location: East Africa

location: East Africa

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‘Killed while poaching’: When wildlife enforcement blurs into violence
- In October 2023, Mongabay traveled to Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park as part of a reporting series on protected areas in East Africa.
- While there, we heard allegations that Uganda Wildlife Authority rangers have carried out extrajudicial killings of suspected bushmeat poachers inside the park.
- Two weeks before our visit, a man was shot to death inside the park; his relatives and local officials alleged he was killed by wildlife rangers while attempting to surrender.
- The allegations follow other recent human rights scandals related to aggressive conservation enforcement practices in the nearby Congo Basin.

‘Like you, I fear the demise of the elephants’
- There are nearly 9,000 inland protected areas across the African continent, covering 4.37 million square kilometers (1.69 million square miles).
- These protected areas are at the center of conservation policymaking by African countries hoping to safeguard nature and threatened wildlife.
- Under the UN Global Biodiversity Framework’s “30×30” target, the amount of conserved land in Africa would significantly expand.
- As part of a reporting series on this goal, Mongabay visited protected areas in three countries: Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya.

Kenya embraces electric buses to combat air pollution
- The Kenyan capital Nairobi is slowly introducing electric buses into the fleet of notoriously noisy and polluting matatus that ply its streets.
- Drivers selected to operate these Chinese-made and locally assembled buses say passengers prefer them because they’re quieter, faster and more comfortable.
- The rollout is still on a small scale: the $200,000 price tag for an electric bus is prohibitive, but the manufacturer is leasing them to operators to make them more affordable.
- Charging is also an issue, with drivers reporting shorter ranges than advertised, and just three charging stations available in the city.

Gum-eating Tanzanian monkey is AWOL, fueling extinction fears
- There have been no confirmed sightings of Tanzania’s critically endangered southern patas monkeys for more than a year, raising fears the species is edging ever closer to extinction.
- In 2021, there were estimated to be fewer than 200 southern patas monkeys left in the wild, restricted to the western portion of Serengeti National Park.
- Researchers have appealed to members of the public to record sightings of the shy but distinctive animals, but only two separate sightings were made in 2022, one in 2023, and none so far in 2024.
- The species is due to be featured in the IUCN’s Primates in Peril, a list of the world’s 25 most endangered primates, for the second year running.

How German government funds are used to dispossess Tanzania’s Maasai in Serengeti land grab
- The Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), a conservation NGO that receives funding from the German government, funded and equipped Tanzanian authorities who violently evicted Maasai pastoralists from the eastern outskirts of Serengeti National Park in 2017 and 2022.
- The NGO provided equipment, including vehicles and airplanes, to the Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) authority; supported a plan to relocate Maasai residents; and funded TANAPA rangers whom the Maasai accuse of unfairly seizing their cattle.
- Conservation authorities and researchers say the growing human and livestock populations on the fringes of the park are putting dramatic pressure on wildlife in the iconic Serengeti, though conservationists say there are also additional factors impacting wildlife.
- FZS said it has supported TANAPA since 2015 to the tune of 18.6 million euros ($19.7 million), but that it’s “not involved, directly or indirectly, in any resettlement activities.”

Kenya blames and evicts Ogiek people for deforestation, but forest loss persists
- Long-running evictions of Indigenous Ogiek communities from Kenya’s Mau Forest, whom the government blames for deforestation, haven’t led to any letup in rates of forest loss, satellite data show.
- A human rights court ruling in 2017 recognized the Ogiek as ancestral owners of the Mau Forest and ordered the Kenyan government to compensate them, but it’s done little since then.
- Preliminary satellite data and imagery for 2024 indicate the Mau Forest will suffer extensive losses this year, even after the government evicted more than 700 Ogiek in November 2023.
- The country’s chief conservator of forests has cast doubt on the findings of increased deforestation, while a top official responsible for minorities and marginalized peoples says forest communities can be destructive.

Western Kenya’s most important water-capturing forest is disappearing, satellites show
- Mau Forest is one of the largest forests in East Africa, and the most important water catchment in western Kenya, providing water for millions of people.
- Mau is also home to a plethora of wildlife, including endangered species such as African bush elephants (Loxodonta africana), African golden cats (Caracal aurata) and bongo antelopes (Tragelaphus eurycerus).
- But Mau lost some 25% of its tree cover between 1984 and 2020, and satellites show continuing loss.
- The primary drivers of deforestation are agricultural expansion, including slash-and-burn farming for cattle grazing and crop cultivation.

