biodiversity Archives - Green Africa News

Illegal Trade Robbing South Africa of Rare Succulent Plants

25Mar

By AdminNo Comments

biodiversity

Illegal Trade Robbing South Africa of Rare Succulent Plants

A long-flower kalanchoe, a succulent plant species native to South Africa © Brew Brooks/ Wikimedia Commons Illegal harvesting and smuggling are stripping one of South Africa’s biodiversity hotspots of its unique wild succulent plants, pushing the rare species closer to extinction. An analysis by the Institute of Security Studies’ ENACT initiative indicates that demand from horticultural markets in Asia, Europe and the United States is driving the illegal trade. Cultivated succulents, not wild ones, be legally traded internationally. Though illegal harvesting of wild succulents is not new, especially by foreigners from Asia and Europe, it surged since the COVID-19 pandemic as locals sought to overcome limited income opportunities. The almost-weekly arrests of suspected il...

Rwanda’s Revenue-Sharing Model Boosts Support for Biodiversity Conservation

A mountain gorilla in Central Africa. Photo © Caterina Sanders/Unsplash A new study of Rwanda’s programme of sharing tourism revenue from national parks with communities shows it has strengthened support for wildlife conservation but needs reforms to boost its impact. Published in the journal Frontiers in Sustainable Tourism, the first longitudinal analysis (2005-2020) of the Tourism Revenue Sharing Programme (TRSP) across the country’s three main national parks established that 84% of community respondents felt it has increased their support for conservation. So did the majority of local leaders (89%), and partner organizations such as NGOs (82%). Similarly, the study found 80% of the community respondents across all the NPs were ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with ...

Mainstream Nature into Africa’s Economic Policies

Photo: Amanda Silva/ Unsplash The rapid loss of nature in Kenya and Africa threatens long-term socio-economic development and people’s well-being. To address this challenge, governments and businesses should expand efforts to recognize and quantify nature's contributions to economies and integrate them into policies and decisions. This will boost the sustainable management of our natural resources. Natural capital-- forests, wildlife, land, oceans, and wetlands--provides vital goods and services to economies. These include food, fresh water for domestic, agricultural, and industrial use, air filtration, pollination, flood and soil erosion control, tourism attraction, and climate change regulation. But nature’s contributions to economies are largely not part of calculat...