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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/sierra-leone/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>Sierra Leone environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/sierra-leone/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Conserving Sierra Leone’s western chimpanzees: Interview with Tacugama’s Willie Tucker</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/conserving-sierra-leones-western-chimpanzees-interview-with-tacugamas-willie-tucker/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/conserving-sierra-leones-western-chimpanzees-interview-with-tacugamas-willie-tucker/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jul 2026 19:24:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Patricia Sia Ngevao]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/10170639/Photo-30-06-2026-17-59-04-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323105</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Chimpanzees, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Fellows, Great Apes, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Mammals, Mongabay.org, Primates, Wildlife, Wildlife Rehabilitation, and Wildlife Rescues]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In Sierra Leone, the critically endangered western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) faces growing threats from habitat loss, deforestation, illegal wildlife trade and expanding human activity. For the past 30 years, Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary has worked to rescue, rehabilitate and protect chimpanzees affected by these challenges. Few people have witnessed the sanctuary’s journey as closely as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In Sierra Leone, the critically endangered western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) faces growing threats from habitat loss, deforestation, illegal wildlife trade and expanding human activity. For the past 30 years, Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary has worked to rescue, rehabilitate and protect chimpanzees affected by these challenges. Few people have witnessed the sanctuary’s journey as closely as Willie Tucker, the conservancy’s camp supervisor, popularly known as “Pa Willie.” His conservation career began in 1990 when he studied wildlife management in Tanzania before joining Sierra Leone&#8217;s Wildlife Division. It was there that he met Bala Amarasekaran, Tacugama’s founder, who was caring for rescued chimpanzees and seeking to establish a rehabilitation center. Pa Willie was among the small team that helped turn that vision into reality. After identifying a suitable forest reserve outside Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, and securing support from the European Union, Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary officially opened in October 1995. Today, as camp supervisor, Pa Willie remains a central figure in the sanctuary’s work. Over the years, he has helped rescue and care for hundreds of chimpanzees while witnessing the growing threats facing the species. His story reflects both a lifelong commitment to conservation and the remarkable growth of Sierra Leone&#8217;s leading chimpanzee sanctuary. Willie Tucker, Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary&#8217;s camp supervisor, popularly known as “Pa Willie.” Image by Patricia Sia Ngevao. Mongabay spoke with Pa Willie in June about his conservation journey, the early days of Tacugama and the challenges facing western chimpanzees in Sierra Leone. This interview has been edited for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/conserving-sierra-leones-western-chimpanzees-interview-with-tacugamas-willie-tucker/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/conserving-sierra-leones-western-chimpanzees-interview-with-tacugamas-willie-tucker/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323105</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A ‘symphony’ of wildlife suggests carbon financing is working in Sierra Leone</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/a-symphony-of-wildlife-suggests-carbon-financing-is-working-in-sierra-leone/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/a-symphony-of-wildlife-suggests-carbon-financing-is-working-in-sierra-leone/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 May 2026 20:36:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claudia Geib]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/27093342/White-necked_rockfowl_Picathartes_gymnocephalus_Nyamebe_Bepo_-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320170</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bioacoustics, Biodiversity, Birds, carbon, Carbon Sequestration, Conservation, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forests, Rainforests, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[One of the first things H.S. Sathya Chandra Sagar noticed in Gola Rainforest National Park was its profusion of sound. Standing amid the tallest trees he’d ever seen, Sagar could hear the calls of countless birds, the hoot of primates, and in the distance, drumming: chimpanzees, beating fists and sticks on tree roots to check [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[One of the first things H.S. Sathya Chandra Sagar noticed in Gola Rainforest National Park was its profusion of sound. Standing amid the tallest trees he’d ever seen, Sagar could hear the calls of countless birds, the hoot of primates, and in the distance, drumming: chimpanzees, beating fists and sticks on tree roots to check in with faraway friends. The din was a chorus of good news. Sagar, a conservation biologist, had traveled to the Sierra Leone national park as part of his Ph.D. research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the U.S. to try and figure out if economic measures aimed at conserving carbon in the Gola Rainforest also helped protect its animal biodiversity. In a study published in Conservation Science and Practice, Sagar and his co-authors find that its noisy soundscape suggests that it does. “We see that if it’s done well, carbon financing initiatives do have the capability to protect both biodiversity, beyond just habitat, and carbon markets,” Sagar says. Gola Rainforest National Park is one of the largest remaining portions of the Upper Guinean Tropical Rainforest, which once covered some 700,000 square kilometers (about 270,000 square miles) of West Africa. After a century of mining and logging, and a devastating civil war in the 1990s, Sierra Leone protected 700 km2 (270 mi2) of this forest that remained within its borders in 2010. In 2012, Sierra Leone established the Gola REDD+ project, a framework created through the United Nations Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+)&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/a-symphony-of-wildlife-suggests-carbon-financing-is-working-in-sierra-leone/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/a-symphony-of-wildlife-suggests-carbon-financing-is-working-in-sierra-leone/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320170</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Huge ‘blue carbon’ offsetting project takes root in the mangroves of Sierra Leone</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/huge-blue-carbon-offsetting-project-takes-root-in-the-mangroves-of-sierra-leone/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/huge-blue-carbon-offsetting-project-takes-root-in-the-mangroves-of-sierra-leone/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Dec 2025 20:15:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward CarverMohamed Fofanah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/23151914/4-Community-members-plant-red-mangrove-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311956</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Blue Carbon, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Offsets, Carbon Sequestration, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forest Carbon, Governance, Islands, Mangroves, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Restoration, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BONTHE, Sierra Leone — On the island of Sherbro in Sierra Leone, as in much of the country, there’s limited access to vital services needed to make ends meet. “Here our people only rely on fishing and a few on agriculture and have nothing else to occupy our children, our youths,” Nenneh Sumaila, the chief [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BONTHE, Sierra Leone — On the island of Sherbro in Sierra Leone, as in much of the country, there’s limited access to vital services needed to make ends meet. “Here our people only rely on fishing and a few on agriculture and have nothing else to occupy our children, our youths,” Nenneh Sumaila, the chief of Gbomgboma, a village of about 300 people on the island, told Mongabay. “There are no good roads, no proper health facilities, there’s poor housing, electricity is a dream and the standard of living is poor.” One of the ways to make ends meet in Gbomgboma is by cultivating oil palm trees. But to process the fruit into palm oil, they need fuel for fire, which often comes from mangroves — one of many local uses for the wood. Cutting mangroves unsustainably turns them from a carbon sink into a source of greenhouse gas emissions and hurts their ability to foster biodiversity and provide other ecosystem services. “Blue carbon” projects aim to reverse this trend, and one called the Sherbro River Estuary Project has just been launched with more than 124 communities there. A wholly owned subsidiary of West Africa Blue, a Mauritius-based company, reportedly signed a deal with the communities in October that will reward them financially for conserving and restoring their mangroves. Company representatives told Mongabay that the funds will be generated by selling offsets on the voluntary carbon credit market, with revenues shared between West Africa Blue, the communities and the government&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/huge-blue-carbon-offsetting-project-takes-root-in-the-mangroves-of-sierra-leone/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/huge-blue-carbon-offsetting-project-takes-root-in-the-mangroves-of-sierra-leone/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311956</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sierra Leone communities sign carbon agreement based on carbon justice principles</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/sierra-leone-communities-sign-carbon-agreement-based-on-carbon-justice-principles/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/sierra-leone-communities-sign-carbon-agreement-based-on-carbon-justice-principles/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Nov 2025 14:28:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/11141741/Sierra-Leone-agreement-signing-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309286</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, Green, and Mangroves]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[More than 220 communities in Sierra Leone have signed a benefit-sharing carbon agreement with a developer that will help protect a key mangrove ecosystem. Namati Sierra Leone, a legal advocacy group counseling all involved communities, said the agreement between the communities in the chiefdom of Sittia in Bonthe district and the Africa Conservation Initiative (ACI) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[More than 220 communities in Sierra Leone have signed a benefit-sharing carbon agreement with a developer that will help protect a key mangrove ecosystem. Namati Sierra Leone, a legal advocacy group counseling all involved communities, said the agreement between the communities in the chiefdom of Sittia in Bonthe district and the Africa Conservation Initiative (ACI) is based on “carbon justice principles” aimed at making carbon projects fairer for communities. The agreement targets the protection of roughly 79,000 hectares (about 195,213 acres) of mangroves in the Sherbro River Estuary, which hosts roughly half of the country’s mangrove forests. The estuary’s mangroves are threatened by growing demand for wood for cooking, smoking fish, farming and construction, according to James Harding, Sierra Leone director of West Africa Blue, ACI’s parent company. The benefit-sharing agreement to protect these mangrove forests has been designed with reference to six carbon justice principles, said Daniel Sesay from Namati Sierra Leone. These principles were established by a global network of grassroots organizations based on their experience with past carbon projects. The principles include “Fair participation,” where communities lead the stewardship