CNN Travel called Raja Ampat ‘The Last Paradise on Earth’. National Geographic and The New York Times listed it among the world’s top destinations for 2025. Conservation experts describe the islands of Raja Ampat as ‘the epicentre of marine biodiversity’.

But this place is much more than a tropical paradise. Located off the coast of New Guinea in Indonesia’s Southwest Papua province, this remote archipelago of more than 1,500 islands, cays and shoals spans 4.6 million hectares of land and sea, including a network of more than 1.7 million hectares of marine protected areas. It is home to extraordinary biodiversity, as well as Indigenous West Papuan communities whose lives have been deeply connected to these forests and seas for generations.

For years, Raja Ampat has been celebrated as a rare conservation success story. Today, however, this globally important ecosystem is facing growing pressure from extractive industries. The rapid expansion of nickel mining now threatens the forests, coral reefs and communities that have made the archipelago one of the world’s greatest biodiversity treasures.

Here are six things you need to know about Raja Ampat, and why protecting this extraordinary place matters to all of us.

1. It is the heart of the Coral Triangle

The waters of Raja Ampat are among the most biodiverse marine areas on Earth. At the heart of the Coral Triangle, a vast region recognised as the global centre of tropical marine biodiversity, the archipelago is home to around 75% of the world’s coral species and approximately 2,500 species of fish. Beneath its turquoise waters, vibrant coral reefs provide sanctuary for manta rays, sea turtles, reef sharks and countless other species, making Raja Ampat one of the world’s most extraordinary underwater ecosystems.

2. Its biodiversity doesn’t stop at the shoreline

While Raja Ampat is famous for its coral reefs, its forests are equally extraordinary. Home to endemic mammals, birds-of-paradise and lush mangroves, these forests are inseparable from the surrounding seas. Together they form one living ecosystem, where forests protect coral reefs, mangroves shelter marine life, and species found nowhere else on Earth continue to thrive. Raja Ampat is home to 47 mammal species, including the endemic Waigeo spotted cuscus, and 274 bird species, six of which exist nowhere else on Earth.

3. Indigenous People have made Raja Ampat a conservation success story

Long before Raja Ampat became known around the world, Indigenous West Papuan communities had been caring for these islands and seas for generations. Their cultures, livelihoods and identities are inseparable from the forests, mangroves and reefs that sustain life across the archipelago.

Over the years, Indigenous communities, local organisations, conservation groups and governments have worked together to protect Raja Ampat. Their collective efforts have helped make it one of the world’s most celebrated conservation success stories. In 2023, large parts of the archipelago were designated a UNESCO Global Geopark, while extensive areas on land and at sea are now protected under Indonesian conservation measures. In September 2025, after the #SaveRajaAmpat campaign gained public support and went into an outcry, UNESCO designated the area as a Biosphere Reserve, granting this area double UNESCO status.

Raja Ampat has also become an international example of how conservation and community-based tourism can support both nature and local livelihoods.

4. A global race for minerals is putting Raja Ampat at risk

For decades, Raja Ampat remained largely protected from large-scale industrial development. Today, however, the archipelago is facing growing pressure from extractive industries. With the excuse that minerals such as nickel are crucial for the economy and as countries race to secure them, areas once considered too remote or too valuable to exploit are increasingly being targeted for mining. Raja Ampat is one of those places.

A Greenpeace Indonesia investigation published in June 2025 mapped 16 current and former nickel mining licences across Raja Ampat. The findings raised concerns that one of the world’s most important biodiversity hotspots was becoming the latest frontier in the global race for critical minerals. Nickel mining is not critical. Critical are the ecosystems that maintain life on Earth and protect us from the climate crisis. Critical are the livelihoods, knowledge and wisdom of those who have lived in harmony with the planet for millenia.

5. After a major victory, a threat remains

Following a Greenpeace investigation and widespread public mobilisation under the  #SaveRajaAmpat campaign, the Indonesian government revoked, in 2025, four of the five active nickel mining licences in the region. It was a major victory, but one mining licence remains active, and the pressure has not disappeared. 

A new Greenpeace Indonesia report published today has found evidence that at least three companies are preparing new nickel mining projects in eastern Waigeo, the largest island in the Raja Ampat archipelago, while coal mining and  oil and gas expansion continues across the region.

6. There is still time to protect ‘The Last Paradise on Earth’

The victories achieved in recent years have shown that public pressure can make a difference. But protecting this extraordinary archipelago requires ongoing work to prevent destructive extractive industries from expanding into places like these, while recognising and strengthening the rights, territories and leadership of the Indigenous Peoples who have cared for them for generations.

As the world searches for solutions to the climate and biodiversity crises, Raja Ampat reminds us that the most effective solutions already exist. They begin by protecting nature, recognising Indigenous Peoples’ rights and leadership, and ensuring that places like this are never sacrificed in the name of development.

Jaqueline Sordi is the Communications Lead for the Tropical Forests campaign at Greenpeace International

From the United States and Canada to France and Spain, from Japan to Morocco, India and Pakistan, the past few weeks have felt like living inside an oven. Western Europe endured its hottest June on record, and fiercest fires in July, with repeated heatwaves slamming France, Spain, Italy, Germany and the UK. Early analyses suggest the late‑June 2026 European heatwave may have killed around 20,000 people in just one week, with more than 10,000 excess deaths recorded during that period, most of them among people over 65. In France alone, public health authorities later estimated more than 5,700 excess deaths during the historic June heatwave.

At the same time, countries already familiar with brutal summers are being pushed past human limits. In India, a 2026 study estimated that a single day of extreme heat causes about 3,400 excess deaths, and a five‑day heatwave nearly 30,000 additional deaths nationwide, with the heaviest burden on poorer, hotter states such as Uttar Pradesh. Pakistan and countries across the Persian Gulf are also enduring “too hot, too humid” conditions where the heat index reaches levels that make outdoor work and even short walks life‑threatening. Japan has declared recent heatwaves a “disaster”, with more than 10,000 people rushed to hospital for heatstroke in a single week.

Across North Africa, Morocco has faced back‑to‑back heatwaves on top of drought and water stress, with orange alerts and temperatures reaching 44 to 46°C in provinces from Marrakech and Beni Mellal to Laayoune and Dakhla, followed swiftly by forest fires.

This heat is not “just summer”. It is fossil‑fuelled climate breakdown, supercharged by a strong El Niño that is loading the dice for record temperatures and extreme weather. Whole regions are turning into tinderboxes as wildfires rip through dried‑out forests from Spain and Portugal to Greece, southern France and North Africa, forcing tens of thousands to flee, closing Tour de France stages to spectators and leaving tennis players at Roland Garros and footballers in the World Cup struggling to breathe and perform in dangerous heat.

What extreme heat is doing to people, food systems and ecosystems

Extreme heat does not only stress bodies. It also damages minds and sleep. When nights stay hot and humid, the body cannot cool down properly, core temperature stays high and people lose hours of sleep. Researchers found that across the whole globe, the average person has lost about 56 hours of sleep per year because of high temperatures over the last five years. On top of that, studies show that extreme heat can slow reaction times, worsen concentration and decision‑making and is linked to higher risks of anxiety, depression and other mental‑health problems, especially for older people and those already living with mental illness.

Heat is also damaging the systems we depend on. Extreme temperatures and drought are already jeopardising harvests and food security in many regions, while pushing key species and ecosystems towards collapse through mass coral bleaching, forest dieback, more frequent wildfires and hotter, more acidic oceans.

How to protect your body and home during extreme heat

When temperatures soar, the first priority is keeping people alive and safer where they are. The basics still matter. Drink water regularly, avoid alcohol, wear loose light clothing, rest in the shade and check on elderly neighbours, children, disabled people and anyone living alone. This advice lands very differently for someone in an air‑conditioned flat in Paris, a street vendor in Karachi, a farmer in Uttar Pradesh or a construction worker in Casablanca, so it must be adapted to real living conditions.

Fans can be powerful if used smartly. A fan blowing across a wet cloth, a shallow tray of ice or a damp bedsheet can cool air more effectively in dry heat. In very humid heat, fans work best when aimed to help sweat evaporate from bare skin. Simple tricks like placing a damp sheet in front of an open window at night, or sitting with feet in a bucket of cool water, can bring temperatures down a few crucial degrees.

