News Feeds

Six months after a landmark treaty to protect the high seas entered into force in January, a group of West African nations is calling for the Eastern Atlantic to be included in the first wave of marine protected areas established under the agreement.

The area known as the Convergence Zone of the Canary and Guinea Currents stretches from Cape Verde and Senegal in the north, to Nigeria and São Tomé and Príncipe in the south, forming a key migration corridor and nursery for hundreds of marine species.

At the 11th Our Ocean Conference in the Kenyan coastal resort of Mombasa this week, Senegalese Minister of the Environment and Ecological Transition Aliou Gori Diouf said this new marine protected area would contribute to a global goal to protect at least 30% of the planet’s ecosystems by 2030.

“West Africa is asserting its leadership by demonstrating that ocean protection and sustainable
development go hand in hand,” Diouf said in a statement.

• Jun 5, 2026 Nature Offshore oil and gas expansion threatens key marine ecosystems, report warns Sea life in countries like Kenya is under threat from planned new oil and gas production, analysis by environmental groups has found Read more
• Jun 16, 2026 Comment Coral reefs are not doomed – but policy must catch up with the science  A new study shows some reefs still have a meaningful chance to survive and recover from climate impacts – provided they are protected Read more

To complement the push, the governments of The Gambia, Mauritania, Guinea Bissau and Senegal announced the creation of a joint regional marine protected area (MPA) “to preserve the resources essential to the livelihood” of their communities.

They added that the regional initiative will require global collaboration, as the countries face “massive challenges” from ocean heating as well as illegal fishing and marine pollution “leading to a reduction in biodiversity and lower economic opportunities for fishing-dependent communities”.

The High Seas Treaty – known formally as the agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) – entered into force this January just two years after its signing. So far, 90 countries have ratified it, and it is set to host its first conference of the parties (COP) in January 2027 in New York.

Warming threat

The ocean has absorbed 90% of the excess heat trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere, and is a massive carbon sink, trapping 30% of global carbon dioxide emissions. Yet despite covering nearly half of the planet’s surface, only 1% of the high seas are fully protected.

Unless this is stepped up, scientists warn that rapid ocean heating could threaten key species and ecosystems, as well as the communities that depend on them. One 2025 study estimated that fish levels have fallen by 7.2% for every tenth of a degree of global warming.

Big fishing nations secure last-minute seat to write rules on deep sea conservation

Speaking at a plenary in Mombasa, Rebecca Hubbard, director of the advocacy group High Seas Alliance, said governments face the challenge of turning “this promise into real action in the water”.

“It is now urgent for governments to work together to propose the first set of high-seas marine protected areas. This is the only way we can achieve 30% protection of our ocean by 2030. We need the high seas,” said the conservation scientist.

Scientific body to review proposals

Olivier Poivre d’Arvor, France’s special envoy for last year’s UN ocean conference, told the Mombasa gathering that the oceans COP1 will be a “powerful symbol”, as it will be the first major conference opened by the yet-to-be-elected new UN secretary-general.

Other areas under consideration for the first generation of high-seas MPAs include the Salas y Gómez and Nazca ridges – an underwater mountain range rich stretching 3,000 km off the coast of Chile in the South Pacific, the “thermal dome” off the coast of Costa Rica in the Central Pacific, and the Walvis ridge near Namibia in the Southern Atlantic.

Chile and Costa Rica have also announced plans to propose these protected areas in the lead-up to the first High Seas Treaty summit. Before selecting the first conservation areas, governments at the BBNJ meeting must establish a scientific body to review the proposals.

Currently, the only MPA in the high seas is the South Orkney Islands in Antarctica, created in 2009 and managed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources.

The post West African nations target Eastern Atlantic for early high seas protection appeared first on Climate Home News.

MEDIA ADVISORY

For Immediate Release

The Rocky Road to COP31–

Deep dive from experts on how UNFCCC Bonn climate talks leave gaping hole in climate action ahead of Türkiye

Bonn, Germany— Over the past two weeks, world governments have gathered in Bonn, Germany to take part in the 64th meeting of the Subsidiary Bodies (SB64) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). These negotiations have happened in a moment of paramount importance. The climate crisis is impacting communities all around the world and especially in the Global South. Emissions are soaring to record heights with no plateau in sight and food scarcity is increasing. Fossil fuelled economy and war is causing death and devastation in Palestine, Iran, West Asia, and around the world. Compounded crises caused by extractivism, colonialism, imperialism, patriarchy and racism are impacting the lives of millions daily.

For SB64 to deliver climate action that can truly protect people and the planet, governments would have needed to act with urgency and holding equity as a core principle. Instead, due to endless time waste and obstruction from Global North governments most responsible for the climate crisis, we witnessed unlimited inertia, lack of political will and excuses across the board by them – whether on Article 9.1 and climate finance, adaptation, just transition, and equity. 

Looking ahead, the road to the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP31) in Türkiye later this year now looks rocky and riddled with potholes. So much needs to now be done to make up for the setbacks at Bonn. But what exactly, and do we have what it takes? 

Join policy experts of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (DCJ) to do an extensive deep dive into what SB64 did and didn’t deliver and how to restore faith in climate action in the months ahead. 

WHEN: Thursday 18 June 2026, 11:00-11:30 CEST (UTC + 2) 

WHERE: Nairobi 4, Main building, Inside the World Conference Center and webcast here

WITH: 

• Meena Raman, Third World Network
• Victor Menotti, Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice
• Moderated by Rachitaa Gupta, Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice

CONTACT: dcj.comms@demandclimatejustice.org

The post Media Advisory: The Rocky Road to COP31 appeared first on Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice.

In our latest, we talk about how the liberal establishment find itself in a war with it’s anti-Zionist anti-ruling class progressive left. Listen in:   This has been most visible…

We are featuring our 2026 Mid-year Campaign in this month's newsletter. We gathered up a collection of some of the CELDF highlights so far in 2026 and generated a report entitled “Declaring Disruption”. Read all about it!

The post “Common Sense” Newsletter – June 2026: Forests, Racism, Turtles, Walls, and Truckers appeared first on CELDF - Community Rights Pioneers - Protecting Nature and Communities.

Good News: CRA Attack Fails, Grand Staircase-Escalante Protections Remain in Place!

 

As you’ve likely heard by now, the fast-track attempt by Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and Representative Celeste Maloy (R-UT-02) to undo the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Management Plan has failed! This is a major victory for the entire Protect Wild Utah movement, public lands advocates across the country, and most importantly, the landscape itself.

