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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>Congo Basin environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/congo-basin/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Indigenous peoples near Congo parks propose diverse solutions for the future of conservation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-peoples-near-congo-parks-propose-diverse-solutions-for-the-future-of-conservation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-peoples-near-congo-parks-propose-diverse-solutions-for-the-future-of-conservation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Sep 2026 20:50:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Blaise Kasereka MakutaLatoya Abulu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/08204653/image1__20648409894_e4b04e9e1b_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=329161</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity Hotspots, Community Forests, Conflict, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Governance, Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Law, Primary Forests, Rainforests, Resource Conflict, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Sustainable Forest Management, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo — High above the lush forests of protected areas in the Congo Basin in eastern Congo, the calls of endemic birds and monkeys echo through the trees. Beneath the canopy, the Maiko, Salonga, Kahuzi-Biega, and Virunga National Parks sprawl across millions of hectares. For millennia, long before these protected areas [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo — High above the lush forests of protected areas in the Congo Basin in eastern Congo, the calls of endemic birds and monkeys echo through the trees. Beneath the canopy, the Maiko, Salonga, Kahuzi-Biega, and Virunga National Parks sprawl across millions of hectares. For millennia, long before these protected areas were established, Indigenous peoples lived in, roamed and shaped these lands, only to be expelled during the 20th century. “We lived in harmony with the forest,” says Julien Basimika, a young Mutwa man, one of the Indigenous Twa people in Congo. “We protected everything that needed protecting, because our lives depended on it. If we had started destroying the forest, we would have suffered the consequences.” Today, many descendants of those who were displaced live in extreme poverty owing to lack of land, armed conflicts and discrimination. Discussions on how to better involve these communities in conservation fuel passionate debates among protected area managers, environmentalists, lawyers and human rights advocates: Should they return to their ancestral lands or not? Should they be part of environmental projects? If so, which ones? How can we mitigate armed conflicts and the involvement of Indigenous peoples in illegal logging, which complicate the situation? Among the communities living near these four national parks, views vary on how to address these issues. Meanwhile, policymakers are discussing how best to involve communities in the Belém Call to Action, announced in November 2025, which aims to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-peoples-near-congo-parks-propose-diverse-solutions-for-the-future-of-conservation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/indigenous-peoples-near-congo-parks-propose-diverse-solutions-for-the-future-of-conservation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-329161</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Fighting new oil blocks in the Congo Basin: Interview with activist Pascal Mirindi</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/fighting-new-oil-blocks-in-the-congo-basin-interview-with-activist-pascal-mirindi/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/fighting-new-oil-blocks-in-the-congo-basin-interview-with-activist-pascal-mirindi/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jul 2026 15:49:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dan Yessa]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/16122152/oil-in-drc-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323702</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Energy, Environment, Fellows, Forests, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Mongabay.org, Oil, Oil Drilling, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Pascal Mirindi is a young environmental activist based in the Democratic Republic of Congo, born in Goma. He was a member of a nonviolent movement, La LUCHA, fighting for democracy in the DRC. La LUCHA initiated him into nonviolent activism, but he used that opportunity to fight for Congolese ecosystems. Since 2024, Mirindi has been [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Pascal Mirindi is a young environmental activist based in the Democratic Republic of Congo, born in Goma. He was a member of a nonviolent movement, La LUCHA, fighting for democracy in the DRC. La LUCHA initiated him into nonviolent activism, but he used that opportunity to fight for Congolese ecosystems. Since 2024, Mirindi has been one of the main resistance forces against mineral, oil and gas exploitation inside the Congo Basin. Through campaigns and community awareness, he and his colleagues have successfully driven out oil exploration inside Virunga National Park. Now, Mirindi is fighting against the exploitation of 30 new oil blocks that cover 72% of the Congo Green Corridor, the country’s most emblematic conservation project, which spans a large part of the Congo Basin, home to thousands of animals and a lifeline for many communities in the DRC. Mirindi spoke with Mongabay in June, discussing what it means to resist from the inside and make a difference on a global scale, protecting the homes of endangered species such as mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) and okapis (Okapia johnstoni), endemic to the region. Pascal Mirindi&#8217;s first visit with the director of Virunga National Park, Emmanuel de Merode, in 2022. Image courtesy of Pascal Mirindi. This interview has been translated from French and edited for length and clarity. Mongabay: Who is Pascal Mirindi? Pascal Mirindi: I am Congolese; I was born in Goma in 1999. I have been an activist since I was 15 years old. I started in the citizen&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/fighting-new-oil-blocks-in-the-congo-basin-interview-with-activist-pascal-mirindi/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/fighting-new-oil-blocks-in-the-congo-basin-interview-with-activist-pascal-mirindi/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323702</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can selective logging help the Congo Basin store more carbon?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/can-selective-logging-help-the-congo-basin-store-more-carbon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/can-selective-logging-help-the-congo-basin-store-more-carbon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jul 2026 22:38:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claudia Geib]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/02103623/elephants-in-the-congo-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322365</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Congo Basin]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Environment, Forest Carbon, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Logging, Rainforests, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The rainforests of the Congo Basin are the planet’s largest forested carbon sink: as these 3.3 million square kilometers (1.3 million square miles) of trees in Central Africa breathe in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, they turn it into leaves and bark and branches, helping to mitigate the effects of climate change. Yet a recently [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The rainforests of the Congo Basin are the planet’s largest forested carbon sink: as these 3.3 million square kilometers (1.3 million square miles) of trees in Central Africa breathe in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, they turn it into leaves and bark and branches, helping to mitigate the effects of climate change. Yet a recently published study quantifying this carbon storage presents a surprising suggestion: that the most effective way to trap even more carbon in Congo Basin rainforests may be to cut some of its trees down. The study, published as an advance copy in April in ­­Nature Communications, found that selectively managed logging areas make up about 57% of the net carbon removals in the Congo Basin. The authors suggest this shows these forests could provide benefits to both the planet and local communities if sustainable logging is permitted. “The question is: is logging, or any other sustainable use of those forests, only bad for the environment?” said lead researcher Le Bienfaiteur Sagang, a tropical ecologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Can we use these forests, give them more value, provide jobs for the locals, and still provide a good contribution to the climate?” Sagang and his co-authors decided to put this questions to test. They designed a machine-learning program that combined land-cover data, captured between 1990 and 2020 across the Congo Basin’s six forested countries, with aboveground carbon levels estimated from other studies via lidar, which creates complex 3D landscape scans using lasers. This rainforest&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/can-selective-logging-help-the-congo-basin-store-more-carbon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/can-selective-logging-help-the-congo-basin-store-more-carbon/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322365</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Descendants of people pushed out for DRC national park lead forest conservation efforts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/descendants-of-people-pushed-out-for-drc-national-park-lead-forest-conservation-efforts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/descendants-of-people-pushed-out-for-drc-national-park-lead-forest-conservation-efforts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jun 2026 22:30:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jérémie Kyaswekera]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/02221422/Image-4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320504</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[30x30 conservation target, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Forest Loss, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, National Parks, Protected Areas, Solutions, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BUTEMBO, Democratic Republic of Congo — In the lush forests of North Kivu, Gangala Yafali Mangusa Jr. leads a forest patrol with members of his community. Together, they monitor human activity, identify threats and prevent damage to biodiversity, such as large-scale logging, unregulated timber harvesting and artisanal mining. “For example, once a month or once [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BUTEMBO, Democratic Republic of Congo — In the lush forests of North Kivu, Gangala Yafali Mangusa Jr. leads a forest patrol with members of his community. Together, they monitor human activity, identify threats and prevent damage to biodiversity, such as large-scale logging, unregulated timber harvesting and artisanal mining. “For example, once a month or once a quarter, we conduct inspections to check whether there are people in the community who are illegally hunting [protected] animals,” he explains. In his 30s, Mangusa Jr. leads the local management committee in the Bamasobha Local Community Forest Concession (CFCL), located in Lubero, a region threatened by terrorist attacks in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Composed of Indigenous Batwa, Bapiri and local communities, Mangusa Jr.’s team works together to protect this community forest, promote sustainable management of natural resources and strengthen coexistence between communities and the ecosystems on which they depend. According to him, this commitment is rooted in a personal history marked by tensions and, at times, violence experienced around the Maiko National Park — a sprawling park protecting endemic species such as eastern lowland gorillas, okapi, chimpanzees and forest elephants — after the 1970s. Aerial view of forest and river in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. Image by MONUSCO/Myriam Asmani via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0). He recounts that, when the park was established, his family, like so many others, faced park rangers for several years who had been sent to enforce the new park boundaries, particularly in the Batike settlement, within&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/descendants-of-people-pushed-out-for-drc-national-park-lead-forest-conservation-efforts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/descendants-of-people-pushed-out-for-drc-national-park-lead-forest-conservation-efforts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320504</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Carbon cowboys and unpaid pledges: Ex-Gabon environment minister Lee White on conservation in Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/carbon-cowboys-and-unpaid-pledges-ex-gabon-environment-minister-lee-white-on-conservation-in-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/carbon-cowboys-and-unpaid-pledges-ex-gabon-environment-minister-lee-white-on-conservation-in-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 May 2026 10:22:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie Toto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/22132543/515214292_24384176691218875_2892785947593807379_n-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319983</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, and Congo Basin]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Energy, Environment, Forests, Governance, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On May 11 and 12, 2026, the Africa Forward Summit took place in Nairobi, with several heads of state from across the continent and beyond attending. Thousands of political, economic and civil society actors also gathered in the Kenyan capital to discuss potential investments, particularly in the fields of energy transition and international financial assistance. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On May 11 and 12, 2026, the Africa Forward Summit took place in Nairobi, with several heads of state from across the continent and beyond attending. Thousands of political, economic and civil society actors also gathered in the Kenyan capital to discuss potential investments, particularly in the fields of energy transition and international financial assistance. Lee White, Gabon’s former minister of water, forests, marine and environment, was in Nairobi on the sidelines of the summit to discuss carbon markets and Africa’s development. Originally from the United Kingdom, White is a naturalized Gabonese citizen. A scientist and zoology Ph.D., he took over the reins of Gabon’s National Parks Agency (ANPN) in 2009, and 10 years later was appointed environment minister under the controversial presidency of Ali Bongo Ondimba. Following the 2023 coup d’état that ousted Bongo from power, White left Gabon and his ministerial position, but did not leave Central Africa behind. During the COP30 U.N. climate summit in Belém, Brazil, he served as a special envoy for the Congo Basin. Mongabay spoke to White over video call about the challenges facing the Congo Basin and the paths African countries should take to address them. The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Mongabay: During the Africa Forward Summit, France announced that it would sign agreements with several African countries generating up to 23 billion euros ($26.7 billion) in investments. These investments will target climate and energy transition sectors, among others. What do you think about this? Lee&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/carbon-cowboys-and-unpaid-pledges-ex-gabon-environment-minister-lee-white-on-conservation-in-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/carbon-cowboys-and-unpaid-pledges-ex-gabon-environment-minister-lee-white-on-conservation-in-africa/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319983</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A “good year” for forests changes less than it seems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-good-year-for-forests-changes-less-than-it-seems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-good-year-for-forests-changes-less-than-it-seems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Apr 2026 17:55:31 +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/20/2026/04/29175125/drc_2606697x-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=318421</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Congo Basin, Global, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Analysis, Climate Change, Conservation, data, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, El Nino, Environment, Fires, Forests, Green, Impact Of Climate Change, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The rate of tropical primary forest loss fell sharply in 2025, reversing the record highs of the year before. On paper, it looks like progress. In reality, the dip is likely only a temporary reprieve. The decline followed an exceptional year for wildfires. In 2024, drought helped drive some of the largest fire-related losses on [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The rate of tropical primary forest loss fell sharply in 2025, reversing the record highs of the year before. On paper, it looks like progress. In reality, the dip is likely only a temporary reprieve. The decline followed an exceptional year for wildfires. In 2024, drought helped drive some of the largest fire-related losses on record. In 2025, those climatic pressures eased, and the area lost to fire dropped with them. But the root causes—commodity-driven agricultural expansion, patchy enforcement, and growing climate stress—remain stubbornly in place. A single year’s improvement does not shift that fundamental footing. Tropical primary forest loss by year since 2002 What stands out is the pattern of loss. Forest loss is becoming less predictable, moving in sharper swings tied to weather as much as policy. Fire now accounts for a large share of global tree cover loss, and its behavior tracks temperature and rainfall extremes. When conditions align, losses surge. When they do not, they fall back. But the needle barely moves on the long-term trend: forest loss remains persistently high. Fire does not simply clear land; it hollows out forests in ways that make further loss more likely. Repeated burns thin canopies and dry the forest floor, eroding the processes that allow forests to recover. In parts of the Amazon, clearing has given way to a self-reinforcing cycle of decay, where degradation serves as a precursor to total forest loss. Climate is an increasingly active factor. Forecasts point to a likely El Niño in 2026,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-good-year-for-forests-changes-less-than-it-seems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-318421</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What it takes to make conservation work in Central Africa: Luis Arranz&#8217;s 46-year journey</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/what-it-takes-to-make-conservation-work-in-central-africa-luis-arranzs-46-year-journey/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/what-it-takes-to-make-conservation-work-in-central-africa-luis-arranzs-46-year-journey/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Apr 2026 10:48:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David AkanaRhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/13132444/Luis-Arranza-CAR-by-Nuria-Ortega-WWF-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316927</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Central African Republic, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community-based Conservation, Conflict, Conservation, Environment, Human-wildlife Conflict, Interviews, Parks, Protected Areas, Wildlife, and Wildlife Rangers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Luis Arranz arrived in Africa in 1980 with little more than a degree in biology and a determination to work in the field. Without contacts or a clear path, he drove south from Spain in a small Citroën 2CV, crossing the Sahara over several weeks and repairing the car as it failed along the way. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Luis Arranz arrived in Africa in 1980 with little more than a degree in biology and a determination to work in the field. Without contacts or a clear path, he drove south from Spain in a small Citroën 2CV, crossing the Sahara over several weeks and repairing the car as it failed along the way. The journey is unusual. The work that followed is uncommon in its form and duration: more than four decades spent managing protected areas in Central Africa. His career has taken him through Equatorial Guinea, Angola, and South America, but it is in Central Africa that it has largely settled. He has led or helped run parks including Monte Alén, Zakouma, Garamba, Dzanga-Sangha, and now Salonga, often remaining in each for extended periods. That continuity has shaped his approach. He tends to describe conservation less in terms of design than of execution—what can be maintained over time, and what cannot. Photo courtesy of Luis Arranz This perspective runs through a series of conversations that took place in forests, villages, and vehicles across the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo in March 2026. Arranz is skeptical of the emphasis placed on planning processes and external analysis. He returns instead to implementation. “We know what we have to do,” he says, referring to the distance between written plans and what can be carried out in practice. Much of the work, in his account, comes down to transport, communication, and maintaining teams across large and difficult&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/what-it-takes-to-make-conservation-work-in-central-africa-luis-arranzs-46-year-journey/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/what-it-takes-to-make-conservation-work-in-central-africa-luis-arranzs-46-year-journey/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316927</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Studying the world’s largest gathering of forest elephants with sound and field observation</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/studying-the-worlds-largest-gathering-of-forest-elephants-with-sound-and-field-observation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/studying-the-worlds-largest-gathering-of-forest-elephants-with-sound-and-field-observation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Apr 2026 14:46:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David AkanaRhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/19152433/ivonne-kienast-2026-16x9-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316782</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Central African Republic, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Bioacoustics, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Education, Elephants, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Gorillas, Great Apes, Indigenous Peoples, Interviews, Primates, Rainforests, Research, Traditional People, Tropical Forests, Wildlife, Wildtech, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the far southwest of the Central African Republic, where dense forest gives way to a broad clearing, elephants gather in numbers rarely seen elsewhere. The place is known as Dzanga Bai. Forest elephants are among the least visible large mammals in Africa. In closed-canopy rainforest, they move in small groups, often at night, communicating [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the far southwest of the Central African Republic, where dense forest gives way to a broad clearing, elephants gather in numbers rarely seen elsewhere. The place is known as Dzanga Bai. Forest elephants are among the least visible large mammals in Africa. In closed-canopy rainforest, they move in small groups, often at night, communicating over long distances through low-frequency calls that travel beyond human hearing. Much of their social life unfolds out of sight. Dzanga Bai is one of the few places where that pattern breaks. Here, elephants emerge from the forest to feed on minerals in the soil. They linger. Families converge, separate, and return. Individuals can be recognized over years. Behaviors that are otherwise inferred—through tracks, fragments of sound, or brief encounters—can be followed more directly. Dzanga Bai in Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve, Central African Republic. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler For decades, the clearing has drawn researchers trying to understand a species that resists easy study. Long-term work here, including that of researchers such as Andrea Turkalo, has shaped much of what is known about forest elephants. Ivonne Kienast is part of that effort. She leads the Dzanga Forest Elephant Project, part of the Elephant Listening Project at Cornell University. Her work combines long-term behavioral observation with passive acoustic monitoring. The objective is to understand how forest elephants live and to detect early signs of change. In practice, this means continuous field presence, physically demanding work, and coordination across a network of relationships that extend well beyond&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/studying-the-worlds-largest-gathering-of-forest-elephants-with-sound-and-field-observation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/studying-the-worlds-largest-gathering-of-forest-elephants-with-sound-and-field-observation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316782</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can nature outcompete war in Eastern Congo?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/can-nature-outcompete-war-in-eastern-congo/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/can-nature-outcompete-war-in-eastern-congo/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Apr 2026 23:26:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David AkanaRhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/10225923/drc_260324_103134432-EMMANUEL-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317207</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Forests, Governance, Green, Interviews, Landscape Restoration, Parks, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Sustainability, Tropical Forests, Violence, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, discussion of conservation often centers on loss: forests cleared, wildlife depleted, conflict spreading across landscapes that once supported some of the richest ecosystems on Earth. At Virunga National Park, those pressures are concentrated. The park, Africa’s oldest, contains glaciers, volcanoes, forests, and wetlands within a single protected area. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, discussion of conservation often centers on loss: forests cleared, wildlife depleted, conflict spreading across landscapes that once supported some of the richest ecosystems on Earth. At Virunga National Park, those pressures are concentrated. The park, Africa’s oldest, contains glaciers, volcanoes, forests, and wetlands within a single protected area. It also sits within a region shaped by decades of instability, where armed groups, informal economies, and weak governance are part of daily life. Virunga National Park. Image courtesy of Bitini Ndiyanabo Kanane. Emmanuel de Merode, who has led Virunga since 2008, does not begin with ecology. His training is in anthropology, and that shapes how he describes the park. The condition of wildlife, he suggests, follows from deeper forces. Forest loss, poaching, and insecurity are not simply environmental problems. They emerge from how people earn a living, how authority functions, and how money and resources circulate. In eastern Congo, conservation cannot be separated from the economy. For many communities around Virunga, the choices are immediate. Clearing forest for agriculture or producing charcoal can generate income that supports a household. The benefits of conservation are harder to see and often accrue far beyond the region. The imbalance shows up in daily decisions about fuel, food, and access to land. As de Merode describes it, the system asks some of the poorest populations to bear the cost of protecting assets valued globally. The pressure on the park is reinforced by conflict. Since the mid-1990s, eastern Congo&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/can-nature-outcompete-war-in-eastern-congo/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/can-nature-outcompete-war-in-eastern-congo/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317207</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Why conservation needs stories of progress</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/why-conservation-needs-stories-of-progress/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/why-conservation-needs-stories-of-progress/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Apr 2026 14:35:59 +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/20/2026/04/02002328/00-car_2608143z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317056</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Central African Republic, and Congo Basin]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Hope and optimism, Journalism, Nature-based climate solutions, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[I’m writing this from deep in the Congo rainforest after a day spent observing elephants and gorillas. The presence of such magnificent creatures is both invigorating and a reminder of how much still endures. Yet the pressures are visible, too. Logging roads push deeper each year. Poaching still threatens wildlife that once seemed unassailable. Industrial [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[I’m writing this from deep in the Congo rainforest after a day spent observing elephants and gorillas. The presence of such magnificent creatures is both invigorating and a reminder of how much still endures. Yet the pressures are visible, too. Logging roads push deeper each year. Poaching still threatens wildlife that once seemed unassailable. Industrial agriculture and mining concessions hover at the edges of protected areas. In parts of this region, violence and instability make conservation work extraordinarily difficult. The challenges are real, and far from abstract. What strikes me most, though, is something else: the persistence of the people who continue to protect these places despite such constraints. Rangers working with modest equipment and salaries. Communities experimenting with ways to sustain forests while supporting their families. Researchers and local leaders documenting wildlife populations and defending the conditions that allow them to recover. Many of these efforts operate with limited funding and little recognition. Yet over time, they accumulate into something meaningful. Conservation often advances this way. Not through singular breakthroughs, but through patient work carried out in difficult circumstances. In the Congo Basin, there are landscapes where wildlife populations have stabilized or begun to recover because people refused to accept decline as inevitable. These examples rarely make headlines. They unfold slowly and unevenly. But they demonstrate something important: when knowledge, commitment and collaboration come together, progress remains possible. Broadening the story of conservation This is the spirit behind the launch of Mongabay’s Solutions Desk. For years, environmental reporting has&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/why-conservation-needs-stories-of-progress/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/why-conservation-needs-stories-of-progress/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317056</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A human rights center opens a path to justice for Indigenous Peoples in the Central African Republic</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-human-rights-center-opens-a-path-to-justice-for-indigenous-peoples-in-the-central-african-republic/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-human-rights-center-opens-a-path-to-justice-for-indigenous-peoples-in-the-central-african-republic/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Apr 2026 04:12:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Akana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Christophe Assogba]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/07035947/PXL_20260315_160605119-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317061</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Central African Republic, and Congo Basin]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Human Rights, Human-wildlife Conflict, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Protected Areas, Social Conflict, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BAYANGA, Central African Republic — Across the Congo Basin, conservation has long been fraught with a difficult contradiction. Protected areas, meant to preserve wildlife, have at times also been the scene of allegations of human rights violations against Indigenous peoples. Over the past decade, Mongabay has documented allegations of beatings, intimidation and other abuses linked [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BAYANGA, Central African Republic — Across the Congo Basin, conservation has long been fraught with a difficult contradiction. Protected areas, meant to preserve wildlife, have at times also been the scene of allegations of human rights violations against Indigenous peoples. Over the past decade, Mongabay has documented allegations of beatings, intimidation and other abuses linked to park rangers and conservation operations in countries such as Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Several conservation actors have been implicated, including organizations such as WWF and African Parks. These organizations have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, even as audits, investigations and testimonies have kept these concerns at the center of the debate. See Also: WWF’s top leader acknowledges reforms in wake of abuse allegations It is against this backdrop that a quieter, lesser-known story is emerging in the southwest of the Central African Republic. The Bayanga Human Rights Center receives funding from several conservation actors, including the WWF. For the WWF, the center also serves as a mediation mechanism, allowing individuals affected by conservation activities in Dzanga-Sangha National Park to express their concerns and grievances. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. In Bayanga, a forest town on the edge of the Dzanga-Sangha Protected Areas (DSPA) complex, a small human rights center has become an unexpected source of trust for the Ba’aka, one of the most widely-known Indigenous forest peoples of the Congo Basin, as well as for the Bilo, non-Indigenous communities living alongside the Ba’aka. The center does&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-human-rights-center-opens-a-path-to-justice-for-indigenous-peoples-in-the-central-african-republic/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-human-rights-center-opens-a-path-to-justice-for-indigenous-peoples-in-the-central-african-republic/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317061</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A Congo Basin-led bioeconomy could boost Central Africa’s green transition (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Apr 2026 16:27:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Metolo Foyet]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/05115844/ForestElephant.Loxodonta.cyclotis_NgounieGabon_marcusgmeineriNaturalistBYNC4.0-BANNER-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317006</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Biodiversity, Bioeconomy, Commentary, Community Development, Environment, Forest Products, Forests, Green, Rainforests, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Trade, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional Medicine, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Congo Basin, often referred to as the “second lungs of Earth,” holds immense potential for leading Central Africa’s green transition. Home to the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest and second-largest reserve of drinkable water (holding 50% of all of Africa’s water resources), the region covers more than 3.7 million square kilometers (nearly 1.5 million square [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Congo Basin, often referred to as the “second lungs of Earth,” holds immense potential for leading Central Africa’s green transition. Home to the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest and second-largest reserve of drinkable water (holding 50% of all of Africa’s water resources), the region covers more than 3.7 million square kilometers (nearly 1.5 million square miles), absorbs more carbon dioxide than any other region in the world — with an annual net carbon dioxide absorption six times that of the Amazon Rainforest — and spans six countries (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon), storing around 30 billion metric tons of carbon. This critical ecological zone harbors immense biodiversity and natural resources, making it a strategic hub for the emerging global bioeconomy. However, learning from the Eastern African experience, realizing this potential requires a shift from extractive industries to sustainable, nature-based economies that prioritize long-term ecological health and local prosperity. Beyond its ecological importance — containing more than 10,000 species of