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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/republic-of-congo/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Wed, 09 Sep 2026 10:00:55 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>Republic of Congo environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/republic-of-congo/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>A Congo Basin-led bioeconomy could boost Central Africa’s green transition (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Apr 2026 16:27:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Metolo Foyet]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/05115844/ForestElephant.Loxodonta.cyclotis_NgounieGabon_marcusgmeineriNaturalistBYNC4.0-BANNER-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317006</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Biodiversity, Bioeconomy, Commentary, Community Development, Environment, Forest Products, Forests, Green, Rainforests, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Trade, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional Medicine, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Congo Basin, often referred to as the “second lungs of Earth,” holds immense potential for leading Central Africa’s green transition. Home to the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest and second-largest reserve of drinkable water (holding 50% of all of Africa’s water resources), the region covers more than 3.7 million square kilometers (nearly 1.5 million square [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Congo Basin, often referred to as the “second lungs of Earth,” holds immense potential for leading Central Africa’s green transition. Home to the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest and second-largest reserve of drinkable water (holding 50% of all of Africa’s water resources), the region covers more than 3.7 million square kilometers (nearly 1.5 million square miles), absorbs more carbon dioxide than any other region in the world — with an annual net carbon dioxide absorption six times that of the Amazon Rainforest — and spans six countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon), storing around 30 billion metric tons of carbon. This critical ecological zone harbors immense biodiversity and natural resources, making it a strategic hub for the emerging global bioeconomy. However, learning from the Eastern African experience, realizing this potential requires a shift from extractive industries to sustainable, nature-based economies that prioritize long-term ecological health and local prosperity. Beyond its ecological importance — containing more than 10,000 species of plants, 1,000 species of birds, and 400 species of mammals, including iconic ones like the forest elephant and the critically endangered western lowland gorilla — the region stands at a critical juncture in the global minerals race, holding a significant share of the world&#8217;s strategic assets like lithium, cobalt, gold, and rare earth elements — key components shaping global power and the future of the energy transition. Despite this wealth, the Congo Basin’s economic strategies have often relied on the “dig&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317006</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Baby gorilla seized from traffickers languishes in Turkish zoo</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/baby-gorilla-seized-from-traffickers-languishes-in-turkish-zoo/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/baby-gorilla-seized-from-traffickers-languishes-in-turkish-zoo/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Feb 2026 15:58:58 +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/20/2026/02/11222802/1-4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314164</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Central Africa, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Nigeria, Republic of Congo, Southeast Asia, Thailand, Turkey, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Conservation, Crime, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Gorillas, Great Apes, Poaching, Primates, trafficking, Wildlife, Wildlife Trafficking, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In December 2024, Turkish customs officers were flummoxed when they discovered a malnourished baby gorilla in the cargo hold of an airplane flying from Nigeria to Bangkok, transiting via Istanbul. Wearing a soiled T-shirt, the 5-month-old infant was shoved inside a wooden crate falsely declared to contain 50 rabbits. After a social media campaign, he [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In December 2024, Turkish customs officers were flummoxed when they discovered a malnourished baby gorilla in the cargo hold of an airplane flying from Nigeria to Bangkok, transiting via Istanbul. Wearing a soiled T-shirt, the 5-month-old infant was shoved inside a wooden crate falsely declared to contain 50 rabbits. After a social media campaign, he was named Zeytin, which means “olive” in Turkish. This critically endangered western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) was being smuggled to an animal farm in Bangkok without any export permits or paperwork. All great apes, including gorillas, are afforded the highest protection under CITES, an international treaty regulating wildlife trade, making commercial transnational trade illegal. They can be transferred between zoos or exported for scientific research but require official paperwork. After the seizure made global headlines, Turkish authorities sent Zeytin to Polonezköy Zoo in Istanbul. Meanwhile, they said they were working to imminently dispatch him to a sanctuary in Africa, where he could possibly be released into the wild. But one year on, those plans seem to have bitten the dust. As of September 2025, Zeytin was seen languishing in the same zoo, living a lonely life in a cage — the very life many thought he had escaped. “At present, Türkiye does not have adequate facilities to meet the long-term physical, social and psychological needs of a gorilla,” said primate expert Aslıhan Niksarlı at the Jane Goodall Institute who directs Roots &amp; Shoots Türkiye. “There are also no other gorillas in the country, which&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/baby-gorilla-seized-from-traffickers-languishes-in-turkish-zoo/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/baby-gorilla-seized-from-traffickers-languishes-in-turkish-zoo/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314164</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What’s next for the major pledge to halt &#038; reverse Congo Basin deforestation?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/whats-next-for-the-major-pledge-to-halt-reverse-congo-basin-deforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/whats-next-for-the-major-pledge-to-halt-reverse-congo-basin-deforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Feb 2026 23:01:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/05115844/ForestElephant.Loxodonta.cyclotis_NgounieGabon_marcusgmeineriNaturalistBYNC4.0-BANNER-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313829</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Central Africa, Central African Republic, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Policy, Finance, Forests, Politics, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Copince Ngoma, a member of the Bakouele Indigenous community, has relied on the lush green Congo Basin rainforest his whole life. His village’s forests, located in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Sangha region, are a wide repertoire for hunting, fishing and medicinal plants to care for his family. But in the last few years, as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Copince Ngoma, a member of the Bakouele Indigenous community, has relied on the lush green Congo Basin rainforest his whole life. His village’s forests, located in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Sangha region, are a wide repertoire for hunting, fishing and medicinal plants to care for his family. But in the last few years, as elsewhere across the world’s second-largest rainforest, the scars of unsustainable mining practices have cleared wildlife habitats, polluted waters and dwindled resources. “We used to drink this water, but not anymore. … We used to hunt gazelles, monkeys. … Now, to catch anything, you have to travel at least 20 kilometers,” about 12 miles away, he told Mongabay. “We’re suffering.” This is part of a central and recurring issue across the region, which brought together high-level policymakers during a Land Dialogues webinar on Jan. 27 to discuss the recent $2.5 billion pledge to conserve forests that millions of people, including Ngoma, depend on for their material and cultural survival. The pledge is part of a major political and financial commitment announced last November during the COP30 U.N. climate conference: the Belém Call to Action for the Congo Basin Forests. Land clearance with fire in the Congo Basin. Image by John Cannon/Mongabay. For some policymakers, it was the first time they were speaking publicly about the implementation priorities of the pledge, what it will look like in practice, the inclusion of Indigenous peoples and local communities in the commitment and the challenges the call to action faces.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/whats-next-for-the-major-pledge-to-halt-reverse-congo-basin-deforestation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/whats-next-for-the-major-pledge-to-halt-reverse-congo-basin-deforestation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313829</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Protected areas in Africa are vital but local perceptions vary (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/protected-areas-in-africa-are-vital-but-local-perceptions-vary-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/protected-areas-in-africa-are-vital-but-local-perceptions-vary-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Dec 2025 16:49:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Diane DetoeufHeidi KretserJessica L’RoeMichelle Wieland]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/19153536/Indigenous-Mbuti-Peoples-going-for-a-communal-hunt-inside-the-Okapi-Wildlife-Reserve.-Photo-%C2%A9%EF%B8%8FBrent-StirtonGetty-Images-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311750</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Madagascar, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Environment, Ethics, Forest Products, Forests, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Rights, National Parks, Parks, Protected Areas, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Protected areas (PAs) are cornerstones of global biodiversity conservation strategy, yet their social impacts remain contentious. The prevailing narrative often pits global benefits, like biodiversity protection and carbon sequestration, against local costs like restricted access to land and resources, particularly in lower-income nations. This antagonistic framing — the interests of local people vs. the interests of other people elsewhere (or [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Protected areas (PAs) are cornerstones of global biodiversity conservation strategy, yet their social impacts remain contentious. The prevailing narrative often pits global benefits, like biodiversity protection and carbon sequestration, against local costs like restricted access to land and resources, particularly in lower-income nations. This antagonistic framing — the interests of local people vs. the interests of other people elsewhere (or of other species entirely) — can lead to polarized politics with respect to PAs. There are valid reasons for concern, as increasing recognition of the problematic historical legacy of many protected areas created on the African continent rooted in colonial alienation, as well as ongoing human rights concerns in several PA systems, make it clear that PAs can cause harm. Many conservation organizations now recognize that it is critically important that efforts to protect land simultaneously protect the rights and interests of people living there, especially those of Indigenous and local communities. Yet, if we want to protect local interests, we must first understand them. We don’t know as much as we need to about the ways that protected areas can, and do, serve the interests of the people living near them. Harm is often more evident than benefits, particularly in the case of acute episodes of violence or evictions, so much has been described about how protected areas can cause harm. The village of Bapukeli at the entrance of the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, Democratic Republic of Congo. Indigenous hunter-gatherers divide their time between villages like this and camps deep in the forest. Image by Thomas Nicolon for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/protected-areas-in-africa-are-vital-but-local-perceptions-vary-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/protected-areas-in-africa-are-vital-but-local-perceptions-vary-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311750</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Top-down projects, exotic trees, weak tenure: Congo Basin restoration misses the mark</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/top-down-projects-exotic-trees-weak-tenure-congo-basin-restoration-misses-the-mark/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/top-down-projects-exotic-trees-weak-tenure-congo-basin-restoration-misses-the-mark/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Dec 2025 16:49:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Amindeh Blaise Atabong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/11145146/a.-Banner-Loxodonta_cyclotis_3970045-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311149</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Central Africa, Central African Republic, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Gabon, Republic of Congo, and Rwanda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agroforestry, Biodiversity, carbon, Climate, Conservation, Forest Carbon, forest degradation, Forests, Logging, Reforestation, Slash-and-burn, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Congo Basin, the world’s largest tropical rainforest after the Amazon, is under mounting pressure. The Congo’s vast green canopy, stretching across six countries and storing more carbon than the Amazon, is vanishing at an alarming rate — losing an average of 1.79 million hectares (4.42 million acres) per year between 2015 and 2019. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Congo Basin, the world’s largest tropical rainforest after the Amazon, is under mounting pressure. The Congo’s vast green canopy, stretching across six countries and storing more carbon than the Amazon, is vanishing at an alarming rate — losing an average of 1.79 million hectares (4.42 million acres) per year between 2015 and 2019. The key drivers are well known: small-scale slash-and-burn agriculture, logging for fuelwood, and weak land governance. In response, some governments, international donors and NGOs have turned to reforestation projects as a cornerstone of the region’s climate and biodiversity strategies. But despite a panoply of projects — from tree-planting drives to agroforestry schemes — newly published research suggests that much of what’s happening in the name of “forest restoration” may not be restoring forests at all — but largely focused on nonnative, commodity species. The study analyzed 64 publications covering 26 initiatives in five countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Cameroon, Gabon, Rwanda, and the Central African Republic. The findings paint a complex picture of progress over the last two decades — one where the rhetoric of “restoration” often outpaces the reality on the ground. On paper, Central African governments have made major commitments to the Congo Basin. Under the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) and the Bonn Challenge, governments pledged to restore 25% of degraded land by this year. International donors, including the European Union, World Bank, as well as the French, German, Danish and U.K. development agencies, have poured millions of dollars into&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/top-down-projects-exotic-trees-weak-tenure-congo-basin-restoration-misses-the-mark/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/top-down-projects-exotic-trees-weak-tenure-congo-basin-restoration-misses-the-mark/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311149</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tropical forest loss hit new heights in 2024; fire a major driver in Latin America</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/tropical-forest-loss-hit-new-heights-in-2024-fire-a-major-driver-in-latin-america/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/tropical-forest-loss-hit-new-heights-in-2024-fire-a-major-driver-in-latin-america/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 May 2025 22:02:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/21213531/IF_Quilpue_24_2-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299460</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Bolivia, Brazil, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Global, Indonesia, Latin America, Republic of Congo, South America, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Deforestation, El Nino, Environment, Fires, Forest Loss, Forests, Global Warming, Green, Habitat Loss, Primary Forests, Rainforests, Temperate Forests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Tropical forest loss skyrocketed in 2024, with vast swaths of primary forest consumed by fire, according to new satellite data from the University of Maryland’s Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) laboratory, made available on World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Global Forest Watch (GFW) platform. The data indicate a record 6.7 million hectares (16.6 million acres) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tropical forest loss skyrocketed in 2024, with vast swaths of primary forest consumed by fire, according to new satellite data from the University of Maryland’s Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) laboratory, made available on World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Global Forest Watch (GFW) platform. The data indicate a record 6.7 million hectares (16.6 million acres) of primary tropical forest was destroyed in 2024 — an area almost the size of Panama. Nearly half of this forest loss was driven by fire, according to WRI’s analysis of the data. Five times more tropical forest burned in 2024 than in the previous year. That made fire, not agricultural expansion, the primary driver of tropical forest loss for the first time. Non-fire related tropical forest loss was also up, by 14% compared with 2023. “The 2024 numbers must be a wake-up call to every country, every bank, every international business,” Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of GFW said during a press conference. “Continuing down this path will devastate economies, people’s jobs and any chance of staving off climate change’s worst effects.&#8221; In 2024, the Amazon experienced the worst drought — and fire season — in decades. Fires are normally rare in humid tropical ecosystems. But in hot dry conditions, agricultural fires, many lit to clear land, can quickly spread, driving forest loss in the Amazon and other parts of Latin America. The data revealed that in the Congo Basin, shifting cultivation remained the primary driver of tropical forest loss, with rates of forest loss in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/tropical-forest-loss-hit-new-heights-in-2024-fire-a-major-driver-in-latin-america/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/tropical-forest-loss-hit-new-heights-in-2024-fire-a-major-driver-in-latin-america/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299460</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Protected parks in peril as Republic of Congo ramps up oil drilling</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/protected-parks-in-peril-as-republic-of-congo-ramps-up-oil-drilling/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/protected-parks-in-peril-as-republic-of-congo-ramps-up-oil-drilling/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2025 09:35:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie Toto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/06152942/chimps-in-congo-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298700</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Industry, Mangroves, Oil, Oil Drilling, Politics, Pollution, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Republic of Congo’s recently announced plans to double oil production over the next three years puts it “fatally at odds” with its own stated goals for a clean energy transition, activists warn. The country currently produces 270,000 barrels of oil a day, but Bruno Jean Richard Itoua, the minister of hydrocarbons, said at an [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Republic of Congo’s recently announced plans to double oil production over the next three years puts it “fatally at odds” with its own stated goals for a clean energy transition, activists warn. The country currently produces 270,000 barrels of oil a day, but Bruno Jean Richard Itoua, the minister of hydrocarbons, said at an energy and investment forum in Brazzaville in March that he wants to see this grow to 500,000 barrels daily. This increase will include drilling inside up to a quarter of Conkouati-Douli National Park, after the government in February 2024 granted an exploration permit to a joint venture of the state-owned oil company and China Oil Natural Gas Overseas Holding Limited. That policy has been roundly condemned by local and international civil society organizations. “On a strategic level, the government is working to safeguard biodiversity, but on a practical level, they are fatally at odds with this in the way they exploit it,” Placide Kaya, a mangrove expert and activist, told Mongabay, adding the government is speaking with “two voices.” “We shouldn&#8217;t normally touch protected areas because they are refuges for national biodiversity,” he said. “If we touch these areas, the Congo will be vulnerable to the disappearance of several species.” And the oil drilling plans don’t appear to stop at Conkouati-Douli National Park, Kaya said: “There&#8217;s the Conkouati-Douli park, there&#8217;s the Dimonika reserve &#8230; All the nature reserves in the country, especially in the southern part, are going to be disrupted.” Kaya said it remains&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/protected-parks-in-peril-as-republic-of-congo-ramps-up-oil-drilling/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/protected-parks-in-peril-as-republic-of-congo-ramps-up-oil-drilling/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298700</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Elusive wildlife shows up for photographer’s camera traps in Congo</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/elusive-wildlife-shows-up-for-photographers-camera-traps-in-congo/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/elusive-wildlife-shows-up-for-photographers-camera-traps-in-congo/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Feb 2025 13:19:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy RamanVictoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/26121712/Nandinia.binotata_NouabaleNdokiCongo_WillBurrardWCS-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295041</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Cats, Conservation, Forests, Green, Leopards, National Parks, Parks, Predators, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Small Cats, Solutions, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2023, Will Burrard-Lucas, a U.K.-based photographer who specializes in high-definition camera-trapping, set up cameras at four sites in the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, a 4,000-square-kilometer (1,545-square-mile) expanse of lowland rainforest in the Republic of Congo managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Camera traps are routinely used for scientific research in parks like Nouabalé-Ndoki, including [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2023, Will Burrard-Lucas, a U.K.