location: North Africa

location: North Africa

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Egypt’s deserts show why ecological knowledge matters in conservation (commentary)
- Egypt is famous for ancient ruins but its protected areas and biosphere reserves contain another kind of heritage: Fossil valleys, desert plants, coral-linked coastal systems, migration routes, geological formations and human knowledge shaped by arid environments.
- Desert expanses are not empty — or merely open spaces between archaeological monuments — but rather are places full of life, and this point matters urgently, a new op-ed argues.
- “If conservation is to work in these landscapes, it must listen more carefully. It must see local ecological knowledge not as anecdote, and interpretation not as decoration, but as tools for making protection more grounded, more understandable and more just,” the author writes.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

A Tunisian phosphate plant that sickens children so US, Europe can get fertilizer
- Toxic emissions from a phosphate processing plant in the Tunisian port city of Gabès have left residents reporting respiratory problems and other illnesses. Children are among the hardest hit.
- A Mongabay and ARIJ analysis of Sentinel-5 satellite imagery found concentrations of air pollutants in the area that may have reached up to nine times the World Health Organization’s recommended limits.
- The city’s coastal waters – historically a biodiversity hotspot and a fish and shellfish nursery – have suffered severe damage from phosphate-related pollution, according to scientific studies and local fishermen.
- Phosphate is one of Tunisia’s most valuable exports and a key ingredient in fertilizer shipped to overseas markets, including the United States, Europe and India. Companies buying phosphate products from the Gabès factory, including giants EuroChem and U.S.-based Koch Fertilizer, did not respond to requests for comment.

 Seeking swordfish, catching dolphins and whales: EU pushes to rein in driftnets
- Environmental groups continue to allege widespread illegal use of driftnets in the Mediterranean Sea.
- The use of driftnets — fishing nets, sometimes kilometers long, that drift with the ocean currents — is prohibited to catch large pelagic species like swordfish.
- Highlighting that current measures lack adequate definitions and enforcement provisions, the European Union presented a proposal to strengthen international restrictions on driftnet fishing at the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas technical meeting in June.
- Morocco, one of the countries most criticized for the use of illegal large driftnets, has emerged as a strong supporter of the proposal.

Pilot whales can’t hear each other over ship noise in Strait of Gibraltar, study finds
The rumble of ship traffic is drowning out the calls of long-finned pilot whales and potentially other marine species in the Strait of Gibraltar, a narrow strip of water between Morocco and Spain that separates the Atlantic Ocean from the Mediterranean Sea. Researchers who investigated this looked at near and long-distance communication between long-finned pilot […]
Egyptian teens use robots for ‘smarter and more responsive’ way to protect Earth
- A team of Egyptian students was among five from Africa shortlisted for this year’s Earth Prize, which recognizes the efforts of 13- to 19-year-olds offering innovative solutions to pressing environmental challenges.
- The “TerraSkipper” robot they designed is inspired by the real mudskipper fish, with a body and feet that “skip” through wet, salty and degraded farmland, collecting data on soil conditions like salinity and pH levels.
- The goal is not only to build the prototype, “but to contribute to a smarter and more responsive way of protecting our planet,” 16-year-old Mustafa Mohammed, one of the team members, told Mongabay.

Up to half the bird species using the African-Eurasian flyway are declining
- Every year, billions of birds migrate long distances with the changing of seasons — according to BirdLife Africa, 40 to 50 percent of avian species migrating to and from Africa are in decline.
- BirdLife Africa’s Kariuki Ndang’ang’a says climate change and infrastructure collision stand as three of the main reasons for the decline in migratory bird species.
- Because many birds rely on the same sites each year to make their transit, loss or degradation of even small areas can push an entire population towards collapse.