plants, 1,000 species of birds, and 400 species of mammals, including iconic ones like the forest elephant and the critically endangered western lowland gorilla — the region stands at a critical juncture in the global minerals race, holding a significant share of the world&#8217;s strategic assets like lithium, cobalt, gold, and rare earth elements — key components shaping global power and the future of the energy transition. Despite this wealth, the Congo Basin’s economic strategies have often relied on the “dig&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-congo-basin-led-bioeconomy-could-boost-central-africas-green-transition-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317006</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A unique clearing in Central Africa draws elephants from the dense forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-unique-clearing-in-central-africa-draws-elephants-from-the-dense-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-unique-clearing-in-central-africa-draws-elephants-from-the-dense-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Apr 2026 16:14:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Akana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/06160058/car_2626790x-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317009</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Central African Republic, and Congo Basin]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Elephants, Endangered Species, Forests, Mammals, Megafauna, National Parks, Parks, Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BAYANGA, Central African Republic — Throughout most of Central Africa, it’s difficult to spot herds of forest elephants all at once. They move through dense rainforest, remaining elusive, their lives obscured by thick vegetation and distance. For tourists and even researchers, direct encounters are largely a matter of chance. But Dzanga Bai is different. Often [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BAYANGA, Central African Republic — Throughout most of Central Africa, it’s difficult to spot herds of forest elephants all at once. They move through dense rainforest, remaining elusive, their lives obscured by thick vegetation and distance. For tourists and even researchers, direct encounters are largely a matter of chance. But Dzanga Bai is different. Often called the “village of elephants,” this mineral-rich clearing in Dzanga-Sangha National Park in southwestern Central African Republic draws large numbers of forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) out of the dense forest. Here, in the Congo Basin, they gather in the open, dozens at a time, sometimes hundreds, feeding, interacting and returning again and again to a place where elephants can be seen in the open. “The Dzanga Bai is the only known clearing where you get hundreds of forest elephants,” said Ivonne Kienast, a behavioral biologist with the Elephant Listening Project at Cornell University, U.S., who has been working in Dzanga-Sangha since 2021. “You have other clearings where, if you&#8217;re lucky, the maximum number of elephants you can see will be 40 or 50. But here, the minimum is 40 or 50.” Researchers observing forest elephants in this clearing say the primary attraction is mineral-rich soil. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. At peak instances, the numbers climb higher still. “Two hundred and eleven was the count last year in December,” Kienast said. “And that&#8217;s just at one [instance].” The forest elephants emerge from the forest edge, stepping cautiously into the open. Some wade knee-deep into pools,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-unique-clearing-in-central-africa-draws-elephants-from-the-dense-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/a-unique-clearing-in-central-africa-draws-elephants-from-the-dense-forests/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317009</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Ancient’ carbon venting from lakes in the Congo Basin peatlands: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/ancient-carbon-venting-from-lakes-in-the-congo-basin-peatlands-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/ancient-carbon-venting-from-lakes-in-the-congo-basin-peatlands-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Mar 2026 13:35:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/30170255/9_dinghy-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316575</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Climate, Conservation, Forest Carbon, Forests, Lakes, Peatlands, Research, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Across the central Congo Basin lies a bastion of carbon that scientists are just beginning to understand. First mapped only about a decade ago, the Cuvette Centrale peatlands are the size of England and hold some 30 billion metric tons of carbon. Over thousands of years, the swampy conditions in this part of Central Africa [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Across the central Congo Basin lies a bastion of carbon that scientists are just beginning to understand. First mapped only about a decade ago, the Cuvette Centrale peatlands are the size of England and hold some 30 billion metric tons of carbon. Over thousands of years, the swampy conditions in this part of Central Africa have slowed the decay of plant matter falling from the forest above. The process leads to the development of peat, and the peatlands in the Congo Basin are the largest known repository in the tropics. Across the millennia, enormous amounts of carbon have built up and been stashed away inside the peat. Recent research now suggests that some of that very old carbon may be returning to the atmosphere through lakes that form amid peatlands — similar to the way smoke escapes a fireplace through a chimney, according to the authors. It’s a finding that opens new questions about how we account for the cycling of carbon through these ecosystems and the resulting influence on climate change. Water draining forested landscapes meets water draining savanna landscapes at this confluence between the Fimi and Kasaï rivers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The reddish color of the Kasaï River originates from the iron oxides associated with clays of suspended sediments transported by the river, which are more predominant in savanna compared to forest. The much darker color of the Fimi River, which drains Lake Mai Ndombe, stems from organic materials that leach from leaves and soils&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/ancient-carbon-venting-from-lakes-in-the-congo-basin-peatlands-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/ancient-carbon-venting-from-lakes-in-the-congo-basin-peatlands-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316575</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservation depends on rangers. Their wellbeing is often an afterthought</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/conservation-depends-on-rangers-their-wellbeing-is-often-an-afterthought/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/conservation-depends-on-rangers-their-wellbeing-is-often-an-afterthought/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Mar 2026 09:27:07 +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/20/2026/03/25132348/drc_20260323_121951202-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316495</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Endangered Environmentalists, Environment, Protected Areas, Violence, Wildlife, and Wildlife Rangers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; The gunfire began just before six in the morning. At first, Christine Lain thought it might be a drill. Upemba National Park had run exercises like this before. Rangers had trained for the possibility that armed groups might one day come for the headquarters. The park had lived with that risk for years. But [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; The gunfire began just before six in the morning. At first, Christine Lain thought it might be a drill. Upemba National Park had run exercises like this before. Rangers had trained for the possibility that armed groups might one day come for the headquarters. The park had lived with that risk for years. But the sound did not stop. It intensified. “We immediately realized that the intensity of the firing was so high that it was certainly not a drill,” she later told Mongabay’s Ashoka Mukpo. What followed lasted most of the day. By the end, three rangers and four civilian staff were dead. Survivors had hidden in a crawl space while armed men searched the building below them. Others ran through tall grass under fire, unsure who would make it out. “Everybody got traumatized,” Lain said. “The whole station, everybody.” The attack on Upemba in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was unusually large. It was also familiar. Across the world’s protected areas, violence against rangers is no longer rare. “214 of our colleagues have been killed in confrontations with militias intent on poaching and illegal invasions,” Emmanuel de Merode, the director of Virunga National Park in DRC, who was shot twice through the chest in an attack in 2014, told Mongabay last week. In some places it is tied to organized poaching. In others, to insurgencies, land disputes, or politics that extend well beyond park boundaries. The details change. The pattern does not. Rangers are often&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/conservation-depends-on-rangers-their-wellbeing-is-often-an-afterthought/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/conservation-depends-on-rangers-their-wellbeing-is-often-an-afterthought/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316495</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How a community defended its ancestral forest from logging</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/how-a-community-defended-its-ancestral-forest-from-logging/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/how-a-community-defended-its-ancestral-forest-from-logging/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Mar 2026 15:45:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/09162922/gabon_massaha_2149_25-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315762</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Gabon]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Conservation Technology, data, Deforestation, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Logging, Mapping, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Solutions, Technology, Traditional Knowledge, Tropical Forests, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#160; To the cartographers of the modern conservation world, the forests of northeastern Gabon can appear almost empty. Satellite images show a deep green canopy stretching across the Congo Basin. Global datasets classify large tracts as “intact forest landscapes”, areas supposedly free of industrial disturbance and largely untouched by people. On paper, such forests look [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&nbsp; To the cartographers of the modern conservation world, the forests of northeastern Gabon can appear almost empty. Satellite images show a deep green canopy stretching across the Congo Basin. Global datasets classify large tracts as “intact forest landscapes”, areas supposedly free of industrial disturbance and largely untouched by people. On paper, such forests look pristine. The reality, as residents of the village of Massaha know well, is more complicated. In recent years the community has been fighting to protect a stretch of rainforest south of their village from industrial logging. The forest, known locally as Ibola Dja Bana Ba Massaha—“the reserve of all Massaha’s children”—lies within a concession once allocated to a logging company. For generations the people of Massaha have hunted, fished and farmed there. Sacred lakes and ritual sites lie beneath the canopy. The remains of ancestral villages dot the forest floor. Yet none of this appeared on the maps that guided official decisions. The gap between these two views of the forest is the subject of a recent study examining Massaha’s campaign to document its territory. The researchers compared global conservation maps and colonial-era cartography with a detailed map created by the community itself. The result reveals something striking: the forest that appears empty in official datasets is, in fact, layered with history and meaning. Image courtesy of Ivindo FM. Massaha’s map emerged from an unusually collaborative process. Using participatory geographic tools, villagers gathered to project satellite images of their territory onto a wall. Elders