Name the baby gorillas in Rwanda

Global Post reports on the sixth annual baby gorilla naming event in Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park.

In a country home to roughly a third of the world’s 700 remaining mountain gorillas, the annual event, known as Kwita Izina, is a celebrity-laden affair designed to draw attention to global awareness of biodiversity and conservation.

Names for the 14 infant gorillas included "Kinyarwanda-language monikers such as "Igihembo" (Prize), "Ubuhamya" (Testimony) and "Umurage" (Legacy) and "Waka Waka," meaning "Do It" in Cameroon’s Fang language."

Read the full story: Rwanda where there are baby gorillas to name

Photo by Jon Rosen / GlobalPost

Take these 7 environmentally friendly safaris

Tree Hugger reports on seven safaris with an environmental focus.

Kenya: Eco-Resorts' 11-day,10-night tour of Kenya singles out the country's ecotourism hotspots by booking stays at properties owned by residents of the communities you'll pass through

Rwanda: Rwanda Eco-Tours' Inside Nyungwe tour is a six-day trip takes you into Nyungwe Forest National Park, home to more than a dozen different primate species.

South Africa: The Earth Organization's safaris are practically a mini-course in conservation under the direction of Lawrence Anthony, best known for saving the animals in residence at the Baghdad Zoo at the beginning of the Iraq War.

Read the full story: 7 eco safaris around the globe

Photo from Rwanda Tourism

Orphaned gorillas could return to wild

The Guardian reports on the plans to release two orphaned young gorillas back into the wild.

Ndeze and Ndakasi (picture left) were orphaned after their parents were killed during the 2007 massacres in Congo's Virunga National Park that left 10 gorillas dead.

Negotiations are under way to bring two adult gorillas from Rwanda to become their adoptive parents, with a view to returning the babies to the wild.

The return of the gorillas from Rwanda depends on the completion of the Senkwekwe Centre, a specially designed sanctuary for Ndeze and Ndakasi in a lush forest habitat in Virunga park. The pair, each two and a half years old, moved there last December from a makeshift shelter in the city of Goma.

Besides the threat of poaching, the gorillas habitat is being slowly cut down as people seeking wood for fuel encroach more and more into the forests.

Read the full story: New hope for mountain gorillas

Photo from Virunga National Park

Sierra Leone to save mangroves

Reuters reports on conservationists' efforts to protect what's left of West African mangrove forests.

The mangrove trees have been cut down to fuel salt production in Sierra Leone.

For generations, villagers have scraped "salt dust" from the soil, added seawater, and boiled it over wood stoves.

Marie Kano, head of the salt producers association, said many of the mangrove trees used for fuel have already gone. "We don't have any wood left now," she said. "My children, sister and father ... all used to cook salt. But because there is no wood anymore, they all left and went to town."

Now conservation groups are trying to salvage the few remaining forests while helping the poor residents keep their livelihoods.

Solar-panel fueled salt extractors are being introduced, the mangroves replanted and carbon trading schemes in the works.

Read the full story: West Africa sets out to protect dying mangroves

Photograph by Royalty Free / CORBIS

South African baboons raid and eat tourists' car food

The Associated Press reports on the South African baboon "gang" who are opening tourists' cars and eating the food inside.

On Tuesday, a troupe of 29 baboons raided four cars outside Simon's Town, a small coastal neighborhood [in Cape Town]. A baboon dubbed "Fred," (background in pic left) the leader of the group, opened unlocked doors and jumped through windows to search for food.

He ransacked a bag in the back seat of a red car as a couple panicked about their passports. A girl screamed nearby as a baboon hopped into her car through a back window. Others climbed on car roofs and hoods, looking for ways inside.

Many of those who stopped to watch the raid had their own cars broken into by other baboons.

Read the full story: Furry felons rob S African tourists, steal food

Photo by AP

Kenya wildlife starve through drought

Global Post reports on how Kenya's drought is affecting not only the people but also the wildlife.

Ten Rare white rhinos (picture right) were moved from drought-stricken Lake Nakuru National Park and released at Nairobi NP, but they are among the lucky survivors

“This is the third year without rain so all the grass is gone. What we’re left with is a barren land of carcasses,” Cynthia Moss (a renowned conservationist who studies the elephants of Kenya’s Amboseli National Park) told GlobalPost.

