Wildlife & land conservation

This archive brings together 265 stories about wildlife recovery, protected lands, habitat restoration, and the communities driving conservation forward. From endangered species rebounds to new national parks and Indigenous-led stewardship, these articles document real, verifiable progress happening around the world. If you want evidence that protecting nature is working, this is where to look.

New Zealand's Taranaki Mounga, for article on Taranaki Mounga legal personhood

New Zealand mountain granted same legal rights as a person

By / / Good News For Humankind

Legal personhood for Taranaki Mounga passed New Zealand’s parliament unanimously, making the symmetrical volcanic peak only the third natural feature in the country to hold the rights and protections of a legal person. The mountain will now be known solely by its Māori name, retiring the colonial label given by European settlers, and its interests will be represented jointly by iwi and crown appointees. Hundreds of Taranaki Māori filled Wellington’s public gallery for the final reading and broke into song when the vote passed. As rights-of-nature frameworks spread from Ecuador to Uganda, Taranaki’s recognition as an ancestor — not just a landmark — offers a powerful model for how legal systems can honor Indigenous relationships with the living world.

Rainforest canopy, for article on tropical forest reserve

The Democratic Republic of Congo to create the Earth’s largest protected tropical forest reserve

By / / Good News For Humankind

The Democratic Republic of Congo just passed legislation protecting 540,000 square kilometers of tropical forest — an area the size of France, and now the largest protected tropical forest reserve on Earth. At its heart is the Kivu-Kinshasa Green Corridor, which aims to create 500,000 jobs by linking renewable energy hubs, sustainable farming, and the communities that depend on the forest. The model is already working at smaller scale inside Virunga National Park, where a similar partnership has generated over 21,000 jobs in five years — 11% of them held by people who left armed militias. It’s a rare plan that treats conservation, poverty, and peace as the same problem, offering a blueprint the world badly needs.

Sea turtle swimming

Ecuador’s coastal ecosystems have rights, constitutional court rules

By / / Good news links

The Constitutional Court of Ecuador has determined that coastal marine ecosystems have rights of nature, including the right to “integral respect for its existence and for the maintenance and regeneration of its life cycles, structure, functions, and evolutionary processes,” per Chapter 7, Articles 71 to 74 in the country’s constitution. This is not the first time that Ecuador has established legal rights for nature. In fact, Ecuador was the first country in the world to establish that nature held legal rights, Earth.org reported.

Crane bird in the snow, for article on Siberian crane recovery

Critically endangered Siberian crane populations have increased by nearly 50% over last decade

By / / Good News For Humankind

Siberian crane numbers in the eastern flyway have nearly doubled over the past decade, climbing to an estimated 7,000 birds today. That’s a remarkable turnaround for a Critically Endangered species whose other migratory populations have already vanished. The recovery comes from patient, cross-border work between conservationists in Russia and China to protect the wetland stopovers these cranes rely on, including Lake Poyang, which hosts nearly the entire wintering population. Local partnerships, school programs, and careful habitat management all played a role. It’s a hopeful reminder that saving a long-distance migratory bird means protecting the whole chain of places it touches — a lesson that resonates far beyond one species, for flyways and ecosystems everywhere.

Snow leopard, for article on snow leopard population

Kazakhstan’s snow leopard population reaches near-historic levels

By / / Good News For Humankind

Snow leopards in Kazakhstan have rebounded to between 152 and 189 individuals — population levels not seen since the 1980s, and a 26% jump since 2019. Much of the credit goes to expanded protected areas like Ile-Alatau, Altyn-Emel, and Katon-Karagai, where a female with two cubs was recently spotted in territory once considered too marginal for the species. Rangers now use camera traps, drones, and thermal imaging across 14 natural areas, while a compensation program helps herders coexist with the cats instead of retaliating. Cross-border cooperation with Kyrgyzstan extends that protection beyond political lines. For one of the world’s most elusive big cats, it’s a quiet but powerful reminder that patient, coordinated conservation can actually turn the tide.

Onager, for article on onager reintroduction

Asiatic wild asses return to Saudi Arabia after 100 years

By / / Good News For Humankind

Onagers are roaming Saudi Arabia again for the first time in roughly a century, and one of the seven relocated from Jordan has already given birth to a foal. The Persian onager was chosen as the closest living relative to the Syrian wild ass, a subspecies hunted to extinction in the 1920s, making this a careful act of ecosystem repair rather than simple reintroduction. Researchers matched the new home to Jordan’s reserve by vegetation overlap, easing the animals’ transition, with plans to grow the herd and eventually release them across nearly 7,800 square miles. With fewer than 600 Persian onagers left in the wild, every new foothold strengthens a fragile species — and shows what patient, cross-border conservation can quietly accomplish.

Turkmenistan flag

Turkmenistan to join global wildlife trade convention CITES

By / / Good news links

The Central Asian nation is set to join the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) beginning in 2025. Home to many charismatic and widely traded species, such as the Persian leopard, snow leopard, peregrine falcon and markhor goat, this move is a step toward regulating the legal wildlife trade and preventing the illegal trade in Turkmenistan and the whole of Central Asia.

Teepees under the northern lights, for article on Indigenous-led conservation

Indigenous governments in the Canada’s Northwest Territories sign $375M deal to protect their land

By / / Good News For Humankind

Indigenous-led conservation took a major leap in Canada’s Northwest Territories, where 22 Indigenous governments signed a $375 million agreement to steward their ancestral lands over the next decade. It’s one of the largest Indigenous-led conservation efforts anywhere in the world, and crucially, the nations themselves decide how the money is used — whether for land guardians, new protected areas, climate research, or language and culture programs rooted in the land. “We’re protecting the spirit of the land,” said Dehcho Grand Chief Herb Norwegian, describing the land itself as a living organ in need of care. As global conservation increasingly recognizes that Indigenous-managed territories safeguard extraordinary biodiversity, this agreement offers a powerful model for what real partnership can look like.

Brazil renews plan to restore 30 million acres of degraded land

By / / Good News For Humankind

Brazil’s new restoration plan sets out to revive 12 million hectares of degraded land — about half the size of the United Kingdom — by 2030. Launched at the COP16 biodiversity summit, Planaveg 2.0 leans on a hopeful reality: 5.6 million hectares in the Amazon are already regrowing on their own, simply because clearing has stopped. The rest will take real work, including planting and stronger compliance from private landowners, who hold roughly three-quarters of the targeted land. In a country home to up to 18% of the world’s known species, even partial success would ripple far beyond its borders — a reminder that protecting biodiversity globally runs straight through the forests and farms of Brazil.

Colombian woman in traditional clothing weaving looking at the camera

Colombia’s new decree recognizes Indigenous people as environmental authorities

By / / Good news links

Indigenous peoples in Colombia have been granted the authority to protect, manage, and conserve biodiversity within their territories according to their knowledge. Colombian President Gustavo Petro has issued a decree that lays out the standards required for Indigenous authorities to issue regulations regarding the protection, preservation, use, and management of natural resources in their territories and effective coordination with state authorities. These powers will be exercised according to their self-government structures.