Back in March, Sen. Lee and Rep. Maloy introduced “joint resolutions” to disapprove the monument management plan. They did this using the Congressional Review Act (CRA), a little-known law with a provision that allows Congress to pass a CRA joint resolution by simple majority votes. But there’s a catch: the Senate must act within 60 session days or the resolution is subject to the 60-vote filibuster and regular legislative process. Lee missed that critical deadline on June 11, which effectively kills the resolution’s chance of passing in that chamber.

By raising your voice in opposition to Lee and Maloy, you made a difference! Thank you for standing with Grand Staircase-Escalante and SUWA at this critical moment. Take time to celebrate the important victory we just achieved together.

>> Learn more on our blog and read recent news coverage in the Salt Lake Tribune, ABC4 Utah, More Than Just Parks, and Rocky Mountain Community Radio.

Photo © Tim Peterson

More Good News: BLM Pulls Back on 500,000-Acre West Desert Vegetation Project

 

This spring, SUWA, along with our partners at Western Watersheds Project and the Center for Biological Diversity, challenged the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) approval of the Indian Peak Range Watershed Restoration Plan, a sweeping West Desert vegetation project authorizing prescribed fire and mechanical treatments across roughly 560,000 acres of important wildlife habitat near the Indian Peak Range, the Wah Wah Mountains, Hamlin Valley, Pine Valley, and Blue Mountain. The project included heavy-handed mastication and chaining of pinyon-juniper woodlands and sagebrush shrublands.

The agency ignored public recommendations, failed to map where treatments would occur, and offered no real analysis of impacts to wilderness-quality lands, wildlife, and native ecosystems—despite the fact that a nearly identical Hamlin Valley project had already been vacated after our previous appeal and the agency had committed to more thorough analysis on similar projects in the future.

After SUWA filed an appeal of the BLM’s decision in May, the agency moved to vacate its own approval and reconsider the project. This is good news, but the fight isn’t over yet. The BLM says it expects to publish a revised environmental assessment, which means it may try again to advance this large-scale cutting and burning proposal without proper review. We’ll let you know if and when that happens.

Photo © Ray Bloxham/SUWA

Trump Rolls Back Longstanding Executive Orders that Reined in ORV Use on Public Lands

 

On a Friday evening in late May, President Trump announced the repeal of two executive orders that govern off-road vehicle (ORV) use on public lands nationwide. He also directed federal land management agencies to rescind or revise their regulations implementing these orders, setting the stage for chaos and confusion across the country.

For roughly 50 years, these orders—issued under Presidents Nixon and Carter—have helped protect streams, wildlife habitat, and opportunities for safe recreation by providing clear and consistent guidance for motorized and nonmotorized users on Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, and National Park Service lands. The orders also empowered agencies to act swiftly to close areas to ORVs when they are causing or will cause considerable damage to natural and cultural resources.

Trump’s latest action flips that script by directing agencies to prioritize ORV use over all other activities and at the expense of clean water, wildlife habitat, cultural sites, and the experience of motorized and non-motorized recreationists alike. For now, regulations implementing the two executive orders remain in place, as do existing travel management plans. We expect, however, that the Trump administration will work quickly to weaken if not outright eliminate both the regulations and individual plans.

>> Learn more on SUWA’s blog and read a recent op-ed in the Santa Fe New Mexican by former national BLM Director and SUWA Board Member Jim Baca.

Photo © Ray Bloxham/SUWA

Help Us Grow Support for America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act 

 

America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act (ARRWA), the foundational legislation of the Protect Wild Utah movement, aims to permanently protect over 8 million acres of Bureau of Land Management land in Utah as federally designated wilderness. Preserving the wild character of this spectacular and world-renowned landscape would keep climate-disrupting fossil fuels in the ground and provide a vital migration corridor for western wildlife species. As the ancestral home of many Native American tribes, the region also contains abundant and significant cultural resources.

The latest members of Congress to sign on as cosponsors of ARRWA include Rep. Juan Vargas (D-CA-52), Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-OR-5), Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA-5), and Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ-7). If any of these legislators represent you, please thank them for their support.

Gains in cosponsorship don’t happen by accident; they’re the result of persistent outreach to members of Congress from constituents like you! If your representative and/or senators have not signed onto the bill, please ask them to cosponsor America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act today! Want to get more involved? Reach out to one of our regional organizers.

>> Click here to contact your members of Congress now

Photo © Chris Noble

County Rushes to Chip Seal Hole-in-the-Rock Road at Heart of Grand Staircase-Escalante

 

Last month, Garfield County began chip sealing (effectively paving) the first 10 miles of Hole-in-the-Rock Road within Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Surrounded by wilderness-quality lands, this rugged backroad is core to the remote experience that defines the monument, providing access to popular destinations like Spooky and Peek-A-Boo slot canyons, Devil’s Garden, and Coyote Gulch.  

In February, SUWA filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that Garfield County and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) violated federal law when the county began making unauthorized “improvements” to the road. While Garfield County has title to a right-of-way, it does not own the road or the land beneath it (this remains federal public land) and it cannot lawfully take unilateral action to improve the road. Instead, the county is required to consult with the BLM first, and the BLM is required by law to make sure that such activities do not cause unnecessary damage to public lands.

When SUWA learned that the BLM had authorized the county to proceed, we immediately sought a temporary restraining order from the court. When that request was denied, we filed another motion seeking an emergency injunction to pause the county’s work. Unfortunately, the county rushed to complete the paving before the court had a chance to rule on that motion.

Despite all of this, our pending case will continue to proceed in federal court on its merits, and we expect to prevail. But by then the changes to the road and damage to the monument will be done. Paving will lead to more, faster, and louder traffic, changing the remote backcountry experience the monument was created to protect, and that draws visitors from around the world.

Photo © SUWA

Join Canyon Keepers: SUWA’s Monthly Giving Program

 

Monthly donors have been part of SUWA’s story for years and continue to provide a consistent, year-round base of financial support for our work. This circle of dedicated members is now called “Canyon Keepers.” If you’re already a monthly donor, thank you! If not, we hope you’ll consider joining this program.

Becoming a Canyon Keeper is simple. It only takes a few minutes to set up, and once you do, your gift renews automatically each month. You can increase, decrease, or pause your support at any time.

To welcome you to the Canyon Keepers circle, we’ll send you a limited-edition Canyon Wren canvas bag to show our gratitude.

>> Click here to become a Canyon Keeper today!

Artwork by Riley Lubich

The post June 2026 Redrock Report appeared first on Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.