of the natural resource; “No pay to pollute,” preventing polluters failing to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions from buying carbon credits; and “Free, prior and informed consent (FPIC)” of the communities — where “informed” also means disclosing all financial information throughout the project’s life cycle. To reduce dependency on mangrove wood, ACI’s carbon project is offering communities alternatives, including efficient cookstoves and fish-smoking ovens, planting timber woodlots,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/sierra-leone-communities-sign-carbon-agreement-based-on-carbon-justice-principles/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/sierra-leone-communities-sign-carbon-agreement-based-on-carbon-justice-principles/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-309286</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How a young beekeeper’s initiative brought hope and profit to Sierra Leone communities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/how-a-young-beekeepers-initiative-brought-hope-and-profit-to-sierra-leone-communities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/how-a-young-beekeepers-initiative-brought-hope-and-profit-to-sierra-leone-communities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Mar 2025 14:04:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sonam Lama Hyolmo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/31134112/K-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296749</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Bees, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Deforestation, Economics, Environment, Protected Areas, Supply Chain, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2022, little did Aruna Bangura know that observing the changing environment and land use practices around his community would make him start beekeeping. The area just outside Tiwai Island, a protected wildlife sanctuary spread across 1,200 hectares (2,900 acres) in Sierra Leone, had a dearth of bees, he found. “I observed that the bee [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2022, little did Aruna Bangura know that observing the changing environment and land use practices around his community would make him start beekeeping. The area just outside Tiwai Island, a protected wildlife sanctuary spread across 1,200 hectares (2,900 acres) in Sierra Leone, had a dearth of bees, he found. “I observed that the bee population was declining, and starting a beekeeping initiative was the only alternative in sight,” says Bangura, a 24-year-old from the Boma community. He founded Bangs Circular, a local organization for sustainable beekeeping practices across eight communities surrounding the island in the Eastern and Southern provinces. They began the Tiwai Honey Project, which builds hand-made beehives for the native Western African honey bee (Apis mellifera adansonii). These hives that closely monitor bees and their behavior help attract more bees compared to the traditional method, generating more honey and profit for locals so they can reduce their dependence on logging to make and sell charcoal. The effort also engages community people in restoring natural habitats through reforestation around the wildlife sanctuary. The aim is to then reduce deforestation and degradation in order to increase the bee population, which could also increase honey harvesting. Aruna and the Tiwai Honey Initiative beekeepers. Image © Ezekiel Kargbo for The Iris Project. The impacts of the project are yet to be independently assessed, but so far it won the Iris Project&#8217;s Stem Prize — awarded for innovations by youth — in 2024, which gave them $10,000 to kick off the project&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/how-a-young-beekeepers-initiative-brought-hope-and-profit-to-sierra-leone-communities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296749</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservationists mobilize to save Sierra Leone national park and its chimpanzees</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/as-deforestation-advances-conservationists-mobilize-to-save-sierra-leone-national-park-and-its-chimpanzees/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/as-deforestation-advances-conservationists-mobilize-to-save-sierra-leone-national-park-and-its-chimpanzees/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Nov 2024 17:44:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mohamed Fofanah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/31214805/6x8IMG_7169-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289529</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Forest Trackers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Apes, Cattle, Critically Endangered Species, Deforestation, Drug Trade, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Habitat Loss, National Parks, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, Ranching, and Reforestation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Standing at an altitude of 1,945 meters (6,381 feet), Mount Bintumani is the highest peak of the Loma Mountains, which is the highest mountain range in Sierra Leone, and the tallest peak in West Africa. The area around Mount Bintumani was designated a non-hunting forest reserve in 1952 and became Loma Mountains [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Standing at an altitude of 1,945 meters (6,381 feet), Mount Bintumani is the highest peak of the Loma Mountains, which is the highest mountain range in Sierra Leone, and the tallest peak in West Africa. The area around Mount Bintumani was designated a non-hunting forest reserve in 1952 and became Loma Mountains National Park (LMNP) in 2012. LMNP covers an area of 33,201 hectares and a medley of ecosystems, from montane tropical forests and grasslands to sub-montane rainforests, shrub savanna and dry forests. These ecosystems support a wide array of wildlife, including around a dozen species of primates such as red colobus (Piliocolobus badius), black and white colobus (Colobus polykomos) and sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys). Other threatened animals found in the park include Jentink’s duikers (Cephalophus jentinki), leopards (Panthera pardus) and — at lower elevations — forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) and pygmy hippopotamuses (Choeropsis liberiensis).  Because of their elevation, the Loma Mountains also host a rich bird diversity including many species that do not occur elsewhere in the country — and five that are globally threatened. But perhaps the park’s most famous denizen is the chimpanzee. LMNP is home to around 1,390 critically endangered western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus), according to a survey in 2019 conducted by Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, a research and conservation organization that began as a rehabilitation center for orphaned chimpanzees. However, this unique and imperiled chimp subspecies, along with a host of other wildlife, are facing habitat loss due to incursions into the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/as-deforestation-advances-conservationists-mobilize-to-save-sierra-leone-national-park-and-its-chimpanzees/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/11/as-deforestation-advances-conservationists-mobilize-to-save-sierra-leone-national-park-and-its-chimpanzees/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289529</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sierra Leone group helps farmers adapt to changing climate, protect forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/sierra-leone-group-helps-farmers-adapt-to-changing-climate-protect-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/sierra-leone-group-helps-farmers-adapt-to-changing-climate-protect-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Sep 2024 08:27:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Emma Black]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/18081058/EnvironmentalEducation_KenemaDistrictSierraLeone_SLEM-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287511</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Bushmeat, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For two years, a volunteer organization in eastern Sierra Leone worked to encourage residents of Kenema district to plant trees and switch to more climate-resilient crops. Sierra Leone Environment Matter&#8217;s 50 members aimed to protect both residents&#8217; farming livelihoods, faltering in the face of changing weather, and the Kambui Hills Forest Reserve which has been [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For two years, a volunteer organization in eastern Sierra Leone worked to encourage residents of Kenema district to plant trees and switch to more climate-resilient crops. Sierra Leone Environment Matter&#8217;s 50 members aimed to protect both residents&#8217; farming livelihoods, faltering in the face of changing weather, and the Kambui Hills Forest Reserve which has been degraded by illicit logging and mining. In a phone interview, SLEM&#8217;s founder, John Kamara, told Mongabay that biodiversity and natural resources that residents depend on in the Kambui Hills reserve have been damaged by deforestation and illegal mining. The hills are vital for local agriculture, forestry, tourism, water conservation and climate regulation, and they also hold cultural significance for local communities. Kambui Hills is a commercial timber reserve that also serves as a buffer zone protecting the nearby Gola reserve. The landscape around the forest reserve is mature secondary rainforest, a mixture of evergreen and semi-deciduous trees at higher elevations, giving way to bush and thickets — and farms — on the lower plains. The reserve proper consists of the 20,000-hectare (49,000-acre) Kambui North and a smaller 880-hectare (2,175-acre) Kambui South portion, with the main road running between them to the town of Kenema, 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) east of the reserve. People from surrounding areas make various use of the forest, gathering firewood and producing charcoal, illicit mining for gold and diamonds, and hunting. Many species have been documented in this region of Sierra Leone — colobus monkeys and critically endangered western chimpanzees (Pan&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/sierra-leone-group-helps-farmers-adapt-to-changing-climate-protect-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/sierra-leone-group-helps-farmers-adapt-to-changing-climate-protect-forest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287511</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As catches fall, Sierra Leone’s artisanal fishers turn to destructive practices</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/as-catches-fall-sierra-leones-artisanal-fishers-turn-to-destructive-practices/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/as-catches-fall-sierra-leones-artisanal-fishers-turn-to-destructive-practices/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 May 2024 12:00:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Josef Skrdlik]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/24144737/bonga-babies-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282479</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Fish, Fisheries, Food, Food Industry, Global Environmental Crisis, Illegal Fishing, Law Enforcement, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overexploitation, Overfishing, Politics, Poverty, and Saltwater Fish]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PORT LOKO DISTRICT, Sierra Leone — At 5 a.m., as the horizon brightens and waves start to subside, more than a dozen wooden canoes along the shoreline between the settlements of Mahera Beach and Banda in northern Sierra Leone set off into the ocean. Each canoe casts a net, one end tied to a pole [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PORT LOKO DISTRICT, Sierra Leone — At 5 a.m., as the horizon brightens and waves start to subside, more than a dozen wooden canoes along the shoreline between the settlements of Mahera Beach and Banda in northern Sierra Leone set off into the ocean. Each canoe casts a net, one end tied to a pole on the beach, and traces a semicircle as it progresses into the water. Weights attached to the net fall to the ocean floor, trapping fish on the beach side. Once the semicircle is complete, the net’s other end is dragged to shore. Two groups of four fishers then take hold of each end and begin pulling the net out of the water. After three hours of intense work, the fishers haul the net onto the beach. It contains a few crabs, shrimps and hundreds of thrashing baby fish. This fishing method, called