Sixty-six miles south of the Arctic Circle, Tasiilaq, with its colorful collection of wooden houses, overlooks King Oscar’s Harbor. Pointed peaks crowned with glaciers rise behind East Greenland’s small administrative capital, home to 2,000 residents. Beyond this, most of East Greenland remains untouched, inhabited only by a few small communities sustained by subsistence hunting.

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Traditional growing seasons are almost non-existent in this land of raw Arctic beauty. However, thanks to the efforts of Siu-Tsi’s Tasiilaq’s Garden project, crops like radishes, turnips, spinach and onions now unexpectedly flourish.

Siu-Tsi: Building a Promising Future for Greenland’s Youth

© Courtesy of Siu-Tsiu

Siu-Tsiu is a youth social services organization whose goal is to “contribute to increased employment and sustainability in Greenland—regionally and locally…through social economic enterprises…rooted in the hands of the local community.” Nearly a quarter of Tasiilaq’s population comprises young individuals aged between 15 and 29, and the skills acquired in these programs serve as a bridge to further education and the workforce.

Empowering youth by teaching them to grow vegetables, especially in such a harsh climate, not only offers them a pathway into the labor market but also bolsters their overall well-being. The initiative extends beyond agriculture, equipping these individuals with valuable skills related to craftsmanship, repairs, food service and more.

Creating jobs for young people in Tasiilaq is part of Siu-Tsiu’s goal of creating a sustainable and socially conscious economy in Greenland. And small seeds are where big ideas begin. Siu-Tsiu’s hope for the Tasiilaq’s Garden project? That “everyone…will enjoy the flowers and vegetables we will grow, which will be both beautiful to look at and delicious to eat.”

Tasiilaq Community Cookbook: Celebrating Greenland’s Local Flavors

In 2025, Nat Hab Philanthropy provided $2,500 to support the creation of the Tasiilaq Community Cookbook, a culinary and cultural initiative designed to preserve and promote local food traditions. The project connects past and present through the language of food by gathering recipes that showcase ingredients found in local shops and gardens (including those previously supported by Nat Hab Philanthropy).

With support from Nat Hab, this cookbook will celebrate Greenlandic food culture while encouraging sustainable eating habits and reduced reliance on imports. It also fosters local pride and community engagement, involving chefs, home cooks, and youth in both the creation and use of the book.

Funding will support research, a community tasting event, professional photography, printing and distribution—ensuring the cookbook becomes a lasting educational and cultural resource for schools, households and curious visitors alike.

Now, let’s go back to how the garden began.

Tasiilaq’s Garden: Sowing the Seeds of Change

© Courtesy of Siu-Tsiu

In April of 2023, Natural Habitat Adventures contributed $3,646 to Siu-Tsiu’s Tasiilaq’s Garden Cold Frame Project. 

The construction of two additional cold frames began in May 2023. The expansion aimed to provide more locally grown vegetables to the community of Tasiilaq. Siu-Tsiu also forged a partnership with Nat Hab to offer freshly grown produce to our chef at Base Camp Greenland, which aligned with our mission to source sustainable food whenever and wherever possible on our worldwide expeditions. 

Youth in the Siu-Tsi program worked side by side with a carpenter to build the cold frames, gaining insight into the trade and acquiring a variety of skills. This partnership provided a valuable connection between the young Greenlanders and a local business, allowing them to test out the profession as a potential career path and employment opportunity. 

There was some difficulty obtaining soil for the two cold frames due to transportation issues. This hiccup delayed the planting process for the new cold frames while the original ten cold frames were primed for planting. 

© Courtesy of Siu-Tsiu

Youth prepared and enriched the soil with organic fertilizer. They sowed a variety of seeds, deepening their knowledge of different plant species and how to grow them. Throughout the summer, they diligently maintained the garden, tackling a range of tasks. Collaborating with local craftsmen, they restored the waterline from a nearby creek for irrigation. They watered, weeded and nurtured the plants until harvest time.

By July, the awaited soil for the two new cold frames arrived. Young Greenlanders swiftly planted onions, radishes, spinach and turnips. Being some of the fastest-growing vegetables in Tasiilaq’s Garden, they are expected to be ready for harvest by late September, contingent on nighttime frosts. Regardless, this has posed no issues for Base Camp Greenland, which has been assured a steady flow of ripe vegetables from the entire garden. Mid-July witnessed the first harvest, and there was immense pride in delivering the initial produce to Tasiilaq and Nat Hab travelers at the wilderness Base Camp.

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A celebratory post shared on Siu-Tsiu’s Facebook page expresses gratitude toward Natural Habitat Adventures for their generous contribution in Greenlandic and Danish. Translated into English, it reads:

“We have harvested the first radishes from Tasiilaq’s Garden this year. We are so happy that we can grow a lot of vegetables for Tasiilaq (especially the radishes, which are quite popular!). The youngsters care for the vegetables from the very beginning—building the cold frames, sowing the little seeds, weeding and watering until they are ready for harvest. In the pictures, you can see Banne Hansen, Karl Kunuk and Jeanette Mathiassen. We are very grateful for the opportunity to expand Tasiilaq’s Garden this year. Thank you, Natural Habitat Adventures, for your donation.”

© Courtesy of Siu-Tsiu

The post garnered widespread attention and even led to the national radio station reaching out for an interview. The conversation, conducted in Greenlandic, revolved around Siu-Tsiu’s achievements in Tasiilaq’s Garden, the dedication of the youth and their collective pride in serving their community. 

Travel to East Greenland with Nat Hab 

On Nat Hab’s East Greenland Arctic Adventure, discover the rich history and culture of Tasiilaq through guided walks, personal encounters and a tour of the town museum. Our overnight stays offer unique opportunities to interact with the local Greenlandic Inuit, who will offer firsthand perspectives on daily life and the realities of year-round existence in this remote Arctic realm. This immersion provides a deep appreciation for their enduring traditions and offers insights into the contemporary challenges and triumphs of life in present-day Greenland. The journey continues as we set off by boat to our exclusive wilderness Base Camp situated on the eastern flank of Sermilik Fjord.

Inuit Village of Tasiilaq, Angmagssalik, Greenland © Ralph Lee Hopkins

The post Nat Hab Philanthropy Supports Community Cookbook, Garden & Green Future for Greenland’s Youth first appeared on Good Nature Travel Blog.

The Galapagos Islands, situated in the Pacific Ocean, are renowned for their diverse ecosystem. The islands, many of them perfectly preserved and nearly untouched by human development, are a haven for wildlife and a slice of heaven for adventurers looking to disconnect from the “real world” and immerse themselves in the natural world.

As I think back on my once-in-a-lifetime adventure through the archipelago, I recall some of my favorite encounters throughout the Galapagos that underscore what makes this magical place live up to its nickname: the Enchanted Islands.

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Swimming with Galapagos Sea Lions

We first met the sea lions on the beaches of North Seymour, where we embarked on what looked to be a pile of rocks. These rocks, however, upon closer inspection, were sea lions curled up in the sun and unbothered as we excitedly gathered around and exclaimed how adorable they were.

At first sight, it appears that Galapagos sea lions are abundant on the islands. The social species can be seen in large groups cuddled up along the shore on almost every beach. Despite seeing groups of sea lions at every turn, we learned that populations declined dramatically through the 80s and 90s due to climate change.

We had many sea lion interactions during our adventure, but one of the most magical moments was during our first snorkel off Isla Lobos. The inquisitive animals are known to play with snorkelers, but the opportunity to experience their playful personalities first-hand was an unforgettable moment.

Just as you would start swimming forward, a sea lion would sneak up and swim head-on toward you, only to turn at the last moment and swirl around you. It was hilarious, a bit scary, and an experience we talked about for the rest of our trip.

© Alyssa Corasanti / WWF-US

Hiking with Blue-Footed Boobies 

Half of the world’s breeding population of the blue-footed booby calls the Galapagos home and it’s hard to miss them once you get to the islands. They’re incredibly easy to spot with their trademark bright-blue webbed feet and clumsy waddle as they tramp up and down the beach.

As we hiked along the coast of North Seymour, we had our first sighting: a mama with her newly hatched babies. The chicks were still growing feathers and let out little squawks as we walked by.

© Alyssa Corasanti / WWF-US

Further down the path, loud caws and a scuffle caught our attention. Two male blue-footed boobies were dancing around a female, stomping their feet and stretching their wings, occasionally bucking at each other and colliding their beaks. Despite the attempts to impress her with their stunning blue feet and coordinated dance, the female flew away.

We were fortunate to get these little glimpses into their life, but we also learned these seabirds were just as curious about us as we were about them. On several occasions, we had to slink by them as they fearlessly strolled up to our group to observe us.

The mutual interest forged a connection between us and the blue-footed boobies, highlighting the importance of responsible ecotourism and the need to prioritize the conservation of their natural habitats to ensure a sustainable coexistence.

© Alyssa Corasanti / WWF-US

Cruising with Dolphins  

Sailing toward our next destination, we heard a loud bell clanging and a crew member shouting, “delfin!” We rushed to the bow and peered over to see four bottlenose dolphins gliding alongside our boat.

We marveled at the playfulness and careful coordination of the dolphins as they kept a perfect cadence to sail along with us. The collective celebration and joy shared among the passengers during these spontaneous encounters further enriched our adventure. These majestic moments highlighted the diversity of the ecosystem, unveiling delightful surprises at every turn.

Spotting a Galapagos Giant Centipede 

Through the brush, an otherworldly-looking creature emerged. A long, slick, black centipede with reddish-purple legs slinked up to the surface and stopped me in my tracks. It was the Galapagos centipede, a stunning arthropod and a member of the Scolopendra genus—the largest centipedes in the world, found in tropical climates.

Our Expedition Leader, Giancarlo, recalled that these centipedes can grow up to a foot long and have been known to prey on small rodents and lizards. I quickly snapped a photo, in awe of this unusual creature, as the centipede vanished back into the brush.

© Alyssa Corasanti / WWF-US

Stumbling into Flamingos  

We geared up for a mid-day kayak off Floreana where we set off to paddle around mangroves. These mangroves grow from the volcanic floor and are an integral part of the ecosystem in many parts of the Galapagos.