This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Ben Tracy, Climate Central

If you feel like your electricity bill just keeps climbing, you aren’t imagining it. Since 2020, U.S. residential energy prices have surged by about 30%, making power the largest household energy expense behind gasoline, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

But for residents like Alex Curtis, the days of feeling powerless against rising costs are coming to an end. Curtis is waging a war on his electric bill, and his new weapon of choice is a lightweight, thin-film solar panel.

“Oh, it’s super light too,” Curtis remarked as he unboxed the kit on the balcony of his condo in Sunnyvale, California. It weighs just about 10 pounds. 

The ‘plug-and-play’ revolution Unlike traditional rooftop solar, which requires thousands of dollars in upfront costs, specialized mounting hardware, and professional electricians, this system is designed for the everyday consumer. It’s a $400 kit from Bright Saver, a non-profit advocating for “plug-and-play” solar that works for renters and homeowners alike.

The setup is deceptively simple: you hang the panel on a balcony or prop it up in a backyard and plug it directly into a standard wall outlet.

“I did some rough math and this might save me like $30 to $50 a month,” Curtis said.

The magic happens behind the scenes. Once plugged in, a small inverter syncs the solar energy with the home’s existing electrical infrastructure. It took about 15 minutes to get it all set up. Bright Saver’s Rupert Mayer then pointed to a light on the inverter: “Ah, here it is, it’s blue.”

“This is it. Easy,” Curtis replied. Within minutes, he was generating his own clean energy. He estimates it will be enough to power an appliance like his refrigerator. 

Small panels, big impact

Cora Stryker, co-founder of Bright Saver, believes this technology is key to democratizing the green energy transition. It not only cuts an individual’s planet-warming pollution but also their electric bill. 

“Clean energy actually is the cheapest form of energy around,” Stryker said, “and we the consumers should be benefiting from that.”

While these panels won’t take a home entirely off the grid, Stryker says the units can trim monthly costs by 10% to 25% depending on how many panels a user installs. More savings can be had if the panels are paired with batteries that can store excess solar energy. 

“They cover a part of your energy bill and then you do need to draw the rest from the grid as you do now,” Stryker explained. 

The “Balkonkraftwerk” trend

While the technology is just gaining a foothold in the U.S., it is already a cultural phenomenon in Europe. In Germany, these systems are so common they have a specific name: Balkonkraftwerk, or “balcony power plant.”

An estimated 4 million balcony solar units are currently installed in Germany. The U.S., however, has been slower to adopt the tech, largely due to a patchwork of utility regulations and bureaucratic red tape. Utilities in some states have pushed back against the use of these systems citing potential hazards to the safety of the grid and line workers. 

“And that is patently ridiculous for these little systems,” Stryker said. “Those laws were intended for rooftop systems 5 to 20 times as large.”

A changing legal landscape

The tide is quickly turning. In 2025, Utah became the first state to officially authorize plug-in solar. Overall, 34 states and Washington, D.C., have introduced legislation to allow for use of the technology. It has passed in Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, and Virginia. 

For advocates like Stryker, it’s a matter of personal liberty: “It’s kind of like ‘don’t tell me what to do in my own backyard and on my own balcony.’”

As for Alex Curtis, he knows his Sunnyvale neighbors might have questions when they see the sleek panel hanging from his railing, but he’s focused on his newfound taste of energy independence. 

“I think that’s what gets me excited,” Curtis said. “Being able to power my own stuff and be self- sufficient like in baby steps which is pretty cool.”

Climate Central is an independent group of scientists and communicators who research and report the facts about our changing climate and how it affects people’s lives. It is a policy-neutral 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Arctic Refuge Drilling Fails Again — Why Congress Must Repeal the Leasing Mandate 

On Friday, June 5, the Trump administration held its third oil and gas lease sale on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. For the third time, the results told the same story: no major oil company bid and the financial promise used to justify drilling in one of America’s last great wild places remained unfounded. 

Caribou on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge (Photo credit: Pam Miller)

Nine bids came in and just two entities placed them (AIDEA and Hex Energy). Total revenue was only $3,741,528 — less than 0.4% of the nearly $1 billion Congress claimed Arctic Refuge drilling would generate to offset the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. 

After three tries, across three lease sales, the cumulative return still hasn’t even reached 1% of what was promised. Arctic Refuge oil

What We Did to Get Here 

This moment didn’t happen in a vacuum. It is the result of years of sustained, coordinated advocacy — from Gwich’in Nation leaders, from conservationists, from faith communities, from everyday people across the country.

In the lead-up to Friday’s sale, our coalition mobilized on every front: 

More than 335,000 public comments were submitted from 22 different groups, directed at the administration, Congress, and the corporations that were being asked to participate in this sale.

126 national organizations signed on to a letter opposing the lease sale. So did 12 conservation and sportsmen’s organization CEOs, members of Congress, and faith and business leaders through the National Religious Partnership for the Environment.

The Gwich’in Steering Committee wrote directly to oil and gas CEOs requesting a meeting to hear directly from people whose homeland, whose food sovereignty, and whose cultural survival are at stake.

Community hearings in Portland, Seattle, Fairbanks, and Houston gave voice to the thousands of people who understand that the Arctic Refuge coastal plain — what the Gwich’in call the Sacred Place Where Life Begins — is not a line item in a budget reconciliation bill. It is a living landscape. It is the calving ground of the Porcupine Caribou Herd. It belongs to all of us, and most urgently, to the people who have called it home for thousands of years.

Community Hearing event in Portland, OR

Op-eds ran in the Anchorage Daily News, the Chicago Tribune, and the Columbian. The film The Arctic: Our Last Great Wilderness screened in Leavenworth, Washington, days before the sale. Members of Congress — including Sens. Markey and Merkley and Reps. Huffman and Vasquez — spoke out publicly and forcefully in statements. Others like Rep. Vasquez and Sen. Heinrich showed up powerfully on social media. 

Why The Results Matter 

The financial argument for drilling in the Arctic Refuge has now failed three consecutive times. The world’s largest banks — Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo — walked away from financing Arctic Refuge drilling years ago. Major insurers declined to underwrite it. Oil companies with the technical and financial capacity to operate in one of the world’s most demanding environments looked at the cost structures, the accelerating permafrost instability, and the long-term demand outlook and passed. 

The only two bidders who showed up were a state development authority and a little-known company placing a handful of bids. 

As AWL Executive Director Kristen Miller put it in our statement: 

Economic gain was a false justification to permanently sell off the most ecologically and culturally significant landscapes in the United States. The American people don’t want this, the oil industry doesn’t want this, and our public lands deserve so much better.