War exacerbates long-standing irrigation crisis for Sudan farmers
- Sudan’s Gezira irrigation scheme spans nearly 890,000 hectares (2.2 million acres), pumping water from the Nile to farmers through a network of canals fed by the Sennar Dam.
- Twenty years ago, the government moved to privatize and decentralize operation and maintenance of this and other irrigation infrastructure.
- The loss of resources and experienced state employees has seen the system of pumps and canals deteriorate, leaving tens of thousands of farmers to improvize solutions.
- Wealthier farmers have installed pumps — increasingly turning to solar-powered ones — but with civil war making fuel and spare parts unaffordable, many small-scale farmers have been unable to grow food.

Satellite images identify vulture breeding colonies by their droppings
- A new study reveals that colonies of critically endangered Rüppell’s vultures are visible via satellite images.
- A group of researchers scanned more than 6 million square kilometers (2.3 million square miles) in seven countries in East and Central Africa to look for the tell-tale whitewash formed by droppings deposited by the birds beneath their nests.
- In all, the team pinpointed 232 potential nesting sites, mostly in Sudan, South Sudan and Chad.
- Following declines of more than 90% for the species over the past 40 years, knowing where Rüppell’s vultures nest can help conservationists ensure their protection.

Morocco evacuates 140,000 people as torrential rains and dam releases trigger floods
RABAT, Morocco (AP) — More than 140,000 people were evacuated from their homes in northwestern Morocco as heavy rainfall and water releases from overfilled dams led to flooding, the Interior Ministry said. Stormy weather also disrupted maritime traffic between Morocco and Spain. Torrential rains and water releases from overfilled dams raised water levels in recent days in rivers […]
Ethiopia’s Renaissance mega-dam fuels energy hopes and regional anxiety
- Ethiopia inaugurated Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam in 2025, positioning itself as a regional energy exporter while millions of its citizens still lack access to electricity.
- Egypt, which lies downstream in the Nile Basin, views the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam as an existential threat, warning of risks to Nile water security and regional stability.
- Scientists caution that dam failures or mismanagement could trigger catastrophic flooding in Sudan and Egypt.
- Critics argue that the dam may serve as a geopolitical and public relations tool, while its environmental and social impacts remain insufficiently assessed.

Mauritania’s fishmeal fever ends as government tightens regulation
- Until recently, Mauritania was a major fishmeal producer, home to the world’s second-highest number of processing plants, with the boom driven largely by lax regulations and the rapid issuance of permits between 2007 and 2021.
- By 2021, more than half of Mauritania’s total pelagic fish catches were being used for fishmeal.
- That same year, however, the government began introducing stricter regulations and strengthening enforcement of rules governing the sector.
- Only eight fishmeal plants in Mauritania remain active as of September 2025, according to Mongabay’s estimates, and fishmeal production has fallen by more than half since its peak in 2020.

Striking ‘red gold’ with saffron farming in Algeria: Interview with Keltouma Adouane
- Farmers in Béjaïa, on Algeria’s Mediterranean coast, have been affected by drought in recent years, depressing their harvests and discouraging them from investing in expansion.
- In 2018, Keltouma Adouane bought a kilo of crocus saffron corms; experts doubted they would thrive in Béjaïa’s coastal climate, but she succeeded in growing them and now sells a range of saffron products to local buyers.
- She is working with other women in this province, where agricultural income has stagnated, to develop cultivation and marketing of this valuable crop.

Can we create new inland seas to lower sea level rise? Interview with researcher Amir AghaKouchak
- A new research project is looking into the possibility of reflooding the Qattara Depression, a massive low-lying desert area in Egypt, to help counter sea level rise.
- Scientists forecast global sea levels will rise by at least 30 centimeters (12 inches) over present-day levels by the end of the century — and that’s a conservative prediction.
- Mongabay spoke with Amir AghaKouchak, the project’s leader, who says reflooding the Qattara Depression could also bring potential benefits to Egypt, including aquaculture, renewable energy and tourism.
- The idea remains in its infancy and would require the backing of the Egyptian government as well as a great deal of further study.

