Every August 12, International Youth Day recognizes the contributions of young people to sustainable development. The 2026 theme, “Different Contexts, Common Aspirations,” reflects the different conditions young people face and the shared goals that connect their efforts.

This year’s theme is especially relevant to global food systems, which shape both the livelihoods and well-being of young people around the world. Globally, 44% of working youth were employed in agrifood systems in 202.  At the same time, food insecurity among young people increased from 16.7% in 2014–2016 to 24.4% in 2021–2023. These figures show how closely young people’s futures are tied to the challenges and opportunities within food systems.

Young people are playing an increasingly active role in responding to these challenges and shaping the future of food systems. Across different regions and circumstances, they are developing solutions that reflect the needs of their own communities, from agriculture and school food to public policy, food waste, and the commercial environments that influence what people eat. The five examples below show how young people are turning local ideas into action and contributing to broader food-system change.

Bringing Precision Agriculture to Farmers — Benin

Food insecurity continues to affect communities across the West African nation of Benin, particularly during the lean season when access to food becomes more difficult. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) projects that more than 201,000 people will face acute food insecurity between June and August 2026. These pressures increase the need for practical agricultural innovations that can help farmers improve productivity, use resources more efficiently, and strengthen resilience against disturbances.

Young agricultural researcher Marietta Gonroudobou founded Agro Hikari to connect scientific knowledge with farmers. The platform translates agronomic research into practical guidance and has expanded into digital agriculture. Gonroudobou has also developed a drone-based spraying solution designed to make agricultural input use more precise.

In 2026, the World Food Prize Foundation named Gonroudobou a Top Agri-food Pioneer. Agro Hikari also won the Benin edition of the Prix Pierre Castel and received €25,000 plus a year of mentorship. The project remains an emerging model, and this support provides an opportunity to test its precision-agriculture services at a larger scale.

Rethinking the Waste That Comes With School Lunch — United States

Disposable food service items contribute to a large stream of plastic waste in the United States, including the polystyrene trays still used in many school cafeterias. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the country generated about 80,000 tons of polystyrene containers in 2018, and less than 5,000 tons were recycled. In Houston, three fourth-graders brought attention to this issue by questioning the use of disposable polystyrene trays in their school cafeterias.

In 2025, River Oaks Elementary students Celine David, Maddie Woods, and Dora Cabarcas researched alternatives to polystyrene lunch trays. They gathered more than 250 signatures on an online petition and presented their findings to Houston Independent School District leaders. Their efforts helped prompt HISD to launch a pilot program testing alternative trays at River Oaks Elementary and Hogg Middle School.

Evidence from other school systems suggests that reusable serviceware can substantially reduce cafeteria waste. A 2026 study of California elementary schools found that schools using reusable trays and other serviceware reduced packaging and serviceware waste by about 5 kilograms less packaging and serviceware waste per day than schools that continued using disposable items. The HISD pilot will help the district assess how these alternatives perform in practice and whether they can be expanded more widely. The students’ campaign shows how young people can use research and community engagement to influence decisions within their own schools and communities.

Turning Youth Innovation Into Food-System Solutions — Indonesia

Indonesia faces a generational challenge in agriculture. Almost 80 percent of the country’s farmers are age 40 or older, while young people ages 15 to 29 account for about half of its unemployed population. Together, these trends highlight an opportunity to connect youth employment and entrepreneurship with the future of agriculture.

The 2025 Youth Innovation Challenge received more than 230 proposals and selected 18 finalists for mentorship and training. Winning projects included vertical farming that reuses kitchen waste, artificial intelligence for fruit-fly control, and circular systems that convert food scraps into farm inputs. Ten innovators shared Rp84 million in awards and presented their ideas to government representatives.

The program gave young people an opportunity to develop and refine their ideas while connecting with institutions that could support implementation. Initiatives like this can provide early support for locally  developed solutions, helping young innovators test what works and identify approaches with the potential to grow.

