cattle to flow through Colombia’s disjointed cattle supply chain.

    Natalia Katixa Escobar, a researcher with Colombian legal and policy think tank Dejusticia, which has documented the links between cattle expansion and deforestation, explained that the law addresses a long-standing institutional disconnect between Colombia’s agricultural and environmental regulators. “One of its most immediate achievements is that it builds a formal bridge between environmental policy and agricultural oversight,” Escobar said. “For years, the control mechanisms for cattle ranching and traceability had absolutely no integration with environmental monitoring – that gap is what allowed illegal activity to thrive.”

    Colombian Environment Minister Irene Vélez Torres told reporters the new framework will help the government clearly separate responsible, law-abiding cattle producers from actors linked to forest destruction. “This means it will become increasingly hard for forest destruction and illicit economic activity to hide behind the facade of legitimate supply chains,” Vélez said.

    The law sets a phased two-year implementation timeline to give stakeholders time to adapt. Within the first six months, the national government must roll out compliance support programs for small and medium producers, launch an official certification system for deforestation-free beef products, and allocate dedicated funding to strengthen monitoring systems in active deforestation hotspots. After one year, regulators must finalize formal rules for national cattle identification and traceability protocols, and formalize mandatory due diligence requirements for deforestation-free cattle ranching.

    By the end of the second year, all major supply chain actors including slaughterhouses, meat processors, cattle auction houses, traders, and live cattle exporters will be required to have full due diligence policies in place to guarantee their supply chains are deforestation-free. A core component of the reform is the mandatory gradual integration of separate government databases, which for the first time will allow officials to cross-reference data on land tenure, cattle ownership, and recent forest loss to flag illegal operations.

    While supporters say these structural changes will dramatically improve regulators’ ability to intercept deforestation-linked cattle before they reach legal markets, observers warn that the law’s ultimate success hinges on consistent, well-funded enforcement – particularly in remote Amazon regions where illegal deforestation remains rampant and state presence is often limited.

    If implemented fully, the policy could become a global model for other tropical forest countries working to protect their forest ecosystems while retaining access to increasingly sustainability-focused international commodity markets. “The real test will be what happens on the ground,” Escobar emphasized. “While the law fixes critical gaps in oversight and information sharing, reducing deforestation will also depend on improved governance and consistent enforcement in the most remote parts of the Colombian Amazon. Whether it will deliver significant reductions in Amazon deforestation remains to be seen.”

    This coverage from The Associated Press, which received funding from private philanthropic foundations for its climate and environmental reporting, maintains full editorial independence over all content.

  • In Brazil’s Cerrado region, Indigenous fire practices reshape wildfire strategy

    In Brazil’s Cerrado region, Indigenous fire practices reshape wildfire strategy

    On a recent May morning in the remote Xerente Indigenous Territory of Brazil’s northern Tocantins state, a low crackle like distant rainfall drifted across the Cerrado, the sprawling savanna ecosystem that stretches across central and northern Brazil. Unlike the unplanned, destructive blazes that terrorize the region every dry season, these flames were intentional, part of a proactive wildfire prevention strategy forged through a historic collaboration between the Xerente people and Brazil’s federal environmental authorities.

    This year, the work carries extra urgency: with an El Niño event approaching, forecasters warn of prolonged drought and soaring regional temperatures that will create perfect tinder for out-of-control wildfires, amplifying the annual risk the Xerente have faced for generations.

    For decades, the Xerente and other Indigenous communities across Brazil faced systemic prejudice that dismissed their millennia of land management wisdom. Brazilian environmental policy for generations clung to a strict “zero-fire” doctrine, which labeled any controlled burn an illegal threat requiring immediate suppression. But over time, ecological research and shifting policy perspectives have revealed the critical role that low-intensity, controlled fire plays in the natural evolution of savanna ecosystems like the Cerrado. Today, that outdated approach has been replaced by a groundbreaking model: Indigenous ancestral fire management paired with modern scientific monitoring.

