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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/malawi/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Fri, 19 Jun 2026 15:55:00 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>Malawi environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/malawi/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>How one woman&#8217;s farm is a model for small-scale farmers in Malawi</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/how-one-womans-farm-is-a-model-for-small-scale-farmers-in-malawi/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/how-one-womans-farm-is-a-model-for-small-scale-farmers-in-malawi/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jun 2026 05:24:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Naina Rao]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/17052407/4573806241_2de801253b_k-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=321344</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Malawi, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Community Development, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Development, Environment, Farming, Food, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, Natural Resources, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In Malawi’s Chiradzulu district, located in the southern region of the country, Diana Sitima&#8217;s farm shows how a combination of agroecology and secure land ownership can create a thriving commercial enterprise. Many neighboring farmers rely primarily on growing and selling maize. But, on her 3.5-hectare (8.6-acre) farm, Sitima combines diverse crops of fruits and vegetables [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In Malawi’s Chiradzulu district, located in the southern region of the country, Diana Sitima&#8217;s farm shows how a combination of agroecology and secure land ownership can create a thriving commercial enterprise. Many neighboring farmers rely primarily on growing and selling maize. But, on her 3.5-hectare (8.6-acre) farm, Sitima combines diverse crops of fruits and vegetables with fishponds and livestock to protect soil health and reduce the need for synthetic fertilizers, reports Mongabay contributor Charles Mpaka. Sitima started farming as a side hustle in 1993 while working as an office assistant. At the time she used microloans to rent small parcels of land. By 2006, she had saved enough to purchase her own property, a move she describes as the most critical step toward her success. In 2026, Sitima’s farm is &#8220;almost 100% organic,&#8221; she says. She uses a biodigester to turn manure into biogas for cooking and to power an egg incubator, while growing aquatic ferns to supplement livestock feed. “The animals and the crops support each other in various ways,” Sitima tells Mongabay. The farm’s productivity has led to significant economic results. It generates approximately $1,200 in weekly sales and provides permanent employment for six workers. Sitima attributes her growth to persistent learning, having relied on technical advisors from the government for two decades. Beyond her own fields, Sitima serves as a mentor and the chairperson for a local chapter of the Rural Women’s Assembly (RWA), a grassroots network supporting nearly 200,000 small-scale women farmers across 11 countries in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/how-one-womans-farm-is-a-model-for-small-scale-farmers-in-malawi/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/how-one-womans-farm-is-a-model-for-small-scale-farmers-in-malawi/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Malawi officials seek to drop bribery case against illegal wildlife  trafficking convict</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/malawi-officials-seek-to-drop-bribery-case-against-illegal-wildlife-trafficking-convict/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/malawi-officials-seek-to-drop-bribery-case-against-illegal-wildlife-trafficking-convict/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jun 2026 15:24:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/12150841/Lin-Yunhua-in-a-court-appearance-in-May-2026-answering-bribery-charges.-Image-courtesy-of-Lloyd-Mbwana-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=321077</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Malawi]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Politics, Rhinos, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Government officials in Malawi have applied to withdraw bribery charges against wildlife trafficking convict Lin Yunhua, which would pave the way for his release from prison. In July 2025, a presidential pardon set Lin, a Chinese national, free from a 14-year jail sentence he’d received in 2021 connected to illegally trading in wildlife parts such [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Government officials in Malawi have applied to withdraw bribery charges against wildlife trafficking convict Lin Yunhua, which would pave the way for his release from prison. In July 2025, a presidential pardon set Lin, a Chinese national, free from a 14-year jail sentence he’d received in 2021 connected to illegally trading in wildlife parts such as ivory, rhino horn and pangolin scales. Malawian authorities had arrested Lin, his wife and 13 members of his transnational wildlife crime syndicate in 2019. While pardoned, Lin remained in prison on charges of bribing a prison official and a judge to influence his sentencing; offenses he allegedly committed while on trial for the wildlife crimes. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Fostino Maele, has now instructed the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), which brought the bribery charges against Lin, to drop those charges. Maele was previously Lin’s lawyer. Environmental and anti-corruption activists demanded that he recuse himself from the case due to a conflict of interest. But Maele did not. At the time of publishing, Maele had not responded to questions from Mongabay about reasons for dropping the bribery charges and concerns of conflict of interest. “We have a serious contradiction here,” environmentalist Charles Mkoka told Mongabay in a phone interview. “We sit in one room and plan what to do to send a strong message to wildlife traffickers that we will not tolerate their crimes. In another room, some offices are scrapping off cases of those that are engaging in wildlife trafficking. This is regrettable.”&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/malawi-officials-seek-to-drop-bribery-case-against-illegal-wildlife-trafficking-convict/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/06/malawi-officials-seek-to-drop-bribery-case-against-illegal-wildlife-trafficking-convict/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Malawi’s Elephant Marsh: The challenge of protecting a wetland that sustains thousands</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/malawis-elephant-marsh-the-challenge-of-protecting-a-wetland-that-sustains-thousands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/malawis-elephant-marsh-the-challenge-of-protecting-a-wetland-that-sustains-thousands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jun 2026 07:54:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</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/20/2026/06/05103912/14-LARGE-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320638</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Malawi, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Aquaculture, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Economics, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Governance, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ELEPHANT MARSH, Malawi — At 5:30 am, trader Flora Kumilai is squatting before a heap of smoked catfish at Sorjin Market in southern Malawi’s Elephant Marsh, haggling with sellers over the price. “I found gold in fish,” she chuckles as she fills a third cardboard box. “And Elephant Marsh is the mine.” Kumilai, who has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ELEPHANT MARSH, Malawi — At 5:30 am, trader Flora Kumilai is squatting before a heap of smoked catfish at Sorjin Market in southern Malawi’s Elephant Marsh, haggling with sellers over the price. “I found gold in fish,” she chuckles as she fills a third cardboard box. “And Elephant Marsh is the mine.” Kumilai, who has traveled here from Malawi’s commercial capital, Blantyre, will spend a week in the area, visiting other fish markets around the marsh until she has 12 of these boxes, around 900 kilograms (1,990 pounds) of smoked fish. Then she will band together with other traders to hire a truck to transport their goods back to Blantyre, 140 kilometers (87 miles) to the north. But for Kumilai, the final destination for her goods is more than 1,500 km (930 mi) away, at a market in Kasumbalesa on the border between Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. She’s been in business for more than a decade now, mostly trading in produce within Malawi and sometimes importing clothes from Tanzania and South Africa for customers in the city. In October 2024, she changed course, when fellow traders introduced her to the cross-border trade in fish. In Kasumbalesa, most of Kumilai’s customers are from the DRC, she tells Mongabay in Chichewa. “They pay in [U.S.] dollars. When we change it on the black market to Malawi kwacha, it gives us a lot of money. That’s how I’m able to pay for my son’s education [at Chandigarh University in India].”&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/malawis-elephant-marsh-the-challenge-of-protecting-a-wetland-that-sustains-thousands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/malawis-elephant-marsh-the-challenge-of-protecting-a-wetland-that-sustains-thousands/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Malawi, one woman’s farm shows what’s possible with land and support</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-malawi-one-womans-farm-shows-whats-possible-with-land-and-support/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-malawi-one-womans-farm-shows-whats-possible-with-land-and-support/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Jun 2026 11:34:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</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/20/2026/06/04111912/1-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320577</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Malawi, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Community Development, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Farming, Food, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CHIRADZULU, Malawi — Diana Sitima’s farm on the outskirts of Malawi’s commercial capital, Blantyre, is both example and an exception. Where neighboring farmers have planted mostly maize for food and for sale in nearby markets, people drive out to buy sweet potato, pigeon peas and vegetables, bananas and avocado, and eggs produced on Sitima’s 3.5-hectare [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CHIRADZULU, Malawi — Diana Sitima’s farm on the outskirts of Malawi’s commercial capital, Blantyre, is both example and an exception. Where neighboring farmers have planted mostly maize for food and for sale in nearby markets, people drive out to buy sweet potato, pigeon peas and vegetables, bananas and avocado, and eggs produced on Sitima’s 3.5-hectare (8.6-acre) property. Sitima started farming in 1993. Unlike her neighbors, farming was a side hustle to begin with: she worked as an office assistant in Blantyre and her husband had a good job with a bank. Over the next seven years, she and her husband took out a series of micro-loans, renting small parcels of land and hiring people from the village to grow tomatoes for sale in the city. Sitima’s efforts went well, and because her family did not have to rely on their harvest for food or an income at that time, she was able to save the money she earned to take a next step. She quit her office job and acquired a farm of her own in Chiradzulu district, 15 kilometers (9 miles) east of the city. “That’s how I made money to be able to buy this land when it was put up for sale in 2006,” she says. While she was still a part-time farmer, Sitima attended several workshops, where she picked up ideas about agroecological farming — an approach combining crops, agroforestry, fish ponds, poultry and livestock, in a self-reinforcing system that protects soil health and reduces the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-malawi-one-womans-farm-shows-whats-possible-with-land-and-support/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-malawi-one-womans-farm-shows-whats-possible-with-land-and-support/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Malawi government suspends coal miner’s license over river pollution</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/malawi-government-suspends-coal-miners-license-over-river-pollution/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/malawi-government-suspends-coal-miners-license-over-river-pollution/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Apr 2026 11:20:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/20104353/3-2_Coal-mine-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317771</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Malawi, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Critical Minerals, Environment, Governance, Health, Mining, Planetary Health, Social Justice, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Malawi government has suspended the mining license of a coal company for dumping mining waste into two rivers that communities rely on for water. The suspension follows an uproar by one of the communities in Malawi’s coal mining heartland in the north of the country. Community members demanded the closure of the mine for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Malawi government has suspended the mining license of a coal company for dumping mining waste into two rivers that communities rely on for water. The suspension follows an uproar by one of the communities in Malawi’s coal mining heartland in the north of the country. Community members demanded the closure of the mine for contaminating the rivers that supply water for their domestic and agricultural needs. Preliminary investigations by government agencies responsible for water and the environment confirmed the pollution. The northern region, particularly the two districts of Karonga and Rumphi, has Malawi’s largest coal mines. The country depends on coal as a fuel for everything from tobacco curing to cement production. However, mines in the region have a track record of environmental destruction and labor violations, issues that both local rights bodies and global watchdog Human Rights Watch have exposed. In a letter dated April 8, 2026, Malawi’s Mining and Minerals Regulatory Authority (MMRA) announced the immediate suspension of the mining license for Coal &amp; Minerals Group Limited, the company operating the polluting mine. It cited the water contamination as “seriously threatening” the health and safety of the public and the environment. According to the MMRA, investigations by government regulatory agencies found evidence of coal-associated waste discharge into the two rivers, uncontrolled runoff from the mining pits and stockpiles, and poorly designed storage facilities to hold the mining waste, or tailings. The authority also noted that the company did not have critical plans such as a mining operations&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/malawi-government-suspends-coal-miners-license-over-river-pollution/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Malawi says there&#8217;s been no illegal crayfish smuggling for a year</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/04/malawi-hails-win-in-ending-smuggling-of-invasive-crayfish/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/04/malawi-hails-win-in-ending-smuggling-of-invasive-crayfish/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Apr 2026 17:35:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/08172706/2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=317189</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Malawi, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Aquaculture, Fisheries, Freshwater, Illegal Trade, Invasive Species, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Authorities in Malawi have credited stronger monitoring and border controls with effectively ending the smuggling of invasive crayfish into the country, nearly a year after a major seizure from neighboring Zambia. Davie Khumbanyiwa, the fisheries department officer responsible for monitoring, control and surveillance, said the department has increased inspections for redclaw crayfish (Cherax quadricarinatus), a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Authorities in Malawi have credited stronger monitoring and border controls with effectively ending the smuggling of invasive crayfish into the country, nearly a year after a major seizure from neighboring Zambia. Davie Khumbanyiwa, the fisheries department officer responsible for monitoring, control and surveillance, said the department has increased inspections for redclaw crayfish (Cherax quadricarinatus), a species farmed in Zambia but native to Australia and Papua New Guinea. “Our monitoring now also includes fish farms along the borders, spot checks in markets and river systems that are within the catchments with Zambia,” Khumbanyiwa told Mongabay. He said Malawi is collaborating with authorities in Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique. “Our intention is to make sure that we don’t have those exotic species here.”  Jeremiah Kang’ombe, a fisheries expert at the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, said strengthening border controls is key. “Our borders being porous, this is the first line of defense when it comes to smuggling of these alien species. It will ensure some biosafety measures are applied accordingly,” Kang’ombe told Mongabay. In May 2025, Malawian authorities arrested four people from Zambia carrying a quarter-ton of live redclaw, a violation of fisheries and environmental regulations. The contraband was incinerated and the smugglers fined and released. Since then, the Malawi fisheries department says, increased monitoring has not detected any more smuggled crayfish. One of the Zambians told investigators at the time that this was his second trip; earlier in 2025, he had brought 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of redclaw to a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/04/malawi-hails-win-in-ending-smuggling-of-invasive-crayfish/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>In Malawi, farmers rebuild soil and livelihoods through agroecology</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-malawi-farmers-rebuild-soil-and-livelihoods-through-agroecology/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-malawi-farmers-rebuild-soil-and-livelihoods-through-agroecology/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Mar 2026 17:03:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kelvin Tembo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/06113706/5B-A-maize-field-cultivated-using-agroecology-concepts-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315323</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Malawi, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Farming, Food, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MZIMBA, Malawi – For years, life was defined by hardship for Grena Banda and her husband, Daniel Mwafulirwa, in Malawi’s northern district of Rumphi. Their small farm was their only reliable source of livelihood, yet it rarely produced enough. Climate change brought erratic rainfall, sometimes drought and sometimes heavy downpours that washed away fragile topsoil. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MZIMBA, Malawi – For years, life was defined by hardship for Grena Banda and her husband, Daniel Mwafulirwa, in Malawi’s northern district of Rumphi. Their small farm was their only reliable source of livelihood, yet it rarely produced enough. Climate change brought erratic rainfall, sometimes drought and sometimes heavy downpours that washed away fragile topsoil. At the same time, the cost of fertilizer kept rising beyond their reach. Each farming season began with hope but ended with anxiety, as yields rarely matched expectations. Feeding their children, paying school fees and meeting basic household needs felt like an ongoing uphill battle. “Year in, year out we were facing food shortages. We depended on fertilizer, but we could not afford enough of it,” Banda tells Mongabay. “Sometimes, we harvested so little that we did not know how we would manage until the next season.” As food insecurity deepened, Banda’s husband resorted to risky survival strategies. When crops failed and hunger loomed, he began entering the nearby Vwaza Game Reserve to hunt illegally. It was a decision driven by desperation. Mwafulirwa knew the risks — patrols, arrests and fines — but he also knew his children needed food. “I had no choice at the time. When you see your children hungry, you do things you never imagined you would do. Look at these scars,” he says, rolling up his sleeves and showing his wrists. “They are from handcuffs as I was arrested multiple times.” But today, Mwafulirwa no longer takes those risks, as&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-malawi-farmers-rebuild-soil-and-livelihoods-through-agroecology/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Malawi’s solar boom is leaving a toxic legacy of lead waste</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/malawis-solar-boom-is-leaving-a-toxic-legacy-of-lead-waste/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/malawis-solar-boom-is-leaving-a-toxic-legacy-of-lead-waste/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Feb 2026 09:03:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/20080916/MountingSolarPanel_Malawi_JonStrandWikimediaBYSA4-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314494</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Malawi]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Development, Development, Economics, Energy, Environment, Environmental Policy, Governance, NGOs, Poisoning, Renewable Energy, Solar Power, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[-15.778962096499813, 35.01512751075972]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BLANTYRE, Malawi — On Lagson Gumbo’s side of the stream, BCA is a slum. Running parallel to the trickle of murky water is a narrow, dusty street lined with small, unplastered houses and shops trading in groceries, cheap alcohol and artisan services for residents of this crowded sector of Malawi’s principal commercial city, Blantyre. On [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[BLANTYRE, Malawi — On Lagson Gumbo’s side of the stream, BCA is a slum. Running parallel to the trickle of murky water is a narrow, dusty street lined with small, unplastered houses and shops trading in groceries, cheap alcohol and artisan services for residents of this crowded sector of Malawi’s principal commercial city, Blantyre. On the stream’s other bank is an affluent neighborhood with the same name. In the wealthy BCA, Blantyre’s City Council provides waste collection services, removing rubbish to a site on the city’s outskirts. It’s an open landfill where people from low-income settlements scavenge for whatever they find worth for reuse or sale. On the side where Gumbo lives and works, there’s no formal waste management. Residents dump rubbish from homes and shops into the stream. Kitchen waste and used nappies, old tires and plastic bottles and carrier bags get thrown into gullies and any other unoccupied spaces nearby. There are also batteries. At his makeshift workshop, Gumbo sorts through metal plates he has extracted from expired lead-acid batteries. Before him is a smoldering charcoal stove and a plastic bag filled with pellets of lead — also extracted from batteries. He puts the lead in a small tin container, pours acid over it and sets it on the stove to heat. “These pieces were positive cells in the batteries,” he says, gesturing to the plates he’s laid out on a small worktable. “When a battery stops functioning, it