Ashoka Mukpo

Ashoka Mukpo

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About

Ashoka Mukpo is a staff writer for Mongabay and freelance journalist with expertise in international development policy, human rights, and environmental issues. His work has been featured in Al-Jazeera, Vice News, and The Guardian, among others. Follow him on Twitter via @unkyoka.

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155 stories

Liberia’s carbon market policy nears completion amid pushback

Ashoka Mukpo 13 May 2026
The Nimba mountain range as seen from southern Guinea. Image by Maarten van der Bent via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).

In the Nimba Mountains, a film examines the paradox of mining-funded conservation

Ashoka Mukpo 8 May 2026
Bags of cobalt powder ready for export from Chemaf’s mines in the DRC. Image by Didier Makal/Mongabay.

Virtus Minerals signs first major deal under US-DRC critical minerals partnership

Ashoka Mukpo 17 Apr 2026
A ranger at Upemba National Park.

Upemba National Park staff recount assault that left seven dead

Ashoka Mukpo 24 Mar 2026

‘We do not have time’: Interview with MEP Delara Burkhardt on the EUDR’s second delay

Ashoka Mukpo 11 Mar 2026

US development bank left without oversight after watchdog let go

Ashoka Mukpo 10 Mar 2026
CHEMAF’s Etoile mine (formerly known as Kalukuluku) in Ruashi-Lubumbashi in the DRC. Image by Didier Makal.

US firm Virtus Minerals closes in on deal for crucial DRC copper and cobalt mines

Ashoka Mukpo 26 Feb 2026
Tanoh Jallah, a resident of one of the towns in the IFC complaint, said all the good farmland was taken by Salala.

Community complaints in limbo as Socfin cuts ties with Earthworm Foundation

Ashoka Mukpo, Victoria Schneider 10 Feb 2026

After intense flooding, Kruger National Park rushes to repair damage

Ashoka Mukpo 6 Feb 2026
Christine Lain surveys Upemba National Park.

Partnering up to run a DRC reserve: Interview with Forgotten Parks’ Christine Lain

Ashoka Mukpo 6 Feb 2026
Loading a barge with iron ore from Simandou. Image by Paul Kagame via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Hopes and fears as Guinea exports iron ore from Simandou mines

Ashoka Mukpo 16 Jan 2026
Ruyumbu Musango, head of law enforcement at Nyungwe National Park, with members of the park’s ranger detachment. Photo by Ashoka Mukpo for Mongabay.

A Thin Green Line: The 2,000-strong ranger force of African Parks

Ashoka Mukpo 16 Dec 2025
A L’Hoest’s monkey (Allochrocebus Ihoesti) at Rwanda’s Nyungwe National Park. Image by Ashoka Mukpo for Mongabay.

An Empire of Nature: African Parks and Rwanda’s Nyungwe Forest

Ashoka Mukpo 4 Dec 2025
People displaced by fighting in Cabo Delgado province, where Palma is located. Image courtesy of Mauricio Bisol/UNICEF.

TotalEnergies faces criminal complaint in France over alleged massacre in Mozambique

Ashoka Mukpo 24 Nov 2025
Cacao illegally farmed inside Côte d’Ivoire’s Cavally Forest Reserve. Image courtesy of Mighty Earth.

A cacao rush drives ‘alarming’ deforestation in Liberia

Ashoka Mukpo 10 Oct 2025

‘Let’s understand the value of the forest’ says Liberia’s Silas Siakor

Ashoka Mukpo 1 Sep 2025
A woman walks through a forest in Liberia. Image by Open Government Partnership via Flickr (CC BY-2.0).

Liberia has a new plan to protect its rainforests. Can it work?

Ashoka Mukpo 1 Sep 2025

Guinea iron ore megaproject pollutes waterways & farmland, communities say

Ashoka Mukpo 4 Aug 2025
Scimitar-horned oryx in Ouadi Rimé-Ouadi Achim Faunal Reserve in Chad. Image by Inyathi via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

US NGO signs deal to manage huge nature reserve in Chad

Ashoka Mukpo 25 Jul 2025

Abuses continue at Tanzanian national park, US human rights group says

Ashoka Mukpo 15 Jul 2025

African Parks earns over $7 million from carbon credit sales in Benin and CAR

Ashoka Mukpo 3 Jul 2025
Lions in Mozambique.

After terror attacks, Mozambique nature reserve faces ‘new reality’

Ashoka Mukpo 2 Jun 2025
A herder minding his goats in Isiolo County, Kenya. Image by Ashoka Mukpo for Mongabay.

Crisis hits community-led conservation group in northern Kenya

Ashoka Mukpo 20 May 2025
A man herds goats in the town of Gotu in Isiolo county, Kenya. Image by Ashoka Mukpo/Mongabay.

Kenyan soil carbon project suspended for a second time

Ashoka Mukpo 15 May 2025
Waziri Mpogo of Tanzania's Mafia Island places sea cucumbers from his ranch in a bucket. Image by Ashoka Mukpo for Mongabay.

Down on the ranch with Mafia Island’s free-range sea cucumbers

Ashoka Mukpo 12 May 2025
Rajabu Juma at his home in Katwe. Image by Ashoka Mukpo for Mongabay.

The colonial ghosts of Uganda’s ‘Queen Elizabeth’ park

Ashoka Mukpo 11 Apr 2025
A pangolin. Image by Adam Tusk via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

Nigerian officials arrest Chinese pangolin trafficking ‘kingpin’

Ashoka Mukpo 7 Apr 2025

In ‘The Battle for Laikipia,’ the human face of resource conflict in Kenya

Ashoka Mukpo 24 Mar 2025

In the drylands of northern Kenya, a ‘summer school’ for young researchers

Ashoka Mukpo 6 Mar 2025
A herder minding his goats in Isiolo County, Kenya. Image by Ashoka Mukpo for Mongabay.

Pastoralists know every landscape has a history: Interview with Gufu Oba

Ashoka Mukpo 3 Mar 2025
A community ranger from the Biliqo-Bulesa Community Conservancy in northern Kenya, which receives support from the Northern Rangelands Trust, a USAID grantee. NRT’s grant was not reviewed by the GAO. Image by Ashoka Mukpo for Mongabay.

Across the world, conservation projects reel after abrupt US funding cuts

Ashoka Mukpo 14 Feb 2025
Artisanal miners in Rubaya area, DRC.

How illicit mining fuels violence in eastern DRC: Interview with Jean-Pierre Okenda

Ashoka Mukpo 6 Feb 2025

News and Inspiration from Nature's Frontline.

Collage, Jahëna Louisin, Mongabay reporter, and a Vodun ritual
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Sand mining along the Mekong River
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Photographer Jonathan Bachman was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for capturing a photograph of Ieshia Evans being arrested in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It was Ieshia Evans first protest, and Bachman’s first time covering one. The photo was included in The New York Times’ “The Year in Pictures 2016,” among other honors. jonathan bachman / reuters. Shepard Fairey—a prolific artist and activist who often addresses social and political issues in his work—was invited by the authors of ‘Protest’ to interpret Bachman’s photograph for the book. Image credit to Shepard Fairey. Image Courtesy of Patagonia Books.
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