Cropped 8 April 2026: Iran war drives up food prices | Two nature talks conclude | Return of UK’s tallest bird

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Key developments

Iran war and food systems

PLANTING AT RISK: The war in the Middle East “has hit the epicentre of global fertiliser production”, threatening both the spring planting season in the northern hemisphere and winter planting in Australia, according to a comment by the Daily Telegraph’s world economy editor. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard noted that the supply of urea, ammonia and sulphur transported through the Persian Gulf has been “shut off” for nearly a month. The world’s two largest fertiliser producers, China and Russia, have recently reduced fertiliser exports, he added.

COMING CRISIS: Fuel costs and food prices are skyrocketing in Asia and Africa as the Iran war unfolds, reported the Financial Times, ahead of the new “two-week ceasefire”. According to the outlet, the impacts “could be even bigger than the crisis triggered by Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine”. Even regions less directly exposed to the conflict, such as the US, “will feel the effects through higher [food] prices”, the outlet added.

CLIMATE FACTORS: New Scientist noted that the severity of the rise in food prices will depend on the length of the conflict and “how hard global warming-fuelled weather extremes” impact crops this year. A separate New Scientist piece pointed out that reducing farming’s dependence on fossil fuels could “prevent this from happening again [and] help slash the massive greenhouse gas emissions from farming”.

Nature talks outcomes

CONSERVATION WINS: The 15th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Migratory Species ended on 29 March with an agreement to add 40 migratory species, including cheetah, striped hyena and snowy owls, to the convention’s “protected list”, reported Down To Earth. The conference in Brazil also delivered plans for conserving multiple species that live in the same ecosystems, such as the Amazon. The convention’s executive secretary said the new conservation rules are expected to be implemented “immediately”, added the outlet.

MARINE PROTECTION: The conference was considered a “significant step forward” for marine species, as it reached a number of agreements, including commitments for reducing bycatch and a decision for countries to include “critical marine designations into their national biodiversity strategies”, reported Oceanographic. The meeting also adopted transboundary action plans for conserving the “critically endangered” European eel and the tope shark, it said.

HIGH SEAS MEETING: The final preparatory meetings for the High Seas Treaty ended on Friday with “meaningful progress in several key areas”, according to the Fishing Daily. Countries agreed on the “functioning of most subsidiary bodies” and several financial matters, but the “negotiations lost momentum toward the end of the session”, noted the outlet. The Financial Times reported that China is pushing to host the UN permanent body that will oversee High Seas Treaty talks. Earth Negotiations Bulletin reported that the treaty’s first summit will likely take place in New York in January 2027.

News and views

• FOREST LOSS: Deforestation in Indonesia surged by ​66% in 2025, hitting its highest rate in eight years as a “result of weak environmental protections and an ambitious ‌food and energy self-sufficiency drive”, said Reuters.
• DEFORESTATION REGULATION: Brazil introduced a new regulation last week requiring banks to use satellite data provided by the government to verify if borrowers of rural loans have deforested farmlands in the Amazon or other forests since July 2019, reported Folha de São Paulo.
• FACTORY FARMING: The UK government is overhauling planning rules to “make it easier to build intensive livestock farms despite concerns about water pollution, air quality and local opposition”, according to documents obtained under the freedom-of-information act by the Guardian.
• INITIATIVE ‘ABANDONED’: The European Commission has officially “abandoned” its sustainable EU food system initiative, according to the commission’s website. The framework was meant to integrate sustainability into all food-related policies, including for food labelling and public procurement.
• BLUE MILESTONE: The UN Environment Programme’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre announced that 10% of the global ocean is officially protected; however, the figure needs to triple for the world to meet its conservation commitments by 2030, according to EFE Verde.

Spotlight

Return of UK’s tallest bird

This week, Carbon Brief reports on how cranes, the UK’s tallest bird at more than 1 metre high, are making a remarkable comeback from extinction.

Standing at more than 1m with a 2m wingspan, cranes are comfortably the tallest bird in the UK.

