In August 2025, Louis Nkembi, founder of conservation NGO ERuDeF, was abducted by militia fighters in Cameroon’s Lebialem Highlands. He was held for two weeks, hidden in a secret location…
OJUELEGBA, Nigeria — On the bustling streets of this central Lagos neighborhood, it’s easy to buy a drink. Hawkers weave between buses and motorcycles with wheelbarrows of bottled water and…
In December 2024, Turkish customs officers were flummoxed when they discovered a malnourished baby gorilla in the cargo hold of an airplane flying from Nigeria to Bangkok, transiting via Istanbul.…
Sea-level rise has accelerated across Africa in recent decades, thanks to global warming and, in particular, to the melting of ice sheets and glaciers, according to a recent study. The…
Between Nigeria’s Cross River and Cameroon’s Sanaga River lies one of West Africa’s largest remaining blocks of intact rainforest. Noisy groups of Preuss’s red colobus monkeys (Piliocolobus preussi) move through…
The sun rises over lush farm fields of on the outskirts of Lagos. For more than 20 years, a farmer named Joe has tilled the land, coaxing life from the…
When the rivers rise and the skies grow dark, Africa's resilience will light the way to a sustainable future. Africa, the continent that contributes the least to climate change,…
When headline after headline highlights tons of pangolin scale seizures in Nigeria, it’s easy to presume that most pangolin poaching in the country is driven by the international demand for…
When the going gets tough, the tough get going — but for people in the Itasin-Imobi community, the going has been tough for far too long. Situated in the midst…
“We are not causing climate change, yet we are the ones heavily affected,” says 26-year-old Solomon Islands health worker Matthew Bibao Paikea, as he expresses ongoing frustration over failing crops,…
Lake Chad is nearly 1,130 kilometers (700 miles) from the ocean, but Nwamaka Okeke-Ogbuafor fears it is a preview of what’s ahead for African and other tropical fisheries. Straddling four…
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…
In a significant blow to wildlife trafficking, Nigerian authorities recently seized 2 metric tons of pangolin scales, worth tens of thousands of dollars on the black market, and arrested a…
Critically endangered hooded vultures in Nigeria that once fed on the carcasses of wild animals are now largely dependent on scraps discarded by people. But changes in the way waste…
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…
Across continents, “sacrifice zones” resemble wounds carved deep into the fabric of our planet. These are regions where ecosystems and livelihoods have been ravaged by fossil fuel and other industries…
Yams are considered one of the world’s most important crops. A starchy, nutrient-rich root vegetable of the genus Dioscorea, the yam thrives in a tropical belt across West Africa, with…
The communities around Lake Chad have always lived by its water rhythms. Now, as climate change impacts intensify, they must find new ways to adapt. The Lake Chad Basin lies…
On a night in 1997, Benjamin Dauda killed a gorilla for the first time. Shrouding his lanky frame in dark fog, he stalked a foraging troop, finally dispatching his bullet…
On Apr. 30, 2024, as the sun rose over Lagos, bulldozers rolled in to the Oniru waterfront, a popular leisure hub, where they cleared kiosks, restaurants and other beachside businesses.…
A women-led reforestation effort has planted millions of mangrove trees with a high survival rate across swamps in Nigeria’s oil-rich and severely degraded Niger Delta. For decades, the Ogoni people…
Humanity achieved a fateful milestone last year. The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service has officially declared 2024 the hottest year on record, and the first year in history with…
As the first light pierced through storm clouds, swollen rivers spilled over their banks, sweeping through villages across the Sahel. In countries ranging from Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso to…
This year marks the second full year of Mongabay’s Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellowships. Participants, selected from a pool of hundreds of applicants around the world, spend six months…
Climate change is not an equal player; neither is environmental degradation. Research shows that both disproportionately affect populations that are already vulnerable. The effects of floods, fires, heat waves and…
Extreme rainfall recorded in Sudan, Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria and Chad this year marks a heightened stage in Africa's climatic vulnerability. According to research by World Weather Attribution (WWA), such floods,…
Oluwa Forest Reserve, located in southwestern Nigeria, contains some of the last large swaths of old growth — also called “primary” — forest in the region. These forests are home…
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…
The Gambles’s flatwing, a critically endangered damselfly with glittering translucent wings, is so rare scientists estimate there could be as few as 250 left in the wild. When zoologist Abiodun…
Driven to protect the planet one child, one tree and one recycled piece of plastic at a time, environmental advocate Doyinsola Ogunye is helping children, youth and women in Nigeria…
In 2023, Socfin hired a consultancy to investigate longstanding allegations of human rights violations and environmental damage raised by communities living around the Belgian transnational company’s oil palm and rubber…
Conservation organizations and international bodies have launched a 20-year action plan to save vultures in West Africa, specifically targeting the threat of belief-based use. The West African Vulture Conservation Action…