Challenging the Food Advertising Environment — United Kingdom

The food system extends beyond how food is grown and produced to the environments that influence what people see, choose, and buy. A 2025 University of Liverpool study found that 44 percent of surveyed outdoor advertisements promoted food or drinks, with one in four promoting unhealthy products. These advertisements appeared six times more often per kilometer in the most deprived areas studied.

Youth activists with Bite Back responded through the 2025 Commercial Break campaign. They placed youth-designed messages across 365 advertising spaces in London and called for stronger limits on unhealthy food marketing. Organizers estimated that the intervention prevented about 14.8 million people from being exposed to the advertisements that would otherwise have occupied those spaces.

UK-wide restrictions on less healthy food advertising on television before 9 p.m. and in paid online advertising took effect on January 5, 2026. However, the national rules do not cover billboards or other outdoor advertising, which remains a focus of Bite Back’s advocacy. The campaign demonstrates how young people can use evidence and advocacy to engage companies and policymakers around the food environments that shape consumption.

Bringing Youth Ideas Into Food Policy — Ecuador

Food loss and waste pose both environmental and food-security pressures in Ecuador. A 2025 report by the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic and the Global FoodBanking Network estimates that more than 900,000 tons of food are lost or wasted each year. The report  also found that 37 percent of the population experienced moderate or severe food insecurity between 2020 and 2022.

The World Food Forum Ecuador Youth Chapter has brought young people into national discussions about this issue. In October 2025, the chapter convened youth with government institutions, food banks, and civil-society organizations. The meeting helped gather evidence and advanced a coordinated proposal to reform Ecuador’s food loss and waste law.

In 2026, the chapter continued developing youth skills through training in project management, resource mobilization, and public policy. More than 30 young leaders from eight provinces participated in a May workshop that also strengthened connections among youth networks. Its work shows how youth groups can bring local concerns into formal policy discussions.

Cultivating Change

Global food challenges are complex, and they often result from deep, underlying, and interrelated factors that no single solution can address. Effective responses need to reflect the social, environmental, and economic conditions of each place. Meaningful progress therefore depends on understanding how a problem operates locally and developing solutions that respond to its underlying drivers.

The youth-led efforts featured here show how place-based action can create spaces for innovation. Young people are testing technologies, mobilizing communities, and engaging institutions around problems they experience locally. These experiments can reveal practices that work under specific conditions. Governments, companies, and nonprofits can then evaluate those lessons and adapt promising approaches elsewhere.

Youth-led ideas can have greater impact when young people have sustained support to develop and expand them. Mentorship builds technical and organizational capacity, financing provides the time and resources needed to strengthen promising initiatives, and partnerships with governments, civil society, businesses, and other institutions can create pathways for wider adoption. FAO research similarly highlights investment, meaningful participation in decision-making, access to skills and resources, and improved financing as key conditions for youth engagement in agrifood-system transformation.

International Youth Day is an opportunity to celebrate young people’s contributions while recognizing what they need to turn ideas to lasting change. It’s also an opportunity to turn that creativity into action. Young people can support EARTHDAY.ORG’s Canopy Tree Project, explore our Climate Education campaign, or join The Great Global Cleanup. Each offers a way to take action and mobilize others. This International Youth Day, find a challenge in your community and help cultivate a solution.

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Much attention has focused on what a strong El Niño could mean for food security, disasters, and the economy. Biodiversity loss deserves the same urgency because healthy ecosystems support our global food systems, buffer communities from extreme weather, and sustain livelihoods for billions of people worldwide. Biodiversity is already declining because of land-use change, resource exploitation, pollution, invasive species, and climate change. A strong El Niño could accelerate this decline by driving habitat loss and degradation, altering wildlife movement and behavior, and disrupting conservation efforts.

When Habitats Are Lost and Degraded

Habitat loss occurs when species lose the places they need to feed, breed, shelter, and find water, causing populations to shrink and making local extinctions more likely. Human land-use change remains the main driver of this process, especially through deforestation and agricultural conversion, but a strong El Niño can accelerate habitat loss by increasing the risk of extreme conditions like drought, storms, and flooding. 

