Today’s Solutions: May 18, 2024

398 results for "biodiversity"

Beavers

More on beavers and rewilding

We decided to dust off and update this innovative solution to restoring habitats with the most industrious aquatic mammal: beavers.  At The Optimist Daily, we’ve written a great deal about the benefits beavers bring to their environment and the importance of restoring their populations in Read More...

Statue of Liberty aerial view with Jersey City in the background.

New York Harbor: an unexpectedly popular feeding ground for dolphins

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) released a new study that reveals some surprising news about the New York Harbor—it’s an unexpectedly popular feeding ground for bottlenose dolphins from spring through fall. At a glance, the New York Harbor seems anything but ideal for dolphins. Read More...

Freshwater Stingray

World’s largest freshwater fish discovered in Cambodia

We often tend to think of stingrays as small and graceful, albeit dangerous, oceanic gliders. We marvel at them on nature shows and avoid them at the beach, but did you know they also inhabited freshwater?  Did you know they can grow to weigh over 660 pounds?  A 661-pound freshwater Read More...

view of planet earth from outer space

Google’s new tool lets us witness the planet changing in near real-time

Planet Earth is changing, transforming, and shifting faster than we can keep track of these days. Human development continues to spread, The Alps are turning from white to green, massive solar farms are being erected, and droughts are shrinking lakes and drying out rivers.  All of these major Read More...

Buffalo

US House allocates 1.3 billion dollars to conservation

On June 14, the United States House of Representatives voted 231 to 190 to pass the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act. This bill dedicates more than $1.3 billion to conservation efforts. 15 percent of the funds will be designated for federally listed endangered species.  Bipartisan Read More...

happy cute child in pastel colored dress grins while laying in a patch of wildflowers

A garden designer’s top 6 tips for rewilding your own garden

Rewilding is a progressive form of ecological restoration and conservation that returns a region to its natural, wild, and “unkempt” state. Here at The Optimist Daily, we love to spotlight the amazing rewilding initiatives that are taking off worldwide, and exactly how each project helps boost Read More...

a colony of Italian European bees in Central NSW

Insect informants—Bees help Italy’s Carabinieri police force fight pollution

Italy’s special police force, the Carabinieri, is known for handling high-profile criminals such as the mafia. However, they also are charged with the important responsibility of protecting local forests and the surrounding environment. To do so, the Carabinieri has worked closely with an Read More...

A Jaguar in the Amazon rainforest. Iquitos, Peru.

Wildlife Conservation Society builds massive database of Amazonian wildlife

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) scientists have been working on an enormous project: building an extensive database of the wide array of wildlife in the sprawling Amazon Basin. For this study, an international team of 147 scientists hailing from 122 research institutions and nature Read More...

Brazilian Indigenous Peoples

Mining companies decide against mining Brazil’s Indigenous areas

An important part of the growing movement for the rights of nature is empowering indigenous peoples to steward their lands. Indigenous forests sequester twice as much carbon as those on private or public lands, and these often have the highest levels of biodiversity.  The trend now includes 130 Read More...

Aerial view on Cogilnic River river freed from the dams

Dam! Europe removes record number of river barriers in 2021

In 2021, Spain began a movement to remove dams from the country’s rivers to restore fish migration routes and boost biodiversity across the nation. They successfully took down 108 barriers and inspired other European countries to do the same. “Our efforts to expand dam removals across Europe Read More...