But We Can’t Stop Here 

Friday’s sale was a market failure and a moral embarrassment, but the legal mandate that required it to happen is still on the books. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act included a provision requiring the administration to hold lease sales in the Arctic Refuge coastal plain, regardless of market demand, taxpayer return, or the clear and consistent opposition of the Gwich’in Nation. 

That means another sale could happen. And another after that. 

That is why passing the Arctic Refuge Protection Act matters so much. Repealing the leasing mandate is the only way to ensure that these results are the last time we have to fight this fight.

Permanent protection for the coastal plain is what the Gwich’in Nation has asked for, what the ecological science demands, and what the market has now made undeniably clear.  

What Comes Next 

We need a Congress willing to repeal the leasing mandate. We need an administration committed to honoring the Gwich’in Nation’s rights and the public’s clear preference for protection over drilling. And we need to keep the pressure on, because the next opportunity to make permanent change will come, and we will be ready. 

Gwich’in members in front of the Capitol (Photo credit: Michael Block for the Arctic Defense Campaign)

Three failed lease sales. One clear conclusion: the Arctic Refuge coastal plain deserves permanent protection. Help us finish the job.

Take Action

 

Cover photo credit: Danielle Brigida, USFWS

Rising temperatures are set to drive up emissions from wildfires, fermenting wetlands, and melting permafrost, but these feedback loops are poorly captured in climate models. Scientists are racing to make sense of these emissions to gauge how much warming may lie ahead.

Read more on E360 →

07-02 * 13:00 - SE TG Meeting (Bea)

NEW ORLEANS (June 17, 2026) – In a recent letter, over 100 community leaders united to support the East Orleans Landbridge Restoration project, a habitat restoration project that will provide important storm protection for the New Orleans area. The signers, including business associations, local sportsmen, legislators, scientists, faith leaders, neighborhood associations and community organizations, voiced their support for the Louisiana Trustee Implementation Group’s decision to recommend the project receive $101.2 million in Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement funds for project ...

Read The Full Story

The post New Orleans Community Leaders Support East Orleans Landbridge Project appeared first on Restore the Mississippi River Delta.

The following statement was delivered during the Arrangements for Intergovernmental Meetings (AIM) on June 17 2026 on behalf of the ENGO-DCJ and ENGO-CAN constituencies during the 64th meeting of the Subsidiary Bodies (SB64) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC):

Thank you. I am Teresa Rose Sebastian of Re-Earth, speaking on behalf of ENGO’s Climate Action Network and Demand Climate Justice Campaign.

We would like to express our disappointment that progress important for us and the people and communities we represent is being delayed over a few words. We remind Parties of the urgency of this work and we cannot accept any obstruction or delays to this process.

A lot of work still lies ahead to ensure COP 31 delivers the JT mechanism promised by Parties at COP30.  More ambitious options on governance, accountability and implementation support are needed. Space to translate what currently stand as bullet points into negotiating text is needed.

This includes and necessitates intersessional work, with full support for developing country and observer constituency participation, to push these negotiations forward and to swiftly deliver on the commitment that was made in COP30.

In terms of substance as we move forward, we urge Parties to consider the following:

Establishing the JT Mechanism at COP31 would send the right signal on the urgency and importance of just transitions.

This urgency will not be satisfied if the mechanism is merely a space for knowledge-sharing. It has to do more to truly enable the implementation of just and inclusive transitions. It needs to help identify gaps, monitor progress and challenges in the implementation of just transition pathways, and ensure that support effectively reaches those who need it most. It needs to ensure that the available support it provides or channels is aligned with the principles of equity and CBDR-RC.

Lastly, a just transition cannot be designed behind closed doors. The mechanism needs to include governance arrangements that guarantee meaningful inclusion and decision-making spaces for rightholders directly affected by transition processes. Those experiencing transitions on the ground need not only a voice, but also a seat at the table.

As civil society, we remain confident on the ability of Parties to reach the right agreement in Antalya, and encourage you all to deliver for those people most vulnerable to both climate crisis and actions. Save the ToR, but even more important, Save the BAM.

The post SB64 Intervention- June 17 Just Transition Work Programme appeared first on Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice.

Conservation groups request more time, information about massive mining project on public lands near Helena The project sits entirely within the Little Blackfoot River watershed, directly affecting Ophir Creek, Carpenter Creek, and Snowshoe Creek. For Immediate Release: June 17, 2026 Contact: Derf Johnson, MEIC | (406) 443-2520, Ext. 103 | djohnson@meic.org Andrew Gorder, Clark Fork …

The post Press Release: Massive mining proposal on public lands near Helena deserves more time, public meeting appeared first on Montana Environmental Information Center - MEIC.

Dozens of countries have called out growing “coordinated attacks” by fossil fuel interests aimed at undermining the role of climate science in the UN negotiations at the mid-year talks in Bonn.

Under the banner of ‘Friends of Science’, in an overflowing press conference room lined with negotiators and civil society supporters, diplomats from Fiji, Nepal, the European Union, Switzerland, Sierra Leone and Panama vowed to ensure that decision-making in the UN climate process remains based on the “best available science”. That includes reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN’s climate science body, they said.

While steering clear of singling out any specific country, they said efforts to cast doubt on established scientific concepts, such as the 1.5 global warming limit, are led by “the usual suspects” and those who think “science threatens their economic prospects”. 

Saudi Arabia and India have opposed calls in draft texts to encourage scientific work on scenarios that would minimise the magnitude and duration of any overshoot of 1.5C, according to one negotiator in the room and summaries of closed-door discussions published by a reporting service. 

UN chief António Guterres conceded last year that a temporary breach of the key warming limit is inevitable, while urging countries to redouble efforts to bring temperatures back down.

‘Polluted narrative’

Scientists have long established that burning fossil fuels is the primary cause of man-made climate change and a rapid shift away from oil, coal and gas is essential to curb global warming.

Saudi Arabia is dependent on oil and gas exports, while India largely relies on coal to power its economic development.

One negotiator said that research on how climate action can be equitable for developing countries, produced by Indian universities, had been published too late to be incorporated into the last IPCC assessment report in 2023. This incident led the Indian government to try and discredit the IPCC, they said. Some Indian scientists have argued that the IPCC’s scenarios are unfair on developing countries.

