One Future: Asia Pacific

TNC in Asia Pacific

In a region as populous and interconnected as Asia Pacific, the loss of nature in one place too often ripples across so many others.

A farmer in Punjab burns hectares of crop residue after harvest, choking the downwind skies over Delhi. Ocean currents carry plastic bags and bottles from sprawling Jakarta to the beaches of Raja Ampat, thousands of kilometers away. One nation’s carbon emissions policy affects (literally) another’s ability to withstand rising tides.

But the inverse is also true. When we help clean up a river, protect an ancient tropical forest, restore an oyster reef or connect a remote island community to the global carbon market, the work naturally reverberates—locally, regionally, globally.

As TNC stands at the midpoint of our organization’s 2030 Goals, we share with you moments of hope in Asia Pacific—ones you may not see in the turmoil of the news cycle.

• Efforts to protect critically important ecosystems, from peatlands in Mongolia to mangroves that ring Southeast Asia’s coasts, are unlocking economic opportunity at an unprecedented pace.
• New conservation laws in places like Papua New Guinea give Indigenous peoples and communities greater ability to determine how to manage their ancestral forests.
• With an eye to net-zero, India, Australia, China and other nations are accelerating strategies to reduce emissions through renewable energy, deploy nature-based solutions to defend coastlines and sequester carbon by synthesizing new technology with traditional methods that have existed for thousands of years.

Reef Relief

Australia's blueprint for a coastal renaissance

In 2025, South Australia’s postcard-perfect beaches turned into graveyards when a toxic algal bloom, fueled in part by warming ocean waters, swept the coast. Leafy seadragons, giant cuttlefish and hundreds of other marine species died en masse and washed ashore. In quiet coastal communities, fisheries closed and tourism cratered.

While the immediate crisis has waned, the warning is clear: more such events are increasingly likely as climate change reshapes our seas at a rapid pace.

How can we improve coastal resilience in Australia? Reviving shellfish reefs is one powerful solution that TNC advances here and around the world. Once abundant, these ecosystems have declined by 90% in Australia since the 19th century, erasing a natural defense that once filtered nutrients, buffered shorelines and provided habitat.

Through the Reef Builder program and subsequent shellfish reef restoration work, TNC is leading the largest marine restoration initiative in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Scale of Country

Safeguarding the lands and stories that shape Australia

Australia’s interior has a way of putting things into perspective. Richard Faulkner, a conservation coordinator at TNC, has walked the grasslands of the Patho Plains for years, yet their immensity still stops him. “The skies are huge and the landscape is huge,” he says. “There’s something about feeling small out here—and the power in that.”

This year, working with private landholders, TNC helped secure 424 hectares of Patho Plains’ critically endangered native grassland under long‑term conservation covenants. It’s a small area in the context of southeastern Australia, but vital for one of the region’s most vulnerable species: the plains‑wanderer—a slight, ground‑dwelling bird now surviving on scattered patches of intact grassland.

For Faulkner, the weight of that achievement hits close. “You feel it in your chest,” he says. “Your cheeks lift into a smile before you even notice it. You know how rare it is—how few people ever see this bird on its own habitat.”

This year, TNC advanced protection and Indigenous‑led stewardship across nearly 30 million hectares—an area comparable in size to the Philippines. This progress supports Australia’s international commitment under the Global Biodiversity Framework to protect at least 30% of its lands, freshwaters and oceans by 2030.

One major gain came in New South Wales, where the purchase of Tasman Corinya—a vast working property roughly the size of Los Angeles—will add 71,866 hectares to the national parks estate. Spanning two distinct bioregions and nine landscape types, the land fills a critical gap in an otherwise fragmented patchwork of protected areas, connecting habitats that wildlife need to move, breed and survive. We know at least 13 threatened species are found there, but we expect more to be found as now that researchers can spend time on the ground.

In addition, TNC-supported Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) now cover 18.2 million hectares, forming one of the largest Indigenous‑managed conservation networks in the world. Their success stems not only from the Australian government’s recognition of their commitment, but also from knowledge systems that have shaped these landscapes for thousands of years. In one Western Australia IPA alone, 9.7 million hectares are under improved management, supported by long‑term investment in governance, ranger programs and community stewardship.