-based photographer who specializes in high-definition camera-trapping, set up cameras at four sites in the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, a 4,000-square-kilometer (1,545-square-mile) expanse of lowland rainforest in the Republic of Congo managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Camera traps are routinely used for scientific research in parks like Nouabalé-Ndoki, including measuring wildlife abundance. Nominated as a World Heritage site, Nouabalé-Ndoki is home to significant populations of endangered mammals, including gorillas, chimpanzees and forest elephants. Closely related to African savanna elephants, the smaller, more elusive and critically endangered African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) roam Central Africa’s rainforests, holding them intact. African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis), Nouabale-Ndoki NP. Image courtesy of Will Burrard-Lucas/WCS. Although the international trade in ivory has been banned since 1990, poaching for ivory remains an immediate threat in the region. Habitat loss is also a growing threat, as humans and elephants come into ever-closer contact, underscoring the importance of large, intact, protected areas like Nouabalé-Ndoki as refuges for wildlife. “For me, the ultimate thrill is to photograph predators, and my dream was to get a shot of the apex predator in Nouabalé-Ndoki: a leopard. These cats are very secretive and almost impossible to see in the thick rainforest,” said Burrard-Lucas, whose work in the park was part of a program to develop tourism here, carried out in partnership with Kamba Africa, the first tourism company to operate in Nouabalé-Ndoki, and supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Leopard (Panthera pardus), Nouabale-Ndoki&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/elusive-wildlife-shows-up-for-photographers-camera-traps-in-congo/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/elusive-wildlife-shows-up-for-photographers-camera-traps-in-congo/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295041</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Documents, satellite data expose ongoing pollution near TotalEnergies’ Republic of Congo oil terminal</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/documents-satellite-data-expose-ongoing-pollution-near-totalenergies-republic-of-congo-oil-terminal/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/documents-satellite-data-expose-ongoing-pollution-near-totalenergies-republic-of-congo-oil-terminal/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Feb 2025 15:52:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie Toto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Daniel]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/20122032/7-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=294739</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Crime, Energy, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Oil, Pollution, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[After hours spent at sea, fisherman Guy Bayonne Balou and his crew return to the southern shore of the Republic of Congo with their catch. The crew carry their pirogue, a small canoe, to the beach beside the Bouloumouka mangrove; inside the canoe are a handful of fish. Was it a good catch? “No,” Balou [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[After hours spent at sea, fisherman Guy Bayonne Balou and his crew return to the southern shore of the Republic of Congo with their catch. The crew carry their pirogue, a small canoe, to the beach beside the Bouloumouka mangrove; inside the canoe are a handful of fish. Was it a good catch? “No,” Balou replies with a chuckle. The residents of the fishing village of Djeno point to a range of factors that have decreased their yield, including climate change, but talk soon turns to pollution and the nearby oil terminal, operated by a subsidiary of French oil giant TotalEnergies. “It&#8217;s encroaching on the fish&#8217;s natural breeding ground,” Balou says. “Where they could feed and reproduce, there&#8217;s this pollution. The fish can no longer live in that environment, they&#8217;re forced to go and live elsewhere.” Since 1972, Djeno has been home to the country&#8217;s largest oil terminal, from where most of the oil extracted in the country is produced. TotalEnergies EP Congo (TEPC), previously known as Elf Congo, is the main owner and operator. Guy Bayonne Balou, a fisherman who grew up in Djeno, back from fishing with his coworkers. According to him, the fish he catches in the area sometimes taste of oil. Image by Elodie Toto for Mongabay. In 2020, the concession contract came to an end, and the terminal became the property of the Congolese state. Management rights were renegotiated, and TotalEnergies was awarded the lion&#8217;s share for the next 20 years for the modest rent&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/documents-satellite-data-expose-ongoing-pollution-near-totalenergies-republic-of-congo-oil-terminal/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/documents-satellite-data-expose-ongoing-pollution-near-totalenergies-republic-of-congo-oil-terminal/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-294739</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mineral exploitation overshadows green diplomacy in Congo’s Sangha region</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/mineral-exploitation-overshadows-green-diplomacy-in-congos-sangha-region/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/mineral-exploitation-overshadows-green-diplomacy-in-congos-sangha-region/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2025 15:45:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie Toto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Christophe Assogba]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/30154711/D9B95459-DC46-491A-B0EC-5E3CAFB9AFCE_1_105_c-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293643</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Mongabay investigation, Politics, Pollution, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This article was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations Network in collaboration with the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP). Read the first part of this two-part series. BAMEGOARD, Republic of Congo — Deep in the heart of a lush green forest, an excavator is hard at work, turning over [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This article was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations Network in collaboration with the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP). Read the first part of this two-part series. BAMEGOARD, Republic of Congo — Deep in the heart of a lush green forest, an excavator is hard at work, turning over the earth in search of gold. The surrounding landscape is devastated — centuries-old trees have been uprooted, and streams that were once drinkable are now vast, muddy stretches of uninviting water. We are near the village of Bamegoard (also spelled Bamegod) in the Sangha region of northern Republic of Congo. Aristide Elong, the administrative chief officer of the village, used to come to this forest to fish and collect drinking water. But today, that is no longer possible. “There used to be forest here, but now the landscape is destroyed — there are no trees left. The river is just mud. How can we get the water back? We can’t drink it, and the fish can’t survive in water like this,” he says. Over the past eight months, Mongabay has investigated the issuing of at least 79 semi-industrial gold mining and exploration permits in the Sangha region by Congolese Minister of Mines Pierre Oba over the last four years. In part one of this investigative report, we described significant environmental degradation and damage at sites we visited. This destruction is taking place in an area designated for a Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/mineral-exploitation-overshadows-green-diplomacy-in-congos-sangha-region/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293643</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mining in a forest conservation site clouds Republic of Congo’s carbon credit scheme</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/mining-in-a-forest-conservation-site-clouds-republic-of-congos-carbon-credit-scheme/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/mining-in-a-forest-conservation-site-clouds-republic-of-congos-carbon-credit-scheme/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jan 2025 08:00:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie Toto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Christophe Assogba]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/14151257/Photo-Mine-ouverte-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292921</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity credits, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Carbon, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Mining, Mongabay Data Studio, Mongabay investigation, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This article was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations Network in collaboration with the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP). It is the first part of a two-part series, read part two here. Environmentalist Justin Landry Chekoua says he’s shocked by images of century-old trees uprooted and rivers contaminated in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This article was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations Network in collaboration with the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP). It is the first part of a two-part series, read part two here. Environmentalist Justin Landry Chekoua says he’s shocked by images of century-old trees uprooted and rivers contaminated in the northern Sangha region of the Republic of Congo. Mongabay had taken photos of an open-pit gold mine within the boundaries of an area designated as part of the Sangha Likouala REDD+ program. “Looking at it &#8230; this is a mining operation with no regard for sustainability,” Chekoua says. Over the past eight months, Mongabay has conducted an in-depth investigation into the Sangha Likouala REDD+ initiative. We traveled to the Sangha region, reviewed hundreds of official documents, and uncovered a troubling reality: since the REDD+ project’s launch in 2020, the country’s mining minister, Pierre Oba, has issued at least 79 semi-industrial gold mining and exploration permits. This marks a sharp increase from the period between 2017 and 2020, when only eight mining permits were officially issued in the same region, according to a Ministry of Finance report. By definition, a REDD+ project is designed to reduce deforestation and forest degradation. Yet in the Sangha region, 14% of the territory has already been marked out for gold exploration. This doesn’t account for permits to search for the other minerals, such as iron, that are mined on an industrial scale in the area. The consequences for the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/01/mining-in-a-forest-conservation-site-clouds-republic-of-congos-carbon-credit-scheme/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292921</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Progress on rights complaint systems in Congo Basin but more needed, says group</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/progress-on-rights-complaint-systems-in-congo-basin-but-more-needed-says-group/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/progress-on-rights-complaint-systems-in-congo-basin-but-more-needed-says-group/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Dec 2024 16:03:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/05101733/46896777025_b69b338916_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291235</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Central Africa, Central African Republic, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Politics, Protected Areas, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Conservation groups have made progress setting up complaints systems in protected areas in the Congo Basin, but there’s still a ways to go, the Rainforest Foundation UK says in a report released last week. Called grievance and redress mechanisms, or GRMs, these systems meant to be a safety valve for people living near forests marked [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Conservation groups have made progress setting up complaints systems in protected areas in the Congo Basin, but there’s still a ways to go, the Rainforest Foundation UK says in a report released last week. Called grievance and redress mechanisms, or GRMs, these systems meant to be a safety valve for people living near forests marked for conservation in the event they suffer human rights abuses by wildlife rangers or park administrators. In some cases, these are phone hotlines. In others, a conservation NGO or contracted local organization receives complaints directly or through a community representative. After a human rights scandal in Congo Basin protected areas led to U.S. congressional hearings in 2021, donors and conservationists said they’d work to strengthen complaints processes to prevent future abuses. Ecoguards gather in Monkoto, DRC for a ceremony commemorating the completion of their latest round of training: 90 days of instruction on topics including first aid, self-defense, wildlife laws and the importance of respecting human rights during encounters with community members and poachers. Image by Molly Bergen/WCS, WWF, WRI via Flickr  (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). USAID, for example, published guidelines on how to set them up in 2022. In its report, RFUK said there had been “positive steps” since then in the Congo Basin, but that many protected areas still lack a complaints process. For those that have one, there was little data on the outcome of complaints made through them. “Living up to commitments on GRMs