The ocean has long been treated as the world’s forgotten frontier — out of sight, out of mind, and dangerously overused. Yet efforts to reverse decades of neglect are gaining momentum. Late April saw the launch of Revive Our Ocean, a new initiative helping coastal communities create marine protected areas (MPAs) to restore marine life and local economies.

Led by Dynamic Planet with support from National Geographic’s Pristine Seas initiative, the effort comes at a pivotal moment. In 2023, countries agreed a historic treaty to safeguard ocean biodiversity. But of the 100-plus nations that signed, only 21 have ratified it, with major backers like the U.S. notably absent. With a 2030 deadline looming to protect 30% of the oceans, Revive Our Ocean’s founders argue that waiting for governments will not be enough.

“We’ve seen that marine protection works,” says Kristin Rechberger, founder of Dynamic Planet and a Mongabay board member, in an interview in April. “But progress has been far too slow. To meet 30×30, we would need over 190,000 new protected areas. That’s why we’re focusing on communities — those who know their waters best.”

Rechberger’s optimism is based on experience. Over the past decade, Dynamic Planet and Pristine Seas have helped establish 29 of the world’s largest marine reserves, covering nearly 7 million square kilometers (2.7 million square miles), mostly offshore. Now the focus is shifting closer to shore, where coastal populations depend on healthy seas for their livelihoods.

Revive Our Ocean aims to equip communities with the tools, policy support and training needed to establish local MPAs. It blends lessons from past successes with the realities of coastal life.

Marine protection near coasts faces three barriers, Rechberger explains: awareness, policy, and know-how.

In many places, local governments lack the authority to create MPAs. Even where laws permit it, communities often lack resources or incentives to act. Revive Our Ocean seeks to change that by providing practical support and advocacy, making marine reserves as common as public parks.

The economic case is strong. A small MPA can generate significant returns. Spain’s Medes Islands Marine Reserve — just 1 square kilometer (0.39 square miles) — generates 16 million euros ($17.6 million) a year in tourism revenue, far surpassing local fishing income. In parts of Mexico, dive tourism now rivals the fishing industry in value.

Conservation and economic growth are no longer seen as opposing forces. Reviving marine life can, in fact, revive entire communities.

“It’s thrilling,” Rechberger says. “Protection drives benefits across multiple sectors, while restoring ecosystems.”

Still, the clock is ticking. Only about 8% of the ocean is under some form of protection, and just 3% is fully protected.

Revive Our Ocean’s bet: by empowering communities and sharing success stories, marine conservation can catch fire from the ground up.

Read the full interview with Kristin Rechberger here.

Banner image: Split shot in the waters of San Benedicto, Mexico. Image courtesy of Enric Sala/National Geographic Pristine Seas.

BRASILANDIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil has auctioned off several land and offshore potential oil sites near the Amazon River, aiming to expand production in untapped regions despite protests from environmental and Indigenous groups. The protesters outside the venue on Tuesday warned of potential risks that oil drilling poses to sensitive ecosystems and Indigenous communities in the Amazon. A luxury Rio de Janeiro hotel hosted the auction conducted by the National Oil Agency. Most of the 172 oil blocks for sale are in areas with no current production, such as 47 offshore locations close to the mouth of the Amazon River and two sites inland. At least 19 offshore blocks were awarded to Chevron, ExxonMobil, Petrobras and CNPC.

Reporting by Fabiano Maisonnave/ Associated Press

Banner image: Indigenous demonstrators in Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday, June 17, 2025,  hold a sign that reads in Portuguese “Love, CO2 is in the air” to protest the auction of dozens of oil blocks, including blocks near the mouth of the Amazon River (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Oil-soaked pelicans struggling to fly came to symbolize the catastrophic impacts of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the inhabitants of the Gulf of Mexico. Fifteen years later, brown pelicans in the region have seen some recovery, but other wildlife species haven’t been as fortunate, Mongabay’s Liz Kimbrough reported in April.

Researchers estimate that some 1 million birds, across 93 species, were killed due to the disaster, when an oil rig operated by BP Exploration & Production exploded and sank off the Louisiana coast, becoming the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Of the dead birds, there were an estimated 27,000 brown pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis). Oil from the spill had destroyed much of the bird’s critical nesting habitat, but the species, which was among the hardest hit, benefited from the rebuilding of islands for nesting, paid for with settlement money from BP.

Around $18.7 million was spent on a project expanding Queen Bess Island off Louisiana to create 15 hectares (37 acres) of habitat for pelicans and other birds. The results are impressive, Kimbrough writes: wildlife officials recorded 30,000 birds on the island in 2023, including 6,000 brown pelican nests.

“So I think populations, if you can give them healthy habitat, they can recover with time,” Alisha Renfro from the National Wildlife Federation told Kimbrough.

Sea turtles, meanwhile, saw huge declines due to the oil spill, with an estimated death toll of 4,900-7,600 large juvenile and adult sea turtles and 56,000-166,000 small juvenile sea turtles. Between 27,000 and 65,000 Kemp’s ridley turtles (Lepidochelys kempii) died there in 2010.

“Even today, researchers are finding evidence of lingering health impacts on some Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, such as abnormal hormone levels that can affect metabolism and other body processes,” according to the National Wildlife Federation.

Although rescue teams retrieved sea turtles and their eggs, treated and then release them in clean waters after the disaster, the critically endangered Kemp’s ridley, the vulnerable loggerhead (Caretta caretta), the endangered green (Chelonia mydas) and the critically endangered hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) sea turtles are still in peril. Experts say it will likely take many more years to know the impacts of the spill on sea turtles that spend most of their lives at sea.

Whales and dolphins, too, are continuing to see long-term effects, with steep population declines and lingering health impacts. Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in heavily affected Barataria Bay are still sick 15 years later, Cynthia Smith from the National Marine Mammal Foundation told Kimbrough.