is not the negative electrodes that have expired. It&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/malawis-solar-boom-is-leaving-a-toxic-legacy-of-lead-waste/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<title>‘A big no’: Opposition grows to proposed mine in Malawi’s newest UNESCO site</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-big-no-opposition-grows-to-proposed-mine-in-malawis-newest-unesco-site/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-big-no-opposition-grows-to-proposed-mine-in-malawis-newest-unesco-site/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Nov 2025 23:08:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/04215636/Adobe-Express-file-23-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308825</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Malawi, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Critical Minerals, Critically Endangered Species, Ecotourism, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Mining, Montane Forests, Mountains, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, Trees, Tropical Forests, and UNESCO World Heritage Site]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A controversial proposed mining project in Malawi’s newest UNESCO World Heritage Site is raising opposition from traditional chiefs and conservationists. Mount Mulanje in southern Malawi is a renowned biodiversity hotspot, a vital source of freshwater, and is of huge spiritual significance to the communities that live on and around it. In June, the mountain was [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A controversial proposed mining project in Malawi’s newest UNESCO World Heritage Site is raising opposition from traditional chiefs and conservationists. Mount Mulanje in southern Malawi is a renowned biodiversity hotspot, a vital source of freshwater, and is of huge spiritual significance to the communities that live on and around it. In June, the mountain was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Malawi’s third. Mulanje conservationists say they fear that proposed mining projects on the mountain’s high-altitude plateau would threaten the mountain’s ecological integrity, jeopardize tourism development and undo hard-won gains in sustainable development. A sacred mountain rich in endemic species Mount Mulanje is a massive inselberg in southern Malawi, its forested slopes rising steeply to a broad plateau with 13 peaks, reaching an altitude of 3,002 meters (9,849 feet) at its highest point. Nine perennial rivers drain from the upper slopes, and the mountain is home to more than 70 endemic species, including the critically endangered Mulanje cedar (Widdringtonia whytei), Malawi’s national tree. The critically endangered Mulanje cedar (Widdringtonia whytei), also called the Mulanje cypress, is found only on Mount Mulanje between 1,830 and 2,550 meters (6,004 to 8,366 feet). It is threatened by logging and human-caused wildfires. Image by Amanita Phalloides via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). More than a million people live in the surrounding districts of Mulanje and Phalombe, and rely on the mountain and its forests for clean water, firewood, edible forest products, protection from storms, income from tourism, and more. The mountain is considered sacred&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/a-big-no-opposition-grows-to-proposed-mine-in-malawis-newest-unesco-site/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<title>In Malawi, a rural community shines bright with 100% solar power milestone</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-malawi-a-rural-community-shines-bright-with-100-solar-power-milestone/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-malawi-a-rural-community-shines-bright-with-100-solar-power-milestone/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Oct 2025 12:04:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Madalitso Wills Kateta]]>
						</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/20/2025/10/30101432/2426874c-15a2-4d41-9465-71bb5d70474c-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308571</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Malawi, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Development, Development, Economics, Energy, Environment, Environmental Policy, Governance, NGOs, Renewable Energy, Solar Power, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LILONGWE — Four years ago, a U.K.-based charity, SolarAid, set out to provide solar-powered electricity to every home in Kasakula, a village around 90 kilometers, or 56 miles, from Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe. The project was aimed at demonstrating the potential for distributing and maintaining renewable energy in rural Africa. Today, SolarAid says it has installed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LILONGWE — Four years ago, a U.K.-based charity, SolarAid, set out to provide solar-powered electricity to every home in Kasakula, a village around 90 kilometers, or 56 miles, from Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe. The project was aimed at demonstrating the potential for distributing and maintaining renewable energy in rural Africa. Today, SolarAid says it has installed solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in all of the nearly 9,000 households in the village. Kasakula has a population of just over 20,000. Most of the village’s inhabitants grow crops like maize, beans and cassava for their own consumption. Like many other settlements of this size, it boasts of two public secondary schools, 10 primary schools and a health center. It also has various businesses including barbershops, video showrooms, and shops selling assorted groceries. And, also like many other settlements of this size across Africa, few Kasakula homes are connected to the national electricity grid. Residents here, like many of their counterparts in other rural parts of the continent, rely on paraffin lamps or candles for light after dark. This has also meant traders in the area&#8217;s open market needed to shut down earlier. When it launched, SolarAid’s project aimed to make bright, safe, affordable energy available to every household. &#8220;We chose Kasakula because it is a remote and low-income community,” Brave Mhonie, the charity’s general manager in Malawi, told Mongabay by phone. ”We wanted to test the viability of our model in such a setting, and see if it was scalable to other parts of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/in-malawi-a-rural-community-shines-bright-with-100-solar-power-milestone/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Local divers pick away at Lake Malawi’s underwater garbage problem</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/local-divers-pick-away-at-lake-malawis-underwater-garbage-problem/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/local-divers-pick-away-at-lake-malawis-underwater-garbage-problem/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Oct 2025 16:07:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/14153643/1_Banner-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307565</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Malawi]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Lakes, Pollution, Redd, Waste, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CAPE MACLEAR, Malawi — On a clear August morning, three scuba divers disappeared under the waters of Lake Malawi. Above them, serenity: The clear water rippled gently, spick-and-span Cape Maclear Beach was empty of tourists and the shoreline trees stood calm. Half an hour later, having covered an area just 30 meters (100 feet) from [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CAPE MACLEAR, Malawi — On a clear August morning, three scuba divers disappeared under the waters of Lake Malawi. Above them, serenity: The clear water rippled gently, spick-and-span Cape Maclear Beach was empty of tourists and the shoreline trees stood calm. Half an hour later, having covered an area just 30 meters (100 feet) from the beach, the divers emerged, each hauling a bag half-full with garbage. “This is only a fraction of what’s down there, yet we also cleaned the area last week. That’s our challenge,” one of the divers, Felix Sinosi, told Mongabay. He has been a scuba diver on this shoreline for the past eight years and now trains others. “You won’t believe the waste volumes down there. … And I am talking about the Cape Maclear area only,” said Sinosi, age 31. Sinosi and 14 other divers are part of an underwater garbage collection project in Lake Malawi National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the southern end of the lake. The park is known for its radiant cichlids (family Cichlidae), the lake’s prized ornamental fish that have drawn global research interest for their explosive diversity. Local environmentalists say the garbage problem likely extends throughout Lake Malawi, the world’s fourth-largest freshwater lake by volume. Kenneth McKaye, an American marine biologist whose research led to the national park’s establishment in 1980, introduced the underwater garbage collection initiative in 2023 after noticing the problem during dives with tourists. “Visibility was poor,” Violet Zacharia, manager and volunteer coordinator&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/local-divers-pick-away-at-lake-malawis-underwater-garbage-problem/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Growing trees on farms boosts nutrition in rural Malawi</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/growing-trees-on-farms-boosts-nutrition-in-rural-malawi/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/growing-trees-on-farms-boosts-nutrition-in-rural-malawi/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Sep 2025 13:19:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/16232336/baobab1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306090</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Malawi]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Food, food security, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Health, Hunger, Public Health, Subsistence Agriculture, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Planting fruit trees on farms improves dietary quality, according to new research from Malawi that tracked nearly 1,000 households over 10 years. The study, published in Conservation Letters, found that families who had trees on their farms ate more fruits and vegetables than those without trees. The research examined data from 936 households across Malawi [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Planting fruit trees on farms improves dietary quality, according to new research from Malawi that tracked nearly 1,000 households over 10 years. The study, published in Conservation Letters, found that families who had trees on their farms ate more fruits and vegetables than those without trees. The research examined data from 936 households across Malawi between 2010 and 2020, using surveys from the World Bank&#8217;s Living Standards Measurement Study. Families with trees on their farms had a 3% increase in vegetable consumption compared with those without trees. For every additional tree species a household owned, fruit consumption increased by 5%. While these percentages may seem modest, they represent meaningful progress given the extremely low baseline consumption levels. The World Health Organization recommends eating 400 grams (14 ounces, or five servings) of fruits and vegetables daily, but the study found rural Malawians averaged only 51 g (1.8 oz) of fruit per person each day. Many people in sub-Saharan Africa don&#8217;t eat enough fruits and vegetables. In Malawi, about 18% of the population is undernourished, and vitamin deficiencies are common. &#8220;These are small effect sizes, but the positive relationship demonstrates that having on-farm trees may improve fruit and vegetable consumption for rural smallholders,&#8221; Charlotte Hall, the study&#8217;s lead author and a lecturer at the University of Stirling in Scotland, told Mongabay. An important caveat of the study is that most households were surveyed during the dry season when fewer trees produced