As we were experiencing the magnificence of the mangroves, the fish swimming by and the seabirds flying overhead, we leisurely paddled down the shoreline. Just as we turned a corner, we were astounded to see a pack of bright pink birds. Contrary to the guides’ forewarning that flamingos in the Galapagos were few and far between, we happened to be in the right place at the right time.

The excitement of not knowing what was next and discovering the unexpected fueled our sense of adventure and created an exhilarating experience.

© Alyssa Corasanti / WWF-US

Honorable Mention: Traveling with Our Expedition Leaders, Giancarlo and Luis

The adoration, respect and deep understanding of the Galapagos could be felt in every interaction we had with our guides. As long-time Galapagos residents and nature lovers, Giancarlo and Luis have a deep connection to the islands that was apparent during every wildlife encounter. The magical moments during the trip were made all the better through the depth of knowledge provided by our guides.

By the end of our trip, it was clear that the Galapagos is a truly enchanting place that has only been able to remain this way because of the people who fiercely love and protect it.

The post The Enchanted Islands: Extraordinary Galapagos Encounters first appeared on Good Nature Travel Blog.

Community Library for the Galapagos and the World

Books “allow children to imagine, discover, travel and learn about the world around them.”
—Sandie Salazar, AGIPA member

The Community Library for the Galapagos and the World, also known as the Agipa Community Library, proudly stands as the sole communal library within the Galapagos Islands. This monumental endeavor was brought to life by the Association of Interpreter Guides of the Galapagos National Park (AGIPA). As a legally constituted nonprofit organization, AGIPA operates under the auspices of the Environment and Water Ministry.

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In 2005, AGIPA was the recipient of a nonrefundable loan from the Japanese Embassy in Ecuador. This financial boost facilitated the construction and furnishing of the inaugural public library in Puerto Ayora, located on Santa Cruz Island. The realization of this endeavor was made possible through a collaborative effort with the municipality of Santa Cruz, resulting in a 50-year bailment contract due to expire in 2055, as verified by a notarized public record.

AGIPA, armed with its own resources and fortified by strategic alliances with esteemed institutions such as the Charles Darwin Foundation and generous donors, including Yacht Aid Global, IGTOA, Galapagos Conservancy and Ifotoncorp, successfully launched the library. Today, it serves as a vibrant community space and has earned recognition in Ecuador as an example of library best practices under the umbrella of the Programa Iberbibliotecas.

Nat Hab travelers were ‘super happy about the entire project’ upon a visit to the library with Nat Hab Expedition Leader Sofia Darquea De Witt, Vice President of AGIPA and one of the project’s volunteers.

In a community comprised of approximately 20,000 residents, 11 schools and constrained cultural outlets, a public library of this caliber is indispensable. It offers the vital space and wealth of information necessary to foster an array of cultural, educational and recreational activities. Integral to its mission is the provision of Internet access and leisure pursuits for all age groups and sectors of society.

Nat Hab logo on the wall of the Library of the Galapagos © Sofia Darquea De Witt

Support from Nat Hab Philanthropy

Each year, Nat Hab Philanthropy supports sustainable projects around the world. Aid from Nat Hab has kept the Agipa Community Library’s doors open and its mission thriving.

With a donation of $2,500 in 2025, the library delivered 10 dynamic workshops that utilized art and literacy to engage children aged 8–12 with the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species. These interactive sessions blended reading, artistic expression and biodiversity conservation, inspiring the next generation of young environmental stewards.

In 2023, the funds were allocated to construct exterior visors on the building’s windows. This measure prevented rainwater from flooding the library’s interior, thereby protecting the structure, furniture, books and equipment from potential damage. Our 2023 donation of $2,500 funded 82.7% of the total project cost!

Six of Nat Hab’s esteemed Expedition Leaders have dedicated themselves as volunteers to the project—Sofia Darquea De Witt, Giancarlo Toti, Andres Vergara, Veronica Maruri, Luis Vinueza and Joseline Cardoso. Their commitment underpins the success and continued evolution of this beloved library.

Conservation Travel & The Galapagos Islands

The Galapagos Islands, revered as one of the cradles of ecotourism and a model for sustainable travel since the 1970s, continue to inspire nature enthusiasts from around the world. Today, the mantle of safeguarding this fragile environment falls on our shoulders. While conservation travel innately contributes to the preservation of the environment through the spread of advocacy, monetary contributions to the Galapagos National Park Service, and both direct and indirect contributions to local communities, we at Natural Habitat Adventures are proud to be involved in conservation and community initiatives across the islands.

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A haven for wildlife for three million years, the Galapagos Islands are one of the most unique nature destinations on the planet, where animals found nowhere else on Earth show no fear at close range. Home to an astounding array of colorful endemic species, from the giant tortoise to the blue-footed booby, the protected areas of this volcanic archipelago include Galapagos National Park, Galapagos Marine Reserve and Galapagos Biosphere Reserve. Follow in the footsteps of Charles Darwin and join us on an enchanting journey through this biodiversity hotspot and UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The post Nat Hab Philanthropy Supports Sole Communal Library in the Galapagos first appeared on Good Nature Travel Blog.

According to the World Health Organization, only 1% of the global population lives in areas where air quality meets its recommended guidelines. In other words, 99% of people worldwide breathe air that exceeds limits for pollutants like PM 2.5 and NO2, posing a health risk.

The term “air pollution,” according to the World Health Organization (WHO), is the contamination of the indoor or outdoor environment by any biological, chemical or physical agent that modifies the natural characteristics of the atmosphere. Forest fires, industrial facilities, motor vehicles and household combustion devices—such as clothes dryers, fireplaces, furnaces, ovens, stoves and water heaters—are common sources of air pollution. The pollutants carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone, particulate matter (PM) and sulfur dioxide are some of the most concerning for public health.

Indoor and outdoor air pollution can cause respiratory and other diseases and are important sources of morbidity and mortality. And here’s the kicker: WHO data shows that almost all of the global population (99%) breathe air that exceeds WHO guideline limits and contains high levels of pollutants, with low- and middle-income countries suffering from the highest exposures.

Recently, I started thinking about air pollution when I read about a study done in Greenland, one of my favorite places on Earth. Past and present open-waste burning in Northwestern Greenland is affecting the nation’s air quality and calling attention to the need for air-quality monitoring in Arctic regions.

Ice cores from Greenland show that air pollution from burning fossil fuels reaches the remote Arctic in amounts large enough to alter its fundamental atmospheric chemistry. This provides support for having clean-air rules, which can reverse the effect.

All around the world, however, exposure to certain air pollutants—such as fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) and nitrogen oxides (NOx)—during pregnancy and childhood is associated with differences in the volume of the brain’s white matter, with implications for cognitive function, connections throughout the brain and even Alzheimer’s disease. And breathing polluted air—even at levels considered “safe”—may quietly damage your heart.

Continuous air-quality monitoring is needed in Greenland

Qaanaaq is one of the northernmost towns in the world. Within Greenland, it is the northernmost major town and the third northernmost public settlement, with a population of about 600. Here, the sun never makes it above the horizon for 3.5 months of the year (the “Polar Darkness”) and then never sets for five months over summer (known as the “Midnight Sun”). Qaanaaq is still a place where old-time traditions, such as hunting with dog sleds and kayaks, are common and necessary for survival.

In 2022, an international science team with the goal of better understanding the air-quality risks faced by remote Arctic communities monitored aerial pollutants in Qaanaaq.

Qaanaaq, Greenland, is small enough that the only time you need transport is to and from the airport. In summer, the most common way to get around is by boat; in winter, by dogsled or snowmobile. Otherwise, you just walk.

The scientists used advanced, commercially available measurement systems for cold regions to collect continuous PM 2.5 data spanning the period from July 20 to August 13, 2022. Particulate matter—especially smaller particles with a diameter of 2.5 microns or less—is extremely dangerous: exposure can lead to respiratory ailments such as asthma and bronchitis, cardiovascular diseases and even premature death.

The scientists’ analysis, published in the journal Atmospheric Science Letters in March 2024, uncovered multiple instances of heightened PM 2.5 levels, which were notable from August 8 onwards. The increases were attributed to local, open-waste burning activities, as evidenced by the visible black smoke emitted from the Qaanaaq dump site on the same days with the heightened PM 2.5 levels.

Monitoring PM 2.5 levels is important, say the researchers, for assessing air quality and protecting the public’s long-term health, including that of Arctic residents. Unfortunately, compared to the midlatitudes, PM 2.5 observations in high-latitude regions are far fewer. To combat the health risks to the Qaanaaq community during local, open-waste burning, the town now uses an incinerator.

Air quality in the Arctic is heavily influenced by local emissions and long-range transport of pollutants from industrialized areas, particularly Eurasia and North America. Air quality is better in summer—as here, in Arctic Norway—as opposed to winter because increased sunlight helps clear pollutants.

Limits to air-pollution exposures are warranted for developing brains

It’s not only Arctic residents who may have been left behind in air-pollution monitoring and research. An increasing amount of evidence suggests that the effects of air pollution make lasting marks on children’s neurodevelopment.

Recent studies using imaging techniques have looked at the impact of air pollutants on the brain’s white matter, which plays a critical role in connecting different brain regions. However, most of these studies were limited in that they only looked at one point in time and did not follow the participants throughout childhood. So, to shed new light on whether the effects of air pollution on white matter persist, attenuate or worsen, a research team from Spain’s Barcelona Institute for Global Health set up a study.

The more than 4,000 participants in the study have been followed since birth as part of the Generation R Study in the Netherlands. The research team estimated the amount of exposure to 14 different air pollutants during pregnancy and childhood, based on where the families lived. For 1,314 children, the researchers were able to use data from two brain scans—one performed around 10 years of age and another around 14 years of age—to examine changes in white-matter microstructure.

The Generation R Study is a population-based, prospective cohort study from fetal life until adulthood. The study is designed to identify early environmental and genetic causes that lead to abnormal and normal development and growth.

The analysis found that exposure to certain pollutants, like PM 2.5 and NOx, was linked to differences in the development of white matter in the brain. Specifically, higher exposure to PM 2.5 during pregnancy and higher exposure to PM 2.5, PM 10, PM 2.5–10 and NOx during childhood were associated with lower levels of fractional anisotropy, which measures how water molecules diffuse within the brain. In more mature brains, water flows more in one direction than in all directions, which gives higher values for this marker. This association persisted throughout adolescence (it was also observed in the second scan), suggesting a long-term impact of air pollution on brain development. Every increase in exposure level to air pollution corresponded to more than a five-month delay in the development of fractional anisotropy.

