location: Tanzania

location: Tanzania

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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.”

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.

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.

Ahead of COP16, groups warn of rights abuses linked to ‘30×30’ goal
- In October, Indigenous leaders, government representatives, scientists and activists will meet at COP16, the U.N. Biodiversity Conference, in Colombia, where discussions on plans to expand protected area coverage are expected to take center stage.
- The 30 by 30 goal, which calls for 30% of Earth’s land and sea to be conserved by 2030, continues to be criticized by several human rights organizations who say its lack of clarity on where and how to expand protected areas may result in human rights abuses and forced evictions.
- In a new report by the Oakland Institute, researchers highlighted some of the implications of protected area expansion on the Batwa Indigenous community in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), including abuses by rangers and soldiers.
- Advocates say the COP16 discussions should include clear indicators to track respect of human rights and integrate locally led conservation initiatives that fit within the sociocultural context of each country, rather than top-down approaches.

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.

Meet the Miombo, the largest forest you’ve never heard of
- The Miombo woodlands are a dry deciduous forest spanning 1.9 million square kilometers (726,000 square miles) across Central and Southern Africa.
- Rural communities across the region depend heavily on the woodlands for building materials as well as a large variety of non-timber forest products including fruits, honey, mushrooms, medicine and more; the Miombo is also a significant source of firewood and charcoal, with fuelwood making up three-quarters of energy-use in the region.
- Population growth, agricultural expansion and increasing demand for fuelwood are the primary drivers of deforestation in the Miombo.
- A new initiative spearheaded by the Republic of Mozambique’s President Filipe Jacinto Nyusi aims to reverse deforestation of the Miombo and promote sustainable resource development.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

UNESCO accused of supporting human rights abuses in African parks
- For years, human rights organizations have accused UNESCO of being either inattentive or complicit in the illegal evictions of communities and allegations of torture, rape and murder in several World Heritage Sites.
- These sites include biodiversity hotspots in Africa, including the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania and the Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of Congo.
- Although UNESCO is not participating in these human rights abuses itself, organizations say, a few aspects of the agency’s policies and structure allow abuses to happen: lack of solid mechanisms to enforce human rights obligations, its requests for countries to control population growth in heritage sites and the agency’s internal politics.
- UNESCO strongly contests the statements made against the World Heritage Convention and Committee, which has made stronger human rights commitments, and says such multilateral institutions are in fact the best allies to defend human rights.

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.

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.

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.

Photos: Top species discoveries from 2023
- Scientists described a slew of new species this past year, including an electric blue tarantula, two pygmy squid, a silent frog, and some thumb-sized chameleons.
- Experts estimate less than 20% of Earth’s species have been documented by Western science.
- Although a species may be new to science, it may already be well known to local and Indigenous people and have a common name.
- Many new species of plants, fungi, and animals are assessed as Vulnerable or Critically Endangered with extinction as soon as they are found, and many species may go extinct before they are named, experts say.

Control of Africa’s forests must not be sold to carbon offset companies (commentary)
- A forest carbon deal between Blue Carbon and the nation of Liberia would give the company exclusive rights to control 10% of the nation’s land mass for 30 years.
- Blue Carbon has also signed MOUs for similar deals with Tanzania and Zambia (and others) and combined with the Liberia deal, the land controlled by the company in these three African nations represents an area the size of the whole of the United Kingdom.
- “Carbon colonialism is a false solution to the climate crisis,” a new op-ed states. “The only real answer is to end our fossil fuel addiction by dramatically reducing our emissions, while financially supporting countries and local communities to protect their forests, rather than wrest control of them.”
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Disturbing graves is latest violation attributed to East African oil pipeline
- Faith-based climate justice organization GreenFaith says the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), will disturb at least 2,000 graves along its 1,441-kilometer (895-mile) route from Uganda’s Lake Albert to the Tanzanian port of Tanga.
- Surveys in affected communities found numerous cases where residents said TotalEnergies, the French oil giant leading the project, had disturbed and disrespected the graves of their families and ancestors, despite their best efforts to alert the company to their presence.
- TotalEnergies says the process of identifying and relocating burial sites, and paying compensation to affected people, has been carried out in line with international standards.
- Since its inception in 2017, the EACOP project has been dogged by criticism over its environmental, social and climate change impacts.

