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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/cameroon/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Sun, 28 Jun 2026 18:23:51 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>Cameroon environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/cameroon/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Seizures reveal macabre grey parrot blood trade in Cameroon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/seizures-reveal-macabre-grey-parrot-blood-trade-in-cameroon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/seizures-reveal-macabre-grey-parrot-blood-trade-in-cameroon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jun 2026 18:50:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/25162156/agp-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321827</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and Central Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Rights, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Ethics, Governance, Health, Illegal Trade, Law, Law Enforcement, Parrots, Pets, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The blood of African grey parrots is emerging as a new, macabre illegal wildlife product traded in Cameroon, analysts from TRAFFIC, a nonprofit that monitors wildlife trafficking, reported. This grim trade in grey parrots, an endangered species long coveted by exotic bird collectors, first came to light in 2025, when forest officials patrolling Cameroon’s Lobéké [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The blood of African grey parrots is emerging as a new, macabre illegal wildlife product traded in Cameroon, analysts from TRAFFIC, a nonprofit that monitors wildlife trafficking, reported. This grim trade in grey parrots, an endangered species long coveted by exotic bird collectors, first came to light in 2025, when forest officials patrolling Cameroon’s Lobéké National Park caught trappers with live birds and interrogated them. “Poachers entering the park trap live birds, then kill them, extract their blood and transport them,” said Biloa Donatien Joseph Guy, the park’s conservator, adding that they haul the blood in bottles and jerry cans — normally used to carry fuel. While park authorities haven’t seized blood from apprehended suspects, poachers have been caught with live birds. Further investigations into these cases are ongoing. When last assessed by the IUCN in 2020, grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus), native to the rainforests of West and Central Africa, were declining, largely because of the pet trade. These beautiful, long-lived birds are among the most intelligent animals on the planet, thought to be as smart as a 5-year-old child. These parrots ‘talk,’ mimicking human speech with uncanny accuracy, making them a popular pet. They appear in videos across TikTok and YouTube, further fueling the demand. As a result, these birds have been poached to near-extinction, commanding exorbitant prices from collectors worldwide. Between 1982 and 2001, more than 1.3 million wild-caught grey parrots entered the international trade, according to IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, making them one of the most&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/seizures-reveal-macabre-grey-parrot-blood-trade-in-cameroon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321827</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Report alleges élite ties behind logging permits in Cameroon’s Ebo Forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/report-alleges-elite-ties-behind-logging-permits-in-cameroons-ebo-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/report-alleges-elite-ties-behind-logging-permits-in-cameroons-ebo-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2026 14:46:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/10143029/Footage-of-a-male-and-a-baby-gorilla-in-the-ebo-forest-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320290</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and Central Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Apes, Biodiversity, Community Forests, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Development, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Logging, Primary Forests, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A newly released report alleges that well-placed elites in Cameroon’s government are enabling a cluster of timber and agribusiness companies to log primary forest in the country. These companies include Sextransbois, which was awarded a controversial 68,000-hectare (168,000-acre) logging concession in the Ebo Forest in 2023. The report by Swiss-based advocacy group Global Initiative Against [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A newly released report alleges that well-placed elites in Cameroon’s government are enabling a cluster of timber and agribusiness companies to log primary forest in the country. These companies include Sextransbois, which was awarded a controversial 68,000-hectare (168,000-acre) logging concession in the Ebo Forest in 2023. The report by Swiss-based advocacy group Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) also named SCIEB, which controls another concession in the Ebo Forest covering 65,000 hectares (161,000 acres). The report used corporate registry documents, trade records, and sources in Cameroon’s forestry sector to link both companies, along with Boiscam and Camvert, to prominent businessman Aboubakar Al Fatih. According to an “informal broker” who has worked to connect logging companies with forestry officials and was interviewed by GI-TOC, Al Fatih’s companies have benefitted from his ties to the minister of economy, Alamine Ousmane Mey. Mey is considered an ally of Cameroonian President Paul Biya’s eldest son Franck, who reportedly recommended him for a cabinet post in 2011. Sextransbois was incorporated by relatives of Franck Biya’s in 2014, before being transferred to then-20-year-old Mahmoud Mourtada, Al Fatih’s half-brother. The report implies that Al Fatih&#8217;s connections to figures in Franck Biya’s circle helped Sextransbois and SCIEB obtain their concessions in the Ebo Forest. Those concessions were awarded despite a global campaign to protect the forest, which is a biodiversity-rich habitat for threatened gorillas and chimpanzees. After initially walking back its decision to reclassify the forest as government land in 2020, the government quietly reissued the two&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/report-alleges-elite-ties-behind-logging-permits-in-cameroons-ebo-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/report-alleges-elite-ties-behind-logging-permits-in-cameroons-ebo-forest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320290</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A Congo Basin-led bioeconomy could boost Central Africa’s green transition (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Apr 2026 16:27:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Metolo Foyet]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/05115844/ForestElephant.Loxodonta.cyclotis_NgounieGabon_marcusgmeineriNaturalistBYNC4.0-BANNER-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317006</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Biodiversity, Bioeconomy, Commentary, Community Development, Environment, Forest Products, Forests, Green, Rainforests, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Trade, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional Medicine, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Congo Basin, often referred to as the “second lungs of Earth,” holds immense potential for leading Central Africa’s green transition. Home to the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest and second-largest reserve of drinkable water (holding 50% of all of Africa’s water resources), the region covers more than 3.7 million square kilometers (nearly 1.5 million square [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Congo Basin, often referred to as the “second lungs of Earth,” holds immense potential for leading Central Africa’s green transition. Home to the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest and second-largest reserve of drinkable water (holding 50% of all of Africa’s water resources), the region covers more than 3.7 million square kilometers (nearly 1.5 million square miles), absorbs more carbon dioxide than any other region in the world — with an annual net carbon dioxide absorption six times that of the Amazon Rainforest — and spans six countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon), storing around 30 billion metric tons of carbon. This critical ecological zone harbors immense biodiversity and natural resources, making it a strategic hub for the emerging global bioeconomy. However, learning from the Eastern African experience, realizing this potential requires a shift from extractive industries to sustainable, nature-based economies that prioritize long-term ecological health and local prosperity. Beyond its ecological importance — containing more than 10,000 species of plants, 1,000 species of birds, and 400 species of mammals, including iconic ones like the forest elephant and the critically endangered western lowland gorilla — the region stands at a critical juncture in the global minerals race, holding a significant share of the world&#8217;s strategic assets like lithium, cobalt, gold, and rare earth elements — key components shaping global power and the future of the energy transition. Despite this wealth, the Congo Basin’s economic strategies have often relied on the “dig&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317006</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Talks to reduce funding for overfishing remain stalled at WTO meeting</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/talks-to-reduce-funding-for-overfishing-remain-stalled-at-wto-meeting/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/talks-to-reduce-funding-for-overfishing-remain-stalled-at-wto-meeting/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Apr 2026 00:08:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Fitt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/26132857/Loading-and-unloading-activities-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316874</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Environment, Environmental Policy, Fish, Fisheries, Governance, Illegal Fishing, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overfishing, and Saltwater Fish]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Governments across the world have pledged to re-ignite stalled “Fish Two” negotiations and finalize the second part of a long-sought agreement to curb harmful fishing subsidies by mid-2028. The commitment came at the World Trade Organization’s recently concluded 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) in Yaoundé, Cameroon, where little progress was made on the long-running issue. “It’s [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Governments across the world have pledged to re-ignite stalled “Fish Two” negotiations and finalize the second part of a long-sought agreement to curb harmful fishing subsidies by mid-2028. The commitment came at the World Trade Organization’s recently concluded 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) in Yaoundé, Cameroon, where little progress was made on the long-running issue. “It’s important that WTO members have agreed to continue negotiating. But the prospects of reaching a deal remain dim,” Kristen Hopewell, global policy specialist at the University of British Columbia, Canada, told Mongabay. “Just a handful of states are blocking an agreement supported by the vast majority of the WTO membership.” These comprise the U.S., India and Indonesia, according to a Marine Policy paper Hopewell authored earlier this year. WTO members became deadlocked trying to decide how to ban nations from subsidizing their fishing industries in ways that contribute to overfishing and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, as mandated by U.N. Sustainable Development Target 14.6. Negotiations began in 2001 and dragged out over 21 years. In 2022, WTO members decided to split the elusive agreement in two. This unlocked a deal dubbed “Fish One,” curtailing subsidies that enable IUU fishing and the continued fishing of overfished stocks. Fish One came into force on Sept. 15, 2025, but left the thorny question of how to ban all overfishing and capacity-enhancing subsidies, which enable fleets to operate unsustainably, for ongoing “Fish Two” negotiations. These have progressed little since 2022. Three more states ratified Fish One at