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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?location=zimbabwe&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/zimbabwe/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Fri, 14 Aug 2026 21:10:50 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>Zimbabwe environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/zimbabwe/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>World burned less coal in 2025, but built more plants over energy uncertainty</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/world-burned-less-coal-in-2025-but-built-more-plants-over-energy-uncertainty/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/world-burned-less-coal-in-2025-but-built-more-plants-over-energy-uncertainty/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 May 2026 06:46:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/20102003/24190342154_a7040c07b5_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319798</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central America, East Africa, United States, Zambia, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Coal, Economics, Energy, Environment, Governance, Mining, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Coal use across the world continued to drop in 2025, but there was an increase in the capacity to burn it, according to an annual report by data analysis group Global Energy Monitor. Overall power generation from coal declined by 0.6% last year, but the amount that was on call if needed for power grids [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Coal use across the world continued to drop in 2025, but there was an increase in the capacity to burn it, according to an annual report by data analysis group Global Energy Monitor. Overall power generation from coal declined by 0.6% last year, but the amount that was on call if needed for power grids rose by 3.5%. Most of that growth was concentrated in China, where additional coal capacity is increasingly considered a backup option to ensure energy security. While China added 78.1 gigawatts of coal power capacity in 2025, its actual use of coal power fell by 1.2%. This decline was notable as it came amid an overall rise in Chinese energy demand. According to the report, more than 90% of that increased demand was met not with coal, but with wind and solar. While China remains far and away the world’s largest user of coal, more of its energy needs are being met with renewables. India added the second-highest coal power capacity in 2025, but it also showed movement toward a cleaner grid. Along with record solar and wind power additions, renewables made up more than half of the country’s overall power capacity for the first time. Christine Shearer, lead researcher of the report on the global coal power fleet, said most of the new coal capacity added in India and China was commissioned years ago, before the market dynamics around renewables had changed. “By the time all these coal plants began operating in 2025, cheaper alternatives&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/world-burned-less-coal-in-2025-but-built-more-plants-over-energy-uncertainty/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/world-burned-less-coal-in-2025-but-built-more-plants-over-energy-uncertainty/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319798</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservationist wins top award to protect lions and people in Zimbabwe</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/conservationist-wins-top-award-to-protect-lions-and-people-in-zimbabwe/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/conservationist-wins-top-award-to-protect-lions-and-people-in-zimbabwe/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Apr 2026 02:49:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/28190853/a-Moreangels_Mbizah_2026_Zimbabwe_Chizarira_National_Park_Moreangels_Mbizah_Posing_During_Lion_Tracking_Session_01-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318318</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Cats, Cattle, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Endangered Species, Environment, Human-wildlife Conflict, Lions, Mammals, Predators, Solutions, Top Predators, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Lion conservationist Moreangels Mbizah and her colleagues chose the name “Batabilili” for the community guardians they’re training in northern Zimbabwe. The word means &#8220;protectors&#8221; in the local language, Tonga, and its meaning cuts both ways: the guardians protect people and their livestock from lions, and lions from people. Both jobs are essential in this part [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Lion conservationist Moreangels Mbizah and her colleagues chose the name “Batabilili” for the community guardians they’re training in northern Zimbabwe. The word means &#8220;protectors&#8221; in the local language, Tonga, and its meaning cuts both ways: the guardians protect people and their livestock from lions, and lions from people. Both jobs are essential in this part of the Southern African country. When cattle are killed by lions, the economic losses suffered by families are considerable; when farmers retaliate by killing lions, it worsens the plight of an emblematic species, Panthera leo, now vulnerable to extinction across the continent. “In some cases these lions are female lions and at times some of them would have cubs, so when the females die [at the hands of people] the cubs would probably die [also],” says Mbizah, who is the winner of one of this year’s Whitley Awards, prestigious international conservation prizes given out annually by the U.K.’s Whitley Fund for Nature. A young lion at rest. Image courtesy of the Whitley Fund for Nature. The 50,000-pound ($67,500) prize money will go toward supporting the work by Mbizah’s NGO, Wildlife Conservation Action, in three additional rural wards — small administrative areas comprising clusters of villages and around 4,800 people — that are prone to human-carnivore conflict. This will include the recruitment of six new Batabilili. The protectors head out early each morning to look for tracks or droppings and warn farmers about the presence of predators or elephants (Loxodonta africana) so that they can avoid&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/conservationist-wins-top-award-to-protect-lions-and-people-in-zimbabwe/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/conservationist-wins-top-award-to-protect-lions-and-people-in-zimbabwe/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318318</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>DNA fingerprinting convicts Zimbabwe lion poachers in landmark case</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/dna-fingerprinting-convicts-zimbabwe-lion-poachers-in-landmark-case/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/dna-fingerprinting-convicts-zimbabwe-lion-poachers-in-landmark-case/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Mar 2026 13:55:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Spoorthy Raman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/05091917/lions-feasting-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315236</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Crime, DNA, Environment, Environmental Law, Lions, Mammals, Poaching, Technology, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, Wildlife Trafficking, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A CSI-style investigation in Zimbabwe helped to successfully prosecute two people for killing a lion and trafficking its teeth, flesh and other body parts in February. Forensic specialists analyzed DNA collected from parts seized by authorities and matched it with a radio-collared lion that was killed two years ago. This conviction was historic: It’s the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A CSI-style investigation in Zimbabwe helped to successfully prosecute two people for killing a lion and trafficking its teeth, flesh and other body parts in February. Forensic specialists analyzed DNA collected from parts seized by authorities and matched it with a radio-collared lion that was killed two years ago. This conviction was historic: It’s the world’s first case to use a lion’s genetic material and trace it back to an individual to pin down wildlife criminals. The two defendants were sentenced to two years in prison for their crimes. The conviction is tied to a 2024 case in which poachers snared and killed a male lion near Hwange National Park, close to the world-famous Victoria Falls. Researchers knew this particular lion, as they’d tracked its movements as part of a study. When they captured and anesthetized the cat to fit it with a radio collar some years ago, biologists took blood samples and logged its genetic and health information into their database. Investigators used that DNA data to trace the origins of seized lion parts, which included three bags of meat, 16 claws and four teeth that were to be sold on the black market. Parts from captive-bred lions can be traded internationally and in Zimbabwe with the appropriate paperwork, but the sellers didn’t have permits, and proving these seized parts came from a wild lion and not a captive-bred one was key to this case. That would mean poaching, which is  illegal. African lions are the most-traded wildcats in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/dna-fingerprinting-convicts-zimbabwe-lion-poachers-in-landmark-case/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/dna-fingerprinting-convicts-zimbabwe-lion-poachers-in-landmark-case/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315236</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Africa’s vulture safe zones face tough test across vast landscapes</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/africas-vulture-safe-zones-face-tough-test-across-vast-landscapes/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/africas-vulture-safe-zones-face-tough-test-across-vast-landscapes/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Feb 2026 10:39:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/19102209/white-backed-vulture-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314481</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, Southern Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Poaching, Poisoning, Predators, Raptors, Scavengers, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Protecting vulture populations in Africa presents some unique challenges for conservationists. These slow-breeding and ecologically vital scavengers range over vast territories and are vulnerable to poisons targeting other species and expanding infrastructure like power lines. Creating “vulture safe zones” has emerged as a way to address these broad and varied threats, but putting them into [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Protecting vulture populations in Africa presents some unique challenges for conservationists. These slow-breeding and ecologically vital scavengers range over vast territories and are vulnerable to poisons targeting other species and expanding infrastructure like power lines. Creating “vulture safe zones” has emerged as a way to address these broad and varied threats, but putting them into practice is proving difficult. South Africa’s oldest vulture safe zone is centered in Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, in the southern Kalahari Desert. Since the 114,000-hectare (282,000-acre) safe zone was established in 2019, on land owned by the wealthy Oppenheimer family, its managers have taken steps to protect critically endangered white-backed vultures (Gyps africanus) and endangered lappet-faced vultures (Torgos tracheliotos) nesting there. Establishing the reserve as a safe zone involved things like covering reservoirs with nets to prevent drowning, and halting the use of lead ammunition. Wendy Panaino, an ecologist at Tswalu Kalahari Reserve, told Mongabay that, ultimately, the aim is to make this 120,000-hectare (296,000-acre) reserve a safe haven for threatened species like the white-backed, lappet-faced and white-headed vulture (Trigonoceps occipitalis). “Tswalu was a massive success,” says Linda van der Heever, species project manager at BirdLife South Africa. “It really is, in many senses, a textbook vulture safe zone.” A vulture in Tswalu-Kalahari Reserve, South Africa. This reserve was designated as vulture safe zone in 2019. Image courtesy of Duncan MacFadyen / Tswalu-Kalahari Reserve. In the past decade, several safe zone projects of this kind have kicked off in Africa, each adopting a variety of measures&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/africas-vulture-safe-zones-face-tough-test-across-vast-landscapes/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/africas-vulture-safe-zones-face-tough-test-across-vast-landscapes/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314481</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mass