People are also finding creative ways to cool homes on a low budget. In many countries, residents are painting windows with white chalk paint to reflect sunlight, and using emergency foil blankets on the outside of windows to bounce heat away while leaving a gap for air to flow. Grassroots guides in places like Morocco and India share similar hacks, from hanging light‑coloured sheets outside windows to building simple shade structures on rooftops.

For babies, children, older people and pets, small habits can be lifesaving. Cool (not ice cold) baths or showers, wet cloths on wrists, neck and ankles, avoiding hot pavements, never leaving anyone in a parked car, and rearranging sleep so people rest in the coolest room in the home all help. Whenever possible, people without safe homes need access to public cooling spaces.

Air conditioning can be life‑saving for vulnerable people during multi‑day heatwaves, especially in places where nights stay very hot. It should be used carefully, not set to extreme cold and combined with other cooling measures to reduce the strain on bodies and power systems. Shared cooled spaces and public cooling centres can protect more people than single units in a few homes.

Making cities liveable in a hotter world

People deserve protection from extreme heat and heat‑related health risks. That requires ambitious political decisions to adapt cities, upgrade housing and public spaces, and provide safe, accessible places to cool down. Many city governments are starting to combine climate mitigation, adaptation and action on energy poverty so that entire neighbourhoods can cope better with rising temperatures. This includes retrofitting housing with insulation, shading, ventilation and cool roofs to cut indoor temperatures by several degrees, especially in poorly built blocks and informal settlements.

Programmes in Spain, France and Germany show that renovating homes and social housing for energy efficiency can reduce winter bills and deadly summer heat, particularly when paired with rooftop solar and community energy. Yet many countries, including France, are far behind their renovation promises and targets, leaving millions of people in leaky, overheating homes. Energy efficiency also reduces dependence on climate‑wrecking fossil gas, which in some regions has helped fund Putin’s war machine.

Green infrastructure is just as important as pipes and concrete. Thermal imaging by Greenpeace groups in Madrid, Rome, London and Indian cities shows the same pattern. Streets and squares without trees or parks can be more than 10°C / 50°F hotter than nearby green areas, while vegetation and water features can lower surface temperatures by 15°C to 20°C / 59 to 68°F in some spots. Opening parks and public pools in evenings and weekends, planting trees along streets and around schools, restoring urban wetlands and rivers and reducing traffic all help cool cities and protect health. White or reflective roof coatings, from traditional lime washes in the Mediterranean to modern cool paints in cities like Ahmedabad, Los Angeles and Casablanca, are also proving cheap ways to cool entire districts, with big benefits for economically disadvantaged communities who often live in the hottest buildings.

New rules and public services for an age of extreme heat

As extreme heat becomes a regular threat, governments are starting to introduce “heat laws” and protections that should have existed years ago. Cities like Seville and Athens are naming and ranking heatwaves to trigger automatic emergency plans. Regions in Spain, Italy and the United States are introducing rules that stop outdoor work during the hottest hours or require employers to provide shade, rest, water and protective equipment.

Cooling centres in libraries, schools, mosques, churches and community halls are opening in cities from Paris to Bangkok, but coverage is often patchy and fails to reach the poorest neighbourhoods or people without transport. The World Health Organization and other health agencies call for heat‑health action plans that invest in public services, early warning systems and resilient power grids, with special focus on people who cannot simply work from home or escape to cooler regions.

In Morocco too, climate experts are calling for urgent changes to building rules, labour standards and public health planning so that extreme heat is treated as a permanent risk.

Everyday climate actions to cut emissions and reduce heat harm

Personal choices will not solve a crisis driven by fossil fuel companies and political inaction. They still matter, especially when they build pressure for systemic change. Eating more plant‑based food, wasting less, cutting unnecessary flights, shifting to public transport, walking and cycling and insulating homes where possible all help cut the fossil fuel demand that is driving extreme heat. This can still limit how brutal future heatwaves become.

