Benjamin Felser

Protecting Ecuador’s Cloud Forest: An article released earlier this month highlights grassroots conservation in Ecuador’s threatened cloud forest including regenerative agriculture, restoration, female empowerment, and anti-mining protests. These biodiversity hotspots house ⅙ of the world’s plant species, and animals from spectacled bears, to puma, to a number of endemic amphibians, but their proximity to mining operations has threatened Ecuador’s largely degraded cloud forests for decades. Defensa y Conservación Ecológica de Intag (DECOIN) has been supporting this regenerative work for the past 28 years. They are guided by their ecosystems: from women-owned natural materials co-op, to natural restoration practices which include planting over 75,000 native trees since the 2000s, to supporting organic coffee farms in the region. They currently steward 12,000 acres of land against mining threats, creating a wellspring of opportunities for the many species sharing their vibrant landscape.

 Amy Boyer

Power to the People: Citizens’ assemblies are becoming increasingly popular as a way to involve citizens in government. Made up of ordinary citizens who convene for several days or weekends to discuss a polarizing or difficult questions, they give governments policy recommendations. Spain recently convened a citizens' assembly, and local governments are doing the same in Oxford and Catalonia, among others. Participants in Scotland's assembly reported higher levels of hope and optimism about climate change—until the Scottish government's response was less urgent than hoped for. Even so, a study of assemblies in Ireland, the UK, and France found that they increased government ambition on climate change and may be better than legislative bodies at considering the impact of policies on future generations.

 Claire Krummenacher

Recycled Water to the Rescue: The town of Healdsburg, California, (pop. 12,000) has been able to keep its gardens, trees, and vineyards irrigated even amidst severe drought with a surprising solution: free, non-potable water from its wastewater-reclamation facility, which recycles 35 million gallons of effluent annually. Reusing the flushed water for projects like irrigation and construction (which require lower levels of purification than drinking water) helps ease the strain on reservoirs and reduce the amount of treated wastewater released into the nearby Russian River. Statewide, California currently reuses 18% of its annual wastewater, but new goals call for triple that by 2030, and several large-scale projects are underway in larger cities. Orange County is aiming to increase the daily recycling capacity of its water-purification plant capacity to 130 million gallons, while the Metropolitan Water District in Southern California is considering constructing a recycling facility that would serve as a renewable source of potable water for 19 million residents of LA.

 Juliana Birnbaum

Indigenous Leadership Protects Forests: A new study focused on Brazil's Atlantic Forest, much further degraded than the Amazon but less publicized, showed definitive evidence of improved tree cover after tribes were granted official title to their territories. There is a growing body of evidence to support the role of Indigenous leadership in long-term biodiversity conservation. One strategy that has been building momentum globally is the movement to preserve natural landscapes by granting them direct legal rights. In recent years, many rivers have been granted personhood, protecting them from obstruction and pollution and giving them the right to sue.

 Courtney White

The Tree of Life: The guáimaro tree is a keystone species of Colombia’s tropical dry forest – a keystone both culturally and ecologically as this Mongabay article explains. It is a good example of the regenerative intersectionality of a variety of solutions to pressing challenges. It is a native tree that grows a perennial crop of nuts which provide a nutritious staple food source for local traditional and Indigenous communities, including its use as flour. It is produced by centuries-old agroforestry practices and harvested by a campesino collective of smallholder farms who are also exploring its potential to establish a larger bioeconomy for the region. The trees grow in a highly endangered ecosystem, threatened by deforestation, and need the protection provided by local communities. The trees provide shelter for animals and their roots stabilize streambanks. It’s no wonder this ‘Tree of Life’ is the focus of an annual celebration!

 Kate Furby

Here Comes The Sun: A new law is in process in France that would require all parking lots above a certain size to include solar panels on the roof. If passed, it could generate as much electricity as 10 nuclear power plants, increasing France's electricity capacity by up to 8%. It's part of a bigger national renewable energy initiative currently working its way through the legislative system. A lot of the solar panel cost is in the structure it's built on, so using existing structures could be an excellent way to create regenerative buildings and parking lots. One study found that just covering Walmarts in the US with panels could power local residents electric vehicles. Installing solar panels in areas like this also creates electricity right where it's needed, reducing the loss that occurs when it has to travel. A nice way to rev up our urban energy needs.

 Scott Hannan

Eating Sea Rice: León and his team at Restaurante Aponiente, near the Bay of Cadiz in Spain, have come across a sea-grass that produces edible grains very similar to rice. Zostera marina is packed with Essential Fatty Acids and 50% more protein than rice, and like all sea-grasses, is a crucial component of healthy coastal ecosystems.  His research found that it was consumed by the indigenous Seri people on the Sonoran coast of Mexico, so he began an experiment to farm it under controlled conditions. It was a success, and the project it grew into, Cereal Marino, is now dedicated to uniting habitat regeneration and food production, while opening up a new dimension of culinary expression.

 Nick Obradovich

Innovations in Control of Feral Horses in the Great Basin: The wild mustang is in many senses an American cultural icon, often signifying freedom, beauty, power, and untethered wildness. Unfortunately, reality doesn't quite match the iconography. In practice, an overpopulation of wild–more aptly 'feral'–horses has produced significant ecological damage in the western United States, particularly in the Great Basin. But because of specific federal legal protections, land managers' options to control feral horses have been quite limited and in practice have largely consisted of expensive round-ups and penning operations that basically no one wants. Fortunately, there's some good news. Recent efforts at administering birth control to horses via darting operations in western Nevada has shown an over 60% reduction in horse foals, slowly lowering populations to more sustainable levels in the area. Such steps provide promise that we'll be able to bring feral horse populations into line with the carrying capacity of our ecosystems, an important step towards the restoration of the degraded landscapes in much of the arid western U.S.

 Kavya Gopal

Fishing with Dolphins: For the last 150 years, the fishers of the city of Laguna, Brazil, have developed a special relationship with their resident bottlenose dolphins. While the story of humans working with other species to find food is a tale as old as time, the practice of fishing with dolphins in Laguna is the most famous. It is nothing short of astounding to read about how both dolphins and humans are finely attuned to each other's cues–the dolphins herding the mullet towards the shore, and the fishers casting their nets at the opportune moment. But thanks to a recently published study we know just how beneficial this mutualism is to both species–fishers catch four times more fish and dolphins that cooperate enjoy higher survival rates. However, these relationships are at risk of overfishing and rising ocean temperatures, leading to local mullet populations dropping. Researchers suggest that stronger regulation of illegal fishing and economic incentives will be necessary to keep these cultural practices alive for generations to come.

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