“The Don River in Toronto was once so polluted with waste, garbage and chemicals that it caught on fire. The water itself, which flows towards Lake Ontario, was so inhospitable that it hosted life’s very antithesis.

Now, after huge efforts to renaturalize the area, researchers are seeing a rebirth. The river has gone from being pronounced dead in 1969 to a place that is attracting fish and other aquatic species.

This month, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) shared its findings from the Don River in 2025, which include more than 20 fish species documented in its waters. For the first time since 2012, an Atlantic Salmon was found in the area, along with the first-ever Emerald Bowfin — a warm-water fish native to Ontario — upstream of Lake Shore Boulevard in the Don River watershed.”

From National Observer.

“The population of the Yangtze finless porpoise, the only freshwater porpoise species in China’s longest river, has risen to 1,426 in 2025, indicating that the fishing ban and other conservation efforts are reviving the ecosystem of the Yangtze River.

The figure, released in a 2025 survey, shows an increase of 177 individuals from the previous assessment in 2022 and represents a continued recovery since the decade-long fishing ban launched in 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on Friday.

Once numbering about 2,700 in the early 1990s, the flagship species of the Yangtze River fell to just 1,012 by 2017 due to human activities, according to research institutions.”

From China Daily.

“Deforestation in Colombia appears to have declined in 2025, with notable reductions in several departments that have historically struggled with forest loss.

An estimated 36,280 hectares (89,650 acres) of forest were lost during the first three quarters of the year, a 25% drop from the 48,500 hectares (about 119,850 acres) recorded over the same period in 2024, according to the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM), a government agency.”

From Mongabay.

“At the turn of the century, Bogotá was one of Latin America’s most polluted cities, with concentrations of harmful particulates at seven times the World Health Organization’s limits. In the last decade the city of 8 million has started to turn that around, cutting air pollution by 24% between 2018 and 2024.

Part of the shift has been the city’s embrace of the bicycle and other forms of clean transport. There are now 350 miles of cycle lanes snaking across the city, the largest cycle lane network in Latin America. Bogotá has also quietly rolled out 1,400 electric buses, one of the world’s largest sustainable bus fleets, and there are three new cable car lines (two under construction) to take people to and from the mountains.”

From The Guardian.