fruit. However, researchers &#8220;still found a relationship between having trees on&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/growing-trees-on-farms-boosts-nutrition-in-rural-malawi/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<title>Open burning of plastic is an escalating public health threat, say experts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/open-burning-of-plastic-is-an-escalating-public-health-threat-say-experts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/open-burning-of-plastic-is-an-escalating-public-health-threat-say-experts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jul 2025 16:19:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/16132324/Image_9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302653</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Central America, Ghana, Guatemala, Malawi, Southeast Asia, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Fires, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Health, Microplastics, Planetary Health, Plastic, Pollution, Public Health, Recycling, Toxicology, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When Tiwonge Mzumara-Gawa was a child, her mother sent her to market with a basket woven from grasses. “But now we don&#8217;t do that,” she says, because plastic has taken over most utilitarian purposes in today’s Malawi. “You go and you get a plastic carrier, and they&#8217;re usually not reusable plastics.” In many Malawi communities, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When Tiwonge Mzumara-Gawa was a child, her mother sent her to market with a basket woven from grasses. “But now we don&#8217;t do that,” she says, because plastic has taken over most utilitarian purposes in today’s Malawi. “You go and you get a plastic carrier, and they&#8217;re usually not reusable plastics.” In many Malawi communities, and across poorer nations worldwide, there is no waste collection or proper disposal. Instead, families faced with an onslaught of cheap plastic products — including single-use bags, bottles and diapers — commonly burn the waste in pits beside their homes. With a growing number of developing-world communities living beneath a pall of toxic petrochemical plastic smoke, Mzumara-Gawa is sounding the alarm. Now an ecologist at the Malawi University of Science and Technology and an environmental advocate with the NGO Tearfund, she says the widespread open burning of plastics is taking an increasingly heavy public health and environmental toll that is largely being ignored. Experts warn that many communities are resorting to the burning of plastic waste in households as fuel, while burning by industry to make energy is also becoming common. Add to this the vast volume of plastic waste dumped by the Global North on the Global South — waste that often ends up being incinerated without pollution controls. A dump site in Malaysia, a nation that recently blocked U.S. plastic waste exports. Shipments of plastic products and plastic waste from the Global North to the Global South are creating a flood of plastics&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/open-burning-of-plastic-is-an-escalating-public-health-threat-say-experts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>‘Shock and alarm’ as Malawi pardons wildlife trafficker Lin Yunhua</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/shock-and-alarm-as-malawi-pardons-wildlife-trafficker-lin-yunhua/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/shock-and-alarm-as-malawi-pardons-wildlife-trafficker-lin-yunhua/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jul 2025 13:13:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Madalitso Wills Kateta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/16130444/Yunhua-Lin-left-at-the-court-in-Malawi-28-Sept-2021-c-EIA-scaled-1-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=302651</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Malawi]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Green, Illegal Trade, Pangolins, Rhinos, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LILONGWE — Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera has granted a presidential pardon to Lin Yunhua, a Chinese national sentenced to 14 years in prison for wildlife trafficking. Lin was among 37 inmates who received a presidential pardon as part of Malawi’s 61st independence anniversary celebrations on July 6. Conservationists have since expressed their disappointment, warning that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LILONGWE — Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera has granted a presidential pardon to Lin Yunhua, a Chinese national sentenced to 14 years in prison for wildlife trafficking. Lin was among 37 inmates who received a presidential pardon as part of Malawi’s 61st independence anniversary celebrations on July 6. Conservationists have since expressed their disappointment, warning that Lin’s pardon might demotivate frontline officers working to protect Malawi’s wildlife. “The news came as a shock to some of us,” Brighton Kumchedwa, director of Malawi&#8217;s Department of National Parks and Wildlife, told Mongabay by phone. “For us in the conservation sector, we didn&#8217;t expect a high-profile wildlife criminal of his caliber to be set free like that.” While authorities have not published the pardon list, news of Lin’s impending pardon started spreading as early as April this year. Authorities at the time described the possibility as speculation, but more recently British newspaper The Telegraph reported that prison officials familiar with the pardon list confirmed that both Lin and his wife, Qin Hua Zhang, were included. Malawian authorities arrested Lin, Zhang and 12 other members of a notorious wildlife crime syndicate that operated across Southern Africa, in 2019. At the time, Lin and Zhang were found in possession of elephant tusks, hippopotamus teeth, pangolin scales and rhino horns, and their arrest was welcomed by local and international civil society, some describing it as “the destruction of the Lin-Zhang gang.” Zhang was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2020; Lin received a 14-year sentence in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/07/shock-and-alarm-as-malawi-pardons-wildlife-trafficker-lin-yunhua/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>High-profile wildlife trafficking case tests Malawi’s conservation commitment</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/high-profile-wildlife-trafficking-case-tests-malawis-conservation-commitment/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/high-profile-wildlife-trafficking-case-tests-malawis-conservation-commitment/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jun 2025 11:23:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Madalitso Wills Kateta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/10111513/pangolin-africa-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300485</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Malawi]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Illegal Trade, Law Enforcement, Mammals, Organized Crime, Pangolins, Poaching, Rhinos, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LILONGWE — In 2021, Malawian authorities found Lin Yunhua and 14 other members of an international trafficking syndicate in possession of pangolin scales, rhino horns, and elephant and hippo ivory. Lin, a Chinese national, was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Since his sentencing, Lin has been linked with several corrupt efforts to avoid the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LILONGWE — In 2021, Malawian authorities found Lin Yunhua and 14 other members of an international trafficking syndicate in possession of pangolin scales, rhino horns, and elephant and hippo ivory. Lin, a Chinese national, was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Since his sentencing, Lin has been linked with several corrupt efforts to avoid the full consequences of his sentencing — seemingly even obtaining a pardon — but the Southern African country’s criminal justice system has held firm, a sign of the successful strengthening of wildlife law enforcement. A 2015 report written for Malawi’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife of Malawi described the country’s position as a transit hub for trafficking, and the 2021 arrests and successful prosecution of traffickers was welcomed by civil society. “We’re very pleased to see this notorious wildlife crime kingpin finally face the music with a stiff sentence of 14 years in prison and trust that it sends a crystal-clear message to other wildlife criminals plundering Africa’s natural resources that they are not beyond the reach of the law,” Mary Rice, executive director of the U.K.-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), said in a press release at the time. “I believe today’s judgment and the destruction of the Lin-Zhang gang will prove to be a pivotal moment in Malawi’s commitment to bring high-level wildlife criminals to justice.” Lin Yunhua, right, pictured with another member of the trafficking syndicate, Jimmy Mkwelezalemba. Mkwelezalemba was sentenced to three years in prison for pangolin smuggling in 2019. Image from&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/high-profile-wildlife-trafficking-case-tests-malawis-conservation-commitment/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Wildlife crime crackdown in jeopardy worldwide after US funding cuts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/wildlife-crime-crackdown-in-jeopardy-worldwide-after-us-funding-cuts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/wildlife-crime-crackdown-in-jeopardy-worldwide-after-us-funding-cuts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 May 2025 01:51:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn CowanCharles MpakaGerald FlynnHans Nicholas JongPhilip JacobsonSpoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/21155516/guarding-elephants-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299424</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, China, Global, Indonesia, Java, Malawi, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, Thailand, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Crime, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Finance, Forestry, Forests, Funding, Governance, Poaching, Politics, Protected Areas, Rhinos, Tigers, Wildlife, Wildlife Rangers, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2019, Malawi registered a massive win in the fight against the illegal wildlife trade. Intelligence-driven operations culminated in the arrest of more than a dozen members of the Chinese-led “Lin-Zhang gang,” one of Southern Africa’s most prolific trafficking syndicates. Found to be in possession of hundreds of pieces of elephant ivory, rhino horn, pangolin [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2019, Malawi registered a massive win in the fight against the illegal wildlife trade. Intelligence-driven operations culminated in the arrest of more than a dozen members of the Chinese-led “Lin-Zhang gang,” one of Southern Africa’s most prolific trafficking syndicates. Found to be in possession of hundreds of pieces of elephant ivory, rhino horn, pangolin scales and hippo teeth, the traffickers were sentenced to between 18 months and 14 years in prison. The case was hailed as a milestone in Malawi’s growing capacity to curb wildlife crime. With help from international donors, the country has set up a forest and landscape monitoring center, trained police, judicial and anticorruption officials on forest and wildlife crime, and achieved major reductions in elephant ivory and pangolin scale trafficking — not bad for a nation with a GDP per capita of $602 a year. Such progress, however, is now in jeopardy following the Trump administration’s sudden shutdown earlier this year of USAID and its sweeping freezes of conservation grant programs administered through several federal agencies. U.S. funds channeled through NGOs in Malawi have helped equip frontline law enforcers and strengthen wildlife laws, according to Brighton Kumchedwa, director of