World Bank accused of supporting evictions, rights abuses at Tanzanian park
- In a report released last week, the US-based advocacy group The Oakland Institute accused the World Bank of complicity in what it said were serious human rights abuses committed by rangers at the Ruaha National Park in southern Tanzania.
- Rangers at Ruaha have received support from the bank through a program meant to boost tourism to the park.
- Human rights advocates and community leaders from the region who spoke to Mongabay said that rangers had carried out extrajudicial killings, sexual assaults, and livestock theft.
- The accusations are the latest in an ongoing clash over the rights of Indigenous peoples living in and near wildlife reserves in Tanzania, which draw billions of dollars per year in tourism revenue.

World owes it to Tanzania to keep Eastern Arc forests standing, study shows
- Tanzania’s Eastern Arc’s evergreen forests provide carbon sequestration that the world benefits, yet it’s local communities alone who shoulder the costs of keeping the forests standing.
- The authors of a new study recommend that international investments in conservation within the Eastern Arc worth $2 billion need to be made over the next 20 years.
- Without this, the authors say, the mountains’ forests and their extraordinary levels of biodiversity will be lost or degraded as local communities convert them to agricultural land or harvest timber from them.

Road upgrade through remote Tanzanian park threatens wildlife (commentary)
- After a pause of more than 10 years, road upgrading through Katavi National Park has restarted.
- Critics worry about the possible effects on long term conservation of protected wildlife populations in the park, the loss of thousands of trees, and a decline in tourist revenue.
- “Once the road is paved, it will never be unpaved. Instead, a compromise solution lies in sensitive thinking of where the large mammals collect,” a wildlife biologist argues in this commentary.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

From cardamom to carbon: Bold new Tanzanian project is regrowing a rainforest
- Farmers in eastern Tanzania are regrowing rainforest trees on part of their land.
- The farmers receive payments from the sale of carbon credits to supplement their incomes and to compensate them for loss of land and cash crops.
- So far, close to 270,000 trees have been planted on 200 hectares (494 acres) of farms located on the flanks of the Nguru Mountains.
- Nguru’s forests, home to a wealth of unique animal and plant species, are under increasing pressure from farmers who fell trees to grow crops, including valuable cardamom spice.

The value of mountains: Q&A with Tanzanian herpetologist John Lyakurwa
- John Lyakurwa grew up fascinated by the chameleons he found on his family’s coffee farm on Mount Kilimanjaro.
- That passion inspired him to study conservation science, to specialize in herpetology, and to research a unique group of forest toads in remote parts of Tanzania.
- Lyakurwa’s research takes him regularly to the Eastern Arc Mountains, a biodiversity hotspot threatened by agriculture.
- He says raising awareness about the unique and diverse creatures that live in the mountains and their forests can help to preserve them and the benefits they bring to humans.

Meet the kipunji: A rare primate success story in Tanzania
- A recent census shows that the population of the kipunji monkey (Rungwecebus kipunji) in Tanzania’s Southern Highlands has increased by 65%, while signs of human impacts in its habitat decreased by 81%, over a 13-year period.
- The increase follows 20 years of intensive holistic conservation efforts by the Wildlife Conservation Society and Tanzanian government partners, including greater legal protection for forests and community engagement.
- The total population size of the kipunji is estimated at 1,966 individuals in two subpopulations, and the species is classified by the IUCN as endangered.
- The kipunji has been on the Primates in Peril list of 25 most endangered primates three times: in 2006-2008, 2008-2010, and 2018-2020, but was not on the most recent list.

Forests & finance: communities turn to tree-planting, zero-logging, and mushrooms to protect forests
- Communities in Gabon and Kenya organise to protect forests against logging.
- Renewed forest restoration efforts by a local council in Cameroon’s East region.
- Mushroom profits may help protect Tanzania’s forests.