identified&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/how-a-community-defended-its-ancestral-forest-from-logging/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/how-a-community-defended-its-ancestral-forest-from-logging/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315762</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Growing number of Indigenous Twa forced out of DRC’s forests and into towns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/growing-number-of-indigenous-twa-forced-out-of-drcs-forests-and-into-towns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/growing-number-of-indigenous-twa-forced-out-of-drcs-forests-and-into-towns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Mar 2026 21:13:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jackson Muhindo SivulyamwengeJérémie Kyaswekera]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/11210132/Untitled-design-e1773263427861-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315597</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Economics, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Land Conflict, Politics, Poverty, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[NORTH KIVU, Democratic Republic of Congo — Over the last decade, towns in the north of North Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have seen the increasing migration of Indigenous Batwa people, according to censuses seen by Mongabay. Traditionally living by hunting and gathering in the Congo Basin forests, many Twa people (also [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[NORTH KIVU, Democratic Republic of Congo — Over the last decade, towns in the north of North Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have seen the increasing migration of Indigenous Batwa people, according to censuses seen by Mongabay. Traditionally living by hunting and gathering in the Congo Basin forests, many Twa people (also known as Batwa) have now abandoned their forest-based livelihoods to settle in towns, far from ecosystems their ancestors relied on and developed deep knowledge about. According to Batwa people who spoke to Mongabay, the reasons are various. Some have long been expelled from protected areas, while others are fleeing the growing insecurity in the region. Other groups of Batwa are seeking to escape land conflicts with neighboring Bantu communities, or to find alternative livelihoods in the face of difficulties accessing forest resources, thus severing their ties with the forest. Filipo Anania, one of the Twa community leaders we met in Mavivi, at the Ngite camp, says the outmigration from the forest began with the expulsion of his community from Virunga National Park around 1994. He says they hadn’t initially planned to live in the city and that this move to an urban environment was by no means a conscious choice, but a decision linked to a series of events that forced them to relocate several times. “At first, we were asked to leave the area around the park. We went to settle in Kubeti, near PK25 [in the middle of the forest in outside the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/growing-number-of-indigenous-twa-forced-out-of-drcs-forests-and-into-towns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/growing-number-of-indigenous-twa-forced-out-of-drcs-forests-and-into-towns/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315597</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Partnering up to run a DRC reserve: Interview with Forgotten Parks’ Christine Lain</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/partnering-up-to-run-a-drc-reserve-interview-with-forgotten-parks-christine-lain/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/partnering-up-to-run-a-drc-reserve-interview-with-forgotten-parks-christine-lain/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Feb 2026 12:51:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/06123416/Christine-Lain-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313875</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, NGOs, Politics, Protected Areas, Wildlife, and Wildlife Rangers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the early 2010s, Upemba National Park in the southern Democratic Republic of Congo was a case study in the dysfunction of some protected areas in Africa. Park rangers and staff were regularly harassed or killed by armed militias embroiled in the region’s long-running conflicts, and wildlife numbers had declined sharply as a result of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the early 2010s, Upemba National Park in the southern Democratic Republic of Congo was a case study in the dysfunction of some protected areas in Africa. Park rangers and staff were regularly harassed or killed by armed militias embroiled in the region’s long-running conflicts, and wildlife numbers had declined sharply as a result of widespread poaching. After years of fighting and neglect, by 2012 Upemba was in what one conservationist described as a “pitiful state.” In 2016, Robert Muir, a program director with the Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), founded Forgotten Parks. FZS had been working with the ICCN, the DRC government institute in charge of the country’s protected areas, on a management strategy for Upemba. But after the park’s chief warden was killed in an ambush in late 2012, FZS pulled out. Muir and Forgotten Parks offered to step in, and in 2017 they signed a 15-year deal with the DRC government to run Upemba directly. The deal was part of a wider trend of public-private partnerships (PPPs) for conservation in protected areas in Africa. In parks where governments are either unwilling or unable to manage day-to-day operations on their own, many have turned to foreign NGOs like Forgotten Parks and the higher-profile African Parks to help. According to a 2024 study published in PNAS, there are now more than 127 protected areas in 16 countries that are managed under this arrangement. Mongabay’s Ashoka Mukpo spoke with Christine Lain, the DRC director of Forgotten Parks and current manager of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/partnering-up-to-run-a-drc-reserve-interview-with-forgotten-parks-christine-lain/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313875</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What’s next for the major pledge to halt &#038; reverse Congo Basin deforestation?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/whats-next-for-the-major-pledge-to-halt-reverse-congo-basin-deforestation/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/whats-next-for-the-major-pledge-to-halt-reverse-congo-basin-deforestation/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Feb 2026 23:01:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/05115844/ForestElephant.Loxodonta.cyclotis_NgounieGabon_marcusgmeineriNaturalistBYNC4.0-BANNER-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313829</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Central Africa, Central African Republic, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Policy, Finance, Forests, Politics, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Copince Ngoma, a member of the Bakouele Indigenous community, has relied on the lush green Congo Basin rainforest his whole life. His village’s forests, located in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Sangha region, are a wide repertoire for hunting, fishing and medicinal plants to care for his family. But in the last few years, as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Copince Ngoma, a member of the Bakouele Indigenous community, has relied on the lush green Congo Basin rainforest his whole life. His village’s forests, located in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Sangha region, are a wide repertoire for hunting, fishing and medicinal plants to care for his family. But in the last few years, as elsewhere across the world’s second-largest rainforest, the scars of unsustainable mining practices have cleared wildlife habitats, polluted waters and dwindled resources. “We used to drink this water, but not anymore. … We used to hunt gazelles, monkeys. … Now, to catch anything, you have to travel at least 20 kilometers,” about 12 miles away, he told Mongabay. “We’re suffering.” This is part of a central and recurring issue across the region, which brought together high-level policymakers during a Land Dialogues webinar on Jan. 27 to discuss the recent $2.5 billion pledge to conserve forests that millions of people, including Ngoma, depend on for their material and cultural survival. The pledge is part of a major political and financial commitment announced last November during the COP30 U.N. climate conference: the Belém Call to Action for the Congo Basin Forests. Land clearance with fire in the Congo Basin. Image by John Cannon/Mongabay. For some policymakers, it was the first time they were speaking publicly about the implementation priorities of the pledge, what it will look like in practice, the inclusion of Indigenous peoples and local communities in the commitment and the challenges the call to action faces.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/whats-next-for-the-major-pledge-to-halt-reverse-congo-basin-deforestation/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313829</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The year in rainforests 2025: Deforestation fell; the risks did not</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-year-in-rainforests-2025-deforestation-fell-the-risks-did-not/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-year-in-rainforests-2025-deforestation-fell-the-risks-did-not/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Dec 2025 20:11:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/26174503/14-brunei_251114145042_0254z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312083</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Amazon, Asia, Brazil, Central Africa, Colombia, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Global, Indonesia, Latin America, Peru, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Biodiversity credits, Carbon Credits, Carbon Market, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Green, Illegal Logging, Illegal Trade, Indigenous Peoples, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Redd, Regulations, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Technology, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Year-end review]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The story of the world’s tropical forests in 2025 was not one of dramatic reversal, but one shaped by accumulated pressure. In several regions, deforestation slowed. In others, loss continued in less visible forms, shaped by fire, degradation, and political choices not limited to large-scale clearing alone. Governments continued to speak the language of protection, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The story of the world’s tropical forests in 2025 was not one of dramatic reversal, but one shaped by accumulated pressure. In several regions, deforestation slowed. In others, loss continued in less visible forms, shaped by fire, degradation, and political choices not limited to large-scale clearing alone. Governments continued to speak the language of protection, even as infrastructure, extraction, and energy projects advanced into forest landscapes. Progress was real, though uneven, and the distance between policy commitments and conditions on the ground remained substantial. What distinguished the year was the growing influence of indirect forces, rather than a single driver of loss. Heat, drought, and past damage increasingly shaped forest outcomes, even where new clearing slowed. Commodity markets rewarded persistence more than short-lived price spikes. Finance shifted away from individual projects toward broader fiscal tools. Enforcement mattered, alongside institutional credibility and the ability to operate consistently over time. At the global level, climate diplomacy continued, with limited appetite for binding decisions. COP30 avoided collapse and deferred the hardest choices. Forests remained prominent in rhetoric while enforceable outcomes remained limited. Market-based tools—carbon credits, trade regulation, and conservation finance—advanced unevenly, shaped as much by political confidence and capacity as by technical design. Taken together, 2025 underscored that tropical forests are now shaped more by interacting systems rather than single policies. Finance, science, enforcement, conflict, and climate stress increasingly operate together, often reinforcing one another. This review traces where those systems functioned, where they faltered, and what that means for the forests