means not only far greater investment in accessible,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/progress-on-rights-complaint-systems-in-congo-basin-but-more-needed-says-group/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/progress-on-rights-complaint-systems-in-congo-basin-but-more-needed-says-group/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291235</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Elusive wildcats may hold the key to healthier forests in Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/elusive-wildcats-may-hold-the-key-to-healthier-forests-in-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/elusive-wildcats-may-hold-the-key-to-healthier-forests-in-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Oct 2024 12:11:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claudia Geib]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/15112404/Leopard_LogNC_bySarahTossens-7-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288712</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Central Africa, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Cats, Ecology, Forests, Leopards, Predators, Research, Small Cats, Sustainability, Sustainable Forest Management, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There’s a theory about what happens when a big cat sets up shop in a forest, and it’s at the center of one of the biggest fights in ecology today. The idea goes like this: when a predator, like a leopard, moves into a stretch of woodland, it starts preying on the smaller animals — [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There’s a theory about what happens when a big cat sets up shop in a forest, and it’s at the center of one of the biggest fights in ecology today. The idea goes like this: when a predator, like a leopard, moves into a stretch of woodland, it starts preying on the smaller animals — in the case of a leopard, animals like bush pigs, deer and monkeys. In doing so, it creates what’s called a trophic cascade: more leopards lead to fewer plant- and seed-eating animals, allowing more plants and trees of certain species to make it to adulthood. Some theorize that even the smell of a predator makes herbivores more cautious (known as the ecology of fear), causing them to spend less time eating out in the open. A big cat may not even need to hunt to transform a forest. Sarah Tossens, a Ph.D. researcher at the University of Liège in Belgium, has set out to discover if this idea could be true for leopards (Panthera pardus) and African golden cats (Caracal aurata), a small forest cat found only in Central and West Africa. The golden cat is so elusive that it was only photographed in the wild for the first time in 2002. In attempting to reconstruct the food web in her study sites in the Republic of Congo and Cameroon, Tossens’s preliminary results suggest that wildcats potentially lead to higher seed germination. And her work is providing new information that could help protect these at-risk&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/elusive-wildcats-may-hold-the-key-to-healthier-forests-in-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288712</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Congo looks to monetize its high-integrity forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/congo-looks-to-monetize-its-high-integrity-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/congo-looks-to-monetize-its-high-integrity-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Oct 2024 06:09:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rosie Pioth]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Christophe Assogba]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/08142449/RedRiverHogs.Potamochoerus.porcus_LikoualaRoC_otomopsiNaturalistBY4.0-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288361</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Finance, Forests, Green, National Parks, Parks, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BRAZZAVILLE — Conservation authorities in the Republic of Congo have launched a plan to invest in the protection of “high-integrity forests” in Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, treating these ecosystems as an asset class. Located in the northern part of the country, Nouabalé-Ndoki is also the first site in the world to be recognized for its ecological [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BRAZZAVILLE — Conservation authorities in the Republic of Congo have launched a plan to invest in the protection of “high-integrity forests” in Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, treating these ecosystems as an asset class. Located in the northern part of the country, Nouabalé-Ndoki is also the first site in the world to be recognized for its ecological integrity under the Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA) Standard this past June. The new initiative aims to fill a funding gap to protect the ROC’s forests by selling high-integrity forest (HIFOR) units, defined as representing “one hectare of healthy, high integrity tropical forest actively conserved within a large landscape for decades.” “The HIFOR initiative is a payment for ecosystem services program designed to incentivize climate action and biodiversity conservation in high-integrity tropical forests by offering long-term financing to forest managers,” Rosalie Matondo, the ROC’s minister of forest economy, said at the Aug. 30 launch of the program in the capital, Brazzaville. &#8220;This project marks a very important step in the development of innovative financial mechanisms allowing our country to make the most of its efforts to conserve forests and associated ecosystems.&#8221; A forest elephant in Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park. Image by Matt Muir via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0). The HIFOR initiative rests on three pillars: biodiversity conservation, sustainable management of forest resources and the participation of local communities. Because they’re by definition not under imminent threat, forests in this scheme aren’t eligible for carbon offsetting schemes such as REDD+. That means a key difference from carbon&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/congo-looks-to-monetize-its-high-integrity-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/congo-looks-to-monetize-its-high-integrity-forests/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288361</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>NGOs raise concerns over oil exploration in Republic of Congo national park</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/ngos-raise-concerns-over-oil-exploration-in-republic-of-congo-national-park/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/ngos-raise-concerns-over-oil-exploration-in-republic-of-congo-national-park/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Sep 2024 17:15:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Didier Makal]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/24134247/Elephant-Loxodonta-cyclotis-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287781</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Coastal Ecosystems, Conflict, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Environment, Governance, Industry, Mammals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Oil, Oil Drilling, Pollution, Protected Areas, Rivers, Swamps, Tropical Forests, Water Pollution, Wetlands, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Oil exploration in the Republic of Congo’s Conkouati-Douli National Park threatens the local biodiversity, communities and environment, according to U.S.-based NGO Earth Insight. The Conkouati oil block was awarded by the ROC government to a Chinese company at the start of this year, just six weeks after the government had accepted $50 million from the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Oil exploration in the Republic of Congo’s Conkouati-Douli National Park threatens the local biodiversity, communities and environment, according to U.S.-based NGO Earth Insight. The Conkouati oil block was awarded by the ROC government to a Chinese company at the start of this year, just six weeks after the government had accepted $50 million from the European Union and the Bezos Fund to protect its forests, the latest in a series of similar international agreements. In a report published in June, Earth Insight, which works with affected communities to produce maps of at-risk areas of land and water, shows that the oil block occupies a large chunk of the protected area and the buffer zone of the park. This nature reserve is located &#8220;where the rainforest meets the ocean,&#8221; on the Atlantic coast at the western edge of the ROC. Conkouati-Douli covers an area of nearly 8,000 square kilometers (3,100 square miles), of which 46% is terrestrial area and the rest marine. It’s rich in biodiversity, home to western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) and Atlantic humpback dolphins (Sousa teuszii), as well as endangered central chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) and other threatened species. Earth Insight&#8217;s report shows that the Conkouati oil exploration license covers an area of 1,600 km2 (620 mi2), of which 930 km2 (360 mi2) overlaps with the national park, covering more than a quarter of its terrestrial portion. Rights group Amnesty International reports that around 7,000 people live near the oil block, with the highest&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/ngos-raise-concerns-over-oil-exploration-in-republic-of-congo-national-park/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287781</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Camera-trap study brings the lesula, Congo’s cryptic monkey, into focus</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/camera-trap-study-brings-the-lesula-congos-cryptic-monkey-into-focus/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/camera-trap-study-brings-the-lesula-congos-cryptic-monkey-into-focus/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Jun 2024 16:06:57 +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/20/2024/06/27122930/lesula-mom-baby-main-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283785</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central African Republic, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Endangered Species, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mammals, Monkeys, Poaching, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Research, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2012, the description of a new monkey species from the Congo Basin with an unforgettable, humanlike countenance made global news. Now, a camera trap study reveals how the lesula (Cercopithecus lomamiensis) has carved out a unique niche on the forest floor. The lesula is a slender, medium-sized monkey with a long tail, found only [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2012, the description of a new monkey species from the Congo Basin with an unforgettable, humanlike countenance made global news. Now, a camera trap study reveals how the lesula (Cercopithecus lomamiensis) has carved out a unique niche on the forest floor. The lesula is a slender, medium-sized monkey with a long tail, found only in a remote part of the Congo Basin called the Tshuapa, Lomami and Lualaba Rivers Landscape, or TL2, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Though long known to local people, the species had remained unknown to science until research teams with the Lukuru Foundation’s TL2 Project, photographed an individual during surveys of the area. Taxonomic and genetic analysis showed that the lesula was a type of guenon monkey (genus Cercopithecus), the most species-rich group of African primates. Little was known definitively about the lesula’s ecology or behavior when it was first described, but there were already tantalizing hints that the lesula might be quite different from the other mostly arboreal species of guenon monkeys in the landscape. An adult lesula monkey. New primate discoveries are extremely rare, and when the lesula was first described and introduced to the world in 2012, it was only the second new African primate discovered in 28 years. The lesula is only found in the central Lomami Basin in central Democratic Republic of the Congo, and is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Image by Florida Atlantic University Now, using camera traps, researchers have found that the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/camera-trap-study-brings-the-lesula-congos-cryptic-monkey-into-focus/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/camera-trap-study-brings-the-lesula-congos-cryptic-monkey-into-focus/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283785</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>African Parks vows to