vulture poisonings expose need for cross-border action in Southern Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mass-vulture-poisonings-expose-need-for-cross-border-action-in-southern-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mass-vulture-poisonings-expose-need-for-cross-border-action-in-southern-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Sep 2025 16:15:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/18122618/Image_2-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306186</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, South Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Poaching, Poisoning, Predators, Raptors, Scavengers, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A cluster of mass vulture poisonings earlier this year has drawn attention to an alarming, ongoing problem in the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area that straddles South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. According to the African Wildlife Poisoning Database, more than 2,400 vultures have died from poisoning in the GLTFCA, including in South Africa’s famed Kruger [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[A cluster of mass vulture poisonings earlier this year has drawn attention to an alarming, ongoing problem in the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area that straddles South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. According to the African Wildlife Poisoning Database, more than 2,400 vultures have died from poisoning in the GLTFCA, including in South Africa’s famed Kruger National Park, in the past decade. As wide-ranging, slow-breeding keystone species of this landscape’s ecology, vultures need urgent action to protect them, conservation authorities say. Other raptors, as well as mammal carnivores like hyenas, leopards and lions, have also been poisoned. The Endangered Wildlife Trust, which operates the poisoning database in cooperation with the Peregrine Fund, says approximately 53 lions have been killed by poison in this vast cross-border protected area since 2015. In just the past two years, 14 lions are known to have died from poisoning and a further 10 more caught in snares and then killed by poachers. John Davies, project coordinator of raptor conservation and research at the Endangered Wildlife Trust, says the series of mass poisonings in May and June triggered meetings involving South Africa National Parks (SANParks), conservation NGOs and other authorities to assess where systems were lacking and could be improved. “I think that&#8217;s a big positive,” Davies tells Mongabay. André Botha, co-chair of the Vulture Specialist Group at the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, also expresses cautious optimism. “We have witnessed similar meetings in the past, with limited results, but I trust that the current high&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/mass-vulture-poisonings-expose-need-for-cross-border-action-in-southern-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306186</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Global wetlands conference results in resolutions for protection &#038; restoration</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/global-wetlands-conference-results-in-resolutions-for-restoration-protection/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/global-wetlands-conference-results-in-resolutions-for-restoration-protection/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Aug 2025 18:57:28 +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/20/2024/10/14151509/Tanguar_Haor_001994-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304171</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Birds, Climate, Community Development, Conservation, Environment, Indigenous Peoples, Water, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Wetlands are disappearing at three times the rate of forests, alarming conservationists who highlight the ecosystems’ role in achieving global biodiversity and climate goals. To address these challenges and chart a path toward sustainable conservation, delegates gathered in Zimbabwe for the 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties (COP15) on Wetlands in July. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Wetlands are disappearing at three times the rate of forests, alarming conservationists who highlight the ecosystems’ role in achieving global biodiversity and climate goals. To address these challenges and chart a path toward sustainable conservation, delegates gathered in Zimbabwe for the 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties (COP15) on Wetlands in July. The gathering aimed to strengthen global commitments for wetland protection and restoration. “COP15 delivered what we needed,” Musonda Mumba, secretary-general of the Convention on Wetlands, said an email to Mongabay. “Parties adopted resolutions to strengthen restoration, support wetland-dependent species, improve governance, and scale up nature-based solutions.” The meeting adopted the Victoria Falls Declaration, 25 resolutions and three consolidated resolutions. These documents urged participating countries to commit to protecting wetlands, which are threatened by urbanization, infrastructure development, invasive species, pollution from agrochemicals and mining.  Additionally, countries pledged to create national legislation and policies for the restoration and management of degraded wetlands, aligning with the goals and targets set by the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Among the key resolutions was one focused on the protection of migratory birds and wetland-dependent species, such as river dolphins and waterbirds. The parties also drafted a resolution to establish the Global Waterbird Estimates Partnership, a collaborative initiative aimed at monitoring waterbird populations and providing updated status reports by 2027. Mumba emphasized that the meeting&#8217;s outcomes reflected the importance of combining modern tools with traditional knowledge in wetland conservation. While technology like satellite monitoring and data platforms is essential for tracking progress,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/global-wetlands-conference-results-in-resolutions-for-restoration-protection/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304171</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cape vulture conservation offers hope, but challenges remain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/cape-vulture-conservation-offers-hope-but-challenges-remain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/cape-vulture-conservation-offers-hope-but-challenges-remain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2025 07:26:55 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/13102051/CapeVulture.Gyps_.coprotheres_JanRoseFlickrBYNCSA2.0-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298994</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Ghana, Namibia, South Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Birds, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Poaching, Poisoning, Predators, Raptors, Scavengers, Vultures, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Earlier this year, the vulture conservation organization Vulpro hailed the return of Cape vultures to a farm in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, near Mountain Zebra National Park. That marked the first time this species has been seen in the area for 30 years, according to the organization. “There&#8217;s more and more movement and foraging [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
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							<![CDATA[Earlier this year, the vulture conservation organization Vulpro hailed the return of Cape vultures to a farm in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, near Mountain Zebra National Park. That marked the first time this species has been seen in the area for 30 years, according to the organization. “There&#8217;s more and more movement and foraging of the birds, and they are now finding these historical areas that they used to occur in and that it&#8217;s now safe again, which I think is incredibly exciting,” says Kerri Wolter, CEO of Vulpro. The Cape vulture (Gyps coprotheres) is Southern Africa’s largest and only endemic vulture species. Beginning in the 1970s, Cape vulture colonies across the region shrank and many disappeared. It’s estimated that between 1992 and 2007, the species’ population in South Africa dropped by as much as 70%. But in 2021, the Cape vulture’s conservation status improved from endangered to vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. An assessment that finds a vulture species is at decreased risk of extinction is “borderline unheard of,” says John Davies, senior field officer in the birds of prey program at the Endangered Wildlife Trust, a South African conservation NGO. Seven of the nine vulture species found across Southern Africa, included the Cape vulture, fall into one of the threatened categories in the IUCN; three of them — the white-backed (Gyps africanus), white-headed (Trigonoceps occipitalis) and hooded (Necrosyrtes monachus) vultures — are considered critically endangered by the IUCN. Against this general decline, the story of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/cape-vulture-conservation-offers-hope-but-challenges-remain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/cape-vulture-conservation-offers-hope-but-challenges-remain/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298994</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Seeking the ‘humanity–wetland’ balance: Interview with Zimbabwean activist Jimmy Mahachi</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/seeking-the-humanity-wetland-balance-interview-with-zimbabwean-activist-jimmy-mahachi/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/seeking-the-humanity-wetland-balance-interview-with-zimbabwean-activist-jimmy-mahachi/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Feb 2025 14:08:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/31150732/Nettapus_auritus_95167231-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293714</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conservation, Dams, Environment, Environmental Law, Freshwater, Global Environmental Crisis, Indigenous Peoples, Interviews, Lakes, Mining, Natural Resources, Resource Conflict, Water, Water Scarcity, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Each year, thousands of migratory birds such as the colorful African pygmy goose, maccoa duck and African spoonbill stop at the Cleveland Dam wetland in Zimbabwe to breed and rest. The wetland is the largest protected area in the country’s capital, Harare, and a key biodiversity spot. But in recent years, it’s come under threat from [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Each year, thousands of migratory birds such as the colorful African pygmy goose, maccoa duck and African spoonbill stop at the Cleveland Dam wetland in Zimbabwe to breed and rest. The wetland is the largest protected area in the country’s capital, Harare, and a key biodiversity spot. But in recent years, it’s come under threat from sand mining, development, and unsustainable water withdrawal by local businesses. “The fact that the wetlands are falling to ruin means that the link between humanity and wetlands is not balancing. The continued degradation of wetlands has eroded their connection to humanity,” says Jimmy Mahachi, founder of the Cleveland Action Alliance, a community-based organization. Mahachi has spent a decade advocating for his community’s right to water and the preservation of the Cleveland Dam, one of the country’s seven Ramsar wetlands. Some residents of the New Mabvuku suburb where Mahachi lives haven’t had running water for more than 30 years. The community relies on groundwater from wells and boreholes that are replenished by the Cleveland Dam wetland. Because of its overexploitation, less freshwater reaches New Mabvuku. Instead, they have to collect water from unprotected, even contaminated, sources. Mahachi’s complaints are frequently ignored. Instead, he’s received threats for speaking out about the water crisis in his community. World Wetlands Day, held on Feb.2 each year, commemorates the historic adoption of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in 1971, announced in the Iranian city of the same name, to halt the loss of this cradle of water and biological diversity.