caught&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/the-year-in-rainforests-2025-deforestation-fell-the-risks-did-not/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312083</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Congo’s communities are creating a 1-million-hectare biodiversity corridor</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/congos-communities-are-creating-a-1-million-hectare-biodiversity-corridor/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/congos-communities-are-creating-a-1-million-hectare-biodiversity-corridor/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Dec 2025 21:46:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie Toto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/16164528/4-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311493</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Indigenous Peoples, Landscape Restoration, Rainforests, Reforestation, Restoration, Sustainable Forest Management, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Dominique Bikaba’s family was once displaced from vibrant rainforests in the Congo Basin to make way for a sweeping national park. Today, a conservationist who also champions the protection of endangered gorillas in these forests, Bikaba is embarking on a journey to conserve this ecosystem — in a way he says is more just. His [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Dominique Bikaba’s family was once displaced from vibrant rainforests in the Congo Basin to make way for a sweeping national park. Today, a conservationist who also champions the protection of endangered gorillas in these forests, Bikaba is embarking on a journey to conserve this ecosystem — in a way he says is more just. His organization has begun securing lands for communities and wildlife to create a 1-million-hectare (2.5-million-acre) corridor that spans the space between Kahuzi-Biega National Park and Itombwe Nature Reserve in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Despite the ongoing conflict between the DRC government and the M23 armed group in the east that has slowed down the project, the corridor is more than halfway toward its goal. “The corridor is about conserving a block of forest between the two protected areas, allowing species to move safely from one place to another,” Bikaba says. “It&#8217;s for restoring these landscapes and wildlife in the region, but also to promote the livelihoods of these communities. For that, there&#8217;s a process to legally secure these lands by the Congolese government through community forestry concessions.” Two people collecting geographic coordinates for the community forestry land Asu’u in the Basile Chiefdom in March 2020. Image courtesy of Strong Roots. The initiative has been well received by local authorities, who say it could connect the two sites not only geographically, but also in terms of biodiversity. “Species will be able to migrate from one point to another, and this connection will also enable the connection&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/congos-communities-are-creating-a-1-million-hectare-biodiversity-corridor/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/congos-communities-are-creating-a-1-million-hectare-biodiversity-corridor/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311493</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>West and Central Africa tackle coastal erosion</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/west-and-central-africa-tackle-coastal-erosion/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/west-and-central-africa-tackle-coastal-erosion/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Dec 2025 12:22:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Adrienne EngonoCarolle AhodekonCharles KolouChristophe AssogbaRoland KlohiRosie Pioth]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Christophe Assogba]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/16121252/image8__Une-maison-progressivement-engloutie-par-la-Mer-a-Avepozo-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311461</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Benin, Cameroon, Central Africa, Congo Basin, Cote D'Ivoire, Togo, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Economics, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Oceans, Politics, Pollution, Solutions, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Across many parts of Africa’s Atlantic coastline, the sea is advancing several metres inland each year, destroying homes, infrastructure, farmland and heritage sites. Many coastal communities have already been erased from the map. Several factors combine to explain the threatening loss of land along the West and Central African coast. The effects of global climate [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Across many parts of Africa’s Atlantic coastline, the sea is advancing several metres inland each year, destroying homes, infrastructure, farmland and heritage sites. Many coastal communities have already been erased from the map. Several factors combine to explain the threatening loss of land along the West and Central African coast. The effects of global climate change, with rising sea levels and warmer waters causing more extreme weather, are multiplied by large and small infrastructure projects that have disrupted coastal ecosystems’ natural resilience to the power of ocean waves and currents. The Ivorian village of Lahou-Kpanda, standing on a peninsula in a lagoon fed by the Bandama River, has become a dramatic symbol of coastal erosion along Cote d’Ivoire’s 570 kilometers (355 miles) of coastline. Powerful waves, exacerbated by rising sea levels linked to climate change, are undermining the coastline, causing it to erode by more than 2 meters (6.5 feet) per year. &#8220;Our village used to stretch over 2 kilometers [1.2 miles]. Today, it&#8217;s only 200 m [650 ft] wide,&#8221; reports Emmanuel Idi, a young local guide in his 20s. The construction of the Kossou Dam in the 1970s altered the flow of the Bandama River and disrupted the natural balance that protected the coast, exacerbating erosion. Several notable colonial-era buildings here, including the district office, the hospital and the prison, have already disappeared. Only the church, built in 1933, with its stone walls and orange-tiled roof, still stands firm against the waves’ onslaught. The most harrowing aspect is the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/west-and-central-africa-tackle-coastal-erosion/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/west-and-central-africa-tackle-coastal-erosion/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311461</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Top-down projects, exotic trees, weak tenure: Congo Basin restoration misses the mark</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/top-down-projects-exotic-trees-weak-tenure-congo-basin-restoration-misses-the-mark/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/top-down-projects-exotic-trees-weak-tenure-congo-basin-restoration-misses-the-mark/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Dec 2025 16:49:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Amindeh Blaise Atabong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/11145146/a.-Banner-Loxodonta_cyclotis_3970045-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311149</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Central Africa, Central African Republic, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Gabon, Republic of Congo, and Rwanda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agroforestry, Biodiversity, carbon, Climate, Conservation, Forest Carbon, forest degradation, Forests, Logging, Reforestation, Slash-and-burn, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Congo Basin, the world’s largest tropical rainforest after the Amazon, is under mounting pressure. The Congo’s vast green canopy, stretching across six countries and storing more carbon than the Amazon, is vanishing at an alarming rate — losing an average of 1.79 million hectares (4.42 million acres) per year between 2015 and 2019. The [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Congo Basin, the world’s largest tropical rainforest after the Amazon, is under mounting pressure. The Congo’s vast green canopy, stretching across six countries and storing more carbon than the Amazon, is vanishing at an alarming rate — losing an average of 1.79 million hectares (4.42 million acres) per year between 2015 and 2019. The key drivers are well known: small-scale slash-and-burn agriculture, logging for fuelwood, and weak land governance. In response, some governments, international donors and NGOs have turned to reforestation projects as a cornerstone of the region’s climate and biodiversity strategies. But despite a panoply of projects — from tree-planting drives to agroforestry schemes — newly published research suggests that much of what’s happening in the name of “forest restoration” may not be restoring forests at all — but largely focused on nonnative, commodity species. The study analyzed 64 publications covering 26 initiatives in five countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Cameroon, Gabon, Rwanda, and the Central African Republic. The findings paint a complex picture of progress over the last two decades — one where the rhetoric of “restoration” often outpaces the reality on the ground. On paper, Central African governments have made major commitments to the Congo Basin. Under the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100) and the Bonn Challenge, governments pledged to restore 25% of degraded land by this year. International donors, including the European Union, World Bank, as well as the French, German, Danish and U.K. development agencies, have poured millions of dollars into&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/top-down-projects-exotic-trees-weak-tenure-congo-basin-restoration-misses-the-mark/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311149</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>An Empire of Nature: African Parks and Rwanda’s Nyungwe Forest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/an-empire-of-nature-african-parks-and-rwandas-nyungwe-forest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/an-empire-of-nature-african-parks-and-rwandas-nyungwe-forest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Dec 2025 11:52:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ashoka Mukpo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/04201035/Nyungwe-8-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310435</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Beyond the Safari]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Congo Basin, East Africa, and Rwanda]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Forests, Governance, Land Conflict, Law, Law Enforcement, National Parks, Parks, Politics, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Social Conflict, Tourism, Violence, and Wildlife Rangers]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[NYUNGWE NATIONAL PARK, Rwanda — It’s a cool morning in the montane rainforest of western Rwanda’s Nyungwe National Park. Sunbeams stream down from the canopy, glowing in the mist. Birdsong pierces the still air. Jacques Habimana, a baby-faced 23-year-old trail guide, stops abruptly, pressing a finger to his lips. He points toward the treetops. A [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This is the fifth story in the Mongabay Series – Beyond the Safari. Read the others here. NYUNGWE NATIONAL PARK, Rwanda — It’s a cool morning in the montane rainforest of western Rwanda’s Nyungwe National Park. Sunbeams stream down from the canopy, glowing in the mist. Birdsong pierces the still air. Jacques Habimana, a baby-faced 23-year-old trail guide, stops abruptly, pressing a finger to his lips. He points toward the treetops. A troop of a dozen or so blue monkeys rustles in the leaves, jumping from branch to branch and peering down with eerie orange eyes ringed with gray fur. They skitter back into the shadows. A few meters down, the trail opens into a panoramic view of the hills beyond — dark, undulating waves that roll into the horizon. A blue monkey (Cercopithecus mitis) in Rwanda&#8217;s Nyungwe National Park. Image by Ashoka Mukpo for Mongabay. To walk through Nyungwe’s emerald tangles is to be bathe in nature&#8217;s quiet majesty. One of the largest montane rainforests in Africa, its treetops host eastern chimpanzees, colobus monkeys, and 11 other primate species. Two hundred different kinds of orchids grow here, upon which one of 300 varieties of butterfly might land. A bird-watcher’s paradise, 30 of its 350 or so avian species are only found here in East Africa’s Albertine Rift. In 2023, the 1,019-square-kilometer (393-square-mile) park was bestowed with World Heritage status by UNESCO. By any measure, it