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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?location=mozambique&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/mozambique/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Fri, 07 Aug 2026 04:55:47 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>Mozambique environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/mozambique/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Improved transport opens Mozambique’s forests to new pressures</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/improved-transport-opens-mozambiques-forests-to-new-pressures/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/improved-transport-opens-mozambiques-forests-to-new-pressures/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jun 2026 09:16:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mkhululi Chimoio]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/09002827/CoalTrain_MuitvazeMozambique2018_MatthiasHilleWikicommonsBY2.0-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320793</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Deforestation, Dry Forests, Environment, Farming, Food, food security, Forests, Governance, Infrastructure, Logging, Politics, Roads, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Up until 10 years ago, large sections of the road linking Malawi and Zambia to the Indian Ocean port of Nacala would become nearly impassable during the rainy season, with potholes, damaged bridges and traffic bottlenecks causing long delays along this regional transport artery across northern Mozambique. The Mozambique government has carried out major upgrades [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Up until 10 years ago, large sections of the road linking Malawi and Zambia to the Indian Ocean port of Nacala would become nearly impassable during the rainy season, with potholes, damaged bridges and traffic bottlenecks causing long delays along this regional transport artery across northern Mozambique. The Mozambique government has carried out major upgrades to transport infrastructure, but this may have come at the cost of accelerating deforestation across the region. Between 2017 and 2022, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the World Bank financed major transportation upgrades along the Nacala Corridor, centered on the 912-kilometer (565-mile) rail line linking coal mines in western Mozambique with ports on the Indian Ocean, as well as road upgrades, to lower costs and improve regional trade connections with Malawi and Zambia. “This project reduces the ‘penalty of remoteness’ that poorer households pay,” Romulo Cunha Correa, Mozambique country manager for the African Development Bank, told Mongabay in an interview. The AfDB has prioritized improvements to road and rail infrastructure across the continent, also backing projects linking Cameroon to the cities of Brazzaville and Kinshasa on the Congo River, and South Sudan to Indian Ocean ports in Kenya. But researchers studying this expansion of infrastructure have warned that the road upgrades can intensify deforestation and habitat loss. Women walk past a fish pond in Moatize, in Mozambique’s western province of Tete, in 2011. Image by Peter Fredenburg via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Manuel Mario Nazare, a conservationist with&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/improved-transport-opens-mozambiques-forests-to-new-pressures/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/improved-transport-opens-mozambiques-forests-to-new-pressures/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320793</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nearly a million birds shipped from Africa to Asia in 15 years; canaries top the list</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/nearly-a-million-birds-shipped-from-africa-to-asia-in-15-years-canaries-top-the-list/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/nearly-a-million-birds-shipped-from-africa-to-asia-in-15-years-canaries-top-the-list/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Apr 2026 15:04:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/15120913/Photo-5-yfc-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317571</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Atlantic Forest, Guinea, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Mali, Mozambique, North America, Senegal, Singapore, Southeast Asia, Tanzania, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Crime, Environment, Health, Invasive Species, Parrots, Pet Trade, Planetary Health, Public Health, Regulations, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Worldwide, people buy and hunt nearly half of the 11,000 bird species in existence. In Asia, Europe, and North and South America, songbirds and parrots are highly desired pets. Collectors pay exorbitant sums for rare species or melodious birds to compete in high-stakes singing competitions. Falconers and sport hunters capture or kill raptors. Belief-based rituals [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Worldwide, people buy and hunt nearly half of the 11,000 bird species in existence. In Asia, Europe, and North and South America, songbirds and parrots are highly desired pets. Collectors pay exorbitant sums for rare species or melodious birds to compete in high-stakes singing competitions. Falconers and sport hunters capture or kill raptors. Belief-based rituals in West Africa incorporate vulture parts. Buyers in North America seek dead hornbills and hummingbirds as home décor. The list goes on. This massive commerce threatens more than 200 avian species with extinction. Now, as online marketplaces proliferate, customers can order a bird with a swipe on their phone from anywhere on the planet. Moving birds around the world also spreads deadly diseases, from avian influenza to circovirus, and when non-native birds get loose, they may proliferate, outcompeting residents. “There&#8217;s a lack of awareness and appreciation for the scale of this trade, and little attention on the impacts that this could be having on wild populations or the risks for the spread of invasive species and infectious diseases,” said Rowan Martin, director of bird trade at the nonprofit World Parrot Trust. “If people are not aware that this is even happening, then how are we going to be able to mitigate the risks associated with it?” In an attempt to understand the scale of the live bird trade, Martin and his colleagues used records from U.N. Comtrade, a database that aggregates information on all commodities traded between countries. The team analyzed live bird imports into&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/nearly-a-million-birds-shipped-from-africa-to-asia-in-15-years-canaries-top-the-list/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/nearly-a-million-birds-shipped-from-africa-to-asia-in-15-years-canaries-top-the-list/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317571</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Construction of TotalEnergies pipeline cuts through coral reefs in Mozambique</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/construction-of-totalenergies-pipeline-cuts-through-coral-reefs-in-mozambique/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/construction-of-totalenergies-pipeline-cuts-through-coral-reefs-in-mozambique/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Nov 2025 15:20:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</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/20/2025/11/18104327/coral-reef-mozambique-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309730</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Mozambique]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Environment, Environmental Law, Global Environmental Crisis, Industry, Infrastructure, Marine, Marine Conservation, Natural Gas, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the past year, a dredger operated by Dutch company Van Oord cut through a coral reef off the coast of northern Mozambique, part of the construction of French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies’ troubled liquefied natural gas project in Cabo Delgado. Data scientists analyzing satellite imagery and vessel data have found that a massive [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the past year, a dredger operated by Dutch company Van Oord cut through a coral reef off the coast of northern Mozambique, part of the construction of French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies’ troubled liquefied natural gas project in Cabo Delgado. Data scientists analyzing satellite imagery and vessel data have found that a massive chunk of coral has been dredged out of the ecologically sensitive reef. The 32 islands of the Quirimbas Archipelago extend from the mouth of the Rovuma River, on the Mozambique-Tanzania border, to Pemba Bay in the south. The archipelago is home to a high number of endemic and threatened species, including coelacanths (Latimeria chalumnae), dugongs (Dugong dugon) and hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) and green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas). Its coastal and littoral zone have estuaries and mangrove forests. “Of all the tropical oceans, the Indian Ocean by the Mozambique Channel is the ocean with the highest surface temperature increase, so corals are under stress,” said Daniel Ribeiro from the environmental justice organization Justiça Ambiental (JA!). “The ability to recover after damage is much lower because of these factors.” There are four major gas projects in the Rovuma Basin, including ENI’s Coral North floating liquefied natural gas project, which is the only one currently operational. TotalEnergies’ Mozambique LNG project was suspended in 2021, following an attack on facilities by insurgents. TotalEnergies and Exxon stopped work on their gas projects while regional troops joined the Mozambican army in battling the insurgents. In October 2025, the French company announced&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/construction-of-totalenergies-pipeline-cuts-through-coral-reefs-in-mozambique/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/construction-of-totalenergies-pipeline-cuts-through-coral-reefs-in-mozambique/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309730</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mass vulture poisonings expose need for cross-border action in Southern Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mass-vulture-poisonings-expose-need-for-cross-border-action-in-southern-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mass-vulture-poisonings-expose-need-for-cross-border-action-in-southern-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Sep 2025 16:15:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</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/20/2025/09/18122618/Image_2-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306186</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, South Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Poaching, Poisoning, Predators, Raptors, Scavengers, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A cluster of mass vulture poisonings earlier this year has drawn attention to an alarming, ongoing problem in the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area that straddles South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. According to the African Wildlife Poisoning Database, more than 2,400 vultures have died from poisoning in the GLTFCA, including in South Africa’s famed Kruger [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A cluster of mass vulture poisonings earlier this year has drawn attention to an alarming, ongoing problem in the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area that straddles South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. According to the African Wildlife Poisoning Database, more than 2,400 vultures have died from poisoning in the GLTFCA, including in South Africa’s famed Kruger National Park, in the past decade. As wide-ranging, slow-breeding keystone species of this landscape’s ecology, vultures need urgent action to protect them, conservation authorities say. Other raptors, as well