Conservationists warn that vulture populations in central African countries like Chad are increasingly at risk due to belief-based use in Nigeria and Benin.

Abiola Sylvestre Chaffra, a research fellow at the International Bird Conservation Partnership, told Mongabay he was out in Chad, photographing vultures, when a man offered to help him capture the birds. Vultures love donkey meat, the man said. All Chaffra had to do was buy a donkey and leave its poisoned carcass in the open. The man told Chaffra he had helped many people catch vultures this way.

In West African countries like Nigeria and Benin, vultures are poached both alive and dead for beliefs that they bring luck, success or protection against witchcraft. Vulture parts, including head and feet, eggs and nests, are also used. This demand is now reaching vulture populations in Central Africa.

In a recent paper, researchers detailed how critically endangered hooded vultures (Necrosyrtes monachus) were absent around most slaughterhouses and landfill sites they visited near N’Djamena, Chad’s capital.

“That doesn’t really make sense, because there’s a ton of food,” said study co-author Nico Arcilla, president of the International Bird Conservation Partnership. Nearly half the local residents interviewed by the researchers said they knew of recent poisoning incidents in the area, and more than one-third stated they were aware of poachers from countries such as Nigeria, Niger, Benin and Cameroon trapping or killing vultures.

“The driver appears to be coming from West Africa, and it generally seems to point back to Benin or Nigeria,” Arcilla said. Belief-based use practices appear to be largely absent in Chad, she added.

In another study, led by Chaffra, surveys in Benin’s traditional markets found that while most vultures on sale originated from other West African countries, such as Ghana, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Niger, there were also birds from Cameroon and Gabon. Another 2025 market survey in Benin found a small number of birds sourced from Cameroon. A 2014 paper revealed that vulture parts on sale in Nigeria were sourced from as far as Sudan.

“In several cases, trade appears to cross national borders, highlighting the need for regional cooperation to better understand and combat these networks,” Chaffra said.

Darcy Ogada, program director at The Peregrine Fund who wasn’t involved in the research, said it isn’t surprising the supply chain is very far-reaching since vultures in West Africa have become scarce.

“That should raise the alarm,” Ogada added. “It’s going to keep moving to where populations are relatively much better.”

Arcilla said that awareness-raising in communities, law enforcement, and conservation efforts are urgently needed, targeting both natural and urban areas where vultures persist.

“It is also necessary to continue research into supply chains and to promote sustainable alternatives in order to reduce demand for vultures and their parts,” Chaffra said.

Banner image: A pair of hooded vultures. Image by Nico Arcilla.

Descendants of families forcibly displaced during the creation of Maiko National Park in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo back in the 1970s are now leading a new wave of community-led conservation.

Gangala Yafali Mangusa Jr., from one such displaced family, is the head of the Bamasobha Local Community Forest Concession (CFCL), covering roughly 29,000 hectares (71,700 acres), where he oversees patrols that monitor illegal hunting, logging and mining. His team also works to strengthen coexistence between communities and the forest, and to promote sustainable management of natural resources.

Mongabay-Africa contributor Jérémie Kyaswekera reports that Mangusa Jr.’s commitment stems from a history of conflict between his community and the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN) following the creation of Maiko National Park, home to the eastern lowland gorilla, forest elephants and chimpanzees.

“At one point, park rangers from the ICCN came and set up camp, and they began patrolling, forbidding people from entering the forest and eating meat, even though these Indigenous communities had been living off meat [and fruit] for generations,” Mangusa Jr. said. That led to long-standing disagreements, forcing communities to move elsewhere, he added.

The Bamasobha CFCL represents a shift toward inclusive forest management. Supported by the Peasants’ Association for the Rehabilitation and Protection of Pygmies (PREPPYG), the communities of Bamasobha developed a management plan in 2023 that balances biodiversity protection with human needs through distinct production and conservation zones. The impact has been significant: Satellite data from Global Forest Watch shows forest loss in the concession dropped from 940 hectares (2,320 acres) in 2024 to 120 hectares (296 acres) in 2025.

Community forest concessions are expanding across the DRC as an alternate conservation model. Between Kahuzi-Biega National Park and Itombwe Nature Reserve, both in eastern DRC, the NGO Strong Roots Congo is developing a 1-million-hectare (2.5-million-acre) biodiversity corridor with dozens of CFCLs.

Olivier Ndoole Bahemuke, an analyst and researcher on forest governance issues, said CFCLs can serve as a model for Indigenous communities deprived of forest resources following the creation of protected areas.

But challenges remain, including insecurity from terrorists in the region, which has led to displacement of community members and people from outside the communities sometimes entering the CFCL conservation zone to hunt animals, sources told Mongabay.

Still, Ndoole Bahemuke said he sees CFCLs as a vital alternative. He noted that when communities accept this model, it is “an extension of the wildlife protection practices of their ancestors.”

Read the full story by Jérémie Kyaswekera here.

Banner image: Aerial view of forest and river in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. Image by MONUSCO/Myriam Asmani via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).

