- Mikkel Larsen, former CEO of Climate Impact X (CIX), died last week at the age of 50. He was a leading figure in the global carbon markets, known for his work in shaping the voluntary carbon market with a focus on transparency, integrity, and high-quality standards for carbon trading projects.
- Larsen’s career spanned major roles at KPMG, Citigroup, and UBS before becoming Group Chief Sustainability Officer at DBS Bank in Singapore, where he integrated sustainability into financial policies, phased out coal lending, and established the bank as a leader in sustainable financial reporting.
- Beyond corporate roles, Larsen was involved in numerous initiatives, including the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and Singapore’s Emerging Stronger Taskforce, while serving on boards such as BirdLife International and Wildlife Works to advance conservation finance.
- Larsen’s environmentally-conscious lifestyle and dedication to climate advocacy inspired colleagues and the global sustainability community, leading to widespread tributes that highlight his passion, integrity, and lasting impact on the fight against climate change.

- Researchers, along with Indigenous Awajún community members have described 27 new-to-science species including a squirrel representing an entirely new genus, a semiaquatic mouse with webbed toes, a spiny mouse, short-tailed fruit bat, three new amphibians, eight new fish, a land-walking swamp eel, 10 new butterflies, and two new dung beetles.
- The 38-day expedition in Peru’s Alto Mayo region used traditional survey methods and modern technology to document more than 2,000 species in an area home to many people.
- The partnership highlighted how Indigenous knowledge complemented scientific research, with Awajún community members helping locate rare species while learning scientific methods, though many “discoveries” were species their people had known about for generations.
- The Alto Mayo region faces significant deforestation pressure from farming expansion, prompting Conservation International to pursue various protection strategies including ecological restoration zones and sustainable enterprises like agroforestry.

- Mangrove forests are important coastal ecosystems worldwide, and many areas that have suffered loss of these trees are the focus of restoration projects, but these suffer from a 70% failure rate.
- Not only are they key habitats for numerous organisms from crabs to fish and birds, they also supply a wealth of seafood for local communities.
- That makes community involvement a key aspect of the Community-Based Ecological Mangrove Restoration (CBEMR) method, which focuses on improving local hydrology and topography while removing or reducing mangrove stressors, and encouraging the trees’ natural regeneration.
- This article is an analysis. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.