Maasai conservationist strives to protect Indigenous rights because ‘land is life’ (commentary)
- “As a member of the Maasai community in Tanzania, I am all too aware of how for thousands of years, Indigenous communities have been the caretakers of the environment, protecting their lands and respecting wildlife,” a new op-ed says.
- Dismas Partala argues that Indigenous communities can offer a more sustainable solution to advancing conservation, and at a lower cost through the biodiversity protection roles they play.
- A conservation program his organization developed for Indigenous-led conservation secures a communal land title deed known as ‘Certificate of Customary Right of Occupancy,’ which has resulted in elephants, cheetahs and wild dogs being spotted with greater frequency.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Indigenous Maasai ask the United Nations to intervene on reported human rights abuses
- Maasai delegates at the United Nations conference on Indigenous people are calling on the forum to increase pressure on the Tanzanian government to address evictions, forced displacement and thousands of seized cattle in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Loliondo.
- Land disputes at both sites have been grinding on for years after the government revealed plans to lease the land to a UAE-based company to create a wildlife corridor for trophy hunting and elite tourism.
- Last year, the dispute reached a boiling point when Tanzanian police officers and authorities shot and beat dozens of Maasai villagers who protested the demarcation of their ancestral land. One Maasai man and one police officer have been killed.
- At the United Nations forum, a Tanzanian government representative rejected accusations brought against it, pointing to a recent court ruling in its favor and a visit by an African human rights commission.

Six newly described chameleon species reflect Tanzania’s Eastern Arc Mountains’ fragility and richness
- Six new species of pygmy chameleon have been described from Tanzania’s Eastern Arc Mountains.
- The mountain forests are subject to intense human pressure, threatening the diverse plant and animal species that live in them.
- A recent study using satellite imagery discovered that in one district alone, 27% of its montane forests were lost to small-scale farmers and herders between 2011 and 2017.
- The Tanzanian government is currently working to increase agricultural production in a region that overlaps with the Eastern Arc Mountains, raising fears this will be at a cost to biodiversity.

No croak: New silent frog species described from Tanzania’s ‘sky island’ forests
- Scientists have described a new-to-science species of frog from Tanzania’s Ukaguru Mountains with a unique trait: it’s silent.
- The males of this species have tiny spines on their throats, which may serve as a means of species recognition for the females.
- Researchers encountered the species during an expedition in search of another species, the elusive Churamiti maridadi tree toad, which has only been spotted twice in the wild and is feared to be extinct.
- The Ukaguru Mountains have a high degree of endemism, and describing this new species highlights the vast amount of knowledge still to be gained about this biodiversity-rich area.

For Tanzania’s traditional beekeepers, modern hives just don’t buzz
- Tanzanian beekeepers prefer traditional log beehives to modern hanging frame beehives, says a new study.
- Traditional beehives have a negative impact on surrounding woodlands in the country’s semiarid Chemba district, according to researchers.
- The high cost of modern hives are one deterrent to their wider adoption, but so are strong cultural attachments to traditional beekeeping.
- South African-pioneered agave log hives mimic traditional ones and could offer an alternative.

Element Africa: Deadly violence and massive graft at Tanzania and DRC mines
- Environmental concerns are mounting as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company begins drilling for oil in a new field in the north of the country.
- Video testimony has emerged about alleged police killings of five villagers near Canadian miner Barrick Gold’s mine in Tanzania.
- A local official has absconded with $14.5 million in mining royalties intended to fund community development in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Lualaba province.
- Element Africa is Mongabay’s bi-weekly bulletin rounding up brief stories from the commodities industry in Africa.

As banks fund oil pipeline, campaigners question their environmental pledges
- Activists say some banks that have signed up to the Equator Principles are failing to live up to their pledge of properly assessing the environmental and social risks of the projects they finance.
- South Africa’s Standard Bank and Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation are facilitating funding for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline project (EACOP).
- When fully operational, crude oil flowing through pipeline will generate 34 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year.
- Activists say EACOP, which will run 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) across many ecologically sensitive areas, has also affected 12,000 households who have been inadequately compensated.

East Africa should promote renewable energy, not oil pipelines (commentary)
- The East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) is a planned 1,443 km pipeline that is expected to be built between oil fields in western Uganda to the port of Tanga in Tanzania.
- Despite likely negative effects on wildlife, forests, rivers, and the climate, EACOP proponents say the project will benefit the regions’ people: do these arguments hold water? A new op-ed says no.
- “Traditionally, and as recognized by President Museveni, Africans have lived in harmony with nature. They should continue to do so by championing renewable energy over risky projects such as the EACOP,” the writer argues.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

Maasai villages lose important court case as wildlife game reserve trudges on
- The East African Court of Justice (EACJ) has ruled in favor of the Tanzanian government after a five-year legal battle between Maasai communities and the state over evictions that took place in 2017.
- The East African Court of Justice (EACJ) says Maasai communities did not provide sufficient evidence that evictions were done violently and that they occurred on legally registered land.
- The court case is part of a larger battle between Maasai communities and the state over the creation of a wildlife reserve on disputed lands near Serengeti National Park.
- According to Maasai villagers and their attorneys, the court omitted important evidence and they plan to appeal the EACJ’s decision.

