What Craig’s long life reveals about elephant conservation
The death of a well-known wild animal is an odd kind of news. It is intimate, because so many people feel they have met the creature through photographs and video.…
Kenya News
A nuclear power plan exposes Kenya’s deeper land rights issues
From the shores of Sanita Kitole’s quiet coastal town of Uyombo in southern Kenya, one can see dolphins bobbing in the water from time to time. The environmental activist has…
New study splits giraffe experts on future wild captures for zoos
In the vast savanna grasslands of sub-Saharan Africa towers the giraffe, draped in mosaics of brown and tan patches. Long regarded as a single species, this iconic African megafauna was…
Kenyan woman hugs tree for 72 hours in protest against loss of beloved trees
A 22-year-old woman is the subject of celebration after she hugged a tree continuously for 72 hours amid fluctuating temperatures and rainfall on the foot of Mount Kenya. Truphena Muthoni’s…
Iain Douglas-Hamilton, elephant protector, has died at 83
For nearly six decades, Iain Douglas-Hamilton worked across the savannas of Africa, his scientific focus fixed on its largest inhabitants — the elephants. It was said he could identify an…
Africa’s stakes in global UN environment talks in Nairobi
From Dec. 8-12, Kenya will host delegates from governments, civil society, industry and scientific agencies for the United Nations Environment Assembly at a time of profound environmental challenges and growing…
In Kenya, Maasai private landowners come together to protect wildlife corridors
“Look, giraffes are walking in front of me. We have hundreds of them in our conservancy. There are zebras, too, see! And elephants,” Nelson Ole Reiyia describes during a phone…
Women can help rebuild our relationship with lions: Voices from the land (commentary)
This series, Voices from the Land, brings together opinion pieces led and written by Indigenous peoples from around the world. Through these commentaries, we share our lived realities and reflections…
New arrangements should preserve Nairobi’s much-loved Karura Forest
NAIROBI — The Karura Forest covers about 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres) just north of the Kenyan capital. Thousands of locals visit the forest every month, to escape Nairobi’s noisy streets…
Migrating elephants get room to roam via community conservation efforts
The regularly used airstrip outside the town of Archers Post, in northern Kenya, was closed after being damaged in heavy rains, so my flight landed at an even tinier dirt…
Africa’s largest freshwater lake could be site of Kenya’s nuclear power plant
“It is perfect!” exclaims Anthony Kingi, a member of Uyombo community and an environmental activist. “Kenya doesn’t need it. However, if they must build it, I’m glad it’s not in…
Scientists rethink Serengeti migration numbers with satellite, AI tools
If you’ve watched The Lion King, you probably remember the scene where Mufasa falls into and is trampled by a massive herd of stampeding wildebeests. In real life, as one…
Permaculture promises peace, food, increased equality in Kenyan county
BARINGO, Kenya — Salina Chepsat and a neighbor are loading tomatoes into a vehicle in the scorching midday heat. Chepsat picked the produce earlier that morning from her farm in…
From shamba to PELIS: Kenyan farmers derive livelihoods from government timber plantations
KAKAMEGA, Kenya — A Monday morning finds 50 members of the Nzoia Community Forest Association trekking through rain-drenched thickets in the 5,300 hectare (13,000 acre ) Nzoia Forest Plantation. They…
Kenya’s PELIS trades biodiversity for livelihoods and tree cover gains
KAKAMEGA, Kenya — Tropical rainforest once extended east from the Congo Basin into what is now western Kenya. That’s almost all gone now, though there are still plenty of trees…
‘It doesn’t make sense’: Marine biologist on Kenya’s proposed nuclear power plant
Kenya is in the process of building its very first nuclear power station. According to forecasts by the Kenya Nuclear Power and Energy Agency (NuPEA), construction is due to start…
Killings on Kenya’s Lake Naivasha raise questions over coast guard role
NAIVASHA, Kenya — It was still dark when the call came. Grace Nyambura, known to her neighbors in Karagita as Mama Chuma, was asleep when she got a call from…
As Africa pays the price for rich world’s fast fashion fix, new French bill targets brands
NAIROBI — Mountains of waste stretch as far as the eye can see, smoking in places, giving off an acrid stench that stings the eyes and catches in the throat.…
A forest garden project attempts to expand into the Sahel
Drought, irregular rainfall, deforestation, and the legacy of unsustainable human activities have left vast areas across the arid and semiarid regions of sub-Saharan Africa degraded, causing major challenges for the…
A Kenya marine biodiversity credit program restores mangroves — and livelihoods
MARERENI, Kenya — The scorching afternoon sun stretches across the semiarid landscape of Marereni, in Kenya’s Kilifi county, where salt and sea shape both the land and the lives that…
What happens to artisanal fishers when a deep-sea fishing port comes to town?
