Low-cost tech and joined-up funding have reduced illegal logging, mining and poaching in the Darién Gap – it’s a success story that could stop deforestation worldwide
There are no roads through the Darién Gap. This vast impenetrable forest spans the width of the land bridge between South and Central America, but there is almost no way through it: hundreds have lost their lives trying to cross it on foot.
Its size and hostility have shielded it from development for millennia, protecting hundreds of species – from harpy eagles and giant anteaters to jaguars and red-crested tamarins – in one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. But it has also made it incredibly difficult to protect. Looking after 575,000 hectares (1,420,856 acres) of beach, mangrove and rainforest with just 20 rangers often felt impossible, says Segundo Sugasti, the director of Darién national park. Like tropical forests all over the world, it has been steadily shrinking, with at least 15% lost to logging, mining and cattle ranching in two decades.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
12/25/2025 - 10:00
12/25/2025 - 07:00
Government poised to officially protect 200,000 hectares of remote Patagonian coastline and forest
Chile’s government is poised to create the country’s 47th national park, protecting nearly 200,000 hectares (500,000 acres) of pristine wilderness and completing a wildlife corridor stretching 1,700 miles (2,800km) to the southernmost tip of the Americas.
The Cape Froward national park is a wild expanse of wind-torn coastline and forested valleys that harbours unrivalled biodiversity and has played host to millennia of human history.
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12/25/2025 - 05:00
Smallest number of new chargers since 2022 as carmakers persuade government to weaken EV sales targets
The UK’s rollout of electric car chargers slackened markedly in 2025 amid investor concerns over a slower-than-expected switch to cleaner battery vehicles.
There were 87,200 chargers installed in the UK at the end of November, an increase of 13,500 compared with the end of 2024, according to data from Zapmap, which tracks charger installations.
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12/25/2025 - 03:00
Penguins hand over pebbles; scorpionflies give spitballs. But I’m hankering after a sea sponge presented by a dolphin
This Christmas morning, are you worried you didn’t choose quite the right gift for that someone special? I always try my hardest, but everywhere I turn I’m bombarded with unhelpful suggestions. No, I don’t want a candle that smells like turkey, because, well, we’ll be cooking turkey. Nor do I want a sunrise alarm clock that mimics natural light, because I can leave the curtains open. And I definitely don’t want a salmon DNA pink collagen jelly mask (Good Housekeeping’s Best for Beauty Lovers), because said DNA comes from milt. AKA semen. If I wanted fish sperm on my face, I would tickle some pollocks.
So if, like me, you’re always looking for inspiration, my advice is: learn from the animal kingdom. Humans didn’t invent gifting. The practice has been around for at least 100m years, long before our species evolved. With a little help from natural selection, this has given wild animals ample time to perfect the art of giving. Hell, some spiders even gift-wrap!
Helen Pilcher is a science writer and the author of Bring Back the King: The New Science of De-Extinction
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12/25/2025 - 01:00
Royal Horticultural Society’s call backs government aim to increase woodland cover from 10% to at least 16.5% by 2050
Gardeners should plant native “tredges” – foliage between the size of a tree and a hedge – to boost England’s tree cover, the Royal Horticultural Society has said.
Taking inspiration from ancient woodlands could boost wildlife across England’s 25m gardens, according to experts, and help increase native tree cover. The UK’s woodland cover is approximately 10% and the government aims to increase this to at least 16.5% of all land in England by 2050.
Beech (Fagus sylvatica)
Holly (Ilex aquifolium)
Western red cedar (Thuja plicata)
Common yew (Taxus baccata)
Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)
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12/24/2025 - 11:00
More than a year after the storm ripped apart families and farms, growers are bullish about strength of their industry
Christmas tree farmers in western North Carolina are still rebuilding from last year’s devastating Hurricane Helene, but growers are optimistic about business and the overall strength of their industry in the region.
“There’s still a lot of recovery that needs to happen, but we’re in much better shape than we were this time last year … sales are good,” Kevin Gray, owner of Hickory Creek Farm Christmas Trees in Greensboro, said earlier this month, while the buying season was in full swing.
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12/24/2025 - 05:06
Victoria Atkins says announcement to raise tax threshold from £1m to £2.5m days before Christmas ‘seems very odd’
UK politics live – latest updates
Ministers “snuck out” the announcement that they had decided to U-turn on inheritance tax for farmers, the Conservatives have said after the government revealed the move in a press release two days before Christmas.
The shadow environment secretary, Victoria Atkins, accused the government of trying to dodge scrutiny of its latest policy reversal, under which the threshold for taxing inherited farmland will rise from a planned £1m to £2.5m.
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12/24/2025 - 00:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 24 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00180-z
Observations of mariculture associated N2O loss: a need for system specific studies
12/24/2025 - 00:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 24 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00170-1
Conserving key coastal areas for mangrove expansion and eco-tourism secures ecosystem services under sea-level rise
World Ocean Explorer Wins Gold Medal Serious Simulation Award from Serious Play Annual International Competition
10/26/2023 - 14:35
For Immediate Release October 19, 2023
Sedgwick, Maine USA World Ocean Explorer, a 3D virtual aquarium and educational simulation, was recently cited for excellence, winning a Gold Medal Award in the 2023 International Serious Play Awards Program.
World Ocean Explorer is an innovative 3D virtual aquarium designed for educational exploration of the world’s oceans. With interactive exhibits and a lobby space, visitors can immerse themselves in realistic marine environments, including a DEEP SEA exhibit funded by Schmidt Ocean Institute, showcasing unprecedented deep-sea discoveries off Australia. Targeted at 3rd graders and beyond, this immersive experience offers a range of perspectives on the ocean environment and can be explored through guided tours or user-controlled interfaces. Visit DEEP SEA at worldoceanexplorer.org/deep-sea-aquarium.html.
Serious Play Conference brings together professionals who are exploring the use of game-based learning, sharing their experience, and working together to shape the future of training and education. For more information on Serious Play Award Program visit seriousplayconf.com/international-serious-play-award-programs.
World Ocean Explorer is a transformative virtual aquarium designed to deepen understanding of the world ocean and amplify connection for young people worldwide. Organized around the principles of Ocean Literacy and the Next Gen Science Standards, World Ocean Explorer brings the wonder and knowledge of ocean species and systems to students in formal and informal classrooms, absolutely free to anyone with a good Internet connection. As an advocate for the ocean through communications, World Ocean Observatory believes there is no better investment in the future of the sustainable ocean than through a new approach to educational engagement that excites, informs, and motivates students to explore the wonders of our marine world and to understand the pervasive connection and implication for our future, inherent in the protection and conservation of all aspects of our ocean world.
World Ocean Explorer presents an astonishing 3-dimensional simulated aquarium visit, organized to reveal the wonders of undersea life, with layers of detailed data and information to augment the emotional connection made to the astonishing beauty and complexity of the dynamic ocean. Within each of the virtual exhibits, students visit exemplary theme-based sites with myriad opportunities to understand the larger perspectives of scientific knowledge as organized and visualized to dramatize the impact and change on ocean life as a result of natural and human-generated events. Through immersion among displays, mixed media and 3D models, the experience of an aquarium visit will be brought into classrooms or home school environments as a free, accessible, always available opportunity for teaching and learning. All of this will be available to a world audience without physical limitation or cost. World Ocean Explorer, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, receives support from the Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation, Visual Solutions Lab, the Climate Change Institute, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, and The Fram Museum Oslo. To learn more about the current and future exhibits of World Ocean Explorer, visit worldoceanexplorer.org.
media contact
Trisha Badger, Managing Director, World Ocean Observatory | [email protected] +12077011069
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