As climate change upends Ethiopia’s pastoral wisdom, adaptations can help
- In the face of climate change, pastoral and agropastoral communities in eastern Ethiopia remain at the receiving end of worsening droughts and climate shocks that have taken a toll on animal rearing and traditional livelihoods.
- For generations, pastoralists and agropastoralists across the country have used traditional knowledge and weather forecasting for preparedness and drought conditions.
- But these techniques are no longer as effective in the face of frequent unpredictable dry spells and population pressures on pasture.
- Researchers suggest combining this traditional knowledge with innovative strategies to help pastoralists gather real-time data on water conditions that can be key to drought adaptation in the region.

Vulture poisonings in the Serengeti alarm conservationists
- Over the past two years, three significant vulture poisoning events in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park have claimed the lives of more than 400 vultures.
- Conservationists identified the deaths using satellite tags, discovering birds without heads and feet alongside evidence of targeted poaching.
- Poisoning for “belief-based use” is driving vulture losses in other parts of the continent, particularly in West Africa.
- Conservationists fear that demand may now be rising in Tanzania as well.

Logging persists in Cameroon’s wildlife-rich Ebo Forest despite warnings
- Satellite data and imagery show that logging has continued in Cameroon’s species-rich Ebo Forest since 2022, despite repeated warnings from conservationists and local communities.
- The logging operations are being carried out by two companies, SCIEB and the little-known Sextransbois.
- Conservation experts warn of the potential for conflicts between loggers and local communities because of disrupted access.
- The Cameroonian government says it has an “ecological conscience” and is keen on the preservation of the country’s wildlife resources.

From landfill to limelight, Ghana waste entrepreneurs win Earthshot Prize
- Green Africa Youth Organization (GAYO), a Ghanaian waste management entrepreneur, was one of the five winners at the recent Earthshot Prize awards in Cape Town.
- The Earthshot Prize recognizes and supports people and organizsations offering solutions to environmental problems. Winners and finalists receive funding and support from the Earthshot network.
- GAYO, whose work recycles waste that would otherwise be burned and advocatinges for better conditions for the people who sort waste, and, along with the other four winners, will each receive a million pounds to expand their work.

In Kenya, a water fund brings to light Indigenous cultural identity issues
- Two years into its implementation, the Eldoret-Iten Water Fund (EIWF) in Kenya is helping to protect vital water resources, restore degraded forests and farmlands and work with local communities.
- While the EIWF has seen considerable success so far, several hurdles have emerged — including disputes with the Sengwer Indigenous community.
- The issues with the Sengwer community stem at least in part from decades of controversy over cultural identity and names, dating to colonial times.
- Despite these challenges, the EIWF, administered through The Nature Conservancy, has made progress and local farmers say they are hopeful about the future; for further details on the EIWF, see Part I of this story.

A Kenya water fund partners with farmers to protect vital resources
- Kenya’s Eldoret-Iten Water Fund (EIWF) is one of dozens throughout the world, established to address threats to important water supplies.
- Administered through The Nature Conservancy, the EIWF’s objectives include partnering with thousands of local farmers to adopt sustainable soil and water conservation practices, restoring and protecting more than 120,000 hectares (300,000 acres) of degraded forests and farmlands, planting more than 1 million trees, reducing sediment flow into rivers and supporting farmers with rainwater harvesting.
- The EIWF also works with local Indigenous communities and includes projects such as beekeeping.
- The EIWF is a response to years of farming practices, population growth, deforestation for charcoal and wood and other factors that have diminished and threatened local water supplies.

Can cattle and wildlife co-exist in the Maasai Mara? A controversial study says yes
- Conventional conservation wisdom has held that cattle herds managed by Indigenous Maasai in East Africa compete with wildlife for grazing land and degrade protected areas like Kenya’s Maasai Mara and Tanzania’s Ngorongoro.
- But a new research study shows that, in a small study patch of the Maasai Mara, cattle herds didn’t cause a decline in forage quantity or quality, nor did wildlife steer away from areas where cattle had grazed.
- The finding has drawn criticism from other researchers, who question its methodology and say the overwhelming evidence points to the need for restrictions on cattle grazing inside these protected areas.
- The study authors say they hope their findings spark new thinking about how pastoralists like the Maasai can be seen as potential conservation partners rather than excluded as they’ve been for decades.

How a lineage of chiefs built a thriving fish oasis in Lake Malawi
- Lake Malawi accounts for more than 90% of landlocked Malawi’s total fish catch, and a key fishing ground is the water around Mbenje Island.
- The community here has since the 1950s practiced, and enforced, a fisheries management regime that continues to benefit both fishers and local fish stocks.
- Even as fish stocks dwindle and average fish sizes shrink elsewhere across Lake Malawi, around Mbenje Island the fish are bigger and fishers are “assured [of] a good haul.”
- The success of the management scheme is credited to the fact that it’s embedded within the community’s existing power structures, giving it “legitimacy among fishers as it has not been imposed from outside,” according to a researcher.