• Jun 12, 2026 News European, island states seek clear future for global roadmap to cut fossil fuels Some European, small island and other nations argue the forthcoming roadmap should be part of UN climate talks, while Russia has resisted this idea Read more
• Jun 17, 2026 News The vote that stopped a data center: US communities query resource-hungry AI Concerns are growing about the high energy, water and land demands of artificial intelligence tech hubs, while benefits for local people remain unclear Read more

Saudi Arabia and India have played down the importance of making sure that the latest IPCC assessments – regarded as the gold standard of climate science – are available for the next global stocktake, the UN scorecard of climate action around the world. 

“Anyone that is blocking references to science – they are not our friends,” Sivendra Michael, lead negotiator for Fiji, told a press conference, highlighting the rise of a “polluted narrative” both inside and outside the negotiating rooms.

1.5C is a ‘hard limit’

Speaking for the AILAC coalition of Latin American countries, Panama’s Ana Aguilar said they went to Bonn to negotiate positions, not to negotiate the facts laid out by science.

“We see coordinated efforts to cast doubt on the best available science driven by a narrow set of interests, not by the needs of our people,” she added. “We have seen this playbook before… manufacture doubt, delay the response and let the vulnerable people pay this bill.”

Negotiators, researchers and civil society activists attend a press conference on defending science in the UN climate process in Bonn, Germany on June 17, 2026. (Photo: Teo Ormond-Skeaping) Negotiators, researchers and civil society activists attend a press conference on defending science in the UN climate process in Bonn, Germany on June 17, 2026. (Photo: Teo Ormond-Skeaping)

The ‘Friends of Science’ coalition stressed that the 1.5C goal of the Paris Agreement cannot be negotiated, as the survival of the most climate vulnerable communities is at stake if it is permanently breached.

“Science tells us that 1.5C is a hard limit for many countries, including the small island developing states and least developed countries,” said Manjeet Dhakal, a negotiator for Nepal. “We still have a chance to keep 1.5 degrees in reach and minimise the overshoot if we act fast and drastically.”

Long-running IPCC standoff

While diplomats claimed attacks on science are broadening, one long-standing issue of contention is whether the latest assessment reports of the IPCC will be ready in time for the next UN global stocktake due to start this November and end in 2028. 

This matters because, as some experts have pointed out, previous IPCC findings played a key role in the first such exercise, which culminated at COP28 in Dubai in the landmark agreement on transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems.

The UN climate process needs ambition – the law demands it

Since the start of the latest IPCC assessment cycle, known as AR7, a battle over the timing has dragged on for over two years at successive IPCC meetings, with governments repeatedly failing to find a breakthrough. 

A large majority of nations have been pushing for an accelerated timeline that would ensure the AR7 reports can be fed into the UN’s global stocktake. But a group of countries, including Saudi Arabia, India, China, Russia and Kenya, have said at previous IPCC meetings they want a longer process, arguing a fast-tracked assessment would put a burden on developing countries with limited resources.

Science and the stocktake

That fight has now bled into the Bonn talks where governments began discussing the arrangements for the next stocktake. At a session earlier this week, most developed countries, Latin American and small island states, and the world’s poorest nations emphasised the assessment of collective climate action must be guided by the “best available science” – code for the findings of the IPCC reports.

The Maldives, speaking for small island states, said IPCC science remains “essential to the integrity, credibility and usefulness” of the stocktake. AILAC said that starting the process “on the right footing” requires a political decision on the timeline to deliver the AR7 reports in time. Switzerland said IPCC reports “ask more than is politically comfortable, but that is precisely why they must guide every decision we make”.

Saudi Arabia, however, said no particular scientific input – and in particular what comes out of the IPCC – should be prioritised. Similarly, India warned against creating “some kind of preferred hierarchy” in the role that any specific source of information should play in the process.

Ghana’s Antwi-Boasiako Amoah, who chairs the African Group, told a press conference on Tuesday that some countries think rushing to get IPCC inputs into the global stocktake could “undermine or compromise the IPCC process”. “Africa is for science,” he said, without saying where the continent stands on the IPCC timeline.

Crunch talks in October

At the “Friends of Science” press conference, Dhakal pushed back on the idea that science would have to be rushed to be incorporated. He said the IPCC leadership has “perfectly made it clear” that they can deliver the report before the global stocktake. “It is the scientists who are saying they can deliver it on time,” he said. 

The “Friends of Science” press conference at UN climate talks in Bonn on June 17, 2026. Photo: Marie Jacquemine/Greenpeace) The “Friends of Science” press conference at UN climate talks in Bonn on June 17, 2026. Photo: Marie Jacquemine/Greenpeace)

The discussion will be picked up again at the next IPCC session in October, where its boss Jim Skea is hoping to reach an agreement. “As a scientist myself, I cannot overstate the importance of this decision,” he told governments in Bonn last week.

Andreas Sieber, head of political strategy at campaigning group 350.org, told Climate Home News that the debate may sound procedural, “but it is anything but”. “Science is the backbone of the Paris Agreement ambition cycle, and the evidence assessed through AR7 will help determine not only the emissions pathways countries pursue, but also how the world responds to mounting climate losses and who receives support,” he said in Bonn.

The post Science ‘under attack’ from fossil fuel interests at UN climate talks appeared first on Climate Home News.

General Motors and Rivian announcements this month underscore the growing U.S. electric vehicle fleet’s load management potential.

What if there were an educational program that could ignite a sense of wonder in middle school students, bring science to life in unforgettable ways, and nurture a stewardship ethic? That is precisely what the Sturgeon in the Classroom program is doing. It is transforming curiosity into connection, and connection into care for the natural […]

Ongoing legal battles regarding non-condensing commercial gas water heaters and residential gas furnaces have not yet slowed U.S. gas storage water-heater shipments, AHRI data shows.

The hard work and dedication from our Mormon Slough Restoration Association, volunteers, community members, local partners and Restore the Delta Staff, by Flood and Land Restoration Manager Artie Valencia, was covered in a recent article by Lois Henry in SJV Water.

Our Mormon Slough restoration efforts are driven by a broad coalition including local organizations, Stockton residents, scientists, environmental experts, and Tribal leaders. As a 100% community driven project, voices of the community matter at every step. 

BLOCK QUOTE: “Valencia said the Mormon Slough project is a prime example of how a locally driven project can advance both community needs and broader Delta Conservation goals…”

The article highlights how since late last year, staff and volunteers have held over 70 community meetings, knocked on more than 3,000 doors and gathered feedback from Stockon residents on the possibilities behind restoring the Mormon Slough. Last month, dozens of community members gathered for our first visioning meeting, giving their input on potential designs and plans for the waterway.

To read more on the history of ths slough and our restoration efforts, you can read the article here. 