beach seining, is banned in Sierra Leone due to its lack of selectivity and tendency to bring in excessive catches of juvenile fish, which aggregate in shallow coastal waters before reaching maturity and migrating to the open sea. Yet it’s becoming increasingly popular among local fishers. “You just cast the net and after some time, you have fish,” said Foday Kamara, a 26-year-old owner of one of the nets on the beach. A Sierra Leonean fisher. Image by Josef Skrdlik for Mongabay. Kamara, who’s been a fisher since his early teens, also owns a drift net to catch adult bonga shad (Ethmalosa fimbriata)&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/as-catches-fall-sierra-leones-artisanal-fishers-turn-to-destructive-practices/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/as-catches-fall-sierra-leones-artisanal-fishers-turn-to-destructive-practices/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282479</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Sierra Leone’s fishing villages, a reality check for climate aid</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/in-sierra-leones-fishing-villages-a-reality-check-for-climate-aid/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/in-sierra-leones-fishing-villages-a-reality-check-for-climate-aid/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Dec 2022 13:29:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Ashoka]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/15090802/sierra-leone-fishing-village-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263648</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering Climate Now and Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, Climate Change, climate finance, Climate Justice, Coastal Ecosystems, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Estuaries, Fishing, Flooding, Food, Foreign Aid, Forests, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Mangroves, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Politics, Reforestation, and Sea Levels]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BONTHE, Sierra Leone — As the sun rises over Bonthe, a small city on the coastline of Sierra Leone’s remote Sherbro Island, echoes of a not-so-distant colonial past bathe in the red glow of early morning. A crumbling stone warehouse, its façade scarred by years of salt and humidity, stands in front of a vast, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BONTHE, Sierra Leone — As the sun rises over Bonthe, a small city on the coastline of Sierra Leone’s remote Sherbro Island, echoes of a not-so-distant colonial past bathe in the red glow of early morning. A crumbling stone warehouse, its façade scarred by years of salt and humidity, stands in front of a vast, mangrove-laden riverine estuary. Above its doorway, faded lettering reads “Patterson, Zochonis” — two European traders who made their fortunes in what was once called British West Africa. Nearby, a worn white and gray church bearing the name Amistad watches over a quiet road. Sengbe Pieh, leader of the famous slave rebellion on the ship that the church was named for, was born on the island, and legend says his gravesite is hidden somewhere in the forest here. Bonthe, and the Sherbro estuary in general, was once a major trading outpost for the British Empire, feeding what was then an emergent global economy with slave labor and, later, tropical commodities like palm oil. Now it’s a sleepy fishing town of about 10,000 people. Even reaching Bonthe is no small feat — the journey from Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, involves a series of public buses, motorcycle rides down dirt highways, and a wooden public boat that ambles across the sprawling estuary, shuttling goods and travelers between the tiny fishing villages that dot its coastline. The city of Bonthe, Sierra Leone. Photo by Ashoka Mukpo for Mongabay. As the morning light shines on brightly painted fishing boats that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/in-sierra-leones-fishing-villages-a-reality-check-for-climate-aid/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/in-sierra-leones-fishing-villages-a-reality-check-for-climate-aid/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263648</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Sierra Leone, local fishers and foreign trawlers battle for their catch</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/in-sierra-leone-local-fishers-and-foreign-trawlers-battle-for-their-catch/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/in-sierra-leone-local-fishers-and-foreign-trawlers-battle-for-their-catch/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 May 2022 13:12:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/24124609/11-Sierra-Leone-local-fishers-and-foreign-trawlers-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256275</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Oceans]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Fish, Fisheries, Food, Food Industry, Global Environmental Crisis, Illegal Fishing, Law Enforcement, Marine, Oceans, Overexploitation, Overfishing, Politics, Poverty, and Saltwater Fish]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — As dawn breaks, the fishing wharf at Tamba Kula in Freetown buzzes with the movement of early-morning commerce. Fishers just back from days spent far out at sea unload their catch from wooden boats, hauling snapper, barracuda and other fish out of icy compartments into cartons carried onto shore. There, women [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — As dawn breaks, the fishing wharf at Tamba Kula in Freetown buzzes with the movement of early-morning commerce. Fishers just back from days spent far out at sea unload their catch from wooden boats, hauling snapper, barracuda and other fish out of icy compartments into cartons carried onto shore. There, women hand over wads of cash and fill plastic containers destined for Freetown’s bustling markets. Bleary-eyed fishermen cluster in packs under palm trees, smoking cigarettes and cracking jokes as Nigerian pop music blares from nearby speakers. The scene is a familiar one along West Africa’s coast, where artisanal fishers like the ones at Tamba Kula provide millions of people with their daily nourishment. The ocean is the backbone of life in Sierra Leone, with fish accounting for around 80% of the country’s protein intake. Incomes generated from the sea build houses, are reinvested in businesses, and send the children of fishers and market traders to school. But life is getting harder in places like Tamba Kula. Over the past few years, fish have become scarcer, and the rickety boats with names like “God No Greedy” are having to go farther out to sea for catches that just a few years ago could be found much closer to shore. Sometimes the crews come back near empty-handed. When that happens, the boat owners lose their upfront investment in fuel and the crews don’t get paid. Many fishermen say foreign trawlers are to blame. Those boats, made from steel&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/in-sierra-leone-local-fishers-and-foreign-trawlers-battle-for-their-catch/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/in-sierra-leone-local-fishers-and-foreign-trawlers-battle-for-their-catch/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256275</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sierra Leone lawsuit against diamond mine runs up against corporate opacity</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/sierra-leone-lawsuit-against-diamond-mine-runs-up-against-corporate-opacity/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/sierra-leone-lawsuit-against-diamond-mine-runs-up-against-corporate-opacity/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Feb 2022 08:11:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Emma Black]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/17080227/Underground-Load-and-Haul-Team-diamond-mining-Sierra-Leone-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=252791</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Conflict, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Health, Human Rights, Industry, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Mining, Politics, Pollution, Public Health, Resource Conflict, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MAKENI, Sierra Leone — Residents of Koidu, in eastern Sierra Leone, are pursuing a class-action lawsuit against the operators of a diamond mine they say has dumped toxic mine waste, damaged homes, and cost many their livelihoods. On Feb. 17, three black-suited lawyers representing the Marginalized Affected Property Owners (MAPO) entered the stately High Court [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MAKENI, Sierra Leone — Residents of Koidu, in eastern Sierra Leone, are pursuing a class-action lawsuit against the operators of a diamond mine they say has dumped toxic mine waste, damaged homes, and cost many their livelihoods. On Feb. 17, three black-suited lawyers representing the Marginalized Affected Property Owners (MAPO) entered the stately High Court building in Makeni, three hours outside Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown. They had come to argue that Octea Ltd., its subsidiaries, and company executives are responsible for serious social and environmental harm in Kono district. It was the second hearing of the case in little more than a week, and the latest in a much longer series of defensive legal maneuvers by the mining company’s owners. Among the plaintiffs in the case is Sia Jannet Bayo, who alleges the mining company damaged her house, polluted her family&#8217;s water supply, harmed her health, and broke resettlement agreements. “We used to farm and live in peace, but now our lands and water sources are poisoned and covered in rubble. Our homes are shaken by explosives every day,” she told Mongabay. Diamonds were first discovered in this area in the 1930s, and Kono remains the most important diamond-producing district in Sierra Leone. In addition to formal and artisanal diamond mining, Kono&#8217;s inhabitants grow rice, cassava, palm oil, and coffee. The issue between the mining company and the residents of the communities of Saquee, Sokogbeh, Sowaray, New Sembehun and Manjamadu in Kono district dates back to 2010, when another diamond&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/sierra-leone-lawsuit-against-diamond-mine-runs-up-against-corporate-opacity/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/sierra-leone-lawsuit-against-diamond-mine-runs-up-against-corporate-opacity/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-252791</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Coastal deforestation fuels more frequent storms in West Africa, study warns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/coastal-deforestation-fuels-more-frequent-storms-in-west-africa-study-warns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/coastal-deforestation-fuels-more-frequent-storms-in-west-africa-study-warns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jan 2022 17:04:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/11/22092910/colombia_0727-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=251666</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Deforestation, Extreme Weather, Flooding, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, and Storms]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2017, catastrophic flooding in Sierra Leone&#8217;s capital, Freetown, left at least 1,000 people dead and many more homeless. In a matter of minutes, mudslides wiped out homes and destroyed lives. Now, new research links the emergence of such deluges to disappearing green cover in southern West Africa. Compared to 30 years ago, storms are [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2017, catastrophic flooding in Sierra Leone&#8217;s capital, Freetown, left at least 1,000 people dead and many more homeless. In a matter of minutes, mudslides wiped out homes and destroyed lives. Now, new research links the emergence of such deluges to disappearing green cover in southern West Africa. Compared to 30 years ago, storms are hitting this densely populated coastal region twice as frequently today, a study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found. Major city centers dot the coastal belt, including Freetown, which hosts an eighth of Sierra Leone&#8217;s population; Guinea&#8217;s capital, Conakry; the Liberian capital, Monrovia; and the city of Abidjan in Côte d&#8217;Ivoire. A growing population and the increased demand for land drive forest loss in the region. For their study, the researchers considered deforestation in a coastal band 300 kilometers (186 miles) wide to understand its impact on the climate. Woodland has