‘A very successful story’: An Egypt tribe welcomes tourists & protects its coast
- Al-Qula’an is an “eco-village” in the Wadi El Gemal protected area in Egypt that environmentalists say is an example of how eco-tourism, along with traditional knowledge and practices, can help protect sensitive ecosystems.
- The mangroves of Al-Qula’an provide nursery grounds for marine species, and the coastal habitats serve as nesting sites for endangered sea turtles.
- The village has transformed from a subsistence fishing community to a low-impact eco-tourism destination while upholding principles of the Ababda tribe, like the importance of preserving mangroves.

Fears of major locust swarms wane in the Sahel but agencies step up monitoring
- Fears of major desert locust swarms in the Sahel in 2025 are receding, as authorities in the region continue to monitor breeding sites.
- The FAO says control measures were carried out by teams in Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria in response to earlier alerts.
- While field reporting has been hampered by limited resources and insecurity in many key parts of the region, improved remote surveillance and information-sharing tools have been strengthened.

Egyptian activists rally to halt hotel project at pristine protected beach
- The Egyptian government opened up Ras Hankorab, a near-pristine beach inside a protected area along Egypt’s Red Sea coastline, to an investor to develop tourism facilities.
- Environmentalists launched a campaign to “save Ras Hankorab,” which succeeded in temporarily halting development activities at the site, and which critics say is aimed at foreign tourists.
- The beach is a nesting ground for endangered turtles, and the waters are home to a variety of coral and fish species and seagrass meadows.
- Ras Hankorab is one of several sites in Egypt where the government’s push to develop tourism in protected areas is facing opposition.

Agencies race to prevent new food crisis as locusts return to northern Africa
- Swarms of desert locusts are moving across parts of North Africa following ideal breeding conditions in late 2024 and early 2025, raising fears of major locust infestations moving south into the Sahel later this year.
- The Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Western Region (CLCPRO) has conducted joint surveys and provided equipment and vehicles to strengthen ground response in countries like Libya and Tunisia.
- Mobile apps are helping to integrate Indigenous knowledge and local observations with enhanced satellite and remote monitoring of areas where desert locusts breed.
- These and other efforts are working to keep up with climate change, which has enhanced conditions that spur desert locust outbreaks, and regional insecurity which undermines already patchy monitoring of outbreaks on the ground.

New study maps the fishmeal factories that supply the world’s fish farms
- In April, scientists published the first-ever open-source map of fishmeal and fish oil factories around the world.
- The scientists found 506 factories across some 60 countries, and in most cases were able to identify the companies that own them.
- Fishmeal and fish oil production is controversial because it can incentivize the overexploitation of ocean ecosystems, depleting marine food webs, and negatively impact coastal communities that rely on fish for nutrition and livelihoods.
- In addition to location data, the scientists collected data on the types of fish many of the factories use and whether the raw material they process is fish byproduct or whole fish, which critics view as more problematic.

Global agarwood trade heavily dependent on wild, threatened trees: Study
- The global agarwood trade heavily depends on wild-harvested endangered tree species, despite international regulations for protection, with significant volumes going undocumented in official trade records, a new study reveals.
- About 70% of the trade depend on Aquilaria filaria and Aquilaria malaccensis, both threatened species, sourced from the wild, raising major sustainability concerns. Meanwhile, there are some tree species that are not even covered by CITES, the global wildlife trade convention.
- Due to discrepancies between CITES and customs data, along with weak enforcement and outdated regulations, researchers suggest the illegal trade is far larger than reported.
- Researchers urge stronger monitoring, updated data, expanded species protection, and a shift to cultivated sources. They also call on consumers and wealthy importers to support conservation and governments to promote sustainable practices.

Meet the 2025 Goldman Environmental Prize Winners
- Each year, the Goldman Environmental Prize honors grassroots activists from each of the six inhabited continental regions.
- The 2025 prize winners are Semia Gharbi from Tunisia, Batmunkh Luvsandash from Mongolia, Besjana Guri and Olsi Nika from Albania, Carlos Mallo Molina from the Canary Islands, Laurene Allen from the United States and Mari Luz Canaquiri Murayari from Peru.

