The Great American Outdoors Act: Conserving America’s National Parks
Donald Trump recently signed into law the Great American Outdoors Act, a historic bill that will provide dedicated funding to acquire and preserve the country’s 419 national parks, 193 million acres of forests, wildlife refuges, and more, in what the
How black markets have adapted to – and shaped – the COVID-19 crisis
The COVID-19 crisis has affected many aspects of society, but perhaps none in such a complex and poorly understood way as in black markets, from booming sales of fake medicines and guns in the U.S. to rising illicit export of
EU Pledges To Raise €20bn Annually to Boost Biodiversity
The European Commission has committed to protecting 30% of the lands and oceans in the EU by 2030 as part of the European Green Deal to boost biodiversity. Environment groups have urged that such far-reaching ambitions be enforced stringently so
Accounting for a Life
Intrinsic, defined as belonging naturally; essential, inherent and ineradicable. In the context of my work as the head of IFAW, we have a guiding principle: Individual animals possess intrinsic value. In other words, all wildlife has value — whether a "monetary"
Rethinking Our Hushed Voices on Animal Endangerment and Extinction
Of the 112,432 species assessed for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, 30,178 are vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered. The current animal endangerment and extinction crisis is mostly of our own making — we are
Soaring Cost of COVID for Communities and Conservation
"Global Guide to Ecotourism" was one of my published books when I was a young journalist in Japan. The premise now sounds obvious but in Japan at that time it was still a new concept. Tourism relies on its destination’s
Coronavirus: Why China Needs to Change its Animal Health Policies
China’s troubles with the on-going coronavirus outbreak originate with its animal health policies and programs: They need to change and here is how. China is frightened and focused on the 2019 n-CoV virus, now called by the WHO “COVID-19” and by
Bison and Cowboys: Regenerative Ranching and Holistic Land Management in Northern Mexico
This article has been modified, with the help of author Alexa J. Firmenich, to fit the Impakter Sustainable Development Goals series, particularly in reference to Sustainable Development Goal 15: Life on Land. The original version can be found here. This is
Our Oceans: A Call to Protect our Planet’s Beating Blue Heart
We live on a blue planet. Our oceans cover 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, contain 90 percent of the planet’s living biomass; produce more oxygen than all the world’s forests and absorb around 30 percent of global carbon dioxide.
Defending Wildlife: The Road to SDG 16 in Mali
This is a story about eight ethnic groups and 300 elephants in a remote and lawless region of West Africa. It’s a story about what happens to 8 million acres of habitat when local people can work together to assert
Reestablishing A Connection: Interview with Laurent Baheux
Today, it would seem that all our media is consumed by humanity. We have defined a distinct connection to other humans all over the world. Some of us might forget that we share this planet with others. Laurent Baheux has not