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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/cote-divoire/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>Cote D&#039;Ivoire environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/cote-divoire/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>‘Rare animals, photography and Instagram’ could help an Ivorian rainforest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rare-animals-photography-and-instagram-could-help-an-ivorian-rainforest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rare-animals-photography-and-instagram-could-help-an-ivorian-rainforest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Jun 2026 10:31:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/23102330/yellow-bellied-wattle-eye-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321647</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Ecotourism, Environment, Forest Carbon, forest degradation, Forest Fragmentation, Forestry, Fragmentation, Mammals, Primates, Protected Areas, Restoration, Solutions, Tourism, Trees, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[DJOUROUTOU, Côte d’Ivoire — After a night of heavy rain, the chimpanzees of Taï Forest, in southwestern Côte d’Ivoire, like to sleep in. Early on a late May morning, chimpanzee guide Evariste Tere led a group of scientists and conservationists to a chimp group’s nesting site that he had marked with his GPS the previous [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[DJOUROUTOU, Côte d’Ivoire — After a night of heavy rain, the chimpanzees of Taï Forest, in southwestern Côte d’Ivoire, like to sleep in. Early on a late May morning, chimpanzee guide Evariste Tere led a group of scientists and conservationists to a chimp group’s nesting site that he had marked with his GPS the previous evening. The humans set off at 4:30 a.m., then spent an hour and a half waiting for the chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes ssp. verus) to wake up. Eventually, one of them did. Moisture gathered in her nest from the night’s rain gushed down, and then the other trees began to bend and creak as their occupants — one male, four females and a baby — stirred. One of the females, with the baby clinging to her belly, moved through the treetops to a bigger tree, then used the handholds and footholds of a strangler fig snaking its way up the trunk to reach the canopy. This didn’t seem to impress the male, who was already on the ground and, noticing the humans, wanted to get his group moving. He screamed angrily and beat his hands on the buttress root of a large tree so that the sound echoed through the forest like a drum. “He’s angry that they didn’t follow,” Tere said, adding that while Taï’s chimpanzees are used to seeing tourists, a group of five was bigger than normal, and the male did not want to linger. Instead, he would keep his charges moving until&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rare-animals-photography-and-instagram-could-help-an-ivorian-rainforest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/rare-animals-photography-and-instagram-could-help-an-ivorian-rainforest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321647</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Côte d’Ivoire’s tree-climbing crocodile needs to be protected, scientist says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/cote-divoires-tree-climbing-crocodile-needs-to-be-protected-scientist-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/cote-divoires-tree-climbing-crocodile-needs-to-be-protected-scientist-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Jun 2026 08:00:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/18070451/CK_croc_arms-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321414</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agroforestry, Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Forestry, Governance, Mammals, Primates, Reforestation, Science, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TAI NATIONAL PARK, Côte d’Ivoire — Environmental scientist Christine Kouman says she has always had a passion to take care of things that are overlooked or neglected. The West African slender-snouted crocodile and its habitat in what remains of the Upper Guinean Forest qualify on both fronts. Kouman, co-founder of a conservation NGO called EBURCO [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TAI NATIONAL PARK, Côte d’Ivoire — Environmental scientist Christine Kouman says she has always had a passion to take care of things that are overlooked or neglected. The West African slender-snouted crocodile and its habitat in what remains of the Upper Guinean Forest qualify on both fronts. Kouman, co-founder of a conservation NGO called EBURCO that is collaborating with authorities to protect and raise the profile of Taï National Park — a key stronghold of the slender-snouted crocodile (Mecistops cataphractus), — has studied this species in her native Côte d’Ivoire for more than a decade. Her work, which is supported by Project Mecistops, – has produced insights into this little-known species. The project is part of the Tropical Conservation Institute at Florida International University in the U.S. Mongabay recently accompanied Kouman on a night-time boat trip  in Taï National Park, up the Hana River, a place where she has undertaken many hours of grueling fieldwork. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. The slender-snouted crocodile has adapted to its rainforest environment by basking on trees and rocks that protrude from the river. Image courtesy of Christine Kouman. Mongabay: Tell us something about the slender-snouted crocodile. Christine Kouman: I can say it&#8217;s a gentle crocodile, because it feeds mainly on fish, and I&#8217;ve never heard of the species attacking people. I&#8217;ve been working on them for more than 10 years now, and during those 10 years, I touched them, handled them, but I still have all my fingers and my&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/cote-divoires-tree-climbing-crocodile-needs-to-be-protected-scientist-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/cote-divoires-tree-climbing-crocodile-needs-to-be-protected-scientist-says/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321414</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In search of the ‘rare and beautiful’ in an Ivorian rainforest</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-search-of-the-rare-and-beautiful-in-an-ivorian-rainforest/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-search-of-the-rare-and-beautiful-in-an-ivorian-rainforest/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Jun 2026 15:29:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/18144455/white-necked-picathartes-Picathartes-gymnocephalus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321437</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Ecosystems, Ecotourism, Environment, Forests, National Parks, Protected Areas, Rainforests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[TAÏ NATIONAL PARK, Côte d’Ivoire — The path that leads through the rainforest towards a nesting site for one of its most curious inhabitants is not made by humans but by animals. “It might be half a million years old, this animal path,” says Michele Menegon, a herpetologist and regular visitor to Taï National Park, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[TAÏ NATIONAL PARK, Côte d’Ivoire — The path that leads through the rainforest towards a nesting site for one of its most curious inhabitants is not made by humans but by animals. “It might be half a million years old, this animal path,” says Michele Menegon, a herpetologist and regular visitor to Taï National Park, in southwestern Côte d’Ivoire. It could of course be younger, he adds, but such a clear trail through the forest, following the contour of a ridge, is likely to be an ancient one — maintained by the passage of both Taï’s great and small, from forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) to diminutive antelopes like the Maxwell’s duiker (Philantomba maxwellii), whose piles of tiny black droppings are visible beside the path. The forest floor here is relatively clear of undergrowth. Dominant trees, supported by huge buttress roots, hold their canopies out of sight above; they restrict the sunlight and curtail the growth below. “I&#8217;ve never been in a forest with this density of giant forest trees,” Menegon says. The guide, Gliman Hyacinthe, a ranger with the Ivorian Office of Parks and Reserves (OIPR), identifies one of the tree giants as kosipo — Entandrophragma candollei — one of the mahoganies. This part of the forest is boulder-strewn, situated as it is on the slope beneath a large dome of granite whose summit breaks through the canopy of trees but is barely visible from within the forest. OIPR ranger Gliman Hyachinthe, University of Pavia student Caterina Danielon and herpetologist Michele&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-search-of-the-rare-and-beautiful-in-an-ivorian-rainforest/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/in-search-of-the-rare-and-beautiful-in-an-ivorian-rainforest/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321437</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The quest to reconnect imperiled rainforest in West Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/the-quest-to-reconnect-imperiled-rainforest-in-west-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/the-quest-to-reconnect-imperiled-rainforest-in-west-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Jun 2026 10:22:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/15121758/Leopard.Panthera.pardus_TaiNPCoteDivoire2026_OIPREBURCO-CROP-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321165</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Animals, Biodiversity, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Environment, forest degradation, Mammals, Plants, Primates, Reforestation, Restoration, Solutions, Trees, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[NIGRE, Côte d’Ivoire — The village of Nigré in southwestern Côte d’Ivoire sits — like much of this part of West Africa — in a landscape of rice and cassava fields, oil palm plantations and stands of rubber trees that have replaced the forests that once clothed the landscape. Chief Djahi Bertin and his attendants [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[NIGRE, Côte d’Ivoire — The village of Nigré in southwestern Côte d’Ivoire sits — like much of this part of West Africa — in a landscape of rice and cassava fields, oil palm plantations and stands of rubber trees that have replaced the forests that once clothed the landscape. Chief Djahi Bertin and his attendants offer a traditional welcome to a group of scientists, conservationists and park rangers in an open-sided building in the chief’s yard. The guests are served slices of radish-red kola nut, together with a teaspoon of ginger-colored spices, and a choice of wine, beer, spirits or soda. Bertin takes a glass of wine, half full, and empties it on the concrete floor. The splash resembles the palm of a hand, fingers splayed out. Both the palm and the digits form a unified whole, he says. “We are of one mind.” Chief Djahi Bertin, left, and his advisers meet with conservationists and scientists at his residence in the village of Nigré to discuss the creation of an ecological corridor linking the nearby Taï National Park, with Grebo National Park just 4 kilometers away in neighboring Liberia. Image by Ryan Truscott for Mongabay. The village is not far from the western edge of Taï Forest. At 5,000 square kilometers (1,930 square miles), it’s the largest intact remnant of Upper Guinean Rainforest, which once stretched east from Liberia, across Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, to Togo. During a two-day road trip from the commercial hub of Abidjan to Taï, Mongabay&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/the-quest-to-reconnect-imperiled-rainforest-in-west-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/the-quest-to-reconnect-imperiled-rainforest-in-west-africa/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321165</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A &#8216;new baseline&#8217;: Study captures accelerating sea-level rise in Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/a-new-baseline-study-captures-accelerating-sea-level-rise-in-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/a-new-baseline-study-captures-accelerating-sea-level-rise-in-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Jan 2026 20:35:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/01/30190306/5-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313548</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Benin, Cameroon, Central Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, data, El Nino, Environment, Erosion, Flooding, Freshwater, Global Warming, Ice Shelves, Oceans, Sea Levels, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Sea-level rise has accelerated across Africa in recent decades, thanks to global warming and, in particular, to the melting of ice sheets and glaciers, according to a recent study. The study, published Dec. 15 in the journal Communications Earth &#38; Environment, found that sea levels across the continent have risen four times faster since 2010, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Sea-level rise has accelerated across Africa in recent decades, thanks to global warming and, in particular, to the melting of ice sheets and glaciers, according to a recent study. The study, published Dec. 15 in the journal Communications Earth &amp; Environment, found that sea levels across the continent have risen four times faster since 2010, on average, than they had in the 1990s. The primary reason was additional water mass from polar melt, rather than other phenomena that can cause sea-level rise, the authors found. “When you have ice-free summer [at high latitudes], it means that the water went somewhere,” Franck Ghomsi, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Manitoba in Canada and lead author of the study, told Mongabay. “The glacier moved from ice to water, and it [water] started migrating. And it is the tropics [that] are now … getting this outflow of water.” The impacts include flooding, erosion of coastal land, displacement of coastal communities and intrusion of salty seawater into freshwater drinking sources. People in Africa are responsible for only a tiny proportion of human-caused global warming and yet face severe effects from the resulting sea-level rise, said Ghomsi, who is from Cameroon, calling this a “climate injustice.” He said that emissions from countries in the Global North are having a “huge impact” on countries in the Global South, including in Africa. Monthly sea level for Africa from 1993-2023. Annual means are shown in red. Sea-level rise accelerated over the 31-year period, with the rate during&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/a-new-baseline-study-captures-accelerating-sea-level-rise-in-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/a-new-baseline-study-captures-accelerating-sea-level-rise-in-africa/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313548</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Francis Hallé, the botanist who took a raft into the rainforest canopy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/francis-halle-the-botanist-who-took-a-raft-into-the-rainforest-canopy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/francis-halle-the-botanist-who-took-a-raft-into-the-rainforest-canopy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jan 2026 04:00:24 +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/20/2026/01/22035152/Francis-Halle-Thomas-Samson-AFP-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313216</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, Europe, France, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecology, Environment, Forests, Green, Obituary, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In most forests, a visitor’s eye is trained on what can be reached. The trunk can be measured. The leaves can be plucked. A specimen can be pressed, labeled, and filed away. Yet the largest share of life in a tropical rainforest is suspended overhead, in a zone of light, wind, and constant exchange. For [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In most forests, a visitor’s eye is trained on what can be reached. The trunk can be measured. The leaves can be plucked. A specimen can be pressed, labeled, and filed away. Yet the largest share of life in a tropical rainforest is suspended overhead, in a zone of light, wind, and constant exchange. For much of the 20th century, that upper world remained a blank on the map of biology, less from lack of curiosity than from a practical problem: it was hard to work where you could not stand. Science often advances when someone treats a logistical obstacle as an intellectual one. In the 1980s, a group of researchers and engineers devised a way to bring a laboratory to the canopy itself. A balloon could lift a platform, set it down on the crowns of trees, and allow botanists to move and observe without felling what they came to study. The method was unglamorous in its intent, even if the image was memorable: a raft perched in the treetops. It opened a layer of forest that had been described more than it had been examined. The botanist at the center of this project had little taste for grand titles. Asked if he was an explorer, he waved it away. “No, no, no, botanist is more than enough for me.” he said. “Life is too short for a botanist,” he added, as if the subject could never be finished. The remark was not a pose. It reflected a view&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/francis-halle-the-botanist-who-took-a-raft-into-the-rainforest-canopy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/01/francis-halle-the-botanist-who-took-a-raft-into-the-rainforest-canopy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313216</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>In Côte d’Ivoire a changing climate hits farmers and markets alike</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/in-cote-divoire-a-changing-climate-hits-farmers-and-markets-alike/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/in-cote-divoire-a-changing-climate-hits-farmers-and-markets-alike/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 May 2025 08:32:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gael Zozoro]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/08080635/Market_TreichevilleCoteDIvoire2017_CarstenTenBrinkFlickrBYNCND2.0-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298782</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Cacao, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Food, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Weather]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ABIDJAN — In recent months, the town of Soubré in the southwest of Côte d’Ivoire has experienced a shortage of staple products in local markets. Some of the most widely consumed foods, such as plantain, cassava and tomato, have become scarce or unaffordable. This could be an early sign of the broader impact climate change [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ABIDJAN — In recent months, the town of Soubré in the southwest of Côte d’Ivoire has experienced a shortage of staple products in local markets. Some of the most widely consumed foods, such as plantain, cassava and tomato, have become scarce or unaffordable. This could be an early sign of the broader impact climate change may have on both rural and urban communities in West Africa. Soubré resident Melaine Kouassi tells Mongabay that plantains have become difficult to find. “In the past, it was normal to have periods when certain products were hard to come by,” she says. “But now, we can go almost an entire year without having enough in the markets. Take plantain, for example: since last year, there have hardly been any available.” Kouassi says a bunch of five plantains now costs 1,000 CFA francs ($1.75) — two to three times what it cost just three years ago. She also notes that the price of tomatoes has doubled over the past year. Fatima Koné, a young woman who sells farm produce in Soubré, says there’s a growing shortage in the countryside. “I go to the farmers’ fields to get supplies, but right now there are no plantains — we just can’t find any. And the little we do find is being sold at much higher prices,” she says. The price of commodities such as plantain has risen sharply in Côte d’Ivoire in recent years. Vendors and growers say unpredictable weather conditions have reduced yields. Image by Felix&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/in-cote-divoire-a-changing-climate-hits-farmers-and-markets-alike/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/in-cote-divoire-a-changing-climate-hits-farmers-and-markets-alike/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298782</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Côte d’Ivoire cacao farmers struggle as climate havoc devastates crops</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/cote-divoire-cacao-farmers-struggle-as-climate-havoc-devastates-crops/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/cote-divoire-cacao-farmers-struggle-as-climate-havoc-devastates-crops/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Apr 2025 11:36:04 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gael Zozoro]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Christophe Assogba]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/25142615/image2_photo-principal-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298193</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Cacao, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Threats To Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SOUBRÉ, Côte d’Ivoire — “Dry periods never used to last this long before,&#8221; says Célestin Oura, a farmer in southwestern Côte d&#8217;Ivoire. &#8220;The dry season used to last a month at most. Now, it lasts three to four months, and the plantations are really suffering as a result.&#8221; Declining yields and rising production costs are [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SOUBRÉ, Côte d’Ivoire — “Dry periods never used to last this long before,&#8221; says Célestin Oura, a farmer in southwestern Côte d&#8217;Ivoire. &#8220;The dry season used to last a month at most. Now, it lasts three to four months, and the plantations are really suffering as a result.