location: Rwanda

location: Rwanda

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‘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.

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.

Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation at 60: A look back and forward
- The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation marked its 60th anniversary with a conference in Kigali, Rwanda this July. The ATBC has diversified its membership and expanded its scope since its founding in 1963, when most members were U.S. scientists working in Latin America, and only one member was a woman.
- This year’s ATBC meeting included 400 attendees from 52 countries, with participants coming from African, Asian and Latin American nations. Annual conferences now rotate between these three tropical realms.
- In the 21st century, conservation has increasingly become an ATBC focus. This July’s meeting in Kigali, like other recent meetings was designed to have a lasting impact on the local scientific community by offering free field courses and scholarships to Rwandan students.
- Today, the distribution of educational resources and employment opportunities for tropical studies is still skewed heavily toward countries in the Global North. ATBC members say they hope to change this by emphasizing “South-South” collaborations, with knowledge sharing between tropical nations around the globe.

Nearly 30% of all tree cover in Africa may be outside of forests, study says
- A team at the University of Copenhagen has generated a map of tree cover in 45 African countries down to individual tree crowns by feeding high-resolution satellite imagery into a machine-learning model.
- The analysis showed that nearly 30% of the continent’s tree cover lies outside what are traditionally considered forest areas in land-cover maps.
- For nine countries, trees outside forests account for around half their tree cover: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Libya, Mali, Namibia, Niger, Mauritania and Sudan.
- Such high-resolution tree-cover data could lead to more precise carbon stock assessments and better monitoring of land-use changes.

CAPS, new gas megaproject, aims to power Central Africa, but at what cost, critics ask
- The Central Africa Business Energy Forum proposes to build 6,500 kilometers (4,000 miles) of pipelines linking oil and gas resources across 11 countries in Central Africa.
- The forum says gas in particular should play a key role in developing the region’s economy.
- Seven countries have so far signed a memorandum of understanding, and a feasibility study for a first phase is expected by the end of 2023
- Environmentalists say the project is a mistake that will exacerbate the climate crisis and fail to benefit local populations.

Mountain gorilla reproduction slows with female transfers, study shows
- Successful conservation interventions have helped mountain gorilla populations recover from 620 in 1989 to more than 1,000 today.
- However, mountain gorilla habitat is not expanding, and a growing body of research indicates that increasing density comes with a price: More groups sharing territory leads to more frequent intergroup violence.
- A new study finds that when intergroup contact increases, so do transfers of females between groups, leading to delayed reproduction.
- The study also emphasizes that multiple factors, such as delayed reproduction and increased mortality, cascade to create a slowdown in population growth.

Kigali call to action a step forward but not far enough, Indigenous and local leaders say
- The first Africa Protected Areas Congress in Rwanda culminated in the Kigali Call to Action, which foregrounded the role of Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs), women and youth, but did not fully address IPLC demands.
- A proposed massive expansion of protected areas — covering 30% of land and marine areas by 2030 — is impossible without the support and inclusion of IPLCs, who bear the highest costs, advocates say.
- The Kigali Call to Action acknowledged “ongoing injustices” experienced by IPLCs in the establishment and running of protected areas, and called for them “to be halted now and in the future.”
- Some saw the APAC event as a missed opportunity to reckon with the failures of the conservation model as it has been implemented in Africa, and say it should have been a chance to chart out a future course that’s more inclusive and just.

‘Comical’ bat not seen in 40 years is found again in a Rwandan park
- For the first time in 40 years, researchers caught a Hill’s horseshoe bat, confirming that the bat population still clings to life in Rwanda’s Nyungwe National Park, a highly biodiverse area containing old-growth cloud forest.
- Rhinolophus bats echolocate through the unique and exaggerated folds on their noses called “nose leaves,” which, in the case of the Hill’s horseshow bat, gives them a bass frequency, unlike the soprano of other horseshoe bats.
- Now that researchers have identified their call, they can use acoustic monitoring to eavesdrop on the critically endangered species with minimal impact.
- A lead researcher on the team said the bats are likely restricted to a core area, and although the park is well-patrolled by rangers, this area should be a focus in order to protect the remaining bats, whose population remains unknown.

