It takes a school, and a community, to save this rare Philippine hornbill

In a setting constantly threatened by natural disaster, El Salvador communities are showing that small grassroots movements can have a big impact on the health of the environment. On this particular occasion, as part of the nonprofit known as the Mangrove Association, sea turtles are directly benefiting from a reforestation and protection effort executed by the local communities.

Amy Edelstein thought that if high school students knew how to meditate they could learn how to focus, stay on track, and regulate negative self-talk. They could become better. So, in 2014 she started the Inner Strength Foundation to provide public schools with research-backed mindfulness curriculum. The curriculum has become a 12-week program, with instructors visiting classrooms in 19 schools across the city once a week.

A unique partnership between the U.S. military, conservation groups, private landowners, and state and local governments has allowed the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker to grow in numbers. By working together, they’ve been able to protect the forests near military bases where these birds live. Environmentalists are worried about efforts to remove the birds from the endangered species list, saying their work isn’t over. However, this partnership has become a model for other conservation efforts throughout the United States.

About “1,500 (High School) students from 75 of the nation’s poorest schools in 35 cities,” are enrolling in college courses in elite universities like Harvard and Columbia through an initiative started by a nonprofit—and succeeding. The aim of the program is to prepare underprivileged students for the rigors of college education, and give them a confidence boost before they enter college. They complete the same coursework as the college students and get a grade. “All of these schools talk this game, ‘We want diversity, but we can’t find these kids,’ and this proves they can build a pipeline."

In Australia, a universal survey in several secondary schools helps to identify students who are at risk of becoming homeless and connects them with wraparound services. The prevention-based model may soon be piloted in King County, Washington.

The Guardians of the Forest is an indigenous volunteer group who patrols protected areas of the Amazon rainforest being destroyed by illegal logging. Volunteers seek out and destroy logging camps, chase loggers off the land, educate locals about the harms, and advocate for government resources. The loggers use violence, but the Guardians use non-violent techniques to protect uncontacted tribes, stop deforestation and species extinction, and protect indigenous culture. Despite federal obstacles, some local officials express a desire to integrate the work of the Guardians into official conservation efforts.

Africa's wildlife have made headlines time and time again, as species find their way closer to extinction. There are some pockets of the continent, however that have provide refuge for species and allowed them to not just populate, but thrive. Recognizing this, a group known as African Parks found a way to use these growing populations to repopulate other areas of the continent by transporting animals to newly protected areas.

The advancement of technology has created the capability to consider solutions never before possible. Conservation X Labs, a startup based in Washington, D.C., has committed their focused on marrying the worlds of conservation and technology, to combat mounting concerns of international poaching and deforestation. While the scaling of the technology is stagnated largely due to the expense of technology, progress has been made and devices are actively being piloted.

The local tribe in the Pueblo of Santa Ana in New Mexico has been working on restoring their land for some time in order to maintain the health of the ecosystem and their culture. They've since expanded through collaboration efforts with state and local government that have helped reintroduce species and further restore the area.

A partnership between the Africa Nature Investors (ANI) Foundation and Nigeria's National Park Service introduced a community-led conservation model at Okomu National Park that transformed former illegal loggers and poachers into paid rangers and entrepreneurs. This reduced chainsaw incidents, expanded patrol coverage, recorded a stable elephant population, and provided over 120 residents with access to savings and loans that reduced their economic dependence on the forest.