investigate allegations of abuse at Congolese park</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/african-parks-vows-to-investigate-allegations-of-abuse-at-congolese-park/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/african-parks-vows-to-investigate-allegations-of-abuse-at-congolese-park/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Feb 2024 08:45:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/02/07075559/Veronique-Sekuka-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=278635</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Congo Basin, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Law, Law Enforcement, National Parks, Parks, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Social Conflict, Tourism, Violence, and Wildlife Rangers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The conservation group African Parks says it has contracted the law firm Omnia Strategy LLP to investigate allegations of human rights abuses at Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of Congo. The allegations were first published by the news outlet the Daily Mail on Jan. 27th. The reporting included testimony by Indigenous Baka community members [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The conservation group African Parks says it has contracted the law firm Omnia Strategy LLP to investigate allegations of human rights abuses at Odzala-Kokoua National Park in the Republic of Congo. The allegations were first published by the news outlet the Daily Mail on Jan. 27th. The reporting included testimony by Indigenous Baka community members who said they’d been beaten and raped by park rangers employed by African Parks when venturing into the park to hunt, fish and gather food. Odzala-Kokoua is one of 22 parks the South Africa-based group manages in 12 African countries under public-private partnership agreements with host governments. Omnia Strategy is a London-based firm co-founded by Cherie Blair, wife of former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, which describes itself as a “specialist law firm providing world-class bespoke solutions to cross-border disputes.” According to African Parks, Omnia will be supported in its investigation by legal counsel from Doughty Street Chambers, another U.K. firm that specializes in human rights law, as well as a “Baka anthropologist.” In an emailed response to questions from Mongabay, African Parks said it did not have a timeline for the investigation’s conclusion. “While we hope to be able to share an update in respect of indicative timings in the coming weeks, the investigation is independent of African Parks and so we will take our lead from Omnia,” said Carli Flemmer, chief marketing officer for African Parks. African Parks took over the management of Odzala-Kokoua, a 13,546-square-kilometer (5,230-square-mile) national park in the heart of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/african-parks-vows-to-investigate-allegations-of-abuse-at-congolese-park/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/02/african-parks-vows-to-investigate-allegations-of-abuse-at-congolese-park/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-278635</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mongabay’s top 10 podcast episodes of 2023</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/mongabays-top-10-podcast-episodes-of-2023/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/mongabays-top-10-podcast-episodes-of-2023/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Dec 2023 11:43:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mike DiGirolamo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/03/01175151/FISH-160429-BARROW-3644-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276523</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia, Central Africa, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Conservation Philosophy, Culture, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2023, Mongabay launched the fourth season of its serial podcast, “Mongabay Explores,” highlighting the Congo Basin. The six-part series takes a close look at the second-largest rainforest in the world, the unique biodiversity it contains, and the social and ecological challenges it faces. 1. Mongabay Explores the Congo Basin: The ‘heart of the world’ [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2023, Mongabay launched the fourth season of its serial podcast, “Mongabay Explores,” highlighting the Congo Basin. The six-part series takes a close look at the second-largest rainforest in the world, the unique biodiversity it contains, and the social and ecological challenges it faces. 1. Mongabay Explores the Congo Basin: The ‘heart of the world’ is at a turning point Our first “Explores” episode featured guests Adamas Cassinga and Joe Eisen, who provided deep background on the unique wildlife and conservation challenges of the Congo Basin. 2. Congo Basin communities left out by ‘fortress conservation’ fight for a way back in The second Congo Basin episode was also one of the most listened-to in the series. This frank examination of the troubling history of “fortress conservation” in the Congo Basin featured Goldman Prize winner Samuel Nguiffo, Mongabay features writer Ashoka Mukpo and Congolese academic Vedaste Cituli. The Batwa Pygmies were evicted from their home lands in the forest in the early 1990s when the Mghinga Gorilla National Park was established, leaving them landless and poor in a society that saw them as a lower class. Image courtesy of USAID Biodiversity &amp; Forestry / Flickr. 3. What would it cost to protect the Congo Rainforest? The fifth Congo Basin episode examined the complex web of broken promises behind forest protection and potential pathways to getting money where experts say it’s most needed. Guests included Paulo Cerruti from CIFOR-ICRAF, Chadrack Kafuti from Ghent University, Wahida Patwa-Shah of the UNDP Climate Hub, and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/mongabays-top-10-podcast-episodes-of-2023/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/mongabays-top-10-podcast-episodes-of-2023/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276523</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>COP28 cements goal to halt forest loss in 7 years, but where’s the money?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/cop28-cements-goal-to-halt-forest-loss-in-7-years-but-wheres-the-money/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/cop28-cements-goal-to-halt-forest-loss-in-7-years-but-wheres-the-money/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Dec 2023 16:48:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alec Luhn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/15153300/monkey-congo-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=276761</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Global, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forestry, Forests, Funding, Governance, Logging, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Despite the COP28 climate summit agreeing on groundbreaking language on forests, countries are still no nearer to closing the “finance gap” necessary to stop the destruction of rainforests, according to Congo Basin nations. For the first time, the global stocktake text at the summit in Dubai stressed the need to halt and reverse forest loss [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Despite the COP28 climate summit agreeing on groundbreaking language on forests, countries are still no nearer to closing the “finance gap” necessary to stop the destruction of rainforests, according to Congo Basin nations. For the first time, the global stocktake text at the summit in Dubai stressed the need to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030 and noted the “results-based finance” needed to achieve it. However, it remains unclear when significant money will start pouring in. The COP28 text sends a positive signal on the vital role of nature in tackling climate change, said Tosi Mpanu Mpanu, chief climate negotiator for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). But it could have been stronger in stating the huge amount of funding that is needed. “It means that resources will come from the finance landscape once you implement action on the forest landscape,” Mpanu told Mongabay. “However, it doesn&#8217;t provide assurances that the finance to be provided will be aligned with the substantial scale of the needs required to implement action.” The Congo is the world&#8217;s second-largest rainforest after the Amazon and a bigger carbon sink, absorbing more than a billion tons of atmospheric carbon per year. But the countries in the region are among the poorest countries in the world and have seen rising forest destruction for agriculture, charcoal and logging. While the goal of halting and reversing deforestation and forest degradation by 2030 was set by more than 100 countries in the Glasgow forests declaration during COP26, this&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/cop28-cements-goal-to-halt-forest-loss-in-7-years-but-wheres-the-money/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-276761</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Congo&#8217;s waters are hotspot for endangered sharks &#038; rays, reveals data from artisanal fishers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/congos-waters-are-hotspot-for-endangered-sharks-and-rays-reveals-data-from-artisanal-fishers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/congos-waters-are-hotspot-for-endangered-sharks-and-rays-reveals-data-from-artisanal-fishers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Nov 2023 16:11:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Molly Herring]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/11/22223535/African-wedgefish-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=275806</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Atlantic Ocean, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Elasmobranchs, Endangered Species, Environment, Fishing, Green, Oceans, Rays, Sharks, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Republic of the Congo is a hotspot for sharks and rays. However, scientists didn’t know how many of these species congregate along the coast until they asked the artisanal fishermen who work there. In a recent study published in Conservation Science and Practice, researchers from the University of Exeter in the U.K. worked alongside [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Republic of the Congo is a hotspot for sharks and rays. However, scientists didn’t know how many of these species congregate along the coast until they asked the artisanal fishermen who work there. In a recent study published in Conservation Science and Practice, researchers from the University of Exeter in the U.K. worked alongside local partners in the Congo to unveil many surprises among the fishermen&#8217;s catches. During the three-year study at Songoro, the country’s largest landing spot for the small fishing vessels called pirogues, researchers documented more than 73,000 individual sharks and rays. The census tallied 42 different species, 34 of which face an elevated risk of extinction, according to the IUCN Red List. The fishermen also showed scientists two species that they previously thought were gone from the region: the African wedgefish (Rhynchobatus luebberti) and the smoothback angelshark (Squatina oculata). A mako shark (Isurus oxyrinchus) caught at Songolo. Credit: Godefroy De Bruyne The team credits the project’s success to long-term relationships with locals and a protocol designed to minimize disturbance to their daily fishing activities. After establishing partnerships with the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Congo Program and the Pointe Noire Artisanal Fishery Support Centre at Songoro, researchers asked fishermen for permission to handle, measure, and weigh the sharks they caught. “It was successful because it was led by their priorities, rather than academic priorities,” says senior author Kristian Metcalfe, a conservation scientist at the University of Exeter. Metcalfe has worked in the region for more than a decade,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/congos-waters-are-hotspot-for-endangered-sharks-and-rays-reveals-data-from-artisanal-fishers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/11/congos-waters-are-hotspot-for-endangered-sharks-and-rays-reveals-data-from-artisanal-fishers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-275806</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Do virus-detecting ants hold the key to preventing zoonotic diseases?