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The Guardian - Back to homeThe Guardian

Reporting on our catastrophic species loss, and ways to tackle the biodiversity crisis

The age of extinction is supported by

The age of extinction is supported by

The age of extinction

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  • Green-and-golden bell frogs peek out of round holes in masonry bricks painted dark grey

    Amphibians
    ‘Frog saunas’ could save species from deadly fungal disease, study finds

    Australian scientists create brick refuges in greenhouses to help green and golden bell frogs survive infection
  • Black smoke darkens a red sky above a body of water against a black tree line

    Wildfires
    Devastation as world’s biggest wetland burns: ‘those that cannot run don’t stand a chance’

    Blackened trees, dead animals and scorched earth – early wildfires have already devastated Brazil’s Pantanal and local people worry they may lose the battle to save them
  • Raptor expert George Smith ringing peregrine chicks on a cliff ledge while roped to a tree above

    In pictures
    ‘I’ve known some of these peregrines for 15 years’: protecting Scotland’s raptors

    The fastest birds in the world, peregrine falcons are sought after for racing and can sell for up to £250,000 in the Middle East. Poaching is a constant threat, with eggs and chicks stolen to supply the hidden market. Now, there are nationwide efforts under way to ring and take DNA from wild chicks – but just reaching their nests can be perilous
  • Two elephants with tusks walk in a dusty landscape at sunset

    Wildlife conservation
    Trophy hunter killings spark fierce battle over the future of super tusker elephants

    The lifting of a long-held ban has angered conservationists, but others argue trophy hunting can support local economies and even help protect threatened species
    • A large male moose standing amid foliage in the forest

      Wildlife
      ‘No chain stores, but moose on every corner’: as Colorado herds thrive, clashes with people rise

    • Protesters stand outside the Lloyd’s building in the City holding a pink banner that reads: "Insure our future, not fossil fuels"

      Carbon credits
      ‘Reform or go out of business,’ carbon offsetting industry told

    • Aerial photo of tiang, a species of antelope, in Boma and Badingilo national parks, South Sudan

      South Sudan
      Migration of 6m antelope in South Sudan dwarfs previous records for world’s biggest, aerial study reveals

    • A sign in tropical jungle that reads in English: "This is a protected area. Entry is barred by law"

      Conservation
      Protecting just 1.2% of Earth’s land could save most-threatened species, says study

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Explore

  • A spiny squat lobster. Lobsters are important decomposers in the oceans.

    ‘Small but mighty’: how invertebrates play central role in shaping our world

    • Illegal cannabis greenhouses dot the landscape in the shadow of Mount Shasta in Siskiyou county, northern California.

      California comedown: how illicit cannabis farms have left a wilderness where ‘you’re lucky to see a lizard’

    • A marsh tit perched on a rock (Photgraph: Lisa Geoghegan/Alamy Stock Photo)

      Soundscape ecology: a window into a disappearing world – podcast

    • Conservation International chief executive officer M Sanjayan, left, presents Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez with the global visionary award.

      The Bezos Earth fund has pumped billions into climate and nature projects. So why are experts uneasy?

    • A wooden bench in the Sonian Forest in Belgium.

      ‘You can’t love something that isn’t there’: readers on how the sounds of nature have changed around them

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Explainers

  • An abstract collage of news images from the 2023 global climate crisis

    10 ways the climate crisis and nature loss are linked

  • A bee lands on a purple flower

    Food, soil, water: how the extinction of insects would transform our planet

  • The biodiversity crisis is just as urgent as the climate emergency: saving the natural world could help avoid catastrophe

    2:57

    The five ways we’re killing nature and why it has to stop – video explainer

  • The biodiversity crisis in numbers - a visual guide

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Negotiating nature

  • Astrid Schomaker

    Veteran EU official Astrid Schomaker named as new biodiversity chief

    German’s appointment to head Convention on Biological Diversity follows global failure to meet any targets on protecting ecosystems
  • Susana Muhamad, Colombia’s environment minister.

    Colombia vows to put nature at the heart of global environmental negotiations

  • The UN convention on biological diversity, Cop15, was held in Montreal, Canada, a year ago.

    Cop15 a year on: has the world lived up to the promises made in Montreal?

  • Plastic waste and other rubbish washes up on a beach in Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand

    Nature at risk of breakdown if Cop15 pledges not met, world leaders warned

  • Marine life swims around an anchored Fish Aggregating Device (FAD) in the Pacific Ocean.

    First Cop15, now the high seas treaty. There is hope for the planet’s future

  • A bonobo ape, a primate unique to Congo and humankind's closest relative, stands in a pond at Lola Ya Bonobo sanctuary just outside the capital Kinshasa, October 31, 2006. Scientifically named Pan paniscus, but more commonly known as pygmy chimpanzees, bonobos share 98.4% of their genetic make-up with humans and are at risk of extinction due to more than a decade of conflict in Central Africa. REUTERS/Finbarr O'Reilly (DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO) - RTR1IVD6

    Overconsumption by the rich must be tackled, says acting UN biodiversity chief

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Nature heroes

  • Robert Ballard speaking at a conference in California.

    I discovered the wreck of the Titanic – but seeing these vents in the sea floor was far more exciting

  • Heather Middleton looking for fossils on a rocky beach

    I discovered ...
    Thousands of fossils after retiring. Now I’m nearly 80 and still going strong

  • Prof Andrew Cunningham inside a lab at London Zoo wearing a lab coat and glasses

    I discovered ...
    Why seemingly healthy amphibians were being wiped out

  • Paul Hebert standing in front of a white sheet and holding a UV light in his back yard in Ontario, Canada, 21 February 2024

    I discovered …
    A way to identify the millions of species on Earth after a lightbulb moment in the supermarket

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Wild world

  • Tony Juniper

    Birdsong once signalled the onset of spring on my street – but not this year

    Tony Juniper
    A dawn chorus of flutes, whistles and chirps once flowed through my Cambridge window, but there has been a shocking collapse in birdlife. What can be done?
  • A group of young spotted hyenas on the road outside Harar

    The hyenas of Harar: how a city fell in love with its bone-crunching carnivores

  • A line of people walk along the edge of a filed thickly planted with sunflowers. People can be seen among the flowers taking pictures.

    Nature’s ghosts: how reviving medieval farming offers wildlife an unexpected haven

  • A kākā at Zealandia ecosanctuary, Wellington, New Zealand.

    New Zealand
    Penguins in the pond, kiwi in the back yard: how a city brought back its birds

  • Close-up of a polar bear

    Canada
    Strobe lights, AI, shotguns: can anything help polar bears and humans coexist?

  • View of rolling green fields on Iford estate from South Downs Way

    UK
    Flowers everywhere? England’s ambitious scheme to restore wildlife hangs in the balance

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Pictures

  • A group of three blue-footed boobies (Sula nebouxii) pictured on the Galápagos Islands

    Female photographers celebrate Jane Goodall’s 90th birthday

  • The operation not only underscores Kenya’s conservation triumph but also signifies a critical step in achieving stable habitats for the survival of the species.

    Cardiac arrests, horns and 1.4 tonnes of muscle: here’s how to move a rhino – in pictures

    The Kenya Wildlife Service has successfully translocated 21 eastern black rhinos to a region where they have not roamed for 50 years. Here’s how they caught, transported and released these critically endangered creatures to their new home
  • A Garrano horse with a GPS tracker in the Cabreira Mountain

    ‘Without a function they’re doomed’: in search of a new job for Portugal’s ancient pony breed

    Known since Palaeolithic times, valued by the Romans and key to Portugal’s empire-building, there are now less than 3,000 Garranos left
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