&#8221; Declining yields and rising production costs are forcing many Ivorian farmers in this cacao-growing region surrounding the town of Soubré to abandon the crop. &#8220;Every year, cacao plants die. We try to apply fertilizer to those that are still hanging in there, but production is still low. Expenses are so high that we can’t make a profit anymore,&#8221; Oura says. A guided tour of the fields around Kossou, the village where Oura farms, reveals destroyed cacao plantations, some abandoned and overgrown. According to Oura, some farmers here are turning to other crops, such as rubber or oil palm, which are considered more resistant to unpredictable weather. The prolonged dry season stretching into 2025 is exacerbating the effects of flooding that occurred here in late 2024. Parfait Koffi Yao is regional coordinator of the Ivorian League of Professional Agricultural Organizations (Lipopa), and chair of the board of directors of Scopoa, the farmers’ cooperative in the village of Ottawa, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Soubré. Yao says the region experienced particularly heavy rains in 2024. Obrouayo, another village near Soubré, paid a heavy price. Twenty farmers here saw their plantations submerged by the waters of the Sassandra River. &#8220;These farmers had nothing to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/cote-divoire-cacao-farmers-struggle-as-climate-havoc-devastates-crops/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/cote-divoire-cacao-farmers-struggle-as-climate-havoc-devastates-crops/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298193</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>When a chimp community lost its males, it also lost part of its love language</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/when-a-chimp-community-lost-its-males-it-also-lost-part-of-its-love-language/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/when-a-chimp-community-lost-its-males-it-also-lost-part-of-its-love-language/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Mar 2025 23:16:54 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ryan Truscott]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/11230456/Porthos-001-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295640</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Chimpanzees, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Mammals, Primates, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Male chimpanzees in Côte d’Ivoire’s Taï National Park use distinct “auditory gestures” to attract females. However, researchers have found that when the males die, these behaviors can disappear with them. The solicitation gestures used by these male western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) include tapping their heels or knuckles against fallen branches or tree trunks, shaking [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Male chimpanzees in Côte d’Ivoire’s Taï National Park use distinct “auditory gestures” to attract females. However, researchers have found that when the males die, these behaviors can disappear with them. The solicitation gestures used by these male western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) include tapping their heels or knuckles against fallen branches or tree trunks, shaking branches or saplings, or noisily tearing leaves off stems. In one of the four chimpanzee communities monitored for the past 45 years by the Taï Chimpanzee Project, a research and conservation group, the “knuckle-knock” was the main solicitation gesture used by males since 1991. But severe hunting pressure drastically reduced the chimpanzee population in Taï, from around 3,000 in the early 1980s to just 300 by 2010. The part of the Taï forest occupied by the northern community and their knuckle-knocking males was particularly vulnerable due to its proximity to villages, providing easy access to hunters. In 2008, the group’s last adult male, known to researchers as Nino, was killed for his meat. In the aftermath, a female took over as leader, and while the group continued functioning as a unit, the absence of multiple adult males meant there were no individuals left to perform and reinforce the knuckle-knock gesture. Today, even though young males have since grown up and assumed leadership, the behavior has not reemerged. Instead, it has been replaced by another gesture: the “heel-kick.” Porthos is one of the adult males now present in the North community. He is the son of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/when-a-chimp-community-lost-its-males-it-also-lost-part-of-its-love-language/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/when-a-chimp-community-lost-its-males-it-also-lost-part-of-its-love-language/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295640</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Has the Moo Deng craze helped wild pygmy hippos at all? (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/has-the-moo-deng-craze-helped-wild-pygmy-hippos-at-all-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/has-the-moo-deng-craze-helped-wild-pygmy-hippos-at-all-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Feb 2025 15:40:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/03064352/moo-deng-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=293764</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, Liberia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, Animals, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Habitat Loss, Hippos, Mammals, Wildlife, and Zoos]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[2024 was a chaotic year. The year was, once again, the warmest on record globally, according to the World Meteorological Organization, with multiple climate disasters around the globe. The year was also the third since Russia had invaded Ukraine, it saw 12 months of bombing in Gaza by Israel and 10 million were displaced in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[2024 was a chaotic year. The year was, once again, the warmest on record globally, according to the World Meteorological Organization, with multiple climate disasters around the globe. The year was also the third since Russia had invaded Ukraine, it saw 12 months of bombing in Gaza by Israel and 10 million were displaced in Sudan due to war. The year also saw hugely important elections in many nations, including Indonesia, France, India, the U.K. and the U.S. Is it any wonder that millions of people turned to a pugnacious baby pygmy hippo for a little relief? Moo Deng was born July 10, 2024, at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Bang Phra, Thailand. In September, the baby went viral, becoming famous for her playful, no-holds-barred attitude. She appears to enjoy mouthing the boots of her keeper, chasing water from a hose and, of course, like all babies, sleeping. And, yes, she’s even cute when she does that. Moo Deng became such a phenomenon that zoo attendance doubled and the Khao Kheow Open Zoo has said they plan to copyright her cute image. The phenomenon was international: She even appeared in a Saturday Night Live skit in the U.S. and got her own theme song in Thai. The Moo Deng story hasn’t been without some controversy, but in a chaotic year it was largely a wholesome treat for world-weary viewers. But there is another side to this story. After all, Moo Deng is a pygmy hippo (Choeropsis liberiensis), an endangered&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/has-the-moo-deng-craze-helped-wild-pygmy-hippos-at-all-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/02/has-the-moo-deng-craze-helped-wild-pygmy-hippos-at-all-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-293764</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Uncertainty’ amid EUDR delay poses challenges for cocoa companies, farmers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/uncertainty-amid-eudr-delay-poses-challenges-for-cocoa-companies-farmers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/uncertainty-amid-eudr-delay-poses-challenges-for-cocoa-companies-farmers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Dec 2024 15:58:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[John Cannon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/01142517/5-cocoa-farmer-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=292232</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Cacao, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Logging, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It might not come as much of a surprise that Tony’s Chocolonely has expressed its support for the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR). The Dutch chocolate maker is known as much for its emphasis on sustainable business practices as for the cartoonish labels that have enveloped its products since 2005. Tony’s even came out [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It might not come as much of a surprise that Tony’s Chocolonely has expressed its support for the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR). The Dutch chocolate maker is known as much for its emphasis on sustainable business practices as for the cartoonish labels that have enveloped its products since 2005. Tony’s even came out strongly against a delay in the EUDR rules designed to ensure that cocoa and six other commodities entering the European Union don’t come at the cost of forests elsewhere. What may be more surprising is that mainstream companies have also been pushing for the EUDR, which, whenever it becomes enforceable, will require an unprecedented level of monitoring and due diligence on supply chains for products entering the EU. “Tony’s has been a very key part of this, but it wasn’t just the social enterprises,” Antonie Fountain, co-founder and managing director of the Voice of Organisations In Cocoa (VOICE), said in an interview. “The world&#8217;s largest food and beverage company is Nestlé, and they&#8217;ve been doing a lot of very publicly visible, proactive outreach on behalf of these regulations.” VOICE is a cocoa watchdog group based in the Netherlands focused on advocacy and research. It’s the group behind the publication of the Cocoa Barometer, which aims to provide a “state of sustainability” in the sector every two years. “This is the thing that really excites me about the cocoa sector,” Fountain said. And it’s among the most prepared to comply of all the commodities the EUDR&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/uncertainty-amid-eudr-delay-poses-challenges-for-cocoa-companies-farmers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/uncertainty-amid-eudr-delay-poses-challenges-for-cocoa-companies-farmers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-292232</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As chocolate prices skyrocket from decades of deforestation, adopting agroforestry is key (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/as-chocolate-prices-skyrocket-from-decades-of-deforestation-adopting-agroforestry-is-key-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/as-chocolate-prices-skyrocket-from-decades-of-deforestation-adopting-agroforestry-is-key-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Jun 2024 18:46:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Etelle Higonnet]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/11/16173104/chris-hardy-xyh9fuuSHOo-unsplash-scaled-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=283715</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, Global, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Business, Cacao, Commentary, Deforestation, Food, Forests, Trade, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[If you’re a chocoholic, you may have noticed that the price of cocoa recently went through the roof. Cocoa prices on the world market—which averaged around $2,500 over the past decade—reached $10,000 per ton. It’s the highest in history. Experts think it’s likely to remain above $5,000/ton for the next 16 months at least. You [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[If you’re a chocoholic, you may have noticed that the price of cocoa recently went through the roof. Cocoa prices on the world market—which averaged around $2,500 over the past decade—reached $10,000 per ton. It’s the highest in history. Experts think it’s likely to remain above $5,000/ton for the next 16 months at least. You may have also read that global warming is to blame for recent sky-high prices, with wild weather anomalies hitting cocoa farms hard. What’s received less attention is the root cause of the problem. While the weather anomalies are worsened by global warming, what’s actually causing them is largely local deforestation—more specifically, the clearing of forests to make way for cocoa plantations. Map of deforestation in Ivory Coast. Cocoa is a “cannibal commodity.” Its production has killed the forests that have helped it thrive. Now, standing in the wreckage of once-spectacular tropical jungles, cocoa farms struggle. While working for the NGO Mighty Earth, I broke open a shocking scandal: the Ivory Coast—the world’s top cocoa-producing country—lost 94% of its forests since 1990. The Ivory Coast is not a rinky-dink footnote for the chocolate industry: it’s the top global cocoa producing country in the world. In Ghana, the world’s second largest cocoa producer, 80% to 90% of forests were destroyed in that same time. Roughly a third of the deforestation in both countries was for cocoa. Declining rainfall in Ivory Coast in the latter half of the 20th century. Forests are essentially rain machines: kill forests, and the rains go haywire.