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Nature calling: how can Sweden's success story help rewild London?

Matthew Ponsford

February 05, 2021 |

The Guardian |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Sweden, Malmö

As London starts to implement its plan for boroughs to implement sustainable urban greening strategies, officials look to Malmö as a guide after the Swedish city used a green space factor (GSF) as a way of calculating green space requirements for new developments. The GSF system allows governments to integrate biodiversity-focused incentives into their urban planning, while allowing designers and architects to respond to local needs.

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Plotting the future: the ‘seed guardians' bringing variety to UK gardens

Alexander Turner

January 19, 2021 |

The Guardian |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United Kingdom

Hundreds of seed-saving initiatives across the UK support the cultivation of “open pollinated seeds” in small plots and gardens to preserve future seed diversity. In contrast to static seeds in a bank, these seed-saving efforts focus on actually growing and sustaining seeds to provide security and more resilient crops. Open pollinated seeds reliably produce viable, true-to-type plants year after year so new seeds do not have to be purchased every season. Many “seed-savers” participate in seed circles where they exchange surplus seeds among small groups, enhancing the security and diversity of seeds.

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A Bold Plan to Save the Last Whitebark Pines

Jim Morrison

December 24, 2020 |

Wired |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Montana

After a fungus has nearly wiped out the whitebark pine species in North America, scientists and conservationists are coming together to restore the species. The trees offer food to various animal species and are important to drinking and agricultural water supplies. A pilot project in Montana has planted up to 125 acres each year of whitebark pines, but the restoration process is expensive and time consuming. By combining traditional seed collecting efforts with gene sequencing, scientists hope to make these trees resistant to the fungus.

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A Unique Alliance Could Help Warn Us of Toxic Algae

Sara Harrison

December 23, 2020 |

Wired |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington

A unique partnership between scientists, state agencies, and coastal communities in Washington state allows these different entities to monitor and manage toxic algal blooms. Known as the Olympic Region Harmful Algal Blooms Partnership, the initiative allows them to take water samples and analyze them for domoic acid, which is a deadly neurotoxin produced by algae. This collaboration allows fishers from tribal communities to know if it’s safe to harvest seafood and state officials to warn people when it becomes unsafe.

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London Is “Rewilding” and Native Species Are Flocking In

Alasdair Lane

December 21, 2020 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United Kingdom, London

Indigenous flora and fauna are returning to London in a successful effort to maintain the indigenous biodiversity of city centers. The Wild West End project is “rewilding” through green spaces to bring back natural habitats that have been disrupted due to urban, and now suburban, development. A noted increase in wildlife is helping achieve the goal of revitalizing “pathways of natural habitat along which wildlife can travel and flourish unfettered by human activity."

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The world's fastest-growing source of food

Meenakshi J

December 15, 2020 |

BBC |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: India, Tamil Nadu

Local villages along the coast of India are seen as a model for large-scale seaweed cultivation, which can be a form of sustainable agriculture and climate mitigation. As the country’s land is being lost to soil degradation, seaweed cultivation has had a positive socio-economic impact on the communities. About 1,200 families, mostly women farmers, are involved in collecting seaweed for industrial use, allowing them to increase their economic independence.

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Cities Want Green Spaces. Here's How to Make Them More Fire-Resistant

Marianne Dhenin

November 06, 2020 |

Next City |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Ashland, Oregon

A 20-year project by the nonprofit Lomakatsi Restoration Project to restore native plants helped to spare Ashland, Ore., from the worst destruction of a wildfire. Along the Bear Creek greenway in Ashland, the restoration project's work to replace dense thickets of invasive Himalayan blackberries with native shrubs and trees is credited with slowing the speed and severity of the Almeda Fire. Traditional firebreaks and the greenway at other points on the creek failed to slow the fire, and in some ways even sped its destruction.

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How Efforts To Save Hawaii's Forests Are Preventing A 'Freshwater Crisis'

Claire Caulfield

September 06, 2020 |

Honolulu Civil Beat |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Hawaii

Landowners, state employees, environmental groups, and local hunters are working together to protect Hawaii’s forests and drinking water by eradicating invasive plants from the state’s protected forests. By allowing native plants to flourish, these forests could help combat climate change by sequestering carbon and allowing freshwater quivers to recharge with rainfall. Since 2013, the state has built 132 miles of fence to keep grazers away from forests to prevent the spread of seeds of invasive plants. However, this method can be expensive; a 1,400-acre fence cost over a million dollars.

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Is the way cattle are grazed the key to saving America's threatened prairies?

Lynne Curry

August 19, 2020 |

The Guardian |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Oregon

An unlikely partnership between ranchers and conservationists is working together to protect grassland biodiversity on the Zumwalt Prairie Preserve in Oregon. The Nature Conservancy has cultivated relationships with landowners in the area to promote sustainable grazing practices. While some ranchers are skeptical about the organization’s intentions in the area, one rancher says they are “a good neighbor” and because of his alliance with the nonprofit, his pastures have consistently achieved good ratings over the years.

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In green jobs boost, communities get bigger role running Pakistan's national parks

Rina Saeed Khan

July 17, 2020 |

Thomson Reuters Foundation |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Pakistan

Khunjerab is the country’s oldest and largest national park and is a model of successful community-led management and conservation. Eight villages inside the park agreed not to graze livestock in a 12-square-kilometer area in exchange for designated grazing areas that rotate so each can recover after being used. Locals get 80% of the park’s employment opportunities and the local communities receive 75% of the visitor-generated revenue. As a result, Marco Polo sheep and Ibex numbers have grown substantially. A new Protected Areas Initiative has been funded to expand conservation efforts using this model.

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