The Western Indian Ocean lost 4% of its mangroves in 24 years, report finds
- Analysis presented in a new report finds the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) region lost around 4% its mangrove forests between 1996 and 2020.
- The WIO region includes the coastal areas of Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar and Mozambique, which together account for 5% of the world’s mangroves.
- The report finds the majority of WIO mangrove loss was driven by unsustainable wood extraction, land clearance for agriculture and the impacts of storms and flooding.
- Mangroves provide vital ecosystem services to coastal communities and habitats, and sequester large amounts of carbon.

Overlooked and at risk, seagrass is habitat of choice for many small-scale fishers
- Seagrass meadows, rather than coral reefs, are the fishing grounds of choice for many fishing households in four countries in the Indo-Pacific region, a new study shows.
- Fishers in Cambodia, Tanzania, Indonesia and Sri Lanka identified seagrass meadows as being more easily accessible than coral reefs, often without the need for a boat, and less likely to damage equipment such as nets.
- However, seagrasses around the world are disappearing at rates that rival those of coral reefs and tropical rainforests, losing as much as 7% of their area each year.
- The study makes the case for better-informed management of these marine habitats, to ensure their sustainability for the marine life and people who depend on them.

Study: Climate impacts to disproportionately hurt tropical fishers, farmers
- The majority of 72 coastal communities studied in five countries in the Indo-Pacific region may face significant losses of agricultural and fisheries products — two key food sources — simultaneously under the worst-case climate change projections, a new study shows.
- These potential losses may be coupled with other drivers of change, such as overfishing or soil erosion, which have already caused declining productivity, the study adds.
- But if carbon emissions can be effectively managed to a minimum, the study’s authors say, fewer communities would experience losses in both the agriculture and fisheries sectors, indicating the importance of climate mitigation measures.
- The current global average temperature is 1.1°C (2°F) above pre-industrial times, and climate experts have warned that it could climb to about 3°C (5.4°F) higher by the end of this century if nothing changes.

Twenty years since a massive ivory seizure, what lessons were learned? (commentary)
- In late June 2002, a container ship docked in Singapore with a massive shipment of ivory, which was seized.
- It was the largest seizure of its kind since an international ban on the ivory trade had come into force in 1989, and the lessons learned from it would change the way the illegal wildlife trade was investigated and tackled.
- But it’s unfortunate that some of the biggest lessons from that event still have not been put into practice, a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Maasai protesters shot, beaten as Tanzania moves forward with wildlife game reserve
- Tanzanian police officers and authorities have shot and beaten about 31 Maasai villagers, including children, during early June protests over the demarcation of ancestral land for a trophy hunting and safari game reserve. One Maasai man and one police officer have been killed.
- At least 700 Maasai villagers from Tanzania’s Loliondo division of Ngorongoro have fled across the border to Kenya, seeking humanitarian and medical aid.
- According to government spokesperson, Gerson Msigwa, authorities were sent to demarcate the land, not pursue evictions. The government will take legal action against people who interfere with the demarcation process or incite hostility between pastoralists and security forces, he says.
- Human rights groups say the Tanzanian government and authorities are violating a 2018 East African Court of Justice (EACJ) injunction on the land dispute by intimidating, harassing and attacking villagers.

‘GPS’ bird points to the sweet spot: Q&A with honey hunter Eliupendo Laltaika
- In northern Tanzania, a handful of communities still practice the long-running tradition of honey hunting: calling out to a honeyguide bird, and following it to a wild beehive.
- It’s “an amazing interaction,” says Eliupendo Laltaika, a former honey hunter who’s now the director of the Ngorongoro Biodiversity Conservation Project.
- But Laltaika warns the practice is dying out — his own Maasai people, he says, have large-ly abandoned it in favor of farmed honey and sugar — and younger generations are mostly unaware of it.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Laltaika talks about how different communities practice honey hunting, what social changes have meant for the tradition, and why it’s worth saving.

