Government officials in Malawi have applied to withdraw bribery charges against wildlife trafficking convict Lin Yunhua, which would pave the way for his release from prison. In July 2025, a presidential pardon set Lin, a Chinese national, free from a 14-year jail sentence he’d received in 2021 connected to illegally trading in wildlife parts such as ivory, rhino horn and pangolin scales. Malawian authorities had arrested Lin, his wife and 13 members of his transnational wildlife crime syndicate in 2019. While pardoned, Lin remained in prison on charges of bribing a prison official and a judge to influence his sentencing; offenses he allegedly committed while on trial for the wildlife crimes. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Fostino Maele, has now instructed the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), which brought the bribery charges against Lin, to drop those charges. Maele was previously Lin’s lawyer. Environmental and anti-corruption activists demanded that he recuse himself from the case due to a conflict of interest. But Maele did not. At the time of publishing, Maele had not responded to questions from Mongabay about reasons for dropping the bribery charges and concerns of conflict of interest. “We have a serious contradiction here,” environmentalist Charles Mkoka told Mongabay in a phone interview. “We sit in one room and plan what to do to send a strong message to wildlife traffickers that we will not tolerate their crimes. In another room, some offices are scrapping off cases of those that are engaging in wildlife trafficking. This is regrettable.” The hearing on the corruption case started on May 13, and two prison officials had testified as state witnesses. The anti-corruption body’s chief legal and prosecution officer, Peter Sambani, said the DPP, in a letter on May 19, directed the ACB to withdraw the case. The ACB then applied for the case’s discontinuation at the High Court in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, on June 9. According to the Malawi Constitution, while the DPP has sole power over discontinuance of a case, he is required to provide reasons to the Parliament within 10 days. In an online petition, environmental and anti-corruption civil society organisations say discontinuing the case against Lin would lead to questions about Malawi's commitment to combating corruption and organized wildlife crime. Mkoka, who is also the executive director of the Coordination Union for Rehabilitation of the Environment (CURE) in Malawi, told Mongabay that the presidential pardon last year set a tone for the collapse of the bribery case as it undermined the work of law enforcement agencies that had arrested and prosecuted Lin. “Probably, we did not speak out hard enough against that pardon,” he said. “Now, we need to have a serious reflection [on] whether we still need laws that empower certain offices to set free high-profile wildlife offenders and whether those offices are using their powers responsibly.” Banner image: Lin Yunhua in a court appearance in May 2026 answering bribery charges. Image courtesy of Lloyd M’bwana.

From human-elephant coexistence to an alternative conservation model from the Democratic Republic of Congo, from teen innovators in Kenya to Guinea’s complicated experience with mining, the stories that attracted the most readers in the first five months of 2026 reflect the richness of Mongabay’s Africa coverage on World Environment Day, June 5, 2026. They also showcase the talents of a diverse reporting team and a strong and growing network of resident contributors. Electric fences help farmers and elephants coexist in Zambian borderlands: Contributor Ryan Truscott reports from eastern Zambia on an initiative aimed at protecting farmland from elephants, even as the pachyderms are forced into narrower corridors as habitats shrink. A unique clearing in Central Africa draws elephants from the dense forests: Mongabay Africa’s program director David Akana takes readers to the forest clearing of Dzanga Bai in the Central African Republic. A place where the naturally elusive forest elephants gather, sometimes in the hundreds, forming a “village of elephants.” Descendants of people pushed out for DRC national park lead forest conservation efforts:  Contributor Jérémie Kyaswekera brings a story of hope from the DRC, where descendants of  families that had to leave the forests of what is today an area in and around Maiko National Park are leading efforts to protect biodiversity through local conservation efforts. Teen innovators in Kenya turn farm waste into award-winning vehicle exhaust filter: Kenya-based contributor Mary Mwendwa teamed up with Mongabay Africa editor Malavika Vyawahare to profile young innovators who developed an exhaust filtration system that uses filters made from locally-sourced materials like coconut shells, maize cobs, steel mesh, copper and recycled materials from old batteries. The duo won the Africa edition of the Earth Prize. Hopes and fears as Guinea exports iron ore from Simandou mines:  Mongabay Africa features writer Ashoka Mukpo explains what makes the first shipment of iron ore from Guinea’s Simandou mines to China significant. The deep dive foregrounds the perils of extractives in a country with hopes of becoming one of the world’s leading iron ore producers. Banner image: Elephants in Dzanga Bai in the Central African Republic. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