    The 2026 controlled burn operation, carried out on May 19, brought together trained Indigenous firefighters and agents from IBAMA, Brazil’s federal environmental protection agency, to map and burn targeted areas of dry vegetation ahead of the August-September peak dry season. On the ground, Xerente firefighters carried on tradition, igniting small, controlled patches with dry palm leaves and drip torches, while a small airborne team dropped precision incendiary spheres from a government helicopter to reach mapped, hard-to-access areas. Crews stood by at all times to immediately extinguish any flames that threatened to spread beyond planned boundaries, leaving behind a patchwork of safely burned plots that will act as natural fire breaks when high-risk season arrives.

    “The Xerente know this region, its climate, its vegetation, and the optimal windows to carry out burns better than anyone,” explained Marco Borges, the IBAMA agent coordinating fire prevention efforts across Tocantins. “We came to learn from their traditional knowledge, adapt it to our conservation goals, and align our work with their relationship to fire. They are our best teachers.”

    Ecologists confirm this approach aligns with the Cerrado’s natural history. “Fire is a natural part of the Cerrado’s ecosystem, and many native species actually rely on periodic low-intensity burns to thrive,” said Leandro Maracahipes, a biologist and researcher at Yale University. Historically, natural blazes sparked by lightning occurred at the start of the rainy season, when fuel loads were low and fires stayed contained. But in recent decades, human activity—particularly clearing for surrounding soy and cattle farms—has shifted fire patterns, leading to far more intense, destructive blazes during the peak drought months of August and September.

    By carrying out controlled burns early in the dry season, when vegetation is not yet fully parched, teams reduce the buildup of excess flammable grass that would otherwise feed catastrophic wildfires. The burned patches form protective barriers around villages, critical headwaters, and ecologically sensitive sites. As Maracahipes explains, the old zero-fire policy backfired dramatically: “Totally excluding fire leads to a massive buildup of fuel that feeds high-intensity burns. These intense fires can kill even the most fire-resilient trees and spread so rapidly across the landscape that firefighting becomes nearly impossible.”

    The day of the operation opened with a traditional ceremony that highlighted the new collaborative dynamic between Indigenous leaders and government officials. When IBAMA convoys arrived at the Xerente territory, 30 Indigenous community members gathered at the people’s association’s wood-and-thatch headquarters, forming two facing parallel lines to create a ceremonial corridor. One line was made up of Xerente firefighters in official bright yellow brigade uniforms, while the other held community members, many shirtless with traditional body paint marking their connection to ancestral land. Together, they chanted traditional songs and stomped in rhythm, welcoming the official team to their territory.

    Waiting at the end of the corridor was 68-year-old Lazaro Xerente, the community’s eldest traditional chief. Clad in a feathered headdress and bearing traditional body paint, he thanked officials for the collaboration but pushed back against the harmful misinformation that often plagues Indigenous communities after major fire events. “People say, ‘Oh, it’s the Indigenous people who are causing fires,’” he said through a translator. “But in reality, since I was born, and long before me, my ancestors have always protected this forest.” After major wildfires, out-of-context images of Indigenous controlled burns frequently circulate on Brazilian social media, falsely blaming communities for destruction that is in fact caused by unregulated clearing activity outside Indigenous territories. All burns in the current program are carefully mapped and monitored by joint fire management teams.

    Planning for each day’s burns combines modern satellite mapping data with generations of Xerente knowledge of the territory’s terrain and ecology, a model that has been formalized through government partnerships dating back to 2014. Some Xerente firefighters are hired on two-year government contracts, receiving formal training and a monthly salary, while others volunteer their time. The program receives partial funding from a partnership between the Bunge Foundation and IBAMA, which supports training and equipment for up to 40 Indigenous fire brigades across five Cerrado and Amazon states.

    This year’s operation is taking place as Brazilian authorities are on high alert for the impacts of the approaching El Niño. The climate phenomenon typically brings hotter, drier conditions to the Cerrado and Amazon, creating ideal conditions for wildfire spread. During the 2023-2024 El Niño event, data from MapBiomas, a nonprofit tracking deforestation and fire activity, shows Brazil suffered historic burning that destroyed more than 30.8 million hectares—an area larger than the entire country of Italy. The Amazon bore the brunt of the damage, accounting for nearly 60% of the total burned area, with the Cerrado ranking second at almost 10 million hectares affected.