The researchers think that the lower fractional anisotropy is likely the result of changes in myelin, the protective sheath that forms around the nerves. How air pollutants affect myelin is not fully understood, but it could be linked to the entrance of small particles directly into the brain or to inflammatory mediators produced by the body when the particles enter the lungs. Together, this would lead to neuroinflammation, oxidative stress and eventually neuronal death, as documented in animal studies.

Some pollutants were linked to changes in another measure of white matter, called mean diffusivity, which reflects the integrity of white matter and tends to decrease as the brain matures. Higher exposure to pollutants, like silicon in fine particles, during pregnancy was associated with initially higher mean diffusivity, which then decreased more rapidly as the children grew older. This indicates that some effects of air pollution may diminish over time.

New, more ambitious, European air-quality standards are set to be achieved by 2030 for all major pollutants to make them more closely match the World Health Organization’s recommendations. The ultimate vision is for air pollution to have no significant impact on health by 2050.

Overall, the results of the study, which were published in the journal Environmental Research in December 2024, suggest that air-pollution exposure, both during pregnancy and early childhood, can have lasting effects on the brain’s white matter. Even if the size of the effects is small, this can have a meaningful impact on a population scale. Therefore, conclude the scientists, more stringent European guidelines on air pollution are required.

Europe, however, isn’t the only continent on the hook. Recently, a University of California, Davis, research team systematically analyzed 40 empirical studies from four continents—Asia, Australia, North America, as well as Europe—that all included measures of outdoor air pollution and brain outcomes for children at various ages, from newborns up to 18-year-olds. Almost all had found that outdoor air pollution is associated with differences in children’s brains.

This systematic review, published in the journal Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience in October 2024, proposed steps for both parents and policymakers to protect their children from outdoor air pollution by, for example, adding air filters to homes and schools near freeways. Researchers can also incorporate measures of air pollution into studies related to brain health or other health outcomes that collect data from human participants simply by obtaining participants’ addresses.

The combination of air pollution, dense urban development and limited green spaces increases the risk of asthma in both adults and children. Adding in green spaces—such as this one, in Central Park in New York City—when planning future urban environments would help protect public health.

Urban green spaces are required to combat asthma

Not only does air pollution increase brain problems in children, but it can also—along with dense urban development and limited green spaces—increase the risk of asthma.

In a new study led by researchers from Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, information on the home addresses of nearly 350,000 people of different ages from 14 cohorts in seven European countries made it possible to link data on various environmental risks in the urban environment to individual people. The environmental exposures included were air pollution, outdoor temperatures and the level of urban density. The assessment was partly based on satellite images showing gray, green or blue areas, i.e., where there were buildings, green spaces or water.

Previous studies have typically calculated the risk of one environmental factor at a time. Here, the scientists combined several environmental factors and described how together they affect the risk of developing asthma. They believe this provides a better picture, as life in a city usually involves exposure to several environmental risk factors at the same time.

Blue spaces are outdoor environments where water—such as lakes, ponds and fountains, like this one—is a central feature. They promote calm, encourage physical activity, foster social connections and reduce stress. Spending time in blue spaces can decrease anxiety and improve mental well-being.

During the study period, nearly 7,500 of the participants developed asthma as children or adults. The researchers found that 11.6% of asthma cases could be explained by the combination of air pollution, lack of green spaces and dense urban development. Or, to put it another way, in a favorable environment, approximately one in 10 people with asthma would not have developed the disease. While this method makes it possible to identify risk areas in existing urban places, it can also be used when planning future city environments. The scientists are now investigating how the risk of other diseases—such as COPD, diabetes, heart attacks and strokes—is affected by an individual’s exposome, or the totality of environmental exposures, from conception to death.

A reduction in air-pollution levels is essential for heart health

Poor air quality has often been linked to cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death worldwide. However, to date, the underlying changes in the heart resulting from air-pollution exposure are unclear.

To understand what drives this increased risk at the tissue level, researchers from Canada’s University Health Network in Toronto and the University of Toronto used cardiac MRI, a noninvasive imaging technique, to quantify myocardial fibrosis and assess its association with long-term exposure to PM 2.5. To evaluate the effects of air pollution on both healthy people and those with heart disease, the study group included 201 healthy controls and 493 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy, a disease that makes it more difficult for the heart to pump blood.

Long-term exposure to air pollution is associated with early signs of heart damage. Fine particulate matter in the air—such as that from wildfire smoke—may contribute to diffuse myocardial fibrosis, a form of scarring in the heart muscle that can precede heart failure.

In a July 2025 article published in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America, the researchers write that higher, long-term exposure to fine particulate air pollution was linked with higher levels of myocardial fibrosis in both the patients with cardiomyopathy and the controls, suggesting that myocardial fibrosis may be an underlying mechanism by which air pollution leads to cardiovascular complications. The largest effects were seen in women, smokers and patients with hypertension. Even modest increases in air-pollution levels appeared to have measurable effects on the heart.

Since this study suggests that air quality may play a significant role in changes to heart structure, potentially setting the stage for future cardiovascular disease, knowing a patient’s long-term air-pollution exposure history could help refine a heart-disease risk assessment. For instance, if an individual works outside in an area with poor air quality, health-care providers could incorporate that exposure history.

The researchers say that the air-pollution exposure levels of the patients in the study were below many of the global air-quality guidelines, reinforcing that there are no safe exposure limits. While there have been improvements in air quality in Canada and the United States over the past decade, we still have a long way to go.

If you routinely work outside in an area or occupation with poor air quality, your exposure history should be incorporated into any of your heart-disease risk assessments.

Indoor air-quality mandates for public buildings are imperative

Unfortunately, most countries do not have any legislated indoor air-quality (IAQ) standards for public spaces that address concentration levels of indoor air pollutants. So, in March 2024, a group of international experts from Australia’s Queensland University of Technology presented a blueprint for national IAQ standards for public buildings in an article in the journal Science.

The experts addressed setting standards for three, key indoor pollutants (carbon dioxide [CO2], CO and PM 2.5) and ventilation rate. To have practical value, they say, IAQ standards must be capable of being implemented by designing new buildings that are constructed, operated and maintained or retrofitted to meet the standards. While there would be a cost in the short term, the economic and social benefits to public health, productivity and well-being will likely far outweigh the monetary investments, say the experts. CO2 sensors are readily available and inexpensive, and should be used as proxies to effectively assess ventilation quality and to measure CO2 and pathogens during human occupancy in a public space.

Another key indicator of air quality the experts addressed is the amount of PM 2.5. They propose the WHO air-quality guidelines as a basis for indoor air-quality standards but with a one-hour averaging time, as the 24 hours of the WHO air-quality guidelines is much longer than people usually spend in public places. Mechanical ventilation systems should remove and dilute human-emitted and other indoor-generated pollutants at a higher rate than their production so that they would not accumulate in indoor air.

A LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum-certified green building blends mixed-mode, mechanical ventilation systems with natural airflow through strategically placed windows for a continuous fresh-air supply.

The technologies for measuring ventilation already exist in most modern, mechanically ventilated buildings; but monitoring ventilation rates in terms of clean air delivered to the space requires considering the number of people and their activities in the space to ensure adequate IAQ. A practical ventilation standard could be air from outside (assumed to be clean), or clean, recirculated air to the entire occupied zone and with airflow not directed from one person to another.

Additional measures in support of ventilation, such as air cleaning and disinfection, could greatly reduce the need to increase the outdoor air supply, which carries a heavy energy demand. Filtering recirculated air is an effective way to reduce concentration of, and thus our exposure to, airborne particulate matter, allergens and pathogens.

Keeping clean air is vital

Air quality is closely linked to the Earth’s climate and ecosystems around the globe. Many of the drivers of air pollution—such as the combustion of fossil fuels—are also sources of greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing air pollution, therefore, offers a win-win strategy for both the climate and our health, lowering the burden of diseases attributable to air pollution, as well as contributing to the near- and long-term mitigation of climate change.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we were motivated to keep the Earth’s air clean just because it makes outdoor activities more pleasant?

Historically, landmark air-pollution events have catalyzed government action, leading to modern clean-air legislation. But wouldn’t it be nice if we were motivated enough to keep the Earth’s air clean just because it makes outdoor activities more pleasant?

Here’s to finding your true places and natural habitats,

Candy

The post Clean Air Matters first appeared on Good Nature Travel Blog.

Jane Goodall

Dr. Jane Goodall’s long-term study of wild chimpanzees in Tanzania led her to worldwide acclaim. Beginning in July of 1960, at the age of 26, she traveled from England to live among the Kasakela chimpanzee troop in the rainforests of Gombe Stream National Park. With little more than a notebook and binoculars in hand, her observations led to many notable discoveries, including that chimpanzees make and use tools, considered one of the greatest achievements of twentieth-century scholarship. The famed primatologist and anthropologist dedicated her life to the conservation of these great apes, advocating for ecological preservation through The Jane Goodall Institute. She remains a conservation heroine for millions, having empowered young girls across the globe to become a voice for wildlife, including this author.

Birute Galdikas

Dr. Birute Galdikas is the world’s foremost authority on orangutans. Her pioneering fieldwork in Borneo’s rainforests began in the early 1970s and has lasted for over 40 years, making it one of the longest continuous studies of a mammal ever conducted. Galdikas transformed our understanding of these enigmatic primates, the least understood of the great apes at the time, revealing not just their social structures and ecological roles, but also their emotional depth. Growing up, she was inspired by Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, and would later join their ranks as one of the “Trimates,” the founding mothers of contemporary field primatology. As he had done for Goodall and Fossey, paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey helped Galdikas set up her research camp with funding from the National Geographic Society. At the age of 25, amid the iridescent greens of Tanjung Puting Reserve near the edge of the Java Sea, she began her field studies, gaining valuable insights into orangutan behavior and diet.

Galdikas’s conservation efforts extend beyond advocacy, largely focusing on the rehabilitation of orangutans orphaned by deforestation and the illegal pet trade. In 1986, she founded Orangutan Foundation International to help save orangutans and preserve rainforests around the world. Travelers on Nat Hab’s Borneo adventure seek out orangutans and learn about their conservation at Kabili-Sepilok Forest Reserve, Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center, Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary and Danum Valley Conservation Area.