For nearly 20 years, the blue-spotted bamboo shark, found only in Madagascar, went scientifically undetected and unrecorded. But researchers have now found four new records of the “lost” shark while surveying fishing villages and a Malagasy university’s fish collection. These recent records, and interviews with fishers, suggest the species may be more common than previously thought, according to a new report in Oryx.  The blue-spotted bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium caeruleopunctatum), so named for the blue-white spots on its brown body, was first described based on a specimen caught off Madagascar in 1914. A second record of the species came 92 years later — a photograph of a shark caught in 2006. Since then, the species largely went unconfirmed, until researchers began surveying fish markets and landing sites in Madagascar in September 2025. Report's lead author Tsarahasina Fanomenzana, a young Malagasy intern from the NGO Madagascar Whale Shark Project, was showing photos of sharks and rays he’d seen at a fishing village on the east coast to shark expert and co-author David Ebert. “One of the photos was of the blue-spotted bamboo shark,” Ebert told Mongabay by email. “He didn’t think too much of it as there were some other images of shark and ray species he thought were more interesting.” However, Ebert said he was “more than excited,” because the pictures confirmed the blue-spotted shark was still around. He was in Madagascar for the Lost Sharks project, supported by the Save Our Seas Foundation, which aims to find and raise awareness about little-known shark and ray species that could be disappearing unnoticed. Ebert and his colleagues eventually confirmed two more individuals of the shark from the fishing village, and a fourth specimen housed in the University of Tulear’s fish collection, on the west coast. “Since these new records were published I have had some more evidence in the forms of photos come out further confirming this species,” Ebert said. The blue-spotted bamboo shark is currently listed as data deficient on the IUCN Red List, meaning not enough is known about the species to determine its conservation status. The lack of information could partly be because the species is sometimes misidentified as the white-spotted bamboo shark (Chiloscyllium plagiosum), “so most Malagasy’s do not realize that it is endemic to Madagascar,” Ebert said. He added that interviews with fishers revealed they also mistake it for young leopard sharks, also called zebra sharks (Stegostoma tigrinum). “So, I believe now that [the blue-spotted bamboo shark] is more common than previously thought, but due to its being misidentified it has been underreported,” Ebert said. “Hopefully, now that people in Madagascar are more aware of it, they will start to note its occurrence going forward.” Ebert added that whether these additional new records will prompt the IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, to revisit the shark’s conservation status is unclear, “but hopefully we can build more information for the future such that when the time does come to review it, we might be able to elevate the assessment.” Banner image: A blue-spotted bamboo shark photographed in Madagascar in 2025. Image courtesy of Tsarahasina Fanomenzana.

A massive railway project, The Simandou corridor, in Guinea is cutting through one of West Africa’s most important ecosystems. The Simandou corridor is fragmenting forests that are home to the largest population of endangered western chimpanzees, putting their survival at risk. But why is this massive railway project being built? Deep within Guinea’s forests lie the world’s largest untapped iron ore deposits, and they require infrastructure to enter the global supply chain. However, as tracks slice through the rainforest, wildlife is pushed into smaller, isolated areas, making survival harder than ever.

Uganda was home to around 300 Northern white rhinos, but after years of intense poaching, the population disappeared, with the last wild rhino killed in 1983. But now, they are back. In 2005, a breeding program for rhinos was established at Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, and authorities are now reintroducing them to Kidepo Valley National Park in the north of the country. Conservationists believe that this will not only create a stronghold for rhinos, but their presence will also support the local economy through tourism and conservation-related activities.

Gunmen have killed two rangers in Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the latest deadly attack in a region roiled by militia violence. Park sources said a heavily armed group opened fire on a control post at Kamuhororo, on the southern shore of Lake Edward inside Virunga, early on May 21. Kasereka Valyathire Baraka, 35, and Munguakonkwa Mihigo Jacques, 34, the rangers on duty at the time, were both killed, according to national park officials. The killings underscore the extreme risks facing conservation personnel in the eastern DRC. Instability here stems from overlapping conflicts between rebel groups including M23, Mai-Mai and scores of militias. Virunga has recorded more ranger deaths than any other protected area in the DRC, making it one of the world’s most dangerous conservation posts. It’s also a UNESCO World Heritage Site and biodiversity hotspot, home to two species of great apes: eastern gorillas (Gorilla beringei) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Park officials said they haven’t yet identified the attackers. The provincial office of the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN), the government agency that manages the DRC’s national parks, described the attack as “odious and unacceptable.” “We call for a thorough and urgent investigation to bring the perpetrators and their sponsors to justice,” Emmanuel de Merode, director of Virunga National Park, said in a statement obtained by Mongabay. More than 200 rangers have been killed in Virunga National Park in the last century. Rangers are often outnumbered by armed groups in the region. There’s also hostility toward the park among some segments of the local population. Officials say Virunga and other protected areas can only be successful if they can create a better conservation-based economy than the war-based economy, which many armed groups depend on. “If conservation creates hardships, it won’t work,” De Merode told Mongabay recently. “We cannot tell people not to use natural resources without offering them an alternative,” he added, referring to efforts by the park to support alternative livelihoods for surrounding communities. Mongabay has been documenting violence in and around Virunga National Park for more than a decade.

• He survived a deadly attack, now he is calling for better working conditions for rangers in DRC
• Twelve rangers killed in latest Virunga park incident
• Six rangers killed in deadly militia attack in DRC’s Virunga National Park
• Eight rangers, soldiers killed in Virunga National Park
• Six staff killed in deadliest attack at Congo’s Virunga National Park

Despite the latest deaths, officials have reiterated their determination to continue protecting Virunga. In the statement obtained by Mongabay, officials said the park management “reaffirms its unwavering determination to continue its mission of conserving and preserving the Congolese natural heritage, whatever the threats and trials.” Banner image: Kasereka Valyathire Baraka, left, and Munguakonkwa Mihigo Jacques were the latest Virunga rangers killed in the line of duty. Images courtesy of Virunga National Park.