This publication looks at how sharing technological infrastructure can support gender equality and serve the broad betterment of mining communities. It illustrates how mining companies in South Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are sharing technological infrastructure with local communities and how partners are collaborating in Peru …
The president of Congo-Brazzaville has set fire to nearly five tonnes of seized elephant ivory at a summit to draw up the first pan-African strategy on wildlife poaching. Denis Sassou Nguesso held out a long flaming torch to set ablaze the tusks, fuelled by captured illegal timber, then stepped back …
Thai customs officials have seized four tonnes of ivory worth $6 million, authorities said on Monday, in what the department called the largest bust of its kind in Thailand's history. The elephant tusks were hidden in bags containing dried beans in containers originating from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the …
Environmental Management Inspectors, commonly known as the Green Scorpions, have been deployed by the Department of Environmental Affairs at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg in an effort to help combat wildlife crime. "The Green Scorpions will work closely with other law enforcement agencies and departments at the airport, including …
Organized crime and the illegal trade in natural resources continues to increasingly fuel the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) , according to a report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and partners.
The most extensive genetic analysis of mountain gorillas ever conducted has found the critically endangered apes burdened with severe inbreeding and at risk of extinction but the researchers still see reasons for optimism about their survival. Twenty-three scientists from six countries unveiled on Thursday the first complete genetic map of …
Dozens of elephants are being slaughtered at a national park in the Democratic Republic of Congo as armed militants aggressively move into the poaching business, using money from illegal ivory to buy food, weapons and ammunition. The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) said this week that 68 elephants have …
An ongoing decline in overall elephant numbers remains likely as the poaching of African elephants continued to exceed population growth rates throughout 2014, a new United Nations-backed report warned today. "African elephant populations continue to face an immediate threat to their survival from high-levels of poaching for their ivory, especially …
Farms, roads and towns are fast slicing up the world's wilderness, leaving 70 per cent of the world's remaining forested land less than one km from a forest edge, a US-led study showed. The report, by two dozen researchers on five continents and using data the covers the past 35 …
Scores of mining contracts in Democratic Republic of Congo have not been made fully public more than six months after it joined a global resource transparency body, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) said in a report on Monday. U.S. democracy watchdog the Carter Center and three Congolese NGOs identified 62 contractual documents …
Conservationists and scientists have held talks in Kenya this week to come up with a last ditch plan to save the northern white rhinoceros from extinction. There are only five northern whites left on the planet: three live in a 700-acre enclosure on the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in central Kenya, …
KARACHI: The confirmation of two more cases of Congo-Crimean haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) in the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) on Saturday brought the annual tally to 16 in the city, 15-year high, officials said. Official figures obtained from the provincial health department showed that it had documented 14 CCHF cases, …
The seventh reported outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the equatorial African country of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) began on July 26, 2014, as another large EVD epidemic continued to spread in West Africa. Simultaneous reports of EVD in equatorial and West Africa raised the question of …
A second, smaller Ebola outbreak has been going on in Africa, and a new study shows it has a different source in nature than the massive epidemic raging now in the western part of the continent. The outbreak that began in July in the Democratic Republic of Congo is similar …
Outbreaks of Ebola virus can cause substantial morbidity and mortality in affected regions. The largest outbreak of Ebola to date is currently underway in West Africa, with 3944 cases reported as of 5th September 2014. To develop a better understanding of Ebola transmission dynamics, we revisited data from the first …
Poor countries will be paid to stop chopping down forests, UK announces, as it signs major UN declaration on deforestation at New York climate summit The UK has committed in excess of £200m to tackle deforestation in poor countries, under plans to stem the loss of forests that are being …
Irresponsible business practices can have a disproportionate impact on indigenous communities, many of which continue to suffer from political and economic marginalization. This report highlights some of the environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks businesses face in their encounters with indigenous communities. This report looks at six countries where indigenous …
The UN will formulate ambitious Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, including one for health. Feasible goals with some quantifiable, measurable targets can influence governments. We propose, as a quatitative health target, “Avoid in each country 40% of premature deaths (under-70 deaths that would be seen in the 2030 population at …
n October 1976, the government of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC]) asked what was then the U.S. Center for Disease Control, where we worked, to join an international group of scientists in elucidating and controlling an outbreak of an unusually lethal hemorrhagic fever. Just before we arrived …
Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), also known as sleeping sickness, is a neglected disease that impacts 70 million people distributed over 1.55 million km2 in sub-Saharan Africa and includes at least 50% of the population of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Trypanosoma brucei gambiense accounts for more than 98% of …