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/seeking-the-humanity-wetland-balance-interview-with-zimbabwean-activist-jimmy-mahachi/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/seeking-the-humanity-wetland-balance-interview-with-zimbabwean-activist-jimmy-mahachi/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293714</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Community-led wetland restoration may hold key to Harare’s water crisis</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/community-led-wetland-restoration-may-hold-key-to-harares-water-crisis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/community-led-wetland-restoration-may-hold-key-to-harares-water-crisis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Oct 2024 18:11:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee GabayTatenda Chitagu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/10172337/Village_weaver_Ploceus_cucullatus_at_Lake_Chivero_Harare_Zimbabwe_21808954060-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=288540</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conflict, Conservation, Degraded Lands, Drinking Water, Environment, Freshwater, Global Environmental Crisis, Habitat Degradation, Lakes, Water, Water Scarcity, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[HARARE — By 6 a.m. on Sunday, the line at a water well in Harare’s Budiriro suburb is already long. It snakes all the way into a nearby street, and some people have begun fighting over who should get water first. If they’re lucky, they get clean water once a week. In other suburbs of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[HARARE — By 6 a.m. on Sunday, the line at a water well in Harare’s Budiriro suburb is already long. It snakes all the way into a nearby street, and some people have begun fighting over who should get water first. If they’re lucky, they get clean water once a week. In other suburbs of Zimbabwe’s capital, it can take weeks or months. Meanwhile, as the water crisis grows, the city’s wetlands, which were once able to easily store water, are being drained for new housing developments or paved surfaces as the city grows. This is also happening across the country. According to a 2022 audit of Zimbabwe’s Environmental Management Agency’s (EMA) wetlands protection, these ecosystems are being converted for commercial activities, such as construction, mining and agriculture. “As the city is developing, it’s encroaching more and more into the wetland areas,” says Robert Neil Cunliffe, an independent environmental consultant from Harare. “Those areas are being converted from a natural grassland community to a paved surface.” In the capital, 3,717 hectares (9,185 acres) of wetlands have so far been affected by construction, which translates to about 16% of its wetlands, according to the audit. Other factors, such as inadequate enforcement of orders and pollution, are also responsible for the decline of the country’s wetlands. After decades of witnessing water mismanagement and the destruction of wetlands across the city, residents and local organizations have joined forces with city officials to protect and restore a small, 34-hectare (84-acre) wetland in the suburb&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/community-led-wetland-restoration-may-hold-key-to-harares-water-crisis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/community-led-wetland-restoration-may-hold-key-to-harares-water-crisis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-288540</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Jumbo collaring effort reveals key elephant movement corridors</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/jumbo-collaring-effort-reveals-key-elephant-movement-corridors/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/jumbo-collaring-effort-reveals-key-elephant-movement-corridors/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Sep 2024 12:23:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abhishyant Kidangoor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abhishyantkidangoor]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/25121712/elephant-herd-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287840</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Southern Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Elephants, Environment, GPS, Research, Technology, Tracking, Wildlife, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The first time Robin Naidoo mapped GPS data points to track elephant movement in Southern Africa, he was in for a surprise. Across the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA), one of the largest conservation areas in the world, he observed movement patterns and trends never seen before. “It was like a parallel universe that had [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The first time Robin Naidoo mapped GPS data points to track elephant movement in Southern Africa, he was in for a surprise. Across the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA), one of the largest conservation areas in the world, he observed movement patterns and trends never seen before. “It was like a parallel universe that had opened up,” Naidoo, lead scientist of wildlife conservation at the World Wildlife Fund, told Mongabay in a video interview. Unlocking that universe took a mammoth collaboration that involved collaring 300 African elephants (Loxodonta africana) in an area that spans five countries and is home to the largest population of African elephants in the world. The final result is possibly one of the largest databases of GPS-collared elephants. It contains close to 4 million data points that depict elephant movements and identify key connectivity areas and corridors for conservation purposes. A study published in the Journal of Applied Ecology documented how teams from WWF along with nonprofit organizations such as Ecoexist and Elephant Connection, among others, collaborated on the project, which used data collected over the past 15 years to examine connectivity for elephants. Based on the elephants’ movements, the team assessed landscape connectivity at three scales: a zoomed-in micro perspective, between protected areas as well as across the wider landscape. According to the study, each of these scales represented “a movement process whose maintenance is critical to effectively conserve elephants across the entire landscape.” African elephants, the largest land animals on Earth, are an endangered&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/jumbo-collaring-effort-reveals-key-elephant-movement-corridors/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/jumbo-collaring-effort-reveals-key-elephant-movement-corridors/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287840</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Meet the Miombo, the largest forest you’ve never heard of</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/meet-the-miombo-the-largest-forest-youve-never-heard-of/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/meet-the-miombo-the-largest-forest-youve-never-heard-of/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Sep 2024 16:20:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/29092238/Thatch2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286629</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Angola, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Dry Forests, Environment, food security, Forest Products, Forests, Sustainable Forest Management, Trees, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Growing up in the village of Domboshava in central Zimbabwe, Edwin Tambara, the African Wildlife Foundation’s director of global leadership, recalls how the surrounding Miombo woodland was a pharmacy, hardware store and supermarket, all rolled into one. “You get a cough or sneeze or you have a headache, I remember my grandmother would just say, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Growing up in the village of Domboshava in central Zimbabwe, Edwin Tambara, the African Wildlife Foundation’s director of global leadership, recalls how the surrounding Miombo woodland was a pharmacy, hardware store and supermarket, all rolled into one. “You get a cough or sneeze or you have a headache, I remember my grandmother would just say, ‘OK, let me go into the forest,’ and she&#8217;ll come back with some leaves. . . It&#8217;s either they&#8217;re boiled and you have to sniff them or something — and you&#8217;d be sorted,” Tambara says. The Miombo woodlands are a special type of semi-deciduous forest, dominated by trees in the legume family from the genera Brachystegia, Julbernardia and Isoberlinia. The ecoregion covers a broad swath across Central and Southern Africa, making it the most extensive dry tropical forest type in the world. But the woodlands are shrinking, which is bad news for communities in the region who depend on them for an astounding array of goods. Miombo woodlands in the Niassa Special Reserve in Mozambique, one of Africa’s largest protected areas. The miombo woodlands are dominated by trees in the legume family from the genera Brachystegia, Julbernardia and Isoberlinia, and interspersed with a mosaic of habitats including rocky outcrops and seasonally flooded grassy areas called dambos. Image by Natalie Ingle, courtesy of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Thatching grass collected in the miombo woodlands. Thatching grass is used to roof homes, woven into fences and for other purposes, and is one of the numerous non-timber forest&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/meet-the-miombo-the-largest-forest-youve-never-heard-of/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/meet-the-miombo-the-largest-forest-youve-never-heard-of/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286629</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As southern African freshwater fish &#038; fisheries struggle, collaboration is key (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/as-southern-african-freshwater-fish-fisheries-struggle-collaboration-is-key-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/as-southern-african-freshwater-fish-fisheries-struggle-collaboration-is-key-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Aug 2024 18:59:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gail Thomson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/08/22171826/Photo-3_Marcus-Westberg-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=286450</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Southern Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Food, food security, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Governance, Overfishing, Solutions, Traditional Knowledge, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists, communities and government officials from five African countries agree that the freshwater fish stocks in the Kavango and Zambezi River systems are in severe trouble. Delegates representing all three of these stakeholder groups came together in Windhoek, Namibia in July 2024 to share their knowledge and find ways to address this urgent situation. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Scientists, communities and government officials from five African countries agree that the freshwater fish stocks in the Kavango and Zambezi River systems are in severe trouble. Delegates representing all three of these stakeholder groups came together in Windhoek, Namibia in July 2024 to share their knowledge and find ways to address this urgent situation. The Kavango-Zambezi Trans-frontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) derives its name from two mighty rivers that flow through the five countries that are part of KAZA: Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. While this massive conservation area – spanning over half a million square kilometers – is best known for its huge elephant population and other charismatic wildlife on land, the rivers are its lifeblood. The Kavango River starts in the upper highlands of Angola (where it is known as the Cubango) and flows into the world-famous Okavango Delta in Botswana. Along the way, it forms part of the Namibia-Angola border and crosses Namibia at one of its narrowest points. The Zambezi River starts in Zambia, flows through Angola before re-entering Zambia, touches Namibia’s eastern tip and plunges over Victoria Falls (Mosi-oa-Tunya), forming the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe until it enters Mozambique. The Okavango River. Photo courtesy of Marcus Westberg. The Okavango Delta and Victoria Falls are two of the top tourist attractions in the region, and “Rivers of Life” is the aptly chosen brand for tourism in KAZA. Nonetheless, tourism wasn’t the main reason why community representatives, scientists and government officials from the KAZA countries&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/as-southern-african-freshwater-fish-fisheries-struggle-collaboration-is-key-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-286450</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>African markets tackle food insecurity and climate change — but lack investment</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/african-markets-tackle-food-insecurity-and-climate-change-but-lack-investment/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/african-markets-tackle-food-insecurity-and-climate-change-but-lack-investment/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jul 