For Tanzania’s Maasai, adapting to climate change may mean less livestock, more trees
- An NGO working with Maasai pastoralists in northern Tanzania says its efforts to restore tree cover in the semiarid region and offer alternative forms of livelihood in the face of climate change impacts are bearing fruit.
- TACCEI promotes tree planting and better management of water resources by community members, and helps local government officials integrate consideration of climate change into development policies and strategies.
- Tanzania’s Simanjiro district experienced a 20-year spell of poor rainfall starting in the early 2000s, during which the largely pastoralist population has seen its livestock herds shrink and die out.
- By helping community members to start cultivating vegetables and fruit trees and take up beekeeping and craft making, TACCEI aims to build up community resilience to the worst impacts of climate change.

In Kenya, a river restoration initiative pays for itself, and then some
- The water supply for the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, depends on the Tana River, which flows for 1,000 km (620 mi) across the northern part of the country into the Indian Ocean.
- In recent decades, farmers have cut down forests to grow crops on ever-steeper hillsides in the river basin’s upper reaches, damaging water quality.
- The Upper Tana-Nairobi Water Fund was established in 2015, drawing money from corporations and government to pay for watershed restoration and reforestation of this vital resource.
- The fund has enjoyed some success, but obstacles include building up expert knowledge of nature-based solutions by officials in the water sector

WWF report offers glimmer of conservation hope — yet warns of a planet in peril
- WWF’s recent “Living Planet Report” offers a bit of hope, showing that mountain gorilla populations increased by 3% between 2010 and 2016.
- Conservation interventions such as dedicated management of protected areas, extensive engagement with communities surrounding parks, close monitoring of habituated gorilla groups and veterinary interventions where needed are thought to have contributed, WWF notes.
- Still, the report shows that wildlife populations across Africa have declined by 76% in the past 50 years.
- The peril of the planet is also linked to the fact that financing is inadequate, with public and private entities very often investing in activities that harm ecosystems and drive climate change.

Drought & climate change force Ethiopia pastoralists to go job hunting
- A severe drought, worsened by climate change, is driving pastoralists in Ethiopia’s Somali region to abandon traditional herding lifestyles in favor of urban labor, leading to significant shifts in their livelihoods.
- Many pastoralists are forced to seek alternative livelihoods in farming, construction and trade, which require new skills and adaptation to urban life.
- Former pastoralists express emotional ties to their traditional way of life and struggle with the demands of new jobs, reflecting the broader impacts of climate change on their identities and futures.
- A land and agriculture expert says nature-based solutions provide an opportunity to help pastoralists adapt to droughts, while government programs are focused on technical support and helping pastoralists achieve alternative livelihoods.

Coffee agroforestry holds promise for smallholder growers in Malawi
- Coffee accounts for only around 11% of Malawi’s agricultural exports, but the crop is a key source of livelihood for thousands of smallholder farmers in the country.
- Small-scale coffee growers have faced challenges such as inadequate inputs, unstable markets and unpredictable rainfall patterns that have impacted yields.
- A coffee agroforestry project by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Slow Food Coffee Coalition implemented in Malawi and Uganda is promising to tackle some of the challenges and make small-scale coffee farming more profitable.
- The FAO and the SFCC have called for increased adoption of coffee agroforestry as a sustainable agricultural model that redefines the future of coffee farming.

At Climate Week and beyond, investing in community conservation pays big dividends (commentary)
- As representatives of NGOs, governments and funding organizations gather in New York City this week for the UN General Assembly and Climate Week to seek climate solutions, they should be looking at community conservation projects, too, a new op-ed says.
- Such projects offer big benefits for people and wildlife, in addition to the climate, yet it typically receives a mere fraction of the funds directed at other solutions.
- “In a world where natural climate solutions can provide 30% of needed global carbon reductions, we ask that they don’t just look for shiny, new and innovative ideas, but instead take a good hard look at the solutions that are already working and that just need more support and funding to help them grow and thrive.”
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Global ‘Slow Food’ movement embraces agroecology (commentary)
- This week, Slow Food convenes its celebrated annual gathering, Terra Madre, in Italy, and a major focus will be the importance of expanding agroecology globally.
- There, the leading ‘good food movement’ organization officially launches its new program, Slow Food Farms, to educate its global members about the power of agroecology to feed the world sustainably and to connect farmers via a community of learning.
- “It is more important than ever to bring farmers together in a large network [where] the protagonists of the food system can come together to raise their voices, share their experiences and work more closely together towards an agroecological transition,” the president of Slow Food writes in a new op-ed.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

New approach to land management in Africa aims to climate-proof ecosystems
- Pioneering projects in Nigeria and Kenya are moving away from government-led land management to a more inclusive approach to address climate, biodiversity and socioeconomic needs.
- The participatory informed landscape approach (PILA) being employed in the Niger Delta and on Mount Elgon consider not just physical details like soil type and rainfall pattern, but also where people live, how they use the land, and their economic activities.
- This helps decision-makers choose actions that match local conditions and needs, aided by a multistakeholder platform to foster collaboration between government entities, private sector players, local governments, NGOs and community groups.
- PILA proponents say the approach marks “a shift from the old ways of doing things to a more integrated, evidence-based approach that considers the needs of both people and the environment.”

