We’re kicking off the new year with a look into the UK’s most significant animal welfare legislation in a generation, stingless bees from the Amazon becoming the first insects ever to be granted legal rights, and the grassroots community campaign that saved a biodiversity hotspot from property developers.
Described as “the most ambitious animal welfare strategy in a generation”, the new legislation spans a wide range of protections, including bans on puppy farming, hen caging, pig farrowing crates, trail hunting, and more. Shooting hares in England will also be prohibited for most of the year, and the government will work with the farming industry to “explore how to transition…to alternative systems”.
Stingless bees from the Amazon have become the first insects to be granted legal rights anywhere in the world, in a breakthrough supporters hope will be a catalyst for similar moves to protect bees elsewhere. It means that across a broad swathe of the Peruvian Amazon, the rainforest’s long-overlooked native bees now have the right to exist and to flourish.
Following in the footsteps of Australia’s world-first social media ban for minors, France has now drafted a similar law which would block children under the age of 15 from major platforms. The country has already placed curbs on mobile phones in schools attended by younger children, but they are not always strictly enforced.
In Kingsbridge Heights, thousands of New Yorkers were given the opportunity to bring their ideas and vision into a new request for proposals for the former Kingsbridge Armory. The result? Residents demanded the city turn over ownership to the community, meaning those long excluded from major real estate decisions would have power over what goes on at the site.
Researchers have created the lining of a womb in a dish, which promises to shed light on the mysterious early stages of human pregnancy and the glitches that can lead to miscarriage and medical complications. Scientists will now use the approach to investigate how pregnancies become established and what can go awry, potentially finding answers that could provide a much-needed boost to IVF success rates.
Miele refurbished around 12,000 electronic components in 2024, with its pilot project running in five European countries, including Germany. Max Wagner, who heads Miele’s sustainability team, says the sale of refurbished appliances has not cannibalised his company’s sale of new models, as was initially feared.
The European Commission has announced reinstating a month-long winter fishing ban in the Bay of Biscay after the measure proved successful for two years running in reducing deaths from dolphins caught in fishing nets. The area is a particularly treacherous one between the dolphins’ seasonal movements and intense fishing in the bay.
Mostly disappeared from their habitat in the Eastern Caribbean, native Lesser Antillean Iguanas are successfully increasing their numbers after being moved to an offshore island as protection against interbreeding with invasive species. Careful mating matches have helped widen their genetic diversity.
When developers began circling Espíritu Santo island in the 1990s, a private conservation effort saw them off: a local group devised a novel plan to buy the island directly from the landowners and transfer it to the Mexican government.
