Photo: Romain Malaunay/Unsplash (CC0)
In the last edition of the week: France kicks off its biggest-ever rewilding project, Zimbabwe’s vaccine cyclists expand access to HPV vaccines to rural communities, and the seed bank preserving plant species in an area scarred by 50 years of constant logging.
Rewilding Europe’s project, based in a forest mountain range in southeastern France, concentrates on creating an environment where different species can build healthy populations, including wild horses, alpine ibex, roe deer, wolves, Eurasian lynx and vultures. The NGO will work alongside private locals and landowners to prove that predators such as wolves can in fact benefit local ecosystems.
Source: Mongabay
Although regional disparities exist, new data suggest 352 rhinos were poached in 2025, down from 420 in 2024. The national overall drop comes likely as a result of intensified anti-trafficking efforts and legal prosecution, alongside strategic dehorning, detection via advanced camera networks and sensors, and an Integrity Implementation Plan featuring mandatory polygraph tests for park law-enforcement personnel to root out corruption.
Source: Africa News
Thanks to surges in hydro and wind power, Portugal has topped the EU leaderboard for renewable electricity. It marks the best record in nine months, since Portugal suffered a mass blackout that triggered nationwide chaos, and bumps the country up to second in Europe overall.
Source: Euronews
Downhill and cross-country skiers and snowboarders have used so-called “fluoros” since the 1980s: PFAS-heavy lubricants used for their ability to wick water and shed grime, making it easier to glide through snow. After years of concern over human exposure and environmental contamination, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation has now banned them.
Source: Grist
Cervical cancer has historically been one of the deadliest cancers among women in the country. To reverse this trend, the Burkinabe government adopted a decree making screening and treatment of precancerous lesions free of charge. It also introduced mobile clinics to reach women in more remote areas, while also building awareness campaigns via TV and radio, plus a national cancer coalition.
Source: News Ghana
Across rural Zimbabwe, village health workers are broadening access to preventative HPV care amid a nationwide shortage of doctors and nurses. These bike-borne workers have helped get 22,000 girls immunised in Mashonaland West alone since the programme kicked off two years ago
Source: Gavi
PureSelfMade is an Austria-based nonprofit teaching people how to make their own wind turbines from scratch. Workshops include details on how to create rotor blades and custom-made generators, as well as setting up the basic electrics. “I like the idea of decentralisation,” says founder Jonathan Schreiber. “With a lot of chaos in the world, it’s better to be self-sufficient, to have a reliable energy system at home.”
Source: Reasons To Be Cheerful
Seagrass restoration is key in addressing the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. A decade-long seagrass recovery programme with high survival numbers suggests that degraded meadows can be revitalised: new data argues that success rates can be further improved by adapting methods to suit local and environmental conditions.
Source: Mongabay
A button-sized snail once feared extinct in its Bermudian home is thriving again after conservationists bred and released more than 100,000 of the molluscs. After an international effort by conservation scientists, the government of Bermuda and Chester zoo, where the snails were bred before being transported back to the islands, the species has been confirmed as safe from extinction.
Source: The Guardian
Ramón Pucha and his family have spent years recreating their own piece of jungle with rescued species on a 32-hectare farm known as El Picaflor in the Indigenous Quichua community of Alto Ila, 128 km southeast of the capital, Quito. The family even shares the fruits of their labor, selling or gifting a percentage of the plants to neighbours committed to forest regeneration.
Source: Euronews
