Protected areas such as wildlife sanctuaries, national parks, and conservation lands highlight the global need for both preservation, protecting environments from harmful human development, and conservation, using nature sustainably. From saving Asiatic lions in India to protecting dolphins in New Zealand, here are six extraordinary wildlife sanctuaries making a real difference.

Bwindi Impenetrable Forest – Mountain Gorillas

Located in the Rift Valley of Uganda, the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest is home to approximately 320 mountain gorillas — half of this critically endangered species’ world population. 

The ancient Bwindi primeval forest that these animals reside in dates back more than 25,000 years, and is one of Africa’s most biodiverse ecosystems. The park was officially established in 1991 with the purpose of protecting the forest’s mountain gorilla population from poachers and habitat destruction. 

In the primate family, gorillas are classified as great apes, not monkeys. Other types of great apes include orangutans, chimpanzees, and yes… humans. One of the closest living relatives of humans, we share up to 98% of our DNA with gorillas. In fact, Gorillas are highly intelligent creatures, in 2025 it was discovered they use tools and since then it’s been discovered they can learn sign language. 

Unlike many exaggerated Hollywood depictions of gorillas such as King Kong, gorillas are gentle and peaceful creatures with strong social relationships. They live in ”tribes” of family units, maintaining close connections with their loved ones, and eat a mostly vegetarian diet.

Banks Peninsula Marine Mammal Sanctuary – Dolphins

The Banks Peninsula Marine Mammal Sanctuary, New Zealand’s first marine mammal sanctuary was created around Banks Peninsula in 1988 to protect the endangered Hector’s dolphin. 

Hector’s dolphins are strikingly beautiful creatures, with an unusual rounded dorsal fin and a combination of streamline black, grey, and white markings. They are the smallest marine dolphin in the world and are found only off the coasts of New Zealand. These acrobatic dolphins who leap and dive, have been found to dive to depths of up to nearly 400 feet. 

Dolphin species are unabashedly adorable and tend to display natural curiosities towards humans, but have been known to get caught in fishing nets and to come across other human-wildlife-caused incidents. This is why commercial fishing, seismic surveying, and seabed mining are prohibited in the sanctuary with few exceptions. Additionally, the Sanctuary encourages visitors in boats to slow down and turn off their motor when dolphins are nearby, especially when young dolphins are present. 

The Hector’s dolphin is still classified as nationally vulnerable, while its subspecies the Māui dolphin is critically endangered, making Banks Peninsula Marine Mammal Sanctuary a crucial space for the survival of their species. 

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge – Bears

Approximately the size of South Carolina, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of few places in the world that is home to all three species of North American bears — the black bear, the brown bear, and the polar bear. 

Being large animals, bears require large ranges of land, and have thrived on the refuge’s nearly twenty million acres of open wilderness. For the Gwitch’in indigenous tribe, the area is known as “the sacred place where life begins.”

The refuge is especially important to Polar bears, a species threatened with extinction due to climate change that relies on the refuge’s arctic climate and sea ice of the coastal habitats. Brown bears or “grizzly bears” that live in the refuge also call this place home and can sometimes hibernate for up to 8 months out of the year here. Black bears, which live in the southern forests of this area, are the smallest bear species of the refuge’s three bear populations. 

A realm of untouched wilderness, without roads, facilities, or cell phone coverage inside the Refuge, this mighty expanse may seem impossible to enter but is surprisingly quite the contrary. Open to the public, without visitor fees or specific entry points, many visitors find ways to enjoy the land’s untouched condition on guided trips through the wilderness. 

Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary – Lions

Located in India’s Gujarat Province, Gir National Park is the last remaining natural habitat of the endangered Asiatic lion. 

The Asiatic lion, once nearly driven to extinction in the 20th century due to uncontrolled hunting and habitat loss, at one point had only 20 individuals left in the wild. But the creation of the Gir sanctuary in 1965 and its upgraded status to a national park in 1975, offered these lions a miraculous final chance at survival. 