Malawi’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife. Taking down the Chinese syndicate, he told Mongabay, “would not have been possible” without this assistance. But in Malawi and elsewhere, the abrupt cuts now threaten to diminish this momentum, thrusting wildlife officials into what Kumchedwa describes as a “difficult situation.” Elephant tusks confiscated by forest officials in Uganda,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/wildlife-crime-crackdown-in-jeopardy-worldwide-after-us-funding-cuts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>Community-led system boosts fisheries in a corner of fast-depleting Lake Malawi</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/05/community-led-system-boosts-fisheries-in-a-corner-of-fast-depleting-lake-malawi/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/05/community-led-system-boosts-fisheries-in-a-corner-of-fast-depleting-lake-malawi/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2025 14:36:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Kristine Sabillo]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/01154006/7.1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=299088</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Malawi, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Aquaculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Culture, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Governance, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Illegal Fishing, Indigenous Peoples, Lakes, Overfishing, Politics, Protected Areas, Traditional Knowledge, Water, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Lake Malawi’s fish stocks are declining, but one community stands apart: around Mbenje Island, a traditional fisheries management plan has ensured thriving fish populations for generations, Mongabay contributor Charles Mpaka reports. Landlocked Malawi is highly dependent on the lake, which supplies 90% of the country’s fish catch; more than 1.6 million people rely directly or [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Lake Malawi’s fish stocks are declining, but one community stands apart: around Mbenje Island, a traditional fisheries management plan has ensured thriving fish populations for generations, Mongabay contributor Charles Mpaka reports. Landlocked Malawi is highly dependent on the lake, which supplies 90% of the country’s fish catch; more than 1.6 million people rely directly or indirectly on the lake for employment. The lake is home to roughly 1,000 fish species. However, fish stocks have been decreasing with population growth, climate change and habitat degradation. One exception to the decline is near Mbenje Island in the southern part of the lake, 10 kilometers (6 miles) from shore. There are no permanent settlements on the island, which is only inhabited during the fishing season, Mpaka writes. To help improve fish stocks in the lake as a whole, the government is looking at the local fishing community’s fisheries management plan, in place since the 1950s. The Mbenje Island Management Committee is led by Senior Chief Makanjira, a highly respected traditional leader. His grandfather, also named Senior Chief Makanjira, led the community to establish fisheries guidelines in the 1950s, when migrant commercial fishers first requested to fish from the island. To ensure the protection of fish stocks, the 1950s Senior Chief Makanjira instituted a four-month fishing ban from December to March, two months longer than the government-mandated close season. “It was also because the chief cared about fishers’ safety,” committee member Rabson Chipangula tells Mpaka. “As rainy season starts in December, these islands experience fierce&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/05/community-led-system-boosts-fisheries-in-a-corner-of-fast-depleting-lake-malawi/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>Fish-tracking robot aims to make fishing more sustainable in developing nations</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/fish-tracking-robot-aims-to-revolutionize-fishing-sustainability-in-developing-nations/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/fish-tracking-robot-aims-to-revolutionize-fishing-sustainability-in-developing-nations/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Mar 2025 17:21:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/01153948/4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296153</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Malawi]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community Development, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Developing Countries, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Food, food security, Freshwater Fish, Lakes, Overfishing, Research, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LAKE CHILWA, Malawi — When fishers on Lake Chilwa cast their nets, they don’t know whether there are fish below, or something else entirely. “We don’t go out in the lake to check what we have where. We go to fish,” Anderson Thembwa, a fisher since 1994 and chair of the Lake Chilwa Fisheries Association, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LAKE CHILWA, Malawi — When fishers on Lake Chilwa cast their nets, they don’t know whether there are fish below, or something else entirely. “We don’t go out in the lake to check what we have where. We go to fish,” Anderson Thembwa, a fisher since 1994 and chair of the Lake Chilwa Fisheries Association, tells Mongabay. The cooperative of 36 committees comprising fishers and community leaders manages fishing on the lake, landlocked Malawi’s second-largest fishing ground. “You pull the net and you realize all you have down there are frogs, crabs, juvenile fish and debris,” Thembwa says. A new system could help them check not only what kind of fish they have and where, but also how much. That way they can avoid the overfishing that’s threatening livelihoods on Lake Chilwa and elsewhere, as well as scooping up all those unwanted lake dwellers in their nets. The system in question? It’s not a net, but a robot: A solar-powered, transparent cylinder a meter (3 feet) long that can roam the waters autonomously for five days at a stretch, counting fish. “Our project, which we call SOUND, was aimed to solve these problems by in situ measuring number of fish, detecting schools of fish, estimating size of individual fish, thereby the biomass of the fish,” Roee Diamant, head of the Underwater Acoustics and Navigation Laboratory at the University of Haifa in Israel, tells Mongabay. He and his team developed the robot for use by regulatory authorities or fishers’ groups like&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/fish-tracking-robot-aims-to-revolutionize-fishing-sustainability-in-developing-nations/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>17 dead as Cyclone Jude wreaks havoc in East Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/03/17-dead-as-cyclone-jude-wreaks-havoc-in-east-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/03/17-dead-as-cyclone-jude-wreaks-havoc-in-east-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Mar 2025 21:02:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kristine Sabillo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/19205556/Jude_2025-03-13_MODIS-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=296135</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Madagascar, Malawi, and Mozambique]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Storms]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Sixteen people died in Mozambique and one in Madagascar after Cyclone Jude pivoted through the region last week, according to the latest European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) report. More than 130 people were injured while four were recorded missing as of March 18. ECHO estimates more than 10,500 people were displaced in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Sixteen people died in Mozambique and one in Madagascar after Cyclone Jude pivoted through the region last week, according to the latest European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO) report. More than 130 people were injured while four were recorded missing as of March 18. ECHO estimates more than 10,500 people were displaced in Madagascar and almost 5,000 in Malawi. In all, at least 400,000 people were affected across the three hit African countries. Cyclone Jude first made landfall in northern Madagascar on March 8, displacing thousands who had to stay in temporary shelters, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported. After gaining strength as it moved westward over the Mozambique Channel, the cyclone made landfall in Mozambique’s coastal district Mossuril in Nampula province on March 10, bringing maximum sustained winds of 140 kph (about 87 mph) and gusts of up to 195 kph (121 mph), weather reports show. It also brought exceptionally heavy downpours as it hovered over Nampula, with rainfall exceeding 250 millimeters (9.8 inches) in 24 hours, causing flooding in the coastal districts. Flights were canceled and delayed while 900 houses were destroyed in Mozambique, according to The Guardian. The World Food Programme also recorded the flooding of 49,593 hectares (122,547 acres) of cropland in Monapo, Nampula. Also in Nampula, a cholera outbreak was observed in Larde, OCHA wrote. A UNICEF spokesperson told Bloomberg that the river basins and dams in Nampula were already full, which made the flooding worse. The news&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/03/17-dead-as-cyclone-jude-wreaks-havoc-in-east-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>In Malawi reserve, contraceptives help balance lion and prey populations</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/in-malawi-reserve-contraceptives-help-balance-lion-and-prey-populations/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/in-malawi-reserve-contraceptives-help-balance-lion-and-prey-populations/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Mar 2025 16:26:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Ochieng' Ogodo]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/19150017/Lions-%40-Majete-Picture-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296087</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Malawi]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecology, Lions, National Parks, Protected Areas, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BLANTYRE, Malawi ― In 2012, African Parks, a conservation nonprofit, brought three lions to Malawi&#8217;s Majete Wildlife Reserve, ending the big cats&#8217; 30-year absence from the protected area. Since then, according to park officials, the number of lions has increased to about 80-100 today, raising the risk of prey depletion and conflict between humans and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BLANTYRE, Malawi ― In 2012, African Parks, a conservation nonprofit, brought three lions to Malawi&#8217;s Majete Wildlife Reserve, ending the big cats&#8217; 30-year absence from the protected area. Since then, according to park officials, the number of lions has increased to about 80-100 today, raising the risk of prey depletion and conflict between humans and wildlife as the animals flee from the top predators. To minimize these risks and ensure balance in the ecosystem, African Parks has been administering contraceptives since 2022 to reduce the productivity of some lionesses and control the population in the 700-square-kilometer (270-square-mile) wildlife reserve, and that has led to a reduction in cub births. “The management strategy focuses on maintaining ecological balance, ensuring that predator and prey populations remain sustainable,” says Craig Thomas, conservation manager at the reserve. Lions are apex predators and their rising number in Majete Wildlife Reserve raises the risk of prey depletion. Image courtesy of Majete Wildlife Reserve. Established in 1951, Majete Wildlife Reserve in southern Malawi suffered decades of rampant charcoal production and poaching that wiped out all rhinos by the 1980s, all large carnivores by the 1990s and all elephants by 1992 when the last one was poached, according to the wildlife reserve&#8217;s