‘Dream birds’ in the mist: First photo of ‘lost’ bird in DRC mountains
- The mountainous forests of the eastern DRC are home to a strikingly beautiful bird: the yellow-crested helmetshrike.
- The species was considered lost to science until late last year, when an expedition of U.S. and DRC scientists spotted flocks of the birds gliding through the forests of the Itombwe mountains and snapped the first photo.
- Their observations will help to fill in some key knowledge gaps on this little-known species, which faces threats from habitat destruction and climate change.

US govt watchdog: Human rights still at risk in overseas conservation aid
- In July, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a review of human rights standards in conservation-related aid grants.
- The GAO is an independent, nonpartisan agency attached to the U.S. Congress. The House Committee on Natural Resources asked it to review aid funding in the wake of a scandal over human rights abuses in the Congo Basin.
- The review looked at grants given out by the U.S. State Department, USAID, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conservationists in Africa, and included site visits to projects in Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- The final report highlighted weaknesses in monitoring and self-reporting requirements for grantees and said there was a risk of abuses going unnoticed by U.S. government agencies.

Maasai women struggle to survive amid forced evictions in conservation area
- In 2022, the government of Tanzania began relocating Indigenous Maasai pastoralists from their ancestral home inside and near Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
- Locals say they’ve been forcibly evicted from their land and denied access to grazing areas for livestock and basic social services including health care, education and the right to vote.
- Maasai women have been profoundly affected, some turning to prostitution to survive once communities fell apart.

As Malawi government struggles to protect a forest, communities show the way
- In Malawi’s Zomba Forest Reserve, a community that once destroyed the forest has become its custodian, protecting a source of streams, which provide water for them to irrigate crops.
- The Department of Forestry, the lead government agency in forest protection in Malawi, is struggling to stem the tide of deforestation on its side of the reserve due to lack of resources.
- Malawi is suffering massive deforestation, with Global Forest Watch figures estimating that the country has lost quarter of a million hectares (617,000 acres) of forest cover between 2001 and 2023.
- Government officials and experts say engagement with communities offers opportunities for effective forest management.

Luxury hunting firm linked to decades of poaching in Tanzania, whistleblowers say
- Whistleblowers speaking to Mongabay have reported instances of poaching over decades linked to a luxury hunting firm catering to UAE elites and royals.
- The insiders have experience working at Ortello — sometimes spelled Otterlo — Business Corporation (OBC), a UAE-based company that runs shoots in Loliondo, northern Tanzania.
- Tanzanian authorities have served waves of eviction notices affecting Maasai herders in and around Loliondo, as part of efforts to expand hunting and safari tourism.

Holistic care for an Ethiopian lake system: Interview with Redwan Mohammed
- Redwan Mohammed leads a project to restore Ethiopia’s Ziway-Shalla river basin, which is under pressure due to deforestation and erosion.
- Abijata-Shalla Lakes National Park lies at the basin’s heart, centered on a pair of saline lakes that provide vital habitat to migratory waterbirds.
- The river basin is also home to around 60,000 farmers and herders as well as commercial flower farms and other light industry.
- Mohammed’s employer, Wetlands International, focuses on protecting wetlands because they provide essential ecosystem services such as water filtration, flood control, and habitat for wildlife.

Small steps towards larger goal of protecting East African wetlands
- Conservation NGO Wetlands International had lofty ambitions when it rolled out its Source to Sea project in East Africa in 2021, covering the Rift Valley wetlands and the Indian Ocean mangroves.
- Difficulties that arose included underestimating the time needed to get government agencies, civil society and community groups on board, overambitious planning, and communication barriers with locals.
- They quickly realized that residents’ urgent livelihood needs needed to be acknowledged and addressed before more abstract concepts such as wetland conservation and integrated catchment management could be introduced.
- Today, the project has made essential contributions to the lives of participating communities and the catchment’s health, created awareness of mangroves and wetlands among the different groups involved, and helped influence policies on water resource management.

