What do rivers mean to you? For Hugo Costa, deep in the Amazon, the seasons of the Juruá River can define the food you eat, the journeys you travel, and the people you meet. For Yolarnie Amepou, looking over a vast river delta in Papua New Guinea, ten different cultures have been shaped by [...]
In the United Nations biodiversity agreement, freshwater ecosystems were finally included as ‘inland waters’ in the commitment to safeguard and restore at least 30 per cent of the world’s lands, inland waters, coastal areas and oceans by 2030. So, what is the freshwater biodiversity crisis, and why should we be concerned for people and [...]
Large dams are disastrous for freshwater ecosystems. From preventing salmon migrations, to flooding niche river ecosystems, to blocking nutrient-rich sediment from getting downstream, hydropower is a catastrophe for wildlife. Yet currently, hydropower supplies more than half of our renewable energy. Isn’t cutting our dependence on fossil fuels worth the biodiversity cost of new dams? [...]
With the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s new agreement dominating conservation headlines, it can be easy to lose sight of the people working every day to protect our planet’s biodiversity on the ground. However, throughout 2022, our partners restored ecosystems, protected endangered species, and collaborated with Indigenous Peoples and local communities to build a [...]
What role do rivers play in your life? For billions of people around the world, they are – literally – their source of life and survival. Although rivers cover less than one percent of the Earth’s surface, they are the most biodiverse and productive ecosystems in the world. In this post, Félix Feider looks at [...]
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, [...]
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 [...]