Global Stewardship

What happened: COP17, the UN Biodiversity Conference, opened in Yerevan, Armenia, on Oct. 19 and runs until Oct. 30. It is the first global review of the 2022 Kunming-Montreal framework, the plan 196 countries signed to halt nature loss. The best-known goal is "30 by 30," protecting 30% of land and sea by 2030. Countries will present national reports, and the talks will cover how to close the gap between plans and action, and the money to do it.

Why it matters: UN biodiversity chief Astrid Schomaker says billions of people's lives are being upended by biodiversity loss and that "taking action for nature does work."

How much agreement is there? Some disagreement about how to count progress. A report by Earth Insight and partners, released Oct. 8, found more than 61.5 million hectares of protected areas in tropical countries overlap with oil and gas blocks, and 42.7 million with mining concessions. The authors argue that adding protected area isn't enough if it isn't enforced, and they call for stronger Indigenous land rights.

Could someone help? Schomaker asked for more involvement from Indigenous peoples, local communities, women and youth. Youth delegations and local conservation groups are one way in.

What happened: On Oct. 15, Greenland's parliament, Inatsisartut, told the government to bring a law in early 2027 that suspends seabed mining until at least the end of 2029. It could then be extended by two years. All 17 members present voted yes, across party lines. Inuit Ataqatigiit's Pipaluk Lynge first proposed it in February, citing worries about foreign interest in deep-sea mining and harm to fishing and game animals.

Why it matters: More than 90% of Greenland's exports come from fishing. Jenseeraq Poulsen of Oceans North Kalaallit Nunaat says anything that risks those waters is "a wager against the part of [the economy] that already works." The vote came a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said "massive" oil, gas and mineral exploration was about to begin in Greenland.

How much agreement is there? Some disagreement. Poulsen calls it "a decision to decide," not protection, because the actual law is still to come. Centrist MP Juno Berthelsen says the pause balances protecting the sea with staying open to future opportunities.

What happened: Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and Rep. Laurel Lee (R-Fla.) announced the SLOTHS Act (Stopping Legalized Organized Trafficking and Harm to Sloths) on Oct. 20. It would ban importing wild sloths into the US, with fines of up to $100,000 and loss of import licenses. Accredited zoos could still exchange captive sloths, and researchers could import biological samples, but not live animals. Sloth scientist Rebecca Cliffe and Sam Trull of the Sloth Institute helped draft it.

Why it matters: More than 1,100 live sloths were imported into the US from 2011 to 2021. Sloth World, a planned $49-per-encounter Orlando attraction, never opened. Government records later showed that more than 50 of its imported sloths died, mostly from stress and illness. IFAW, which supports the bill, says 13 survivors went to the Central Florida Zoo.

How much agreement is there? Some disagreement on how to do it, not on the goal. The bill has sponsors from both parties. Researcher Alice Hughes of the University of Melbourne warns that without careful enforcement, wild-caught animals could be "laundered" as captive-bred.

Could someone help? Skipping sloth "encounter" photo ops, and telling your representative what you think of the bill, are two simple things anyone can do.

What happened: New rules published in Mexico's official gazette on Oct. 14 cut the Upper Gulf of California area where gillnets are banned by about 86%. Fishing reopens across roughly 10,000 km² that had been closed since 2020. Mexico's environment ministry, Semarnat, says the change follows a CITES recommendation to focus patrols on the 225 km² "Zero Tolerance Area" where vaquitas are seen most. President Claudia Sheinbaum said long bans have hurt fishing families' well-being.

Why it matters: A 2025 survey estimated only seven to 10 vaquitas remain, down from more than 550 in 1997. Gillnets, including illegal ones set for the totoaba fish, whose swim bladder sells on the black market, are the main thing killing them.

How much agreement is there? Highly contested. Alex Olivera of the Center for Biological Diversity called it "absolutely shocking" and warned it likely means extinction. Baja California's governor called it "great news" for fishing communities. Inside Climate News reports the rules also open a boat corridor through the Zero Tolerance Area, and San Felipe fishermen briefly blockaded the road out of town over it. Researcher Valeria Towns says paying fishermen to stay out is the fairest way to enforce the zone.

Could someone help? Talks on paying fishermen to stay out of the restricted zone are still going on, and that is the approach Towns backs. Refusing totoaba products undercuts the black market that drives the illegal nets.