Asiatic lions are the only wild lions found outside of Africa, having once roamed throughout Asia including in ancient regions of Persia, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Balochistan, and India. Smaller in size and traveling in smaller prides, the asiatic lion is much like the African Lion, only smaller.

Visitors are open to the park year-round where lions of the Gir forest still roam. 

Serengeti National Park – Wildebeests 

Wildebeests annually migrate across the wild plains of Serengeti National Park in what is called The Great Migration. Famously captured in Disney’s The Lion King, Wildebeest’s epic journeys create dramatic effects. The 1500 km trek is one of the largest mammal migrations on earth. 

Wildebeests; an unusual antelope simultaneously resembling a cow, a horse, and a gazelle, migrate north to south, based on rain patterns across the Serengeti. Annually they follow the rains in search of green vegetation and water.  

Wildebeests play a crucial role in the African savanna ecosystem. With their population consuming over 4,500 tons of grass each day, wildebeests act as nature’s lawnmowers across the savannas, preventing overgrowth and reducing wildfire risk.  

Komodo National Park – Komodo Dragons

Between the islands of Sumbawa and Flores in the Indonesian archipelago lies Komodo National Park; a wildlife sanctuary dedicated to the famous komodo dragon. Located across three volcanic islands, this park is home to around 5,700 fearsome individual komodo dragons. 

As the world’s largest lizard, Komodo dragons are powerful animals, growing up to 10 feet long and weighing up to 150 lbs! These tough creatures have been known to take down animals of much larger sizes including water buffalo, deer, and wild pigs, using their venomous bite as a weapon. 

What also makes Komodo dragons a force to be reckoned with is their thick skin. The outer layers of a Komodo Dragon’s body are made up of thousands of tiny bones under their skin that protect them like a plate of armor. 

This isn’t your typical lizard. The Komodo dragon is one tough cookie and an apex predator.

Saving Wildlife

Our planet is made up of so much biodiversity, it is truly incredible to reflect upon. In order to protect these species for future generations, we must advocate for these remarkable creatures and the pristine ecosystems they live in. We’ve barely scratched the surface on all of the fascinating wildlife sanctuaries out there, but there is still much work to be done to ensure all creatures live in their natural habitats.

Which is why we are advocating for Wikie and Keijo, mother and son orca whales, as well as twelve bottlenose dolphins, all highly social animals, who are currently held in captivity in deteriorating conditions in Marineland, a closed park, in Antibes, France. Tell President Macron today to intervene and make sure they are rehomed to a better facility.

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In 2024, global demand for coal, often called “the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel”, reached a record high, consumption hitting approximately 8.8 billion tons. 

Despite the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, a legally binding international treaty aimed at limiting global warming to well below 2°C, and ideally 1.5°C, coal emissions continue to rise as part of the world’s stubborn reliance on fossil fuels. To have any chance of meeting the 1.5°C target, global greenhouse gas emissions need to peak before 2025 at the latest, and then decline by 43% by 2030. The catch? We are already in 2025. The clock is ticking.

One of the governments still pursuing coal, despite its environmental impacts, is the United States. On September 29th, 2025, the U.S. government revealed a plan to revive the mining of coal in the United States. 

The U.S. Department of the Interior said it would open up 13.1 million acres of federal land for coal mining and lower royalty rates for companies needed to pay to extract coal. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Energy said it would invest $625 million to upgrade and expand the American coal industry. 

These coordinated actions reflect a significant federal push to reinvigorate coal, despite environmental concerns and the ongoing global shift toward cleaner energy sources. The pursuit of coal is a giant step backwards in the fight against climate change, but there is still time to switch to clean energy alternatives. 

Coal is Old 

According to the US Energy Information Administration, coal production peaked in the United States in 2008 and has declined in output ever since. Output of coal is estimated to decline even further globally in 2026.

