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Fabrice Basile, chargé d’affaires at the European Union Delegation in Kinshasa. Image by David Akana/Mongabay.

‘True success’ is a DRC that no longer needs outside help: Interview with EU envoy Fabrice Basile

David Akana 29 Apr 2026
Kanjonde village, basking in the late afternoon light at the foot of Mount Moco, in January 2024. Image by Ryan Truscott.

Angola’s highest mountain and its unique wildlife are now protected

Ryan Truscott 29 Apr 2026
Luis Arranza at Dzanga Bai. Photo by Nuria Ortega

What it takes to make conservation work in Central Africa: Luis Arranz’s 46-year journey

Rhett Ayers Butler, David Akana 27 Apr 2026
Mountain gorillas continue to face serious threats as they lose habitat and are stalked by poachers who target them for their meat and body parts, or traffic their infants for zoos and entertainment.

Amid conflict and poaching, tech helps boost mountain gorilla numbers

Aimable Twahirwa 23 Apr 2026
Fabrice, a ranger at Virunga National Park since 2013 and now a Deputy Sector Warden, pauses during a patrol. Virunga has lost more rangers than any other protected area in Africa, illustrating the human cost of conservation and raising the question of whether new conservation models can better protect both biodiversity and those charged with defending it. Image courtesy of Virunga National Park.

Emmanuel de Merode, director of Virunga National Park: “If conservation creates hardships, it won’t work”

David Akana 20 Apr 2026
The proposed Green Corridor would stretch from Kivu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, all the way to Kinshasa in the west. An aerial view of a village in South Kivu, DRC. Image by MONUSCO via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).

DRC: Can the Kivu–Kinshasa Green Corridor turn a war economy into one of hope?

David Akana 20 Apr 2026
Ivonne Kienast at Dzanga Bai

Studying the world’s largest gathering of forest elephants with sound and field observation

Rhett Ayers Butler, David Akana 19 Apr 2026
Emmanuel de Merode at an airstrip near Salonga National Park in DRC in March 2026. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

Can nature outcompete war in Eastern Congo?

Rhett Ayers Butler, David Akana 13 Apr 2026
African elephant. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

Living with wildlife, bearing the cost

Rhett Ayers Butler 13 Apr 2026
Coffee and cocoa production around Virunga National Park are seen by some proponents of the Green Corridor as activities that can help reduce pressure on forest resources. In Salonga National Park, officials are already encouraging cocoa and coffee cultivation as alternative livelihoods for surrounding communities. Photo: Virunga National Park.

From Virunga to Kinshasa, the DRC embarks on a bold conservation gamble

David Akana 9 Apr 2026
Elephants in Dzanga Bai in Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve, Central African Republic. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

The little-known story of emerging ecotourism in the Central African Republic

David Akana 8 Apr 2026
: Luis Arranz became the co-director of Salonga National Park in the DRC in 2022. Despite the size of the task, he comes across as undaunted. “I like difficult missions,” Arranz told Mongabay. Image courtesy of Luis Arranz.

‘I like impossible missions’: A conservationist’s mission to turn around Salonga’s fate

David Akana 8 Apr 2026
Silverback gorilla in Dzanga-Sangha, Central African Republic. Photo by Rhett Ayers Butler

Why conservation needs stories of progress

Rhett Ayers Butler 7 Apr 2026

A human rights center opens a path to justice for Indigenous Peoples in the Central African Republic

David Akana 7 Apr 2026
“For mothers and young elephants, Dzanga Bai becomes something of a playground and a very safe place,” says Yvonne Kienast, project manager and head researcher of the Dzanga Forest Elephant Project. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

A unique clearing in Central Africa draws elephants from the dense forests

David Akana 6 Apr 2026
Alphonsine Colombe Irahali provides care during a mobile health campaign in a forest village near Bayanga, Central African Republic. She explains that her work with isolated communities is guided by a personal calling to serve populations often excluded from formal health systems. Image courtesy of Alphonsine Colombe Irahali/WWF Central African Republic.

Far from home, a Rwandan doctor fulfills her calling among CAR forest communities

David Akana 6 Apr 2026
Artisanal fishing vessels lined up at Down Beach, Limbe, Cameroon. Image by Shuimo Trust Dohyee for Mongabay.

A ‘big book’ documenting Cameroon’s sharks & rays fills critical conservation gap

Shuimo Trust Dohyee 1 Apr 2026
A dinghy used to sample the lake. Image courtesy of Travis W. Drake.

‘Ancient’ carbon venting from lakes in the Congo Basin peatlands: Study

John Cannon 31 Mar 2026

Conservation depends on rangers. Their wellbeing is often an afterthought

Rhett Ayers Butler 31 Mar 2026
Lubumbashi River, at the level of the Kalubwe bridge, where significant fish mortality was reported in November 2025. Image by Ruth Kutemba.

4 months after DRC mine spill, residents remain impacted

Ruth Kutemba, Elodie Toto 26 Mar 2026
Massaha forest. Image by ZB.

How a community defended its ancestral forest from logging

Rhett Ayers Butler 16 Mar 2026
A vulture nesting colony on Ngethelewan, an inselberg located on the Boma plateau, in South Sudan.

Satellite images identify vulture breeding colonies by their droppings

Ryan Truscott 5 Mar 2026

Cameroon’s decade of conflict leaves apes and conservationists in peril

Orji Sunday 3 Mar 2026
CHEMAF’s Etoile mine (formerly known as Kalukuluku) in Ruashi-Lubumbashi in the DRC. Image by Didier Makal.

US firm Virtus Minerals closes in on deal for crucial DRC copper and cobalt mines

Ashoka Mukpo 26 Feb 2026
A photo of Zeytin posted by the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry on Facebook in December 2024. No further updates have been provided since the country's announcement to not send Zeytin to Africa.

Baby gorilla seized from traffickers languishes in Turkish zoo

Spoorthy Raman 13 Feb 2026
Artisanal cobalt miners in the DRC. Image by The International Institute for Environment and Development. Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic.

Scrutiny grows over DRC-US minerals deal, even as other African nations sign up

Elodie Toto 12 Feb 2026
Luwowo Coltan mine near Rubaya, North Kivu. Image © MONUSCO/Sylvain Liechti via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Landslides claim more than 220 lives in DRC’s Rubaya coltan mining site

Didier Makal 9 Feb 2026
Christine Lain surveys Upemba National Park.

Partnering up to run a DRC reserve: Interview with Forgotten Parks’ Christine Lain

Ashoka Mukpo 6 Feb 2026
Twahirwa at Rwanda’s flagship Gorilla Naming Ceremony, at the foothills of Volcanoes National Park in the village of Kinigi in northern Rwanda. Image courtesy of Jean Leonald Karuranga.

From Kigali to the Congo Basin: Aimable Twahirwa’s path in environmental journalism

Alejandro Prescott-Cornejo 6 Feb 2026
A forest elephant near Ngounié, Gabon. Image by marcusgmeiner via iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0)

What’s next for the major pledge to halt & reverse Congo Basin deforestation?

Latoya Abulu 5 Feb 2026
Camps Bay, Cape Town, South Africa.

A ‘new baseline’: Study captures accelerating sea-level rise in Africa

Edward Carver 30 Jan 2026
A Bangka slow loris (Nycticebus bancanus).

For two of the world’s most at-risk primates, threats abound and the future looks grim

Mino Rakotovao 20 Jan 2026

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