Moss said this year’s drought is about as bad as she has known in 37 years of researching Amboseli’s elephants. “We had very bad droughts in '76, '84 and 2000 but this is the worst I’ve seen. The old Maasai — the wazee — say it hasn’t been this bad since the 1960s.”

Read the full story: Drought hits Kenya's wildlife

Photo by Thomas Mukoya / Reuters

Madagascar lemurs and forests decimated by gangs

New Scientist reports on the rampant bush meat and illegal logging trades currently happening in Madagascar.

This African island's legendary lemurs and other animals as well as its forests are under threat by loggers and poachers after a March coup that ousted the former president reports the magazine.

In August, Conservation International reported that 15 bushmeat traders, contracted by a restaurant, were arrested carrying hundreds of endangered lemurs, which had been killed and roasted. "This happened in one of the country's best managed parks," says Edward Louis, a conservation biologist at the Omaha Zoo, who has been working in Madagascar for a decade. "If it's happening there, I can't begin to imagine what is happening elsewhere."

Read the full story: Madagascar biodiversity under threat as gangs run wild

Photo from Madagasikara Voakajy a capacity building project

From old flip-flops to art in Kenya

Global Post reports on recycled flip-flops turned into art in Kenya.

Old flip-flops wash up onto Kenya's beaches from all over the world. A company was formed to make this rubbish into saleable art like: "crazily striped rhinos, elephants and lions looking like mini psychedelic safaris."

Read the full story: Turning flip-flops into art

Rhinos driven to extinction by poaching: report

Reuters reports that rhino horn poachers are leading the species to extinction.

Several nature protection groups claim in a report that rampant poaching of once thriving rhino populations in Africa and Asia could lead the species to extinction.

While between 2000 and 2005 a relatively low total of three rhinos were estimated to have been illegally killed each month in Africa out of a total population of some 18,000, 12 were now being slaughtered monthly in [South Africa and Zimbabwe] alone.

Rhinoceros spotting is a highlight of many who go on a safari in Africa.

The horn is thought to have medicinal qualities and is used in folk cures in many Asian countries.

Read the full story: Poachers pushing rhinos to extinction: nature groups

African rainforest found via Google Earth

BBC video reports on an newly discovered rainforest in Mozambique found through Google Earth.

Watch the report below:

Protecting mountain gorillas

The Christian Science Monitor reports on the Congalese rangers who put their lives on the line to protect some of the last remaining mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park.

Ecotravel News has followed this story closely with previous posts on closer monitoring of gorillas against poaching, Congalese gorillas in rebels' hands, and Environmentalists killed in DRC gorilla park.

Read and watch fascinating video of the Monitor's full report: The last mountain gorillas and their protectors

Kenya game park shows declines; study

Environmental News Network reports on a study showing "substantial" wildlife declines in the Masai Mara; one of Kenya's most touristed game parks.

Populations of major wild grazing animals that are the heart and soul of Kenya's cherished and heavily visited Masai Mara National Reserve—including giraffes, hartebeest, impala, and warthogs—have "decreased substantially" in only 15 years as they compete for survival with a growing concentration of human settlements in the region, according to a new study published today in the May 2009 issue of the British Journal of Zoology.

Read the full story: New study shows widespread and substantial declines in wildlife in Kenya's Masai Mara

Six global conservation efforts

The Christian Science Monitor reports on six conservation efforts around the world and most in popular travel spots:

Costa Rica: has protected 1/4 of its land.

The Philippines: home-grown conservation is stemming rampant deforestation and illegal poaching.

Vancouver Island: reintroduction of sea otters has created new problems of sea urchin and abalone decline.

Florida Everglades: might never recover due to destructive non-native species.

Congo, Rwanda, Uganda: Mountain gorillas now with a 14 percent population increase live in the shared borders of all three countries and have survived civil war and poaching.

Madagascar: Deforestation and poverty is destroying habitats of native species such as the lemur (picture above) but carbon offset trading could save the forests that are now being bought by companies such as Dell and turned over to international conservation organizations.

