In hindsight, it was always evident that visiting the Cameroonian rainforest at the height of rainy season would present a unique set of problems. Scrabbling up a steep bank of mud, dripping with a combination of sweat and rain,...

The chimpanzee is one of mankind's closest relatives. However there are many of us who do not treat them with what could be called familial affection. Chimps and other primates in Africa face an increasing number of threats to their...

The global palm oil industry is at a critical juncture. In 2012 we published a report that outlined how Africa is a new frontier for industrial palm oil production . This may bring much needed development to the continent, but it...

Herakles Farms is a gem of a company claiming to "invest" in "sustainable" agriculture in Africa, in particular in a forested corner of the South West region of Cameroon. It's a crowded market, but what makes them so different? What...

Bruce Wrobel, the chief executive of Herakles Farms, claims his company’s efforts to flatten a chunk of Cameroon’s dense rainforest to develop a palm oil plantation are borne of a desire to address a "dire humanitarian need". Yet...

It must be said over and over, that the Congo Basin forest is the second largest rainforest in the world ! It is majestic and beautiful, it is a home and the doctor’s office to animals and humans alike. This forest harbours...

The French President Francois Hollande today received his Cameroonian counterpart, Paul Biya, at the Elysée Palace in Paris – and there was not a lack of potential topics for discussion. Yet surely the one thing that had to be...

It is full a 2-day drive from the Cameroonian capital Yaoundé to the area in the South West of the country where the American company, Herakles Farms is developing a huge new palm oil plantation, that could eventually cover an area 8...

In many cases we tend to separate the well-being of the environment from the well-being of ourselves as a human species, not realising that a healthy environment is connected to human dignity, and therefore is a human right. On the...