2024 17:32:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Aimee Gabay]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/07/16165837/TM-Photo-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=284414</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Culture, Environment, Farming, Food, Food Prices, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, Politics, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Zimbabwe’s Mbare agricultural market in Harare, the biggest local market in the country’s capital city, opens at 5 a.m. and bustles. Between morning and noon, traders arrive from different parts of the country with more than 100 varieties of vegetables and fruits that need to be sorted for redistribution to other trading markets. In Mbare, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Zimbabwe’s Mbare agricultural market in Harare, the biggest local market in the country’s capital city, opens at 5 a.m. and bustles. Between morning and noon, traders arrive from different parts of the country with more than 100 varieties of vegetables and fruits that need to be sorted for redistribution to other trading markets. In Mbare, prices are decided early in the morning by traders who compare volumes and types of products day by day, depending on the season and climate. Calls, shouts, haggling fill the air. Eye rolls ensue. Prices can change every day. Charles Dhewa, chief executive officer of Knowledge Transfer Africa (KTA), a rural and agricultural development organization, buys his food from Mbare market. One of the strengths of these local African markets is the large volume and diversity of food they can sell, Dhewa said. Whereas other supermarkets in Harare, for instance, supply only 10 tons of potatoes a day, Mbare market supplies more than 800 tons. “The more food that comes in, the more people can get nutrition,” he said. “When there’s more food, the prices are also managed, which means low-income people can also afford the food.” As international agencies around the world continue to sound an alarm over surges in food insecurity, a new report published July 2 says that investing in these “territorial markets” — already embedded in Africa’s cultural fabric — is a solution. These markets can increase self-sufficiency, food security and climate resilience as extreme hunger and malnutrition affect millions, the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/african-markets-tackle-food-insecurity-and-climate-change-but-lack-investment/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/07/african-markets-tackle-food-insecurity-and-climate-change-but-lack-investment/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-284414</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Explorer elephants’ in transfrontier conservation area offer solution to tree damage</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/explorer-elephants-in-transfrontier-conservation-area-offer-solution-to-tree-damage/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/explorer-elephants-in-transfrontier-conservation-area-offer-solution-to-tree-damage/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jun 2024 12:52:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/06/28121018/ElephantsRundeRiver_Gonarezhou_AndrewAshtonFlickrBYNCND2.0-TIGHT-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283859</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Mozambique, South Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Elephants, Environment, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Migration, Research, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Elephants are known to be “ecosystem engineers,” altering habitats to suit their own needs, but this sometimes comes at a cost to other species. Hedging, or stem snapping, is the term used to describe how elephants (Loxodonta africana) reduce dominant trees to low-level shrubs, bringing the trees’ leaves within easy reach of mother-and-calf herds while [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Elephants are known to be “ecosystem engineers,” altering habitats to suit their own needs, but this sometimes comes at a cost to other species. Hedging, or stem snapping, is the term used to describe how elephants (Loxodonta africana) reduce dominant trees to low-level shrubs, bringing the trees’ leaves within easy reach of mother-and-calf herds while depriving other animals of homes and food. “They [elephant bulls] do work an area over time [and] reduce all the trees to a certain sort of height,” says Tim O’Connor, lead author of a recent study that shines a light on the hedging of dominant hardwood trees known as mopanes (Colophospermum mopane) in Zimbabwe’s Gonarezhou National Park, in the southeastern corner of the country. “They snap the stems; [the trees] grow as a thicker, smaller plant and therefore give it a hedge appearance.” Mopane hedging by hungry, constrained elephants has been well documented in other national parks in Botswana, South Africa and Zambia. The Chilojo Cliffs in Zimbabwe&#8217;s Gonarezhou National Park. Image by Richard Droker via Flickr ((CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) A blue-tailed skink (Mabuya quinquetaenia) in Gonarezhou. Image by Brian Gratwicke via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) At the study site in the north of Gonarezhou, near to where the Runde River flows beneath ancient sandstone cliffs, O’Connor and colleagues found that elephants had snapped more than half of all the trees measuring some 10 meters (33 feet) in height. Although the canopy volume of the coppiced mopanes remained healthy, it severely compromised living conditions for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/explorer-elephants-in-transfrontier-conservation-area-offer-solution-to-tree-damage/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/explorer-elephants-in-transfrontier-conservation-area-offer-solution-to-tree-damage/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283859</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Analysis of largest elephant surveys ever shows stable population, but disturbing trends</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/analysis-of-largest-elephant-surveys-ever-shows-stable-population-but-disturbing-trends/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/analysis-of-largest-elephant-surveys-ever-shows-stable-population-but-disturbing-trends/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Apr 2024 10:26:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jim Tan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/04/08192723/2Elephants_MoremiNPBotswana_serena_tangFlickrBYNCND2.0-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280753</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Southern Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Elephants, Environment, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Migration, Research, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ten years ago, says Mike Chase, the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area was one fluid contiguous elephant habitat. “An elephant could be in Botswana in the morning, midday in Zimbabwe and in the evening cross over into Zambia or Namibia,” Chase, founder of the conservation NGO Elephants Without Borders, tells Mongabay. “It appears that that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ten years ago, says Mike Chase, the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area was one fluid contiguous elephant habitat. “An elephant could be in Botswana in the morning, midday in Zimbabwe and in the evening cross over into Zambia or Namibia,” Chase, founder of the conservation NGO Elephants Without Borders, tells Mongabay. “It appears that that vision of an interconnected landscape is now being compromised.” The 520,000-square-kilometer (201,000-square-mile) area known as the KAZA stretches across Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It was established in 2006 with a vision of the region’s megafauna roaming free, unencumbered by the constraints of political borders. More than half the world’s savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana) live in this transfrontier area. Chase’s EWB, based in Botswana, has just published an analysis comparing the two largest-ever aerial elephant surveys ever completed: the Great Elephant Census, a pan-African survey led by Chase spanning 18 countries and conducted in 2014 and 2015; and the 2022 KAZA Elephant Survey commissioned by the KAZA Secretariat, covering the five countries of the transfrontier conservation area with additional data from a 2018 EWB survey in Botswana. Elephants in the Okavango Delta. Image by Michael Levine-Clark via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Aerial shot of a river in the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area. Image by Mark W Atkinson/WCS via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0) “It is critical to have up-to-date information on the size and status of elephant populations to understand the status of the species,” says George Wittemyer, a professor at Colorado State University&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/analysis-of-largest-elephant-surveys-ever-shows-stable-population-but-disturbing-trends/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/analysis-of-largest-elephant-surveys-ever-shows-stable-population-but-disturbing-trends/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280753</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Locals slam Zimbabwe for turning a blind eye to Chinese miner’s violations</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/locals-slam-zimbabwe-for-turning-a-blind-eye-to-chinese-miners-violations/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/locals-slam-zimbabwe-for-turning-a-blind-eye-to-chinese-miners-violations/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Apr 2024 16:06:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tatenda Chitagu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/03/29104749/dominik-vanyi-Mk2ls9UBO2E-unsplash-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=280345</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Business, Clean Energy, Conflict, Conservation, Crime, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Industry, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Lithium, Mining, Politics, Pollution, Renewable Energy, Resource Conflict, and Violence]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MASVINGO, Zimbabwe — At the end of November last year, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Sinomine Resource Group chair Wang Pingwei walked into a lithium processing plant, construction hats firmly on. With a crowd of policymakers, company workers and press looking on, they hailed the mining group’s $300 million investment into processing plants. The facilities [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MASVINGO, Zimbabwe — At the end of November last year, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Sinomine Resource Group chair Wang Pingwei walked into a lithium processing plant, construction hats firmly on. With a crowd of policymakers, company workers and press looking on, they hailed the mining group’s $300 million investment into processing plants. The facilities will process the ore that the company unearths at its Bikita mine and turn it into a higher-value product for export. “I commend Sinomine Resource Group for taking heed of my government’s call,” Mnangagwa said at the gathering in the southern district of Bikita. Zimbabwe has banned exports of raw lithium, requiring companies to develop domestic processing facilities and increase local jobs. The country is now calling on other companies to copy Sinomine’s footsteps, pushing forward a building boom by Chinese mining companies. “This has contributed to the realization of our target of attaining a $12 billion mining economy by year end,” Mnangagwa said. The sentiment was understandable for the 81-year-old president. Zimbabwe has been cut off from global financiers over failure to service its debts. The country was also hit by sanctions and trade embargos by the European Union, U.K. and U.S. over serious human rights violations. For the past two decades, it has turned to China, adopting what the government terms a “Look East Policy.” In 2020, Mnangagwa described the Asian giant as “our all-weather friends.” But many workers and villagers in Bikita and Gutu districts aren’t feeling very friendly toward either Sinomine&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/locals-slam-zimbabwe-for-turning-a-blind-eye-to-chinese-miners-violations/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/04/locals-slam-zimbabwe-for-turning-a-blind-eye-to-chinese-miners-violations/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-280345</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Count, connect, conserve: Southern Africa elephant survey points the way (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/count-connect-conserve-southern-africa-elephant-survey-points-the-way-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/count-connect-conserve-southern-africa-elephant-survey-points-the-way-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jan 2024 20:32:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Lisa SteelMichael KnightRobin NaidooRussell TaylorSteven A. Osofsky]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/03181512/Image_1_KAZA-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=277336</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Southern Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Charismatic Animals, Commentary, Conservation, Elephants, Environment, Fences, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, Mammals, Migration, Research, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the more than 10 years since Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe signed a 2011 treaty to create the Kavango Zambezi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area – the world’s largest transboundary terrestrial conservation area – much has been accomplished. Much also remains to be done. The 2022 KAZA Elephant Survey was a remarkable achievement. It [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the more than 10 years since Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe signed a 2011 treaty to create the Kavango Zambezi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area – the world’s largest transboundary terrestrial conservation area – much has been accomplished. Much also remains to be done. The 2022 KAZA Elephant Survey was a remarkable achievement. It was the first time that Africa’s largest savanna elephant population was surveyed in a fully coordinated and synchronized manner, setting a new benchmark for aerial surveys for which the KAZA Secretariat and partner states deserve much praise; this was truly a major milestone in collaborative management of a globally unique wildlife resource. A typical double veterinary cordon fence in the region. Photo courtesy of M. Atkinson / Animal and Human Health for the Environment and Development (AHEAD) program at Cornell University. KAZA’s elephant population was estimated to be 227,900 (±95% CL 16,743), representing the majority of what’s left of Africa’s elephants. The survey also noted relatively high carcass ratios suggestive of elevated mortality, warranting further investigation as a potential warning sign for the health and stability of this globally important elephant population. Quantifying a wildlife population like this (and understanding its distribution in both space and time) is necessary to inform its management. But counting does not automatically lead to positive conservation outcomes. Many refer to KAZA’s elephants as a metapopulation, as one contiguous group of animals. But that characterization is increasingly misleading, as visible habitat fragmentation continues to take its toll. The habitat corridors&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/count-connect-conserve-southern-africa-elephant-survey-points-the-way-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/count-connect-conserve-southern-africa-elephant-survey-points-the-way-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-277336</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As the world swims in plastic, some offer an answer: Ban the toxic two</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/as-the-world-swims-in-plastic-some-offer-an-answer-ban-the-toxic-two/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/as-the-world-swims-in-plastic-some-offer-an-answer-ban-the-toxic-two/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jan 2024 15:30:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alden Wicker]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/01/02144722/rubber-duckies-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=277247</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Circular economy, Covering the Commons, Planetary Boundaries, and Product Lifecycles]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Chemicals, Circular Economy, Consumption, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Law, Microplastics, Natural Gas, Novel Entities, Overconsumption, Plastic, Pollution, Public Health, Supply Chain, and Sustainability]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Scientists have found many plastics are toxic, but activists say two ubiquitous polymers are the worst of all: polystyrene and PVC. Some are calling for not only a national ban on these two, but for a global ban enshrined in a plastics treaty.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2010, when Zimbabwe’s new Environmental Management Agency was less than 8 years old, it looked at high-priority environmental issues it should tackle. And it identified polystyrene takeout containers. Some know this type of plastic by its brand name Styrofoam. Zimbabweans call their takeout containers kaylites. Regardless of the name, just like all over the world, this lightweight plastic was ending up in Zimbabwe’s water bodies, where it broke up into tiny, impossible-to-clean-up, bits. But eradicating polystyrene kaylites proved no easy task: First, in 2012, the Environmental Management Agency issued a statutory instrument (a sort of executive order), banning polystyrene takeout containers, but that rule had no teeth. In 2016, it rolled out a complete ban on the manufacture, importation and distribution of polystyrene kaylites. Restaurants and manufacturers managed to delay enforcement until 2017, when the government put its foot down. Violators now face criminal charges. What finally persuaded officials to crack down on foam takeout containers? More than visible floating trash, it was polystyrene’s health effects. A 2017 study out of the University of Zimbabwe found that styrene, a known carcinogen, can migrate out of containers and into food. The higher the temperature, the more the migration, but even when stored in the fridge, oily foods soak up styrene. “That then triggered the rapid implementation by the government,” says Archieford Chemhere, a climate justice specialist with the Zimbabwean NGO Action Aid. Even though restaurants had a huge stock of foam containers imported from China, many consumers started refusing them.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/as-the-world-swims-in-plastic-some-offer-an-answer-ban-the-toxic-two/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/as-the-world-swims-in-plastic-some-offer-an-answer-ban-the-toxic-two/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-277247</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Report: Rush for ‘clean energy’ minerals in Africa risks repeating harmful extractivist model</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/report-rush-for-clean-energy-minerals-in-africa-risks-repeating-harmful-extractivist-model/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/report-rush-for-clean-energy-minerals-in-africa-risks-repeating-harmful-extractivist-model/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Dec 2023 03:19:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/29125131/uis-mine-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=277186</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Namibia, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Alternative Energy, Business, Clean Energy, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Governance, Human Rights, Industry, Land Rights, Lithium, Mining, Pollution, Protests, Renewable Energy, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A recent report from U.K.- and U.S.-based nonprofit Global Witness captures the details of how a new mining rush driven by demand for “clean energy” minerals can go wrong, reproducing the same model of extractivism that has impoverished African countries for centuries. “Sheer mineral wealth hasn&#8217;t always translated into development, particularly for the communities who [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A recent report from U.K.- and U.S.-based nonprofit Global Witness captures the details of how a new mining rush driven by demand for “clean energy” minerals can go wrong, reproducing the same model of extractivism that has impoverished African countries for centuries. “Sheer mineral wealth hasn&#8217;t always translated into development, particularly for the communities who live next to mines,” said report author Colin Robertson, a senior investigator at Global Witness. The team investigated mining projects for lithium, an essential mineral in the production of batteries for electric vehicles and power storage, in Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Namibia. They highlighted the risk that future mining will “embed corruption, fail to develop local economies, and harm citizens and the environment.” In January this year, residents living near Uis in western Namibia started noticing a daily convoy of trucks leaving an area they believed to simply be an artisanal mining site. The large vehicles were passing through the community on their way to the port of Walvis Bay on the country’s western shore, according to Jimmy Areseb, a community activist. In reality, the trucks were exporting minerals from an extensive operation residents knew little about. In March, people took to the streets to protest the activities of Chinese miner Xinfeng Investments, the owner of the trucks and entity extracting resources, alleging the company was carrying out large-scale industrial mining without the proper permits or social license. A demonstration against lithium mining by Xinfeng in Uis in March this year. Image&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/report-rush-for-clean-energy-minerals-in-africa-risks-repeating-harmful-extractivist-model/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/12/report-rush-for-clean-energy-minerals-in-africa-risks-repeating-harmful-extractivist-model/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-277186</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Zimbabwe sees recycling boom as waste picking becomes lucrative business</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/zimbabwe-sees-recycling-boom-as-waste-picking-becomes-lucrative-business/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/zimbabwe-sees-recycling-boom-as-waste-picking-becomes-lucrative-business/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Aug 2023 16:03:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tatenda Chitagu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/21142731/A-worker-at-Stable-packaging-sorts-plastic-waste-ready-for-recycling-768x454.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=272421</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Governance, Human Rights, Illegal Trade, International Trade, Plastic, Pollution, Recycling, Trade, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MASVINGO, Zimbabwe — The weight of the world felt as if it was crushing Nyemudzai Jakiti, a single mother in Zimbabwe’s southern city of Masvingo, when she found herself out of a job after her employer closed shop in 2018. Faced with the burden of taking care of her child, paying rent, buying food and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MASVINGO, Zimbabwe — The weight of the world felt as if it was crushing Nyemudzai Jakiti, a single mother in Zimbabwe’s southern city of Masvingo, when she found herself out of a job after her employer closed shop in 2018. Faced with the burden of taking care of her child, paying rent, buying food and looking after her aging parents, Jakiti, 31, a bookkeeper by profession, turned to picking up litter and selling it. “It was a tough decision to start picking up waste. Imagine, I used to work in an air-conditioned office, and suddenly I found myself scavenging for plastic waste,” she says. After a few years, the startup plastic recycling company to which she sold plastic waste eventually employed her. “I am now back doing office work as an administrator here. It feels like a fairy tale from being in the office, to picking trash and back to the office again,” Jakiti tells Mongabay from her office at the plastic recycling facility where she now works, Stable Packaging. Jakiti is not the only one who discovered money in waste. Across the country and social classes, recycling trash by picking it up and selling it or buying it and converting it into profitable materials has becoming a booming business. According to Zimbabwe’s Environmental Management Agency (EMA) national spokesperson Joyce Chapungu, community-based recycling organizations that handpick litter quadrupled in the last few years, increasing from 50 in 2019 to 200 in 2023, as locals are enticed by the cash