Wildlife & land conservation

This archive tracks meaningful progress in protecting wildlife and preserving land — from habitat restoration and endangered species recoveries to new protected areas and conservation policy wins. These stories focus on what’s working, grounded in evidence and reported with care.

Rhino and calf, for article on black rhino recovery

Black rhino populations are starting to thrive in Zimbabwe for the first time in decades

By / / Good News For Humankind

Black rhino recovery in Zimbabwe is one of the most meaningful wildlife comebacks in Africa in a generation. The country now protects 614 critically endangered black rhinos and 415 white rhinos — a combined count that hasn’t reached this level in over 30 years. Behind the numbers are round-the-clock patrols, careful monitoring, and hands-on care like the rehabilitation of Pumpkin, an orphaned black rhino now thriving in the wild. Poaching networks remain active and funding is never guaranteed, but Zimbabwe’s model shows that sustained, community-supported conservation can genuinely move the needle for species on the edge of extinction.

Salmon swimming in river, for article on Klamath River dam removal

U.S. regulators approve world’s largest-ever dam demolition and river restoration project in California

By / / Good News For Humankind

Removing four dams on California’s Klamath River will reopen more than 300 miles of salmon habitat, making it the largest river restoration project ever attempted. Federal regulators approved the $500 million plan unanimously, capping decades of advocacy led by the Yurok, Karuk, and Hoopa Valley tribes, whose cultures and food systems have been bound to these fish since long before the first dam went up. “The Klamath salmon are coming home,” Yurok Chairman Joseph James said after the vote. As drought reshapes the American West, letting a major river run free again offers a powerful template for healing watersheds, honoring Indigenous leadership, and rethinking what aging infrastructure owes the living world.

Lynx, for article on Iberian highlands rewilding

Lynx, wild horses and vultures return to eastern Spain in latest rewilding project

By / / Good News For Humankind

Rewilding Europe’s first project in Spain is bringing an 850,000-acre mountain landscape back to life — and the early signs are genuinely hopeful. Wild horses are already breeding, black vultures are being released at up to 15 a year, and Iberian lynx are expected within two years. The project is also designed around local communities, creating economic incentives for nature-based tourism and forest protection. Stories like this show that recovery is possible when wildlife, people, and landscape are treated as one connected system.

Koala, for article on Australia wildlife conservation

Australia to set aside at least 30% of its land mass to protect endangered species

By / / Good News For Humankind

Australia wildlife conservation just got a major boost: the federal government has pledged A$224.5 million to protect threatened native plants and animals, with conservation areas set to grow by 50 million hectares over the next decade. The 10-year plan zeroes in on 110 priority species and 20 special places, from koalas to swift parrots, with a formal review due in 2027. It’s a meaningful answer to a hard truth — Australia has lost more mammal species than any other continent, and the 2019-2020 bushfires alone killed or displaced an estimated three billion animals. The 30% land protection goal also puts Australia in step with a global movement to halt biodiversity loss, offering a hopeful template for countries wrestling with how to live alongside the rest of life on Earth.

Colombia jungle at sunset, for article on Heritage Colombia

Colombia launches $245-million initiative to create and maintain protected areas

By / / Good News For Humankind

Heritage Colombia is one of the most significant conservation investments the country has ever made — pooling $245 million from governments, international institutions, and private donors to protect nearly 80 million acres of land and sea over the next decade. Colombia holds roughly 10% of the world’s biodiversity, making it one of the most ecologically critical places on Earth to get this right. Crucially, local communities are central to the design, not an afterthought. If it succeeds, Heritage Colombia could become a replicable model for how nations fund lasting, community-rooted conservation at scale.