illegal logging

ADF STAFF Since entering the Central African Republic (CAR) in 2018, Russia’s Wagner Group mercenaries have ruthlessly exploited the country’s natural resources, most recently turning to logging to fund the organization and to fuel Russian…

The war-weary people of Casamance are desperate for peace, but timber and cannabis trafficking continue to fuel conflict. An agreement signed in August 2022 between a factional leader of the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance…

ADF STAFF Ghana has become the first West African country to join an international call for banning the trade of rosewood. The move in July 2022 was the latest attempt to stanch the Chinese-driven flow of scarce timber out of the region.…

ADF STAFF Forests cover just one-tenth of Sudan and are shrinking, the victim of governmental neglect that has allowed militia groups to log them with impunity. The disappearing forest cover is leading to increased desertification,…

ADF STAFF Since early 2020, Mali has banned the export of rosewood, also known as kosso. Despite that, nearly 150,000 tons of the wood — equal to 220,000 trees — left the country over the last two years, all of it with a single…

ADF STAFF Founded in 1925, Virunga is Africa’s oldest national park. It is one of the continent’s most biologically diverse conservation areas and is home to one-third of the planet’s endangered wild mountain gorillas. The park is located…

ADF STAFF The sleepy forests and villages of the Foni Kansala district in The Gambia erupted January 24 as Soldiers chased a truck filled with timber. What followed was the latest spasm of violence in the Casamance region of Senegal,…

ADF STAFF In the Bamanga forest of northern Cameroon, the sound of axes biting into tree trunks has become a part of everyday life. The axes are often wielded by local poachers or by those crossing the border from Nigeria. Their target:…

ADF STAFF The Congo Basin rainforest is huge, second only to the Amazon. It sprawls across six nations, but it is shrinking. The basin is the home to countless species of plants and animals. It also is a key to the health of not just…