What happened: The Bangka slow loris was last scientifically recorded around 1930 to 1932. In 2020 the IUCN listed it as critically endangered and possibly extinct. A study in the journal Spixiana, reported by Reuters on Oct. 20, describes how the Indonesian group Alobi Wildlife Rescue Center handled more than 90 of the animals across Bangka between 2015 and 2025. Many were found in houses, gardens, plantations or on roads, some hurt by electrical wires, and 86 were released back into forest.

Why it matters: The animals came from several parts of the island, which suggests the species survived despite tin mining and oil palm clearing. Co-author Timon Glaw says it offers hope that other "lost" species are still out there in places scientists haven't checked for decades.

How much agreement is there? Broad agreement that the find is good news. The study's authors say the next priority is protecting Bangka's remaining forests and running proper field surveys.

Could someone help? Local rescue centers like Alobi are how these animals were found at all; supporting rescue and field-survey work on Bangka is what the authors say is needed.

What happened: On Oct. 16, Brazil's space research institute INPE and its environment ministry released the PRODES estimates for August 2025 to July 2026. Amazon clearing fell to 3,335 km², down about 42% from 5,731 km² the year before. That is the lowest figure since monitoring began in 1988. The Cerrado savanna fell about 24% to 5,517 km², its lowest since its series began in 2001. Environment minister João Paulo Capobianco credited science-led policy and cooperation between governments.

Why it matters: In 2021, clearing in the Amazon reached more than 13,200 km², roughly four times this year's figure. Mongabay notes that the numbers land in the middle of Brazil's presidential runoff, so forest policy is on the ballot.

How much agreement is there? Some disagreement. The drop itself isn't disputed. Scientist Carlos Nobre called it "very positive." The open question is whether the forest is actually recovering. A Nature study led by INPE's Luciana Gatti, published the same week, estimates that from 2010 to 2024 fires made the Amazon release about 1.17 billion tonnes more CO2 a year than it absorbed. Gatti says the problem is human activity, made worse by drought.

Could someone help? The Nature study's authors call for halting deforestation, cutting fires and restoring forest; restoration and fire-prevention groups in the Amazon are where donors and volunteers can plug in.

What happened: Stanford researchers report in Science Advances that bleached corals fully recovered within seven weeks after a few days of touching a healthy fragment from the same coral colony. In a test of 10 pairs, all five bleached fragments that touched their healthy twin recovered, and all five kept a few millimeters apart died. Where the tissues touched they fused, and helpful algae and nutrients moved across within about three days. The idea came in 2025, when two fragments in Steve Palumbi's lab tipped against each other.

Why it matters: Ocean heat waves keep bleaching reefs around the world. The team calls this the fastest recovery from bleaching on record, and it could become a new tool for reef restoration.

How much agreement is there? Some disagreement over how far this can go. Nobody disputes the lab result, but it only worked between genetically identical pieces, and it has only been tried in tanks. Restoring reefs at scale is still the hard part.

What happened: In a study called Risks Beyond Human Eyes, led by the University of the West of England and the Accelerator for Systemic Risk Assessment, 18 volunteers were trained in the senses and biology of a red deer, kestrel, earthworm, otter or Atlantic salmon. Then they went out to experience the River Tone in Somerset, England, as that animal would. One swam through polluted, low-oxygen water as a salmon. A soil ecologist playing an earthworm was overwhelmed by the vibration of a farm generator. The risks they found have been mapped in an online database.

Why it matters: Organizer Phil Tovey, a former Royal Marines Commando, argues that population counts miss how human changes make individual animals suffer. The community has now drafted a 30-year river campaign, adapted from an open-source Ministry of Defence planning document.

How much agreement is there? Broad agreement that the river is pollution-hit. The method is new and unusual, so whether it changes outcomes is still to be seen.

Could someone help? Volunteer Jake Lawy's ideas are things a local group can push for: dimming street lights near rivers and removing old weirs. A public webinar on the method is planned for Nov. 18.

What happened: SeaWorld San Diego announced on Oct. 18 that Cyprus, a 9-year-old male beluga, had died after he stopped eating. An ultrasound showed his intestines were not working properly. He was one of 30 belugas moved in July and August from Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario, which closed to the public in 2025. They went to SeaWorld parks, Chicago's Shedd Aquarium, Georgia Aquarium and Oceanogràfic València in Spain. Six of the 30 have now died: four at Shedd, one in Valencia and Cyprus. A dolphin from Marineland also died in Valencia.

