At the edges of continents, where water thins into mud and birds gather before long journeys, conservation has often been a matter of persistence. It has required people willing to think across borders, seasons, and political cycles. Long before such thinking was fashionable, a small group of scientists and civil servants argued that migratory birds could only be protected if countries learned to act together along the paths those birds actually used.

This was not an abstract idea. It grew out of mudflats, ringing stations, and years of watching birds arrive and depart on schedules that ignored human boundaries. It also required a rare mix of qualities: technical rigor, persistence inside bureaucracies, and the ability to persuade governments that cooperation was not a concession but a necessity.

Gerard C. Boere was central to turning that way of thinking into practice. Trained as a zoogeographer and palaeontologist, he began with careful scientific work on Arctic waders and the Wadden Sea. From there he moved steadily outward, helping shape what became known as the flyway approach: the notion that migratory waterbirds link wetlands from the Arctic to southern Africa into a single, vulnerable system.

In the late 1980s and 1990s he recognized that the newly adopted Convention on Migratory Species offered a chance to give that idea legal force. He worked for years to turn it into the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA), concluded in The Hague in 1995 and entering into force in 1999. He then stayed with it, running the interim secretariat, advising governments, and ensuring the agreement did not become a paper exercise. Projects such as Wings Over Wetlands, the Wadden Sea Flyway Initiative, and sustained efforts to locate the last Slender-billed Curlews reflected a belief that treaties matter only if they change what happens on the ground.

He was also a builder of institutions and memory. He helped strengthen Wetlands International, supported bird-conservation groups in post-Soviet states, and documented the creation of AEWA in unusual detail, producing a history that showed how fragile such agreements are, and how much work it takes to keep them alive. The Waterbirds Around the World conference in 2004, which he helped organize, brought hundreds of specialists together and fixed the flyway concept firmly in global conservation practice.

He had favorite birds, including the dunlin, but he resisted sentimentality. Migration, as he liked to explain, is complicated, variable, and unforgiving of missing links. So, too, is international cooperation. He spent a lifetime making both a little more workable, and left the rest of the world to keep up.

In mid-January, intense flooding across South Africa’s Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces forced Kruger National Park to briefly close to day visitors. Now, South African National Parks (SANParks) says it has reopened some roads and camp infrastructure.

“Restoration efforts are ongoing, and visitor safety remains our highest priority,” the agency wrote in a Feb. 2 update.

The flooding, which affected large parts of northeastern South Africa and neighboring Mozambique, caused extensive damage to infrastructure in Kruger, one of South Africa’s most visited parks. South Africa’s environment minister, Willie Aucamp, said the cost of repairs could reach $30 million.

Tom Vorster is acting director of the Maruleng Tourism Association, which represents 80 tourism-linked companies operating in and around the town of Hoedspruit near Kruger’s Orpen Gate. He told Mongabay that SANParks has been scrambling to construct alternative routes that will allow tourists to access the park.

“They are slowly but surely opening where they can and working frantically,” he said. “There are a number of bridges and dam walls and things which have been compromised by the flooding, so bypass roads are being built or rehabilitated frantically.”

In a Jan. 22 statement, Aucamp said the flooding had led to a 41% drop in tourist visits compared with the same period in January 2025. He added that the loss of revenue at Kruger “puts the sustainability of the entire network of parks at risk.”

SANParks spokesperson Reynold Thakhuli told Mongabay he was unable to provide an estimate for the cost or timeline of repairs since assessments were ongoing.

According to SANParks’ most recent annual report, Kruger welcomed 1.9 million visitors in the 2024-25 financial year, accounting for just over 30% of the park network’s total visitors.

In his statement, Aucamp said that 80% of SANParks’ budget is self-generated, meaning that deep or sustained revenue losses at Kruger could squeeze the agency’s budget for activities all across the country.

The flooding highlights the heavy reliance of South Africa’s state-run protected areas on tourist revenue from just a few parks. Hayley Clements of the African Wildlife Economy Institute said this kind of reliance on tourism for conservation budgets is common across Africa.

“Some parks are much more desirable for a tourist, and that helps to fund critical ecosystems where there’s not such a good business case for conservation,” she said. “And what’s also common amongst state conservation agencies across the region is that tourism is becoming a bigger part of what funds them, because they have limited and diminishing budgets from the state.”

To support repairs, SANParks has set up a recovery fund to solicit private donations.

Some camp facilities and park entrances have already opened — a hopeful sign, Vorster said.