conservation history. In 2003, African Parks signed an agreement with the Malawi government and assumed management of the reserve, the first of the 23 protected areas currently under African Parks’ responsibility in 13 African countries including Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of Congo, the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/in-malawi-reserve-contraceptives-help-balance-lion-and-prey-populations/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Reforesting Malawi’s ‘Island in the Sky’ to save its vanishing woodlands</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/reforesting-malawis-island-in-the-sky-to-save-its-vanishing-woodlands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/reforesting-malawis-island-in-the-sky-to-save-its-vanishing-woodlands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Feb 2025 00:14:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/27235116/2-Kazembe_-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295133</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Regenerative landscapes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Malawi, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Dry Forests, Endangered Species, Environment, Fires, Forests, Green, Old Growth Forests, Plants, Primary Forests, Reforestation, Savannas, Timber, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In March 2023, Tropical Cyclone Freddy hit Malawi, unleashing six months of rain in six days. Freddy was the largest and longest-lasting tropical cyclone ever recorded, and the impacts were catastrophic. In Malawi, more than 600 people died, and more than 650,000 were displaced. Communities around Mount Mulanje, in the country’s south, were some of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In March 2023, Tropical Cyclone Freddy hit Malawi, unleashing six months of rain in six days. Freddy was the largest and longest-lasting tropical cyclone ever recorded, and the impacts were catastrophic. In Malawi, more than 600 people died, and more than 650,000 were displaced. Communities around Mount Mulanje, in the country’s south, were some of the hardest hit. Once heavily forested, parts of the mountain have been left denuded or bare from illegal logging, fires and demand for firewood. Without trees to slow the rain’s descent, slopes turned to rivers of rocks and mud, destroying villages and smothering fields. For many, Cyclone Freddy was a turning point, says Kondwani Chamwala, an environmental educator whose family home sits in the mountain’s shadow. “The communities, most of them are now seeing the importance of protecting what is there,” he says. Often called the “Island in the Sky,” Mt. Mulanje rises steeply out of the plains like a rocky fortress. It’s massive, about 64,000 hectares (158,000 acres) around, with a broad, high-altitude plateau from which rise 13 peaks, the tallest reaching an elevation of 3,002 meters (9,849 feet). Miombo woodlands, a type of forest common across parts of Southern Africa, dominate the lower slopes. But as you ascend, you enter an otherworldly place: fog-laden forests and grasslands, home to nearly 70 endemic plant species. Nine major rivers originate on the mountain’s slopes, and there are hundreds of streams. In local lore, it’s a place of spirits. Mount Mulanje, known as the ‘Island in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/reforesting-malawis-island-in-the-sky-to-save-its-vanishing-woodlands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<title>African nations commit to electricity for 300 million people by 2030</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/01/african-nations-commit-to-electricity-for-300-million-people-by-2030/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/01/african-nations-commit-to-electricity-for-300-million-people-by-2030/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2025 09:30:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kristine Sabillo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/30092722/39A1286-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?post_type=short-article&#038;p=293628</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Chad, Cote D'Ivoire, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Banking, Clean Energy, Climate Change, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Finance, Geothermal Energy, Governance, Green, Hydroelectric Power, Impact Of Climate Change, Politics, Pollution, Protected Areas, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The heads of 30 African nations have endorsed a plan to provide “reliable, affordable and sustainable” electricity to 300 million people across the continent over the next five years. The leaders signed the Dar es Salaam Energy Declaration at the “Mission 300” energy summit held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, this week. The mission was [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The heads of 30 African nations have endorsed a plan to provide “reliable, affordable and sustainable” electricity to 300 million people across the continent over the next five years. The leaders signed the Dar es Salaam Energy Declaration at the “Mission 300” energy summit held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, this week. The mission was launched in April 2024 by the World Bank, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and its partners. Vincent Nmehielle, secretary-general of the AfDB, told the summit that the declaration outlines commitments to reform the energy sector through practical actions like expanding power infrastructure, incorporating more renewable energy, and incentivizing private sector participation. The electrification boost is also expected to create new jobs. The declaration will be submitted for formal adoption at the African Union Summit in February, the World Bank said in a statement. Twelve countries — Chad, Côte d&#8217;Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Zambia — also presented their country-specific “national energy compacts,” expected to be in place by the end of 2025. These compacts include specific goals and timelines to expand electricity access, address utility efficiency, increase renewable energy generation, attract private investment, and provide clean cooking solutions. Tanzania’s compact, for example, aims to provide electricity to an additional 8.3 million households by 2030, focusing on rural and underserved areas. It also aims to expand the share of renewables in its energy mix from the current 61.8% to 75% by 2030. This will be driven&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2025/01/african-nations-commit-to-electricity-for-300-million-people-by-2030/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Do cheetahs scavenge? Yes, research says, but also not really</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/do-cheetahs-scavenge-yes-research-says-but-also-not-really/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/do-cheetahs-scavenge-yes-research-says-but-also-not-really/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jan 2025 20:13:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dann Okoth]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Ochieng' Ogodo]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/24124921/kenya_3145-e1737722979172-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293378</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Kenya, Malawi, and South Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Big Cats, Carnivores, Cats, Cheetahs, Conservation, Environment, Predators, Research, Science, and Top Predators]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[NAIROBI — Cheetahs are known to be selective in their feeding habits — “clean eaters” that only go after the prime parts of their kill, such as the liver. But a new study has found that the large, slender, spotted cat found in Africa and parts of Western Asia can also scavenge. Unlike other African [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[NAIROBI — Cheetahs are known to be selective in their feeding habits — “clean eaters” that only go after the prime parts of their kill, such as the liver. But a new study has found that the large, slender, spotted cat found in Africa and parts of Western Asia can also scavenge. Unlike other African predators, cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) rarely search for and collect remains they did not kill themselves, but the study published this month in the journal Ecology and Evolution observed cheetahs scavenging between 2019 and 2023 in three different protected areas: Tswalu Kalahari Reserve and Madikwe Game Reserve in South Africa, and Liwonde National Park in Malawi. “The observations made in this paper were very interesting to us and show that there could be potential for further studies into it,” said lead author Elizabeth Kennedy Overton, a researcher at Nelson Mandela University in South Africa. Cheetahs were previously thought not to scavenge, with few reports in the scientific literature of them doing so, according to the researchers. “We wanted just to say, look it does happen and it would be interesting to find out the reasons behind it,” added Overton, who currently is doing a Ph.D. on cheetahs in the Kalahari. According to the study, all the adult cheetahs observed scavenging were animals that had previously been relocated from different areas. During the relocation process, they were temporarily put in holding enclosures known as bomas, where they were provided with supplementary feed in the form of carrion.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/do-cheetahs-scavenge-yes-research-says-but-also-not-really/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>How a lineage of chiefs built a thriving fish oasis in Lake Malawi</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/how-a-lineage-of-chiefs-built-a-thriving-fish-oasis-in-lake-malawi/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/how-a-lineage-of-chiefs-built-a-thriving-fish-oasis-in-lake-malawi/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Nov 2024 08:00:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/11/01153939/2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289572</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Malawi]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community-based Conservation, Culture, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Freshwater Fish, Indigenous Peoples, and Overfishing]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CHIKOMBE BEACH, Malawi — Dressed in a red T-shirt, a yellow-and-blue wrapper tied from the chest, and flip-flops, Zainab Kassim looks like any of the ordinary people gathered at Chikombe Beach along Lake Malawi. But she’s one of the most powerful people here. She’s the chief detective of this place, appointed by Senior Chief Makanjira, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CHIKOMBE BEACH, Malawi — Dressed in a red T-shirt, a yellow-and-blue wrapper tied from the chest, and flip-flops, Zainab Kassim looks like any of the ordinary people gathered at Chikombe Beach along Lake Malawi. But she’s one of the most powerful people here. She’s the chief detective of this place, appointed by Senior Chief Makanjira, the highly respected traditional leader of this fishing community. In her role as “Inspector General,” as they call her, Kassim, who is in her late 60s and deaf, uses “special powers” (which the elders refuse to disclose) to sniff out contraband, such as marijuana and beer, that some attempt to smuggle to Mbenje Island, the community’s most important fishing ground. These items are banned there. In fact, despite being a fierce law enforcer herself, Kassim is also barred by law from the island. It’s part of the community’s fisheries management regime that women are not allowed to set foot on the island. The Mbenje Island Management Committee comprises traditional leaders under Senior Chief Makanjira, fishers and elders of the community. Zainab Kassim, front, is the only female member of that the committee, and is the chief detective at Chikombe Beach. Chief Mpiringidzo, behind Kassim, is the committee’s leader. Image by Charles Mpaka for Mongabay. “This island is