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/as-chocolate-prices-skyrocket-from-decades-of-deforestation-adopting-agroforestry-is-key-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/06/as-chocolate-prices-skyrocket-from-decades-of-deforestation-adopting-agroforestry-is-key-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-283715</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Chimps are lifelong learners, study on tool use shows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/chimps-are-lifelong-learners-study-on-tool-use-shows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/chimps-are-lifelong-learners-study-on-tool-use-shows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 May 2024 17:36:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/09161748/chimp-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=281894</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Apes, Chimpanzees, Conservation, Environment, Primates, Research, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Chimpanzees, like humans, can use a variety of tools to perform tasks such as getting food from hard-to-reach places. Now, a study published in PLOS Biology has found that, also like humans, chimps continue learning and refining those skills well into adulthood. This lifelong learning and continual development of skills is critical for the survival [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Chimpanzees, like humans, can use a variety of tools to perform tasks such as getting food from hard-to-reach places. Now, a study published in PLOS Biology has found that, also like humans, chimps continue learning and refining those skills well into adulthood. This lifelong learning and continual development of skills is critical for the survival of chimpanzees in the wild, says lead author Mathieu Malherbe, from the Ape Social Mind Lab at Marc Jeannerod Institute of Cognitive Sciences in France and the Taï Chimpanzee Project in Côte d’Ivoire. “Chimpanzees’ ability to extract food [that would otherwise be inaccessible] using stick tools might be essential in times of food scarcity which is happening more and more due to climate change,” Malherbe said in an email to Mongabay. “Chimpanzees have one of the most diverse tool kit, apart from humans. Conservation projects should be focusing on helping preserving these behavioral traits as preserving this species will help us understand our evolutionary history,” he added. Researchers trying to understand human evolution have identified tool use as a driving force behind both brain development and the long-term dependency of juveniles in the primate lineage, Malherbe said. Likewise, humans’ ability to learn across our entire lifespan has been credited for our ability to flexibly use a wide array of tools. The researchers note that while many studies have examined how chimps acquire the skills to use tools, very few have looked at how they develop these abilities across their lifetime, especially in the wild. As&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/chimps-are-lifelong-learners-study-on-tool-use-shows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/chimps-are-lifelong-learners-study-on-tool-use-shows/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-281894</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study: Tall trees and shade boost bat diversity on Africa’s cocoa farms</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/study-tall-trees-and-shade-boost-bat-diversity-on-africas-cocoa-farms/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/study-tall-trees-and-shade-boost-bat-diversity-on-africas-cocoa-farms/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Aug 2023 19:54:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/17194852/Hipposiderosfuliginosus_Cameroon_DiogoFerreira-CROP-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=272338</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Central Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Animals, Bats, Biodiversity, Birds, Cacao, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Deforestation, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Green, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Mammals, Solutions, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Insect-eating bats that prey on pests in cocoa farms prefer farms that retain large, old-growth trees that shade the plantations. Researchers aiming to find a “sweet spot” in agroforestry systems that supports maximum biodiversity surveyed bat diversity on 28 cocoa farms in south central Cameroon. They found the greatest abundance and diversity of bats on [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Insect-eating bats that prey on pests in cocoa farms prefer farms that retain large, old-growth trees that shade the plantations. Researchers aiming to find a “sweet spot” in agroforestry systems that supports maximum biodiversity surveyed bat diversity on 28 cocoa farms in south central Cameroon. They found the greatest abundance and diversity of bats on farms with 65% or higher shade cover — mimicking natural forest conditions in this region. “What our study found is that to maintain insectivorous bats, we not only need shade cover but we need that to be provided by very big, old-growth trees,” Diogo Ferreira, a lead author on the paper, published in the journal Biological Conservation, told Mongabay in an interview. Bats that depend on fruit and nectar, however, prefer high-shade conditions from planted trees, which often provide cocoa farmers with a source of secondary income. Common species on the surveyed farms included avocado, mango, orange and lemon trees, and safou, sometimes known as African plum (Dacryodes edulis), said Ferreira, a Ph.D. student at the Centre for Research in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources (known by its Portuguese acronym, CIBIO). The researchers surveyed bat diversity on farms with a variety of shade tree cover; they consisted of high shade with more than 65% cover, medium cover between 35 and 65%, and “low shade cocoa” between 20 and 35% cover. “We propose that if we want to keep both of the bat guilds, we need higher levels of shade cover,” Ferreira said. For Olivier Honnay, a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/study-tall-trees-and-shade-boost-bat-diversity-on-africas-cocoa-farms/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/study-tall-trees-and-shade-boost-bat-diversity-on-africas-cocoa-farms/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-272338</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Chimpanzee nut cracking leaves telltale marks on stones, providing clues to human evolution</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/chimpanzee-nut-cracking-leaves-telltale-marks-on-stones-providing-clues-to-human-evolution/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/chimpanzee-nut-cracking-leaves-telltale-marks-on-stones-providing-clues-to-human-evolution/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Dec 2022 07:02:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kate Hull]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/09013520/Hull-1_NutCracking_upscale-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=263415</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Apes, Archeology, Chimpanzees, Culture, Environment, Evolution, Great Apes, Primates, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The dents and dings on the surfaces of rocks used by chimpanzees to crack open nuts preserve a history of how the animals used the tools and how those patterns change from one troop to the next, researchers reported recently in Royal Society Open Science. This archaeological data can offer insights into the ways similar [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The dents and dings on the surfaces of rocks used by chimpanzees to crack open nuts preserve a history of how the animals used the tools and how those patterns change from one troop to the next, researchers reported recently in Royal Society Open Science. This archaeological data can offer insights into the ways similar stone tool technology arose millions of years ago among hominins, the ancestors of humans. Scientists examined nut-smashing rocks used by chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in Taï National Park, in southwestern Côte d’Ivoire in West Africa. Measurements and 3D scans of the tools revealed distinct patterns of damage related to how the animals wielded the rocks. Geographic locations of Djouroutou and Bossou chimpanzee sites in West Africa. Purple shading marks their distribution. Map Credit: IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) 2018. Pan troglodytes. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2022-1 The team then compared these marks to those from prior study that described nut-cracking tools used by chimpanzees about 300 kilometers away in Bossou, Guinea — the only other study to examine tools in this way. Even though the Guinea chimps used their stone tools for the same purpose, differences in the damage patterns clearly showed which tools came from which troop. The study focused on “percussive” tools used for hitting or pounding. Most archaeological research on tool use has focused on “flake” technology — tools used for cutting and slicing. However, percussive tools probably came first, researchers believe. Example of an anvil&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/chimpanzee-nut-cracking-leaves-telltale-marks-on-stones-providing-clues-to-human-evolution/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/12/chimpanzee-nut-cracking-leaves-telltale-marks-on-stones-providing-clues-to-human-evolution/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-263415</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Forests &#038; Finance: From logging in Cameroon to cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/forests-finance-from-logging-in-cameroon-to-cocoa-in-cote-divoire/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/forests-finance-from-logging-in-cameroon-to-cocoa-in-cote-divoire/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Oct 2022 10:30:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/12/23163337/Gorilla_DipakarHabituationProjectCameroon_MaximeLaLiberteWikicommonsCCSA4.0-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=261963</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Central Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, Malawi, Southern Africa, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Rubber, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Logging near Cameroon national park raises red flags over permits YAOUNDE — Agroindustrial company Cameroun Vert S.A., or Camvert, is again clearing forest near Campo Ma&#8217;an National Park, raising questions over the allocation of its timber permits. At an Oct. 26 press conference, conservation groups Greenpeace Africa, Green Development Advocates (GDA), and Support Service for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Logging near Cameroon national park raises red flags over permits YAOUNDE — Agroindustrial company Cameroun Vert S.A., or Camvert, is again clearing forest near Campo Ma&#8217;an National Park, raising questions over the allocation of its timber permits. At an Oct. 26 press conference, conservation groups Greenpeace Africa, Green Development Advocates (GDA), and Support Service for Grassroots Development Initiatives (SAILD) said Camvert bulldozers have been clearing stretches of forest for new plantations in this ecologically sensitive area of southwestern Cameroon. Camvert previously cleared forest in this same area without the required permits in 2019. According to GDA coordinator Aristide Chacgom, the minister of forestry and wildlife granted Camvert the right to sell timber harvested in the process of extending its oil palm plantation near Campo Ma’an on Feb. 16. But at the time the permits were issued, the company did not have rights to a concession for the designated area. Camvert only secured the required presidential clearance for a provisional concession in this area on March 7. Map of FMU 09-025, the national park, and existing plantations. Image by Mongabay via Global Forest Watch. Community leaders and NGOs have challenged the reclassification of this important tract of forest. The concession sits to the south of areas of intense deforestation for existing palm and rubber plantations owned and operated by agroindustry giants Socapalm and Hevecam. To the west, it shares a 50-kilometer (31-mile) boundary with Campo Ma’an National Park, which is home to 26 species of medium and large mammals, including elephants,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/forests-finance-from-logging-in-cameroon-to-cocoa-in-cote-divoire/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/forests-finance-from-logging-in-cameroon-to-cocoa-in-cote-divoire/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-261963</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Delectable but destructive: Tracing chocolate’s environmental life cycle</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/delectable-but-destructive-tracing-chocolates-environmental-life-cycle/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/delectable-but-destructive-tracing-chocolates-environmental-life-cycle/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Aug 2022 15:52:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/08/01141327/banner-man-plucks-cocoa-e1764011739273-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=258749</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Covering the Commons and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Asia, Brazil, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, Global, Indonesia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Business, Cacao, coca plantations, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Finance, Food, Food Industry, Forests, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Soy, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Chocolate is one of the world’s greatest little pleasures. But its primary ingredients — cocoa, palm oil and soy — all contribute to global deforestation. The industry is working now to make chocolate more sustainable.