Discovering the Congo carbon sink
Laden with carefully thought-out food supplies, Greta Dargie carried her heavy pack as she waded through the mud. Getting to field sites in the swampy forests of the Cuvette Centrale…
Gorillas News
The Republic of Congo: on the cusp of forest conservation
On the surface, the Republic of Congo appears to be making strides toward both conservation and economic development. But the process of becoming an emerging economy is not without its…
Scrapping Nigerian superhighway buffer isn’t enough, say conservation groups
A state government in Nigeria has announced that it will scale back plans to create a buffer zone along its embattled 260-kilometer (162-mile) superhighway project, which conservation groups have warned…
Proposed Trump policy threatens Critically Endangered Grauer’s gorilla
For weeks, the primatologists had followed a group of Grauer’s gorillas over rugged terrain — hacking through dense rainforest; following knife-edged ravines; and crossing a nearly impenetrable mountainous landscape in…
World’s largest tropical peatlands discovered in swamp forests of Congo Basin
A vast area of peatlands in the swamp forests of the Congo Basin, known as the Cuvette Centrale peatlands, has just been mapped for the first time and shown to…
NGO takes action to save great apes in Cameroon’s Lebialem Highlands
The Lebialem Highlands, located in Cameroon’s southwest, is a global biodiversity hotspot, a place long protected from development by its ruggedness and small human populations, though that is no longer…
Indigenous traditional knowledge revival helps conserve great apes
Great apes need intact, safe habitat to thrive. But deforestation and hunting have imperiled that safety, with four out of six species now Critically Endangered, including Eastern and Western gorillas,…
‘Running out of time’: 60 percent of primates sliding toward extinction
Gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans -- our great ape cousins teeter on the precipice of extinction. And it’s not much of a secret that we humans have had a lot to do…
Trade in skulls, body parts severely threatens Cameroon’s great apes
Nests, footprints and dung have been leading primatologists to new gorilla populations in the Congo Basin nation of Cameroon for over a decade. In 2002, researchers discovered nearly 100 Western…
Great apes and greater challenges: Trafficking in Cameroon
Ghaa’s life changed with the sound of a gunshot. The bullet likely killed his mother and shrapnel from the exploding shell struck Ghaa on the side of the head; a…
Protecting gorillas at all costs: park rangers of the Congo
KAHUZI-BIEGA NATIONAL PARK, Democratic Republic of the Congo - I came out of my room and a park ranger was standing just outside the door with an AK-47 in his hands.…
Nigerian superhighway project draws international attention over threats to local communities and wildlife
The clearing of a corridor for the Cross River Superhighway in Nigeria, which would cut through the southern half of the country, has been temporarily halted as a result of…
Hunted to the brink: Mammals in crisis
It’s no secret that many mammals face a dire future, as we humans hunt them to satisfy our desire for protein, medicines and animal parts. But until now, scientists have…
Park ranger murdered while trying to protect rare gorillas
On October 4, a park ranger was killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Kahuzi Biega National Park while trying to protect the park’s rare Grauer’s gorillas. The ranger, Munganga…
From paper to tablet: A new way to record animal behavior
In recent years, technological innovations like camera traps and GPS collars have revolutionized wildlife research. However, when it comes to collecting field observations, scientists frequently still use the old-school method…
Mountain gorillas & Tree lions: experiencing nature’s biggest and baddest with Gryphon Productions
Peter Von Puttkamer carries out two separate missions while making his award-winning programming. His first mission is to entertain and captivate an audience–achieved with Gryphon Productions’ stunning shots of legendary,…
World’s largest gorilla now Critically Endangered
The world’s largest ape, the Grauer’s gorilla or the eastern lowland gorilla, is now on the verge of extinction. The gorilla subspecies (Gorilla beringei graueri), found only in eastern Democratic…
A dangerous, illegal necessity: charcoal reform comes to Virunga
For more than two decades, a violent civil war and its aftermath raged in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), leading to the deaths of millions of people. Forests…
Chew on this new way to detect disease in primates
Preoccupied with snipping a saliva-soaked plant part with a scalpel and placing it in a little tube of viral transport media, veterinary epidemiologist Tierra Smiley Evans thought she was alone,…
Reserve with rare gorillas finally protected
The calamitous civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has killed more than five million people. It has also nearly wiped out populations of the world’s largest primate —…
Disease prevention a boost to human health and great ape conservation
ver the last four decades, industrial agriculture has been a boon to Southeast Asia, but it also helped destroy more than 30 percent of Borneo’s rainforest — one of the…
The hidden toll of war: world’s largest ape plummets 77% in 20 years
For two decades, a devastating civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) prevented scientists from monitoring Grauer’s gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri). But now, data from recent surveys…
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)…
Study gauges use of tea as buffer crop to curb mountain gorilla raids
here the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park ends, crops and gardens begin — as do wildlife conflicts with local communities. Crop raiding mountain gorillas who venture beyond the confines of the…
Focus on great apes, draws attention from other species, finds study
For scientists, not all species are equal. In tropical Asia and Africa, for example, scientists tend to focus on a handful of large national parks that are home to high-profile species…
Republic of Congo awards two million hectares of timber concessions
he Republic of the Congo announced the allocation of 6 timber concessions on January 8 covering 2 million hectares (7,722 square miles), an area about the size of Israel. Two…
DRC mulls changing Virunga’s boundaries for oil
Mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park. Photo by: Cai Tjeenk Willink/Creative Commons 3.0. Last Friday, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) announced it was considering changing the…
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…
Forest restoration commitments: driven by science or politics?
Uganda, Ethiopia, and the DRC made lofty forest restoration pledges Forest during the UN Climate Summit last month. Will they follow through? The United Nations Climate Summit at the end…
The Zanaga iron ore mine – a test of best laid plans for preserving wildlife
Logging companies threaten to undermine the mining industry's efforts to leave biodiversity better off One of the largest iron ore deposits in Africa is located in a strip 47 kilometers…
Why are great apes treated like second-class species by CITES?
CITES has responded to this commentary, refuting certain points: Information on CITES and great apes, including on the outcomes of Standing Committee 65, can be found on the CITES website.…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Narco airstrips beset Indigenous communities in Peruvian Amazon
- 15 illegal narco-trafficking airstrips found near Peru Indigenous communities
- Satellite data show bursts of deforestation continue in Indonesian national park
- Fires rip through Indigenous territories in Brazilian Amazon
Oceans
- Scientists, Māori experts uncover new insights into rare spade-toothed whale
- Coral reefs could survive climate change, but in altered state, study says
- Conservationists see progress for swordfish, problems for sharks at Atlantic fisheries summit
- As tidal power rides a wave of clean energy optimism, pitfalls persist
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
- Should mining companies consider no-go zones where isolated Indigenous peoples live? (Commentary)
- Brazil sets a date to remove illegal miners from Munduruku land, more details await
- Peruvian logger loses FSC label after latest clash with isolated Mashco Piro
- A national park and its rangers in Bolivia endure persisting road construction, illegal mining
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
- An ‘ocean grab’ for a property megaproject leaves Jakarta fishers grounded
- 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
