location: North Africa

location: North Africa

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Shining a spotlight on the wide-roaming sand cat ‘king of the desert’
- The sand cat (Felis margarita) is a small, elusive wildcat exquisitely adapted to thrive in the deserts of northern Africa, Southwest and Central Asia — some of the hottest, driest habitat on the planet. These felids are near-impossible to see in the daytime and difficult to track at night. As a result, little is known about the species.
- Despite being challenged by limited resources, two European experts have repeatedly traveled to southern Morocco to study the sand cat. Their efforts, along with the rest of the Sand Cat Sahara Team, have led to the gathering of scientifically robust data that is lifting the lid on the secretive life of this tiny felid.
- The sand cat’s status is listed by the IUCN as “least concern” because there is little evidence to indicate its numbers are declining. But data across regions remain scant. New findings from southern Moroccan sand cat study sites beg for this conclusion to be reassessed, with possibly fewer sand cats existing than past estimates indicate.
- Tracking the sand cat’s changing conservation status is important because that data can indicate changes and trends in the ecologically sensitive environments in which they live. In addition, how they adapt, or fail to adapt, to climate change can give us clues to the resilience of species facing today’s extremes, especially desertification.

Mongabay launches Africa news bureau
- Mongabay is launching a bilingual news bureau, Mongabay Africa, to cover environmental and conservation news across the continent in French and English.
- The bureau will support original reporting on wildlife conservation, development pressures, natural resource industries, and climate change impacts in Africa.
- This expansion aligns with Mongabay’s efforts to provide credible independent journalism, make science accessible, elevate voices impacted by environmental change, and serve a diverse audience with free news in various languages and formats.

Study reveals turtles’ millennia-old food affair with North African seagrass
- Researchers have traced the 3,000-year-old “food footprints” of endangered green sea turtles around the Mediterranean.
- By comparing turtle bone samples from Bronze and Iron Age archaeological sites to skin samples from turtles they’re tracking by satellite today, they’ve uncovered turtles’ enduring preference for the same sea meadows.
- The findings highlight the importance of protecting these underwater meadows, which face degradation due to conversion, pollution and climate change.

Morocco rolls out a phosphorous-fueled plan to heal soils across Africa
- Farmers across Africa are faced with eroded, phosphorus-limited soils, leading to low crop yields, despite having some of the world’s richest phosphate deposits in Morocco.
- Soil scientists at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Morocco are building a countrywide network of farmers and soil experts to routinely test soil for its nutrients and other properties, giving farmers more tailored fertilizer recommendations.
- Morocco is the first country in Africa to create soil fertility maps, a way to map out the productivity of arable land, with the practice now catching on in other countries.
- Researchers and others in the agriculture sector see Morocco as a potential leader in boosting soil productivity and revolutionizing agriculture in Africa to expand production beyond subsistence farming.

Illegal trawling ravages Tunisian seagrass meadows crucial for fish
- The largest remaining seagrass meadows in the Mediterranean are in Tunisia’s Gulf of Gabès, a hotspot for biodiversity and fishing.
- But illegal bottom trawling and industrial pollution are destroying this unique habitat, a natural nursery to numerous species of fish and other marine fauna.
- Hundreds of trawlers ply their trade overtly with little consequence, and most of the catch makes its way to Europe, skirting laws designed to prevent the entry of illegally caught seafood.

Forests & finance: Protection and restoration in Cameroon and Senegal, fire threat in Angola
- A new project aims to reform Cameroon’s domestic timber market and reduce unregulated felling of trees.
- Scientists fear pockets of species-rich afromontane forest in Angola’s Namba Mountains will be lost if uncontrolled fires continue.
- A Senegalese association is protecting and restoring southern Senegal’s tree cover by establishing community forests.
- Forests & Finance is Mongabay’s bi-weekly bulletin of briefs about Africa’s forests.

Love ‘em and loathe ‘em: Mediterranean grapples with tasty, voracious invasive crabs
- Two invasive blue crab species have recently settled in the Mediterranean.
- Both species are voracious predators that disrupt bottom habitats, shred fishers’ nets and ruin their catches. They’re also edible.
- Mediterranean countries are considering whether to target the invasive crabs to control them, or embrace and even protect them as a new socioeconomic resource for the future.
- This story was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center.

Hundreds of iconic Barbary macaques feared dead in Morocco forest fire
- A wildfire has burned through half of the Bouhachem Forest Reserve in northern Morocco, one of the few remaining refuges of the Barbary macaque.
- The fire forced the evacuation of more than 900 families from 15 villages in this region of the Rif mountains, destroying homes and crops and killing livestock.
- In recent months, exceptionally hot, dry conditions have prevailed in Morocco and around the Mediterranean and Western Europe, with observers saying climate change is exacerbating the conditions that produce forest fires in the region.
- The largest trees in the Bouhachem reserve have largely survived, but the burning of the forest understory will have a massive impact on the availability of grazing for villagers’ livestock, as well as food for macaques and other species.

