Raw logs cut with artisanal permits at Kinkole port near Kinshasa. Photo courtesy of Global Witness. In 2002 the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) announced a moratorium on commercial logging…
Confiscated elephant parts from poachers. Photo by: Nuria Ortega. For the past five years, Spanish biologist Luis Arranz has been the director of Garamba National Park, in the Democratic Republic…
Funeral for a slain Virunga ranger. Photo courtesy of Gorilla.cd. Mai-Mai PARECO rebels attacked a ranger patrol in Virunga National Park killing two park staff and one government soldier, reports…
Two satellite images by NASA, one from February 13, 1999 and the other from September 1, 2008 (see below), show that Virunga National Park is under assault from deforestation. Located…
NASA Landset image of Lake Edward in Virunga National Park. Photo by: NASA. The British government has come out in opposition against oil drilling plans by UK-based, SOCO International, in…
Illegal logging accounts for 15-30 percent of forestry in the tropics and is worth $30-100 billion worldwide, alleges a new report published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and…
Lowland gorilla in Gabon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Cross River gorillas and eastern gorillas lost more than half their habitat since the early 1990s due to deforestation, logging, and…
For many animal families, diversity and abundance rises as one moves away from human-impacted landscapes, like agricultural areas, into untouched places, such as primary rainforests. However, a new study in…
Close up of new species: lesula (Cercopithecus lomamiensis). This is a captive adult male. Photo courtesy of Hart et al. In a massive, wildlife-rich, and largely unexplored rainforest of the…
Forest clearing for palm oil production in Cameroon. Photo courtesy of Greenpeace Herakles Farm, a U.S.-based agricultural developer, will no longer seek eco-certification of its 70,000-hectare oil palm plantation in…
Conflict minerals in DRC. Courtesy of the Enough Project Gaming giant Nintendo is the worst company for ensuring that materials used in its electronics are not linked to bloodshed in…
African slender-snouted crocodile caught by hunters. Photo courtesy of ESI. Although founded only four years ago, Endangered Species International-Congo, has ambitious plans to protect dwindling Western gorilla populations and aid…
A baby sitatunga born recently at Zoological Society of London's (ZSL) Whipsnade Zoo. Photo courtesy of ZSL Whipsnade Zoo. The sitatunga (Tragelaphus spekii) is a swamp-dwelling antelope that makes its…
Bandana by Roger Peet to promote conservation and wildlife identification in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Click to enlarge. American artist, Roger Peet—a member of the art cooperative,…
The okapi was only discovered by scientists in 1901 and today is listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN Red List. Officials have pointed to an infamous elephant poacher known…
Infant lowland gorilla in the Congo basin rainforest. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Central Africa has the newest World Heritage site. On Tuesday, the United Nations Education, Science, and Cultural…
Last week, the west African nation of Gabon committed over 1,200 ivory tusks and carvings to the fire. The act, which was meant to send a strong signal to illegal…
Okapi Two wildlife rangers were among the six people killed during brazen attack on a wildlife facility by a militia in the Democratic Republic of Congo last Sunday. 13 endangered…
Professor Baboko teaching a geography class at the Djolu Technical College of Rural Development. Photo courtesy of: Ingrid Schulze. This summer, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is expected to…
José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva speaking at a TEDx Amazon in 2010, just a few months before he and his wife were assassinated for their activism. On May 24th, 2011,…
Photo Credit: Thomas Breuer/Wildlife Conservation Society Elephant numbers in areas surveyed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Central Africa halved between 2006 and 2011, hinting at the carnage wrought…
An adult male gorilla—also known as a “silverback” (far right)—with a family group in Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo. Conservationists from WCS and the Max Planck Institute…
Forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) in Gabon. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. The government of Gabon has announced it will burn its stockpiles of ivory later this year in a bid…
Deforestation by forest type/classification in DRC, 2000-2005 and 2005-2010. Click image to enlarge. Danzer, a Swiss-German forestry company that has been heavily criticized by environmentalists for its logging practices in…
Deforestation in the Congo Basin. Click image to enlarge. Deforestation in the Congo Basin has increased sharply since the 1990s, reports an extensive new assessment of forests in the six-nation…
A portion of Virunga National Park swaddled in clouds as seen by Google Earth. Permits for controversial oil exploration in Virunga National Park have been released after request by NGO…
A young "naive" chimp from the Goualougo Triangle. Photo by: Michael Nichols, National Geographic. The Republic of the Congo has expanded its Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park by 37,295 hectares (144 square…
The Congo rainforest today in Gabon. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Three thousand years ago (around 1000 BCE) several large sections of the Congo rainforest in central Africa suddenly vanished…
WARNING: Graphic photos below. Hunter in the Colombian rainforest. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Protected areas in the world's tropical rainforests are absolutely essential, but one cannot simply set up…
2011 was designated as "Year of the Forests" by the United Nations. While there was relatively little progress on intergovernmental forest protection programs during the year, a lot happened elsewhere.…