Dian Fossey

Dian Fossey’s groundbreaking work with mountain gorillas redefined our perception of these majestic creatures. Surrounded by the misty jungle-draped volcanoes of Rwanda, Fossey shattered barriers to form an unbreakable bond with the largest of the great apes, unraveling the intricacies of their social dynamics and shedding light on their vulnerability to human activities such as deforestation and poaching. Although Fossey’s life was cut short, her work continues through the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, the world’s leading conservation organization dedicated to the protection of mountain gorillas.

Travelers on Nat Hab’s Ultimate Gorilla Safari trek to see mountain gorillas in Volcanoes National Park, where Dian Fossey made her discoveries. Several habituated gorilla families live in the park, and we learn how vital our ecotourism presence is to their survival before trekking in search of them.

Claudine André

Claudine André’s revolutionary work with bonobos has reshaped our understanding of these endangered primates who share 98.7% of our DNA. André’s extraordinary efforts include establishing Friends of Bonobos, the world’s only bonobo sanctuary and rewilding program, providing a safe haven to young bonobos orphaned by bushmeat hunting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Her compassionate bond with these intelligent beings has unveiled the depths of their emotional complexity, showcasing their capacity for empathy and cooperation. Claudine’s message for today’s young conservationists? “You must never lose hope, because there is always a solution.”

Patricia Wright

Dr. Patricia Wright’s work with lemurs has illuminated the intricate world of these unique primates and their critical role in the ecosystems of Madagascar. With a career spanning decades, Wright has gone beyond mere observation to actively champion the conservation of these at-risk species and their rapidly diminishing habitats. Her initiatives have not only advanced scientific understanding but have catalyzed real-world conservation efforts, including the establishment of Ranomafana National Park in 1991, following her discovery of the critically endangered golden bamboo lemur in 1986. During a primatology course in college, this author had the opportunity to meet Wright, who spoke about her life’s work studying the social interactions of wild lemurs and her commitment to conservation in Madagascar.

Nat Hab travelers visit Ranomafana during their Madagascar Wildlife Adventure, taking guided hikes in search of the 12 species of lemurs that reside there. Near the entrance of the national park is Center ValBio, Madagascar’s leading field research center run by Wright. Her work serves as a poignant reminder that the fate of lemurs is a bellwether for the health of our planet, linking the well-being of a single species to the broader tapestry of global biodiversity.

Nat Hab travelers visit Greystoke Mahale in Tanzania, a permanent research center established in 1965 on the shores of sapphire-blue Lake Tanganyika as an extension of Jane Goodall’s work with chimpanzees just north at Gombe Stream.

Conservation Travel & Women’s Journeys

As World Wildlife Fund’s conservation travel partner, Natural Habitat Adventures offers nature expeditions to observe endangered primates around the world, including orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees and lemurs. Conservation travel imbues value to these natural habitats, bringing economic resources to local communities and inspiring them to protect wild places and the wildlife that thrives within them.

Interested in a nature encounter exclusively in the company of women and led by outstanding women naturalist guides? Our Women’s Journeys series offers the chance to learn about intrepid women who have long been leaders in science, global exploration and environmental protection. Empowering women begins with sharing their stories. And there’s no better context in which to show and tell those stories than by taking inquisitive women travelers into settings where they can learn about women’s accomplishments and conservation achievements in the nature destinations we visit.

The post Women in Conservation: 5 Primatologists You Should Know first appeared on Good Nature Travel Blog.

Iberian lynxes, endemic to Portugal and Spain, are among the world’s most threatened cat species. Although their numbers are increasing, they are still listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Around the world, the variety of living things—defined as biodiversity—is declining, as increasing numbers of species face the risk of extinction. For example, a recent analysis of 14,669 threatened animals and plants found in Europe reveals that about 19% of them face the threat of extinction—including 27% of plants, 24% of invertebrates and 18% of vertebrates—and that agricultural land-use changes (resulting in loss of habitats, overexploitation of biological resources, pollution, and commercial and residential development) pose a significant threat to these species.

In our oceans, globally, it’s a similar story. In a new study, scientists analyzed 13,195 marine fish species considered to be “data deficient” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and discovered that many more bony fish are at risk of extinction than we previously thought; in fact, up fivefold (12.7%) from the IUCN’s prior estimate of 2.5%. This information—created by using a computational model to predict the likelihood of animal extinctions based on the complex interactions of environmental change and hunting—is causing some to propose a new index called the “predicted IUCN status,” which would serve as a valuable complement to the current “measured IUCN status.” Predicted threatened species tended to have a small geographic range, a large body size and a low growth rate. The extinction risk was also correlated with shallow habitats. The Celebes and Philippine Seas, the South China Sea, and the west coasts of Australia and North America emerged as hot spots for predicted threatened species.

Biodiversity is essential for our own economic welfare, food security and well-being. Luckily, scientists are now creating a visionary framework that merges traditional conservation with biotechnology, aiming to give struggling populations a fighting chance against extinction. New tools—such as gene editing, biobanking, a Megafauna Hunting Pressure Model and trait information from fossils—are already transforming biology. Soon, they could “reinvent” the future of biodiversity itself.

Many bony fish are at risk of extinction due to climate change, habitat loss, overfishing and pollution; examples include the Atlantic halibut, beluga sturgeon, European eel and Nassau grouper, shown here. The Nassau grouper is critically endangered.

This mass extinction is different

For millions of years, large herbivores like giant deer, giant rhinos and mastodons have shaped the Earth’s ecosystems, which astonishingly stayed stable despite extinctions and upheavals. Only twice in 60 million years did environmental shifts dramatically reorganize these systems: once with a continental land bridge, and again with a climate-driven habitat change. Yet the ecosystems adapted, with new species taking on old roles. Now, a third, human-driven tipping point threatens that ancient resilience.

The first major change occurred around 21 million years ago, when shifting continents closed the ancient Tethys Sea and formed a land bridge between Africa and Eurasia. This new land corridor unleashed a wave of migrations that reshaped ecosystems across the globe. Among the travelers were the ancestors of modern elephants, which had evolved in Africa and now began to spread across Asia and Europe. But deer, pigs, rhinos and many other large plant-eaters also moved into new territories, altering the ecological balance.

The second global shift came around 10 million years ago, as Earth’s climate became cooler and drier. Expanding grasslands and declining forests led to the rise of grazing species with tougher teeth and the gradual disappearance of many forest-dwelling herbivores. This marked the beginning of a long, steady decline in the functional diversity of these animals and the variety of ecological roles they played.

The Gomphotherium Land Bridge connecting Africa and Eurasia formed about 20 million years ago during the Miocene Epoch, when the Arabian Plate collided with Eurasia, closing the Tethys Sea. This allowed mammals, such as elephants, to migrate into Asia and Eurasia from Africa, leading to the modern Asian elephant, pictured above.

After analyzing fossil records from more than 3,000 large herbivores across 60 million years, however, researchers from Sweden’s University of Gothenburg found that despite these losses, the overall ecological structure of large herbivore communities remained surprisingly steady. Even as many of the largest species, like giant rhinos and mammoths, went extinct in the last 129,000 years, the basic framework of roles within ecosystems endured, with different species coming into play to fulfill similar ecological roles, so that the overall structure remained the same.

This resilience has lasted for the past 4.5 million years, enduring ice ages and other environmental crises up to the present day, state the researchers, who published their findings in the journal Nature Communications in June 2025. However, they caution that the ongoing loss of biodiversity—accelerated by human activity—could eventually overwhelm the system. While their results show that ecosystems have an amazing capacity to adapt, they say the rate of change is faster this time and there’s a limit. If we keep losing species and ecological roles, we may soon reach a third global tipping point, one that we’re helping to accelerate.

Cheating extinction with gene editing

There’s some exciting news on the extinction front, however. Gene editing may hold the key to rescuing endangered species—not just by preserving them, but by restoring their lost genetic diversity using DNA from museum specimens and related species.

Mammoths lived from the late Miocene Epoch into the Holocene until about 4,000 years ago, inhabiting Africa, Asia, Europe and North America at various times. The same technology that allows us to place mammoth genes into the genome of an elephant can be harnessed to rescue species teetering on the brink of extinction.

In a new Nature Reviews Biodiversity article published in July 2025, the authors—a multidisciplinary team of biotechnologists and conservation geneticists—explore the challenges, ethical considerations and promises of genome engineering and propose an approach for its implementation into biodiversity conservation. They argue that gene editing could recover lost genetic diversity in species at risk of extinction using historical samples, such as DNA from biobanks, museum collections and related species. The same technological advances that allow us to introduce genes of mammoths into the genomes of elephants can be harnessed to rescue species teetering on the brink of extinction.

Conservation successes, such as captive breeding and habitat protection, often focus on boosting population numbers but do little to replenish the gene variants lost when numbers crash, say the scientists. As populations rebound, they can remain trapped with a diminished genetic variation and a high load of harmful mutations, a phenomenon known as “genomic erosion.” Without intervention, species that recovered from a population crash may remain genetically compromised, with reduced resilience to future threats, such as new diseases or shifting climates.

One example of this is the Mauritius pink pigeon, whose population has been brought back from the brink of extinction—from about 10 individuals to a population of more than 600 birds—by decades of captive breeding and reintroduction efforts in Mauritius. Several of the article’s authors have studied the pigeon’s genetics, revealing that, despite the pink pigeon’s recovery, it continues to experience substantial genomic erosion and is likely to go extinct in the next 50 to 100 years. The next challenge is to restore the genetic diversity the bird has lost, enabling it to adapt to future environmental changes. Genome engineering could make this possible.

The Mauritius pink pigeon nearly became extinct in the 1970s and the 1990s, when it was thought that only 10 birds remained. Due to a captive-breeding and reintroduction program, Mauritius pink pigeons are no longer endangered, with more than 600 individuals.

The technology is already common in agriculture: crops resistant to droughts and pests cover millions of acres worldwide. The scientists outline three, main applications for gene editing in conservation:

• Restoring lost variation—bringing back genetic diversity that has been lost from the gene pool of the modern populations of threatened species, using DNA from samples of the species collected decades or even centuries ago, which are stored in natural history museums all over the world.
• Facilitated adaptation—introducing genes from related, better-adapted species to confer traits like heat tolerance or pathogen resistance, equipping threatened species to adapt to rapid environmental change.
• Reducing harmful mutations—populations that have previously crashed in numbers often carry harmful mutations that have become fixed by chance, so targeted gene edits could replace these mutations with the healthy variant from before the population crash, with the potential to improve fertility, survival rates and overall health.