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Chocolate is a treat beloved across the world. But how much do we know about our favorite guilty pleasure’s environmental impacts? A recent study, published in the journal Science Advances, sheds light on key ingredients that make their way into many chocolate products — often untraced, and possibly linked to deforestation in Latin America, Africa and Asia. The study found that high volumes of cocoa, palm oil and soy — key ingredients used in bulk to make some of our chocolate favorites — are currently traded with little to no traceability via indirect supply chains. A Maya ceramic depicting a container of frothed chocolate. Chocolate has been consumed at least since the Olmec civilization in Mesoamerica in the 19th-11th century BCE. Today it is humanity’s favorite treat. Image in the Public Domain found on Wikipedia. The research, led by Erasmus zu Ermgassen from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium and TRASE, a data-driven transparency organization, found that traders purchasing these commodities via intermediaries account for “12 to 42% of soy sourcing, 15 to 90% of palm oil sourcing … and 100% of cocoa sourcing.” The use of such middlemen can easily conceal the environmentally harmful, deforestation-causing sources of these commodities. Each of these commodities is used to make chocolate products. Cocoa, of course, is an essential in all chocolate. Though alternatives to palm oil are increasingly used by some companies, it still appears in a vast number of products to add a smooth texture. Soy, meanwhile, is used in the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/delectable-but-destructive-tracing-chocolates-environmental-life-cycle/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/08/delectable-but-destructive-tracing-chocolates-environmental-life-cycle/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-258749</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Côte d’Ivoire’s chimp habitats are shrinking, but there’s hope in their numbers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/cote-divoires-chimp-habitats-are-shrinking-but-theres-hope-in-their-numbers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/cote-divoires-chimp-habitats-are-shrinking-but-theres-hope-in-their-numbers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Apr 2022 11:21:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Manon Verchot]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/04/22110927/western-chimpanzees-Pan-troglodytes-verus-of-Comoe-National-Park-in-northern-Cote-dIvoire-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=255056</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Chimpanzees, Conflict, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Environment, Forests, Great Apes, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Human-wildlife Conflict, National Parks, Primates, Protected Areas, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Conservationists feared that chimpanzees in Comoé National Park might have been wiped out during a decade of civil conflict in Côte d&#8217;Ivoire. But camera-trap footage found a healthy population and has since documented unique behaviors not observed in other chimp populations in West Africa. The western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) of Comoé National Park in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Conservationists feared that chimpanzees in Comoé National Park might have been wiped out during a decade of civil conflict in Côte d&#8217;Ivoire. But camera-trap footage found a healthy population and has since documented unique behaviors not observed in other chimp populations in West Africa. The western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) of Comoé National Park in northern Côte d’Ivoire have a unique way of drinking water during the dry season. They chew the ends of sticks to make a sort of brush and then dip the brush end of the stick into tree cavities where water has accumulated. Then they pull the stick out and suck on the end of the brush. This type of behavior had been observed occasionally in other chimp populations before, but researchers were surprised by how common it was among Comoé chimps. “We found that, well, apparently they don&#8217;t use the sticks because they are more efficient, but because they prefer them,” Juan Lapuente, head of the Comoé Chimpanzee Conservation Project, told Mongabay. “It is part of the culture. That&#8217;s the way they do it.” The western chimpanzees of Comoé National Park have a unique way of drinking water during the dry season: they chew the ends of sticks to make a sort of brush, dip the brush end of the stick into tree cavities filled with water, and then they pull the stick out and suck on the end of the brush. Images courtesy of Juan Lapuente. Though cultural differences between chimpanzee social groups have&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/cote-divoires-chimp-habitats-are-shrinking-but-theres-hope-in-their-numbers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/cote-divoires-chimp-habitats-are-shrinking-but-theres-hope-in-their-numbers/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-255056</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Why farmers, not industry, must decide the future of cocoa (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/why-farmers-not-industry-must-decide-the-future-of-cocoa-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/why-farmers-not-industry-must-decide-the-future-of-cocoa-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Feb 2022 16:53:46 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sam Mawutor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/15163747/sulawesi6676_22-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=252722</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Cacao, Certification, Commentary, Farming, and Plantations]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over recent years, consumers have become increasingly aware of the bitter-sweet legacy left by the chocolate industry in the countries that supply a majority of the world’s cocoa. While cocoa has provided a critical source of revenue for smallholder farmers and governments in West Africa, cocoa growing communities have also suffered from years of predatory [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over recent years, consumers have become increasingly aware of the bitter-sweet legacy left by the chocolate industry in the countries that supply a majority of the world’s cocoa. While cocoa has provided a critical source of revenue for smallholder farmers and governments in West Africa, cocoa growing communities have also suffered from years of predatory market practices, declining commodity prices, and unfair terms of trade. These perverse market dynamics – coupled with things such as conflicting agriculture and forestry policies, onerous land and tree tenure laws that penalize farmers, and low productivity by poor farm management practices – have contributed to severe problems in the cocoa sector. These include farmer poverty, rampant deforestation, persistent child labor, frequent pesticide poisonings, and declining food and livelihood security. Just two countries – the Ivory Coast and Ghana – between them account for 60% of the world’s cocoa production. And it is in these two countries where the issues of farmer poverty, deforestation and child labor are most prevalent. The good news is that these problems are now recognized by cocoa traders, chocolate companies and public officials in Ghana and Ivory Coast, as well as in consumer countries. Most major chocolate companies now have sustainable cocoa sourcing policies in place that intend to address deforestation, child labor, living incomes, and other issues. Furthermore, collective efforts taken by industry and governments, such as through the Cocoa and Forests Initiative (CFI), have promised to end deforestation, and to set up joint monitoring mechanisms to respond to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/why-farmers-not-industry-must-decide-the-future-of-cocoa-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/why-farmers-not-industry-must-decide-the-future-of-cocoa-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-252722</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Côte d&#8217;Ivoire braces to save what’s left of its single-digit forest cover</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/cote-divoire-braces-to-save-whats-left-of-its-single-digit-forest-cover/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/cote-divoire-braces-to-save-whats-left-of-its-single-digit-forest-cover/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Nov 2021 12:51:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Maria Angeles Salazar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/11/12123730/39849386860_66b17b51a8_c-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=249417</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Cote D'Ivoire]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Loss, Forests, Protected Areas, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There was no good news to be found in the forest and wildlife inventory for Côte d&#8217;Ivoire published earlier this year. But the Ivorien Ministry of Water and Forests (MINEF) says it’s committed to strengthening protection of remaining forests and restoring degraded areas. A new National Forest and Wildlife Inventory (Inventaire Forestier Faunique National), published [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There was no good news to be found in the forest and wildlife inventory for Côte d&#8217;Ivoire published earlier this year. But the Ivorien Ministry of Water and Forests (MINEF) says it’s committed to strengthening protection of remaining forests and restoring degraded areas. A new National Forest and Wildlife Inventory (Inventaire Forestier Faunique National), published in June, was coordinated by the French Office Nationale de Forêts. Staff from Côte d&#8217;Ivoire&#8217;s rural development agency, state forestry corporation, and the country&#8217;s Office of Parks and Reserves carried out surveys of more than 1,400 25-hectare (62-acre) parcels of forest across the country. It had been 40 years since the last survey of this kind, and that previous survey covered only the southern part of the country. Albert-Yves Lasme Niagne, chief engineer of water and forests at MINEF, told Mongabay that most of the country&#8217;s remaining primary forest is found in national parks. “About 80% of existing dense forests fall under protected areas, especially Taï National Park. This park is one of the best-preserved massifs in West Africa. It has the last remaining areas of primary forest. These protected areas as a whole constitute a reserve of animal and plant biodiversity.” Some disheartening results, such as massive loss of forest cover, were already well-established thanks to satellite images. “The national forest inventory confirms that Côte d&#8217;Ivoire&#8217;s forest now covers less than 3 million hectares [7.4 million acres], or forest cover of less than 9%,” Inza Koné, a primatologist and director-general of the Swiss Centre&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/cote-divoire-braces-to-save-whats-left-of-its-single-digit-forest-cover/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/cote-divoire-braces-to-save-whats-left-of-its-single-digit-forest-cover/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-249417</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Forests falling for cashew monocultures: A &#8216;repeated mistake&#8217; in Côte d’Ivoire (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/forests-falling-for-cashew-monocultures-a-repeated-mistake-in-cote-divoire-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/forests-falling-for-cashew-monocultures-a-repeated-mistake-in-cote-divoire-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Oct 2021 19:27:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Cathy Watson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/10/13153035/cashew-banner-768x507.