Fostering coexistence in the Okavango Delta of Botswana Daniel Sekunja whoops, yells, and bangs sticks in front of a captivated audience. He’s reenacting an elephant encounter from his youth, employing the best tactic he knew – make noise—to deter a trio of elephants from destroying his family’s crops. The intelligent elephants, wary of humans and …
In biodiversity-rich areas of Zimbabwe, women, men, and even children venture into national parks and other protected areas to dig and sluice for gold, platinum, and diamonds. They are artisanal small-scale miners, a livelihood that supports an estimated 300,000 Zimbabweans. Small-scale mining has the capacity to generate revenue for governments and communities, reduce rural poverty, …
Community Monitoring to Improve Mining Practices in High Biodiversity Areas Read More »
Namibian law enforcement officers learn how to recognize and act on illegal trade in forest products. The Walvis Bay port of Namibia is bustling. A newly enlarged container terminal, expanded rail lines and paved access points are helping the port become the most cost-effective transshipment hub in the region, servicing all of southern Africa. Importantly, the state-owned port also …
CAMEROON – The economic value of biodiversity might seem like a complicated concept, but its core theory is rather simple: diverse organisms are crucial to the short and long-term economic health of humankind. Think of the Amazon rainforest. Millions of people rely on the expansive biome’s unique biodiversity to sustainably produce valuable species like rubber trees …
The Republic of Congo recently signed a $41.8 million USD agreement with the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+). Republic of Congo is home to part of the Congo Basin rainforest, the second largest continuous tropical forest in the world, a biodiversity haven and a …
The U.S. Forest Service recently conducted an eco-tourism assessment of the Mount Nimba landscape, which includes parts of Guinea, Ivory Coast and Liberia. The Forest Service assessment focuses on the Liberia side of the Mount Nimba range, much of which used to be an open-pit iron ore mine that was then converted into protected areas …
Promoting Ecotourism Opportunities in the Mount Nimba Landscape of Liberia Read More »
Across the Middle East and North Africa, the U.S. Forest Service is engaging with passionate activists and practitioners to help grow green cities through urban agriculture, rooftop gardens, innovative waste management solutions, and community engagement. Green infrastructure investments contribute to human health, economic vitality, and environmental sustainability. “People live in cities, and we should find …
On average, U.S. Forest Service domestic experts donate more than 300 salary days each year to helping their international colleagues advance best practices in Africa and the Middle East. We recently had a chance to chat with Lathan Sidebottom, Special Agent, to hear about how he contributed to advancing law enforcement good practices in Gabon …
Since 1995, the U.S. Forest Service has been assisting Central African governments, universities, civil society organizations, and local communities with sustainable land-use planning, forest inventory, and management of wildland fire and protected areas. Its assistance in sustainable forest management contributes to USAID’s largest environmental conservation program, called the Central Africa Regional Program for the Environment …
Strengthening Forest Resource Management Capacity in Central Africa Read More »
A recent report by the Environment Investigations Agency (EIA)[1] detailed the extent to which corruption, transnational criminal activity and poor forest governance are negatively impacting forests of the Congo Basin. Republic of the Congo and Gabon were singled out for concern. Republic of the Congo While most of Central Africa is prone to unlawful timber …
Countering Illegal Logging and Transnational Organized Crime in Central Africa Read More »