Have you heard the news? We’re making headlines around the world. Here’s a taste of the stories our work has inspired over the past few weeks.
Grist: Indigenous cultural practices are a climate solution, report finds
Climate scientists have long pointed to Indigenous lands as proof of concept: they are remarkably intact ecosystems with deep stores of carbon stored in old-growth trees, ancient wetlands and coastal mangroves. But why? And how?
New research from Conservation International tells the story. The health of Indigenous territories is no accident — it’s the direct result of the people stewarding them.
“We talk about Indigenous knowledge like it’s a resource — something we can document, extract, apply,” said lead author Sushma Shrestha Santa. “But it lives in the doing. It is, at its core, culture.”
Sushma and her team interviewed 43 communities across six continents — seeking to build a detailed portrait of Indigenous knowledge in practice. What they found was sobering: every single community said climate change is already unraveling the patterns their knowledge depends on.
“The land and the people who tend it have shaped each other over centuries,” Shrestha Sangat said. “You cannot protect one without protecting the other.”
The study was also covered in Canada’s National Observer, GoodGoodGood and Red Lake Nation News.
Earth.com: Critically endangered ‘Timor green pigeon’ will soon be extinct without urgent action
An iconic bird is running out of time in Timor-Leste.
Two decades of fieldwork have led researchers to believe that as few as 100 to 500 Timor green pigeons remain — a fraction of the widely cited estimate of 2,000.
Found only on Timor and a handful of nearby islands, the bird has vanished from almost all of them. What’s left clings to a single stronghold, a national park, where flock sizes have been cut roughly in half.
“Ten years ago, you could hike to see the Timor green pigeon, but now it only lives in the most remote areas,” said Jafet Potenzo Lopes, study author and Conservation International scientist.
Hunting is behind the decline. The birds are prized for their meat, and when one is shot, the rest of the flock tends to linger instead of fleeing, making them repeat targets.
The fix, researchers say, starts with new surveys and closer monitoring. But the real opportunity may be turning hunters into partners, tapping their deep knowledge of the land to help the species survive.
AFP: Secret cameras, mics and AI reveal rare Cambodia wildlife
Deep in Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains, the call of a pileated gibbon carries a message: the forest is still alive. Picked up by hidden bioacoustic devices, that call is part of a Conservation International effort to map what remains of one of Southeast Asia’s most important rainforests.
For decades, deforestation and poaching hollowed out the Cardamoms. Threats remain, but protections are showing signs of working — a 2024 Conservation International study captured more than 100 species on camera, almost two dozen of them vulnerable or endangered. Researchers plan to repeat the survey this year.
“This is the real evidence… We are conserving very unique species in our landscape,” said Ratha Sor, Conservation International’s biodiversity and science manager in Cambodia.