incentives&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/zimbabwe-sees-recycling-boom-as-waste-picking-becomes-lucrative-business/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/zimbabwe-sees-recycling-boom-as-waste-picking-becomes-lucrative-business/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-272421</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Broken houses and promises: residents still in poverty near massive diamond project</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/broken-houses-and-promises-residents-still-in-poverty-near-massive-diamond-project/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/broken-houses-and-promises-residents-still-in-poverty-near-massive-diamond-project/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Oct 2022 23:29:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Anna Weekes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/25005342/pic1-e1666659788500-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=261779</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Environment, Governance, Human Rights, Illegal Mining, Land Conflict, Land Rights, Law, Mining, Pollution, Poverty, Rivers, Social Justice, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[More than 14 years after being forcibly relocated from their ancestral villages to make way for mining in one of the world’s largest diamond-producing projects, residents of Arda Transau in Eastern Zimbabwe are still living in dire poverty. Across the 567-kilometer-wide (352-mile-wide) terrain of diamond fields and mines, known as Marange, that have sold at [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[More than 14 years after being forcibly relocated from their ancestral villages to make way for mining in one of the world’s largest diamond-producing projects, residents of Arda Transau in Eastern Zimbabwe are still living in dire poverty. Across the 567-kilometer-wide (352-mile-wide) terrain of diamond fields and mines, known as Marange, that have sold at least 76 million carats of diamonds since 2010, government promises for housing and compensation have not yet been settled. After the precious stones were discovered in the eastern Mutare district in 2006, more than 35,000 people moved to the area to dig and pan as artisanal miners or buy and sell the gems along with foreign companies. But in November 2008, the Zimbabwean government controversially took control of the mining fields and deployed the military in the Mutare and Chiadzwa diamond field areas. High security fence at the Marange diamond fields. Security is tight but poverty in nearby communities drives many to attempt to break in and pan for diamonds illegally. Those caught risk beatings and torture by government and mine security forces. Photo by Andrew Mambondiyani. During Operation Hakudzokwi, which aimed to end artisanal mining deemed illegal, over 200 people were killed when military helicopters fired on diamond panners from the air. Some people were later “buried in mass graves using bulldozers,” according to testimonies collected by human rights organizations. By 2009, about 1,500 families were forcibly removed from the area and relocated to Arda Transau, 40 kilometers (25 miles) away in new houses&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/broken-houses-and-promises-residents-still-in-poverty-near-massive-diamond-project/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/broken-houses-and-promises-residents-still-in-poverty-near-massive-diamond-project/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-261779</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Australian oil and gas firm Invictus awarded carbon offset project in Zimbabwe</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/australian-oil-and-gas-firm-invictus-awarded-carbon-offset-project-in-zimbabwe/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/australian-oil-and-gas-firm-invictus-awarded-carbon-offset-project-in-zimbabwe/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Oct 2022 12:13:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/12091700/Goat_farmer-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=261391</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Offset Markets]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Business, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Carbon Offsets, climate finance, Conservation, Industry, Oil, Oil Drilling, and Redd]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Australian firm Invictus plans forest protection projects covering more than 300,000 hectares, or 741,000 acres, of indigenous forest in western Zimbabwe, which the company says will more than offset emissions caused by its exploration and eventual extraction of oil and gas hundreds of kilometers away in the north of the country. The Gwayi, Sikumi and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Australian firm Invictus plans forest protection projects covering more than 300,000 hectares, or 741,000 acres, of indigenous forest in western Zimbabwe, which the company says will more than offset emissions caused by its exploration and eventual extraction of oil and gas hundreds of kilometers away in the north of the country. The Gwayi, Sikumi and Ngamo forests, where long-living hardwood trees like Zambezi teak (Baikiaea plurijuga), mukwa (Pterocarpus angolensis) and leadwood (Combretum imberbe) grow in the region’s deep Kalahari sands, are already designated state forest reserves. Barry Meikle, Zimbabwe country manager for Invictus, says that while all three forests are protected on paper, they’re not as well protected as they should be. “Gwayi is probably the most vulnerable. It’s become an ‘island forest,&#8217; it’s  not contiguous to the other two. It’s surrounded by people and is under a lot of pressure. That’s the one we’re going to be focusing on because it needs the most help,” he says. Wetland in Ngamo forest. Image by Valerie Hukalo via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). “Inside the forest, there will be measures like fire prevention, fire guards and anti-poaching, and reforestation. But of course we have to work with communities outside to give them alternatives to using the forest for firewood and grazing and for poaching.” Invictus was awarded the contract for the REDD+ project via an international tender published in February by the state-run Forestry Commission of Zimbabwe. It will run the project jointly with the commission through a division known as Miombo&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/australian-oil-and-gas-firm-invictus-awarded-carbon-offset-project-in-zimbabwe/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/australian-oil-and-gas-firm-invictus-awarded-carbon-offset-project-in-zimbabwe/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-261391</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Forests &#038; Finance: Sit-ins, seeds over seedlings, and fuel-saving cookstoves</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/forests-finance-sit-ins-seeds-over-seedlings-and-fuel-saving-cookstoves/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/forests-finance-sit-ins-seeds-over-seedlings-and-fuel-saving-cookstoves/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Oct 2022 11:15:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/04192405/PrinterFatuJoe_Liberia_FloreDePreneufPROFORBYNC2.0-CROP-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=261119</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forests and Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Liberia, Southern Africa, West Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Community Development, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Dry Forests, Finance, Forestry, Forests, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Protests, Reforestation, Social Justice, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Liberian forest communities were supposed to get a cut of logging fees. They say they got a sliver MONROVIA, Liberia — On Sept. 29, several Liberian communities affected by logging staged a sit-in protest in front of the country&#8217;s ministry of finance, demanding unpaid royalties. Under a 2006 reform, 30% of land rental fees paid [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Liberian forest communities were supposed to get a cut of logging fees. They say they got a sliver MONROVIA, Liberia — On Sept. 29, several Liberian communities affected by logging staged a sit-in protest in front of the country&#8217;s ministry of finance, demanding unpaid royalties. Under a 2006 reform, 30% of land rental fees paid by logging companies for concessions must be allocated to nearby communities. The National Benefit Sharing Trust (NBFT) was established to coordinate the collection and distribution of this money to communities. But the government has not honored its commitments, say the villagers, represented by the National Union of Community Forestry Development Committees. In a press release, the NUCFDC said that in 2021, the government paid out only $200,000; by the union&#8217;s calculations, the state owes communities $5.5 million from fees collected from logging companies between 2009 and 2019. The NUCFDC said more than $2.7 million in rental fees were allocated to communities in the national budget for 2022, but the trust created to disburse the money received only $100,000. The National Union of Community Forestry Development Committees says the Liberian government owes communities $5.5 million from fees collected from logging companies between 2009 and 2019. Image by Open Government Partnership via Flickr (CC BY-2.0). “It’s unfortunate and does not represent the aims of the anti-poverty program put in place by the authorities,” said Vincent Doe, president of the NUCFDC, “and it doesn&#8217;t match the ambition of the government to support development and prosperity.” The forest communities&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/forests-finance-sit-ins-seeds-over-seedlings-and-fuel-saving-cookstoves/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/forests-finance-sit-ins-seeds-over-seedlings-and-fuel-saving-cookstoves/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-261119</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Element Africa: Diamonds, oil, coltan, and more diamonds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/element-africa-diamonds-oil-coltan-and-more-diamonds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/element-africa-diamonds-oil-coltan-and-more-diamonds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Oct 2022 14:10:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/04135428/boat-man-bodo-nigeria-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=261089</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Element Africa and Land rights and extractives]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Nigeria, South Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Crime, Environment, Environmental Law, Fish, Fishing, Governance, Health, Human Rights, Illegal Mining, Illegal Trade, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industry, Land Rights, Law, Mining, Oil, Oil Spills, Pollution, Public Health, Rivers, Social Justice, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[From oil to diamonds, offshore prospecting looms over South African fishing town DORINGBAAI, South Africa — On Sept. 23 and 24, 150 women in the small fishing town of Doringbaai, on South Africa&#8217;s west coast, held an event to protest the threat that offshore exploration for oil, gas, minerals and even diamonds poses to their [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[From oil to diamonds, offshore prospecting looms over South African fishing town DORINGBAAI, South Africa — On Sept. 23 and 24, 150 women in the small fishing town of Doringbaai, on South Africa&#8217;s west coast, held an event to protest the threat that offshore exploration for oil, gas, minerals and even diamonds poses to their livelihoods and marine ecosystems. South Africa’s territorial waters have recently become a target for offshore prospecting. The Fisherfolk Women’s Festival in this town of just 1,260 people, 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of Cape Town, ended with a protest march along the coastline. Carrying placards reading “Hands off our sea and land” and “Protect our ocean life! Keep the mines out!”, the women said their families would starve if the exploration licenses are granted. Deborah de Wee of the community-based organization Doringbaai Fisher Folk Women was born and raised in the tiny village. She said there are already companies sifting through the sand just off the coast, searching for diamonds in small boats with pumps. “This has caused a crisis because we have found that our fish have left the bay. Our fishermen now have to go into the deep sea if they want to catch fish and they do not have the petrol to get there,” de Wee told Mongabay by phone. Trans-Atlantic Diamonds (Pty.) Ltd. has applied to prospect across more than 1,240 hectares (3,060 acres) of the seabed just