been steadily declining since the 20th century in this corner of Africa, giving way to degraded forests, savanna and agricultural land. The loss has intensified in recent decades. Between 2001 and 2020, Sierra Leone lost 30% of its tree cover (1.71 million hectares, or 4.23 million acres). Though the decline in tree cover isn&#8217;t the same thing as deforestation, it indicates forest cover loss. Since high-resolution forest cover data is only available since 2001, the authors relied on land surface temperature trends as a proxy for deforestation. They also tracked storm activity via satellite imagery and concluded that disappearing forestland fuels&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/coastal-deforestation-fuels-more-frequent-storms-in-west-africa-study-warns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/coastal-deforestation-fuels-more-frequent-storms-in-west-africa-study-warns/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-251666</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Industrial fishing harbor plan raises a stink in Sierra Leone</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/industrial-fishing-harbor-plan-raises-a-stink-in-sierra-leone/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/industrial-fishing-harbor-plan-raises-a-stink-in-sierra-leone/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Sep 2021 20:01:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mohamed Fofanah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/09/07170214/trawler1-Chinese-fishing-trawler-FU-HAI-YU-2222-by-Sierra-Leone-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=246852</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Development, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Food, Governance, Human Rights, Infrastructure, Oceans, and Ports]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BLACK JOHNSON, Sierra Leone — Seated along the peninsula south of Freetown is the secluded village of Black Johnson. Rainforest covers the hills that rise behind it, home to chimpanzees and protected bird species. There&#8217;s a lagoon that serves as breeding grounds for fish, and sea turtles lay their eggs on the beaches nearby. This [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BLACK JOHNSON, Sierra Leone — Seated along the peninsula south of Freetown is the secluded village of Black Johnson. Rainforest covers the hills that rise behind it, home to chimpanzees and protected bird species. There&#8217;s a lagoon that serves as breeding grounds for fish, and sea turtles lay their eggs on the beaches nearby. This largely neglected town suddenly came to wider notice in May, when the government of Sierra Leone announced plans to build a fishing harbor here. The announcement set off a clamor from environmentalists who argued that an industrial fishing harbor will threaten the ecologies of the beach and lagoon, and property owners apprehensive that government will dispossess them of their lands. Balu Ibrahim, the information officer for Sierra Leone&#8217;s Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, told Mongabay that in 2019 the ministry signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese government for the construction of a fishing harbor. She said the $55 million project includes a berthing and transshipment area for up to 15 vessels at a time as well as a shipbuilding and repair area. She noted that presently ships have to go to neighboring countries for repairs. She said there would also be a fishery product processing area, including facilities for ice production and cold storage. But this MOU is not publicly available, and public knowledge of the details of the project rests solely on what the government is putting out to the public. Disputed site Ibrahim said Sierra Leone has one of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/industrial-fishing-harbor-plan-raises-a-stink-in-sierra-leone/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/09/industrial-fishing-harbor-plan-raises-a-stink-in-sierra-leone/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-246852</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Sierra Leone, two colorful land crabs rediscovered, two new species found</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/in-sierra-leone-two-colorful-land-crabs-rediscovered-two-new-species-found/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/in-sierra-leone-two-colorful-land-crabs-rediscovered-two-new-species-found/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jul 2021 16:28:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/07/30034945/CRAB_Afrithelphusa-afzelii-from-Sierra-Leone-2021-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=245354</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Rainforests, Rediscovered Species, Species Discovery, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On a recent expedition to the remote forests of Sierra Leone, West Africa, researchers found two species of crabs new to science and rediscovered two species not seen in more than half a century. For 23 days, Pierre A. Mvogo Ndongo, a researcher from the University of Douala in Cameroon, trekked through remote rainforests in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On a recent expedition to the remote forests of Sierra Leone, West Africa, researchers found two species of crabs new to science and rediscovered two species not seen in more than half a century. For 23 days, Pierre A. Mvogo Ndongo, a researcher from the University of Douala in Cameroon, trekked through remote rainforests in search of the Sierra Leone crab (Afrithelphusa leonensis), a unique purple-clawed land crab that has not been spotted by scientists since 1955. “It was not easy,” Mvogo Ndongo said in a press release. “This trip was very, very difficult. You have to be psychologically strong. But I was very determined.” On his journey, Mvogo Ndongo asked locals if they had seen crabs that live on land, far from permanent water sources. Two men in Moyamba district described colorful crabs living nearby and led him to a farm bordering the forest. Within three days, Mvogo Ndongo and his team found an Afzelius&#8217;s crab (Afrithelphusa afzelii), which has had no recorded sighting for 225 years (since 1796). Over the next few days, the researchers found many of the orange-legged, purple-bodied crabs in that area, indicating the presence of a healthy local population. In early 2021 the Afzelius&#8217;s crab (Afrithelphusa afzelii) was spotted by scientists for the first time since 1796. Photo by Pierre A. Mvogo Ndongo courtesy of re:wild. The team then traveled to Sugar Loaf Mountain in Western Area National Park in search of their target species, the Sierra Leone crab. The spread of COVID-19 and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/in-sierra-leone-two-colorful-land-crabs-rediscovered-two-new-species-found/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/in-sierra-leone-two-colorful-land-crabs-rediscovered-two-new-species-found/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-245354</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Entangled: How a global seaweed ‘plague’ threatens West Africa&#8217;s coastline</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/entangled-how-a-global-seaweed-plague-threatens-west-africas-coastline/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/entangled-how-a-global-seaweed-plague-threatens-west-africas-coastline/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Nov 2020 17:45:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Richard Arghiris]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/11/11172801/ClearingSargassum_SierraLeone_EnvirionmentProtectionAgencySierraLeone-CROP-768x485.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=236734</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, and Environment]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[From the Gulf of Guinea to the mouth of the Senegal River, a sprawling shroud of seaweed is choking coastal ecosystems and the fishing communities that depend on them. Offshore, it snags lines, breaks nets and clogs up outboard motors. On shore, it accumulates in vast brown heaps, tide after tide, obstructing both boatmen and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[From the Gulf of Guinea to the mouth of the Senegal River, a sprawling shroud of seaweed is choking coastal ecosystems and the fishing communities that depend on them. Offshore, it snags lines, breaks nets and clogs up outboard motors. On shore, it accumulates in vast brown heaps, tide after tide, obstructing both boatmen and nesting sea turtles. As the seaweed rots, it releases foul-smelling hydrogen sulfide gas, causing respiratory illness in local populations. And in nearshore habitats, the same processes of decay depletes the oxygen in the water, killing marine animals in gruesome mass die-offs. “It came as a shock to people,” said Paul Lamin of Sierra Leone’s Environment Protection Agency, describing the first inundation of June 2011. “We had never experienced such a large quantity of seaweed washing on our beaches.” Scientists at the University of Sierra Leone subsequently analyzed the seaweed, identifying two species of non-native brown macroalga of the genus Sargassum: S. fluitans and S. natans. Both are abundant in the Sargasso Sea, a vast, shoreless, gyre-bound body of water encompassing nearly two-thirds of the North Atlantic Ocean. Pelagic Sargassum is bushy, rootless and buoyant. It reproduces asexually by propagating from detached fragments. Kept afloat by gas-filled vesicles that resemble berries, Sargassum aggregates into floating mats that provide nourishment and shelter to a host of rare fauna. At least 10 endemic species inhabit the Sargasso Sea, including the Sargassum anglerfish (Histrio histrio), a cannibal frogfish with flawless camouflage and grasping, prehensile fins that enable it to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/entangled-how-a-global-seaweed-plague-threatens-west-africas-coastline/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/entangled-how-a-global-seaweed-plague-threatens-west-africas-coastline/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-236734</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>10-year plan hopes to give western chimpanzees a fighting chance</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/10-year-plan-hopes-to-give-western-chimpanzees-a-fighting-chance/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/10-year-plan-hopes-to-give-western-chimpanzees-a-fighting-chance/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jul 2020 10:11:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jim Tan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/07/10100605/Image-1_Liran_samuni_banner-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=232358</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Chimpanzees, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Great Apes, Land Use Change, Mammals, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Western chimpanzees are the most threatened of the four confirmed chimpanzee subspecies. Conservationists estimate that populations of the western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes versus) declined by 80% between 1990 and 2014. Large tracts of chimpanzee habitat have already been lost, and much of what remains is in the crosshairs of agriculture, industry and infrastructure development. Adding [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Western chimpanzees are the most threatened of the four confirmed chimpanzee subspecies. Conservationists estimate that populations of the western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes versus) declined by 80% between 1990 and 2014. Large tracts of chimpanzee habitat have already been lost, and much of what remains is in the crosshairs of agriculture, industry and infrastructure development. Adding to the pressure, in their West African home, the subspecies shares its space with the world&#8217;s fastest-growing human population. Without immediate action, the IUCN warns the western chimpanzee may soon become extinct. The IUCN recently released its latest 10-year action plan, setting out nine key strategies to protect chimpanzees. On the agenda are improved legal protection, raising awareness, and more research into their distribution, genetics and behavior. The plan also highlights the need for chimpanzees to be considered at all levels of the land use planning process if they are to have a future in the rapidly developing West Africa region. “The western chimpanzee is in dire need of coordinated and effective conservation action right now,” said Erin Wessling, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard’s Department of Human and