Here’s a roundup of some of the stories that have captured Life & Soul Magazine’s attention this week:

1. How Amazon Conservation Is Cracking Down On Illegal Mining With Planet Data – Using Planet imagery, Andean initiative MAAP partners with Peruvian government officials and police to train them on the use of satellite imagery as a legal tool to prosecute offenders. By collaborating, several incidents of illegal gold mining and logging, including in protected indigenous areas, have been stopped, according to Planet.

2. Prince Harry says pandemic offers chance to ‘jump-start’ more sustainable travel – The Duke of Sussex has suggested the pandemic offers the travel industry the chance to “jump-start a wholescale realignment” towards a sustainable future, the Evening Standard reports.

3. Making palm oil more sustainable – Helping oil palm smallholders adopt more responsible practices is key to reducing the industry’s environmental impact, The Bangkok Post examines.

4. Saving the Gola Forest: reimagining forest conservation in West Africa – In Sierra Leone and Liberia, a new forest conservation initiative is being implemented through a collaborative approach, to save one of West Africa’s few remaining tropical forests, Bird International writes.

5. Regulator approves UK’s first recycling plant for household batteries – Specialist waste management firm, WasteCare, has opened the UK’s first full-scale household battery recycling facility following approval from the Environment Agency (EA), according to Circular.

6. “I was made redundant during the pandemic so I opened a sustainable grocer” – Julia Kirby-Smith was a high-flying broadcast journalist before coronavirus upended life as she knew it. She tells The Independent what it’s like to make the ultimate career change in the middle of a crisis.

7. North Devon ‘smart’ bins could be rolled out in litter battle – Solar-powered ‘smart’ bins could be introduced in rural areas to stop the countryside being “blighted by litter”, the BBC reports.

Image: Gola Forest/RSPB

Rosa Medea is Life & Soul Magazine’s Chief. She writes about lifestyle including sustainable and green living.