According to Global Energy Monitor, there are currently 2,457 coal-fired power plants worldwide, including both operating and mothballed units. To keep global warming below 1.5°C, as targeted by the Paris Climate Agreement, all these plants need to be retired by 2030 in wealthy countries and to meet the Paris Climate Agreement, the equivalent of about two coal plants must be retired per week by 2040.

Coal alone was responsible for approximately 15.4 billion tons of CO2 emissions in 2023, consistently producing more CO2 than any other fossil fuel annually. Despite this, only 12% of coal-fired power plants have been shut down, 11% require accelerated closure plans, and a staggering 77% have no scheduled phaseout or retirement commitment.

Coal is a finite resource with an estimated 134 years left until existing coal mines are considered depleted and when current consumption rates are factored in. Known oil reserves have approximately 51 years left to pump oil on present consumption levels.  

But recent reports indicate that globally, there are over 850 new coal mine plans, expansions, and extensions in various stages of development, particularly concentrated in Asia-Pacific regions like China, India, and Australia. These new projects could add significant capacity to coal production, potentially extending the timeline of coal availability beyond current estimates. 

So while coal is finite, exploration and new discoveries coupled with expanding mining capacity suggest more coal could still be accessible than previously counted.

Coal is Dirty 

During the industrial revolution, coal soot filled the skies of industrial cities, lowering the life expectancy of workers and citizens alike.  According to a 2023 joint study from Harvard University, George Mason University, and University of Texas at Austin, exposure to fine particulate matter from coal-fired power plants (coal PM2.5) is associated with a risk of mortality more than double that of exposure to PM2.5 from other sources. 

Coal miners face even higher risks, both black lung disease and silicosis are commonly diagnosed in miners after years of inhaling coal dust. It has been estimated that at least 16% of coal miners are affected, and in 2018, 1 in 5 coal miners in the central Appalachian region of the United States showed evidence of black lung. 

Particularly vulnerable are “young miners”, with an increase in lung diseases affecting miners in their 40s. There is no cure.  Additionally, many coal miners suffer from mental health issues such as depression and suicidal thoughts, linked to poor working conditions and the physical toll of mining work. The combination of these health crises highlights ongoing occupational hazards faced by coal miners today.

Citizens around the world who use coal as a primary source of fuel also face health risks. Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, is a prime example of this, where frigid winters require people to constantly heat their homes. For many citizens, coal is the only source of affordable fuel available to them.

On top of using coal in their home stoves, locally coal-fired power plants generate the overwhelming majority of the city’s electricity, about 93%. All of this reliance on coal creates smoky skies and rampant health issues. Lung diseases in the capital are common across all ages, while it has been found that Ulaanbaatar’s children have 40% lower lung function than children living in rural Mongolia. 

Coal is Killing Wildlife

Coal poses significant environmental risks beyond its impact on human health. It contains toxic unburnable materials such as heavy metals, including lead, mercury, and arsenic, as well as  radioactive elements like uranium, which remain concentrated in coal ash after combustion.  This coal ash can contaminate ground and surface water.

Furthermore, coal mining often displaces local populations, destroys terrestrial habitats, and harms wildlife. Surface mining, in particular, causes large-scale land disturbance that alter topography, damage groundwater supplies, promote soil erosion, and reduce biodiversity.

Dump Coal

Globally, the highest demand for coal is concentrated in China, India, and Indonesia. With China alone accounting for more than half of the world’s coal production. Despite coal’s dominance, the energy transition is underway — with renewable energy surpassing coal for the first time to become the largest source of electricity generation worldwide. This shift demonstrates that while coal currently fuels much of the world, a cleaner, more sustainable energy future is achievable.

The United Kingdom, once defined by coal in the era of the industrial revolution, shuttered its last coal-fired power plant in 2024, making itself a coal-free nation for the first time in 142 years. 35 other countries have made similar moves, including Germany and South Korea. 

Retired coal plants can be converted into renewable energy plants, as 3D models demonstrate. People power around the world has led a movement to end coal  — activists like Jerry Curran, who through relentless activism, and with major public support, helped to close the Merrimack coal-fired power station in New Hampshire. The station was one of the most polluting power stations in the state and a single-point mercury polluter. 