Evolutionary Biology and lead editor of the IUCN plan. The western chimpanzee’s range extends across eight countries in West Africa: Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Senegal and Sierre Leone. The subspecies is already locally extinct in Benin, Burkino Faso and Togo. The western chimpanzee is the most threatened of the four known chimpanzee subspecies. Image courtesy of Liran Samuni/Tai Chimpanzee Project. Fighting for space The&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/10-year-plan-hopes-to-give-western-chimpanzees-a-fighting-chance/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/10-year-plan-hopes-to-give-western-chimpanzees-a-fighting-chance/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-232358</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘They took it over by force’: Corruption and palm oil in Sierra Leone</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/they-took-it-over-by-force-corruption-and-palm-oil-in-sierra-leone/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/they-took-it-over-by-force-corruption-and-palm-oil-in-sierra-leone/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jun 2020 19:54:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/06/30191809/IMG_63-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=231991</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Colonization, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Green, Habitat Loss, Indigenous Peoples, Industrial Agriculture, Old Growth Forests, Palm Oil, Plantations, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SAHN, Sierra Leone — The day they came, Margaret Fascia was in her forest garden of cocoa trees, pineapple plants, palms, ferns and cassavas. Like most days of the week, she was working, looking after the crops that feed her family. But she was afraid. Word had gotten around that a foreign company was going [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SAHN, Sierra Leone — The day they came, Margaret Fascia was in her forest garden of cocoa trees, pineapple plants, palms, ferns and cassavas. Like most days of the week, she was working, looking after the crops that feed her family. But she was afraid. Word had gotten around that a foreign company was going to take their land. And when they came, they came with a bulldozer. “I stood in front of the machine,” Fascia said. “ ‘Peep peep peep’ made the bulldozer as it came right up to my foot. I didn’t move. So they stopped there. They don’t touch my palm trees.” Fascia is a woman of around 50, who was recounting the story as she was standing in the middle of her garden, wearing a ripped turquoise shirt and a blanket around her waist. She is an exception in the Chiefdom of Sahn Malen in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone, because, unlike the majority of people here, she still owns a few acres of land. Most others either gave theirs up voluntarily or lost it in 2011 when the company Société Financière des Caoutchoucs (Socfin) arrived in the province to establish a large oil palm plantation. Margaret Fascia says she was able to fend off Socfin bulldozers when they came to clear her land. Image by Maja Hitij. Sierra Leone is among the poorest countries in the world. In the 1990s, when other African countries were privatizing key industries in order to attract foreign investment&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/they-took-it-over-by-force-corruption-and-palm-oil-in-sierra-leone/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/they-took-it-over-by-force-corruption-and-palm-oil-in-sierra-leone/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-231991</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How the legacy of colonialism built a palm oil empire</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/how-the-legacy-of-colonialism-built-a-palm-oil-empire/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/how-the-legacy-of-colonialism-built-a-palm-oil-empire/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Jun 2020 19:27:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/06/26185419/DCIMAGE-7-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=231889</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Southeast Asia, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Colonization, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Green, Habitat Loss, Indigenous Peoples, Industrial Agriculture, Old Growth Forests, Palm Oil, Plantations, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Rubber, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Between 1885 and 1908, Belgium’s King Leopold II exerted control over a vast area of Africa that would later become the Democratic Republic of the Congo. His rule was characterized by systematic brutality that led to the deaths of an estimated 10 million people and one of the first recorded uses of the term “crimes [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Between 1885 and 1908, Belgium’s King Leopold II exerted control over a vast area of Africa that would later become the Democratic Republic of the Congo. His rule was characterized by systematic brutality that led to the deaths of an estimated 10 million people and one of the first recorded uses of the term “crimes against humanity.” Today, statues of King Leopold II are being defaced and torn down in Belgium as the country, like many others around the world, is reckoning with a past rooted in racist exploitation. But statues are but one vestige of colonialism that has persisted for more than a century. Several of the biggest tropical commodity companies were founded during colonial times and still operate in countries once occupied by colonial powers. One of these is Société Financière des Caoutchoucs (Socfin), a Belgian holding company that operates palm oil and rubber plantations through dozens of subsidiaries across Africa and Southeast Asia, and which has been rebuked by civil society organizations for alleged human rights violations at its plantations. Socfin is listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and partially owned (38.75%) by French multinational corporation Bolloré. For years, Socfin has been subject to harsh criticism for malpractices in the establishment and management of its tropical plantations in eight African and two Asian countries: Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sao Tomé et Principe, Ghana, Indonesia and Cambodia. Civil society organizations, grassroots movements in countries of operation and international NGOs have voiced concerns,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/how-the-legacy-of-colonialism-built-a-palm-oil-empire/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/how-the-legacy-of-colonialism-built-a-palm-oil-empire/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-231889</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>For the western chimpanzee, sanctuaries are more than just a last resort</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/for-the-western-chimpanzee-sanctuaries-are-more-than-just-a-last-resort/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/for-the-western-chimpanzee-sanctuaries-are-more-than-just-a-last-resort/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 May 2020 12:39:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mark Hillsdon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/26092929/chimp-sanctuary-big-mike-flickr-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=230673</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Chimpanzees, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Great Apes, Mammals, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the 1960s, there were an estimated 1 million wild chimpanzees in West Africa. Today, there are fewer than 300,000. With habitat loss, hunting and wildlife trafficking taking their toll, chimps have now disappeared completely from four countries in the region. That makes the western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) the only one of the four [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the 1960s, there were an estimated 1 million wild chimpanzees in West Africa. Today, there are fewer than 300,000. With habitat loss, hunting and wildlife trafficking taking their toll, chimps have now disappeared completely from four countries in the region. That makes the western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) the only one of the four chimp subspecies to be declared critically endangered. At the forefront of the battle to save the western chimpanzee is a network of sanctuaries. These safe havens can have a dramatic effect on the countries where they are established, caring for individual animals while also working to help stabilize populations, tighten laws, and stop the illegal trade in wildlife from flourishing. Twenty-three organizations operate as part of the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA), which was established in 2000 and now looks after 915 chimps in 13 countries. Many arrive as the result of habitat destruction, as forests are cleared for agriculture, logging and extractive industries, as well as infrastructure developments, decimating family groups and leaving young chimps abandoned. Others will have suffered at the hands of hunters, victims of a lucrative trade that sees adults shot for bushmeat and  juveniles sold on the black market to end up as pets or as entertainment in hotels, circuses and zoos in Africa and beyond. Chimpanzee at Tacugama Sanctuary, Sierra Leone, one of 23 members of the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance. Sanctuary managers say their work extends beyond protecting the welfare of individual animals. Image by Jeremy Weate via&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/for-the-western-chimpanzee-sanctuaries-are-more-than-just-a-last-resort/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-230673</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Chimps in Sierra Leone adapt to human-impacted habitats, but threats remain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/chimps-in-sierra-leone-adapt-to-human-impacted-habitats-but-threats-remain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/chimps-in-sierra-leone-adapt-to-human-impacted-habitats-but-threats-remain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jul 2019 09:35:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ini Ekott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/07/10063250/MoyambaChimpWithMangoes_SierraLeone_TacugamaChimpSanctuary-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=220302</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Evolving Conservation, Global Forest Reporting Network, and Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Energy, Environment, Forests, Governance, Habitat Loss, Infrastructure, Logging, Mammals, Palm Oil, Plantations, Poaching, Poverty, Primates, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Roads, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[2019FB]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A new study of western chimpanzees in southwestern Sierra Leone finds they are adapting to survive in severely degraded habitat. But researchers say this doesn’t obviate the need to minimize the impacts of development such as roads and promote less-damaging approaches to farming by local people. Despite the gradual loss of most of their original [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A new study of western chimpanzees in southwestern Sierra Leone finds they are adapting to survive in severely degraded habitat. But researchers say this doesn’t obviate the need to minimize the impacts of development such as roads and promote less-damaging approaches to farming by local people. Despite the gradual loss of most of their original habitat, the chimpanzees in Moyamba district have survived thanks to a particular set of conditions, according Tatyana Humle, a senior lecturer in conservation and primate behavior at the University of Kent, U.K., and one of the authors of the study. “In this case, the main driver of forest loss in the locality is slash and burn agriculture which has taken place over generations, and some key natural resources remain in the landscape,” Humle told Mongabay. “The study area is dominated by semi-domesticated oil palm: the oil palm is native to West Africa, and people tend not to cut them down as they are also useful to people for the fruit, palm leaves for construction materials, and local wine production.” Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) is a key species for the chimpanzees, which typically build a new nest every night: in the study area, all the nests were built in oil palms in the absence of other mature nesting tree species. Another tree species usually spared by farmers because they eat the fruit is the Guinea plum (Parinari excelsa); the plums are also a preferred food item for chimpanzees. The relatively small human settlements in the area&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/chimps-in-sierra-leone-adapt-to-human-impacted-habitats-but-threats-remain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/chimps-in-sierra-leone-adapt-to-human-impacted-habitats-but-threats-remain/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-220302</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Was Sierra Leone’s one-month fishing ban enough to replenish fish stocks?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/was-sierra-leones-one-month-fishing-ban-enough-to-replenish-fish-stocks/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/was-sierra-leones-one-month-fishing-ban-enough-to-replenish-fish-stocks/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jul 2019 16:10:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Uzman Unis Bah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/07/03133332/UUBah_SierraLeoneFisheries_7_Banner-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=220163</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Sea Change]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Crime, Environment, Environmental Policy, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Food, Governance, Illegal Fishing, Law Enforcement, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overfishing, Regulations, Saltwater Fish, and Sustainability]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[2019FB, 2163-3717]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — The Sierra Leone government closed the country’s waters to fishing during the entire month of April to give flagging fish stocks a chance to rebuild. During that period industrial fishing companies were not allowed to fish, but artisanal fishers were. Both industrial and artisanal fishers appeared to support the closure, the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — The Sierra Leone government closed the country’s waters to fishing during the entire month of April to give flagging fish stocks a chance to rebuild. During that period industrial fishing companies were not allowed to fish, but artisanal fishers were. Both industrial and artisanal fishers appeared to support the closure, the first of its kind, amid declining catches and an influx of virtually unregulated foreign fishing vessels that locals complain are wiping out fish stocks and putting them out of business. Officials declared the closure a success, as part of Sierra Leone’s broader effort to formalize and gain regulatory control of its fisheries. However, outside experts have expressed doubt that the move would do much to improve the country’s fisheries. Fishermen tend their nets in Tombo. Image by Uzman Unis Bah for Mongabay. The fisheries minister, Emma Kowa Jalloh, said at a March 28 press conference that the main reason for the closure was to give the fish an opportunity to breed. She expressed concern over the numerous challenges the country is facing as a result of illegal, unreported and unregulated (often called IUU) fishing. Kowa Jalloh said the government is taking a suite of measures beyond the one-month closure to ensure the country’s enormous fisheries potential is fully harnessed. Among them, she said, will be pushing for co-management of the country’s fisheries by stakeholders from industry, government and civil society; improving the reliability of data to enhance marine resource management; registering artisanal fishing boats; and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/was-sierra-leones-one-month-fishing-ban-enough-to-replenish-fish-stocks/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/was-sierra-leones-one-month-fishing-ban-enough-to-replenish-fish-stocks/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-220163</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Lost in translation: Green regulations backfire without local context</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/lost-in-translation-green-regulations-backfire-without-local-context/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/lost-in-translation-green-regulations-backfire-without-local-context/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jul 2019 14:03:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/07/03083414/204970_web.00ffa8a1e2aa490e9cb7e05d573c38c5-768x450.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=220141</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Gold Mining, Green, Illegal Logging, Illegal Mining, Law, Law Enforcement, Logging, Mining, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Regulations, Research, Threats To Rainforests, Timber, Traditional People, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[2019FB]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Strong environmental regulations might seem like a no-brainer for developing countries trying to avoid environmental ruin and conflict over resources. But absent an understanding of the challenges that local people face in adhering to them, they could have undesired effects, according to new research. “I think you potentially need a more flexible system that accounts [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Strong environmental regulations might seem like a no-brainer for developing countries trying to avoid environmental ruin and conflict over resources. But absent an understanding of the challenges that local people face in adhering to them, they could have undesired effects, according to new research. “I think you potentially need a more flexible system that accounts for differences between multinationals and artisanal and small-scale actors,” McKenzie Johnson, a University of Illinois assistant professor of natural resources and environmental sciences, said in a statement. “There needs to be at least some recognition of the barriers different actors face, and a lot more inclusive conversation about these rules, what’s legitimate [and] what’s not.” Johnson’s fieldwork in the mining sectors of Ghana and Sierra Leone revealed that strong environmental regulations in developing countries sometimes “generate perverse outcomes,” she wrote in the paper, published online June 21 in the journal World Development. Though the regulations are intended to diminish both the negative impacts to the environment and violent conflict often linked to extractive industries, Johnson found that they can encourage an uptick in “informal” — and often illegal — logging and mining. Artisanal and small-scale mining in Ghana. Image by Mozhgon Rajaee, Samuel Obiri, Allyson Green, Rachel Long, Samuel J. Cobbina, Vincent Nartey, David Buck, Edward Antwi, Niladri Basu via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0). As small-scale producers look for a way around onerous regulations that are difficult to comply with, they can foul the environment. And, if, for example, they’re mining an area earmarked&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/lost-in-translation-green-regulations-backfire-without-local-context/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-220141</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Animal trainers are teaching wildlife to conserve themselves</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/04/animal-trainers-are-teaching-wildlife-to-conserve-themselves/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/04/animal-trainers-are-teaching-wildlife-to-conserve-themselves/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Apr 2018 13:40:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Linda Lombardi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/04/10132524/FEATURED-tr-768x453.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=205627</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Arctic, Global, North America, Sierra Leone, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Intelligence, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Butterflies, Captive Breeding, Carnivores, Charismatic Animals, Chimpanzees, Conservation, Dolphins, Ecology, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Monkeys, Polar Bears, Primates, Research, Restoration, Wildlife, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Chimps have been taught to sound an alarm when poachers approach; polar bears and condors have been trained to avoid towns; and even butterflies can learn new tricks.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ken Ramirez honed his animal training skills working for many years with dolphins. Photo courtesy of Ken Ramirez Mention animal training and most of us imagine teaching a dog to sit up for a treat — not something with an obvious conservation connection. But in fact, modern scientifically based wildlife training traces its origins not to canines, but to dolphins, aquatic mammals with whom trainers had to devise teaching methods neither involving force nor requiring direct contact. Today, the techniques first practiced with dolphins many decades ago are used with a surprising number of wild species, ranging from chimpanzees (not so surprising), to butterflies (quite surprising!). Notably, conservationists are finding that the skills of animal trainers can be effective in protecting animals, even in their natural habitats. The concept of training wild animals in their native environments seems strange to most of us, agrees Ken Ramirez, likely because we have the wrong idea about it. &#8220;There&#8217;s a big misperception about what training is,&#8221; he says. &#8220;The simple definition of training is teaching, and teaching is not an unnatural thing.&#8221; Wild animals teach their offspring how to find food, how to avoid predators; they are learning all the time via their interactions with their environment. &#8220;The only thing a professional trainer does is we help guide that learning.&#8221; Animal trainer Ramirez with an otter pup. Photo courtesy of Ken Ramirez Zoo learning Ramirez speaks from 40 years experience, including more than 25 years at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. He literally&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/04/animal-trainers-are-teaching-wildlife-to-conserve-themselves/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-205627</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Western Chimpanzee numbers declined by more than 80 percent over the past quarter century</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/07/western-chimpanzee-numbers-declined-by-more-than-80-percent-over-the-past-quarter-century/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/07/western-chimpanzee-numbers-declined-by-more-than-80-percent-over-the-past-quarter-century/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Jul 2017 17:09:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/07/31164934/9671891923_9cde91482c_h-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=197928</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote D'Ivoire, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Togo, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Bushmeat, Chimpanzees, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Fragmentation, Global Environmental Crisis, Great Apes, Habitat Loss, Hunting, Industrial Agriculture, Logging, Mining, Pet Trade, Poaching, Primates, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Research published in the American Journal of Primatology earlier this month finds that the overall Western Chimpanzee population has declined by more than 80 percent over the past quarter century. In order to arrive at an estimate of the chimp’s population numbers, an international team of scientists led by Hjalmar Kühl of the Max Planck [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Research published in the American Journal of Primatology earlier this month finds that the overall Western Chimpanzee population has declined by more than 80 percent over the past quarter century. In order to arrive at an estimate of the chimp’s population numbers, an international team of scientists led by Hjalmar Kühl of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany used transect count data from 20 different sites that encompassed the nesting grounds for some 25,000 of the estimated 35,000 Western Chimpanzees remaining in the wild. The team writes that they “detected a significant negative trend” at 12 of the 20 sites. “The estimated change in the subspecies abundance, as approximated by nest encounter rate, yielded a 6% annual decline and a total decline of 80.2% over the study period from 1990 to 2014,” the researchers write. “This also resulted in a reduced geographic range of 20% (657,600 vs. 524,100 km2).” Western Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) are