    Brazil’s Environment Ministry has been tracking El Niño impacts since the start of 2026 and has deployed more than 4,000 brigade members across the country. Under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the government established a national fire management policy in 2024 that formalizes cross-sector coordination between authorities, civil society, and Indigenous communities, explicitly including the use of controlled burns led by Indigenous land managers. While the zero-fire policy remains in place for the more moisture-reliant Amazon ecosystem, where extreme drought has made even low-intensity fires a major risk, the Cerrado has embraced controlled burn as a core conservation tool.

    “When applied with technical expertise and traditional knowledge, fire can make a major contribution to environmental conservation,” said André Lima, secretary for deforestation control and land-use planning at Brazil’s Ministry of the Environment. “For example, when used in prescribed burns for sustainable land management, it can help prevent the major catastrophic disasters that destroy vast swathes of ecosystem every year.”

    For the Xerente, the model is a long-overdue validation of the wisdom their ancestors have nurtured for millennia. Bolivar Rodrigues Xerente, a Xerente member working with Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency FUNAI, summed up the collaborative ethos that underpins the program: “My Indigenous elders taught me that traditional knowledge and modern science are like the two wings of a bird. A bird with two wings can navigate the wind, but with only one wing, it cannot fly. Technology without the traditional knowledge held by Indigenous communities simply does not work.”

  • Sichuan pandas protected by eco-friendly power lines

    Sichuan pandas protected by eco-friendly power lines

    Nestled within the bounds of China’s Giant Panda National Park, the Ya’an region of Sichuan province has emerged as a global stronghold for wild giant pandas, and a groundbreaking infrastructure upgrade is now safeguarding both the endangered animals and their critical habitat. Local power sector officials announced this Wednesday that years of targeted, environmentally conscious modifications to power transmission networks have eliminated once-common threats including wildlife electrocution, habitat fragmentation, and vegetation-triggered wildfires in key panda habitats.

    As one of China’s five pioneering national parks, Giant Panda National Park spans vast swathes of southwestern China, with the Ya’an section covering 5,936 square kilometers — 27 percent of the protected area’s total size. This region is uniquely important to giant panda conservation: it is home to 340 wild giant pandas, boasting the highest population density of the vulnerable species anywhere on the planet. For decades, aging overhead power lines posed hidden risks to both wildlife and the ecosystem: uninsulated lines could electrocute wandering animals, while encroaching bamboo and tree growth near lines raised persistent wildfire risks that threatened both panda habitats and local communities.

    To address these hazards, the Ya’an branch of State Grid Sichuan Electric Power Co has led a systematic retrofitting project focused on balancing human energy needs with wildlife protection. To date, the utility has completed upgrades on three separate 10-kilovolt power lines stretching a combined total of nearly 2.8 kilometers across core protected zones within the park. Beyond adding protective insulation to eliminate electrocution risks, the project has also integrated cutting-edge intelligent monitoring infrastructure along all upgraded routes. These connected systems allow grid workers to track potential hazards in real time, from vegetation overgrowth to equipment faults, ensuring consistent, reliable power access for local residents and economic development while minimizing human disturbance to the fragile panda ecosystem. Since the completion of the first phase of upgrades, no safety or environmental incidents linked to the power infrastructure have been recorded, marking a major success for coexistence between energy infrastructure and biodiversity conservation.

  • Mangrove forests are healing after decades of human destruction

    Mangrove forests are healing after decades of human destruction

    Long known as one of the planet’s most underappreciated environmental workhorses, coastal mangrove forests are now making a surprising global recovery, according to new research published by an international team of scientists. For nearly half a century, these salt-tolerant swampy trees faced rapid, widespread clearing as coastal development, industrial aquaculture, and agricultural expansion pushed human activity deeper into tropical and subtropical shorelines. But the latest study reveals a striking reversal of this decades-long trend: since 2010, global mangrove coverage has grown at a faster rate than it has declined.