the sanctuary of our ancestors,” says Chief Mpiringidzo, one of Senior Chief Makanjira’s lieutenants and leader of the Mbenje Island Management Committee. “They give us fish that sustains our lives. We wouldn’t want to make them angry and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/how-a-lineage-of-chiefs-built-a-thriving-fish-oasis-in-lake-malawi/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Coffee agroforestry holds promise for smallholder growers in Malawi</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/coffee-agroforestry-holds-promise-for-smallholder-growers-in-malawi/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/coffee-agroforestry-holds-promise-for-smallholder-growers-in-malawi/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Oct 2024 12:00:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/04083704/9-coffee-farmers-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288199</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Malawi]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Coffee, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, Farming, Forest Carbon, Rainforests, Sustainability, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[RUMPHI, Malawi — In the villages below Nyika Plateau in northern Malawi’s Rumphi district, coffee rules. It’s one of the most common bushes in the region, grown in back and front yards or in open fields where, elsewhere, maize would have been cultivated. Here, coffee shares space with banana and other fruit trees around fishponds [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[RUMPHI, Malawi — In the villages below Nyika Plateau in northern Malawi’s Rumphi district, coffee rules. It’s one of the most common bushes in the region, grown in back and front yards or in open fields where, elsewhere, maize would have been cultivated. Here, coffee shares space with banana and other fruit trees around fishponds and water holes, and scales up steep slopes among natural foliage. “It’s the father of all crops here,” says Martha Mhango, a coffee farmer of 22 years in a village located at the boundary of Nyika National Park, Malawi’s largest wildlife reserve. Mhango is a member of a coffee agroforestry project developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Slow Food Coffee Coalition (SFCC), an international network that campaigns for sustainable coffee value chains. In 2022, the two organizations launched a pilot project to promote coffee produced under agroforestry among farmers in Malawi and Uganda. “Basically, the project was meant to integrate agroforestry into coffee production to enhance climate resilience and quality of coffee. Agroforestry has many benefits both to farmers as well as the ecosystem,” says Manvester Ackson Khoza, the SFCC’s national coordinator in Malawi and its international councilor for Southern Africa. Martha Mhango has grown coffee for 22 years, which has allowed her to build a decent house and educate her three children. She has no plans of dropping coffee farming. Image by Charles Mpaka for Mongabay. Agroforestry is a practice where farmers grow trees and shrubs with an agricultural crop&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/coffee-agroforestry-holds-promise-for-smallholder-growers-in-malawi/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Global ‘Slow Food’ movement embraces agroecology (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/global-slow-food-movement-embraces-and-advances-agroecology-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/global-slow-food-movement-embraces-and-advances-agroecology-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Sep 2024 19:06:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Mukiibi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/04/12215035/13992749734_744c0a0a2a_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287783</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, European Union, Global, Italy, Malawi, Southern Africa, and Uganda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, agribusiness, Agriculture, Agroecology, Commentary, Environment, Food, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, Poverty, and Poverty Alleviation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[I have spent more than 20 years visiting communities and working with farmers around Uganda and across East and southern Africa. I have come to realize that there are many farmers who are trying their best to produce food in a way that harms neither the environment nor consumers. But many of these farmers are [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[I have spent more than 20 years visiting communities and working with farmers around Uganda and across East and southern Africa. I have come to realize that there are many farmers who are trying their best to produce food in a way that harms neither the environment nor consumers. But many of these farmers are trapped in a corrupt system designed to benefit those who provide – and profit – from chemical inputs. How do we help them to break out of this bubble, and how do we create a network where they can share their motivations, their feelings, their practical knowledge and their experiences? Farmers need to be brought together so that they help each other move towards good, clean and fair production of food. And they need to be brought together because farmers are also bearers of knowledge. Uniting them in a network is the best way to free themselves from the trap of growing input-heavy, export-focused monocultures. My name is Edward Mukiibi. Since 2022 I have served as the president of the world’s largest food movement, Slow Food. In 2007 I was just an agriculture student at Makerere University in Kampala, but I was already working closely with farmers. I volunteered for a project to promote a new hybrid maize variety, supposedly drought-resistant, in western Uganda. I was convinced that this was the right way to produce more food: more high-yielding varieties grown with more external inputs like fertilizers. Edward Mukiibi in the field. Image courtesy of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/global-slow-food-movement-embraces-and-advances-agroecology-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Meet the Miombo, the largest forest you’ve never heard of</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/meet-the-miombo-the-largest-forest-youve-never-heard-of/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/meet-the-miombo-the-largest-forest-youve-never-heard-of/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Sep 2024 16:20:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/29092238/Thatch2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286629</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Angola, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Dry Forests, Environment, food security, Forest Products, Forests, Sustainable Forest Management, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Growing up in the village of Domboshava in central Zimbabwe, Edwin Tambara, the African Wildlife Foundation’s director of global leadership, recalls how the surrounding Miombo woodland was a pharmacy, hardware store and supermarket, all rolled into one. “You get a cough or sneeze or you have a headache, I remember my grandmother would just say, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Growing up in the village of Domboshava in central Zimbabwe, Edwin Tambara, the African Wildlife Foundation’s director of global leadership, recalls how the surrounding Miombo woodland was a pharmacy, hardware store and supermarket, all rolled into one. “You get a cough or sneeze or you have a headache, I remember my grandmother would just say, ‘OK, let me go into the forest,’ and she&#8217;ll come back with some leaves. . . It&#8217;s either they&#8217;re boiled and you have to sniff them or something — and you&#8217;d be sorted,” Tambara says. The Miombo woodlands are a special type of semi-deciduous forest, dominated by trees in the legume family from the genera Brachystegia, Julbernardia and Isoberlinia. The ecoregion covers a broad swath across Central and Southern Africa, making it the most extensive dry tropical forest type in the world. But the woodlands are shrinking, which is bad news for communities in the region who depend on them for an astounding array of goods. Miombo woodlands in the Niassa Special Reserve in Mozambique, one of Africa’s largest protected areas. The miombo woodlands are dominated by trees in the legume family from the genera Brachystegia, Julbernardia and Isoberlinia, and interspersed with a mosaic of habitats including rocky outcrops and seasonally flooded grassy areas called dambos. Image by Natalie Ingle, courtesy of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Thatching grass collected in the miombo woodlands. Thatching grass is used to roof homes, woven into fences and for other purposes, and is one of the numerous non-timber forest&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/meet-the-miombo-the-largest-forest-youve-never-heard-of/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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						<item>
					<title>As Malawi government struggles to protect a forest, communities show the way</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/as-malawi-government-struggles-to-protect-a-forest-communities-show-the-way/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/as-malawi-government-struggles-to-protect-a-forest-communities-show-the-way/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Aug 2024 16:44:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/30134926/Peter-Kamowa-CROP-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286635</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Malawi]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, charcoal, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Governance, Landscape Restoration, Protected Areas, Reforestation, Restoration, Sustainability, and Sustainable Forest Management]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ZOMBA PLATEAU, Malawi — The Zomba Forest Reserve is a tale of two faces. A large part of the northern section of the plateau is stripped to its last undergrowth by cultivation and charcoal production by communities. Meanwhile, its southern section, covering almost a tenth of the reserve and managed by communities, is a spectacle [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ZOMBA PLATEAU, Malawi — The Zomba Forest Reserve is a tale of two faces. A large part of the northern section of the plateau is stripped to its last undergrowth by cultivation and charcoal production by communities. Meanwhile, its southern section, covering almost a tenth of the reserve and managed by communities, is a spectacle of a glorious forest. On this southern edge of the mountainous forest reserve in Malawi’s old capital city of Zomba is Peter Kamowa’s home — a one-room, mud-brick and grass-thatched house, the only one this far up the slope in the village. Its roof is partially covered by flourishing passion fruit vines, which also creep over a row of several young indigenous trees around the house. It weaves a tapestry under which Kamowa likes to rest during the day. Down below, there’s the sound of water gurgling in a stream, one of the two perennial creeks descending from the forest. “These streams are the lifeline of this community,” Kamowa says. On the rich loam soils along the streams are maize, cassava, cabbages, tomatoes, carrots, bananas, sugar cane and strawberries, which the community grows. “Here, we don’t know drought. We don’t know dry season. We grow crops throughout the year because of these streams; so I decided to settle here to help protect these rivers by protecting their source,” he tells Mongabay, pointing at an impressive indigenous forest that’s scaling up the slope to the peak of the mountain. This forest is a section of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/as-malawi-government-struggles-to-protect-a-forest-communities-show-the-way/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<title>Multilateral development banks must prioritize clean &#038; community-led energy projects (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/multilateral-development-banks-must-prioritize-clean-community-led-energy-projects-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/multilateral-development-banks-must-prioritize-clean-community-led-energy-projects-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 May 2024 18:25:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alessandro RamazzottiAnggita IndariVaishnavi Varadarajan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/01174451/Sikkim-flood-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281627</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Global, Indonesia, Malawi, Nepal, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Bioenergy, Business, Carbon Credits, Carbon Offsets, Clean Energy, Climate Change, climate finance, Climate Justice, Commentary, Energy, Environment, Finance, Hydroelectric Power, Just Transition, Renewable Energy, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The intensifying impact of the climate crisis on frontline communities in the Global South, record-breaking CO2 emissions, and global temperatures exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius above average in 2023 are signs that we urgently need a just energy transition that reaches all levels of society. Through our work on the Energy Finance Tracker at the International [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The intensifying impact of the climate crisis on frontline communities in the Global South, record-breaking CO2 emissions, and global temperatures exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius above average in 2023 are signs that we urgently need a just energy transition that reaches all levels of society. Through our work on the Energy Finance Tracker at the International Accountability Project, we know that between 2022 to 2023, there were 933 known investments in the energy sector, totaling at least $139.8 billion, involving 14 multilateral development banks (MDBs) and more than 600 companies across 160 countries. From this simple data, we can tell that MDBs considered or approved, on average, more than one investment per day in the energy sector, many of which continue to support the fossil fuel industry, invest in false climate solutions, and fund energy projects that may bring jeopardy and harm to local communities. Governments and companies continue to rely on MDBs to support these investments in fossil fuels, specifically the oil and gas industry, despite their commitment to tackle the climate crisis. These continued investments in oil and gas, with their devastating climate impact, directly contradict the Paris Agreement and are taking us many steps behind where we need to be to achieve a just and clean energy transition. Data from the Energy Finance Tracker reveals a concerning trend of energy colonialism. Between 2022 and 2023, 10 MDBs invested a combined $14.5 billion in 80 oil and gas projects across 18 countries, with 66.3% of these projects involving private&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/multilateral-development-banks-must-prioritize-clean-community-led-energy-projects-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Malawi police arrest elephant poachers in Kasungu National Park</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/malawi-police-arrest-elephant-poachers-in-kasungu-national-park/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/malawi-police-arrest-elephant-poachers-in-kasungu-national-park/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Apr 2024 16:31:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/18162124/SavannahElephants_MajeteNPMalawi_PeterStewardBYNC2.0-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281107</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Malawi]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystems, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Mammals, National Parks, Poaching, Protected Areas, Rehabilitation, Restoration, Solutions, Wildlife, and Wildlife Rehabilitation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BLANTYRE — Police and wildlife department officials in Malawi have arrested two men suspected of having killed an elephant in Kasungu National Park in the country’s west. In July 2022, 263 elephants were translocated to the park, which forms part of a transfrontier conservation area covering 32,000 square kilometers (12,400 square miles) across Malawi and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BLANTYRE — Police and wildlife department officials in Malawi have arrested two men suspected of having killed an elephant in Kasungu National Park in the country’s west. In July 2022, 263 elephants were translocated to the park, which forms part of a transfrontier conservation area covering 32,000 square kilometers (12,400 square miles) across Malawi and Zambia. Parks authorities in the two countries, working alongside the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), have invested $8.5 million since 2017 to secure what was previously a hotspot for poaching and illegal wildlife trafficking. Police say Grave Nkhoma, 48, and Nickson Nthukwa, 50, were arrested in Kasungu district on April 11 and found in possession of 16.6 kilograms (36.6 pounds) of ivory. Residents of villages just outside the park’s boundaries informed police about two men selling elephant meat. “The community knew where they were operating from in those two weeks so they tipped the police and park officials,” said Anthony Chatama, vice chair of the Kasungu Wildlife Conservation for Community Development Association, a local community organization. “This is one role we are playing in our partnership with the government in conservation in Kasungu National Park and surrounding areas.” Joseph Kachikho, police spokesperson for Kasungu district, told Mongabay that investigators confiscated locally made weapons from the men, including a large-caliber muzzle-loaded gun that police say the two used for their poaching operations in the park. They’ve been detained pending a date to appear in court to be formally charged. Following their arrest, the two men&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/malawi-police-arrest-elephant-poachers-in-kasungu-national-park/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<title>New ecoregion proposed for Southern Africa’s threatened ‘sky islands’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/new-ecoregion-proposed-for-southern-africas-threatened-sky-islands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/new-ecoregion-proposed-for-southern-africas-threatened-sky-islands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Mar 2024 04:09:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/12121217/An-endemic-chameleon_ChristopheBernier.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279738</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Malawi, Mozambique, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Farming, Forests, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Herps, Lizards, New Discovery, Protected Areas, Reptiles, Research, Species Discovery, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There is an “inland archipelago” of mountains stretching across southern Malawi and northern Mozambique — a chain of hard granite inselbergs lifted high above the surrounding landscape as it weathered down over millions of years. These “sky islands”, as they’re also known, are topped with high-altitude grasslands and evergreen forests and watered by cool moist [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There is an “inland archipelago” of mountains stretching across southern Malawi and northern Mozambique — a chain of hard granite inselbergs lifted high above the surrounding landscape as it weathered down over millions of years. These “sky islands”, as they’re also known, are topped with high-altitude grasslands and evergreen forests and watered by cool moist winds from the Indian Ocean to the east. A group of researchers is now making the case to declare a new &#8220;ecoregion&#8221; that will strengthen protection for these inselbergs, whose forest patches, thought once to have been linked to those in Central Africa, still host unique communities of animals and plants. Researcher Julian Bayliss discovered one new species of snake by stepping on it. Both the snake, a 45-centimeter-long (1.5 foot-long) bush viper, and Bayliss, a biodiversity and protected area management specialist, were unharmed, and the snake was collected and later described as new to science and given the name Mabu bush viper (Atheris mabuensis) in honor of the mountain where he found it. The incident was one of Bayliss’ many highlights over 20 years spent documenting the rich diversity of plants and animals of this region. He and 25 colleagues he has worked alongside are now proposing Mabu and the other 30 or so mountains in this transboundary biological treasure be declared a brand new ecoregion: —the South East Africa Mountain Archipelago (SEAMA) — to support landscape-wide conservation initiatives. “Instead of single-site [conservation] initiatives you can now have ecoregion-wide conservation initiatives targeting many of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/new-ecoregion-proposed-for-southern-africas-threatened-sky-islands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<title>Africa’s land and forest restoration initiative gathers pace in Malawi</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/africas-land-and-forest-restoration-initiative-gathers-pace-in-malawi/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/africas-land-and-forest-restoration-initiative-gathers-pace-in-malawi/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Jun 2023 15:36:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/06/07134559/Tana-is-his-field-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=269493</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Malawi]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community-based Conservation, Ecosystems, Farming, Food, Food Industry, food security, Impact Of Climate Change, Landscape Restoration, Reforestation, and Restoration]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In front of his rural home in the district of Thyolo in southern Malawi, Douglas Tana grows maize on a tenth of a hectare, or a quarter acre. Before 2010, he used to harvest at most 250 kilograms (550 pounds) of the grain, a staple crop in Malawi, during years of good rains and after [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In front of his rural home in the district of Thyolo in southern Malawi, Douglas Tana grows maize on a tenth of a hectare, or a quarter acre. Before 2010, he used to harvest at most 250 kilograms (550 pounds) of the grain, a staple crop in Malawi, during years of good rains and after applying a combined 25 kg (55 lbs) of nitrogen and phosphorous inorganic fertilizer. “Put simply, in the bigger picture, it was a thankless effort … And I had no faint idea that there was a way to produce more from this piece of land. So, I was resigned to the idea that 250 kgs was the maximum I could get,” he told Mongabay. However, that story of low-yield frustration changed in 2010 when the World Agroforestry Centre (known by the acronym ICRAF) introduced small-scale farmers, like Tana, to conservation agriculture and intercropping their maize with soil-improving trees. Tana was one of the 75 farmers who put the methods into practice. The results are clear today. A farmer&#8217;s natural regeneration field intercropped with Gliricidia in a village on the edge of a forest. Image by Charles Mpaka for Mongabay. A change in yield Now, Tana’s field is a bush of lush, flourishing Gliricidia sepium offshoots — a tree in the bean family — rising from decade-old stumps and prospering among dry stalks of harvested maize and other plants. In the undergrowth lie the residues of decomposed mulch from prior years. A Faidherbia albida tree in Tana&#8217;s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/africas-land-and-forest-restoration-initiative-gathers-pace-in-malawi/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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