A GMO (genetically modified organism) is an animal, plant or microorganism whose genetic material has been altered using engineering techniques in a laboratory. Genetic engineering allows scientists to delete, insert or modify specific genes to introduce desirable traits, such as increased resistance to herbicides or pests. GMOs are used in medicines, research and food production (such as corn).

The researchers also address the risks, such as off-target genetic modifications and unintentional further reductions in genetic diversity, cautioning that the approaches remain experimental. The need for phased, small-scale trials and rigorous long-term monitoring of ecological and evolutionary impacts is emphasized, as well as robust engagement with local communities, Indigenous groups and the wider public. The authors stress that genetic interventions must complement, not replace, habitat restoration and traditional conservation actions.

Reviving species with biobanking

An animal that may benefit from genetic engineering—with an assist from biobanking—is the northern white rhino, one of the rarest animals on Earth. Just two females are left, Fatu and Najin, who live at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya under 24-hour protection. With no natural way for the species to reproduce, an international team of scientists has recently mapped the entire northern white rhino genome, which represents a crucial step toward bringing the critically endangered species back from the edge. The complete genome, published in May 2025 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, can be used as a reference to analyze the health of previously developed northern white rhinoceros stem cells. Eventually, those stem cells may be able to generate eggs and sperm to yield new rhinos.

In 2011, scientists produced the first pluripotent, induced stem cells (laboratory-generated cells, created by reprogramming ordinary adult cells [like skin cells] to become similar to embryonic stem cells. These cells are pluripotent, meaning that they have the remarkable ability to develop into any cell type in the body) from northern white rhinos. Since then, other lines of stem cells from nine, different, northern white rhinos have been created. The new, complete genome—the rhino version of the Human Genome Project—was accomplished by using cells previously collected from a male northern white rhinoceros named Angalifu, who lived at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park until his death in 2014. At that time, his skin cells were cryopreserved at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Frozen Zoo.

Thought to be extinct by the late 1970s, the black-footed ferret was rediscovered in 1981. However, the last remaining population was inbred and severely threatened by disease. In the 1980s, tissue samples from one of the last wild ferrets, named Willa, were preserved in a biobank. In 2020, scientists successfully created a clone named Elizabeth Ann using Willa’s cells and a surrogate. Elizabeth Ann introduced new genetic diversity into the ferret population.

One major hurdle regarding stem cells has always been quality control. Without a reference genome, scientists could never be certain whether any of the stem cells had picked up harmful mutations during lab growth, a common problem. Now, researchers can use the complete genome to analyze the previously created stem cell lineages. In fact, they have discovered that one of the most promising of the stem cell lines had a large chunk of DNA missing—more than 30 million base pairs affecting more than 200 genes, including those involved in reproduction and tumor suppression. If they hadn’t built this new genome, that knowledge would have remained unknown. The reference genome is now the gold standard for screening all rhinoceros stem cells and deciding which cells to move forward with.

The new genome also settled lingering questions about how different northern and southern white rhinos really are. Some earlier data suggested significant DNA differences that might make it risky for southern white rhinos to be implanted with northern white rhino embryos. But updated comparisons show their genomes are strikingly similar, giving scientists confidence that southern white rhinos—which are far more numerous—can serve as surrogates without major complications.

This work also sets a powerful example for other endangered species. From birds and mammals to corals and plants, efforts to save them depend on careful biobanking like that being done by the Frozen Zoo.

According to World Wildlife Fund, there are two, genetically different subspecies of white rhinos: the northern white rhino and the southern white rhino, found in two different regions in Africa. Biobanking is helping not only white rhinos but other animals that might go extinct during our lifetimes.

Preventing future decimations with a look back

During the Late Pleistocene (approximately 129,000 to 11,700 years ago), California—at least at its lower elevations—was teeming with vegetation. While much of North America was covered in ice age glaciers, here, mastodons lumbered across verdant meadows, stopping to feed on brush, warily eyeing the forest’s edge for saber-toothed cats on the prowl for calves. Humans also flourished along the coastline, which extended hundreds of feet below where it is today.

But by 11,000 years ago, mastodons were extinct. Today, scientists are still debating the reasons for their demise: did human hunting do them in? Climate change? A cataclysmic event? Diminishing genetic diversity? Or some combination of factors?

Explaining what caused the extinctions of large animal species like mastodons is often fraught due to the difficulty of piecing together an accurate picture of the past based on fragmentary evidence about the human and environmental pressures that may have contributed to their disappearance. Now, however, San Diego State University researchers report in the March 2024 issue of Quaternary Research that they have created a computational model to help predict the likelihood of large animal extinctions. Called the “Megafauna Hunting Pressure Model,” this new tool could ultimately aid conservation managers during a time when animal extinctions are skyrocketing.

Mastodons roamed what is now California during the Late Pleistocene. Ancient mammoths and mastodons were different, distinguishable by their teeth, tusks and overall builds. Mammoths had flat, ridged teeth for grazing on grasses and lived in open grasslands, while mastodons had cone-shaped teeth for browsing on leaves and twigs in forests. Mammoths were taller and slimmer with high, domed skulls and longer, curved tusks; whereas mastodons were shorter, stockier animals with flatter heads and shorter, straighter tusks.

The model was carefully crafted with understandings from anthropology and archaeology about human behavior and how we interact with nature. In developing it, the researchers turned to the case of Syncerus antiquus, also called the giant African buffalo, a large, grazing ungulate whose horns could reach nearly 10 feet from tip to tip. The species coexisted with humans for several hundred thousand years in Africa before going extinct between 12,000 and 10,000 years ago. There is no consensus in the scientific community about which factors contributed most to the animal’s extinction. Some believe these animals died because of the climate changes associated with the end of the last ice age, and others say humans did it.

In their case study, the San Diego State University researchers considered how the animal’s behavior and demographics, environmental factors and human behavior interacted to form a socioecological system which adapts to changes over time. They based some of their inputs on known life-history characteristics of the cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer), a related species which is still living today, and adjusted them based on differences in the animals’ sizes, for example. They ran computer simulations to see how populations of Syncerus antiquus would fare under 24 scenarios involving different human-hunting pressures and preferences and environmental conditions, including the patchiness of their grassland habitat and length of the growing season. After running the simulations 40 times for each scenario, the researchers calculated the probability that Syncerus antiquus populations would go extinct.

The scientists found that when male buffalo were aggressive—leading hunters to target females, instead—localized extinction was much more likely. If the number of breeding females is reduced by just a small amount, the entire breeding cycle for these slow-reproductive, large-bodied animals is disrupted; and in just a few decades that can have a major impact. When the climate and food sources were unreliable, extinction occurred even more rapidly.

To understand why the giant African buffalo (“Syncerus antiquus”) went extinct between 12,000 and 10,000 years ago, researchers used the life-history characteristics of today’s cape buffalo (“Syncerus caffer”), such as this one, to see how the ancient animals would fare under 24, different scenarios of human hunting pressures and environmental conditions.

The simulations show that extinction will not occur in every scenario where environmental conditions are unfavorable or hunting pressure is high, whether looking at the paleoanthropological record or to the future. But certain combinations of these conditions will feedback on each other to enhance the likelihood of extinction, helping to explain why some species have gone extinct but others have not.

In the face of the current mass extinction crisis, the model could also be applied to wildlife species at risk today, from black rhinos to desert tortoises, helping to identify tipping points where species are most vulnerable, allowing conservationists to develop more effective strategies to protect them.

Predicting climate change vulnerabilities with fossils

Past climate change (often caused by natural changes in greenhouse gases due to volcanic activity) has been responsible for countless species’ extinctions during the history of life on Earth. But, to date, it has not been clear what factors cause species to be resilient to such change and how the magnitude of climate change affects extinction risk.

Researchers recently used the fossil record—such as this fossilized sea urchin—to better understand what factors make animals more vulnerable to extinction from climate change. The results could help to identify the species most at risk today from human-driven global warming.

Recently, scientists from England’s University of Oxford sought to answer this question by analyzing the fossil record for marine invertebrates (such as sea urchins, shellfish and snails) over the past 485 million years. Marine invertebrates have a rich and well-studied fossil record, making it possible to identify when, and potentially why, species become extinct.

Using more than 290,000 fossil records covering more than 9,200 genera, the researchers collated a dataset of key traits that may affect resilience to extinction, including traits not studied in depth previously, such as preferred temperature. This trait information was integrated with climate simulation data to develop a model to understand which factors were most important in determining the risk of extinction during climate change. They found that:

• Species exposed to greater climate change were more likely to become extinct. In particular, species that experienced temperature changes of 12.6 degrees Fahrenheit or more across geological stages were significantly more vulnerable to extinction.
• Species occupying climatic extremes (for instance, in polar regions) were disproportionately vulnerable to extinction, and animals that could only live in a narrow range of temperatures (especially ranges less than 27 degrees Fahrenheit) were significantly more likely to become extinct.
• However, geographic range size was the strongest predictor of extinction risk. Species with larger geographic ranges were significantly less likely to go extinct. Body size was also important, with smaller-bodied species more vulnerable.
• All the traits studied had a cumulative impact on extinction risk. For instance, species with both small geographic ranges and narrow thermal ranges were even more susceptible to extinction than species that had only one of these traits.

Critically endangered Sumatran tigers are found on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Fewer than 600 individuals are estimated to be in the wild today. This small population faces significant threats from habitat loss due to logging and palm oil plantations, as well as human-wildlife conflict and poaching.

In conclusion, the study, published in the journal Science in March 2024, demonstrates that for marine invertebrates, geographic range is the biggest factor for the likelihood of extinction, but the magnitude of climate change is also important. This should act as a stark warning for us today as we recklessly continue to cause climate change through our burning of fossil fuels.

Matching unusual times with novel solutions

We’re facing the fastest environmental change in Earth’s history; and not only is it difficult for many species to keep up, but they’ve also lost the genetic variation needed to adapt and survive. It’s become essential that we embrace new technological advances—alongside traditional conservation approaches.

It’s our responsibility to reduce the extinction risk faced by thousands of species today. Unprecedented threats demand unprecedented solutions. It’s time.

