New research shows a quarter of freshwater animals are threatened with extinction

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly a quarter of animals living in rivers, lakes and other freshwater sources are threatened with extinction, according to new research published Wednesday.

“Huge rivers like the Amazon can appear mighty, but at the same time freshwater environments are very fragile,” said study co-author Patricia Charvet, a biologist at Brazil's Federal University of Ceará.

Freshwater habitats – including rivers, lakes, ponds, streams, bogs and wetlands – cover less than 1% of the planet’s surface, but support 10% of its animal species, said Catherine Sayer, a zoologist at the International Union for Conservation of Nature in England.

The researchers examined around 23,500 species of dragonflies, fish, crabs and other animals that depend exclusively on freshwater ecosystems. They found that 24% were at risk of extinction – classified as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered – due to compounding threats from pollution, dams, water extraction, agriculture, invasive species, climate change and other disruptions.

“Most species don’t have just one threat putting them at risk of extinction, but many threats acting together,” said Sayer, a study-co-author.

The tally, published in the journal Nature, is the first that time researchers have analyzed the global risk to freshwater species. Previous studies have focused on land animals including including mammals, birds and reptiles.

Duke University ecologist Stuart Pimm, who was not involved in the study, called it “a long-awaited and hugely important paper."

“Almost every big river in North America and Europe is massively modified" through damming, putting freshwater species at risk, he said.

In South America, the vast Amazon River ecosystem also faces threats from deforestation, wildfires and illegal gold mining, said Charvet.

Illegal fires to clear forest result in waves of ash polluting the river, and unlicensed gold miners dump mercury into the water, she said.

Rivers and wetlands “concentrate everything that happens around them," she said. "If something goes really wrong, like an acid or oil spill, you can threaten an entire species. There’s nowhere else for these animals to go.”

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Progressive and traditional democratic leaders gathered in Barcelona on Saturday to discuss how to restore faith in the liberal order threatened by a world drifting toward far-right extremism and torn by conflict.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump and the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, is hosting two overlapping events about democracy and progressive politics at a convention center in Spain’s second city.

The IV Meeting in Defense of Democracy brought together Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Colombian President Gustavo Petro, among the leaders or high-ranking officials of 10 other countries, including the United Kingdom.

While no leader mentioned Trump in the small part of the meeting open to the press, the staunchly unilateral position of the American president that breaks with decades of U.S. foreign policy, and his derision of NATO and the United Nations, hung over the meetings intent on defending the multilateral rules-based order.

“We all see the attacks against the multilateral system, the repeated attempts to undermine international law and the dangerous normalization of the use of force,” Sánchez said at the start of the meeting.

The Spanish leader said that the focus would be to find ways to reinforce the multilateral order — starting with reforming the U.N., regulating social media to stop the spread of hate speech and disinformation, and methods to combat growing economic inequality.

“We’re meeting at a time of extraordinary challenge globally with rising prices as a result of conflict once again in the Middle East," British Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said. “We’re also meeting at a time of tremendous technological advance ... so it is important that we meet, that we discuss, that we organize on behalf of working people.”

Ramaphosa promoted his plan to push for the United Nations to launch a comprehensive, international study and policy-action plan to battle the growing wealth gap both between and within nations on the model of its efforts to mitigate climate change.

He said South Africa will present a draft resolution to establish the International Panel on Inequality to the U.N. General Assembly in September.

Among concrete proposals, Sheinbaum plugged her idea that governments commit to spending the equivalent of 10% of their military budgets on reforestation projects.

“Each year, instead of planting the seeds of war, we will plant the seeds of life,” she said.

Sheinbaum also said she wants to propose a declaration, without specifying if she referred to the U.N., against a military intervention in Cuba, a move that Trump has said he believe he will “ have the honor ” of carrying out.

Later on Saturday, several leaders will stay on to attend the inaugural Global Progressive Mobilization, where some 3,000 left-leaning elected officials and policy analysts will exchange ideas.

The gatherings come a day after Sánchez and Lula held a summit at a former royal palace in Barcelona. They shared their concern for a world that has been shaken by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Israel's offensive in Gaza in response to Hamas' attack, and now, the conflict in Iran that has disrupted oil and natural gas markets.

Lula and Sánchez are among the few progressive leaders who have withstood a shift to the right and remain popular in their countries while defending multilateral agreements, human rights, environmental protections and gender equality — values often challenged by Trump, Lula’s neighbor in Argentina, libertarian President Javier Milei, and Europe’s far right.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, center, poses with attendees, at the Meeting in Defence of Democracy summit in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, center, poses for a photo next to Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left, and his wife wife Rosangela Lula da Silva, at the Meeting in Defence of Democracy summit, in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, right, greets Colombia's President Gustavo Petro at the Meeting in Defence of Democracy summit in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, right, greets Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum at the Meeting in Defence of Democracy summit in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, center, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, center left, Colombia's President Gustavo Petro, second right, Uruguay's President Yamandu Orsi, left, and Chile's former President Gabriel Boric, right, attend the Meeting in Defence of Democracy summit in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, April 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Monfort)