Poor planning, persistent farming undermine mangrove restoration in Tanzania
- Tanzania’s government has been working since the 1990s to replant mangroves in the Rufiji Delta, one of East Africa’s most significant mangrove sites.
- New research indicates that efforts to restore degraded mangroves have been undermined by rice farming as well as by a lack of systematic planning and analysis of site and species suitability.
- However, the research found that despite these flaws, replanted areas were regenerating faster than areas left to regrow on their own.

Spotted hyenas adapt to climate change in famed Tanzanian park
- Spotted hyenas seem to be adapting to changing rainfall patterns affecting their preferred prey in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park.
- In the past decade, migratory herds have been arriving later than previously at hyena clan territories in the middle of the Serengeti, forcing lactating females to “commute” further from their dens to find a meal.
- But researchers have observed no change in how much time they spend with their cubs at these dens, suggesting they’re having no trouble locating prey further from home.
- Hyenas are known for their robust and flexible foraging behavior, but researchers caution that in places other than the Serengeti, they may face additional challenges, such as fragmented habitat and intensifying human activity.

Boom and bust on Lake Victoria: Q&A with author Mark Weston
- In a new book, British author Mark Weston examines an environmental crisis on East Africa’s Lake Victoria that’s been a century in the making and stems from the introduction of the non-native Nile perch to the lake in the 1950s.
- Weston lived on Ukerewe, the lake’s largest island, for two years, and relates the knock-on legacy of the fish’s introduction through the experiences of the people he met there.
- The boom and bust of the fishery brought about a surging population, deforestation, declining land fertility, and increased pollution in the lake.
- With Nile perch catches down precipitously and little else to sustain the economy of Ukerewe, residents struggle through poverty, lack of opportunity and a trickling exodus from the once-prosperous community, in search of a better life for themselves and their families.

Tanzania, siding with UAE firm, plans to evict Maasai from ancestral lands
- In northern Tanzania, more than 70,000 Indigenous Maasai residents are once again facing eviction from ancestral lands as the government reveals plans to lease the land to a UAE-based company to create a wildlife corridor for trophy hunting and elite tourism.
- Maasai leaders have filed an appeal at a regional court, seeking a halt to all plans for the area and calling the renewed attempt to seize the land a blatant violation of an injunction that barred the government from evicting Maasai communities in a case that involved violent evictions.
- According to sources, the regional commissioner of the region told Maasai leaders that the leasing of the land is in the national interest to increase the country’s tourism revenue and was a tough decision for the government to make.
- The timeline for the displacement of Maasai is still developing, while plans for the relocation of another group of Maasai in a UNESCO World Heritage Site will begin at the end of February.

COP27 must deliver climate finance where it is needed most (commentary)
- While it’s critical that adaptation financing continues to increase, it’s equally important that these funds are channeled into projects that protect those who are most vulnerable to the devastating consequences of climate change.
- This year, COP27 will take place in Egypt and the climate vulnerabilities facing communities across the African continent will be on full display, including the ongoing drought in the Sahel and floods in the Nile Delta.
- This opportunity to shape the “Adaptation COP” agenda needs to also include how these resources can be guided by data, toward building a more sustainable future, a new op-ed argues.
- This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Tanzanian gold miners ten times more likely to die from road injuries, study finds
- Miners were 10 times more likely to die of traffic-related injuries than people who did not work in mining, a study that looked at Tanzania’s two biggest gold mines found.
- Africa has a third of the global stock of metals and minerals and hosts around 700 active large-scale mining sites, with more in the pipeline as the world’s appetite for these resources grows.
- Of the 186 people of working age who died in five wards around the two mines in a year, about half were miners, reflecting the higher risks miners faced, especially men.
- The study authors say that interventions should be designed to prevent road injuries in the wider community, not just at the mine sites, and the definition of safety in mining areas needs to be broader.

Southern patas monkeys face extinction in a decade without intervention
- New research into the little-known southern patas monkey indicates that fewer than 200 of these primates remain, all confined to protected areas in northern Tanzania.
- Without intervention, researchers say, the species could die out within a decade, as it faces mounting pressure from habitat loss and fragmentation, hunting and competition for food and water.
- Despite the grim situation, experts say quick, well-targeted conservation actions can still save the species.