Here’s to finding your true places and natural habitats,

Candy

The post Saving Species from Extinction first appeared on Good Nature Travel Blog.

My trip to southeastern Greenland in August was an eye-opening experience. Its stark contrasts showcased the beauty and fragility of this remote region.  

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Southeastern Greenland, including the Sermilik Fjord, where we were for many days, is a dramatic testament to the Earth’s past. The mountains that rise sharply from the ocean are primarily composed of Precambrian gneiss and granite, some of the oldest rocks on the planet, dating back over three billion years. It was humbling to stand among these ancient formations, shaped by tectonic forces and carved by glaciers during the last Ice Age. 

© Malene Lynge / WWF-Denmark

The banded gneiss and solidified granite reveal a history shaped by immense pressure and time. Both are rocks that had once been molten, now solid and unmoving, set against the ever-changing ice and water that surrounded them. 

Finding serenity amidst the wilderness 

Each morning at Nat Hab’s Base Camp Greenland, an expedition lodge with tent cabins on the east side of Sermilik Fjord, our small group would gather on the rocks, following the lead of a fellow traveler and new friend who guided us through yoga poses. The setting was surreal, and I was calm and focused, breathing in one of the planet’s most remote and untouched landscapes.  

Over the five days we were at the Base Camp, we hiked in the mountains surrounding the Sermilik Fjord many times. We were rewarded with sweeping views of the fjord, where jagged mountains and vast expanses of ice stretch as far as the eye could see. We also kayaked among towering icebergs that felt almost alive, groaning and shifting as they interacted with the water and wind.  

© Malene Lynge / WWF-Denmark

Amid it all, there was always laughter—a sense of connection and warmth between this incredible group of fellow travelers witnessing together the magic of this remote area of the Arctic. 

Taking in the natural beauty 

At first glance, this part of southeastern Greenland appears almost devoid of life. The vast expanses of ice and rock seem inhospitable, and wildlife sightings are rare. But as I spent more time in this stark environment, I began to notice the subtle signs of a rich biodiversity.

The ground beneath my feet was often cushioned by lichen and moss, resilient organisms that thrive in the harshest conditions. Wildflowers, small but vibrant, dotted the landscape, adding unexpected splashes of color. 

© Anthony Amsel / Nat Hab

There were also more birds than I initially realized. Gulls, ravens, and snow buntings brought sound and movement to the otherwise quiet backdrop. But the true stars of the show, for me, were the whales. On our boat trip from Tasiilaq to our camp near Sermilik Fjord, we were treated to the sight of many humpbacks. Watching these majestic creatures surface and feed, often near the towering icebergs, was a reminder of the interconnectedness of all life in this fragile ecosystem. 

One of the most surprising aspects of southeastern Greenland was the sound. Despite its remoteness, the region is far from silent. The ice, which dominates the landscape, has a life—and a voice—of its own. Although we didn’t see any dramatic ice-calving events, the icebergs were constantly cracking, shifting, and even flipping over, creating sounds that echoed across the fjord.  

Facing an uncertain future  

Our visit to local towns, such as Tasiilaq and the tiny village of Tinit, gave us a glimpse into the lives of the communities that have lived and survived in this harsh environment for generations. Their way of life is closely tied to the natural world, but that is changing. Traditional hunting and fishing practices are being disrupted as the people who call Greenland home must adapt to an increasingly unpredictable climate.  

© Anthony Amsel / Nat Hab

Despite the hardships, there was a warmth and friendliness among the people we met—a resilience that has developed through generations of living in one of the most challenging environments on Earth. Yet, there was also a palpable sense of uncertainty about the future. 

The Arctic is warming four times faster than the global average, and the effects are visible everywhere. Summer sea ice is shrinking rapidly, and the icebergs we saw are calving at an unprecedented rate. The Greenland ice sheet is losing mass at an alarming pace, which is contributing to the rise of global sea levels.  

© Anthony Amsel / Nat Hab

My journey to southeastern Greenland was one of profound contrasts. The beauty of this remote and rugged land is undeniable, but so is its fragility. The choices we make now will determine the future of places like southeastern Greenland—and the people and wildlife who depend on it. And while the contrasts I experienced on this journey will stay with me forever, so will the urgent need to protect the Arctic from the devastating effects of climate change.  

Explore this beautiful and remote region for yourself on Nat Hab’s East Greenland Arctic Adventure.

© Jeff Lawrence / Nat Hab

The post Southeastern Greenland: A Land of Contrasts first appeared on Good Nature Travel Blog.

Conservation is complex. Protecting landscapes and wild species is the outward manifestation; but behind the scenes, it’s also necessary to combat climate change, control pollution, educate the public, engage local people, invest in antipoaching measures, restore habitats and use land sustainably.

Conservation is a complex and multifaceted undertaking, requiring the concerted efforts of communities, governments, individuals and organizations to safeguard and manage ecosystems, natural resources and wildlife. It makes sense that to protect landscapes and species, we need to combat climate change, control pollution, engage local people, educate the public, establish protected areas, invest in antipoaching measures, restore habitats, sustainably use land and initiate captive breeding programs when necessary.

But sometimes, sense is turned upside down; and something that shouldn’t work—does. For example, in a surprising twist of conservation success, a U.S. Air Force bombing range in Florida has become a sanctuary for endangered species. And while it’s true that nonnative species introduced by humans are among the main causes of global species decline—they are partly responsible for 60% of the species that have become extinct worldwide in recent decades—some of these same species introduced by humans are themselves endangered in their native ranges, raising questions about the role nonnative populations may play in global conservation efforts.

Conservation science is typically thought of as a specialized field that plays a vital role in understanding and addressing environmental issues. That’s true, but it’s also becoming ever more important to recognize that conservation encompasses not only scientists but almost everyone. Every time you snap a wildlife photo and upload it to iNaturalist—a social network and platform that connects people with nature and helps them learn about biodiversity—you might be fueling breakthrough science. From helping conservation agencies track biodiversity and invasive threats to rediscovering lost species, citizen observations have become vital tools for researchers across the globe.

A red-cockaded woodpecker is a small woodpecker with a white cheek and a back with strong, horizontal, black-and-white bars, described as a “ladder back.” Males have a tiny, nearly invisible, red streak (a “cockade”) at the upper border of the cheek.

A bombing range becomes a wildlife refuge

Florida’s Avon Park Air Force Range is teeming with life. More than 40 at-risk species occupy this 106,000-acre expanse used by the U.S. Air Force for bombing training exercises. But now, conservation biologists from Michigan State University (MSU) are using the range to test something other than weapons: innovative strategies to save threatened species.

Using decades’ worth of monitoring data, researchers looked back through time to understand the outcome of interventions designed to rescue a population of imperiled red-cockaded woodpeckers. What they found is a promising story of success.

Red-cockaded woodpeckers, once abundant from the American South to the Eastern Seaboard, have disappeared along with their pine savanna habitats and are now confined to small, disconnected pockets of living space covering only 3% of their historic range. The overdevelopment of pine savanna ecosystems has placed hundreds of species—including the red-cockaded woodpecker—at risk of disappearing entirely.

Once a dominant ecosystem across the U.S. Southeast, longleaf pine savannas faced a drastic decline primarily due to disruption of natural fire regimes, land conversion and overexploitation of timber resources.

The only reason that these populations are still around is because of continued collaborations and long-term investments in these imperiled animals and plants. Avon Park Air Force Range is one of 18 Sentinel Landscapes, protected areas around military installations where the U.S. Department of Defense and other federal agencies work with state governments and private stakeholders to meet conservation goals. Avon Park contains more than 35,000 acres of pine savannas, providing a well-protected band of habitat for threatened animals and a proving ground for complex conservation strategies.

Leveraging this rare opportunity, researchers from Florida’s Archbold Biological Station, in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Air Force, introduced 54 red-cockaded woodpeckers from six donor populations into the range’s pine savannas between 1998 and 2016. MSU scientists determined that the introduced birds contributed directly to higher population counts, and that translocated birds and their descendants tended to have higher rates of survival and reproductive success. The findings, published in a special edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in July 2025, indicate that reproductive success is highly associated with total nesting years—and translocated birds tended to nest for more years than locally hatched ones.

These positive effects persisted into the future along family lines. About 70% of the translocated woodpeckers survived in the population after their release, and many formed breeding pairs with local individuals, providing a boost to the genetic diversity of the population.

Endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers are habitat specialists that are strongly tied to old-growth pine forests that burn frequently. They prefer and were once common in vast tracts of longleaf pines; but now they use loblolly, slash and other pine stands in Southeast flatwoods.

Complex population dynamics, changes which manifest across decades and the sheer challenge of gathering high-resolution monitoring data make gauging the effectiveness of translocations—the practice of moving individuals from donor populations to isolated, at-risk ones—difficult. The detail and length of this study, though state the researchers, provide rare insights into the long-term effects of these strategies and has the potential to act as an important component of managing many imperiled species.

In the future, genetic insights will play a growing role in evaluating and tracking conservation programs, conclude the scientists. Analysis of genetic material helps detect and minimize inbreeding and creates highly detailed pedigrees for populations, reducing the burden of on-site monitoring programs to track bird nesting and reproduction. Using genetic monitoring tools allows scientists and land managers to be more precise when deciding how and when to use translocations to help restore connectivity between isolated populations and reverse long-term population declines in dwindling species, bringing them back from the brink.

Invasive species become worthy of protection

The globalization of the Earth is contributing to the introduction of many animal and plant species into new parts of the world. But such “invasive species” can displace native species through competition or transmit new diseases. At the same time, however, some of these nonnative species are threatened with extinction in their native ranges. This creates a conservation paradox: should nonnative species that are endangered in their native ranges be controlled or protected?

Crested macaques are endemic to Indonesia. They live in the lush rain forests, for which the country is well known. Unfortunately, however, these rain forests are disappearing. Crested macaques are, therefore, forced to eke out an existence in logged forests, grasslands and even farm fields.

Previously, it was unknown how many nonnative mammal species this paradox applied to. In a new study, however, biologists from Austria’s University of Vienna and Italy’s La Sapienza University of Rome quantified it, bringing us one step closer to solving the puzzle.