You can also get involved by joining us at our next visionion meeting on July 25 from 10am-2pm at The Sycamore (630 E Weber Ave, Stockton, CA 95202). This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments and lunch will be served at the meeting. 

###

I’m lucky to live immediately adjacent to Point Reyes National Seashore in California and make frequent visits to indulge my photography hobby. In the summer I can work a full day and still search for bobcats through the evening golden hour. And I’m truly privileged to be able to advocate for its restoration and protection in my capacity as executive director of Turtle Island Restoration Network.

Photo: Ken Bouley. Used with permission.

Point Reyes is a coastal treasure protecting about 110 square miles of some of the most scenic and biodiverse landscapes on the planet. Surrounded by marine protected areas on its western coastline and buffered by open spaces of various jurisdiction on eastern inland boundaries, the West Coast’s only national seashore supports extraordinary species richness for both plants and wildlife. Meanwhile its proximity to San Francisco and Oakland provides an unusually accessible oasis for humans seeking recreation and outdoor experiences. Point Reyes receives more than 2 million visitors per year.

That number could soon increase — and it should. People deserve to see this amazing landscape. A recent legal settlement added new protection to Point Reyes that should make it even more magnificent. But getting to that point still requires effort, coordination, and vigilance against both new and returning threats.

How We Got Here

The Seashore has a rocky history. It was signed into existence by John F. Kennedy in 1962. Over the next decade or so, the federal government purchased private ranches in the area, adding acreage in a puzzle-piece fashion, and sparing the whole peninsula from seemingly inexorable sprawl development.

What followed were decades of controversy and conflict over the best ultimate uses of the park. Commercial ranches were initially allowed to stay in operation, leasing back the land they’d just sold to the public. But beef and dairy cattle operations increasingly conflicted with the park’s preservation and public-use principles. Damage from overgrazing and ranching lease violations came under public scrutiny. A battle raged over controlling tule elk in the only national park where they still occur. With growing concerns of extinction and climate crises, pressure from citizens and environmental groups boiled over and, following a recent settlement, the government enacted changes to move away from private businesses guiding park management.

Now 10 out of 12 commercial cattle operations have now vacated the park. With the departure of all dairy and most beef cattle ranches, around 17,000 acres of formerly overgrazed lands are shifting from “pastoral working zone” to “scenic landscape” — meaning they are slated, in theory at least, for ecological restoration.

Photo: Ken Bouley. Used with permission.

The January 2025 Point Reyes settlement took more than a decade of intensive pressure: several iterations of a park management plan, litigation, protests, public hearings and comments, investigative journalism, town halls, letters to the editor, petitions, intrepid photographers photo-documenting lease violations and environmental degradation, ranch infrastructure decay, extended drought, and collapse of dairy markets.

The heavy lifting was done via lawsuits by the Center for Biological Diversity (publisher of The Revelator), Resource Renewal Institute, and Western Watersheds projects, with pro bono support from Advocates for the West. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) provided a reported $40 million in voluntary lease buyouts to incentivize the ranch leaseholders to vacate. As part of the deal, the National Park Service has repurposed the former grazing leases into restoration leases, initially to be held and managed by TNC.

The transition marks a rare moment in conservation: A large, publicly owned coastal landscape has a chance to recover its ecological integrity. Stakeholders including federal agencies, conservation nonprofits, ranching interests, tribal representatives, scientists, and the broader public are asking a high-stakes question: Now what?

Here are five key areas of focus that can guide the restoration of Point Reyes as a model for ecological recovery, climate resilience, and inclusive stewardship.

1. Restore Native Coastal Prairie — A Scarce and Valuable Ecosystem

California’s native coastal prairie is among the most imperiled ecosystems in North America. Once widespread along the Pacific Coast, this unique habitat survives in less than 1% of its former glory today. Grasslands that remain are fragmented, degraded, and under constant pressure from invasive species, altered fire regimes, and adjacent land-use practices.

At Point Reyes the reduction of commercial cattle grazing is an unprecedented opportunity to restore thousands of acres of coastal prairie. This is not as simple as removing fences and letting nature take its course. Decades of intensive cattle grazing have compacted and altered soils, caused erosion, and spread invasive plants.

Photo: Ken Bouley. Used with permission.

Effective restoration will require planning and active management: controlling invasive plants, reseeding native bunchgrasses and wildflowers, reintroducing natural disturbance regimes such as prescribed fire and grazing by elk, monitoring ecosystem responses, and adaptive management.

Native prairie restoration is about more than just plants. These ecosystems support pollinators, ground-nesting birds, small mammals, and a host of invertebrates that form the foundation of coastal biodiversity. Rebuilding prairie habitats also enhances carbon sequestration in soils, contributing to climate mitigation.

At Point Reyes we have a chance to recover a nearly lost landscape, one that is both ecologically rich and culturally significant. This is also a rare opportunity to learn how formerly grazed grasslands react to different restoration regimes. Point Reyes offers a valuable laboratory for soil science, botany, and restoration ecology.

2. Wildlife Recovery and Reintroduction: Rebuilding A Functional Ecosystem

The management changes at Point Reyes will allow recovery of existing wildlife populations, as well as opportunities for reintroduction of wildlife species that have been extirpated but once played essential ecological roles.

The most visible beneficiaries will be tule elk, endemic to California. Once thought extinct, tule elk were reduced to a single remnant population in the San Joaquin Valley that was protected and became the source for elk reintroductions around the state. The National Park Service reintroduced two dozen elk to Point Reyes in 1978, and today the park’s population has grown to about 700 elk.

Photo: Ken Bouley. Used with permission.

The Park Service has removed a large fence across Tomales Point that formerly pinned elk on a peninsula, allowing them to roam freely. Under the settlement the agency also abandoned a proposed arbitrary population cap on elk that would have greenlighted annual shooting and hazing of tule elk to reduce competition with grazing cattle. With the removal of ranching infrastructure and cattle that competed for forage, elk will have significantly more room to roam in the park, potentially improving herd health and reducing human-wildlife conflicts.

Marin County is notably the only coastal county north of the Golden Gate Bridge without wild beavers. Beaver reintroduction represents a powerful, nature-based solution for watershed restoration. As ecosystem engineers, beavers create wetlands that improve water storage, reduce erosion, enhance biodiversity, benefit wildlife such as coho salmon and other endangered species, and build resilience to drought and wildfire.