MC14:&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/talks-to-reduce-funding-for-overfishing-remain-stalled-at-wto-meeting/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316874</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A ‘big book’ documenting Cameroon’s sharks &#038; rays fills critical conservation gap</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-big-book-documenting-cameroons-sharks-rays-fills-critical-conservation-gap/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-big-book-documenting-cameroons-sharks-rays-fills-critical-conservation-gap/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Apr 2026 15:16:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shuimo Trust Dohyee]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/01121244/Image-5-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316703</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and Central Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Economics, Elasmobranchs, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Governance, Science, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BUEA, Cameroon — To his fishing peers, Ojah Alfred, 45, is a fisher like they are. But to Cameroon’s scientific community, he is also a scientist — a citizen scientist. For eight years, Alfred, alongside more than 80 other fishers across Cameroon’s three coastal regions, has been collecting data on marine species brought to landing [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BUEA, Cameroon — To his fishing peers, Ojah Alfred, 45, is a fisher like they are. But to Cameroon’s scientific community, he is also a scientist — a citizen scientist. For eight years, Alfred, alongside more than 80 other fishers across Cameroon’s three coastal regions, has been collecting data on marine species brought to landing sites and caught out at sea, using the Siren app, a citizen science platform. “I never imagined that the pictures I take every day of fish with the Sirens app would lead to the publication of this ‘big book,’” Alfred told Mongabay, referring to a study published in December in the journal Environmental Biology of Fishes. Two daisy stingrays (Dasyatis margarita) and a critically endangered blackchin guitarfish (Glaucostegus cemiculus) displayed for sale at Youpwè Fish Market, Cameroon’s largest fish market, in Douala. Image by Shuimo Trust Dohyee for Mongabay. The “big book” is the first detailed snapshot of shark and ray diversity in the country, helping fill a major knowledge gap that has long hindered conservation and fisheries management. Many of the species being caught in Cameroon’s fisheries are already at risk of extinction worldwide, and the country has no specific laws protecting sharks and rays, according to Ghofrane Labyedh, the study’s lead researcher. The fishers’ data, along with fish market surveys, recorded 45 species of sharks and rays in Cameroon’s waters, of which 36 are considered threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), including 13 classified as critically endangered. Alarmingly, most&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-big-book-documenting-cameroons-sharks-rays-fills-critical-conservation-gap/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316703</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cameroon’s decade of conflict leaves apes and conservationists in peril</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/cameroons-decade-of-conflict-leaves-apes-and-conservationists-in-peril/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/cameroons-decade-of-conflict-leaves-apes-and-conservationists-in-peril/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Mar 2026 21:19:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Orji Sunday]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/03202651/c.-%C2%A9WCS-Nigeria-Chimp-RCNX1088-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315157</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Central Africa, and Nigeria]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Chimpanzees, Conflict, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Gorillas, Human Rights, Mammals, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In August 2025, Louis Nkembi, founder of conservation NGO ERuDeF, was abducted by militia fighters in Cameroon’s Lebialem Highlands. He was held for two weeks, hidden in a secret location inside a forest. “It was a traumatic experience,” he recalls. “I can’t go back to that area until everything is resolved.” Though Nkembi was eventually [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In August 2025, Louis Nkembi, founder of conservation NGO ERuDeF, was abducted by militia fighters in Cameroon’s Lebialem Highlands. He was held for two weeks, hidden in a secret location inside a forest. “It was a traumatic experience,” he recalls. “I can’t go back to that area until everything is resolved.” Though Nkembi was eventually freed, his ordeal sheds light on the risks facing scientists, researchers, eco-guards and conservation workers protecting apes in Cameroon’s conflict hotspots, including the Lebialem Highlands. Lebialem is a global biodiversity hotspot in Cameroon’s southwest, host to dozens of endemic and threatened species, including critically endangered Cross River gorillas (Gorilla gorilla diehli), Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes ellioti), African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis), leopards (Panthera pardus), dwarf galagos (Galagoides demidovii) and white-bellied pangolins (Phataginus tricuspis). Camera trap photo of a Cross River gorillas(Gorilla gorilla deihli). Fewer than 300 are believed to survive, making them the rarest great ape subspecies. Image by ©WCS Nigeria. This irresistible richness is the root of Nkembi’s love for Lebialem. He’s spent nearly three decades documenting, surveying and conserving the area through ERuDeF (the Environmental and Rural Development Foundation), which he founded in 1999. In late 2016, Lebialem, like dozens of other parks, reserves and sanctuaries in the region, was swept up in armed conflict that continues to wrack Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions. “It was something that took all of us by surprise,” Ndimuh Bertrand, executive director of Voice of Nature (VoNat), a conservation organization based in the Southwest capital Buea, tells&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/cameroons-decade-of-conflict-leaves-apes-and-conservationists-in-peril/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315157</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What’s next for the major pledge to halt &#038; reverse Congo Basin deforestation?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/whats-next-for-the-major-pledge-to-halt-reverse-congo-basin-deforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/whats-next-for-the-major-pledge-to-halt-reverse-congo-basin-deforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Feb 2026 23:01:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/05115844/ForestElephant.Loxodonta.cyclotis_NgounieGabon_marcusgmeineriNaturalistBYNC4.0-BANNER-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313829</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Central Africa, Central African Republic, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Policy, Finance, Forests, Politics, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Copince Ngoma, a member of the Bakouele Indigenous community, has relied on the lush green Congo Basin rainforest his whole life. His village’s forests, located in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Sangha region, are a wide repertoire for hunting, fishing and medicinal plants to care for his family. But in the last few years, as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Copince Ngoma, a member of the Bakouele Indigenous community, has relied on the lush green Congo Basin rainforest his whole life. His village’s forests, located in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Sangha region, are a wide repertoire for hunting, fishing and medicinal plants to care for his family. But in the last few years, as elsewhere across the world’s second-largest rainforest, the scars of unsustainable mining practices have cleared wildlife habitats, polluted waters and dwindled resources. “We used to drink this water, but not anymore. … We used to hunt gazelles, monkeys. … Now, to catch anything, you have to travel at least 20 kilometers,” about 12 miles away, he told Mongabay. “We’re suffering.” This is part of a central and recurring issue across the region, which brought together high-level policymakers during a Land Dialogues webinar on Jan. 27 to discuss the recent $2.5 billion pledge to conserve forests that millions of people, including Ngoma, depend on for their material and cultural survival. The pledge is part of a major political and financial commitment announced last November during the COP30 U.N. climate conference: the Belém Call to Action for the Congo Basin Forests. Land clearance with fire in the Congo Basin. Image by John Cannon/Mongabay. For some policymakers, it was the first time they were speaking publicly about the implementation priorities of the pledge, what it will look like in practice, the inclusion of Indigenous peoples and local communities in the commitment and the challenges the call to action faces.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/whats-next-for-the-major-pledge-to-halt-reverse-congo-basin-deforestation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/whats-next-for-the-major-pledge-to-halt-reverse-congo-basin-deforestation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313829</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A &#8216;new baseline&#8217;: Study captures accelerating sea-level rise in Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/a-new-baseline-study-captures-accelerating-sea-level-rise-in-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/a-new-baseline-study-captures-accelerating-sea-level-rise-in-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2026 20:35:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/30190306/5-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313548</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Benin, Cameroon, Central Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, data, El Nino, Environment, Erosion, Flooding, Freshwater, Global Warming, Ice Shelves, Oceans, Sea Levels, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Sea-level rise has accelerated across Africa in recent decades, thanks to global warming and, in particular, to the melting of ice sheets and glaciers, according to a recent study. The study, published Dec. 15 in the journal Communications Earth &#38; Environment, found that sea levels across the continent have risen four times faster since 2010, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Sea-level rise has accelerated across Africa in recent decades, thanks to global warming and, in particular, to the melting of ice sheets and glaciers, according to a recent study. The study, published Dec. 15 in the journal Communications Earth &amp; Environment, found that sea levels across the continent have risen four times faster since 2010, on average, than they had in the 1990s. The primary reason was additional water mass from polar melt, rather than other phenomena that can cause sea-level rise, the authors found. “When you have ice-free summer [at high latitudes], it means that the water went somewhere,” Franck Ghomsi, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Manitoba in Canada and lead author of the study, told Mongabay. “The glacier moved from ice to water, and it [water] started migrating. And it is the tropics [that] are now … getting this outflow of water.” The impacts include flooding, erosion of coastal land, displacement of coastal communities and intrusion of salty seawater into freshwater drinking sources. People in Africa are responsible for only a tiny proportion of human-caused global warming and yet face severe effects from the resulting sea-level rise, said Ghomsi, who is from Cameroon, calling this a “climate injustice.” He said that emissions from countries in the Global North are having a “huge impact” on countries in the Global South, including in Africa. Monthly sea level for Africa from 1993-2023. Annual means are shown in red. Sea-level rise accelerated over the 31-year period, with the rate during&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/a-new-baseline-study-captures-accelerating-sea-level-rise-in-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/a-new-baseline-study-captures-accelerating-sea-level-rise-in-africa/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313548</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cameroon cookstove project looks to slow forest loss</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/cameroon-cookstove-project-looks-to-slow-forest-loss/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/cameroon-cookstove-project-looks-to-slow-forest-loss/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2026 09:13:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Leocadia Bongben]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Ashoka]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/30073019/Pabamis-daughter-in-the-Kitchen-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313523</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Avoided Deforestation, Black Carbon, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Food, Forest Loss, Fuelwood, Research, and Timber]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[GAROUA, Cameroon — One morning during the July monsoon in Bang, a village of 3,000 in North Cameroon, people woke up to heavy rains. The Mayo Tefi, a small river which runs through the village, swelled as the water level rose. Astha Pabami, a mother of 11 in her 50s, could not go out to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[GAROUA, Cameroon — One morning during the July monsoon in Bang, a village of 3,000 in North Cameroon, people woke up to heavy rains. The Mayo Tefi, a small river which runs through the village, swelled as the water level rose. Astha Pabami, a mother of 11 in her 50s, could not go out to fetch firewood, as crossing the river would have meant being swept away. Instead, she used some of the wood stacked behind her hut, lighting a fire to prepare a meal on her new cookstove. The cookstove looks like a traditional oven, with one opening for firewood and another for the pot. But it’s a big improvement over what she used to use: an open three-stone fireside. Pabami is one of about 250 women in Bang who were using these stoves when Mongabay visited the town. They were distributed as part of a project run by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), with support from the European Union. The stoves are meant to burn cleaner and use less wood — saving forests and protecting people’s health in the process. “The open fireside consumes more firewood and dirties our pots, and we inhale smoke. We could use about 8-10 pieces of wood to cook a meal; presently, a maximum of four pieces of wood is enough,” Pabami tells Mongabay. Since the improved stoves need less firewood, she doesn’t have to collect as much during the dry season, and what she puts into storage behind her hut&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/cameroon-cookstove-project-looks-to-slow-forest-loss/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/cameroon-cookstove-project-looks-to-slow-forest-loss/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313523</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>For two of the world’s most at-risk primates, threats abound and the future looks grim</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/for-two-of-the-worlds-most-at-risk-primates-threats-abound-and-the-future-looks-grim/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/for-two-of-the-worlds-most-at-risk-primates-threats-abound-and-the-future-looks-grim/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jan 2026 10:54:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mino Rakotovao]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/20142839/original-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313105</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Cameroon, Central Africa, Indonesia, Nigeria, Southeast Asia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Extinction, Forests, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Hunting, Monkeys, Primates, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Between Nigeria’s Cross River and Cameroon’s Sanaga River lies one of West Africa’s largest remaining blocks of intact rainforest. Noisy groups of Preuss’s red colobus monkeys (Piliocolobus preussi) move through this forest’s canopy in bands 20-to-60-strong, feeding mainly on the young leaves of just a few tree species, including Lecomtedoxa klaineana (known locally as oguomo) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Between Nigeria’s Cross River and Cameroon’s Sanaga River lies one of West Africa’s largest remaining blocks of intact rainforest. Noisy groups of Preuss’s red colobus monkeys (Piliocolobus preussi) move through this forest’s canopy in bands 20-to-60-strong, feeding mainly on the young leaves of just a few tree species, including Lecomtedoxa klaineana (known locally as oguomo) and Xylopia aethiopica (“grains of Selim”). The leaf-heavy diet of these social monkeys helps shape forest structure, and declines in their numbers often foreshadow wider losses of wildlife across the forest. Half a world away, a very different primate lurks in the trees on the small, relatively isolated Indonesian island of Bangka. Readily identified by its pale facial mask, the Bangka slow loris (Nycticebus bancanus) is arboreal, nocturnal, and venomous, with large eyes and deliberate movements. Not much formal scientific knowledge has been gathered about this species since it was first described in 1937, but local conservationists have rehabilitated and released several dozen of the animals over the past decade. Both species feature on the &#8220;Primates in Peril&#8221;, a roll call of the world’s 25 most endangered primates, a call  for careful, focused conservation action. The future prospects for either primate illustrates how a threatened species’ survival may depend on very specific conditions: the health and protection of a single small island, or a particular forest type, or a few key plant species within that forest can make the difference between persistence and disappearance. Korup National Park, Cameroon. Image by Pleauthon Pierre via Flickr (CC&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/for-two-of-the-worlds-most-at-risk-primates-threats-abound-and-the-future-looks-grim/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/for-two-of-the-worlds-most-at-risk-primates-threats-abound-and-the-future-looks-grim/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313105</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>West and Central Africa tackle coastal erosion</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/west-and-central-africa-tackle-coastal-erosion/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/west-and-central-africa-tackle-coastal-erosion/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Dec 2025 12:22:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Adrienne EngonoCarolle AhodekonCharles KolouChristophe AssogbaRoland KlohiRosie Pioth]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Christophe Assogba]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/16121252/image8__Une-maison-progressivement-engloutie-par-la-Mer-a-Avepozo-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311461</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Benin, Cameroon, Central Africa, Congo Basin, Cote D'Ivoire, Togo, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Economics, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Oceans, Politics, Pollution, Solutions, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Across many parts of Africa’s Atlantic coastline, the sea is advancing several metres inland each year, destroying homes, infrastructure, farmland and heritage sites. Many coastal communities have already been erased from the map. Several factors combine to explain the threatening loss of land along the West and Central African coast. The effects of global climate [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Across many parts of Africa’s Atlantic coastline, the sea is advancing several metres inland each year, destroying homes, infrastructure, farmland and heritage sites. Many coastal communities have already been erased from the map. Several factors combine to explain the threatening loss of land along the West and Central African coast. The effects of global climate change, with rising sea levels and warmer waters causing more extreme weather, are multiplied by large and small infrastructure projects that have disrupted coastal ecosystems’ natural resilience to the power of ocean waves and currents. The Ivorian village of Lahou-Kpanda, standing on a peninsula in a lagoon fed by the Bandama River, has become a dramatic symbol of coastal erosion along Cote d’Ivoire’s 570 kilometers (355 miles) of coastline. Powerful waves, exacerbated by rising sea levels linked to climate change, are undermining the coastline, causing it to erode by more than 2 meters (6.5 feet) per year. &#8220;Our village used to stretch over 2 kilometers [1.2 miles]. Today, it&#8217;s only 200 m [650 ft] wide,&#8221; reports Emmanuel Idi, a young local guide in his 20s. The construction of the Kossou Dam in the 1970s altered the flow of the Bandama River and disrupted the natural balance that protected the coast, exacerbating erosion. Several notable colonial-era buildings here, including the district office, the hospital and the prison, have already disappeared. Only the church, built in 1933, with its stone walls and orange-tiled roof, still stands firm against the waves’ onslaught. The most harrowing aspect is the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/west-and-central-africa-tackle-coastal-erosion/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/west-and-central-africa-tackle-coastal-erosion/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311461</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Top-down projects, exotic trees, weak tenure: Congo Basin restoration misses the mark</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/top-down-projects-exotic-trees-weak-tenure-congo-basin-restoration-misses-the-mark/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/top-down-projects-exotic-trees-weak-tenure-congo-basin-restoration-misses-the-mark/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Dec 2025 16:49:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Amindeh Blaise Atabong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/11145146/a.-Banner-Loxodonta_cyclotis_3970045-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311149</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Central Africa, Central African Republic, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Gabon, Republic of Congo, and Rwanda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agroforestry, Biodiversity, carbon, Climate, Conservation, Forest Carbon, forest degradation, Forests, Logging, Reforestation, Slash-and-burn, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Congo Basin, the world’s largest tropical rainforest after the Amazon, is under mounting pressure. The Congo’s vast green canopy, stretching across six countries and storing more carbon than the Amazon, is vanishing at an alarming rate — losing an average of 1.79 million hectares (4.42 million acres) per year between 2015 and 2019. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Congo Basin, the world’s largest tropical rainforest after the Amazon, is under mounting pressure. The Congo’s vast green canopy, stretching across six countries and storing more carbon than the Amazon, is vanishing at an alarming rate — losing an average of 1.79 million hectares (4.42 million acres) per year between 2015 and 2019. The key drivers are well known: small-scale slash-and-burn agriculture, logging for fuelwood, and weak land governance. In response, some governments, international donors and NGOs have turned to reforestation projects as a cornerstone of the region’s climate and biodiversity strategies. But despite a panoply of projects — from tree-planting drives to agroforestry schemes — newly published research suggests that much of what’s happening in the name of “forest restoration” may not be restoring forests at all — but largely focused on nonnative, commodity species. The study analyzed 64 publications covering 26 initiatives in five countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Cameroon, Gabon, Rwanda, and the Central African Republic. The findings paint a complex picture of progress over the last two decades — one where the rhetoric of “restoration” often outpaces the reality on the ground. On paper, Central African governments have made major commitments to the Congo Basin. Under the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) and the Bonn Challenge, governments pledged to restore 25% of degraded land by this year. International donors, including the European Union, World Bank, as well as the French, German, Danish and U.K. development agencies, have poured millions of dollars into&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/top-down-projects-exotic-trees-weak-tenure-congo-basin-restoration-misses-the-mark/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/top-down-projects-exotic-trees-weak-tenure-congo-basin-restoration-misses-the-mark/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311149</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As