Endangered vulture species nesting in Ghana is rare good news about raptors

A white-backed vulture. showing brown wings and lighter breast, dark grey face and beak against green foliage in Mole National Park, Ghana. Image courtesy of Nico Arcilla.Researchers recently reported finding three critically endangered vulture species nesting in Mole National Park, Ghana’s largest protected area. It’s the first scientific observation of hooded vultures (Necrosyrtes monachus) nesting in the park, and the first report of white-backed vultures (Gyps africanus) and white-headed vultures (Trigonoceps occipitalis) nesting anywhere in the country. The findings are published […]

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Kenyan villagers show how to harvest more octopus by fishing less

MUNJE, Kenya — From the middle of 2023, a favored octopus fishing ground just offshore from the village of Munje was strangely empty. Members of the village’s beach management unit diligently kept watch to make sure no one fished that section of reef. At the end of October, Munje’s BMU took to the water to […]

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World owes it to Tanzania to keep Eastern Arc forests standing, study shows

A kipunji.Tanzania’s Eastern Arc Mountains, home to nearly 5,000 different plant species and dozens of amphibians unique to each isolated massif, provide the world with ecosystem services worth more than $8 billion, a group of international scientists says. But the challenge lies in translating more of the value of intact forest landscape there into benefits for […]

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Bolloré blacklisted over alleged rights violations on plantations in Africa and Asia

Members of Synaparcam, an association of communities affected by Socapalm holding a banner reading "YES to the respect of community rights" in French. Image courtesy Thierry Didier KuicheuSome of Switzerland’s largest pension funds have placed French logistics giant Bolloré SE on a blacklist. The Swiss Association for Responsible Investments (SVVK-ASIR) decided its members should no longer invest in Bolloré after it failed to act to resolve accusations of land-grabbing, environmental damage and complicity in human rights violations on oil palm and rubber […]

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In Madagascar, beekeepers persist in the face of fires and forest loss

ANJOZOROBE ANGAVO, Madagascar — Requiring a turbulent two-hour car ride followed by a two-hour walk across paddy fields and mountains, access to the small group of beekeepers in the village of Dobolalina is no easy task for newcomers. Their apiculture project isn’t for the faint-hearted, either. “I believe in this project, even though it is […]

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Light-fingered monkeys threaten critically endangered Príncipe thrush

Conservationists using camera traps have obtained evidence that shows mona monkeys on the island of Príncipe off Central Africa are pinching the eggs of the Príncipe thrush, a critically endangered species whose entire population is estimated at less than 250. Although it was thought to be likely, until now there was no firm evidence to […]

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Getting African grasslands right, for people and wildlife alike: Q&A with Susanne Vetter

All across the arid and semi-arid landscapes of Africa, grasslands meet the eye. These ecosystems provide a wealth of environmental services, sequestering immense amounts of carbon (grazing lands store up to 30% of the world’s soil carbon, by one estimate) and harboring tremendous biodiversity. This includes some of the world’s most iconic remaining megafauna, such […]

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