Meanwhile, responders to the oil spill have experienced changes in blood, liver, lung and heart functions years after the spill. “I think 15 years is too early to tell what many of the impacts from the spill are still going to be,” Martha Collins, an environmental lawyer, told Mongabay.

Read the full story here.

Banner image of pelicans on Queen Bess Island off the coast of Louisiana. Image courtesy of Alisha Renfro.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has recently proposed listing seven species of pangolins, the most trafficked mammals on the planet, under the Endangered Species Act.

If finalized, an ESA listing would prohibit the import and sale of pangolins and their parts in the U.S., except for scientific or conservation purposes. It would also open up potential funding for antitrafficking and habitat-conservation efforts, which these mammals desperately need.

“Pangolins are on the razor’s edge of extinction, and we need to completely shut down any U.S. market for their scales,” Sarah Uhlemann, international program director at the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), said in a press release. “There’s no good reason for anybody to ingest any part of a pangolin.”

The seven pangolin species proposed to be listed as endangered include all four Asian pangolin species: the critically endangered Chinese (Manis pentadactyla), Sunda (Manis javanica) and Philippine pangolins (Manis culionensis), and the endangered Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata); as well as three African species: the endangered white-bellied (Phataginus tricuspis) and giant pangolins (Smutsia gigantea), and the black-bellied pangolin (Phataginus tetradactyla), considered vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.

The fourth African species, Temminck’s pangolin (Smutsia temminckii), also called the ground pangolin, is already listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

The USFWS proposal to list the remaining seven species under the ESA comes in response to a 2015 petition and a 2020 legal agreement between the federal agency and various conservation NGOs and animal welfare organizations to determine if a listing is warranted. USFWS said in its statement that it had decided to propose the ESA listing “after reviewing the best available scientific and commercial information.”

“This long-awaited announcement from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is a victory for pangolins,” Jeff Flocken, chief international officer for Humane World for Animals, a U.S.-based animal welfare organization and one of the petitioners to USFWS, said in a press statement.

All pangolin species are listed on Appendix I of CITES, the international wildlife trade agreement. meaning their commercial international trade is prohibited. Pangolins are illegally traded for their scales, which are in demand in Southeast Asia and China, and are also hunted for their meat.

While recent reports indicate a decline in pangolin scales trade and seizures over the past decade, the illegal trade still persists, as indicated by several recent seizures.

The proposed listing is now open for public comments until Aug. 18, 2025, and the comments will be considered before publishing a final rule, USFWS said.

Banner image: A critically endangered Chinese pangolin. Image by Rajib Rudra Tariang via iNaturalist.

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries.

Conservation efforts often falter on the fault line between ecological ambition and human reality. A new initiative in southern Tanzania seeks to bridge that divide, reports contributor Ryan Truscott for Mongabay.

The Udzungwa Landscape Strategy (ULS), launched in late 2023, is a 20-year plan to safeguard one of Africa’s most biodiverse mountain regions — not just by protecting its forests and wildlife, but by investing in the people who live among them.

The Udzungwa Mountains, part of the Eastern Arc range, are famed for their endemic species, including the shaggy-haired kipunji monkey (Rungwecebus kipunji), the elusive Sanje mangabey (Cercocebus sanjei), and the once-extinct-in-the-wild Kihansi spray toad (Nectophrynoides asperginis). But they have also suffered centuries of forest loss driven by agriculture, logging and plantation expansion. Conservationists now aim not merely to slow deforestation, but to reverse it.

At the heart of the strategy lies a shift in priorities: more than half of ULS’s projected $3 million annual budget is earmarked for community development and reducing human-wildlife conflict. Villages surrounding the protected areas will receive performance-based payments to curb forest loss and poaching. Village savings groups will offer residents access to capital for businesses and essentials like school fees. Fuel-efficient stoves, already distributed in five villages, aim to cut both household costs and pressure on local forests.

Such community-focused approaches can be pragmatic as well as ethical, say supporters.

“Safeguarding these precious forests whilst guaranteeing the sustainable livelihoods of local communities demands a well-planned, well-financed project with ambition,” said Oliver Beasley of the U.K.’s Bristol Zoological Society.

Yet mistrust runs deep. Tanzania’s conservation system, shaped by colonial legacies, often pits park authorities against local residents.

“The officials don’t trust the communities, and community members don’t trust park officials,” noted geographer Mathew Bukhi Mabele.

Bridging that divide will be critical.

Arafat Mtui, ULS’s Tanzanian manager, is candid about the tension — but hopeful. The aim, he said, is “to empower local actors rather than impose external solutions.” Joint patrols, cohosted training, and a focus on local priorities offer a pathway forward.

If the ULS succeeds, it could become a model for how long-term, locally rooted investments can preserve not just nature, but the human relationships essential to its survival.

In the Udzungwa Mountains, conservation is no longer just about saving forests — it’s about restoring trust.

Read the full story by Ryan Truscott here.

Banner image: Udzungwa endemic Sanje mangabey. Image courtesy of Trevor Jones.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Lawyers for President Donald Trump’s administration say he has the authority to abolish national monuments meant to protect historical and archaeological sites. That includes two monuments in California created by former President Joe Biden at the request of Native American tribes. A Justice Department legal opinion released Tuesday disavowed a 1938 determination that monuments created by previous president can’t be revoked. The finding comes as the Interior Department under Trump has been weighing changes to monuments across the nation as part of the administration’s push to expand U.S. energy production.

Reporting by Matthew Brown, Associated Press

Banner image: A sign is set up ahead of President Joe Biden’s visit to the Chuckwalla National Monument, Jan. 7, 2025, to the Coachella Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)