Civil society

Civil society encompasses the nonprofits, advocacy groups, community organizations, and grassroots movements that operate outside government and business to advance the public good. This archive collects stories of civil society actors driving measurable progress on issues ranging from human rights and environmental protection to public health and civic participation.

Golden mahseer fish swimming, for article on putitor mahseer recovery

Indigenous effort in Bangladesh helps reverse endangered fish’s slide to extinction

By / / Good News For Humankind

Endangered putitor mahseer are swimming again in the springs of Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts, where scientists had nearly written the species off. The turnaround started when Indigenous communities revived their traditional Village Common Forests, protecting headwaters and banning fishing in restored springs — with a fine of 5,000 taka per fish to back it up. Within three years of forest protection, villagers like Lika Chakma watched long-silent springs run year-round again, and the fish followed. As global freshwater biodiversity declines faster than life on land or in the sea, this small comeback in eastern Bangladesh offers a hopeful blueprint: when Indigenous stewardship is trusted and resourced, ecosystems can heal themselves.

Silhouette of an elephant, for article on African elephant populations

Elephant populations stabilize in southern Africa

By / / Good News For Humankind

African elephant populations across the southern range have stabilized for the first time in a century, with surveys of more than 290,000 savannah elephants showing a small but steady annual growth rate from 1995 to 2020. The most comprehensive study of its kind, drawing on 713 surveys across 103 protected areas, credits decades of anti-poaching work, community-based conservation, and expanded protected lands. Researchers also found that connected reserves, where elephants can move between habitats, produce healthier outcomes than isolated “fortress” parks. The takeaway feels quietly powerful: after generations of devastating loss, patient work by rangers, scientists, and local communities has interrupted the collapse — a reminder that stitching fragmented landscapes back together may be one of conservation’s most important tasks worldwide.

Sahara scimitar Oryx, for article on scimitar horned oryx

North Africa’s scimitar horned oryx becomes first species ever to be downlisted from extinct in the wild to endangered

By / / Good News For Humankind

The scimitar horned oryx just made conservation history as the first species ever downlisted from Extinct in the Wild to Endangered by the IUCN. This pale, curve-horned antelope vanished from the Sahara before the millennium, hunted to zero in the wild. Now a self-sustaining herd roams Chad’s Ouadi Rimé–Ouadi Achim Reserve, a protected area roughly the size of Scotland, rebuilt from zoo populations through nearly four decades of patient international collaboration. Even better, the oryx grazes grasslands open and helps slow the Sahara’s spread, making its return a quiet act of climate repair. For the 94 other species still surviving only in human care, it’s proof that “extinct” need not be the final word.

Participants at the Indigenous Peoples’ and Local Communities’ Conservation Congress, for article on community-led conservation

Namibia hosts Africa’s first community-led conservation congress

By / / Good News For Humankind

Indigenous peoples and local communities took the lead at a major African conservation congress for the first time, with delegates from 43 countries gathering in Windhoek, Namibia to set the agenda themselves. Rather than international NGOs or governments calling the shots, community members chose the topics — from customary land rights to human-wildlife conflict — and shaped the conversation. One organizer put it simply: in many African villages, conservation isn’t a program people are recruited into, it’s already a way of living. As the world works toward protecting 30% of land and oceans by 2030, this shift from being invited to the table to building the table themselves could reshape how conservation actually works on the ground.

Plant sprouting from the soil, for article on indigenous seed network Brazil

Indigenous seed collectors grow a network of restoration across Brazil

By / / Good News For Humankind

Indigenous seed networks in Brazil are showing how grassroots restoration can work at real scale. The Xingu Seed Network — with around 600 members from 25 Indigenous groups plus family farmers — has restored 18,300 acres of Amazon and Cerrado land since its founding. This past July, women from the younger Reseba network traveled nearly a thousand miles to learn from that model, bringing home techniques for harvesting and storing native seeds. The work generates meaningful income, though collectors still face threats from illegal miners and loggers. Peer-to-peer knowledge exchange like this may be restoration’s most durable foundation.

Ni'isjoohl memorial pole, for article on Nisga'a totem pole repatriation

National Museum of Scotland returns stolen totem pole to Nisga’a people after 100 years

By / / Good News For Humankind

The Ni’isjoohl memorial pole has come home to the Nass Valley after 94 years in Scotland, marking the first time a British museum has returned a totem pole to an Indigenous community. The 11-meter red cedar pole, taken in 1929 while most Nisga’a people were away working, was flown across the Atlantic and welcomed by hundreds, including children who laid cedar branches around it as it rested in the sun. The pole had been commissioned by a grieving mother to honor her son, a warrior named Ts’wawit. Its return offers a hopeful precedent for Indigenous communities worldwide still seeking the return of stolen ancestors and belongings — a quiet but powerful shift in what museums can choose to be.

Young snow leopard, for article on snow leopard population

Bhutan announces a “milestone achievement” with a 39.5% increase in snow leopard numbers

By / / Good News For Humankind

Bhutan’s snow leopard population has climbed to 134 cats, up from 96 in the previous national survey — a 39.5% jump for a species the IUCN still lists as vulnerable. Researchers confirmed the count using camera traps scattered across high-altitude terrain, identifying individuals by the unique rosette patterns on their coats. Much of the credit goes to Bhutan’s deep commitment to conservation: its constitution requires that at least 60% of the country stay forested forever, and protected areas now cover more than half its land. With fewer than 8,000 snow leopards thought to remain across 12 countries, Bhutan’s quiet success offers a hopeful blueprint for what’s possible when legal protection, intact habitat, and political will come together.

Tiger, for article on Bengal tiger recovery

Sundarbans tiger and prey numbers rise amid Bangladesh conservation efforts

By / / Good News For Humankind

Bengal tigers are quietly reclaiming ground in Bangladesh’s Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest — and the prey recovery driving that rebound is just as striking. Spotted deer, which make up roughly 79% of tigers’ diet here, have grown to more than 141,000, while protected land has more than doubled to cover 52% of Bangladesh’s share of the forest. Community response teams have helped eliminate human-tiger conflict incidents for five years, treating local people as active partners. Poaching pressure remains real, though, and long-term survival will depend on how the forest holds up against rising seas and intensifying storms.