However, he is not the only one. In the last 14 years, communities across the United States have mobilized to retire 381 coal plants which has saved over 54,000 lives. It may take many, but when we unite, we have the power to make real change. 

Investing In Our Futures

To maintain a green planet for future generations, it is crucial that we divest from fossil fuels and make the switch to renewable energies  —  it’s healthier for the planet, will create new clean jobs and it will save lives. Write to your local leaders encouraging them to back investment in renewable energies, such as solar, wind, and hydropower. 

It is Our Power, Our Planet, and even small actions can lead to big changes if we work together.

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Opinion

Dr. Jane Goodall lived nothing short of an extraordinary life. From expeditions in Africa to global speaking tours, Goodall fought tirelessly for the planet she loved and her work inspired millions of adults and children around the globe to compassionately advocate for environmental justice, human rights, and animal rights.   

For myself, Goodall was a sage, a beacon of hope, and my biggest inspiration. Her wisdom and  her compassion touched my heart and the hearts of many others, inspiring me to study and appreciate the world around me. While she will be dearly missed by the world, let us take a moment to celebrate the extraordinary life of Dr. Jane Goodall. 

How It All Began

Since infancy, Jane Goodall expressed a love of animals and nature. She accredited her pet dog, Rusty, as one of her greatest teachers, who taught her that animals have emotions, personalities, and feelings.

This idea that animals have emotions has since been reaffirmed by researchers in multiple scientific fields, including biology, anthropology, psychology, and philosophy. However, this belief was not widely held by scientists until Goodall’s landmark research on chimpanzees. 

Her lifelong dream of venturing to Africa came to fruition when Goodall started work as a secretary and assistant to acclaimed archaeologist Dr. Louis Leakey in 1956 at the age of 23 in Tanzania. In 1960, Goodall took on a research role for Dr. Leakey on Lake Tanganyika to study a troop of wild chimpanzees. It was here that she began to make an incredible discovery. 

A New Approach 

In her studies of chimpanzees, Jane Goodall took an unorthodox approach. Rather than assigning her test subjects numbers, she gave them names — a practice that was seen as unscientific at the time for “lack of objectivity”. But in practice, Goodall began to understand that just like their individual names, these animals had their own individual personalities. 

By practicing empathy in her scientific studies and observations of chimpanzees, Goodall was able to grow closer to the community she studied, like no scientist had ever before. Goodall’s groundbreaking discoveries in animal behaviour came from her devotion to observation, allowing her to authentically assess that chimpanzees had emotions and were much more similar to humans than previously thought, sharing 98.8% of their DNA with us.

Goodall brought her research into the public domain by writing for National Geographic, where her captivating stories and vivid writing invited readers, not just other zoologists, into her world. It profoundly changed the hearts of millions through fact based and beautiful storytelling. 

Goodall worked with chimpanzees in the Gombe of Tanzania  for nearly 30 years, observing several generations of troops, before focusing on activism. 

Female Empowerment

In a male dominant field, Jane Goodall opened the door for female scientists and researchers and became a trailblazer for women in STEM. Her influence spread far and wide. Women primatologists such as Dian Fossey and Biruté Galdikas came to the field of primate behavioral research following Goodall’s discoveries. 

Throughout her life Goodall believed women needed to be invited in the tent of education, reciprocating the idea that environmental justice was integrally linked with humanitarianism. For this reason, the Jane Goodall Institute, established in 1977,  provides scholarships for women’s education and supports access to family planning, health care, and clean water for young women in need.  

Relentless Activism

The Jane Goodall Institute, a global nonprofit global research and conservation organization, has 25 offices stationed around the world. 

One of Goodall’s most passionate beliefs was the importance of educating young people and in 1991, the Institute added the Roots and Shoots program, teaching youths about conservation in 75 countries and counting. Empowering the next generation was a core belief of Goodall’s, inspiring her to reach young audiences through in-person and online events. She even taught an online Masterclass on conservation.  