Similarly, formerly abundant sea otters were extirpated during the fur trade era. Today southern sea otters are listed as endangered, and their recovery along the central and northern California coasts is an important conservation priority. Reestablishing sea otter presence at Point Reyes could contribute to broader population resilience and recovery. Sea otters are also keystone species, helping to maintain eelgrass and kelp forests, which in turn support fisheries, biodiversity, and carbon storage.

In the heart of Point Reyes, Drakes Estero is an excellent potential reintroduction location for sea otters, since the estuary is free from predatory sharks and dangerous boat traffic, rich in marine invertebrate foods for otters, and surrounded by designated wilderness. Sea otters could help control invasive Eurasian green crabs who have upset the local ecology.

And that’s not all: A recent report by Turtle Island Restoration Network explores the feasibility of reintroducing these three native mammals — and four more — to Point Reyes, and the ecological benefits and practical considerations for such efforts.

Reintroduction works best when it restores natural ecological processes, putting nature in the form of elk, beavers, and otters to work in restoring habitats. But such ecological changes must be approached carefully and require rigorous assessment, long-term monitoring, and collaboration amongst agencies and communities.

Point Reyes already serves as an ark against the Anthropocene flood of human impacts, harboring nearly 100 endangered, threatened, or rare plants and animals. If the Bay Area’s signature park can bring back animals extirpated upon European arrival, it will be an exemplary and inspiring example of the national parks as “America’s best idea.”

3. Tribal Co-Management and Cultural Renewal

Point Reyes is the ancestral home of the Coast Miwok, whose stewardship shaped the area over many thousands of years. Colonization removed and displaced these communities and disrupted their relationship with unceded land. The restoration of Point Reyes presents an opportunity to move beyond acknowledgment toward meaningful partnership. As a formal part of the settlement and the newly revised general management plan for the Seashore, the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, whose membership includes Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo peoples, are official management partners with the National Park Service.

Tribal comanagement can bring Indigenous knowledge, cultural practices, and stewardship values back into land management, including the use of cultural burning to maintain grasslands, restoration of culturally significant plant species, protection of archeological and sacred sites, and the bolstering of programs that support cultural revitalization. Indigenous stewardship practices have sustained ecosystems for millennia and offer valuable insights for modern restoration challenges.

4. Expanding Public Access to Newly Opened Lands

For decades large portions of Point Reyes were effectively inaccessible to the public due to active ranching operations. While technically open, these lands were often surrounded by barbed wire, gated, or difficult to navigate safely. They were also covered with what cows do — high boots were not optional.

With the departure of most ranches, thousands of acres of public land can now be reimagined for public use. This presents an opportunity to expand trail systems, improve connectivity between existing park areas, and create new spaces for hiking, wildlife viewing, and environmental education.

Photo: Ken Bouley. Used with permission.

However, increased visitation can bring unintended impacts: trail erosion, habitat disturbance, and pressure on sensitive species. Restoration and recreation must be balanced through careful planning, including designated trails, seasonal closures of sensitive areas, visitor education, and enforcement.

Done right, expanded access can deepen public appreciation for the landscape while fostering a constituency that supports its protection. It can also redistribute visitor use, reducing overcrowding in heavily trafficked areas of the Seashore.

This is not just about opening gates; it’s about evolving how people engage with public lands in a way that aligns with ecological recovery.

5. Environmental Justice and Equitable Access to Nature

For many residents of the San Francisco Bay Area, particularly those from historically marginalized communities, access to national parks remains limited by economic, transportation, logistical, and cultural barriers.

Progressive environmental organizations have long emphasized the importance of linking conservation with community engagement. Ensuring that restoration benefits are shared broadly, not just ecologically but socially, is key to building lasting support.

With expanded access and renewed focus, the Seashore can become a gateway to nature for millions of people who may not have the opportunity to visit Yosemite or Yellowstone. This will require intentional programming: transportation initiatives, community partnerships, multilingual education efforts, and outreach that reflects the diversity of the region. Groups such as Outdoor Afro, Latino Outdoors, Rainbow Sierrans, and others can partake in, support, and enjoy increased access and restoration of the Seashore.

Equity in access is not an afterthought; it’s central to the mission of public lands. A restored Point Reyes can serve as a model for how national parks can better serve the public in all its diversity.

Notes of Skepticism

There is, of course, an orange elephant in the room. Until the next presidential election, any progress involving federal agencies or federal funding faces more of a vertical cliff than an uphill battle.

For example, reintroducing beavers would occur under the auspices of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and might actually make progress, whereas reintroducing sea otters would require the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a federal agency suffering from DOGE budget cuts and firings and under Trump’s Interior Department that is hostile to conservation.

Worse than simply starving the relevant agencies of resources, there remains the specter of active interference in the Point Reyes settlement by the Trump administration. Local businessman and “regenerative ranching” pied piper Albert Straus has made overtures to Washington to roll back the decision and bring private commercial dairies back to the Seashore. Mr. Straus owns Straus Family Creamery and stands to gain financially if his implausible prayers are answered at the Department of the Interior.

The ranchers with the two remaining ranching leases in the Seashore have sued the Park Service to try to overturn the settlement. One of these beneficiaries of publicly subsidized generous lease conditions and reduced grazing fees and personal rent, Nicolette Hahn Niman, ran for Congress against incumbent Jared Huffman (D-CA-2) in an apparent attempt to penalize Huffman’s support for the Seashore settlement, but lost in June’s primary.

Another issue of concern is the question of how committed The Nature Conservancy will be to actual and full ecological restoration at Point Reyes given the political backlash by ranchers, agricultural interests and the Trump administration. TNC is proud of its longstanding relationships with ranchers and champions “restoration grazing” vociferously. The Point Reyes settlement includes managing the new leases for ecological, restoration, public use, and historical and cultural values. This will include continued cattle grazing, but at significantly reduced stocking rates and duration, with promises of rotating cattle off of grasslands before damage occurs. Will TNC implement rotational grazing minimally and as part of a practical restoration regime, or will it recreate the overgrazing and degraded conditions that characterized Point Reyes for decades?

Among the coalition of environmentalists and advocates who fought for Point Reyes restoration, there is skepticism or cautious optimism about the way and degree to which TNC will use cows on leased land in the Seashore. This concern was amplified when TNC awarded a short-term rotational grazing contract to a remaining private ranch leaseholder who forewent the settlement negotiations, sued to overturn the settlement, and is maneuvering to maintain or expand his commercial operations in the Seashore.

TNC is of course aware of these concerns and has committed to a transparent public process to develop a management and restoration plan for the lease lands and is sharing their vision and plan with the concerned public.

