Environment

The Cost of Conservation—How Tanzania Is Erasing the Maasai Identity

By Kizito Makoye
On the vast plains of Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), the sight of young Maasai men in bright shawls, wielding sticks as they herd cattle, has long symbolized peaceful coexistence with nature. These herders, moving in harmony with zebras and wildebeests, are inseparable from the landscape. But today, that very identity—nurtured for generations—is under siege.

Where the Thunder Dragon Breathes: Bhutan’s Bold Bet on Climate, Culture and Contentment

By Zofeen Ebrahim
“I can’t get this anywhere else,” says Tshering Lhamo, a 29-year-old shopkeeper in Thimphu, as she gestures toward the clean Himalayan air outside her thangka shop. She once studied in Kuala Lumpur but came back to Bhutan for the peace—and the purity. Her friend, Kezan Jatsho, who has never left the country, adds, “I cherish the peace here,” even as many of their peers migrate abroad.

The Global Mental Health Crisis Surges Amid $200 Billion Funding Gap

By Oritro Karim
Although access to mental health and psychosocial support services is considered a fundamental human right by the United Nations (UN), hundreds of millions of people experience limited or inadequate access to mental health and psychosocial support services.

Tanzania Champions Aquatic Foods at UN Ocean Conference in Nice

By Kizito Makoye
With less than six harvest seasons left to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the urgency to find transformative solutions to end hunger, protect the oceans, and build climate resilience dominated the ninth panel session at the 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France.

Ocean Protection is a Multi-Billion Dollar Opportunity

By Iván Duque Márquez
The services the ocean provides are the backbone of our collective health, wealth and food security, yet today just 2.7% of the ocean has been assessed and deemed to be effectively protected. In failing to establish adequate safeguards, not only are we condemning communities and ecosystems across the world to decline and collapse, we are also overlooking a significant economic opportunity.

Weaponizing Food Worsens Starvation

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Nadia Malyanah Azman
Wars, economic shocks, planetary heating and aid cuts have worsened food crises in recent years, with almost 300 million people now threatened by starvation.

Disaster Risk Reduction: The Insurance That Always Pays Off

By Maximilian Malawista
Floods, earthquakes, and droughts are striking the wallets of the world harder than any other time in history. According to the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction, the cost of disasters is only growing, with annual expenditures exceeding 2.3$ trillion; accounting for over 2% of global GDP, and if represented as a nation, it would have the seventh largest GDP.

Make Use of all Urban Waste, a Utopia in Brazil?

By Mario Osava
In 2014, Santa Catarina became the first and only state free of open-air garbage dumps in Brazil. Now, 14 of its municipalities are seeking to also free themselves from landfills and make use of nearly all urban solid waste.

France Rallies World Leaders to Seal Ocean Protection Deal at UN Conference in Nice

By Kizito Makoye
With the future of the world’s oceans hanging in the balance, global leaders, scientists, and activists gathered in the French Riviera city of Nice this week for the historic UN Ocean Conference, where France declared a new era of high seas governance and marine protection.

UN Ocean Conference Closes with Historic Commitments, But Activists Demand Action Beyond Words

By Kizito Makoye
The third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) concluded today in Nice with an urgent call for governments to translate bold words into concrete action to protect the world’s oceans. Co-hosted by France and Costa Rica, the summit brought together more than 15,000 participants, including 50 heads of state and government, civil society leaders, scientists, youth, and Indigenous communities in an 11-day event hailed as both a milestone for ocean diplomacy and a test of global resolve.

Reviving Mangroves at the Edge of Mozambique Channel

By Kizito Makoye
Just before dawn, a flotilla of wooden canoes drifts silently  through mangrove-tangled channels where roots sprout from the black mud of the lagoon. Here, at the edge between sea and forest, lies a story of restoration.

Mexico, Spain, East Africa, Awarded For their Ecosystem Restoration Programs

By Naureen Hossain
At the 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recognized three countries and regions for their large-scale programs to restore their native ecosystems.

Ocean Action Boosted in Africa as Biodiversity Leaders Call for Urgent Synergy, Funding Reform

By Kizito Makoye
As the curtains draw on the UN Ocean Conference, a flurry of voluntary commitments and political declarations has injected fresh impetus into global efforts to conserve marine biodiversity. With the world’s oceans facing unprecedented threats, high-level biodiversity officials and negotiators are sounding the alarm and calling for renewed momentum—and funding—to deliver on long-standing promises.

Nia Tero: Indigenous Guardianship the ‘Only Time-Tested Approach’ To Healthy Ocean Ecosystems

By Naureen Hossain
The 2025 UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3) has seen a significant presence from Indigenous peoples, who insist that their perspective and guidance be taken into account in the global efforts for sustainable ocean use and conservation. The sense of responsibility to the ocean and recognition of its history is an example that the international community can learn from.

From Villain to Vanguard: How the Shipping Industry Could Help Save Our Seas

By Kizito Makoye
Once cast as a culprit of ocean degradation, the global shipping industry is quietly reshaping its image—with experts now betting on it as a key ally in saving our seas.

Atoll Nation of Tuvalu Faces Climate Existential Crisis, Frustration With Slow Funding

By Cecilia Russell
Prime Minister of Tuvalu, Feleti Teo, describes himself as an optimist—despite the existential crisis his atoll nation faces with climate change-induced sea level rise and frustration with existing international financial mechanisms to fund adaptation and mitigation.

UNOC3: A Cry for Global Action to Save Small-Scale Fisheries

By Kizito Makoye
Just before dawn, the worn wooden dhows begin gliding toward the shore at Magogoni fish market in Tanzania’s port city of Dar es Salaam. Their tattered sails flutter against the orange sky. Exhausted fishers step out onto the muddy sand, hauling frayed nets and plastic crates, their sun-creased faces tight with fatigue.

‘A Wake-Up Call from the Womb’—Indigenous People Rally for a Binding Plastics Treaty

By Kizito Makoye
As the sun peeked through the French Riviera clouds and a dozen reporters sipped orange juice aboard the WWF Panda Boat docked at Port Lympia, Frankie Orona, a Native American rights advocate from the Society of Native Nations in San Antonio, Texas, stunned the room into a moment of absolute stillness.

Vanuatu Anticipates New Era With Climate Change Reparations

By Cecilia Russell
To the outside world, a sea level rise of 34 cm (or slightly longer than a child’s ruler) may not seem dramatic, but it’s an existential threat to the Pacific island state of Vanuatu.

Beating Plastic Pollution in Our Food Systems

By Kaveh Zahedi
Each year, more than 12.5 million tonnes of plastic are used in agriculture alone, and another 37 million tonnes become food packaging. Very little gets recycled.

Chumbe Island: How Tanzania is Leading the Charge to Save Our Oceans

By Kizito Makoye
Under the surface of Tanzania’s turquoise waters, a miracle unfolds quietly every day.
« Previous Page — Next Page »
*#*