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/do-virus-detecting-ants-hold-the-key-to-preventing-zoonotic-diseases/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/do-virus-detecting-ants-hold-the-key-to-preventing-zoonotic-diseases/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Aug 2023 21:20:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie Toto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/23210707/Ants-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=272520</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Gabon, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, COVID-19, Deforestation, Ebola, Forests, Rainforests, Research, Wildlife, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[An international team of researchers is analysing army ants collected in forests in northeastern Gabon, to better understand zoonotic diseases. According to the World Health Organization, Africa experienced a 63% increase in outbreaks of zoonotic diseases like Ebola, monkeypox, and Marburg virus between 2012 and 2022, compared to the previous decade. According to researcher Sophie [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[An international team of researchers is analysing army ants collected in forests in northeastern Gabon, to better understand zoonotic diseases. According to the World Health Organization, Africa experienced a 63% increase in outbreaks of zoonotic diseases like Ebola, monkeypox, and Marburg virus between 2012 and 2022, compared to the previous decade. According to researcher Sophie Muset, this is due to deforestation leading to increased human contact with wildlife. Muset is technical coordinator of a research project called Ebo-Sursy, set up in 2017 to better understand, predict and prevent future epidemics. It’s a partnership between the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), the Research Institute for Development (IRD), the Pasteur Institute and the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD). Ebo-Sursy researchers collected ants from 29 colonies in the forest in Gabon. Image by Gregoire Dubois via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). Eric Leroy is a virologist specialising in zoonoses at the IRD. His work for Ebo-Sursy involves looking for new viruses likely to pass from the animal world to humans, both in the laboratory and in the field, across the 47 million hectares of forest in Gabon and the Republic of Congo. Conducting scientific research in these forests is a logistical challenge. “Working in the Congo Basin is complicated because vegetation is very important in this ecosystem. The forests are difficult to access, especially during the rainy season. Most of these territories are totally unexplored, and only a limited number of animals can be captured, sampled, and analysed.” Further complicating&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/do-virus-detecting-ants-hold-the-key-to-preventing-zoonotic-diseases/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/do-virus-detecting-ants-hold-the-key-to-preventing-zoonotic-diseases/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-272520</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Congo Basin’s elephants boost carbon capture, but need salt-licks to survive</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/congo-basins-elephants-boost-carbon-capture-but-need-salt-licks-to-survive/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/congo-basins-elephants-boost-carbon-capture-but-need-salt-licks-to-survive/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Aug 2023 11:31:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Leonie Joubert]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/14192754/MoreElephantsAtDzangaBai_DzangaSanghaProtectedAreasCAR_JanTeede-MEDIUM-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=272155</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Central African Republic, Congo Basin, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystem Engineers, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Mammals, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The approach to the “village of elephants” in the Sangha Rainforest in the Central African Republic must be made in complete silence. Not even the faintest rustle of backpack on rain jacket should break the soundscape as visitors wade through the sometimes waist-deep swamp at the forest’s edge. The Indigenous Ba&#8217;aka guides must be able [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The approach to the “village of elephants” in the Sangha Rainforest in the Central African Republic must be made in complete silence. Not even the faintest rustle of backpack on rain jacket should break the soundscape as visitors wade through the sometimes waist-deep swamp at the forest’s edge. The Indigenous Ba&#8217;aka guides must be able to listen for any signs of nearby elephants, so they can steer the visitors clear and avoid a close encounter with these giants. When a few pachyderms saunter out of the dense greenery, the Ba’aka shoo them away calmly. The thick vegetation gives way suddenly to a baï. This is no mere watering hole. The sandy clearing stretches for half a kilometer, more than a quarter of a mile, in the otherwise unbroken canopy of the world’s second-largest tropical forest. A handful of researchers camp out on a timber observation platform, overlooking a place that has drawn generations of elephants to its mineral- and salt-laden sand and muddy water. They document how the animals use their trunks or tusks to dig into the sand, eavesdrop on the animals’ conversations, and count the many other species that congregate here. This is Dzanga baï, a meeting place for critically endangered African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) in the Dzanga-Sangha Complex of Protected Areas where these animals come together in huge numbers to dig for nutrients they can’t get from the otherwise abundant forests. Baïs are unique to the Congo Basin’s forests, and new research is underway to understand&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/congo-basins-elephants-boost-carbon-capture-but-need-salt-licks-to-survive/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/congo-basins-elephants-boost-carbon-capture-but-need-salt-licks-to-survive/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-272155</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>CAPS, new gas megaproject, aims to power Central Africa, but at what cost, critics ask</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/caps-new-gas-megaproject-aims-to-power-central-africa-but-at-what-cost-critics-ask/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/caps-new-gas-megaproject-aims-to-power-central-africa-but-at-what-cost-critics-ask/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Apr 2023 13:40:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie Toto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/04/11125616/Caps-visual-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=267373</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central Africa, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo, and Rwanda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Deforestation, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Land Conflict, Mongabay Data Studio, Natural Gas, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[More than 60% of people in Central Africa have no access to electricity. An ambitious proposal aims to change that with a network of pipelines, refineries and gas-fired power plants stretching across 11 countries in the region. But critics say the proposed Central African Pipeline System is a mistake. Nathalie Lum, chairwoman of the Central [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[More than 60% of people in Central Africa have no access to electricity. An ambitious proposal aims to change that with a network of pipelines, refineries and gas-fired power plants stretching across 11 countries in the region. But critics say the proposed Central African Pipeline System is a mistake. Nathalie Lum, chairwoman of the Central Africa Business Energy Forum (CABEF), an organization that hosts an annual conference of oil and gas corporations and regional energy ministers, told Mongabay that CAPS will help make the Central Africa region an &#8220;energy poverty-free zone” by 2030. “Access to reliable, affordable energy can help reduce poverty, attract investments, and create jobs, while also providing an important source of revenue for governments.” she said. CABEF describes itself as a platform for developing cooperation between Central African countries which aims to use natural gas, a fossil fuel, to power homes and businesses as well as the mining industry. However, a 2020 study by the International Finance Corporation, the private sector development arm of the World Bank Group, suggests that Africa&#8217;s onshore wind potential is enough to satisfy the entire continent’s current electricity demands 250 times over. The continent also has an abundance of solar energy, which is increasingly affordable to harness. ​​According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change, the unit cost of electricity from solar has declined by 85% over the past decade, while the cost of wind energy has declined by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/caps-new-gas-megaproject-aims-to-power-central-africa-but-at-what-cost-critics-ask/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/caps-new-gas-megaproject-aims-to-power-central-africa-but-at-what-cost-critics-ask/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-267373</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Deforestation threatens local populations in Republic of Congo’s Sangha</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/deforestation-threatens-local-populations-in-republic-of-congos-sangha/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/deforestation-threatens-local-populations-in-republic-of-congos-sangha/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Mar 2023 22:06:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Lawon Olalekan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/03/06214921/Children_OdzalaKokouaRCongo_PeterHenketBYSA4.0-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=266191</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corruption, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forestry, Forests, Fragmentation, Habitat Loss, Illegal Logging, Land Use Change, Logging, Mongabay Data Studio, Primary Forests, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Between May 2021 and November 2022, more than 200,000 deforestation alerts covering a total of 2,700 hectares (6,670 acres) were recorded around Ouesso, the administrative seat of Sangha province, in the northwestern Republic of Congo, according to data from the online surveillance platform Global Forest Watch. Several observers say the tree cover loss is the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Between May 2021 and November 2022, more than 200,000 deforestation alerts covering a total of 2,700 hectares (6,670 acres) were recorded around Ouesso, the administrative seat of Sangha province, in the northwestern Republic of Congo, according to data from the online surveillance platform Global Forest Watch. Several observers say the tree cover loss is the result of mining activity in the area, but this has not been confirmed. “[If] no thorough study is carried out, it would be difficult to say if this decline of the forest in Sangha is linked to the activities of local communities who still practice slash-and-burn farming to meet their agricultural needs, or if it is linked to logging, large-scale agro-industrial activities or even mining,” Nina Kiyindou Yombo, head of the program for natural resources and the rights of forest communities at the Observatoire Congolais des Droits de l’Homme (OCDH, the Congolese Human Rights Observatory), said in a telephone interview with Mongabay in November. In the past two years, deforestation extending over 2.73 Kha has been detected around Ouesso, the capital of the Sangha Region. Image de Marian Massala. Map showing loss of forest cover near Ouesso, Republic of Congo 2016-2023. Map: Mongabay based on data from Global Forest Watch. Since the turn of the century, Ouesso has lost more than 50,000 ha (123,550 acres) of primary rainforests, equivalent to around 60% of its tree cover, according to Global Forest Watch. The forests in the Sangha region include many trees of high commercial value, like&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/deforestation-threatens-local-populations-in-republic-of-congos-sangha/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/deforestation-threatens-local-populations-in-republic-of-congos-sangha/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-266191</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study highlights ‘friends with benefits’ relation between gorillas and