Scientific American
How Starting Brush Fires Could Save Africa’s Disappearing Lions
Strategic fire management could cut emissions and earn tradable carbon credits, generating funds to save the big cats and benefit Indigenous people
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In 2012 a villager walking through the forest in Mozambique’s Niassa Reserve came across a young male lion caught in a poacher’s snare. The lion lay on the ground, a noose of thick wire squeezing its lower torso. Conservation workers later freed the animal, but most lions are not so lucky. “Poaching has been a major issue over the years,” says Natasha Ribeiro, who has studied illegal hunting in Niassa Reserve and is a forest ecologist at Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique.