CONSERVATION NEWS

Across the globe, marine protected areas help struggling fish populations and ecosystems recover and flourish. But what impact do they have on the people living nearby? A new study finds big benefits for both biodiversity and coastal communities.

Targeted for their gill plates and trapped accidentally in fishing nets, reef manta rays are in trouble; their populations around the world are plummeting. But in one protected area off the coast of Indonesia, the rays are not only bucking worldwide trends – they’re thriving.

On a tiny island in the Philippines, fishermen and green sea turtles live side by side in hard-earned harmony. That wasn’t always the case. Slowly and steadily, they have returned, a story of against-the-odds compromise.

Right now, around the world, the work of protecting nature and the climate is happening in the field — and achieving small triumphs that don’t make the news. Here are three recent conservation success stories you should know about.

In a recent conversation with Conservation International CEO M. Sanjayan, investigative journalist Ian Urbina discusses his new book, which covers slavery, overfishing and human trafficking on the high seas.