Saving Lake Victoria from plastic: Interview with Kenya’s teenage Muchilwa siblings
- Kenyan siblings Michelle and Jeremy Muchilwa (19 and 16, respectively) are examples of a growing global youth movement to fight environmental threats and climate change in their communities.
- When schools closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, the brother and sister sought opportunities to educate themselves about technology and planetary ecosystems; the duo eventually founded Osiepe Sango (Friends of Lake Victoria) to address plastic pollution, and their endeavors today include multiple youth programs, an app that tracks plastic pollution and an underwater drone that collects plastic waste in Lake Victoria.
- As teenagers, the two have won multiple awards for their work, including the National Geographic Young Explorer Award, Diana Award and recognition from the Planeteer Alliance.
- Michelle and Jeremy Muchilwa talked with Mongabay in June about their inspirations, their work and hopes for the future.

Advocacy group links Uganda oil infrastructure to human-elephant conflict
- Environmental advocacy group AFIEGO has published a briefing saying the development of oil infrastructure in Uganda’s Murchison Falls National Park is disturbing wildlife and causing increased human-wildlife conflict in areas surrounding the park.
- The group spoke to biodiversity experts and residents of surrounding communities to assess changes in the behavior of elephants and other species in the park since TotalEnergies began building out infrastructure last year.
- TotalEnergies has previously insisted it is developing the oil fields here in line with domestic and international standards to protect the environment and nearby communities.
- The Uganda Wildlife Authority, which manages the park, rejects AFIEGO’s findings, but has not provided an alternative assessment of the impacts of construction on the park and its wildlife.

Chatterbox chimps converse just like humans (but with more gestures)
- Across human languages and cultures, conversing involves listening to the speaker and rapidly responding to them. This phenomenon, known as turn-taking, has so far been associated with human languages.
- A new study that analyzed conversations between five groups of chimpanzees finds that one of our closest relatives also take rapid turns in their chatter, mainly involving gestures. Chimpanzees take about 200 milliseconds between gestures before responding back and forth, just like humans.
- While researchers observed minor differences in the timing across groups, the findings suggest this is a species-wide phenomenon that can possibly be seen in all apes.
- The findings suggest that turn-taking during conversations likely evolved before languages were born.

Trophy hunting of Amboseli’s super-tuskers in Tanzania sparks outrage, calls for a ban
- Trophy hunters in Tanzania killed at least five male elephants with tusks weighing more than 100 pounds (45 kilograms). These iconic residents of Amboseli National Park in Kenya are known to venture into neighboring Tanzania, which allows trophy hunting.
- Conservationists described a “gentleman’s agreement” that held until early last year, whereby hunters in Tanzania left Amboseli elephants alone when they crossed over into Tanzania.
- The 51-year Amboseli Elephant Research Project is the “longest study of elephants in the world,” making these elephants some of the best known in the world; they’re keenly tracked and intimately known by scientists.
- In a letter published recently in the journal Science, two dozen signatories called for a moratorium on the hunting of elephants from Amboseli National Park that enter Tanzania, saying elephants from this “unique” population must not be hunted “to feed egos or the financial interests of short-term gain.”

‘Extinct’ trees found in Tanzania spark hope for ecosystem recovery
- Conservationists in eastern Tanzania have found two specimens of a rare tree feared to be extinct.
- Millettia sacleuxii was only known from six specimens in forest reserves that have almost disappeared.
- Thousands of seeds have been collected and seedlings raised, and these are due to be planted out as part of a reforestation project in the Nguru Mountains.
- The two surviving Millettia “mother trees” were found near an area that conservationists hope to soon turn into a wildlife corridor.

African markets tackle food insecurity and climate change — but lack investment
- Global food insecurity has risen substantially across the world due to extreme weather events, climate change and conflict.
- A new report by IPES-Food shows how territorial markets, which are embedded in the culture of African communities, can increase food security and boost climate resilience.
- According to researchers, territorial markets are more accessible and affordable to low-income populations and are more flexible than supermarkets in providing a diversity of indigenous climate-resilient foods.
- Yet a lack of infrastructure, investment and government support present barriers to territorial markets and their ability to deliver the benefits they can bring.

Ugandan chimps are eating bat guano, raising concerns over human epidemics
- Wildlife like chimpanzees have started consuming bat excrement — guano — in the Budongo Forest, Uganda. After analyzing samples, scientists found that the guano not only held high concentrations of minerals but was also full of viruses, including a cousin to SARS-CoV-2.
- Researchers say the weird feeding behavior may be because the animals have lost a primary source of dietary minerals from native trees to tobacco farming.
- Worryingly, some of these viruses can be transmitted to humans, meaning that if wild animals become more exposed to bat-borne viruses, so could humans.
- The scientists underline that social forces like the market and resource extraction can lead to such unintended consequences.

Africa’s great ape sanctuaries are feeling the heat from climate change
- While a growing body of research highlights the impacts of climate change on wild apes, sanctuaries caring for apes are also feeling the impacts of a warming world.
- Sanctuaries across Africa are affected by changing weather patterns, including both droughts and floods, increasing the challenges of caring for resident apes.
- Extreme weather also increases the likelihood of human-wildlife conflict in conservation areas, and makes daily life more difficult for sanctuary staff and their families and communities.

