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On July 31, 2026, Kazakhstan released a female Amur tiger named Umit (“hope”) into the Ile-Balkhash State Nature Reserve — the first wild tiger in the country since the species disappeared in 1948. The release caps years of restoring the tugai riverine forests that once sustained tigers there.
On June 11, 2026, France announced seven new biological reserves and the expansion of two more, placing an additional 157,000 hectares of forest under strengthened protection. Managed by the national forestry office, the reserves — nearly all in French Guiana — lift the share of French land under “strong protection” toward a 2030 target.
Guatemala decided not to renew an oil-extraction lease inside the Laguna del Tigre reserve, part of the vast Maya Biosphere Reserve. The wells will be closed and the site turned into a base to protect the rainforest — home to jaguars and scarlet macaws — from illegal ranching, logging and trafficking.
New satellite data from the University of Maryland and World Resources Institute, released April 29, show tropical primary forest loss fell 36% in 2025 from 2024's record — Brazil cut non-fire primary loss 41% to its lowest level on record.
On Earth Day 2026, the Cayman Islands government designated six new protected areas under the National Conservation (Protected Areas) Order 2026, safeguarding wetlands, mangroves, coastal cays and forest. The package also includes a move to ban eight single-use plastic items, part of broad environmental commitments.
On Earth Day 2026, the non-profit search engine Ecosia announced it had planted 250 million trees worldwide since 2009. Working with 125 reforestation partners and over 200,000 planters, it has put 1,600 native species into the ground — including 144 that are endangered or vulnerable — and invested more than 100 million euros in climate action.
In the Affric Highlands rewilding landscape, neighbouring landowners have come together to rewet and restore 1,000 hectares of degraded peatland. Peatlands store more carbon than all the world's forests combined, and the restored bogs will lock away carbon, store water and revive habitat for rare birds, dragonflies and plants.
Seattle-based Mast Reforestation sold out all 4,277 credits in its first biomass-burial carbon removal batch, priced through Puro.earth, with buyers including Bain & Company, BMO and RBC — a boost for forest-fire restoration finance.
The monarch butterfly overwintering population in Mexico increased by 64%, occupying 7.24 acres of forest — the largest population recovery since 2018, with forest degradation also declining.
The Manx Wildlife Trust planted 30,000 native trees at Creg y Cowin on the Isle of Man, expanding from an original 70-acre goal to 100 acres of restored temperate rainforest in one of Britain's rarest habitats.
Thailand has completed a 120-kilometer protected wildlife corridor linking five national parks in the Western Forest Complex, enabling wild elephant herds to migrate safely between fragmented habitats for the first time in decades.
Monarch butterfly colonies covered 2.93 hectares of oyamel fir forest in central Mexico this winter, up 64% from the previous year. It is the largest coverage area documented since 2018, driven by favorable weather conditions.
Monarch butterflies occupied 2.93 hectares of central Mexico’s oyamel fir forest this winter, a 64 percent jump from the previous year, alongside a drop in illegal logging. Conservationists welcome the rebound while stressing the iconic migration still needs more habitat.
The monarch butterfly population in Mexico's overwintering forests increased by 64%, with colonies covering 2.93 hectares of oyamel fir forest — up from 1.79 hectares the previous year.
For the first time in nearly two decades, captive-bred Panamanian golden frogs have been returned to a Panamanian forest. In a landmark trial reported in March 2026, the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project released 100 of the bright-yellow frogs to learn how to outwit the fungal disease that erased them from the wild.
Chile is pressing ahead with plans to create Cape Froward National Park, spanning 150,000 hectares of subantarctic forests, peatlands, and coastline at the southern tip of the Americas.
A March 2026 paper in the journal Science identifies peatland restoration as a major climate solution. Peatlands cover only a few percent of Earth's land yet store twice as much carbon as all the world's forests. Restoring about 18 million hectares of drained tropical peatland could cut emissions by some 2 billion tonnes of CO2 a year by 2050.
Brazil's national space research institute INPE reported that deforestation in the Amazon rainforest fell by 50% in 2023 compared to the previous year, the sharpest annual decline in decades, following the restoration of environmental enforcement under President Lula.
Brazil hosted COP30 in Belém — the first UN climate summit in the Amazon — and launched the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, a new funding platform that rewards countries for maintaining their forests.
Brazil reaches a historic milestone by planting one billion native trees across degraded Amazon land since 2023, restoring an area the size of Belgium.
Satellite data from Brazil's space agency show Amazon forest clearing from August 2025 to January 2026 fell to its lowest for that period since 2014. Environment Minister Marina Silva says the country could record its lowest deforestation since monitoring began in 1988 if the trend holds.
Brazil and partners launched the Tropical Forest Forever Facility ahead of COP30 — a multibillion-dollar initiative that rewards countries for keeping forests standing and channels funding directly to Indigenous Peoples and local communities who are the true stewards of forest landscapes.
A 37-year study published in Nature Communications found that Indigenous lands delivered the strongest long-term forest restoration in Brazil's Atlantic Forest, outperforming private properties. Across 1.9 million territories, restoration gains outweighed losses roughly tenfold — a hopeful sign for one of Earth's most threatened biomes.
A global trial led by Wake Forest, published in The Lancet Haematology in February 2026, found that ropeginterferon alfa-2b outperformed standard therapy for high-risk essential thrombocythemia patients who cannot tolerate hydroxyurea.
In the lead-up to COP30, Brazil and partners launched the Tropical Forest Forever Facility — a multibillion-dollar initiative that rewards countries for keeping forests standing and channels funding directly to Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
The largest seagrass restoration project in history is creating vast underwater meadows that capture carbon 35 times faster than tropical rainforests.
Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest has dropped to its lowest level in 15 years, thanks to stronger enforcement and Indigenous-led conservation efforts.
Large-scale seagrass restoration projects are succeeding worldwide, reviving underwater meadows that capture carbon 35 times faster than tropical rainforests.
Conservation organizations are using drones to plant trees in hard-to-reach areas, potentially revolutionizing the expansion and restoration of temperate rainforests.
The Chilean government is creating the Cape Froward national park, spanning 150,000 hectares of subantarctic forests and coastline, completing a 2,800km wildlife corridor.
The planet's oldest bee species and primary pollinator in the Amazon rainforest has been granted legal rights — a world first for any insect.
New data shows global deforestation rates dropped sharply in 2025, with Brazil's Amazon seeing its lowest destruction levels in years and Indonesia continuing its downward trend.
Hunted to roughly 2,000 animals a century ago, sea otters have rebounded to nearly 100,000 across the Pacific, with about 95,000 in Alaska. As keystone predators that keep urchins in check, the otters have become the single strongest predictor of healthy kelp forests along the coast.
The UN FAO reported that deforestation has slowed in every world region over the past decade, with annual forest loss dropping from 17.6 million to 10.9 million hectares.
Over three years, Tamil Nadu's forest department and roughly 10,000 villagers from 16 fishing communities revived 2,057 hectares of the state's largest mangrove forest at Muthupet, replanting native trees, re-cutting 380 km of clogged tidal canals and bringing back the birds and fish that depend on the wetland.
Brazil's Amazon rainforest saw deforestation drop by 50% compared to the previous year, reaching the lowest levels since 2018.
