Stories from 2020

All told, this was a pretty bleak year. The Covid-19 pandemic brought tragedy and confusion; fires razed parts of Australia, the Amazon, and the Western US; and the world is still barreling headlong into the sixth mass extinction of species.

But even in 2020, positive stories and trends emerged: species were brought back from the edge of extinction; interest in renewable energy surged; new protected areas were created; and a few Indigenous women leaders got some long-overdue credit and recognition.

Here, in no particular order, we look back at some of the top positive environmental stories from 2020.

The idea that the health of the planet and health of people are inextricably linked is not a new one, but this year’s Covid-19 pandemic, brought about by zoonotic disease, threw that connection into stark relief. This year, as more people began to connect the dots between environmental destruction, agriculture, livestock, wildlife trade and human disease, the ‘One Health’ approach came into vogue, being reported on by news outlets such as Forbes and promoted by the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

In response to the pandemic, China established new restrictions on wildlife trade and consumption as early as February 2020, and public opinion has shifted toward favoring stricter animal protections.

Indigenous women have long been leaders in the fight for environmental and social justice. This year, a few of those women were given some much-deserved and well-overdue credit, attention, and recognition for their work and leadership.

Time magazine named Nemonte Nenquimo, a leader of Ecuador’s Indigenous Waorani nation, one of the 100 most influential people of 2020. In 2019, Nenquimo filed a lawsuit against the Ecuadoran government and successfully protected 202,000 hectares (500,000 acres) of Indigenous territories and Amazon rainforest from oil exploration and extraction, setting an important legal precedent.

Leydy Pech, a Mayan beekeeper, was also awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize (along with Nenquimo) for spearheading a coalition that prevented agrochemical giant Monsanto from planting genetically modified “Roundup ready” soybean crops in seven states in southern Mexico.

In the US, New Mexico Representative Deb Haaland has been nominated by president-elect Joe Biden to head the Department of the Interior. She would become the first Indigenous cabinet member in US history.

Mongabay’s Global Forests series reported on Indigenous women leaders in the world’s tropical forests, including women who organized and took leadership after one of the largest oil spills recorded in the Peruvian Amazon; Nazareth Cabrera, a leader of the Uitoto Indigenous people in the Colombian Amazon jungle who played an important role in blocking the entry of mining companies; and Noemí Gualinga, Ecuador’s “mother of the jungle”.

Excerpted: ‘Top Positive Environmental Stories From 2020’

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