One important mammal species that is threatened in its native area is the crested macaque, whose population in its natural range on Sulawesi, an Indonesian island east of Borneo, has declined by 85% since 1978. However, the macaques have spread to other islands in Indonesia, where there are stable populations. Likewise, the wild rabbit is endangered in Europe; while in other parts of the world, such as Australia, it has very large, introduced populations. Most of the threatened species in their native ranges originate from tropical Asia, which in many cases is the result of massive, rain-forest destruction and overhunting. Human-introduced populations could, therefore, help these species avoid extinction.

Unfortunately, when assessing the global extinction risk, species that do not live in their native ranges are not currently considered. In the recent study, however, the researchers were able to show that the threat situation of some species would improve if nonnative occurrences were included in the counts. In fact, for 22% of the analyzed species, the global extinction risk would be reduced if nonnative occurrences were added into the assessments. A total of 230 nonnative mammal species has currently been introduced by humans to new areas around the world and have settled there permanently. The scientists were able to show that 36 of these species are threatened in their original ranges and so fall under this conservation paradox. The number was surprising, since most people had assumed that invasive species are also common in their areas of origin.

The European wild rabbit is classified as endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. This status applies to the rabbit’s native European range, where populations have significantly declined due to diseases like myxomatosis and rabbit hemorrhagic disease, as well as habitat loss.

According to the study’s authors, this result, published in the journal Conservation Letters in December 2024, underlines the great importance of nonnative populations for the survival of endangered species—especially when there are high threat pressures in the native areas.

Of course, including nonnative populations of these species in threat assessments also entails risks; for example, less attention might be paid to the protection of threatened populations in their native ranges. In addition, nonnative populations can have a negative impact on other species. The scientists believe that the focus must continue to be on protecting species in their native ranges. However, it is likely that in the future there will be more species that are threatened with extinction in their native ranges and have better chances of survival in their new ranges. This presents nature conservation with the difficult task of weighing the opportunities versus the risks.

It is much the same with plant species: when a plant spreads beyond its natural habitat, it is usually seen as a threat to native fauna and flora. But what happens when that same plant is struggling to survive in its original range?

Although most introduced species have negative impacts on the ecosystems they enter, some provide conservation value. For example, in New Hampshire, invasive plants like this autumn olive produce fruit that is used by birds, and some invasive plants can be a source of nectar and pollen for insects.

It’s easy to assume that plant species expanding into nonnative ranges are global winners, benefiting from range gains. However, results of a study published in the journal New Phytologist in May 2025 and led by researchers at Germany’s German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research, the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research–UFZ and Leipzig University demonstrated that 27% of the world’s naturalized plant species are threatened somewhere in their native ranges, raising questions about the role nonnative populations may play in global conservation efforts. This finding is the result of a global synthesis that links threatened vascular plants from 103 countries with the Global Naturalized Alien Flora database.

An extreme example of this conservation dilemma is the species Agave vera-cruz, which is globally classified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as extinct in the wild (referring to its native range), but it survives in multiple, self-sustaining, nonnative populations. However, most plant species that have expanded beyond their nonnative range and face native-range threats are not globally threatened, highlighting the dynamic nature of species’ ranges.

While nonnative species are often evaluated in terms of their ecological impact or eradication, this study advocates for a more nuanced approach. Some species colonizing new regions may provide conservation value, meaning that we should avoid using a too-rigid distinction between “native” and “nonnative” in the context of global biodiversity change. As species distributions increasingly shift due to climate change and land use, we’ll need a more balanced perspective that acknowledges both risks and potential conservation opportunities.

The iNaturalist platform is shaping the future of biodiversity science. Millions of people are helping scientists track biodiversity in ways that would be impossible through traditional scientific fieldwork alone.

Nonscientists become valued conservation contributors

It used to be that we thought of science as people in white coats in labs; or in the case of environmental science, people in big boots walking through the mud to gather information in the field. But now, millions of everyday people are directly shaping how we conserve and understand biodiversity.

Let’s say that a frog sitting next to a walking trail croaks. A hiker snaps a photo and uploads it to iNaturalist. That single act—one person, one amphibian and one click—feeds into a growing, global dataset that scientists now use to detect invasive threats, map shifting animal and plant ranges, and even discover new species.

Launched in 2008, the platform is a nonprofit organization and allows users to upload audio recordings or photographs of animals, fungi, plants and other organisms, along with information on place and time. A community of contributors vet observations; and those verified as “Research Grade” are shared with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, an international database working as a clearinghouse for all biodiversity records. Recently, an international study led by researchers at the University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences shows that iNaturalist is doing far more than connecting users with nature: it’s rapidly becoming a cornerstone of scientific research.

When you upload your nature photos—such as this one of a mink frog—to iNaturalist, you add to a growing global dataset that scientists use to detect invasive threats, map shifting animal and plant ranges, and even discover new species.

Until now, the scientific value of iNaturalist had only been recognized in isolated cases, such as when a user rediscovered a century-lost, Vietnamese snail; when the data is used to provide high-resolution maps of plants; or for early detection of invasive species. But this is the first study to systematically assess the full scope of how iNaturalist data is being used in research.

The authors of the study, published in the journal BioScience in July 2025, say that the dominant use of iNaturalist is in tracking how organisms are spread across the planet. Following that is the use of images uploaded to iNaturalist, which provide insights into species behavior, coloration and habitat preferences. And the exponential rise in scholarly articles using iNaturalist data (tenfold in five years) suggests that as participation grows—particularly in underrepresented regions and among lesser-studied species groups—so, too, will its impact on science.

Those meaningful contributions come from 128 countries and 638 groups of species, illustrating the truly global impact iNaturalist is having on biodiversity research. The platform is currently being used by conservation agencies such as the IUCN to assess the status of threatened species and to track the spread of invasive organisms.

The field of conservation is full of challenges. Demands on the world’s land resources, rising air pollution, and reduced water quality and quantity are just some of them.

Conservation challenges become capable of being conquered

The field of conservation is full of challenges. Changing demands on land resources, climate change, fire suppression, overgrazing, air quality intrusions, and reduced water quality and quantity are just some of them.

With such a long list of hurdles, discovering that something works—especially when it shouldn’t—is proof that the efforts are worth the commitments and calluses.

Here’s to finding your true places and natural habitats,

Candy

The post Conservation Twists first appeared on Good Nature Travel Blog.

“We need joy as we need air. We need love as we need water. We need each other as we need the Earth we share.” – Maya Angelou

Some truths are universal. No matter who we are or where we come from, we depend on the same planet. The same rivers and forests, the same air currents and ocean tides. Nature connects us in ways we often forget, binding our survival to something larger than ourselves. And yet, while environmental challenges affect us all, they do not affect us equally.

In some neighborhoods, children grow up playing under clear skies and in green parks. In others, playgrounds sit next to factories, and the air carries a metallic haze. Some communities have the resources to prepare for hurricanes and rising seas, while others are left in harm’s way, without evacuation plans or recovery funds.

In a quiet coastal town, the ocean is moving in, not just as waves on the shore, but as a steady claim on homes, streets, and memories. For the families who live here, climate change isn’t an abstract headline. It’s at their doorstep.

This imbalance lies at the heart of environmental justice—the idea that everyone, everywhere, deserves the same degree of protection from environmental harm and the same access to the benefits nature provides.

What is Environmental Justice?

When I think about environmental justice, I return to this truth. Our lives are inseparable from the air we breathe, the water we drink and the land we walk upon. Yet for too long, the brushstrokes of history have painted unevenly across our canvas, leaving some communities covered in light while others are shadowed by neglect and exploitation.

But the Earth, like a masterpiece, is never finished. Every choice we make is a new brushstroke on the canvas. Each conservation effort, whether protecting freshwaters, defending endangered species, or fighting for clean air, is another layer added to the portrait of our shared future.

Consider Flint, Michigan, where residents of largely low-income families and communities of color were left without safe drinking water for years due to lead contamination. Clean water, one of the most basic human rights, became a privilege denied. The crisis wasn’t just about infrastructure– it was about whose voices were heard and whose weren’t.

At its core, environmental justice is about fairness. It asks: Who bears the greatest burden of pollution, climate change and environmental degradation? And who enjoys the benefits of clean water, safe housing, and thriving ecosystems?

The truth is, vulnerable communities—often low-income families, Indigenous peoples and communities of color – disproportionately face the greatest risks. Power plants, waste facilities and highways are far more likely to be built near these neighborhoods, while green spaces, clean energy investments and conservation funding often bypass them.

Environmental justice seeks to correct this imbalance by ensuring that no group of people is left to carry more than their share of environmental harm and that everyone has a voice in the decisions shaping their environment.

© WWF / Troy Fleece

Why Conservation is Justice

It’s tempting to think of conservation and environmental justice as separate issues: one focused on saving wildlife, the other on protecting people. But the truth is, they are inseparable. When forests are cleared, it isn’t only wildlife that disappears. So do the medicines, clean water and cultural traditions that local communities depend on. Coral reefs that bleach threaten coastal livelihoods. And ecosystems in collapse ripple far beyond the local landscape.

Protecting nature means protecting people. Healthy ecosystems filter the water we drink, stabilize the climate we live in and provide the resources we need to thrive. Conservation isn’t just about saving species; it’s about sustaining communities. And sometimes, it’s also about the choices we make when we step into these wild spaces as travelers.

To practice true conservation is to practice justice: to safeguard both biodiversity and the dignity, rights and futures of the people who depend on it most.

Brighter Futures 

The metaphor I keep returning to is the canvas. Our planet is not a finished painting—it is a living masterpiece, still in progress. And just as no masterpiece is completed in a single draft, the fight for environmental justice will not be solved in one generation or one policy. Progress is messy. It takes edits, new layers and the courage to return to the canvas again and again.

The truth is this: the world we share is still in progress. What we add to it matters. Climate justice, clean water, thriving forests and protected species are not abstract ideals. They are brushstrokes waiting for us to commit them to the canvas.

The Serengeti’s dry seasons eventually give way to renewal when the rains return. Coral reefs can regenerate if given space and protection. Species once thought lost, like the California condor or black-footed ferret, have rebounded because people refused to give up. Every shadow makes the light more brilliant, every setback an opportunity to reimagine what’s possible. 

© naturepl.com  / Shattil & Rozinski / WWF

Maya Angelou’s words remind us of what’s at stake. Joy, love, and connection: these are not luxuries, but necessities. And so is the Earth that sustains us.

If we commit to justice, we can build a future where clean air, safe water, and thriving nature aren’t privileges, but shared rights. Because protecting the planet isn’t just about the environment; it’s about people. All people.

