Eight species most people have never heard of just won a year of expert help to fight their way back

A fungus that grows on tapir bark in Brazil. A golden mole in South Africa. The world's largest butterfly, in Papua New Guinea. At the COP17 biodiversity conference in Yerevan, Armenia, the Reverse the Red partnership named eight winners of its 2026 Accelerator Award — one each in Brazil, Indonesia, Cuba, Madagascar, the Dominican Republic, South Africa, Peru and Papua New Guinea. Each project receives a grant of up to $15,000 plus a year of strategic, technical and storytelling support to speed the recovery of a single threatened species, from the blue-eyed black lemur to Ridgway's hawk. 'Species recovery is a collective effort,' said co-chair Dr André Stadler. 'The Accelerator Award helps connect and strengthen that work.'

SDG 15 · Life on land — Mechanism: funding & finance