    Mangroves deliver a rare stack of interconnected ecological and community benefits that few other ecosystems can match. Their dense, tangled root systems act as natural coastal barriers, dissipating wave energy from storm surges and tsunamis to shield millions of people living in low-lying coastal communities. They are also unparalleled carbon sinks, storing up to five times more carbon dioxide per hectare than most terrestrial forests, making them a critical natural tool in the fight against anthropogenic climate change. Beyond climate and protection, their root networks form thriving nurseries for hundreds of species of fish, crustaceans, and other marine life, supporting global fisheries and coastal biodiversity.

    From the 1980s through 2010, this vital ecosystem suffered devastating losses: more than 12,000 square kilometers of mangrove forest—an area roughly equal to the entire island nation of Jamaica—was cleared across Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Today, that net loss has shrunk dramatically to just 849 square kilometers total since the 1980s, a staggering reduction that points to widespread, meaningful change in how communities and governments value these forests.

    Researchers attribute this shift to multiple interconnected factors, starting with shifting public and policy attitudes spurred by high-profile climate disasters. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed hundreds of thousands of people across the region, was a turning point: communities observed that shorelines protected by intact mangrove forests suffered far less damage and loss of life than those where forests had been cleared. In Indonesia, one of the world’s most mangrove-dense nations, this awareness led to a sharp slowdown in clearing mangroves for commercial fish farms. A similar shift followed Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar in 2008, reinforced by a national logging ban implemented in 2016; today, mangrove coverage is growing steadily there, while it has stabilized in Indonesia after decades of decline.

    Beyond policy and awareness, researchers highlight mangroves’ extraordinary natural resilience as a key driver of recovery. Once human clearing activity stops, these forests can regenerate naturally and expand on their own far faster than many restoration projects can achieve. Improved satellite imaging technology also played a role in documenting this recovery: the study used high-resolution Landsat satellite data, which is far more sensitive to small changes in forest canopy coverage than older mapping systems, allowing scientists to detect new growth that previous global assessments missed. Independent experts note this new data marks a major advance in global mangrove monitoring.

    Even with this encouraging trend, the research warns of remaining threats and uneven progress across regions. West and Central Africa have emerged as new hotspots of mangrove destruction, with the Niger Delta standing out as a particularly hard-hit area. Oil exploration and pipeline construction have left clear, permanent cut through large swathes of the delta’s mangroves, with ongoing pollution degrading remaining stands. Additionally, some new mangrove growth has a hidden environmental cost: in regions like Brazil, increased nutrient runoff from upstream deforestation and mining has created fertile growing conditions for downstream mangroves, meaning one ecosystem’s loss is fueling another’s gain. Intense tropical cyclones also continue to cause large, sudden annual losses from Australia to the Caribbean, threatening long-term recovery in storm-prone regions.

    Despite these caveats, the study’s authors frame the overall trend as a clear win for conservation. Not only has net loss slowed to a near standstill, but existing mangrove forests are also growing healthier: the proportion of closed-canopy mangroves—the most carbon-dense and biodiverse form of the ecosystem—has increased by nearly 20% since the 1980s. Lead researcher Dr. Zhen Zhang of Tulane University emphasized that the global trajectory is clearly moving in the right direction, proving that intentional conservation policy and increased public awareness can reverse even decades of ecosystem decline.

  • Australian environment groups write to UN over fears for Great Barrier Reef

    Australian environment groups write to UN over fears for Great Barrier Reef

    As the United Nations prepares to convene a critical global meeting on the future of one of Australia’s most cherished natural landmarks, five of the nation’s largest environmental advocacy organizations have issued an urgent formal appeal to the world body to place Great Barrier Reef land clearing practices under ongoing annual international oversight.

    Drafted in April and signed by the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation, Greenpeace Australia, the Australian Conservation Foundation, WWF Australia, and the Wilderness Society, the open letter calls on UNESCO to mandate annual progress reports from the Australian federal government through 2030, requiring verifiable evidence that rates of harmful land clearing in reef catchment areas are steadily declining.

    Stretching more than 2,300 kilometers along Australia’s northeast coast, the Great Barrier Reef was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1981. It contributes more than AUD $9 billion annually to the national economy and supports tens of thousands of jobs, cementing its status as both an ecological and economic cornerstone of the country. In recent decades, however, UNESCO has labeled the reef a site of “utmost concern” amid mounting threats from climate change, rising ocean temperatures, and declining water quality driven by upstream human activity.