Call for COVID rules that reduced infections in gorilla parks to remain
- Respiratory infections recorded among mountain gorillas in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park dropped from a pre-pandemic average of 5.4 outbreaks among family groups to just 1.6 per year since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
- Conservation group Gorilla Doctors, whose Rwanda team recorded the decrease in infections, says the decline correlates with lower visitor numbers to the park as well as masking requirements and an increase in the distance tourists must stay from habituated apes.
- In a recent letter in the journal Nature, Gorilla Doctors and the park’s chief warden called for these stricter measures to be kept in place permanently.

Translocation brings white rhinos to Rwanda, a new land for an old species
- On Nov. 29, 30 white rhinos were introduced to Akagera National Park in Rwanda from a private game reserve in South Africa.
- The relocation is aimed at establishing the species in a new range state and ensuring its survival into the future.
- Akagera National Park has not had a single high-value animal poached for the past 11 years, and has become a sanctuary for other translocated species such as lions and black rhinos, according to the NGO African Parks, which helps to manage Akagera.
- White rhinos are considered a near threatened species that under continual threat from poaching incidents.

COVID could wreak havoc on gorillas, but they social distance better than we do
- A new study models the potential impacts of a COVID-19 outbreak in mountain gorillas using 50 years of population data collected in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park with epidemiological variables gathered on COVID-19 infection in humans.
- In most of the scenarios modeled, gorilla populations were found to decline sharply within 50 years of an outbreak.
- Questions remain as to whether the human epidemiological variables used in the analysis are a good fit for gorillas, which spend all of their time outdoors and interact with non-family members far less frequently than humans do.

For World Gorilla Day 2021, a conservation success story
- The NGO that helped establish World Gorilla Day — the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund — has learned a few important lessons for the conservation of gorillas and other species over the years.
- Firstly, conservation can’t happen without local support: when community members they work with come to understand the importance of the habitat that surrounds them, the project can succeed. Another lesson is that conservation takes time, money and diversification.
- “By engaging rather than excluding communities and ensuring that local people benefit from conservation, we have found that we can protect wildlife with a footprint that is 15 times smaller than that for mountain gorillas.”
- This article is an analysis for World Gorilla Day 2021 by the chief scientific officer of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Mongabay.

Without room to expand, mountain gorillas’ population growth could backfire
- Mountain gorilla populations have grown steadily in recent decades, thanks largely to intensive conservation efforts in Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- But the species’ entire population is confined to protected parks in these countries, with limited room to expand, and as the population has grown, so too has population density.
- A new study that tracked the incidence and intensity of parasitic infections across the mountain gorilla’s range suggests that greater population density correlates with greater susceptibility to parasites and other health problems.

For Africa’s great apes, a post-pandemic future looks beyond tourism
- From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, primatologists assumed great apes would be susceptible to the virus and took measures to avoid transmission to captive and wild populations.
- Precautionary measures like closing parks and sanctuaries to visitors have so far prevented an outbreak in wild apes, but have had a massive impact on the ability of conservation groups and government agencies to fund themselves via tourism.
- A year into the pandemic, the revenue shortfall is prompting a serious rethink of funding models for ape conservation that don’t rely on tourism.

‘Bad science’: Planting frenzy misses the grasslands for the trees
- Planting trees by the millions has come to be considered one of the main ways of reining in runaway carbon emissions and tackling climate change.
- But experts say many tree-planting campaigns are based on flawed science: planting in grasslands and other non-forest areas, and prioritizing invasive trees over native ones.
- Experts point out that not all land is meant to be forested, and that planting trees in savannas and grasslands runs the risk of actually reducing carbon sequestration and increasing air temperature.
- The rush to reforest has also led to fast-growing eucalyptus and acacia becoming the choice of tree for planting, despite the fact they’re not native in most planting areas, and are both water-intensive and fire-prone.

Rwanda’s Akagera park thrives thanks to community-led anti-poaching drive
- An informal network of community members, including former poachers, that delivers information to the ANP security team has bolstered internal response to potential poachers even before they enter ANP limits.
- High employment rates within the periphery community, significant reinvestment in infrastructure projects and income generation opportunities.
- It also includes a sustained relationship through informal events like sports have increased positive relationships between the park and periphery community.

