Pictures from Tasmania’s central plateau, shot by wilderness photographer Dan Broun, show the extraordinary damage wrought by more than a week of bushfires following lightning strikes in Australia’s southernmost state on January 13. 2016. The world heritage area was home to a range of unique alpine flora including pencil pines, king billy pines and cushion plants, some more than 1,000 years old. Now more than 10,000ha of land has been incinerated, and ecologist say that, unlike eucalyptus trees, the ancient flora will not recover. (Photo by Dan Broun)

Young women wearing facemasks and traditional costumes of Song dynasty and Tang dynasty are seated on a bench in a park next to the East Lake in Wuhan, in China’s central Hubei province on May 17, 2020. The Guardian picture desk has chosen on December 17, 2020, the AFP photojournalist Hector Retamal as “Agency Photographer of the Year 2020” for his coverage of the novel coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic in Wuhan, China. (Photo by Hector Retamal/AFP Photo)

A member of Sisters of the Valley, a non-religious international group founded in 2014 which has pledged to spread the gospel of the healing powers of cannabis, who uses the moniker “Sister Bernardet” online and asked not to give her name for fear of reprisal, smokes a joint at the Sisters of the Valley's farm on the outskirts of a village in central Mexico on September 3, 2023. (Photo by Raquel Cunha/Reuters)

Thai residents carrying a basin with a dog inside wade through water at a flooded street during a downpour in central Yala, southern province, Thailand, 28 November 2024. Seven provinces in southern Thailand are facing severe flooding after heavy rains caused by a strong northeast monsoon, affecting thousands of people and forcing the closure of schools and roads, according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation. (Photo by Nakharin Chinnawornkomol/EPA/EFE)

This photo taken on February 10, 2025 shows a captured green iguana being held by hunters after it was brought down by a slingshot in Pingtung. Taiwan's iguana population has exploded since the spikey-backed giant lizards were introduced from Central and South America more than 20 years ago as exotic pets. Many escaped or were dumped by their owners and have bred rapidly in the warm climate of southern Taiwan, invading neighbourhoods and ravaging farmers' crops. (Photo by I-Hwa Cheng/AFP Photo)

Christian people crowd a bush taxi on a road 55km north of Bangui as they are on their way to the capital where they expect to sell some products on the market on January 19, 2014. Fresh fighting broke out in the strife-torn Central African Republic on the eve of an announcement on Sunday of the candidates seeking to become the new interim president. Sectarian violence has gripped the landlocked country after a March 2013 coup launched by the mostly Muslim Seleka rebels, and the UN has warned that the bloodshed could turn into genocide. (Photo by Eric Feferberg/AFP Photo)

Punk protest band p*ssy Riot member Maria Alyokhina is detained by police at a protest in central Moscow February 24, 2014. Russian riot police detained over a hundred protesters, including two members of p*ssy Riot, on Monday at a Moscow courthouse where seven opponents of President Vladimir Putin were jailed from two and a half to four years over a demonstration that turned violent. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Yak near Yamdrok lake, Tibet. It is a long-haired bovinae found throughout the Himalayan region of south Central Asia, the Tibetan Plateau and as far north as Mongolia and Russia. The Tibetan economy is dominated by subsistence agriculture. Due to limited arable land, the primary occupation of the Tibetan Plateau is raising livestock, such as sheep, cattle, goats, camels, yaks, dzo, and horses. The Tibetan yak is an integral part of Tibetan life. (Photo by Dennis Jarvis)