Great Hornbill in Royal Manas National Park, Bhutan.
Bhutan has protected over 51% of its land under forest cover, which is the most protected land area of any Asian country and leading global conservation. Unfortunately, habitat destruction is causing significant declines in Hornbill species across Asia and Africa, that require large forested areas to thrive.
Learn more about the habitat and distribution of Hornbills in Bhutan here.
Mount Assiniboine, British Colombia-Alberta Border, Canada.
Mount Assiniboine National Park is part of the Yellowstone to Yukon region, one of the few remaining intact mountain ecosystems on Earth, spanning 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) from Yellowstone to Yukon.
Read more about Yellowstone to Yukonconservation initiatives.
Bison bull in Yellowstone National Park, USA.
Bison are both a cultural and ecological keystone species that are engineers of the land: wallowing in the dirt to expose fresh soil, transporting seeds in their fur, and leaving behind fertilizer as they go.
After 140 years of absence from the Canadian mountain parks, a reintroduction project has brought them back to their ancestral lands in Banff National Parkin early 2017.
iMfolozi Wilderness Area, South Africa
South Africa today has 28 designated wilderness areas that span a total of 2.6 million hectares, including the iMfolozi Wilderness Area–the country’s first wilderness and roadless area. Wilderness areas like this one are significant to water conservation and biodiversity protection in the country.
Learn more about what the Wilderness Foundation Africa is doing in South Africa to protect & conserve species, spaces, and people, and about the Wilderness Leadership School’s wilderness trails and unique opportunity to experience African land.
Tigress in Bandhavgarh National Park, Madhya Pradesh, India
Tigers are an endangered species with only about 3,900 remaining in the wild and overall populations declining in much of South East Asia. Bandhavgarh National Park, in India, wasonce a well known hunting location until being declared a National Park in 1968 and a Tiger Reserve in 1993.
Learn more about how Bhutan and India’s transboundary conservation work has allowed for tiger populations in their national parks to grow.
Female Orangutan in Gunung Leuser National Park, Sumatra, Indonesia.
Orangutans are the only ape found outside of Africa, and spend most of their time in the trees. Deforestation, palm oil plantations, poaching and development are among some of the many threats facing the critically endangered species.
Learn about what the Orangutan Information Centre is doing to conserve forests and orangutans in the Leuser and Batang Toru Ecosystems.
The Flathead Valley, British Colombia, Canada
Located on the boundaries of Waterton and Glacier National Park, the Flathead is a valley that provides habitat to over 1,100 species of wildflowers. This region is also a connective habitat across the Canadaian-US border for large mammals such as the Grizzly bear.
Read more about my experience and conservation work in the Flathead Valley.
Leopard, Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya.
Leopards are classified as near threatened by the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species, with their main threat being poaching and habitat loss. The Masai Mara National Reserve, which spans nearly 150,000 hectares, is an important protected area for these cats to thrive in Kenya and it is adjacent to the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania.
Learn about how the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust is combating poaching and conducting research to protect biodiversity in East Africa.
Lamington National Park, Australia
Lamington National Park, established in 1915, is a 21,176 hectare World Heritage Site and is home to 390 species. The National Park is part of a larger connectivity conservation project called the Great Eastern Ranges Initiative, which aims to “restore and reconnect healthy habitats across 3,600km, from Western Victoria to Far North Queensland.”
Learn more about the Great Eastern Ranges Initiative.
Giraffe in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania
Giraffe populations have decreased by 30% globally since the 1980s and giraffes are now listed as endangered species. The current National Giraffe Conservation Action Plan in Tanzania highlights research, capacity building, public education, poaching control and restoring habitat connectivity as priority areas for protecting giraffes in the country.
Learn more about what the Masai Giraffe Project is doing to learn how natural and human factors affect giraffe demography and behavior in increasingly fragmented habitat & read the Tanzania Giraffe Conservation Action Plan.
Garganta Del Diablo in Iguazu National Park, Brazil
This image was taken during my time in Brazil for a Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) conference. It is of the Garganta del Diablo waterfall which connects Brazil and Argentina, connecting the Iguazú National Park in Argentina and the Iguaçu National Park in Brazil.
Learn more about the Society for Ecological Restoration, a global network of over 3,000 members that actively promotes best practices and effective restoration policy around the world.
Cirque of the Unclimbables, Nahanni National Park Reserve, Northwest Territories, Canada
Nahanni National Park Reserve, which is co-managed by Parks Canada and the Dehcho First Nations, which represents the Indigenous peoples in the Dehcho region, spans 3 million hectares and is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Read more about Canada’s ecology and Nature Needs Half status.
An initiative of conservationist, author and photographer Dr Peter Howard, NaturalWorldHeritageSites.org hosts beautiful photos of some of the most the spectacular places around the globe. Discover some of the most spectacular places on Earth, designated by UNESCO as natural world heritage sites.