For great apes at risk of infection, COVID-19 is also an economic threat
- With flights grounded, parks closed and countries on lockdown, COVID-19 has dealt a major blow to great ape-focused ecotourism operations in Africa and Asia.
- Many conservation activities rely directly on revenue from tourism, and the money tourism brings in also provides a financial incentive for governments and local communities to protect wildlife.
- If lockdowns persist for months, the consequences could be devastating for fragile ape populations and the communities that surround them.
- The situation has re-emphasized the need for conservation groups to diversify their fundraising strategies, experts say.

Camera traps in trees reveal a richness of species in Rwandan park
- Camera traps set high up in trees in Rwanda’s Nyungwe National Park captured 35 different mammal species over a 30-day period, including a rare Central African oyan (Poiana richardsonii), a small catlike mammal that has not previously been seen in the park.
- Arboreal camera traps are a viable method for conducting mammal surveys, especially when partnered with ground cameras.
- Understanding what animals are present in an area is a first step toward protecting them.

National parks in Africa shutter over COVID-19 threat to great apes
- Wildlife authorities in some parts of Africa have effectively locked down parks that are home to gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos, amid concerns that the COVID-19 pandemic could make the jump to great apes.
- Humans and great apes share more than 95% of the same genetic material, and are susceptible to many of the same infectious diseases, ranging from respiratory ailments to Ebola.
- Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo shut its doors to tourists this week, while in Rwanda all parks hosting gorillas and chimpanzees were also shut; Uganda is considering doing the same, with its parks de facto closed because of a drop in tourist arrivals.
- Even if the apes avoid COVID-19, the loss of tourism revenue for the parks and potential loss of income for people who work to protect these species could cause enduring damage to conservation efforts, experts say.

Keeping gorillas safe amid COVID-19 concerns
- Gorillas are vulnerable to human diseases, including respiratory illnesses, and may be susceptible to infection by COVID-19.
- Researchers and trackers working for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, a conservation nonprofit in Rwanda, are taking special precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 to the gorillas they study and protect in the wild.
- Economic turmoil from COVID-19, including loss of tourism revenue, could spell trouble for gorilla conservation.

Transforming African conservation from old social cause into next-gen growth market
- Africa’s conservation challenges are daunting, and on the surface it would seem that time is running short for African wildlife.
- One Ghanian entrepreneur sees conservation as one of the great opportunities for Africa, though: Fred Swaniker, the founder and CEO of the African Leadership Group, has won accolades for his efforts to transform higher education in Africa.
- One of his latest ventures is African Leadership University’s School of Wildlife Conservation, which aims to help Africans use their knowledge, experience and big ideas to “own and drive” the conservation agenda in Africa.
- Ahead of ALU’s Business of Conservation Conference taking place Sept. 8-9 in Kigali, Rwanda, Swaniker spoke with Mongabay about equipping conservation leaders with business, managerial and leadership skills “to transform a generations-old social cause into a next-generation high-growth market.”

Europe-bred rhinos join South African cousins to repopulate Rwanda park
- Five critically endangered eastern black rhinos have been flown from Europe to Akagera National Park in Rwanda.
- Eastern black rhino populations across the region are small and isolated, with the risk of inbreeding damaging long-term genetic viability.
- The rhinos come from the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) breeding program and will add vitally needed fresh genetics into Rwanda’s fledgling population, made up of rhinos bred in South Africa.

Salt fiends: Search for sodium puts Rwanda’s gorillas in harm’s way
- A recent study has identified a craving for sodium as the likely reason that mountain gorillas in Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park raid eucalyptus plantations outside the park.
- Eucalyptus bark contains 100 times more sodium than the gorillas’ normal diet and accounts for up to two thirds of their total sodium intake.
- A proposed buffer zone of nutritionally unattractive plants could help deter gorillas from crop raiding, which is the primary cause of human-gorilla conflict in the area.