In Indonesia, the 2015–2016 El Niño created unusually dry conditions that allowed fires to spread across drained and degraded peatlands in Sumatra and Kalimantan. These fires burned an estimated 2.6 million hectares of land, destroying forests, damaging peat-swamp habitats, and threatening wildlife that depends on these ecosystems, including endangered Bornean orangutans.

Even when habitats are not completely destroyed, extreme disturbances can degrade their quality and weaken their ability to provide food, shelter, and breeding conditions. For example, during marine heatwaves coral reefs expel the symbiotic algae that provide much of their energy, leading to bleaching, disease, and death.  As live coral declines, reefs lose the structure that fish, invertebrates, and other marine species rely on for shelter, feeding, and reproduction. 

In 2024, the Great Barrier Reef experienced its fifth mass bleaching event since 2016 and its most widespread on record, following what (at the time) was the fifth strongest El Niño ever recorded. 2025 surveys showing hard coral cover declines on nearly half of the 124 reefs assessed and losses reaching 70.8% on some reefs.

When Wildlife Shifts Their Behavior and Movement

A strong El Niño can also accelerate biodiversity loss by changing how wildlife behave under stress. When drought reduces food and water, animals may alter their daily behavior by feeding closer to people, entering farms more often, and taking greater risks to survive. 

In Zambia’s Luangwa River Basin and surrounding Eastern Region, the 2023–2024 El Niño-linked drought reduced food and water for people, livestock, and wildlife, which in turn increased confrontations between humans and wildlife. As food and water became scarcer, elephants and other wildlife moved closer to farms, settlements, and shared water points.  Resource Africa reported that elephants and hippos destroyed more than 200 hectares of crops in the Eastern Region. 

Along the U.S. West Coast, marine heatwaves and El Niño-linked warm years can compress cool, nutrient-rich upwelling ocean habitats, pushing humpback whales and their prey closer to nearshore fishing areas. This movement increases overlap with fixed fishing gear, including Dungeness crab pots and vertical lines. A recent study found that reported humpback whale entanglements were highest in years with limited suitable habitat and feeding grounds,  including spikes during the 2015–2016 marine heatwave and El Niño period and 31 confirmed humpback entanglements in 2024.

When Conservation Efforts Are Disrupted

A strong El Niño can intensify extreme storms and flooding, disrupting the infrastructures that conservation work depends on. Protected areas rely on well-maintained infrastructure and operational equipment, such as roads, fences, vehicles, communication systems, and monitoring tools. These resources help staff patrol boundaries, monitor conditions, care for wildlife, and respond quickly to threats.

In Kenya, the 2023–2024 El Niño likely contributed to the severe flooding in March–May 2024.. The floods affected more than 380,000 people, damaged more than 60 roads, destroyed bridges, and caused about $35 million in losses. These disruptions also reached conservation sites, including Ol Pejeta Conservancy, where the flooding badly damaged perimeter and chimpanzee sanctuary fences, closed the chimpanzee facility for months, and increased wildlife-security and chimp-welfare costs.

Climate extremes around strong El Niño periods can also weaken conservation by stretching the institutions responsible for enforcement and land protection. When agencies are forced to prioritize emergency response, fewer resources may be available to prevent, monitor, and stop illegal burning, land clearing, and wildlife crime. 

Peru’s record 2024 wildfires show how quickly this strain can escalate when drought, human-started fires, and limited response capacity converge. The Global Wildfire Information System recorded about 10,400 fires in Peru in 2024, more than double the previous record. As fires spread across grasslands, dry forests, coastal areas, and the Amazon, limited capacity made it harder to contain the crisis and protect vulnerable ecosystems.

