The slow recovery of millennial-old salt marshes in Spain

To adjust from L.A. regularly draining Owens Lake for its water supply, locals have found that they can recover the dry lake by simply re-adding water to it, which prevents it from creating toxic dust storms. When water is added to the lake, the environment wakes up and becomes home to several plants and animals, specifically millions of birds, which depend on habitats like Owens Lake when traveling around the world.

A floodplain restoration project in California’s Central Valley is preventing flooding, replenishing groundwater, and providing habitat for wildlife. Most of the restoration work involved rewilding the land after removing the berms that protected the area from flooding when it was an agricultural field.

In Maine, Atlantic Sea Farms is harvesting kelp while helping lobster farmers diversify their income in preparation for climate change effects. The farm provides free kelp seed to its farmers and promises a buyback guarantee for everything they grow. At the same time, the kelp removes carbon and nitrogen to help mitigate climate change effects warming the water.

Environmental degradation and drought have led to conflict, poverty, and severe food insecurity in Kenya’s Baringo county. Hand In Hand International is helping communities rebound by offering training to women in entrepreneurship and new farming methods - particularly beekeeping - which provides economic empowerment, improves the ecosystem by boosting pollinator populations, and provides a steady source of nutritious food for those families eking out a living in these harsh landscapes.

As a part of the Arizona Conservation Corps’ Indigenous Communities Program, young adults from the Tohono O'odham Nation are working at national parks across Southern Arizona to build experience for careers in the National Park Service. The crews do restoration work, inventory resources, and educate the public and park visitors on the sites’ significance.

Humus farming is a technique that doesn’t harm the soil or organisms living in it but instead nourishes it, thus making it more sustainable for long-term use. Humus farming and other climate change mitigation tactics to revive soil and make it healthy and usable are spreading across Europe.

The Mai Po Nature Reserve in Hong Kong shows how the protection of mangrove forests is possible. These ecosystems are seen as a way to combat the effects of climate change since the forests can help prevent flood damage and store carbon. Yet, urban development, overfishing, and aquaculture pollution continue to threaten the recovery of mangrove forests in this region.

Working with communities to develop alternative forms of livelihood helps to curb unsustainable practices and land degradation. In Uganda, the destruction of wetland habitat by farmers had had a serious impact on the population of grey crowned cranes in recent decades. The Cranes and Wetlands conservation project provides support to local communities, working to find alternatives to draining wetlands and promoting habitat restoration.

Though the overall poverty rate has been dropping in recent years, rural communities in Uganda still lack many basic resources, including access to healthy food, toiletries, and economic opportunity. The Network of Women in Agribusiness and Development was founded by women to empower and support their sisters through educational initiatives, agricultural training, and the provision of items such as pigs and fruit trees to help them break the cycle of poverty.

The state of Louisiana is disappearing at an incredible rate, and its sinking deltas threaten some of the nation's crucial oil, gas, and fisheries industries. Industry and government have created an unprecedented plan to save and rebuild these wetlands over the next 50 years — and say failure is not an option.