is a special place. Habimana’s shirtsleeve displays a circular patch with two letters in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/an-empire-of-nature-african-parks-and-rwandas-nyungwe-forest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310435</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Norway’s multibillion-dollar bet on forests: An interview with Minister Eriksen</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/norways-multibillion-dollar-bet-on-forests-an-interview-with-minister-eriksen/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/norways-multibillion-dollar-bet-on-forests-an-interview-with-minister-eriksen/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Nov 2025 09:54:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Akana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/24152906/Banner-ZB-Rhett-Butler-gabon_220163-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310090</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Negotiating Africa's Energy Future]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Congo Basin and Norway]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Conservation Finance, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Interviews, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With the announcement of two major forest finance initiatives at the climate talks in Belém, Brazil, there is renewed hope that the Congo Basin, home to the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest, could finally secure the sustained, equitable climate funding it has long been promised. The first was the Tropical Forest Forever Fund (TFFF), unveiled by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[With the announcement of two major forest finance initiatives at the climate talks in Belém, Brazil, there is renewed hope that the Congo Basin, home to the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest, could finally secure the sustained, equitable climate funding it has long been promised. The first was the Tropical Forest Forever Fund (TFFF), unveiled by Brazil, which is backed by $6.7 billion in commitments. A lion’s share of this funding is coming from a $3 billion pledge from Norway. The second was the official launch of the Canopy Trust on Nov. 17. The trust, operationalized by the Switzerland-based Catalytic Finance Foundation, has already raised $93 million, with a goal of mobilizing $1 billion by 2030 to support sustainable enterprises and early-stage, high-impact forest projects in the Congo Basin. It does so by leveraging public and philanthropic money to attract private investments. Over the past two decades, the Congo Basin has attracted financing from a growing constellation of forest funds, often with big ambitions but with uneven delivery and results. Early efforts included the African Development Bank-hosted Congo Basin Forest Fund established in 2008, which mobilized about $186 million, followed by the Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI), now the dominant player, channeling performance-based finance and much of the $1.5 billion pledged at COP26 held in Glasgow, Scotland, in 2021. Newer instruments such as the Global Environment Facility’s Congo Basin Sustainable Landscapes Program add to this crowded landscape. Finance also flows from other channels like the World Bank, the European Union-backed ECOFAC&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/norways-multibillion-dollar-bet-on-forests-an-interview-with-minister-eriksen/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310090</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>To fix the climate, simply empower Indigenous people (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/to-fix-the-climate-simply-empower-indigenous-people-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/to-fix-the-climate-simply-empower-indigenous-people-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Nov 2025 18:58:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kiki Taufik]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/12/29031511/ecuador_20230401_215052697-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=309219</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Brazil, Congo Basin, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Environment, Finance, Funding, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Climate change is the defining issue of our age. While nations search for complex technological solutions at this year’s high-stakes climate meeting in the Amazon city of Belém, a simpler yet powerful answer has been waiting in the wings. I saw it firsthand in the forests of West Papua’s Bird’s Head Peninsula in the company [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Climate change is the defining issue of our age. While nations search for complex technological solutions at this year’s high-stakes climate meeting in the Amazon city of Belém, a simpler yet powerful answer has been waiting in the wings. I saw it firsthand in the forests of West Papua’s Bird’s Head Peninsula in the company of Indigenous youth from the Amazon, the Congo Basin, and Borneo. They showed me a truth that the world has been overlooking: one of the most effective climate solutions lies in empowering Indigenous people. In this way, we can prevent an immense amount of carbon emissions from deforestation and preserve priceless biodiversity and all the benefits we reap from it. It’s a strategy that more than pays for itself. A recent Forest Defender Camp at Sira village in Southwest Papua featured 89 delegates ranging from Papuan Indigenous youths from 7 customary areas to Indigenous representatives from communities in the Congo Basin, the Amazon, and Borneo. Image courtesy of Greenpeace. The first piece of good news is that it is simple. The rest of the good news is that we can put it into practice right now, and that it needn’t cost too much. Ending fossil fuels, transforming global food systems – these are essential but they’re expensive and they take time. They often require re-skilling whole workforces. While that hard and slow work is underway, Indonesia can score an immediate goal by finally enacting the Indigenous Peoples Bill, and by providing Indigenous communities access to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/to-fix-the-climate-simply-empower-indigenous-people-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-309219</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What might lie ahead for tropical forests (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/the-forests-future-tense-what-might-lie-ahead-for-the-tropics-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/the-forests-future-tense-what-might-lie-ahead-for-the-tropics-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Nov 2025 18:49:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/11/02172823/vietnam_163732z-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308689</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Congo Basin, and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Analysis, Artificial Intelligence, Climate Change, Commentary, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Regeneration, Forestry, Forests, Green, Indigenous Peoples, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Restoration, Technology, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Forests, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Heading into COP30, where tropical forests are set to be a central theme, it seemed worth attempting a thought experiment: to trace today’s trajectories a little further forward and imagine where they might lead. What follows are a series of scenarios—some improbable, others already taking shape. Part II In 2024, the tropics lost 6.7 million [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Heading into COP30, where tropical forests are set to be a central theme, it seemed worth attempting a thought experiment: to trace today’s trajectories a little further forward and imagine where they might lead. What follows are a series of scenarios—some improbable, others already taking shape. Part II In 2024, the tropics lost 6.7 million hectares of primary rainforest—an area the size of Panama, and nearly twice that of the year before. Fires were the main culprit for the first time on record. In Brazil, drought turned controlled burns into infernos; in Bolivia, policy incentives fanned the flames. Even the Congo, long a refuge, began to fray. Some say it might represent an inflection point. The data suggest less a turning point than problems long in motion and now gathering speed. The story, told in hectares and gigatons, is deceptively familiar: forest loss accelerates, restoration lags, and the 2030 pledge to halt deforestation recedes into fantasy. Yet behind the numbers, less visible forces are taking shape. The next phase of the forest crisis could be driven not only by chainsaws or cattle, but by feedback loops—ecological, economic, and technological—that we may not be well prepared to confront. Some are already visible; others may lie just beyond the horizon. Rainforest in Vietnam. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler. The vanishing state Across the western Amazon, authority is slipping away. In Peru’s Madre de Dios, dredges hum along black-water rivers where the police no longer patrol. In Colombia’s Caquetá, armed groups extort miners&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/11/the-forests-future-tense-what-might-lie-ahead-for-the-tropics-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-308689</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As forest elephants plummet, ebony trees decline in Central Africa’s rainforests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/as-forest-elephants-plummet-ebony-trees-decline-in-central-africas-rainforests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/as-forest-elephants-plummet-ebony-trees-decline-in-central-africas-rainforests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Aug 2025 13:05:04 +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/20/2025/08/29012123/F-afe-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305092</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Central Africa, and Congo Basin]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Ecosystems, Elephants, Environment, Forests, Indigenous Peoples, Ivory, Poaching, Rainforests, Saving Rainforests, Seed Dispersal, Solutions, Traditional Knowledge, Trees, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2017, when Vincent Deblauwe joined the Cameroon-based Congo Basin Institute (CBI) to study African ebony (Diospyros crassiflora) — economically valuable pitch-black, dense wood — the Indigenous Baka people accompanied him on his field trips. As they sat around campfires and trekked through the rainforests, Deblauwe tapped into their knowledge of flora and fauna, especially [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2017, when Vincent Deblauwe joined the Cameroon-based Congo Basin Institute (CBI) to study African ebony (Diospyros crassiflora) — economically valuable pitch-black, dense wood — the Indigenous Baka people accompanied him on his field trips. As they sat around campfires and trekked through the rainforests, Deblauwe tapped into their knowledge of flora and fauna, especially about ebony trees and their dispersal. They all told him that one animal was responsible for the ebony tree’s future survival: the forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis). Deblauwe observed that in forest patches without elephants, young ebony saplings were few and far between. Over the last three decades, relentless poaching, fueled by the insatiable demand for ivory in China and Southeast Asia, has plunged African forest elephant numbers by a whopping 86%, pushing them perilously close to extinction. However, the long-term impacts of this mass slaughter on the region’s trees remained largely unknown. In the years that followed, Deblauwe and his colleagues braided the Baka people’s knowledge about ebony and elephants with spatial, genetic and experimental data on ebony trees, providing the first convincing evidence of a mutualistic relationship between the two species, now published in a new study in the journal Science Advances. The researchers teased out why elephants play such a vital role in maintaining ebony trees in the forests. When elephants eat the large, pulpy ebony fruits and excrete the seeds, their dung protects those seeds from rodents and other animals that would otherwise eat and destroy them. Ebony fruits, with smooth pulp&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/as-forest-elephants-plummet-ebony-trees-decline-in-central-africas-rainforests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305092</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In eastern Congo’s war-torn forests, Augustin Basabose gave hope to gorillas and people</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/in-eastern-congos-war-torn-forests-augustin-basabose-gave-hope-to-gorillas-and-people/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/in-eastern-congos-war-torn-forests-augustin-basabose-gave-hope-to-gorillas-and-people/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Aug 2025 00:56:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/25003304/Augustin-K-Basabose-gorillas-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304855</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Environment, Environmental Heroes, Gorillas, Great Apes, Obituary, Primates, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;He was almost always smiling.