Africa
National Geographic: Oil Drilling, Possible Fracking Planned for Okavango Region—Elephants’ Last Stronghold
Hundreds of oil wells could come to cover a huge expanse in Namibia and Botswana, in what has been called possibly the “largest oil play of the decade. BY JEFFREY BARBEE AND LAUREL NEME PUBLISHED OCTOBER 28, 2020 – National Geographic JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – Conservationists and community leaders in the spectacular Okavango wilderness region of Namibia and Botswana…
Read MoreNational Geographic: This ‘Rhino Court’ Had 100 Percent Poacher Convictions. Why Was it Closed?
Some conservationists and activists in South Africa are concerned that criminal syndicates are making it even more difficult to protect rhinos from poachers. By Laurel Neme PUBLISHED AUGUST 18, 2020 This ‘Rhino Court’ Had 100 Percent Poacher Convictions. Why Was it Closed? “GO NOW! THE spoor is fresh!” Sandra Snelling, an operations manager for South African…
Read MoreNew Yorker: Bill McKibben column: Annals of a Warming Planet: Our Best Chance to Slow Global Warming Comes in the Next Nine Years
By Bill McKibben January 7, 2021, THE NEW YORKER The events of the past few days are shocking in their novelty—the glory of seeing the !rst Black Democrat ever elected to the Senate from the South, the shame of seeing a President incite a mob to storm the Capitol. Who knows what drama will come next, except…
Read MoreMuse Magazine: Advocates for Elephants – Kids on Different Continents are Working to Protect Pachyderms
by Laurel Neme, published in MUSE magazine Read this story as a pdf – Advocates for Elephants – Kids on Different Continents are Working to Protect Pachyderms
Read MoreNational Geographic: New Alarm System May Stop Poachers In Their Tracks
New Alarm System May Stop Poachers In Their Tracks A multipronged high-tech system installed in a South African reserve has helped cut the number of poached rhinos to zero. By Laurel Neme PUBLISHED April 27, 2018 When you’ve heard a shot, it’s already too late. In all likelihood the rhino is dead, and the best…
Read MoreNational Geographic: Why Has This Rhino Poaching Trial Been Delayed 17 Times?
As poaching in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province rises, conservationists say more should be done. By Laurel Neme PUBLISHED November 13, 2017 It’s been one delay after another in the case against South African alleged rhino poaching kingpin Dumisani Gwala and his two co-accused. The reported reasons run the gamut—changes in venue, changes in magistrates, changes in defense…
Read MoreThe Revelator: Living on the Edge with Lions – Shivani Bhalla
Ewaso Lions founder Shivani Bhalla aims to help people learn to live with local predators. Wildlife September 5, 2017 – by Laurel Neme As a young girl, Shivani Bhalla — a fourth-generation Kenyan— admired the large lion prides she saw on family safaris. But when she moved to Samburu in the north in 2002, those big…
Read MoreNational Geographic: Poachers Target Rescued Circus Lions in Worrying New Trend
At least 20 captive lions in a single province of South Africa have been killed or attacked by poachers so far this year. By Laurel Neme PUBLISHED October 19, 2017 It was a fairy tale ending when 33 lions rescued from circuses in Peru and Colombia were airlifted to a sanctuary in South Africa in May 2016. Setting foot…
Read MoreThe Revelator: Elephant Ambassador in Chad: A Conversation with Stephanie Vergniault
Courtesy SOS Elephants The founder of SOS Elephants works to save elephants from poachers and other threats. June 12, 2017 – by Laurel Neme On her first visit to the Republic of Chad in 1995, Stephanie Vergniault fell in love with the country’s elephants. Plentiful and easy to see at the time, they gave her…
Read MoreNational Geographic: Justice for Rhinos–When Will it Come?
Nothing prepared me for the venom in his eyes. While not directed at me, nobody in the courtroom could escape the anger seeping from his pores. Through a twist of fate, I was in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), a province on the eastern coast of South Africa, on September 19, the day the trial of a suspected…
Read MoreNational Geographic: Elephant Killings in Chad’s Signature Park Cause Alarm
After three years of zero poaching in Zakouma National Park, killing of two female elephants shows no population is safe. By Laurel Neme, for National Geographic PUBLISHED September 01, 2015 A routine aerial surveillance flight over the western part of Chad’s Zakouma National Park has uncovered the deaths of two female elephants and their calves…
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