    Of all the hazards facing the reef ecosystem, unregulated land clearing in the river catchments that drain into the Coral Sea is ranked among the most damaging. Environmental advocates warn that large-scale deforestation loosens dry sediment and allows toxic agricultural pesticides to wash downstream directly onto reef systems, where sediment smothers living coral and blocks the sunlight coral needs to survive. In response to growing pressure, the federal Albanese government passed landmark reforms to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act late last year, introducing mandatory federal environmental assessments for all new land clearing projects within 50 meters of waterways that flow into the reef catchment.

    While the letter acknowledges that the new reforms represent a promising first step toward addressing runoff and poor water quality, the groups warn that implementation could range from highly effective to completely inadequate to address the concerns UNESCO first flagged in 2025. The advocacy groups emphasize that securing strong, consistent enforcement of the updated national environment laws would offer a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reverse decades of damage to water quality caused by large-scale deforestation in upstream catchments.

    The letter outlines that it will take between 12 and 36 months to accurately assess whether the reforms are successfully protecting high-value native vegetation and cutting harmful runoff that impacts the reef’s World Heritage-listed values. Several key gaps remain in the regulatory framework that have delayed meaningful oversight, the groups note: Queensland’s state government retains primary regulatory authority over most land clearing in reef catchments, and it remains unclear whether the state will fully cooperate with the new national rules or strengthen its own existing regulations. Additionally, the national environmental standards that will guide land clearing assessment decisions have not yet been finalized, there is no comprehensive public data on ongoing clearing activity, and no formal compliance mechanisms to enforce reporting requirements—current rules rely entirely on voluntary self-referral by landholders. The new federal National Environmental Protection Agency, tasked with enforcing the reforms, will not launch until at least July 2026, leaving a years-long gap in formal regulatory oversight.

    New details of regulatory gaps emerged last week during Senate estimates hearings, where it was revealed that out of 248 calls and 11 emails from landholders seeking clarification on land clearing rules from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), only six landholders received a formal pre-referral consultation meeting. Department officials confirmed they expect only two or three of these inquiries to progress to full formal assessment, and they have yet to confirm how many of the requests relate specifically to projects within the Great Barrier Reef catchment. During questioning, Declan O’Connor-Cox, head of Queensland’s Environment Assessments branch, clarified that exemptions for ongoing continuous clearing do not apply to projects within 50 meters of reef catchment waterways: even if a property cleared the same stretch of land two years ago, any new clearing requires fresh assessment under the new rules.

    Lyndon Schneiders, executive director of the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation, emphasized that the reef is a defining Australian icon that requires urgent government action to protect. “The time is now for Environment Minister Murray Watt to lead and put in place strong protections to ensure the clearing stops and the reef is given a helping hand,” Schneiders said. “As a Queenslander, he knows the reef is special, and as a former agriculture minister, he also knows that sometimes a small number of cowboy beef farmers make the whole industry look bad. It is in everyone’s interest to stop the clearing and help the Reef.”

    The appeal comes less than two months before the UNESCO World Heritage Committee convenes its annual meeting on July 19, where the future of the Great Barrier Reef and Australia’s management of the site will be a core item on the meeting’s agenda.

  • Venice’s growing flamingo population finds refuge in recovering wetlands

    Venice’s growing flamingo population finds refuge in recovering wetlands

    VENICE, Italy — For generations, the iconic pale pink flamingo has been absent from local Venetian vocabulary, a quiet reflection of how recently these striking birds have made the Venetian Lagoon their home. Today, that narrative is shifting dramatically: flamingo numbers in this storied coastal ecosystem have hit all-time highs, as large-scale wetland restoration projects create new viable habitats that could soon support the first permanent, self-sustaining nesting colony in the region’s modern history.