Toward More El Niño-Resilient Ecosystems

Building El Niño-resilient ecosystems starts with regenerative approaches that strengthen biodiversity, restore ecological function, and support the communities that depend on healthy landscapes. Regenerative agriculture can improve soil health by increasing organic matter, helping farms retain more water during drought, reducing erosion during floods, and supporting the soil biodiversity that sustains nutrient cycling, crop productivity, and climate resilience. Agroforestry builds on this resilience by bringing trees back into working landscapes, creating shade, habitat, and food sources for wildlife while helping farmers diversify their livelihoods through fruit, timber, fuelwood, fodder, and other tree-based products.

El Niño resilience also depends on stronger institutions and sustained investment for the people working closest to biodiversity loss. Frontline communities, Indigenous peoples, local leaders, conservation organizations, and protected-area agencies need resources before extreme conditions escalate into disasters. Funding should support early-warning systems, biodiversity monitoring, emergency planning, and rapid response, while long-term partnerships can help protect vulnerable species and ecosystems before losses become harder to reverse.

Reducing the pressures that make biodiversity vulnerable is just as important as preparing for El Niño itself. Ecosystems are better able to survive droughts, floods, fires, and marine heatwaves when species have enough food, clean water, breeding sites, shelter, and space to move before extreme conditions arrive. 

Cutting emissions can reduce the heat stress that forces plants and animals beyond their limits and makes recovery harder after an El Niño event. Protecting and reconnecting habitats can help wildlife move away from burned forests, dried wetlands, flooded nesting areas, or warming ocean zones. Managing invasive species can also reduce competition and predation, giving native plants and animals a better chance to recover when extreme events disrupt food webs.

Biodiversity is the foundation of global food, health, and economic systems, making its loss a direct threat to human security and well-being. A Super El Niño would intensify that threat by pushing already weakened ecosystems closer to their limits. The way forward is clear: scale regenerative systems that sustain biodiversity and livelihoods, support frontline communities and the institutions they depend on, and reduce the pressures pushing species and ecosystems toward collapse.

A Super El Niño should inspire a global response rooted in science, equity, and local action. Support EARTHDAY.ORG’s Canopy Tree Project to restore habitats, expand tree cover, and strengthen communities, and join The Great Global Cleanup to remove waste and plastic pollution from the ecosystems we all depend on.

This article is available for republishing on your website, newsletter, magazine, newspaper, or blog. The accompanying imagery is cleared for use with attribution. 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 woods@earthday.org. Want more articles? Follow us on substack.

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The restoration forms part of EARTHDAY.ORG’s Canopy Project and Envision Energy India’s corporate social responsibility initiative. Envision Racing will contribute through its Sustainable Chain program, which encourages Formula E fans to make personal commitments to reduce their emissions and provides participants with updates about supported restoration projects.

Restoring the Indian Sundarbans

The Indian Sundarbans includes 102 islands, of which 54 are inhabited and 48 are forested. Approximately 4.5 million people live across the region, where rising seas and frequent cyclones place coastal communities under growing pressure. More than 3,500 kilometers of ring embankments protect inhabited islands from tidal flooding, revealing the scale of the region’s exposure to coastal hazards.

The five-year program will restore degraded parts of the Sundarbans Mangrove Forest through nursery development, site preparation, and seasonal planting. Nursery work and pre-planting land preparation have already begun, with planting scheduled from March through November. Mangrove species will be selected according to the elevation and soil type of each site, linking planting decisions directly to local conditions.

These preparations mark the first stages of a restoration effort that will continue across several planting seasons. The combination of nursery development and site assessment will provide the planting material and prepared ground needed to carry the initiative forward over five years.

Community at the Center

Community participation is built into the restoration plan and the programs accompanying it. Trained project monitors and local scientists will support implementation with guidance from forestry officials. Village councils will participate alongside local residents and students, bringing community institutions into the restoration effort.

Community education will explain how mangroves affect fisheries and agriculture, connecting restoration with local sources of food and income. These activities are intended to improve tree survival and support the long-term success of restored areas.

