In the border region between Benin, Niger and Burkina Faso lies a network of protected areas that form one of the largest intact wildernesses in West Africa. The W-Arly-Pendjari (WAP)…
HARARE — By 6 a.m. on Sunday, the line at a water well in Harare’s Budiriro suburb is already long. It snakes all the way into a nearby street, and…
With recent conservation efforts and the involvement of Indigenous peoples and local communities in managing protected areas, forest elephant populations are on the verge of stabilizing,in at least one national…
The announcement of tin and coltan deposits potentially worth tens of billions of dollars “discovered” beneath a forest reserve has taken Burundi by storm, raising questions about its veracity and…
Across West and Central Africa’s tropical agricultural belt — and one of the world’s greatest biodiversity hotspots — cacao farming has taken off as demand for chocolate rises in the…
JIGJIGA, ETHIOPIA — Ahmed Mohammed rises before dawn in Jigjiga, the bustling capital of Ethiopia’s Somali region. The 38-year-old’s new routine contrasts starkly with the pastoralist life he once knew.…
BRAZZAVILLE — Conservation authorities in the Republic of Congo have launched a plan to invest in the protection of “high-integrity forests” in Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, treating these ecosystems as an…
CAPE TOWN — The sharp pop of an air gun echoes through the forested flanks of Constantia as volunteers herd a raiding troop of baboons away from the affluent Cape…
RUMPHI, Malawi — In the villages below Nyika Plateau in northern Malawi’s Rumphi district, coffee rules. It’s one of the most common bushes in the region, grown in back and…
Cuatir Conservation Area, ANGOLA — On Sept. 2, a team from Namibia’s Okonjati Game Reserve completed the last of four arduous translocations, taking a total of 26 elephants across the…
For the Indigenous Vungu people living along the border of Gabon’s Moukalaba-Doudou National Park, the forest here has long been a source of traditional medicines. So when researchers set out…
The Menabe Antimena Protected Area in midwestern Madagascar is badly scarred by deforestation; farmers from the surrounding communities have encroached on this unique dry forest ecosystem in search of new…
Why did the serval go to the petrochemical complex? For the refinery rodents, of course. These swift and slender wildcats that call the marshes and reedbeds of sub-Saharan Africa home…
How do you secure the future of one of Africa’s most endangered large mammals, a species with only an estimated 3,000 remaining in the wild? You protect its habitat –…
ROBERTSPORT, Liberia — “We depend only on the sea for our survival. How will we manage when the sea is closed?” Mamie Freeman was seated atop a beached canoe in…
The first time Robin Naidoo mapped GPS data points to track elephant movement in Southern Africa, he was in for a surprise. Across the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA), one…
I have spent more than 20 years visiting communities and working with farmers around Uganda and across East and southern Africa. I have come to realize that there are many…
Oil exploration in the Republic of Congo’s Conkouati-Douli National Park threatens the local biodiversity, communities and environment, according to U.S.-based NGO Earth Insight. The Conkouati oil block was awarded by…
Across Africa, numerous ecosystems are under pressures degrading their ecological, economic and cultural value. The Niger Delta in the continent’s west and Mount Elgon in the east are two examples…
Michael Harvey recalls the moment he first saw a flock of yellow-crested helmetshrikes flitting through a cloud forest in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo: the first confirmed sighting by…
After years of delays, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR) will soon meet for the first time to discuss Kenya’s failure to implement rulings recognizing the Ogiek…
Revered by the Indigenous Mbuti and Efe tribes as a spiritual symbol and uplifted by the Democratic Republic of Congo as a national one, the okapi is deserving of a…
Two years since global policymakers agreed on the concept of protecting 30% of the world’s land and waters by 2030, there’s still little clarity on how achieving this goal will…
For two years, a volunteer organization in eastern Sierra Leone worked to encourage residents of Kenema district to plant trees and switch to more climate-resilient crops. Sierra Leone Environment Matter's…
U.S. government agencies responsible for handing out conservation grants overseas still aren’t doing enough to protect human rights, according to an internal review. The review was commissioned by the U.S.…
In Bamukumbit village in northwestern Cameroon, residents have traditionally depended on natural water sources. However, these springs, streams, and rivers have deteriorated and become polluted over time as a result…
High rates of inbreeding among hooded vultures in Ghana and South Africa spell trouble for their future, according to a newly published study. The study found that despite wide differences…
In 2022, the government of Tanzania began forcibly evicting thousands of Indigenous Maasai from 1,500 square kilometers, nearly 600 square miles, of their ancestral land to make way for elite…
In January 2023, two men mysteriously disappear after speaking out against pollution from a controversial iron ore mine in Michoacán, Mexico. The following March, climate change protesters in Austria and…
GAROUA, Cameroon — Ouro Andre, a village in the Lagdo sub division in the North Region of Cameroon, appears desolate on this rainy morning as farmers set out early to…
A lost bird Everything we know for certain about the Itombwe owl comes from just two individuals: one dead for more than 70 years, and the other also most likely…
KIGALI — When scientists, conservationists and policymakers from around the world gathered in East Africa this July — exchanging ideas, celebrating successes and planning for the future — the international…