Through her relentless activism, Goodall obtained many environmental accomplishments. Goodall spoke out on the cruelty of animal testing, leading to the retirement of chimpanzees from all United States’ National Institutes of Health (NIH) labs and the successful closure of many labs that conducted animal testing including in Hamburg, Germany and at Harvard University. 

Additionally, Goodall strongly opposed factory farms and encouraged people to follow plant based diets when possible.

A Remarkable Story

Dr. Jane Goodall passed away at the age of 91 in her sleep on October 1st 2025 while on a speaking tour. Even in her old age she relentlessly continued her mission, traveling 300 days a year, educating audiences on the importance of protecting our home: planet Earth and all the species that call it home. 

In honor of her work, Tanzania designated the Gombe Stream Reserve a national park in 1978 and the Jane Goodall Institute operates a research station in the Reserve. 

Her many awards include the National Geographic Society’s Hubbard Medal, the Templeton Prize, a Dame of the British Empire, the U.S Presidential Medal of Freedom — the highest civilian honor in the United States, and a United Nations Messenger of Peace — the U.N.’s highest honor for global citizenship.

Dr. Jane Goodall’s impact on the world cannot be overstated, but we must continue to build the work she started. Students are already planting trees in honor of her legacy, but we all must join  in the movement, and we must not lose hope.

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Trees are absolutely vital to all life on Earth. To be blunt—humans cannot survive without them: they are nature’s air purifiers, constantly cleaning our atmosphere by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing the oxygen that sustains us. They cool our cities and neighborhoods, protect our precious soil from extreme weather by reducing storm damage and flooding through their root systems and canopy cover.  They feed us, provide us with raw materials for building and construction. 

Entire ecosystems and millions of species, insects, birds, mammals, fungi, and other organisms, depend on trees. 

Nearly one-third (34%) of all global forest loss from 2001 to 2024 is likely permanent, meaning these trees will not grow back naturally. In tropical primary rainforests, which are vital for biodiversity and carbon storage, the figure is even higher, 61% of forest loss between 2001 and 2024 is linked to permanent land use change such as agriculture and urbanization. 

This data highlights that a significant portion of the tree cover lost in the first two and a half decades of the 21st century is gone for good and global deforestation rates have put the Earth at risk of climate change acceleration.  The case for protecting and expanding our global tree cover has never been more urgent.

Higher Greenhouse Emissions

Trees not only produce oxygen through the process of photosynthesis, but they are also one of Earth’s greatest vacuum cleaners of greenhouse gases, using carbon dioxide and, becoming vast carbon sinks through their trunks, branches and root systems. In 2023, the U.S produced 4,682 million tons of carbon emissions, accounting for 12% of the world’s total carbon emissions. That same year it was estimated that trees absorbed over 800 million tons of carbon a year in the U.S alone. 

However, we are losing trees at an alarming rate. Within 2024 alone, tropical forest loss was estimated to be the equivalent of losing 18 soccer fields of forest per minute. Read that again, per minute!

As forests are cleared, not only do we lose the oxygen they supply, and their ability to absorb carbon but each individual tree lost also re-releases the carbon dioxide they stored back into the atmosphere, causing our Earth to heat up more in the process. 

It is Not Too Late

A recent study found that 482 million acres of land worldwide — an area the size of Mexico — is available for tree restoration. While this figure is smaller than previous estimates, since 2022 this study has estimated that tree restoration holds the potential to remove roughly 5% of total global fossil fuel and land-use change emissions. 

Projects like EARTHDAY.ORG’s The Canopy Tree Project help to reforest areas in dire need of rehabilitation, including areas with some of the world’s most at-risk communities from climate change such as Morocco, Madagascar, and Bangladesh to name just a few.  