    Flamingos, which have long established major nesting sites in Spain and France, first began appearing in the 550-square-kilometer Venetian Lagoon in the early 2000s. Initially, sightings were largely limited to remote fishing valleys and tidal mudflats along the lagoon’s outer edges, with almost no encounters in the canal-laced historic center that draws millions of global tourists each year. That pattern has shifted sharply in recent years, however. Last year’s official ornithological census counted nearly 24,000 wintering flamingos in the lagoon — an increase of 8,000 from the previous year’s total.

    “This count cements the Venetian Lagoon as one of the most critical wintering grounds for flamingos across their entire European range,” explained Alessandro Sartori, a leading ornithologist who monitors the lagoon’s bird populations weekly by boat. Over 90% of the counted flamingos currently congregate in the northern lagoon, where large expanses of intact natural salt marsh and semi-natural traditional fishing valleys provide abundant food sources. These managed embanked wetlands, however, have also created occasional conflict between the feeding birds and local fishing activity.

    Sartori has spent years searching for signs of successful nesting, a milestone that would confirm the establishment of a self-sustaining local colony. Two previous attempts in 2008 and 2013, in northern lagoon fishing valleys, ended in devastating setbacks: a severe hailstorm killed dozens of young birds, halting early colonization efforts. That could change soon, thanks to a landmark EU-backed wetland restoration project focused on rebuilding eroding salt marshes in the isolated southern lagoon, located beyond Venice’s historic center and the Marghera industrial port.

    Once, nearly half of the entire Venetian Lagoon consisted of natural salt marshes, known locally as *barene* in the Venetian dialect. Today, salt marshes make up just 7% of the lagoon’s total area, with only half of that remaining habitat naturally formed. Decades of erosion, accelerated by the dredging of shipping channels for the Marghera industrial port in the 1960s, has pushed the lagoon toward a worrying transition: without intervention, it could eventually degrade into an open marine bay, according to conservation leaders.

    The 23.6 million euro ($27.5 million) five-year WaterLANDS project, led in part by local conservation group We Are Here Venice, aims to reverse that trend by rebuilding salt marsh habitats at a scalable scale. Beyond creating new feeding and potential nesting grounds for flamingos, restored salt marshes deliver major climate benefits: they trap carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas driving climate change, and buffer the lagoon against the impacts of rising sea levels. “This project is designed to prove that we can reverse centuries of erosion and change the trajectory of the lagoon,” said Jane da Mosto, executive director of We Are Here Venice.

    Conservation teams working on the southern lagoon project have already documented clear signs of increasing flamingo activity, from scattered pink feathers to regularly feeding flocks. Sartori has already observed a dramatic jump in flamingo numbers in the restored southern wetlands: over the past three years, counts have grown from just a handful of birds to between 300 and 400 during peak wintering periods. “Our hope is that just as flamingos have established nesting colonies in other parts of the Mediterranean, they will find suitable breeding ground right here on these restored barene,” Sartori said.

    Beyond conservation gains, the arrival of Venice’s pink newcomers offers a new opportunity to reframe the city’s ecological identity, adding a layer of natural significance to its already well-known historical and cultural heritage. While casual flamingo sightings remain rare for most tourists — the birds favor remote, shallow tidal reaches that require careful navigation through shifting channels, and they scatter quickly when disturbed by human activity — Sartori predicts that flamingo watching will become an increasingly popular sustainable activity as populations grow, with occasional sightings already possible from the shores of the popular lagoon islands of Murano and Burano. He emphasized that any wildlife viewing must prioritize the birds’ safety, with visitors maintaining a safe distance to avoid disrupting their feeding and resting routines.

    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental reporting is supported by funding from private philanthropic foundations, with AP maintaining full editorial control over all content.

  • Australia sues US giant 3M for $2bn over ‘forever chemicals’ in firefighting foam

    Australia sues US giant 3M for $2bn over ‘forever chemicals’ in firefighting foam

    On Thursday, the Australian federal government announced one of the most significant legal actions in its history, filing a AU$2 billion (US$1.4 billion) damages lawsuit against U.S. manufacturing conglomerate 3M over widespread toxic contamination linked to per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), the persistent “forever chemicals” used in the company’s firefighting foam. The legal claim targets contamination that has impacted 28 separate Australian Department of Defence bases across the nation, marking the largest civil claim ever brought by the Australian government, according to Attorney-General Michelle Rowland.