The partnership’s community programs will address health, nutrition, and sanitation across participating communities. Education programs will provide another form of support during the five-year initiative. These commitments respond to conditions affecting parts of the Sundarbans, where some communities have limited access to freshwater, schools, and employment.

The partners also identify mangrove planting as a source of income for local workers. This opportunity may be especially important for widows experiencing severe economic and social vulnerability, a group highlighted in the partnership announcement.

Growing a Global Canopy

The Sundarbans initiative joins a wider network of community-centered restoration efforts supported through EARTHDAY.ORG’s Canopy Tree Project. Across Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania, Morocco’s M’Goun Valley, and Cape Town in South Africa, these projects restore degraded landscapes in ways that respond to local environmental conditions and community needs. The network also includes work in Mexico’s Sierra Gorda, Uganda’s Mount Elgon, between Madagascar’s Kianjavato and Vatovavy regions, and Bangladesh’s Khulna district.

Each initiative uses locally appropriate trees to address challenges such as deforestation, erosion, and climate vulnerability. Fruit-bearing trees can support food security and household income, and mangroves can strengthen coastal protection and fisheries. The Sundarbans initiative extends this approach to West Bengal by combining mangrove restoration with community participation, environmental education, and social support.

Engage with us and learn more about the Sundarbans initiative and explore EARTHDAY.ORG’s restoration work around the world through Canopy Tree Project.

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Plastic pollution can make individual action feel insignificant, but behavior changes matter when they become shared habits and are reinforced by policy. In San José, California, the shift away from single-use plastic bags led to clear reductions in litter across waterways, storm drains, and local businesses. Plastic bags found in creek and river litter surveys fell by 78%, while bags in storm drain inlets dropped by 69%. Retail behavior also changed with average bag use at businesses declining by 94%.

Buenos Aires, Argentina saw similar gains from efforts to reduce disposable bags and plastic straws. Between 2017 and 2018, the city kept 1 billion plastic bags out of circulation. Those changes cut plastic bag waste by about 2,750 tons per year and eliminated another 77 tons of straw waste annually.

Plastic-free choices have the greatest impact when they become part of daily life. Carrying a reusable bottle can cut down on disposable plastic throughout the day. Bringing a tote bag or container can make reuse easier during errands and meals. Over time, these small choices can reduce waste, shift demand, and make plastic-free living feel normal. The challenge is turning that first good intention into a habit that lasts.

Durable behavior change often begins with how we see ourselves. A goal like “I want to stop using plastic straws” becomes more powerful when it reflects a deeper internal identity: “I am someone who lives more sustainably.” That quiet shift can change plastic-free choices from one-time efforts into expressions of who we are trying to become. It matters because habits are easier to keep when they feel aligned with our self-perception and the way we move through daily life.

Behavioral science offers a practical way to turn that identity into action. Habits form through a loop: a cue triggers a craving, the craving motivates a response, and the response produces a reward that reinforces the behavior. Plastic-free habits stick more easily when the cue is easy to notice and the choice feels appealing. They are even more likely to last when the action is simple to repeat and the reward feels satisfying.

You can design and integrate that loop of plastic-free habits into your daily routine. Place reusable bags by the doors so you remember them before leaving home. Keep utensils in your backpack or work bag so they are ready when you need them. A refillable bottle is easier to grab when it sits near your keys, and food containers are more accessible when they are stored where you usually pack lunch.

Choose reusable items you actually enjoy using and are easy to carry, store, and bring into your everyday activities. To keep the habits going, find simple ways to make your progress visible like a checklist or sharing your journey with your friends. A small reward, such as a tasty treat after a plastic-free day, can make the habit more satisfying and help reinforce the behavior. The goal is to remove friction until the better choice becomes the automatic one.

Plastic-free living also becomes easier when it is supported by the people around us. Family, friends, classmates, coworkers, and neighbors can remind one another to bring reusable items, refuse unnecessary plastic, and celebrate small wins. Even simple gifts, such as metal straws, tote bags, or matching water bottles, can invite others into the habit and help build a more sustainability-minded community.

