With March drawing to a close, it’s the perfect time for our monthly roundup! Our editors have hand-picked the stories that caught their attention over the past four weeks: from historic peace deals and increased protections for Indigenous groups to medical breakthroughs and environmental wins.
Damascus and Kurdish-led SDF sign historic peace deal
The peace agreement and corresponding ceasefire deal between the government in Damascus and Syria’s Kurds hopes to bring an end to hostilities and grants first-time rights to the marginalised minority.
Mexico City introduces “bloodless bullfighting” in win for animal rights
Mexico City’s congress has voted to ban traditional bullfights and replace them with a new form of bloodless spectacle, marking the latest episode in a years-long legal battle to outlaw the practice in the capital.
Colombia establishes historic protected area for isolated Indigenous groups
In a first-of-its-kind move, Colombia has designated a 2.7-million-acre territory in the Amazon Rainforest to protect uncontacted Indigenous peoples between the Caquetá and Putumayo Rivers. The Yuri-Passé people, who live in the region, have faced mounting threats from illegal mining and organised crime.
Parisians vote in favour of pedestrianising 500 more streets
In the latest move to improve air quality and curb car usage, some 65.96% of Paris residents voted in favour of turning even more streets into walker-friendly zones. The referendum follows similar votes, including a 2023 ban on e-scooters, and last year’s decision to triple parking charges for large SUVs.
New Zealand is set to carry out its biggest island restoration project ever
The initiative teams up the New Zealand government, Māori and Moriori Indigenous communities, and a variety of local organisations to remove invasive species and restore native wildlife.
UK to plant new national forest with 20 million trees
The Western Forest will span both new and existing woodlands across Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Somerset, the Cotswolds, and the Mendips, as well as urban areas like Bristol, Swindon, and Gloucester. It’s the first of three national forests aimed at helping the UK meet its legally-binding goal of 16.5% woodland cover in England by 2050.
Drones offer a boost to rainforest restoration with tree-seeding trial
The UK’s largest woodland conservation charity, the Woodland Trust, is using drone technology to plant thousands of native trees in south-west England. In one of the country’s most ambitious projects of its kind, drones have scattered 75,000 seeds across Cornwall’s Bodmin landscape.
Following successful models like those in New Zealand, Colombia and Canada, Lewes District Council in Sussex has agreed to formally recognise the rights of the River Ouse. The charter gives the waterway eight rights, including the right to flow, to be pollution-free, to have native biodiversity and to undergo regeneration and restoration.
Historic ocean liner to become the world’s largest artificial reef
The SS United States is being towed to Mobile, Alabama for prep work before it’s officially sunk off Florida’s Gulf Coast. The 1,000-foot vessel will become a barnacle-encrusted home to countless animal, plant and bacteria species as the world’s largest artificial reef.
Historic ruling upholds rights of Indigenous peoples, challenges big oil
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has directed the Ecuadorian government to protect uncontacted Indigenous communities from oil exploitation and to preserve the oil reserves beneath their ancestral lands.
Native American suicide rates almost halve in New Mexico
Suicide rates among Native populations have historically been disproportionately high, usually 91% above the national average. New Mexico, however, saw a 43% reduction in Native American suicide rates between 2022 and 2023, far exceeding the state’s overall 9% decrease.
Australian man survives 100 days with artificial heart in world-first success
The BiVACOR total artificial heart, invented by Queensland-born Dr Daniel Timms, is the world’s first implantable rotary blood pump that can act as a complete replacement for a human heart, using magnetic levitation technology to replicate the natural blood flow of a healthy heart.
New app lets homeless people check availability in shelters, review services
Working with a non-profit serving the homeless in Portland, high school senior Claire Cao saw the struggle community members had to access services. She designed the app to help folks keep track of shelter openings, mental health resources, and rotating food programmes.
Long Covid patients regain sense of smell with common surgery repurposed
Doctors in London found that increasing the size of nasal passageways, with a surgery typically used to correct a deviated septum, “kickstarts” the recovery of smell for long Covid patients when other methods have failed.
Empty retail spaces is a common sight on UK high streets, with many staying unused for years at a time. Now, eight local authorities have been given the power to auction the lease of empty stores if a space remains empty for a year and landlords do not take steps to let it.
Black-owned businesses get a shout out in ethical alternative to Amazon
With an uptick in the number of DEI rollbacks at major retailers such as Target and Amazon, consumers across the US are looking for better alternatives. Enter Dacia Petrie: her app and website, Black Nile, is a marketplace spotlighting over 3,000 Black-owned brands across over 40 product categories.
“Earn-a-bike” programme gives San Diego’s homeless their own ride after 100 miles
Every Thursday morning in downtown San Diego, Deacon John Roberts leads a cycling club through Father Joe’s Villages, a nonprofit homeless shelter. Operational for the last 10 years, he credits the programme with helping unhoused community members improve their mental and physical health while gaining crucial independence.
The British town that’s a model for bike-friendly living
The Waterbeach development near Cambridge has been designed with cycling at its heart, and features extensive bike infrastructure as well as multiple green transport choices for car-free lifestyles.
“Green roofs deliver for biodiversity”: how Basel put nature on top
The roofs range from those on small office buildings to the vast open spaces that cover shopping malls, warehouses and hospitals. But what makes Basel stand out from many other cities that have pioneered green roofs, industry insiders say, is that it has insisted on using native seeds and plants and not treated green roofs as a box-ticking exercise.
French tidal energy project should supply power for thousands
Funded by fines from greenhouse gas emitters, the underwater turbine farm off the coast of Normandy will turn Europe’s strongest tidal stream into clean energy. Fish and larger marine animals are already returning to the site after construction.
How one Cornwall farmer is using beavers to stop flooding
Chris Jones, a beef farmer, is very proud of his beavers. “They are just extraordinary,” he says. Since releasing a couple into an enclosure on his Cornwall farm in 2017, he says they have saved it from drought, prevented flooding in the nearby village, boosted the local economy and even improved oyster beds in Falmouth Bay.
Colombia’s hotel for cows is tackling Amazon deforestation
Silvopasture – the intentional integration of trees, grasses, and livestock – has almost doubled the number of cows farmers can raise per hectare, while the dairy cattle produce more milk.
Monkey bridges are helping primates cross the road in Brazil
The indigenous Waimiri-Atroari people have joined forces with local conservationists to build canopy crossings across the BR-174: a 3,300km highway slicing through the Amazon.
The Madagascan grandmothers finding purpose as “solar mamas”
Many of Madagascar’s remote villages aren’t fully connected to the national power grid – but a team of grandmothers are changing this by retraining as solar engineers and installing panels on many of the houses.
The youth club supporting the children of sex workers in Kolkata
In Kolkata’s red-light districts, DIKSHA youth club is a safe space for the children of sex workers to stay while their mothers work. Since 2001, the club has worked to educate these children on their rights, prevented girls from entering the sex trade, and played an important role in reducing stigma against these children in the broader community.
Storytelling for seniors “improves survival odds by 50%”
Each week at the Brooklyn-based nonprofit, participants join a Zoom session where a facilitator asks prompts like, “What’s the most memorable historical event you’ve experienced?”. Members take turns sharing their stories, with the option to record them for a digital archive or to pass along to loved ones.
