There are around 60,000 known tree species in the world, and they can do amazing things: store carbon, provide people with food and firewood, shelter creatures big and small, and…
Between 2000 and 2023, more than 6,000 African primates were traded internationally in 50 countries, according to a newly published report. Endangered chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and critically endangered western gorillas…
In what’s being called immensely good news for the African golden cat, often described as the continent’s most elusive and threatened wildcat species, Uganda’s Echuya Forest will become a national…
LUKU CENTRAL FOREST RESERVE, Uganda — Ornithologist Ivan Oruka stops suddenly near the foot of a cliff that’s streaked with the telltale whitewash of bird droppings. He quickly presses his…
Fears of underinvestment in mitigation against oil spills, poor waste disposal and water overuse remain a major concern for environmentalists, even as Uganda insists adequate measures are in place to…
KAMPALA — Ten years ago, Uganda’s capital Kampala was facing a strange problem: trees were falling over on the city’s streets, injuring people and damaging cars and property. The municipality…
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 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…
The mvule (Milicia excelsa) is a giant of a tree, up to 50 meters (165 feet) tall, with a trunk 6 m (20 ft) around. To collect seeds from such…
Just 10 years ago, spotting a gray crowned crane in Rwanda’s wetlands had become a rarity. These elegant birds — tall and statuesque, with golden plumes fanning from their heads…
KATWE, Uganda — In 1889, the British journalist Henry Morton Stanley stumbled out of the forests of Central Africa into the town of Katwe, a settlement on the shore of…
Africa’s remaining tropical glaciers are rapidly disappearing as greenhouse gas emissions drive global warming. In the Rwenzori Mountains, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the border between the Democratic Republic…
The Indianapolis Prize, a prestigious award that recognizes leaders in wildlife conservation, has awarded its second Emerging Conservationist Award to Mwezi Badru Mugerwa. A Ugandan researcher and conservationist who combines…
PADER DISTRICT, Uganda — As the early morning mist lifts over the plains of northern Uganda, women gather at the Pader Shea Nut and Agro-processing Society's nursery. Grown from seeds…
PADER DISTRICT, Uganda — In northern Uganda's Pader district, farmers are working to preserve agricultural landscapes that have fed their communities for generations. These shea parklands, where carefully maintained trees…
NAIROBI ― Poisoning, poaching and loss of habitat have significantly reduced populations of lion prides in Uganda, signaling the need for long-term commitments to conservation action, researchers write in a…
KASESE DISTRICT, Uganda — In western Uganda’s Kasese district, where the Rwenzori Mountains meet the sprawling plains of Queen Elizabeth National Park, Janet Nyakairu Abwoli is on a mission to…
KIKORONGO, Uganda — What do you do if you’re neighbors with an elephant? In western Uganda, the answer is: You build a fence. And not just any fence. One that…
KITABU, Uganda — It’s mid-afternoon in Kitabu, a small town nestled in the hills of western Uganda at the foot of the Rwenzori mountains. Neatly manicured plots of beans and…
On June 13, 1959, the Waata hunter Galogalo Kafonde surrendered himself to colonial Kenya’s “Field Force,” Africa’s first militarized antipoaching unit. For centuries, the ethnic Waata had hunted elephants. Killing…
It was mid-2008. Mwezi “Badru” Mugerwa was almost done with his bachelor's degree in forestry, an academic field that had trained him to view forests as a resource for extraction.…
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…
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…
In recent years, there has been a significant trend in young people from around the world joining the fight against environmental threats and climate change. These educated youths have played…
Oil drilling by French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies is disturbing wildlife in Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda’s largest and most-visited protected area. This is according to a briefing by…
For more than 15 years, an international team of researchers intermittently followed five groups of eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) in the jungles of Uganda and Tanzania. With cameras in…
Zimbabwe’s Mbare agricultural market in Harare, the biggest local market in the country’s capital city, opens at 5 a.m. and bustles. Between morning and noon, traders arrive from different parts…
“Finish your yogurt, sweetheart, it’s good for your bones. And take a few almonds, so you’ll stay healthy.” You may have heard this before, and rightly so. Minerals, such as…
In April 2024, above-average rainfall caused Kenya’s Ewaso Nyiro River to burst its banks, flooding the area and wreaking havoc for residents, including more than two dozen rescued chimpanzees at…
Scientists have warned that mining of the metals needed for the global clean energy transition could threaten Africa’s already beleaguered great apes unless strong conservation measures are implemented. Nearly 180,000…
Wild chimpanzees actively seek out plants with medicinal properties to treat themselves for specific ailments,a new study has found. While most animals consume foods with medicinal properties as part of…
Puberty comes with its challenges for Homo sapiens, but for female chimpanzees it presents a particular quandary: how to avoid mating with your male kin. It’s not easy, especially on…
