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This report presents the first global overview of Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRAs) for species listed under the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) and its daughter agreement, the Memorandum of Understanding for the Conservation of Migratory Sharks (Sharks MOU). ISRAs are identified through a standardized, expert-driven process to map habitats essential for shark, ray, and chimaera species.

his guidebook is based on an understanding that social equity refers to fairness and justice with respect to the ways that people are recognised, treated, or impacted by conservation initiatives. It is also grounded on a common framework for assessing equity that includes six dimensions: recognitional, procedural, management, environmental, distributional, and contextual and structural equity.

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As the recent seizure of more than 5,000 endemic ants in Kenya reveals, ants have become part of a thriving global wildlife trade. Transnational traffickers are mopping up ants from the wild to sell them to hobbyists and collectors worldwide. In a recently published letter, conservationists are now calling for greater trade protections for all ant species under CITES, the global wildlife trade treaty.

Many Pacific Small Island Developing States are vulnerable to Tropical Cyclones (TCs) leading to an estimated average annual loss of USD 1.08 billion. The study quantifies the impacts of tropical cyclones on tree cover and associated ecosystem services, beginning with coastal protection and the loss of carbon, for inclusion in Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNAs), Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), catastrophe risk insurance payments and loss and damage accounting.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) management usually involves bringing multiple stakeholders together, to construct policy-relevant research programs and science-based tools for adaptive management. Here, we present the conclusions of a transdisciplinary workshop that aimed at reviewing experiences in the co-design of EBM research in MPAs. We find that MPAs represent powerful instruments for conducting real-world experiments, de facto acting as living labs in support of ocean governance.

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Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP) support globally distinct reef fish populations, which exhibit differences between the remote oceanic islands and continental coast. While oceanic island MPAs typically support large abundances of sharks and large predatory teleost (bony) fishes, coastal MPAs show increasing signs of depletion. We deployed stereo-Baited Remote Underwater Video systems (stereo-BRUVs) to assess reef fish community structure across seven MPAs in the region.

Given global threats to biodiversity, implementing effective biodiversity offset policies is increasingly recognised as being essential for delivering sustainable development. As research and practice on offsets has developed, so have international expectations of best practice principles, which set the benchmark for national systems in their efforts to protect biodiversity.

COP30 has come and gone, leaving behind a familiar mix of new commitments and renewed political promises. But amid the declarations of progress, one issue that received almost backhanded attention is the quiet abandonment of conservation projects after their high-profile launches.

New research suggests that the rapid expansion of protected areas worldwide is giving a misleading picture of progress, with biodiversity continuing to decline inside many sites designated for protection.

The State of International 30x30 Funding report released December 2025 has called for a fundamental shift in how conservation is financed, urging governments and donors to prioritise long-term, predictable funding for management, enforcement and restoration.

The Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework calls for rapid global expansion of protected areas in response to ongoing biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation1. One of its strongest selling points is the benefits protected areas provide to adjacent human communities2,3. However, little attention has been paid to how policy and management can support such benefits.