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In 1900, an estimated 100,000 tigers roamed free on our planet. Yet within a hundred years, that number plummeted by more than 95 percent - the result of rampant poaching and widespread habitat loss. But it seems the tide may finally be turning for the majestic cat. On Sunday, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) announced that wild tiger numbers were on the rise for the first time in over a century.

Beth Stevens, senior VP of environmental affairs at Disney Worldwide Services, is in charge of making strides in the direction of sustainability. How does the iconic brand not only tell an engaging sustainability story but walk the talk? Disney's sustainability goals are serious. It aims to halve its emissions by 2020 from 2012 levels. It signed on to the White House American Business Act on Climate Pledge ahead of COP21 and the Paris Agreement. It even maintains an internal carbon price. Stevens sees all this as a natural expression of the company's culture.

  (LUIS ACOSTA/Getty Images) Efforts to prevent illegal logging in the Brazilian Amazon can reduce the impact of certain diseases, a study has found. Logging creates mosquito-friendly areas and subsequently increases malaria infections, while strict forestry regulations can reduce infection rates for several diseases by limiting the number of people passing through forested areas

Since 1994, the researchers have found increasing amounts of evidence suggesting that lion bones are starting to replace tiger bones in certain tonics and cure-alls. Records show the industry forming in fits and starts-a skeleton here, a live lion there. The real action, though, began in 2007, after the international community adopted stricter measures to protect tigers and other big cats in Asia. The following year, South Africa issued permits for the export of 50 lion skeletons. By 2011, that number had jumped to 573 skeletons.

From industry giants thinking beyond freshwater to startups tackling the wastewater, here are the names to watch.

Governor Andrew Cuomo celebrated World Elephant Day today by signing into law a bill (A10143/S7890) that will help stop the slaughter of African elephants for their tusks by drying up the nation's largest market for ivory: New York City.

Kenya-based Wildlife Works Carbon employs "wildlife rangers" on about 500,000 acres in and around two national parks to protect elephants from poachers. The company sells carbon credits to raise the funds needed to pay the rangers. The cash raised also goes to compensate landowners for leaving land and resources in their natural condition, and to fund educational and community projects. It's the country's pilot project as part of its belonging to the United Nations' Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation program.

The Silk Leaf, by RCA graduate Julian Melchiorri, is the first manmade material that can perform photosynthesis. It has huge implications for science and technology and it could also make long-distance space travel a possibility.

The Forest Stewardship Council issued leadership awards to individuals and organizations that it considered to be champions in forest conservation. Winners included Kimberly-Clark (CEF member), Scholastic, the World Wildlife Fund's Global Forest and Trade Network, and more.

Along the oceanside bluffs just north of Goleta, one farm is producing 20 to 25 varieties of organic produce using a sustainable farming method that uses as little as 10 percent of the amount of water used in traditional agriculture.

British Columbia will protect around 85% of the Great Bear Rainforest, which is "one of the world's largest temperate rainforests." The additional 15% will be available for logging under the "most stringent" standards in North America.

Chinese authorities have nabbed all three identified members of a major ivory trafficking syndicate first exposed by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) in 2017.

On January 31, The Hong Kong Legislative Council voted 49 to 4 to phase out the sale of antique ivory. As Tiffany May at The New York Times reports, the city will ban all sale of ivory, new and antique, by 2021, closing a system that poachers have previously exploited. The move will help staunch a significant player in the ivory market, which drives the destruction of elephant populations. In recent years, the United Nations estimates that poachers kill up to 100 elephants each day, which has devastated their populations.

On Day Zero, about three months from now, Cape Town will shut off its spigots, an almost unfathomable step for a major city of 4 million people. And it might presage something bleaker for other regions that are grappling with the challenges of strained infrastructure and the effects of rising temperatures.

Washington-based research team RESOLVE, in collaboration with Globaïa Foundation and Universidade Federal de Viçosa, are teaming up to map a global "safety net" for the planet that would protect and connect 50% of the world's land area.