These steps are stronger when combined with collective action. People are joining local campaigns for safe housing and green streets, supporting unions that push for heat protections, backing climate lawsuits and fossil fuel phase‑out plans and challenging the luxury emissions of the richest 1 percent whose private jets, superyachts and hyper‑consumption drive a huge share of climate chaos.

Stopping fossil‑fuelled heat at the source

“Drink water and stay inside” will never be enough in a world where heat is already killing roughly one person every minute and where extreme events like June – July 2026 are becoming the new normal. The most important heat protection is to stop burning coal, oil and gas as fast as possible and replace them with renewable, efficient energy systems that are fair for workers and communities.

This crisis is deeply unjust. The people dying first and hardest from heat in India, Pakistan, Morocco or the Persian Gulf countries did the least to cause it. A small group of rich countries and corporations burned most of the fossil fuels and still profit from them. A fair response means those who benefited most from coal, oil and gas, including the ultra‑rich whose emissions are off the scale, must pay for adaptation, loss and damage and a fast transition to renewables in every region.

That means no new fossil fuel projects, a rapid phaseout of existing oil, gas and coal, and major investment in solar, wind, storage, grids and efficiency, together with a just transition for workers and affected communities. It also means windfall taxes on fossil profits, climate damage payments, debt relief and real finance for adaptation, health systems and heat‑safe housing, instead of more subsidies for fossil fuels and industrial agribusiness.

Lots of the death and devastation we are seeing can still be prevented. We have reached a point where politics and policies quite literally shape who gets to live or die in a heatwave, and who is left to face it alone. 

Heat is political. Either fossil fuel companies keep cashing in while people collapse in overheated homes, or governments back better protected homes, greener cities, stronger public services and a fast, fair end to the fuels that are turning extreme heat into a mass‑casualty event.

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Looking back on the 2026 World Cup, it was undoubtedly an emotional roller coaster for fans. From fun and comradery at fan festivals, to loss and controversy, the last few weeks have been a whirlwind of soccer hype, shwag and of course, lots of corporate advertising. We joined the festivities to let Dove – official personal care sponsor, whatever that means – know that if it really cared about men’s health like its ads suggest, it’s time to kick plastic out of its packaging. 

Unilever’s Dove brand used the World Cup to endlessly promote its Men + care products in a campaign about protecting men’s ‘sensitive parts’. Dove is always selling itself as a company that cares  – about ‘real beauty’, empowerment, and health. But its plastic-centred business model tells a different story. 

Billions of Dove branded plastic packaged products are produced every year, contributing to a growing public health emergency. Unilever is responsible for hundreds of thousands of tonnes of plastic entering global markets, driving consequences on a global scale. As a top global plastic polluter according to brand audits conducted over several years, Unilever is a major contributor to the waste and pollution crisis. 

Plastic pollution is a public health issue at every stage. Plastics are made with thousands of chemicals, many of which are a concern to human health. Microplastics are being found nearly everywhere, including our bodies. The growing body of science on plastic and health make it hard to ignore the role that major consumer goods polluters are playing in our collective plastic burden.

Recent headlines about a possible connection between exposure to microplastics and/or plastic chemicals and impacts on sexual health and fertility have us thinking about…the package.  

Early studies reveal microplastics may be showing up in penile tissue and semen. Some plastic associated chemicals are capable of interfering with male hormone systems. A new study has identified how exposure to polyethylene microplastics could contribute to erectile dysfunction in mammals. With all the human suffering the plastic pollution crisis already causes, the prospect of plastic impacting sexual health is a striker’s kick in the balls. 

During quarter finals, as fans gathered at an event near the Brooklyn Bridge, Greenpeace USA lit up the bridge and the New York skyline with a message for World Cup fans: “Defend Your Balls. Dove, Kick Plastic Out.” As a trusted brand, we thought its customers should know that Dove is not only a top sponsor of World Cup, it’s also a top sponsor of plastic pollution, and that’s not only an environmental problem, it’s a human health concern. 

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The Plastic Detox documentary created a buzz earlier this year because it raised some important, and alarming, questions about how exposure to plastic’s chemical cocktail through everyday products could be taking a toll on sexual health and fertility. While the science isn’t yet at a stage to connect every dot, growing concerns add yet another reason that plastic-dependent companies like Unilever should halt business as usual and consider what it could be contributing to. 