Hundreds of years ago, they were a common sight in the UK. But, in the 1600s, they went extinct in the UK, due to overhunting and the large-scale loss of their wetland habitat. (Henry III reportedly served 115 cranes at one of his Christmas feasts in 1251.)

However, in 1979, a small number of wild cranes flew in from Europe and settled in Norfolk, eastern England. As efforts to restore and protect the UK’s wetland habitats have grown over the past few decades, so has the number of cranes.

In 2025, cranes had a record breeding season in the UK, with 87 pairs raising 37 chicks, according to data from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). This has brought the total number of cranes in the country to around 250, says the charity.

Cranes and carbon

The majority of the UK’s growing crane population can be found in wetland areas that have been actively restored and protected by the RSPB and other conservation groups.

This includes Lakenheath Fen, a former carrot field in Suffolk, eastern England, that over the past 30 years has been restored into a diverse wetland habitat for birds, otters and water voles, among other species.

Cranes first arrived at Lakenheath from Europe in 2007, site manager Dave Rodgers explained to Carbon Brief:

“The conditions we created – a patchwork of developing reedbed, interspersed with shallowly flooded areas – were perfect for cranes. In 2007, there was an influx of birds from Europe. Two pairs flew over Lakenheath, landed and they’ve been nesting here ever since.”

As well as providing a home for cranes and other vulnerable water birds, the restoration of Lakenheath Fen and other sites like it is also helping to reduce the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Cranes at Lakenheath Fen in England. Credit: Andy Hay

This is because Lakenheath Fen is a peatland.

Peatlands are waterlogged environments where plants decay very slowly, eventually forming a carbon-rich soil called peat. Across the world, peatlands cover just 3% of land area, but store more carbon than all of Earth’s trees combined.

In the UK, around 80% of all peatlands are degraded, with the greenhouse gases they emit accounting for around 5% of the country’s total emissions.

Rodgers explained:

“By re-wetting the peat, we’re almost completely preventing further loss of carbon from the soil.”

Flying future

According to the RSPB, cranes are now found at multiple wetland sites in the south-east and south-west of England. Some have even settled as far as Scotland.

With wetland restoration taking place across the country, including in cities such as London and Bristol, it is likely the birds will continue to spread to new areas, said Rodgers:

“There are a lot of wetlands around the country that would be suitable for cranes to nest in that are not currently occupied.

“With care, we should see cranes expand more widely across the country so that people who don’t currently have them might see them within the next 10 years.”

Watch, read, listen

NEW CHANCE FOR BEAVERS: A video from the Guardian showed the positive effects of the reintroduction of beavers into the wild in England.

INKCAP RELAUNCH: The UK online nature publication, Inkcap, headed by former Carbon Brief journalist Sophie Yeo, has relaunched with a new look.

BIRDS ARE BACK: Mongabay covered five bird species thought extinct that were rediscovered in 2025.

GREAT SHIFT: This Nature Answers podcast told the story of a community in Côte d’lvoire, where farmers moved from climate scepticism to adopting climate-adaptation measures.

New science

• Many insects in the tropics are already approaching their heat limits – the upper bound of the temperatures at which they can live | Nature
• More than 8,000 species could face increased exposure to wildfires by 2100 as a result of climate change under a moderate-warming scenario | Nature Climate Change
• Two temperate tree species, European beech and downy oak, can adapt to rising temperatures – but not when those high temperatures are accompanied by drought | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

In the diary

• 10 April: Djibouti presidential election
• 12 April: Hungary presidential election
• 13-18 April: World Bank/International Monetary Fund spring meetings | Washington DC
• 21-22 April: 17th Petersberg climate dialogue | Berlin, Germany
• 21-25 April: UNFCCC climate week 1 | Yeosu, South Korea

Cropped is researched and written by Dr Giuliana Viglione, Aruna Chandrasekhar, Daisy Dunne, Orla Dwyer and Yanine Quiroz. Please send tips and feedback to [emailprotected]