Light at the End of the Tunnel

The Netherlands built nearly 3,000 wildlife crossings over and under roads, railways, and waterways to reduce habitat fragmentation, allowing wildlife to roam freely without becoming roadkill.

The Nez Perce Tribe is installing solar panels on homes and community buildings across their reservation with the goal of producing enough energy to replace the hydroelectric dams on the Snake River responsible for the diminishing salmon and steelhead populations.

The Okanagan Nation Alliance leads a Fish in Schools program that donates fish spawn and the equipment to raise them to elementary and secondary schools near their territory. Thousands of fish raised by the students are released into local waterways during ceremonies at the end of the school year as a part of their efforts to bring salmon back to the area.

The once-declining elephant population at Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe is now stable because the rangers use the core-buffer model to keep them safe. To ensure they have enough room to live comfortably, the elephants are allowed to wander far into less-protected zones. But the park has a well-protected core patrolled by rangers that elephants can return to when they feel threatened.

Dams make for complex and often controversial infrastructure. While hydropower generated from large dam projects is currently providing the bulk of the planet's renewable energy, dams can also cause major environmental and social damage by interrupting animal migrations, displacing indigenous communities, and collecting toxins. A number of solutions are being implemented, however, to address the various issues caused by dams, to help make them a more eco-friendly and viable source of clean energy.

Researchers and conservationists in European countries like Finland are buying obsolete dams and dismantling them to allow river ecosystems to recover and fish to travel freely.

The Penobscot Nation gathered a cohort of organizations to form the Penobscot River Restoration Trust so they could purchase and demolish damns that were threatening the river’s health. The river and native fish recovered quickly as a result.

For two decades, the Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds has restored native trees on ​​São Miguel Island to increase the food and nesting habitat available for the Azores bullfinch. As a result, the population of the bird increased enough to be downlisted from critically endangered to vulnerable.

Scientists in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, are propagating common species of mussels to restore the once-thick mussel beds in local waterways. The mussels work as filters that purify the water and improve the health of the ecosystem.

A group of conservationists created Techo de Agua to engage communities in Colombia with conservation efforts for endangered species like the black-and-chestnut speckled eagles and spectacled bears. The nonprofit educates locals about the importance of these animals and reduces human-wildlife conflict with individualized solutions.