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Element Africa: Lead poisoning, polluted rivers, and ‘calamitous’ mining regulation

Mongabay.com 31 Jan 2023
The dilapidated home of Ambroise Ondoa, local leader from Nkol-Bifouan, damaged by vibrations from the Febe village quarry. Image © Yannick Kenné.

Tense neighbors: Chinese quarry in Cameroon takes a toll on locals

Yannick Kenné 24 Jan 2023

At a rubber plantation in Liberia, history repeats in a fight over land

Ashoka Mukpo 17 Jan 2023
Tanzanian police officer in dull green riot gear and helmet, pictured against the sky guarding waste dump site at Barrick Gold's North Mara mine. Image courtesy Catherine Coumans / Mining Watch.

Element Africa: Deadly violence and massive graft at Tanzania and DRC mines

Mongabay.com 31 Dec 2022

In Liberia, a gold boom leads to unregulated mining and ailing rivers

Varney Kamara 22 Dec 2022
Residents of Hanging Site.

In Sierra Leone’s fishing villages, a reality check for climate aid

Ashoka Mukpo 15 Dec 2022
A Djouroutou chimpanzee cracks open a panda nut on a wooden anvil. Photo credit: Liran Samuni, Taï Chimpanzee Project

Chimpanzee nut cracking leaves telltale marks on stones, providing clues to human evolution

Kate Hull 13 Dec 2022
A Gbaya farmer in Mbanti-Mbang, on land left unscathed by the agro-industrial project / Image © Yannick Kenné.

To replace Western food imports, Cameroon gives community lands to ‘no-name’ agro-industry

Yannick Kenné 1 Dec 2022
Saliou Hassana, a 17-year-old gold miner, extracting and collecting gold nuggets using mercury at Kambélé III. Image © Yannick Kenné.

About 72% of gold miners poisoned with mercury at artisanal mining sites in Cameroon

Yannick Kenné 29 Nov 2022
A gorilla at the habituation project in Campo Ma'an National Park. Image courtesy Campo Ma'an National Park via Wikicommons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Forests & Finance: From logging in Cameroon to cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire

Mongabay.com 31 Oct 2022
Okapis (Okapia johnstoni) are related to giraffes. Image in the public domain.

Element Africa: Mines take their toll on nature and communities

Mongabay.com 20 Oct 2022
Gura Ferda expedition, Ethiopia, May-June 2022. Image courtesy Christophe Bernier.

Forests & Finance: A road project, food baskets, and unique wildlife

Mongabay.com 18 Oct 2022
Close up of men chanting at a protest in Cayar, Senegal. Image © Greenpeace / Annika Hammerschlag.

Fished out at sea and smoked out on land, Senegal fishers take on a fishmeal factory

Lawon Olalekan 6 Oct 2022

Forests & Finance: Sit-ins, seeds over seedlings, and fuel-saving cookstoves

Mongabay.com 5 Oct 2022
A man in a boat in Bodo

Element Africa: Diamonds, oil, coltan, and more diamonds

Mongabay.com 4 Oct 2022
A mona monkey (Cercopithecus mona), one of the many species that inhabit Stubbs Creek Forest Reserve. Image by AlexisENVN via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

New oil refinery ‘a huge disaster’ for Nigerian forest reserve

Orji Sunday 20 Sep 2022
A community member carries mangrove seedlings to be planted. Image by Orji Sunday for Mongabay.

Niger Delta mangroves in ‘grave danger’ from oil spills, poverty, invasive species

Orji Sunday 22 Aug 2022
Results of Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration in Talensi District of Ghana. Image courtesy of World Vision.

Let it grow: Q&A with reforestation and land restoration visionary Tony Rinaudo

Erik Hoffner 17 Aug 2022
Camera trap image of an adult male and a baby gorilla in Ebo Forest.

Study highlights elusive Cameroonian gorillas, and the threats encircling them

Ryan Truscott 10 Aug 2022
Gorillas in Cameroon.

Private road sparks fears for Cameroon’s Ebo Forest

Amindeh Blaise Atabong 10 Aug 2022

Where do the guitarfish go? Scientists and fishers team up to find out

Mike DiGirolamo 22 Jul 2022
A rubber farmer taps a rubber tree

Rubber used by leading European tire makers linked to forest loss in Africa: Report

Malavika Vyawahare 6 Jul 2022
A chimpanzee in the Congo rainforests

Data from droppings: Researchers draw up a genetic ID map for chimps

Charles Mpaka 1 Jul 2022
The study found that 83 species of wild birds from West Africa were being traded online.

Study shines light, and raises alarm, over online trade of West African birds

Elizabeth Claire Alberts 23 Jun 2022
A handful of peanuts.

Book Review: ‘Slaves for Peanuts’ gets to the troubling roots of a beloved snack

Malavika Vyawahare 23 Jun 2022
Salatou Sambou

A tale of successes and new challenges in Senegal: Q&A with ICCA coordinator Salatou Sambou

Valisoa Rasolofomboahangy 21 Jun 2022
Fishing in Sierra Leone

In Sierra Leone, local fishers and foreign trawlers battle for their catch

Ashoka Mukpo 24 May 2022
West African slender-snouted crocodile, Tano River basin, Ghana. Image courtesy Threatened Species Conservation Alliance

Slender-snouted crocodile savior: Q&A with Whitley Award winner Emmanuel Amoah

Mohamed Fofanah 13 May 2022
A Western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus).

Côte d’Ivoire’s chimp habitats are shrinking, but there’s hope in their numbers

Manon Verchot 25 Apr 2022

Small farmers take a stand for one of Dakar’s last urban woodlands

Francesco De Augustinis 13 Apr 2022

Saving Nigeria’s gorillas was also meant to help communities. It hasn’t (analysis).

Orji Sunday 31 Mar 2022
Beninese Army soldiers taking part in live fire exercise. But by the end of 2021, a series of attacks on soldiers by militants raised the specter of a long-feared spillover of insurgent violence into northern Benin. Image by Jad Sleiman, U.S. Marine Corps via Wikimedia Commons.

In Benin, the line between conservation and counterinsurgency blurs

Ashoka Mukpo 29 Mar 2022

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