Protected areas benefit nature & people, study says — with caveats
- A new paper in the journal Current Biology that attempts to track how protected areas (PAs) fare on biodiversity protection and economic growth found that PAs “don’t have a negative impact on local economic growth.”
- However, experts say that the encouraging results must be interpreted with abundant caution because the study uses narrow definitions of conservation success and economic development.
- The top 10 countries that were most likely to report harmony between the two objectives included five African countries: Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Zambia and South Sudan.
- The performance of PAs in key biodiversity areas such as the Amazon and Southeast Asia was also lackluster, but this was in comparison with other areas, said Binbin Li, first author of the study. “It is not at the same level [as other regions], but it is not rare.”

Study: A third of Africa’s great apes at risk from mining of transition metals
- Rising demand for the metals needed to power the global renewable energy transition potentially threatens more than a third of Africa’s great apes.
- Nearly 180,000 gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos face potential fallout from current and future mining projects for these transition metals, particularly in West Africa.
- Direct and indirect potential impacts from mining on apes include habitat destruction, health threats from light pollution and disease transmission, and safety risks from vehicle traffic.
- Transparent data sharing and a more robust mechanism to mitigate impacts before they materialize could go a long way to protect Africa’s great apes from becoming a casualty of climate action.

Guardians of the sacred: Ethiopian Orthodox monks on spiritual forest conservation
- Church forests, patches of forested land surrounding churches as protected areas, started out as a tradition in the early days of Christianity in Ethiopia and still endure today.
- Many of these forests protect some of the country’s last standing forests, brimming in biodiversity and a tranquil sense of harmony on Earth.
- Monks and nuns at one of the country’s oldest and most revered monasteries say they believe the forests, like all creation, are a sacred gift from God and play a vital role in maintaining the spiritual and physical well-being of people.
- In this exclusive interview, Mongabay speaks with two monks living in these ancient monasteries about their connection to the forest, how they conserve them, and the role Orthodox Christianity plays in their relationship to all life.

Kenyan farmers turn to WhatsApp & AI tools to combat crop diseases
- Farmers in Kenya and other countries are using online chat groups and artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help combat crop losses due to pests and diseases.
- New research shows chat groups modeled on those used in human health care can offer benefits to farmers and enhance their communication with plant doctors.
- Organizations such as PlantVillage and CABI are using such digital tools and chat groups to expand their reach and augment the services offered through their extension agents and plant clinics; participating farmers say the knowledge they gain through digital tools can ultimately help increase their crop yields.

Forced evictions suppress Maasai spirituality & sacred spaces in Tanzania
- In March, the Tanzanian government issued a new round of eviction notices impacting Maasai communities: The first one was issued in Simanjiro district for the expansion of Tarangire National Park while the second was issued to eight villages for the expansion of the Kilimanjaro International Airport.
- Maasai elders and spiritual leaders say they fear and disapprove of the Tanzanian government’s decision of eviction that has disrupted their spiritual connection with their ancestral lands with about 70 sacred sites impacted since 2009.
- Sacred spaces are the pieces of land, rivers, water sources, oreteti trees, mountains and places designated by their ancestors as areas to carry out specific rituals and ceremonies.
- So far, more than 20,000 Maasai have been evicted from their lands, with some resisting and claiming compensation is dissatisfactory.

Sick chimps seek out medicinal plants to heal themselves, study finds
- A new study concludes that chimpanzees displaying a range of ailments seek out plants with known medicinal properties to treat those ailments.
- The finding is important because it’s a rare instance where a species is shown to consume a plant as medicine rather than as part of its general diet.
- The study identified 13 plant species that the chimpanzees in Uganda’s Budongo Forest relied on, which can help inform conservation efforts for the great apes.
- The finding could also hold potential for the development of new drugs for human use.

Study: Female chimps that don’t leave their birth groups can still avoid inbreeding
- Recent research published on the Ngogo chimpanzees of Kibale National Park shows that female chimps don’t always leave their birth group in search of mating partners, which is considered the norm in most chimpanzee societies.
- Moving to a different social group is a strategy to avoid inbreeding, but to their surprise, researchers found that despite staying back, sexually mature females still manage to steer clear of relations with male relatives. How they do so remains a mystery.
- Primatologists who studied chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe National Park also found that some females choose to remain. In that case, human disturbance and the lack of access to other chimp groups could be responsible for this behavior.
- However, the Ngogo population is large and lives close to other chimp troops, so the chimps have opportunities to leave but choose not to. This raises questions about why, if there are opportunities to breed successfully in their birth groups, do female chimpanzees leave at all?

