‘This is not empty forest’: Africa’s palm oil surge builds in Cameroon
This is the first in a four-part series on palm oil in Cameroon. Read the second, third, and fourth parts for more discussion on the topic. ucked amongst the hilltops…
Cameroon News
CyberTracking for Africa’s most endangered ape
Cross River gorillas benefit from reduced threat and strengthened law enforcement thanks in part to mobile data collection, management and analysis with CyberTracker monitoring.
Gorillas in threatened Cameroon forest caught on film for first time
Gorillas have been caught on camera in the Ebo Forest of Cameroon for the first time ever. Ebo Forest is comprised of nearly 2,000 square kilometers (about 770 square miles)…
Survival International files formal complaint against WWF for allegedly violating human rights of Baka ‘Pygmies’
In southeast Cameroon, World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) has helped support a number of conservation initiatives, including the creation of three national parks. But WWF’s presence in Cameroon since…
Cameroon convicts activist campaigning against palm oil company
International NGOs are denouncing the charges brought against Nasako Besingi, a leader in the fight against a project by U.S. agribusiness giant Herakles Farms to develop oil palm plantations in Cameroon.
Norway pledges $47M/yr to help Congo countries save forests
Norway and several European Nations, along with the United Nations and the World Bank, today committed to a new initiative that takes aim at the underlying causes of deforestation in…
Cleaning up cacao: making the chocolate business more sustainable
While most people love chocolate, few are aware of the problems associated with the production of its main ingredient, cacao. The cacao business has traditionally been an ugly one, associated…
Coordinated protests hit Socfin plantations in four countries
Protesters demonstrate in front of Bolloré’s headquarters near Paris calling on the multinational conglomerate to return land, or compensate farmers, over disputed concessions for plantations in Cambodia and three African…
Rainforest communities can now report illegal logging with their mobile phones
. Communities in the Central African rainforest can now report illegal logging in their territories as it happens, potentially enabling real-time law enforcement action. The system, developed in a partnership…
Declining palm oil prices: Good news and bad news for smallholders
Worker harvesting fresh fruit bunches in an oil palm plantation in Riau, Sumatra. Photos by Rhett A. Butler. Declining crop prices usually spell bad news for farmers, and poor smallholders…
Rainforest loss increased in the 2000s, concludes new analysis
Click charts to enlarge Loss of tropical forests accelerated roughly 60 percent during the 2000s, argues a paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The findings contradict previous research…
Scientists sound the alarm on African palm oil investment
Society for Conservation Biology warns that Africa could follow Southeast Asia in losing substantial amounts of its forest Africa’s people, forests and wildlife are in trouble if the mostly unbridled…
Selective logging causes long-term changes to forest structure
Logging in Gabon. Photos by Rhett A. Butler Selective logging is causing long-term changes to tropical forests in Africa by facilitating the growth of weeds and vines, which reduces plant…
Illegal logging still a big issue in Cameroon
Forest abutting Sanaga river in Cameroon. Photo courtesy of Google Earth. Cameroon is struggling to make progress in combatting illegal logging. Regulatory budgets are too thin to protect the country’s…
Enough for an elephant: why are Cameroon’s elephants raiding fields?
Waza National Park in West Africa is a refuge to many endangered and vulnerable species. Walk through the grounds and you may see red-fronted gazelles grazing or giraffes sauntering between…
Deforestation taking toll on nesting birds in Cameroon
New study finds habitat fragmentation may lead to increased nest predation The tropical montane forests of the Cameroon mountain ranges boast fertile volcanic soils, high biodiversity of grasses and non-woody…
World’s rarest gorilla gets a new protected home
Tofala Wildlife Sanctuary will help protect 20-30 Cross River gorillas - about 10 percent of the subspecies The Cross River Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli), the rarest and most threatened of…
Scientists use genes, feces to study disappearing monkeys
Technique may offer effective, easy way to monitor hard-to-find animals Human pressures through tree clearing and poaching are reducing both forest and fauna in West Africa. In response to dwindling…
How do we save the world’s vanishing old-growth forests?