chimps</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/study-highlights-friends-with-benefits-relation-between-gorillas-and-chimps/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/study-highlights-friends-with-benefits-relation-between-gorillas-and-chimps/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Oct 2022 18:14:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/12175615/bigger-version-image-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=261423</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Chimpanzees, Endangered Species, Environment, Gorillas, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mammals, Primates, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Gorillas and chimpanzees living in a remote part of the Congo Basin hang out together and some, like humans, even establish “relationships with benefits,” a new study reveals. Observations of eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) and western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in the Republic of Congo’s Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park carried out between 1999 and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Gorillas and chimpanzees living in a remote part of the Congo Basin hang out together and some, like humans, even establish “relationships with benefits,” a new study reveals. Observations of eastern chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) and western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in the Republic of Congo’s Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park carried out between 1999 and 2020 reveals that some of these benefits include something akin to friendship. “On several occasions at food sources, we observed young gorillas and chimpanzees seeking out particular partners to engage in bouts of play which may afford unique developmental opportunities to extend their social, physical, and cognitive competencies,” says the study published in the journal iScience. In one striking example, the team observed young chimpanzees beating their chests — a behavior that only gorillas have previously been recorded doing. “While these chimpanzees could have spontaneously innovated chest-beating, they also regularly have the opportunity to observe gorillas exhibiting this behavior,” David Morgan, a research fellow at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo and co-author of the study, told Mongabay. “It is possible that the chimpanzees learned this gesture from the gorillas and that these species could share some cultural behaviors.” Scientists conduct daily follows with chimpanzee and gorilla social groups in the Goualougo Triangle (Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the northern Republic of Congo). These chimpanzees and gorillas have been followed and individually identified by researchers for more than 20 years. Images courtesy of Goualougo Triangle Ape Project. The research was carried out in a remote study area in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/study-highlights-friends-with-benefits-relation-between-gorillas-and-chimps/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/study-highlights-friends-with-benefits-relation-between-gorillas-and-chimps/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-261423</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Congo, a carbon sink like no other risks being carved up for oil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/in-congo-a-carbon-sink-like-no-other-risks-being-carved-up-for-oil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/in-congo-a-carbon-sink-like-no-other-risks-being-carved-up-for-oil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jul 2022 07:46:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/07/28065727/In-Congo-a-carbon-sink-like-no-other-risks-being-carved-up-for-oil-6-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258640</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, Climate Science, Community Forests, Conservation, Earth Science, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Logging, Mitigation, Oil, Oil Drilling, Old Growth Forests, Peatlands, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Research, Rivers, Saving Rainforests, Science, Soil Carbon, Solutions, Swamps, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, Tropical Conservation Science, Tropical Forests, Tropics, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The world’s largest bank of the partially decomposed plant matter known as peat in the tropics is even more extensive than initially thought, according to a new study. The peatlands of the Congo Basin cover some 167,600 square kilometers (64,710 square miles) in the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The world’s largest bank of the partially decomposed plant matter known as peat in the tropics is even more extensive than initially thought, according to a new study. The peatlands of the Congo Basin cover some 167,600 square kilometers (64,710 square miles) in the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a team of scientists reported July 21 in the journal Nature Geosciences. The new maps confirm that the area, sometimes called the Cuvette Centrale, is about the size of England and Wales combined, which is 15% bigger than the estimates from the original mapping of the area. “It’s a massive area. That’s for sure,” Bart Crezee, the study’s lead author and a postgraduate researcher at the University of Leeds in the U.K., told Mongabay. Part of the research team traveling in a dugout canoe on the Ruki River in the DRC. Image courtesy of Bart Crezee/University of Leeds. Little was known about the location, size and carbon contents of these peatlands deep in the world’s second-largest rainforest before a team of scientists shared their maps based on satellite imagery and extensive on-site fieldwork in a 2017 paper in the journal Nature. Peat forms when the water that swamps the mix of soil and plant matter on the floor of this forest chokes off oxygen to bacteria and fungi, arresting the normal decomposition that would occur in a less soggy rainforest. As a result, much of the carbon in these bits of plants gets locked away in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/in-congo-a-carbon-sink-like-no-other-risks-being-carved-up-for-oil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/in-congo-a-carbon-sink-like-no-other-risks-being-carved-up-for-oil/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258640</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>2021 tropical forest loss figures put zero-deforestation goal by 2030 out of reach</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/2021-tropical-forest-loss-figures-put-zero-deforestation-goal-by-2030-out-of-reach/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/2021-tropical-forest-loss-figures-put-zero-deforestation-goal-by-2030-out-of-reach/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Apr 2022 11:27:31 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/04/28152446/siberia_GP1SU5IY_PressMedia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=255219</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Bolivia, Brazil, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Gabon, Indonesia, Latin America, Republic of Congo, Russia, Southeast Asia, and Tropics]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, boreal forests, Climate, Climate Change, data, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fires, Forest Carbon, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Palm Oil, Peatlands, Permafrost, Plantations, Primary Forests, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, Tipping points, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Tropical forest loss remained consistently high in 2021 with no sign of slowing down, despite commitments by companies and governments to curb deforestation, according to new data from the University of Maryland. The data, available on the Global Forest Watch platform managed by the World Resources Institute (WRI), show that tropical countries lost [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Tropical forest loss remained consistently high in 2021 with no sign of slowing down, despite commitments by companies and governments to curb deforestation, according to new data from the University of Maryland. The data, available on the Global Forest Watch platform managed by the World Resources Institute (WRI), show that tropical countries lost 11.1 million hectares (27.5 million acres) of tree cover in 2021, an area the size of Cuba. Of this total tree loss, 3.75 million hectares (9.3 million acres) occurred in tropical primary forests, the world’s most biologically diverse ecosystems. This means the planet is not on its way to halting and reversing forest loss by 2030, as pledged by 141 countries during last year’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, experts say. A handful of countries, most notably Indonesia and Gabon, saw their rates of primary forest loss decline significantly in recent years. But this was offset by high deforestation rates in other tropical countries, such as Brazil and Bolivia. As a result, the tropics still lost 10 football pitches of primary forest per minute in 2021, in the process releasing 2.5 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases (GHG). That’s equivalent to the annual fossil fuel emissions from India. While the tropics lost 11% less primary forest in 2021 than in 2020, the figure was still almost the same as in 2019. This means that loss of primary tropical forests remains “stubbornly persistent throughout the years,” said Rod Taylor, the global director of WRI’s forests program.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/2021-tropical-forest-loss-figures-put-zero-deforestation-goal-by-2030-out-of-reach/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/2021-tropical-forest-loss-figures-put-zero-deforestation-goal-by-2030-out-of-reach/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-255219</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>At a plantation in Central Africa, Big Oil tries to go net-zero</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/at-a-plantation-in-central-africa-big-oil-tries-to-go-net-zero/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/at-a-plantation-in-central-africa-big-oil-tries-to-go-net-zero/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jan 2022 13:20:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/01/20131004/Acacia-tree-plantations-DRC-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=251845</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forestry, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Invasive Species, Marketing, Nature-based climate solutions, Plantations, Politics, Protected Areas, Solutions, Timber, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[After a disappointing track record over the past two decades, carbon credit markets are back in style. Also known as “offsets,” carbon credits are having a renewed moment, as corporations and governments look to reach their climate targets partially by banking emissions savings elsewhere. At COP26 in Glasgow last November, countries agreed on new rules [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[After a disappointing track record over the past two decades, carbon credit markets are back in style. Also known as “offsets,” carbon credits are having a renewed moment, as corporations and governments look to reach their climate targets partially by banking emissions savings elsewhere. At COP26 in Glasgow last November, countries agreed on new rules for a global carbon market, which some analysts say could be worth as much as $180 billion by 2030. Even oil and gas companies are getting in on the action, making “net-zero” pledges they say include the development or trading of offsets. But what does a climate-friendly oil company look like? TotalEnergies says it has part of the answer. Last March, the French multinational, better known as Total before rebranding last year, announced a plan to create a 40,000-hectare (99,000-acre) acacia plantation in the remote central savannas of the Republic of Congo. Managed by its newly created “nature-based solutions” unit, TotalEnergies says this “forest” will sequester more than 10 million tons of carbon dioxide over the next 20 years. But critics of the project say it’s emblematic of what stands to go wrong in a new scramble for climate credits generated in the developing world. “I’m very concerned that if this model is replicated, it will present huge risks for food security and livelihoods,” said Myrto Tilianaki, climate justice advocacy officer at CCFD-Terre Solidaire, a French Catholic humanitarian NGO. “It feels like this is a new way of placing the problem elsewhere and endangering the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/at-a-plantation-in-central-africa-big-oil-tries-to-go-net-zero/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/at-a-plantation-in-central-africa-big-oil-tries-to-go-net-zero/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-251845</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The