The interlinked crises of climate change and biodiversity loss are slipping down political agendas just as geopolitical instability and fiscal pressures rise. Overseas development aid is falling in real terms, and many megadiverse countries are juggling debt stress that pushes conservation to the margins.
Mangroves are trees and shrubs that grow in saline and brackish tidal waters across tropical and subtropical regions of the world.1Mangroves support rich biodiversity spanning both marine and terrestrial environments. Their roots anchor to the sediment, providing shelter for an array of marine fauna including fish, invertebrates, and mammals. Their canopy provides habitat, food, and shelter for many terrestrial organisms, including mammals such as tigers and monkeys, birds, reptiles, and insects.
Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs), introduced by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), refer to areas outside formal protected-area networks that deliver effective and enduring in situ biodiversity conservation. This scoping review systematically examined global approaches to identifying and evaluating potential OECMs. Analysing 99 studies covering 694 case studies and 237 000 potential sites, we found that potential OECMs are widespread, particularly in Asia and terrestrial environments, with most initiatives led by the environmental sector.
Nurturing people-nature relationships in evolving social-ecological landscapes can slow biodiversity loss and build resilient communities
Biodiversity loss is often framed as a failure of conservation. In reality, it is a failure of relationships.
Sharks and rays are among the most threatened vertebrates on the planet, facing intense pressure from overfishing, habitat loss and degradation and inadequate protection across critical sites for life-history processes and their migratory ranges. Call Number: [EL]Physical Description: 31 p.
The loss of biodiversity is accelerating globally, and there is growing recognition that both halting and reversing this loss requires action from all of society, in addition to governments, civil society organisations, Indigenous peoples, local communities and the private sector.
Many islands are remote and the level of interest in land snails as a component of the global biodiversity conservation agenda is low. The conservation status of many island land snail faunas thus remains at best out of date. However, land snails have an asset that other groups do not—their shells, which can remain post mortem in the shell bank of the soil for many tens or several hundreds of years after the death of the animal.
Life on Earth is linked inseparably with the ocean. It covers around 71 per cent of the surface and is the largest habitat on our planet. Much of its species diversity is still unknown – and yet it is vital for human well-being. The greater the health and diversity of marine life, the greater the benefits for people and nature. But which species live in the ocean, and which environmental factors influence their distribution or habitat size? What are the reasons for the decline in marine species abundance – and how can it be preserved successfully?
The ocean is essential for humanity1,2,3. Yet, inequity in ocean-based activities is widespread and accelerating4,5,6,7,8. Addressing this requires governance approaches that can systematically measure equity and track progress9. Here we present the Ocean Equity Index (OEI)—a framework for assessing and improving equity in ocean initiatives, projects and policies. We apply the index, which scores twelve criteria, to case studies at local, national and global scales. We show that the OEI can generate structured data to support evidence-based decision-making across ocean sectors and scales.
Research from Pew marine fellows is a critical resource for helping to protect large ocean species and can offer invaluable input as a network of high seas marine protected areas (MPAs) nears reality.
In September 2025, the United Nations General Assembly passed the high seas treaty, which sets rules to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in international waters that are not governed by a single nation. The agreement also establishes a legal framework to create the MPAs beginning this month.