Cradle of transformation: The Mediterranean and climate change
- The Mediterranean region is warming 20% faster than the world as a whole, raising concerns about the impacts that climate change and other environmental upheaval will have on ecosystems, agriculture and the region’s 542 million people.
- Heat waves, drought, extreme weather and sea-level rise are among the impacts that the region can expect to see continue through the end of the century, and failing to stop emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases could make these issues worse.
- Charting a course that both mitigates climate change and bolsters adaption to its effects is further complicated by the Mediterranean’s mix of countries, cultures and socioeconomics, leading to wide gaps in vulnerability in the region.

Despite deals, plans and bans, the Mediterranean is awash in plastic
- The Mediterranean is considered to be one of the world’s most polluted bodies of water due to waste disposal problems in many countries bordering the sea, as well as the intensity of marine activity in the region.
- There are several existing policies and treaties in place aimed at regulating plastics and reducing plastic pollution in the Mediterranean, but experts say more international cooperation is needed to tackle the problem.
- Citizen science organization OceanEye has been collecting water samples to measure the amount of microplastics present in the surface waters of the Mediterranean.

The most widespread pig species on Earth: wild boar | Candid Animal Cam
- Every two weeks, Mongabay brings you a new episode of Candid Animal Cam, our show featuring animals caught on camera traps around the world and hosted by Romi Castagnino, our writer and conservation scientist.

Meet the red fox found in the Northern Hemisphere on Candid Animal Cam
- Every Tuesday, Mongabay brings you a new episode of Candid Animal Cam, our show featuring animals caught on camera traps around the world and hosted by Romi Castagnino, our writer and conservation scientist.

Howling in the dark: Shining a light on a newly remembered wolf
- The African golden wolf was only recently designated as a species in its own right, after decades of being conflated with the golden jackal.
- The patchy taxonomic record means little is known about the species, including its behavior, range and population, leaving researchers without a baseline for determining its conservation status. But pioneering work in Morocco by Liz Campbell, a researcher at the University of Oxford, is starting to paint a picture of this enigmatic species, seen by local shepherds as a major threat to their livestock.
- Campbell’s surveys and interviews show that this fear appears to be overblown, with far more sheep dying from cold weather or disease than predator attack, and half of the witnessed attacks carried out by feral wild dogs.

Agroforestry empowers Morocco’s mountain women
- Morocco’s mountain people have grown olive trees since ancient times, but unstable weather due to climate change has recently placed that heritage in jeopardy.
- Growing olives in agroforestry systems, where olive, fig and carob trees prevent erosion and provide cover for vegetable, fruit and herb plants that grow below, has provided better harvests for a group of women’s cooperatives.
- The cooperatives, called Femmes du Rif, have boosted the value of the 328 members’ olive oil, leading to remarkable social impacts ranging from better education for their children to improved infrastructure and even promotion of some members to regional and national political positions.
- Climate variability has caused an unprecedented and ongoing delay in the cooperative’s current olive harvest, underscoring the need to continually adapt to changing conditions through techniques like agroforestry.

Global biodiversity treaty still searches for its moment in the spotlight
- Government delegates and conservationists from across the globe gathered last month in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, for the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 14).
- Experts say the biodiversity convention is just as important as that on climate change, whose latest conference is now underway in Poland, but receives a fraction of the attention.
- The Sharm el Sheikh COP largely focused on preparations for 2020, the deadline for achieving current biodiversity targets, and the date of the next biodiversity COP.
- Outcomes of the 2018 COP include progress on a framework for developing a new global biodiversity plan, as well as agreements about the links between health, gender and biodiversity.

Deforested, degraded land restoration a top priority for African leaders
- African leaders met at a summit to discuss land restoration across the continent on Nov. 13, ahead of the U.N. Biodiversity Conference in Sharm-El-Sheikh, Egypt.
- Representatives from several African countries shared their countries’ pledges to restore hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of degraded and deforested land in the coming decades.
- The summit’s leaders said they hoped the deliberations during the day-long summit would help African countries in both their contributions to international targets and to the improvement of their natural ecosystems for the benefit of their citizens.

In Morocco’s markets, conditions for wildlife are ‘universally poor’
- In Morocco’s wildlife markets, animals are usually kept in poor conditions without water, food and shade, a new study has found.
- This is because vendors are largely unaware of the animals’ needs, researchers found.
- Much of the trade is also illegal, but a lack of enforcement of existing animal welfare laws means there’s little deterrent to end the trade, researchers say.
- Current Moroccan laws also do not reflect the stated commitment of the government to international standards for animal welfare.

