Tiwai Island, which is also known as the Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary, is an island which serves as a wildlife sanctuary and tourist area, located on the Moa River in the Southern Province of the West African Republic of Sierra Leone.

As one of the largest islands in the country, it was established as a wildlife sanctuary on 1 January 1987, and at the moment it is run by a NGO named Environmental Foundation for Africa.

With a total area of 12 square km (1,200 hectares), it is one really interesting place to the people who have particularly interest in wildlife and biodiversity, which makes it an enormously popular spot for researchers and nature lovers.

This unique island which has a lush rain-forest, it also has a high concentration of endemic species, which was in the past recognized only as a special biosphere for wildlife conservation, where ecological research began on Tiwai in the early 1980s.

Until the late 19th century, the island officially belonged to the Barri people when the Queen Nyarroh who was at the time Barri Chief, gave half of the island to the Koya Chief, who had territory on the opposite side of the island, making them shared owners up until 1970s.

The island started with development, but something like bigger awareness about the conservation of the nature and the habitat, but also were included some community conservation program, ecological research, wildlife management, tourism and forestry management.

Everything ceased with the Civil War from Sierra Leone in 1991, which was very difficult to get to the island, which made the financial support for Tiwai to stop, but as soon as the war in 2002 was finished, the main NGO dedicated for the island began rebuilding both tourism and researcher facilities on the island.

Creating bigger awareness, since 1 June 2012, Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary is on the Tentative List of UNESCO with hope it will make the UNESCO World Heritage List.

With a population of pygmy hippopotamus, over 135 different species of birds and with about 11 different species of primates, it definitely represents something unique, and something extra worthy of continuing preservation.

Firefighters significantly slowed the spread of a huge wildfire burning in forest near Yosemite National Park, where thousands of residents of mountain communities were still under evacuation orders Monday and smoke was spreading for hundreds of miles around.

Crews “made good headway” against the Oak Fire, according to a Sunday night incident report by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. “Fire activity was not as extreme as it has been in previous days.”

More than 2,500 firefighters with aircraft support battled the blaze that erupted Friday southwest of the park near the town of Midpines in Mariposa County.

Officials described “explosive fire behavior” Saturday as flames made runs through bone-dry vegetation caused by the worst drought in decades.

By Monday morning, the blaze had consumed more than 26 square miles (67 square kilometers) of forest land, with 10% containment, Cal Fire said. The cause was under investigation.

Alaska is burning this year in ways rarely or ever seen, from the largest wildfire in a typically mainly fireproof southwest region to a pair of blazes that ripped through forests and produced smoke that blew hundreds of miles to the Bering Sea community of Nome, where the normally crystal-clear air was pushed into the extremely unhealthy category.

Already more than 530 wildfires have burned an area the size of Connecticut and the usual worst of the fire season lays ahead.

While little property has burned, some residents have been forced to evacuate and one person was killed — a helicopter pilot died last month when he crashed while attempting to carry a load of equipment for firefighters.

Recent rains have helped but longer-term forecasts are showing a pattern similar to 2004, when July rains gave way to high-pressure systems, hot days, low humidity and lightning strikes that fueled Alaska’s worst fire year.

In 2004, the acreage burned by mid-July was about the same as now, but by the time that fire season ended, 10,156 square miles (26,304 square kilometers) were charred.

Heat waves and droughts, which are exacerbated by a warming climate, are making wildfires more frequent, destructive, and harder to fight in many places.

This month, wildfires have torn through Portugal, Spain, France, England and Germany, which have seen record-high temperatures.

California has recorded its largest, most destructive and deadliest wildfires in the last five years and with the state deep in drought authorities are girding for what may be a late summer and fall filled with smoke and flames.

Alaska, the nation’s largest state, also has been dry. Parts saw an early snow melt and then a largely rain-free June that dried out the duff layer — the band of decaying moss and grasses that blankets the floors of boreal forests and the tundra.

Dozens of people have evacuated two towns on Japan’s main southern island of Kyushu where a volcano spewed ash and large rocks into the nighttime sky.

Large rocks fell as far as 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) from the Sakurajima volcano Sunday night in the southern prefecture of Kagoshima.

Footage on Japan’s NHK public television showed orange flames flashing near the crater and dark smoke with ash billowing high above the mountaintop.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency raised the eruption alert to the highest level of five and advised 51 residents in two towns facing the volcano to leave their homes.

By Monday morning, 33 of them left their homes for a nursing care facility in a safer part of the region, according to Kagoshima city. NHK said others subject to evacuation might have evacuated to other locations.

“We will put the people’s lives first and do our utmost to assess the situation and respond to any emergency,” Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihiko Isozaki told reporters. He called on residents to pay close attention to updates from local authorities to protect their lives.

A dusting of ash was visible on cars in Kagoshima, but no damage or injuries have been reported. Schools in the area are on summer recess but closed Monday.