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Vehicles navigate a flooded road in Mozambique’s Maputo province in January 2026. Forecasters warn that the developing El Niño could bring heavier rainfall and flooding to parts of East and Southern Africa. Image by AP Photo.

Act before El Niño: Expert worries about deepening hunger in East and South Africa

David Akana 14 Oct 2026
Thama Mutheiwana, one of the Tshakhuma community leaders, pointing at the overgrown bushes blocking the way for smooth water flow during floods. He is suggesting that Limpopo disaster management should build a rock barrier wall along the river to slow the flow of water and reduce erosion.

Residents of South Africa’s Limpopo province hold breath amid fears of repeat floods

Bernard Chiguvare 14 Oct 2026
The Makhado mine’s coal-handling and processing plant (CHPP). Image courtesy of MC Mining.

South African coal mine advances amid legal challenge and mounting water concerns

Elaine Mills 14 Oct 2026
A female member of the Smitswinkel Troop with False Bay in the background,. Image by Barry Christianson for Mongabay.

‘A hard reset’: Cape Town to capture and relocate baboon troops

Barry Christianson 13 Oct 2026
South African cheetah

This is a South African cheetah, and it’s in trouble

Juan Maza, Victoria Schneider 11 Oct 2026
Dead fish at Hippo Pool, north of Chingola, where the Kafue River narrows into a shallow valley. Image by Victoria Schneider for Mongabay.

Despite legacy court case, Zambian Vedanta mine pollution continues

Victoria Schneider 8 Oct 2026
A brown clockfig in South Africa’s Gariep Valley. Image © pietermier via iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Rare Southern African succulent listed as critically endangered amid mining threat

Victoria Schneider 5 Oct 2026
Lions (Panthera leo). Image by Julie Larsen © Wildlife Conservation Society.

Turning vulnerable livestock into four-eyed beasts helps protect them in Zimbabwe

Cecil Dzwowa 30 Sep 2026
Jaco Muller. Image courtesy of the Rhino Momma Project.

Jaco Muller turned his 15-year-old son’s idea into 197 rhino births

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Sep 2026
A Malala drift area resident feeding his goats

Farmers in South Africa’s Limpopo face unpredictable rainfall, uncertain futures

Bernard Chiguvare 25 Sep 2026
A Landscape Alliance staffer kneels beside a coppicing stump of a wild loquat tree

Scientists clone Southern Africa’s wild fruit trees as forests disappear

Ryan Truscott 25 Sep 2026

Anthrax suspected in 46 hippo deaths in Zambia amid potential spillover to humans

Victoria Schneider 24 Sep 2026

Floating weeds threaten farming and fishing at Malawi’s Chia Lagoon

Charles Mpaka 23 Sep 2026
Beginning in the mid-2000s, poachers targeted elephants for their tusks, which were worth hefty sums on the black market. In some countries, including Zambia, governments and conservationists are trying to find new ways to combat poaching — like understanding motivations and trying to provide alternative, legal employment.

‘How did you come to be here?’ Study digs into origins of Zambian wildlife crime

Alex Megerle 19 Sep 2026
KWD1980, a wild dog from Zambia’s Kafue National Park

‘A good way to die’: Triumph and tragedy among dispersing African wild dogs

Ryan Truscott 16 Sep 2026
A pack of endangered African wild dogs moving along a small dirt track in Kafue National Park., Zambia. Image courtesy of Scott Creel.

Longest African mammal movement recorded by Zambian wild dogs

Ryan Truscott 14 Sep 2026
Butterflies on Mount Mabu. Image courtesy of Julian Bayliss.

Mozambique protects Mount Mabu ‘butterfly forest’

Shanna Hanbury 11 Sep 2026
Pallid harrier (Circus macrourus) at Omsk, Russia in 2026. Image by Yaroslav Burmatov via INaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0)

‘Birds know no borders’: Interview with BirdLife Africa’s Alex Ngari

Wilson Odhiambo 8 Sep 2026
The southern greater kudu

South Africa’s new gold rush: Big promises, closed books in new carbon frontier

Leonie Joubert 3 Sep 2026
The number of cuttings this Hive Ecosystem team manages to plant in a day is dizzying. This project is halfway toward its original goal of planting spekboom across nearly 5,500 hectares (nearly 13,000 acres). Image by Leonie Joubert for Mongabay.

South Africa’s new gold rush: Spekboom restoration speeds up, but it’s a bumpy road, insiders report

Leonie Joubert 1 Sep 2026
Saltpans in Walvis Bay, Namibia. Image courtesy by David Stanley via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

Namibia greenlights controversial project to dredge phosphate from seabed

Jemima Beukes 1 Sep 2026
An agroforestry tour during a workshop at the Permaculture Paradise Institute in Lilongwe, Malawi. Image by Emilie Vansant.

Growing Indigenous food trees in East Africa fights malnutrition and biodiversity loss

Claudia Geib 31 Aug 2026
Loyiso Dunga working to map indigenous community cultural connections in the Wild Coast, South Africa. Image courtesy of Loyiso Dunga.

‘You can’t protect what you don’t know:’ Interview with marine scientist Loyiso Dunga

Alexandra Talty 31 Aug 2026
Angora goats, which produce mohair. Image © Samantha Reinders.

South Africa’s new gold rush: Big money, high stakes in emerging spekboom restoration sector

Leonie Joubert 27 Aug 2026
A representative image of heavy sand mining site off the coast of Mozambique. Image courtesy of Estacio Valoi.

A ‘leading’ Chinese miner of Mozambique’s heavy sands linked to environmental destruction

Malavika Vyawahare 27 Aug 2026
Harvesting timber in Mpumalanga province, South Africa. Image by York Timbers (Fair Use).

In South Africa, renewable energy latest part of timber industry’s green efforts

Mkhululi Chimoio 26 Aug 2026

In Spain & South Africa, communities use restoration to ‘grow’ fire insurance (commentary)

Claire Patterson, Penelope Choussat 24 Aug 2026
A colony of Cape Fur seals during a euthanasia attempt of a Cape Fur seal suspected of having rabies at Seal Island in False Bay in Cape Town, South Africa on August 07, 2024. Image by Matrix Images / Nic Bothma.

A deadly cross over: In South Africa, rabies moves from land animals to seals

Nic Bothma 24 Aug 2026
Aerial view of the Cuanavale river, which runs through the Angolan Highlands and joins the Cuito River. Image courtesy of Zach Vincent for National Geographic.

Angola’s peatlands highly underestimated, new study suggests

Victoria Schneider 21 Aug 2026
Malawian farmer Laston Mchiswe watering cabbage that he will sell to markets in the nearby city of Blantyre to earn money for food for his own family. Image by Charles Mpaka for Mongabay.

Land crisis and ‘green revolution’ practices trap millions of Malawi’s farmers

Charles Mpaka 18 Aug 2026
Fisherpeople in Port St. Johns, Eastern Cape. Image courtesy of Aletta Harrison CC BY 4.0.

South Africa’s top court blocks Shell oil exploration off country’s Wild Coast

Victoria Schneider 17 Aug 2026
Steve Smit. From his Facebook page

Steve Smit, South Africa’s “Monkey Man,” has died

Rhett Ayers Butler 15 Aug 2026

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