Start by identifying yourself as someone who lives more sustainably, then turn that identity into practical swaps you can repeat all month. Choose something specific, visible, and realistic enough to become part of your routine. The swap ideas below can help you find a starting point, from carrying a refillable bottle or reusable bag to switching to loose-leaf tea, bar shampoo, or plastic-free laundry products. Once you choose your swap, build a habit loop around it: create a clear cue, make the choice appealing, keep it easy, and reward yourself when you follow through.

On the Go

• Plastic water bottles → Carry a refillable bottle
• Plastic shopping bags → Bring a tote bag
• Plastic straws → Skip the straw, or use a reusable one
• Disposable coffee cups → Bring a reusable cup
• Takeout cutlery → Pack a reusable set, or ask to leave it out

In the Kitchen

• Plastic produce bags → Use mesh bags, or buy loose produce
• Plastic wrap → Use beeswax wraps or lidded containers
• Single-use storage bags → Choose reusable bags or containers
• Plastic condiment bottles → Buy glass jars when available
• Plastic-wrapped snacks → Buy in bulk, or make your own

In the Bathroom

• Plastic toothbrushes → Try a bamboo toothbrush
• Disposable razors → Use a safety razor
• Bottled shampoo and body wash → Switch to bars or refills
• Plastic-stemmed cotton swabs → Choose paper-stemmed or reusable versions
• Wet wipes → Use washable cloths

The Sneaky Ones

• Chewing gum → Choose plastic-free brands
• Tea bags → Use loose-leaf tea
• Glitter and microbeads → Check labels for plastic ingredients
• Synthetic clothing → Use a microfiber-catching bag or filter
• Laundry pods → Choose plastic-free laundry powder, tablets, or refill options

Take the Plastic Detox Pledge! Pick one item, commit to quitting it for the month, and make the challenge more fun by bringing others with you. Invite a friend, classmate, coworker, or neighbor to swap tips, celebrate progress, and build plastic-free habits together. Make it official by snapping a photo of your swap and tagging #PlasticFreeJuly and #EndPlastics.

One month. One swap. One habit that can keep plastic out of our lives, our communities, and our planet.

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Every July 26, people around the world observe the International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem, commonly known as World Mangrove Day. UNESCO established the observance in 2015 to raise awareness of the importance of mangroves and promote their sustainable conservation and management.

This year’s celebration arrives with encouraging evidence that decades of decline in global mangrove extent may be beginning to reverse. A global study published in Science found that mangrove extent shifted from net loss to net gain around 2010. By 2023, the total area of mangroves worldwide stood approximately 0.5% below its level in the 1980s, indicating that recent expansion and regeneration had offset much of the earlier decline.

This global turnaround offers a meaningful source of hope, although it does not represent the complete recovery of mangrove ecosystems. Gains remain uneven across regions, and newly established forests cannot immediately replace the biodiversity, carbon storage, and coastal protection provided by mature mangroves lost elsewhere.

An Ecosystem That Sustains People and the Planet

The reported recovery matters because mangrove forests support an extraordinary range of ecological and social functions. Mangrove forests grow along tropical and subtropical coastlines where land and sea meet. Their tangled root systems provide nursery habitat for fish, stabilize shorelines, trap sediments, and create shelter for diverse wildlife.

These ecological functions generate immense benefits for coastal communities worldwide. Mangrove ecosystem services were valued at approximately US$894 billion globally in 2019, and an estimated 4.1 million small-scale fishers participate in mangrove-associated fisheries that sustain household incomes and food supplies. Mangroves also reduce the effects of coastal flooding, averting more than US$65 billion in property damage and protecting over 15 million people each year.

Mangroves also rank among the most carbon-rich forests in the tropics. They store carbon throughout their trunks, branches, and roots, with the largest share accumulating belowground in waterlogged soils and sediments. Through long-term carbon storage and coastal protection, mangroves contribute to climate mitigation and help communities adapt to rising seas, stronger storms, and other escalating climate risks.