&#8221; In eastern Congo, where war and poverty have long eroded hope, that smile and the restless energy behind it mattered as much as any conservation plan. Dr. Augustin Kanyunyi Basabose, who died suddenly on August 18th, 2025, gave communities and colleagues the sense that protecting gorillas was not only a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[&#8220;He was almost always smiling.&#8221; In eastern Congo, where war and poverty have long eroded hope, that smile and the restless energy behind it mattered as much as any conservation plan. Dr. Augustin Kanyunyi Basabose, who died suddenly on August 18th, 2025, gave communities and colleagues the sense that protecting gorillas was not only a duty but a possibility. In the Mikeno Sector of Virunga National Park, where mountain gorillas have endured despite decades of conflict, many credited his outlook with helping people believe that endurance was worth sustaining. Born on Idjwi Island in Lake Kivu, he grew up with his grandmother’s tales about animals, which instilled in him the idea that his life’s work lay with nature. A PhD in zoology at Kyoto University confirmed it. His thesis on chimpanzee ecology made him one of the first Congolese primatologists. That rarity brought responsibility. “I felt myself responsibility to go back home and inspire those young ones so that they can continue the research and the conservation and help the whole world to understand what is happening in DRC,” he said. He did so with resolve. At the International Gorilla Conservation Program he strengthened ranger-based monitoring across the Virunga Massif and Bwindi. Later, he founded Primate Expertise (PEx), a Congolese NGO that placed equal weight on science and people. Gorillas could not be saved without communities, he argued, so PEx dismantled snares, tracked apes with cameras, and planted food and medicinal trees germinated from seeds in gorilla dung. His “Ape&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/in-eastern-congos-war-torn-forests-augustin-basabose-gave-hope-to-gorillas-and-people/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304855</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Uncovering forest loss in gorilla park six months after M23 offensive in the DRC</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/uncovering-forest-loss-in-gorilla-park-six-months-after-m23-offensive-in-the-drc/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/uncovering-forest-loss-in-gorilla-park-six-months-after-m23-offensive-in-the-drc/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Jul 2025 21:23:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie TotoLatoya Abulu]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/01/28051436/52647428455_45a6f7984d_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303302</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Congo Basin, Democratic Republic Of Congo, and East Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Deforestation, Forest Loss, Forests, Human Rights, Illegal Logging, Illegal Trade, International Trade, Logging, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Trade, and War]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Six months ago, the M23 rebel group seized Goma, one of the largest cities in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the time since, local activists and satellite images compiled by Mongabay have identified sites with soaring forest loss in Kahuzi-Biega National Park, southwest of Goma. In this vast area of primary [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Six months ago, the M23 rebel group seized Goma, one of the largest cities in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the time since, local activists and satellite images compiled by Mongabay have identified sites with soaring forest loss in Kahuzi-Biega National Park, southwest of Goma. In this vast area of primary forest, home to eastern lowland gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri), researchers attribute these spikes of forest loss to the expansion of illegal charcoal production, collapsing conservation enforcement, and land conflicts. In November 2021, the Rwanda-backed rebel group resurfaced in the DRC’s North Kivu province after nearly a decade of relative absence from the region. Events escalated in January and February 2025, when M23 launched a rapid offensive and seized control of critical areas in both North and South Kivu provinces, including the respective provincial capitals, Goma and Bukavu. These areas remain under M23 control to this day. Beyond these major cities, the armed group also controls access to key mining zones and globally significant protected areas, such as Virunga National Park and Kahuzi-Biega National Park, both UNESCO World Heritage Sites. So far, the conflict is having a tangible impact on biodiversity by exacerbating existing conservation challenges and deforestation, researchers say. In Kahuzi-Biega, satellite images from Copernicus, the Earth observation component of the European Union’s space program, show sharp declines in forest cover between January and July 2025. Areas that were green six months ago, covered in lush, primary forest, now show patches of bare earth. Mongabay&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/uncovering-forest-loss-in-gorilla-park-six-months-after-m23-offensive-in-the-drc/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303302</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Signs of hope for rescued gorillas rewilded in DRC, but security concerns linger</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/signs-of-hope-for-rescued-gorillas-rewilded-in-drc-but-security-concerns-linger/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/signs-of-hope-for-rescued-gorillas-rewilded-in-drc-but-security-concerns-linger/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jun 2025 16:18:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie Toto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/25130705/Ndjingala-at-GRACE-sanctuary-before-transfer-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301329</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Democratic Republic Of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Culture, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Genetics, Gorillas, Indigenous Peoples, Law, National Parks, Parks, Poaching, Primates, Reintroductions, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Isangi, Lulingu, Mapendo and Ndjingala: these are the names of four Grauer’s gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri) that conservationists reintroduced to the wild in October 2024. After years in a sanctuary, the critically endangered gorillas were released via a rewilding facility in Virunga National Park in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. All four of the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Isangi, Lulingu, Mapendo and Ndjingala: these are the names of four Grauer’s gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri) that conservationists reintroduced to the wild in October 2024. After years in a sanctuary, the critically endangered gorillas were released via a rewilding facility in Virunga National Park in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. All four of the gorillas were brought to the Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education Center (GRACE) in the DRC as infants between 2010 and 2016, after their families were killed by poachers. At 16 hectares (40 acres), the sanctuary gave them the space to forage, socialize and play in a setting close to their natural habitat, under the watchful eyes of adoptive gorilla mothers. GRACE, which specializes in the rescue and rehabilitation of Grauer’s gorillas, a subspecies of the eastern gorilla (Gorilla beringei), said this was the largest reintroduction of eastern gorillas ever carried out in Africa. “I think everybody was just amazed at the natural gorilla behavior the four females showed,” Katie Fawcett, executive and science director at GRACE, tells Mongabay. “Slowly, they moved further and further away from the release site and started exploring, taking on a new diet.” The release back into the wild is the result of more than five years of rewilding work, led by GRACE, Virunga National Park, and local communities, with support from the NGOs Gorilla Doctors and Re:wild. Dr. Eddy Kambale Syaluha, head veterinarian with Gorilla Doctors, in a helicopter with one of the four eastern lowland gorillas in October 2024&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/signs-of-hope-for-rescued-gorillas-rewilded-in-drc-but-security-concerns-linger/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301329</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Report exposes safety complaints preceding fatal Perenco explosion in Gabon</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/report-exposes-safety-complaints-preceding-fatal-perenco-explosion-in-gabon/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/report-exposes-safety-complaints-preceding-fatal-perenco-explosion-in-gabon/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Jun 2025 16:13:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elodie Toto]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Christophe Assogba]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/06/19134224/gabon-ofc-offshore-dji0791-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301068</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Central Africa, Congo Basin, and Gabon]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conflict, Conservation, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Corporations, Energy, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Governance, Industry, Oil, Oil Drilling, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[“It’s really very, very, very dilapidated. … It’s really filthy, it’s not a safe platform. We had to block off some parts of the platform because the floor was covered in oil, and cables were lying around everywhere. It was dreadful.” These statements were collected by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a US- based nonprofit [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[“It’s really very, very, very dilapidated. … It’s really filthy, it’s not a safe platform. We had to block off some parts of the platform because the floor was covered in oil, and cables were lying around everywhere. It was dreadful.” These statements were collected by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a US- based nonprofit organization specialized in exposing environmental crimes. In May 2025, they published a report on the French oil company Perenco, revisiting an incident in Gabon that went almost unnoticed by the general public. On March 20, 2024, six people died on the Becuna oil platform off the coast of Gabon, in an explosion that occurred during a reconditioning operation. An explosion that, according to statements from witnesses on site at the time, could have been prevented. Only a few days earlier, another team had flagged safety issues on the platform, following oil leaks reported two weeks prior. “The necessary safety measures were not in place. When an accident happens on an oil site, this means that certain basic safety protocols haven’t been followed. And that was the case at Becuna,” states one of the sources cited in the report, who preferred to stay anonymous out of fear of retaliation from the company. The pollution of Oba field operated by Perenco in Gabon. Image courtesy of Bernard Christian Rekoula / EIA. Georges Mpaga, president of a network of civil society organizations in Gabon, the Réseau des organisations libres de la société civile pour la bonne gouvernance du&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/06/report-exposes-safety-complaints-preceding-fatal-perenco-explosion-in-gabon/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301068</doi>				</item>
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