as mammal carnivores like hyenas, leopards and lions, have also been poisoned. The Endangered Wildlife Trust, which operates the poisoning database in cooperation with the Peregrine Fund, says approximately 53 lions have been killed by poison in this vast cross-border protected area since 2015. In just the past two years, 14 lions are known to have died from poisoning and a further 10 more caught in snares and then killed by poachers. John Davies, project coordinator of raptor conservation and research at the Endangered Wildlife Trust, says the series of mass poisonings in May and June triggered meetings involving South Africa National Parks (SANParks), conservation NGOs and other authorities to assess where systems were lacking and could be improved. “I think that&#8217;s a big positive,” Davies tells Mongabay. André Botha, co-chair of the Vulture Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, also expresses cautious optimism. “We have witnessed similar meetings in the past, with limited results, but I trust that the current high&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mass-vulture-poisonings-expose-need-for-cross-border-action-in-southern-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mass-vulture-poisonings-expose-need-for-cross-border-action-in-southern-africa/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306186</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mozambican reserve harbors largest documented breeding population of rare falcon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mozambican-reserve-harbors-largest-documented-breeding-population-of-rare-falcon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mozambican-reserve-harbors-largest-documented-breeding-population-of-rare-falcon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Sep 2025 09:59:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/17093302/d25f31ec-d6f1-4fb4-a754-cf3fe5cd5233-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306111</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Deforestation, Dry Forests, Environment, Extinction, Forests, Protected Areas, Raptors, Research, Surveying, Trees, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new study reports that the Niassa Special Reserve, a 4-million-hectare (10-million-acre) wilderness in northern Mozambique, harbors the largest documented breeding population of Taita falcons. A survey that focused on 35 of the reserve’s towering granite inselbergs found 14 pairs of the birds. The study authors estimate the entire reserve could harbor up to 76 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new study reports that the Niassa Special Reserve, a 4-million-hectare (10-million-acre) wilderness in northern Mozambique, harbors the largest documented breeding population of Taita falcons. A survey that focused on 35 of the reserve’s towering granite inselbergs found 14 pairs of the birds. The study authors estimate the entire reserve could harbor up to 76 pairs. It&#8217;s an astonishing number for a species whose other known breeding sites host fewer than 10 pairs. Taita falcons (Falco fasciinucha) are stocky birds with russet chests, white throats, and black facial stripes. One of the world’s rarest birds of prey, they survive in isolated, fragmented populations scattered along the eastern side of Africa, from southern Ethiopia to northeastern South Africa. The IUCN estimates their total number at up to 1,000 mature individuals, but this estimate is uncertain due to a scarcity of data from regions north of Zimbabwe and Mozambique. A young Taita falcon, recently fledged from a nest in Blyde River Canyon, South Africa: Falco fasciinucha has been recorded across a wide expanse of East and Southern Africa, but limited systematic surveys means its distribution and population numbers are uncertain. Image courtesy of Anthony van Zyl. Taita falcons hunt small, fast insect-eating birds such as flycatchers, swifts and bee-eaters. Hunting from Niassa’s inselbergs that rise above surrounding woodlands appears to give the raptors an edge over larger peregrine (Falco peregrinus) and lanner falcons (Falco biarmicus), which occupy this same territory in smaller numbers but must fly further in search of grain-eating prey&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mozambican-reserve-harbors-largest-documented-breeding-population-of-rare-falcon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mozambican-reserve-harbors-largest-documented-breeding-population-of-rare-falcon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306111</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Marc Stalmans, ecologist who helped restore Gorongosa’s wildlife, dies at 66</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/marc-stalmans-ecologist-who-helped-restore-gorongosas-wildlife-dies-at-66/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/marc-stalmans-ecologist-who-helped-restore-gorongosas-wildlife-dies-at-66/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Aug 2025 21:02:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/31205412/Marc-Stalmans-25x9-header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305227</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Mozambique]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Green, Landscape Restoration, Obituary, and Restoration]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Marc Stalmans, who died of natural causes on August 30th at 66, spent much of his life restoring life to a landscape once stripped of it. As the science director at Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, he was central to one of Africa’s most ambitious ecological experiments: the attempt to bring back an ecosystem gutted by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Marc Stalmans, who died of natural causes on August 30th at 66, spent much of his life restoring life to a landscape once stripped of it. As the science director at Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, he was central to one of Africa’s most ambitious ecological experiments: the attempt to bring back an ecosystem gutted by war. Gorongosa had been a battlefield during Mozambique’s civil conflict from 1977 to 1992. By the time peace came, its buffalo had fallen from 14,000 to fewer than 100, wildebeest from 6,000 to 15, elephants from 2,500 to under 200. Lions and wild dogs had almost vanished. The park, once a stronghold of African wildlife, was close to ecological collapse. When Stalmans began working with the Gorongosa Restoration Project in 2006, he saw not just absence but possibility. “On the plant side, it was obvious when we first started that the general habitat was in very good shape. It was just the animals that were missing,” he recalled. With its rich soils, seasonal floods, and high productivity, Gorongosa had the conditions to rebound. What it lacked was the scientific guidance to ensure recovery took hold. In 2012, he joined full-time as science director, providing the data and ecological grounding for decisions about reintroductions, species balance, and land management. Born in Kinshasa to Belgian parents, Stalmans moved to Belgium as a teenager and trained as a forestry engineer before emigrating to South Africa in 1984. He earned a master’s in botany and later a PhD in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/marc-stalmans-ecologist-who-helped-restore-gorongosas-wildlife-dies-at-66/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305227</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pandemic-era slump in ivory and pangolin scale trafficking persists, report finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/pandemic-era-slump-in-ivory-and-pangolin-scale-trafficking-persists-report-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/pandemic-era-slump-in-ivory-and-pangolin-scale-trafficking-persists-report-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jun 2025 08:31:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/17082738/White-belliedPangolin_Gabon_BureaubenjaminINaturalistBYNC4.0-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300838</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Angola, Asia, Cameroon, Central Africa, China, Democratic Republic Of Congo, East Asia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Uganda, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Bushmeat, Conservation, Crime, Critically Endangered Species, Ecology, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Hunting, Ivory, Law Enforcement, Mammals, Over-hunting, Pangolins, Poaching, Rainforests, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A recent report surveying seizures of pangolin scales and elephant ivory over the past decade has found a sharp decline following the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from media reports, public documents, and criminal intelligence and investigations, analysts at the Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC) found authorities seized more than 370 metric tons of pangolin scales and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A recent report surveying seizures of pangolin scales and elephant ivory over the past decade has found a sharp decline following the COVID-19 pandemic. Using data from media reports, public documents, and criminal intelligence and investigations, analysts at the Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC) found authorities seized more than 370 metric tons of pangolin scales and 193 metric tons of elephant ivory between 2015 and 2024. Seizures began to ramp up in 2015, peaked in 2019, and then declined sharply in 2020. The report found that the pandemic disruption to trade and travel, coinciding with increased enforcement based on intelligence, prompted these declines. Post-pandemic, the decline in trade has continued to hold as countries intensify law enforcement and intelligence gathering. “The report was motivated by a need to present up-to-date findings and offer a current assessment of the evolving criminal dynamics surrounding ivory and pangolin scale trafficking,” Olivia Swaak-Goldman, WJC’s executive director, told Mongabay by email. “From our investigations, we knew there had been some major changes since our last reports … so it was timely to publish updated analysis and highlight these shifts.” Pangolin scales act as armor to protect their body. The WJC report estimates that the 370 tons of pangolin scales seized over the past decade would have come from anywhere between 100,000 and a million pangolins. Image by flowcomm via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). Pangolin scales, used in traditional medicine, are in high demand in East Asia. Over the past decade, as Asian pangolin numbers plummeted,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/pandemic-era-slump-in-ivory-and-pangolin-scale-trafficking-persists-report-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/pandemic-era-slump-in-ivory-and-pangolin-scale-trafficking-persists-report-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300838</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>After terror attacks, Mozambique nature reserve faces ‘new reality’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/after-terror-attacks-mozambique-nature-reserve-faces-new-reality/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/after-terror-attacks-mozambique-nature-reserve-faces-new-reality/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jun 2025 15:21:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/02125138/lions-mozambique-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=300053</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Mozambique]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Organized Crime, Protected Areas, Social Conflict, Terrorism, Violence, Wildlife, and Wildlife Rangers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BERLIN — Islamist fighters affiliated with ISIS have left a Mozambican wildlife reserve following a series of deadly attacks that claimed the lives of at least 10 people, including two wildlife rangers, according to the head of the country’s National Administration of Conservation Areas. “We still have a challenging environment, but we have clear indications [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BERLIN — Islamist fighters affiliated with ISIS have left a Mozambican wildlife reserve following a series of deadly attacks that claimed the lives of at least 10 people, including two wildlife rangers, according to the head of the country’s National Administration of Conservation Areas. “We still have a challenging environment, but we have clear indications that the insurgents are moving out of the reserve,” Pejulo Calenga told local press last week. The attacks on April 29 targeted tourism and conservation facilities in northern Mozambique’s Niassa Special Reserve, forcing their closure as units of the Mozambican army deployed. Two rangers working with the Niassa Carnivore Project (NCP) remain missing. More than 30 Islamist fighters attacked the Mariri Environmental and Skills Training Centre, which houses the NCP, a conservation group that’s worked inside the reserve for more than 20 years. Most of the group’s staff had already been evacuated following a separate attack on a hunting safari camp 10 days earlier, but a contingent of rangers and Mozambican soldiers were still there when the rebels arrived. In an email to Mongabay, Colleen Begg, the NCP director, said she wasn’t sure when project staff would be able to return to work. “It seems like the insurgents have withdrawn from the Niassa Province portion of Niassa Reserve, but it is not known whether they are still in the eastern sections of Niassa Reserve across the Lugenda River in Cabo Delgado [province], or whether they intend to return,” she wrote. The fighters are members of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/after-terror-attacks-mozambique-nature-reserve-faces-new-reality/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/after-terror-attacks-mozambique-nature-reserve-faces-new-reality/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-300053</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Australia’s little-known rainforests, tradition and science collaborate for good</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/in-australias-little-known-rainforests-tradition-and-science-collaborate-for-good/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/in-australias-little-known-rainforests-tradition-and-science-collaborate-for-good/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Feb 2025 21:37:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nick Rodway]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/28210327/Black_Flying_Fox_eating_figs_-_AndrewMercer_-_DSC11029-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295147</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Regenerative landscapes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Australia, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Culture, Dry Forests, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Fires, Forests, Green, Habitat Loss, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Mammals, Marsupials, Rainforests, Savannas, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Kimberley, the northernmost region of Australia’s largest jurisdiction, Western Australia, is remote and difficult to access due to its rugged terrain. With a permanent population of just 40,000 in an area roughly the size as California, it has become internationally renowned for its dramatic landscapes: researchers say the Kimberley houses the largest, most intact [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Kimberley, the northernmost region of Australia’s largest jurisdiction, Western Australia, is remote and difficult to access due to its rugged terrain. With a permanent population of just 40,000 in an area roughly the size as California, it has become internationally renowned for its dramatic landscapes: researchers say the Kimberley houses the largest, most intact savanna on Earth, and is bounded by some of the most pristine oceans in the world. However, the Kimberley is also home to a habitat that’s far less known: seasonally dry tropical rainforest.  Located in patches embedded in a mosaic pattern within eucalypt savanna, these species-rich ecosystems are collectively known as Kimberley Monsoon Rainforests (KMR). They’re intrinsically linked to the culture and livelihoods of local First Nations communities who have harvested from and cared for the patches for millennia.  A Kimberley Monsoon Rainforest (wulo) in Wunambal Gaambera Country. Image courtesy of the Wunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporation. Evolving in isolation upon nutrient-rich substrates and in areas largely protected from incursions by the threat of wildfire, the KMR hold significant biodiversity. Despite this, less than one-tenth of KMR patches have been comprehensively scientifically researched.  There’s now a push to expand global awareness of how important these sites are from both biological and cultural standpoints.  In 2023, Kevin Kenneally, a botanist and biogeographer at the University of Western Australia, published a general interest book about KMR in which he sought to expand knowledge of their existence into the common sphere. Islands in a Sea of Savanna, released by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/in-australias-little-known-rainforests-tradition-and-science-collaborate-for-good/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/in-australias-little-known-rainforests-tradition-and-science-collaborate-for-good/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295147</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Birds guide honey-hunters to most of their harvest in Mozambican reserve</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/birds-guide-honey-hunters-to-most-of-their-harvest-in-mozambican-reserve/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/birds-guide-honey-hunters-to-most-of-their-harvest-in-mozambican-reserve/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Feb 2025 09:16:17 +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/20/2025/02/07084021/IahaiaBuanachique.CarvalhoIssaNanguar_NiassaSRMozambique_ClaireSpottiswoode-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294059</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Culture, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Mutualism, Natural Resources, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Honey-hunters in northern Mozambique rely on honeyguide birds to locate three-quarters of their harvest each year, a new study says, underscoring the economic value these wild birds play in the lives of one of the country’s remotest communities. Honey-hunters in all 47 villages in the 4.2-million-hectare (10.4-million-acre) Niassa Special Reserve get help from the birds [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Honey-hunters in northern Mozambique rely on honeyguide birds to locate three-quarters of their harvest each year, a new study says, underscoring the economic value these wild birds play in the lives of one of the country’s remotest communities. Honey-hunters in all 47 villages in the 4.2-million-hectare (10.4-million-acre) Niassa Special Reserve get help from the birds to find wild bees’ nests, says study lead author and behavioral ecologist Jessica van der Wal. “It’s quite a vital income and an addition to other livelihood options they have, such as fishing and farming,” Van der Wal says. The honey-hunters use unique calls to attract greater honeyguides (Indicator indicator), small brown birds a little bigger and leaner than sparrows, that lead them to the nests of African honey bees (Apis mellifera scutellata). The hunters then subdue the bees with smoke and prise open the nests to extract the honeycombs, leaving beeswax and larvae as a reward for their honeyguide companions. The researchers interviewed 141 honey hunters in 13 villages in Niassa in 2019, and combined that data with figures on honey hunting collected by community wildlife guardians in 46 of the reserve’s 47 villages. For nearly 20 years these guardians, who include both men and women recruited in the villages where they were born and raised, have collected information ranging from baboon raids on people’s crops, to the size and type of fish caught in Niassa’s rivers. But they have also, since 2021, documented quantities of honey collected by honey-hunters with help from honeyguides. A&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/birds-guide-honey-hunters-to-most-of-their-harvest-in-mozambican-reserve/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/birds-guide-honey-hunters-to-most-of-their-harvest-in-mozambican-reserve/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294059</doi>				</item>
						<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>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/meet-the-miombo-the-largest-forest-youve-never-heard-of/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286629</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Explorer elephants’ in transfrontier conservation area offer solution to tree damage</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/explorer-elephants-in-transfrontier-conservation-area-offer-solution-to-tree-damage/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/explorer-elephants-in-transfrontier-conservation-area-offer-solution-to-tree-damage/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jun 2024 12:52:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</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/20/2024/06/28121018/ElephantsRundeRiver_Gonarezhou_AndrewAshtonFlickrBYNCND2.0-TIGHT-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283859</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, South Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Elephants, Environment, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Migration, Research, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Elephants are known to be “ecosystem engineers,” altering habitats to suit their own needs, but this sometimes comes at a cost to other species. Hedging, or stem snapping, is the term used to describe how elephants (Loxodonta africana) reduce dominant trees to low-level shrubs, bringing the trees’ leaves within easy reach of mother-and-calf herds while [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Elephants are known to be “ecosystem engineers,” altering habitats to suit their own needs, but this sometimes comes at a cost to other species. Hedging, or stem snapping, is the term used to describe how elephants (Loxodonta africana) reduce dominant trees to low-level shrubs, bringing the trees’ leaves within easy reach of mother-and-calf herds while depriving other animals of homes and food. “They [elephant bulls] do work an area over time [and] reduce all the trees to a certain sort of height,” says Tim O’Connor, lead author of a recent study that shines a light on the hedging of dominant hardwood trees known as mopanes (Colophospermum mopane) in Zimbabwe’s Gonarezhou National Park, in the southeastern corner of the country. “They snap the stems; [the trees] grow as a thicker, smaller plant and therefore give it a hedge appearance.” Mopane hedging by hungry, constrained elephants has been well documented in other national parks in Botswana, South Africa and Zambia. The Chilojo Cliffs in Zimbabwe&#8217;s Gonarezhou National Park. Image by Richard Droker via Flickr ((CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) A blue-tailed skink (Mabuya quinquetaenia) in Gonarezhou. Image by Brian Gratwicke via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) At the study site in the north of Gonarezhou, near to where the Runde River flows beneath ancient sandstone cliffs, O’Connor and colleagues found that elephants had snapped more than half of all the trees measuring some 10 meters (33 feet) in height. Although the canopy volume of the coppiced mopanes remained healthy, it severely compromised living conditions for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/explorer-elephants-in-transfrontier-conservation-area-offer-solution-to-tree-damage/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/explorer-elephants-in-transfrontier-conservation-area-offer-solution-to-tree-damage/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283859</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Big problems for little animals when floodwaters