This is Mongabay's second story in a short series about the new Shimoni Fish Port. Read the first story here. SHIMONI, Kenya — On a drizzly March afternoon, more than…
Vanishing giants: The Indian Ocean’s biggest fish need saving (commentary)
I have spent much of my life studying predatory fishes in East Africa’s coastal waters, but never have I been more concerned about their future. The disappearance of the western…
As a fishing port rises in Kenya, locals see threats to sea life, livelihoods
This is Mongabay’s first story in a short series about the new Shimoni Fish Port. Read the second story here. SHIMONI, Kenya — Behind the gates of a small, forested…
Pandemic-era slump in ivory and pangolin scale trafficking persists, report finds
A recent report surveying seizures of pangolin scales and elephant ivory over the past decade has found a sharp decline following the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from media reports, public…
Crisis hits community-led conservation group in northern Kenya
GOTU, Kenya — Under the shade of an acacia tree in northern Kenya’s sweltering dry season, a group of elders have gathered to discuss community business in the town of…
Mongabay mourns the loss of Ochieng’ Ogodo, our East Africa Editor
It is with deep sorrow that we announce the sudden passing of Ochieng’ Ogodo, Mongabay’s East Africa editor, who died early Thursday morning in Nairobi, Kenya, at the age of…
Africa’s growing cities are endangering birdlife (commentary)
As urbanization reshapes global landscapes, ecological balance is increasingly at risk, especially in Africa. The primary drivers are rapid development and expanding human settlements, often without proper environmental considerations, posing…
Kenya’s cities adopt Miyawaki method to restore lost ecological glory
NAIROBI, Kenya — Many African cities are now characterized by deafening traffic noises and suffocating gas emissions, and are becoming limitless concrete jungles as urbanization takes hold and human settlements…
Researchers find new killifish species in Kenya
NAIROBI ― A new killifish species, scientifically known as Nothobranchius sylvaticus, has been documented in seasonal swamps of Kenya’s ancient Gongoni Forest, research shows. In a study published this month…
In ‘The Battle for Laikipia,’ the human face of resource conflict in Kenya
KIMANA, Kenya — Lush, fertile and green, the Laikipia highlands of Kenya are renowned for their beauty and abundant grasses that feed its wildlife and livestock. They’re also the theater…
Searching for peace, finding hope: A new film explores rural conflict in Kenya
A moving coming-of-age story of two Kenyan teenagers brought together in friendship by a murder, the documentary film Searching for Amani opens a window into complex tensions between conservationists, crop-growing…
Lives worth living: Elephants, Iain Douglas-Hamilton and the fight for coexistence
At this point in history, the hubristic belief that people are above nature has allowed humans to bring immeasurable change to the natural systems that all of life depends upon…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Satellite data show burst of deforestation in Myanmar rare earth mining hotspots
- 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
Oceans
- Methane chasers: Hunting a climate-changing gas seeping from Earth’s seafloor
- Scientists call for stronger action to save Indonesia’s vanishing seagrass meadows
- Antarctic conservation summit closes with stalemate on MPAs & krill fishing rules
- Norway’s proposal to double krill harvests raises tension at Antarctic conservation summit
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
- Lithium mining may threaten a precious resource — water: Voices from the land (commentary)
- Indigenous guardians successfully keep extractives out of Ecuador’s Amazon forests
- Amid Venezuela’s illegal gold heist are armed groups, gangs & elites, report says
- Indigenous women in Peru use technology to protect Amazon forests
Endangered Environmentalists
- A killing with precedent: Kaiowá man’s murder fits a pattern in Brazil
- Environmental & rights activists flee and hide as M23 captures DRC’s cities
- Environmental journalist in Cambodia shot and killed by suspected logger
- Vietnam sentences yet another energy expert over renewables research
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