off the coast of Doringbaai. The company is searching for gold, silver, platinum,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/element-africa-diamonds-oil-coltan-and-more-diamonds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/element-africa-diamonds-oil-coltan-and-more-diamonds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-261089</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As poachers poison wildlife, Zimbabwe finds an antidote in tougher laws</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/as-poachers-poison-wildlife-zimbabwe-finds-an-antidote-in-tougher-laws/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/as-poachers-poison-wildlife-zimbabwe-finds-an-antidote-in-tougher-laws/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Sep 2022 09:07:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/09/12085002/elephants-in-Zimbabwe-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=260173</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Illegal Wildlife Trade]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Conservation, Crime, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Poaching, Poisoning, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Nearly a decade ago, poachers used cyanide to slaughter more than 135 elephants for their ivory in and around Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park. In the wake of these poisonings, the Southern African country tightened its laws to prevent similar deadly attacks on its wildlife. A new study shows that, even as international demand for ivory [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Nearly a decade ago, poachers used cyanide to slaughter more than 135 elephants for their ivory in and around Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park. In the wake of these poisonings, the Southern African country tightened its laws to prevent similar deadly attacks on its wildlife. A new study shows that, even as international demand for ivory fuels poaching across the continent, this pivotal change to Zimbabwe&#8217;s Environmental Management Act in 2018 — combined with efforts to stop poaching before it happens through the improved use of informers — is helping to cut elephant poaching in the country. Under the revised law, it’s no longer essential for prosecutors to establish that an exact concentration of cyanide was used in a wildlife poaching case. “Now you can prosecute people on the basis of intent to use poison maliciously,” says Richard Hoare, a Harare-based conservation consultant and lead author of the study published in the African Journal of Wildlife Research. “Previously, if prosecutors weren’t able to produce evidence of a dead animal, the magistrates would just convict people of illegal possession of a dangerous chemical without a permit,” Hoare says. That allowed suspects to get off lightly, with just a fine or community service. Body of a poached elephant in Zimbabwe. Image by Sokwanele &#8211; Zimbabwe via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). An accessible weapon Cyanide is used in Zimbabwe’s mining industry, and its distribution is supposed to be tightly restricted. But small tablets can be obtained fairly easily by civilians planning to poach. “Small amounts&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/as-poachers-poison-wildlife-zimbabwe-finds-an-antidote-in-tougher-laws/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-260173</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>White rhino conservation project attempts paradigm shift by including local community</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/white-rhino-conservation-project-attempts-paradigm-shift-by-including-local-community/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/white-rhino-conservation-project-attempts-paradigm-shift-by-including-local-community/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Jul 2022 09:04:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/07/19075952/White-rhino-conservation-project-attempts-paradigm-shift-by-including-local-community-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258342</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Charismatic Animals, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Mammals, National Parks, Poaching, Protected Areas, Rhinos, Solutions, White Rhino, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TSHOLOTSHO, Zimbabwe – Two men crouch beside a pile of rhino dung, using their bare hands to break apart the drying lumps to search for the remnants of the animal’s last meal. “There are some nice thick grasses in here,” says Daniel Terblanche, recording his observations on his phone camera and then sending the video [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TSHOLOTSHO, Zimbabwe – Two men crouch beside a pile of rhino dung, using their bare hands to break apart the drying lumps to search for the remnants of the animal’s last meal. “There are some nice thick grasses in here,” says Daniel Terblanche, recording his observations on his phone camera and then sending the video clip to a wildlife vet in Zimbabwe’s resort city of Victoria Falls, more than 200 kilometers (124 miles) to the north. “Cool, mission accomplished,” he says to his companion, Bokani Mpofu. Dung analysis is one of the less glamorous tasks that are part of the job of the “Cobras”, a crack anti-poaching unit recently formed to protect what will soon be a new population of white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum) released for the first time in Zimbabwe into a 200-hectare (494-acre) wholly community-owned area. Terblanche, a British army veteran, recruited and trained the Cobras; Mpofu is one of them. Daniel Terblanche, right, and Bokani Mpofu examine rhino dung to check whether the rhinos are adapting to eating grasses in their new home. Image by Ryan Truscott for Mongabay. The grass in this particular dollop of dung includes couch grass (Cynodon dactylon), a native green species that grows ankle-high among the golden grasses that sway beneath the camel thorn and leadwood trees. It is encouraging. It shows that the first two rhinos are adapting to their new habitat, which lies more than 700 kilometers (435 miles) from their previous one on the privately-owned Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/white-rhino-conservation-project-attempts-paradigm-shift-by-including-local-community/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/07/white-rhino-conservation-project-attempts-paradigm-shift-by-including-local-community/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258342</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Cash-strapped Zimbabwe pushes to be allowed to sell its ivory stockpile</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/cash-strapped-zimbabwe-pushes-to-be-allowed-to-sell-its-ivory-stockpile/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/cash-strapped-zimbabwe-pushes-to-be-allowed-to-sell-its-ivory-stockpile/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jun 2022 16:00:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Farayi Machamire]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/06/01153705/1-elephants-in-Zimbabwe-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256641</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Illegal Wildlife Trade]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Crime, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Illegal Trade, Ivory, Law, Mammals, Organized Crime, Poaching, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[HWANGE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s government recently concluded a conference to attempt to rally international support for the sale of its ivory stockpile. It argues that selling some of the 136 metric tons of elephant ivory and rhino horn that it’s holding — mostly from animals that died of natural causes — could fund its conservation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[HWANGE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s government recently concluded a conference to attempt to rally international support for the sale of its ivory stockpile. It argues that selling some of the 136 metric tons of elephant ivory and rhino horn that it’s holding — mostly from animals that died of natural causes — could fund its conservation efforts. Critics say one-off sales in 1999 and 2008 authorized by CITES, the global convention on the wildlife trade, resulted in a sharp escalation in illegal killing and poaching of elephants across Africa, and that legalizing the ivory trade could drive African elephants to extinction. Africa is home to two species of elephants: forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) are found in the forests of Central Africa, while the larger and better-known savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana) are found across Southern and East Africa, with small remnant populations remaining in West Africa. A third elephant species, Elephas maximus, is found in Asia. Elephants have been slaughtered for their tusks in huge numbers for more than a century. According to global conservation authority the IUCN, elephant populations across Africa fell by around 111,000 in the decade from 2006-2016, primarily due to a wave of poaching, with elephants killed on a scale that had not been seen since the 1970s and ’80s. Trade in elephant parts has been prohibited by CITES since 1989, but Zimbabwe, with support from Botswana, Tanzania, Namibia, and Zambia, plans to call for the lifting of the ban on trading ivory at the upcoming CITES meeting&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/cash-strapped-zimbabwe-pushes-to-be-allowed-to-sell-its-ivory-stockpile/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/cash-strapped-zimbabwe-pushes-to-be-allowed-to-sell-its-ivory-stockpile/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256641</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Farmers rediscover benefits of traditional small grains in Zimbabwe</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/farmers-rediscover-benefits-of-traditional-small-grains-in-zimbabwe/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/farmers-rediscover-benefits-of-traditional-small-grains-in-zimbabwe/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Mar 2022 14:00:51 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tatenda Chitagu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/03/14180923/Onias-Machono-from-Dende-farmers-club-in-his-millet-crop-where-there-is-a-scarecrow-to-fend-off-quilea-birds-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=253720</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Climate Change, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Corn, Farming, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Solutions, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BIKITA, Zimbabwe — Nothing seems to happen at the right time for Maria Mazambara, a communal subsistence farmer in Bikita, one of Zimbabwe&#8217;s southernmost rural districts. “The seed we get from government’s input scheme is usually delivered to us late in the season,” she says. “And when we do receive it, the rains are too [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BIKITA, Zimbabwe — Nothing seems to happen at the right time for Maria Mazambara, a communal subsistence farmer in Bikita, one of Zimbabwe&#8217;s southernmost rural districts. “The seed we get from government’s input scheme is usually delivered to us late in the season,” she says. “And when we do receive it, the rains are too little to sustain my maize crops and it wilts at the [final] tasseling stage. Sometimes the rains are just too much and we have floods. It’s always a case of so near, yet so far.” This has left Mazambara and her family, in a dry region that receives low annual rainfall, as candidates for food aid. “Representatives of humanitarian agencies that give us food handouts now know me by name,” she says in a worried tone. Headman Nechiroorwe in his wilting hybrid maize field. Image courtesy of Tatenda Chitagu. While Mazambara isn’t alone in this predicament, most communal farmers from Bikita continue to grow hybrid maize, year in and year out. At the turn of the new millennium, rural farmers from the area, as well as most of Zimbabwe, opted for hybrid maize, a seed developed by companies such as Pannar and SeedCo, that are short-season, high-yielding varieties. Maize has been a part of Southern African food systems and local knowledge for three generations, though the hybrid variety was introduced just a few decades ago because of droughts and changing weather patterns. To date, however, it’s a seed that hasn’t adapted well to the region’s&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/farmers-rediscover-benefits-of-traditional-small-grains-in-zimbabwe/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-253720</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Journeying in biocultural diversity and