Maltese Falcon Poachers: European hunters endanger Egypt’s birds
- A 15-month-long investigation has exposed the cracks in international conservation efforts around the hunting of Maltese falcons and other species in Egypt.
- Millions of euros have flowed from EU conservation funds to protect these species, only for them to be gunned down by Europeans in Egypt.
- With exclusive accounts from conservationists and hunting trip organizers, alongside public records of raids and arrests, this investigation highlights the urgent need for international cooperation to uphold global conservation commitments.

Gas leak from BP platform off West Africa worries fishermen, environmentalists
In January, U.K. oil giant BP announced it had started producing gas from the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) project, a natural gas production platform it operates off the coast of Mauritania and Senegal. A month later, Mauritanian media reported that a gas leak had been detected at one of the wells. In a statement shared […]
African nations commit to electricity for 300 million people by 2030
The heads of 30 African nations have endorsed a plan to provide “reliable, affordable and sustainable” electricity to 300 million people across the continent over the next five years. The leaders signed the Dar es Salaam Energy Declaration at the “Mission 300” energy summit held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, this week. The mission was […]
How the Sahel junta is responding to climate change amid political isolation
- Torrential rains during the Sahel’s rainy season (July to September) caused widespread flooding, displacing millions and submerging tens of thousands of hectares of cropland across Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Sudan.
- Meanwhile, military coups in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have disrupted governance and climate adaptation projects. Political isolation from Western nations has further hindered access to international climate finance, leaving communities struggling to cope with extreme weather events.
- Organizations like the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) emphasize empowering local communities through initiatives like Water User Associations and agroecology. These efforts focus on sustainable land and water management, leveraging local knowledge for resilience.
- Despite the Sahel’s potential for renewable energy and sustainable agriculture, political instability, weak governance and funding gaps have slowed progress.

Climate change fuels African floods that hit harder in vulnerable regions
- Extreme rainfall and flooding across Sudan, Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria and Chad this year led to thousands of deaths and millions of displacements, mirroring what occurred in the region in 2022.
- Research by World Weather Attribution shows that such extreme floods, linked to anthropogenic climate change, are likely to become more intense and frequent in the future.
- Existing conflicts, poverty, aging infrastructure and socioeconomic inequalities further exacerbate the exposure of vulnerable communities to extreme floods; local leaders and experts call for improved sanitation and urban development policies as well as adaptation strategies in preparation for future floods.

Slender-billed curlew, a bird last photographed in 1995, is likely extinct
For decades, the slender-billed curlew, a grayish-brown migratory wetland bird with a long, arched bill, has evaded detection, prompting speculation about whether the species is still out there. Now, a new study has confirmed that the species is indeed most likely extinct. “Speaking personally it’s a source of deep sadness,” Geoff Hilton, conservation scientist at […]
Resilient women farmers in Chad battle climate challenges and social barriers
- Women in Chad face significant challenges accessing land due to cultural norms, limiting their autonomy and ability to adapt to climate change.
- Initiatives like the AgriJob Booster Chad project (AJB-C) are helping women secure land and improve their livelihoods through access to resources such as seeds and agricultural equipment.
- Climate change exacerbates difficulties for women farmers, with unpredictable weather and conflicts over land use threatening agricultural productivity and economic empowerment.

Climate change threatens public health, raising the spread of food-borne diseases
- A new study finds that climate change is affecting the distribution and spread of food-borne diseases.
- An increase in the number and severity of heatwaves, droughts, and heavy precipitation events are all expected to lead to a rise in food-borne diseases, hitting Africa and Asia particularly hard.
- Investing in research and innovation can provide valuable insights into the underlying mechanisms of climate change-pathogen interactions and novel solutions for mitigating effects.
- For example, the Cameroon National Climate Observatory, ONACC, already provides national sectors, such as agriculture, livestock, and health with forecast climate information translated into local languages to facilitate monitoring in the context of global warming.