The view from the bottleneck: Is nature poised for a big comeback?
- A new theory, from bottleneck to breakthrough, posits that urbanization, falling fertility and the end of extreme poverty could result in a much greener world than the one we inherited.
- The scientists behind the idea believe that conservation must continue to “hold on” to species and places as nations make their way through the tightening bottleneck.
- If trends today persist, the global population could urbanize and fall dramatically in the next couple of centuries, turning conservation into restoration.
- This post is part of “Saving Life on Earth: Words on the Wild,” a monthly column by Jeremy Hance, one of Mongabay’s original staff writers.

‘Conservation never ends’: 40 years in the kingdom of gorillas
- While studying Rwanda’s critically endangered mountain gorillas in the 1970s, newlywed graduate students Amy Vedder and Bill Weber learned that the government was considering converting gorilla habitat into a cattle ranch.
- At the time, conventional wisdom held that the mountain gorillas would inevitably go extinct. But Vedder and Weber believed the species could be saved, and proposed a then-revolutionary ecotourism scheme to the Rwandan government.
- Forty years later, that scheme has proved its worth. Mountain gorilla populations have rebounded, and tourism generates hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Vedder and Weber now work to inspire the next generation of conservationists both in Rwanda and abroad.
- In a series of interviews with Mongabay, Vedder and Weber reflect on a life in conservation.

‘Not all hope is lost’ as outlook for mountain gorillas brightens
- The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) changed the status of mountain gorillas from Critically Endangered to Endangered today.
- The new assessment cites the subspecies’ growing numbers, now at around 1,000 individuals, and the conservation efforts on its behalf.
- Scientists say that, while this is an important milestone, mountain gorillas’ survival depends on continued conservation.

Rwandan people and mountain gorillas face changing climate together
- The Critically Endangered mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei), has been brought back from extinction’s brink in Rwanda, with numbers in the Virunga Mountains around Volcanoes National Park estimated at 604 individuals in 2016, up from 480 in 2010. But long-time observers say climate change is bringing new survival challenges to the area.
- Longer and deeper droughts in recent years have caused serious water shortages, which impact both local farmers and the mountain gorillas. People now must often go deep into the park to find clean water, which increases the likelihood of contact with the great apes, which increases the likelihood for the transfer of human diseases to the animals.
- Hotter temps and dryer conditions could also pressure farmers to move into gorilla habitat in future, as they seek more productive cropland at higher altitudes. Also, as the climate changes, bamboo availability may be decreasing, depriving gorillas of a favorite food. This could force troops to forage outside the park in croplands, possibly leading to conflict.
- Forced changes in diet could impact gorilla nutrition, making the great apes more susceptible to disease. A major disease outbreak could be disastrous due to low population numbers. Scientists urge more research to understand how climate change affects human behavior, which then affects gorillas, and how the fate of the two primates intertwines.

East Africa’s mountain gorilla population now numbers more than 1,000
- According to the results of a census released last week, the mountain gorilla population in East Africa’s Virunga Mountains numbered 604 as of June 2016, up from from 480 in 2010. The population hit an all-time low of 242 individuals in 1981.
- The mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) is a subspecies of the eastern gorilla with two distinct sub-populations: one in the Virunga Mountains and another in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. A census conducted in 2011 found approximately 400 gorillas living in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, meaning that the total number of mountain gorillas is now believed to be more than 1,000 individuals.
- Conservationists were quick to celebrate the increasing mountain gorilla population as a much-needed instance of good news, even if they remain wary of the many persistent and looming threats the subspecies must still contend with.

TV host Ellen DeGeneres to visit Rwanda in mountain gorilla conservation effort
- Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres earlier this year established a fund that will finance the building of a campus in Rwanda to support conservation and protection efforts for the critically endangered mountain gorilla.
- The campus is being built in collaboration with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, and DeGeneres is scheduled to visit the site in the Virunga Mountains next week.
- The initiative has been welcomed by conservationists and Rwandan government officials, and has received financial support and endorsements from prominent figures in Hollywood.