A Global Rebound Driven by Natural Recovery

Scientists from Tulane University led the research and used four decades of satellite observations to reconstruct annual changes in mangrove extent and canopy cover from 1984 to 2023. Their analysis shows that global mangrove losses declined substantially as expansion and regeneration accelerated, eventually producing a small net increase in total area around 2010.

The study attributes most of the recent gains to natural seaward expansion. Mangroves colonized newly formed tidal flats as accumulated sediments created suitable elevations and growing conditions. Regeneration in areas that had previously supported mangroves accounted for the remaining gains, demonstrating that damaged landscapes can recover when environmental conditions remain favorable and human pressures are reduced.

Changes in total area reveal only one part of the condition of the world’s mangroves. The paper also examined canopy changes within forests that remained standing and found that thinning and other forms of degradation affected a larger area than outright forest loss. Tropical cyclones were strongly associated with these disturbances, although degradation rates declined across the study period and long-standing mangrove forests continued to gain canopy cover through natural growth.

Together, these findings show that the recent turnaround resulted largely from natural ecological and coastal processes. Conservation, restoration, and monitoring can help sustain that progress by protecting recovering areas, reducing avoidable disturbances, and preserving the environmental conditions that allow mangroves to expand and regenerate.

The March for Mangroves Continues

The same study also demonstrates that heavily disturbed mangrove ecosystems can recover from extensive loss and degradation. Their continued recovery remains vulnerable to sea-level rise, stronger tropical cyclones, disrupted sediment flows, coastal development, and land conversion. Community-led conservation, carefully designed restoration, and long-term monitoring will therefore remain essential for identifying emerging threats and sustaining recovery across different regions.

The study also highlights the urgent opportunity for protecting and sustainably managing the newly expanded young mangrove forests. These newly established stands need time to develop the complex structures, deep carbon stores, and ecological communities associated with mature forests. Further research into the physical and ecological mechanisms that drive expansion and regeneration can improve conservation planning, guide restoration toward suitable locations, and help young forests develop into resilient ecosystems.

Celebrate World Mangrove Day by learning more about EARTHDAY.ORG’s mangrove restoration work through the Canopy Tree Project. In partnership with Envision Racing and Envision Energy India, the project aims to plant more than 500,000 mangroves in the Indian Sundarbans over the next five years. By supporting sustained conservation and community-led restoration, we can help mangrove forests continue their recovery and thrive for generations to come.

This article is available for republishing on your website, newsletter, magazine, newspaper, or blog. The accompanying imagery is cleared for use with attribution. 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 woods@earthday.org. Want more articles? Follow us on substack.

The post After Decades of Decline, Mangroves Are Finally Growing Back appeared first on Earth Day.

A strong El Niño could make growing food harder in many parts of the world this year. This natural climate pattern brings warmer surface waters to the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, which in turn releases more heat into the atmosphere and shifts rainfall, wind, and storm patterns. El Niño can worsen heat and drought in some places and raise the risk of severe flooding in others. These changes could add more pressure to a global food system already strained by climate change, conflict, fuel costs, and fertilizer shortages.

This year’s El Niño could arrive at a difficult time. The World Meteorological Organization is predicting an 80% chance of an El Niño event beginning before August, rising to 90% by November. Forecasts also suggest that this El Niño could be moderate to strong, adding to what is already likely to be a year of record heat following the 11 warmest years on record. This extra heat can dry soils faster, increase water stress, and make droughts more damaging for crops and livestock.

The global food system, in particular, is also facing political and economic pressure. The ongoing U.S.–Iran conflict has raised concerns about the availability and price of fuel, fertilizer, shipping, and food. 

When fuel and fertilizer become more expensive or harder to get, farmers may face difficult choices. Some farmers may grow crops on less land to save money. Others may cut back on fertilizer, even if it lowers crop yields. Farmers may also have a harder time storing, moving, or selling their products.