As tourists flood a Tanzanian park, the Maasai say they’re being pushed out
- A Maasai leader interviewed by Mongabay said that restrictions on crop cultivation and cattle grazing at Ngorongoro are causing widespread hunger and despair.
- On Thursday, the Oakland Institute and Rainforest Rescue delivered a petition with 94,000 signatures to UNESCO and the Tanzanian government, asking them to scrap a rezoning plan that could displace tens of thousands of people.
- While tourism to Ngorongoro has spiked in recent years, the share of profits spent on community development has dropped significantly.

One in three tree species is in the red, new global assessment says
- Of the 60,000 known species of trees, 440 are critically endangered, an assessment spearheaded by Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) has found.
- There are more threatened tree species in the world today than there are threatened mammal, reptile, bird and amphibian species combined.
- Among tree biodiversity hotspots, which boast a large number of indigenous trees, Brazil, Indonesia and Malaysia fare poorly.
- Lack of in-country expertise is holding back such initiatives, Frank Mbago, a Tanzanian botanist, told Mongabay.

For male chimps looking to mate, an entourage is the way to go, study finds
- A recent study of chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe National Park found that males who create strong ties to alpha males, or who form large networks or alliances with other males, were more likely to father offspring.
- Researchers say the social bonds formed between males provided access to mating opportunities which they would not have been able to access without allies.
- While further studies are necessary, experts say the findings could help understand optimal group sizes and thus the necessary range for wild populations.

It’s time to scrutinize who’s in the room when conservation decisions are made, says Laly Lichtenfeld
- Worldwide concern about injustice and inequity, the impacts of the pandemic, and the worsening effects of global environmental degradation has accelerated change in the conservation sector, a field that has historically been relatively slow to evolve.
- But for the shifts underway to be more than just a passing fad, many would argue that conservation requires fundamental structural changes that put more decision-making power in the hands of people who’ve been traditionally sidelined or ignored and recognize the importance of contributions from a wide range of stakeholders in achieving conservation outcomes.
- African People & Wildlife, a Tanzania-based NGO, has been working on these issues since its founding in 2005 by Laly Lichtenfeld and Charles Trout. Lichtenfeld says that conservation now must take “concrete action” to move forward.
- “Currently, there are big questions out there as to whether organizations and the global conservation culture will truly change or whether things will revert to the status quo,” she told Mongabay during a recent interview. “If the much-needed challenge is really taken on, well then again, we have a lot of work ahead on this—particularly in terms of scrutinizing who is in the room when conservation decisions are made, understanding and overcoming the power dynamics at play, and considering how we can better communicate with and listen to one another.”

Tanzania’s “Ivory Queen” denied release after appeal
- Judge sends case of trafficking ringleader Yang Fenglan back to trial court.
- Case is among Africa’s biggest wildlife trafficking convictions, involving 860 elephant tusks worth $6 million.
- Yang and two co-accused remain in jail but will have opportunity for new appeal.
- Tanzania’s Director of Public Prosecutions tells Mongabay the case is a message to the world.

Poaching declines in Tanzania following prosecution of ivory trafficking ringleaders
- Taskforce on Anti-Poaching says it penetrated 11 criminal syndicates in five years.
- Conservation groups say wildlife crime networks have moved from East to West Africa.
- Government says elephant populations have grown to 60,000 from 43,000 in 2014.
- Tanzania targets ‘zero-poaching’ after thousands of arrests.

No monkey business: For Zanzibar’s red colobus, speed bumps are lifesavers
- Half of the 6,000 remaining Zanzibar red colobus monkeys, a species endemic to the island, are found in Jozani Chwaka Bay National Park, where getting hit by a vehicle is a leading cause of their death.
- Speed bumps significantly reduce road mortality for this endangered African monkey, an analysis by primatologists at Bangor University in the U.K. and researchers at the Zanzibar forest department found.
- About half of the roadkill on a stretch of a paved road that cuts across the southern edge of the national park were red colobus.
- Understanding how animals respond to human-made features that have cropped up in their environment is a key question in behavioral ecology today, experts say.

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