For more than 160 years, the Himalayan pit viper was believed to be a single species, found across the Himalayas in Pakistan, India and Nepal. Now, a new study revealed this snake is actually not one, but five distinct species, including three entirely new to science.

For their analysis, the researchers conducted fieldwork to different parts of the Himalayas and collected samples of what was considered to be the Himalayan pit viper from different populations. They also examined historical specimens assigned to the Himalayan pit viper and extracted DNA from them.

Their analysis of the snakes’ bodies, skeleton and DNA revealed five separate species:

The Himalayan pit viper (Gloydius himalayanus) was first described in 1864. This species is now restricted to northwestern India and typically inhabits elevations between 1,000 and 3,500 meters (3,281-11,483 feet).

The Chamba pit viper (G. chambensis) was originally described in 2022 from India’s Chamba District. This study extended its known range westward into the Kashmir Valley. It lives at elevations from 400-2,500 meters (1,312-8,202 feet).

The Hazara pit viper (G. hazarensis) is a new-to-science species. It’s found in the Hazara region of northeastern Pakistan at elevations ranging from 1,630-2,900 meters (5,348-9,514 feet).

The Hindu Kush pit viper (G. hindukushensis) is also a newly described species. It inhabits the eastern foothills of the Hindu Kush Mountains in northwestern Pakistan between 1,660 and 2,888 meters (5,446-9,475 feet).

The Nepali pit viper (G. nepalensis) is new-to-science as well. This viper is distributed across western and west-central Nepal and is recorded at elevations between 1,640 and 3,220 meters (5,380-10,564 feet).

Anita Malhotra, a pit viper specialist at Bangor University, U.K., who wasn’t involved in the study, told Mongabay by email that five pit viper species occurring in close proximity wasn’t surprising. They were presumably isolated by the “extreme topography of the mountains,” she said, adding that their small ranges make them “extremely vulnerable to climate change.”

The study’s authors wrote that major river valleys, such as the Indus and Karnali, may have acted as historical barriers driving this isolation.

“This discovery highlights the need to treat fragile ecosystems as reservoirs of highly localised evolutionary diversity,” Kartik Sunagar, a venom expert at the Indian Institute of Science who wasn’t involved in the research, told Mongabay through email. “It also shows why taxonomy is central to conservation: if we do not recognise distinct species, we cannot accurately assess their risk or protect them effectively.”

The study’s authors wrote newer technologies that allow DNA to be retrieved from museum specimens preserved in formalin, helped in the Himalayan pit viper’s re-analysis. Malhotra cautioned that the process of DNA extraction from specimens is “difficult and expensive” and “involves destructive sampling of museum specimens, which not all museums will allow.”

Banner image: Gloydius nepalensis from Nepal. Image courtesy of Dr. Daniel Jablonski and Dr. Frank Tillack (CC BY).

Fifteen countries from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe adopted the Mombasa Declaration on June 17, 2026. Together, they committed to advance global fisheries transparency and strengthen efforts to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

The declaration was adopted during the 11th meeting of the international Our Ocean Conference, held in Mombasa, Kenya. Africa had the most countries signing on: Cameroon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, the Republic of the Congo and Somalia.

“In my country, our very existence depends on fish,” said Emelia Arthur, Ghana’s Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, in a statement shared with Mongabay. “Sixty percent of our animal protein comes from fish, and ten percent of our population depends on the fisheries value chain for livelihood. Fisheries are a matter of culture and national security for us. I’m happy that Ghana is among the first countries to sign the Mombasa Declaration,” she added.

Countries hope that by working together to harmonize regulations and share information on vessels operating in their territorial waters, they will become more effective in their fight against IUU fishing.

“Illegal fishing perpetrators are getting more and more sophisticated in the way they are evading from one country’s laws and regulations by moving to another one,” Cephas Asare told Mongabay in a phone call. Asare is the West Africa regional manager for the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), a British NGO working to combat illegal fishing. “This needs to end. That is why we need to address the issue together, to be more transparent to track them and hopefully end illegal fishing,” Asare said. 

Among the measures promoted by the declaration, signatory countries have committed to adopting the Global Charter for Fisheries Transparency. The charter calls for publishing fishing licenses, authorizations, access agreements and fishing quota allocations. It also encourages countries to ensure that all industrial fishing vessels have unique vessel identifiers (UVIs) and to progressively implement UVIs for small-scale vessels.

During a press conference in Mombasa, the signatory countries called on representatives from other coastal states to adopt the declaration as well.

Asare told Mongabay that illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing costs West African countries millions of dollars every year, threatens fish stocks and undermines food security for millions of people.

Banner image: A cross-section of canoes after fishing in Marshall, Liberia. Image by Edward Blamo for Mongabay.

Researchers have described a new-to-science species of walking shark, which lives in the remote, shallow waters off southeastern Papua New Guinea.

The newly named Dudgeon’s walking shark (Hemiscyllium dudgeonae) is a type of epaulette shark, a group of small sharks famous for their ability to use their fins to “walk” when stranded in tidal shallows. Walking sharks are nocturnal, feed on invertebrates and aren’t dangerous to humans.