rise, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/big-problems-for-little-animals-when-floodwaters-rise-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/big-problems-for-little-animals-when-floodwaters-rise-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Mar 2024 14:22:27 +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/20/2024/03/14131429/Ourebia_ourebi-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=279815</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Mozambique]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Flooding, Forests, Impact Of Climate Change, Mammals, National Parks, Protected Areas, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Blantyre, MALAWI — When Cyclone Idai stormed Mozambique in 2019, researchers at Gorongosa National Park rode the current to test a long-held theory that the vulnerability of wildlife species to flooding is linked to their body size, dispersal ability and habitat preference. Idai made landfall on March 15, bringing strong winds and rapidly rising floodwaters [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Blantyre, MALAWI — When Cyclone Idai stormed Mozambique in 2019, researchers at Gorongosa National Park rode the current to test a long-held theory that the vulnerability of wildlife species to flooding is linked to their body size, dispersal ability and habitat preference. Idai made landfall on March 15, bringing strong winds and rapidly rising floodwaters that killed more than 1,600 people and caused more than $3.2 billion worth of infrastructure damage across Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi. Staff and vehicles from Gorongosa National Park were deployed to help with rescuing and supporting affected communities in the surrounding area. Parts of the park itself, which lies in the Pungwe River Basin in central Mozambique, flood annually, and the animals there are adapted to these seasonal events. But with the cyclone, the extent of flooding in the park expanded from 24 to 117 square kilometers (9 to 45 square miles) in the space of a week. As wildlife populations scrambled to avoid the swiftly rising floodwaters and then survive in the storm’s aftermath, scientists working in the park found themselves with an opportunity to observe the vulnerability of different species. “In Gorongosa, we were in a unique position to do the study, because we had a group of researchers running simultaneous projects on a variety of different species for different reasons — including animals equipped with GPS collars to track their locations, detailed information on the animals’ prior movements, diets, and body condition, and data on their patterns of abundance before the cyclone,”&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/big-problems-for-little-animals-when-floodwaters-rise-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279815</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<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>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/03/new-ecoregion-proposed-for-southern-africas-threatened-sky-islands/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-279738</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Return of the lions: Large protected areas in Africa attract apex predator</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/return-of-the-lions-large-protected-areas-in-africa-attract-apex-predator/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/return-of-the-lions-large-protected-areas-in-africa-attract-apex-predator/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jun 2023 17:17:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Petro Kotzé]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/06/13152428/6-African-Parks-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=269719</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Chad, Mozambique, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Cats, Conservation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Habitat Loss, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Lions, Mammals, National Parks, Poaching, Predators, Protected Areas, Reintroductions, Restoration, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Lions are returning on their own to parks in Mozambique and Chad thanks to the creation of vast landscape mosaics that include core protected areas, corridors and cooperating communities through which the big cats roam.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When Bernard van Lente, the Peace Parks Foundation project manager for Zinave National Park, first arrived at the Mozambican conservation area in 2015, he was struck by the silence. Zinave was stunningly beautiful, he recalls, with huge trees and tall grasses, but it was deathly quiet — like a graveyard. Zinave had been protected just before the outbreak of the Mozambican civil war in 1977, and the ensuing chaos caused the new national park to collapse. Few animal species survived as insects, birds, antelopes and top predators were extinguished. Things have changed dramatically since then, van Lente says. In 2021, a lion appeared in Zinave for the first time in many decades, the crowning jewel of renewed conservation efforts. But Zinave isn’t the only place lions are making a comeback. Examples are emerging at protected areas across Africa, from Mozambique to Chad, Zambia to Senegal. The successes come at a critical time for conservation of the species. Lion populations are declining in Africa, plummeting to around 20,000 in the past five decades or so, says Kim Young-Overton, director of Panthera’s KAZA program. According to the IUCN Red List, Panthera leo is vulnerable, with the global lion population shrinking by about 43% over the past 21 years (a timespan covering just three lion generations, from 1993 to 2014). The young male lion that settled in Zinave National Park, Mozambique. Image courtesy of the Peace Parks Foundation. Lions need to roam The decline is partly precipitated by too widely scattered conservation areas.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/return-of-the-lions-large-protected-areas-in-africa-attract-apex-predator/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/return-of-the-lions-large-protected-areas-in-africa-attract-apex-predator/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-269719</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Will clean-energy minerals provoke a shift in how mining is done in Africa?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/will-clean-energy-minerals-provoke-a-shift-in-how-mining-is-done-in-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/will-clean-energy-minerals-provoke-a-shift-in-how-mining-is-done-in-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Mar 2023 08:43:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/03/29125601/cobalt-mine-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=266964</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Clean Energy, Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Industry, Mining, Politics, Pollution, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[While in some corners of the world, the clean energy revolution conjures up images of electric vehicles and expansive wind farms, in countries with mineral reserves critical for producing that clean energy, the transition entails more than switching from a gasoline-powered car to an EV. Demand for transition minerals like the lithium, cobalt, nickel and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[While in some corners of the world, the clean energy revolution conjures up images of electric vehicles and expansive wind farms, in countries with mineral reserves critical for producing that clean energy, the transition entails more than switching from a gasoline-powered car to an EV. Demand for transition minerals like the lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite needed for the batteries that power EVs and energy storage projects could swell fourfold by 2040 and pull $1.7 trillion in investments. On the cusp of this mining boom, businesses have never been more clear-eyed about the profitability of these minerals, and states have never been so bold in pursuing and securing mineral supplies deemed critical to decarbonization. In the geopolitical arena, the U.S. government is straining to counter China’s hold over critical minerals mining and processing while promising that the scramble for essential minerals in Africa will not turn into a “race to the bottom.” But civil society organizations in Africa warn of the dangers of packaging mining as a cure for the climate crisis or a “climate solution” without fundamentally changing how mining is done on the continent. They say a real shift in how minerals are extracted and used is needed for a sustainable and just energy transition. Speaking at the Mining Indaba, one of the largest mining events in the world, in South Africa in February, a top U.S. official, Jose W. Fernandez, declared that “we are all in on Africa.”  With good reason: the continent hosts about a fifth&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/will-clean-energy-minerals-provoke-a-shift-in-how-mining-is-done-in-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/will-clean-energy-minerals-provoke-a-shift-in-how-mining-is-done-in-africa/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-266964</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Locals want their resources to last’: Q&#038;A with marine ecologist Vilma Machava-António</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/locals-want-their-resources-to-last-qa-with-marine-ecologist-vilma-machava-antonio/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/locals-want-their-resources-to-last-qa-with-marine-ecologist-vilma-machava-antonio/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Feb 2023 13:37:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/02/27145734/measuring-tree-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=265980</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Mozambique]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biology, Coastal Ecosystems, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Deforestation, Education, Environment, Forests, Interviews, Interviews With Young Scientists, Mangroves, Marine, Marine Conservation, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ocean Revolution Mozambique (ORM) was one of the winners of the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Equator Prize for 2022, awarded to recognize community-led efforts in conservation and sustainability that lead to poverty alleviation. The nonprofit works at the grassroots level to protect coastal ecosystems like mangrove forests and seagrass meadows in Mozambique’s Inhambane Bay. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ocean Revolution Mozambique (ORM) was one of the winners of the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Equator Prize for 2022, awarded to recognize community-led efforts in conservation and sustainability that lead to poverty alleviation. The nonprofit works at the grassroots level to protect coastal ecosystems like mangrove forests and seagrass meadows in Mozambique’s Inhambane Bay. One of the ways it promotes coastal conservation is by supporting young Mozambicans in their pursuit of higher education. Vilma Machava-António, an ORM scholarship recipient, completed her master’s degree in marine sciences at Maputo’s Eduardo Mondlane University and is now a doctoral student at the University of Lisbon in Portugal. The marine ecologist spoke to Mongabay about her research and what factors contribute to success for community-led efforts in the East African nation. Vilma Machava-António, an ORM scholarship recipient, completed her master’s degree in marine sciences and is now a doctoral student. Image courtesy of Vilma Machava-António. Machava-António spoke to Mongabay over video call and over email. These excerpts from the conversation have been edited for clarity and length. Mongabay: What sparked your interest in marine biology? Why mangroves, in particular? Vilma Machava-António: I was born and grew up in Inhambane. Inhambane city has a bay, there are mangroves up and down the city’s shoreline. My family did not depend on the mangroves, but in the surrounding areas people go into the mangroves and cut them. In Inhambane province, they use the trees for constructing houses and building boats. When I was going to write&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/locals-want-their-resources-to-last-qa-with-marine-ecologist-vilma-machava-antonio/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/locals-want-their-resources-to-last-qa-with-marine-ecologist-vilma-machava-antonio/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-265980</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Kew Gardens joins local partners to save tropical plants from extinction</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/kew-gardens-joins-local-partners-to-save-tropical-plants-from-extinction/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/kew-gardens-joins-local-partners-to-save-tropical-plants-from-extinction/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Feb 2023 14:53:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sue Branford]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/02/13120131/kew-garden-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=265518</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, England, Ethiopia, Global, Guinea, Mozambique, Tropics, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Botany, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Forestry, Forests, Fungi, Global Environmental Crisis, Mass Extinction, Plants, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Research, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Species Discovery, Trees, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A worldwide international collaboration is locating tropical areas with high concentrations of plants not yet identified by science, then working with local communities to conserve those plants and their habitats.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[KEW GARDENS, U.K. — There have been five known mass extinctions in Earth’s history. Today, most scientists agree we are in the midst of the sixth. “Species are going extinct at an unprecedented rate,” attests Meryl Westlake, senior digital content manager at Britain’s Kew Gardens, “with some estimates that we are [now] losing 135 plants, animals and insects every day, compared with the baseline extinction rate — the rate … before humans had a big impact on the planet — of 1-5 species every year.” Humankind, being the driving force behind this rapidly escalating extinction crisis, may have a chance of halting it, or at least slowing it down, at least in theory and hopefully in practice. Which is where the U.K.’s Royal Botanic Gardens, popularly known as Kew Gardens, enters the picture. While the London-based internationally renowned botanical research institute is best known for its vast collection of tropical plants kept under glass against the U.K’s harsh climate since 1840, today its researchers are working with partners around the globe in a race to slow the pace of extinction. Mongabay went to London at the start of 2023 to see how the effort is progressing. Saxicolella deniseae is a member of the Saxicolella genus, a group of plants highly adapted to survive in very specific whitewater environment, with some species only encountered at a single waterfall. In 2022, scientists identified several new species within this genus, including S. deniseae on the Konkouré River in Guinea. Dams need to have solid&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/kew-gardens-joins-local-partners-to-save-tropical-plants-from-extinction/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/kew-gardens-joins-local-partners-to-save-tropical-plants-from-extinction/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-265518</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Forests &#038; finance: Setbacks for a rare bat, and progress for an oil pipeline</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/forests-finance-setbacks-for-a-rare-bat-and-progress-for-an-oil-pipeline/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/forests-finance-setbacks-for-a-rare-bat-and-progress-for-an-oil-pipeline/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Feb 2023 13:38:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/02/08130733/mount-namuli-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=265318</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Benin, Mozambique, and Niger]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Bats, Biodiversity, Conservation, Crops, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Governance, Habitat Loss, Oil, Politics, and Species Discovery]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Newly described bat from Mozambique mountain under threat, researchers say A forest that harbors Mozambique’s most recently identified species of mammal could disappear within the next two years as small-scale farmers fell trees to grow potatoes and other crops. The Namuli horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus namuli) is named after Mount Namuli, a granite mountain, or inselberg, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Newly described bat from Mozambique mountain under threat, researchers say A forest that harbors Mozambique’s most recently identified species of mammal could disappear within the next two years as small-scale farmers fell trees to grow potatoes and other crops. The Namuli horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus namuli) is named after Mount Namuli, a granite mountain, or inselberg, in the country’s northern Zambezia province. At more than 2,400 meters (7,900 feet), it’s the country’s second-highest peak. But only fragments of the moist evergreen forest growing on its flanks remain, and the bats, which were collected by a research team more than a decade ago in forests higher than 1,200 m (3,900 ft), may soon be without a home. “Mount Namuli is severely threatened, and the natural forests have been heavily degraded, even since we first went there in around 2006,” said Julian Bayliss, the co-author of a recent paper in Acta Chiropterologica describing the new species. “Since that time a lot of the forest, maybe 75%, has been destroyed.” Farmers clear-cut small patches of forest to access the rich loamy soils beneath it that are perfect for growing so-called Irish potatoes. But the soil’s fertility only lasts for three to four years, after which the farmers move on to another patch. Bayliss and his co-authors estimate that at current rates of loss, the forest could disappear entirely by 2025. Namuli horseshoe bats belong to a group known for the horseshoe-shaped structures on their faces that send out soundwaves to help them navigate and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/forests-finance-setbacks-for-a-rare-bat-and-progress-for-an-oil-pipeline/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/02/forests-finance-setbacks-for-a-rare-bat-and-progress-for-an-oil-pipeline/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-265318</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Critically endangered&#8217; listing for East African dugong population is needed (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/critically-endangered-listing-for-east-african-dugong-population-is-needed-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/critically-endangered-listing-for-east-african-dugong-population-is-needed-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Oct 2022 14:30:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Evan Trotzuk]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/08/11032625/Dugong-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=261414</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Mozambique]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Commentary, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Dugong, Endangered Species, Extinction, Mammals, Marine Mammals, Oceans, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Once common in East Africa, there is now only one known viable dugong population found in this entire region. With just a few hundred left in the waters around the Bazaruto Archipelago National Park in Mozambique, this makes up approximately 90% of the remaining East African dugong population and unless protected, the extinction of these [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Once common in East Africa, there is now only one known viable dugong population found in this entire region. With just a few hundred left in the waters around the Bazaruto Archipelago National Park in Mozambique, this makes up approximately 90% of the remaining East African dugong population and unless protected, the extinction of these elusive marine mammals in East Africa could be inevitable. Found in relative abundance in parts of northern Australia, dugongs are currently listed globally as ‘vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. But over the past few decades their numbers in East Africa have plummeted due to indiscriminate fishing and development. By proposing that the East African dugong population is listed as ‘critically endangered,’ a significant incentive will be established to support the long-term protection of these marine mammals. Myself and others on the Bazaruto research team recently published a peer-reviewed paper, &#8220;Focused and inclusive actions could ensure the persistence of East Africa&#8217;s last known viable dugong subpopulation,&#8221; which proposes the East African dugong population be listed as ‘critically endangered’ on the IUCN Red List, a globally recognized measure of extinction vulnerability. The IUCN Red List uses precise criteria to evaluate the level of vulnerability of the world’s flora and fauna species so that levels of protection can be measured to prevent their extinction. Dugong at Bazaruto Archipelago National Park, Mozambique. Image courtesy of Evan Trotzuk/African Parks. Threats to dugongs and people Traditionally, dugongs have been anthropomorphized in many parts of the world. Europeans&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/critically-endangered-listing-for-east-african-dugong-population-is-needed-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/critically-endangered-listing-for-east-african-dugong-population-is-needed-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-261414</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The Western Indian Ocean lost 4% of its mangroves in 24 years, report finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/the-western-indian-ocean-lost-4-of-its-mangroves-in-24-years-report-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/the-western-indian-ocean-lost-4-of-its-mangroves-in-24-years-report-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Sep 2022 23:56:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mark Hillsdon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/07233715/Nosy_LONJO_-_Antsiranana-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=260060</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Tanzania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Blue Carbon, carbon, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Deforestation, Development, Environment, Forests, Global Warming, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Habitat Loss, Mangroves, Mitigation, Poverty, Timber, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new analysis of satellite data finds the Western Indian Ocean region lost around 4% its mangrove forests over the past quarter-century. In a report that discusses the state of these mangroves, the authors write that their findings provide decision-makers with the high-quality, reliable data they need to protect these threatened coastal forests. Published July [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new analysis of satellite data finds the Western Indian Ocean region lost around 4% its mangrove forests over the past quarter-century. In a report that discusses the state of these mangroves, the authors write that their findings provide decision-makers with the high-quality, reliable data they need to protect these threatened coastal forests. Published July 2022 by Wetlands International, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the report focuses on mangrove