【推荐1】“I can’t turn the desert into an oasis, but I’m working hard to prevent any oasis from degrading (退化) into desert,” says 78-yearold Wang Tianchang in Wuwei city, in Northwest China’s Gansu province.

Sticking to the belief that “only by containing the sand, our children and grandchildren will survive and thrive”, Wang and his wife Li Lanying have been stationed in the Tengger Desert for 22 years, voluntarily dealing with sand encroachment (侵蚀) and planting more than 8,000 acres. They have helped turn the once endless desert into an oasis.

In the spring of 1999, the then 56-year-old Wang put forward the idea of afforestation (造林) in the Tengger Desert. Strongly opposed by his family and ridiculed by the villagers, Wang secretly sold the family’s cattle, sheep and camels. With the collected money, the couple brought their tents and sand control tools to the desert.

“It’s not easy to plant trees, especially in the desert. To improve the survival rate of sand-grown seedlings (幼苗) in the desert, Wang observed the flow of sand dunes (沙丘) in areas where it was most severe in the 12th lunar month in winter. He also explored the best spots for planting grass and trees, and gradually found effective methods for planting saplings in the desert. In order to solve the problem of water scarcity, Wang bought two-humped camels. His wife led the camels to transport water on a route of more than 3 kilometers between their home and the desert back and forth every four and five hours.

Over the past 22 years, Wang and his family have invested more than 1.2 million yuan ($ 187,770) to the task of containing the sand and planting trees in the Tengger Desert. During this period, in order to improve the progress of sand suppression (抑制), the couple spent more than 6,000 days in achieving more than 8,000 acres of sand afforestation, and used camels to transport 5,000 tons of water on the sand line. The round-trip journey was more than 12,000 kilometers.

Wang’s spirit of living in the desert for decades has moved many people. Every year, volunteers from all over the country and tens of thousands of local people come here to fight the sands with the couple and protect their home.

【推荐3】The mangrove tree might not look very impressive, but it is an essential part of our ecosystem. However, more than half of the mangrove forests have been destroyed in the past century. Several World Heritage Sites have been listed largely because of their mangrove ecosystems. Among them are the Sundarbans across India and Bangladesh, the Everglades National Park in the US, and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

Being a World Heritage Site requires for the mangroves to be protected. However, one country in Asia has gone further by having a five-year program to protect and conserve all their mangroves. They even have a mangrove museum and observe World Mangrove Day. This country is Sri Lanka. Why are mangrove trees so important to Sri Lanka and to other countries where mangroves grow?

The mangrove tree grows along coastal saltwater shorelines. They have adapted to the harsh coastal weather and have deep roots. This means that they are strong and cannot be easily removed. In countries where natural disasters such as tsunamis and cyclones occur, the forests provide protection. The villages in Sri Lanka with full mangrove forests have suffered less damage when hit by these natural disasters. The reason is that the mangroves break up the force and strength of the waves.

The mangroves also quickly absorb carbon dioxide and send oxygen into the atmosphere. This makes them an important part of the fight against climate change. They absorb far more carbon dioxide than other types of forest, and store it in their structure and even in the soil. This is important as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is believed to be a cause of detrimental changes in the weather, such as global warming.

The strong roots also provide protection for young fish as they grow. With the oceans around the world being overfished, it is important to maintain the ecological balance in the oceans. For Sri Lanka, one of the threats to the mangrove forests is the shrimp farms being set up. To build saltwater ponds for the shrimps, the mangroves are cut down. This has resulted in fewer fish surviving among the mangrove roots and fewer fish being caught by the fishermen. The local fishing communities noticed that they were losing money and it made them aware of how important the mangroves were. They are now helping to conserve the forests.

Sri Lanka is showing that a nation can preserve all of its mangroves. The conservation model they have can be used by other countries. It might take many years of planning, but the benefits of saving mangroves definitely outweigh the costs.

【推荐3】Researchers were interested in the rock iguanas(鬣蜥) on the Exuma Islands which are often fed grapes by tourists. They were curious about how this high-sugar food might have influenced the iguanas’ health. Over the past two decades, the remote islands have seen a big increase in the number of tourists. Just 25 years ago, some of the islands had zero to 20 visitors a day. Now they receive more than 200 tourists each day.

The team collected 48 rock iguanas: 24 from islands that tourists don’t visit and 24 from islands frequently visited by tourists. They collected blood samples and found the iguanas from the islands where tourists frequently fed them had the highest glucose level. The researchers say the findings how possible health issues could affect the iguanas’ long-term survival, which leads to health concerns.

“A visitor to these islands would never doubt that the iguanas were doing fine. They are big, active, and plentiful on islands visited by tourists. These phenomena(现象) are possibly concealing internal health problems that can cause a rapid decrease in population, so we need to watch the activity closely and find out ways to deal with these problems,” said Chuck Knapp, an author of the study.

“We also hope that the finding will lead to a scientific way that also protects people who depend on tourism. Many tour operators show the wildlife to visitors, and our research can be used to inform strategies that area win-win for wildlife and tour operators,” said Knapp.

“The rock iguanas face many threats to their existence, such as loss of habitat and climate change. Many of these threats are very difficult to deal with, but controlling the influence of human activities like feeding is a simple way we can help the species,” says Falon Cartwright, the director of science and policy at Bahamas National Trust.