Email exclusive: Keep them in the running
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Four conservation stories from 2021 to make you smile
2021 has presented many challenges for conservation, with COVID-19 continuing to prevent safe engagement with communities, causing delays or cancellations to in-person events, and affecting marginalised communities the hardest. However, our team at Synchronicity Earth continue to be inspired by the resilience and resourcefulness of our partners, who continue to do extraordinary work to [...]
In search of secret wildlife Part I: Lost fishes
As our partner Shoal announce an exciting quest to find the world’s ten ‘most wanted’ lost species of freshwater fish, Nina Seale explores the importance of finding lost species and advancing conservation knowledge to address the biodiversity crisis. Humongous ‘fossil fish’ resurfaced after at least a century in West Indian [...]
Recognising the rights of rivers
Rivers are the planet’s arteries of life and are intrinsically linked to human well-being, history, culture, spirituality and politics. Yet, our legal system has largely proven to be ill-equipped to protect the world’s rivers and their inhabitants. A growing global movement sets out to change this by legally recognising and implementing the inherent rights [...]
The state of freshwater: reasons for hope
The state of biodiversity has been in the news again these past few weeks, with high-profile reports like the Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 (by the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity) and Living Planet Report 2020 (by the Zoological Society of London and World Wildlife Fund) generating depressing headlines. Among Earth’s fragile natural systems, [...]
The forests of freshwater
Freshwater habitats are not just rivers, and conserving freshwater species can be done hand-in-hand with local fisheries, says Merlin Veron, Research Analyst at Synchronicity Earth and its Freshwater partner Shoal. As you carefully step across the forest floor, it erupts with life, thousands of insects crashing between the dry leaves [...]
Conserving freshwater fish: an interview with Jeremy Wade
Jeremy Wade is a TV presenter, angler and author, best known for the series River Monsters and, more recently, Mighty Rivers. With a background as a biologist, Jeremy has visited many of the world’s most iconic rivers and lakes, seen and fished for some of their most extraordinary species and witnessed the changes happening [...]
Playing the long game to save the Madagascar pochard
The Madagascar pochard is a small, brown duck. If you saw one bobbing about on the surface of a local pond, you might not pay it much attention. It might not land a part in Madagascar, the movie. But if you look a little closer, you’ll see that the pochard is a beautiful bird - graceful and [...]
Shoal: refreshing freshwater conservation
An Interview with Mike Baltzer (Executive Director of Shoal) Mike Baltzer joined Shoal as its Executive Director (hosted by Synchronicity Earth) on October 1. Prior to starting this role, he was with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) for 18 years. For the last nine years, he was the head of their global tiger programme [...]
Freshwater Conservation: An interview with Dr William Darwall
Dr William Darwall is Head of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Biodiversity Assessment and Knowledge Team (BAKT) – Freshwater Unit at the IUCN Global Species Programme, based in Cambridge. The goal of the IUCN BAKT - Freshwater Unit is to provide information on species and sites of importance to freshwater biodiversity [...]