coverage in Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar and Mozambique, which together account for 5% of the world&#8217;s mangroves. The mangroves of the Western Indian Ocean are spread along the coasts of four countries: Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar. The report is based on analysis of satellite data collected by online monitoring platform Global Mangrove Watch (GMW) and builds on a 2020 global report. It is the first of several studies that will look more closely at what can be done to restore mangroves in specific regions, says Paul Erftemeijer, an independent marine scientist and one of the report’s authors. The analysts used an algorithm to extract information from satellite imagery, turning this data into a map that showed the extent of existing mangroves forests. By focussing on a particular region, researchers can extract much more detailed information which, along with traditional fieldwork, offers: “a systematic approach that gets us as close as we can to the reality,” Erftemeijer says. The report covers 1996-2020 and reveals that the region lost 30,156 hectares (3.9%) of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/the-western-indian-ocean-lost-4-of-its-mangroves-in-24-years-report-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/the-western-indian-ocean-lost-4-of-its-mangroves-in-24-years-report-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-260060</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mozambique busts notorious rhino poacher</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/mozambique-busts-notorious-rhino-poacher/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/mozambique-busts-notorious-rhino-poacher/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Aug 2022 07:53:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Estacio Valoi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/01074143/WhiteRhino_KrugerNPSouthAfrica_BrookWardBYNC2.0-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258735</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Illegal Trade, Law Enforcement, Organized Crime, Poaching, Rhinos, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MAPUTO — Authorities in Mozambique have arrested two men for allegedly attempting to sell rhino horn in the country’s capital, Maputo. Hilario Lole, a spokesperson for the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC), said the men — notorious rhino poacher Simon Ernesto Valoi, widely known by his nickname, “Navara,” and an associate, Paulo Zukula — were [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MAPUTO — Authorities in Mozambique have arrested two men for allegedly attempting to sell rhino horn in the country’s capital, Maputo. Hilario Lole, a spokesperson for the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC), said the men — notorious rhino poacher Simon Ernesto Valoi, widely known by his nickname, “Navara,” and an associate, Paulo Zukula — were caught on July 26 in possession of eight rhino horns. Lole told a July 29 press conference that the pair had brought pieces of horn from rhinos poached in Mozambique&#8217;s Gaza province and from Massingir district, on the border with South Africa&#8217;s Kruger National Park, to Maputo to meet a potential buyer — not suspecting they were being caught up in a sting operation. At the press conference, Zukula admitted to accompanying Valoi to Maputo to set up the sale, meeting someone known to Valoi at a hotel. “He told us to go down. We went down, we entered the [hotel] reception. He [Valoi] is the one who knows him. They started talking. When he left, the police came in.” Residents of Massingir queue for water: there are few economic opportunities in the southwestern Mozambican town on the border with South Africa. Image by Estacio Valoi for Mongabay. Villa belonging to a suspected poacher in Massangir, Mozambique. Image by Estacio Valoi for Mongabay. Poaching with impunity Valoi, who also goes by the name Simon Tivani, lives in Massingir, a dusty, downtrodden district about 330 kilometers (205 miles) north of Maputo, on the border adjacent to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/mozambique-busts-notorious-rhino-poacher/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/mozambique-busts-notorious-rhino-poacher/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258735</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Stronghold for Africa’s rarest falcon discovered in reserve threatened by Mozambique insurgency</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/stronghold-for-africas-rarest-falcon-discovered-in-reserve-threatened-by-mozambique-insurgency/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/stronghold-for-africas-rarest-falcon-discovered-in-reserve-threatened-by-mozambique-insurgency/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Mar 2022 10:52:25 +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/20/2022/03/24101658/Taita-Falcon-Alan-Kemp-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=254119</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Mozambique]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Protected Areas, Raptors, Research, Surveying, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A team of biologists has discovered a nesting stronghold for Africa’s rarest falcon in the granite domes that tower over Mozambique&#8217;s Niassa Special Reserve. The team surveyed more than 30 of these granite domes, or inselbergs, and spotted Taita falcon (Falco fasciinucha) nests at nearly half of them. Young falcons were found at half those [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A team of biologists has discovered a nesting stronghold for Africa’s rarest falcon in the granite domes that tower over Mozambique&#8217;s Niassa Special Reserve. The team surveyed more than 30 of these granite domes, or inselbergs, and spotted Taita falcon (Falco fasciinucha) nests at nearly half of them. Young falcons were found at half those breeding sites, meaning the parents had successfully raised chicks. Niassa is one of the largest protected areas in Africa. Its 4.2 million hectares (10.4 million acres) include large areas of the open dryland forest known as miombo as well as patches of evergreen montane forest on the inselbergs. There are charismatic mammals including elephants, lions and wild dogs, as well as some 60,000 people in 40-odd villages within the reserve. Taita falcons are small, stocky birds of prey, which dive from their clifftop perches in pursuit of smaller birds. Biologists estimate there are between 500 and 1,000 mature birds across the whole of their range, which stretches patchily from Ethiopia to South Africa. To survey the inselbergs, Christiaan Brink, raptor and large terrestrial bird project manager for the conservation group BirdLife South Africa, and his colleagues rose each day before dawn to take a helicopter ride from their base camp at the headquarters of the Niassa reserve at Mbatamila to a chosen site. Once they landed, the team would train spotting scopes and binoculars on cliff faces while doing their best to ignore the attentions of mopane flies, a small gnat-like species that seeks moisture&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/stronghold-for-africas-rarest-falcon-discovered-in-reserve-threatened-by-mozambique-insurgency/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/stronghold-for-africas-rarest-falcon-discovered-in-reserve-threatened-by-mozambique-insurgency/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-254119</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Two storms in two weeks carve trail of death and destruction in Madagascar</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/two-storms-in-two-weeks-carve-trail-of-death-and-destruction-in-madagascar/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/two-storms-in-two-weeks-carve-trail-of-death-and-destruction-in-madagascar/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Feb 2022 15:03:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/07144619/batsirai-cyclone-madagascar-nasa-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=252396</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Indian Ocean, Madagascar, and Mozambique]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Disasters, Environment, Extreme Weather, Impact Of Climate Change, Islands, Oceans, Storms, and Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Cyclone Batsirai rammed into Madagascar’s coast on Feb. 5, bringing further devastation to a country already reeling from the effects of another tropical storm, Ana, that struck on Jan. 22. Batsirai, a category 4 cyclone with wind speeds of 235 kilometers per hour (146 miles per hour), struck the island’s eastern coast near the city of Mananjary. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Cyclone Batsirai rammed into Madagascar’s coast on Feb. 5, bringing further devastation to a country already reeling from the effects of another tropical storm, Ana, that struck on Jan. 22. Batsirai, a category 4 cyclone with wind speeds of 235 kilometers per hour (146 miles per hour), struck the island’s eastern coast near the city of Mananjary. A resident in an interview with news channel Europe 1 compared the destruction in his city to being bombed. At least 10 people have died. Image and forecast courtesy of Météo France. In January, tropical storm Ana barreled across Madagascar, leading to 48 deaths, most of them in the central region, where the capital Antananarivo is located. At least 130,000 people lost their homes to storm winds, landslides and flooding. Ana went on to strike the African mainland, leaving 20 dead in Mozambique and 20 in Malawi. Batsirai, which swept through Madagascar and entered the Mozambique Channel on Feb. 7, is unlikely to reach continental Africa. Madagascar, a gourd-shaped island off Africa’s eastern coast, lies in the southwestern Indian Ocean. For the world’s fourth-largest island, cyclones are a recurring natural disaster, with the highest risk from December to January. On average, one cyclone makes landfall every year, but category four cyclones, some of the most powerful and destructive, are rarer. Flood-prone areas of Mahajanga, Madagascar, in March 2014 after a cyclone and high tides. Image by Francis de Chambure via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). Data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration&#8217;s historical hurricane tracker&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/two-storms-in-two-weeks-carve-trail-of-death-and-destruction-in-madagascar/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/two-storms-in-two-weeks-carve-trail-of-death-and-destruction-in-madagascar/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-252396</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Mozambique, mystery of tuskless elephant points to poaching as the culprit</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/in-mozambique-mystery-of-tuskless-elephant-points-to-poaching-as-the-culprit/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/in-mozambique-mystery-of-tuskless-elephant-points-to-poaching-as-the-culprit/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Nov 2021 05:27:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/11/12051836/addo-elephant-park-elephant-africa-mammal-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=249376</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, and South Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Elephants, Evolution, Genetics, Habitat Loss, Ivory, Poaching, Research, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Mozambique&#8217;s 15-year civil war changed the face of its national parks, which underwent rampant poaching of big mammals, including elephants. It did much more. It changed the face of female African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana). The unusually large number of tuskless females at the Gorongosa National Park today can be traced back to the ravages [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Mozambique&#8217;s 15-year civil war changed the face of its national parks, which underwent rampant poaching of big mammals, including elephants. It did much more. It changed the face of female African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana). The unusually large number of tuskless females at the Gorongosa National Park today can be traced back to the ravages of that war, which raged from 1977 to 1992, a recent study in the journal Science shows. For Dominique Gonçalves, an elephant ecologist at Gorongosa, the altered profiles of her favorite animal cuts deep. She was born 29 years ago when the country stumbled out of the conflict, and to see scars of that plunder stretch into the present is sobering. Poachers targeted tusked elephants, bearers of valuable ivory that could be traded for arms. Only about 200 of an estimated 2,500 elephants in the park survived the massacre. &#8220;It&#8217;s in our faces, we have done this,&#8221; Gonçalves said. In the new paper, Gonçalves and a team of researchers from the U.S. and U.K. describe how the war-time cull continues to shape the herd today. &#8220;Poachers were preferentially killing animals with tusks and leaving tuskless ones to survive, so they were breeding and producing more tuskless offspring,&#8221; Gonçalves said. &#8220;We artificially selected them.