From prehistoric (史前的) cave paintings to modern-day dog shows, humans’ love and fascination for animals has long remained. The following projects show you how humans are working to create a brighter future for animals.

Big Cats Initiative

This has the primary goal of stopping the decline in the population of big cats worldwide since 2009. In Africa, this means ensuring the monitoring and protection of species like lions and cheetahs, whose numbers have declined sharply over the last century. With the Initiative’s help, these species will continue to live in their natural habits, safe from illegal hunting, environmental degradation (恶化), and other human influences. Find it on: Explore Kruger National Park.

Polar Bears International

Climate change has threatened the world’s polar bear populations: As the planet warms, these creatures risk losing more of their icy habitat than ever before. This project works to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause the melting of the Arctic sea ice upon which polar bears depend, and to raise awareness about the plight (困境) of this beautiful animal. Find it on: Canadian Polar Bear Experience.

Vembanad Wetlands Conservation Program

Since 2005, the program has worked to protect the habitat of plants and animals in the wetlands of Vembanad Lake in India. The organization also teaches and monitors sustainable fishing practices there; travelers will learn from fishermen how fishing practices are carried out in a way that does no damage to these important waters. Find it on: Iconic India.

Sea Turtle Conservancy

Sea turtles depend on seagrasses. When these grasses die, the turtles a replaced at serious risk. This has a cyclical effect: seagrasses, like regular grass on land, depend on regular “mowing” to continue growing, and without turtles to feed on it, the grass itself stops thriving, which threatens hundreds of other species who use seagrasses for shelter. Find it on: Explore Costa Rica.

Mike Myers is a teacher at Chauncey Rose High School in Terre Haute, Indiana. Last year, he taught his students about the world’s rain forests. They learned that rain forests are important because the plants and animals of the rain forest give us food, wood, and medicine.

Destruction of the world’s rain forests is a serious problem. Unluckily, rain forests are disappearing at a rate of 80 acres per minute! As part of a class project, Myers’ students bought three acres (英亩) of rain forest in Central America. They paid $25 per acre. The students hope that the land they bought will be protected and not destroyed. The students became so interested in rain forests that they decided to get a closer look at a real rain forest.

So last June, Myers and four of his students took a boat ride down a river. They saw alligators and crocodiles. In the middle of the week, a guide took Myers and his students into the rain forest. “The monkeys were not happy that we were in their forest. They broke small branches off the trees and threw them at us,” one of the students said. “It was a great learning experience for all of us,” said Myers.

Each student chose something specific about Costa Rica to study involving the plants, animals, food, and culture. During the last few days the group had time to do fun activities. They went whitewater rafting and horseback riding, and visited Costa Rica’s active volcano.

Myers hopes to make the trip every year with a different group of kids.

Solar farms offer one way to meet the world’s decarbonization targets, but they could also be used to deal with another of the planet’s big problems: loss of biodiversity. The approach is starting to take off. Residents of Barnsdale, for example, will soon play host to a new solar farm lined with grass field of wildflowers and native grasses, which Banks Group, the developer, says will promote pollinating insects.

The idea comes from the combination of two long-term trends: declining numbers of pollinating insects and the growing amount of land distributed to solar farms. According to the Center for Biological Diversity in Arizona, more than 40 percent of insect pollinators globally are listed as “highly threatened”—an issue that could seriously threaten food security. Meanwhile, solar-energy competence has been increasing. Matthew O’Neal, a scientist at Iowa State University, would like to see more solar developers seize this opportunity.

The benefits of such projects don’t stop at the insects. Research from Yale’s Center for Business and the Environment indicates that pollinator-friendly solar farms can raise crop output on nearby farmland, increase the recharging of groundwater and reduce soil erosion. In 2018, a US Department of Energy study found that if all existing and planned solar facilities near soybean and cranberry crops included pollinator home and increased output by just one percent, annual crop values could rise by US $1.75 million, US $4 million and US $233,000, respectively.

“Farmers could identify unprofitable areas, such as poor, highly erodible lands, as candidates for a pollinator-friendly solar farm. There’s the potential to increase their net income with pollinator motivation projects,” says O’Neal.

With enough forward thinking, these studies show, clean energy can provide new environmental opportunities. “We’re at a turning point with energy production and we’re seeing more opportunities to provide extra benefits that wouldn’t have been considered with older methods of energy generation,” says O’Neal. “You never heard of a coal mine planning pollinator conservation.”