In ‘the century of Africa,’ Mongabay’s new bureau reports its biggest environmental issues and solutions
- Mongabay recently launched a brand-new bureau dedicated to covering the African continent in French and English, led by veteran Cameroonian journalist David Akana.
- Though Mongabay has covered Africa for all of its 25 years, the new bureau formalizes and ramps up its coverage of core environmental topics plus solutions-oriented stories, which Akana says are vital to delivering a fair picture of what happens on the continent.
- Akana joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss the importance of covering Africa well and why the news that happens there should be on readers' radar worldwide.
- "The bottom line here is that whatever happens — whether it's in the business of forests [or] biodiversity or climate change in the Congo Basin — [it] has linkages to anywhere else in the world," Akana says.

From Egypt to Syria, ‘water cancer’ chokes waterways
- Water hyacinth, an invasive species from the Amazon, is a major threat to freshwater life and livelihoods in Syria’s Orontes River and in Egypt’s Nile Delta.
- The plant grows and spreads quickly, outcompeting other species for space, oxygen, nutrients and sunlight.
- Along the Orontes, in a region controlled by opposition groups, farmers and fishers have little recourse for tackling the invasive species.
- In the Nile Delta, communities have more experience battling the plant and state-led dredging campaigns help clear water hyacinths every year, but they remain hard to control.

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.

Takin’ out the trash: How do transnational waste traffickers operate?
- Despite Western European countries having increasingly high rates of recycling, difficult-to-recycle plastic and other trash are frequently sent abroad.
- Sneaky use of waste codes, fake documentation, corruption and taking advantage of control loopholes are among the many ways waste is illegally trafficked to countries with more competitive rates and lower environmental standards.
- When discovered, however, these trash schemes can lead to international scandals like the lengthy one that recently involved Italy and Tunisia.

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.

Win for science as BP pressured into cleaning up offshore gas plans
- BP is launching an offshore gas platform with a pipeline through the world’s largest cold deep-water coral reef off the coast of Senegal and Mauritania.
- The project’s environmental impact assessment has been described as “nonsense” by a group of marine biologists
- A group of scientists has been fighting for four years to change this. Their proposals are currently being studied.

COP27 boosts carbon trading and ‘non-market’ conservation: But can they save forests?
- For the first time ever at a climate summit, the final text of this month’s COP27 included a “forests” section and a reference to “nature-based solutions,” — recognizing the important role nature can play in curbing human-caused climate change. But it’s too early to declare a victory for forests.
- By referencing REDD+, the text could breathe new life into this UN framework, which has so far failed to be a game-changer in the fight against deforestation as many hoped it would be.
- COP27 also took a step toward implementing Article 6.4 of the Paris agreement, a mechanism that some see as a valid market-based climate solution, though others judge it as just another “bogus” carbon trading scheme.
- Many activists are pinning their hopes instead on Article 6.8, which aims to finance the protection of ecosystems through “non-market approaches” like grants, rather than with carbon credits.

COP27: ‘Brazil is back’ to fight deforestation, Lula says, but hurdles await
- At COP27 this week Brazil president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pledged “zero deforestation and degradation of biomes,” a goal to be achieved by 2030.
- Lula also plans to establish a Ministry of Indigenous People, and to end “all the exploration of Indigenous lands by miners, and… to prohibit timber cutters.” Activists said Lula has sent a “strong message” at the COP27 summit, a meeting which has so far seen little climate progress.
- The president-elect has also met with Norway and Germany about restarting the Amazon Fund, which helped finance efforts to keep the rainforest intact until it was frozen in 2019 due to the anti-environmental policies of President Jair Bolsonaro.
- Lula will likely have to pursue stricter forest enforcement through executive action, as he faces a congress with many members hostile to his Amazon protection promises.

COP27: Climate Loss & Damage talks now on agenda, but U.S. resistance feared
- Loss and Damage (L&D) climate finance will be on the agenda at COP for discussion for the first time ever by the world’s nations, as the result of intense pressure applied by developing countries and NGOs just before the start of COP27 in Egypt.
- L&D refers to reparations potentially owed to poorer, more vulnerable developing nations for the climate harm caused by wealthy nations and their large-scale historical carbon emissions.
- The complexities of the mechanism for calculating losses by developing nations, and paying out of damages by wealthy nations, has never been worked out. The U.S. and other wealthy nations have a history of obstructing L&D negotiations.
- The concern among developing nations at COP27 is that even though L&D is being discussed, wealthy countries will reject the idea of direct no-strings-attached payments from wealthy countries to poorer nations, opting instead for loans, insurance and other less direct financial mechanisms.

