Good New Friday: Nature In 2023

 

Today I am continuing to share good news stories because we all need more good news stories. Today I am highlighting advances for nature globally in 2023 as shared on the site gapminder.com.

1. The European Parliament approved a landmark deforestation law to ban imports into the EU of coffee, beef, soy and other commodities if they are linked to the destruction of the world’s forests.
2. White rhinos re-introduced to the Garamba national park in Congo 17 years after the last one was killed by poachers. 
3. First national holiday in Kenya for people to plant trees. 150 million free seedlings available to the public.
4. Wild tiger populations increased in India and Bhutan.
5. Big declines in deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in 2023.
6. Tobacco companies to be charged to clean up cigarette butts off the streets and beaches of Spain, according to new environmental regulations.
7. EU agreed to ban exports of plastic waste to poor countries.
8. US President Biden signed a national monument designation for the greater Grand Canyon, turning the decades-long visions of Native American tribes and environmentalists into reality.
9. The Saiga antelope changed status on the IUCN Red List after populations in Kazakhstan went from 39,000 in 2005 to a population of nearly 2 million today, thanks to conservation efforts.
10. Microbes that can digest plastics at low temperatures discovered by scientists in the Alps and the Arctic, which could be a valuable tool in recycling.
11. A conservation project to move golden eagles to southern Scotland has helped the population reach the highest number for centuries.
12. The Scimitar-horned Oryx had been classified as “”extinct in the wild”” since 2000, but after they were reintroduced and the focus of conservation efforts in Chad, there are now 600 of them roaming in the wild and their status changed to “”endangered.””.