Photos: Meet the 2018 ‘Green Oscars’ winners
- The six winners of 2018 Whitley Award are Munir Virani of Kenya; Shahriar Caesar Rahman of Bangladesh; Kerstin Forsberg of Peru; Dominique Bikaba of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Anjali Chandraraj Watson of Sri Lanka; and Olivier Nsengimana of Rwanda.
- Each recipient was awarded £40,000 ($56,000) in project funding over one year at an awards ceremony held at the Royal Geographic Society in London, U.K., on April 25.
- A seventh conservationist, Pablo “Popi” Garcia Borboroglu from Argentina, who won the Whitley Award in 2010, received the Whitley Gold Award for his commitment to safeguarding the world’s penguin species.

East Africa’s Albertine Rift needs protection now, scientists say
- The Albertine Rift in East Africa is home to more than 500 species of plants and animals found nowhere else on the planet.
- Created by the stretching apart of tectonic plates, the unique ecosystems of the Albertine Rift are also under threat from encroaching human population and climate change.
- A new report details a plan to protect the landscapes that make up the Rift at a cost of around $21 million per year — a bargain rate, scientists argue, given the number of threatened species that could be saved.

Wildlife ecologist killed in Rwandan national park by recently translocated rhino
- “It is with utmost regret that I inform you that Krisztián Gyöngyi was killed this morning by a rhinoceros in Akagera National Park in Rwanda while out tracking animals in the park,” Peter Fearnhead, CEO of the non-profit conservation organization African Parks, announced in a statement.
- According to Fearnhead, Gyöngyi was a rhino specialist who had more than five years of experience monitoring and conserving rhinos in Majete Wildlife Reserve and Liwonde National Park, both in Malawi.
- In a joint initiative of the Rwandan government and African Parks, which employs more than 600 rangers and manages 10 national parks and protected areas in seven countries, 18 Eastern black rhinos were airlifted from South Africa to Akagera National Park.

Rwanda welcomes 20 black rhinos to Akagera National Park
- The 20 black rhinos are of the eastern subspecies (Diceros bicornis michaeli).
- African Parks, the NGO that manages Akagera National Park in cooperation with the government of Rwanda, says that it has rhino trackers, canine patrols and a helicopter to protect the rhinos from poaching.
- Fewer than 5,000 black rhinos exist in Africa. Their numbers have been decimated by poaching for their horns, which fetch high prices for use in traditional Chinese medicine.
- Officials hope that the new rhino population will boost Akagera National Park’s visibility as a ecotourism destination.

African Parks gets $65M for conservation in Rwanda and Malawi
- African Parks will receive $65 million from the Wyss Foundation to bolster conservation efforts in Rwanda, Malawi, and beyond.
- The funds will go toward African Parks’ management of Liwonde National Park, Majete Wildlife Reserve and Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve in Malawi; Akagera National Park in Rwanda; and five still-to-be-identified protected areas in other countries.
- African Parks privately manages protected areas, effectively taking over operations traditionally managed by governments.

Climate deal struck to curb ‘super greenhouse gases’
- Under the terms of the Kigali Amendment, the participating countries will collectively slash HFC levels in the atmosphere by 80 to 85 percent by midcentury.
- Experts say that the reduction could spare the planet as much a half a degree Celsius in warming.
- The HFC cutbacks will begin in developed countries first, giving more time to emerging economies and the warmest countries in most need of cooling solutions to scale back.

From paper to tablet: A new way to record animal behavior
- Animal Observer is a free, new iPad app that helps researchers collect animal behavior data such as activity, diet and social interactions.
- Developed by the Fossey Fund and initially designed for gorillas, the app is now customizable to a variety of observation types and species.
- GPS capabilities allow the app to record spatial positions of the animals being observed, providing critical data for social network and spatial analyses.
- Animal Observer is perhaps best applied for studying species that have a strong group dynamic or social structure.

Chew on this new way to detect disease in primates
- Researchers have found they can detect viruses in mountain gorilla and golden monkey populations using saliva from remnants of bark, leaves and fruit the animals chewed.
- This is a simple, noninvasive alternative to existing sampling options that could help monitor and prevent outbreaks in zoonosis-vulnerable threatened primates.
- Chewed material could also be used to identify pathogens in other wildlife populations for whose survival health monitoring is critical.