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.

As animal seed dispersers go the way of the dodo, forest plants are at risk
- Many plants rely on animals to reproduce, regenerate and spread. But the current sixth mass extinction is wiping out seed-dispersing wildlife that fill this role, altering entire ecosystems.
- Thousands of species help keep flora alive, from birds and bats to elephants, apes and rodents.
- Animals give plants the ability to “move,” with the need for mobility rising alongside warming temperatures and more frequent extreme weather events. Transported elsewhere, plants may be able to “outrun” a warming climate.
- There are growing efforts to restore these critical ecological relationships and processes: protecting and recovering wild lands, identifying and rewilding key animal seed dispersers, reforesting destroyed habitat, and better regulating destructive logging and agricultural practices.

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.

As the Horn of Africa heats up, the risks of insecurity are rising (commentary)
- World leaders are increasingly concerned about the complex connections between climate and insecurity, including the risk that climate disruption is a “conflict multiplier.”
- The threat is particularly acute in the Greater Horn of Africa, where populations already grappling with food insecurity and armed conflict are experiencing some of the fastest-warming conditions in the world.
- Noting that “the fortunes and stability of this region of 365 million people now look to be at the mercy of weather-driven mayhem”, Robert Muggah, Peter Schmidt, and Giovanna Kuele of the Igarapé Institute draw attention to various efforts already underway in the region to build resilience and call for stepped-up support from global powers.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

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.

New coating could help seeds survive in drought conditions
- Water is the limiting factor for agriculture in many of the world’s semiarid regions, where crops are lost to drought in their early stages of life, during germination and as young seedlings.
- Scientists have developed a new seed coating, made from biodegradable waste products and applied directly to seeds before they are planted, to help seeds survive and germinate in dry conditions.
- The new seed coating consists of two layers: an inner one containing a nitrogen-fixing bacteria, and an outer one to hold moisture, much like a chia seed.
- Field trials with the new seeds are underway, but the key challenge to their adoption will be the cost.

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.

Humanity’s challenge of the century: Conserving Earth’s freshwater systems
- Many dryland cities like Los Angeles, Cairo and Tehran have already outstripped natural water recharge, but are expected to continue growing, resulting in a deepening arid urban water crisis.
- According to NASA’s GRACE mission, 19 key freshwater basins, including several in the U.S., are being unsustainably depleted, with some near collapse; much of the water is used indiscriminately by industrial agribusiness.
- Many desert cities, including Tripoli, Phoenix and Los Angeles, are sustained by water brought from other basins by hydro megaprojects that are aging and susceptible to collapse, while the desalination plants that water Persian Gulf cities come at a high economic cost with serious salt pollution.
- Experts say that thinking about the problem as one of supply disguises the real issue, given that what’s really missing to heading off a global freshwater crisis is the organization, capital, governance and political will to address the problems that come with regulating use of a renewable, but finite, resource.

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.

Dust and blood: Climate-induced conflict fuels migration, study finds
- The Arab Spring, was largely political in nature, and fueled an exodus of migrants from across the swath of affected countries into Europe. Now, a study published in Global Environmental Change finds evidence that a changing climate was also a factor.
- The researchers hypothesized that abnormal and extreme climate events worsen conflicts, which in turn lead to migration.
- They say their results add evidence to the intensely debated narrative that links drought, at least in part, to the political unrest of the Arab Spring and subsequent Syrian civil war.

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.

150 years after being discovered, African monkey with handlebar moustache becomes its own species
An African monkey first described to science more than 150 years ago has now been elevated to full species status. The Blue Nile patas monkey is found in the Blue Nile basin of Ethiopia as well as in eastern Sudan. Its range is geographically distinct from that of other patas monkeys, as Sudan’s Sudd swamp […]
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.

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