May 6, 2026
New Mountains to Mangroves platform combines science, public data and local priorities to identify conservation priorities.
Thimphu, Bhutan (May 6, 2026) — Conservation International today announced the launch of the Mountains to Mangroves Atlas, a new open-access digital platform designed to help guide protection and restoration across the Eastern Himalayas — one of the world’s most biodiverse and environmentally important regions.
Developed as part of the Mountains to Mangroves initiative, the Atlas combines regional geospatial analysis, publicly available datasets and local priorities to identify where protection and restoration efforts can have the greatest benefits for advancing communities’ well-being, securing water resources, promoting climate resilience and protecting iconic wildlife — including Asian elephants, Bengal tigers and red pandas.
The Atlas supports the initiative’s long-term goal of protecting and restoring 1 million hectares in the Eastern Himalayas by 2030, building on a growing portfolio of work already underway across the mountains and watersheds of Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and east and northeast India.
“The Eastern Himalayas are home to extraordinary wildlife and communities whose lives and livelihoods depend on healthy forests and freshwater systems,” said Saurav Malhotra, Conservation International’s lead for the Mountains to Mangroves initiative. “The Mountains to Mangroves Atlas helps us bring science, local knowledge and regional collaboration together in one platform, so we can better understand where our efforts will deliver the greatest benefits for people and nature.”
Sustaining 1 billion people and roughly 12 percent of the world’s biodiversity, the Eastern Himalayas are one of the world’s fastest-warming regions due to climate change. As glaciers recede and monsoon seasons shift, some rivers are drying up while others face more frequent and severe floods. At the same time, 99,950 hectares is lost to deforestation each year.
The Atlas is intended to help governments, practitioners and partners identify where different types of interventions — such as the protection, management or restoration of forests and degraded lands — will have the greatest impact.
In Bhutan, the tool is already helping inform planning. Though nearly 70 percent of the country remains under forest cover, in line with its constitutional mandate, climate change is increasingly threatening Bhutan’s forests. Drier winters are driving more frequent wildfires, with more than 28,320 hectares lost between 2020 and 2024.
Early analysis from the Atlas helped the Restore Bhutan initiative — a national coalition supported by Conservation International — identify restoration needs and establish an initial geospatial scope. That analysis, later refined with nationally available and ground-validated data, helped set a target for restoring 50,000 hectares in Bhutan across degraded forests, fire-impacted lands and dryland agricultural areas.
“The Atlas is designed to help us move from broad ambition to place-based planning,” said Sonam Wangdi, Chief Program Officer of the Bhutan Trust Fund for Environmental Conservation, a member of the Restore Bhutan initiative. “It gives our partners a picture of what may be possible and helps us ask better questions as we work with governments and communities to find new conservation opportunities.”
Built using global datasets and designed for public access, the Atlas offers users a view of how ecological and social factors can shape restoration and protection in the Eastern Himalayas. The platform also connects audiences to the region’s communities through storytelling videos and photos.
“The real value of the Atlas is that it creates a shared foundation for collaboration by combining regional spatial analysis with local narratives of efforts led by our partners and communities,” said Kashif Shaad, Conservation International’s Director of Freshwater Science and Sustainability, who helped develop the Atlas. “Being grounded in spatial planning is necessary to help identify patterns and opportunities for achieving speed and scale in restoration and protection, but meaningful planning also depends on local leadership, local knowledge and local relationships. This platform is designed to support that process.”
The Atlas was developed by Conservation International in collaboration with regional partners across the Eastern Himalayas. The project is supported by the UK government through its Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Funding for the Atlasis delivered through Climate Action for a Resilient Asia (CARA), the UK’s flagship regional program to build climate resilience in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Pacific island nations.
“The Mountains to Mangroves Atlas is exactly the kind of tool the UK is backing through CARA. It is science- based, open-access and designed to help governments and communities make the right decisions about where they need to focus nature restoration efforts,” said John Warburton, Climate Resilience Lead for the Asia Pacific, Energy and Climate Directorate at the FCDO. “The Himalayan region is one of the most vulnerable on Earth, which is why the UK is committed to working with partners like Conservation International to support water security, biodiversity and the resilience of over a billion people who depend on these landscapes.”
Learn more about Conservation International’s Mountains to Mangroves initiative:
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About Conservation International: Conservation International protects nature for the benefit of humanity. Through science, policy, fieldwork and finance, we spotlight and secure the most important places in nature for the climate, for biodiversity and for people. With offices in 30 countries and projects in more than 100 countries, Conservation International partners with governments, companies, civil society, Indigenous peoples and local communities to help people and nature thrive together. Go to Conservation.org for more, and follow our work on Conservation News, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.