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Feb 2025
31m 40s

The Dark Side of Conservation

Al Jazeera
About this episode

How far will Western powers go for conservation?

In 2015, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, guards shot and killed an Indigenous boy searching for herbs with his father.

This tragedy spotlights the violence faced by Indigenous communities from international conservation efforts.

Is human life the cost of wildlife protection?

In this episode: 

  • Fiore Longo (@LongoFiore), campaigner at Survival International (@Survival)
  • Members of the Batwa Community

Video episode link: 

Correction at 07:21: The figure here states “There are now only around 250 eastern lowland gorillas in the park." Recent surveys have revised the 2015 population of Eastern lowland gorillas to be c.1,500.

Episode credits:

This episode was written and produced by Anna Staufenberg and hosted by Halla Mohieddeen. 

Executive Producers: Ney Alvarez and Sandra Ferrari.

Production Manager: Archan Mohile.

Senior Producer: Marthe van der Wolf.

Assistant Producers: Leo Danczak, Sophie McNulty, and Catherine Nouhan.

Fact-checking by Ruby Zaman.

Audio editing by Alan Leer.

Music composition by Tom Biddle.

Lead of Engagement: Aya Elmileik.

Engagement Producers: Adam Abou-Gad, Munera AlDosari, and Vienna Maglio.

Al Jazeera’s Head of Audio: Ney Alvarez.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on Instagram, X, Facebook and YouTube

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