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.

Mongolian wild asses

Hundreds of Asiatic wild asses return to eastern Mongolia after 65 years

By / / Good News For Humankind

Asiatic wild asses, known as khulan, are roaming eastern Mongolia again after more than 60 years away, with hundreds now recorded crossing the Trans-Mongolian Railway into habitat they had vanished from. The turnaround began with a simple experiment: conservationists and government partners opened fence-free stretches of railway and watched to see what would happen. Animals crossed, trains kept running safely, and in May 2025 a monitored passage corridor was made official near the China-Mongolia border. Mongolia’s Gobi is home to roughly 91,000 khulan, the vast majority of the species worldwide, so reconnecting their range really matters. It’s a hopeful reminder that even the hard lines we’ve drawn across wild places can be redrawn.

Mount Moco rises above dry savanna grassland and sparse trees in Angola

Angola creates 54,000-acre reserve for its highest peak, Mount Moco

By / / Good News For Humankind

Angola’s highest mountain just became a protected conservation area, safeguarding roughly 22,000 hectares of slopes and valleys where rare Afromontane forests still cling to life. The forests around Mount Moco had shrunk from 200–300 hectares to just 50–60 hectares before villagers in Kanjonde teamed up with ornithologists and the Kissama Foundation to turn things around. Together they’ve planted more than 8,000 native trees, swapped wood stoves for gas, and watched bird species like Cabanis’s greenbul return to places they hadn’t been recorded before. The win is especially meaningful for Swierstra’s francolin, a ground bird found almost nowhere else. It’s also proof that in a country still rebuilding after war, community-led conservation can take root and last.

Parrot in Colombia

Colombia has now protected 47% of marine areas and 26% of land and inland waters

By / / Good News For Humankind

Colombia has already protected 47.4% of its marine and coastal areas, blowing past the global 30×30 goal that 196 nations pledged in 2022. On land, it has reached 26.3% and is aiming for 34% by 2030, with much of that progress shared with Indigenous communities, Afro-descendant territories, and private landowners. The country’s approach blends a Switzerland-sized ocean sanctuary off the Pacific coast with more than 1,400 small civil society reserves, including a recovering cloud forest where mountain springs have returned and neighbors are planting native corridors. As the world falls behind on biodiversity targets, Colombia offers something rare: a working, inclusive model that other countries can actually learn from.

Salmon in river

Coho salmon returns surge 10x on California’s Mendocino Coast over last decade

By / / Good News For Humankind

Coho salmon are back on California’s Mendocino Coast in numbers no one alive expected to see: more than 30,000 endangered adults returned to spawn this past season, roughly ten times the count from a decade ago. Biologists who once walked miles of empty stream are now finding fish tucked under their boots and spawning in channels barely a foot and a half wide. The turnaround follows decades of patient work — over 100 restoration projects, removed culverts, and rebuilt floodplains — meeting a rare stretch of favorable ocean conditions. It’s a reminder that endangered species can come back when communities commit to the long, unglamorous work of healing the places they depend on.

A white rhino walks through open savanna grassland

Rhinos return to Uganda’s wild after 43 years of absence

By / / Good News For Humankind

Uganda rhino reintroduction marks a historic milestone: wild rhinoceroses are roaming Ugandan soil for the first time in over 40 years. In 2026, rhinos bred at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary were released into Kidepo Valley National Park, ending an absence caused entirely by poaching and political collapse during the Idi Amin era. The release represents decades of careful breeding, conservation funding, and community engagement. For local communities, conservationists, and a watching world, it proves that deliberate, sustained human effort can reverse even the most painful wildlife losses.

A California condor in flight with wings fully spread

California condors nest on Yurok land in the Pacific Northwest for the first time in over a century

By / / Good News For Humankind

California condors are nesting in the Pacific Northwest for the first time in over a century, on Yurok Tribe territory in Northern California. The confirmed nest marks a landmark moment in condor recovery and represents deep cultural restoration for the Yurok people, who consider the condor — prey-go-neesh — a sacred relative. The Yurok Tribe has led reintroduction efforts since 2008, combining Indigenous ecological knowledge with conventional conservation science. Successful wild nesting signals the recovering population is crossing a critical threshold, demonstrating that Indigenous-led conservation produces measurable, meaningful results.

Aerial view of Canadian boreal forest and lake

Canada commits .8 billion to protect 30% of its lands and waters by 2030

By / / Good News For Humankind

Canada 30×30 conservation commitment: Canada has pledged .8 billion to protect 30% of its lands and waters by 2030, one of the largest conservation investments in the country’s history. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the plan under the global Kunming-Montréal biodiversity framework, with Indigenous-led conservation and Guardians programs at its center. The commitment matters globally because Canada’s boreal forests, Arctic tundra, and freshwater systems regulate climate far beyond its borders. Whether the pledge delivers lasting protection will depend on the strength of legal frameworks and the quality of Indigenous partnership.

A snowy owl in flight over a winter landscape

132 nations extend UN protection to 40 migratory species at historic Brazil summit

By / / Good News For Humankind

Migratory species protection expanded significantly at CMS COP15, where 132 nations meeting in Campo Grande, Brazil voted to extend international legal safeguards to 40 new species, including the snowy owl, giant otter, striped hyena, and great hammerhead shark. The decision pushes the U.N. Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species total past 1,200 protected species for the first time. The achievement carries urgent weight: a new U.N. report found 49% of species already covered by the treaty are still declining. Conservation priorities set at the summit will shape international wildlife policy through at least the next CMS conference in 2029.

Thousands of monarch butterflies clustered on oyamel fir branches

Monarch butterfly population surges 176% at Mexico wintering grounds

By / / Good News For Humankind

Monarch butterfly populations surged dramatically at their Mexican wintering grounds, with overwintering colony area jumping 176% in a single season — from 0.22 hectares to 4.01 hectares. This remarkable rebound follows decades of steep decline that led the IUCN to list migratory monarchs as endangered in 2022. Researchers credit favorable weather, improved milkweed availability across North American prairies, reduced logging pressure, and sustained cross-border conservation cooperation among the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. While significant work remains to reach full recovery, the surge demonstrates that monarch populations can genuinely respond when humans act.