Six new calves for the Mekong's sacred river dolphins — the population now stands at 118

Along a 75-mile stretch of the Mekong River in northeastern Cambodia lives the world's largest river population of Irrawaddy dolphins — animals local people revere as reincarnations of their ancestors, and have even confronted illegal fishers to protect. This year's calving season brought six babies, lifting the group to 118. That matters because river dolphins are among the most endangered animals on Earth, squeezed by dams and by gillnets that calves cannot yet avoid. Since 2014, WWF Cambodia has worked to give riverside families livelihoods that depend less on heavy fishing — and a recent study of conservation successes found community buy-in is the single biggest reason endangered species recover. Here, the community was never in doubt.

SDG 15 · Life on land — Mechanism: community action