conservation philanthropy: Q&#038;A with Ken Wilson</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/journeying-in-biocultural-diversity-and-conservation-philanthropy-qa-with-ken-wilson/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/journeying-in-biocultural-diversity-and-conservation-philanthropy-qa-with-ken-wilson/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Feb 2022 04:16:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/06152741/borneo_20190113_061959-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=252375</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Nature conservation Influencers]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Borneo, Malaysia, Sabah, Southeast Asia, and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biocultural Diversity, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Environment, Green, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, and philanthropy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The concept of &#8220;biocultural diversity&#8221; has gained wider prominence in recent decades as academics, institutions, and practitioners have expanded cross-disciplinary work at the intersection of human culture and biological diversity. Within the conservation realm, this trend has helped raise the profile of issues like Indigenous rights and traditional knowledge, especially since the mid-2010s as many [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The concept of &#8220;biocultural diversity&#8221; has gained wider prominence in recent decades as academics, institutions, and practitioners have expanded cross-disciplinary work at the intersection of human culture and biological diversity. Within the conservation realm, this trend has helped raise the profile of issues like Indigenous rights and traditional knowledge, especially since the mid-2010s as many philanthropic foundations and &#8220;mainstream&#8221; conservation NGOs moved toward more inclusive and community-oriented approaches beyond establishing strict protected areas. Ken Wilson, who has been working at the confluence of community rights, biocultural diversity, and philanthropy for the better part of 40 years, has been a keen observer and commentator on these developments, first as an academic, then a foundation program officer and director, and as an advisor and NGO leader. Lowland rainforest in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay Wilson, who served as the head of The Christensen Fund for 13 years and currently lives in Malaysian Borneo, told Mongabay that conservation’s trajectory–from an academic standpoint–has been increasingly influenced in the past 40 years by areas outside its traditional domain, “destabilized” by the “rights and social science inspired critique of &#8216;fortress conservation&#8217; and its corollaries in the 1980s and 1990s” and “global systems analysis enabled by remote sensing and computer modeling capacities.” “This research has been crucial to pluralizing and globalizing conservation,” he said. “It has enabled connection to the bubbling up of the environmental justice and Indigenous environmental movements and has taken mainstream conservation into earth system areas like climate, ecosystem&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/journeying-in-biocultural-diversity-and-conservation-philanthropy-qa-with-ken-wilson/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-252375</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Zimbabwe’s forests go up in smoke to feed its tobacco habit</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/zimbabwes-forests-go-up-in-smoke-to-feed-its-tobacco-habit/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/zimbabwes-forests-go-up-in-smoke-to-feed-its-tobacco-habit/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Feb 2022 09:23:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tonderayi Mukeredzi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/03080336/MamMukanganise_HeadlandsZimbabwe_TonderayiMukeredzi-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=252307</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Afforestation, Agriculture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Economics, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Loss, Forestry, Forests, Industry, Land Conflict, Law Enforcement, Plantations, Protected Areas, Timber, and Timber Laws]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[HEADLANDS, Zimbabwe — Since Netty Joyce Mukanganise started growing tobacco 12 years ago, she and her neighbors have ransacked the forest near her home for firewood to cure their crop. “I use about 7 tons of wood per season for curing my tobacco crop, averaging about 1 hectare,” she told Mongabay. “There is no other [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[HEADLANDS, Zimbabwe — Since Netty Joyce Mukanganise started growing tobacco 12 years ago, she and her neighbors have ransacked the forest near her home for firewood to cure their crop. “I use about 7 tons of wood per season for curing my tobacco crop, averaging about 1 hectare,” she told Mongabay. “There is no other means at my disposal to cure the tobacco, so I have to cut [down] trees.” The 61-year-old, a farmer all her life, began growing tobacco because it’s more profitable than other crops. In 2000, according to Zimbabwe&#8217;s Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TIMB), there were 6,000 small-scale tobacco farmers like Mukanganise, growing tobacco on small plots of 1-3 hectares (2.5-7.4 acres). Following a land redistribution program that allowed tens of thousands of Black farmers to claim land from largely white landowners, the number of small-scale producers peaked at around 137,000 in 2019. This number has declined somewhat to 106,000 today, but this cohort produced 133,000 metric tons of tobacco in 2021, nearly two-thirds of the country’s total production of 211,000 metric tons. Tobacco is the country’s second-biggest foreign currency earner, but its production comes at great cost to the environment as most farmers burn wood to cure their crop. The curing barns used by smallholders require 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of wood for every kilo of tobacco. Woman collecting wood in a miombo forest: the majority of Zimbabwe&#8217;s small-scale tobacco producers view firewood as a free resource. Image by Tonderayi Mukeredzi for Mongabay. Forestry Commission unequal&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/zimbabwes-forests-go-up-in-smoke-to-feed-its-tobacco-habit/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/zimbabwes-forests-go-up-in-smoke-to-feed-its-tobacco-habit/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-252307</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Rural women in Zimbabwe are in constant contact with climate change’: Q&#038;A with Shamiso Mupara</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/rural-women-in-zimbabwe-are-in-constant-contact-with-climate-change-qa-with-shamiso-mupara/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/rural-women-in-zimbabwe-are-in-constant-contact-with-climate-change-qa-with-shamiso-mupara/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Jan 2022 18:22:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Derick Matsengarwodzi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/01/20180839/Screen-Shot-2022-01-20-at-1.08.15-PM-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=251861</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Climate Change, Drought, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Gender, Impact Of Climate Change, Politics, Reforestation, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[HARARE, Zimbabwe – Women, children and the elderly are increasingly vulnerable to the effects of climate change in rural Zimbabwe, taking up a large share of the agricultural labor force and management of household nutrition. This became especially apparent in the years between 1950 and 2013, where the country recorded 22 years of drought, leaving [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[HARARE, Zimbabwe – Women, children and the elderly are increasingly vulnerable to the effects of climate change in rural Zimbabwe, taking up a large share of the agricultural labor force and management of household nutrition. This became especially apparent in the years between 1950 and 2013, where the country recorded 22 years of drought, leaving millions in need of food aid. In Marange, a rural area 257 kilometers (160 miles) east of Harare, the capital, the low rainfall, poor soils and severe dry spells during the 1992 drought hit all farmers hard. Most subsistence farmers watched their maize crops and livestock die, with no reprieve in sight. In total, over a million cattle died of starvation that year. Five million people were in need of food aid, while children suffered from malnutrition and kwashiorkor. In order for families to survive, daughters were increasingly married off to older men in exchange for grain or livestock, providing families with enough to eat. In other instances, women would face starker repercussions of drought and land by the manner labor is divided. While men, who are regarded as breadwinners, would relocate to urban areas in search of work, women, children and the elderly remained in rural areas to maintain fields and harvests increasingly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Rural children spend many hours walking long distances to look for firewood since trees are scarce nearby. Image courtesy of Shamiso Mupara. Shamiso Winnet Mupara, a young girl from Marange and aged nine during&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/rural-women-in-zimbabwe-are-in-constant-contact-with-climate-change-qa-with-shamiso-mupara/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-251861</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Community tree nursery and garden bring a ray of hope to Zimbabwean village</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/community-tree-nursery-and-garden-bring-a-ray-of-hope-to-zimbabwean-village/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/community-tree-nursery-and-garden-bring-a-ray-of-hope-to-zimbabwean-village/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Nov 2021 08:00:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Derick Matsengarwodzi]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/07/21112505/Members-of-Shingai-Matimba-Garden-at-work-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=249766</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Zimbabwe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Reforestation, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[GURUVE, Zimbabwe — To get to Nyamukondiwa village in Guruve district in rural Zimbabwe, you have to navigate through 170 kilometers, or 106 miles, of mountainous terrain from the capital, Harare. The once thickly covered mountains, where mopane (Colophospermum mopane), zebrawood (Brachystegia spiciformis) and red mahogany (Khaya anthotheca) previously dominated, are now desert-like as villagers [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[GURUVE, Zimbabwe — To get to Nyamukondiwa village in Guruve district in rural Zimbabwe, you have to navigate through 170 kilometers, or 106 miles, of mountainous terrain from the capital, Harare. The once thickly covered mountains, where mopane (Colophospermum mopane), zebrawood (Brachystegia spiciformis) and red mahogany (Khaya anthotheca) previously dominated, are now desert-like as villagers cut down trees for brick molding, firewood and tobacco curing. Along the road, people carry bundles of native timber for commercial use. To fire a kiln to produce 20,000 bricks takes about three cartloads of zebrawood and mopane wood. A stack of 1,000 bricks retails for $35, a needed source of income for villagers. To power Zimbabwe’s lead as the largest producer of tobacco in Africa (and No. 6 worldwide), it takes 15 carts full of firewood per hectare (or six carts per acre) to cure tobacco leaves. Zimbabwe harvested and sold an estimated 200,000 metric tons of tobacco this year, up 11% from last year, according to latest data from the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board. Now, with woodlots in Guruve vanishing rapidly, farmers are traveling deeper into the mountains to find more trees, and households that rely on firewood for cooking are running out of the resource. During the off season, the fields are empty, and livestock feed on maize stalks. Image courtesy of Derick Matsengarwodzi. However, away from the environmental ruin, the birth of the Kufunga Ndomunhu Project is bringing hope to the village through a women-led reforestation and community garden project&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/community-tree-nursery-and-garden-bring-a-ray-of-hope-to-zimbabwean-village/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-249766</doi>				</item>
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