    PFAS, a family of man-made chemical compounds prized for their water and grease-resistant properties, appear in a wide range of consumer and industrial products from non-stick cookware to waterproof clothing and electronics. But their defining trait — resistance to natural environmental breakdown — has turned them into a persistent public health and environmental threat: the chemicals accumulate in soil, groundwater, and food chains, and can remain in the human body for years, with peer-reviewed research linking long-term exposure to a range of serious health conditions including multiple forms of cancer. In 2022, 3M publicly announced it would phase out all production and use of PFAS globally in response to growing public and regulatory concern over these health risks.

    The Australian government’s lawsuit alleges that 3M engaged in deliberate misconduct spanning decades: the company knowingly withheld critical information about the toxicity and environmental persistence of PFAS found in its aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF), a product widely used by Australian defence forces for firefighting training and emergency response. According to the claim, 3M deliberately misrepresented the safety of the product, repeatedly reassuring Australian authorities that the foam posed no environmental risk even when internal company data confirmed the opposite. The contamination has already imposed massive costs on Australian taxpayers, with more than AU$1 billion spent to date on investigations, site remediation, and risk mitigation across the contaminated defence estate.

    “This misconduct has contributed to substantial costs for defence and the Australian taxpayer,” Rowland said in her official announcement of the suit. “Make no mistake, this legal action against 3M is significant. The government is committed to holding 3M and 3M Australia to account for the economic and environmental harms associated with PFAS contamination.”

    In its official response to the claim, 3M pushed back against the allegations, noting that the company never manufactured PFAS within Australia’s borders and halted all sales of PFAS-containing firefighting foam in the country 20 years ago. The company also pointed out that the Australian Department of Defence continued to use its existing stockpiles of the foam for two decades after 3M stopped sales. A company spokesperson confirmed that 3M intends to vigorously contest the government’s claims through the formal legal process.

  • Brazil to invest $75 million in highway through Amazon and unveils environmental protection plan

    Brazil to invest $75 million in highway through Amazon and unveils environmental protection plan

    On a Wednesday ceremony held in Iranduba, a small Amazonas city roughly 37 kilometers from the Amazon basin’s largest urban center Manaus, Brazil’s federal government unveiled a $75 million investment plan to pave the long-unfinished BR-319 highway, a major infrastructure project cutting through the heart of the world’s most biodiverse and climate-critical rainforest. The 1976-originated highway remains largely unpaved to this day, connecting the northern Amazonian states of Amazonas and Rondonia to the rest of Brazil and ending in Manaus, a city home to more than 2 million residents. Running parallel to the Madeira River, a key tributary of the Amazon that has been repeatedly crippled by severe droughts disrupting regional cargo transport, the project is framed by the administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as a critical step for regional connectivity while promising rigorous environmental safeguards that would set a global benchmark.

    “From an environmental standpoint, it will be the most modern road in the world,” Lula told attendees at the event, which was also attended by Environment Minister João Paulo Capobianco and a cohort of local politicians widely expected to back Lula’s campaign for a fourth non-consecutive presidential term in October’s national election. “Any foreigner who comes here to weigh in on the climate issue, we will show what we’ve done here,” the president added. Alongside the highway funding announcement, the government revealed additional planned local investments led by state-run energy giant Petrobras and its pipeline subsidiary Transpetro.

    To address widespread environmental concerns over the project, the Lula administration unveiled a parallel environmental protection plan that it says will mitigate the highway’s potential impact on the rainforest. The plan includes continuous satellite and on-the-ground environmental monitoring across a 31-mile-wide buffer zone stretching along the entire length of the highway, new inspection checkpoints, permanent bases for environmental enforcement agencies, and the creation of new protected conservation units. Officials noted that the highway corridor cuts through one of the Amazon’s most ecologically sensitive regions, requiring a stronger permanent state presence to prevent unauthorized incursion. A private contractor will be hired in 2028 to support ongoing enforcement efforts, according to the government’s plan. A day before the formal announcement, Lula visited an active work section of the dirt highway, posing for photos with construction crews and machinery to signal the administration’s commitment to moving the project forward.

