Unexpected expansion and regrowth in Earth’s mangrove forests over the past four decades
Mangrove forests are coastal habitats that serve as nurseries for economically important fisheries. Natural disturbances such as cyclones and shore erosion, together with aquaculture, palm plantation, and rice paddy expansion, have led to global declines in mangrove forest cover, spurring national and international pledges to restore it. Zhang et al. created a 30-meter-resolution annual dataset from satellite imagery to assess how mangrove occurrence and canopy cover have changed from 1984 to 2023.
Protecting the right 30% by 2030: Are We Ready to Deliver?
Last month, the world marked the International Day of Biological Diversity at an extraordinary moment when political will, global targets, funding, and capacity are aligned to scale up protected and conserved areas globally.
Global ocean protection target will fail without human rights
The global target to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030 is on course to fail unless governments place human rights at the centre of marine conservation policy, Greenpeace International has warned in a new report published today.
Reducing disease risks in protected areas: New toolkit launched to safeguard human, wildlife and ecosystem health
Protected and Conserved Areas (PCAs) safeguard biodiversity and provide essential ecosystem services for human and animal health, from water filtration to climate regulation. Yet PCAs can also be places where infectious diseases can emerge or spread among people, wildlife, and domestic animals. These dynamics make PCAs both vulnerable to infectious disease threats and critical allies in preventing and mitigating them.
Environmental Monitoring Guide Series
The Transformative Pathways project has created a series of four guides on environmental monitoring, both for local organisations who are supporting Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and for communities themselves.
The new SPREP film 'Mareva and the Sea' is now on YouTube
Watch this new film and join Mareva and her community as they learn about marine spatial planning in the Pacific. They witness a ship running aground and damaging their local reef. Then they become motivated to speak up about protecting their island and the ocean around it! This film has been produced by the talented team at Only Idea Studios Fiji. through the EU/SPREP Pacific BioScapes Programme.
Explainer: Why OECMs are crucial to conserving 30% of Earth’s lands and waters
Places where nature thrives outside of protected areas have huge potential to help the world achieve the global pledge to conserve 30% of Earth’s lands and waters by 2030 A sacred forest in India. A community-managed fishery in the Philippines. A military training ground in Europe. What do these places have in common?
Global cooperation needed to save sharks and rays populations
The world’s leading marine scientists have issued a stark warning that many shark and ray populations risk declining beyond recovery within our lifetimes unless immediate global political action is taken.
Scientists were gathered at the world’s largest shark and ray conservation conference, Shark International 2026. Held from 4-8 May, the event brought together more than 800 participants from over 80 countries in Colombo, Sri Lanka, marking the first time the conference has been hosted in Asia.
Social implications of the 30×30 global conservation target
Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework aims to increase global protected and conserved area coverage to at least 30% by 2030. The impact on people, whether positive or negative, will depend on the social context of additional areas and how they are governed and managed. Here, we show that Target 3 could affect large and socially diverse populations under different implementation scenarios. Nearly half the human population lives within 10 km of areas included in a scenario maximising biodiversity representation.