Our planet is not yet complete. And that’s the gift. We still have time to keep creating, keep refining and keep making something only we can make together.

The post The Earth We Share: Why Environmental Justice Matters first appeared on Good Nature Travel Blog.

For me, it’s about a lot more than that, too. I’m a former journalism professor, but I’m not even going to attempt objectivity here; this is advocacy, pure and simple. I want you to love this place and its people as much as I do.

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Welcome to Kopila Valley School

After working with leaders and experts in over 45 countries, Nepal’s Kopila Valley School is the single most remarkable, inspiring place I have ever been and the most committed, vibrant, remarkable group of people I have seen work together.

So, I’m not surprised WWF Nepal has recognized Kopila Valley School as the Best Eco Club in a Secondary School in Nepal. Its dedication to sustainability and fostering environmental connections for students is a sight to behold—and one I have seen with my own eyes.

I have also sat on the concrete floor at lunchtime and eaten with the kids—tasty, nutritious food they helped grow themselves and local Aunties prepared using a solar power system on the cafeteria roof.

The solar cooking system consists of three rows of curved mirrors that focus sunlight on an insulated pipe containing oil that is heated to high temperatures and then transported down to pots in the kitchen. On an average sunny day, the system can cook rice, lentils and vegetables for 500 hungry people!

Lunch at Kopila Valley School Photo shared by BlinkNow Foundation

WWF Nepal’s Commitment to Conservation Education

Over the course of its 30 years, WWF Nepal has maintained a dual mission: to stop the degradation of the natural environment and build a future in which people live in harmony with nature.

That future depends upon Nepal’s children.

So, WWF focuses the majority of its efforts on conservation education. Conservation education is designed to instill a sense of value and stewardship in young people across the country so they take action toward conservation and sustainable development now and in the future.

(If you have kids or grandkids with whom you’d like to share conservation stories, check out WWF Nepal videos and books in English at the bottom of the page linked here.)

Kopila Valley School in Surkhet, Nepal, September 17, 2022. Photo by Allison Shelley | Shared by BlinkNow Foundation

From its inaugural school eco club in 1994, WWF Nepal has sought to educate, engage and empower 500,000 youth through conservation education. The eco club program emphasizes learning by doing and works toward ensuring equitable access to educational resources, promoting social action models, and developing a nationwide youth network to build pro-environment and biodiversity values.

WWF Nepal aims to create a generation of Nepali youth committed to sustainable development and biodiversity conservation that effectively engages and influences wider stakeholders.

That’s exactly what’s happening at Kopila Valley. The kids will tell you about it themselves in English from the halfway point (3:00) in this video shared online by WWF Nepal:

Hikmat Bhandari, staff mentor for the Ambassador Club’s waste management group, says this video contributed to the hands-on learning experience that is prevalent at Kopila Valley and necessary in Nepal.

“Students in Nepal need to learn about conservation to establish a sense of connection and responsibility toward the environment and encourage them to become active participants in conserving natural resources and the environment for future generations. This also provides valuable experiences and skills that are beneficial to them in life, like research, public speaking and policymaking.”

Students in the Sustainability Ambassadors Club at Kopila Valley played a key role in securing this award and created a video submission highlighting their work in four groups: forest fire, plantation or cultivation and care, waste management, and climate change. 

Each group studies an environmental challenge and then plans projects to take collective and collaborative action. Students from grades 6–12 have the option to participate in this club, which currently boasts 38 members and hosts various eco projects and community service efforts during the year.

According to WWF Nepal, “This honor is awarded to educational institutions that have demonstrated exceptional commitment and ingenuity in advancing environmental sustainability.”

Kopila Valley—Nepal’s Greenest School

What makes this award at this school especially unique is that these kids are not from well-connected families in Kathmandu or even in their own community. The school is located in Birendranagar, Surkhet district, in Nepal’s largest province, Karnali, 375 miles west of Kathmandu.

Both Nepal’s longest river and its two largest lakes are in Karnali, as are two national parks, Rara and Shey Phoksundo. But Surkhet’s population has nearly tripled in the last 40 years, putting enormous pressure on resources and the environment.

Nepal’s per capita income in fiscal year 2022–2023 was approximately $1,381; in Karnali Province, it was just $964. The Nepali average multidimensional poverty rate is 17.4%; in Karnali Province, it is 39.5%.

Since its inception, Kopila Valley School has undertaken rigorous admission processes to ensure that they are identifying and accepting children who in most cases would have no access or opportunity to attend school. It is a not-for-profit, private school offering free, world-class education (plus uniforms and meals) to over 425 students from across the region. 

Distinct from many schools in the area, Kopila Valley offers the best education through an innovative place-based active learning program, a leading-edge, sustainable school campus, and comprehensive, ongoing training of local teachers and leaders.

Kopila Valley School in Birendranagar, Surkhet, Nepal | Photo courtesy of BlinkNow

Between the Mountain and the Sky: Maggie’s Story

If this story sounds familiar, you may have heard of co-founder Maggie Doyne when she won the 2015 CNN Hero of the Year Award or was on the cover of the New York Times magazine in 2010.

BlinkNow Co-founder & CEO, Maggie Doyne | Shared by BlinkNow Foundation

I met Maggie in 2009 when she dreamed of opening a simpler, bamboo-construction school near the Children’s Home where she lived with co-founder Tope Malla and his family and around 40 children. She was 22 years old and had already lived in Nepal for several years.

Two things struck me:

• She was so much like me: We both grew up in middle-class, suburban American families, excelled at school and sports, loved to travel…I suspect many people meet Maggie and think they could be great friends.
• There was something remarkably different about Maggie, though: At 22, she could rattle off any sustainable development or early childhood development statistic you’d ask her about, then connect it to stakeholder concerns on the ground in her region of Nepal and describe the reality of the families the numbers represented.

In the next breath, she might tell you a completely gnarly story about treating a house full of children with lice…or even worms. Then, her laugh would completely captivate the room.

Maggie Doyne is the real deal, as are co-founder Tope Malla and the teams on the ground in Nepal and the USA. They are building and living a huge, evolving vision of a world where every child is loved, fed, educated and set up to pay it forward. 

Maggie’s memoir, Between the Mountain and the Sky, was published in 2022 and is currently being made into a film that will make its debut at Colorado’s Mountainfilm Festival in Telluride.

A Model for Conservation Education

In the early years, Maggie and the team were often asked to fly around the world to build schools and advise on children’s homes in other communities. I remember her saying once, “Everyone says we have to scale, scale, scale.”

They chose to scale another way. Kopila Valley School is open from 7 in the morning until 6 in the evening and offers a diverse curriculum—math, science, Nepali, English, social studies, computers and art—for nursery through 12th grade. It feeds hundreds of people every day and provides basic medical and dental care through its on-site clinic. Its Women’s Center produces textiles, occupational training, and employment opportunities.

One of the reasons Kopila Valley’s home and school work so well is they are thoroughly entrenched in the particular needs and network, culture, and community in which they operate. It was a choice to stay in Surkhet and serve to the best of their ability, to build local teams and partnerships, based on local needs to support transformation in the community.

The way BlinkNow and Kopila Valley scale is as a model for other homes, schools, and foundations that want to grow and serve in locally responsible ways. Want to learn how to build a movement or transform an issue or area? You will find no better case study.

It’s a lesson for all of us that we can each have an impact on even the largest, most overwhelming, seemingly intractable issues.

For me, this relates directly to conservation and climate change mitigation. Every effort, every action, is of value, and great leadership plus committed teams compound impact.

That principle is reflected throughout the school’s curriculum. Students at Kopila Valley don’t just learn how the school leadership protects the environment—they actually interact with the food system by planting and tending some of the rice and other food the community consumes each year. Kids even visit the landfill and municipal waste management teams.

Each person plays his or her part, too: during the annual Earth Day week-long celebration, teachers focus on the importance of the environment, and select staff members participate in permaculture training to learn more about Surkhet’s ecosystem. A cooperative that grew out of Kopila Valley’s vocational Women’s Center has even started selling rice bags repurposed into reusable totes to minimize the need for single-use plastic.

Kopila Valley School WWF award-winning Eco Ambassador Club | Photo by Robic Upadhayay courtesy of BlinkNow

This recent recognition from WWF Nepal serves as a testament to Kopila Valley School’s unwavering dedication to environmental conservation. The Ambassadors Club and the school itself continue to inspire and equip students, as well as the surrounding community, to make a positive impact on the environment.

Sustainability Ambassadors are experts on all things sustainability at Kopila Valley School: rammed earth, solar power, recycling, and more. They give tours to visitors, lead community clean-ups, plant trees, and encourage others to take action for the planet.

About the Sustainability Ambassadors, Maggie says, 

“Our school’s sustainability program lays the groundwork for our children’s thriving future. It fosters a deep appreciation for the environment and the planet among our students, equipping them with the knowledge and abilities necessary to tackle future environmental challenges. We are shaping leaders who will steer us toward a more sustainable, equitable, and empathetic world.”

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Conclusion

I have a feeling that if I asked Maggie to review this article (I didn’t—she is very busy), she might ask me to tweak the paragraph that shares the percentage of the population living in poverty. She would likely point to the remarkable beauty and biodiversity of the region, the incredible resources that are available locally, how incredibly hardworking people are, how willing people are to work together…to the amazing things that are possible with resources.

Sometimes, when we think and talk about places around the world like Surkhet, development and conservation seem at odds, and the difference a small group of people can make feels limited. WWF and Kopila Valley School recognize that conservation education can change that.

If I have learned anything from meeting the team at Kopila Valley School and seeing them at work myself, it is this: building the right team to last over time, focused on doing the best work possible, can make incredible dreams a reality.

For more information:

If you would like to see parts of Nepal and the Himalayas for yourself, consider Nat Hab’s Wild & Ancient Himalaya: Nepal & Bhutan.

Take a virtual tour of Nepal’s greenest school here

The BlinkNow Foundation started as a way to provide education and a loving, caring home for impoverished and at-risk children without homes. It fulfills its mission by providing financial support and management oversight to the Kopila Valley Children’s Home and Kopila Valley School in Surkhet, Nepal.

The post Sustainability Champions: Inside Nepal’s Award-Winning Kopila Valley School first appeared on Good Nature Travel Blog.