In 2023, Mongabay launched the fourth season of its serial podcast, “Mongabay Explores,” highlighting the Congo Basin. The six-part series takes a close look at the second-largest rainforest in the world, the unique biodiversity it contains, and the social and ecological challenges it faces. 1. Mongabay Explores the Congo Basin: The ‘heart of the world’ is at a turning point Our first “Explores” episode featured guests Adamas Cassinga and Joe Eisen, who provided deep background on the unique wildlife and conservation challenges of the Congo Basin. 2. Congo Basin communities left out by ‘fortress conservation’ fight for a way back in The second Congo Basin episode was also one of the most listened-to in the series. This frank examination of the troubling history of “fortress conservation” in the Congo Basin featured Goldman Prize winner Samuel Nguiffo, Mongabay features writer Ashoka Mukpo and Congolese academic Vedaste Cituli. The Batwa Pygmies were evicted from their home lands in the forest in the early 1990s when the Mghinga Gorilla National Park was established, leaving them landless and poor in a society that saw them as a lower class. Image courtesy of USAID Biodiversity & Forestry / Flickr. 3. What would it cost to protect the Congo Rainforest? The fifth Congo Basin episode examined the complex web of broken promises behind forest protection and potential pathways to getting money where experts say it’s most needed. Guests included Paulo Cerruti from CIFOR-ICRAF, Chadrack Kafuti from Ghent University, Wahida Patwa-Shah of the UNDP Climate Hub, and…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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