Christine Dudgeon of the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia and her colleagues were surveying the waters in and around Papua New Guinea’s Milne bay after midnight when she captured a meter-long fish by hand. Dudgeon told Mongabay by email that she initially thought she’d caught a Michael’s or Milne Bay walking shark (Hemiscyllium michaeli), also known as a leopard epaulette shark, “which was the one that we were looking for.”

Back on the boat and under light, Jess Blakeway, a PhD student at the university and the study’s lead author, noticed the shark’s color pattern was different from any of the walking sharks she had worked with before, according to a press release.

Although all walking sharks in the genus Hemiscyllium are similar in size and shape, species can be uniquely identified by their markings, Dudgeon told Mongabay.

Dudgeon added the Milne Bay walking shark has very distinctive leopard spots while the species she collected had white stripes and small brown spots all over it “and didn’t look like any of the other species at all.”

Over the next two days, Dudgeon said the team found 11 more individuals with this new pattern across three sites, including males and females, and immature and mature animals. It was then they were “quite convinced it was a new species,” she said.

They found the new sharks in shallow seagrass and on the top of coral sea mounts — habitats similar to those of the Milne Bay walking shark, Dudgeon said.

Genetic analysis confirmed the team’s hunch. “It’s exciting because this is the first new species described for the genus since 2013,” said Blakeway in the release.

Dudgeon’s walking shark, named in honor of Christine Dudgeon, becomes the tenth known species in the genus Hemiscyllium, a group native to shallow waters off Australia and New Guinea.

“It’s incredible that we are still finding new species in shallow waters like this, and highlights that there is more to find as long as we open our eyes and minds,” Dudgeon told Mongabay.

While the conservation status of Dudgeon’s walking shark is unknown, its restricted distribution may place it at risk.

“We are fortunate in working with local people in PNG and Milne Bay who are excited and proud of their endemic biodiversity, and we hope this work will raise the profile of the species and result in protections that support habitats and broader biodiversity,” Dudgeon said.

Banner image: Christine Dudgeon with the newly named walking shark. Image by Nesha Ichida.

The government of French Polynesia announced it is expanding the extent of ocean where extractive industries like seabed mining and industrial fishing will not be allowed. With this move, 30% of French Polynesia’s waters will now be fully protected.

Last year on June 8, French Polynesia, a French overseas territory, established the Tainui Atea marine protected area. It spans nearly 5 million square kilometers (2 million square miles) of its exclusive economic zone, the area of ocean that French Polynesia has exclusive rights to conserve and manage. Some 900,000 km2 of this (about 350,000 mi2), located near the Society Islands and the Gambier Islands, are fully protected waters where no extractive fishing or mining is allowed.

On June 7, 2026, French Polynesia President Moetai Brotherson announced that French Polynesia would expand its fully protected waters by another 520,000 km2 (200,000 mi2) near the Austral, Marquesas and Western Society islands. This brings about 1.4 million km2 (540,500 mi2) or 30% of French Polynesia’s waters under full protection from extractive industries.

“French Polynesia has maintained a moratorium on seabed mining in its waters since 2022, reaffirmed by the Presidency in 2025, and banning it was part of the 2025 protection commitments,” Donatien Tanret, principal officer of the Pew Bertarelli Ocean Legacy, which helped develop the conservation plan, told Mongabay by email.

The protected area has artisanal fishing zones where local people are allowed to continue fishing and sustain their local communities, but industrial fishing in prohibited, Tanret said.

In 2025, artisanal fishing zones collectively covering 190,000 km2 (73,000 mi2) were created. Meanwhile, more than 8,000 km2 (3,088 mi2) of artisanal fishing zones will be added in 2026, Tanret said. Fishing is limited to single pole-and-line catch from boats less than 12 meters (39 feet) in length.

The protected area was established by consensus of the communities within French Polynesia, and more than a decade of advocacy from local mayors, Tanret said.

He added that France helps enforce the protections by conducting surveillance, including satellite vessel-tracking and operational support on the ground.

The new protected zone will help conserve 20 species of sharks including the critically endangered scalloped hammerhead (Sphyrna lewini) and oceanic whitetip (Carcharhinus longimanus). The protected zone is also one of the few known breeding sites for 22 bird species, including the endangered Polynesian storm-petrel (Nesofregetta fuliginosa), the vulnerable Phoenix petrel (Pterodroma alba), as well as Murphy’s petrel (Pterodroma ultima), which flies thousands of kilometers across the Pacific between feeding trips.

The protections will also support swordfish, bigeye tuna and opah that live in the Austral and Marquesas, as well as 455 mollusk species, 60 pelagic (or open-ocean) fish species, three sea turtle species and 10 marine mammal species.

“This is our mission as Oceanians,” President Brotherson told AFP. “We also hope that it can inspire other countries, especially the larger ones, in the way they manage their relationship with the ocean.”

Banner image: Sharks in French Polynesia. Image courtesy of Hannes Klostermann, Ocean Image Bank.