one of four commonly recognized subspecies of the great ape, the others being the Nigeria-Cameroon Chimpanzee (P. t. ellioti), the Central Chimpanzee (P. t. troglodytes), and the Eastern Chimpanzee (P. t. schweinfurthii). Each population faces different threats, thus a regional approach to the conservation of each subspecies is considered crucial. The main threats to the Western Chimpanzee are almost all man-made. Habitat loss and fragmentation driven by slash-and-burn agriculture, industrial agriculture (including deforestation for oil palm plantations as well as eucalyptus, rubber, and sugar cane developments), and extractive industries like logging, mining,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/07/western-chimpanzee-numbers-declined-by-more-than-80-percent-over-the-past-quarter-century/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-197928</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>West African countries come together to stop the illegal rosewood trade</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/04/west-african-countries-band-together-stop-illegal-rosewood-trade/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/04/west-african-countries-band-together-stop-illegal-rosewood-trade/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Apr 2016 17:33:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/04/01215331/IMG_0665-440x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=185692</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Burkina Faso, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Drivers Of Deforestation, Dry Forests, Environment, Forests, Illegal Logging, Illegal Trade, Logging, Rosewood, Savannas, timber trade, and Traditional People]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Eleven West African countries have come together and agreed to take collective action to curb illegal rosewood logging and trade in response to a quickly developing crisis. Several species of rosewood, belonging to the genera Dalbergia and Pterocarpus and collectively known as hongmu, are highly sought after by Chinese furniture manufacturers, who use them to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Eleven West African countries have come together and agreed to take collective action to curb illegal rosewood logging and trade in response to a quickly developing crisis. Several species of rosewood, belonging to the genera Dalbergia and Pterocarpus and collectively known as hongmu, are highly sought after by Chinese furniture manufacturers, who use them to make products that are coveted status symbols. The majority of rosewood imports into China have traditionally come from Southeast Asian countries like Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam, but West Africa has become one of the largest exporting regions feeding China’s growing demand for rosewood in the past few years. In 2014, when Chinese imports were at an all-time high, according to a Forest Trends report that came out last December, nearly half came from Nigeria, Ghana, and other African countries, which supplied just 10 percent of Chinese rosewood imports a decade ago. Most West African countries have banned the cutting and export of rosewood trees, but weak trade controls and lax enforcement in China have left the chief destination country unprepared to help stop the illegal hongmu trade. Some West African rosewood species have been listed by the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in order to provide more tools for China to combat the illicit trade. Photo by Naomi Basik Treanor. But West African officials looking for more ways to tackle the problem themselves set up an international conference held at the end of March in Guinea-Bissau and attended by representatives from Economic&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/04/west-african-countries-band-together-stop-illegal-rosewood-trade/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-185692</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Meager post-Ebola harvests worsen food insecurity in West Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/06/meager-post-ebola-harvests-worsen-food-insecurity-in-west-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/06/meager-post-ebola-harvests-worsen-food-insecurity-in-west-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jun 2015 14:46:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Lois Parshley]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2015/06/meager-post-ebola-harvests-worsen-food-insecurity-in-west-africa</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Ebola, Environment, Food, Global Environmental Crisis, and Green]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Villagers harvest rice in Sierra Leone. Harvesting is often a communal affair in West African nations, but the Ebola crisis interfered with group activities and disrupted many other aspects of agricultural production in the region. Photo credit: ©FAO/Peter DiCampo. Pedelers Salee Craig used to grow vegetables. Near his home in Monrovia, Liberia, he planted peppers [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Villagers harvest rice in Sierra Leone. Harvesting is often a communal affair in West African nations, but the Ebola crisis interfered with group activities and disrupted many other aspects of agricultural production in the region. Photo credit: ©FAO/Peter DiCampo. Pedelers Salee Craig used to grow vegetables. Near his home in Monrovia, Liberia, he planted peppers and bitter balls, potatoes and okra. A sturdy 39 year-old man with cheeks etched from former smiles, Craig is passionate and generally optimistic. But he&#8217;s not smiling when he talks about the situation in Liberia now. Typically, farmers work to gather crops communally, harvesting together until the season is over. But in 2014, the Ebola crisis restricted travel. &#8220;Everyone was afraid of each other,&#8221; Craig said. Mandatory government quarantines trapped people within their homes. As the disease spread, fields went unharvested and soon lay fallow. Now, more than a year after the Ebola crisis began, Craig still can&#8217;t plant crops. &#8220;We have consumed almost all of what we kept to plant for the next season,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If we don&#8217;t have seeds, I can&#8217;t do anything for next farm season. And because we did not plant, we cannot sell. So the problems have multiplied.&#8221; Liberian agriculture had been on the road to recovery after intermittent civil war from 1989 to 2003. Craig worked as an organizer during the years of conflict, and in 2000, helped start the Lofa Education and Agriculture Foundation (LEAF) to increase food access in camps for the displaced. &#8220;We entered into&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/06/meager-post-ebola-harvests-worsen-food-insecurity-in-west-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-62824</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Coordinated protests hit Socfin plantations in four countries</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/06/coordinated-protests-hit-socfin-plantations-in-four-countries/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/06/coordinated-protests-hit-socfin-plantations-in-four-countries/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jun 2015 13:45:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Greg Norman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Editor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2015/06/coordinated-protests-hit-socfin-plantations-in-four-countries/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cambodia, Cameroon, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Green, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Palm Oil, and Plantations]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Protesters demonstrate in front of Bolloré’s headquarters near Paris calling on the multinational conglomerate to return land, or compensate farmers, over disputed concessions for plantations in Cambodia and three African countries yesterday. Bollore is the largest shareholder of Socfin, which has been accused by activists of land grabs in Cambodia, Liberia, Cameroon and Ivory Coast. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Protesters demonstrate in front of Bolloré’s headquarters near Paris calling on the multinational conglomerate to return land, or compensate farmers, over disputed concessions for plantations in Cambodia and three African countries yesterday. Bollore is the largest shareholder of Socfin, which has been accused by activists of land grabs in Cambodia, Liberia, Cameroon and Ivory Coast. Photo: Kamil Zihnioglu/AP Such is the breadth and variety of French multinational Bolloré&#8217;s holdings that some who attended its general meeting yesterday might not have been aware it invested in oil palm. They likely are now, however, after arriving at company headquarters west of Paris to find protesters gathered calling for thousands of local people to have their land returned to them near oil palm and rubber plantations in several African and Asian countries run by Socfin, a Belgian concern with origins in the Belgian Congo. Bolloré holds a 39 percent stake in the company. One banner read, &#8220;We do not have any land left in our own countries, we come today to sow the Cassava on your lawn Mr Bolloré.&#8221; It was a reference to founder Vincent Bolloré, whose company employs 28,000 people worldwide. Similar scenes greeted Socfin shareholders last week as they arrived for their general meeting in Luxembourg. Local NGOs held the demonstrations under the umbrella of ReAct, a French NGO that helps communities involved in conflicts with multinational corporations. Since April, communities and activists in Cameroon, Cambodia, Liberia and the Ivory Coast have also staged direct protest actions against subsidiaries of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/06/coordinated-protests-hit-socfin-plantations-in-four-countries/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-23572</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Flag states can be held liable for violations of fishing vessels abroad, international tribunal rules</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/05/flag-states-can-be-held-liable-for-violations-of-fishing-vessels-abroad-international-tribunal-rules/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/05/flag-states-can-be-held-liable-for-violations-of-fishing-vessels-abroad-international-tribunal-rules/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 May 2015 13:35:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Melati Kaye]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2015/05/flag-states-can-be-held-liable-for-violations-of-fishing-vessels-abroad-international-tribunal-rules/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cape Verde, Gambia, Global, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Green, Illegal Fishing, Law Enforcement, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Yu Feng, a vessel with Taiwanese flags suspected of fishing illegally, sails near Sierra Leone in 2009 before being detained by the U.S. Coast Guard and Sierra Leonean government agencies. Photo credit: U.S. Department of Defense/Petty Officer 2nd Class Shawn Eggert, U.S. Coast Guard. The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ruled in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Yu Feng, a vessel with Taiwanese flags suspected of fishing illegally, sails near Sierra Leone in 2009 before being detained by the U.S. Coast Guard and Sierra Leonean government agencies. Photo credit: U.S. Department of Defense/Petty Officer 2nd Class Shawn Eggert, U.S. Coast Guard. The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ruled in April that countries have responsibility for the actions of the fishing vessels they license, even when those boats operate abroad. The tribunal held that &#8220;flag states&#8221; have to take &#8220;due diligence&#8221; measures to ensure that the boats they license obey regulations in other countries. If not, the flag state can be taken to court by the country where its boats are fishing through illegal, underreported, or unregulated (IUU) means. This means that the Gambia, for example, could take the European Union to court if a boat flying the German flag nets more than its allowed catch and the EU cannot demonstrate that it took measures to prevent such misconduct. The tribunal made its ruling in the form of an advisory opinion responding to a request filed by the Sub-Regional Fisheries Commission (SRFC) in 2013. The commission manages fisheries and inter-state cooperation between the West African countries of Mauritania, Senegal, Cape Verde, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, and