By Cam McGrath
CAIRO, Feb 4 (IPS) – The illegal trade in ivory continues in Egypt, with ivory products sold openly in local tourist markets by traders who operate with impunity, a new study by the conservation group Traffic has found.

The report, published in the group’s journal, suggests that while the volume of elephant ivory seen [...]

By Peter Kahare

A crocodile carcass on Lake Kamnarok. In the distance cows graze on the lake bed. / Peter Kahare

RIFT VALLEY, Kenya,, Jan 17 (IPS) – Several years ago, Lakes Kamnarok and Ol Bollosat in Kenya were vibrant water bodies that supported and shaped the ecosystems around them. But today they are shells of [...]

By Arsène Séverin
BRAZZAVILLE, Aug 26 (IPS) – Authorities in the Republic of Congo are showing an encouraging new readiness to arrest and prosecute people trading in endangered species.

Chen Xiongbing, a Chinese national, was sentenced to four years in prison on Aug. 10 in the Congolese capital, Brazzaville, for "possession and trafficking of tusks and other [...]

By Brahima Ouédraogo
OUAGADOUGOU, Jul 19 (IPS) – The Burkina Faso authorities have sounded the alarm over the increased rate of degradation of forests in this Sahelian country.

According to a study by the Ministry for the Environment and Sustainable Development, some 110,550 hectares of forest are destroyed each year, just over four percent of the country’s [...]

By Arsène Séverin*

Sawmill in a Malaysian forest. / Stephen Codrington/Wikicommons

BRAZZAVILLE, May 31 (IPS) – Heads of state from the Amazon, Congo and Borneo-Mekong basins are meeting in the Congolese capital, Brazzaville: leaders hope to reach an accord on sound management of valuable rainforest ecoystems, but civil society actors believe the problems faced by local populations [...]

By Amanda Fortier

DAKAR, May 24 (IPS) – The manatee, or sea cow, is a torpedo-shaped marine mammal that moves languidly through the tepid waters of the Caribbean, South America and along the coast, rivers and wetlands from Senegal down to Angola. In the late 18th century, one of the manatee’s closest and much larger relative, the Stellar Cow, were hunted to extinction. Today, the future of the West African manatee may not be far behind.

A hardy, high-yielding sorghum variety is winning a place in the hearts – and plates – of local farmers.

Transitional authorities struggling to enforce April 2010 ban on logging, transporting, trading and export of precious woods.

Ambitious project to produce clean energy has degenerated into a controversial abuse of natural resources.

Harsh conditions bringing the value of indigenous breeds of sheep to the fore.

Governments should wake up to the ethical regulation of access to fisheries to halt the overexploitation of this increasingly scarce resource.

Political leaders have committed to ramping up restoration of the world’s forests and tackling poverty in forest communities.

SADC is moving to support its member countries to tap into benefits from the reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) framework.

Uganda has lost more than two million hectares of forest since 1990, mostly converted to farmland by a growing population of smallholders.

Protecting the Nosivolo River’s biodiversity has involved transforming the livelihoods of local people.