Declining Precipitation

Trees play an important role in the Earth’s ability to make rain, also known as precipitation cycles. They do this through use of evapotranspiration, which is the process of absorbing water through their roots and then evaporating it back into the atmosphere as moisture, through their leaves. But forest loss can result in decreased precipitation, hurting ecosystems and communities that rely on rainy seasons.

Critical tropical rainforests, such as the Amazon and the Congo rainforest, drive regional precipitation and climate patterns far beyond their borders, creating rains which are especially critical during dry seasons.

In many regions of the world, such as the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe, extended losses of precipitation has led to increased risks of drought and crop failure. 

For example, the 2020-2023 drought in East Africa was the worst in over 40 years, with 5 failed rain seasons, that saw an estimated 43,000 people die in Somalia alone. More than 10 million livestock died. Following this East Africa drought, another drought struck in 2024, this time hitting Southern Africa, resulting in maize crop failure and widespread hunger in Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. 

Stronger Floods and Storm Surges 

Just as in dry seasons, wet seasons can also come with climate disasters that trees help to mitigate. 

During heavy rains, floods, and storm surges often caused by rising sea-levels induced flooding, trees help to slow stormwaters, starting from their leaves and all the way down into their roots. 

Leaves slow the speed of rain hitting the ground which gives the roots more time to absorb the water. Root uptake of excess water prevents soil erosion and is estimated to prevent nearly 400 billion gallons of runoff each year across the United States.

In coastal areas that experience intense hurricanes and monsoons, mangroves, a species of tree that is able to live in submerged, salty land somewhere between the land and the sea, act as important barriers to fast moving waters by taking the brunt force of the ocean’s waves. This limits inland flooding, erosion, infrastructure damages and human fatalities.   

Mangroves are found in tropic and subtropic locations all over the world including in parts of Asia, Africa, the Americas, Australia, and the island nations of Oceania. But many mangrove forests are in decline due to human development as in the Niger River Delta, increased toxics and pollution for example in the Papua province of Indonesia, and through stronger and more intense storms triggered by climate change, such as along the Florida Coastline of the United States. 

Threats to Indigenous Cultures 

More than 1.6 billion people worldwide strongly depend on forests for food, medicine, fuel, and their livelihoods. Particularly dependent on forests are many Indigenous peoples who use traditional knowledge, sustainable agriculture, and resource management to ensure their forests’ survival. Traditional forest caretaking has been a way of life for Indigenous peoples worldwide for over  a millenia and continues to benefit Earth’s forests. 

In 2023, industrial development threatened nearly 60% of Indigenous Peoples’ lands in 64 countries around the world. In the Amazon, the world’s largest forest, as of 2019, 68% of Indigenous lands and protected natural areas in the region are under pressure from infrastructure, mining, oil drilling, forest fires, and deforestation. Of this 68 percent, 22 percent of these lands are subject to specific mining and oil pressures. 

Trees also hold spiritual importance to many indigenous cultures around the world. Many trees are regarded as having spiritual qualities, including the sacred trees of Aboriginal and Australian First Nations communities, the western red cedars of the Coast Salish Tribe, and baobabs in the oral traditions of the Hausa people. A loss of trees is a loss of indigenous culture, harming spiritual connections, resources, and tradition.

Rebuilding Forests One Tree at a Time

Deforestation causes immense environmental and societal impacts, but supporting reforestation efforts like EARTHDAY.ORG’s The Canopy Tree Project — which has planted tens of millions of trees since its inception in 2010 — can help to counteract the devastations of deforestation. With your help we can continue this crucial work to strengthen communities worldwide, restoring forests and mending ecosystems for Our Power, Our Planet.

This article is available for republishing on your website, newsletter, magazine, newspaper, or blog. The accompanying imagery is cleared for use. Please ensure that the author’s name and their affiliation with EARTHDAY.ORG are credited. Kindly inform us if you republish so we can acknowledge, tag, or repost your content. You may notify us via email at davies@earthday.org or fielder@earthday.org. Want more articles? Follow us on substack.

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