New Future

A newly published study has found that nearly 75% of bird species in North America are sharply declining across their ranges, and eight in 10 plummeting in the very areas where they’re thought to be thriving and plentiful.

TELA BAY, Honduras — Viewed from the boat, the mighty elkhorn corals shimmer through the clear water, their tips grazing the surface and seeming to reach for the hull. But it’s only when one is submerged that the corals display their full size and strength, and all the busy biodiversity swarming around them.

It’s well established that the slow incremental “press” of rising temperatures is changing the Arctic landscape, threatening the survival of plants and animals adapted to this unique ecosystem. Less noted are short-lived “pulses” of extreme weather — another product of climate change — which can wreak long-term havoc on cold-climate-adapted wildlife and vegetation.

KATHMANDU — The most extensive biodiversity survey yet of Nepal’s little-studied Madhesh province has revealed a wealth of wildlife facing threats from infrastructure development — and with virtually no protected areas to safeguard them. The vertebrate survey was led by Hari Sharma, a zoology professor at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, between 2022 and 2024.

Shy, solitary leopards might lose out to tigers and lions in the game of charisma, but the rosette-patterned big cats are incredibly adaptable — they can survive in the densest of cities just as easily as in forests, grasslands and high mountains.

This is the second of three interviews with Indigenous representatives attending the 2025 U. N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues about the latest issues in their country’s Amazon forests. Read the interview about the Peruvian Amazon here. The interview about the Brazilian Amazon is coming soon.

This is the first of three interviews with Indigenous representatives attending the 2025 U. N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues about the latest issues in their country’s Amazon forests. Read the interview about the Colombian Amazon here. The interview about the Brazilian Amazon is coming soon.

A new report adds to the already overwhelming case that protected areas and Indigenous territories in the Amazon Rainforest serve as a critical carbon sink.

SAINT-DENIS, La Réunion — The intergovernmental body that regulates tuna fisheries in the Indian Ocean agreed to a suite of shark conservation measures, including rules to curb shark finning and the use of gear that causes significant shark bycatch.