Why it matters: Canada banned keeping whales and dolphins for entertainment in 2019, and these were among the last held in the country.

How much agreement is there? Some disagreement. Naomi Rose of the Animal Welfare Institute says the deaths were expected given years of poor care, and that moving the whales was "the best of a bad job." Conservationists are using the deaths to call for an end to keeping cetaceans in captivity.

Could someone help? Seaside sanctuary projects for retired captive whales are being built and take donations and volunteers. Choosing not to pay for shows that use captive whales and dolphins is another option.

What happened: The UN Environment Programme published its Emissions Gap Report 2026, titled "The Point of Return," on Oct. 21. It says warming will pass the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C limit and that this can no longer be avoided. It now describes a "lowest possible" overshoot path: peak warming of about 1.7 to 1.8°C around mid-century, then a return to 1.5°C by 2100. That path would need emissions cut 18% by 2030, 45% by 2035 and 69% by 2040, compared with 2025.

Why it matters: On current policies the report projects about 2.8°C of warming this century, or 2.6°C if every national pledge is met. UN News reports that both figures are worse than last year's, partly because the United States withdrew from the Paris deal.

How much agreement is there? Some disagreement. The science is widely accepted; the fight is over what to do next. UN Secretary-General António Guterres says "overshoot is not surrender" and is calling for faster clean energy and a fossil-fuel phase-out. Getting back to 1.5°C would also require removing about 320 billion tonnes of CO2 from the air by 2100, according to UNRIC's summary of the report.

Could someone help? Climate groups and young people can push for clearer national targets ahead of the COP31 climate talks in Antalya, Türkiye, which begin next month.

What happened: Researchers from Cornell and partners in Norway, Denmark and Canada tested blood from 109 polar bears taken by Inuit subsistence hunters near Ittoqqortoormiit (Scoresby Sound), East Greenland, from 2016 to 2025. Samples up to 2023 showed no flu antibodies. Then 3 of 14 bears in 2024 and 6 of 14 in 2025 had influenza A antibodies. Four 2025 bears had antibodies to the H5 bird flu strain that has been spreading worldwide, meaning they were exposed and survived. Hunters reported no sick bears. The study appears in Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Why it matters: Shrinking sea ice means polar bears spend more time on land, near the bird colonies that carry the virus. A young polar bear in Svalbard reportedly died of bird flu in 2026, and Alaska recorded a death in 2023.

How much agreement is there? Broad agreement that this is worth watching. The open questions are whether Greenland's virus has changed in ways that make it spread more easily in mammals, and whether bears could pass it to each other, for example at carcasses.

What happened: The Glacier Garden in Lucerne has opened an exhibit whose German title translates as "Treasury of Ice." It shows things that have come out of Swiss glaciers as they melt: a bow from an ancient hunt, a Roman-era statuette, a cow skull, boots, ski gear, a cracked alpinist's helmet, a wine bottle and a crushed tube of mayonnaise. Director Andreas Burri says the glaciers are disappearing "very, very fast" and the museum wants to show this archive before it's gone.

Why it matters: Swiss glaciologists recently reported that the country lost 5.5% of its total glacier volume this year, the second-largest drop on record. The ice also holds pollen, soot from 16th-century wildfires and fallout from 20th-century nuclear tests. In August, the bodies of two Belgian hikers missing for decades emerged near the Trift glacier.

How much agreement is there? Broad agreement that Swiss glaciers are shrinking fast. The exhibit itself is documentation, not a solution.

What happened: Drivers used to hit a wild animal about once a day on the stretch of Interstate 25 between Larkspur and Monument, between Denver and Colorado Springs. In the roughly 10 months since North America's largest wildlife overpass opened there, drivers have hit two animals, according to state wildlife and transportation officials. That's a 91% drop. The $15 million system includes a 209-by-200-foot bridge, five underpasses and miles of fencing that steer animals to the crossings.

Why it matters: Trail cameras show elk, deer, bears, rabbits and protected northern leopard frogs using it. In June, biologists confirmed a pronghorn crossing the interstate for the first time in 20 to 30 years. Fewer crashes also mean safer drives. More crossing sites are now being scouted around Colorado.

How much agreement is there? Broad agreement. Colorado Parks and Wildlife says crossings like this are "statistically proven" to work. The main limit is cost and where to build next.

Could someone help? Drivers can help right now: officials warn collisions spike when daylight saving time ends, because earlier sunsets line up with evening rush hour and animal migration.