Ashoka Mukpo

Ashoka Mukpo

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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127 stories

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

Kenyan court orders two community wildlife conservancies shut down

Ashoka Mukpo 31 Jan 2025
Maasai herder in Morogoro, not far from Ruaha National Park. Image by Shengena Killel/IFRI via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

World Bank cancels $150m tourism project in Tanzania after abuse claims

Ashoka Mukpo 23 Jan 2025

African Parks closes deal to manage Ethiopia’s Gambella National Park

Ashoka Mukpo 16 Jan 2025

For Ugandan farmers, good fences make good neighbors — of elephants

Ashoka Mukpo 13 Jan 2025

Park rangers enforce deadly violence in Uganda

Ashoka Mukpo 19 Dec 2024

‘Killed while poaching’: When wildlife enforcement blurs into violence

Ashoka Mukpo 19 Dec 2024

‘Like you, I fear the demise of the elephants’

Ashoka Mukpo 17 Dec 2024

Progress on rights complaint systems in Congo Basin but more needed, says group

Ashoka Mukpo 5 Dec 2024

Can cattle and wildlife co-exist in the Maasai Mara? A controversial study says yes

Ashoka Mukpo 5 Nov 2024
A ranger with the Uganda Wildlife Authority on patrol in the Queen Elizabeth National Park in November 2023. Image by Ashoka Mukpo for Mongabay.

US govt watchdog: Human rights still at risk in overseas conservation aid

Ashoka Mukpo 17 Sep 2024
Screenshot from a propaganda video released by JNIM depicting a training camp in Burkina Faso, 2024.

Trained to stop poaching, Benin park rangers instead face jihadists

Ashoka Mukpo 22 Aug 2024
Aerial view of rust-red roofs of the town of Jorkporlorsue in the bottom left, surrounded dark green crowns of rubber trees owned by Socfin's Salala plantation in the rest of the frame. Image by Ashoka Mukpo for Mongabay.

Troubled rubber plantation in Liberia shuts down after labor unrest

Ashoka Mukpo 25 Jul 2024
Pastoralists in Somalia

To protect the planet’s rangelands, give pastoralists a boost, UN report says

Ashoka Mukpo 5 Jul 2024
South Kalimantan's Walhi measures the trees on Mount Hauk, the sacred territory of the Dayak Pitap.

‘Non-market’ solutions to deforestation need more support, advocates say

Ashoka Mukpo 31 May 2024
a western chimpanzee in a tree

Setback for Guinea mine that threatens World Heritage chimp reserve

Ashoka Mukpo 15 May 2024
Three forestry workers standing in front of logs that have been skidded out to a logging road in River Cess County, Liberia in 2013. Image by Flore de Preneuf/PROFOR via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Liberia puts a wartime logger in charge of its forests

Ashoka Mukpo 25 Apr 2024

In Liberia, a former mining activist gets the bully pulpit

Ashoka Mukpo 28 Mar 2024
Hippos in Queen Elizabeth National Park.

In climate-related flooding, a Ugandan river turns poisonous

Ashoka Mukpo 6 Mar 2024
Children crossing the Nyamwamba.

Climate change brings a river’s wrath down on western Uganda

Ashoka Mukpo 29 Feb 2024
Véronique Sekuka, a Baka woman who was evicted from what is now Odzala-Kokoua National Park.

African Parks vows to investigate allegations of abuse at Congolese park

Ashoka Mukpo 7 Feb 2024
Woman carrying a solar pannel near Yangambi, DRC.

Can carbon markets solve Africa’s climate finance woes?

Ashoka Mukpo 7 Nov 2023

World Bank accused of supporting evictions, rights abuses at Tanzanian park

Ashoka Mukpo 6 Oct 2023
Protesting farmers on their way to the Hague in 2019.

The Dutch farmers’ protests of 2022: A Mongabay Series

Ashoka Mukpo 14 Sep 2023
A dairy cow in a farm in the Netherlands.

In the clash over Dutch farming, Europe’s future arrives

Ashoka Mukpo 8 Sep 2023

In the Netherlands, pitchforks fly for an empire of cows

Ashoka Mukpo 7 Sep 2023
cow in the netherlands wagenigen university dairy campus research facility

How manure blew up the Netherlands

Ashoka Mukpo 6 Sep 2023
Wheat field in Kansas. Image by Lane Pearman via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

Getting the bread: What’s the environmental impact of wheat?

Ashoka Mukpo 22 Aug 2023

News and Inspiration from Nature's Frontline.

Why are the British flooding parts of their coast? Once farmland protected by flood defenses, Steart Marshes in southwest England now thrives as a restored salt marsh. As the defences weakened, the land became increasingly vulnerable to flooding. Instead of rebuilding defenses, conservationists, the government and local communities made a bold choice to let the sea reclaim the landscape. Just over 10 years ago the sea wall was breached, allowing the sea to take over the land, transforming the area into a vital wetland habitat. Salt marshes, which have declined by 85% in the U.K. since the 19th century, play a crucial role in coastal ecosystems. They provide shelter for wetland wildlife, act as natural flood defenses by absorbing storm surges, stabilize coastlines against erosion, and store carbon to help combat climate change. Managed by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, Steart Marshes now provides a model for future restoration projects, proving that working with nature can protect communities while rebuilding lost habitats.
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A wombat in Queensland, Australia. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.
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