    Despite the government’s promises of robust protection, environmental organizations have fiercely opposed the project and challenged it in Brazil’s courts. Leading climate advocacy group Climate Observatory filed a lawsuit in 2024 to overturn the project’s 2022 preliminary paving license, arguing that regulators ignored formal technical warnings from Brazil’s national environmental agency and failed to complete required pre-construction steps, including meaningful consultation with Indigenous communities and independent climate impact assessments. A subsequent legal challenge briefly paused a related bidding process for construction contracts back in April, though a higher Brazilian court quickly overturned the suspension. Federal Minister George Santoro confirmed Wednesday that the entire highway will be contracted out and construction will be underway across the full route by the end of June.

    Ecologists and environmental policy experts have long linked the construction of paved roads in the Amazon to accelerated deforestation, a trend that threatens both the rainforest’s ability to regulate the global climate and the sovereignty of Indigenous communities that call the region home. The BR-319 corridor cuts through one of the Amazon biome’s last remaining well-preserved intact forest landscapes, which hosts dozens of established protected areas and Indigenous territorial reserves. Peer-reviewed scientific research has repeatedly confirmed that opening new official roads in the Amazon creates pathways for illegal logging, land grabbing, and the construction of unauthorized side roads that expand deforestation deep into intact forest. A 2014 study published in *Biological Conservation* found that 95% of all Amazon deforestation occurs within 3.4 miles of constructed roads, and for every one kilometer of official paved road built, an average of 1.9 kilometers of informal illegal side roads are carved into the forest.

    Critics point out that deforestation in the BR-319 region spiked almost immediately after the project was first announced under former President Jair Bolsonaro, long before any paving began. Marina Silva, a former environment minister in Lula’s current administration who stepped down in April to run for a seat in Congress, told a Senate hearing last year that clearing had already surged after the initial announcement. Marcio Astrini, executive director of the Climate Observatory, argues that the Lula administration is cutting corners on environmental due process by rolling out protection plans at the same time construction proceeds, rather than finalizing and implementing safeguards before paving work begins.

    “Just the simple announcement under (former President Jair) Bolsonaro’s government that the road would be rebuilt nearly doubled land grabbing and deforestation in the area. Laying asphalt there creates another incentive,” Astrini said. “If there are no protection measures in place, it just becomes yet another driver of deforestation.”

  • Western Australian government offering scheme offering residents $150 in cash to plant native trees

    Western Australian government offering scheme offering residents $150 in cash to plant native trees

    Thousands of adult residents across Western Australia are currently eligible to receive a one-off $150 cash rebate through a state government environmental initiative designed to boost local native tree populations. Launched one year ago under the name “Treebate,” the incentive program is administered by the WA Department of Water and Environmental Regulation, and has already drawn more than 2,000 participants with two months remaining until its first anniversary.

    The core premise of the program is simple: eligible residents 18 years and older can purchase a qualifying native tree from a local garden center or nursery, plant it on their residential property, and submit a rebate claim through the ServiceWA online platform to receive the full $150 purchase incentive. To qualify for the rebate, participants must meet three key requirements: select a native species that will grow to a minimum mature canopy height of 3 meters, provide clear photographic evidence of the tree labeled with its common or scientific name, and retain a tax invoice as official proof of purchase.

    The $6.9 million four-year program was developed in direct response to a pressing ecological crisis in Perth, where more than 4,500 native trees have been killed in recent years by invasive shot-hole borer insects. To complement the residential Treebate scheme, the state government has also launched a second complementary initiative, the WA Tree Recovery Program, which offers landowners the same $150 rebate for every native tree they replace after it was lost to the shot-hole borer infestation.

    WA Environment Minister Matthew Swinbourn emphasized the far-reaching value of expanding the state’s native tree cover, noting that every new tree planted across Perth and broader Western Australia delivers cascading social, economic, and environmental benefits that lift up the entire community. With more than $4 million in remaining funding allocated for the program, thousands more eligible residents are still able to claim the rebate before the program’s allocated funds are exhausted.