The Harmony Report - Issue #36 - 10.08.26

Good morning from Fossoway Stables.

After a few weeks away, The Harmony Report is back and perhaps appropriately, this week's stories are all about what can happen when we decide something is worth caring for.

A forgotten pond, a threatened species or a landscape that needs a little help.

None of these stories suggests that everything is fine, but each reminds us that decline isn't always inevitable.

Sometimes, when people choose to intervene thoughtfully, things really can get better.

🌍 Around the World

🐌 $200 million to bring 100 species back from the brink

A major new global conservation initiative has been launched with one wonderfully ambitious goal ... prevent 100 of the world's most threatened species from disappearing.

The Phoenix Species Project, created by Re:wild and the Bezos Earth Fund, is backed by an initial $200 million and will support conservation work across around 30 countries.

Rather than simply protecting large landscapes, the programme focuses deliberately on individual species that might otherwise struggle to attract funding, from Madagascar's golden-crowned sifaka to the Malayan pangolin and rare salamanders, plants and marine species.

Crucially, the projects will involve scientists, conservation organisations, Indigenous peoples and local communities in developing long-term recovery plans.

Why it matters

Conservation can sometimes feel impossibly large. This project takes a different approach: find something we're in danger of losing, understand what it needs, and give people the resources and time to help it recover. Sometimes hope is very specific.

💧 The extraordinary return of England's forgotten "zombie ponds"

This might be my favourite story of the week! On farmland in eastern England, old ponds that had been filled in decades, sometimes centuries, ago are being dug back out.

They're known rather brilliantly as "zombie ponds".

One farming couple restored 11 forgotten ponds on their land and watched as plants, newts, dragonflies and other wildlife rapidly began returning.

What happened next might be even better. mTheir results encouraged neighbouring farmers to join in and around 80 more ponds have since been restored across the surrounding landscape.

Why it matters

Sometimes restoration doesn't require us to invent anything.The habitat was already there, the seeds were still in the soil and the wildlife was waiting nearby. People simply gave it somewhere to return to.

🌿 Closer to Home

£9.2 million for nature recovery across Scotland

Closer to Fossoway, 44 nature-restoration projects across Scotland are receiving a share of £9.2 million through the Scottish Government's Nature Restoration Fund.

The projects will restore habitats, waterways and woodlands and protect vulnerable species, with more than £1.5 million supporting the continued recovery of Scotland's red squirrels.

It's particularly lovely to see investment spread across dozens of individual projects rather than one headline scheme because nature recovery rarely happens in one place, it happens through thousands of connected patches of care.

💡 A Good Idea

This week's zombie ponds have rather stolen this section because what a brilliant idea they represent ... before creating something new, look for what could be restored.

An old pond, a neglected hedge, a forgotten footpath, a traditional skill or a community gathering that quietly disappeared.

Sustainability isn't always about invention, sometimes it's about remembering.

🌱 Something to Try This Week

Find one slightly forgotten corner, it could be in your garden, your neighbourhood or somewhere you walk regularly.

Don't immediately decide what should happen to it, just notice what's already there. What grows?

what visits? what might it become if given a little care?

✨ From the Garden Gate

The story about those ponds has stayed with me! Eleven forgotten ponds restored by two people.

Then eighty more because their neighbours saw what happened! That's how change so often works ... someone tries something, life responds, someone else notices and slowly an isolated act becomes a movement.

Here at Fossoway, we're surrounded by reminders that the land remembers ... seeds wait, hedges thicken, habitats return and sometimes things we assume have been lost are simply waiting for the right conditions to come back.

Perhaps that's a useful thought beyond conservation too ... not everything needs replacing, some things simply need nurturing back to life.

Thank you for reading.

Here's to a week of Nurture, Harmony & Small Sustainable Steps.

With gratitude,

The Harmony Report Team