year in rainforests 2021</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/the-year-in-rainforests-2021/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/the-year-in-rainforests-2021/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Dec 2021 00:26:12 +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/20/2021/12/24025937/rainforests-composite-2021-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=251112</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Central Africa, Colombia, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Global, Indonesia, Latin America, Malaysia, Myanmar, Peru, Republic of Congo, South America, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Cattle, climate finance, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Ecosystem Services, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Green, Illegal Logging, Illegal Mining, Impact Of Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Logging, Mining, Nature-based climate solutions, Peatlands, Plantations, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Ranching, Reforestation, Remote Sensing, Restoration, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[2021 was a year where tropical forests featured more prominently in global headlines than normal thanks to rising recognition of the role they play in addressing climate change and biodiversity loss. The following is a brief look at some of the major rainforest storylines from 2021. And here&#8217;s a look at the year ahead. Previous [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[2021 was a year where tropical forests featured more prominently in global headlines than normal thanks to rising recognition of the role they play in addressing climate change and biodiversity loss. The following is a brief look at some of the major rainforest storylines from 2021. And here&#8217;s a look at the year ahead. Previous year-in-reviews: 2020 | The 2010s | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2009 Lowland rainforest in Indonesian Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Tropical deforestation persists at a high level Despite speculation in the early months of the pandemic that slowing economic activity might diminish forest clearing, loss of both primary forests and tree cover in the tropics accelerated between 2019 and 2020: Primary forest loss jumped 12% to 4.2 million hectares; tropical tree cover loss rose 1.5% to 12.5 million hectares. We don’t yet know how much forest loss occurred in 2021, but deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rose 22% for the year ended July 31, 2021, according to Brazil’s national space research institute INPE. Given that about a third of tropical primary loss forest worldwide has occurred in Brazil over the past 20 years, this suggests tropical forest loss will remain at an elevated level when the 2021 tally is released by Global Forest Watch in March or April 2022. Governments talked more about tropical forests Between major U.N. summits on climate change and biodiversity, the IUCN Conservation Congress, and high-level&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/the-year-in-rainforests-2021/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-251112</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The Congo Basin’s 10 most consequential stories from 2021</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/the-congo-basins-10-most-consequential-stories-from-2021/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/the-congo-basins-10-most-consequential-stories-from-2021/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Dec 2021 07:52:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/27071522/Gorillas-in-Congo-Basin-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=251156</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Forestry, Forests, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For the Congo Basin, 2021 proved to be an up-and-down year. Funding commitments totaling in the billions of dollars were announced that would help forested countries preserve some of the highest-quality tropical rainforest left on the planet. And research into the world’s largest tropical peatland, which is found in the Congo Basin, continues to expand [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For the Congo Basin, 2021 proved to be an up-and-down year. Funding commitments totaling in the billions of dollars were announced that would help forested countries preserve some of the highest-quality tropical rainforest left on the planet. And research into the world’s largest tropical peatland, which is found in the Congo Basin, continues to expand to include a growing team of researchers and new avenues for study. At the same time, the loss of forest cover in the Congo Basin is on the rise. There are also signs that the patience of countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) may be wearing thin as leaders wait for promised financing to compensate them for the avoidance of destructive uses of forested land, such as agriculture and logging. In July, the DRC announced its plans to end a 19-year moratorium on the issuance of logging concessions in the country. The repercussions of an August accident at a mine in Angola also rippled through the very lifeblood of the basin, the Congo River itself. The region’s spectacular wildlife remains under threat from habitat loss and globally driven trade. Still, people and organizations are working every day to keep these animals safe, often at great risk to themselves. Here are 10 stories that Mongabay published in 2021 that will help bring the state of the Congo Basin into sharper focus. 1. Gabon becomes first African country to get paid for protecting its forests Gabon has been a leader in tackling deforestation among African&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/the-congo-basins-10-most-consequential-stories-from-2021/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-251156</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The past, present and future of the Congo peatlands: 10 takeaways from our series</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/the-past-present-and-future-of-the-congo-peatlands-10-takeaways-from-our-series/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/the-past-present-and-future-of-the-congo-peatlands-10-takeaways-from-our-series/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Dec 2021 07:04:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/16055317/ITPC-field-visit-Congo-peatlands-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=250718</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Congo Peatlands]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Air Pollution, Animals, Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, climate finance, Climate Science, Community Forests, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Earth Science, Ecology, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Mammals, Mitigation, Oil, Oil Drilling, Old Growth Forests, Palm Oil, Parks, Peatlands, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Redd, Research, Rivers, Saving Rainforests, Science, Soil Carbon, Solutions, Swamps, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, Tropical Conservation Science, Tropical Forests, Tropics, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the wrap-up article for our four-part series “The Congo Basin peatlands.” Read Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four. In the first half of December, Mongabay published a four-part series on the peatlands of the Congo Basin. Only in 2017 did a team of Congolese and British scientists discover that a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the wrap-up article for our four-part series “The Congo Basin peatlands.” Read Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four. In the first half of December, Mongabay published a four-part series on the peatlands of the Congo Basin. Only in 2017 did a team of Congolese and British scientists discover that a sprawling wetland known as the Cuvette Centrale spanning the border between the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) actually contains a massive amount of peat. Their satellite mapping and ground truthing revealed that these peatlands cover an area the size of England and are the largest and most intact across the world’s tropics. But how did they get there? Why are they so important? And what does the future hold for the peatlands of the Congo Basin? Our series probes these questions and more in detail, tapping into the ongoing research and surveying the threats that could disrupt, degrade or even destroy this unique ecosystem. Here are 10 takeaways from our reporting. Aerial view of the Monboyo River and peatland forest of Salonga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Image © Daniel Beltrá/Greenpeace. 1. The peatlands of the Congo Basin hold more than 30 billion metric tons of carbon. For at least the last 10,000 years, bits of organic matter have been piling up in this part of Central Africa, layer upon layer. Water from surrounding streams and rivers and in the form of rainfall has continually swamped&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/the-past-present-and-future-of-the-congo-peatlands-10-takeaways-from-our-series/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-250718</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Carbon and communities: The future of the Congo Basin peatlands</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/carbon-and-communities-the-future-of-the-congo-basin-peatlands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/carbon-and-communities-the-future-of-the-congo-basin-peatlands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Dec 2021 06:02:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/14044709/2021Oct12-Banner-in-the-Forest-in-Democratic-Republic-of-Congo-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=250582</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Congo Peatlands]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Air Pollution, Animals, Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Offsets, Climate Change, climate finance, Climate Science, Community Forests, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Earth Science, Ecology, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Logging, Mammals, Mitigation, Oil, Oil Drilling, Old Growth Forests, Palm Oil, Parks, Peatlands, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Redd, Research, Rivers, Saving Rainforests, Science, Soil Carbon, Solutions, Swamps, Threats To Rainforests, Traditional People, Tropical Conservation Science, Tropical Forests, Tropics, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This is the fourth article in our four-part series “The Congo Basin peatlands.” Read Part One, Part Two and Part Three. The muddy cores that Ian Lawson and his colleagues pull from the swampy peatlands of the Congo Basin might not look like much at first glance. Layers of clay and silt are interspersed here [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the fourth article in our four-part series “The Congo Basin peatlands.” Read Part One, Part Two and Part Three. The muddy cores that Ian Lawson and his colleagues pull from the swampy peatlands of the Congo Basin might not look like much at first glance. Layers of clay and silt are interspersed here and there with bits of vaguely discernible plant material in varying states of decay mashed against each other. But like so many things in the natural world, these ordinary-looking samples hold far more than what’s visible to the naked eye. Indeed, says Lawson, they’re revelatory of a “beautiful natural succession” that’s occurred in this remote section of the Congo Basin rainforest. “You can see quite clearly grass and sedges at the bottom and the pioneer plants of open ground. And then later on, hardwood swamp comes in,” followed by an assortment of palm species, says Lawson, a paleoecologist based at the U.K.’s University of St. Andrews. “It becomes more diverse.” Lawson is part of a team that brought these expansive peatlands, roughly the size of England, to the attention of the world. In 2017, they published the findings of their field and remote-sensing investigations in the journal Nature. Before then, scientists had only vague notions about the presence of a swamp undergirding the forest in this part of the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and they thought that it might contain some of the carbon-rich decaying plant matter that’s known&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/carbon-and-communities-the-future-of-the-congo-basin-peatlands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-250582</doi>				</item>
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