Conditions for Success

The opportunities for ecological restoration and public benefits at Point Reyes are significant, but they are not guaranteed. Realizing them depends on several critical conditions:

First, the settlement that enabled this transition must be upheld and allowed to proceed without interference. Legal certainty provides the foundation for long-term planning and investment.

Second, agencies with authority, particularly the Park Service and California Department of Fish and Wildlife, must actively engage, coordinate, and commit resources to the restoration.

Third, collaboration among stakeholders is essential. Conservation groups, Tribal representatives, scientists, and local communities must work together. Local environmental groups should be allowed to bring their expertise, volunteer power, and funding to the restoration effort. This, unfortunately, has not yet occurred, and there’s no committed timeline.

Fourth, restoration must be understood as an ongoing process, not a one-and-done. Ecosystems take time to recover, and adaptive management will be necessary as conditions change.

Finally, all stakeholders must understand and commit to the established purposes of the national park system, as stated in the Organic Act of 1916: “to conserve the scenery, natural/historic objects, and wildlife, while providing for public enjoyment in a manner that leaves them ‘unimpaired’ for future generations.”

Point Reyes stands at a rare inflection point. Few places have the chance to reclaim such a large and ecologically significant landscape in one coordinated effort. The question is no longer whether restoration is possible. It is whether we will rise to meet the opportunity.

Republish this article for free! Read our reprint policy. Previously in The Revelator:

This Is What Community-Powered Restoration Looks Like

The post Rewilding Point Reyes National Seashore: Why and How appeared first on The Revelator.

This article is part of Food Tank’s primer series, “Food Tank Explains.” Each installment unpacks the ideas, innovations, and challenges shaping today’s food and agriculture systems, offering clear insights into complex topics. To explore more articles in the series, click here.

Seed saving is the practice of collecting and preserving seeds to produce future crops from past harvests, creating a cycle of cultivation that has sustained agricultural communities for millennia. For thousands of years, farmers and gardeners have saved seeds, preserving biodiversity, strengthening food-system resilience, and maintaining cultural traditions.

By continually selecting and replanting seeds, farmers developed crops adapted to local conditions while maintaining genetic diversity that can improve resilience to pests, disease. Seed saving can also help farmers recover from storms, droughts, and other extreme weather.

For many communities, saving seeds is deeply connected to culture, identity, and community life. Many developed sophisticated traditions for collecting, storing, exchanging, and stewarding seeds. “We cannot separate culture and identity from the art, act, and love of growing food,” Sherry Manning, Founder and CEO of Global Seed Savers, tells Food Tank

Seeds can also serve as living records of history. Accounts collected by seed-saving organizations tell of a Holocaust survivor who smuggled bean seeds out of Auschwitz in the folds of her clothing, and gardens cultivated by internees at Germany’s Ruhleben camp during World War I. Refugees fleeing the city of Daraa in Syria carried eggplant and pepper seeds across the border to Jordan and replanted them in exile.

In her essay “Black Land Matters,” Leah Penniman, Soul Fire Farm cofounder, activist, farmer, and author of Farming While Black,  describes West African women who braided seeds into their hair before being forced onto transatlantic slave ships. “The seed was their most precious legacy,” Penniman writes, “and they believed against odds in a future of tilling and reaping the earth.”

There is evidence that hunter-gatherer communities collected and cultivated wild seeds as early as 30,000 years ago. During the emergence of agriculture around 12,000 years ago, communities around the world began selecting and replanting seeds. They gradually transformed wild species into domesticated crops that remain central to global diets today, like wheat, lentils, chickpeas, rice, and sorghum.

Farmers remained at the center of selecting and improving seed varieties for most of agricultural history. “But about 100 years ago, that began to change,” Ira Wallace, Co-owner of Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, tells Food Tank.

During the 20th century, mechanization, advances in plant breeding, and the growth of commercial seed companies profoundly reshaped agriculture. As food production became more centralized and food processing more prevalent, many farmers and gardeners shifted from saving seeds to purchasing them each season, and from local varieties to genetically uniform, high-yielding varieties.

A series of court decisions and regulatory changes in the 1980s and 1990s accelerated this shift by expanding intellectual property protections for seeds. Companies gained the ability to patent genetically engineered seeds, plant varieties, breeding methods, and genetic traits, transforming many seeds from a renewable and reusable resource for farmers into proprietary products governed by licensing agreements.

As seed companies consolidated, four firms came to control more than half of global seed sales. Supporters argue consolidation has increased investment in breeding and research, while critics contend it has contributed to the loss of locally adapted varieties. Roughly 75 percent of global crop genetic diversity has disappeared over the past century, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Patent protections generally prevent farmers from saving patented seeds, increasing reliance on commercial suppliers and narrow farmers’ options. Some researchers have also linked consolidation to rising costs; according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data, soybean seed prices increased by more than 200 percent between 2000 and 2020, while consumer prices rose 57 percent during the same period.

In recent decades, concerns about biodiversity loss, climate change, and consolidation in the seed industry have renewed broader interest in seed saving. That resurgence has helped fuel a broader movement centered on seed sovereignty, the idea that farmers and communities should have the right to control over the seeds they grow, save, exchange, and develop.

In Kenya, the Seed Savers Network advocates for stronger protections for Indigenous seeds while partnering with smallholder farmers to identify, preserve, and reintroduce local varieties at risk of disappearing. In the Philippines, Global Seed Savers works with farmers to establish community-owned seed libraries stocked with regionally adapted varieties.

Other initiatives focus on returning seeds to the communities that stewarded them. Nonprofits including Seed Savers Exchange have worked to rematriate heritage seed varieties to Indigenous seed keepers, while Native Seeds/SEARCH conserves thousands of traditional Indigenous crops.

Seed banks and seed exchanges have also expanded worldwide. In Norway, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault safeguards more than 1.3 million seed samples representing over 6,000 plant species. In eastern India, Vrihi maintains one of the region’s largest folk rice seed banks and promotes the practice of non-commercial seed exchange. The Crop Trust is dedicated to making crop diversity for use globally, forever and for the benefit of everyone, and operates genebanks worldwide.

Policymakers have also begun revisiting seed laws. In 2021, Maine became the first U.S. state to enshrine a right to food in its constitution, including the right to save and exchange seeds. And in 2025, Kenya’s High Court struck down provisions of the country’s seed law that penalized farmers for saving and sharing Indigenous seeds, a decision advocates described as a major victory for food sovereignty.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Vincenzo Tabaglio, Unsplash

The post Food Tank Explains: Seed Saving appeared first on Food Tank.