&#8221; Elephants are the largest living terrestrial beings, an ancient species that has roamed the planet for more than a million years. Tusks adorned their ancestors as well, persisting because of their usefulness. Tuskers use them to tear through tree bark, dig into&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/in-mozambique-mystery-of-tuskless-elephant-points-to-poaching-as-the-culprit/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/in-mozambique-mystery-of-tuskless-elephant-points-to-poaching-as-the-culprit/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-249376</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New research hopes to shine a light on wedgefish, the ‘pangolin of the ocean’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/new-research-hopes-to-shine-a-light-on-wedgefish-the-pangolin-of-the-ocean/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/new-research-hopes-to-shine-a-light-on-wedgefish-the-pangolin-of-the-ocean/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Sep 2021 16:52:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Caroline Chebet]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/09/06140309/Janneman-filming-Bowmouth-mozambique-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=246812</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Indian Ocean, and Mozambique]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Conservation Technology, data, Elasmobranchs, Endangered Species, Environment, Fish, Fishing, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, Overfishing, Rays, Remote Sensing, Research, Saltwater Fish, Science, shark finning, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[An assessment in 2019 by shark experts identified the little-known family of wedgefishes as among the most threatened marine fish families worldwide. This prompted researchers to roll out a first-of-its-kind study to track two critically endangered species in Mozambique and beyond. Scientists with the Marine Megafauna Foundation (MMF) are employing two different types of tags, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[An assessment in 2019 by shark experts identified the little-known family of wedgefishes as among the most threatened marine fish families worldwide. This prompted researchers to roll out a first-of-its-kind study to track two critically endangered species in Mozambique and beyond. Scientists with the Marine Megafauna Foundation (MMF) are employing two different types of tags, acoustic and satellite, to track the bottlenose wedgefish (Rhynchobatus australiae) and bowmouth guitarfish (Rhina ancylostoma) in a bid to better understand their movements and range in order to increase protections. “With such little information available, we truly aren’t sure what to expect,” said David Gilroy, general manager of the Vilanculos Coastal Wildlife Sanctuary in Mozambique. Marine Megafauna Foundation co-founder Andrea Marshall tagging a wedgefish. This project is the first in Mozambique to use the combination of both acoustic and satellite tags to “ground-truth” the location of the species. Image courtesy of Marine Megafauna Foundation. Fitting the tags to specimens in the Vilanculos sanctuary and Bazaruto Archipelago National Park, researchers aim to map the two wedgefish species’ distribution sites and gather information on the threats that may have led to their steep declines. “Once we retrieve and analyze the data from the tags, we will be able to provide a better indication of the high-use zones and areas of critical habitat (e.g. nursery areas, feeding grounds) for wedgefish in and around these protected areas,” said Stephanie Venables, a senior scientist at the MMF. “This information can be used to guide the design and implementation of future&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/new-research-hopes-to-shine-a-light-on-wedgefish-the-pangolin-of-the-ocean/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/new-research-hopes-to-shine-a-light-on-wedgefish-the-pangolin-of-the-ocean/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-246812</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Reckoning with elitism and racism in conservation: Q&#038;A with Colleen Begg</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/reckoning-with-elitism-and-racism-in-conservation-qa-with-colleen-begg/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/reckoning-with-elitism-and-racism-in-conservation-qa-with-colleen-begg/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jun 2021 03:38:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/06/26221323/African-Wild-dog-header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=243990</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Carnivores, Cats, Colonialism, Community-based Conservation, Conservation leadership, COVID-19, Culture, Ecotourism, Education, Gender, Human-wildlife Conflict, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Lions, Mammals, Racism, Social Justice, transforming conservation, Wildlife, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the wake of George Floyd&#8217;s killing last year, long-running concerns about discrimination, colonial legacy, privilege, and power dynamics in conservation have gained prominence, forcing many organizations in the sector to reckon with their origins and how they operate. Current and historic injustices against Indigenous Peoples and local communities in the name of establishing protected [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the wake of George Floyd&#8217;s killing last year, long-running concerns about discrimination, colonial legacy, privilege, and power dynamics in conservation have gained prominence, forcing many organizations in the sector to reckon with their origins and how they operate. Current and historic injustices against Indigenous Peoples and local communities in the name of establishing protected areas, racism and abusive practices within institutions, representation in leadership, and disparities in funding and advancement opportunities are but a few of the areas that have drawn particular attention over the past year. But while there is certainly an uptick in reflection and discussion, it&#8217;s unclear whether this period will result in lasting, meaningful change or if the sector will revert back to business-as-usual. Colleen Begg, a South African conservationist who co-founded the Niassa Carnivore Project in Mozambique, says she isn&#8217;t sure either, but meaningful transformation won&#8217;t come on its own &#8212; it will require dedicated and sustained efforts to drive real change. &#8220;I have had more conversations about privilege, racism, and sexism in conservation in the last three years than before but there is still such a long way to go,&#8221; Begg told Mongabay during a recent interview. &#8220;To me conservation really is one of the last bastions of racism and exclusion on the continent and it is very resistant to change.&#8221; Colleen Begg As a white South African who has never lived outside Africa and has worked in conservation for 30 years, Begg has seen how race, gender, and privilege play out in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/reckoning-with-elitism-and-racism-in-conservation-qa-with-colleen-begg/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/reckoning-with-elitism-and-racism-in-conservation-qa-with-colleen-begg/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-243990</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Private investors look to high-end tourism to fund conservation in Mozambique</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/private-investors-look-to-high-end-tourism-to-fund-conservation-in-mozambique/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/private-investors-look-to-high-end-tourism-to-fund-conservation-in-mozambique/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Jun 2021 11:12:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marlowe Starling]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Ashoka]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/06/24142056/south_africa_kruger_0272_header-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=244103</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Business, Conservation, Ecotourism, Environment, Fellows, Funding, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Lions, Poaching, Private Reserves, Protected Areas, Rhinos, Tourism, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When COVID-19 started to sweep across the world last year, conservationists feared that it would be a disaster for Africa’s wildlife. Tourism revenues evaporated, causing salary cuts and layoffs for rangers in protected game parks. But after a spike in poaching incidents looked to be confirming those fears at first, in some countries the opposite [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When COVID-19 started to sweep across the world last year, conservationists feared that it would be a disaster for Africa’s wildlife. Tourism revenues evaporated, causing salary cuts and layoffs for rangers in protected game parks. But after a spike in poaching incidents looked to be confirming those fears at first, in some countries the opposite has proved to be the case: harsh lockdown measures instead led to a temporary decline in poaching of rhinos and other large game. Still, the crisis has laid bare one of the central dilemmas for conservation in Africa: who pays for it, and are those funding streams resilient enough to hold up under pressure? In the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area, a patchwork of protected nature reserves along the borderlands of Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe, some investors are saying the answer is the private sector. One example is the Karingani Game Reserve in southwestern Mozambique, which is developing what it says will be a flagship example of private capital-driven conservation in Africa. But with a history of land conflict between the reserve and rural communities living nearby, how will it balance its ambitious plans for high-end ecotourism with the livelihoods and cultural needs of those communities? And will those plans lead to a profitable, sustainable business model that can deliver benefits for wildlife and local people? As the Mozambican government continues to encourage foreign investment into conservation in the wake of COVID-19, Karingani may prove to be a test case for whether private reserves&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/private-investors-look-to-high-end-tourism-to-fund-conservation-in-mozambique/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/private-investors-look-to-high-end-tourism-to-fund-conservation-in-mozambique/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-244103</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Gas fields and jihad: Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado becomes a resource-rich war zone</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/gas-fields-and-jihad-mozambiques-cabo-delgado-becomes-a-resource-rich-war-zone/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/gas-fields-and-jihad-mozambiques-cabo-delgado-becomes-a-resource-rich-war-zone/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Apr 