Ecosystem services News

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A forest in Costa Rica. The country is considered a pioneer in a forest protection mechanism that has helped drastically reverse deforestation. Image by Rhett Butler.

Listening to forests reveals signs of recovery beyond tree cover

Abhishyant Kidangoor 16 Apr 2026
Gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon in 2011. Photo by Rhett Butler.

The Amazon’s silent crime crisis (commentary)

Carlos Nobre, Robert Muggah, Ilona Szabo 15 Apr 2026
With striking orange and black streaks on their wings, painted woolly bats are one of the most colorful bats in the world.

U.S.’ hunger for Halloween trinkets is killing Vietnam’s painted woolly bats

Spoorthy Raman 9 Mar 2026
Rain over the Amazon. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

The Amazon’s most valuable export isn’t timber — it’s rain

Rhett Ayers Butler 19 Feb 2026
Rainforest in Brunei in 2025. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

Forests don’t just store carbon. They keep people alive, scientists say

Rhett Ayers Butler 13 Feb 2026

In the Brazilian Amazon, community conservation success comes with a cost: Study

Logan Rance 29 Jan 2026
A mandrill is seen in a forest in Gabon.

Congo Basin nations roll out community payments for forest care

Anne Nzouankeu 20 Nov 2025
Rainforest in Vietnam. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler.

Beyond deforestation: redesigning how we protect and value tropical forests (analysis)

Rhett Ayers Butler 3 Nov 2025
Coralscape in Komodo, Indonesia. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

Protecting Earth’s oldest data system: the case for biodiversity

Rhett Ayers Butler 14 Oct 2025
Przewalski’s horses in the Villanueva de Alcorón forest in Spain. Image courtesy of Neil Aldridge/Rewilding Europe.

Wild horses return to Spain’s Iberian highlands after 10,000 years

Mongabay.com 16 Sep 2025
Satellite image of Lake Chad. Image courtesy of Maxar.

Ani Dasgupta watched wetlands tame floods in Kigali. He believes nature is infrastructure we can fund.

Rhett Ayers Butler 15 Sep 2025
Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Brazil in 2024 and signed deals with President Lula on transition minerals.

Brazil’s market-based forest fund gets new endorsers ahead of COP30 debut

Lucas Berti 10 Sep 2025
A walk through the Sardinilla Experiment.

New study pinpoints tree-planting hotspots for climate and biodiversity gains

Marina Martinez 3 Sep 2025
Climate change threatens to disrupt the soil carbon cycle, potentially releasing billions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere and overshadowing international decarbonization efforts.

Soil carbon: Crucial ally or potential threat to net-zero commitments?

Claire Asher 3 Sep 2025
Sunrise over the Amazon. Image by Rhett Ayers Butler

Why is rainfall declining in the Amazon? New research says deforestation is the leading driver

Rhett Ayers Butler 2 Sep 2025
Redwood forest in the San Francisco Bay Area in August 2025. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler.

Ecosystems as infrastructure: Tim Christophersen on how to rebuild humanity’s ties to nature

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 Aug 2025

Wetlands at risk, but new report offers road map for recovery

Mongabay.com 15 Jul 2025
A northern cassowary

Forest connectivity key to preserving PNG’s spectacular rainforest birds: Study

Carolyn Cowan 8 Jul 2025
Marbled white butterflies (Melanargia galathea)

Assisted colonization could be our ally in adapting to climate change, study suggests

Spoorthy Raman 2 Jul 2025
The Nyamugasani River flows through the flood plains in the foothills of Rwenzori Mountains National Park, one of the sites supported by the CAPA initiative.

To survive climate change, scientists say protected areas need ‘climate-smart’ planning

Marina Martinez 13 Jun 2025

Study identifies US regions that benefit birds, people & climate the most

Spoorthy Raman 30 May 2025
Forest in Panama that Amigos del Bosque aims to conserve via biodiversity credits, carbon offsets, or other payments for ecosystem services. Image courtesy of Amigos del Bosque.

Paying to prevent deforestation is positive & not ‘nothing’ (commentary)

Jessica Ausinheiler 24 Apr 2025
mangrove conservation

Colombia’s women clam collectors protect Pacific mangroves and mollusks

Catherine Ellis 1 Apr 2025
frailejon tree paramo Ecuador

In Ecuador, a mountain shrub could hold the key to restoring a precious ecosystem

Christina Noriega 5 Feb 2025
Plains Bison in the Background at the Wolakota Bison Release, Rosebud-Sioux Reservation, South Dakota, 10/30/2020

Scientists are tracking global wildlife’s contributions to humanity

John Cannon 23 Jan 2025
Fully functional Earth systems offer numerous ecosystem services to humanity, including clean air and water, the provision of food, and natural pollination of crops.

Combined effects of human activities increase risk to ecosystem services

Claire Asher 10 Oct 2024
Rainfall over the Amazon river. Photo by Rhett A. Butler

The Amazon is ablaze again. What it means for us (commentary)

Mark J. Plotkin 30 Sep 2024
Painted woolly bat

‘Senseless’ U.S. trinket trade threatens distinctive Asian bat, study shows

Carolyn Cowan 30 Aug 2024
Costa Rica rainforest

Conservation pays and everyone’s benefitting from it (commentary)

Diego Vincenzi 15 Jul 2024
The Florida corridor would preserve myriad landscapes and ecosystems. Image by Ethan Coyle/Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation.

To conserve large landscapes like the Florida Wildlife Corridor, payments for ecosystem services could be key (commentary)

Joshua Daskin, Jen Guyton 19 Jun 2024

As Wall Street assigns a dollar value to nature, Indigenous economics charts different path

Mike DiGirolamo, Rachel Donald 5 Jun 2024
Sea otters eating clams in California.

Where sea otters play, salt marshes stay, new study shows

Elizabeth Claire Alberts 7 Feb 2024

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