The ecological gains are clear, but the cultural ones matter just as much—strengthening local leadership, deepening ties to Country and sustaining knowledge at the heart of long‑term resilience.

Currents of Change

Building resilience in Mongolia's headwaters

Weaving through the wild and captivating lands of Khuvsgul province, the Delgermurun and Eg-Uur Rivers offer some of Mongolia’s greatest opportunities to protect nature alongside communities that sustain centuries-old nomadic herding traditions. Migratory birds and two-meter-long Siberian taimen prized by fly fishers thrive in these waters, but management issues and policy gaps leave the Delgermurun and Eg-Uur watersheds vulnerable to degradation and water pollution. Meanwhile, herding communities face many barriers to securing local land rights and advancing long-term management plans.

This is where TNC’s role as a partner matters most—driving new science, shaping policy and bringing together the governments, communities and landowners who can make lasting change happen.

In 2025, TNC worked with local government and herding communities to help establish nearly 300,000 hectares of Local Protected Areas in headwaters and numerous tributaries throughout the Uur River basin, which are critical to herder families and livestock. Here, we’re building monitoring and evaluation capacity and deepening local engagement to restore ecological balance.

But the Uur River basin is just the beginning. In partnership with government agencies, we are advancing long-term plans for freshwater management while protecting key areas that are vital to livelihoods, biodiversity and water security.

These efforts complement the work of Eternal Mongolia, a US$198 million initiative launched in 2024 by the Mongolian government, nomadic herders and TNC with our conservation partners. Over the next 15 years, Eternal Mongolia will safeguard an additional 14.4 million hectares of intact grasslands, forests, deserts, wetlands and rivers; strengthen the management effectiveness of existing protected areas totaling 47 million hectares; and extend sustainable, climate-resilient, community-led practices to 34 million hectares outside protected areas.

Mining the Sun

Accelerating nature-smart renewable energy in India

India’s rapid economic growth and urbanization are fueling an energy demand boom expected to double within a decade, raising questions about how quickly the country can scale renewable power. To meet rising domestic needs and honor its climate commitments, India aims to expand renewable energy fivefold by 2030, targeting 500 gigawatts of non‑fossil fuel electricity capacity.

But scaling renewables at this breakneck pace brings real risk. Solar and wind projects have substantial land footprints, putting pressure on forests, farmland and the communities that depend on this land. A sustainable transition will depend on where renewable energy is built as much as how fast it grows.

TNC is helping India steer this transition by guiding renewable development toward low‑conflict landscapes and degraded land. Through SiteRight, our geospatial planning tool, we identify locations where renewables can scale while minimizing impacts on nature, food systems and livelihoods. The tool is currently operational across nine Indian states and is being progressively expanded to additional states.

This year, the Indian government authorized renewable energy development on closed coal mines, creating a pathway for low‑impact expansion on land already shaped by industry. With local partners, TNC conducted technical feasibility studies that informed the development of a 50‑megawatt solar energy pilot on reclaimed mine land in Tamil Nadu. Commissioned in September 2025, the project is now supplying power to the grid and is expected to avoid 1.17 million metric tons of CO2e over its lifetime— equivalent to taking about 273,000 cars off the road for a year.

Further, to scale smart renewable energy siting nationwide, TNC forged a formal agreement with the National Institute of Solar Energy under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. Through this partnership, we are advancing low‑impact renewable energy siting and a national roadmap for the solarization of closed and reclaimed coal mines in India.

Releasing the River

Returning natural flows to China’s rivers, dam by dam

The Yangtze River basin supports roughly two‑thirds of China’s rice harvest, about half of its fish consumption and over 4,300 aquatic species. As China industrialized, its longest river—a foundation of national prosperity—became one of the most heavily altered large river systems in the world. Pollution clouded its waters, dams fractured its flow and overfishing thinned what life remained, driving species like the Chinese paddlefish to extinction and sending hundreds more into decline. In 2019, the Yangtze received the lowest possible rating for ecological integrity, a blunt assessment of decades of strain.