2021 19:38:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Ashoka]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/04/26192336/mab2018_mozambique_azura_quilalea02-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=242005</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Mozambique]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conflict, Energy, Environment, Exploration, Illegal Logging, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Mining, Natural Gas, Oil Drilling, Resource Conflict, Violence, and War]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On Monday, French energy giant Total declared force majeure on its multibillion-dollar light natural gas (LNG) project in northern Mozambique, formally withdrawing all of its employees from the region and indefinitely suspending its operations. The declaration came after heavily armed militants carried out a surprise attack on the nearby town of Palma, a commercial center [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On Monday, French energy giant Total declared force majeure on its multibillion-dollar light natural gas (LNG) project in northern Mozambique, formally withdrawing all of its employees from the region and indefinitely suspending its operations. The declaration came after heavily armed militants carried out a surprise attack on the nearby town of Palma, a commercial center in the northern coastal province of Cabo Delgado, in late March. Days of sustained fighting in the town took place just 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Total’s worksite, a $20 billion offshore LNG facility that is currently the largest foreign investment project in Africa. The attack on Palma and Total’s subsequent retreat has brought a rush of attention to the growing insurgency in Cabo Delgado, where more than a century of neglect, corruption and abuse has accompanied the extraction of its abundance of lucrative natural resources. The Islamist militia responsible for the assault calls itself Ansar al-Sunna, but is widely known to locals as al-Shabaab (“the youth” – no relation to Somali militants of the same name). Since 2017 the group has waged an increasingly sophisticated and violent campaign against the Mozambican government, targeting police stations, infrastructure and towns throughout the coastal province. At least 2,700 people have been killed in the conflict so far – half of them civilians –  with an additional 700,000 forced to flee their homes, according to the most recent figures from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Just hours before the attack on Palma, Total had announced it was&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/gas-fields-and-jihad-mozambiques-cabo-delgado-becomes-a-resource-rich-war-zone/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-242005</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mozambique&#8217;s new fisheries law expands protections but old problems persist</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/01/mozambiques-new-fisheries-law-expands-protections-but-old-problems-persist/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/01/mozambiques-new-fisheries-law-expands-protections-but-old-problems-persist/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Jan 2021 13:51:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/01/19133107/Whale-shark-tourism-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=238770</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Mozambique]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Coastal Ecosystems, Community-based Conservation, Ecosystems, Fisheries, Fishing, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new fisheries law enacted this month in Mozambique is being hailed as a landmark by conservationists. It seeks to empower communities and extend protection to an array of threatened marine species, including whale sharks, manta rays and dolphins. &#8220;This is a huge step for Mozambique; a huge step for organizations like us, and also for the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new fisheries law enacted this month in Mozambique is being hailed as a landmark by conservationists. It seeks to empower communities and extend protection to an array of threatened marine species, including whale sharks, manta rays and dolphins. &#8220;This is a huge step for Mozambique; a huge step for organizations like us, and also for the communities,&#8221; said Emerson Neves, project manager at Marine Megafauna Foundation (MMF), one of the NGOs that lobbied for expanded protections. He added that implementing the law will be a lot of work. Conservation NGOs have been pushing for the inclusion of a comprehensive list of protected species in Mozambican law for decades. Talks around this revision of the national fisheries law began in earnest last year, and the new law was finally notified in October. The revised Regulamento da Pesca Marítima (REPMAR) signals a shift in emphasis toward sustainable fisheries rather than just increasing production. It also clears the way for co-management by communities. It is a significant piece of legislation in a country where seafood provides half of the protein intake for the population. More than two-thirds of Mozambique&#8217;s 30 million people live within 150 kilometers (93 miles) of the coast, and traditional fishers haul in nearly 90% of Mozambique&#8217;s annual catch. &#8220;If you enable and empower local communities, it can be a game-changer,&#8221; said Thomas Sberna, Kenya-based regional coordinator for the IUCN. &#8220;It&#8217;s absolutely necessary to have a law in place because otherwise, you cannot have enforcement or implementation.&#8221; But Sberna echoed Neves that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/01/mozambiques-new-fisheries-law-expands-protections-but-old-problems-persist/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-238770</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Gorongosa National Park is being reforested via coffee and agroforestry</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/gorongosa-national-park-is-being-reforested-via-coffee-and-agroforestry/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/gorongosa-national-park-is-being-reforested-via-coffee-and-agroforestry/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Oct 2020 17:47:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/10/15172025/Farmer-13_Credit-Brett-Kuxhausen.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=235526</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Agroforestry]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community Development, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Elephants, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Human-wildlife Conflict, Interviews, National Parks, Parks, Poverty Alleviation, Solutions, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Gorongosa National Park has quite a history, from its inception 60 years ago to being battleground the subsequent Mozambique civil war, to its recent revitalization and engagement with the human community that lives among its borders. The park enlists local people in management at all levels, and focuses on developing schools and girls&#8217; empowerment programs, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Gorongosa National Park has quite a history, from its inception 60 years ago to being battleground the subsequent Mozambique civil war, to its recent revitalization and engagement with the human community that lives among its borders. The park enlists local people in management at all levels, and focuses on developing schools and girls&#8217; empowerment programs, too, so in this context it seems a natural fit that the park would engage residents in a new, restorative agriculture venture which also serves to reforest the slopes of Mount Gorongosa, via agroforestry. Matt Jordan is well suited to direct this project, having served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mozambique after earning degrees in environmental engineering, and being of the belief that the fates of human societies and the natural world are intertwined, and can thrive together. Today, he serves as the Director of Sustainable Development for the park which includes overseeing projects like Gorongosa Coffee, and he answered some questions via email: his responses have been edited for brevity and clarity. Mount Gorongosa is being reforested with the help of shade grown coffee. Image courtesy of Matt Jordan. Mongabay: What crops are you planting within the park&#8217;s borders?  Matt Jordan: We plant shade-grown arabica coffee within the park’s borders, intercropped with native hardwood trees like East African mahogany (Khaya anthoteca), titi (Erythrina lisistemon), albizia (Albizia adianthifolia), muonha (Breonadia salicina), panga panga (Millettia stuhlmannii) and mussulo (Bridelia micrantha) to provide the necessary shade for the coffee trees, and to restore the rainforest. In the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/10/gorongosa-national-park-is-being-reforested-via-coffee-and-agroforestry/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-235526</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mozambique&#8217;s trailblazing Gorongosa Park celebrates 60th anniversary, announces 60 new schools (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/mozambiques-trailblazing-gorongosa-park-celebrates-60th-anniversary-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/mozambiques-trailblazing-gorongosa-park-celebrates-60th-anniversary-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jul 2020 08:45:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dominique Gonçalves]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/07/21162749/Gorongosa-waterfall-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=232886</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Development, Elephants, Environment, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, National Parks, Parks, Poverty Alleviation, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On July 23rd, 2020, we Mozambicans celebrated the 60th birthday of our flagship national park: Gorongosa. It is located in the center of our country and is a symbol of unity, restoration and hope for our nation. Due to COVID, there were only twenty guests, but one of them was the President of Mozambique, Filipe [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On July 23rd, 2020, we Mozambicans celebrated the 60th birthday of our flagship national park: Gorongosa. It is located in the center of our country and is a symbol of unity, restoration and hope for our nation. Due to COVID, there were only twenty guests, but one of them was the President of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi. Gorongosa is important to me because I was born near the park in 1992. That same year my country signed a peace agreement ending a generation of civil conflict. Some of the war was fought inside Gorongosa and the park lost 95% of its wildlife to soldiers and hunting opportunists. Almost one million people died. My mother worked for the Red Cross during the war and she still tells me stories, even today, about the suffering of the people. My birth year is interesting for another reason. It was a pivotal worldwide moment to redefine the purpose of national parks. The Rio Earth Summit was convened in 1992. There were more national leaders at that event than have ever been assembled anywhere before or since. Dominique Gonçalves laughing with a Girls Club group in Gorongosa. Image courtesy of Brett Kuxhausen / Gorongosa Media Two themes emerged and they explained (a) why we need national parks and (b) how to manage them. First, Rio delegates acknowledged that we are destroying the planet, that we are causing a mass extinction of species, and that if ecosystems fail,  human economies will go down with them. Second, the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/mozambiques-trailblazing-gorongosa-park-celebrates-60th-anniversary-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-232886</doi>				</item>
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