Photo: Ricky Beron / Unsplash (CC0)
In today’s edition: a new law to trace cattle fights deforestation in Colombia, social forestry helps locals protect woodlands in Indonesia, and regenerative farms in France lose three times less yield during droughts.
Cattle ranching is the main driver of illegal deforestation in Colombia, as farmers expand grazing territory. Now the Latin American nation aims to monitor, register and track cattle to limit ranchers’ ability to profit from deforestation.
Source: Mongabay
A new social forestry programme in Sumatra, Indonesia, aims to bolster conservation by granting access to state forests to locals. It allows farmers to protect their livelihoods by using designated parts of the forest, simultaneously strengthening protections for wild areas.
Source: Mongabay
A research team from the Universities of Cambridge and Southampton has developed the first vaccine to be designed entirely by artificial intelligence. The vaccine is intended to protect against entire groups of viruses and even against future mutations.
Source: BBC
A 2-stage medical trial of the new HIV drug Lenacapavir which is injected twice annually, found that it prevented infection among 100% of its 3200 female participants. When the sample was expanded to 5000 and men were included, its efficacy only dropped to 99%.
Source: Good News Network
Brenda Iveson from the UK was told that, due to her age of 92 years, conventional cancer treatments would not be suitable. She was the first person in the UK to undergo experimental robotic-guided electrochemotherapy, and it successfully shrunk her tumor.
Source: BBC
A Florida-based bank started in 2023 with a novel idea, focusing on investing exclusively in environmental sustainability, including solar arrays and utility-scale battery storage systems. Now it’s almost reached $2 billion in assets.
Source: Next City
Research on the effects of tree canopies in cities suggests that they can help cool buildings and streets by up to 18°C, but only with layered planting. This includes tree cover but also shrubs and groundcover together.
Source: The conversation
Tracking badly made wheelchair access or poorly designed sidewalks would normally be resource- and time-intensive. Now regular pedestrians can help, using Project Sidewalk, an AI tool designed to help cities map and understand sidewalk accessibility.
Source: Next City
Data gathered from 1200 French farms suggests that regenerative agriculture was roughly three times better at resisting drought and heat than conventional industrial methods. The study suggested that this could be the difference of 130 million baguettes.
Source: Euronews
Agrochemicals, while useful for farm yields, carry health risks for humans and may degrade soil over time. 60 Guatemalan highland communities have found success replacing them with biopesticides used since the Mayan age.
Source: Mongabay