Aligned with China’s national priorities, TNC’s strategy concentrates on upper‑Yangtze tributaries where targeted work can deliver outsized gains. With partners such as the Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, TNC supports science‑based dam removals and habitat restoration, explores innovative financing mechanisms and helps strengthen water governance.

On the Chishui River—a key tributary of the Upper Yangtze—small hydropower dams once fragmented the watershed, depleted fish populations and degraded habitat, while becoming increasingly costly to maintain and inefficient compared with newer renewable energy systems. Today, over 90% of small hydropower stations have been phased out and 84% of small dams have been removed across the Chishui River watershed and fish numbers are steadily recovering. Notably, the Dabry's sturgeon—listed as Extinct in the Wild and reintroduced here—is showing signs of return, a signal that conditions have improved enough for this environmentally sensitive species to recover.

Through this work, TNC and its partners are helping to develop models for large‑scale river conservation elsewhere along the Yangtze and potentially across other river systems in China.

Blue Revolution

A bold plan to protect marine biodiversity in Indonesia

Far from the bustle of Jakarta or the tourist throngs of Bali, the small communities of Maksegara are quietly showing how some of the world’s richest marine areas can be sustained for future generations.

Located in Indonesia’s Southwest Papua province, Maksegara is a mutiara tersembunyi—a hidden pearl on the crest of the Bird’s Head Seascape. This globally significant marine ecosystem is home to an estimated 1,700 reef fish species and roughly 75% of the world’s hard and soft corals, including reefs that may rank among the most climate-resilient on Earth.

Despite its remoteness, Maksegara faces many of the same pressures confronting coastal communities across Indonesia. Sediment from logging and poorly planned development pollutes coastal waters. Overfishing strains local stocks. Destructive practices such as blast fishing—using explosives to stun or kill fish—further threaten fragile reefs.

With over two decades of experience working in the Bird’s Head Seascape, TNC’s Indonesian partner, YKAN, has deep experience establishing well-managed Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) that improve ecosystem health, fisheries and local economies. Without community leadership and strong governance, however, MPAs risk becoming “paper parks”—existing on a map but not in practice.

Return of the Elephant

Learning to live alongside giants in India again

A low rumble moves through the forests of Bandhavgarh in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. You feel it before you hear it—a vibration in forests that were quiet for over a century after hunting and capture drove elephants from this part of India.

Now they are back. As habitat shrinks and mining expands in neighboring states, many pass through Madhya Pradesh. Some stay for months. A few remain all year. Elephants are ecological engineers reshaping the forest. They spread seeds, break through dense undergrowth and carve paths that other species follow. But for nearby communities, it is a reckoning with a neighbor they have not lived alongside for generations.

Elephants move through villages and farmland, damaging crops and homes and, at times, causing serious injury or loss of life. In 2023, TNC partnered with the Madhya Pradesh Tiger Foundation Society to reduce these risks, while still allowing elephants the space to roam and resume their role in shaping this terrain.

Tides of Recovery

Reviving coastal wetlands in the Greater Bay Area for a more resilient future

In Southern China’s Greater Bay Area, home to megacities like Hong Kong and Shenzhen, the coastal wetlands of Deep Bay support diverse yet under-protected habitats that help buffer communities and critical assets from growing climate threats. To address this, TNC is piloting a suite of nature‑based solutions (NbS), including restoring traditional fishponds to manage floods and working with communities to revitalize tidal wetland systems. Since 2021, we have also led community‑based monitoring and management at Pak Nai, where we remove litter and invasive plants while restoring oyster reefs and mudflats to enhance biodiversity and demonstrate the potential of locally led NbS.

We have now expanded to two new sites—Sha Kiu and Ha Pak Nai—at the invitation of village heads, allowing us to demonstrate our conservation model as a strategy for a planned Coastal Protection Park (CPP) in 2028. If successfully utilized by the CPP, our efforts could be replicated across 3,000 hectares of coastline in Deep Bay—about half the size of Manhattan—and potentially across the wider Greater Bay Area in the future.