Tag archives for West Africa
Geography in the News: Al Qaeda and Tuareg in Mali
Posted by Neal Lineback of Maps101.com and Maps.com on January 15, 2013 
By Neal Lineback and Mandy Lineback Gritzner, Appalachian State University In March 2012, members of Mali’s military staged a successful coup d’état in the capital, Bamako. As the situation for the ruling government disintegrated, Tuareg rebels immediately rushed to take advantage of the country’s instability and secure towns in Mali’s northern region. The Tuareg and…
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The king of the African savannah is in serious trouble because people are taking over the continent’s last patches of wilderness on unprecedented scale, according to a detailed study released this week. The most comprehensive assessment of lion (Panthera leo) numbers to date determined that Africa’s once-thriving savannahs are undergoing massive land-use conversion and burgeoning human population growth. The decline has had a significant impact on the lions that make their home in these savannahs; their numbers have dropped to as low as 32,000, down from hundreds of thousands estimated just 50 years ago.
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After a sharp drop in the 1990s, due to concerns over environmental and social impact, dam construction is once again on the rise — especially in developing nations, where the demand for water and electricity is growing. A new study released at the 6th World Water Forum in Marseille on March 14th discusses the…
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Over the last 30 years as many as 3 million wild Senegal parrots have been removed from the wild – 811,408 CITES Export permits have been issued since 1975. Unregulated trade in African parrots peaked in the 1980s and ’90s, and still exists today. This lucrative black market industry is fueled by profiteering middlemen who exploit…