fish catches fall and seas rise, Douala’s residents join efforts to restore mangroves</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/as-fish-catches-fall-and-seas-rise-doualas-residents-join-efforts-to-restore-mangroves/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/as-fish-catches-fall-and-seas-rise-doualas-residents-join-efforts-to-restore-mangroves/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Dec 2025 16:18:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ngala Chimtom]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/09073438/Manoka-Island-mangroves-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310842</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Climate Justice, Coastal Ecosystems, Community Development, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Forestry, Governance, Landscape Restoration, Mangroves, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Reforestation, Restoration, Sea Levels, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[DOUALA, Cameroon — Henry Belle Ekam, 37, cuts a frustrated figure as he paddles his boat to the shore in the Bojongo neighborhood of Cameroon’s largest city, Douala. The fisherman has been out on the waters of the Wouri Estuary for hours, and all he’s brought back to show for his effort is a tiny [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[DOUALA, Cameroon — Henry Belle Ekam, 37, cuts a frustrated figure as he paddles his boat to the shore in the Bojongo neighborhood of Cameroon’s largest city, Douala. The fisherman has been out on the waters of the Wouri Estuary for hours, and all he’s brought back to show for his effort is a tiny catfish. “It’s so frustrating,” he says, putting away the empty net. “A few years back, you didn’t need to go far to have a good harvest. Everything has changed.” The coastal landscape here has changed, and with it the fishing fortunes of resident communities. Experts point to retreating mangrove forests as one of the reasons for the troubles Ekam and other fishers here are facing. The Cameroon Mangrove Ecosystem Restoration and Resilience (CAMERR) project, launched in November 2022 by a group of international NGOs in partnership with the Cameroonian government and local organizations, is one of the largest mangrove restoration projects in the country. It aims to restore 1,000 hectares (nearly 2,500 acres) of mangroves over 30 years. The focus of the initiative is the estuary of the Wouri River, with the city of Douala on its southeastern shore. The Watershed Task Group (WTG), a local nonprofit leading the effort, says it has restored more than 100 hectares (250 acres) of mangroves in the Cameroon and Ntem river estuaries. In Bojongo (part of the Douala or Cameroon estuary), under another initiative of the local administrative council and with funding from the United Nations Environment Programme&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/as-fish-catches-fall-and-seas-rise-doualas-residents-join-efforts-to-restore-mangroves/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/as-fish-catches-fall-and-seas-rise-doualas-residents-join-efforts-to-restore-mangroves/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310842</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cameroon inaugurates controversial dam despite local dissent</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/cameroon-inaugurates-controversial-dam-despite-local-dissent/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/cameroon-inaugurates-controversial-dam-despite-local-dissent/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Oct 2025 14:31:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Yannick Kenné]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/10134434/b4abb60b-e9a6-4e2d-9b25-c1afbfa6f00e-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307404</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and Central Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conflict, Dams, Ecosystems, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fishing, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Governance, Green, Human Rights, Hydroelectric Power, Infrastructure, Land Rights, Politics, Renewable Energy, Resource Conflict, Rivers, Tropics, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon — In the village of Ndji, old electrical cables are draped over rickety wooden poles, hanging so low in places, they touch the ground. These makeshift installations provide electricity in this hamlet of about a thousand inhabitants. But Wilfried Eyebe, a local fisherman, explained that this power supply is unreliable. “The voltage is [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon — In the village of Ndji, old electrical cables are draped over rickety wooden poles, hanging so low in places, they touch the ground. These makeshift installations provide electricity in this hamlet of about a thousand inhabitants. But Wilfried Eyebe, a local fisherman, explained that this power supply is unreliable. “The voltage is not stable. We’re facing power cuts all the time.” This concern persists even though Ndji is located close to the Nachtigal hydroelectric dam on the Sanaga River, 65 kilometers (40 miles) northeast of Yaoundé and the new source of around 30% of Cameroon’s electricity production. Transmission line carrying electricity from the Nachtigal hydroelectric dam. Image by Yannick Kenné/Mongabay. Hydroelectric power: Essential for Cameroon’s energy supply Hydroelectric power plays a vital role in Cameroon’s electricity grid and economy. It is a renewable energy source with a far lower carbon footprint than fossil fuels. Since March 2025, 420 megawatts of power generated by the $1.3 billion dam at Nachtigal has been fed into the Southern Interconnected Grid (RIS in French) which serves seven of Cameroon’s 10 regions with power produced by hydropower plants at Edea (267 MW, commissioned in 1954), Songloulou (384 MW, 1981), and now Nachtigal. Power cuts are still a frequent occurrence, though, due to incidents affecting the power transmission network. Numerous disruptions have been recorded recently at the new transformation station on the outskirts of Yaoundé, which enables the onward transport of electricity produced by Nachtigal. The villages near the dam are not spared&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/cameroon-inaugurates-controversial-dam-despite-local-dissent/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307404</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Northern Cameroon’s lions are reproducing, but concerns remain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/northern-cameroons-lions-are-reproducing-but-concerns-remain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/northern-cameroons-lions-are-reproducing-but-concerns-remain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Sep 2025 15:29:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Leocadia Bongben]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/30060937/Photo-6-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306792</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and Central Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Cats, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, GPS, Lions, Livestock, Mammals, Monitoring, National Parks, Poaching, Species, Tracking, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Real-time monitoring has captured images of lionesses with cubs in Cameroon’s Bouba Ndjida National Park, but conservationists warn human pressure makes it unlikely all the cubs will reach adulthood. There are now an estimated 60-80 lions in the 220,000-hectare (544,000-acre) park in the country’s far north. “All collared lionesses have had cubs, signaling successful reproduction,” [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Real-time monitoring has captured images of lionesses with cubs in Cameroon’s Bouba Ndjida National Park, but conservationists warn human pressure makes it unlikely all the cubs will reach adulthood. There are now an estimated 60-80 lions in the 220,000-hectare (544,000-acre) park in the country’s far north. “All collared lionesses have had cubs, signaling successful reproduction,” Matthieu Finiels, deputy director of the northern Cameroon landscape for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), told Mongabay. In August 2024, Cameroonian biologists and rangers from WCS and the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF) fitted seven lions in the park with GPS collars. A year earlier, in 2023, local conservation NGO BEDD had also collared three lions, bringing the total to 10. The collars ping the lions’ locations four times a day via satellite, enabling conservationists to monitor the big cats’ movements. &#8220;We can proactively prioritize those areas for patrols, ensuring protection from poachers,&#8221; Paul Bour, WCS&#8217;s landscape director said in a press release after the collaring. Bour helps the Cameroonian government plan and prepare antipoaching patrols. Despite the birth of cubs, there are still concerns about their survival. Paul Funston, director of the NGO African Lion Conservation, who assisted in the collaring, warned of the likelihood that not all the cubs would survive to adulthood. Now known as Miss Bouba for her striking beauty, she is the fifth lion collared in Bouba Ndjida National Park. Image by Daniel Djekda/WCS. “It is difficult for lionesses to raise cubs,” he told Mongabay. “When the young lions&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/northern-cameroons-lions-are-reproducing-but-concerns-remain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306792</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>World Gorilla Day: What imperils our powerful cousins, and what brings hope</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/09/world-gorilla-day-what-imperils-our-powerful-cousins-and-what-brings-hope/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/09/world-gorilla-day-what-imperils-our-powerful-cousins-and-what-brings-hope/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Sep 2025 08:20:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Bobbybascomb]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/03/01090416/z_00225-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=306498</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Democratic Republic Of Congo, and Nigeria]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Gorillas, Governance, Great Apes, Green, Mammals, Politics, Species recovery, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[They’re powerful, intelligent and majestic, yet increasingly imperiled. Today, on World Gorilla Day, we recap recent Mongabay reporting that highlights both the threats facing gorillas, our great ape cousins, and some signs of hope. Emerging threats The Cross River gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli) continues to be one of the world’s top 25 most endangered primates, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[They’re powerful, intelligent and majestic, yet increasingly imperiled. Today, on World Gorilla Day, we recap recent Mongabay reporting that highlights both the threats facing gorillas, our great ape cousins, and some signs of hope. Emerging threats The Cross River gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli) continues to be one of the world’s top 25 most endangered primates, according to the latest edition of the “Primates in Peril” report. Roughly 250 mature individuals are thought to remain in the wild in Nigeria and Cameroon, Mongabay’s Malavika Vyawahare reported in May. A recent Mongabay investigation found that hunting is an emerging threat for Cross River gorillas in Nigeria. Mongabay contributor Orji Sunday spoke to hunters, traffickers and customers of the illegal trade and found that hunters who kill gorillas were traditionally ostracized in the local communities. But today, the gorilla trade is a booming business. Prices for ape parts have skyrocketed as the gorillas grow scarcer. “If you visit Ose main markets, you can get up to 50 to 100 ape heads if you so desire. Their supply of ape body parts is quite large,” said Ekene Ezenwoke, an ape body part trader who operates from one of the major markets in southeastern Nigeria. Meanwhile, as M23 armed rebels have taken control of much of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo since earlier this year, there’s been increasing forest loss in Kahuzi-Biega National Park. This spells trouble for the critically endangered eastern lowland gorillas or Grauer’s gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri) living in the