“It’s going to take a long time to recover, but it’s positive that they’re actually working a lot harder than we anticipated in getting things fixed up,” he said.

Banner image: A wildebeest in Kruger National Park. Image by Rhett Butler/ Mongabay.

The fight against climate change is often framed as a sacrifice: eat less meat and drive less often. But those actions could also be framed positively: eat more plants and ride bikes more often. A new study finds presenting environmental action in a more proactive light makes people more likely to act and feel happier about doing it.

“Eating more plants, or using active transport like walking or biking has actually been shown to boost happiness among people,” study lead author Jade Radke, a Ph.D. student at the University of British Columbia in Canada, told Mongabay in a video call.

To compare how environmental messaging might impact behavior, Radke’s team surveyed participants online, posing 15 actions to 779 respondents. Roughly half responded to actions framed in a positive, “do more good” way, such as “increase your use of reusable products that last a long time.” The other half were asked a similar question framed in a “do less bad” way, like “decrease your use of single use products that are often thrown away.”

The study was then repeated with an additional 770 respondents. Participants rated, on an 11 point scale, how likely they were to take each action and how happy they expected it would make them feel.

After averaging the responses, the researchers found that participants were significantly more likely to say they would take actions when behaviors were framed as “do more good” rather than “do less bad.” The same pattern held for anticipated happiness: people expected to feel happier when actions were framed positively than when framed as a sacrifice. The same result held true in the repeated survey.

The one exception in both surveys was driving. When the people were asked about driving less — as compared to drive more people or carpool — the positive framing didn’t lead to more enthusiasm.  Radke said she suspects people just don’t really like driving that much, so a suggestion to drive more with other people wasn’t well-received.

With the exception of driving, the study overwhelmingly found that advising people what they can do versus what they can’t was more likely to result in action.

“I think a lot of people are overwhelmed with the idea that they need to cut back on everything. They need to eat less meat and they need to shop less and they need to drive less and then they’re sort of left to figure out what they’re supposed to do instead,”  Radke said. However, clear, actionable alternatives make it easier for people to engage, she said.

“My main focus is to really give people tangible ways that they can make a difference while adding to their lives instead of just taking away from it.”

Banner image: Bicycle rush hour in Copenhagen, Denmark. Image by Mikael Colville-Andersen via Flickr  (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 ).

Anyone who looks at a social media feed with any regularity is likely familiar with the deluge of fabricated images and videos now circulating online. Some are harmless curiosities (other than the resource use). Others are more troubling. Among the most consequential are AI-generated depictions of wildlife, which are beginning to distort how people understand animals, their behavior and the risks they pose, Mongabay contributor Sean Mowbray reported.

Wildlife imagery has long been embellished, staged or misrepresented, sometimes for effect, sometimes for attention. What has changed is the speed, scale, plausibility and ease with which all three now combine. Artificial intelligence allows convincing scenes to be produced quickly, cheaply and without specialist skill, often by people with no connection to wildlife at all. A lion appears where no lions live. A leopard stalks a shopping mall. An eagle carries off a child. To an expert, the errors are visible. To most viewers, they are not.

This matters because wildlife conservation rests heavily on public perception. When AI-generated videos exaggerate danger or invent attacks, they can inflame anxieties that already exist. In places where farmers contend with real predators, false sightings can provoke retaliation against species that were never involved.

Other fabrications pull in the opposite direction. Videos showing wild animals behaving like pets or companions encourage sentimental interpretations of species that are neither domesticated nor safe. Normalizing close contact with wildlife can feed demand for exotic pets, a trade that already threatens many species. What looks charming on a screen can translate into suffering off it.

There are institutional costs as well. Government agencies and conservation groups are forced to divert time and resources to debunking viral content, responding to public alarm or investigating events that never occurred. Trust also erodes. As manipulated imagery becomes more common, genuine evidence — from camera traps to field photographs and documented encounters — may be met with skepticism. The tools that once strengthened conservation science are dulled by doubt.

The irony is that artificial intelligence is also becoming indispensable to conservation. It helps process vast volumes of camera trap data, detect illegal activity and monitor ecosystems in ways that were previously out of reach. The technology itself is not the adversary. The problem lies in how easily fabricated content moves through platforms designed to reward engagement more than careful scrutiny.

Addressing this will require restraint as much as regulation. Platforms could label AI-generated visuals more consistently. Organizations that work with nature can set standards for what they publish and promote. Individuals, especially those with large followings, can pause before sharing material that seems improbable, however compelling it appears.

