Editor's note

Not sure what to make for lunch or dinner? Why not try a fried grasshopper or some dried mopane worms - in doing so, you’ll join the approximately 2.5 billion people around the world who eat these and other nutritious insects. Martin Potgieter and Bronwyn Egan explain why insects are a good food choice, and offer some recipe ideas. Olaf Weyl, meanwhile, sounds the alarm about the many fish species that are unique to Lake Malawi and are under threat.

Fritz Kleinschroth and Matthew McCartney weigh up the pros and cons of dams that use “environmental flows” to mimic rivers in flood. And Daniel J Ingram suggests how Africa’s pangolins can be saved from poachers.

Moina Spooner

Commissioning Editor: East Africa

Top Stories

Fried, steamed or toasted: here are the best ways to cook insects

Martin Potgieter, University of Limpopo; Bronwyn Egan, University of Limpopo

Because insects are an affordable and local food source rich in protein, they can be used as a meat replacement.

Lake Malawi is home to unique fish species. Nearly 10% are endangered

Olaf Weyl, South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity

Lake Malawi is considered a biodiversity treasure because almost all its species occurs nowhere else on the planet.

Dams can mimic the free flow of rivers, but risks must be managed

Matthew McCartney, CGIAR System Organization; Fritz Kleinschroth, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich

There are benefits and downsides to damming rivers.

400,000 African pangolins are hunted for meat every year – why it’s time to act

Daniel J Ingram, UCL

Pangolins are one of the most trafficked wild mammals in the world.

Ebola

Why Ebola vaccine on trial in the DRC is raising hopes

Shirin Ashraf, University of Glasgow; Arthur Wickenhagen, University of Glasgow

Without the current experimental vaccine the Ebola outbreak in the DRC has the potential to spiral out of control.

Ebola vaccine is key in ongoing efforts to contain the DRC outbreak

Jacqueline Weyer, National Institute for Communicable Diseases

The new Ebola vaccine is yet to be licensed but evidence shows that it protects against the strain of the virus.

Energy

What a major offshore gas find means for South Africa’s energy future

Robert Scholes, University of the Witwatersrand; Rod Crompton, University of the Witwatersrand

It's too soon for South Africa to start counting its chickens over the recent offshore gas find by global energy giant Total.

Explainer: why South Africa’s energy generator is in so much trouble

Rod Crompton, University of the Witwatersrand

There's no easy way for Eskom to claw its way out of the crisis it's in.

 
 
 
 

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