African Conservation News
Field stories, research, reports, development, conservation
Exploitation changes leopard behaviour with long-term genetic costs
Throughout their range leopards are in rapid decline, having disappeared from North Africa, much of the Middle East and Asia. Declines have been so severe that the species is now considered vulnerable to extinction. No comprehensive estimates of the number of leopards...
Planting Trees Will Not Solve the Climate Crisis
South African scientists say African governments have been misled into massive tree planting schemes by the Global North misreading Africa's grasslands. Megafires and drought beckon. Trees are good. Trees are green. Trees suck up carbon dioxide. Ergo: plant as many...
South Africa wants to promote wildlife consumption
South Africa is turning towards the implementation of new laws that fully allows the economic exploitation of wildlife. The intention is to market the use of all kinds of wild species, including giraffes, zebras, emu, and duikers, in order to produce cheap meat....
100+ civil society organisations to the African Development Bank: Don’t finance the East African Crude Oil Pipeline
100+ civil society organisations to the African Development Bank: Don’t finance the East African Crude Oil Pipeline More than 100 civil society organizations have written to the President of the African Development Bank, Mr. Akinwumi Adesina, warning the bank against...
How is the novel Coronavirus connected to wildlife?
What do the coronavirus and the extinction of endangered species have in common? With the current outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), global attention has been drawn to the significant health risks posed by eating wild animals. COVID-19 is caused by severe...
What Kenya must do to save its roan antelope population
Roan antelopes are Africa’s second largest antelope species. Their populations are stable and growing in some African countries, but in others – like Kenya –they’re threatened with extinction. To address this, the Kenya Wildlife Service is launching a recovery plan....
An extraordinary rescue mission deep in the Sahara captures four rare Dama gazelles and revives hopes of saving the species
For years, the dama gazelle has been of great concern to the international conservation community. This beautiful, uniquely adapted but also heavily poached species of the Sahel has suffered a long decline and now stands at the brink of extinction. Despite the risks...
Silent Forests: A rare glimpse inside the forest elephant poaching crisis
We are in the midst of an elephant poaching epidemic across the African continent. Fueled by a growing middle class in Asia that is hungry for ivory status symbols, these iconic and intelligent mammals are being slaughtered for their tusks at an alarming rate. While...
The Soutpansberg Mountains, a box of secrets for conservation ecologists?
By Chris Bell, Newcastle UniversityAn African leopard prowls silently through the undergrowth of the Northern Mist belt forests of the Soutpansberg Mountains. He knows every inch of this vast landscape, as this is his territory, where he has been the apex predator for...
Growing Livestock Numbers Threaten One of the Last Refuges for Large Wild Herbivores in Kenya
Across Laikipia County in central Kenya, large wild herbivores, including endangered species like the reticulated giraffe, Grevy’s zebra and African wild dog, coexist alongside rapidly growing numbers of people and associated livestock. A Biological Conservation study...