Tunisia, where figs are one of the signature crops, has been an integral part of a just-concluded Mediterranean research project, FIGGEN, to assess how the trees thrive while climate changes are causing other crops to fail. For nearly four years scientists have worked to identify specific genetic traits that enable figs’ resilience and which varieties cope best with heat and drought. When FIGGEN publishes the results, farmers concerned for their future livelihoods may choose to grow the most promising types. Additionally, the study aims to plant a seed for preserving the biodiversity of increasingly arid ecosystems.

Mangroves have been drawing increasing global attention for a quiet superpower: the ability to store up to five times more carbon than tropical forests. While coastal development, uncontrolled aquaculture, sea-level rise and warming temperatures have all contributed to the 35 percent decline in mangrove forests worldwide since the 1970s, government agencies, scientists and local communities are increasingly rallying to protect and replant mangroves. One group is taking restoration to notably new heights.

He was just a British kid looking for something to read one lazy summer day in 1950s Paris when images of the Sahara’s vast expanse on a magazine cover grabbed his attention. The story, about the fossils that had then just been discovered in the Sahara’s valleys, fascinated him. “I thought, I’m going to go and see those for myself one day,” Williams recalls.

From Jordan and Morocco to Indonesia, the uk and more, communities and governments are supporting eco mosques. The goals: education and thrift. “We want to lead by example,” says the manager of Masjid Az-Zikra in Indonesia.