Wildlife decimated by the surge in conflicts in the Sahara and the Sahel
- An escalation in the number of conflicts across the Sahara and the Sahel in Africa is driving down numbers of the region’s wildlife, a new study finds.
- The authors found that the number of conflicts in the region has risen by 565 percent since 2011.
- At the same time, 12 species of vertebrate have either gone extinct or are much closer to extinction as a result of conflicts in the region.

In post-revolution Egypt, a fierce fight over coal imports
- In the wake of the 2011 revolution, persistent energy shortages prompted Egypt’s government to consider overturning a long-standing ban on coal imports.
- The move was backed by industry groups, particularly the cement industry, but opposed by health and environment activists. This split between interests was echoed at the cabinet level, creating a rare public debate over policy.
- In 2014, Egypt’s cabinet voted to allow coal imports for industrial use. The law was amended again in 2015 to allow coal-fired power plants.
- Now, economic factors are swinging the pendulum away from coal again, and planned projects have been suspended.

Morocco plants millions of trees along roads to fight climate change
- Through the program, which is headed by Morocco’s Highway Authority, more than three million trees have been planted with another 800,000 in the works by 2017.
- The country’s Department of Agriculture is partnering in the project, which conservationists say paints a stark contrast to many other countries where similar departments pose obstacles to reforestation and afforestation programs.
- The project is funded domestically, but a government representative told Mongabay they may be interested in receiving support from international forest conservation programs.
- Those affiliated with the project hope it can be used as a model for other African nations.

Forest advocates say zero-carbon goals too reliant on unrealistic tech
- To reduce their carbon footprints, some international energy companies are promoting bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS).
- However, critics say BECCS techniques are land-intensive and that carbon capture is costly and largely unproven. They urge more attention be paid to phasing out fossil fuels instead of uncertain carbon capture technology.
- Industry reps say they are working such strategies into their own models regarding carbon-emission reductions and identifying land for forest growth and carbon storage.

International trade in Barbary macaques banned
- Once widespread, only about 6,500 to 9,100 Barbary macaque are now estimated to occur in fragmented forest patches of Algeria and Morocco in North Africa. A small, introduced population of 200 monkeys also lives on the Rock of Gibraltar in Europe.
- Barbary macaque remains the most frequently seized CITES-listed live mammal in the European Union.
- Conservationists hope that the inclusion of the Barbary macaque in Appendix I will ensure greater protection to the species against poaching and illegal trade.

Fishing nets kill ‘high proportion’ of adult loggerhead turtles in the Mediterranean
- Researchers tracked 27 female loggerhead turtles using satellite devices over a ten-year period from 2001 to 2012.
- The year-long survey revealed, for the first time, that the turtles were using multiple nesting sites hundreds of kilometres apart, researchers say.
- Three of the 27 turtles died within the first year of being followed due to entanglement in fishing nets, suggesting an annual mortality rate of 11 percent, which the team says is “alarmingly high”.

Saving the Barbary Macaque: An interview with Dr. Sian Waters
- The Barbary macaque is North Africa’s only primate; threatened by tourism, animal trafficking, cannabis cultivation and hunting.
- Dr. Sian Waters was amazed to learn that this primate, so close to Europe, was unstudied and lacked any effort to conserve it.
- She has developed a highly effective conservation program built on gaining the trust and support of the local community.

Egyptian art helps chart past extinctions of big mammals

What happened to Egypt’s Serengeti-like ecosystem? Art helps scientists unravel the past The scientists found that major disappearances coincided with climate and environmental changes. Click here to see a Brazilian interactive graphic of the extinctions. Graphic by: William Mariotto and Vinicius Sueiro, Estadao. Life in modern Egypt clings to the Nile River. This crowded green […]
How locals and conservationists saved the elephants of Mali amidst conflict and poverty

Mali elephant family group which consist of females and their offspring. They are headed by a matriarch who has decades of experience and memories to depend on, including where to find water during droughts. Photo by: Carlton Ward Jr. At a time when Africa’s elephants are facing a relentless poaching crisis—to the tune of over […]
86 percent of big animals in the Sahara Desert are extinct or endangered

Bigger than all of Brazil, among the harshest ecosystems on Earth, and largely undeveloped, one would expect that the Sahara desert would be a haven for desert wildlife. One would anticipate that big African animals—which are facing poaching and habitat loss in other parts of the world—would thrive in this vast wilderness. But a new […]
Egyptian jackal is actually ancient wolf

The Egyptian jackal, which may have been the inspiration for the Egyptian god Anubis, is actually not a jackal at all but a member of the wolf family. New genetic research in the open-access journal PLoS ONE finds that the Egyptian jackal is Africa’s only member of the gray wolf family. The new wolf, dubbed […]

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