2 System Shifts
I. High Seas Treaty: When Ocean Protection Becomes International Law 🌊
A global agreement two decades in the making crossed its final threshold on 19 September when Morocco became the 60th nation to ratify the High Seas Treaty. It will become binding international law from January 2026, creating the first comprehensive framework to protect waters covering two-thirds of our ocean.
The treaty paves the way for 30% of international waters to be placed into Marine Protected Areas by 2030 — a critical target when currently just 1% are protected. Nearly 10% of marine species face extinction risk, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, as decades of overfishing, shipping pollution, and warming oceans take their toll. "Covering more than two-thirds of the ocean, the agreement sets binding rules to conserve and sustainably use marine biodiversity," UN Secretary-General António Guterres said.
The ocean contributes over $2.5 trillion to world economies and provides up to 80% of the oxygen we breathe. For too long, international waters existed in a regulatory void — a patchwork of regional fishing agreements leaving critical enforcement gaps. Now, the treaty creates mechanisms for establishing marine protected areas in international waters, benefit-sharing from marine genetic resources, capacity building for developing nations, and mandatory environmental assessments.
The Shift: International waters transition from fragmented to coordinated protected commons. When 60 nations unite to govern waters belonging to everyone and no one, multilateral environmental action proves it can still deliver planetary protection at speed and at scale. 🌊🐋
II. Mainstreaming Regeneration: Fast-Food Chain Giant Seeds a Grassland Revolution 🌾
McDonald's USA announced its largest regenerative agriculture investment: $200 million over seven years through the Grassland Resilience and Conservation Initiative. Spanning 4 million acres across 38 states, the programme accelerates regenerative grazing practices among US beef producers who supply the chain serving 90% of Americans annually.
Partnering with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (“NFWF”) and USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service, the initiative provides competitive grants to organisations helping ranchers adopt practices that restore soil health, conserve water, and enhance wildlife habitat.
Major suppliers contribute additional funding, pooling resources for landscape-scale transformation, and first grants arrive in January 2026. Independent monitoring by Kateri and Carbon Yield will quantify soil health improvements, tracking carbon sequestration in grasslands that once symbolised extraction now enabling regeneration. Jeff Trandahl of NFWF explains the regenerative promise: "When cattle are managed to optimise multiple ecological and economic values, the land holds more water, grows better grass, and supports more wildlife. Conservation practices voluntarily adopted by ranchers can improve the productivity of grasslands, increase ranching profitability, and strengthen the vitality of rural communities."
The Shift: When fast food chain giant and suppliers finance soil restoration, regenerative farming, market forces that once degraded land begin healing it, proving that feeding billions and restoring earth can be the same practice. 🌱🐄
What if protecting ocean commons and restoring soils are the same ancient practice of tending what tends us? 🌱
3 Field Stories
I. Nepal: Youngest Person to Summit the World’s Highest Peaks🇳🇵
Last October, 18-year-old Nima Rinji Sherpa stood atop Tibet's snowy Shishapangma. With this summit, he conquered all 14 of the world's 8,000-metre peaks, the youngest ever, his message transcended records: "As a teenager, this is my message to each and every one of you," he panted, calling for an end to war, hate, and racism.
For over a century, Sherpas have risked everything guiding Western climbers to glory, so synonymous with servitude that "Sherpa" became a job title, not an ethnicity. After setting the 14 peak records, Nima pursues his dreams further as a professional climber, all while becoming a climate influencer for the United Nations Development Programme, signing book deals, creating a company that transforms Everest trash into souvenirs, and supporting drone-assisted trash removal from Everest.
"The day people consider me a professional athlete, it brings value," he says. Not just for him — for all Sherpas who have once sacrificed their lives for others' dreams.
The Impact: As Sherpas claim back Nepal's expedition market, and young climbers like Nima transform from generations of porters to athletes and environmental stewards, a new world order has been sparked from the Himalaya. Nima is rewriting the story of Sherpas, overturning the roles Sherpas play in the climbing world — as people who truly know these peaks most intimately, and as guardians of the sacred mountains and our planet. ⛰️
II. California: Where Biochar-based Carbon Removal Gets Franchised 🌾
Terraton just raised $11.5 million to solve carbon removal's supply crisis through an unlikely model: franchising biochar like McDonald's franchises burgers. While tech giants desperately seek biochar credits, most producers have only built one.
Terraton approaches it differently, like "business-in-a-box", it standardises everything, from technology, financing, to carbon credit sales, so local businesses can own the biochar facilities and replicate facilities wherever agricultural waste accumulates. Two African sites now operate: Ghana's cocoa waste processor, Kenya's nut residue converter, together removing 20,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually whilst paying thousands of farmers for waste they would otherwise have burnt.
The Impact: With biochar delivering 250,000 tonnes of carbon removal in 2024, outpacing any other methods, could Terraton's franchise model transform emerging markets into carbon removal powerhouses and delivering its promise in driving carbon removal at scale whilst increasing farmers' income, and nourishing the soil? 🌱
III. Indonesia: Where Wild Nuts Save Rainforests 🌰
In Borneo, where half the rainforest vanished in fifty years, ForestWise discovered that ancient Shorea stenoptera trees produce illipe nuts with butter remarkably similar to cocoa, offering chocolate makers a traceable alternative whilst keeping forests standing. This revelation transforms forest economics: why clear land for palm oil when wild harvesting doubles incomes?
With investment and partnership from Terratai, Asia's first nature venture builder, ForestWise scales operations supporting 1,000+ collectors protecting 200,000 hectares of rainforest, three times Singapore's size. Each kilogram of illipe butter sold to cosmetics and chocolate makers strengthens the economic case to avoid, halt and reverse destructive rainforest conversion for monoculture plantations.
The Impact: ForestWise proves ancient forest products can compete in modern markets. By creating demand for wild-harvested illipe in cosmetics and food industries, they are protecting critically endangered Kalimantan forests, whilst supporting indigenous Dayak communities. Market forces that once drove deforestation now incentivise protection, economically empowering communities to act in alignment with ecological preservation.🌳
Emerging Pattern
From Himalayan peaks where Sherpas reclaim dignity as professional athletes, to African fields where waste becomes carbon gold, to Bornean forests where wild nuts rival palm oil, transformation accelerates when those closest to the land gain agency whilst bridging to global resources — from diplomatic to economic — amplifying ancestral wisdom to regenerate soil, forests, mountains. ✨
1 Mindful Moment
Dance with the waves, move with the sea, let the rhythm of the water set your soul free.
One invitation: Where do you meet water in your daily rhythm? How might you honour this element that comprises most of our bodies, most of our planet? This week, spend time by water 〰 ocean, lake, river, or creek. Listen to what it teaches about flow, persistence, and finding the path of least resistance towards transformation. 🌊