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=248112</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Bees, Commentary, Community Development, Deforestation, Development, Dry Forests, Environment, Food, Forests, Invasive Species, Poverty Alleviation, Savannas, Sustainable Development, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Farmers in northern Côte d’Ivoire are full of praise for cashew, the Brazilian nut tree introduced in the 1960s – ironically, it turns out – to combat deforestation. They rhapsodize about its ease of production compared to cotton, that although still grown, once formed the heart of the rural economy. And they love the development [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Farmers in northern Côte d’Ivoire are full of praise for cashew, the Brazilian nut tree introduced in the 1960s – ironically, it turns out – to combat deforestation. They rhapsodize about its ease of production compared to cotton, that although still grown, once formed the heart of the rural economy. And they love the development cashew has brought. “Before cashew came, there were no roads, no electricity. When it came, life changed. It is not as hard work as cotton. People are coming back from the city,” says farmer Traore Lakseni. “It allows me to support my family. With cotton, I worked very hard but was still poor. Cashew is a tree that produces without me doing very much,” says farmer Soro Torna. Soro Torna is one of 410,000 small scale farmers who cultivate a total of 1.6 million hectares of cashew in Côte d&#8217;Ivoire: each has on average 3-5 hectares. Photo courtesy of Cathy Watson /CIFOR-ICRAF. Officials are equally positive, smitten by cashew’s meteoric rise. Côte d’Ivoire became the world’s largest exporter of raw cashew nuts in 2015, a staggering achievement for a country that is already the world’s biggest producer of cocoa. “This was a disfavored area,” says Kone Issouf, head of the Cotton and Cashew Council in the far north district of Korhogo on the border with Mali.  “All the young men now have motorbikes.” “Vietnamese and Indians are everywhere,” says Diakalidia Kone, President of cashew cooperative FENECASI, referring to the buyers rushing around the town: 94%&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/forests-falling-for-cashew-monocultures-a-repeated-mistake-in-cote-divoire-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/10/forests-falling-for-cashew-monocultures-a-repeated-mistake-in-cote-divoire-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-248112</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>It’s Juneteenth, but these American companies are still profiting from slavery (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/its-juneteenth-but-these-american-companies-are-still-profiting-from-slavery-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/its-juneteenth-but-these-american-companies-are-still-profiting-from-slavery-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Jun 2021 22:57:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Samuel Mawutor]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/06/18225205/Better_Cocoa-0689-uai-2880x1920-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=243888</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, United States, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Cacao, Commentary, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Forced labor, Forests, Green, Human Rights, Slavery, Social Justice, and Supply Chain]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Juneteenth marks the date in 1865 where an estimated 250,000 enslaved people in Texas were freed, marking the official end of slavery in the Confederacy – two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and six months before the 13th Amendment to the Constitution finally banned slavery nationwide. As much as Juneteenth is worthy of celebration, liberation [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Juneteenth marks the date in 1865 where an estimated 250,000 enslaved people in Texas were freed, marking the official end of slavery in the Confederacy – two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and six months before the 13th Amendment to the Constitution finally banned slavery nationwide. As much as Juneteenth is worthy of celebration, liberation is not complete. In our work, the most egregious and direct manifestation of that delayed justice is that American companies and institutions are continuing to drive slavery today at scale. The Emancipation Proclamation may have made it to Texas in 1865, but some companies are acting today as if it still doesn’t apply in their corporate suites. And on Wednesday, those companies got a free pass from the Supreme Court to continue the profit from slavery. There is probably no company that better symbolizes continued complicity with slavery than Cargill, America’s largest privately-held company and the world’s largest agribusiness.  Cargill isn’t a household name, but it’s bigger than even Koch industries, and sits astride much of America and the world’s food system. Cargill sells the chicken, beef, palm oil, corn, grain, cocoa and many other raw ingredients that’s found in much of what’s sold in supermarkets and restaurants. You may not know it, but you’re probably eating a Cargill product today. For instance, it’s actually Cargill that makes chicken McNuggets and Big Mac patties – and then just sends them to McDonald’s to be warmed up. The company has a terrible and well-documented record of driving destruction of forests,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/its-juneteenth-but-these-american-companies-are-still-profiting-from-slavery-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/its-juneteenth-but-these-american-companies-are-still-profiting-from-slavery-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-243888</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>To save chocolate&#8217;s future, &#8216;start now and go big&#8217; on agroforestry</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/to-save-chocolates-future-start-now-and-go-big-on-agroforestry-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/to-save-chocolates-future-start-now-and-go-big-on-agroforestry-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 May 2021 15:52:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Cathy Watson]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/05/17150136/cacao-agroforestry-banner-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=242764</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, and Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agroforestry, Analysis, Cacao, Climate Change, Community Development, Forests, Research, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In May 2017, the NGO Mighty Earth revealed the destruction of government forest reserves in Côte d’Ivoire by cocoa cultivation: out of 234, only six were still relatively intact. Deforestation outside reserves, largely due to cocoa, was also severe: 94% of Côte d’Ivoire ’s humid tropical forest was gone. Many had known what was happening. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In May 2017, the NGO Mighty Earth revealed the destruction of government forest reserves in Côte d’Ivoire by cocoa cultivation: out of 234, only six were still relatively intact. Deforestation outside reserves, largely due to cocoa, was also severe: 94% of Côte d’Ivoire ’s humid tropical forest was gone. Many had known what was happening. But the Mighty Earth report was a turning point after which the crisis could be openly spoken of. Cocoa agroforestry had long been of interest. The industry knew that cocoa grew with other trees in Central America and in complex multi-strata agroforestry systems in Cameroon with up to 20 types of tree. In 2014 my organization World Agroforestry (ICRAF) interviewed 355 Ivorian cocoa farmers: an overwhelming majority (338) knew the benefits of growing it with other trees. But there was always hesitancy. This forest reserve has been heavily encroached by cocoa cultivation (as seen in foreground here in 2017). The Ivorian government now intends to increase tree cover in such reserves with agroforestry. Photo courtesy of Cathy Watson/CIFOR-ICRAF. The release of the Mighty Earth report changed this, however. There was no rush to solve the crisis. Deforestation did not stop. But there was a new openness. Cocoa agroforestry was no longer on the fringe. Companies like Barry Callebaut and Mars Wrigley began trialing it, and in 2019, Côte d’Ivoire’s top cocoa body, Le Conseil du Café et Cacao (CCC) pronounced that it “could without doubt address the problems of climate change caused in part by the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/to-save-chocolates-future-start-now-and-go-big-on-agroforestry-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/to-save-chocolates-future-start-now-and-go-big-on-agroforestry-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-242764</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Though forests burn, trees retake farmland globally as agroforestry advances</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/though-forests-burn-agroforestry-advances-as-trees-retake-farmland-globally/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/though-forests-burn-agroforestry-advances-as-trees-retake-farmland-globally/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Aug 2020 12:47:56 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Patrick Worms]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/08/07182026/20190409_133341-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=232686</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, Global, Niger, Sahel, Senegal, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Analysis, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Dry Forests, Environment, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Reforestation, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It was late afternoon deep in the dry season in Fatikh, a village in the Sahel region of Senegal. Out on his farm, El Hadj Ndiaye, a distinguished gentleman in an elegant emerald-green boubou, was happily extolling the virtues of the young trees dotting his fields, when his mood suddenly darkened. His gaze had caught [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It was late afternoon deep in the dry season in Fatikh, a village in the Sahel region of Senegal. Out on his farm, El Hadj Ndiaye, a distinguished gentleman in an elegant emerald-green boubou, was happily extolling the virtues of the young trees dotting his fields, when his mood suddenly darkened. His gaze had caught on a distant herd of cattle. More than a hundred huge-horned animals in dozens of tones of ocher, white and brown, already a lot thinner than they were at the end of the wet season, steadily drew nearer, foraging for whatever fodder was left on the fields. Soon, the target for Ndiaye’s anger became clear: it was Yack Diouf, the young Serer herder who was guiding his animals to the most promising spots with a few lazy taps of his switch. Ndiaye, it soon became clear, suspected Yack of being one of those who would try to cut down his trees later in the dry season, once the fodder is all gone. Their verdant, protein-rich foliage would then be a serious temptation to the young men tasked with feeding the livestock of a powerful owner. “Everyone wants to cut my trees,” he complained. “They say ‘you did not plant this tree, it grew by itself! It is not yours, it is God&#8217;s!’ Me and my sons must spend nights out here to protect them. And it’s not just the cattle, it’s also the women who covet them for firewood!” Exasperated, he muttered that he would&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/though-forests-burn-agroforestry-advances-as-trees-retake-farmland-globally/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/though-forests-burn-agroforestry-advances-as-trees-retake-farmland-globally/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-232686</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sounding the alarm about illegal logging? There&#8217;s an app for that</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/sounding-the-alarm-about-illegal-logging-theres-an-app-for-that/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/sounding-the-alarm-about-illegal-logging-theres-an-app-for-that/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jul 2020 13:27:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/07/17125935/Screen-Shot-2020-07-17-at-11.55.45-AM-768x439.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=232596</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Cameroon, Cote D'Ivoire, Democratic Republic Of Congo, Ghana, Liberia, Peru, and Republic of Congo]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Conservation, Conservation Technology, data, Deforestation, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forests, Green, Illegal Logging, Illegal Mining, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Industry, Land Rights, Law Enforcement, Logging, Mining, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Remote Sensing, Threats To Rainforests, timber trade, Tropical Forests, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Using the customizable app ForestLink, traditional forest guardians (people living within and around the forest) can send near-real-time, geo-tagged alerts about illegal logging and mining activities to authorities and other stakeholders, even from remote areas without mobile connectivity or internet service. The app was developed by the nonprofit Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) and launched in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Using the customizable app ForestLink, traditional forest guardians (people living within and around the forest) can send near-real-time, geo-tagged alerts about illegal logging and mining activities to authorities and other stakeholders, even from remote areas without mobile connectivity or internet service. The app was developed by the nonprofit Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) and launched in 2015 as a part of its ongoing Real Time Monitoring Initiative. Since its creation, the system has been used in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ghana, the Republic of Congo, and Peru. It launched in Liberia in April 2020 and will come to Côte d’Ivoire later this year. The Real Time Monitoring DRC team during an RFUK training in Cameroon. Photo courtesy of RFUK. Illegal timber accounts for 15% to 30% of the timber trade globally, and is worth more than $100 billion, according to Interpol. A significant share of this illegally harvested timber is sold in European markets. Illegal mining operations, particularly in the Amazon, have caused widespread environmental damage. In the vast territories of both the Amazon and the Congo, the largest tropical rainforests in the world, authorities largely lack the capacity to monitor for illegal mining and logging activities. Hiring independent forest monitoring is expensive and a logistical nightmare for stakeholders such as civil society organizations (CSOs) that operate from faraway city headquarters. Locals are better suited to monitor and defend the forests they call home. “It&#8217;s about unlocking the potential of traditional forest guardians in monitoring and protecting their&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/sounding-the-alarm-about-illegal-logging-theres-an-app-for-that/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/sounding-the-alarm-about-illegal-logging-theres-an-app-for-that/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-232596</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>10-year plan hopes to give western chimpanzees a fighting chance</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/10-year-plan-hopes-to-give-western-chimpanzees-a-fighting-chance/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/10-year-plan-hopes-to-give-western-chimpanzees-a-fighting-chance/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jul 2020 10:11:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jim Tan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/07/10100605/Image-1_Liran_samuni_banner-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=232358</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Chimpanzees, Conservation, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Great Apes, Land Use Change, Mammals, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Western chimpanzees are the most threatened of the four confirmed chimpanzee subspecies. Conservationists estimate that populations of the western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes versus) declined by 80% between 1990 and 2014. Large tracts of chimpanzee habitat have already been lost, and much of what remains is in the crosshairs of agriculture, industry and infrastructure development. Adding [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Western chimpanzees are the most threatened of the four confirmed chimpanzee subspecies. Conservationists estimate that populations of the western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes versus) declined by 80% between 1990 and 2014. Large tracts of chimpanzee habitat have already been lost, and much of what remains is in the crosshairs of agriculture, industry and infrastructure development. Adding to the pressure, in their West African home, the subspecies shares its space with the world&#8217;s fastest-growing human population. Without immediate action, the IUCN warns the western chimpanzee may soon become extinct. The IUCN recently released its latest 10-year action plan, setting out nine key strategies to protect chimpanzees. On the agenda are improved legal protection, raising awareness, and more research into their distribution, genetics and behavior. The plan also highlights the need for chimpanzees to be considered at all levels of the land use planning process if they are to have a future in the rapidly developing West Africa region. “The western chimpanzee is in dire need of coordinated and effective conservation action right now,” said Erin Wessling, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard’s Department of Human and Evolutionary Biology and lead editor of the IUCN plan. The western chimpanzee’s range extends across eight countries in West Africa: Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Senegal and Sierre Leone. The subspecies is already locally extinct in Benin, Burkino Faso and Togo. The western chimpanzee is the most threatened of the four known chimpanzee subspecies. Image courtesy of Liran Samuni/Tai Chimpanzee Project. Fighting for space The&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/10-year-plan-hopes-to-give-western-chimpanzees-a-fighting-chance/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/10-year-plan-hopes-to-give-western-chimpanzees-a-fighting-chance/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-232358</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Treetop cameras capture first known video of a wild roloway monkey</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/treetop-cameras-capture-first-known-video-of-a-wild-roloway-monkey/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/treetop-cameras-capture-first-known-video-of-a-wild-roloway-monkey/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jul 2020 15:43:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/07/02150541/36474370666_2e60d141a8_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=232046</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Camera Trapping, cameras, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Conservation Technology, Critically Endangered Species, Endangered Species, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Monkeys, Primates, Solutions, Trees, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When conservationists set up treetop cameras in Côte d’Ivoire’s Tanoé-Ehy forest, they hoped to get video of the elusive Miss Waldron’s red colobus monkey (Piliocolobus waldroni), a critically endangered species that hasn’t been spotted in 42 years. But instead, another rare, arboreal primate presented itself: the roloway monkey (Cercopithecus roloway). This is actually the first [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When conservationists set up treetop cameras in Côte d’Ivoire’s Tanoé-Ehy forest, they hoped to get video of the elusive Miss Waldron’s red colobus monkey (Piliocolobus waldroni), a critically endangered species that hasn’t been spotted in 42 years. But instead, another rare, arboreal primate presented itself: the roloway monkey (Cercopithecus roloway). This is actually the first time a wild roloway monkey has ever been captured on video, according to Global Wildlife Conservation, the group that supported the camera trap project, along with the Swiss Center for Scientific Research in Côte d’Ivoire, Florida Atlantic University, and a number of other institutions and organizations. “You cannot follow the monkeys in such forests and must be very lucky if you want to snap them when you meet them before they flee,” Inza Koné, general director of the Swiss Center for Scientific Research in Côte d’Ivoire and leader of a Tanoé-Ehy community-based conservation project, told Mongabay in an email. “That’s why camera trapping appeared as the best way to get some footage from the wild. Until recently, most photos of the monkey were from captivity.” In a few short video clips, two different roloway monkeys are seen climbing along the branches of an ewuliké tree, searching for insects to eat. “We frequently encountered or heard the calls of this monkey in the forest,” André Koffi, a researcher at the Swiss Center for Scientific Research in Côte d’Ivoire who was directly involved with the camera trap project, told Mongabay in an email. “Our big surprise is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/treetop-cameras-capture-first-known-video-of-a-wild-roloway-monkey/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/treetop-cameras-capture-first-known-video-of-a-wild-roloway-monkey/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-232046</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mystery ailments, asymptomatic individuals: Spotlight on monkeypox in chimps</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/mystery-ailments-asymptomatic-individuals-spotlight-on-monkeypox-in-chimps/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/mystery-ailments-asymptomatic-individuals-spotlight-on-monkeypox-in-chimps/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Jun 2020 09:44:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/06/05092003/West-African-chimps-with-monkeypox_TCP-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=231065</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Atlantic