State of protected areas in Central Africa: 2020

Report provides key recommendations for improving Central African protected areas

Themes: Conservation, Parks, Indigenous people, Livlihoods, Poverty

Dozens of experts explain the current state of the critical biodiversity hot spot, from management to mining

Ndumbaro Makes a Criminally Clueless and Dangerous Statement Urging Hunting Investors to Commit More Crime Against Rural People

On 5th August, the Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Damas Ndumbaro, made a most inflammatory statement totally ignoring rule of law, human rights, land rights and common sense.

Themes: Conservation, Hunting, Human rights, Indigenous people, Livlihoods, Parks, Pastoralists, Poverty

The Failure of the Manongi Regime of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority.

And the Maasai as Natural Conservationists

Themes: Conservation, Human rights, Indigenous people, Livlihoods, Pastoralists, Parks, Poverty

By Tubulu Lerug Sokoine Nebasi (Diwani Nje ya Halmashauri/Councillor outside the District Council). (Tubulu is the first guest blogger here at View from the Termite Mound, but any serious voice for Ngorongoro land rights – not least including Loliondo, if anyone would be brave enough - is more than welcome. Susanna)

The bold plan to save Africa's largest forest.

Themes: Conservation, Indigenous people, NGOs, Poverty, Livlihoods

The Congo Basin contains the world's second-largest rainforest, crucial for regulating the world's climate. Inside it, a plan to halt the forest's decline is bearing fruit.

COMACO, from snares to plowshares:

A conservation and human wellbeing success story.

Themes: Conservation, NGOs, Livlihoods, Poverty, REDD

Community Markets for Conservation is a private sector, not-for-profit social enterprise in Zambia. It was established in 2003 to halt wildlife poaching and illegal tree cutting for charcoal by helping poor rural families to increase their food and income security through improved farming practices and marketing of value-added agricultural commodities. COMACO supports 178,891 farmers in the Luangwa Valley, providing them with improved farming skills, seed loans, a premium price for their crop surplus, and a dividend if they comply with sustainable farming and wildlife, and forest conservation best practices. Maize yields using COMACO methods increased by 63% and net income was 37% higher than for farmers who purchased inorganic fertilizers. Between 2012 and 2018 the number of food secure families increased from 67–84%. Elephant poaching has declined in all but one COMACO district, poaching is now primarily conducted by nonlocal hunters, and leg-hold snare detections by community game scouts have decreased significantly in COMACO areas. Increasing food and income security while reducing deforestation and unsustainable hunting for ~$US10 per farmer per year is cheap and can be replicated in Zambia and other nations in Africa.

CECIL Act threatens successful wildlife conservation efforts in African countries

Themes: Conservation, Indigenous people, Human rights, Hunting, Poverty, Parks

The CECIL Act, name after the lion killed by a hunter in 2015, would prohibit American hunters from importing animals harvested through legal, regulated means.

Sri Lanka: Rich in biodiversity, and human-wildlife conflict

Themes: Conservation, Poverty, Poaching

- Human-wildlife encounters have increased rapidly in recent years and go beyond elephants and leopards. Competition has grown over the shared space between humans and wildlife due to encroachment, deforestation, habitat degradation, and climate change, putting humans and animals in conflict over land, water and resources. Humans often clash with macaques and langurs as the monkeys are attracted by garbage, are being fed or try to find new habitats due to deforestation. Peafowl are emerging as top agricultural pests due to their expanding range and distribution over the last decade. - Crocodile attacks mainly affect poorer communities that are dependent on unsafe bodies of water, and they often lack awareness of the animals’ behavior. - There is an urgent need to increase awareness around human-wildlife conflict and crop foraging as well as to employ non-violent mitigation measures that take into account the interests of both humans and animals, including fences, garbage management and habitat conservation.

Most laws ignore human-wildlife conflict—this makes us vulnerable to pandemics.

Themes: Conservation, Indigenous people, Poaching, Poverty, CBD

Never before have we seen how the human use of wildlife can yield such catastrophe, as we have with COVID-19.