Nature Beat #69

Updates, stories, resources and opportunities

Jun 30, 2025

Welcome to the latest edition of Global Nature Beat. If you are new here, read my About page to find out what this newsletter is, who I am and why I am doing this. Or just dive in.

Taking The Pulse

WWF: David Akana interviewed Kirsten Schuijt, director-general of WWF International, about reforms the organization has implemented following allegations of human rights abuses in protected areas where it supports conservation. Schuijt says WWF has implemented 98 percent of the 170 reforms recommended by an independent panel it commissioned. She says the organization’s new strategy Roadmap 2030 represents a shift from the fortress conservation model, which excludes local people from protected areas, to community-led conservation.

Chemicals: After years of negotiations, UN member states have agreed to set up a global science-policy panel to support the sound management of chemicals and waste and to prevent pollution. The panel is modelled after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Among other things, it will produce periodic assessments and present its conclusions in policy-relevant formats. See the press release from the UN Environment Programme or the Earth Negotiations Bulletin’s summary.

Nature and climate: Brazil has outlined how it is embedding nature in its plans for the COP30 climate change conference in November. The latest letter from the COP30 presidency to the international community presents an action agenda with six axes. Two are particularly relevant to Global Nature Beat readers.

The first is on “stewarding forests, oceans, and biodiversity” through:

investments to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation.
efforts to conserve, protect, and restore nature and ecosystems with solutions for climate, biodiversity, and desertification.
efforts to preserve and restore oceans and coastal ecosystems.

The other is on “transforming agriculture and food systems” through:

land restoration and sustainable agriculture.
more resilient, adaptive, and sustainable food systems.
equitable access to adequate food and nutrition for all.

Brazil says it is less interested in new initiatives than in accelerated action to implement the more than 400 initiatives announced at previous UN climate change conferences.

Meanwhile, at London Climate Action Week last week, a coalition of seven governments and over 20 philanthropies and organizations of Indigenous Peoples, issued a joint call for major commitments at COP30 to ensure that Indigenous Peoples and local communities are at the heart of efforts to address climate change and restore nature.

This will require action to ensure that these groups have secure tenure to land and forests, have direct access to finance needed to manage these lands, and can participate meaningfully in all relevant processes. The countries in the coalition — Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Ghana, Norway, Peru and the United Kingdom — hope others will join them between now and COP30.

For more news from London Climate Action Week, see Mariana Ceccon’s write-up of what happened when more than 550 leaders gathered at the Nature Hub there.

In The Spotlight

Protecting Asian hornbills — the impressive and important seed dispersing birds — has led poachers to target African species instead, reports Marina Wang.
Christine Peterson reported on the scientific and political debates about whether it is time to remove grizzly bears from the list of wildlife protected by the US Endangered Species Act.
Gabriel Popkin reported on research looking at whether biodiversity makes ecosystems more resilient or vulnerable to invasive species.
How do you build a great green wall of trees when people are trying to kill or kidnap you? Qosim Suleiman and colleagues report from the Sahel on the security challenges of Africa’s biggest tree-planting initiative.
“It’s like running faster into a sea that is rising to drown us.” Jonathan Watts interviewed scientist Tim Lenton about positive and negative environmental, social and economic tipping points.

Louise Krüger explains the next steps for the High Seas Treaty and how it will work to create protected areas and share benefits from marine genetic resources when it enters into force.
Data visualization tips from a master of the craft— John Burn-Murdoch of the Financial Times.

See past editions for more tips and resources.

What Caught My Eye

Nearly two-thirds of all carbon credits being generated in the Amazon region overlap with areas designated for mining, reports Fábio Bispo.
The co-chairs of the International Advisory Panel on Biodiversity Credits explained the panel’s new framework for high integrity markets for biodiversity credits that can fund conservation and ecological restoration.
Switzerland’s nature transition requires annual investments of CHF 5.3 billion (US$6.6 billion) by 2050 – a 66 percent increase on current spending.
Rwanda aims to raise US$500 million for biodiversity conservation.
Uganda Wildlife Authority rangers are accused of shooting an indigenous Mosopisyek man in the head.
Miguel Monteiro reported on researchers developing a low-cost way of monitoring biodiversity by scanning animals with a sensor like a barcode reader that detects the unique ‘spectral signature’ of each species.
Kenyan ocean ecologist Melita Samoilys wrote about how to reverse the loss of the largest predatory fish from coral reef ecosystems in the Indian Ocean.
How Canada’s biggest city built an urban forest.
Fred Pearce reported on the people trying to protect agricultural biodiversity by saving millions of seeds from warzones around the world.
David Akana and Yannick Kenné wrote about Baka people in Cameroon who are using a smartphone app they co-designed to map forest resources and report crimes like poaching and illegal logging — also available in French.
TRAFFIC described a new AI-powered tool that is helping officials in Viet Nam to identify illegal timber in minutes not hours.

From The Journals

We have huge gaps in data on ocean biodiversity, and especially from deep water, the Southern hemisphere and for species other than fish — read the press release or the full paper.
Climate change will push sea turtles into shipping lanes — read the full paper.
A call to protect common species, which conservation overlooks — read the full paper.
Research in the United States shows that plastic bag bans and fees reduce harmful litter on shorelines — read the full paper.
Removing threats is not enough to stem bird extinctions as many species also need habitat restoration or captive breeding programs — read the press release or the full paper.
International synthetic biology policy developments and implications for global biodiversity goals — read the full paper.
A global review of the 10,000 or so species that are critically endangered found that more than half of them live in just 16 countries — read the press release or the full paper.

How To Support Global Nature Beat

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Jobs And Opportunities

The UN Environment Programme is hiring a Nairobi-based writer with journalism experience — deadline 4 July.
UNESCO, the Government of Brazil and the UN invite non-profit entities to submit proposals to strengthen information integrity on climate change — deadline 6 July.
The Earth Journalism Network is offering a biodiversity-related fellowship to social media creators and journalists in South and Southeast Asia — deadline 16 July.
The Earth Journalism Network is hosting a virtual media workshop on climate change for business and finance journalists in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and Thailand — deadline 13 July.
Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo invites applications for its Science and Health Reporting Training Program — deadline 10 July.
Journalists in the Global South can apply for a One World Media fellowship — deadline 20 August.

Bonus content: There are 30 jobs, grants, fellowships and other opportunities listed here for Global Nature Beat’s paying supporters. Paid subscriptions are less than £1 per week.

On The Horizon

30 June – 2 July 2025: The First Meeting of the Open-ended Intergovernmental Expert Group on Crimes that Affect the Environment under the UN Crime Convention takes place in Vienna, Austria.

7-25 July: The 30th Session of the International Seabed Authority Assembly and Council (Part II) takes place in Kingston, Jamaica.

14-23 July 2025: The High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development takes place at the UN headquarters in New York City, United States.

23-31 July 2025: The 15th Conference of Parties to the Ramsar Convention on wetlands of international importance will take place in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

Bonus content: The full calendar for Global Nature Beat’s supporters includes nature-related intergovernmental negotiations, scientific conferences, report launches, and other events up until 2026.

Whose Eye Was It?

The eye belongs to a great-tailed grackle. Photo credit: lwolfartist — Wikimedia Commons.

Introducing Planet Ficus

My other newsletter Planet Ficus. It is devoted to stories about the world’s most fascinating plants — the strangler figs and their kin, which have shaped our world and our species in profound ways. If that sounds interesting, please subscribe — or check out the introductory post for a quick tour of what makes fig trees so important and what kinds of stories I will be sharing.

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