Read the full story: Where they rebuild nature

Closer monitoring of gorillas against poaching

BBC online reports on the pledge taken by African countries against gorilla poaching.

"The gorilla action plan is designed to tackle the three main threats facing gorillas - loss of habitat, poaching and the Ebola virus - and all the 10 range states have signed up.

The plan commits them to securing good habitat for the animals, including the creation of reserves that cross national boundaries where that is appropriate.

They are supposed to clamp down on poaching and reduce the impact of conflict.

There was some good news this week from Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where rangers were able to return to the area where mountain gorillas roam, after having been forced away by armed men a few weeks ago."

Read the full story: Gorilla states in poaching pledge

Congalese gorillas in rebels' hands

Reuters video reports on the rebel takeover of Congo's Virunga National Park gorilla sector and conservation headquarters.

General Laurent Nkunda's rebels took over the gorilla sector in September 2007, and this past October commandeered the Rumangabo park's headquarters where the conservation efforts were run from.

Many of the park's rangers, who protected the gorillas, are now in refugee camps.

The fate of the 200 gorillas is at risk.

Watch the report below:

S. African eco-village

Reuters video reports on the South African eco-village Lynedoch that is "designed so that people from mixed social backgrounds can come together to live and work in a sustainable community."

The eco-village is supported through government grants, small businesses such as a local winery, and also overseas by a London, U.K. movie theater. Watch below:

Rare okapi spotted in African park

The BBC reports on sightings of the rare wild okapi in the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) Virunga National Park.

The shy animals - that mythical unicorns have been based on - are "under threat from the bush meat trade."

The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) set up hidden camera triggers through out VNP and captured photos of the okapi:

"The latest pictures were taken by traps set by ZSL in conjunction with the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN).

Thierry Lusenge, a member of ZSL's DRC survey team, said: 'We have already identified three individuals, and further survey work will enable us to estimate population numbers and distribution in and around the Virunga Park, which is a critical first step in targeting conservation efforts.'"

Read the full story: Rare African okapi seen in wild

For previously reported stories from Ecotravel News on wildlife protection in the DRC's Virunga NP:
click here to read about elephant poaching
click here to read about conservationists attacked

Congolese elephants wiped out by poachers

Reuters reports on the massive decline of Congolese elephants due to illegal poaching and the Chinese marketplace for ivory:

"China, among the world's main destinations for illegal ivory, was granted permission last month to buy 108 tonnes of ivory stocks from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species."

A spokesperson for the park says that it is very hard to determine if the ivory sold comes from illegal or legal stocks because of the corruption and mismanagement from the decades of war in the region.

Rebels from the neighboring country of Rwanda have reportedly killed seven elephants this week in Congo's Virunga National Park, the nation's oldest.

Conservationist believe only about 300 elephants remain in the park.

Read the full story: Ivory poachers decimate Congo elephant population

Kenya slum makes souvenirs out of old paper

Reuters reports on the Kenya slum that makes tourist souvenirs out of waste paper.

Watch their video report below:

Environmentalists killed in DRC gorilla park

The BBC reports on an attack to a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) vehicle carrying 11 environmental workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) Virunga National Park, home to endangered mountain gorillas.

Of the 11, two were killed and three injured when their vehicle was ambushed by Moi Moi rebels according to officials interviewed by Radio Okapi - a United Nations-supported station.

Virunga NP is "in a volatile region in eastern DR Congo where rebels have set up a base. Armed groups frequently carry out attacks in the park, home to at least 380 endangered mountain gorillas."

The endangered gorillas make their home in the parks and mountains that border Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC. More than half the population of the gorillas live in the DRC.

The rebel groups have taken over Virunga NP since September and have threatened to kill conservationists who enter the area. Last July five gorillas were shot "at point-blank range."

According to a park ranger, tourists have been led over the borders illegally by rebel "guides" to view the DRC gorillas. He urges tourists not to take this path because 1) the illegal guides do not follow proper procedure to stay a certain distance from the animals to not transmit disease and 2) it gives money to the same rebels that kill and eat the gorillas.

Read the full story: Attack in DR Congo gorilla park
Read about two gorilla conservationists: Diary: protecting mountain gorillas