"As we’ve seen with tigers and other threatened species, captive lion breeding may stimulate consumer demand and put additional pressure on wild populations across African home ranges."

"Countries in the Sahel region of Africa have made little progress on the “Great Green Wall,” a 5,000-mile-long band of trees planned for the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. Even where communities are planting new trees, few seedlings actually survive, new research shows."

"Jane Goodall, a scientist whose studies of wild chimpanzees made her a household name, has died at the age of 91, according to an announcement posted by the Jane Goodall Institute."

"A Chinese mining company is denying that its toxic waste spill, one of this year’s worst environmental disasters, had a “significant impact” on the environment or local communities."

"A Chinese-owned mining company has been accused of covering up the extent of a disastrous toxic spill in Zambia that polluted a major river that millions rely on with cyanide and arsenic."

"BANJUL, Gambia — Kawsu Leigh writhed in pain on the fishing boat, his burned skin as mottled as the paint on the deck beneath him. Raw and slick, the burns covered large parts of his upper body."

"The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is opening crucial gorilla habitats and pristine forests to bids for oil and gas drilling, with plans to carve up more than half the country into fossil fuel blocks."