Disease prevention a boost to human health and great ape conservation
- Africa’s booming agribusiness — especially oil palm production — and tourism are bringing people into ever-closer contact with gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos, creating greater chances for diseases to cross between species.
- A “One Health” approach is helping human communities in Africa improve public health and sanitation to decrease infectious diseases, which in turn helps protect neighboring great apes. Thus, the reduction of rural poverty also enhances great ape conservation.
- Researchers are also regularly monitoring the world’s apes to identify viruses harbored by great apes that might jump to humans the way that simian immunodeficiency virus crossed species and evolved into human AIDS viruses.

Can privatization save parks?
- Governments are turning to the private sector to help fund management of protected areas in so-called “public-private partnerships” (PPPs).
- Proponents argue that PPPs not only offer much-needed funds to protected areas, but can improve management and conservation outcomes.
- However, critics contend that they can cede too much control to private interests and put sensitive tasks, such as security and anti-poaching efforts, on the line.

Lions return to Rwanda

One of the female lions being translocated to Rwanda. Photo by: Matthew Poole. After 15 years, the roar of lions will once again be heard in Rwanda. Today the NGO, African Parks, will begin moving seven lions from South Africa to Rwanda’s Akagera National Park. It was here that Rwanda’s last lions were poisoned by […]
Sky islands: exploring East Africa’s last frontier
- The montane rainforests of East Africa are little-known to the global public.
- The Amazon and Congo loom much larger in our minds, while the savannas of East Africa remain the iconic ecosystems for the region.
- However these ancient, biodiverse forests – sitting on the tops of mountains rising from the African savanna – are home to some remarkable species, many found only in a single forest.
- A team of international scientists – Michele Menegon, Fabio Pupin, and Simon Loader – have made it their mission to document the little-known reptiles and amphibians in these so-called sky islands, many of which are highly imperiled.

Art, education, and health: holistic conservation group embarks on new chapter
- It’s unlikely conservation organizations can survive if they are unwilling to embrace change: as an endeavor, conservation requires not just longterm planning, but also an ability to move proactively and fluidly to protect species and safeguard ecosystems.
- Environmental and education NGO, the Art of Conservation, is currently embarking on its biggest change since its foundation in 2006: moving away from its base in Rwanda, while leaving a legacy behind.

Why responsible tourism is the key to saving the mountain gorilla

The sunlight poured through the canopy, casting dappled shade over Makara, a large silverback mountain gorilla, as he cast his eyes around the forest clearing, checking on the members of his harem. A female gorilla reclined on a bank of dense vegetation of the most brilliant green, clutching her three day old infant close to […]
Mountain gorilla population up by over 20 percent in five years

Mountain gorilla family in Virunga National Park. Photo by: Martin Harvey/WWF. A mountain gorilla census in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park has a population that continues to rise, hitting 400 animals. The new census in Bwindi means the total population of mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) has reached 880—up from 720 in 2007—and marking a […]
Forest cover falls 9% in East Africa in 9 years

Forest in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Forest cover in East Africa has dropped by 9.3 percent from 2001-2009, according to a new paper published in the open-access journal PLoS ONE. Looking at 12 countries in the region, the scientists found that, worryingly, forests were particularly hard hit near protected […]
10 African countries to develop satellite-based deforestation tracking systems with help of Brazil

Ten tropical African countries will receive training and support to develop national forest monitoring systems, reports the United Nations. Brazil, which has an advanced deforestation tracking system, will guide the initiative in partnership with the Central Africa Forests Commission (COMIFAC) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The ten participating countries are Burundi, Cameroon, […]
U.S., others commit to restoring 45 million acres of native forests

Southern Oregon forest. The U.S. Forest Service joined Rwanda, a Brazilian coalition, and a Central American alliance of indigenous groups in a pledge to restore 18 million hectares (45 million acres) of native forests, reports the IUCN, a conservation group. The commitment represents about 12 percent of a 150 million hectare target — known as […]
Ten African nations pledge to transform their economies to take nature into account

African elephants at Chobe River in Botswana. Photo by: Tiffany Roufs. Last month ten African nations, led by Botswana, pledged to incorporate “natural capital” into their economies. Natural capital, which seeks to measure the economic worth of the services provided by ecosystems and biodiversity—for example pollination, clean water, and carbon—is a nascent, but growing, method […]
Deforestation increases in the Congo rainforest