Sierra Leone. &#8220;Half the capture in these waters is illegally fished,&#8221; said Diénaba Bèye Traoré, head of the commission&#8217;s department on policy and legislation and its agent to the tribunal, in an interview with mongabay.com. Foreign trawlers from as&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/05/flag-states-can-be-held-liable-for-violations-of-fishing-vessels-abroad-international-tribunal-rules/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-23661</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Rainforest loss increased in the 2000s, concludes new analysis</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/02/rainforest-loss-increased-in-the-2000s-concludes-new-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/02/rainforest-loss-increased-in-the-2000s-concludes-new-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Feb 2015 19:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2015/02/rainforest-loss-increased-in-the-2000s-concludes-new-analysis/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Bangladesh, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei, Cambodia, Cameroon, Colombia, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Indonesia, Laos, Liberia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Thailand, Venezuela, and Vietnam]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Green, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Click charts to enlarge Loss of tropical forests accelerated roughly 60 percent during the 2000s, argues a paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The findings contradict previous research suggesting that deforestation slowed since the 1990s. The study is based on a map of 1990 forest cover developed last year by Do-Hyung Kim and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Click charts to enlarge Loss of tropical forests accelerated roughly 60 percent during the 2000s, argues a paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The findings contradict previous research suggesting that deforestation slowed since the 1990s. The study is based on a map of 1990 forest cover developed last year by Do-Hyung Kim and colleagues from the University of Maryland. The map, which includes 34 countries that contain 80 percent of the world&#8217;s tropical forests, enabled the researchers to establish a consistent baseline for tracking forest cover change across regions and countries over time. The study concludes that average annual gross forest loss in the tropics rose 58 percent in the 2000s relative to the 1990s rate. Overall 78.2 million hectares of forests were lost during the decade, up from 49.3 million. Accounting for forest regeneration, afforestation, and establishment of plantations, net tree cover loss amounted to 65.4 million hectares or 62 percent above the 40.4 million hectares lost in the 1990s. The large increase in forest loss reported in the study contrasts sharply with data from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which estimated that tropical forest loss declined by about a third in the 2000s. While its data has often been criticized, until recently the FAO has be considered the standard-bearer for measuring forest cover change on a global basis. FAO uses a combination of self-reported government data, surveys, and remote sensing to develop its estimates, whereas the new map is based on automated analysis of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/02/rainforest-loss-increased-in-the-2000s-concludes-new-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-24057</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Selective logging causes long-term changes to forest structure</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/02/selective-logging-causes-long-term-changes-to-forest-structure/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/02/selective-logging-causes-long-term-changes-to-forest-structure/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Feb 2015 23:52:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2015/02/selective-logging-causes-long-term-changes-to-forest-structure/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Congo Basin, Gabon, Ghana, and Sierra Leone]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Certification, Conservation, Ecology, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forestry, Forests, Green, Logging, Old Growth Forests, Primary Forests, Rainforests, Selective Logging, and Sustainable Forest Management]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Logging in Gabon. Photos by Rhett A. Butler Selective logging is causing long-term changes to tropical forests in Africa by facilitating the growth of weeds and vines, which reduces plant diversity and diminishes carbon storage, reports a new paper published in the journal Ecological Research. The paper, led by Roberto Cazzolla Gatti of the University [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Logging in Gabon. Photos by Rhett A. Butler Selective logging is causing long-term changes to tropical forests in Africa by facilitating the growth of weeds and vines, which reduces plant diversity and diminishes carbon storage, reports a new paper published in the journal Ecological Research. The paper, led by Roberto Cazzolla Gatti of the University of Tuscia and the Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Climate Change, is based on field data from more than 500 plots in Sierra Leone, Ghana, Cameroon and Gabon. The researchers compared several traits across primary, selectively-logged, and secondary forests to evaluate the impacts of selective timber harvesting on forest structure. They found that even low-intensity logging causes sustained ecological changes to African forests. &#8220;We show that the effects of selective logging are greater than those expected simply from the removal of commercial species, and can persist for decades,&#8221; the authors write. &#8220;Selective logging, unless it is practiced at very low harvest intensities, can significantly reduce the biomass of a tropical forest for many decades, seriously diminishing aboveground carbon storage capacity, and create opportunities for weeds and vines to spread and slow down the ecological succession.&#8221; Gatti added that the impacts are noticeable even at extraction rates of 1-2 trees per hectare. Rainforest in Gabon. The findings are significant because logging is the most widespread form of land use in tropical forests. The results add to a growing body of evidence indicating that selective logging is not as benign as forestry interests typically suggest. &#8220;This is one of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/02/selective-logging-causes-long-term-changes-to-forest-structure/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-24088</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Don&#8217;t eat or touch bat bushmeat amid worsening Ebola outbreak, UN warns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/07/dont-eat-or-touch-bat-bushmeat-amid-worsening-ebola-outbreak-un-warns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/07/dont-eat-or-touch-bat-bushmeat-amid-worsening-ebola-outbreak-un-warns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jul 2014 15:12:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2014/07/dont-eat-or-touch-bat-bushmeat-amid-worsening-ebola-outbreak-un-warns/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bats, Bushmeat, Disasters, Diseases, Environment, Green, Hunting, Mammals, Poaching, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The world&#8217;s worst Ebola outbreak was likely begun by a hunter shooting a fruit bat for their dinner or the market, according to the UN. The outbreak has killed over 660 people in six months to date, and recently spread via plane to Nigeria. The disease is particularly deadly with a mortality rate of around [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The world&#8217;s worst Ebola outbreak was likely begun by a hunter shooting a fruit bat for their dinner or the market, according to the UN. The outbreak has killed over 660 people in six months to date, and recently spread via plane to Nigeria. The disease is particularly deadly with a mortality rate of around 90 percent. &#8220;We are not suggesting that people stop hunting altogether, which isn&#8217;t realistic,&#8221; said FAO Chief Veterinary Officer Juan Lubroth this month. &#8220;But communities need clear advice on the need not to touch dead animals or to sell or eat the meat of any animal that they find already dead. They should also avoid hunting animals that are sick or behaving strangely, as this is another red flag.&#8221; However the FAO does recommend avoiding killing or eating fruit bat altogether. Scientists believe fruit bat, which is eaten in West Africa either dried or in a soup, is the most likely source of the current epidemic. Fruit bats, which are also known as flying fox, can be infected with Ebola without showing any obvious signs. Egyptian fruit bat. There are over 180 species of fruit bat, which are also known as flying foxes, and make-up the world&#8217;s largest bats. Photo by: Public Domain. &#8220;The virus is killed when meat is cooked at a high temperature or heavily smoked, but anyone who handles, skins or butchers an infected wild animal is at risk of contracting the virus,&#8221; added Lubroth. Ebola is spread via the blood or&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2014/07/dont-eat-or-touch-bat-bushmeat-amid-worsening-ebola-outbreak-un-warns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-24878</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mysterious pygmy hippo filmed in Liberia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/12/mysterious-pygmy-hippo-filmed-in-liberia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/12/mysterious-pygmy-hippo-filmed-in-liberia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Dec 2011 16:42:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2011/12/mysterious-pygmy-hippo-filmed-in-liberia/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Cote D'Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Camera Trapping, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mammals, Parks, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Saving Species From Extinction, Solutions, Strange, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Conservationists have captured the first ever footage (see video below) of the elusive pygmy hippo (Choeropsis liberiensis) in Liberia. The forest-dwelling, nocturnal species&#8212;weighing only a quarter of the size of the well-known common hippo (Hippopotamus amphibius)&#8212;has proven incredibly difficult to study. But the use of camera traps in Liberia&#8217;s Sapo National Park has allowed researchers [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Conservationists have captured the first ever footage (see video below) of the elusive pygmy hippo (Choeropsis liberiensis) in Liberia. The forest-dwelling, nocturnal species&#8212;weighing only a quarter of the size of the well-known common hippo (Hippopotamus amphibius)&#8212;has proven incredibly difficult to study. But the use of camera traps in Liberia&#8217;s Sapo National Park has allowed researchers a glimpse into its cryptic life. &#8220;Outside of folklore and zoos, we know surprisingly little about the nocturnal and secretive pygmy hippo,&#8221; explained Dr Chloe Hodgkinson, Liberia program manager at Fauna and Flora International (FFI). &#8220;These camera surveys provide us with vital insight into the ecology, behavior and distribution of this species.&#8221; Recent work on the pygmy hippo, which is listed as Endangered by the IUCN Red List, is being conducted by FFI along with the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the Forestry Development Authority of Liberia. The pygmy hippo is a focal species for the ZSL&#8217;s EDGE program, which targets evolutionary unique and threatened species. Native to west Africa, the pygmy hippo is down to around 2,000 individuals. Devastated by widespread deforestation the animals are also periodically killed for bushmeat. War in the region has also taken its toll. Aside from Liberia, the pygmy hippo is also believed to be found in Côte d&#8217;Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Guinea, and Sierra Leon. A possibly unique subspecies is thought extinct in Niger. Liberia&#8217;s wildlife, like its people, have suffered from two recent civil wars,the first lasting from 1989-1996 and the second from 1999-2003. During the first&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2011/12/mysterious-pygmy-hippo-filmed-in-liberia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-31558</doi>				</item>
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