Publication | 2024
State of West African marine protected areas 2022
The coastal zone of West Africa extends approx. 6,000 km, from Mauritania in the north, passing through the deeply indented coasts of the islands and estuaries, then the lagoon coasts and the coastal strips of the Gulf of Guinea, up to Nigeria. The small island state of the Cabo Verde Islands,…
Publication | 2022
The environmental impacts of a major mine tailings spill on coastal and marine environments
Based on the volume of tailings releases and the distance they travelled, the Fundão Dam failure in southeast Brazil (Mariana, Minas Gerais state) was the largest ever environmental disaster in Brazil’s mining industry, and one of the world’s most serious. As they dispersed downriver, the…
Publication | 2021
From restoration to responsive governance
The Rio Doce watershed and its adjacent coastal and marine areas have been affected by centuries of extractive activities and unsustainable agricultural practices. When the Fundão tailings dam collapsed on 5 November 2015, a wave of mud swept down the river to the sea, causing 19 deaths,…
Publication | 2021
Source-to-sea and landscape approaches
The report contextualises the current status of water quality and biodiversity in the Rio Doce watershed, providing selected data and information on the physical, chemical and biological quality of the water and an overview of the terrestrial, freshwater and marine biodiversity since the dam…
Publication | 2003
West African chimpanzees : status survey and conservation action plan
Wild chimpanzees are only found in tropical Africa, where their populations have declined by more than 66% in the last 30 years. This action plan focuses on one of the four chimpanzee subspecies, the western chimpanzee, which is one of the two subspecies most threatened with extinction. The aim…