Deforestation by forest type/classification in DRC, 2000-2005 and 2005-2010. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has its first Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) project validated and verified…
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…
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…
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…
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)'s last herd of zebra run free in Upemba. Photo courtesy of the FZS. Zebra racing across the yellow-green savannah is an iconic image for…
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…
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…
The only herd of zebra in the DRC is found in Upemba National Park. After decades of poaching the herd is only about 20 strong. Photo by: Frankfurt Zoological Society…
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…
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…
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,…
The new species of lizard, Cordylus marunguensi, from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo courtesy of Eli Greenbaum. A new lizard has been discovered in a war-torn area of the…
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…
Screenshot of new website of community mapping in central Africa's forests. A new initiative to place community mapping of central African rainforests online could prove key to local rights in…
A forest elephant in Gabon. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler . Warfare and poaching have decimated forest elephant populations across their range with even elephants in remote protected areas cut…
Bunda Bokitsi. Photo by: Zoological Society of Milwaukee (ZSM). The effort to save wildlife from destruction worldwide has many heroes. Some receive accolades for their work, but others live in…
A new report finds that conservation giant WWF may demand too little when working with logging companies. Screenshot of WWF website. Arguably the globe's most well-known conservation organization, the World…
2.5-billion-ha carbon map shows forests store 250B tons of carbon Forest carbon stock. Click image to enlarge Tropical forests across Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia stored 247 gigatons of…
Two separate protests against logging companies by local communities have turned violent in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), leaving at least one dead. According to Greenpeace, one of the…
Forest elephant. Photo by: Carlton Ward Junior. An interview with Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz and Stephen Blake. Warning: graphic images below. It seems difficult to imagine elephants delicately tending a garden, but…
Grauer’s gorilla is the world’s largest gorilla. Photo copyright A. Plumptre/Wildlife Conservation Society. A population of the world's largest gorilla subspecies has increased despite ongoing human conflict, reports the Wildlife…
Clearing of peatlands in Indonesian Borneo. Photo copyright Greenpeace. One of the world's top consultancies, McKinsey & Co., is providing advice to governments developing "Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation"…
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has suspended oil exploration in Africa's oldest national park, Virunga, until a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is conducted. The move ends oil companies, Soco…