Forest, Cote D'Ivoire, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Chimpanzees, Conservation, Diseases, Endangered Species, Environment, Great Apes, Mammals, Wildlife, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In January 2017, researchers noticed two ill chimpanzees in Taï National Park in Côte d&#8217;Ivoire. The baby and adolescent West African chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) were coughing, breathing hard, and there was discharge from their nose and eyes. Each also had a single fluid-filled blister on its mouth. Livia Patrono, a postdoctoral associate at the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In January 2017, researchers noticed two ill chimpanzees in Taï National Park in Côte d&#8217;Ivoire. The baby and adolescent West African chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) were coughing, breathing hard, and there was discharge from their nose and eyes. Each also had a single fluid-filled blister on its mouth. Livia Patrono, a postdoctoral associate at the Robert Koch Institute in Germany, and her colleagues observed these symptoms in two individuals of the south chimpanzee community, one of the four groups of habituated chimps researchers regularly monitor in the park. At the time, the team wasn’t sure of the diagnosis. Chimpanzees in the park have suffered from various respiratory diseases of human origin in the past, including the human metapneumovirus and the human coronavirus (HCoV) OC43, any of which could have triggered the symptoms. But between March and April 2017, 11 chimpanzees in the north community fell visibly ill. Of these, three babies developed skin lesions on their bodies. One infant died. In a third outbreak, in May 2018, an infant in the east chimpanzee community developed similar rashes. The skin lesions were an important clue: they hinted at monkeypox, an infectious zoonotic disease known to cause smallpox-like rashes on the body. West African chimpanzee exhibiting a characteristic monkeypox rash. Researchers in Taï National Park in Côte d&#8217;Ivoire observed outbreaks of the disease in 2017 and 2018. Image by Kamilla Pleh/Roman Wittig/Tai Chimpanzee Project. To confirm this hunch, the team analyzed feces, urine and partially eaten fruit pieces discarded by chimps from all&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/mystery-ailments-asymptomatic-individuals-spotlight-on-monkeypox-in-chimps/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/mystery-ailments-asymptomatic-individuals-spotlight-on-monkeypox-in-chimps/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-231065</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>For the western chimpanzee, sanctuaries are more than just a last resort</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/for-the-western-chimpanzee-sanctuaries-are-more-than-just-a-last-resort/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/for-the-western-chimpanzee-sanctuaries-are-more-than-just-a-last-resort/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 May 2020 12:39:12 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mark Hillsdon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/26092929/chimp-sanctuary-big-mike-flickr-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=230673</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Great Apes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, Sierra Leone, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiversity, Chimpanzees, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Great Apes, Mammals, Wildlife, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the 1960s, there were an estimated 1 million wild chimpanzees in West Africa. Today, there are fewer than 300,000. With habitat loss, hunting and wildlife trafficking taking their toll, chimps have now disappeared completely from four countries in the region. That makes the western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) the only one of the four [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the 1960s, there were an estimated 1 million wild chimpanzees in West Africa. Today, there are fewer than 300,000. With habitat loss, hunting and wildlife trafficking taking their toll, chimps have now disappeared completely from four countries in the region. That makes the western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) the only one of the four chimp subspecies to be declared critically endangered. At the forefront of the battle to save the western chimpanzee is a network of sanctuaries. These safe havens can have a dramatic effect on the countries where they are established, caring for individual animals while also working to help stabilize populations, tighten laws, and stop the illegal trade in wildlife from flourishing. Twenty-three organizations operate as part of the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA), which was established in 2000 and now looks after 915 chimps in 13 countries. Many arrive as the result of habitat destruction, as forests are cleared for agriculture, logging and extractive industries, as well as infrastructure developments, decimating family groups and leaving young chimps abandoned. Others will have suffered at the hands of hunters, victims of a lucrative trade that sees adults shot for bushmeat and  juveniles sold on the black market to end up as pets or as entertainment in hotels, circuses and zoos in Africa and beyond. Chimpanzee at Tacugama Sanctuary, Sierra Leone, one of 23 members of the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance. Sanctuary managers say their work extends beyond protecting the welfare of individual animals. Image by Jeremy Weate via&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/for-the-western-chimpanzee-sanctuaries-are-more-than-just-a-last-resort/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-230673</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Positive ways forward for chocolate industry tainted by deforestation and child labor (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/the-way-forward-for-a-blighted-chocolate-industry-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/the-way-forward-for-a-blighted-chocolate-industry-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Apr 2020 01:41:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marianne Martinet]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/06/07165107/Cocoa-farmer-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=228868</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroforestry, Cacao, Commentary, Community Development, Forests, Poverty, Poverty Alleviation, Rainforests, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Eating chocolate shouldn’t mean fueling environmental and social destruction. But, as a stream of news stories and reports make abundantly clear, too often it does. Cocoa production in Ghana and Ivory Coast – the world’s biggest cocoa producers – is tainted by child labor and deforestation. More than two million children are estimated to work in West Africa’s cocoa fields, and according to Global Forest Watch, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Eating chocolate shouldn’t mean fueling environmental and social destruction. But, as a stream of news stories and reports make abundantly clear, too often it does. Cocoa production in Ghana and Ivory Coast – the world’s biggest cocoa producers – is tainted by child labor and deforestation. More than two million children are estimated to work in West Africa’s cocoa fields, and according to Global Forest Watch, in 2018 forest loss in Ghana and Ivory Coast increased more than anywhere else in the world, rising by 26% in the former, and 60% in the latter. Yet these headline figures are only part of the story. As grave as the situations in Ghana and Ivory Coast are – and as urgently as they require our attention – they aren’t the only regions where the chocolate industry is putting forests at risk: in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Cameroon, Indonesia and elsewhere, precious rainforests are threatened by cocoa expansion, as chocolate consumption around the world continues to rise inexorably. And unlike in Ghana and Ivory Coast – where the majority of the forests were torn down long ago – these regions still have a lot of forest to save. Cocoa farmer in Mmaniaye, Ghana. Strong commitments, little progress The world’s biggest chocolate companies are acutely aware of these problems. Over the years, they’ve vowed to tackle them in various ways: as far back as 2001 they signed a pledge to eradicate the “worst forms” of child labor from their West African cocoa suppliers, and among a host of other measures, in 2017, 34 companies – including Mars, Nestlé, Hershey, Cargill and Mondelēz – as well as&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/04/the-way-forward-for-a-blighted-chocolate-industry-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-228868</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New evidence suggests Ivorian timber merits tougher EUTR due diligence (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/new-evidence-suggests-ivorian-timber-merits-tougher-eutr-due-diligence-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/new-evidence-suggests-ivorian-timber-merits-tougher-eutr-due-diligence-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Mar 2020 14:55:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Brad Mulley]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/03/24143141/logging-truck_1210px-768x451.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=228229</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commentary, Environment, Environmental Law, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Research, Timber, and Timber Laws]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The European Union Timber Regulation (EUTR), which came into force in 2013, prohibits operators from placing illegally harvested timber on EU markets. EUTR implementation relies on a due diligence process requiring operators to assess risk of illegal timber in the supply chain and take action to mitigate identified risks. The process relies on information about [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The European Union Timber Regulation (EUTR), which came into force in 2013, prohibits operators from placing illegally harvested timber on EU markets. EUTR implementation relies on a due diligence process requiring operators to assess risk of illegal timber in the supply chain and take action to mitigate identified risks. The process relies on information about the timber product, country of harvest, and suppliers. The reliability of the information is key: EUTR implementation can only be as good as the information required for effective risk assessment and mitigation. But since the EU imports timber from many countries plagued by forest governance challenges, obtaining reliable information is no easy task. Fortunately, independent forest monitors (IFM), which are often local civil society organizations, can be an excellent source of information for risk assessment and mitigation. However, application of IFM data to EUTR due diligence has been inconsistent, due to two main reasons. The first challenge is the lack of EUTR-applicable data published by IFMs. Many IFMs tend to support allegations of illegal activities with ‘field’ evidence, such as photos of unmarked tree stumps or testimonial from local community members. Unfortunately, these types of observations are not readily applied to EUTR due diligence because risk is assessed primarily by evaluating legality documents. There is also the perception among some EUTR actors that IFM data is not applicable because information from civil society is inherently unreliable. The second reason is complexity. Many IFM reports contain a wealth of EUTR applicable data, but navigating them can&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/new-evidence-suggests-ivorian-timber-merits-tougher-eutr-due-diligence-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-228229</doi>				</item>
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