Wildlife conservation depends on a shared understanding of reality, but as artificial images blur that reality, the conservation becomes harder. The danger is not only that people are misled, but that the fragile trust on which conservation depends is quietly worn away.

Banner image: An AI image, posted on Facebook in October 2025, depicts a tiger in Africa; tigers are native to Asia. 

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — More than 140,000 people were evacuated from their homes in northwestern Morocco as heavy rainfall and water releases from overfilled dams led to flooding, the Interior Ministry said. Stormy weather also disrupted maritime traffic between Morocco and Spain.

Torrential rains and water releases from overfilled dams raised water levels in recent days in rivers such as Loukkous, triggering floods in several towns, including Ksar El Kebir, according to residents and local media.

Authorities urged people in the affected areas to leave immediately and deployed the army to evacuate residents from the hardest-hit towns and set up temporary shelters.

The ministry said Thursday that 143,164 people had been evacuated. Schools and universities were closed. Officials said up to 85% of Ksar El Kebir was evacuated, leaving the town, known for its sugar production, nearly deserted.

Videos provided by a witness to The Associated Press showed damaged homes and landslides in the northern rural town of Bni Zid after torrential rains. Other footage showed bulldozers being used to clear roads and restore access to the isolated community.

Long-awaited after seven years of drought, the heavy rains brought relief to the North African nation, ending a dry spell and securing at least a year of drinking water by filling reservoirs. But it also overfilled some dams, damaged crops such as avocados, potatoes and olives, disrupted port operations and delayed shipments.

Morocco’s water ministry said it has launched controlled water releases from dams nearing maximum capacity, including the total discharge of more than 372 million cubic meters of water from the Oued Al Makhazine dam near Ksar El Kebir.

In the last six months, Morocco has recorded 150 millimeters of rainfall, surpassing the country’s average annual level by 32.5%. Morocco’s meteorology directorate described the climate conditions as “exceptional” and issued a red alert for upcoming heavy rainfall.

“Almost everyone left,” Ksar El Kebir resident Mohamed El Hachimi, who left the town to stay with family elsewhere, told the AP. He added that those without relatives in other towns sought refuge in shelters set up by the authorities.

“The fear now is from the dam, which has surpassed its maximum capacity … and the rain is still pouring heavily,” El Hachimi added.

Officials said the Oued Al Makhazine dam, which has a capacity of more than 672.8 million cubic meters, had exceeded that level by about 46%.

Rising water levels in the Sebou River have also forced partial road closures, flooded neighborhoods and halted train service, local media reported.

By Associated Press

Banner image: A mother and her son evacuate through a flooded street after heavy rainfall in Ksar El Kebir, Morocco, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo)

When an Arctic blast pushed deep into the southeastern United States last weekend, it left behind more than freeze warnings and broken records. Over the Atlantic, the cold air reorganized the lower atmosphere into long, parallel cloud bands—patterns that meteorologists recognize as a signature of intense cold moving over warmer water—captured in striking detail by NOAA’s GOES East satellite.

The formations reflect a basic exchange of energy between ocean and atmosphere. As frigid, dry air passes over comparatively warm water, it absorbs heat and moisture, forcing the air into alternating lanes of ascent and descent. Clouds form where air rises and cools, while adjacent sinking air remains clear, producing the distinctive street-like appearance visible from space.

In this case, the cloud streets marked the southern reach of one of the coldest air masses Florida has experienced in years. Temperatures dropped well below freezing in parts of the state, exposing ecosystems, infrastructure, and agriculture adapted to warmth to conditions more commonly associated with far higher latitudes.

“The frigid air that plunged southward on Sunday was some of the coldest that Florida has seen in years,” NOAA said in a statement. “Temperatures dropped to 23 degrees Fahrenheit in Winter Haven, 29 degrees in Tampa, 30 degrees in West Palm Beach, and 35 degrees in Miami.”

The same satellite systems that reveal these visually arresting patterns are also responsible for tracking storms, monitoring ocean conditions, and maintaining the long-term records scientists use to understand a changing planet. At a time when NOAA faces budget cuts and the loss of experienced researchers, the images serve as a reminder that much of what protects lives, livelihoods, and ecosystems operates quietly in the background—until it doesn’t.

Header image: [Screenshot] NOAA’s GOES East satellite captured long, parallel bands of clouds called horizontal convective rolls on Feb 1, 2026.