Monitoring stations that already test for pollution could have dual purpose of mapping declines in biodiversity, reveals new study From owls to hedgehogs to fungi, genetic material from plants and animals is being inadvertently hoovered up by air-quality monitoring stations around the world, creating an untapped “vault of biodiversity data”, according to a new scientific paper. Globally, thousands of air filters are continually testing for heavy metals and other pollutants in the atmosphere. Scientists are now realising that this monitoring network is also picking up invisible traces of geneti ..read more

The federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, announced the $160m plan on Monday afternoon Follow our Australia news live blog for the latest updates Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast The federal and Queensland governments will phase out commercial gillnet fishing in the Great Barrier Reef world heritage area by mid-2027 and create new net-free zones to better protect endangered marine species. The environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, announced the $160m plan Monday afternoon and said it would significantly reduce net fishing and high-risk fishi ..read more

As the world’s biggest rainforest degrades fast towards its tipping point, finding solutions is more urgent than ever. But who to ask first and where to begin? Pay a toll to the ferryman, cross the Xingu River, and you pass a stretch of the Trans-Amazonian Highway that feels as if it is paved with bad intentions. From Anapu to Belo Monte, the 86-mile road – a small portion of the nearly 2,500-mile highway – has passed by some of the most violent communities, disrupted waterways and degraded land in the Amazon. For most of the two-and-a-half-hour drive, the hillsides on both sides of the road h ..read more

A long-time collaborator and friend of the journalist Dom Phillips, Nicoló Lanfranchi was due to travel with him and the Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira on the Amazon research trip that led to their murders. At the last minute, plans were changed. Inspired by the work of Phillips and Pereira, Lanfranchi completed this project with the Asháninka people of Apiwtxa as an example of how ancestral knowledge and modernity can coexist in harmony: a true model for a sustainable future I met Dom through my Indigenous friend, the environmental activist Davilson Brasileiro, with whom I investig ..read more

Poaching of endangered species flourishes despite widespread outcry – but sustainable fishing could end the violence engulfing the trade José Maria Batista Damasceno weeps as he describes his decades dodging death in the Brazilian Amazon. There was the time, along the Japurá River, that an illegal fisherman threatened to butcher him if he didn’t get out of town. “You’d better leave or we’ll harpoon you,” Damasceno remembers being told ..read more

Deteriorating conditions and other whales in area south of Sydney hampered attempts, say rescuers A humpback whale trapped in waters south of Sydney has finally been freed after a gruelling eight-hour rescue mission. Rescue efforts began on Saturday morning after reports of a whale in distress off Five Islands near Port Kembla. Volunteer crews from Marine Rescue NSW and NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service were called to assist at about 8.30am ..read more

Tebay, Cumbria: My experience of doing the daily tasks has been transformed by an app. I’m amazed at what I have around me It’s now been five years since we entered into a Countryside Stewardship environmental agreement on the farm, and fenced off a wide riparian strip alongside the River Lune. There were already quite a few trees in this patch – mainly oak, sycamore and rowan – but the livestock exclusion has allowed some to self-seed and regenerate. One of the rowans is now taller than me. The farmhouse looks out over part of the strip, and we can hear a variety of birdsong coming from it. T ..read more

Flies chilled to sub-zero temperatures amputate one or more of their six limbs to protect their internal organs Flightless snow flies in the US and Canada can amputate their legs to survive as they begin to freeze, researchers have discovered. Lab experiments in which the flies were chilled gradually to sub-zero temperatures revealed they can detach one or more of their six legs, an apparent “last-ditch tactic” to protect their internal organs from the advancing cold ..read more

Analysis shows handful of corporations extract tens of billions of dollars of raw materials a year – and their commitments to restoration vary greatly A handful of global giants dominate the industrialisation of the Amazon rainforest, extracting tens of billions of dollars of raw materials every year, according to an analysis that highlights how much value is being sucked out of the region with relatively little going back in. But even as the pace of deforestation hits record highs while standards of living in the Amazon are among the lowest in Brazil, the true scale of extraction remains unkn ..read more

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs, including owl chicks, a white moose calf and hungry brown bear cubs ..read more