Activists decry latest arrests of East African oil pipeline opponents
- On June 2, police arrested four villagers in a northwestern district of Tanzania, along the route of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline.
- The men had all spoken out against the pipeline at a May 25 event organized by civil society groups from Uganda and Tanzania, who say the arrests are part of a pattern of harassment of the project’s opponents.
- Activists and other people affected by the pipeline have been arrested in the past, then released without charge, but sometimes compelled to report regularly to the police.
- The villagers arrested were detained overnight without explanation, and then released without being charged with any crime.

African health experts warn of climate change & rising vector-borne diseases
- Climate change has become a pressing public health crisis around the world, as disease patterns worsen and emerge in regions where they did not exist before.
- Health experts are particularly concerned about the role of climate change in the rise of vector-borne diseases in Africa’s low- and middle-income countries.
- Rising temperatures can expand and extend the life cycle of disease-carrying vectors such as mosquitoes, ticks and parasites.
- Health experts discussed these issues in a recent webinar organized by the Health Rights Advocacy Forum, the African Medical and Research Foundation and the African Institute for Development Policy.

Human rights allegations prompt World Bank to freeze project’s funds in Tanzania
- Nine months after its Inspection Panel registered allegations of gross human rights violations linked to a $150 million project in southern Tanzania, the World Bank has suspended further payments.
- People living near one of the project sites, Ruaha National Park, accuse rangers of killings, sexual assault and livestock seizures as well as preventing farmers from accessing their land in connection with a project aimed at improving management and infrastructure at the park.
- The government has also announced plans to expand the park’s boundaries, a move that residents say will mean 21,000 people will be forcibly resettled.
- The bank has sent a high-level delegation to Tanzania to look into the allegations; a separate investigation into whether the financial institution has failed to monitor and act on violations of its social and environmental policies is ongoing.

UN puts spotlight on attacks against Indigenous land defenders
- At the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, experts called attention to the criminalization of Indigenous Peoples worldwide, exacerbated by intersecting interests in extractive industries, conservation, and climate mitigation.
- While Indigenous peoples are affected by the global trend of using criminal law to dissuade free speech and protests, the bulk of criminalization of Indigenous Peoples happens because of a lack of — or partial implementation of — Indigenous rights in national laws.
- Urgent actions are needed to address systemic issues, including legal reforms, enhanced protections for defenders, and concerted efforts to prevent and reverse the criminalization of Indigenous communities.

Malawi police arrest elephant poachers in Kasungu National Park
- Police and wildlife authorities in Malawi have arrested two men suspected of having killed an elephant in Kasungu National Park.
- Residents of villages just outside the park’s boundaries informed police about two men selling elephant meat, who were subsequently found in possession of 16.6 kg (36.6 lbs) of ivory.
- Kasungu forms part of a transfrontier conservation area that extends into Zambia, a previous poaching hotspot where authorities have spent the past five years strengthening enforcement in collaboration with the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
- In July 2022, 263 elephants were translocated to Kasungu from Liwonde National Park in southern Malawi; communities have reported increased raids by elephants on farms and granaries since then, with four people killed by elephants between July and October.

Locals slam Zimbabwe for turning a blind eye to Chinese miner’s violations
- Mining workers and villagers near the Bikita Minerals lithium mine in Zimbabwe accuse the government and Chinese mining company Sinomine Resource Group of sidelining environmental and social standards in the scramble for lithium.
- After a series of displacements, spills, labor abuses, a death, and little action by authorities, locals and experts accuse the government of failing to enforce its own laws and letting bad mining practices run loose.
- According to industry experts, in theory, Chinese investments come with an increasingly robust set of ESG standards, but in practice these aren’t followed if host countries “shy away” from making such demands from their new partners.
- Zimbabwe, under economic stress, holds Africa’s largest lithium reserves and sees potential for an economic boost from mining the critical mineral, which represents the country’s fastest growing industry, with companies from China as the largest share of investors

Tanzania’s ‘mountain of millipedes’ yields six new species
- Scientists have recently described six new species of millipedes found in Tanzania’s Udzungwa Mountains.
- The six were among thousands of specimens collected by researchers studying forest ecology there and in the nearby Magombera Nature Reserve.
- Magombera was damaged by commercial logging in the 1970s-80s, and affected areas have been overrun by woody vines known as lianas.
- But teams working on the ground think that millipede diversity and abundance in liana thickets is equal to that of undisturbed forests, suggesting they may be dynamic places poised for forest regeneration with minimal human intervention.

