“Tropical rainforests are home to almost two-thirds of all vertebrate species and three-quarters of all tree species: they are the most species-rich terrestrial ecosystem on Earth. However, over half of these diverse rainforests have already been cleared, and their area continues to decline drastically, primarily for agricultural purposes. Is there a chance of regeneration, and can not only trees but also the unique diversity of thousands of animal species return to cleared areas?

The answer is surprisingly clear-cut and encouragingly positive: Trees regrow rapidly on agricultural land as soon as land use ceases. A diverse range of animal species also re-establish themselves.

Biodiversity recovered to more than 90% of its original level within 30 years. During this period, as many as three-quarters of the animal and plant species typical of primary forest returned.

The paper is published in the journal Nature. Teams led by Professors Thomas Schmitt and Jörg Müller from the University of Würzburg’s Biocenter contributed to the publication.”

From Phys.org.

“During the 2024–2025 spawning season, endangered Central California Coast coho salmon (CCC coho) migrated to Mendocino Coast rivers in numbers few scientists thought they would see in their careers. Monitoring teams estimated that more than 30,000 adult coho returned, double the previous season’s record-breaking return of 15,000 coho. These numbers represent a significant leap from the past decade, where as few as 3,000 fish returned annually.

Several factors contributed to this surge. Many scientists believe that reconnecting spawning streams to mainstem rivers and other large-scale habitat restoration projects significantly boosted their productivity and abundance. These actions expanded and improved the habitat available for salmon to spawn and grow. Since 2000, NOAA has supported more than 100 restoration projects across the region.”

From NOAA Fisheries.

“Five ‘missing’ bird species — not seen, heard or documented in the wild for a decade or more — were ‘found’ in 2025, according to the 2026 annual update to the Lost Birds List. It’s a tally of species that haven’t been photographed, recorded or their genetic footprint detected for more than a decade. Another extraordinary rediscovery came earlier this year: A bird ‘missing’ for 94 years was documented in Chad.

With the new changes, the overall number of ‘lost’ birds, as defined in a 2022 study, dropped to 120 from the 163 listed when the list was first published in 2022. The list is maintained by the Search for Lost Birds project, a global partnership between the NGOs American Bird Conservancy, Re:wild and BirdLife International.

Six species considered lost since 2016 will be added to the list in 2026.”

From Mongabay.

“Neptune grass is generally regarded as the most ecologically important seagrass and shallow-water habitat in the Mediterranean Sea. It suffered a severe decline during the 20th century, and there have been myriad efforts to actively restore it via replanting schemes. A new study points to the merits of a different approach: Remove the human-caused drivers of the decline and let the meadows regrow on their own.

The study, published March 5 in the journal Marine Environmental Research, found that following the introduction of stronger environmental regulations and practices in France in the mid-to-late 1980s, Neptune grass (Posidonia oceanica) repopulated sampled sections of the waters off the city of Marseille over the ensuing four decades.

‘We observed exceptional recovering of the meadow in the Bay of Marseille,’ Patrick Astruch, a research engineer at GIS Posidonie and the study’s lead author, told Mongabay. GIS Posidonie is a nonprofit marine research group based on the Aix-Marseille University campus.

Astruch called it a ‘very positive trend’ and a lesson in the value of passive restoration, which involves letting seagrass meadows regrow naturally after reducing pollution and other threats.”

From Mongabay.