When El Niño Reaches the Dinner Table 

El Niño changes where rain falls. Wetter conditions often affect parts of the southern United States, southern South America, East Africa, and Central Asia. At the same time, hotter and drier weather can affect Central America, northern South America, the Caribbean, Australia, and parts of South and Southeast Asia.

These changes can seriously impact agriculture. Persistent drought leads to reduced crop yields, delayed planting, shrinking pasturelands, and limited irrigation water. The intense heat stress linked to El Niño may also damage crops during key growth stages and lower milk, meat, and egg production from livestock.

Rain-fed farms are especially at risk. They rely on seasonal rainfall rather than irrigation, so shifts in timing or intensity can quickly leave crops without enough water. When rains weaken, arrive too late, or stop too soon, farmers can lose part or all of their harvest.

More rain can create problems, too. Heavy rainfall does not always mean farms have more usable water, especially when rain falls in short, intense bursts. Much of it can run off the land rather than soak into the soil, and flooding often washes away fertile soil, damages crops, and even overwhelms drainage and irrigation systems.

El Niño can also push food prices higher. When harvests fail in a major farming region, the shock may move through global markets and raise prices in other countries. A 2023 European Central Bank analysis estimated that a strong El Niño could increase global food commodity prices by up to 9%. Soybeans, corn, and rice, which are used across the food system in animal feed, cooking oil, and processed food, are at the greatest risk for cost increases. 

This risk could worsen in 2026 due to the conflict in the Middle East. In the two months after the war began, the World Bank reported that global food prices rose 5%, while grain prices rose 3%. These rising costs can make basic foods even more expensive, especially for households that already spend a large share of their income on food.

For low-income families, even small increases in food prices can be serious. Higher costs may force some households to buy less nutritious food. The impacts can continue even after El Niño ends. Damaged roads, irrigation systems, and storage facilities can affect future planting seasons. Farmers who lose income during one season may have fewer resources to buy seeds, fertilizer, labor, or equipment for the next season.

Making Food Systems More Resilient

A strong El Niño could place new pressure on a food system that is already under stress, reducing harvests, raising food prices, damaging infrastructure, and deepening hunger in vulnerable communities. This potential crisis makes the shift to sustainable and resilient food production even more urgent.

Regenerative agriculture can help farmers build resilience to El Niño by managing food production to restore soil health, support biodiversity, and strengthen ecosystems. One approach is reduced or zero tillage, which limits soil disturbance and helps the ground keep its structure, organic matter, and moisture. Farmers may also use cover crops to protect bare soil from erosion, heat, and water loss between growing seasons. Meanwhile, employing crop rotation helps maintain soil nutrients by rotating what is planted in a field over time, rather than growing the same crop repeatedly. Agroforestry can also be employed to grow trees alongside crops or pasture, where they provide shade, help retain water, and support biodiversity.  

Together, these regenerative practices can help farms better withstand shifting weather patterns, drought, and heavy rain. During dry periods, healthier soil can hold more moisture. Meanwhile, during heavy rainfall, the same soil can absorb more water, reducing erosion. Farmers planting a diverse variety of crops may also lower the risk of total loss when one crop fails.

Regenerative agriculture can also reduce farmers’ dependence on expensive synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. With fewer products to buy, farms become less exposed to rising prices or unstable supply chains.

Farmers cannot adopt regenerative practices alone. They need funding, training, secure land rights, and access to markers to make these changes possible and lasting. Resources such as early warning systems, digital tools, and farmer support programs can also help them prepare for future El Niño events.

The Path Forward

El Niño is a recurring climate pattern, but food crises do not have to be recurring outcomes.

As the next El Niño approaches, the need for more sustainable food production is becoming more urgent. Building healthier soils, mitigating climate change, supporting farmers, and investing in resilient food systems can help communities prepare for the next major shock.

To learn more about how regenerative agriculture can help build more resilient food systems, explore EARTHDAY.ORG’s Regenerative Agriculture campaign.

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