park,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/09/world-gorilla-day-what-imperils-our-powerful-cousins-and-what-brings-hope/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306498</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Palm oil giant Socapalm still planting on disputed land in Cameroon as villagers seek redress</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/09/palm-oil-giant-socapalm-still-planting-on-disputed-land-in-cameroon-as-villagers-seek-redress/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/09/palm-oil-giant-socapalm-still-planting-on-disputed-land-in-cameroon-as-villagers-seek-redress/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Sep 2025 11:49:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/09114524/SocapalmPlantation_ApouhCameroon_YannickKenne-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=305665</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and Central Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conflict, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Palm Oil, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A land dispute between residents of a Cameroonian village and a major palm oil company remains unresolved despite protests and requests for meetings with authorities, NGOs and community members say. Residents of Apouh village in the country&#8217;s Littoral region have long accused Socapalm, a subsidiary of Luxembourg-based multinational Socfin, of encroaching on their ancestral land [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A land dispute between residents of a Cameroonian village and a major palm oil company remains unresolved despite protests and requests for meetings with authorities, NGOs and community members say. Residents of Apouh village in the country&#8217;s Littoral region have long accused Socapalm, a subsidiary of Luxembourg-based multinational Socfin, of encroaching on their ancestral land to establish its oil palm plantation. In late March this year, residents protested against Socapalm replanting oil palms on contested land, insisting it should be returned to them as part of a land retrocession process. The protests took a violent turn when deployed police used tear gas to disperse the crowd. Cameroonian NGO AFRISE, which represents the women of the Édéa region where Apouh village is located, has since written to the Ministry of State Property, Surveys, and Land Tenure (MINDCAF). It’s seeking a meeting to present the community’s grievances and follow up on a claim to redistribute 700 hectares (1,730 acres) of land community members say MINDCAF has found Socapalm to be occupying in excess of its land titles. But there’s been no meeting to date, AFRISE chair Félicité Ngo Bissou told Mongabay. &#8220;And while we are waiting, they are planting their palm trees around our houses all the way into our courtyards.&#8221; &#8220;They are planting under the watchful eye of law enforcement,&#8221; added Emmanuel Elong, president of the nonprofit National Synergy of Farmers and Residents of Cameroon (Synaparcam). After the nonprofit Business &amp; Human Rights Resource Centre contacted Socfin about the replanting of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/09/palm-oil-giant-socapalm-still-planting-on-disputed-land-in-cameroon-as-villagers-seek-redress/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/09/palm-oil-giant-socapalm-still-planting-on-disputed-land-in-cameroon-as-villagers-seek-redress/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305665</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As forest elephants plummet, ebony trees decline in Central Africa’s rainforests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/as-forest-elephants-plummet-ebony-trees-decline-in-central-africas-rainforests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/as-forest-elephants-plummet-ebony-trees-decline-in-central-africas-rainforests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Aug 2025 13:05:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/29012123/F-afe-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305092</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Central Africa, and Congo Basin]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Ecosystems, Elephants, Environment, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Ivory, Poaching, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Seed Dispersal, Solutions, Traditional Knowledge, Trees, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2017, when Vincent Deblauwe joined the Cameroon-based Congo Basin Institute (CBI) to study African ebony (Diospyros crassiflora) — economically valuable pitch-black, dense wood — the Indigenous Baka people accompanied him on his field trips. As they sat around campfires and trekked through the rainforests, Deblauwe tapped into their knowledge of flora and fauna, especially [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2017, when Vincent Deblauwe joined the Cameroon-based Congo Basin Institute (CBI) to study African ebony (Diospyros crassiflora) — economically valuable pitch-black, dense wood — the Indigenous Baka people accompanied him on his field trips. As they sat around campfires and trekked through the rainforests, Deblauwe tapped into their knowledge of flora and fauna, especially about ebony trees and their dispersal. They all told him that one animal was responsible for the ebony tree’s future survival: the forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis). Deblauwe observed that in forest patches without elephants, young ebony saplings were few and far between. Over the last three decades, relentless poaching, fueled by the insatiable demand for ivory in China and Southeast Asia, has plunged African forest elephant numbers by a whopping 86%, pushing them perilously close to extinction. However, the long-term impacts of this mass slaughter on the region’s trees remained largely unknown. In the years that followed, Deblauwe and his colleagues braided the Baka people’s knowledge about ebony and elephants with spatial, genetic and experimental data on ebony trees, providing the first convincing evidence of a mutualistic relationship between the two species, now published in a new study in the journal Science Advances. The researchers teased out why elephants play such a vital role in maintaining ebony trees in the forests. When elephants eat the large, pulpy ebony fruits and excrete the seeds, their dung protects those seeds from rodents and other animals that would otherwise eat and destroy them. Ebony fruits, with smooth pulp&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/as-forest-elephants-plummet-ebony-trees-decline-in-central-africas-rainforests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305092</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How will fisheries change in a hotter world? Experts share</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/how-will-fisheries-change-in-a-hotter-world-experts-share/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/how-will-fisheries-change-in-a-hotter-world-experts-share/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Aug 2025 20:40:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claudia Geib]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/13104006/Banc_de_thons_albacores_Thunnus_albacares_Ifremer_00568-68027_-_25195-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304197</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Central Africa, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Pacific Islands, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Aquaculture, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Hunger, Marine Protected Areas, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Overfishing, Poverty, Saltwater Fish, Tuna, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Lake Chad is nearly 1,130 kilometers (700 miles) from the ocean, but Nwamaka Okeke-Ogbuafor fears it is a preview of what’s ahead for African and other tropical fisheries. Straddling four countries on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, Lake Chad began drying up dramatically during a series of droughts in the 1970s and ‘80s. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Lake Chad is nearly 1,130 kilometers (700 miles) from the ocean, but Nwamaka Okeke-Ogbuafor fears it is a preview of what’s ahead for African and other tropical fisheries. Straddling four countries on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, Lake Chad began drying up dramatically during a series of droughts in the 1970s and ‘80s. While the lake stopped shrinking in the 1990s — and it appears to be stable or even growing over the last 20 years — many fishing communities on the lake never recovered. Facing poverty and starvation, some former fishers and their families live in U.N.-funded camps for displaced people, which are running out of aid. Some struck out for a new life in other countries. Others joined Boko Haram, an Islamic insurgency organization, in a final act of desperation. “Communities are no longer cohesive — it’s a total disaster,” says Okeke-Ogbuafor, a marine social scientist focusing on tropical African fisheries. “It’s not just about food poverty, it’s the erosion of community and cultural knowledge.” Fish provide essential protein for an estimated 3.2 billion people across the world. In some developing tropical countries, fish can make up some 70% of the diet. But over the next 50 years, warming waters are certain to upend fishing communities — and rewrite the rules of ecosystems and industries worldwide. Mongabay asked five experts how fisheries will change by 2075, and what solutions could help prevent the worst outcomes. Women in Sierra Leone selling fish at the market in Mama&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/how-will-fisheries-change-in-a-hotter-world-experts-share/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/how-will-fisheries-change-in-a-hotter-world-experts-share/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304197</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New list of primates in peril aims to focus attention and inspire action</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/new-list-of-primates-in-peril-aims-to-focus-attention-and-inspire-action/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/new-list-of-primates-in-peril-aims-to-focus-attention-and-inspire-action/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Aug 2025 09:54:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mino Rakotovao]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/05051106/VerreauxssifakaPropithecus.verreauxi_JohnQuineFlicrkBYNCSA-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303733</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Cameroon, Central Africa, Madagascar, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Endangered Species, Extinction, Lemurs, Monkeys, Primates, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ANTANANARIVO — For more than six decades, the International Primatological Society (IPS) has brought scientists, conservationists and educators from around the world together every two years to exchange ideas and drive primate research and conservation. The 30th IPS Congress welcomed nearly 800 participants from around the world to Madagascar, the “Land of Lemurs.” It’s a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ANTANANARIVO — For more than six decades, the International Primatological Society (IPS) has brought scientists, conservationists and educators from around the world together every two years to exchange ideas and drive primate research and conservation. The 30th IPS Congress welcomed nearly 800 participants from around the world to Madagascar, the “Land of Lemurs.” It’s a long-standing tradition of the congress to publish a list of the world’s 25 most threatened primates to draw attention to species at particularly high risk and inspire action to protect them. Drawn up as a collaboration between the IPS, the Primate Specialist Group of the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority; and conservation NGO Re:wild, this recurring initiative highlights that more than two in five of the world’s primates were classified as endangered or critically endangered on the IUCN Red List in 2023. Multiple criteria are considered when nominating the most threatened 25, among them geographic and taxonomic representation, uniqueness, and the potential conservation impact of being listed. The endangered Comibra Filho’s titi (Callicebus coimbrai) is threatened by the destruction of its Atlantic Forest habitat in Brazil. This monkey&#8217;s range has shrunk to just disconnected fragments totaling around 200 sq km (77 sq mi). Image by Tito Garcez via iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0 ) “Listing a species in ‘Primates in Peril’ is a critical call to action,” said Leandro Jerusalinsky, deputy chair of the IUCN’s Primate Specialist Group Neotropics