In the Field with Biodiversity Initiative

Thanks to a new, inspiring conservation organization — Biodiversity Initiative — for inviting our lab to join research and conservation efforts in the understudied tropical forests of Equatorial Guinea.
 
Highlights from a brief visit include:

1. A workshop with government officials (and other stakeholders) to discuss opportunities to better conserve wildlife and protected areas.
2. Hiking with a bushmeat hunter to learn about the first links in the wildlife trafficking chain—the way legal trapping of wildlife by local subsistence hunters can feed into international crime through the trade of endangered species, like pangolin. (Importantly, hunting was forbidden during my visit.)​
3. The magnificence of a primary Congo Rainforest on Equatorial Guinea's mainland.