Conservation takes cash, and philanthropic funding is notoriously fickle. To secure the future of its environmental efforts, this Dominican nonprofit is trying something new: making booze. When Hurricane Maria swept through the Caribbean in 2017, tiny Dominica was hit particularly hard—howling winds and torrential rain damaged or destroyed 95 percent of the country’s housing stock. […]
conservation
Marine Protected Areas, Explained
There’s nuance in how we protect our oceans; here are the details. It’s World Ocean Day, a day when the ocean takes the podium and the world professes concern, but also love, for the planet’s life force. It’s a day of celebrations, and also cautionary tales. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are one of the tools […]
For Marine Species, Hidden Divisions Abound
The little sand lance is unexpectedly split in two, revealing a breadth of genetic diversity that could help it survive. On land, rivers and mountain ranges can divide species into genetically distinct populations. In the vast expanse of the ocean, where there is seemingly little to stop fish and other sea creatures from going where […]
Rise in urban beekeeping may be crowding out native bee species
In Montreal, Canada, the diversity of wild bee species has fallen in areas where honeybee colonies have proliferated. Efforts to “save the bees” by encouraging urban beekeeping over the past decade may have been good for honeybees, but wild, native bees appear to be paying the price. Researchers in Montreal, Canada, surveyed wild bee populations […]
Lake sturgeon added to endangered list, but things are looking up
Lake sturgeon, one of the largest and oldest species of fish in the Great Lakes, are in more trouble than we thought. In December, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature downgraded its status from Least Concern to Endangered based on shrinking populations over the past three generations, which is between 250 and 300 […]
China’s Surprisingly Robust System of Marine Protection
China is not slouching on its marine protection efforts—domestically, at least. China, as the world’s largest producer and consumer of seafood, is well known for its voracious international fishing fleet. But a comprehensive understanding of the country’s efforts on marine protection, at least in its domestic waters, has remained elusive—even to many experts within China. […]
Scientists Are Running Out of Salmon to Study
With west coast salmon populations withering, these researchers are heading for the Great Lakes. For years, Steven Cooke, a biologist at Carleton University in Ottawa, has been traveling to British Columbia to research Pacific salmon migrations. But on the west coast, salmon populations are in dire straits. Several of the populations Cooke studies, including those […]
Want to Save a Failing Fishery? Take the Long View
Half a millennium of fishing records shows Canada could have saved the Atlantic cod. Almost 30 years ago, the cod fishery that had sustained commercial fishers in Newfoundland and Labrador for centuries came to an abrupt end, with a government-imposed moratorium aimed at saving the collapsing cod population. The moratorium put 30,000 people out of […]
Are COVID-19 Lockdowns Really Causing Nature to Heal?
It’s complicated. As the COVID-19 pandemic took hold last spring and people around the world went into lockdown, a certain type of news story started to spring up—the idea that, in the absence of people, nature was returning to a healthier, more pristine state. There were viral reports of dolphins in the canals of Venice, […]
Canada’s ecosystem hotspots: Rockies, Hudson Bay among areas flagged for protection
Ottawa has big ambitions but little research when it comes to setting aside the most valuable areas for conservation. Never fear, the mapping scientists are here. In 2017 conservation scientist Aerin Jacob was invited to join an expert team charged with advising the Canadian government on ways to meet its conservation targets. The team was […]