section, “amplifying awareness and galvanizing conservation efforts by targeting governments, donors, and NGOs.” Inza Koné, president&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/new-list-of-primates-in-peril-aims-to-focus-attention-and-inspire-action/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303733</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cocoa boom fuels new wave of deforestation in Cameroon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/08/cocoa-boom-fuels-new-wave-of-deforestation-in-cameroon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/08/cocoa-boom-fuels-new-wave-of-deforestation-in-cameroon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Aug 2025 14:47:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/04105954/Cocoa_Pic_3-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/08//</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Cameroon and Central Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Cacao, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Once threatened by palm oil and loggers, Cameroon’s forests now face a new driver of deforestation: booming cacao production to supply the European market. A new report by the environmental advocacy group Mighty Earth finds deforestation in Cameroon has accelerated, with the country losing around 782,000 hectares (1.9 million acres), or 4.2% of its forest [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Once threatened by palm oil and loggers, Cameroon’s forests now face a new driver of deforestation: booming cacao production to supply the European market. A new report by the environmental advocacy group Mighty Earth finds deforestation in Cameroon has accelerated, with the country losing around 782,000 hectares (1.9 million acres), or 4.2% of its forest cover, in just five years since 2020. Previously, Cameroon lost about 6% of its forest cover across two decades from 2000-2020, mainly to logging and palm oil production, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. At least half of the recent forest loss since 2020 occurred in cacao-growing regions, Mighty Earth found. “With the projected growth of the cocoa industry that could really continue to increase,” Thea Parson, report co-author from Mighty Earth, told Mongabay in an interview. In January 2025, Mighty Earth’s Cameroonian partners surveyed cacao-producing areas in Littoral province in the southwest using satellite alerts and field investigations and found that deforestation for cacao plantations is ongoing. In Nkondjock district near Ebo National Park, for example, home to critically endangered western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis), the team documented fresh forest clearance and newly planted cacao saplings. Europe is Cameroon’s biggest buyer of cocoa, the processed form of the cacao bean, so the recent deforestation for cacao cultivation puts many farmers on a collision course with the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). The critical legislation, due to take effect at the end of 2025, requires importers to ensure&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/08/cocoa-boom-fuels-new-wave-of-deforestation-in-cameroon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/08/cocoa-boom-fuels-new-wave-of-deforestation-in-cameroon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303688</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>More than 10,000 species on brink of extinction need urgent action: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/more-than-10000-species-on-brink-of-extinction-need-urgent-action-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/more-than-10000-species-on-brink-of-extinction-need-urgent-action-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jul 2025 16:55:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/30144030/Black-rhino-a-Critically-Endangered-species-c-ZSL-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303424</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Cameroon, Caribbean, Global, Madagascar, South America, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Invasive Species, Logging, Mammals, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Extinction is an overwhelming concept, difficult to grasp in its enormity and finality. Thousands of species are barreling toward that grim fate, unless we help. A comprehensive new study provides the clearest picture yet of Earth&#8217;s most imperiled species, and offers evidence that conservation can work. The study published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity found that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Extinction is an overwhelming concept, difficult to grasp in its enormity and finality. Thousands of species are barreling toward that grim fate, unless we help. A comprehensive new study provides the clearest picture yet of Earth&#8217;s most imperiled species, and offers evidence that conservation can work. The study published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity found that 10,443 species are critically endangered, the worst threat category before extinct in the wild and, finally, extinct. Species qualify as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List when they meet strict thresholds such as rapid population declines, extremely restricted ranges, or having fewer than 50 mature individuals remaining. &#8220;It is surprising that more than 1,500 species, so 15% of the critically endangered species, are estimated to have fewer than 50 mature individuals remaining in the wild, a large number of those plants,&#8221; Rikki Gumbs, research fellow at the Zoological Society of London&#8217;s Institute of Zoology and co-author of the study, told Mongabay. A critically endangered gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) or fish-eating crocodile in Nepal. Image courtesy of  ZSL/ Rikki Gumbs “The good news is that it’s within our power as humans to [save them]. It’s our unsustainable behaviour driving these devastating declines — whether through deforestation or the introduction of invasive species and diseases — so we can turn things around and bring these species back from the brink.” Most critically endangered species, 77%, earned their status because they have extremely limited habitat remaining. Seven species, including three amphibians, three tortoises and the vaquita porpoise (Phocoena&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/more-than-10000-species-on-brink-of-extinction-need-urgent-action-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/more-than-10000-species-on-brink-of-extinction-need-urgent-action-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303424</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>From sports desk to nature’s frontlines: David Akana’s unlikely path to lead Mongabay Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/from-sports-desk-to-natures-frontlines-david-akanas-unlikely-path-to-lead-mongabay-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/from-sports-desk-to-natures-frontlines-david-akanas-unlikely-path-to-lead-mongabay-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jul 2025 16:23:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/23003827/david-akana-Photo-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302907</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Conversations with Mongabay leaders]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Cameroon]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Forests, Green, Interviews, Interviews With Environmental Journalists, and Journalism]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In an era where the stakes for biodiversity, climate, and sustainable development are rising across the African continent, David Akana is advancing a model of environmental journalism rooted in rigor, inclusion, and long-term impact. As Director of Programs at Mongabay Africa, Akana oversees everything from editorial strategy and partnerships to resource mobilization and newsroom operations. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In an era where the stakes for biodiversity, climate, and sustainable development are rising across the African continent, David Akana is advancing a model of environmental journalism rooted in rigor, inclusion, and long-term impact. As Director of Programs at Mongabay Africa, Akana oversees everything from editorial strategy and partnerships to resource mobilization and newsroom operations. But his role is more than administrative; it’s deeply personal, shaped by a career that has spanned sports reporting, international development communications, and frontline environmental storytelling. Akana’s journey into environmental journalism began over two decades ago in Cameroon. A former sports journalist with a deep love for football, he shifted tracks in 2002 when he joined the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Central Africa. At the time, the move was driven by pragmatic considerations—financial stability and a chance to take on editorial leadership—but it marked a turning point. Grappling with topics like biodiversity loss and climate change wasn’t easy, but the complexity of the issues ultimately became part of the draw. “Once I was out in the field,” he says, “I realized how high the stakes truly were.” In June 2025, Mongabay Africa carried out its first reporting trip to Lobéké National Park, deep in the heart of the Congo Basin. In this photo, David Akana is seen en route to the park. Photo: David Akana That sense of purpose has only grown. For Akana, journalism is not just about reporting facts—it’s about helping people make sense of the systems that shape&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/from-sports-desk-to-natures-frontlines-david-akanas-unlikely-path-to-lead-mongabay-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/from-sports-desk-to-natures-frontlines-david-akanas-unlikely-path-to-lead-mongabay-africa/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302907</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How one woman rose from porter to conservation leader</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/how-one-woman-rose-from-porter-to-conservation-leader/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/how-one-woman-rose-from-porter-to-conservation-leader/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jul 2025 09:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/23175121/Marlyse-Bebeguewa_1580-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=302609</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Cameroon]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In the damp undergrowth of Cameroon’s Lobéké National Park, where forest elephants slip through the forest unheard and gorillas emerge with the dusk, one woman charts a course both personal and profound. Marlyse Bebeguewa was once just a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Founder&#8217;s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries. In the damp undergrowth of Cameroon’s Lobéké National Park, where forest elephants slip through the forest unheard and gorillas emerge with the dusk, one woman charts a course both personal and profound. Marlyse Bebeguewa was once just a name on the roster of porters, hauling gear for others. Today, she’s at the forefront of conservation in one of Central Africa’s richest but least-accessible protected areas, report Mongabay’s David Akana and Yannick Kenné. Born in 1987 into a Bantu family, Bebeguewa was raised by her mother after her father died assisting scientists in the forest. Financial hardship forced her to leave school early. But rather than succumb to circumstance, she followed the trail — both literal and metaphorical — blazed by her father. At 18, she took a job as a porter. A year later, she trained as a guide. By 2014, when Lobéké’s management sought ecological monitoring assistants, she was the only woman selected, and promptly made team leader. Her rise, achieved without formal education beyond secondary school, reflects the latent capacity often overlooked in local communities. It’s also an implicit rebuke to a conservation model that has historically marginalized Indigenous and local actors, especially women. Now a consultant with WWF, Bebeguewa uses acoustic sensors and camera traps to track threatened species and detect threats, merging new technology with on-the-ground knowledge. She mentors other women and works to bridge divides between Bantu and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/how-one-woman-rose-from-porter-to-conservation-leader/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/how-one-woman-rose-from-porter-to-conservation-leader/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302609</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Cameroon, forest mapping app helps Baka protect biodiversity and