Big problems for little animals when floodwaters rise, study finds
- Increasingly frequent and severe weather events are testing the resilience of both human and animal communities across Africa; Cyclone Idai, which made landfall in Mozambique in 2019, caused massive flooding that killed more than 1,600 people.
- Researchers studying the aftermath of Idai in Gorongosa National Park found many smaller-bodied animals in low-lying areas drowned or starved before forage recovered from the severe flooding that followed the cyclone.
- Larger animals were able to both reach higher ground ahead of rising waters and adapt to reduced availability of food in the long months it took for the floodplain to dry out and recover.
- The study is a rare example of close monitoring of animals before, during and after an extreme weather event, and provides conservationists with important insights into planning and managing protected areas in a changing climate.

Madagascar takes key step toward improving transparency of its fisheries
- Madagascar recently released its first fisheries transparency report, part of an effort to open up, democratize, and improve the sustainability of its fisheries sector.
- The report is a key step in a process defined by the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI), a Seychelles-based nonprofit.
- It contains important information on traditional, artisanal and industrial fisheries, a list of the laws and regulations governing the sector, tenure arrangements, and access agreements — including previously undisclosed information.
- It also assesses the country’s transparency according to the availability and accessibility of data from six thematic areas as outlined by the FiTI Standard.

In climate-related flooding, a Ugandan river turns poisonous
- Uganda’s Nyamwamba river, in the Rwenzori Mountains, has begun to flood catastrophically in recent years, partly due to climate change.
- Along the river are copper tailings pools from an old Canadian mining operation, which are becoming increasingly eroded by the flooding.
- According to a series of studies, these tailings have been washing into the water supply and soil of the Nyamwamba River Basin, contaminating human tissue, food and water with deadly heavy metals.
- Cancer rates are higher than normal near the tailings pools, and scientists fear that as the flooding continues to worsen, so will the health crisis.

Climate change brings a river’s wrath down on western Uganda
- Since the 1960s, Uganda’s climate has warmed by an average of 1.3°C (2.3°F).
- The warming is partly responsible for an increasing number of catastrophic floods on the Nyamwamba River, in western Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains.
- In 2020 alone, 173,000 people were affected by flooding in Kasese district, when 25,000 houses were destroyed.
- Many of those rendered homeless by the floods continue to languish in temporary housing camps four years on.

Nile Basin farmers grow food forests to restore wetlands and bring back a turtle
- Sugarcane is a widely grown crop in the Nile Basin, but its destructive effects on soils, water resources and biodiversity have become increasingly apparent.
- As the thirsty crop draws down water resources, aquatic species like the critically endangered Nubian flapshell turtle suffer a loss of habitat, forage and nesting sites.
- In an effort to revive soils, diversify diets and incomes, and boost water levels that many animals rely on, communities are implementing agroforestry projects in lieu of monocultures.
- The resulting “food forests” attract an array of wildlife while refilling wetlands and river systems where the culturally important flapshell turtles swim.

Black rhinos moved to Kenya’s Loisaba Conservancy as species recovers
- Twenty-one critically endangered black rhinos are settling into their new home at Loisaba Conservancy in northern Kenya.
- The translocations were prompted by the fact that Kenya’s 16 black rhino sanctuaries are running out of space — a remarkable turnaround from rampant poaching in the 1970s and ’80s that reduced the country’s rhino population from 20,000 to fewer than 300.
- The translocated animals, 10 bulls and 11 cows, arrived at Loisaba from Nairobi National Park, Ol Pejeta Conservancy, and Lewa Wildlife Conservancy.
- The animals were carefully moved over a period of three weeks and released into a fenced sanctuary covering nearly half the conservancy, marking the first time the species has been present at Loisaba since 1976.

Livelihoods at stake as Lake Victoria’s papyrus swamps come under pressure: Photos
- The papyrus swamps at the edges of Lake Victoria in East Africa have for generations provided a livelihood to communities living here.
- While some harvest reeds to make into mats, baskets, and handicrafts, others catch the plentiful fish that nurse in the shelter of the reedbeds.
- The swamps are also home to birds that have become specialized to live amidst the papyrus reeds in a narrow geographic range, while the reedbeds serve as filters taking up nutrients and retaining sediment — in the process also allowing carbon storage through the buildup of significant detritus and peat deposits.
- However, development pressure for new resorts and farmland is putting this ecosystem under threat, while the introduction of the Nile perch here in the 1950s has devastated native fish species.

Kenyan villagers show how to harvest more octopus by fishing less
- Residents of Munje, a fishing village south of the Kenyan port of Mombasa, have established an octopus closure to ensure sustainable fishing.
- Octopus catches in the reefs just offshore had been declining as larger numbers of fishers, often using damaging techniques, hunted this profitable species.
- Previous attempts to regulate the octopus fishery had failed, but the village’s beach management unit enlisted support from an NGO to replicate successful strategies from elsewhere.
- Clearer communication and patient consensus-building have secured buy-in from the community, and the village is anticipating a second successful harvest period in February.

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