Madagascar’s unique baobab forests are being destroyed to make space for agriculture. Some trees are now orphaned in patches of barren land. Tropical ecologist Seheno Andriantsaralaza shares the work she’s doing with communities to save the forests, with a little help from artificial intelligence.
The leopards in South Africa’s Mpumalanga province are descended from two populations that merged long ago when their savanna habitat shrank during a time of changing climate. This is the finding of a DNA tracking study by molecular ecologist Laura Tensen. She writes that understanding these magnificent animals’ genetic diversity will help conservationists to protect them.
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Anna Weekes
Environment + Energy Editor
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Seheno Andriantsaralaza, Université d’Antananarivo
In Madagascar, communities and scientists are growing tens of thousands of baobab seedlings to restore the 1,000-year-old forests.
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Laura Tensen, University of Copenhagen
Research exploring how leopards evolved has found that South African leopards are descended from an ice age a million years ago.
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Arts, Culture + Society
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Dion Forster, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Christianity is evolving. Mainstream churches like the Methodists and the Catholics are losing ground to indigenous and pentecostal groups.
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Caio Simões de Araújo, University of the Western Cape
LGBTIQ+ life in Angola can be traced to before colonialism, though it has not been well documented. A recent project brings these stories to life.
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Education
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Nicola Pitchford, University of Nottingham
Child-directed educational technology can deliver high quality education for millions of marginalised children worldwide.
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Health + Medicine
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Tamsin Bradley, University of Portsmouth
To eliminate female genital mutilation by 2030, progress would need to be 27 times faster. Understanding shifting trends behind this practice is a start.
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Kolawole Oluseyi Akande, University of Ibadan
Hepatitis E is a global health problem with about 20 million cases occurring annually, three million symptomatic cases, and 60,000 deaths.
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Business + Economy
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Elsabe Kearsley, University of Pretoria
A tonne of carbon dioxide is released for every tonne of cement manufactured from limestone.
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Politics
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Stephen Mutie, Kenyatta University
TikTok has become an integral part of social media culture in Kenya, offering a space for creativity, entertainment and community interaction.
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Leila Patel, University of Johannesburg; Yolanda Sadie, University of Johannesburg
Many grant recipients are young, unemployed, and not necessarily loyal to the governing ANC like older generations.
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Douglas Yates, American Graduate School in Paris (AGS)
Gabon’s military ruler risks becoming the country’s third autocratic leader if he fails to generate economic growth and return the country to democratic paths.
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Vladimir Chlouba, University of Richmond
Traditional institutions represent, for many African citizens, the most immediate form of governance.
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Environment + Energy
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John Tennyson Afele, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST)
Ghana is losing forests because of cocoa farming, firewood harvesting, mining and logging.
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