way of life</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/in-cameroon-forest-mapping-app-helps-baka-protect-biodiversity-and-way-of-life/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/in-cameroon-forest-mapping-app-helps-baka-protect-biodiversity-and-way-of-life/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jun 2025 13:12:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David AkanaYannick Kenné]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Davidakana]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/25090419/IMG_1753-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301323</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and Central Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Environment, Environmental Policy, Governance, Protected Areas, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SALAPOUMBÉ, Cameroon — Freddy Mbengue, a 24-year-old farmer in a black polo shirt and denim shorts, keeps a watchful eye on the forest. Mbengue is from the Baka community in Yenga-Tengué village in southeastern Cameroon, near Lobéké National Park. He’s trying to identify fruit trees, or species used for their medicinal properties. He has a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SALAPOUMBÉ, Cameroon — Freddy Mbengue, a 24-year-old farmer in a black polo shirt and denim shorts, keeps a watchful eye on the forest. Mbengue is from the Baka community in Yenga-Tengué village in southeastern Cameroon, near Lobéké National Park. He’s trying to identify fruit trees, or species used for their medicinal properties. He has a black smartphone and a machete for clearing a grassy path, which he hasn’t used since the rains returned last April. Mbengue uses the Sapelli app on his phone to identify forest resources essential for his community’s well-being. He used it on the morning of Saturday, June 7, to map a wild mango tree in a forest close to the village. The wild mango, whose pit is also used as a spice by the Baka, is one of the nontimber forest products (NTFPs) he regularly maps on his smartphone during his forest hikes. &#8220;When I find fruit trees, honey, medicinal trees, elephant or gorilla tracks, or poachers&#8217; camps in the forest, I open the app, click on the image, film a video, and send it to the park to report what I saw. Afterwards, they go on site to confirm. This allows us to monitor our forests and transfer information to the park staff,&#8221; he says. Members of the Baka community in Yenga-Tengué farming in southeastern Cameroon. Image by Yannick Kenné/Mongabay. The Baka, co-designers of the Sapelli app This technology helps improve Baka access to the forest by mapping important resources for their well-being: fruit trees,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/in-cameroon-forest-mapping-app-helps-baka-protect-biodiversity-and-way-of-life/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/in-cameroon-forest-mapping-app-helps-baka-protect-biodiversity-and-way-of-life/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301323</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>From porter to conservation leader, the inspiring journey of Marlyse Bebeguewa in Cameroon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/from-porter-to-conservation-leader-the-inspiring-journey-of-marlyse-bebeguewa-in-cameroon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/from-porter-to-conservation-leader-the-inspiring-journey-of-marlyse-bebeguewa-in-cameroon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2025 13:00:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David AkanaYannick Kenné]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/23175312/Marlyse-Bebeguewa_1624v2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301198</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and Central Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Forests, Gender, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Mambélé, CAMEROON — When most 18-year-olds envision their future, few imagine carrying heavy loads through dense equatorial forest. Yet for Marlyse Bebeguewa, now a 38-year-old forest monitoring consultant in Cameroon’s Lobéké National Park, that was just the beginning of an impactful conservation career. “I feel fine, as usual. I’m not tired. I’m actually happy to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Mambélé, CAMEROON — When most 18-year-olds envision their future, few imagine carrying heavy loads through dense equatorial forest. Yet for Marlyse Bebeguewa, now a 38-year-old forest monitoring consultant in Cameroon’s Lobéké National Park, that was just the beginning of an impactful conservation career. “I feel fine, as usual. I’m not tired. I’m actually happy to be working with some people — it energizes me,” Bebeguewa told Mongabay Africa when we sat down with her for an interview recently in Lobéké National Park. “I don’t get tired; I’m always on the move and motivated.” Born into a Bantu family in 1987, Bebeguewa was one of eight children raised by her mother after her father’s death. He had fallen ill and died while assisting scientists conducting research in the pristine forests of southeastern Cameroon. The loss plunged the family into financial hardship, forcing Bebeguewa to leave her studies before completing high school. “After dropping out, I had nothing to do,” she explained. “Since my father worked in the forest, I thought I could follow that path.” Bebeguewa’s journey from a school dropout to a conservation professional is among the many underreported stories of women working in conservation across Africa — often bridging the gap between scientific research, community knowledge and forest protection in some of the region’s most remote landscapes. In 2009, as a young girl, she approached the nascent conservation service and joined the porters’ team, carrying supplies into the uncharted rainforest. That same year, she seized a second opportunity: Community&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/from-porter-to-conservation-leader-the-inspiring-journey-of-marlyse-bebeguewa-in-cameroon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/from-porter-to-conservation-leader-the-inspiring-journey-of-marlyse-bebeguewa-in-cameroon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301198</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pandemic-era slump in ivory and pangolin scale trafficking persists, report finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/pandemic-era-slump-in-ivory-and-pangolin-scale-trafficking-persists-report-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/pandemic-era-slump-in-ivory-and-pangolin-scale-trafficking-persists-report-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jun 2025 08:31:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/17082738/White-belliedPangolin_Gabon_BureaubenjaminINaturalistBYNC4.0-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300838</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Angola, Asia, Cameroon, Central Africa, China, Democratic Republic Of Congo, East Asia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Uganda, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Bushmeat, Conservation, Crime, Critically Endangered Species, Ecology, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Hunting, Ivory, Law Enforcement, Mammals, Over-hunting, Pangolins, Poaching, Rainforests, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A recent report surveying seizures of pangolin scales and elephant ivory over the past decade has found a sharp decline following the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from media reports, public documents, and criminal intelligence and investigations, analysts at the Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC) found authorities seized more than 370 metric tons of pangolin scales and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A recent report surveying seizures of pangolin scales and elephant ivory over the past decade has found a sharp decline following the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from media reports, public documents, and criminal intelligence and investigations, analysts at the Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC) found authorities seized more than 370 metric tons of pangolin scales and 193 metric tons of elephant ivory between 2015 and 2024. Seizures began to ramp up in 2015, peaked in 2019, and then declined sharply in 2020. The report found that the pandemic disruption to trade and travel, coinciding with increased enforcement based on intelligence, prompted these declines. Post-pandemic, the decline in trade has continued to hold as countries intensify law enforcement and intelligence gathering. “The report was motivated by a need to present up-to-date findings and offer a current assessment of the evolving criminal dynamics surrounding ivory and pangolin scale trafficking,” Olivia Swaak-Goldman, WJC’s executive director, told Mongabay by email. “From our investigations, we knew there had been some major changes since our last reports … so it was timely to publish updated analysis and highlight these shifts.” Pangolin scales act as armor to protect their body. The WJC report estimates that the 370 tons of pangolin scales seized over the past decade would have come from anywhere between 100,000 and a million pangolins. Image by flowcomm via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). Pangolin scales, used in traditional medicine, are in high demand in East Asia. Over the past decade, as Asian pangolin numbers plummeted,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/pandemic-era-slump-in-ivory-and-pangolin-scale-trafficking-persists-report-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/pandemic-era-slump-in-ivory-and-pangolin-scale-trafficking-persists-report-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300838</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>To survive climate change, scientists say protected areas need ‘climate-smart’ planning</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/to-survive-climate-change-scientists-say-protected-areas-need-climate-smart-planning/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/to-survive-climate-change-scientists-say-protected-areas-need-climate-smart-planning/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jun 2025 16:37:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marina Martinez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/13061201/1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300731</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Atlantic Forest, Australia, Belize, Brazil, Cameroon, Congo Basin, Global, Guiana Shield, Indonesia, Latin America, Mexico, Oceania, Papua New Guinea, Peru, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Adaptation, Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate Change, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Policy, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Politics, Protected Areas, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Protected areas such as national parks, nature reserves and Indigenous lands are the foundation of biodiversity conservation. However, climate change is threatening their effectiveness in safeguarding wildlife, ecosystem services and livelihoods. As many countries work to meet the global target of protecting 30% of the planet’s lands and waters by 2030 — known as the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Protected areas such as national parks, nature reserves and Indigenous lands are the foundation of biodiversity conservation. However, climate change is threatening their effectiveness in safeguarding wildlife, ecosystem services and livelihoods. As many countries work to meet the global target of protecting 30% of the planet’s lands and waters by 2030 — known as the 30&#215;30 goal, a cornerstone of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework — scientists are calling for the incorporation of “climate-smart” approaches into the planning of new and existing protected areas. The 30&#215;30 Progress Tracker tool shows how the global movement to protect 30% of the world’s lands and waters by 2030 is progressing — with around 17% of global land and inland waters, and 8% of oceans currently protected. Image ©&#xfe0f; SkyTruth. “While we know that climate change is affecting biodiversity, for example through distribution range shifts, local extinctions, and community restructuring, designs of PAs [protected areas] don’t usually explicitly account for these effects,” says Kristine Buenafe, a doctoral researcher at the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science at the University of Queensland, Australia, and lead author of a recent review published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity. Buenafe’s paper indicates that conservationists risk protecting areas where species may no longer live in the future, if they don’t factor in climate change dynamics. “We’ve reached a critical time to consider where to best place our new PAs and make sure that they are ‘climate-smart’ (resilient to climate change),” Buenafe said in an email interview. This reasoning is echoed&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/to-survive-climate-change-scientists-say-protected-areas-need-climate-smart-planning/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300731</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Yaoundé, fecal sludge flows through ‘Caca Junction’ streets</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/in-yaounde-fecal-sludge-flows-through-caca-junction-streets/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/in-yaounde-fecal-sludge-flows-through-caca-junction-streets/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jun 2025 21:39:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Fanta Mabo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/09130925/Biyem-Assi-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300403</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and Central Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cities, Development, Environment, Environmental Law, Fellows, Health, Public Health, Social Justice, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Major streets of Yaoundé, the political capital of Cameroon, have turned into open sewers. Every day, hundreds of cubic meters of liquid waste — enough to fill more than an Olympic-sized swimming pool each a week — overwhelm the city&#8217;s only fecal sludge treatment plant. That plant exceeds its capacity by 100% almost every day. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Major streets of Yaoundé, the political capital of Cameroon, have turned into open sewers. Every day, hundreds of cubic meters of liquid waste — enough to fill more than an Olympic-sized swimming pool each a week — overwhelm the city&#8217;s only fecal sludge treatment plant. That plant exceeds its capacity by 100% almost every day. As a result, sewers clog, streets turn into foul-smelling rivers and residents suffocate from unbearable odors that have become part of daily life. In some neighborhoods, excessive human waste spills have turned into nightmares. Faced with this sanitary crisis, the city council is attempting to respond with promises of a new infrastructure — but the situation continues to deteriorate. Stepping through excrement and enduring its stench: this is the reality for residents of Biyem-Assi, one of the most populous neighborhoods, with nearly 49,000 inhabitants, not far from the city center. People are forced to walk through sewers overflown with black, viscous, foul-smelling liquids dribbling in the streets. Pedestrians pinch their noses due to the smell. A junction in this neighborhood has even earned the nickname “Carrefour Caca,” meaning “Excrement Junction.” These relentless waste spills present health risks to residents, as fecal sludge contaminates the environment and nearby drinking water sources, which originally hails from the public water utility, known as CAMWATER. Hence, there are increasing the risks of epidemics in an already vulnerable country like Cameroon. Nadine Pascaline Koagne, a call-box operator at Carrefour Caca, says she is compelled to wear a face mask all&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/in-yaounde-fecal-sludge-flows-through-caca-junction-streets/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300403</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Cameroon’s forgotten forests, gorillas and chimps hang on</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/in-cameroons-forgotten-forests-gorillas-and-chimps-hang-on/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/in-cameroons-forgotten-forests-gorillas-and-chimps-hang-on/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2025 18:33:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/07080723/Gorilla-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298718</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, Chimpanzees, Conservation, Endangered Species, Forest Fragmentation, Forests, Fragmentation, Gorillas, Great Apes, Mammals, Primates, Protected Areas, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At first glance, it’s easy to dismiss the ecological significance of Mbalmayo Forest Reserve in southern Cameroon, one of several degraded forest patches scattered across the country. Located on the outskirts of the town of Mbalmayo, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the country’s capital, Yaoundé, the reserve appears to be too close to human [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At first glance, it’s easy to dismiss the ecological significance of Mbalmayo Forest Reserve in southern Cameroon, one of several degraded forest patches scattered across the country. Located on the outskirts of the town of Mbalmayo, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the country’s capital, Yaoundé, the reserve appears to be too close to human habitation to harbor a wealth of biodiversity — or at least that’s what scientists thought. But when wildlife conservationist Jean Christian Mey Boudoug visited Mbalmayo to pursue fieldwork for his Ph.D. in the late 2010s, he was surprised to see parts of the forest still intact and flourishing. Although his research showed the reserve had lost nearly 30% of its forests to banana and cacao plantations by 2018, when he looked closer, he discovered what many trained eyes had missed. “We found some evidence of what seemed to be chimps or gorilla,” Boudoug told Mongabay, referring to nests he found in the forest. Since the 1960s, just one primate species, the northern talapoin (Miopithecus ogouensis), was known to inhabit Mbalmayo Forest Reserve. Other species found in the area include duikers (Cephalophus spp.), African civets (Civettictis civetta), African palm civets (Nandinia binotata) and other small mammals. There were no photos or videos of other primates. So Boudoug bought a few trail cameras off the internet with his own money and installed them in the reserve. When community members living around Zamakoe Forest Reserve, another similarly degraded forest patch just north of Mbalmayo, told him about chimpanzee&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/in-cameroons-forgotten-forests-gorillas-and-chimps-hang-on/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298718</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Palm oil company uses armed forces, tear gas against protesting villagers in Cameroon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/palm-oil-company-uses-armed-forces-tear-gas-against-protesting-villagers-in-cameroon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/palm-oil-company-uses-armed-forces-tear-gas-against-protesting-villagers-in-cameroon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Apr 2025 19:32:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria SchneiderYannick Kenné]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/04160612/Villager-protest_ApouhCameroon_Ngo-Bissou-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297093</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, and Central Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conflict, Conservation, Crime, Economics, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Rights, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Land Conflict, Palm Oil, Plantations, Poverty, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Villagers in Cameroon have denounced the use of tear gas by authorities to break up their protest on March 25 against the replanting of oil palm trees by the plantation company Socapalm on disputed land in the country’s southwest. Residents of the village of Apouh à Ngog say the land should have been returned to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Villagers in Cameroon have denounced the use of tear gas by authorities to break up their protest on March 25 against the replanting of oil palm trees by the plantation company Socapalm on disputed land in the country’s southwest. Residents of the village of Apouh à Ngog say the land should have been returned to them, and that 6,000 young banana trees they had planted to assert their claim have now been uprooted. Félicité Ngo Bissou, president of the Association of Women Residents of Socapalm- Édéa (known by its French acronym, AFRISE), accused Socapalm’s Luxembourg-based owner, Socfin, of “using a strategy of intimidation and beatings to prevent us from accessing our lands.” “That’s why they came armed to the teeth, uprooted all the bananas, and are planting oil palm trees everywhere,” she told Mongabay by telephone on Apr. 3. AFRISE members and others from the village of Apouh protesting the re-planting of a section of the Socapalm plantation that they say should be returned to them. Image courtesy Félicité Ngo Bissou/AFRISE. Apouh à Ngog is is one of several villages at the center of a long-standing land conflict between residents of the Édéa commune and Socapalm. Villagers say that since the plantation was established in 1969, the company’s activities have steadily encroached upon their ancestral lands, leaving them with little space for farming, housing, or burials. In the case of Apouh, villagers say Socapalm has occupied almost all of their land. Ngo Bissou told Mongabay that the piece of land&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/palm-oil-company-uses-armed-forces-tear-gas-against-protesting-villagers-in-cameroon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297093</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mongabay investigation finds gorilla trade more widespread than previously thought</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/04/mongabay-investigation-finds-gorilla-trade-more-widespread-than-previously-thought/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/04/mongabay-investigation-finds-gorilla-trade-more-widespread-than-previously-thought/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Apr 2025 14:33:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shanna Hanbury]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/10/25092331/Cross-River-Gorilla-gorilla-diehli-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=296802</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Nigeria, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Great Apes, Hunting, Mammals, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A Mongabay investigation has uncovered exclusive details about the clandestine market for gorilla and chimpanzee body parts in northeastern Nigeria, revealing that the trade works in a larger area than previously believed and kills more critically endangered gorillas than previously acknowledged. Speaking to hunters, traffickers and customers of a trade steeped in both taboo and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A Mongabay investigation has uncovered exclusive details about the clandestine market for gorilla and chimpanzee body parts in northeastern Nigeria, revealing that the trade works in a larger area than previously believed and kills more critically endangered gorillas than previously acknowledged. Speaking to hunters, traffickers and customers of a trade steeped in both taboo and tradition, Mongabay contributor Orji Sunday found that prices for ape parts have recently skyrocketed, pushing some of the rarest great apes closer to extinction. The illegal trade targets some of the region’s most threatened species, most crucially the critically endangered Cross River gorilla (Gorilla gorilla diehli), found only in a few isolated forests along the Nigeria-Cameroon border. The IUCN estimates three are killed each year, a devastating rate for a species with fewer than 300 individuals left in the wild. However, hunters told Mongabay they regularly find and kill gorillas in Taraba state, an area not officially known to host gorillas, suggesting either an undocumented local population, or that western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) are making their way to Taraba. Either way, as traffickers consolidate operations and law enforcement in the region is compromised, the threats are mounting. Hunters themselves can also pay a huge social price in exchange for the financial benefit of killing gorillas. Benjamin Dauda, a former hunter from Taraba state, said desperation led him to kill a gorilla in 1997, after his father died and he risked dropping out of school if his tuition wasn’t paid. “I had to kill&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/04/mongabay-investigation-finds-gorilla-trade-more-widespread-than-previously-thought/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296802</doi>				</item>
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