Namibia

Every three years or so, the Convention on International Trade Of Endangered Species (CITES) meets to determine the best way to protect plants and animals traded across borders. The most recent meeting was deemed a great success by most of the participants.

The movie won six Oscars. It was filmed in the Namib Desert. But while parts of Namibia have the look of a wasteland, this rugged exterior hosts a fragile ecosystem.

Israel Kaunatjike’s family tree links the victims and perpetrators of a forgotten genocide.

When it comes to containing an outbreak like Ebola, anticipating where it might spread next is crucial. Until somewhat recently, however, the only way to do that was through untimely census records. But with the proliferation of so-called “big data,” epidemiologists can track in real time where West Africans are headed — and where they might be spreading the disease.

French photographer Romain Veillon has a thing for taking pictures of abandoned places. And you can’t get much more abandoned than Kolmanskop, a German diamond mining town in Namibia that became a virtual ghost town in the early 1950s. Veillon visited Kolmanskop last summer, and returned to France with 4,500 photos of a place where time, but not sand, has stood still for decades.