Scientists say both rich and developing countries must recognize primary forests as a conservation priority. Primary rainforest in Imbak Canyon in the state of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. The forest is…
Looming mining ‘tsunami’ set to take Africa by storm
As nations invest billions in extraction development, forests may suffer big losses Many of the minerals that enable our technology, back the value of our economies (or did at one…
Invasion of the oil palm: western Africa’s native son returns, threatening great apes
New research shows African apes likely to be affected by palm oil, but there’s hope, says the author As palm oil producers increasingly look to Africa’s tropical forests as suitable…
Surrounded by deforestation, critically endangered gorillas hang on by a thread
Is there hope for Africa’s most threatened ape subspecies? The mountain forests at the Nigeria-Cameroon border are home to one of the rarest and most threatened subspecies of African apes…
Is Cameroon becoming the new Indonesia? Palm oil plantations accelerating deforestation
New forestry laws in the works, but may not be enough Oil palm nursery in a Herakles Farm’s concession area. Photo: © Greenpeace/Alex Yallop. The potential for new laws governing…
Discarded cell phones to help fight rainforest poachers, loggers in real-time
A technology that uses discarded mobile phones to create a real-time alert system against logging and poaching will soon be deployed in the endangered rainforests of Central Africa. Rainforest Connection…
Greenpeace accuses controversial palm oil company and Cameroon government of illegal logging
Aerial view of Herakles Farm's oil palm plantation nursery. Photo by: © Greenpeace/Alex Yallop. Greenpeace has just accused one of the world's most controversial oil palm companies, Herakles Farms, of…
U.S. palm oil company fined $4.6m in discrimination suit
Aerial view of the Herakles concession in Cameroon. Taken in June 2013.. Herakles Farms, an American agribusiness company, has been ordered to pay $4.6 million by a court in Cameroon…
Controversial palm oil project approved in Cameroon rainforest
Oil palm nursery in a Herakles Farm’s concession area. Last year Herakles Farms said it had permission to set up three nurseries covering 100 hectares even before producing a Social…
African manatee hanging on in Cameroon
In the Lower Basin of the Sanaga River in Cameroon, near Lake Ossa and the Douala-Edea National Parks, manatees swim and float about like round, potato-shaped mermaids. This region is…
Controversial oil palm company now accused of illegal logging in Cameroon rainforest
Environmental group, Greenpeace, has accused Herakles Farms of illegal logging in Cameroon after the company has already been lambasted by scientists and conservationists for its plan to build a 70,000…
Endangered chimps and forest elephants found in rainforest to be logged for palm oil
A biological survey of forests slated for destruction for a palm oil project in Cameroon has uncovered 23 species of large mammals, including the world's most endangered chimpanzee subspecies, the…
Deforestation rate falls in Congo Basin countries
Deforestation has fallen in Congo Basin countries over the past decade despite a sharp increase in the rate of forest clearing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to…
Controversial palm oil project in Cameroon rainforest to resume
The Cameroonian government has lifted the suspension on controversial palm oil project in the northwestern part of the Central African nation, reports the AFP. The project, run by U.S.-based Herakles…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- In Brazil’s Amazon, land invasions — and fires — threaten a protected reserve
- A Guatemalan reserve turns from civil war refuge to deforestation hotspot
- Narco activity takes heavy toll on Colombia’s protected forests, satellite data show
- Photos confirm narcotraffickers operating in Peru’s Kakataibo Indigenous Reserve
Oceans
- As tidal power rides a wave of clean energy optimism, pitfalls persist
- Plan for close season rings alarm bells for Liberia’s artisanal fishers
- Lab-grown corals resisted bleaching during Caribbean’s worst marine heat wave
- Six months after first Houthi ship sinking, attacks slick Red Sea with oil
Amazon Conservation
- ‘World’s largest’ carbon credit deal in the Amazon faces bumpy road ahead
- New conservation model calls for protecting Amazon for its archaeological riches
- Brazil dredges Amazon rivers to ease drought isolation, raising environmental concerns
- ‘We need white men on our side to save the Amazon from destruction,’ 92-year-old Indigenous Chief Raoni says
Land rights and extractives
- Peruvian logger loses FSC label after latest clash with isolated Mashco Piro
- In the DRC, a government commission is taking funds owed to people relocated by mines
- A national park and its rangers in Bolivia endure persisting road construction, illegal mining
- Can nations ever get artisanal gold mining right?
Endangered Environmentalists
- Vietnam sentences yet another energy expert over renewables research
- Mother Nature Cambodia activists sentenced to prison — again
- Mongabay video screening at Chile’s Supreme Court expected to help landmark verdict in Brazil
- Indonesian activist freed in hate speech case after flagging illegal shrimp farms
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- On a Borneo mountainside, Indigenous Dayak women hold fire and defend forest
- Fenced in by Sulawesi national park, Indigenous women make forestry breakout
- In Borneo, the ‘Power of Mama’ fight Indonesia’s wildfires with all-woman crew
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
Conservation Effectiveness
- How effective is the EU’s marquee policy to reduce the illegal timber trade?
- How sharing and learning from failures can transform conservation (commentary)
- Is planting trees as good for the Earth as everyone says?
- Failure in conservation projects: Everyone experiences it, few record it
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- Study: Indonesia’s new capital city threatens stable proboscis monkey population
- Indonesia’s new capital ‘won’t sacrifice the environment’: Q&A with Nusantara’s Myrna Asnawati Safitri
- Small farmers in limbo as Cambodia wavers on Tonle Sap conservation rules
- To build its ‘green’ capital city, Indonesia runs a road through a biodiverse forest