Deforestation in the Congo Basin. Click image to enlarge. Deforestation in the Congo Basin has increased sharply since the 1990s, reports an extensive new assessment of forests in the six-nation region. Released by the Central African Forests Commission (COMIFAC) and members of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership, The State of the Forest finds that the […]
Price of gorilla permit increases to $750/day

Mountain gorillas in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. The price of a daily gorilla permit has more than doubled since this photo was taken in 2006. Rwanda has raised the price of a permit to see mountain gorillas to $750 per day starting June 1, 2012, up from $500. While the price is steep, the […]
Giant rat plays big ecological role in dispersing seeds

Kivu giant pouched rat caught on camera trap eating a seed of Carapa grandiflora. Photo by: Aisha Nyiramana. Rats are rarely thought of as heroes. In fact, in many parts of the world they are despised, while in others they serve largely as food. But, scientists are now discovering that many tropical forest rodents, including […]
U.S. Lacey Act, programs in Rwanda and Gambia, awarded for forest protection

Forest policies in the United States, Rwanda, and Gambia won U.N. backed awards for contributing to efforts to protect and sustainably manage forests. Rwanda, which experienced a reversal in deforestation since civil strife in the mid-1990s, won the gold Future Policy Award, which was granted by the World Future Council at UN Headquarters in New […]
Restoring forests: an opportunity for Africa

Rift Valley escarpment with the forest of Lake Manyara National Park below in the East African country of Tanzania. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Tropical forest news last week was dominated by Indonesia and Brazil. Forest clearing has surged over the past year in parts of the Amazon, the Brazilian Government reported. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s President […]
Top forest policies recognized
19 forest policies have been nominated for an award by the World Future Council, a global think tank. The policies come from 16 countries: Bhutan, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Finland, Gambia, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Norway, Rwanda, Switzerland, Turkey, the United States of America and Vietnam. Nominations were made by various international organizations, including UN […]
Mountain gorilla population up by 100 individuals

Conservation appears to be working for the Critically Endangered mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) in the Virunga massif region, as a new census shows an additional 100 individuals from the last census in 2003, an increase of over a quarter. The Virunga massif is a region in three nations—Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and […]
Rwanda government: one third forest cover coming seven years ahead of schedule
Rwanda expects to reach its goal of 30% forest cover in three years, according to the Minister for Forestry and Mines, Christophe Bazivamo. If achieved this would be seven years ahead of the government’s pledge for 2020. After Rwanda’s forest cover hit a nadir of 10%, the government began an aggressive tree-planting campaign. According to […]
Photos: world’s top ten ‘lost frogs’

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Conservation International (CI) have sent teams of researchers to 14 countries on five continents to search for the world’s lost frogs. These are amphibian species that have not been seen for years—in some cases even up to a century—but may still survive in the wild. […]
NASA photos reveal destruction of 99% of rainforest park in Rwanda

Satellite images released by NASA show nearly complete destruction of Rwanda’s Gishwati Forest between 1986 and 2001. Deforestation of the forest reserve is largely the result of subsistence harvesting and cultivation by refugees in the aftermath of the country’s 1994 genocide. Overall only 600 hectares of Gishwati’s original 100,000 hectares of forest remain, a loss […]
80% of wars between 1950-2000 took place in biodiversity hotspots

80 percent of the world’s major armed conflicts between 1950 and 2000 occurred in biodiversity hotspots, reports a study published in the journal Conservation Biology. The research examined conflicts in the world’s 34 biodiversity hotspots identified by Conservation International (CI). It found that 23 experienced warfare during the study period. More than 90 percent of […]
Rwanda and Burundi agree to protect rare forest area

Rwanda and Burundi agree to protect rare forest area Rwanda and Burundi agree to protect rare forest area mongabay.com September 15, 2008 Rwanda and Burundi have agreed to protect a large tract of tropical mountain forest that is home to chimpanzees, rare owl-faced monkeys, and other wildlife. The deal was brokered by the Wildlife Conservation […]

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