Microplastics and plastic associated chemicals can enter our bodies through what we eat and drink, the air we breathe, and what we put on our bodies. Microplastics have the potential to damage human cells and tissues, and plastic chemicals include known endocrine disruptors, some of which have been identified in the human body, have shown evidence of detrimental health effects even at very low levels. Plastic pollution is a growing public health emergency, and while policy makers react in slow motion instead of proactively with the precautionary approach, companies like Unilever are taking advantage of the lack of health and plastic regulations that would turn off their throwaway plastic machines once and for all.

Somehow companies like Unilever have normalized pollution as a part of their business model, and work hard to normalize false solutions that never get at the heart of the issue – making too much plastic. But the harm that plastic packaging has caused to people and the planet, particularly in countries in South and Southeast Asia, and Africa that have been flooded with sachets,  is anything but normal, or ethical. Greenpeace UK first shone a light on Dove’s toxic influence with the release of its 2023 report, and since then the movement to ditch sachets and return to more traditional low waste product delivery practices has grown louder. Some communities have clearly said enough is enough.

In April 2026,  a brave group of people composed of Filipino fisherfolk, youth, waste workers, and environmental advocates filed a landmark pollution complaint at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources against Unilever PLC and Unilever Philippines, Inc. on behalf of their communities. These groups rose up against Unilever to hold it accountable for the decades of environmental and economic damage caused by the company’s massive production of single-use plastic sachets. 

Billions of sachets have inundated Philippine waterways, coastal communities and cities, leading to floods, contaminated food systems, degraded ecosystems, and disrupted livelihoods of fisherfolk and waste workers. Because of their multi-layer design, sachets are persistent, non-recyclable, and an environmental menace. Accusing Unilever of violating multiple major environmental laws, the coalition is seeking accountability. They seek administrative fines, an immediate cease-and-desist order on the manufacturing of flexible plastic packaging, and a mandate for the corporation to exclusively fund the cleanup of affected Philippine waterways.

Unilever knows it has a plastic problem. So what will leadership do next? Dove Men + care customers need a win.

Just days ahead of the World Cup 2026 finals, Greenpeace USA activists unfurled a 50-foot banner outside Dove’s USA headquarters with the message “Dove: Care for Men’s Health, Kick Plastic Out.”  Activists dressed in soccer jerseys also handed out ‘red cards’ penalizing Dove. 

Unilever must immediately take the following actions to step up its game. 

• Commit to phase out plastic packaging, starting with sachets, 
• Create a roadmap to transition to reuse and refill globally
• Continue to call for a strong Global Plastics Treaty that cuts production
• Collaborate to grow support for strong regulations on reduction and reuse

Greenpeace and thousands of people have asked Dove to ditch plastic sachets and swap its plastic packaging for reusable alternatives. Dove has invested in various reuse projects, including the much anticipated city-wide, multi-brand, multi-retailer reuse initiative in Ottawa, Canada that is set to launch later this year. Various Dove personal care products will be part of the project, meaning reusable packaging alternatives will actually be available on store shelves. Unilever’s role in this reuse project is the type of leadership we need more of from the company, and what we don’t need more of is 100% plastic packaging or paper-based sachet false solutions that continue to perpetuate a broken, harmful, plastic-dependent, single-use system that continues to drive the waste and pollution crisis worldwide, every single day. 

Unilever is demonstrating that it knows that healthier, plastic-free, reusable packaging options for personal care products exist, but still refuses to expedite a reuse transition and put people before profits. 

Companies serious about ending their plastic problem should commit to ditch plastic and call for a strong Global Plastics Treaty that accelerates a shift from plastic-dependent business models to plastic-free, zero waste, non-toxic reuse systems worldwide.

Join us in urging Unilever to kick plastic out of its packaging! 

Tell Dove: Kick out plastic to protect health!

Plastic packaging isn’t a necessity; it’s Dove’s choice.

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Sarah King is a senior campaign strategist at Greenpeace Canada for the Plastic Free Future campaign.