Do you remember in 2021 when a herd of wild Asian elephants got lost during migration(迁徙)and touched people’s heartstrings around the world? They have since returned to their home in Xishuangbanna, Southwest China’s Yunnan Province, and are now enjoying     1     peaceful life after welcoming some new members.

During International Day for Biological Diversity     2     falls on Sunday in 2022, people’s eyes once again turned to these giant stars. In a video clip     3     (shoot)by local researchers, the 14 wandering elephants could be seen lying around, relaxed. The three baby elephants that     4     (bear)during the trip north had     5     (clear)grown, but they were still learning to eat with their little trunks and practising     6     (they)survival skills.

Like these wild elephants, the number of which in China     7     (increase)to 300, wildlife all around the country has benefited from     8     (environment)protection regulations and through years of efforts, the protection rate of China’s key wildlife has reached 74 percent.

In recent years, China has systematically carried out rescue     9     (project)for endangered species such as nature release and artificial breeding(养殖)programmes. Meanwhile, the population     10     more than 300 endangered species such as giant pandas has been steadily increasing.

The first-ever online marketplace for allotments(菜地), AllotMe, has unveiled plans for rapid     1     (expand) after securing more than 250, 000$ from investors. Proposed in May last year by Conor Gallapher, the plan seeks     2     ( address) the shortage of available garden space in response to rising demand in towns and cities, particularly in London,    3     there are waiting lists of up to 40 years for allotment sites.

Known as the “Airbnb for Gardens”, AllotMe has grown in popularity, with more than 100 hosts     4     (list) underused space to grow fruit and vegetables across the UK. Some users have already successfully rented space from hosts for more than a year. Now Conor     5     ( prepare) a summer campaign, AllotMents 2.0,to increase the number of plots (小块土地) listed by more than 2000percent.

“AllotMe     6     (found) as interest in garden space in cities increased during the pandemic, but     7     highly limited supply ,” says Conor. “People are telling us that this is a service they want and we’ll continue our mission to revive underused space in cities by providing a     8     ( true) sustainable solution that encourages people to grow their own and eat more healthily ,too.”

Conor adds that AllotMents 2.0 will focus on encouraging hosts to think about how the platform can enable     9     ( they) space to work for them, whether that’s earning money to spend on other things, managing outdoor space they can’t     10     helping the environment through passive sustainability.

Leonora, a 51-year-old from the Philippines,     1    (make) women’s dresses out of waste materials in recent years since she believes     2    (wear) such clothes can be cheap and look good. To make her dresses, she uses     3    foot-operated sewing (缝纫) machine to join together the waste materials, including recycled newspapers, plastic wrappers and rice bags,     4    which Leonora makes her designs. The bubble (泡沫) wrappers from delivery packages are nice-looking and suitable for a good design,     5    (particular) for making wedding dresses. They are also used for everything from wedding decoration to birthday     6    (party).

In Asia, there is plenty of waste material for Leonora to apply. Most of the world’s ocean waste     7    (carry) by Asian rivers. And her country, the Philippines, is responsible for one third of Asia’s ocean plastic pollution.

“The dresses are really     8    (impress). It’s important to recycle such materials so we can help our earth,” said Lalaine     9    buys clothes from Leonora.

Most of her dresses are used in the beauty     10    (compete) and are popular with young girls. “I get delighted whenever they win. The designs are simple, but they still win,” she said.

Bhutan’s snow leopard (雪豹) population     1     (increase) by 39.5% since 2016, according to a new survey. Findings from over 10,000 camera trap images confirmed the presence of 134 snow leopards in the country, an     2     (impress) jump from the baseline of 96 snow leopards in 2016.

    3     survey showed promising evidence that Bhutan’s conservation efforts impact snow leopard populations     4     (positive). It involved 310 camera traps across 2.2 million acres of the big cat’s habitat.

“With less than 3% of the habitat surveyed, there are serious knowledge gaps in the population status of snow leopards,” said Dechen Dorji, Senior Director for Asia, Wildlife Conservation. “A 39.5% increase in Bhutan’s snow leopard population is remarkable and calls for the urgent need to     5     (strength) the population assessment efforts. These amazing     6     (creature) deserve our continued care and protection from illegal hunting, habitat destruction, and conflicts with people. Finding effective co-existence measures between local communities     7     snow leopards must continue to be at the top of the list.”

Although the news is uplifting, the species is still listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It     8     (threaten) globally by habitat losses, food shortage, conflicts with humans, and the climate crisis,     9     (request) continued protection to address these threats,     10     also affect the other wildlife in their habitat.